THE DOUGLAS J NOBLE GUITAR ARCHIVE

Douglas J Noble is a music journalist, guitar instructor and musician based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

He is the Music Director of UniVibes, the international Jimi Hendrix magazine and a regular contributor to The Guitar Magazine. The following interviews were mainly conducted for UniVibes and The Guitar Magazine. Please pass on any comments to Douglas here.

DJN: I'm sorry for not updating this site for several months - frankly, I didn't know how to! But I do now after buying a basic internet design package (the ClarisWorks 4.0 Internet Edition, if you're interested). At present my "design skills" are still non-existent so don't expect anything too fancy just yet.

In the following interviews and articles, "EXCLUSIVE!" means the interview/article has never appeared anywhere else - which is pretty exciting - and "NEW!" means the interview/article was added within the past three months. This site was updated on 19 August 1997, 11:21am.

• Jeff Beck interview - Jeff talks about Crazy Legs, the Yardbirds, "Hi Ho Silver Lining"...
• Jeff Beck's gear - "I have 44 guitars. Unfortunately, 40 of those are crap!"
• Jeff Beck on "Beck's Bolero" - "That band was the original Led Zeppelin..."
• Jeff Beck on Frankie's House - the award winning soundtrack
• Jeff Beck on the Strat - Fat neck? That must be the Jeff Beck Signature Strat, then...
• Jeff Beck outtakes - the pain of tinnitus and why Jeff turned vegetarian
• Rhys Chatham Interview - Rhys' life altering experience with the Ramones
• Rhys Chatham on 100 Guitars - EXCLUSIVE! Includes a photo of the site author in rehearsal for "An Angel Moves Too Fast To See" at Glasgow's Mayfest 1996
• Rhys Chatham from Past to Present - EXCLUSIVE! An in-depth chat with Rhys
• Nigel Kennedy on Jimi Hendrix - Nigel cranks it up
• Nigel Kennedy's gear - A violin through a Marshall stack? You'd better believe it!
• Kronos Quartet on Jimi Hendrix - the classical string quartet rock it up
• Nils Lofgren interview - "...the 'freshest' record I've ever made"
• Nils Lofgren's Playing Technique - thumb pick and fingers
• Nils Lofgren on Neil Young - "...he's one of the great writers of all time..."
• Nils Lofgren on Jimi Hendrix - "...the night I saw Jimi I decided to become a professional musician..."
• Yngwie Malmsteen on Jimi Hendrix - NEW! He even named his cat after Jimi's pedals!
• Metallica interview - NEW! Hetfield and Hammett talk about Load with exclusive Ross Halfin photos from the Load tour
• Metallica's gear - NEW! The guitars, amps and effects on Load...
• Pat Metheny interview - NEW! Pat talks about the writing and recording of Secret Story
• Pat Metheny on 'Are You Going With Me?' - NEW! An audience favourite from Travels...
• Pat Metheny's recommended listening - NEW! Clifford Brown, Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich...
• Vernon Reid on Jimi Hendrix - NEW! Ex-Living Colour guitarist speaks about Jimi
• Henry Rollins on Jimi Hendrix - "I prefer the boots to the "real" records..."
• Carlos Santana on Jimi Hendrix - "...he would open up certain channels and let certain demons and angels dance together..."
• Tommy Shannon on Jimi Hendrix - "...you could almost feel it when he was in a room."
• Andy Summers interview - the ex-Policeman comes clean
• Summer's school - An Andy Summer's Guide To Harmonic And Melodic Theory
• Andy Summers on Jimi Hendrix - "...I played lead and he played bass, can you believe!"
• Martin Taylor interview - "...I have no concept of 'making it'"
• Martin Taylor's favourite five jazz albums - Django, McLaughlin...
• Steve Vai interview - Back to basics with Alien Love Secrets
• Steve Vai's guitars - the triple neck pink Ibanez, Evo, a prototype `Misfit'...
• Steve Vai on Frank Zappa - "...it was the most incredible solo I ever saw him perform."
• Steve Vai on Jimi Hendrix - Steve talks about the Jimi influence
• Stevie Ray Vaughan's Double Trouble - SRV's rhythm section remembers Stevie
• Stevie Ray Vaughan's gear - Number One, Lenny, 32 amps...
• Johnny Winter on Jimi Hendrix - "I've never seen anyone who loved to play more than him..."

As the Music Director of UniVibes Douglas has written extensively on Jimi Hendrix - the following articles are taken from UniVibes.

• "Introducing Mr Jimi Hendrix on bass..." - NEW! "He was a really good bass player, funky and really solid," remembers ex-Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble bassist Tommy Shannon
• Lefty Matters - NEW! The significance of handedness and how it affected Jimi's music, his choice of guitars and his guitar technique
• Sounds Like... Part 1 - NEW! Jimi's use of sounds to illustrate his music... An explanation of programme music and Jimi's use of it in Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love
• Sounds Like... Part 2 - NEW! Jimi's use of programme music in Electric Ladyland, Eire Apparent's Sunrise, The Cry Of Love, "The Star Spangled Banner", Band Of Gypsys...
• More soon...

Links page - "No man is an island..." Umm, so check out my links page with further info on all the artists interviewed on this site plus some other stuff.

None of the material contained in this web site may be reproduced in any form without specific prior written permission.

Special thanks to Michael Leonard of The Guitar Magazine, Caesar Glebbeek of UniVibes, Fred Tomsett of T'Mershi Duween, Alan Jones of Broken Arrow and Dick Wyzanski of The Jeff Beck Bulletin. Extra special thanks to Eddie Corns for setting up this site.

Thanks also to Ross Halfin and Julie Abbott; Sally Fletcher and Mayfest; Matt, Fun and Michelle at Epic; Roland Hyams at Work Hard; Peter Grant at Columbia; Dean Ricketts and Jason Jules at the Watch-Men Agency; Carol Pinkham at Vision Unlimited.

Coming soon... A previously unpublished interview with Blur's Graham Coxon, interviews with Brian May and Mark Knopfler, a lesson with Joe Satriani and much, much more...