OMGWTFBBQ!!

Take three LEDs and spin them on all three axes. Beautiful.

It gets even better

TDPRI says this completely illustrates the difference between Stratocaster and Telecaster players. Personally, I think it's great.

Strange NAMMfellows, or Fender is Creepy

My Goodness! That's long-time Fender endorsee Yngwie J. Malmsteen and brand-new Fender endorsee Jim Campilongo. I'd like to hear them try to come up with some common musical ground.

Massive MLP Wave!

Pat Metheny has one of the coolest rigs ever

Danny Gatton with a Strat and a Hummingbird.

OK, not that massive....

Up Close And Personal With Slash

Let us go back to the 1980s. On the one hand, you have Hair Metal. Ratt and Mötley Crüe and Bon Jovi, who could be cool, going on to Poison and Winger and on and on, further and further from cool. It was all an act, and they just about told you it was all the act. Watch Decline of Western Civilization: The Metal Years and see Bret Michaels talking about it as a business, and you will have more respect for Bret as a person with a brain and a plan and less and less respect for Poison as a musical entity. On the other hand, you have Thrash. Metallica and Megadeth and Slayer and Anthrax and duggeda-duggeda-dunk dunk-dunk-dunk. Good stuff, but fast and intricate. Switching time signatures in unison. It just didn't swing.

Listen to the Rolling Stones. Especially post-Brian Stones. It's good because it swung. It certainly isn't hard. Once you convince a new guitarist that C# is a key he is able to play in, there is nearly nothing in "Gimme Shelter" that is beyond that new player. Playing it well may take some time, but playing it recognizably is easy.

Then came Guns 'n Roses.

There was a lot of Hair Metal to them, but they departed from script a lot. There's hard stuff — hang around a guitar store and one of the sounds you hear is young guitarists trying and failing to nail the intro to "Sweet Child" on the store's guitars and amps — but the band was more about making a song than making a composition. GnR was the first rock that really rocked hard and really swung since before the Stones released "Miss You", at least to my ears.

This is why, while he's a Les Paul guy and I'm partial to the Tele, I will always be a Slash backer.

Popdose has tapes of Steven Rosen talking to Slash.

Guitar Center has an interview/seminar with Slash on their Youtube channel.

I Bet More People Have Seen That Than The Phone Book!

I'm in the July Issue of Premier Guitar! Well, at least my Twitter feed is. The big size. Which means I am a Twitter logghoretic.

I was involved in Stratoblogster's PG kerfuffle over the Etavonni, but since I received the first issue, I've felt Premier Guitar was one of the best guitar mags I've seen.

It's great to learn 'cause knowledge is power!

And it is great to have a vocabulary with which to understand and discuss that knowledge. In this blog's case, it's music, and Rock House Method as a series called 5 Musical Terms of the Day. It's a good place to watch.

More John 5

John 5, playing the National Anthem with his teeth, Hendrix-style. A shot I wish I got with a far better camera than I had. Thank you, Matthew Place

A Question Of Your Honesty

I found this through Slashdot. There's a guy who claims that, through code, he can graph and determine whether or not a track was made with a click track.

I can get both sides. Really. On the one hand, it's easy to work out your whole creative blueprint with a drum machine and guitar, and once a drummer comes in, he messes up your creation with his pounding. No drummer is better than a bad drummer, as a guitarist friend says. And for band practices, why is it always the timekeeper who arrives late? But on the other, you can listen to Tom Petty's "American Girl" and compare it to "Free Fallin'" and know that having a drummer in a box just isn't nearly as good.

I conclusion, I use the words of my friend, Jack Pribek. Save The Drummers!

It's Funny Because It's True

And now for something completely different

If You Follow Any Link I Give You, Follow This One

Really. Click now.

And if you win and I don't, show me some love.

The Difficult Second Album

Kings and Queens bowing before you

Point South

Local southern rock band Point South released its first full-length album this year. The album includes a dozen new original songs and the hit "Sweet Angel Eyes," which appeared on the band's original five-track demo. In addition to concentrating on creating new music, Point South added a new band member this year. Eli Stehlik, of Cassville, joined the group around eight months ago. The Point South band members are pictured above. From left, are: Paul Pyles, Gary Mitchell, Jeff Luney, Cody Ennis, Aaron Ennis and Stehlik.

Google Alerts told me about these guys. Just one question.

I know that being southern rock, it is required that you wear plaid flannel and Skynyrd shirts. Is it also required that you be ugly as sin? Or is it just recommended?

Root Down

Funny. I remembered this as Tony Rich on a real Hammond, not emulated. Still, that is a Leslie next to him, and a big one.

And there is no Telecaster in sight.

I'm thinking about keyboards these days, and what you hear here are two of the sounds necessary. The Hammond organ sound and the Rhodes electric piano sound. I'd take the Farafisa and the Wurlitzer, even.

Thing is, I don't know enough about the technology, and I'd have to spend time and money to learn hands-on, and I don't have either. I see virtual instruments online, and I wonder how I can control them, whether I would need to gig with a computer to run this stuff through or what.

So, I guess, this is what I need to know:

• What are the cool keyboard sounds? The ones that really rock? The crucial ones for butt thumpin' music?
• What gear is available that can emulate those sounds well? Because, y'know, even Goodwill has an ear to the vintage market, making bargains for the real stuff too hard to find.
• What cheap gear is available that can emulate those sounds not-too terribly?
• I see MIDI In, MIDI Out, MIDI Thru, and I get confused. How much of that do people who aren't, for example, Crystal Method, use?

The Only Music Instruction Video You Need

Farther Along We'll Understand Why

The Invention of the B-Bender:


Clarence White joins the Byrds:


The Wall of Guitarists:


No, I don't own one. Yet.

Don't Stare Directly At The Guitar

I'm always thinking about gear and mods. I always think about it because I can't afford to do any of it. It's very safe that way.

One of the mods I'm interested in is adding a piezo bridge to a Telecaster. (Why a Telecaster? Have you met me?) Jeff Miller has one that he made into a MIDI-capable beast. Black with white binding. Just sweet.

But he also made the one above.

The green on that figured maple? Isn't that just sick?

Guitar Player's Superstar for 2008

Here, on D'Addario's site, giving a demonstration on the winning technique. Congrats to the winner!

Question: Is it pronounced Dee-Addario or Duh-dario?

My Reaction to hearing some of Metallica's new album, Death Magnetic, on their website.

How long until we see "Unforgiven XXIV"?