As a kid in high school in the ’80s (early ’80s!), Jake E. Lee was on my list of favorite guitarists – another one of the seemingly endless supply of amazing, cool-looking axemen coming out of LA. I wondered how Ozzy found these guys: Were they lined up on street corners? Hanging out under palm trees?

After two albums with Ozzy, Jake took a break – then came back with Badlands, a GREAT blues-rock band fronted by NJ’s own Ray Gillen (yes, I saw them in Jersey!). Ray’s death played a role in the breakup of the band, which released two albums (Bandlands and Voodoo Highway) before they broke up, and one after (Dusk). All three are great.

About the title of this post: …click here to read more

By this age Ed probably already had it in him....

In 1974, Edward Van Halen was 19 years old, a year out of high school. By that time he was already a monster – in fact, well before that according to people who were around in his high school years.

In September, we took a look at some of his – really Van Halen’s – super-early stuff (’74, ‘75, ‘76). Recently an audio recording surfaced that apparently is “the earliest known recording of Eddie Van Halen playing guitar alone. Recorded at home, in his parent’s house, in 1974,” sayeth the VanHalenStore.com, which posted it. …click here to read more

High Knuckles = ‘Well-Spoken’ Tone?

Here’s a guy I never thought we’d write about on this blog. In case that’s not clear, I’ll come right out with it: I’m not a Grateful Dead fan. The whole never-ending concert, drooling stoner, zero-aggression, electric caravan music scene was never my thing. Call me close-minded, but I never got it, don’t want to get it – not that there’s anything wrong with it….

Because of that, I never was a Jerry Garcia fan. But I was acutely aware that Jerry had (and still has) a bunch of fans, and had his own style of playing the ol’ guit-box. I mean, how could you not be aware? …click here to read more

…and Not Needing To

In keeping with our picking theme this week, here’s more, this time from the one and only Allan Holdsworth.

In a 1990 Guitar Player magazine interview, he says he can’t sweep pick – which I’m assuming is true only because he doesn’t really want to because there’s nothing Allan can’t do on a guitar!

Instead, “I’ve practiced playing scales where you put the accent anywhere, whether on a note you pick or one you don’t. You can say, ‘I’m going to play four notes and accent the second note, but I’m only picking the first note.’ …click here to read more

Sometime back I started a thread on thegearpage.net titled “Outlaw sweep-picking?” and I meant it – sort of. I meant it in the sense that 9 out of the 10 times I’ve seen or heard sweep-picking in the rock arena, it’s been pure “wankage.” It may even detract from all-important TONE. …click here to read more

Randy and his guitars (click to see it WAY bigger).

One of the biggest things to come out of the recent NAMM show – that strangely got little media attention – was Jackson Guitars’ (owned by Fender) announcement that it is making 60 exact (including relic’d) replicas of Randy Rhoads’ white Jackson. …click here to read more

Guitar fans owe a debt of thanks to Ozzy (or really Sharon, for saving him). Musically, I mean. The reality TV thing…not so much.

Not only does Ozzy pick incredible guit-slingers for his bands – pretty amazing since he claims not to know much about the guitar – he also gives them the freedom to be themselves, at least within the context of Ozzy. …click here to read more

Have you heard about Black Country yet? This is the newly announced band with Joe Bonamassa (awesome chops and tone), Jason Bonham (awesome kabooming beats and tone), Glenn Hughes (awesome song magic) and Derek Sherinian (awesome augmentation, if you dig keys). Kevin Shirley is producing, and not only does he produce Joe but also has produced the Black Crowes, Aerosmith and the mighty Led Zep. Did I saw “awesome?” …click here to read more

Here's a pic from the clinic, taken by an unknown fan.

If you heard Paul Gilbert in Racer X in the ’80s, he was shredding. In Mr. Big in the ’90s he was playing poppy, but still managing to shred. On his solo albums he shreds, but not all the time.

So for many of you, Paul Gilbert may = “shred.” But I think the best thing about him, besides his gargantuan chops and incredible musical vocabulary (and his apparent humility), is his ability to teach in a fun way. So even if you don’t dig his playing or his tone, usually there’s always something to learn from the guy – as recently uploaded Guitar Center YouTube vids demonstrate. …click here to read more

Where was this cover? (Pardon my Photoshop skills...click to see it bigger.)

Nuno In a Similar Boat…

Since we recently ended a year and, according to some, a decade, I thought about writing a post on the year’s/decade’s best/worst whatever…but decided it would run a serious risk of being boring. Or at least redundant.

But I couldn’t let one thing pass without writing about it. And because you read the title of this post, you know what it is: Ace Frehley, one of the most influential rock guitarists ever to walk the planet, put out his first album in 20 years (and it’s good!) and somehow did not make the cover of a single guitar magazine.

WTF?! …click here to read more

Plus Jimmy Playing Whitesnake’s ‘Still of the Night!’

Word is the mighty Jimmy Page is going to do “something” musically this year, after seeing his attempt to get Zep II off the ground with a new singer fail, and watching John Paul Jones have fun with Them Crooked Vultures.

I can’t wait. I’m sure it will be good. Maybe even great. And it’s borderline criminal for a man of Jimmy’s obvious talent to be on the musical sidelines.

With that in mind, following are versions of Page music with and without Zep …click here to read more

Here's a shot of it (SeymourDuncan.com photo).

In September we posted that a new Slash Les Paul was in the works, along with new signature pickups. Well, with the winter NAMM show just weeks away, details about lots of products are beginning to trickle out, including the new Slash pickups. Here’s what we know. …click here to read more

Robbin back in the day....

Even though it’s the Year of the Tiger, here’s another Ratt post – this time on Robbin Crosby, who died some years ago of drug addiction. This info, from the April 1987 Guitar Player, is not comprehensive gear-wise but sheds some light on his sound and on what he and Warren used on Dancing Undercover.

All quotes are Robbin’s.

Amps

“First we tried plugging everything into everything, and running it through this, that and the other. On Dancing Undercover we went through about 20 Marshall heads and as many old bottoms as we had. We tried vintage Celestions, the 30-watts, and Electro-Voices. …click here to read more