“He was able to make each note sound so big. When I formed my first trio the first place my mind would go was the sound of Leslie West’s guitar”: Jared James Nichols explains why Mountain man Leslie West was the “king of heavy”

On the left, Jared James Nichols grimaces as he takes a solo on his 1952 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, the guitar named Dorothy after it was recovered and restored from a tornado. On the right, Nichols' hero, Leslie West of Mountain, solos on his Flying V.

For this month's column, I’d like to talk about my biggest guitar hero, Leslie West from Mountain. Leslie was the king of heavy, and the king of tone, phrasing and nuance.

There are a ton of things I took directly from Leslie, such as my preference for guitar pickups. Leslie is famously revered for the incredible tone he got from the single bridge-position P90 pickup on his signature guitar, a Gibson Les Paul Junior.