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, […]
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 […]
Couldn’t believe it when I heard about, but plausible – and if true, shocking. Enjoy. 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!
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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. […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Back in early October, Billboard.com published an update on the Satriani-Hagar-Anthony-Chad Smith (Red Hot Chilis) “supergroup” that at least for now is titled Chickenfoot. Since I missed it then, hear are some highlights of that article now (all quotes are from Satch):
Well, I don’t love “The Cosmos Rocks.” I wanted to be hit over the head by Brian May’s royal chords and sweet lines (WoodyTone being a given), interesting song structures and chord patterns, and Paul Rodgers’ soulful vocals over the whole amazing thing. But except in a couple of cases, I didn’t get what I […]
Carlos Santana is a very cool guitar player. He has his own style, he’s an innovator, I dig some of his music, not all of it, because what he does isn’t necessarily my personal thing. But I find his spiritual searching, his articulation of it and his conclusions — which often relate to guitar-playing and […]
Fair Warning Tone Ain’t All the Same
Got it in my head to figure out which Van Halen song tones – not album tones – I liked the most. Started with Fair Warning, whose balls I just can’t get enough of…which doesn’t sound so good but you get what I mean. Listen to it cranked in my car because that’s the only […]
Pondering VH’s Fair Warning Tone
LOVE the first four Van Halen albums. Always have, always will. Love the rest too, including the Van Hagar years (oops, forgot about VH III…), but those first four vinyl donuts are to me and many others just the nads. The nadliest of nads. They’re a band kicking the world’s butt in every way, and […]
Recently I was ruined yet again by a good amp. This time a bud’s Bogner Shiva, EL34 version. Let’s call him Sean – because that’s his name…. He’d been talking about how awesome it was for a while, and even though I know he has good ears, wasn’t too motivated to go try it. I’d […]
The Gene-EVH-Ace-Joe Perry Connection
Have you picked up “Guitar World Presents 40 Years of Van Halen” yet? Zactly – I didn’t even know it existed until I saw it in a bookstore (remember those? lol). Anyhow, I’m always amazed at how I think I’ve memorized every word ever written about Ed and his gear and then I read something […]
More On the YMI5150 Model-A Guitar
Few weeks ago I posted a brief “review” (outdated word) of Kevin Holbrook’s YMI5150 Model-A guitar. As a brief reminder, what got my attention were the following things: > A good wood combo: swamp ash, maple/rosewood. > An interesting and unique combo of components resulting in a Strat-shaped and -scaled guitar with an ABR bridge […]
Did You Read the Esquire EVH Piece Yet?
We’re going to have to wait yet another week for the interview with Kevin Holbrook of YMI5150 guitars because we have yet another newsworthy event. This time it’s the recent Esquire interview with Edward Van Halen. Now before you EVH fans get to getting your hopes up, let’s bear in mind the same ol’s: 1. […]
Show ‘Review’: Van Halen at the Garden
Took my 10-year-old son to see Van Halen at Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 1. I think he was more excited to see them than I was – not that I wasn’t, but this was the mighty Van Halen whose tunes the both of us have copped, jammed to and listened […]
