I’ve been a session player in Nashville for 20+ years. This is the first “Billy video” ever on UA-cam, where his early album tones are demonstrated in spades!! ( dark and saggy) Every other video I’ve seen people have a bright tight tone. Drives my buddy’s and I crazy!! 🤪 Fantastic video! Keep it up brother ❤❤
Thanks for this man! Huge BFG fan! For me, touch, feel and phrasing is how he puts his stamp on ZZ Top songs. Ever noticed how instead of starting a solo with low notes on “the highway,” and building up higher, he tends to start with a screaming high bend, especially on “boogie” types of songs? Classic example is La Grange, but there are plenty of others! Awesome!!✌🏻🎸🎶
Brewster, I challenge you to use these for a couple weeks and see if you can break the 7s, I’m betting on Dunlop you won’t. I started using them 2 years ago, and eventually stringed up all my guitars with them. Pros: I bend everything now, a wrong note is always just a bend away from being right. Breaking strings is not an issue, I’m not sure what Dunlop’s secret is but I’ve never broke one. In the past I’ve broken 10’s regularly, but not these Mexican Lottery strings, and most my playing is bending riffs. If you’re an older player and the digits hurt when bending, do yourself a favor and go for the 7s. Your hands won’t ache as much if any afterwards. Cons: its easy to bend chords out of tune if 7’s aren’t your regular gauge strings, you just won’t have the touch sensitivity for the lighter gauge. If you stick with them for a few weeks you’ll get used to them and may never go heavy again.
Excellent job. You inspired me to reconsider learning to keep on playing my guitars. I just retired from my work and needed something to do with my life. Thank you.
I was a ZZ Top fan since Fandango came out in 1975 which I ordered off Columbia House when I was 12 yrs old ( buy 1 get 7 free and l think I got them all free ) and I listened to Fandango on 8 Track every night for months with them giant head phones when I went to bed.
This was an absolutely great lesson! I almost feeling dismissive of it, "Oh yeah, Billy Gibbons pentatonic stuff, I know all that stuff. Great stuff, but I know all that." But your explanation of the pentatonic highway waa eye opening. 👏I'm 64 and got to see ZZ Top in concert as early as 76. My favorite era, had all the early albums. Rio Grande Mud is killer! My fave
Hi Mr. Brewster. This is the first time that I hear about you. I just saw this video on my suggestion list. I'm 53 and first started to learn the guitar just a few years ago off and on (slow learner). I'm getting more interested in learning lead now and this video is a BIG help! I really love how the "Pentatonic Highway" opens up the fretboard for me. Thank you so much for this video. I had to subscribe to your channel. Vincent
Another great lesson. How's about some Brian Robertson/ Thin Lizzy at some point down the road? Bought tickets for the mighty Top before the pandemic hit. Finally get to catch them this May after a couple years of rescheduling. I'm beyond gutted that Dusty won't be part of the experience, but seeing the Reverend himself do his thang with the beardless Beard will be a thrill. Mucho gracias for the always awesome lessons, mate!
I'm bad I'm nationwide is just an insane jam, flirting with time keeping and dismissing any traditional rules or time keeping values. Super tasty licks throughout. As with SRV, ZZ TOP are another top shelf slice of TEXAN BLUES.
Billy Gibbons 7's are insane. I started putting them on my Les Pauls and they bend like crazy. After your fingers adjust to the easy bend they feel like any other string and you can really choke up on them with the pick. Using Ultex 1.40 so pretty heavy pick. Tone and sustain are just fine. It' s just easier to play.
love your videos man. been watching for a few years now. Ever think of putting a second camera on our left above the neck of the guitar so we can see your fretting fingers and picking better?
Billy secrets 1. Texas 2. Beard 3. Jimi Hendrix gives you a guitar. Have you seen the Billy Gibbons Signature GYROCK Guitar from Wild Customs? Justin Johnson test drives it-check him out
Thank you so much, I was injured many years ago and I have problems with my hands but recently started trying to play again after 25 years. This lesson/video has motivated me so much. I am a huge ZZ Top/Billy F. Gibbons fan. I'm going to practice this best I can. I am slow on reading the tab but I'm working on it. I just want to sincerely thank you for this video and I'm going to watch more. I'm going to go back and try to screen shot these scales. 🎸 Can you please tell me what rack mount that is that you're playing through? RIP Dusty 'Legend"
Those pinch harmonics sound super sweet. Good stuff. Solid video.💪👍🥃🎸 Edit… That ratty beat to sh!t strat Hendrix gave him is my dream guitar. That thing has been played within an inch of its life.🤣👍
He didn't use light strings back in the 1970s and most of the 1980s. I think the 7's started in the 90s. He has a video telling about BB King suggesting that he use lighter strings, and another video explaining how he got the manufacturer to start experimenting and"drawing" 7 gauge strings.
On your Pentatonic Highway diagram you show a flat 7 on the 5th fret of the D string. I think you meant a 1. Just thought I would mention that. Great video BTW !!!!
Nice..I appreciate your lessons... Check out Eddie Shaver...son of Billy Jo Shaver ..outlaw country. The live album Unshaven Shaver....I'd love to learn some of some of his phrasings... excellent playing
Great video! Do you know where you got that Hendrix shirt? I used to have that same shirt years ago. My Dad gave it to me. I’d love to get another one.
@@LateNightLessons I never knew of heavy metal music but when I was in Greece in the 80s as a small child, I always walked past this record store(I loved exploring Athens and used to walk for miles) and I remember they had Iron Maiden, Kiss and Motörhead in the window. I didn’t know about records back then but those albums looked so cool, dude! I fell love with rocks
Thanks for giving some love to Billy Dave...he is a master guitar player....his feel....tone and taste is unmatched.......Hendrix asked the world to watch this guy and for good reason....."Blue Jean Blues" always struck me as a song so immersed in feel and emotion.....the subtle technique combined with some stinging notes and understated depth always impressed.....I feel sad after the passing of Dusty Hill and think Billy on his passing will be "rediscovered" rather than truly appreciated in his own life time Gibbons Hill and Beard will never be repeated.
I’ve learned to appreciate Billy over the years. He is crisp and expressive in his playing with a great sense of rhythm. I was expecting him to be Hendrix-like, but happy that he went his own way.
Billy GIbbons, like David Gilmour, is a great testimony to the fact that blazing speed and sweeps aren't the be all and end all of guitar playing. Sure, that stuff is cool and impressive, but give me a player like Gibbons and Gilmour who convey soul and tasty phrasing any day. I'd love to see a Neil Schon lesson sometime.
Yes, the melodic phrasing is so musical. If you can follow the tones as they're playing it, then they've allowed you into the music just like if you can hear and understand the words a singer is singing. Neither Billy or Gilmour (or Carlos) were stellar maestros when it came to complex phrases and fast, precise passages such as Satriani, Gambali, etc. but just using those five simple notes with creativity they put together great melody lines and musical compositions all the same. So simple, yet so musically satisfying.
@@johnc.8298 well said John. Music is a VAST topic and there is room for many styles. I choose to love great players like Billy G., Gilmour and the more technically advanced like Satch and Gambale and also Dave Brewster. It's all good!
First heard ZZ TOP early 70's on Alan "Fluff" Freeman's Saturday Rock Show. It was La Grange, I was blown away and to this day it's still one of my favourites. One other tune of theirs which, imo, features Billy's effortless rockability is a track that I never hear anyone else mention and that's Planet Of Women. If your in your car and everything's good, put that on at max bearable volume and headbang down the highway.
@@bluesdude1194 It was. Another band that show introduced me to was Bachman Turner Overdrive, in particular the track Second Hand off the Album Not Fragile. Ridiculous use of the wah pedal on that which I liked..a lot.
Tres Hombres will always be their masterpiece album. Tone for days, pinch harmonics, memorable short tasty licks, I can listen to them forever. Yeah, bending 7's on a 24.75" scale too, ha. Truly iconic player.
@@andy100hp Billy Gibbons plays string gauge .007 (but i'm not sure he did in the early days, let's say the first 3 albums) and 24.75" is the scale length of a Gibson guitar (Fender uses 25.5" scale length). But it means that string bending is very easy (with 7's on 24.75"), it doesn't require a lot of strength and it gives you way more control (overbending, vibrato etc..). Some people would say that thin strings will hurt your tone but there's nothing wrong with Billy's tone, I've seen him live just a couple of years ago and his tone is awesome. Rick Beato did a video on string gauge which is kind of an eye opener. On a semi-clean Strat I would have to agree that thinner string will hurt your tone. But that's just my opinion. And y'all know what the say about opinions.. ;)
@@simonvanderheijden432 Thank you for this answer I think Gibbons is the one told BB King about using thinner strings tho if I'm not wrong (Why you work so hard?) Also I agree on the Gibson thing, everything just sounds better and more in-your-face with gibson, in my humble opinion
i suppose we all have said it before...but there is just some original "magic" in ZZtops music and paricularly Billy Gibbons and his guitar playing....and you just have to love it....well.I DO...:-)...and yes i was sad to hear about Dusty passing away....things just won't be the same again....but...that's live...forever moving on....cheers Dave... intersting to hear that Billys dad had a recording studio and thus Billy met all these music greats...awsome...imagine growing up like that....wow...
David, thank you for doing another video on Billy Gibbons. This guy is one of kind and I hope you do more Billy videos in the future. So many guitar greats out there, but hearing Billy's playing brings me back to my guitar roots every time!
I had the opportunity to chat briefly with Elwood Francis years ago online. (We have a mutual friend.) He was their tech at the time. He confirmed that Billy has an extremely light touch with fretting and picking. He rarely goes out of tune, according to Elwood.
I saw an interview with Mr Gibbons were he said he started to use .008 gauge strings and he had problems with strings breaking all the time. After he switched to .007's that problem was solved. Dunno how, dunno why but that's what he said. And thanx for another great lesson Dave!!
Billy Gibbons is ridiculously great blues guitar player, and will never get enough credit for that, because his playing is so subtle on those great blues songs ZZ Top has written, but what a wonderful guitar playing they contain.
I 100% agree, except that Billy won't get enough credit. Every guitarist on the planet loves him and his playing. They have sold 10 gazillion records. They played 320+ shows a year for decades to adoring fans. But you're otherwise right, and well said.
![[UA] Eternal Fire проти NAVI | EPL Season 20 Malta](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/chvlsDygrZM/mqdefault.jpg)
how could you not love Billy Gibbons
I’ve been a session player in Nashville for 20+ years.
This is the first “Billy video” ever on UA-cam, where his early album tones are demonstrated in spades!! ( dark and saggy)
Every other video I’ve seen people have a bright tight tone. Drives my buddy’s and I crazy!! 🤪
Fantastic video!
Keep it up brother ❤❤
I saw ZZ last Tuesday. Same old Billy! Tasty licks the whole show. My 49th year of seeing him and Frank. Elwood is doing a great job too!
Billy F Gibbons has been my favorite guitarist for all my life. Tv dinners there's nothing else to eat.
Tasty boogie there David. Thanks
Billy is definitely an original and a master of his gear to achieve some amazing and killer tones. Thank you for this Dave.
that was awesome! the double pentatonic highway and the pentatonic pockets was definitely something new for me
Oh man soloing secrets of Jimmy Herring? That would be soooo awesome 👌 👏 😎
Billy is constantly in the pocket! He is the perfect example of don't over do it!
I actually get what you are doing. I am impressed how you broke down this concept.
Thanks for this man! Huge BFG fan! For me, touch, feel and phrasing is how he puts his stamp on ZZ Top songs. Ever noticed how instead of starting a solo with low notes on “the highway,” and building up higher, he tends to start with a screaming high bend, especially on “boogie” types of songs? Classic example is La Grange, but there are plenty of others! Awesome!!✌🏻🎸🎶
Billy is a living legend.
Billy is fantastic. So was this lesson. Very eye opening with the highways. Thx. RIP Dusty!!!!🎸
You could do every video on ZZ Top and Billy Gibbons and I would never get bored! He's the King of Cool!
Love the new change to the videos of showing the tabs to the notes being played. Thanks!
Thank you for your teachings, David! All the best.
I love Late Night Lessons. Thanks David. 🙏✌🏼
Awesome! I really appreciate this lesson!! Thank you!
Best Explanation I've seen so far, Thank You so much !
Brewster,
I challenge you to use these for a couple weeks and see if you can break the 7s, I’m betting on Dunlop you won’t.
I started using them 2 years ago, and eventually stringed up all my guitars with them.
Pros: I bend everything now, a wrong note is always just a bend away from being right. Breaking strings is not an issue, I’m not sure what Dunlop’s secret is but I’ve never broke one. In the past I’ve broken 10’s regularly, but not these Mexican Lottery strings, and most my playing is bending riffs.
If you’re an older player and the digits hurt when bending, do yourself a favor and go for the 7s. Your hands won’t ache as much if any afterwards.
Cons: its easy to bend chords out of tune if 7’s aren’t your regular gauge strings, you just won’t have the touch sensitivity for the lighter gauge.
If you stick with them for a few weeks you’ll get used to them and may never go heavy again.
Excellent job. You inspired me to reconsider learning to keep on playing my guitars. I just retired from my work and needed something to do with my life. Thank you.
The blue note not required. I must study this and change my habits. Great lesson.
This is the first video of yours I have watched. All I have to say is thanks. As soon as I digest this video, I’ll be watching you other videos.
Brilliant lesson. Honestly this tied up the whole pentatonic idea together. great job man
Great job…great playing and tone. Thank you for sharing.
What a great lesson. I love it 😍 many thanks David 👌
Thanks man- the Rev is my fav player, along w stevie
.07 strings are so much fun to play, they definitely take some getting used to
Really enjoyed that.
Hands down one of the best lessons and analysis I've seen! Thanks for giving us the insight to BFG style! Loved the way you tied it all together!!! 🤘
This is great... your whole series on ZZtop is very interesting
Amazing lesson!!!!
Dave is such an amazing guitarist and teacher....it’s amazing how he cops the essence of all these players.
thats the key is getting a good teacher .....but when youre a new player , you cant tell good from bad
Right?! that flavor... sabor :)
Agreed
This is gold....
I was a ZZ Top fan since Fandango came out in 1975 which I ordered off Columbia House when I was 12 yrs old ( buy 1 get 7 free and l think I got them all free ) and I listened to Fandango on 8 Track every night for months with them giant head phones when I went to bed.
This was an absolutely great lesson! I almost feeling dismissive of it, "Oh yeah, Billy Gibbons pentatonic stuff, I know all that stuff. Great stuff, but I know all that." But your explanation of the pentatonic highway waa eye opening. 👏I'm 64 and got to see ZZ Top in concert as early as 76. My favorite era, had all the early albums. Rio Grande Mud is killer! My fave
Great lesson. I’m back again a year later.thx ❤
Awesome lesson Dave!
Nice!!
Nice lesson Dave. I would be great to hear your sound. I bet it’s awesome 👍
Thank you so much.
great lesson top notch
Hi Mr. Brewster. This is the first time that I hear about you. I just saw this video on my suggestion list. I'm 53 and first started to learn the guitar just a few years ago off and on (slow learner). I'm getting more interested in learning lead now and this video is a BIG help! I really love how the "Pentatonic Highway" opens up the fretboard for me. Thank you so much for this video. I had to subscribe to your channel.
Vincent
Thanks, Dave I have new shit to fuck around with now. :)
Glad I found your channel mate!
7 gauge and a metal pick?? Crazy!
Another great lesson. How's about some Brian Robertson/ Thin Lizzy at some point down the road?
Bought tickets for the mighty Top before the pandemic hit. Finally get to catch them this May after a couple years of rescheduling. I'm beyond gutted that Dusty won't be part of the experience, but seeing the Reverend himself do his thang with the beardless Beard will be a thrill.
Mucho gracias for the always awesome lessons, mate!
Hey Great video sir! I immediately subscribed when I heard you playing Billy Gibbons, plus , you are wearing a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt!
Great lessons....
Great playing and very inspiring Brother! Great tone, and very signature to Billy!
GOD Bless! Rob Ransom
Thanks for this, really cool stuff! Inspiring AF
I'm bad I'm nationwide is just an insane jam, flirting with time keeping and dismissing any traditional rules or time keeping values. Super tasty licks throughout. As with SRV, ZZ TOP are another top shelf slice of TEXAN BLUES.
Great video thanks
awesome Dave
thank you!
This is my kinda lesson!
I highly recommend his strings🤘 surprisingly you can even play drop d makes blends so easy they held up good I normally use 9s and 10s
Billy Gibbons 7's are insane. I started putting them on my Les Pauls and they bend like crazy. After your fingers adjust to the easy bend they feel like any other string and you can really choke up on them with the pick. Using Ultex 1.40 so pretty heavy pick. Tone and sustain are just fine. It' s just easier to play.
Great Lesson. @12:20, The Pentatonic Highway has a "7" where a "1" should be (4th string 5th fret)
Very Well done, thanks. Just Subscribed, too.
love your videos man. been watching for a few years now. Ever think of putting a second camera on our left above the neck of the guitar so we can see your fretting fingers and picking better?
Billy secrets 1. Texas 2. Beard 3. Jimi Hendrix gives you a guitar. Have you seen the Billy Gibbons Signature GYROCK Guitar from Wild Customs? Justin Johnson test drives it-check him out
Thank you so much, I was injured many years ago and I have problems with my hands but recently started trying to play again after 25 years. This lesson/video has motivated me so much. I am a huge ZZ Top/Billy F. Gibbons fan. I'm going to practice this best I can. I am slow on reading the tab but I'm working on it. I just want to sincerely thank you for this video and I'm going to watch more. I'm going to go back and try to screen shot these scales. 🎸
Can you please tell me what rack mount that is that you're playing through?
RIP Dusty 'Legend"
Those pinch harmonics sound super sweet.
Good stuff.
Solid video.💪👍🥃🎸
Edit… That ratty beat to sh!t strat Hendrix gave him is my dream guitar.
That thing has been played within an inch of its life.🤣👍
He didn't use light strings back in the 1970s and most of the 1980s. I think the 7's started in the 90s. He has a video telling about BB King suggesting that he use lighter strings, and another video explaining how he got the manufacturer to start experimenting and"drawing" 7 gauge strings.
On your Pentatonic Highway diagram you show a flat 7 on the 5th fret of the D string. I think you meant a 1. Just thought I would mention that. Great video BTW !!!!
Nice..I appreciate your lessons...
Check out Eddie Shaver...son of Billy Jo Shaver ..outlaw country.
The live album Unshaven Shaver....I'd love to learn some of some of his phrasings... excellent playing
Great video! Do you know where you got that Hendrix shirt? I used to have that same shirt years ago. My Dad gave it to me. I’d love to get another one.
Hello, I see a beautiful painting behind you (with Beck's on it). What is it? I would like to buy it somewhere. Thank you.
I saw a Seymour Duncan pickup in your Paul. May I ask what model are the pickups on that guitar sir?
What pickups do you use in your Les Paul?
What kind of amp are you playing on
Billys playing has been described as a Swampy Blues style. If thats even a thing? but if it is its Billy Gibbons.
I'm a Texan and I only play .8 gage strings because I don't want Mr. Gibbons rising from the dead to kill me.
👍👍
what year is that std? Very nice....looks like mny '96
Dave, is that figurine atop your amp John 5? Don't know why but that's what came to mind. :)
@@witchell8976 Thanks. Is that “arch Angel “ a movie? :)
Sorry, I don’t really know popular movies. :)
Hey! It's an Eddie/Iron Maiden 'Number Of The Beast' POP! (with the lil' devil sidekick).
: ) LOL
@@LateNightLessons Cool!
Now I know! I was always wondering what that was, bro! :)
Thanks for the reply, man! :)
Have a good night!
@@LateNightLessons I never knew of heavy metal music but when I was in Greece in the 80s as a small child, I always walked past this record store(I loved exploring Athens and used to walk for miles) and I remember they had Iron Maiden, Kiss and Motörhead in the window. I didn’t know about records back then but those albums looked so cool, dude! I fell love with rocks
ALBERT King box? I've always known it as the BB King box! Oh, well.
👍
You're hands down one of the greatest guitar teachers on UA-cam.
Thanks for giving some love to Billy Dave...he is a master guitar player....his feel....tone and taste is unmatched.......Hendrix asked the world to watch this guy and for good reason....."Blue Jean Blues" always struck me as a song so immersed in feel and emotion.....the subtle technique combined with some stinging notes and understated depth always impressed.....I feel sad after the passing of Dusty Hill and think Billy on his passing will be "rediscovered" rather than truly appreciated in his own life time Gibbons Hill and Beard will never be repeated.
You interrupted my going down the line giving everyone here thumbs up and gonna have to check it out. thank you. :)
All true and not only that the songwriting. A slew of hits all in the unmistakable ZZ Top style. Clever catchy rock tunes all about nothing.
I’ve learned to appreciate Billy over the years. He is crisp and expressive in his playing with a great sense of rhythm. I was expecting him to be Hendrix-like, but happy that he went his own way.
Billy GIbbons, like David Gilmour, is a great testimony to the fact that blazing speed and sweeps aren't the be all and end all of guitar playing. Sure, that stuff is cool and impressive, but give me a player like Gibbons and Gilmour who convey soul and tasty phrasing any day. I'd love to see a Neil Schon lesson sometime.
John Fogerty too ... guitar rhythms and solos for the song and the jam first!
You're talking absolute shite again.
Yes, Neal Schon Dave!
Yes, the melodic phrasing is so musical. If you can follow the tones as they're playing it, then they've allowed you into the music just like if you can hear and understand the words a singer is singing. Neither Billy or Gilmour (or Carlos) were stellar maestros when it came to complex phrases and fast, precise passages such as Satriani, Gambali, etc. but just using those five simple notes with creativity they put together great melody lines and musical compositions all the same. So simple, yet so musically satisfying.
@@johnc.8298 well said John. Music is a VAST topic and there is room for many styles. I choose to love great players like Billy G., Gilmour and the more technically advanced like Satch and Gambale and also Dave Brewster. It's all good!
Thanks David - love the Pentatonic Hwy. approach. Your lessons are great for the blues-rock fans like myself.
You hit the spot with this one, my favorites... RIP Dusty
That D string vibrato !!! That’s Billy all day !!
First heard ZZ TOP early 70's on Alan "Fluff" Freeman's Saturday Rock Show. It was La Grange, I was blown away and to this day it's still one of my favourites.
One other tune of theirs which, imo, features Billy's effortless rockability is a track that I never hear anyone else mention and that's Planet Of Women. If your in your car and everything's good, put that on at max bearable volume and headbang down the highway.
That was a great radio show back then.
@@bluesdude1194 It was. Another band that show introduced me to was Bachman Turner Overdrive, in particular the track Second Hand off the Album Not Fragile.
Ridiculous use of the wah pedal on that which I liked..a lot.
Tres Hombres will always be their masterpiece album. Tone for days, pinch harmonics, memorable short tasty licks, I can listen to them forever. Yeah, bending 7's on a 24.75" scale too, ha. Truly iconic player.
What does bending 7 on 24.75 means?
@@andy100hp Billy Gibbons plays string gauge .007 (but i'm not sure he did in the early days, let's say the first 3 albums) and 24.75" is the scale length of a Gibson guitar (Fender uses 25.5" scale length). But it means that string bending is very easy (with 7's on 24.75"), it doesn't require a lot of strength and it gives you way more control (overbending, vibrato etc..). Some people would say that thin strings will hurt your tone but there's nothing wrong with Billy's tone, I've seen him live just a couple of years ago and his tone is awesome. Rick Beato did a video on string gauge which is kind of an eye opener. On a semi-clean Strat I would have to agree that thinner string will hurt your tone. But that's just my opinion. And y'all know what the say about opinions.. ;)
@@simonvanderheijden432 Thank you for this answer
I think Gibbons is the one told BB King about using thinner strings tho if I'm not wrong (Why you work so hard?)
Also I agree on the Gibson thing, everything just sounds better and more in-your-face with gibson, in my humble opinion
@@andy100hp You're welcome.
But that's funny 'cause I heard it the other way around, that BB king asked Mr Gibbons why he was working so hard. 😂
@@simonvanderheijden432 haha maybe you're right, I heard that long ago
Oh this is awesome, I appreciate this one, I can understand this well. I struggle to learn scales but this seems different, better 👍
Kool Stuff David, It's all about connecting the correct dots. LOL.
My cursor arrow has a mind of it's own and just automatically goes to "like". I'm glad. saves me the work.
That is a sweet Les Paul right there.
i suppose we all have said it before...but there is just some original "magic" in ZZtops music and paricularly Billy Gibbons and his guitar playing....and you just have to love it....well.I DO...:-)...and yes i was sad to hear about Dusty passing away....things just won't be the same again....but...that's live...forever moving on....cheers Dave...
intersting to hear that Billys dad had a recording studio and thus Billy met all these music greats...awsome...imagine growing up like that....wow...
I love Billy. Blue Jean Blues is epic. Thanks for the tips.
David, thank you for doing another video on Billy Gibbons. This guy is one of kind and I hope you do more Billy videos in the future. So many guitar greats out there, but hearing Billy's playing brings me back to my guitar roots every time!
I had the opportunity to chat briefly with Elwood Francis years ago online. (We have a mutual friend.) He was their tech at the time.
He confirmed that Billy has an extremely light touch with fretting and picking. He rarely goes out of tune, according to Elwood.
I saw an interview with Mr Gibbons were he said he started to use .008 gauge strings and he had problems with strings breaking all the time. After he switched to .007's that problem was solved. Dunno how, dunno why but that's what he said. And thanx for another great lesson Dave!!
Since I've changed to 8's (the lightest Earnie Ball's I can find) I haven't broken a string yet, in over a year , I'd break 9's and 10's quite often
I remember when strings and things in Memphis Tennessee made a guitar shaped like Texas for Billy Gibbons
Billy Gibbons is ridiculously great blues guitar player, and will never get enough credit for that, because his playing is so subtle on those great blues songs ZZ Top has written, but what a wonderful guitar playing they contain.
I 100% agree, except that Billy won't get enough credit. Every guitarist on the planet loves him and his playing. They have sold 10 gazillion records. They played 320+ shows a year for decades to adoring fans. But you're otherwise right, and well said.
Is this the Strat he plays on Apologies to Pearly offa Rio Grande Mud?