Jared James Nichols is all-in as a player – no half measures, full commitment and passion. It makes him a great combination with a Les Paul. And a Les Paul '59 Burst owned by Paul Kossoff and used in Free on All Right Now? Bring it on!
The guitar looks positively dinky on Jared's 6 foot 5-inch frame (most do) in this video with Premier Guitar's John Bohlinger (a pro player on the Nashville scene himself) but he doesn't hold back with it; impersonating Koss's signature vibrato and illustrating the cleaner character of genuine PAFs.
"This thing sounds good," Jared notes with huge understatement. Too bad he'll have to give the loaner back to owner and friend, Kris Blakely. And the bluesman is now synonymous with Les Pauls, that wasn't always the case as he told us in a recent interview.
"Aged 15, 16 and 17, I wanted to be Stevie Ray Vaughan – that’s all I cared about," he told us. "I had a Strat and I tried to make it look like Stevie’s. It’s f****d! It had a white pickguard so I just spray painted it black, and the funniest part - even when I was 16 years old - I wrote 'Blues Power' right on the back. I had a Tube Screamer as well and I still use it."
Get the MusicRadar Newsletter
Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here.
“The way I use them while listening to music, they don’t sound like hearing aids. They just sound like the ears I used to have”: Session ace Tim Pierce on dealing with hearing loss as a pro musician and how hearing aids changed his life
“There’s no shortcut to mastering his skill, but there is a shortcut to getting his legendary tone”: Wampler Pedals and master of the Telecaster Brent Mason team up for ReWired overdrive/distortion
Rob is the Reviews Editor for GuitarWorld.com and MusicRadar guitars, so spends most of his waking hours (and beyond) thinking about and trying the latest gear while making sure our reviews team is giving you thorough and honest tests of it. He's worked for guitar mags and sites as a writer and editor for nearly 20 years but still winces at the thought of restringing anything with a Floyd Rose.
“The way I use them while listening to music, they don’t sound like hearing aids. They just sound like the ears I used to have”: Session ace Tim Pierce on dealing with hearing loss as a pro musician and how hearing aids changed his life
“There’s no shortcut to mastering his skill, but there is a shortcut to getting his legendary tone”: Wampler Pedals and master of the Telecaster Brent Mason team up for ReWired overdrive/distortion