Australian Musician’s Greg Phillips catches up with acclaimed international guitarist, gear innovator and creator of the BluGuitar Amp, Thomas Blug for a chat about his past, present and the future.
Thomas Blug is an incredibly skillful guitarist who has enjoyed years of international acclaim. Thomas Blug’s arrangements and compositions feature in film and TV soundtracks, and tracks such as “Victim of love” have also hit the charts. His virtuoso guitar playing has also seen him honoured with awards like “Best German Rock-Pop Guitarist” and “Fender® Strat King of Europe”.
Thomas Blug’s musical output as a solo artist currently includes 8 solo albums and 3 DVDs. On top of that, his skills as a musician, composer and producer are also in demand on the international music scene. Many international showbiz heavyweights have sought to work with Thomas Blug, including artists like Stewart Copeland (The Police), Ian Paice and Don Airey (Deep Purple), Graham Walker (Gary Moore), Mel Gaynor (Simple Minds), Bobby Kimball (Toto), Mick Rogers (Manfred Mann), Reggie Worthy (Ike & Tina Turner), Bodo Schopf (Eloy), Hazel O’ Connor, Thijs van Leer (Focus), Purple Schulz, Rainbirds, No Angels, Tic Tac Toe, Tommy Emmanuel and Uwe Ochsenknecht.
Alongside music, Thomas has been an electronics enthusiast since childhood. This fruitful combination has made it possible for him to develop electronic equipment to his exact tonal needs and to then make optimum use of the resulting sound qualities for his musical ideas. As a result of this expertise, Thomas has worked as a sound designer and co-developer of guitar amps, effects equipment and guitars for more than 25 years in cooperation with a series of well-known manufacturers. In 2010, UK firm Vintage honoured Thomas Blug by producing a replica series of his valuable original guitar – his 1961 Fender® Stratocaster®. The Vintage series has been extremely successful, with over 2,000 guitars sold worldwide.
In 2014, Thomas Blug’s experiences as a musician and developer have led him to a new stage in his career – the founding of his own company, BluGuitar. Here, Thomas is living out his musical and technical passions by developing innovative products for guitarists. From now on, his visions as an entrepreneur and his productivity as an artist will go hand in hand. Beginning with the innovative BluGuitar AMP1 100 watt Nanotube amp, Thomas has now created the Mercury and Iridium models which have also been universally applauded.
BluGuitar products are distributed in Australia by EGM Distribution: www.egm.net.au
