Have you ever wondered what the difference was between a standard guitar and a baritone guitar? Premier Guitar has a pretty good write up about baritone guitars, written by Sweetwater Sales Engineer Art Hill.

In essence, it comes down to scale length. The scale length of a baritone guitar rests between a bass guitar and a standard guitar. As a result, baritone guitars often use heavier gauge strings and are tuned down lower than standard tuned guitars.

I was surprised to found out the diversity of artists that have used baritone guitars. Duane Eddy, George Harrison, John Lennon, Joe Perry, Johnny Cash, Dave Matthews, and Stevie Ray Vaughan all used baritone guitars at some point in their career, among many others.

Below is a video of the 2005 recording session for John Mayer’s song “In Repair” off of his Continuum album. In short, Mayer booked studio time and invited eight-string guitarist Charlie Hunter and drummer Steve Jordan in to write. Having no real idea of a song, they wrote “In Repair” in one day just by jamming and working out the parts.

As an aside, that’s one of the things I find so exciting about music. When you’re creating new music, whatever you create didn’t exist in the world seconds before you created it. Sometimes it seems to flow through you; other times, it takes a lot of work, but it’s always rewarding.

Part 1 of the recording session video is below. Watch Part 2 on YouTube.

This is a nice video of Joe Bonamassa jamming in the studio playing a song called “Stratus” with guitarist GE Smith, keyboardist Demetrios Pappas, drummer Anton Fig, bassist Chico Huff, and electric violinist Tracy Silverman. The video was recorded March 19, 2004 at Star City Recording, Bethlehem, PA. For more info, see the Studio Jams Web site.

Electronic Musician magazine has recently interviewed Derek Trucks about his newly built home studio, which is where Trucks and company recorded the Derek Trucks Band’s new album Already Free. In the interview, Trucks discussed how having a home studio changed the approach he and the band took for the new album.

We tracked everything there. We got into the routine of recording: I would drive the kids to school in the morning, and just come up with some seed of a song. And whoever was around — me and Mike Mattison, who’s our vocalist, it was Doyle Bramhall for a while, Warren Haynes for a while — I would get with them, and we would finish the tune off. [Then we'd] bring the band in and track it. And as we were tracking it, if there was anything anyone heard, any extra vocals, any studio magic you wanted to throw on it, we would do it all while we were in the moment. And then that evening, if we felt that we had it, we would do a pretty good rough mix, just in case. And we found, with that track that ended up on Susan’s record [“Butterfly”], that the rough mix was better than what we ended up with months later when we spent a full day mixing [laughs].

He also discusses some of his equipment that has been purchased for the home studio, including a console once owned by Ray Davies and the Kinks. Also included in the interview is a sidebar with Bobby Tis Jr., who engineered much of Already Free, Bobby Tis Sr., who helped design the studio, and Marty Wall, Trucks’ front of house engineer. Check it out!

Classical guitarist Austin Moorhead has posted to YouTube a really nice version of him playing Sergio Assad’s Fantasia Carioca, which I’ve embedded below. I’m a fan of Assad’s guitar playing but wasn’t all that familiar with his compositions. I really like Fantasia Carioca, and Moorhead plays it very well.

(via Chris Davis at the Classical Guitar Blog)

One of my favorite bands of 2008, Back Door Slam, have announced that they are breaking up. It looks like based on the letter on the BDS Web site, guitarist Davy Knowles will be continuing on with the name, as he is currently working on a follow-up to Roll Away. Drummer Ross Doyle and bassist Adam Jones will be pursuing other projects in the UK. If the rumors are true, Knowles is enjoying life in the US, while the other band members missed the UK.

I’m sad to see that the group is breaking up as it currently is, but my hope is that Knowles will find other competent band members to fill the void left by Jones and Doyle. I saw BDS live early last year and really enjoyed it. Knowles is a phenomenal guitarist, and I thought the band did a very good job of providing the musical foundation. Whoever backs him up in the future, I really hope that Knowles continues playing and expanding on the blues. In my opinion, he’s one of the most exciting guitarists to come out in the last few years.

Flea has recently announced a new line of basses called the FLEABASS that he is going to be putting out this year, with the goal being to create a solid line of guitars for both the entry-level student and the professional.

Describing his inspiration for FLEABASS, Flea said “FLEABASS is born of my love of music education as a studier and a teacher of music, and a lover and a romanticizer of the tradition of it. I wanted students to have an instrument they could fall in love with, and I wanted them to be able to do it with the limited means that most of them have for acquiring one.”

The inspiration for the new basses came from Flea’s involvement in a non-profit called the Silverlake Conservatory of Music that he created to help teach music to school-age children. He saw that the instruments being made for students were low quality, so he saw an opportunity to step in and create a high-quality product for a low price. He’s planning on putting his money where his mouth is, too. In a recent Bass Player magazine interview, he said he’s planning to take these out with him for the new Red Hot Chili Peppers tour.

Both 3/4 and full-size FLEABASS models will be available. Full-size models will have a retail price of $499, and 3/4 models will have a retail price of $399. The basses will be available in four different finishes: Sunny Bass” (orange with yellow), “Water Bass” (blue with orange), “Punk Bass” (green with pink), and the “Wild One” (black with white). See photos and get more information at the FLEABASS Web site or on the FLEABASS MySpace page.

A few weeks ago, my wife saw Robert Plant in the local Whole Foods store. Yes, that Robert Plant. (Everybody’s gotta eat, right?) Since then, she’s been kicking herself for not saying anything to him. In a cruel and ironic coincidence, the Guitar World magazine that was delivered later that week featured Led Zeppelin on the cover.

This encounter has got me wondering what I would do if I ever saw someone who was a personal musical hero of mine. Would I go up and say hello, or would I leave them alone? For the most part, I think I’d leave them alone. I’m sure that famous musicians get tired of people coming up to them everywhere they go. But, at the same time, I imagine that they appreciate hearing how their music has affected people.

So, I don’t know what I’d do if I happened to see one of my musical heroes in an unlikely place. What would you do?

For guitar collectors, Gibson Les Paul models made from 1958 through 1960 represent the holy grail of guitars. In the recent past, the value of Les Paul’s made during this period have skyrocketed, going for multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars. As of this writing, Gruhn Guitars here in Nashville has three 1959 Les Pauls each of which are in the $250,000 range and a fourth going for $325,000.

Growing up, I was always drawn to the Fender Stratocaster. Most of my guitar heroes played the Stratocaster at one time or another. However, in recent years, I’ve been drawn more and more to the history and sound of the Les Paul. Additionally, as someone who would love to build a guitar collection some day, I’ve been fascinated with these guitars and why they’re worth so much. So, I was intrigued when I saw Tony Bacon’s book Million Dollar Les Paul: In Search of the Most Valuable Guitar in the World in a local book store.

In the book, Bacon attempts to find out if one of these historic models has ever been sold for $1,000,000. In the process, he provides a thorough history of the Les Paul and some of its most famous players, including Les Paul himself. Bacon gives both competing histories regarding the origin of the Les Paul model, both Ted McCarty’s and Les Paul’s version. Regardless of which story is true, the first Les Paul model was launched by Gibson in 1952. The guitar had a gold top, which was Paul’s idea. Because the guitars were selling well, two more models were introduced in 1954, the Les Paul Junior and the Les Paul Custom. In 1958, Gibson decided to make a change to the Les Paul model; instead of a gold top, they offered a sunburst top, and the history of the Les Paul was forever changed.

Remarkably, by late 1960, sales of the sunburst Les Paul were declining and Gibson introduced the SG line of guitars, and the Les Paul became an afterthought for a number of years. Bacon postulates that approximately 1,450 sunburst Les Pauls were made between 1958 and 1960.

In the 1960s, the unlikely rise of British blues led to increased interest in the sunburst Les Paul. Players like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Peter Green helped solidify the place of the Les Paul guitar in history.

In the book, Bacon also describes the components of the guitar and how they helped shaped its collectibility. For instance, the Patent Applied For (PAF) humbuckers used in the late 50s model guitars have a mystique and collectibility all their own.

Due to demand, Gibson reintroduced the Les Paul Standard model in the 1970s. However, according to many players, it took Gibson a number of years to get the guitar “right” in comparison to the famous late 50s models. Even today, you’ll find arguments in Internet forums about whether they truly are reproducing the Les Paul accurately.

Throughout his exploration of the history of the Les Paul, Bacon interweaves insights into why the Les Pauls from 1958-1960 are so collectible from collectors and historians. It’s interesting to read the insights; you can tell that the people interviewed in the book are passionate about the guitar.

A nice addition to the book is the photographs of some famous Les Pauls, including guitars played by Duane Allman, Jimmy Page, Billy Gibbons, Paul Kossoff, Peter Green, Mike Bloomfield, Keith Richards, and of course Eric Clapton. Additionally, the book includes an interview with an owner of an early sunburst Les Paul, and interviews with guitarists Billy Gibbons, Joe Bonamassa, and Les Paul himself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you’re interested at all in the history of the Les Paul, I think you’ll enjoy Million Dollar Les Paul, too. Ultimately, he didn’t find definitive proof that a sunburst Les Paul model has ever sold for $1,000,000, but his journey provides for an excellent history of the Les Paul and its famous players.

The winter NAMM show was a little over a week ago, and some great videos are coming out from the show. Rich Murray over at The Guitar Channel has rounded up quite a few good ones. Thanks to Rich, one of the best I’ve seen so far is this one of Eric Johnson playing his new signature Stratocaster, featuring a bound Rosewood neck, which looks great. In my opinion, the neck binding really enhances the look of the guitar and makes it stand out from other Fenders. Check out Eric playing the guitar: