Jimmy Thackery and the Drivers

[jswitzer]

I had the opportunity to see these guys Saturday night at a small microbrewery with an adjacent music/dance hall and had to mention how amazing this man was. His tone, technique and variety of styles were all absolultely jaw-dropping. I've seen lots of great guitarists and tend to think each one is the best ever, but I was left literally speechless. It was one of those experiences that almost makes you want to just sell all your gear.

Jimmy's main guitar is an old Strat (1964 I think), finish completely gone, with a Floyd Rose and some upgraded pickups...maybe EMG's. He also used a Tele on several tunes. He has an extensive pedal board including a Boss DD3, Tremelo, and Super Chorus, a vintage Tube Screamer, some other overdrive/sustain unit that sent his tone into Hendrixville, and a killer Hughes and Kettner Rotosphere that was a true a Leslie simulator as I've ever heard. And of course several others that escape my porous brain at the moment.

He then went into 3 amps, the two behind him were Category 5, they're developing a signature model for him, and the third...off to his right, leaned way back and facing him, looked to be an old Tweed Deluxe or Twin. He didn't apear to be switching amps, maybe the sound guy was bringing different amps up in the mix for different tunes and tones. He could go from sparkling clean, to Dick Dale twang/reverb/delay, to westside Chicago blues, to crunch, to mindblowing volume, harmonics and sustain. His next to last tune was "The Star Spangled Banner" and I know that somewhere THE Jimi was smiling at how well Thackery emulated him... controlled feedback, Euro-sirens and whammy bar divebombs included.

And on top of all that, he was just a damned nice guy. I'm one of those people who doesn't shy away from starting a conversation, especially after being in a microbrewery for a couple of hours 8^), and Jimmy stopped to talk with lots of us, he congratulated the warmup band on their set, and afterwards when I told him I had to shake his hand he said..."well bless your heart!"

Anyone not familiar with Jimmy owes it to themselves to check him out on YouTube and your favorite music download site. The only knock I've ever read is that his vocals are a tad weak, which is like saying "yeah, Louie Armstrong was great but he couldn't play the piano...".

Cheers...

[Voxman]

Excellent stuff - got out my 1969 Fender Strat, Chose a Fender amp model (4x10 tweed but Blackface works nicely too) , added tubescreamer with a little reverb & short delay, nailed his tone in about 2 minutes & I'm still jamming away to the you-tube clips!

On other clips, he might be using an old Marshall head too - can't see too clearly - or its a custom job.

Rich

[jswitzer]

Cool beans Rich,

I haven't watched any of Jimmy's clips, but his tone from about 6 feet in front of him was out of this world. Now all I need to do is come up with 3 grand for one of those Category 5 amps!

And your Night Train demos were awesome, I need to play one of those soon.

cheers...