Hot Tuna returns to The Beacon Theatre in New York City for their annual electric shows, Friday, November 30th and Saturday, December 1st. Past years performances have been off the hook with the addition of special guests since we celebrated Jorma’s 70th Birthday. This year is shaping up to be a hum-dinger! Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams will be there as they have for the past few years.Bill Kirchen, Steve Kimock and G.E. Smith will also make a return performance to these annual gigs. Cindy Cashdollar, who hasn’t played with Jorma much since the Blue Country Heart days will be on hand for the weekend . . . there are sure to be some command performances from Jorma’s Grammy Nominated album from a decade ago. To round out the weekend, bluesman, Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin will also be in the house to help you shake away any holiday blues you may have.
Since G.E. has been touring with Roger Waters all year on The Wall tour he wasn’t able to celebrate his 60th birthday (which was January 27th) until August! The show was rocking along and then Roger Waters surprised everyone with a toast to G.E. and then sat in on a song! It brought the evening up to a whole other level. Luckily, Rod Richardson was there to film the excitement and Robert D. Combs was there to photograph every moment!
More photos of the night are in Gallery
More videos of the night are in Videos
Great video showing the G.E. Smith Signature Fender Telecaster being developed.
Click the guitar photo below to watch the 20 minute demo video of G.E. running this great guitar through the paces!
Read more about this great guitar HERE!
Come out to celebrate GE’s 60th in a bluesy, foot stomping tribute to the man who has played from everyone from Dylan to Roger Waters. Taylor Barton will be showcasing new tunes from her upcoming new collection, Blindsided.
G.E. Smith and Taylor Barton
Wednesday August, 22nd @ 8pm
Stephen Talkhouse
161 Main St.
Amagansett, NY 11930
Photo courtesy Robert D. Comes
G.E. Smith shows his full setup from The Wall tour in this interview with PremierGuitar.com .
Guitars In the guitar boat is an all-original 1951 Fender P-bass used for more song-oriented parts, a Fender fretless bass with Seymour Duncan pickups for “Hey You,” a 1962 ES-335 that he’s used throughout his career and is stock other than a refret, a “parts” Tele (with a ’63 body and pickups, ’68 neck, and an Epiphone mini-humbucker set closer to the bridge for a nasty in-between sound used for slide), and a prototype and production models of his Fender G.E. Smith Signature Telecaster. Not pictured is a stock black Fender Precision Bass used for front-of-stage songs, where all of the instruments must be black.
Amps Smith uses a 50-watt Marshall head (the second is a backup), “set loud with no treble” through an old Mesa 4×12 with original speakers. The cabinet is configured with the top two speakers open-back and bottom two closed, which he likes because it sounds like two 2x12s.
Pedals Smith uses the Radial Tonebone JX-2 Pro as a clean boost, Boss CE-2 Chorus, MXR Carbon Copy Delay, Seymour Duncan Deja Vu delay, and Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Blue (set to Rhythm for lighter overdrive). He switches delays through the show depending upon the intensity needed. The Carbon Copy is used earlier on for its more organic, analog tone. He uses a Korg Pitchblack tuner for both guitar and bass, and like the other guitarists on the show, uses a Boss PSM-5 power supply and master switch to control the rackmounted TC Electronic delays for “Another Brick in the Wall.”
For many years, G.E. has been an instructor at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch. Jorma has expanded upon the concept of learning from respected music industry veterans with BreakDownWay.com . G.E. has recorded three guitar lessons packed full of information and tips on improving your guitar playing.
Lesson One, Techniques: 52 minutes of sheer wisdom from a master electric guitarist.
Lesson Two, Mercy Mercy: Sing AND play with this great lesson that can really help your skills, not too advanced, all levels!
Lesson Three, Chicken: Much more advanced, this one will challenge you for weeks.
You can view each lesson for $4.99 for a month, or have full access to all of the lessons by everyone for $29.99 a month.
