Arteconciencias: Jared James Nichols recalls the time he played through Eddie Van Halen’s own amp – and how it proved that tone really comes from the fingers

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January 6, 2023

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Editor's Note

It's all in the fingers...

A couple of months ago, I wrote a story about the time John Petrucci – while on a G3 tour – asked to play through Joe Satriani's rig.

"The funny thing was," Petrucci told Guitar World, "once I played through his rig, I didn’t sound like Joe at all – I sounded like me. And I was hit with the realization that, because the guitar is a tactile instrument, so much of the tone came from my touch."

Bluesman Jared James Nichols, it turns out, had a similar experience with the gear of another guitar legend...

“Two weeks ago," he told us recently, "we played this festival and the guy who brought the gear had worked for Eddie Van Halen. He brought me one of Eddie’s personal modded Marshalls from 1984. I plugged in and it was incredible, but I sounded like me.”

Convincing evidence for the 'it's all in the hands' side, for sure. Not that the debate will ever end...

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor, guitarworld.com

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Jared James Nichols argues tone comes from the fingers – and recalls the time he played through Eddie Van Halen’s own amp as evidence

(Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Gibson)

“It comes down to your hands, the way you hold the guitar, the way you strike the strings. Your touch is everything,” Nichols told Total Guitar

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