Andy
MARTIN’S
Top Ten
Albums
of All Time
By Jamie Wolfert and Andy Martin
People who have been following Pro
Guitar Shop or Tone Report Weekly
for any length of time know that
Andy Martin is unquestionably the
star of the show around here. He is
in many ways the public face of the
whole enterprise, and his brilliant
video demos continue to win us new
friends, fans, and customers on a
daily basis. Naturally we get a lot of
fan mail and phone calls about him;
people asking what pedals he plays,
what he likes for lunch, and whose
shirts he wears. We have addressed
some of these questions in the past
(at least the ones that are relevant
to our business), spotlighting Andy’s
board, guitars, and a few exemplary
pieces from his growing amplifier
collection. With this article, however,
we will be getting deeper into
Andy’s musical DNA, examining
the ten albums that made him into
the guitar player you know today.
These are the albums that taught
Andy what an electric guitar was,
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INTERVIEW //
how it was supposed to sound, and
how it was to be played. If you’ve
been watching his videos, then
many of these selections might
seem obvious, but there are a few
surprises for even the most studious
Andy Martin fan. Here’s Andy in his
own words.
“When I think about what influenced
me as a guitar player, I go back to
the early ‘90s, in my formative years,
when I would play along to albums
(most of them live) as my form of
practice. I found out early that I was
an auditory learner, so I would spend
all my free time listening, playing,
and rewinding until I could perform
with the whole record in one go.
I also discovered that most bands
from the ‘70s sounded so much
heavier live because their amps were
cranked up! Plus, I was shown by the
masters how a single guitar player
had to boil down all guitar parts into
one and focus on rhythm for the
good of the song.”
Andy Martin’s Top Ten Albums of All Time