About Tony Mckenzie

About Tony Mckenzie

Views and Reviews

Well I guess if you are reading this then you might well be like me. I get absolutely sick to death of manufacturers, artists, magazines, reviewers, assholes, dickheads, bullshit, crap kit to review, useless overpriced rubbish, bad dealers, stupid guitar freaks that think they are going to be the next Hendrix/Vai/Satriani/Clapton/God, fools who don't know what day it is, YouTube idiots that don't even have their own page let alone music, politicians, government, tax offices, nandy pandy politically correct C*ck sucking leaches that spend public money in a stupid way, the lottery, ebay sellers who just take the money and run, guitar makers who make the same old shit over and over - the only thing that changes is the price upwards, road worn relic or other ill conceived excuses or ideas just to half finish the guitar cheaper and sell it for more, shit yes shit amp emulators of most kinds, magazine editors who think they are musicians (yuk) check them out, technical manuals that are not (pilots handbook), manuals that you cannot understand no matter how good you are (G-System), cheap shit stuff for the most overpriced i* something in the world, the internet where you get ripped off one way or another, guitar hero and all of those useless pieces of crap they come up with, brainless fools who can tell the difference of a type of battery in an effects pedal by listening to it, people who insist that point to point wiring is 'best' and sounds better, any manufacturer who rips off buyers in the UK because they can (and there really is many of those) hello mesa, guitar leads that claim they are 'better sounding' or have 'lifetime' warranties, amp makers that give 30 days warranty on tubes, doctors lawyers and criminals (thay are mainly the same thing), health and safety legislation (where is my ladder) and just about anything else remotely related to getting ripped off, sold crap or similar from the music business. Oh one last thing... I HATE making $10 for 500,000 plays of my music - no doubt you do too...

Good now I've got that off my chest....  read on :-)

The Growing Years:

Tony has actually been playing guitar since the late 60's. When he first left school he used to think that the Beatles were god.... (they still are if you check out the song writing) that is until one day when he was listening to the radio a certain drone of voodoo chile caught his attention and changed his way of thinking about music forever.

From that point on Tony had decided what he wanted to do - play rock guitar, so over the coming years he listened to people like Santana, Hendrix, Vai, Satriani, Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore and many other guitarists at the forefront of the art of electric guitar over these times. Tony has played with other musicians collectively called Big Dan (as well as many previous bands) and now continues to write and play his own style of rock guitar as a solo recording artist. Historically in the mid 80's Tony was the founding member of a band called Hammerhead.

This band was successful for around four years but split following a motorcycle accident that left the singer in a coma for many months - when the singer recovered he was unfortunately without the talent that was originally there. Wear the gear when you're on a bike and always remember that concrete street lamps don't move - ever.

Tony uses mainly Ibanez guitars as well as a Gibson Les Paul Jimmy Page Model guitar but also uses a PRS Custom 24 that was made for him by PRS at the end of the 80's,  a 62 Strat, a Fender American Deluxe and many other Gibson Les Pauls. Other interesting guitars which he uses are an Ibanez S550 as well as a Gibson Tie Dye Les Paul. You will see on this site a number of Fender Strats that Tony assembled himself and are custom made exactly as Tony wanted them with the oddity here and there. For amplification Tony's main choice of product today is a Mesa Boogie Road King II and also an Engl E670, Splawn Nitro and even a JTM45 which he also built himself. Effects are with a TC Electronics G Major for live effects and a Eventide Eclipse to help further enhance the sound palette available to him for live gigs.

For other Power amps Tony has used a Marshall TSL100 wattor an AFD100 and 4x12.  Checkout Tony's gear on other pages on this site. The last album 'Berner Street' from Mckenzie - Bruce is an album where you could win $10,000 (or £5000.00) by solving the puzzle from the music. The contest has now expired - but the music still rocks. The music is also some of the best work Mckenzie has written since his 'Eniac' album and with the help of Alan Bruce these tracks are melodic rock based with some dark tinges of heavy modern stuff.

What this website is for:

Tony has a strong direction in helping to educate musicians as much as he can. Over the years he has had some very hard times getting to grips with and how to play guitar as he wants too. Another continuing hassle is guitars, amps and other kit that simply is no where near as good as the manufacturer claims - in fact some of that stuff is plain rubbish.

Tony decided a long time ago to offer advice where he could to other musicians and hopefully they will see the light earlier with advice rather than just listening to some magazine that just wants to sell advertising space - which unfortunately is all too common these days.

And what about that kit - you know, when you buy it from what you see/read/try at the shop/ and end up with a plain old lemon - we've all been there and it can cost us dearly. So read those reviews maybe it will save you some money.

Where he's going right now:

Tony Mckenzie is now working on new and exciting projects for release in 2011/12 with more emphasis back to Instrumental Rock but including some vocalised sounds too.. maybe...

Tony Mckenzie at Bigdan Studios

	Heres a picture of Tony Mckenzie in Bigdan Studios.
	Heres another shot of Tony Mckenzie in the control room at Bigdan Studios.