I found this Antimusic article this morning about a new biography on guitar great Tommy Bolin. I must admit, other than the awesome tune Wild Dogs, from the posthumously released Whips and Roses album, I don’t know that much about Tommy except that he sadly died young like so many other talents of the era. [...]

Some say chord melody, some say chord solo. Whatever you call it, it’s all good fun. Here’s one I ripped off adapted from the end of Kenny Burrell’s first solo on the tune Bluescape. The chord work at the end stands up just fine on its own. It’s not very long, mind you, but I [...]

I’ve been looking for just the right way to wish everyone a happy holiday season, and I found it this morning on the tubes: That’s right: The Fat Albert Christmas Special. I love the music. And the awesome laugh track. I don’t know who’s in charge of TV anymore, but I suspect it’s political correctness [...]

Being something of a connoisseur of classic arcade games (I have one of those homebrew MAME machines in my condo wired up with controls from Happs), I would love to own one of these Space Invaders straps. I’d like to see other games too–especially Donkey Kong, the best video game ever made.

Just happened to run across a guy named Dario Pinelli while browsing MaineToday.com (I used to live in Portland, ME and visit every chance I get). He played at One Longfellow Square yesterday. No, that doesn’t matter much now, but he’s a great player, so I thought I’d post some info on him. Here’s a [...]

Speaking of robot guitars, Ovation has released an interesting guitar of its own. Some people make a big stink about Ovation because of the rounded composite synthetic back (designed to project sound waves more efficiently than a traditional design), claiming that the sound of an Ovation is an acquired taste. I don’t know. I sort [...]

Here’s a video preview from Gibson of their new “robot” guitar, Dark Fire, which debuted Dec. 15 : I’ll post others as they become available. Update: Dec. 19, 2008 Here’s a vid from a user (?who is apparently selling them?): Update: Dec. 22, 2008

Eddie’s collaboration with Fender has resulted in a new EVH Wolfgang guitar, according to MarketWatch.com: Eddie Van Halen launches the all-new EVH(R) Wolfgang(R) electric guitar, available worldwide beginning Jan. 2009. The EVH Wolfgang guitar represents Eddie’s 35 years of experimenting with guitars, over two years of intense research and development, and a full year of [...]

While perusing the double-top-secret Fretz web logs, I stumbled across a keyword search someone used to reach Fretz: “why zappa was great.” Well, since I am a huge Frank Zappa fan, I think it would make sense for me to offer my $0.02 on the subject. Sure, I could blather on about his “serious” music [...]

I’m pleased to announce that all Ultimate Music Software products the Ultimate Guitar Chord Trainer has been chosen as Editor’s Choice picks by Brothersoft.com. UGCT should be showing up there soon. Thanks guys!

Try to contain yourself. This is a public forum after all.

I realized today that I haven’t been posting much from the classical guitar world. So, here’s a video of someone I like to think of as the Eddie Van Halen of clasical guitar. She’s playing Paganini Caprice #24. Here’s another of her playing Sunburst by Andew York: Damn!

I’ve always loved the that first solo in Bluescape. For me, it’s one of those solos that seems too exquisitely crafted to have been improvised. Well, that might be true if we were talking about anyone but Kenny Burrell playing a blues. Kenny’s just got those mad bluez skillz. So, here’s the transcription, this time [...]

Yet Another Paul Gilbert YouTube Video. Get it?! Okay, so I know I’ve posted some Paul Gilbert fanboyism things (I may even create a category for it), but Paul has this uncanny knack for taking seemingly simplistic ideas and turning them into shred goodness. He proves to me time and time again that if you [...]

I’ve been having GAS lately for a kick-ass shred-fest type of guitar. Sort of like the RG3520Z you’re looking at here to your left, brought to you courtesy of Ibanez. I’ve owned (and loved) an Ibanez Jem 7VWH (I regret selling it to this day), so I’m pretty sure I’d like this one. Anyway, enjoy [...]