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Current revision
FEATURED CONTENT
We have a lot of cool stuff going on on GuitarWiki! Here are a few featured articles in various categories.
- GUITARISTS
Steve Vai
Steven "Steve" Siro Vai, born June 6 1960, is a famous guitarist and composer. He is famed for his incredible technique and extremely fast shredding. In 1974 Steve took guitar lessons from fellow guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani. He attended the Berklee College of Music and toured with Frank Zappa. Steve Vai often tours with Joe Satriani, his former guitar teacher, on the G3 tour. Vai has performed on the tour from 1996-1997 and 2000-2006. More...
Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton "Slow Hand" is a famous English guitarist, singer and composer. He excels in blues, and was ranked nº4 in Rolling Stone's "100 Guitarists of all time". He has released or taken part in over 50 different albums, either on his own or in the different formations he has taken part in his large career. He also belongs to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame three times: for Cream, The Yardbirds and his solo albums. He is nº53 in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". On top of that, he also belongs to the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Eric Clapton was born in Ripley, England, in 1945. His father abandoned his mother and he never got to meet him. Later on, his mother left him to be raised by his grandparents. He started playing guitar at the age of 13, he was self-taught... More...
David Gilmour
On 6 March 1946, David Jon Gilmour was born in Cambridge England. He was the second child of Douglas and Sylvia Gilmour. His father was a lecturer in Zoology at the University, and his mom was a teacher. Both of his parents were involved with education, which might explain why David also attended school until (or a bit before) he was 20 years old. He first went to “The Perse School” on Hills road in Cambridge, where he met Syd Barrett and Roger Waters. Those three would later form the basis for Pink Floyd, the band that made Gilmour famous. Gilmour later, together with Syd, studied modern languages up to an A-level and got himself into a band called Joker’s Wild in 1962. More...
Eric Johnson
Eric Johnson is a guitarist and songwriter born August 17, 1954 in Austin Texas, USA. Although best known for his solo work, Eric Johnson is also associated with other projects and appearing on many other records such as "Distant Star" by Steve Morse and "The Washing Away of Wrong" by John5. Eric Johnson has been widely appraised for his guitar skills by many guitar magazines including Guitar World and Total Guitar as well as other well known guitar players such as Joe Satriani, Allan Hodsworth, Steve Morse, B.B King and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Eric Johnson has also appeared on the G3 tour with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. More...
Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton is a british guitarist who has had a long solo career and also worked extensively as a session musician and was also a founding member of Humble Pie. Undoubtedly he is probably best remembered for his 1976 live album Frampton Comes Alive which is the fourth best selling live album ever. It has sold over 16 million copies worldwide. The only live albums to have sold more are Double Live by Garth Brooks, Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band Live and The Eagles Live. He is also closely associated with his use of the Talkbox guitar effect.Recently he has set up a company which produces hand made and high end guitar effects including the Peter Frampton Talkbox. Among his clients are Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters and Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi. More...
Guthrie Govan
Guthrie Govan (born December 27, 1971 in Chelmsford, Essex, England) is a guitarist known for his work with the bands Asia (2001-2006), GPS, The Young Punx and The Fellowship as well as Erotic Cakes (a vehicle for his own music). He is a noted guitar teacher through his work with the UK magazine Guitar Techniques, Guildford’s Academy of Contemporary Music and currently the Brighton Institute of Modern Music. He is also a former winner of Guitarist magazine's "Guitarist of the Year" competition. [...] Govan began playing guitar aged three, encouraged by his father but initially learning mainly by ear. At the age of nine he and his brother Seth Govan played guitar on a Thames Television programme called Ace Reports. He then attended King Edward VI Grammar School (Chelmsford) where he was exposed, via older classmates, to ‘shred’ guitarists of the time. More...
Dimebag Darrell
Darrell Lance Abbott was born on the 08.20.1966 in Texas. He spend most of his youth in his Father's Country Studio but his real heroes were Eddie Van Halen, Tony Iommi and Ace Frehely. He started to play guitar along with his brother Vinnie Paul who plays the drums. At the age of 16 Dimebag was already good enough to win every local Talent contest. The Abbott brothers founded their band Pantera already in the 80's, they have just not been popular until 1990. Pantera used to be a Hair-Glam-Metal band and released four records. Dimebag called himself Diamond Darrell during this time. In 1990 they changed their style from ground up with their new singer Phillip Anselmo. Pantera was now playing neo-thrash-metal and revolutionized the heavy music scene. Pantera existed till 2003, when Phil Anselmo left the band and the Abbott Brothers founded their new Band Damageplan. On the 8th of December Dimebag Darrell was murdered on-stage during a Damageplan gig in Columbus/Ohio by a mentally disturbed fan with multiple gunshots. More...
Kirk Hammet
He was born in San Francisco to a Filipino mother and an Irish Merchant Marine father. As a child and teenager, he showed great interest in his older brother Rick's extensive collection of guitars and hard rock records, including material by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Status Quo, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and UFO. One of his biggest influences was Jimi Hendrix. He took up the guitar for the first time at the age of fifteen.Hammett's musical interests eventually drew him into the fledgling thrash metal genre. In 1982, he formed the group Exodus with vocalist Paul Baloff, guitarist Gary Holt, bassist Geoff Andrews, and drummer Tom Hunting. More...
Paul Gilbert
Carbondale, Illinois, that's the name of Paul Gilbert´s hometown and there is where he was born (6th november 1966). Paul first picked up a guitar at the age of 5, even though it only was a toy guitar it surely started his interest for music. His main influences back then were bands such as The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Another huge influence he had was his blues-playing uncle, Jimi Kidd.
Today Paul is not only one of the fastest metal guitar players out there but also considered to be among the most technical ones. More...
Brian May
Born on the 19th July 1947, Brian Harold May is probably best known for his part in the Rock band Queen. He is also a qualified Astrophysicist. Famous for using his own hand-built guitar, ‘’’The Red Special’’’, he has been responsible for writing many Hit Records including:- "Tie Your Mother Down", "We Will Rock You", "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "Hammer to Fall". Although he lives in Surrey, England he is the current Chancellor of Liverpool John Moore’s University, taking over from Cherie Blair in 2007 and he was officially installed in 2008. In 2005 he was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for his ‘Services to the Music Industry.’ In Rolling Stone magazine’s list of ‘100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time’ May was ranked 39th. More...
Adrian Vandenberg
Born in Netherlands, on January 31st 1954. He started playing guitar at the age of 17 and is best known for his time with the legendary band Whitesnake fronted by ex-Deep Purple singer David Coverdale. His style is versatile and can shred with the best, yet also he`s melodic, playing with great feel and expression. [...]Once joining Whitesnake he helped to complete the 1987 album, after a successful World Tour he co-wrote all of the music for Whitesnakes "Slip of the Tongue" album, unfortunatly Vandenburg was never to play... More...
Michael Angelo Batio
Michael began his recording career with a group called Holland and their first album called Little Monsters was met with moderate success. He is the Most famous for his solo records such as No Bounderies Batio is also known for the fact that he taught Tom Morello while attending college. He also supposedly gave lessons to guitarist Mark Tremonti. Michael Angelo Batio is an incredible guitarist and is well know for using guitars with two necks and sometimes even four necks. I dont think I could ever do that myself... He often uses a custom dean guitar. More...
Bradley Nowell
Music was an important part of Nowell's upbringing. Nowell's mother, Nancy Nowell-Watilo, had perfect pitch, which Bradley himself inherited, and Brad's father, Jim Nowell, was fond of Jimmy Buffett and often played guitar during family gatherings. On holidays, Brad often played guitar and sang with his father and uncles for hours. Brad was often able to play a song on the guitar after hearing it only once. Bradley grew up with the stigma of attention deficit disorder and the associated (incorrect) assumption that he wasn’t very clever. Coupled with his parents’ divorce made for a difficult childhood. More...
Vivian Campbell
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland 1962 on August 25th full name : Vivian Partick Campbell Biggest influence , Gary Moore, Vivian`s style in early years reflects that of Garys in many ways, lightening speed with pinpoint accuracy. Joined his first band in 1978 at the age of 16, "Sweet Savage" , he was to tour as a support act with Thin Lizzy and Motorhead, whilst on tour he had attracted some attention from bass player Jimmy Bain who was forming a band with rock legend singer Ronnie James Dio & drummer Vinnie Appice. Dio required a power metal guitarist, and Vivian at the age of 19 was asked to audition. More...
Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix was given the name Johnny Allen Hendrix by his mother, which his father later changed to James Marshall Hendrix to honour his dead brother. Jimi's childhood was unstable, since his mother was an alcoholic, and he grew up partly with his grandmother in Canada. She was very close to Jimi and tought him to be proud of his Afro-American ancestry. He had two younger brothers (Leon & Joseph) and two sisters, but his mother left the family when Jimi was about eight years old, and he grew up being a shy and quiet boy. He was attending something so unusal - at that time - as a ethnically mixed school, and he had good grades except for an F in music 1959(!). He was deeply into blues and R&B music and listened a lot to B.B. King and Muddy Waters, whose records his father owned. More...
B.B. King
B.B. King is a legendary American Bluesman, gifted guitarist, composer and singer.
King has taken part in more than 60 albums, with different artists or on his own. He has won 14 Grammys and received dozens of awards and honors over the years, and he still performs several nights a week. He belongs to the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, and stands in the 3rd position of Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".Riley Ben King, known as B.B. King, was born the 16th of September of 1925 in Itta Bena, Mississippi. His father abandoned the family and his mother died when King was just 9 years old, so he spent the rest of his childhood living with his grandmother in Kilmichael, attending... More...
Angus Young
Angus Young was born on March 31, 1955 of William and Margaret Young in Glasgow, Scotland. He was one of nine children. He and all his siblings were brought up in Syndey, Australia. Angus started playing guitar when he was five years old. A local child had one and Angus would play it during visits. He got his own guitar by taking a banjo his family had lying around and restringing it like a guitar.
Angus did not get into guitar playing seriously until his family moved from Scotland to Australia in 1963. He had been playing on an old Höfner guitar he inherited from his brother Malcolm, until he bought a Gibson SG, after seeing it in a friend's catalogue. More...
James Hetfield
James Alan Hetfield was born in Downey, CA (a suburb of Los Angeles) on August 3, 1963, to Christian Science parents, a religion he would dismiss later on. During high school he started to play drums but quickly changed to the guitar His main influence was Aerosmith, and he has said that they were the reason why he wanted to play guitar. Other bands such as Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy also had a major influence on him.Together with Drummer Lars Ulrich he formed the future biggest Metalband of the World METALLICA as a contrary to the dominating glam Metal movement. Ulrich turned Hetfield on to the sounds of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement (Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Diamond Head, Venom, Saxon, Angel Witch, etc). In the early days, Hetfield did not have an interest in being a lead vocalist, that is... More...
Frank Marino
He was born Francesco Antonio Marino on November 20, 1954 in Montreal, Canada. Half Italian and half Arab, Frank is one of five children. He grew up in the time of peace and hippie movement, therefore he only spent seven years in school. It was during those days that his experimentation with LSD would lead him to what was later to become the definition of his life.
The name Mahogany Rush, was a description of a certain sensation that he was having on the trip. More...
Steve Lukather
Steve Lukather was born Steven Lee Lukather on October 21, 1957 in San Fernando Valley, California. He started out playing keyboards and drums and then learned himself how to play guitar at the age of seven when his father bought him a Kay acoustic guitar and a copy of The beatles album Meet the Beatles. This is one of the reasons that Steve was influenced by George Harrison. In seventh grade, Steve formed a power trio with friend and classmate guitarist/bassist Ron Sarian. Kevin MacKenzy and Ron’s brother Donny Sarian switched off on drums. In this band, Steve made his first studio recording in 1970 when he was twelve. It was a single with two songs on it, Grass, written by Ron and Leave It written by Steve Lukather himself. More...
Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth, born August 6, 1946 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, is son of a skilled amateur musician, that in early ages was taught music theory and began to play the saxophone, but switched to guitar at age 17, probably due to the lack of work for saxophone-players at that time. He states Django Rheinhardt and Wes Montgomery as his first role models, but the biggest impact on him was actually horn players like John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. He stated in an interview that when John Coltrane died, he locked himself into the bathroom and cried for hours. Influences also included Charlie Christian, Joe Pass and Eric Clapton. Rumours had always told that Alan was a violin-player, cause of his violin-like sound on the guitar, but that's not actually true, even though Allan bought a violin from a pawn-shop and practiced it for some years. More...
Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa is a widely regarded American , blues rock guitarist. He has been described by Guitarist Magazine as “the new king of the blues” . He has described his influences as the great British blues rock players like Eric Clapton, Paul Kosoff, Jeff Beck, Rory Galagher and Peter Green. He has played alongside many of the greats including Clapton and B.B. King. He recently played a concert at The Royal Albert Hall in London which sold out very quickly and which was very well received. At various times during the concert he was joined on stage by guest musicians including Eric Clapton and Paul Jones (blues harmonica player ex of The Manfred Mann Group). Joe described the night as one of the best of his life and a recording of the show is available on DVD. More...
Slash
Saul Hudson, or as most people call him, the legendary Slash, was born July 23, 1965, in West Hampstead, London, England. He was born to Tony and Ola Hudson, and has a younger brother, Albion Hudson. Most people know him as the former lead guitarist of the famous band Guns N' Roses, and is now currently shredding with Velvet Revolver. He is heralded as one of the greatest guitarists of all time. (...) Saul Hudson was born on July 23, 1965 in West Hampstead, London, England. His African-American mother, Ola Hudson, worked as a costume designer for David Bowie among many other actors and musicians, and his British father, Anthony Hudson, was an artist who created album covers for musicians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. His mother, Ola Hudson, died on June 5, 2009, from lung cancer. More...
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is born on the 24th of may in 1941 in Minnesota with the name Robert Allen Zimmerman. He is an american Folk- and Rock-musician, painter and also a poet. He plays the guitar, the piano, the harmonica and sings. He is said to be one of the most important musician of the 20th century. He began in the 1950s with Folk-music and turned in the mid-1960s to Rockmusic. Besides his music, the lyrics he wrote a very special; as they were influcend by the Folkmusician Woody Guthrie in his early times, they were influenced later on by symbolist poets like Charles Daudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud and Dylan Thomas. But since the end of the 70s the bible became an growing influcene on his writings. His oeuvre has – as his real life has – changed very often and there are many bursts in his works, that the audience did not like all times but have all times been a new source of inspiration for him – an handi n hand for the whole modern music. More...
Jennifer Batten
The 80’s was the time of the male dominated ‘Shred’ genre of Guitar Playing, but with one notable exception……… The fleet-fingered and digitally dexterous Jennifer!!!
Jennifer was born in Upstate New York. She got her first Guitar at age 8, having been inspired by her sister who already owned one. Other big influences from around that time were The Beatles and The Monkees. At age 9 her Family relocated and she found herself in San Diego, California.
In 1979 Jennifer enrolled at the Guitar Institute of Technology. It was here that she met and became good friends with another aspiring student Steve Lynch (later of Autograph) and it was through him that her interest in the newly practiced form of ‘Two Handed Tapping’ was acquired. More...
Zakk Wylde
Born on the 01.14.1967 in Bayonne, New Jersey as Jeffery Philip Wielandt, Zakk Wylde has become a great influence in the Music world. He started playing guitar at the year of 8 but lost interest and picked the guitar up again at the age of 14 after trying out his friends Les Paul with a Big Muff Distortion Pedal. First he covered Black Sabbath and ZZ Top songs with his band Stone Henge, at High school he joined several other bands, including Zyris. While he was with Zyris he changed his name to Zachary Wyland. Without any hope of success he applied to the post of the replacement of Jake E. Lee in Ozzy Osbourne's band More...
Jaco Pastorius
Jaco Pastorius (born John Francis Pastorius III) was one of the most influential electric bass players in all times. He inspired a whole generation of bass players with his unique sound and an extremely good technique. He is most known for his work with fusion pioneers Weather Report and his own band Word of Mouth. He was killed in a bar fight 1987, and is an all-time legend amongst all serious bass-players. He was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania on December 1, 1951, but the family moved to Fort Lauerdale, Florida when he was about 7 years old. He died September 21, 1987 after the injurys in the bar fight. More...
Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly was one of the early pioneers of rock and roll, along with Chuck Berry he helped shape the future of modern music, paving the way for The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones and all that followed. Whereas Elvis had a great voice and stage presence, he was mot a great instrumentalist or songwriter. Holly was among the first to concern himself with all aspects of his music, including recording. He was a prolific songwriter and though equipment was primitive at the time his guitar playing was innovative and along with Chuck Berry he can be credited with making the guitar the most important instrument in all genres of modern music. More...
Steve Stevens
Born in Brooklyn, New York on May 5th, 1959, Steve Stevens is a Songwriter and Guitarist. His real name is Steven Schneider. As a Guitarist he is more well known for his position in playing alongside such people as Billy Idol, Michael Jackson and Motley Crue's Vince Neil. Although he has also performed in his own, critically acclaimed, solo projects, notably Flamenco-a-go-go and The Atomic Playboys and also collaborations such as:- Bozzio Levin Stevens, a.k.a. Black Light Syndrome. He is still sought after and held in high regard as a Session Guitarist. More...
Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny is one of the leading voices in the field of contemporary jazz, and had also made a great success in the fusion genre, written music for film scores and collaborated with most of the great jazz musicians of our time. He is regarded as creme a'la creme amongst musicians, and has a distinguished sound and an unique composition style. He has been awarded 17 Grammys in different genres during the years (10 for PMG) , and is still touring between 120-240 day's a year. More...
Glenn Hughes
I'm proud to announce we have a new wiki:er, Staffy! Here's on of his articles:
Glenn Hughes (bass/vocals) was born 21 august 1951 in Cannock, Staffordshire, England. He is most known as a member of the legendary hard rock band Deep Purple between 1973-75, but has made several solo albums as well as beeing the lead singer of Black Sabbath between 1985-86. Glenn is possibly more known for his vocal abilities rather than his bass playing and is, as stated on his homepage, considered a "singer's singer" amongs other players. More...
John "Sco" Scofield
John "Sco" Scofield is stated as one of the "Big Three", now living jazz guitar players. Along with Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell he has pioneered the sound of modern jazz since the seventies, influented by soul, blues and fusion. Considering himself as a post-modern be-bop player, he states that Joe Henderson is one of his role models. His sound as well as phrasing and bluesy influences, makes him an unmistakeable voice in the art of jazz. After his work with Miles Davis he won the Down Beat 's International Critics Poll in 1986, both matters leading to international fame and recognizion as one of the top players around. John is married to... More...
John Williams
John Williams is a classical guitarist of note and should not be confused with the other John Williams who composes music for countless movies. John is probably best known for his version of Cavatina played on classical guitar which was a massive hit and was used as the theme song to the film The Deer Hunter starring Robert De Niro and for his work with the rock/classical fusion band Sky. More...
Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck is an innovative English rock/blues/fusion guitarist, who has released 24 albums on his own or in the different bands he has taken part in. He has won four Grammy Awards, is ranked 14th on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time" list, and belongs to the "Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame" due to his career along with "The Yardbirds" . [...] Geoffrey Arnold Beck, known as Jeff Beck, was born on 24th June 1944 in Wallington, England. He grew up listening to the radio and hearing his mother play piano, and he tried to build his own guitars until he bought his first real electric guitar. After leaving school he went through several jobs like decorator and car painter before starting to work as a session musician. More...
Ace Frehley
Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley, born April 27, 1951,is an American guitarist best known as an original member and lead guitarist for the rock band Kiss. He took on the persona of 'Spaceman' when the band adopted costumes and theatrics. Frehley played with the group from its inception in 1973 until his departure in 1982. After leaving Kiss, Frehley embarked on a moderately successful solo career, which was put on hold when he rejoined Kiss in 1996 for a highly successful reunion tour. His second tenure with Kiss lasted until 2002, when he left at the conclusion... More...
Les Paul
**Rest in Peace**
Lester William Polfus (born on June 9,1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin),better known as Les Paul is an American guitarist. He is known to be one of the most important figures in the development of modern electric guitars and recording techniques. Les Paul is also known as a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar, Multitrack Recording, and various reverb effects. Most people mistake him with his biggest invention: The Gibson Les Paul solidbody guitar. More...
- GEAR
Building A Usa Strat On A Budget
An in-depth article by Mudbone
"I have recently purchased a 1993 USA Peavey Predator with the intention of upgrading all the hardware. For those of you who aren't familiar with the USA Peavey Predator, its essentially a Strat copy with a kinda funny looking headstock. The neck and body were made in the US, and the hardware were made in the Far East I believe."
"Brand new it was sold for less than $300, and on first inspection it is quite obvious where Peavey cut corners to bring down the price - the hardware is rubbish. Terrible tuners, cheap tremolo made from pot metal, and mediocre pickups."
Malekko Ekko 616 Video Demo
A great video demo by instructor Bear Rose. The Ekko 616 is an Analog Delay and it is really good at what it does! The Tech 21 Liverpool is like an overdrive but it is voiced to be like a Vox AC30 (think The Edge from U2 or Brian May from Queen).
Equipping The Home Studio
An article by Instructor Todd Simpson - "This article is about my experience with different recording gear. I've owned a few different audio interfaces and thought I'd share my experience and invite others to do the same."
Sensible Jones' Guide to Building your own Guitar
OK, ever felt like you want to 'build' your own Guitar, to your own Specs, but didn't think you had the skills??
Well, I'm here to tell you that ANYONE, with just a little bit of time and patience and a few basic Tools, is capable of producing their own 'Custom Creation'!!
In this article I'll take you through the assembly of the Guitar pictured on the right.>>>>>>>
As you can see it's a Strat styled instrument and so we'll be using a Vintage style Tremolo Bridge and 3 pickups with 1 Volume and 2 Tone controls. The whole process is exactly the same, whether you are building a Tele, a V, a Les Paul etc! It doesn't matter what shape it is, it will still have the same basic geometry and parts!!!
So, what do you need to get started???
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Crazy Diamonds Guide to changing your Bridge Pick-up
A few weeks ago I decided to change the bridge pickup on my Fender Stratocaster. Like a lot people I found that I didn’t really like the sound of that pickup and that I wanted something that could handle a little more distortion. After shopping a bit online I have found a DiMarzio Chopper pickup that looked pretty cool. So I have ordered that pickup and I have installed it by myself. At first I wanted to take some pictures in case something went wrong, so I could look at the original settings. But once I had the camera out I thought that I could share my experience with you.(More....)
Staffays rebuild of a cheap Strat: The Staffaycaster
The birth of the Staffaycaster
Clumsy as I am, Im stepping right into our masterbuilder Sensible Jones territory and sending some info on how to fix a bad axe.
Background:
Since Im totally upset over Fender's ridiculous prices on their NOS vintage masterbuilt signature custom guitar's pieces of crap, I will try to prove that You can get the same sound (or nearly) from a total piece'o'junk. Fender did not built quality instruments in the 50's/60's so who say's that they are now? So what I did was to pick up a "no name" guitar for 150€ at my local dealer and started to mess with it. (this is actually a good idea to get a good instrument at a very low price, they use to have "home-built" guitars laying around that they could not sell so easily and therefore is cheap) The headstock on the guitar said "Fender", but even Fender can't glue a name that bad on a headstock, so we had some theorys that it could have been a Squire or as I am bound to believe - a kit that someone built.
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Marc's amazing Guide to Ibanez RG and S Series Guitars!
Since Ibanez is one of the leading guitar companies used on this forum, I thought id dump my knowledge of the brand on to you, so you may buy yourself a real quality Ibanez guitar! This comes after I get countless PM’s on which to buy “is this any good” so on and so forth...
To learn about the history of Ibanez guitars check out the Ibanez GMC Wiki article here: CLICK In this guide I will teach you a little about Ibanez guitar quality, all the key terms you will need to know, and how to get the guitar of your dreams at good prices. Used or new. I will talk about mostly about RG series, and S series since those are the most popular, (and other models derived from these two) however, the same rules apply for all Ibanez models. (More....)
- THEORY
Always wanted to learn theory but don't know where to start? Check out Andrew's Theory Lessons, and work your way through them from the beginning.
- GMC JOURNAL
Love Me
Kristofer Dahl is back and rocking as hard as ever, his latest track is a crazy mixture of Rammstein inspired riffs with heavy and shocking opera-like vocals, don't miss it! - GMC's Founder & Rocker tells us what inspired him to record his latest creation:
Feedback from YOU in the video chat made me realize I should try and record my falsetto voice.
My ongoing collab with Ben as well as his circular vibrato technique.
Sinisa's wicked approach to rock soloing in the Red Shot collab
Ivan's heavy water collab inspired me to seriously work on the fingerpicking technique.
'Nuff said - if you like GMC, this lesson is for you!
- TECHNIQUES
Welcome!
In this course, I'll be showing you how to get started with "Alternate Picking". In this lesson, I will try to assume nothing. We will start at the very beginning and work out way up. The goal of this series is to take you from 0 to 60 BPM (Beats Per Minute) and beyond. Once you can keep your alternate your picking steady and go across strings, you are ready to begin working up your speed. All it takes is practice.
Please do not use any sort of profanity or try to start any off topic discussions that don't pertain to our coursework here. If you fail to adhere to this policy, you may be removed from participating in this class. I can't wait to get started and begin hearing feedback from you. Lets do it!
As we go through these lessons, I really do hope that you will feel free to participate and share your attempts at the lessons with me for review and feedback. I'll check in to answer questions and provide feedback on a regular basis, so if you have questions as you go, please ask 
If you have a camera/web cam of your own, think about recording your lessons and posting them to a site like YouTube.com. It's free and it's a great way to track your progress and for me to be able to see you play and provide feedback and further instruction. Also, it's a great way to get used to playing under pressure so to speak. Eventually, as you play in front of audiences, you will get your "Stage Legs". This just means that you won't as nervous playing in front of people as you may initially be. With video, it's a good way to start heading that direction. You may find that something you could play very well, suddenly seems harder once there is a camera on you. This is not true for everyone, but it is a common theme. If you can get used to playing in front of a camera and learn to summon your talent at will, it can serve as a great way to get used to playing at your best level despite being filmed, watched, critiqued, applauded, or even heckled. So start recording yourself playing and start posting it to a video sharing site. It's a great way to connect with other players as well as to track your own progress. After a while, you will be able to look back on your older videos and see how much you've improved and that is a great feeling.
Before we begin, let's talk a bit about time and practice. Life is a bussy thing and the only way to get better is to take control of your time and carve out time to practice each day. It is not easy in our hectic lives to find that time, but it is critical that you manage your time in such a way as to allow for daily practice, seven days a week if at all possible. Five days a week at a minimum. If you can, try to spend an hour each day with your instrument.
Before playing, always try to do some gentle stretches with your hands and wrists. Carpal tunnel syndrome is the bane of any musician. Avoid it by stretching lightly before and after playing. Also, do the usual things to help maintain yourself like getting enough sleep, and not over doing it when going out when friends. Learning an instrument can be made much easier by taking care of yourself so that your mind is clear and focused when you sit down to practice and learn.
I'm looking forward to teaching you how to get from 0 to 60 and beyond!
Todd
The Lessons
LESSON #1 - Getting Started With Alternate Picking
LESSON #2 - Adding Notes
LESSON #3 - Reversing Patterns /Changing Strings
LESSON #4 - Right Hand / Left Hand Synchronization
LESSON #5 - Back and Forth
LESSON #6 - Pedal Point/Tone
LESSON #7 - Back and Forth Revisted from lower to higher strings
LESSON #8 - Different shapes on different strings
LESSON #9 - Building speed
LESSON #10 - Incorporating Inversions
LESSON #11 - Inverting Inversions
LESSON #12 - Sliding
LESSON #13 - Using Full Scales and Inversions
LESSON #14 - Building Speed on Open Strings
LESSON #15 - Introduction to "Economic Picking / Directional Picking"
LESSON #16 - Triad Shapes Across 3 Strings
LESSON #17 - Using "Back and Forth" techniques in full scales
And More!
Lesson Series by Todd Simpson
- GENRES
J-Pop (Japanese Pop or Japanese Music) is nothing less that Pop but specific from Japan, that was born in the early 90's. Modern J-Pop has its roots on 60's music such as The Beatles.
Unlike Enka music, in which the artist uses japanese traditional instruments, J-Pop uses modern ones such as drums, guitars, bass, sampler and synthesizer. J-Pop is also known for having a more common language, unlike Enka that uses a more formal language register.
Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to Rocksteady and Reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean Mento and Calypso with American Jazz and Rhythm and Blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the upbeat.
In the early 1960s, Ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica and was popular with British Mods (Modernists.). Later it became popular with many Skinheads. Music historians typically divide the history of ska into three periods:-
1. The original Jamaican scene of the 1960s (First Wave),
2. The English 2 Tone ska revival of the late 1970s (Second Wave) and
3. The third wave ska movement, which started in the 1980s and continues today. (Third Wave)(More....)
Reggae!!
This is a musical form first developed in Jamaica in the mid-late 60’s.
Whilst it is a term that is sometimes used to envelope and describe all kinds of Jamaican music it is essentially a separate entity that grew up at the same time as Ska and Rocksteady. The main difference between Reggae and these other two genres is that Reggae mainly focus’ on the 2nd and fourth beats in a Bar, the ‘Skank’ or Off-beat, but also with some kind of Rhythmic emphasis on the third beat.
It is this ‘third beat’ that is used to differentiate between Reggae, Ska and Rocksteady.
A usual guide is that Ska is faster than Reggae and Rocksteady is slower.(More....)
Desert Blues!!!
In a sense with the development of the Desert Blues, modern music has come full circle. The development of the blues in America and reggae both have their roots firmly in Africa. Desert Blues music however has developed in Africa, most notably the Southern Sahara Desert but is heavily influenced by American Blues and reggae music.
(More....)
Death Metal!!!
While the origin of the term Death Metal is often argued, whether it was from the band name of Death, The fanzine called Death Metal started by Hellhammer (and later Celtic Frost) members, or the demo released by Possessed called Death Metal, There is always one underlying factor that cannot be argued, The pioneers themselves. Bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Venom, Possessed, and even Slayer can most be accredited with laying the foundation of what would come.... More
- GMC Instructors
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We all know GMC instructors are skilled guitarists, but what do they do when they aren't teaching at GMC? Record new albums!
GMC:er Bondy has recently created a detailed list of the current albums recorded by GMC Instructors, check it out here!
Some food for thought!
Valuable pieces of wisdom gathered from the Instructor's Corner are collected & updated in this section. Take a look, and if you find something inpiring, jump inside and follow the thread link to see what our instructors had to say about it in our forum!. Sometimes, some good advice in time is better than a hundred hours of practice :)
As most of us know, Mr. Daniel Robinson has some very helpful tips for all kind of techniques. A Gmc:er has collected the ones he could find, and filed them here at one spot.
Motivation, composing, speed, techniques, weaknesses... it's all in there! 
