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Blues Guitar Interview - Joe Taino

Read this January '02 blues guitar interview with one of the great blues guitarists from the Northeast - Joe Taino! Learn how he makes the blues slide whine and his guitar solos scream!

(Joe Taino's nickname for the interview is "pepe")

AccRock: How long have you been playin' blues?

pepe: 30 years

AccRock: Were you always in the U.S.?

pepe: no i moved to USA (NY) in 1976,lived here for 2 years went back to P.R.(Puerto Rico) for 2 years and moved back to USA (Florida in 1980 until 1989) then i moved back to NY in1989.

AccRock: How were you received in P.R.?

pepe: Well,i have always been a big star down there so anytime i go back i get radio interviews and a lot of attention.

AccRock: Nice - Who were the artists that first inspired you to play blues?

pepe: Well the first guy that got me interested in the blues was Eric Clapton,from him I went to Jimi Hendrix which isn`t necessarily straight ahead blues but he inspired me the most.Then i got into Santana,Allman Bro.,Johnny Winter,Billy Gibbons, Roy Buchannan,Mike Bloomfield,Albert King,Albert Collins,Muddy Waters,Howlin Wolf,Otis Rush,Lightnin Hopkings,Elmore James,Robert Johnson,Bukka White,Tampa Red,Blind Willie MacTell,Son House,Willie Dixon, T-Bone Walker

AccRock: Yah - those are da guys!

pepe: I think so................

AccRock: You play some bitchin' slide guitar!

pepe: Johnny winter, Duane Allman - But, I don't want to be one of the bunch! I Listen to blues from the 20's to the 30's alot so that I get the sound from the source.

AccRock: What kind of slides do you like and which finger do you use?

pepe: thick glass slides sometimes. A large part of the sound will be from the type of slide and the string gauge - I use 13's for slide playing and I prefer thick glass slides like from a wine bottle. Johnny Winter uses metal or thick brass. For my National Steel guitar I use heavy brass slides.

pepe: For Slide you really have to tune in open tunings. Duane Allman used open E, Muddy Waters used open G. There is this cool hipshot bridge that quickly resets your tunings for you! I like E, D, G, or A tunings for slide. I use the capo to change keys - for instance if I am in open D tuning, I will capo to 2nd fret for a song in the key of E. Muddy [Waters] capoed at the 2nd fret to play in the key of A - he played in A a lot.

AccRock: On what finger do you put the slide?

pepe: My pinky is short so I use my ring finger.

AccRock: How long did it take for you to first find the beginnings of your own style?

pepe: A lot of years - at least 20 years. I always wanted to be like Jimi [Hendrix]. I've been playing non stop since 1972. I've played all styles - country, disco, hard rock, ANYTHING!

AccRock: How much do you think Stevie Ray did for blues music?

pepe: Thanks to him blues got a come back in the 80's and Clapton went back to playing blues. He inspired me to play with a heavier gauge string - 11's normally and 13's for slide.

AccRock: Let's talk gear. What combination of fingers, attitude, amps, and guitars make great blues tone?

pepe: I use '58 [Fender] deluxes for small clubs or a [Fender] tweed bassman. For midsize clubs a tweed super which also is a great amp for the slide! For club dates a blackface [Fender] deluxe which I modified a bit to get more high end. I also put in a celestion 30th anniversary model.

pepe: For effects I use a vox wah, a maxon overdrive (sounds almost the same as the old Ibanez ts808), an ibanez tremolo, and a voodoo lab micro vibe.

AccRock: For our guitar player readers who might want to play blues professionally, what advice would you give to them?

pepe: listen to everything! Get inspiration and don't listen to one player too much. Listen to other styles too. I don't try to play [blues] like I'm in the 1940's, I just play!!