Two Great Japanese Stairway Solo Takes

Two really fantastic YouTube stars from Japan who are well known in guitar circles for their devotion to and recreation of several Led Zeppelin songs are Hiro, (AKA larzgallows) & jun626 of “Virtual Zeppelin” fame.

Their individual performances of Jimmy Page’s legendary Stairway guitar solo are presented here. Note that both use telecaster’s (It is generally agreed upon that Jimmy cut the solo on a telecaster) and Hiro is actually playing a recreation of Jimmy’s fabled ’59 Fender “Dragoncaster” Telecaster. I particularly appreciate both their attempts to capture Jimmy’s tone and phrasing here, and I’m jealous of Jun626’s cool shirt and the rings he wears on his picking hand.  I could never get away with wearing a shirt like that (I’m just too big and I’d look ridiculous). There’s something very special about Japanese guys & their love of Zeppelin. They possess an inherent integrity to their presentation and a reverence to the music you don’t find with your typical Western guitarist. I’ve enormous respect for both of these guys and what they’ve achieved.  Of these two clips I think Hiro wins the day though. His phrasing on the solo is nearly perfect but Jun’s shirt is still calling to me.

(Jun has updated his solo recording above  – different shirt but still cool!)

Feature Image credit to Jerry Landeryou.@ Amps ‘n’ Axes and his amazing Dragoncaster build seen here.