George Harrison leaned ahead, his eyes getting larger. “You understand, when Duane hits that low E, it’s nonetheless solely an E,” he emphasised. “Nevertheless it sounds prefer it’s received to be an octave decrease.”

Sure, even Beatles have heroes, and when Harrison was requested about Duane Eddy in 1987, it was like a Little Leaguer speaking about Hank Aaron. Earlier than the time period was coined, Duane Eddy was a guitar hero to guitar heroes who adopted. Instantly upon information of his demise on April 30 (at age 86), testimonials flowed on-line from John Fogerty, Jimmy Web page, Tommy Emmanuel, and others. Bruce Springsteen posted a video of himself swapping his trademark Tele for a black Gretsch, saying partly, “Duane was an enormous affect on my guitar stylings, and with out Duane, there’s no this,” as he performed the “Born To Run” riff.

Ritchie Blackmore wrote, “I might at all times rush out and purchase his long-playing information. My favourite all-time tune from him was ‘The Lonely One.’ He was a superb guitarist in his personal proper. He was the primary guitar participant with that deep bass sound, which I beloved. Sadly, I by no means noticed him stay. He was very sort to me final yr, as a result of I had missed him on so many events, he despatched me a Gretsch (Duane Eddy mannequin) guitar as a gift for Christmas. I couldn’t imagine it. He’ll at all times be my number-one inspiration, from the time I took up the guitar till now. He was so distinctive in his enjoying. The world has misplaced an amazing guitar participant. A really distinctive guitar participant.”

Brian Might posted photos of Eddy enjoying the Queen guitarist’s well-known selfmade guitar backstage when the band performed Nashville in 2017.

“Duane’s sound was distinctive, authentic, and fully innovative on the time,” his message learn. “His fashion concerned bending low strings of his guitar – an earthy, thrilling innovation… It’d sound like nothing out of the atypical in as of late of 1,000,000 flashy electrical guitar gamers, however at the moment it was revolutionary – releasing the guitar from its former stiffness, and making it discuss. For me and hundreds of different children on the time, it was joyous and galvanizing. All of us needed that deep ‘Twang’.”

Rock and roll had nice electrical guitarists earlier than Eddy’s arrival – from Invoice Haley’s “Rock Round The Clock,” that includes Danny Cedrone, to Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley sideman Scotty Moore. However Duane Eddy supplied one thing completely different. He didn’t sing, he didn’t duck-walk, he stood there, tall, with movie-star beauty, and performed melodies on the bass strings, heavy on the tremolo and reverb. As Greg Shaw wrote in his liner notes to The Classic Years, “Duane Eddy greater than anybody else deserves credit score for locating the potential of the electrical guitar in rock and roll. It remained for Eddy to carry out the instrument’s latent prospects, to not point out its business potential, as a solo voice.”

Tone is a guitarist’s signature, their calling card. Carlos Santana, Albert King, Richard Thompson, Dick Dale – every participant’s sound is as immediately recognizable as it’s completely different from one another. And earlier than Eddy entered the image, no one appeared like him.

Born in Corning, New York, he was given a Kay acoustic round age eight, having discovered a number of chords from his father at 5. For his ninth birthday, he received an Electromuse lap metal.

When he was 13, his household moved to Coolidge, Arizona, and for his subsequent birthday was given a Les Paul goldtop. One of many bands he performed in did the Prime 10 nation hits for an area tv present. “However at dances, folks needed uptempo issues, so it was like rockabilly,” he stated. “And Elvis got here alongside about then, so we did loads of that kind of factor. Rock and roll was simply getting began.”

“Gear” consisted of an amp the dimensions of an orange crate.

“I stored the Les Paul till I used to be 17,” he recounted. “Then I traded it for a Gretsch Chet Atkins mannequin. After I was 19, I began recording, and I used that.”

The Atkins 6120 had a Bigsby whammy bar, which grew to become a trademark of his “twangy” fashion. “I at all times made it part of my enjoying, as a result of it offers you a vibrato and completely different results. You may slide as much as a word. It’s good after I play B.B. King-style blues, which I did on ‘Three-30-Blues.’”

Produced by native disc-jockey Lee Hazlewood, “Moovin’ N’ Groovin’” was an uptempo rock instrumental. Launched in ’58 on Philadelphia’s Jamie Information, it made it to #73 on Billboard’s Sizzling 100 and #54 on Cashbox.

Basically self-taught, Eddy took classes from jazz- and Western-swing stalwart Jimmy Wyble. What he gleaned from bandmate Al Casey was less-formal.

“Al confirmed me loads of issues – largely licks, you realize? Al used to let me sit in together with his group in Phoenix after I was 16 or 17, in order that’s the place I discovered to play – extra so than after I was simply sitting round the home. I discovered loads from him. Al was at all times very a lot part of it. He and Lee and I sat down and mentioned making an instrumental, and Al wrote ‘Ramrod.’”

The Eddy/Hazlewood authentic “Insurgent Rouser” climbed as much as #6, in addition to #8 on R&B. Ricky Nelson hits featured lead work by Joe Maphis and James Burton, who shot as much as the excessive frets – Burton having discovered the trick of utilizing banjo strings on the primary and second strings. However Eddy concentrated down low, reaching an enormous, spherical tone.

The guitar and rhythm part of “Insurgent Rouser” had been recorded in Phoenix, with the tape then despatched to Los Angeles, the place saxophonist Gil Bernal was overdubbed. Yelps and hollers by the vocal group The Sharps (later renamed The Rivingtons) added to the depth, because the observe modulated up half-steps. Due to the tune’s success, the band was billed because the Rebels.

“Any person has to ascertain the tune,” he stated in 1977. “If I had been a singer, I wouldn’t improvise; I’d sing the tune and let the musicians do the remainder. As an instrumentalist, I’ve to play the tune, so it doesn’t go away me loads of room to improvise. Once you’re enjoying an instrumental, it’s received to start out someplace and finish someplace, and it’s received to say one thing.”

Have Twangy Guitar, Will Journey spent 81 weeks on the charts. “That first album of Duane’s is so basic,” Fogerty exclaimed in 1985. “That’s find out how to make an instrumental report. Out of 12 cuts on there, I feel I used to be listening to 9 of them on the radio. We used to do ‘Three-30-Blues’ time and again. We simply referred to as it ‘Blues in G.’ Every of these songs had a starting, center, and finish, like English Lit or one thing. It was simply so clever, and it sounded so nice.”

When Duane performed a live performance in Oakland in February, 1960, with Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown, and B.B. King, in attendance had been all 4 future members of Creedence Clearwater Revival. In the meantime, “Ramrod,” “Cannonball,” and “The Lonely One,” included on Have Twangy Guitar, all hit the Prime 30.

Apart from heavy tremolo, Duane’s tone relied on some ingenious reverb.

“The studio didn’t have an echo chamber, so Lee purchased an empty water tank and put a speaker in a single finish and a microphone within the different,” he associated. “There was no room contained in the studio for this 500-gallon tank, so that they set it exterior and we used to need to chase the birds off of it. Typically we needed to cease recording if a siren glided by or an airplane flew over, as a result of it picked up all the things.”

By that time, he’d upgraded from the orange-crate amplifier.

“I used a reworked Magnatone on ‘Insurgent Rouser,’ after which I had one custom-built with a brand new tremolo circuit,” he detailed. “I in contrast it to all the things that got here round, and nothing might match it. A man in Phoenix, Tom Howard McCormick, made it. He referred to as them Howard amps.

“I take advantage of medium-gauge strings with a wound G,” he continued. “DeArmond pickups are what I like – they assist get that ballsier sound – and JBL audio system as a result of they get that good midrange and a pointy, crisp, clear sound.”

Al Casey, who performed rhythm, bass, and piano with Duane, later moved to Los Angeles and performed a whole lot of classes with Nancy Sinatra, Glen Campbell, the Affiliation, and others. After L.A. session musicians Plas Johnson and Gil Bernal performed sax on “Moovin’ N’ Groovin’” and “Insurgent Rouser,” respectively, Eddy plucked younger Steve Douglas out of Kip Tyler & the Flips to play on the street and within the studio. After a few yr, Douglas was boasting a full calendar of classes himself, so he really useful Jim Horn as a substitute. Horn, who later recorded with George Harrison, Elvis Presley, and Canned Warmth, introduced Larry Knechtel into the fold – the long run pianist on “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and bassist on “Mr. Tambourine Man.” It might not be an overstatement to name Eddy’s band a farm workforce for the Wrecking Crew.

“Yep,” the Eddy-Casey collaboration “Forty Miles Of Dangerous Street,” “Some Sort-a Earthquake,” “Shazam” all charted properly – in some circumstances even higher within the U.Ok. In early 1960, Duane toured England with headliner Bobby Darin. The audiences and reviewers had been less-enamored with Darin’s Vegas-type fashion, however had been downright ecstatic for Eddy’s electrifying rock. Derek Johnson wrote in New Musical Categorical, “Hit of the night from viewers’s standpoint was Duane Eddy, who gave a very unbelievable show of guitar virtuosity and left the followers yelling for extra. The total vitality alive impact achieved by this younger man is kind of superb.”

The truth is, when the tour ended, Eddy was booked to come back again for a headlining stint simply six weeks later, and NME readers voted him “Quantity One Musical Character of 1960,” with Elvis Presley second.

His most profitable single, 1960’s “As a result of  They’re Younger,” was from a film starring Dick Clark. His guitar was surrounded by strings, and he was enjoying one other axe in his toolbox.

“That was a departure for me, however I beloved the concept,” he stated. “Additionally, Buddy Holly had come out the yr earlier than with ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore,’ which had strings. It was unparalleled at the moment to have a violin part on a rock and roll report. I walked into Music Metropolis someday, and right here was this six-string bass guitar. I believed, ‘Boy, any person designed this for me – or due to me.’”

His Danelectro was strung E to E – an octave decrease than a guitar – which was how the corporate designed it.

Duane wasn’t against making an attempt new issues. “What I do has been put down as being easy and even dumb. I don’t agree,” he stated. “I’ll proceed on with my fashion. It’s a course of and a selection and a route I select. I’ll change issues round; I wish to maintain an open thoughts. However I’m not going to start out enjoying scorching licks and work up loads of difficult stuff simply to dazzle everyone and show that I can do it.”

On the album, The “Twangs” the “Thang”, “Tiger Love & Turnip Greens” featured the Dano, whereas the jazzy “Route #1” showcased Jim Horn’s flute. Two hits combining guitar with vocals had been “(Dance With The) Guitar Man” (1962) and “Boss G uitar” (’63). Each featured Darlene Love and the Blossoms, redubbed “The Rebelettes,” and the latter’s riff consisted of bending a single word 18 occasions.

In ’61, Guild issued a Duane Eddy signature mannequin patterned after the 6120, making him the primary rock guitarist with an instrument bearing his identify. In ’83, Guild reissued the DE-500 with the unique DeArmond 2000 Dynasonic pickups nonetheless obtainable on the Guild workshop, which Duane was insistent on.

Viewing albums individually from singles put Hazlewood and Eddy forward of the curve. Thus, Songs Of Our Heritage featured gut-string guitar, banjo, and flute; Twangy Guitar – Silky Strings contained ballads backed by strings; and “Twang” A Nation Tune consisted of nation requirements like “Loopy Arms” and “The Window Up Above.”

“I really like nation, and I reduce it in Nashville with Buddy Emmons on pedal metal, the Jordanaires on background vocals, and Floyd Cramer and Pig Robbins on piano. That’s the place my roots are; that’s the place everyone’s roots are in rock and roll. I at all times maintained that Hank Williams began rock and roll. Ever take heed to ‘Transfer It On Over’ after which play ‘Rock Across the Clock’ by Invoice Haley? It’s virtually the identical observe.”

Eddy even invited country-jazzer Hank Garland to take part, after he’d suffered mind injury in a automobile wreck. “His spouse and I believed the familiarity of that atmosphere may assist him enhance, simply enjoying rhythm. So Hank actually is enjoying on my model of ‘Sugarfoot Rag’ – a truth I’m sentimentally happy with.”

A facet word: Eddy as soon as had a fluke hook-up with a cellphone operator who was married to Dan Dugmore, who Duane didn’t know on the time however later grew to become the metal participant on Ronstadt’s “Blue Bayou.” Dugmore was shocked to have the legend hand-deliver a replica of “Twang” A Nation Tune on his birthday. A long time later, the 2 dueted at a Buddy Emmons tribute.

Inevitably, the Beatles and the British Invasion sounded a demise knell to rock instrumentals. As Duane’s reputation waned, gimmicky album titles like Water Snowboarding, Duane a-Go-Go, and even Duane Does Dylan failed to seek out an viewers. He segued into producing with Phil Everly’s solo debut, Star Spangled Springer, and Waylon Jennings’ I’ve All the time Been Loopy, that includes the Crickets – and scored a #9 hit within the U.Ok.with 1975’s “Play Me Like You Play Your Guitar.”

In ’76, what ought to have been a rustic smash floundered as a result of Elektra didn’t have inroads with the nation market. That includes future spouse Deed Abbate and “some excellent associates” (Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson), “You Are My Sunshine“ hit #1 on WHN in New York Metropolis earlier than it was pulled by the label. Pedal-steel on it had been offered by Duane himself. “I purchased a second-hand Fender 400 from Pink Rhodes, simply to see if I might be taught it.”

Eddy had barely gigged in a number of years when he was booked to play the L.A. jazz membership Baked Potato in Might of ’83. Membership proprietor Don Randi, who was additionally a keyboardist within the Wrecking Crew, teamed with Steve Douglas to assemble gamers…

“Hal Blaine on drums, Ry Cooder on slide, John Garnache on bass, together with us,” Randi stated. “The primary evening, phrase received out that Duane Eddy was enjoying there, the place was packed. Duane walked into the room, and when he got here again, his silk shirt was soaking moist. I stated, ‘Are you alright?’ He stated, ‘My God, Larry Carlton’s on the market, Lee Ritenour, Tom Petty, Linda Ronstadt.’ It was as a result of all of them adored and idolized him. He was the man they tried to emulate once they began enjoying guitar. So that they needed to come and see the grasp. And we blew the home down. I might’ve continued doing that for a yr, it was a lot enjoyable.”

At a return engagement later that yr, Cooder was changed by Albert Lee.

The next yr, Duane performed on King Cobra by Douglas, who performed extra gigs that includes Robben Ford on guitar, adopted by Greg Douglass.

When Eddy opened a mid-’80s Huey Lewis & The Information tour, his all-star band included Douglas once more, with Larry Knechtel on keyboard, Lee on guitar, and Jerry Scheff on bass – the latter two changed by Arlen Roth and Jerry Jemmott. Emmylou Harris’ 1986 single, “I Had My Coronary heart Set on You,” featured twangy low notes that might solely belong to 1 individual.
That yr, the strange-bedfellows pairing of Eddy and the Artwork Of Noise received the Grammy for Finest Rock Instrumental Efficiency, for a remake of a Duane single from 1960, “Peter Gunn.”

“I hadn’t heard of them, so that they despatched me a tape,” he defined. “I believed, ‘Hmm…. Fairly far out.’ A few months later, I flew over with my inexperienced Gretsch Nation Membership and put guitar onto the observe.”

The visibility had a hand in a Capitol deal leading to his self-titled 1987 album. Along with Artwork Of Noise, Knechtel, Horn, Cooder, and Fogerty, it featured David Lindley, Steve Cropper, Jim Keltner, James Burton, and Paul McCartney.

“It was form of a kick, standing there enjoying lead and looking out over, and there’s Paul McCartney rocking out on his Höfner bass.”

Duane and Jeff Lynne mentioned doing one thing collectively, however when the time was proper for Duane, Lynne was working with George Harrison on Cloud 9. Shortly after they received off the cellphone, Lynne referred to as again. After he’d informed Harrison who he was speaking to, George supplied to place his album on maintain and invited Duane to report in his studio. The ex-Beatle performed slide on two songs, together with “The Trembler,” co-written by Duane from a riff Harrison heard Ravi Shankar hum (the eery tune was later featured in Pure Born Killers – and who can neglect “Insurgent Rouser” enjoying an element in Forrest Gump?).

Eddy toured Europe with the Everly Brothers within the early ’90s, and the last decade noticed cameos with Shadows guitarist Hank Marvin, Carl Perkins and the Mavericks, and Doc Watson, whereas Rhino launched the anthology, Twang Thang.

In ’94 got here an extended overdue induction to the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame, with Foreigner’s Mick Jones dealing with the presentation.

Duane and the Ventures lastly received collectively on 1999’s New Depths, produced by “Skunk” Baxter.

He was inducted to the Musicians Corridor of Fame in 2008, however his profile dimmed once more till he performed Deke Dickerson’s Guitar Geek Competition in 2010, after which Duane used Dickerson’s backup band at New Orleans’ Ponderosa Stomp that yr.

In 2011, he returned to Gretsch, who issued the G6120DE signature mannequin, in Desert Dawn end. That yr, his first album in 14 years, Street Journey, was produced by Pulp’s Richard Hawley, and Eddy performed the large Glastonbury Competition with saxophonist Ron Dziubla from the Geek/Ponderosa lineup onboard within the studio and onstage. In ’13, he acquired the Lifetime Achievement award for Instrumentalist from the Americana Music Affiliation, and when Paul McCartney was chosen 2015’s MusiCares Particular person of the 12 months, Eddy delivered an attractive instrumental studying of “And I Love Her.”

In 2017, he jammed with Jeff Beck on the Gretsch Occasion, and at one other occasion hauled out his new signature Gretsch six-string bass for “Home of the Rising Solar,” with Hawley, the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, and harmonica legend Charlie McCoy. The unmistakable Duane Eddy twang discovered its method to solo tasks by Auerbach, E Road Band bassist Garry Tallent, and Pretenders front-woman Chrissie Hynde.

Fittingly, he gave a triumphant U.Ok. Farewell Tour in ’18, enjoying the London Palladium.

Of his trademark fashion, he mused, “I can’t change it, as such, as a result of that’s me. A part of the fashion is the way in which I play – the way in which my fingers work, the way in which I feel, my feeling for the instrument, and what I hear. The opposite a part of it’s digital. However, mainly, it comes from me, and I can’t change that any greater than singers can change their voices. You’re not going to listen to Phil Everly sing like Joe Cocker.”

When Eddy was added to the Music Metropolis Stroll of Fame in Nashville final yr, Steve Wariner’s induction speech learn, partly, “Duane Eddy is among the most-important guitarists we’ve ever had. He’s amongst a uncommon few who truly created an entire style, a enjoying fashion; his personal distinctive twang that’s nonetheless heard and copied on recordings and in film and TV to this very day. You may ask any of the so-called rock-god guitarists proper now. They may gentle up on the point out of 1 Duane Eddy. They may add, ‘I discovered from him.’ Didn’t all of us?”

“I hate for folks to mimic simply to be imitating, I don’t thoughts them imitating me,” Duane laughed in 1984. “That’s a distinct story. It’s a hell of a praise. I by no means get bored with listening to it, whether or not it’s guys enjoying a few my licks or saying in an interview that they had been influenced by me. That’s price greater than the cash would’ve been. It’s influenced an amazing many individuals, professionals and amateurs of all kinds, as a result of it doesn’t matter what they went on to play, loads of them picked up a guitar within the first place after listening to one in all my information. For instance, surf music was identical to watching a son develop up. I’ll let you know, throughout a few of the lean years, after I’ve not gone out and recorded or performed huge exhibits, to listen to folks doing that has stored me going. It makes you’re feeling such as you did one thing worthwhile in any case.”

Phrases like “legend” and “icon” are bandied about far too loosely, however in 2010 Mojo journal fittingly gave its Icon Award to Eddy. Doing the honors, Be-Bop Deluxe’s Invoice Nelson held the very copy of “As a result of They’re Younger” that he purchased in 1960 and declared, “The sound of the guitar on this report lit a hearth that also burns at this time.”

Shortly after information of Eddy’s passing circulated, a touching put up from the Kinks’ Dave Davies expressed what many had been feeling: “I believed he’d stay ceaselessly.”

All quotes are from interviews performed by Dan Forte except in any other case famous.

Echoes of Duane

Musicians Pay Homage

Along with the numerous testimonials that flooded the press and social media following Duane Eddy’s demise, a who’s who of guitarists despatched the next tributes and remembrances completely to Classic Guitar.

After I was 13, Duane performed Finsbury Park in North London. I received a ticket from my brother-in-law. That day, I used to be enjoying on the playground and I by chance damage my eye and had an eye fixed patch. They stated, “You may’t go to the live performance since you may injury your cornea.” I stated, “I don’t care. I’m going to go and see Duane Eddy!” So we went, and I used to be completely enraptured. It was one of many largest occasions of my younger life. I’d began messing round on guitar, and he was an monumental affect – on me and on (brother) Ray. We had been proper initially of our journey.

I met him in London in 2018. In any case these years, it was fairly emotional assembly any person you’re feeling you’ve identified all of your life. The Kinks had been with out a bass participant, and it was actually humorous; he stated, “Oh, I’ll do it.” Duane Eddy might sit in enjoying bass with the Kinks?! That will be priceless. I feel he contributed a lot to early rock and roll. He was an immense determine to me. – Dave Davies

In all probability the primary music I heard that made me wish to be in a band was surf music. The Ventures had been the highest guitar instrumental band of that interval. However the sound of Duane Eddy’s guitar was one thing I couldn’t even comprehend: How did it sound so huge and deep?

I used to be invited to play three exhibits with him again in 1984, having probably not stored observe of him over time. At our one rehearsal, he began enjoying the road from “Peter Gunn.” My hair stood on finish! It was so robust! For a number of songs, he additionally pulled out a Danelectro six-string bass, strung an octave decrease. Enjoying all of that music was only a blast. Plus, he was a pleasure to be round. That was an amazing second for me. – Robben Ford

Duane shook the earth with low notes. Pure poetry. Every thing he performed was timeless – eternally cool like the person himself. He was the last word guitar hero. Duane was my pal, and I’m ceaselessly indebted to him for giving me a license to twang. – Marty Stuart

After Duane heard my model of “Insurgent Rouser” (Guitar In The Area Age, 2014), he wrote me this unimaginable, flattering letter. It stated, “It’s essential to have been studying my thoughts and coronary heart all through the recording. My past love was nation music, and also you captured the sensation that I at all times had for that tune however didn’t know find out how to do. Additionally, we had been going for a success, and went for raucous and large glad celebration, with ominous fringe components. However these had been the start days of rock and roll, and all the things needed to inform a narrative of teenage, loopy, hormonal expression. So we went after that and received fortunate. However someway you heard my nation soul underlying the tune. I wrote it on the session on March 16, 1958. You might be an incredible participant, my pal.”
I grew to become conscious of guitar by means of surf music of the Ventures and Astronauts. However then you must return and see what pre-dated them. I can’t consider something that preceded Duane in the identical means. Every thing that got here after him that was impacted by that sound, just like the spaghetti-western stuff – you must look again to him. That sound is like oxygen or one thing; you’re not conscious that you just’re respiratory it. – Invoice Frisell

Duane Eddy was a guitar hero earlier than the time period existed. After I first was studying to play, it was Duane and the Ventures who put the guitar out entrance in a market flooded with woman teams and Bobbys from Philly.
I had the pleasure of assembly him on a number of events, and he was as effective and mellow as his enjoying fashion. You couldn’t meet a kinder, sweeter man. My honest condolences to his spouse Deed and the remainder of the Eddy household. – Elliot Easton

Duane Eddy sang pop hits together with his guitar. Pure melody, proper within the human-voice vary, with little or no ornamentation and no inscrutable lyrics to distract. At this time, once we say “twangy guitar,” we usually imply “…like Duane.” – Invoice Kirchen

Duane Eddy was the primary guitarist who emphasised how his guitar sounded as a lot as what he performed. It was an honor and a privilege to have the ability to produce an album, not solely with him, however with the Ventures on the similar time! Doesn’t get any higher than that. Godspeed, Duane. – Jeff Baxter

Duane was such an excellent pal and inspiration. I used to be honored to be onstage with him many occasions, and he was at all times so gracious to provide me the chance to solo. I do know there are a lot of like me who’ve such nice tales of being with him. I shall mourn my pricey pal and ship a lot like to his pricey spouse, Deed. – Albert Lee

Duane Eddy’s bare-bones, no-frills sound actually hit me as a child. I didn’t know what made it work on the time, however all that echo and tremolo gave his songs a Morricone-ish sense of house, an actual lonesome sound, which appealed to me. Now, after I take heed to my first report (Lookout, 1996), it’s clear as day: I used to be making up blues melodies and relocating ’em down within the low register, like Duane would. It helped give me a distinct sound. I’d initially be considering Hop Wilson, T-Bone Walker, Massive Jay McNeely, or Louis Jordan, however then I’d pull that melody means down onto the low strings and it’d come off one thing like Duane Eddy jamming with Earl Hooker in a juke joint. – Rick Holmstrom

Have “Twangy” Guitar Will Journey was the primary album cowl I ever noticed with a guitar participant. I used to be 5 – 6 and some years from having my very own guitar, however the cowl had a vibe, and the sound was fully bewildering. Bigsby, tremolo, deep low-string bends, and aggressive assault – I didn’t know what any of it was, however I beloved all the things about it. Duane Eddy set the usual for tone and style, and he at all times honored the melody. That’s one thing I take with me and apply to each side of my life: Honor The Melody.
After I received to accompany him on “Insurgent Rouser” on the Americana Music Awards on the Ryman Auditorium, he performed by means of two Twin Reverbs cranked to 10, however it was his palms and his coronary heart making the music. A soulful and deceptively easy participant whose enjoying mirrored his sort spirit and at all times honoring the melody. Duane Eddy was king. – Buddy Miller

I met Duane within the mid ’80s, when Fred Newell invited me to a get-together at his Nashville residence, and I used to be thrilled that Duane introduced alongside not solely his iconic 6120, however his Dano six-string bass and Guild Duane Eddy mannequin, too. He invited me to play all of them, after which we jammed. I used to be stunned at his fingerpicking skills. He sounded superb. At one level throughout “9 Pound Hammer,” he performed a lick that stopped me chilly. I demanded that he present it to me proper then and there! He received fairly fun out of my enthusiasm, and patiently defined and taught it to me. That inspiration and kindness I’ve by no means forgotten, and I really feel so very grateful that my path crossed with such a gentleman. Duane was the mannequin of how a “guitar hero” might be, with a coronary heart simply as huge as his engulfing guitar tone. The entire world will miss him. – John Jorgenson

My first guitar hero that grew to become a pal. I miss him. – Garry Tallent

These of us who began enjoying guitar within the mid ’50s and early ’60s had been all influenced by Duane Eddy, after all. Throughout that point his music was throughout pop radio. I performed his songs in golf equipment for a very long time. He’s a part of my historical past. I had the pleasure of assembly Duane within the ’70s and hanging out. He was such a humble gentleman and really good man to be round. Duane, thanks on your rock and roll. – Larry Carlton

I met Duane Eddy after I was 15 years previous and nonetheless residing in Phoenix. He handled me as a up to date and never like the child that I used to be. We’ve been associates ever since. I’ve identified Duane so lengthy that it typically eclipsed who he was. I’d usually discover myself driving residence from a go to considering, “Holy cow, I simply had lunch with Duane Eddy.” What number of guitar gamers are you able to consider that personal that a lot actual property on the instrument? Anybody who performs a word on the fourth string or decrease evokes the identify Duane Eddy. I already miss him greater than I can say. – Richard Bennett

“DeArmond neck pickup, Fender amp, and have the engineer increase 1K on the mic.” That was what he at all times informed me. Duane was such an exquisite cat. I used to be extraordinarily lucky to have had the expertise of working with him each onstage and within the studio. What a man! – Kenny Vaughan

My relationship with my first guitar hero, Duane Eddy, passed off totally by cellphone till this yr, and I want I had all these conversations on tape. His tales had been priceless – from swapping his Gretsch with Buddy Holly’s Strat earlier than going onstage, to touring the U.Ok. with Bobby Darin, who was rattled by Duane’s standing there, and hanging out with Frank Sinatra at his residence in Palm Springs.

You couldn’t hope to satisfy a sweeter, nicer man. He was humble, and he cared about you, regardless of his personal well being points. His life offered inspiration and pleasure, not solely to guitarists, however to music lovers everywhere in the world. I’ll at all times treasure my face-to-face assembly with him in February at his residence. We performed collectively a bit, and I used to be in a position to movie him doing a cameo in a video for my tune, “Cadillac Man.” Duane will stay a real residing legend, to me and, I’m certain, scores of others. – Rick Vito

Duane Eddy was the epitome of tone, style, and restraint – which is the recipe all ought to adhere to. – Redd Volkaer

This text initially appeared in VG’s July 2024 difficulty. All copyrights are by the creator and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.