T-Bone Walker — £1,000 · Pro-Level Rig

• Angle the semi-hollow body so the f-holes face away from the amp speaker — this reduces the acoustic energy entering the body cavity and delays the onset of feedback. Even a 45° rotation makes a noticeable difference
• Semi-hollow guitars feed back at high gain — keep amp gain lower than you would with a solid body and let the natural resonance add bloom
• The sweet spot on a pushed vintage amp is just before the point of full saturation — back the volume off slightly from maximum and the note clarity returns
• A clean tone still has character — explore the amp's clean EQ rather than assuming flat settings are right
• Neck pickup is the default for lead work — bridge pickup is a colour accent, not the main voice of this style.
• Treble on the amp should sit at 5-6, not higher — brightness comes from pick attack and string choice, not the EQ.

• ✗Running high-gain settings on a semi-hollow — the resonant body cavity feeds back uncontrollably at high gain levels. These guitars require lower gain and benefit from the natural resonance.
• ✗Using a distortion pedal instead of pushing the amp — vintage-voiced amps create better overdrive by being pushed hard than by a pedal circuit. Let the amp do the work.
• ✗Adding compression to fix flat clean tone — a flat, lifeless clean tone usually means the amp gain or presence is wrong, not that compression is needed. Compression on a flat tone just makes it louder.
• ✗Choosing a pick that is too heavy — thin to medium picks give edge noise and articulation that heavier picks smooth away. That edge is part of the sound.
• ✗Setting amp gain at 5 or higher — blues tone lives at the edge of breakup (gain 3-4), not in full saturation. High gain compresses away all the dynamic feel.

Gibson ES-5 through a clean amplifier — Walker invented the modern electric blues guitar vocabulary in the 1940s. His smooth single-note runs and jazz-inflected phrasing influenced BB King directly.