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Joe Walsh, the TUBE GUY guitarist! PLUS!!


HDBRbuilder

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Many of you who are reading this have only opened it in order to figure out “How does Joe Walsh have anything at all to do with tubes?”…so here ya go:

 

FIRST,  I have a question for YOU, though:

Just how much do you really know about some of YOUR favorite instrumentalists?  Not only that, but just how many of them actually have SHARED their wealth of knowledge gained throughout a lifetime of experience?...making that wealth of knowledge so easily available to the general public worldwide?

 

Well, Joe Walsh HAS DONE SO, he has done so for decades, and STILL keeps on doing it! And he CONTINUALLY credits so many others WHILE doing it!  He totally “gets it ”about how EVERYONE, no matter what they do, is “standing on the shoulders of the giants who have gone before them!”

 

For those of you who are guitarists or guitarist wannabees, I would highly recommend you spend some time going to you-tube videos and doing a search for “Joe Walsh Guitar” because there will always be something there for you which you could use!...no matter what you feel a need to know!  TRUST ME!

 

So, let’s now get down to the “tubes” thing, and how he fits into it:

 

He started out early in life learning about tubes and equipment requiring their use through a hobby of his…HAM RADIO!  Which he STILL has a hobby!

 

Due to the fact that his earliest use of amplifiers was with TUBE powered amps he applied his previous knowledge about them to that end of things…and as he aquired different amps over the years, he found out how to slightly “skew”the performance each one of  them by dancing different tubes through them!  In the same manner, he even has had no problem at all with dancing different drivers through those amps to achieve a particular sound!

 

He probably has the largest collection of classic tube musical amplifiers from throughout the history of their existence…and therefore the largest collection of most likely RARE tubes for use in them!  Here is why:

 

For most of his recording career, if not ALL of it, he has used those amps in the studio…more often than not, he mics them for recording himself on guitar, instead of feeding DIRECTLY into a mixer!  This was the “old school” way of doing things in the studio…the way Les Paul, Chet Atkins, and so many other instrumentalists did it! He also often has done it for many others involved in his studio recordings, using THEIR instruments when playing but using HIS suggestions for which amps to use and the tubes which will be used in those amps…and the drivers needed to achieve a “particular sound!”

 

All of this being said, even though I have NO IDEA of what he has for a home-listening speaker system, I can EASILY IMAGINE, that it would likely be a three-speaker-stereo-array at a minimum, with extremely efficient and accurate speakers…all powered by TUBES!  It is the only LOGICAL thought to have about it!

 

And I would NOT be surprised at all, if it included K-horns!

 

So, there you have it:  Joe Walsh, the “tube guy” guitarist!  He talks about all of this and a helluva lot more in his videos…many of which are especially important to all of you who play guitars!  Just watch and learn!

 

And whenever you see him in videos of his live performances...if you pay close attention...you MIGHT just notice that his guitar is ACTUALLY plugged into a particular small classic guitar amplifier which is MIC'd for further input into a mixer!

  He always carries a few of these old amps around with him!..."JUST IN CASE"

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36 minutes ago, HDBRbuilder said:

All of this being said, even though I have NO IDEA of what he has for a home-listening speaker system, I can EASILY IMAGINE, that it would likely be a three-speaker-stereo-array at a minimum, with extremely efficient and accurate speakers…all powered by TUBES!  It is the only LOGICAL thought to have about it!

Doesn't look like any free standing speakers, just built ins.

 

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/joe-walsh-beverly-hills-house-sale/

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12 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

Doesn't look like any free standing speakers, just built ins.

 

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/joe-walsh-beverly-hills-house-sale/

"...Its mid-century beginning has been re-imagined and expanded from studs to ceiling with meticulous attention to style and design. The open-concept layout is made for entertaining and is abundantly light...." and so goes the introduction of the WAF...just saying...So, now he is also selling his ranch....I guess he is settling down to just one place...wonder where that is...and if WAF has entered into the picture there! (which I am sure it has!)

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Love me some Joe, and at 36 I feel I'm one of his younger fans. I got the pleasure of seeing him and Petty during their 2017 tour. This video of him talking to Sweetwater about his new signature amp is worthwhile. Joe does indeed know his stuff. I especially like the part where he talks of the transformer not really being ideal from an engineering paper standpoint, but it just works in practice. 

 

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Doesn't much look like a home of his.   He also has a ranch it says in Encinitas.  Maybe he has a decked out studio down there.  If you look at about the 12th picture down, a bedroom with chairs, it appears there is a large panel type speaker in a corner.  One pic with the pool table, shows a room filled with acoustic panels. His gear gone from that room.

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1 hour ago, jimjimbo said:

I have a mansion but forget the price 
Ain't never been there, they tell me it's nice 
I live in hotels, tear out the walls 
I have accountants, pay for it all

Joe is 71 now...still publicly-performing...and doing it magnificently!  With everything that his body and brain/mind has been put through over the years (most of it self-induced), it is simply amazing that he is even still alive!  He finally got off the wagon about a decade ago, and has remained off the wagon with the help of his friends and family/extended family (including Ringo!)...which is what he really needed to do, IMHO!  He does his best to put things into "layman's terms" when he "talks technical"...and I am quite sure that he has difficulty doing so...because of a number of reasons, one major one is that he IS TECHNICALLY-MINDED to begin with!  He he has never had a problem with imparting his vast wealth of knowledge-learned to others, to include "secret tricks of the trade" he and other guitarists use or have used...many of them around his age and no longer even publicly-performing!  He is a huge fan of Les Paul and all he technically did in the electric guitar realm...along with his simply amazing ABILITY on the guitar, itself!  I've been a bigtime fan of Joe Walsh ever since the first James Gang album came out!  I still am and always will be!  I've seen him in concert at every stage of his career...NEVER have I been disappointed!  The absolute best concert I ever saw him at was the initial Eagles Hotel California album release tour...show in Shreveport, LA...it was like going to four concerts at once while paying for just one ticket!  Eagles, James Gang, Barnstormer, Joe on his own...it was ALL THERE, in ONE SHOW!  This was when I still worked at Klipsch...the only other concert anywhere close to it in combining so much show into one ticket with just ONE head-liner band/performer was a "James Taylor" concert I went to in the fall of 1971....which had Carole King on piano, and Taylor's gal/wife Carly Simon there, too!...three concerts on ONE ticket!!...but that is a story for another post that I will eventually make, I am sure...since it was a day totally-filled with some really hilarious ironies!

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The stories I could tell.  You're absolutely right w/the lyrics Jimbo.  That's him and it's always been him.  HDBR, you're absolutely correct on his tube knowledge and ham radio as a beginning into the world of tubes.  Tours just as you said most of time too.  He's old school, always been old school and always will be old school.  I almost spit my diet I've been slurpin when I saw them talking about his house.  Four bedrooms and 7 full bathrooms.  Just means he can blow up 3 and still have plenty.  😂  He's been clean for at least 20 years I'm thinkin if not longer.  He's a great guy when you get to know him.  Remember this though.  When he says "good night" at a show pack it up and leave cause he's done!  

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2 hours ago, Dave1290 said:

The stories I could tell.  You're absolutely right w/the lyrics Jimbo.  That's him and it's always been him.  HDBR, you're absolutely correct on his tube knowledge and ham radio as a beginning into the world of tubes.  Tours just as you said most of time too.  He's old school, always been old school and always will be old school.  I almost spit my diet I've been slurpin when I saw them talking about his house.  Four bedrooms and 7 full bathrooms.  Just means he can blow up 3 and still have plenty.  😂  He's been clean for at least 20 years I'm thinkin if not longer.  He's a great guy when you get to know him.  Remember this though.  When he says "good night" at a show pack it up and leave cause he's done!  

He always was pretty "wild and crazy"...but his grief over losing little Emma ALMOST completely ended him!  I believe that his joining the Eagles halped to turn that around to some extent, though!  As for his "once I say good night, I'm outta here" thing...that IS CORRECT, but he most often actually overstays the amount of time allotted for his program, at least from what I have seen...and he most often has saved something he can "play around with as long as I feel like doing it" on guitar for his last tune of the evening...and depending on how he feels about the crowd and his own mojo at the time, he can and often does do it!...before the "good night" comes outta him!  To me, that makes him "just an ordinary average guy"!...kinda like all the old Army buddies of mine...but if I was to ever hang with him, I bet I could DEFINITELY give him some "new fun ideas" about how to REALLY get serious about "hotel room re-modeling"!

 

"Hey, Joe, howyadoin?"  "I'm good"  "You ever seen anything like this?"  "Well, it kinda looks like a skinny tube of breakfast sausage"  "Well, it ain't, it's something called tovex and I gotta tear down an old pole barn this mornin' the fast way...wanna watch me?"  "Sure!" "OK jump into my truck and let's go,...I'll have you back here before lunch"....and so it would begin....

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Aaand, at the other end of the spectrum, many musicians today are using digital modelers which allow the performer to replicate any guitar/amplifier combination. For stage use, they use FR/FR loudspeakers (Full Range Frequency Response), essentially PA speakers, for monitoring. Here is a video with Mick Hughes, sound engineer for Metallica, explaining how he was expecting to hate this setup but fell in love with it once he tried it:

 

 

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3 hours ago, Don Richard said:

Aaand, at the other end of the spectrum, many musicians today are using digital modelers which allow the performer to replicate any guitar/amplifier combination. For stage use, they use FR/FR loudspeakers (Full Range Frequency Response), essentially PA speakers, for monitoring. Here is a video with Mick Hughes, sound engineer for Metallica, explaining how he was expecting to hate this setup but fell in love with it once he tried it:

Joe Walsh CAN DO THAT, TOO...but he PREFERS not to!  Listen to "India" from his most recent album...that is MOSTLY how it was done!  BUT not COMPLETELY how it was done...almost all of it is synthesized from what I can tell...but MOST of the "guitar side of things" is NOT!  He wants as much as possible to be able to play it all to a live audience...instead of having "additional help" from pre-recording parts of it or having a synthesizer involved.  Over the years he has almost HAD to have either additional guitarists on stage with him, or pre-recorded stuff to add  all or most of the tracks which he has laid down in the studio recordings before it was mixed down to its final stereo version.  This actually started in his early James Gang days!  He has even had to adjust songs for changing out to different guitars and such for live performances...like on Rocky Mountain Way...the talk-box sequence!   As the arrangements got more complex he had to make adjustments for live performances...it seems like everybody has to do this as things get more complex in the studio recordings.  I think that one of his EARLIEST James Gang songs, "Midnight Man" is actually where he began getting pretty complex in the studio!  It is one of my favoriies, but he seldom plays it live....for that reason...kinda hard to pick on a 12-string and another guitar at the same time!  As for live performances, Joe plays his best when he has another really great guitarist to play AGAINST...."Well, I've got THIS, show me what YOU'VE got!"...over and over again...back and forth...and he really seems to LOVE doing it that way!  It is a HUGE treat for the audience, too!  I just wish it would happen more often nowadays!

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39 minutes ago, Schu said:

Adrian doing one of his MANY teaching moments... at TCAN.

His technique is so subtle and controlled and his voicing and musicality is un-natural.

 

 

I also like his use of a cordless power drill....

 

When I caught crimson in the double trio formation...

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