JJs song and guitar style in general

To quote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._J._Cale :
"
Cale's personal style has often been described as "laid back", and is characterized by shuffle rhythms, simple chord changes, understated vocals, and clever, incisive lyrics. Cale is also a very distinctive and idiosyncratic guitarist, incorporating both Travis-like fingerpicking and gentle, meandering electric solos. His recordings also reflect his stripped-down, laid-back ethos; his album versions are usually quite succinct and often recorded entirely by Cale alone, using drum machines for rhythm accompaniment.
"

JJ plays mostly without a pick, for smoother tone. He also appears to be using very thin strings, so he might bend with pinky etc, which makes it possible for him to evoke more emotion by slight bends and vibratos. The thin strings you can see on the Paradise studio 1979 DVD, for example. Could be that the old Harmony just was so difficult to play with anything but very thin strings. :D But also Clapton said in some interview bit that JJ does funny stuff like puts some real thin string on his guitars.

JJ's tone appears to be heavy on compression or similarly "dulling" effects. Very smooth, with plenty of sustain. Vocals are double tracked and stuff, I bet, to give a stronger vocal sound. Also he used wah-wah on some old records, but I don't really know anything about wahwahs.

His songs often are in minor keys. And some are capoed (or tuned) up a fret or two, so keys are not always common guitar keys (C, A, G, E, D). So he might play in F (Bringing it back), F# (Crazy mama) or Ebm (Cajun moon), instead of E or Em. Live it appears Christine plays same chords but higher up the neck, and JJ plays close to the open position. Also live, it might be that the keys are different, as he appears to play open chords more often, and not use a capo.

A lot of his songs are based on the minor blues, I think. So basically you have the i-IV-V of a said key, so like if chords Cm, F, G in the key of Cm. Also some songs that basically just two chords, for the whole verse of a song (Money talks, Magnolia, etc) or the whole song (don't remember which now, but I think there are some).

The solos I've tried to tab have basically been from the minor pentatonic scale of the said key. With plenty of slides and pull-ofs and hammer-ons... and some real sweet bends. Of course some of the notes in the solos, I see as coming from the played chords, not a scale, but still.

For patented licks of JJ, I haven't really progressed that far. I think I ought to find some down the line. Certainly he does play the T-Bone Walker / Chuck Berry lick where you bend the 4fth up (towards the fifth) and the play the double stop of fifth and root. Here as an example this move in the key of G:
e------3-
b------3-
d--5^---
g--------