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HISTORICAL FACTS: Dweezil zappa | History Defined

“He picks it up, hits the corner of a stone table and puts a huge ding in it”: When Jeff Beck damaged an impossibly rare vintage Stratocaster – while he and Dweezil Zappa were at a party dressed as knights

This Fender once belonged to Steve Marriott or something… But Beck? He wasn’t too fussed. People pay for these dings nowadays!

Guitar World

“When he gave the family car back, his father tried to sell it as ‘formerly driven by Frank Zappa’”: The background that gave rise to music’s most eclectic iconoclast, by his wife and son

He developed his own form of expression at 9 years old, taught himself to compose music at 11, and hated the Summer Of Love, drugs and lack of effort. Here’s why there’s no such thing as an ex-Zappa fan

Louder

“Jimmy Page would be nice to have on there”: Dweezil Zappa has already tapped Eddie Van Halen, Brian May and Yngwie Malmsteen for his ambitious instrumental project – but wants to recruit a few more guitar greats before it’s finished

Albert Lee, Steve Morse and Steve Vai have also recorded for What The Hell Was I Thinking?, which Zappa began work on back in 1989

Guitar World

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“It’s insane… If you hold it up to the light you can see through it”: Dweezil Zappa finally gets his hands on the viral cardboard Strat and cooks up a crazy psych-rock rager for the occasion

The Cardboard Sessions come to Dweezil’s Hikari Studios and he cooks up a track on the spot with his band on cardboard instruments

Guitar World

“I attempt to recreate the sound of Eruption with a Fractal and an amp I’ve never played”: Dweezil Zappa devises the ultimate tube amp versus modeler test – using both the shred an Eddie Van Halen classic

Zappa put two distinct setups to the test to see if listeners could truly tell the difference between tube amps and their digital counterparts

Guitar World

“If you’re a bass player in a rock band, you are by definition a moron”: As Frank Zappa’s bassist, Scott Thunes rose to legend status, then turned his back on it all

The bass enigma delivers the inside track on Zappa’s genius and why bass players need to know their place

MusicRadar

“Bass players aren't supposed to have ideas. If you're a bass player in a rock band, you are by definition a moron”: He was Zappa’s bassist and remains a low-end enigma – but Scott Thunes has never held back on his opinions

Scott Thunes blazed a unique trail with Frank Zappa – but maintains solo bass is a complete no-no

Guitar World

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"Window or aisle, how would you like to return home?": Dweezil Zappa on how his dad ran his band

No drugs, no improvising, no overplaying

MusicRadar

“One of the coolest guitars I own”: Dweezil Zappa has some absolutely wild guitars in his vault – but his insane one-of-one fretless Gibson SG is one of his favorites

Zappa has an eye for weird and wonderful instruments, and this heavily modded example – which began life as a Roxy SG – might be one of his finest

Guitar World

“I’m glad I found these performances. I hadn’t seen them in decades”: Footage of Dweezil Zappa and Jack Black’s cover of Crazy Train, featuring Eddie Van Halen’s ‘Rasta’ guitar, was never released – but now it’s been unearthed

Filmed on the set of On The Spot, it brings together two pieces of gear with interesting stories to tell

Guitar World

“He stands behind me, and counts it off with the kids – he did the pick slides, the whole thing”: Dweezil Zappa showcases the Kramer Eddie Van Halen gifted him when he was 12 years old

Zappa was set to perform Runnin’ With the Devil at his middle school talent show, and was struggling with his guitar. Then, somehow, Eddie Van Halen showed up at his band's soundcheck...

Guitar World

“It blew my mind as a 12-year-old”: Dweezil Zappa shares the surprising beginner guitar lessons he learned from Eddie Van Halen

Zappa first met Van Halen when he was just 12 years old, and it wasn’t long before he was receiving lessons from the guitar god – on his legendary Frankenstein

Guitar World

“I would show him the lick. He's like, ‘Why don't you just play it? You sound just like me, anyway!’” Dweezil Zappa says he recorded Eddie Van Halen playing a “greatest hits guitar solo” at 5150 for an unreleased project – and had to give EVH pointers

The session was the result of an unreleased ‘audio movie’ concept of Zappa’s in which he envisioned solo contributions from Brian May and Angus Young

Guitar World

“Out of nowhere the phone rings and there’s a guy saying, ‘It's Edward Van Halen.’ 15 minutes later, he’s at the house with a guitar”: Dweezil Zappa on the first time he met Eddie Van Halen – after the guitar great unexpectedly called him

A Van Halen-obsessed 12-year-old Dweezil Zappa was minding his own business on a regular school night, when he received a call from the guitar legend himself...

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“If you can’t play, you’ll find a pedal and you’ll cheat”: Dave Mustaine says guitarists should learn how to play before stocking up their pedalboards

The Megadeth frontman’s gear-buying advice boils down to one thing only

Louder

“There’s a few stations that’ll play my music; very few, and usually after midnight”: Frank Zappa’s final print interview, and the 12 words he signed off with

In 1993 a future Prog writer landed a magazine interview with his hero – neither of them knowing it would his last

Metal Hammer

“I am in the Gene Simmons business. I am the biggest fan of Gene Simmons”: Happy 75th birthday to Gene Simmons, Kiss bassist and unrepentant asshole

Self-confessed “asshole”, politically incorrect philanderer, money-obsessed businessman, rock superstar – god bless Gene Simmons

Guitar World

“He was, ‘I don't even understand how you're playing. I can never play that.’ It was a total role reversal”: Dweezil Zappa reveals the one Frank Zappa song that stumped Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen's decades-long friendship with the younger Zappa included gifting the 12-year-old Dweezil a 1982 Kramer guitar

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Guitar World

“The most exciting guitar for me in years”: Dweezil Zappa's newest signature guitar is here – and it’s as whacky as you’d expect

A faithful recreation of the guitarist’s heavily modded Lynx model, it comes packed with the kind of quirks you’d expect from Zappa Jr.

MusicRadar

“Now let’s check out the weird knob”: Shabat built Dweezil Zappa a new signature guitar and it is an HSS S-style “rock machine” like no other

Zappa's new guitar is a hotrodded Lynx with Lollar pickups, a Vega-Trem, and it has a weird but brilliant secret mode that sounds like an octaver. Watch him put it through its paces

Louder

"The freedom and joy we had, and the confidence in each other, is remarkable": Ian Gillan looks back at Deep Purple's Machine Head era

With Deep Purple’s original plans for their sixth album having literally gone up in smoke, Machine Head was a triumph snatched from the jaws of disaster

Guitar World

“Eddie Van Halen’s main solo is a greatest hits of all his best guitar licks”: Dweezil Zappa issues update for What the Hell Was I Thinking? – his ambitious mega-track featuring Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brian May and more

The track features solos from “at least 40” superstar guitarists, and its mastermind says finishing the 35-years-in-the-making mammoth is now a big focus

MusicRadar

“I made Yngwie play on a really slow blues… He sounds even faster”: Dweezil Zappa reveals plans to finish epic all-star track featuring 40 players, including Brian May, and Eddie Van Halen playing a “greatest hits of all of his best guitar licks”

Zappa has been working on this instrumental piece for over 30 years and it features Joe Walsh, Eric Johnson, Angus and Malcolm Young and more, and two solos from Eddie Van Halen

Guitar World

“It takes $10,000 a day… the goal of getting on the road, playing in front of fans, outweighs the pain of losing the stuff”: Dweezil Zappa on sacrificing his out-there guitar collection, mixing Hendrix and building an immersive rig

The Zappa Plays Zappa tour is heading out this summer and Dweezil has funded it with an immense gear auction – the steep price, he says, is worth it

Guitar World

“Three of those were made. I had one. Ry Cooder had one. Edward Van Halen had one”: Dweezil Zappa on the high-tech custom model that EVH dubbed “The Super Pluto Guitar”

The tale of a truly distinctive instrument that was custom-made for a trio of rock’s most innovative players in the 1980s

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