Archive for December, 2008

End-Of-Year News: Becker, Vai, Lynch, GNR

End-Of-Year News: Becker, Vai, Lynch, GNR

Kind of a news round-up: New Jason Becker Guitar (and more) If you don’t know who Jason Becker is, do a Google search on him. He went from being one of the hottest six-string gunners on the planet to one of the most enlightened human beings on the planet (which would you rather be?). The [...]

December 31, 2008 | 1 Comment More
Get the Feb. 09 Guitar Player

Get the Feb. 09 Guitar Player

Do you subscribe to Guitar Player? I did for a long time, and then didn’t for many years. I clearly remember – as clearly as I can remember these days – an issue with a guy from The Cure on the cover. That was it for me. That was diversity for the sake of it, [...]

December 29, 2008 | 1 Comment More
Allen Collins’ Freebird Solo

Allen Collins’ Freebird Solo

If you’ve heard the long solo at the end of Freebird, you’ve probably tried to figure out how to play it. And since that piece was recorded and played in the days before video ubiquity, you might have assumed – like I did – that that outro solo was split between Skynyrd’s great axemen, Allen [...]

December 23, 2008 | 2 Comments More

Shocking Backstory to KISS Origins

Couldn’t believe it when I heard about, but plausible – and if true, shocking. Enjoy. .cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url(‘http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png’) !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;} Chocolate NewsWednesdays 10:30pm / 9:30c KISS My Ass More Funny VideosComedians on Tour Get Funny RingtonesStand-Up Comedy David Alan Grier is a funny man!

December 19, 2008 | 0 Comments More
Ace Finally Has a Website! (But…)

Ace Finally Has a Website! (But…)

Ace Frehley, one of my heroes (my first guitar hero) and a guy who always seemed to want to do high-tech stuff even before there was such a thing as high tech, finally has a website. Yeah! But… …while it’s very cool to go to acefrehley.com and hear his tune Ozone auto-play (as well as [...]

December 18, 2008 | 0 Comments More
Axl Goes Off (on Slash)!

Axl Goes Off (on Slash)!

Axl Rose (apparently) recently posted a long “clearing the air” type diatribe on the GnR message board, and it’s a doozy. The guy who gets cracked the most? Slash. I’ll leave you to wade through the whole thing, but here are what I thought were the most interesting quotes. Axl going off on everyone, particularly [...]

December 16, 2008 | 1 Comment More
Ed in Guitar World (part 2)

Ed in Guitar World (part 2)

Here’s more on the pickups in the new EVH Wolfgang guitar from the Ed interview in the latest issue of Guitar Player — which by the way was published with four different covers — plus some non-pickup nuggets about the new Wolfgang. > Part of this interesting quote was omitted unintentionally by GW in a [...]

December 16, 2008 | 0 Comments More
Ed in Guitar World (part 1)

Ed in Guitar World (part 1)

Every new Edward Van Halen interview is cause for comment. Lately most of the Ed interviews revolve around product launches, which is the case for the February (yes, February) 2009 issue of Guitar World, “on news stands now!” Anyhow, it’s always cause for comment because Ed is Ed, and because of his well-known penchant for [...]

December 15, 2008 | 0 Comments More
Morse’s Tone Thoughts

Morse’s Tone Thoughts

I hadn’t been to Steve Morse’s website in a while so I surfed it for a bit and ended up on deeppurple.com, where I found the following that Steve wrote about tone. A Deep Purple fan asked Steve which guitar properties affect “tone and sustain most, body/neck/fretboard wood-type, neck joint type, pickups, bridge/saddle design, nut, [...]

December 10, 2008 | 0 Comments More
Gettin’ Betta

Gettin’ Betta

Hear a Pat Travers tune on the internet radio recently, one I hadn’t hear in a long while: Gettin’ Betta. Awesome tune (YouTube links to it below). Reminds me a lot of Extreme, so Nuno Bettencourt obviously borrowed liberally from Pat. Back in the day Pat used a Gibson Melody Maker with full-size Gibson humbuckers. [...]

December 8, 2008 | 0 Comments More
Bon Scott: The Early Days

Bon Scott: The Early Days

Maybe if you’re a big-time AC/DC fan you know how Bon Scott hooked up with the Young boys — or, rather, how he almost didn’t. If you don’t, there’s an interesting article in an Adelaide, Australia newspaper written about Bon’s pursuit of fame and fortune in rock and roll. What makes it interesting is it’s [...]

December 5, 2008 | 0 Comments More
Sarzo’s Idea Cool, But…

Sarzo’s Idea Cool, But…

Recently Rudy Sarzo, bassist of ’80s Quiet Riot and Ozzy/Randy Rhoads fame, announced a new contest. In it, participants can write a song on their own, with Rudy then picking a winner and doing the bass lines, or write a song using pre-recorded Rudy bass lines. It’s a cool idea, with prizes from Jackson, Ampeg, [...]

December 3, 2008 | 0 Comments More
Blues Led Zep

Blues Led Zep

I was wandering through Wal-Mart’s music section the other day, trying to politely refused my son’s repeated requests for a Def Leppard DVD, and found a couple of Zep tribute discs. The first one I listed to was “Contemporary Blues Interpret Led Zeppelin,” put out this year. It’s cool. Some of it is about what [...]

December 1, 2008 | 0 Comments More