Looking for great blues rock tone in 2026

[mentoneman]

Then there’s this..

he’s great and wouldn’t it be cool if he dialed back his shtick a few notches and did a blues project with eric gales where eric writes and arranges the songs.

and they have a real producer oversee it to be able to say “no yngwie that doesn’t work there. play something different.”

 

[LP Freak]

he’s great and wouldn’t it be cool if he dialed back his shtick a few notches and did a blues project with eric gales where eric writes and arranges the songs.

and they have a real producer oversee it to be able to say “no yngwie that doesn’t work there. play something different.”

Yeah, he’s not what comes to mind when you mention blues but I just thought I’d throw it out there. I do like the tone

 

[RaceU4her]

 

[mentoneman]

drum focused but great overall interview!

so much cool info and wonderful discussion about how to approach listening to players and using signature gear for inspiring your own thing.

 

[Uzi Nein Millimetah]

^^^^Yes!!

I was gonna post Eric Gales. As far as current active players that can fall in the "blues" category, Eric is special IMO.

Doesn't matter what Strat type guitar he's playing, what the current rig/endorsements are, backline, pick-up backing band, whatever. The music is just bursting out of him.

His execution is full of originality while simultaneously representing those that came before him.

I'm biased, obviously, I think EG is the top of the heap. I will say for anyone not familiar that wants to check him out:

His studio albums are great, especially as guitar candy, but for whatever reason the full EG magic doesn't fully translate. I'd start off watching his live stuff, there is plenty of it out there.

I saw Eric Gales play up close in a small club in the '90s. He was gaining fame/recognition in the "guitar community" by then, but even within that niche, didn't really get the level of exposure he was worthy of. Aside from straight electric blues, he could get well into Eric Johnson Zen Master lead territory, very impressive! He had all the tools and talent, but of course that is no guarantee to fame. Even EJ himself never got much mainstream exposure, although an artist doesn't need it anyway. If they love what they do, they'll continue to produce, fame or not.

I noticed now and then he would switch to a Fender with a bridge HB, although his absolute best tones always came from the singles.

 

[ewill52]

David Grissom and David Holt's tones on the first Storyville album were pretty fantastic.





I'd throw in the Arc Angels album tones, and just an overall kickass album!

 

[Anje]

more like a fender blackface clean carefully mixed with a dirty pushed tweed/ overdriven plexi sound. but achieve sustain without too much distortion ala modern marshall lazer beams!

Few more ideas that come to mind after reading your description above:

early Ritchie:



90's Mike:



Also saw the latest Gilmour Live in Rome release in the local theater few months back, sound was absolutely massive and I found he's refined into something fitting quite well your note; big deep clear yet fat sound with him now mixing his old Hiwatt clean with some Alessandro live (and he's been mixing Hiwatt & Fender clean + Tweeds for decades in the studio )

 

[Anje]

On a slightly different vibe, the "clear clean yet warm compressed mids" always make me think of a good fine tuned old Vox AC30 rig; Brian was getting absolutely fantastic unique cleanish tones using his touch & guitar controls back then.
For ex during the 70's before the Boss chorus era, and on this early example pretty much only the core tone with the Echoplex's:

 

[hammered]

 

[harddriver]

Fairly certain Audley Freed used a Marshall Silver Jubilee and a Tubescreamer...............

I also found this blurb about the amp on the first album....

50w JMP w/ 6550s and a Warmoth Strat.

 

[GuitarVacation]

I saw Eric Gales play up close in a small club in the '90s. He was gaining fame/recognition in the "guitar community" by then, but even within that niche, didn't really get the level of exposure he was worthy of. Aside from straight electric blues, he could get well into Eric Johnson Zen Master lead territory, very impressive! He had all the tools and talent, but of course that is no guarantee to fame. Even EJ himself never got much mainstream exposure, although an artist doesn't need it anyway. If they love what they do, they'll continue to produce, fame or not.

I noticed now and then he would switch to a Fender with a bridge HB, although his absolute best tones always came from the singles.

Man, I bet that was cool seeing him that early on. Funny you mention EJ, I'm a huge EJ fanatic too (so much so that I tried unsuccessfully to sound like him for way too long when I was younger haha).

Gales can definitely give shades of EJ, he can do those pentatonic cascades that get me every time. Agree, he's his best with a 3 single coil strat. No need for him to fool with that formula.

You're 100% right. The best musicians out there are often far from the limelight and money. The bulk of the music consuming market is perfectly happy with cookie cutter music.

 

[mentoneman]

I saw Eric Gales play up close in a small club in the '90s. He was gaining fame/recognition in the "guitar community" by then, but even within that niche, didn't really get the level of exposure he was worthy of. Aside from straight electric blues, he could get well into Eric Johnson Zen Master lead territory, very impressive! He had all the tools and talent, but of course that is no guarantee to fame. Even EJ himself never got much mainstream exposure, although an artist doesn't need it anyway. If they love what they do, they'll continue to produce, fame or not.

I noticed now and then he would switch to a Fender with a bridge HB, although his absolute best tones always came from the singles.

the last 3 NAMMs i went to were all about trying to find where eric was going to play/demo!
love the guy’s playing!

 

[mentoneman]

Fairly certain Audley Freed used a Marshall Silver Jubilee and a Tubescreamer...............

I also found this blurb about the amp on the first album....

50w JMP w/ 6550s and a Warmoth Strat.

if so he certainly made that thing sound great!

i do know the louder i turned the SJ up the better it sounded, but i think i was expecting more built in jcm 800 overdrive back then.

 

[mentoneman]

Man, I bet that was cool seeing him that early on. Funny you mention EJ, I'm a huge EJ fanatic too (so much so that I tried unsuccessfully to sound like him for way too long when I was younger haha).

Gales can definitely give shades of EJ, he can do those pentatonic cascades that get me every time. Agree, he's his best with a 3 single coil strat. No need for him to fool with that formula.

You're 100% right. The best musicians out there are often far from the limelight and money. The bulk of the music consuming market is perfectly happy with cookie cutter music.

ej was a HUGE influence on me and i love his stereo clean tone and violin leads, but never thought his rhythm/blues - mid gain dumble sound was as great.

 

[harddriver]

if so he certainly made that thing sound great!

i do know the louder i turned the SJ up the better it sounded, but i think i was expecting more built in jcm 800 overdrive back then.

 

[mentoneman]

great band and audley’s tone on this performance of peace pipe was cool,
but the link below looks like the same show and i vastly prefer his tone on that song (Highway Jones—maybe because i just prefer the neck/middle pickup sound)?

(oops—link!

 

[mentoneman]

Few more ideas that come to mind after reading your description above:

early Ritchie:



90's Mike:



Also saw the latest Gilmour Live in Rome release in the local theater few months back, sound was absolutely massive and I found he's refined into something fitting quite well your note; big deep clear yet fat sound with him now mixing his old Hiwatt clean with some Alessandro live (and he's been mixing Hiwatt & Fender clean + Tweeds for decades in the studio )

Landau-Burning Water is a prime resource for those tones! amazing stuff and he has always been one of my biggest influences for tone.

i’ve bever been a gilmore or beck fan for tones but like their music.

 

[mentoneman]

On a slightly different vibe, the "clear clean yet warm compressed mids" always make me think of a good fine tuned old Vox AC30 rig; Brian was getting absolutely fantastic unique cleanish tones using his touch & guitar controls back then.
For ex during the 70's before the Boss chorus era, and on this early example pretty much only the core tone with the Echoplex's:

I agree! Vox AC30s are totally in the zone and really love the top end brilliance and saggy mids in great AC30s.

my immediate goal is to get these tones selectable in my rack using the egnater/synergy preamps i already have, and pedals i already have, if possible.

i just rewired things in the GCX loops so that i can switch the arc furnace pedal (really nice tube screamer circuit with boost) in front of the syn-2 modules (DS and BE-DLX) for more SRV texas tones

and the Ethos Overdrive in front of the IE4 Channels 1-4 for an alternative smoother Dumble type lead.

if i was really wanting to put together a rig specifically for this blues rock fusion tone i’m after, i’d run my peacemaker 1/2 stack on the clean edge of breakup as the dry. throw a couple of pedals out front, attenuator with a line out to feed post rack reverb/delay/modulation fx, out to a clean fender combo for a w/d rig, or add another fender or vox combo for wdw.



BTW the link you posted above and some of the others you posted earlier are not viewable.

 

[Anje]

Love that Landau '15 NAMM clip you posted!

Sorry about the link issues, they are not working even if copy-pasting in Youtube directly? They all correctly show up on my side, maybe some region specific limitations in youtube?
The latest AC30 Brian May clip example was the '74 live at the Rainbow of White Queen, the official CD version that has a rawer mix.

 

[GuitarVacation]

ej was a HUGE influence on me and i love his stereo clean tone and violin leads, but never thought his rhythm/blues - mid gain dumble sound was as great.

Awesome! When I first heard EJ as a teenager, I was changed forever.

His rig with the Dumble doing the "dirty rhythm" role isn't my favorite either. He sounds way more at home to me with a cranked Marshall in that spot.

Best 3 channel amp ever, two stereo twins for cleans, one Marshall for dirty rhythm, and the tube driver> second Marshall for violin lead tones.

A lot of rig, but it's glorious haha.