Dave Gonzalez is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter from Southern California and, with Thomas Yearsley, founding member of the roots rock/rockabilly band The Paladins in the early 1980s, and then co-founder with Chris Gaffney of the Hacienda Brothers. A guitar player with a signature Fender to his credit and praised by his fellow guitar players and guitar magazines, his playing is regularly compared to Stevie Ray Vaughan's.
Career
The Paladins
The Paladins were founded in the early 1980s and are still active, though sporadically so. They put out a number of studio albums, but made their reputation on the road, touring constantly in the US and abroad.
In 2003 Dave Gonzalez and fellow veteran musician Chris Gaffney founded the western soul band The Hacienda Brothers. The band received critical recognition for their self-titled debut album and were nominated in 2007 for "Group of the Year" by the Americana Music Association. Their third and last album was wrapped up early 2008, but Chris Gaffney died on April 17, 2008, of liver disease. Dave Gonzalaz oversaw the final production and release of the album, Arizona Motel. In the summer of 2008, Gonzalez organized "a kind of Hacienda Brothers farewell tour as a tribute to Gaffney," with Dave Alvin as a featured guest for a show in San Francisco.
Guitar accolades
Gonzalez made the list of the "101 Forgotten Greats & Unsung Heroes" selected by Guitar Player:
Equipment
Gonzalez plays guitars that reflect his love for the 1950s: a 1953 Gibson and a 1953 Gretsch, and formerly a late-1950s Silvertone. He is endorsed by Fender, which made a Signature Model and as a nod to Gonzalez called it the Guild Paladin. It was modeled from an original 1957 Guild that Gonzalez played while with the Paladins; it had been refretted so often that, Gonzalez says, the frets "just wouldn't stay in anymore." His amplifiers with the Paladins were a Fender Bassman and a Fender Super Reverb, and he used an Echoplex. After he started playing in a more country-oriented style, he switched guitars, adopting a number of Fender Telecasters, including a "killer gold-sparkle Buck Owens Tele." He also plays a baritone guitar, a Fender Jazzmaster with a Fender Bass VI neck made at the Fender Custom Shop. The guitar has thick strings, from 0.14 to 0.70, and is tuned to A. He also changed amplifiers, since he played too loud for the Hacienda Brothers, and switched to a Fender Vibrolux.
