I am a solo guitarist and producer playing and recording heavy instrumental blues rock.
My music has been described as Driving music and has an upbeat high energy feel with a raw hard hitting guitar tone!
I try to keep my sound fresh and spotaneous with as many live takes as possible and I hope this comes across in my music.
Please check out my tracks and album "Just Drive"

Thank you

Ben J Hayes

Latest News

I completed an Album of Driving Blues Rock called "Just Drive" back in September 2007.
The album features ten instrumental guitar tracks and is available for download purchse.
If a hard copy CD is required please contact me for details.

Where Do I Begin!

I’ve been listening to guitar music ever since I first heard Queen, Rainbow and Deep Purple back in the 70’s, I suppose Brian May was my first real guitar hero! I still get a thrill when I here some really awesome licks and sounds coming from players like Richie Kotzen and Joe Bonamassa! (these guys make me fell like a beginner)

I grew up playing in Metal bands in the 80’s with pointy head stock guitars and Floyd Rose whammy bars not to mention the PVC trousers and the leg warmers!!!
(Jim(Jock) Huchison you were a superb front man and looked damn good in your sisters spandex trousers!)
I always wanted to play fast shred guitar but never could hold my own against the real shred kids and wasn’t really cut out for being at out and out metal player.
Like most musicians and music lovers I matured gracefully like a fine wine (yes I am taking the piss!) and started listening to some real guitar players like Stevie Ray, Hendrix, Kotzen….the list goes on!
I put down the pointy guitars, removed the PVC trousers (yeh OK they were getting a little tight) and bought a boring Strat! I say boring but really I love Fender guitars with a passion…I should do as I own a few!
I did away with any complex FX and set ups and went back to a very, very basic guitar amp and Wah Wah pedal rig.
I started recording from a home studio set up and was soon brave enough to unleash several tracks onto the internet through the Sound Click site.
The feed back and response I received from the initial couple of tracks took me back to be honest as this sort of sound and non vocal material belongs to a very small niche listening crowd.
The first track I had success with was “Pedal To The Floor” which reached number one in both the blues and blues rock chart on Sound Click. This also brought a number of download sales and built a fan base who all reported that my sound was great for driving to and that is when the album project “Just Drive” was born!
I kept to a fairly simple formula for the album where by a solid groove and driving rhythm was the crucial mix and trying to play fast complex guitar was toned right down. I just went with what came out and tried to use as many spontaneous first takes as possible to keep things fresh.
I also know my limitations and don’t try and play the flash stuff anymore!

One thing that does worry me with a lot of young players that you see hanging out in music stores is that although some of them can play scales at a blistering pace they lack any sort of real tone or identity not to mention rhythm or timing!
And that fizzy sounding drop tuning stuff just does my head in!

I am currently working on a new album project and hopefully will get it finished before summer.

I hope you enjoy my music as much as I do playing it!
Please drop me an email or sign the guest book …it’s good to talk!

Ben

2008-01-04

Tools of the trade



This is the geeky bit for anyone interested in the sounds and tones recorded on my
tracks!

I use the following guitars and equipment:

Fender Stratocaster Custom Shop Classic Player (blonde) Kinman Woodstock Pick-
Ups

Fender US Strat (Chrome Red) Fender Custom shop 69 Neck & Middle, Seymour
Duncan Hot rails bridge pick-ups.

Fender Hot Rod 52 Telecaster

Custom built Telecaster, swamp ash body nitro orange and Fender US maple neck.
Seymour Duncan pick-ups (Hot Rails/Vintage Stack)

Yamaha AXPX 700 Acoustic

Yamaha RBX 774 Bass

Laney LC15
Marshall DSL 401
POD XT/X3
JD Cry Baby Wah
Boss BD2 Blues driver

Sonar Studio 6/Guitar Tracks Pro

The two guitars of special note are the Custom shop Strat and Hot rod Telecaster