Here's a link to the new Marty Stuart video that just dropped a couple of days ago. Kenny and Marty's guitars sound frickin phenomenal. Tell 'em Otis sent ya! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/itminteq0a6ZnZc.html

Kenny Vaughan is a national treasure, protect him at all costs

Kenny Vaughn is a treasure trove of music history. I could listen to him talk all day. Even though I’m only in my 30s, I’m pretty biased when it comes to country music and I love how brutally honest he is when being asked questions about country music.

The genuine awe in Kenny's face when recounting Leo's brilliant inventions - The Esquire, Broadcaster, P-Bass and strat. Priceless!

Kenny the historian. Really dig these stories almost as much as his guitar playing which is 2nd to none as far I'm concerned. More Kenny Vaughn please Otis. He's an American treasure although he'd probably scoff at that

That was new to me about Hank Garland using a Fender on Little Sister. Bigsby was kind of a Thomas Edison with the things he came up with. His work on Cooper Motorcycles and guitars were groundbreaking at the time. The Bigsby tailpiece will outlive us all.

Thanks for this interview here, Kenny is my Hero, Cousin Figel

Man, I could listen to Kenny Vaughn talk about guitars and guitar player history all day long! Who has the depth of knowledge to flow so seamlessly from a story about Monk's introduction to the P-bass to Buddy Merrill from Lawrence Welk being one of the early Strat players? And you ask good questions, Otis. These videos are relevant historical documentation.

I paused the video and listened to El Paso. Super cool listening to the guitar knowing who it was that played it. These interviews are so fascinating and informative. Love it. I could listen to Kenny all day long. 💪🏻

Raise your hand if you just went to Reverb dot com looking for 83 or 84 Squires?

Always excited to see a video featuring Kenny. Very informed, thoughtful guy -- and a monster player.

Could you imagine THAT first meeting?!!! Wow!! The old Epiphone building where Les Paul put together the Log still stands as a design school on 14th St in NYC.

Kenny playing with Lucinda live is pure magic..love his sound and style so much..

Awesome. Could listen to him all day

I read and reread the book, and it really is an amazing story. I only wish that I could have been alive and there with Leo and the others to see how those first instruments came together.

The first time I saw Kenny, was in Nashville circa 1992 at a warehouse that had multiple venues inside. I can't remember the name of it. He was playing with Hal Ketchum. Can't remember the guitar he was playing, but he was playing through an AC 30. Love Kenny's work!!!

Kenny, Marty, and Scruggs are all amazing music history nerds. They just love it all, and when telling a story they exude that joy. The same joy a 15 year old kid has, who plays that newly discovered 45 over and over again. Know what I mean? They're not jaded. They're still big music fans. For me as a guitar player, this was one of the best Kenny vids you've done. He's the coolest cat. And he's in the best band in town. Thanks, Otis.

So informative! Much respect for Kenny AND Otis. The most impressive thing here is Kenny’s objectivity: if you can’t hear it, don’t pay for it. He sees and hears possibilities with almost every guitar and amp. None of the trash talking so present is many other opinions. I think he sees all the gear as tools, to build great sound. He knows his way isn’t the only way. I loved his statement that he really doesn’t harbor favorite gear opinions. Whatever works. Technique, being adventuresome and flexible. If you really dig his opinions, go see him live. Buy records he is on. He needs to get paid.

i didn't want to this end...More Kenny !

Gibbs/Vaughn 2024 “Make America Cool, Talented and Vintage Again”

I enjoy your interviews with Kenny Vaughn. Kenny is a great player who has a vast knowledge of electric guitars, amps, pickups and the people who created and made them. I really enjoy the stories about famous players and his personal experiences, great stuff

I worked with Sammy Pruett, one of Hank Williams's Drifting Cowboys, at Gibson Guitars in Nashville in the late '70s. He was a fantastic jazz player. Mr. Vaughan knows what he's talking about. Interesting, informative video. Peace.

Hope Kenny puts out a book someday.

Love these interviews! I don't play guitar. I'm not a gearhead. But it's just so interesting!

Hey Otis, I’m not a musician but a music lover! But, I really dig listening to the great musicians and songwriters you have on here! Keep it up, brother!

Kenny is playing in a blues trio right now in Nashville but I’d love to hear him doing Surf Rock

Kenny is so conversational . . with a wealth of knowledge. This one is gold! More Kenny, Otis!

I started on strats, and a friend of mine gave me a tele last week. The sound.....I love this guitar. Nobody gets it unless they play one, once.

Amazing cat! His genuine attitude is very apparent. His playing is seriously off the charts. Killer tone!

Fantastic history here. Fascinating about the late acceptance of the Telecaster in Nashville. Wow 84 and 84 Squires!!! Cool!!! "What would the would be without a the Stratocaster?" Unimaginable. Thanks for posting this.

Thank you, Otis. I could listen to Kenny talk gear for as long as he wanted to talk. It would be awesome to listen to the fabulous superlatives talk shop!

I wished you would have asked him why you don’t see more G&L guitars in Nashville, since they are the latest creations of Leo Fender. Great content here. Thanks for bringing Kenny on, he is so cool.

Probably one the best guitar players around - one of the best around live - a huge talent!

Absolutely fabulous!! Kenny is such a dude. Love the way he tells a story. Keep on twangin!!

My father was Texas guitarist Steve Rodriguez Davis and grew up playing with Leon Rhodes, Tommy Morrell, Ronnie Tutt, Maurice Anderson, Buster Smith and the Heatwaves of Swing, and all of the Texas greats. He said Leo Fender would give them his early guitars and ask them to play them and give him feedback on what they liked and didn’t like. He said they would play them then give them to their friends. I have a picture of my father playing one of the first Fender broadcasters ever made at the big D jamboree in Dallas in 1952.

The more I learn about Kenny Vaughn, the more respect I gain for him.

I love Kenny’s playing great player. Cool dude.

Love the Kenny Vaughan interviews! I just bought that book online.

Thank you for this. I am grinning ear to ear.

I could listen to Kenny all day!

❤ Kenny Vaughan, What A Smithsonian Guitar Artist & Historian & Musicologist, like Yourself Otis! When I Started Playing in My First Band, “The Young One’s” at Twelve Years Old in 1966 in Delaware, Ohio as the Lead Singer using a An All Tube 100 Watt Bogen PA With The Big Fiberglass Horns like you see at a Horse Track for The Loudspeaker System! Delaware, Ohio is where the Famous Sulky Race is held every September called “The Little Brown Jug”

I love Kenny Vaughn. I am embarrassed to say I didn't know who he was until he started playing with Marty Stewart. Just an incredible player and a treasure trove of musical knowledge.

Otis this was an amazing post. Kenny is just an absolute gangster walking talking musician. This story on Leo, Les, and Paul, good lord what a great history lesson. Amazing also of Leo going to live gigs and fixing his amps in real time.... come on that's how it was I get it! only Kenny makes that story so dam Rock&Roll.... Love love this channel Cheers Doug 😎

It's so much fun listening to Kenny nerd out over guitars and gear.

Very interesting. He mentions his Squier guitars. 83 & 84. I've had an 84 Squier Tele that I bought off the rack in the mid 80's brand new. It has always been my go to. It's just a perfect guitar. Literally never goes out of tune. The neck is perfect for me. I would be lost without it.

There's a bunch of weird Fender stuff from that 83-88 or so. They were putting stuff out that was old parts and imported parts and all kinds of stuff. I had an 86 '62 Reissue Strat' that was nowhere near an exact reissue of the 62 but they were hand made in California and were great guitars. But 100% agree, for the first ten years, Leo barely missed. If anyone had come up with any _one_ of the Strat, Tele, P-Bass and the tweed amps that would have made him a legend. Cool interview as always.

Man I could listen to you interview Kenny all day long.Real smart on your part to split this interview & some other Fantastic interviews up you didn't just fall off of the back of that old turnip Truck.Keep it up I know u will.👍 Thanks & God Bless you & Amy. ⚡TCB⚡

So Very Cool, Thankyou. Such an interesting discussion. Kenny is fascinating and entertaining story teller and Leo Fender is a Champion. So Awesome to see Kennys respect for Leo. Cheers

Great stories.. Love to hear him talk...

Thank you, Otis & Kenny. Looks like I have some reading homework ahead of me. Funny to think that Leo created guitars that we're still playing and enjoying 70 years later, with a few improvements and modifications along the way.

Great suggestion on the Birth of Loud! Reading it now and the stories are as cool as described by Kenny.

Thank you, an excellent and enjoyable interview 👍

Cool that Kenny loves and plays early 80s MIJ Squiers. They are great guitars. Lov his story telling.

These sessions with Otis and Kenny, pure gold.

You're my favorite channel. LOVE your content.

Otis @ Kenny interviews are the best - Kenny’s voice is so relaxing and Otis is pretty damn mellow too. Looking forward to any future instalments

that kenny dude is just the best story teller....fantastic as always

Loved comin' to hear you and Rodger at the Stardust in Denver, thanks for letting me set in!

Thanks so much, Otis. Love Kenny. Always have loved to watch that guy work and now I find that he’s very engaging in conversation. What stories he tells! Read Leo’s book last year - actually devoured it - and found it so cool to hear Kenny recount that history. More, more!

Kenny F’ing Vaughn… This dude is a treasure…

I've been a subscriber for a while now. I think I have seen all or most of your back interviews. You do a really good job Otis! I have to say that Kenny Vaughn is my favorite guest. Such a cool guy but he's still down to earth. I'm a little older than you and my favorite country stars are mostly the old guys from the 50's and 60's. You're a pretty damn good singer/songwriter yourself! Best of luck to you Otis with your show and your touring!

If you ever do another interview with Kenny Vaughan would you consider asking him about his time with Lucinda Williams? His playing on her stuff in the 90's was pure gold.

Kenny is my favorite guest you bring on. Pure Joy. Peace

Kenny is someone you could have an endless beer with. Such a smart, affable guy. He's a walking encyclopedia, with lots of first hand experiences, and a better memory than most of us amateur hacks out here retained. Videos like these are treasures, thanks once again Otis.

Another home run Otis!

Wow! You guys must have hung out for 10 hours that day. Love the stories. Kenny Vaughan should write a book of his own some time. Sooner than later. These stories are fascinating!! Thank you!

As a guitarist, I loved geeking-out on this. Good stuff!

Very interesting. Thanks for the history. I lived in Orange County in the late 60s and 70s and bought a Telecaster and a Twin Reverb but got sidetracked by Bluegrass and never followed the Fender story.

Dick Dale was also a close friend of Leo Fender. Dale talked about the first time they met and Leo handed him a Strat. He said he flipped it upside down to play left handed and Leo thought that was hilarious. He played the right handed model for a while and kept asking Leo to make a left hand model but he said Leo told him the tooling would be too expensive ($25,000?). Well obviously at some point Leo did start making left handed models. Dale played a left handed Strat until he died. It is named "The Beast". I always wondered if it was the first left handed one off the line or not. Dale never mentioned that but I'm sure it is a very early production model. Leo worked more closely with Dale when developing his amps. Dale would play the Balboa Ballroom and was burning up amps left and right trying to increase volume. Dale claimed the Leo built the first 100 watt amp for him. And again, Dale played those original tan tweed amps until he died. According to Dale, Leo named the "Showman" amp after dale because he would jump off the top of the amps when he played. Dale really was a showman and a vey unique player. He wasn't a technical player but he was one of the first to really be a "Shredder". Dale played that staccato so hard that sometimes he would burn through three picks on one song. He actually had a little pick dispenser glued to his guitar above the pickup. And he played HUGE Dean Markley strings. I forget what gauge but Dale called them Bridge Cables. The calluses on Dale's fingers were insane. I don't think he even had fingerprints.

Learn so much from Kenny every time!!! Thank you Otis! ... just put on my Gunfighter Ballads LP to listen to El Paso with fresh ears!!♥

Great interview and Kenny has an encyclopedia in his brain.

What a National Treasure Kenny is.

Kenny's great and the albums Marty Stewart and The Superlatives are making (along with the videos) are amazing. There's a video here on KZfaq of them playing acoustic on KEXP that's mind blowing. There's also a full length concert video of them at the Swanee Music Festival that's a must see. While the audio isn't top notch just imagine tuning this in on an AM radio station late at night with the ability to see them play. When the concert ends you'll know you really went somewhere special. They are true blue professional musicians. Thanks for the interview Otis!

Love to listen to Kenny telling stories.

pure gold,,,thanks Kenney and Otis

Mr. Vaughan, you are the coolest, most humble guy…thanks for honoring the guitar makers history…

That was a really interesting conversation between you two. Thanks for sharing it.

Great content….also seen this dude in the “neighborhood” many times and knew somehow someway he was “a somebody”….well now I know my vibe detector is at least somewhat accurate….lol

Great interview...one small correction...Forrest White joined Fender in 1954, a few years after Leo closed the radio shop. I believe Ray Massie was employed at the radio shop and followed Fender when K&F was dissolved, and Leo started out on his own. Ray later went on to produce Massie amplifiers in the 60's, which were very tweed-like in circuit design and used similar eyelet board construction. Love Kenny's beautiful playing, chill attitude, and all around ultra-cool vibe. Thanks so much for all your great content!

Kenny is the best storyteller as he is interesting and so are his stories

Both of you guys are a wealth of cool memories and stories. I enjoy hearing them.

Masterful, the way the story of Fender getting feedback from playing musicians gets led to the story of Yamaha trying to do the same thing. Thanks Otis and Kenny!

Otis! This interview should be Grammy material! Who wouldn't want Kenny for a best friend? Forget about it

My favorite of the Kenny Vaughan episodes so far, and they've all been great. Thanks Otis!

Excellent! My 83 Squire is the very reason I have never owned a real Strat to this day. Great interview with Kenny as usual brother!

Eye-witness. As a teenager I worked at CBS in London for Arbiters the Fender dist for Europe. A rep frim Tokai brought a white mn strat exact 50s replica, the next day I came to work to find the original blue prints(or photostats) of the Mn and rw 50s and 60s strats on the floor and a few if the "Old boys" were furious about the Tokaii thing so off they went to Japan. The 83 Fender Squiers were fast sellers and then the 52 Tele turned up and at first only the proplayers knew how good they were. We only realised how good they were till the Tele arrived , it also had the vintage wiring with the tone set on the neck. The Teles were hottest...the rest is now history. They had to hit Toka with a hammer blow response to the "Springy sound" . Funnily enough the Tokais are more revered in UK then. The Buddy Holly fans bought the 57 Squier and the Hendrix fans the 62. There were some black mn strats at the start too. They a had Fender on the headstock and Squier in small letters later. The basses came soon after. They also had bound 6os Tele in CAR and Sb and then a paisley Strat and Tele pink and a blue flowery pattern.

Man do I adore Kenny Vaughn. In a just and verdant universe, V would have been a smash hit.

Man I love Kenny’s stories!

Another excellent back story history lesson. Love this stuff. Thanks Otis! Keep up all the good work your doing for all of us music fans. Cheers

I saw a great deal on music equipment and a PA system...loads of mics, stands, drum machine, etc, in an AD in the Shreveport Times newspaper. I called them and went to check it out. An hour later I was shocked to be drinking wine with James Burton at his kitchen table. He threw in an old very heavy microphone stand Elvis used that had rust where he held it with his sweaty hand. Most of the stuff had belonged to his daughter but he threw in plenty of extra cables. Very nice folks.

Deep knowledge from Kenny! In the late 70's he was the first guy I knew who played an "old guitar" on purpose. I'd never seen anybody use the wang bar on a Stratocaster and keep it in tune like Kenny. Cheers to you both.

What a great interview. Thank you Otis and Kenny (one of my favorite guitarists in one of my favorite bands). I learned so much about the great country guitar players and the evolution of electric guitars. I went and listened to El Paso again after listening to Kenny's comments and it was a revelation. Kenny is such a wealth of information. Interestingly, I'm a bass player for over 55 years and never warmed to a P bass. 😆

22:50 those Yamaha P-basses are great, they captured the essence of the P-bass and brought it into a price point below what a genuine Fender would cost. They aren't exactly like a Fender, Yamahas are somewhat their own beast but the thump and feel are there, closer in feel to a Fender than what other manufacturers (Memphis or early Ibanez, and certainly Teisco) were able to attain at that point for less than half the price. THANK YOU YAMAHA, you were there until many of us could afford the real deal.

Fantastic! I have an 83 squier tele. I love it. Bought it in 1991 for a couple hundred.

Kenny and Marty are great!!!!! i love their version of "psychotic reaction" what kind of fuzz do you use on that one??? thanks and keep going strong!!!!

Thank you for this information. I find it really cool Mr Vaughan touched on the fact the Leo, Paul and Les were discussing things before they started really engineering and building guitars in earnest. There are a lot of people that trash talk how Leo Fender stole Paul's design. It's more likely they were all bouncing ideas off each other. While Les Paul and Leo Fender's ultimate goal was to develop a mass-produced electric instrument, Paul Bigsby had different goals. Maybe I'm guilty of trying to see the good in people and not always think they are underhanded towards each other?

Can listen to Kenny all the time . Enjoy his knowledge and history .

It was fun to hear that Kenny Vaughn's favorite strats were mine too! Those JV and SQ serial Squires were made by FujiGen to an excellent standard.

Now that was super fun to hear.

Thanks Dick Dale for talking Leo into the next wave of amps > JBL D130F Showmans