Jim Weider is a guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 best known for his work with The Band

The Band

The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...

. He joined the reformed version of The Band in 1985 to replace original guitarist Robbie Robertson

Robbie Robertson

Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...

.

A native of Woodstock, New York, Weider was born in 1951 and began playing guitar at age 11. Some of his early influences included Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...

, James Burton

James Burton

James Burton is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 , Burton has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame...

 and Scotty Moore

Scotty Moore

Winfield Scott "Scotty" Moore III is an American guitarist. He is best known for his backing of Elvis Presley in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis' Hollywood years...

. While still a teenager in Woodstock, he became acquainted with Levon Helm

Levon Helm

Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....

 and was exposed to The Band's music. Weider went on to become an accomplished studio session player in cities such as Atlanta

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

 and Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

, but eventually returned to Woodstock and was invited to become The Band's sole guitarist in 1985, remaining until the group's dissolution in 2000 following the death of Rick Danko

Rick Danko

Richard Clare "Rick" Danko was a Canadian musician and singer, best known as a member of The Band.-Early years :...

 in late 1999.

Weider's main instrument is the Fender Telecaster

Fender Telecaster

The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...

, but he also plays a vintage 1960s Silvertone

Silvertone (instruments)

Silvertone was the brand name used by Sears, Roebuck and Company for its line of sound equipment from 1915 to 1972. A hand-cranked phonograph was introduced under the Silvertone brand by Sears in 1915...

 electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

 (primarily for slide

Slide guitar

Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...

) and a vintage 1960s Guild

Guild Guitar Company

The Guild Guitar Company is a USA-based guitar manufacturer founded in 1952 by Alfred Dronge, a guitarist and music-store owner, and George Mann, a former executive with the Epiphone Guitar Company...

 Starfire III. For amplification, Weider uses a combination of Fender amplifiers

Guitar amplifier

A guitar amplifier is an electronic amplifier designed to make the signal of an electric or acoustic guitar louder so that it will produce sound through a loudspeaker...

 and his own signature series JW40 amp, designed in conjunction with Fargen Amplification, Inc. He is also the co-designer of the AnalogMan

Analogman

Analog Man LLC is a company that makes and modifies guitar effects pedals.In 1995, the company, led by "Analog Mike" Piera, started modifying Ibanez Tube Screamer overdrive pedals to sound like the vintage ones which were used by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Johnson...

 King Of Tone pedal which you will find on his pedalboard.

In addition to his work with The Band and his own musical group The Jim Weider Band, Weider has performed and recorded with numerous other musicians, including Robbie Dupree

Robbie Dupree

Robert Dupuis , better known by his stage name Robbie Dupree, is an American singer-songwriter best known for his 1980 top ten pop hit, "Steal Away"....

, Dr. John

Dr. John

Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...

, Graham Parker

Graham Parker

Graham Parker is a British rock singer and songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the popular British band Graham Parker & the Rumour.-Early career :...

, Keith Richards

Keith Richards

Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...

 and Bob Weir

Bob Weir

Bob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...

. He is also featured in several instructional videos produced by Homespun Video. Following Jimmy Vivino

Jimmy Vivino

Jimmy Vivino is an American guitarist, keyboard player, singer, producer, and music director. He is best known as the leader of Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band, the house band for the TBS late night program Conan...

's departure in early 2009, Jim Weider has been appearing with the Levon Helm Band

External links

• jimweider.com Jim Weider's official website
• A definitive The Band resource
• Homespun Video instructional DVDs and videocassettes
• Fargen Amplification, Inc. builder of the JW40 signature series amplifier
• Jim Weider's Project Percolator collection at the Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
  's live music archive