Modern blues maestro Jared James Nichols handed his electric guitar to a beloved pedal maker in the crowd during one of his recent shows – and the unsuspecting guest star nailed his cameo.
Chris King Robinson is the brains behind UK firm Pedal Pawn, whose builds have been championed by the likes of Eric Gales and Philip Sayce. He's also something of an authority on Stevie Ray Vaughan's tone, having released his “Tube Screamer on steroids pedal”, the BluesPrint Dual Overdrive.
Robinson's guitar chops are all over Pedal Pawn’s video content, and he even recently featured on Andertons' YouTube channel. So, when Nichols spotted him in the crowd at a recent UK show, he was eager to get his friend and fellow blues fan in on the soloing action.
Nichols unfurls fiery licks aplenty, dishing out some very mean one-finger vibrato. He then passes the baton over to Robinson, who makes Nichols' Gibson Explorer his own. We do note a small tone knob tweak from Nichols at one point, though. Teamwork makes the dream work.
“Still buzzing from last night,” Robinson says on the Pedal Pawn Instagram. “In the middle of the epic show, Jared stepped off the stage, walked into the crowd, and handed me his guitar. Moments like that don’t happen in real life.
“He’s not only one of the modern greats keeping real guitar playing alive,” he adds, “he’s also genuinely one of the kindest, most down-to-earth humans you’ll meet. I’ll be holding onto this feeling for a long time.”
Firing back gleefully in the comments, JJN says, “Dude! You ripped! I wished we could have hung, my schedule had other plans.”
Regular GW columnist Nichols recently detailed how he takes inspiration from Jimi Hendrix in the utilization of his pick-hand index finger, and has previously discussed how to make your solos sing.
Elsewhere, Nichols also explained to Guitar World why his signature Blackstar amps are a cut above the many vintage gems he has in his collection.
