In the wee hours of a July morning in 1996, Johnny Hiland made a decision. He deleted the 52-page term paper he’d been working on, left college, left Maine, and drove to Nashville. He was twenty-one years old. He had been playing guitar since he was two. He had performed on local television at seven. He had won Talent America in New York City at ten as part of the family bluegrass trio The 3 J’s. He had been legally blind since birth — a condition called nystagmus, which causes involuntary eye movements and leaves him with severely limited vision — and had developed, in the absence of the visual cues that most musicians take for granted, a musical ear of extraordinary precision and a physical relationship with the guitar that was entirely tactile rather than visual. What he brought to Nashville was not a beginner’s ambition. It was twenty years of accumulated guitar practice compressed into a twenty-one-year-old’s technique and focused on the specific city where that technique could do the most good.
Nashville took him seriously almost immediately. He began playing sessions on the honky-tonk circuit, joined the Don Kelley Band, performed at the Grand Ole Opry, and backed artists including Toby Keith, Janie Fricke, and Hank Williams III. His debut solo album in 2004 on Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label announced him to the wider guitar world: Guitar World included him in their 50 Fastest Guitarists list, Gibson named him a top-five chicken picker, and the comparisons to Danny Gatton — the Maryland guitar polymath who had died in 1994 and left country guitar’s most technically comprehensive legacy — began and never stopped. Hiland has accepted those comparisons with the gratitude of a true disciple: “Danny Gatton has been my biggest guitar influence over the years. I mean, Ricky Skaggs is my biggest musical hero, but when it comes to guitar heroes, I would say Danny Gatton is my biggest guitar hero.” He was gifted Danny Gatton’s personal Shure SM57 microphone — the one with which Gatton miked his own amp — which says something about how seriously the musicians who knew both men took the connection.
What distinguishes Hiland from the large population of technically accomplished country guitarists is the specific range of his musical vocabulary. He can play chicken-pickin’ country at blistering speed, but he also absorbed Van Halen, Metallica, and Rush as a teenager, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford, and Steve Vai as an aspirational guitarist. “Heavy metal was when I was mad and Chet Atkins was when I was happy and blues when I’m sad,” he has said — a statement that describes not a guitarist dabbling in multiple genres but a musician who has internalized genre as emotional vocabulary, accessing different traditions the way an actor accesses different registers. His gear reflects this: an instrument and amplifier collection built for a working Nashville session player who might be required to deliver any genre convincingly within the same afternoon, with a core tonal identity that remains unmistakably his own across all of them.
Background: From Baileyville, Maine to Nashville’s Fastest Fingers
Hiland’s earliest guitar memory involves a 1939 Gibson J-35 that his Aunt Brenda brought to his father — it had been sitting in her attic and it belonged to his grandfather. He was two and a half years old. “I just gravitated to it and it grabbed hold of me, kind of like Linus with the security blanket. I had to be with that guitar all the time.” That guitar — now displayed in the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame — was the physical beginning of a relationship that would define his entire life. By five he was playing his first talent show. By seven he was performing on Dick Stacey’s Country Jamboree on local television. By ten he had won Talent America in New York City with his siblings.
The pivotal gear moment came in the mid-1980s when his father took him to see Ricky Skaggs in concert. Witnessing Skaggs’ mastery of the Fender Telecaster — specifically a purple Glaser Tele that Skaggs played — Hiland was immediately drawn to electric guitar and the specific chicken-pickin’ sound Skaggs produced. Nobody in rural Maine could tell him what a B-bender was or how Skaggs achieved his characteristic string bends — so Hiland simply learned the licks without one, developing through repetition the precise left-hand technique that replicated the B-bender’s specific pitch movement through finger strength and muscle memory alone. “I think with repetition, one can slowly develop such preciseness over time,” he has said. “After playing that style for twenty years, I finally feel like I’m comfortable doing that.”
As a teenager he expanded his influences in every direction simultaneously. Albert Lee and Danny Gatton joined Ricky Skaggs and Roy Clark in his country influences. Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Eddie Van Halen provided his rock vocabulary. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robben Ford provided his blues foundation. When he was told at sixteen that he could never drive a car due to his visual impairment, he retreated to his father’s woodshed with “an old 410 custom amp my dad paid 100 bucks for” and played Metallica’s …And Justice for All for an entire afternoon. The emotional range that expression required — country joy, blues sadness, metal rage, jazz sophistication — became the multi-genre vocabulary that defines his adult playing. His first serious touring rig when he arrived in Nashville was modest: a BOSS tuner, CS-3 Compressor, BD-2 Blues Driver, and DD-3 Delay. The ambition was already enormous; the gear caught up later.
The Rig: Johnny Hiland’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects
Guitars
Ernie Ball Music Man Axis Sport 1998 (Primary Electric Guitar, Career Main Instruments): Johnny Hiland’s primary working guitars are two 1998 Ernie Ball Music Man Axis Sports — instruments he has described as his main guitars alongside his Silhouette models. The Music Man Axis Sport is a production guitar based on the Edward Van Halen design concept that Music Man originally developed for Van Halen (as the EVH Music Man) before Van Halen left the endorsement. The Axis Sport features a contoured basswood or alder body, a hard maple neck with a maple or rosewood fingerboard, and two humbucking pickups — a configuration that gives the guitar significantly more output and warmth than a standard Telecaster or Stratocaster while retaining the articulation and playability of a quality American production guitar. For a guitarist whose vocabulary spans country, blues, rock, and jazz, the Axis Sport’s tonal flexibility — from clean country clarity on the neck pickup to driving rock power on the bridge — is a practical working tool rather than a signature vanity. Hiland has endorsed Music Man for an extended period, describing the guitars as a central part of his identity as a player.
Ernie Ball Music Man Silhouette (Supporting Primary Guitar): The Music Man Silhouette — a Stratocaster-influenced design with three single-coil pickups and a double-cutaway body — completes Hiland’s primary Music Man collection. Where the Axis Sport’s humbuckers provide warmth and power, the Silhouette’s single-coils give the bright, snappy character specifically required for authentic chicken-pickin’ technique. The two instruments together cover his full tonal range without requiring him to reach for different brands or body types: Music Man guitars throughout, with the humbucker/single-coil split determining the specific tonal context.
Kiesel JH6 Signature Guitar (Current Signature Model): Hiland’s signature instrument with Kiesel Guitars is the JH6 — a custom-configured guitar built to his specific requirements. Kiesel (formerly Carvin) is known for producing USA-built guitars to custom specifications at prices significantly below comparable American production instruments, and Hiland’s JH6 embodies the specific playability requirements of a legally blind guitarist who must navigate the instrument entirely by touch: a neck profile, fret size, and body contour combination that allows him to orient himself physically without visual reference. The guitar represents the culmination of his years of gear exploration translated into a specific specification that can be reproduced consistently.
Fender Danny Gatton Signature Telecaster (Tribute to Primary Influence): Among Hiland’s most significant instruments is a Fender Danny Gatton Signature Telecaster — a guitar he participated in building at the Fender Custom Shop. “I wanted to make a cross between Don Rich’s Tele and Danny Gatton’s Tele,” he has said. The Gatton signature features Joe Barden two-coil pickups — the pickups that define the Gatton sound: hum-canceling in a single-coil package, with the specific tonal balance of a pickup designed by an engineer who understood exactly what Gatton needed from his guitar. Hiland used Fender’s remaining stock of Barden pickups from the original Gatton production run for his Custom Shop instrument, making it a direct tonal connection to the guitarist whose influence defined his playing direction. The guitar’s significance is as much biographical as practical: the Danny Gatton Tele is the instrument on which he plays the tribute track “Gatton After It” from his album Standing Strong.
1939 Gibson J-35 (Grandfather’s Guitar, Maine Country Music Hall of Fame): The 1939 Gibson J-35 that was his grandfather’s and his first guitar now resides in the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame rather than in active playing use — a biographical artifact with more historical than practical value. Hiland also owns a 1968 Martin D-35 for studio acoustic work. These two instruments — the grandfather’s J-35 and the 1968 D-35 — represent the acoustic foundation beneath his electric work: the country and bluegrass tradition that preceded the chicken-pickin’ electric vocabulary and continues to inform it.
Godin Acoustic-Electric Instruments (Studio and Live Acoustic): For acoustic-electric work, Hiland uses Godin instruments: a Godin Acousticaster, a Godin A6, and a Godin Multiac nylon-string. The Godin brand — Canadian-made, known for acoustic-electric designs that translate well to amplified live performance — provides his acoustic range without the feedback and volume limitations of traditional acoustic guitars in loud live environments. The Multiac nylon-string specifically allows him to access classical and flamenco-adjacent tonal territory that his steel-string instruments cannot provide.
Bill Comins Custom Archtop (Studio Jazz Resource): For jazz and chord-melody work in the studio, Hiland uses a Classic Model archtop from custom luthier Bill Comins. Comins is one of the most respected archtop builders in America, working in the tradition of the great pre-war Gibson and D’Angelico archtops. The Comins archtop’s warm, complex hollowbody jazz tone is the specific instrument Hiland reaches for when the session calls for the unmistakable character of a hand-carved archtop — a tonal option that no solid-body electric can approximate regardless of pickup configuration.
Pickup Philosophy (Joe Barden and Beyond): Hiland’s pickup preferences reflect his tonal priorities: he wants instruments that are clean and articulate enough for country chicken-pickin’ but have enough output and character for blues and rock. Joe Barden’s two-coil Telecaster pickups — the specific design used on the Danny Gatton signature — represent his ideal for Telecaster-style instruments: hum-canceling, with the clarity of a single-coil and the output of something approaching a humbucker. His Music Man instruments’ stock pickups satisfy his requirements for the humbucker-equipped portion of his collection.
Amps
Fat Jimmy Amplifiers (Current Primary Endorsement): Following a recommendation from Cliff Cultreri of destroyallguitars.com, Hiland moved to Fat Jimmy Amplifiers as his exclusive endorsement. The Fat Jimmy Jefferson 100 is his primary studio amplifier. Fat Jimmy builds high-quality boutique amplifiers in the British and American tube amp traditions, focused on clean-to-breakup tube response — the specific character that country and blues players require from an amplifier. The Jefferson 100’s clean headroom and natural tube breakup character suit Hiland’s requirement for an amplifier that can go from pristine clean (for country) to naturally saturated (for blues and rock) without pedal intervention for the core tone.
Reeves Space Cowboy (Teaching and Course Recording Amp): For his TrueFire instructional courses and studio teaching sessions, Hiland has used a Reeves Space Cowboy — a single-channel British-voiced amplifier that Hiland specifically describes as “clean from zero to ten, and although it features a great British tone, it really works for a country boy like myself.” He runs the Space Cowboy through an Avatar 2×12 cabinet with Celestion G12K100 speakers — the K100’s high-wattage handling and clear, extended response providing the clarity his fast passages require. A Johnny Hiland signature 4×12 Avatar cabinet is also available, loaded with the same Celestion specification. The British-voiced amp through Celestion speakers represents his approach to studio tone: clean, articulate, with the specific frequency response that makes his fastest chicken-pickin’ runs individually audible.
Earlier Amp History (Peavey, Matchless, Various Boutique): Hiland’s early Nashville rig included a Peavey Classic Chorus 212 combo — the solid-state amp he used when he first arrived in Nashville in 1996, before he had the financial resources for boutique amplification. His progression through various boutique amplifiers reflects the standard trajectory of a Nashville working musician whose improving financial situation allows increasingly specific tonal choices. He has used Matchless amplifiers and various other boutique instruments at different career stages.
Effects
Origin Effects Cali76 Compressor (Core Compressor, “Favourite Compressor”): Hiland’s primary compressor is the Origin Effects Cali76 — a studio-quality FET compressor in pedal format, designed to replicate the character of the classic UREI 1176 studio compressor. “My clean tone consists of the Cali76 compressor made by Origin Effects, which is amazing — it’s my favourite compressor!” he has said in his Premier Guitar Rig Rundown. For a guitarist whose chicken-pickin’ technique involves dramatic volume contrasts between picked and snapped string attacks, a transparent, musically behaving compressor is essential for evening out the dynamic variations without destroying the pick attack character that makes the style identifiable.
TC Electronic HyperGravity Compressor and MojoMojo Overdrive (Supporting Effects): TC Electronic products appear on Hiland’s official gear page: the HyperGravity Compressor as a secondary compression option and the MojoMojo Overdrive for light grit. The HyperGravity’s TonePrint technology allows custom compressor curves, giving Hiland tonal flexibility in his compression approach depending on the specific playing context — chicken-pickin’ requires different compression behavior than fingerpicked acoustic-style passages.
DLS RotoSIM (Leslie Simulation, Danny Gatton Tone): “One is made by DLS, and it’s called the RotoSIM. That’s how I get my Danny Gatton kind of Leslie tones,” Hiland has explained. Danny Gatton was famous for his use of a Leslie rotary speaker cabinet — the spinning-speaker effect associated with Hammond organ but which Gatton applied to his Telecaster to create a swirling, three-dimensional quality on certain passages. The DLS RotoSIM allows Hiland to access that specific Gatton tonal character within his pedalboard without requiring an actual Leslie cabinet.
TC Electronic Polytune and AmpRx BrownBox (Utility): Standard utility tools: the TC Electronic PolyTune chromatic tuner for accurate silent tuning, and an AmpRx BrownBox voltage regulator for studio use — a device that regulates the incoming AC voltage to vintage amplifiers, ensuring consistent tonal behavior regardless of venue power supply quality. The BrownBox reflects the kind of detail-oriented approach to tone that characterizes Hiland’s overall gear philosophy: the small factors that compromise tone in live environments are worth addressing systematically.
Early Nashville Rig (Boss Pedals, 1996): For historical context, Hiland’s first Nashville pedalboard consisted of: a BOSS treble booster, TU-series tuner, CS-3 Compressor, BD-2 Blues Driver, and DD-3 Delay. “That’s when Ricky [Skaggs] was really the main reason I turned to electric guitar, and I must tell you, for all the folks listening out there, the first pedals I really got turned on to were BOSS pedals.” The Boss chain — all accessible, all durable, all reliable — is the standard Nashville working-musician starting point, and Hiland has acknowledged it as formative rather than dismissing it as primitive.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Johnny Hiland’s playing style is the fullest contemporary expression of the Danny Gatton tradition: multi-genre mastery executed with exceptional technical speed and precision, in service of emotional communication rather than technical display. The chicken-pickin’ tradition is his foundation — the hybrid picking technique, the snapped string attacks, the Telecaster twang — but it coexists with SRV-influenced blues bends and vibrato, rock power-picking velocity, and jazz chord-melody sophistication. He describes his tonal approach as genre-defined: he changes his gear configuration and tonal emphasis depending on the musical context, treating the amplifier and effects chain as instruments in their own right rather than as a fixed identity.
His legally blind status has shaped his playing in ways that are both limiting and liberating. The limitation is that he must navigate every aspect of guitar playing — fretboard orientation, effects switching, stage movement — without the visual reference that sighted musicians use as a primary cue. The liberation is a heightened tactile and auditory sensitivity that many observers describe as contributing to his extraordinary dynamic control: he hears and feels everything he cannot see, which means his relationship to the instrument’s acoustic and electronic response is more developed than in most sighted players. He has noted that even reading Nashville number charts is difficult for him in session contexts due to his vision impairment — he works from ear and from internalized musical knowledge rather than from notation.
His tone philosophy centers on clarity at speed: he needs every note in his fastest chicken-pickin’ runs to be individually audible, which requires a clean amplifier with sufficient headroom, pickups with enough definition to separate fast notes, and a compressor that controls dynamics without blurring articulation. The Fat Jimmy Jefferson 100 and the Reeves Space Cowboy represent his current answer to this requirement: British-voiced tube amplifiers with clean, defined responses that amplify his technique rather than coloring it. His Cali76 compressor manages the dynamic variation of hybrid picking without limiting the snappy attack that makes chicken-pickin’ rhythmically compelling.
How to Sound Like Johnny Hiland
Approaching Hiland’s tone requires a guitar with articulate, defined pickups (single-coil or hum-canceling Telecaster-style), a clean British-voiced tube amplifier, a transparent compressor, and — most importantly — the specific right-hand technique of chicken-pickin’ hybrid picking developed over years of deliberate practice.
Guitar: A Telecaster with Joe Barden-style two-coil pickups is the most authentic starting point for his country tone. A Fender Danny Gatton Signature Telecaster (available used) provides the specific Barden pickup character. The Music Man Axis Sport or Silhouette covers his humbucker and single-coil range respectively. For accessible alternatives: any well-setup Fender Telecaster with high-quality single-coil bridge pickup gets you into the tonal territory.
Amp: A British-voiced single-channel tube combo that stays clean throughout its volume range — the Reeves Space Cowboy’s “clean from zero to ten” character is the model. The Vox AC30 is the most widely available British-voiced amp with similar EL84-tube character. The Matchless DC30 is boutique tier. For more accessible options, the Blackstar HT Club 40 and Orange Rocker 15 provide British tube character at approachable prices.
Amp Settings (British-voiced Tube Amp):
| Control | Setting (0–10) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Volume | 4–6 | Clean with slight natural compression — no overdrive |
| Bass | 4–5 | Controlled — Tele bridge pickup doesn’t need bass support |
| Mid | 6–7 | Present — mid-forward British character essential |
| Treble | 6–7 | Bright and articulate — every chicken-pickin’ note must land |
| Presence/Brilliance | 5–6 | Enough to separate fast notes without harshness |
Effects: Origin Effects Cali76 or Boss CS-3 as compressor — transparent, controlling dynamic variation without killing pick attack. A mild overdrive (TC Electronic MojoMojo or Boss BD-2) for blues and rock passages. The DLS RotoSIM for Leslie/Gatton tonal character. Slapback delay (80–120ms, single repeat) for country context. Keep the chain simple: Hiland’s complexity is in his hands, not his board.
Influence & Legacy
Johnny Hiland’s influence on the Nashville guitar community operates through two channels simultaneously: his playing, which demonstrates the upper limit of what chicken-pickin’ technique can achieve when combined with multi-genre fluency, and his teaching, which through TrueFire courses, clinics, and instructional videos reaches working guitarists across multiple continents. The teaching dimension is particularly significant for a player of his caliber — many equally virtuosic guitarists do not translate their facility into effective pedagogy. Hiland’s willingness to break down his technique systematically and his clarity in explaining the specific mechanical requirements of chicken-pickin’ have made him one of the most effective country guitar educators working today.
His connection to Danny Gatton’s legacy is the most direct line in his artistic genealogy: the Gatton tribute track, the Fender Custom Shop Gatton Tele he built himself, the possession of Gatton’s personal SM57, and the Leslie tones he replicates through the DLS RotoSIM. Hiland is among the most serious of the Gatton disciples who emerged after Gatton’s death in 1994, and the quality of his playing is the most respectful tribute possible.
His position in the broader country guitar tradition connects him to the super-picker lineage that runs from Don Rich through Albert Lee to Danny Gatton — the tradition of guitarists for whom country music is not a stylistic limitation but a performance context that demands the highest possible technical and musical standards. His ambition to organize a “CP3” tour — a country-guitar equivalent of Joe Satriani’s G3 — reflects the community-building impulse that has characterized the best of the Nashville guitar scene: a desire to put world-class guitar playing in front of the widest possible audience, in a format that celebrates the instrument itself rather than treating it as a support element for vocal performance.
Being legally blind and becoming one of Guitar World’s 50 Fastest Guitarists is not a sentimental story about overcoming disability — it is a straightforward demonstration that the guitar is, at its core, a tactile and auditory instrument, and that the player who develops those senses most fully can achieve results that sighted players find difficult to match. Johnny Hiland’s story is ultimately about what happens when twenty years of guitar obsession encounters a specific technical tradition, a set of extraordinary influences, and the particular auditory sensitivity that develops when vision is not available as a crutch. The result is one of the most complete country guitar vocabularies of the modern era, delivered with the relaxed authority of someone who has been doing this since he was two years old.
Internal Links:
- Keith Urban’s country-rock guitar approach at #113
- Don Rich and the Bakersfield chicken-pickin’ tradition at #110
- Grady Martin’s Nashville session guitar legacy at #115
Frequently Asked Questions: Johnny Hiland Guitars & Gear
What guitar does Johnny Hiland play?
Johnny Hiland’s primary electric guitars are two 1998 Ernie Ball Music Man Axis Sports and Music Man Silhouette models, which he has endorsed for years. His signature instrument is the Kiesel JH6, custom-configured to his specific tactile requirements as a legally blind guitarist. For country-specific work, he plays a Fender Danny Gatton Signature Telecaster he helped build at the Fender Custom Shop, fitted with Joe Barden two-coil pickups from the original Gatton production run. For jazz and archtop work, he uses a Bill Comins custom archtop. Acoustic instruments include a Godin Acousticaster, Godin A6, and Godin Multiac nylon-string.
What amp does Johnny Hiland use?
Hiland currently uses Fat Jimmy Amplifiers exclusively, with the Fat Jimmy Jefferson 100 as his primary studio amp. For instructional and course work he has used the Reeves Space Cowboy — a single-channel British-voiced amp he describes as “clean from zero to ten,” run through an Avatar 2×12 cabinet with Celestion G12K100 speakers. A Johnny Hiland signature 4×12 Avatar cabinet is also available. His early Nashville rig used a Peavey Classic Chorus 212 solid-state combo, before he progressed through boutique amplifiers to his current Fat Jimmy endorsement.
Is Johnny Hiland legally blind, and how does that affect his playing?
Yes — Johnny Hiland has been legally blind since birth due to nystagmus, a condition causing involuntary eye movements. His visual impairment has shaped his playing profoundly: he navigates the fretboard, effects switching, and stage movement entirely by touch and muscle memory rather than visual reference. He has noted that even reading Nashville number charts in sessions is difficult due to his vision. The impact on his playing is that his tactile and auditory sensitivity is extraordinarily developed — he hears and feels everything he cannot see, which many observers believe contributes to his exceptional dynamic control and his precise physical relationship with the instrument.
Who influenced Johnny Hiland’s guitar playing?
Hiland’s primary guitar hero is Danny Gatton — the Maryland guitar polymath whose multi-genre mastery he most directly emulates. His biggest musical hero is Ricky Skaggs, whose Telecaster playing was the pivotal influence that turned him toward electric guitar as a teenager. Additional key influences include Albert Lee, Brent Mason, and Don Rich in country chicken-pickin’; Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robben Ford in blues; Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Eddie Van Halen in rock; and Chet Atkins, Roy Clark, Jimmy Bryant, and James Burton in the broader country guitar tradition. He was gifted Danny Gatton’s personal Shure SM57 microphone by musicians who recognized the depth of the Gatton connection.
What effects does Johnny Hiland use?
Hiland’s core effects include the Origin Effects Cali76 Compressor (“my favourite compressor”), TC Electronic HyperGravity Compressor, TC Electronic MojoMojo Overdrive, and the DLS RotoSIM Leslie simulator for Danny Gatton-style rotating speaker tones. He also uses the AmpRx BrownBox voltage regulator for vintage amp stability in studio contexts. His early Nashville pedalboard was all Boss: a treble booster, TU tuner, CS-3 Compressor, BD-2 Blues Driver, and DD-3 Delay — pedals he credits as his introduction to effects.
What is the Danny Gatton connection and why is it important?
Danny Gatton (1945–1994) was a Maryland-based guitarist whose multi-genre mastery — country, rockabilly, jazz, blues, rock — earned him the nickname “The World’s Greatest Unknown Guitarist.” Gatton’s legacy has been carried most directly by players who absorbed his specific combination of technical speed, tonal variety, and emotional directness. Hiland is among the most serious of Gatton’s disciples: he has recorded a tribute track (“Gatton After It”), built a Fender Custom Shop Telecaster specifically to honor Gatton’s instrument configuration, uses the DLS RotoSIM to replicate Gatton’s Leslie tones, and was given Gatton’s personal recording microphone by musicians who recognized the connection. Hiland describes Gatton as his biggest guitar hero while crediting Ricky Skaggs as his biggest musical hero — a distinction that precisely identifies where technique and emotion sit separately in his formation.
What is chicken pickin’ and how does Hiland do it?
Chicken pickin’ is a hybrid guitar technique combining a flatpick held between the thumb and index finger with the middle and ring fingers used to snap or pluck individual strings — the snapping motion produces a percussive “pop” characteristic of the style. The technique is associated with country and country-rock guitar playing, named for the clucking, popping quality it creates on treble strings. Hiland developed his chicken-pickin’ technique without a B-bender by replicating the specific pitch movements and attack characteristics of B-bender-assisted playing through left-hand strength and precision alone — after seeing Ricky Skaggs play and not knowing about the B-bender, he learned the sounds by feel and repetition over twenty years. His speed in the style has earned him placement on Guitar World’s 50 Fastest Guitarists list.
