The young post WWII generation had money in their pockets, a postive can do attitude and the new sounds coming out the radio were coined as being 'rock'n'roll'. However during the 1950s in the USA a new wave of music came along that threw out many of the of the old rules. Getting the sounds both clean and without feedback led to amplifier development and also to the semi-acoustic and solid body electric guitars being invented. Indeed the whole idea of the electric guitar pickup and valve guitar amplifier was simply to amplify the sound of the guitar in a big band setting as loudly and cleanly as possible to hold up to the acoustic volume of the drums and brass instruments used in the music of the 1920s-1940s. Shepherd is currently gearing up to launch his new, extremely good-looking signature Strat later this year.Once upon a time all electric guitar amplifiers were used within their operational limits (not overdriven) to produce essentially quite 'clean' sounding tones. And he plugs me in to a variety of amps and he listens to what I am trying to get out of the amplifier he closes his eyes and hears the way that I am playing it, and he anticipates what it is I am trying to get the amp to do, and then he goes and builds an amp around that.” "I go to his house and I sit for hours and hours and he just listens to me play. “And I think that’s why in the early days you had that whole thing about when built people amplifiers he wouldn’t want people to sell them because that amplifier was built around that specific person’s style of playing. Everything about it just fits you perfectly. You go from having an amplifier that you’ve been using for years that is off the shelf and you thought it sounded good and played great, and then you have a guy custom-build you one specifically around your style of playing, it’s like having a tailor-made suit. I usually set up four onstage and I’ll use a combination of two at the same time and blend the sound of those two at the front of house.”Īs for how important these modded amps are to his sound, Shepherd said, “For me it is paramount. Shepherd continued, “Those amplifiers, I have a Tweed Bassman, a Pro Reverb, a couple of Bandmasters, a little Deluxe… We’ve got about 11 different amplifiers that he has built for me over the years and every one of them has got a different circuit in it. Everything about it just fits you perfectly You have a guy custom-build you an amp specifically around your style of playing, it’s like having a tailor-made suit.
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