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Make your voice heard! Choose the people and instrument you think should be inducted to the VG Hall of Fame and you could win a set of Pedals From Keeley Electronics. To view the Keeley pedals Click Here.
For nearly 20 years, the Vintage Guitar magazine Hall of Fame has been honoring the players, innovators, and instruments that have made a difference in the history of the guitar. Visitors to VintageGuitar.com were asked to submit names and instruments for nomination. Finalists have been chosen, and if you vote today you could win the vintage Eko!
Current members of the VG Hall of Fame and the year they were inducted can be seen at Instrument, Player, and Innovator.
The contest is open to vintageguitar.com registered members and void where prohibited. New inductees and contest winners will be announced in the March '10 issue. Deadline for entries is November 15, 2009.
Finalists PLAYERS Rick DERRINGER He was just 17 when his band, The McCoys, had a number one hit with "Hang On, Sloopy." He subsequently went on to stardom with the Edgar Winter Group, scored a huge (now classic) solo hit with "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" and has guested on countless other high-profile songs by artists ranging from Alice Cooper to Steely Dan. Oh, and the solo on "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Eat It"? That's Derringer. BUDDY GUY The Louisiana-born purveyor of Chicago blues has been hugely influential to some of the biggest names in guitardom, including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. A five-time Grammy winner, he is renowned for his live performances, where his music can vary from traditional blues to a sprawling mix of blues, rock, soul, and jazz. For 20 years, he has also played host to most nearly every notable blues act at his Legends club. JOE WALSH He has written and/or recorded ultra-popular songs as a member of the James Gang, the Eagles, as a solo artist, and for other stars. Licks? How 'bout "Rocky Mountain Way" or "Life in the Fast Lane"? He's a veritable rock renaissance man; one-time "candidate" for U.S. President, at various times he has also been a radio DJ and an actor. And it was he who gave Jimmy Page his "#2" Gibson '59 Les Paul Standard. FRANK ZAPPA Composer, producer, and film director, despite a complete lack of formal training, the music he played on the electric guitar was some of the most cerebral ever composed. Influenced by Johnny "Guitar" Watson and Guitar Slim, he dropped the drums as a kid to play guitar, and ultimately recorded more than 60 albums with his band, The Mothers of Invention, and as a solo artist. Ask Steve Vai if Zappa was a bit "demanding" during auditions...
INNOVATORS SEYMOUR DUNCAN Sneeking into clubs as a kid, he sat front-and-center, staring, while guys like Les Paul and Roy Buchanan worked their magic. Inspired as much by their tone as their technique, after re-winding pickups in England for "no-names" like Hendrix, Page, Clapton, Beck, Townshend, Harrison, and Gilmour, he moved back to the U.S. and started designing and winding his own. GEORGE FULLERTON Hired by Leo Fender in early 1948, he started in amplifier repair then helped his boss design the guitar that would become the Telecaster. Later, they teamed up on the Precision bass and the Strat. When the time came for both to move on, post-CBS, he put the G in G&L. TRAVIS BEAN Looking to design a guitar with better tuning stability than "just" wood and a truss rod could offer, in 1974 he began building guitars and basses with aluminum necks. His work developed a devout following, replete with websites attempting to catalog every guitar he made. He is also the subject of an in-the-works documentary film. SEMIE MOSELEY At age 19 he built a triple-neck lap steel and was doing repairs for none other than Merle Travis. Soon after, he built a guitar for Joe Maphis, then the prodigous Larry Collins. His big break came when Nokie Edwards took a Semie-made guitar to a Ventures recording session. When fans saw "Guitars courtesy of Mosrite" on the album jacket, within a few years the company went from building 25 guitars to 600 guitars each month.
INSTRUMENTS GIBSON SG STANDARD By 1960, declining sales of the Les Paul model had Gibson looking to revamp the guitar. So the company gave it a radically redesigned, much thinner (and lighter!) body intended to better compete with Fender's Strat. But the things that made up its very heart and soul - especially its humbucking pickups - remained. Today, the early-'60s version is a true classic. FENDER DELUXE Call it the Model 26, call it "Woodie." No matter, it was one of Fender's first amps. Though designed to produce a clean tone, it developed a rep for doin' it up dirty when its 6V6 tubes and 5Y3 rectifier give just the right amount of "sag" while pushing its 10" speaker to the brink. Fender's most popular amp in the early/mid '50s, today its tones are the stuff of many fond memories, thus it is highly collectible. TRAVIS BEAN TB1000 Created in the mid '70s by Travis Bean, Marc McElwee and Gary Kramer, they were designed to be high-end, with machined aluminum neck attached to an aluminum block centered in the body. The idea was to deliver enhanced sustain and pronounced high-end. Mission accomplished, even if the guitars were a bit weighty. Keef played Beans in the '70s. STANDEL AMPS After Paul Bigsby built his cutting-edge solidbody electric guitar, he needed an amp, so he called his friend Bob Crooks, who probably had no idea that amp would lead to him building one for Joe Maphis, Merle Travis, Speedy West, Chet Atkins, Hank Thompson, Hank Garland, Larry Collins, Wes Montgomery and many others. Cliff Gallup's solo on Eddie Cochran's "Be Bop a Lula"... yup, it was played on a Standel.
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