Unleashing the Power of the Blues Avengers: B.B., Albert, and Freddie King
Intermediate
Beginner
- Explore the approaches and techniques which set the styles of B.B., Albert, and Freddie King apart.
- Discover how to learn from your heroes without knowing their actual licks.
- Learn how to turn up the heat to boost your playing’s emotional intensity.
In the world of Marvel Comics, the Avengers comprise the likes of Iron Man, Black Panther, and Thor, superheroes joining forces to wield a power even greater than the sum of its parts. What if we could incorporate this same idea into the world of blues guitar?
Today we’re going to find out, as we seek to combine the singular styles of three of the greatest blues guitarists of all time, all named King—B.B., Albert, and Freddie. While the surname remains the same, all three of their styles are distinct and instantly recognizable, with each legend bringing his own unique brand of blues justice (so to speak). B.B.’s Gibson ES-355-based “Lucille” allows him to seamlessly weave his understated but devastating magic; Albert bends the strings of his lefty-strung-righty, detuned Gibson Flying V seemingly without limit; Freddie unleashes cascades of relentless, stinging bends from “Lucy,” his trademark Gibson ES-345.
How Our Heroes Get Their Power
Each King generally draws their ideas from the tried and true blues scale (1–b3–4–b5–5–b7), essentially the minor pentatonic scale with the flatted fifth added, at times including phrases born out of the major pentatonic scale (1–2–3–5–6). So, it’s not as much their choice of notes that clearly distinguishes their styles, as it is how they execute these notes with their picking hand. B.B. used a standard pick, digging in when needed.
Albert wielded his blues power by primarily plucking with his thumb.
Freddie played exclusively with his thumb and index finger, often employing metal fingerpicks to create his signature sting.
Ex. 1 illustrates how B.B. might approach playing over an up-tempo blues shuffle.
B.B. would often use his first finger to bend notes on the 1st string, as in beat 1 of measure three. Moreover, try to capture his signature “butterfly” vibrato by quickly rotating your fretting-hand wrist.
Ex. 2 employs an Albert-style approach to the same groove.
Albert achieved his legendary wide bends, like those in measure one, mainly by detuning his guitar (low to high: C–F–C–F–A–D) while playing it upside-down. He would bend strings by pulling them down towards the floor, giving him additional leverage. Albert would have surely played Ex. 2’s bends on the first string, but using standard tuning, we can approximate by choosing a position which better work for us. Here’s a terrific view of Albert’s bends, as his disciple, Stevie Ray Vaughan, handles rhythm duties.
Ex. 3 shows how Freddie might approach this situation.
More than anything else, we’ve got to ratchet up the intensity here. So, don’t be afraid to dig in with your pick or fingers, whichever method you use. But be careful when turning up the intensity not to rush things, which is a common tendency. Watch as Freddie takes his time, milking one bend for all it’s got, then turning up the heat even more. They didn’t call him the “Texas Cannonball” for nothing.
Combining the Trio’s Strengths
Now, could we simply string a few of each of the Kings’ licks together to create a cohesive solo? Sure, but that would almost certainly limit our creativity. So, instead, let’s focus on incorporating their general approaches into our playing, rather than simply making off with a few of their licks (though we can absolutely use elements of those as well). Just keep in mind that each of these legends has a distinct attitude in their playing, which we can tap into to boost our own spiciness.
Next, let’s change things up with more of a mid-tempo blues groove. Here’s B.B., a master of using space, starting off by taking time to breathe between each of his languid phrases, creating tension using short silences, before moving on.
Ex. 4, exploits B.B.’s use of space, while incorporating Albert’s compound bends (those which are wider than a whole-step). Measure three also incorporates a wide Albert-style vibrato, which can be executed by pulling down to more closely emulate his sound. Here, SRV does just that, in front of the man himself.
Next let’s add some of Freddie’s intensity into the mix for Ex. 5 (measure two), while our final phrase pairs a descending B.B.-style lick with a wide bend reminiscent of Albert. For the initial nasty ghost bend, where only the release is heard, catch both the 2nd and 3rd strings with your fretting-hand ring finger before striking. This was an Albert favorite that SRV later adopted.
We can also incorporate some of the Kings’ favorite melodic approaches. For example, Albert would very often move the classic blues box up two frets in order to play over the V chord. Here he is to demonstrate:
So, for the G blues excerpt in Ex. 6, Albert would use almost certainly use A minor pentatonic (A–C–D–E–G) over the V chord, D9 (D–F#–A–C–E). This would enable him to target some of D7’s chord tones, notably the 5 (A), b7 (C) and 9 (E), which we do in the example.
In measure one, we’re simultaneously employing this melodic approach, melding Albert’s and Freddie’s bending styles, and simulating both of their sharp picking-hand attacks. Regardless if you’re using a pick or not, pluck all the notes in measure one, up to the rest on beat 4, with your middle finger, pulling the string slightly outward so it snaps sharply against the frets when released. There’s plenty of space a là B.B in measures three and four, plus we’ve included his signature high root-note (G) punctuation at the end. He often let it hang in the air, but here we’ve kept it short.
Another melodic approach we can incorporate is B.B.’s penchant for subtly mixing and matching notes of the major and minor pentatonic scales. Here’s he is doing just that.
For Ex. 7, we’re going to stay in one of B.B.’s favorite pentatonic scale positions (the one he uses in the previous video, albeit in the key of Ab). We’ll sneakily mash up the major and minor pentatonic scales, while injecting a classic Freddie-style bend with wide vibrato. Note the presence of both F#, the 6, from the major pentatonic scale and G, the b7, from the minor pentatonic (or blues) scale.
Regardless of style, you can harness the attitudes and approaches of your favorite guitarists without actually learning their licks. Taking this macro view of playing allows you to use their greatness as a springboard for your own creativity.
The giveaways keep going! Enter Stompboxtober Day 25 for your chance to win today’s pedal from SoloDallas!
The Schaffer Replica® - BASS-X
After introducing the Schaffer Replica Storm low end legends like Rudy Sarzo, Billy Sheehan, and Pino Paladino discovered it to be equally amazing on bass. Based upon their input we made a few minor changes to this beloved circuit to make it more conducive to higher amplitude and lower frequencies. To our loyal bassists who have waited so patiently, we proudly introduce The Schaffer Replica - BASS-X.
Here’s part two of our look under the hood of the funky rhythm guitar master’s signature 6-string.
Hello and welcome back to Mod Garage. In this edition, we’re continuing our journey through the Fender Cory Wong Stratocaster wiring, bringing it all together.In the previous installment, the last feature on the funky 6-stringer’s signature axe that we discussed was the master volume pot and the corresponding treble-bleed circuit. Now, let’s continue with this guitar’s very special configuration of the tone pots.
Tone pot with Fender Greasebucket tone system:
This 250k tone pot is a standard CTS pot with a 90/10 audio taper found in all U.S.-built Fender guitars. The Cory Wong guitar uses the Fender Greasebucket system, which is added to the pot as a ready-to-solder PCB. The Greasebucket PCB is also available individually from Fender (part #7713546000), though you can use conventional electronic parts for this.
Fender introduced this feature in 2005 on some of the Highway One models and some assorted Custom Shop Strats. The Greasebucket name (which is a registered Fender trademark, by the way) is my favorite of Fender’s marketing names, but don’t let it fool you: Your tone will get cleaner with this modification, not greasy and dirty.
According to Fender, the Greasebucket tone circuit reduces high frequencies without adding bass as the tone knob is turned down. Don’t let that description confuse you. A standard Strat tone control does not add any bass frequencies! As you already know, with a passive system you can’t add anything that isn’t already there. You can reshape the tone by deemphasizing certain frequencies and making others more prominent. Removing highs makes lows more apparent and vice versa. In addition, the use of inductors (which is how a passive pickup behaves in a guitar circuit) and capacitors can create resonant peaks and valleys (band-passes and notches), further coloring the overall tone.
Cory Wong bringing the funk onstage.
This type of band-pass filter only allows certain frequencies to pass through, while others are blocked. The standard tone circuit in a Strat is called a variable low-pass filter (or a treble-cut filter), which only allows the low frequencies to pass through while the high frequencies get sent to ground via the tone cap.
The Greasebucket’s band-pass filter is a combination of a high-pass and a low-pass filter. This is supposed to cut high frequencies without “adding” bass, which has mostly to do with the resistor in series with the pot. That resistor means the control will never get to zero. You can get a similar effect by simply not turning the Strat’s standard tone control all the way down. (The additional cap on the wiper of the Greasebucket circuit complicates things a bit, though; together with the pickups it forms an RLC circuit, but I really don’t want to get into that here.)
The standard Fender Greasebucket tone system is used in the Cory Wong Strat, which includes a 0.1 μF cap and a 0.022 uF cap, along with a 4.7k-ohm resistor in series. These are the values used on the PCB, and without the PCB it looks like the illustration at the top of this column.
Push-push tone pot with preset overwriting function:
The lower tone pot assigned to the bridge pickup is a 250k audio push-push pot with a DPDT switch. The switch is used to engage a preset sound by overwriting the 5-way pickup-selector switch, no matter what switching position it is in. The preset functionality has a very long tradition in the house of Fender, dating back to the early ’50s, when Leo Fender designed a preset bass sound on position 3 (where the typical neck position is on a modern guitar) of the Broadcaster (and later the Telecaster) circuit. Wong loves the middle-and-neck-in-parallel pickup combination, so that’s the preset sound his push-push tone pot is wired for.
The neck pickup has a dedicated tone control while the middle pickup doesn’t, which is also another interesting feature. This means that when you hit the push-push switch, you will engage the neck and middle pickup together in parallel, no matter what you have dialed in on the 5-way switch. Hit the push-push switch again, and the 5-way switch is back to its normal functionality. Instead of a push-push pot, you can naturally use a push-pull pot or a DPDT toggle switch in combination with a normal 250k audio pot.
Here we go for the wiring. For a much clearer visualization, I used the international symbol for ground wherever possible instead of drawing another black wire, because we already have a ton of crossing wires in this drawing. I also simplified the treble-bleed circuit to keep things clearer; you’ll find the architecture of it with the correct values in the previous column.
Cory Wong Strat wiring
Courtesy of singlecoil.com
Wow, this really is a personalized signature guitar down to the bone, and Wong used his opportunity to create a unique instrument. Often, signature instruments deliver custom colors or very small aesthetic or functional details, so the Cory Wong Stratocaster really stands out.
That’s it! In our next column, we will continue our Stratocaster journey in the 70th year of this guitar by having a look at the famous Rory Gallagher Stratocaster, so stay tuned!
Until then ... keep on modding!
The Keeley ZOMA combines two of iconic amp effects—tremolo and reverb—into one pedal.
Key Features of the ZOMA
● Intuitive Control Layout: Three large knobs give you full control over Reverb Level, Tremolo Rate,and Depth
● Easy Access to Alternate Controls: Adjust Reverb Decay, Reverb Tone, and Tremolo Volume withsimple alt-controls.
● Instant Effect Order Switching: Customize your signal path. Position tremolos after reverb for avintage, black-panel tone or place harmonic tremolo before reverb for a dirty, swampy sound.
● True Bypass or Buffered Trails: Choose the setting that best suits your rig.
Three Reverb and Tremolo Modes:
● SS – Spring Reverb & Sine Tremolo: Classic spring reverb paired with a sine wave tremolo for that timelessblack-panel amp tone.
● PH – Plate Reverb & Harmonic Tremolo: Smooth, bright plate reverb combined with swampy harmonictremolo.
● PV – Plate Reverb & Pitch Vibrato: Achieve a vocal-like vibrato with ethereal plate reverb.
Reverb: Sounds & Controls
● Spring Reverb: Authentic tube amp spring reverb that captures every detail of vintage sound.
● Plate Reverb: Bright and smooth, recreating the lush tones of vibrating metal plates.
● Reverb Decay: Adjust the decay time using the REVERB/ALT SWITCH while turning the Level knob.
● Reverb Tone: Modify the tone of your reverb using the REVERB/ALT SWITCH while turning the Rate knob.
Tremolo: Sounds & Controls
● Sine Wave/Volume Tremolo: Adjusts the volume of the signal up and down with smooth sine wavemodulation.
● Harmonic Tremolo: Replicates classic tube-amp harmonic tremolo, creating a phaser-like effect withphase-split filtering.
● Pitch Vibrato: Delivers pitch bending effects that let you control how far and how fast notes shift.
● Alt-Control Tremolo Boost Volume: Adjust the boost volume by holding the REVERB/ALT footswitch whileturning the Depth knob.
The ZOMA is built with artfully designed circuitry and housed in a proprietary angled aluminum enclosure, ensuring both simplicity and durability. Like all Keeley pedals, it’s proudly designed and manufactured in the USA.
ZOMA Stereo Reverb and Tremolo
The first sound effects built into amplifiers were tremolo and reverb. Keeley’s legendary reverbs are paired with their sultry, vocal-like tremolos to give you an unreal sonic experience.
Your 100 Guitarists hosts are too young to have experienced SRV live. We’ve spent decades with the records, live bootlegs, and videos, but we’ll never know quite how it felt to be in the room with SRV’s guitar sound.
Stevie Ray Vaughan was a force of nature. With his “Number One” Strat, he drove a veritable trove of amps—including vintage Fenders, a rotating Vibratone cab, and a Dumble—to create one of the most compelling tones of all, capable of buttery warmth, percussive pick articulation, and cathartic, screaming excess. As he drew upon an endless well of deeply informed blues guitar vocabulary, his creativity on the instrument seemingly knew no bounds.
Your 100 Guitarists hosts are too young to have experienced SRV live. We’ve spent decades with the records, live bootlegs, and videos, but we’ll never know quite how it felt to be in the room with SRV’s guitar sound. So, we’d like to spend some time imagining: How did it feel when it hit you? How did he command his band, Double Trouble? The audience?
SRV was mythical. His heavy-gauge strings tore up his fingers and made a generation of blues guitarists work a lot harder. And his wall of amps seems finely curated to push as much air in all directions as possible. How far did he take it? Was he fine-tuning his amps to extreme degrees? Or could he get his sound out of anything he plugged into?