During one of John Grisham’s recent book tours, Grisham answered questions posed by readers. One reader posed the basic question “How can I become a writer?” I thought Grisham’s response was fantastic. He essentially responded by saying “Do you want to be a writer, or do you want to write?” It was a very thought-provoking answer, and I think the same logic applies to the guitar.

I think most of us got into playing guitar because we wanted to be a guitar player. We were inspired by our favorite guitarist(s), and we picked up the instrument to try and recreate the music that we loved. Moreover, many of us wanted to be a famous guitar hero that other people look up to like we looked up to our heroes. Wanting to be a guitar player is not a bad thing. However, at some point, those of us that stick with the instrument must make the transition from wanting to be a guitar player to wanting to play guitar.

You might be wondering, “What’s the difference?” The distinction is this. Wanting to be a guitar player is an external motivating factor. The focus is on how other people perceive you. By contrast, wanting to play guitar is an internal motivating factor. You are playing guitar because you want to, not because you want others to perceive you as a guitar player. If you want to play the guitar, you will do so even if no one else knows about it. It takes a lot of hours woodshedding in order to be a great guitar player, and most of those hours are spent alone hunched over the guitar. And, spending all that time requires a great desire to play the guitar.

Although I think wanting to play guitar is more important than wanting to be a guitar player, I’m not suggesting that you can’t want to do both. In fact, some of the best artists are those that love the guitar so much, they can’t think of doing anything other than being a guitar player and playing the guitar all the time. The choices are not mutually exclusive. However, I don’t think you can ever be a great guitar player unless you want to play guitar all the time.

I love t-shirts. I feel like a good t-shirt sets the tone for the day. If I’m in a guitar mood, I’ll put on a guitar-related t-shirt, and the shirt will help keep me focused on the guitar throughout the day, even if I’m not around my guitar. It’s also a great conversation starter; it lets people know that you’re a guitar player. And, one of the things that I’ve wanted to do ever since starting the Guitar Lifestyle Web site in 2005 was to create a guitar-related t-shirt. To that end…

I’m very pleased to announce the availability of the Guitar Lifestyle t-shirt! The Guitar Lifestyle Web site is currently being redesigned by my friends at Purr Design, and the Guitar Lifestyle t-shirt sports the new logo design that they have come up with, which I’m very fond of. The shirt is available in several different colors: Military Green (shown), Black, Cardinal, Navy, Red, Royal, Brown, and Charcoal.

The shirts are fulfilled by CafePress, which is a well-known online provider of custom-made products. I have the Military Green shirt and am very impressed with the quality of the shirt. The shirt is pre-shrunk and 100% cotton.

If you love the guitar and guitar-related t-shirts like I do, show the world with the Guitar Lifestyle t-shirt!

DavidGilmour.com is reporting that a Fender Custom Shop David Gilmour Stratocaster, which is modeled after Gilmour’s famous Black Strat, will be released on September 22, 2008. The release is scheduled to coincide with the release of Gilmour’s “Live in Gdansk” album, which will also be released on September 22.

Here’s what DavidGilmour.com has to say about the guitar:

In the two years that the guitar has been in discussion, a number of prototypes have been produced, and the final version was only approved when David was happy that all elements combined to make a sound that was as close as possible to his own guitar’s. The ‘Black Strat’ comes in a hard case (by G&G) stuffed with extras: Phil Taylor’s ‘Black Strat’ book, a set of GHS David Gilmour Boomer strings, a copy of the 3-disc version of Live In Gdańsk, a cable by Evidence Audio, a deluxe Fender leather strap, and a David Gilmour plectrum. The interior of the case is a plush green, including embroidered David Gilmour and Fender Custom Shop logos.

There will be two models: a relic model and a ‘New Old Stock’ model:

• The ‘Relic’, which replicates the ‘Black Strat’ as it is today with aged parts and worn paint, plus all the wear and tear of David’s heavily-used 30-year-old guitar – with no backplate.
• The ‘New Old Stock’ model, which replicates the ‘Black Strat’ as it is now – but with all-new parts, ‘new’ paint finish and an additional white plastic backplate. The NOS model should be found at a lower retail price than the ‘Relic’.

Looks nice!

* Photo credit: DavidGilmour.com

(via Strat-o-Blogster)

Would you buy a guitar from Best Buy? You may have that choice soon. The Associated Press is reporting that Best Buy is planning on opening up music centers inside as many as 85 of its existing retail stores:

The nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer will announce Tuesday that it plans to open as many as 85 of the music centers inside its stores by the end of the year and could add even more locations in the future, executives told The Associated Press.

Each site will use about 2,500 square feet of retail space and include roughly 1,000 different products with well-known brand names such as Fender, Gibson, Drum Workshop and Roland.

There are already 10 stores that include music centers in California, Illinois, and Minnesota. In addition to instruments, the music centers will have sheet music and other guitar accessories. It sounds like they’ll have a variety of instruments, from beginning-level instruments to high-end instruments.

I think it’s great that more people may be exposed to a wider range of musical instruments, but I think I’ll still be buying my instruments from music stores. A lot of buying a musical instrument involves asking questions, and I’m not sure that Best Buy can compete in that area. I’d be surprised if they are able to hire and staff the music centers with knowledgeable sales people, but maybe I’ll be proven wrong.

Introduction
Last year, I wanted something a little different than the Strat I was playing. I wanted a guitar with a little bit thicker sound and a little more versatility. I love my Strat, but after Gibson lost their lawsuit against PRS (which had prevented PRS from producing the Singlecut models), I anxiously awaited the re-release of the SE Singlecut series.

Ever since I first saw Paul Reed Smith guitars over 15 years ago, I’ve wanted to own one. I thought (and still think) the paint jobs and attention to detail were amazing. However, back then I was just starting out and had no need for such a high-end guitar. In fact, I still don’t really have a need for such a high-end guitar. Enter the SE series of PRS guitars. The PRS Singlecut SE guitars have a street price of around $600.

According to Paul Reed Smith, it was actually Carlos Santana’s idea to create the SE series. He thought that more players should be able to see and obtain the quality of the PRS guitars. Subsequently, PRS found a manufacturing facility in Korea and taught them how to make PRS guitars.

Guitar Specs
Body - Singlecut mahogany body with maple top & flame maple veneer (except for opaque black)

Neck - 25″ scale length mahogany 22-fret neck with rosewood fretboard and moon inlays, Neck carve - wide fat

Hardware - PRS designed stoptail, PRS designed tuners

Electronics - PRS designed treble and bass humbucking pickups, Volume and tone control with 3-way toggle pickup selector

Playability
Out of the box, this guitar played great. I haven’t had to do any setup changes in the 12 months since I’ve had the guitar. The neck feels great in my hands. It’s a little thinner than my Strat neck, and I generally prefer a slightly thicker neck, but the wide-fat PRS neck is very smooth and fast. I don’t like really low action, and this guitar’s action was set up perfectly straight from the factory. Not too high, and not too low.

The guitar is fairly light and comfortable. It feels a couple of pounds lighter than my Strat. However, I usually play sitting down, so weight isn’t really an issue.

Coming from a Strat-style guitar, it took me a few days to get used to the different position of the guitar when sitting down. The guitar sits slightly to the right of where I’m used to playing. It also took a few days to get used to the slightly shorter scale length (25″ vs. 25.5″ for the Strat). That being said, it really didn’t take long at all to get used to the guitar, and once I did I’ve really enjoyed it; it’s a fantastic playing guitar.

Sound
This guitar sounds great for a mid-range guitar. The pickups have a smooth sound, but can get nasty if you want them to. I find that it’s really easy to get a Cream-era Clapton sound out of the guitar. But, I can also turn up the gain and use the bridge pickup and get a metal sound, if and when I want to. I’ve been playing the guitar primarily through a Fender G-DEC practice amp, and the sound is fairly impressive. A lot of people on the forums recommend changing the stock pickups on the PRS SE guitars. I don’t know if I agree. The stock pickups sound great for the playing I do, although I don’t do any gigging. For most people, I think the stock pickups are fine.

Conclusion
After 12 months of ownership, I still really like my PRS Singlecut SE guitar. I have the tobacco sunburst finish model, which looks fantastic hanging on the wall. Additionally, the guitar plays and sounds great for a mid-range guitar. In fact, ever since getting the guitar last year, I’ve been playing it more than my Strat, although I go through phases where I play one guitar more than the other.

Compared directly to the Epiphone Les Pauls, the PRS Singlecut SE model is a better value, in my opinion. The quality of workmanship is fantastic for a guitar in this price range. I haven’t found anything that I’ve wanted to change or upgrade on the guitar. It’s not an American-made PRS, but it’s the next best thing and it’s less than a third of the price of an American-made PRS guitar.

If you’re looking for a dual-humbucking guitar in a classic style body, I highly recommend checking out the PRS Singlecut SE guitars. It works well for both classic and modern sounds and looks great to boot!

Back Door Slam, one of my favorite new bands, has recently released a new EP consisting of 4 new songs and a video. The songs included on the EP are:

• Back Door Slam - The song by Robert Cray from which they got their name
• Riding with the King - by John Hiatt
• Been Down So Long - by The Doors
• Red House - The Jimi Hendrix classic
• It’ll All Come Around - Video

Anyone who has seen BDS play live over the past year or so has seen them play most of these songs in concert. I’m glad to finally have some ‘official’ recordings of these songs. The EP is available on iTunes.

BDS has also recently been selected as the opening act for the upcoming Kid Rock/Lynyrd Skynyrd arena tour. Guitarist Davy Knowles was also featured in the latest issue of Guitar Player magazine. I’m glad to see them getting recognized. They are one of the best new blues/rock bands I’ve heard in a long time. Prior to the arena tour, they are passing through town again, so I’m looking forward to seeing them again.

Here’s a video of Back Door Slam playing Outside Woman Blues by Blind Joe Reynolds:

Julian Tan of Guitar Pug recently listed several guitar-related applications that have been created for the iPhone. Having recently purchased an iPhone, I’ve been looking for some cool apps to throw on it, and Julian’s list is a nice round-up of the ones I’ve found. Julian’s list includes:

Guitar Toolkit - This seems to be the most popular guitar-related app on the iPhone so far. It includes a tuner, a chord finder, a metronome, and tuning tones.

Band - An app by MooCowMusic, Band includes a collection of virtual instruments that you can use to create music. Instruments included are drums, piano, bass guitar, and guitar. Crowd noise is also included.

Pandora - Pandora is the iPhone version of the popular Pandora Radio streaming music service. This one looks particularly interesting to me.

Julian’s list also mentions a few other apps, so go check it out!

Guitar World has recently posted a video tour of John 5 discussing his collection of vintage guitars, mostly consisting of vintage Telecasters. Looking at vintage guitars is fascinating to me, and John 5 has a great collection, including an almost mint 1953 blond Telecaster and a mint 1954 Blackguard Esquire.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Fender Jazzmaster:

Fender unveiled its Jazzmaster guitar in 1958, intending to score a one-two punch with an instrument that would be the company’s top-of-the line successor to the Stratocaster guitar and appeal to serious jazz guitarists, a class of musician that had eluded Fender’s widening reach. Although it succeeded on neither count, the distinctive Jazzmaster nonetheless surprised everybody by reaching widespread success in some unexpected arenas.

To celebrate the anniversary, Fender is throwing the Jazzmaster a party on September 12, 2008, at New York’s famous Knitting Factory nightclub. The party will feature a concert with Jazzmaster guitarists Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., Nels Cline of Wilco, and Tom Verlaine of Television.

Gibson has recently released several new guitars in their Inspired By series, including the Joe Bonamassa Aged Les Paul Goldtop. The guitar includes a carved maple top, 2-piece light mahogany back, cream binding, 1-piece mahogany neck, 1959 neck profile, Bonamassa Truss rod cover, and BurstBucker 2 and BurstBucker 3 pickups. The pictures of this guitar look fantastic. I can’t wait to see one in person.

Other new guitars in Gibson’s Inspired By series include a Steve Jones Les Paul Custom, a Mick Jones Les Paul Custom, an Alex Lifeson ES-355, a Lee Ritenour ES-335, and a Johnny Winter Firebird.

* Photo credit: Gibson.com