Guitar World magazine recently posted a video of their exclusive tour of the Paul Reed Smith factory. I found it interesting that, although machines are used to do the cutting of the body and neck, there is still a lot of manual labor involved in assembling a PRS guitar.

I recently mentioned Joe Bonamassa’s recent stop in Milwaukee where he gave an impromptu lesson to young blues guitarist Tallan Lantz. The reason Bonamassa was at Cascio Interstate Music that day was to give a guitar clinic. Fortunately for those of us that couldn’t make it, someone recorded the clinic and posted it to YouTube!

There are seven parts (videos) of the clinic. I’ve embedded part one below, and here are links to part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, and part seven. Enjoy!

If you’ve ever tried to lug around a bunch of pedals to a gig, you know how useful a pedalboard can be. However, pedalboards can be very expensive. If you’re adventerous and want to save some money, you might want to try building one yourself! Rob Hampton of Heartwood Guitar did just that, and he detailed the build on his blog.

All I needed was a way to transport all my pedals without having to set them up and break them down every trip. Also, I’d shelved some of my effects—a wah, a volume pedal—because I couldn’t be bothered to fool with them whenever I wanted to move my rig. The pedalboard would finally give me the excuse to dust off those really useful effects and integrate them permanently into my signal chain.

Eric Johnson used to write a column called “Wild Stringdom” for Guitar World magazine. I saw a recent post on his forums linking to an archive of one of Johnson’s old articles, in which he discusses his approach to soloing and shifting positions.

I always want to squeeze the optimum tone out of each note. Guitarists often say that your sound comes from your technique, your guitar or your rig. That’s true to a certain degree, but in my opinion, the finger you fret with and the string you use will also drastically affect your tone. I like all the notes in my lines to have a certain cohesiveness of texture. To that extent, I constantly work out my fingerings, using any and all permutations I can to play my lines. If necessary, I will skip around the strings in order for a passage to maintain tonal consistency; that’s why I might make some fingering choices that seem odd, illogical or simply more difficult to the average guitarist.

The article provides some insight into Johnson’s approach to fret fingering with some nice examples.

Robben Ford recently released a companion DVD to his Art of Blues Rhythm DVD. The new DVD is called The Art of Blues Solos.

Although I haven’t seen either DVD yet, I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Art of Blues Rhythm DVD. I’m also a fan of Ford’s phrasing, so I’m looking forward to watching him explain his soloing technique in the new DVD.

In the DVD, he talks about picking, theory, recording, and his influences. A printable PDF containing tab for the lessons is included with the DVD. There is almost two hours of instructional and live footage included with the DVD.

The DVD includes the following tracks:

• Introduction
• Developing Your Style
• “Playin’ a Bit”
• Basic Theory
• “Cannonball Shuffle”
• Techniques: Picking & Sliding
• “In the Beginning”
• Robben’s Early Jazz Influences
• “Oasis”
• Altered Scales
• “Roger’s Blues”
• Recording
• Robben’s Equipment

Austin band the Arc Angels have recently reunited with the goal of releasing an album of new material and a DVD. Additionally, they will be playing some live shows this year. I’m a fan of the Arc Angel’s debut album, so I’m looking forward to hearing the new music!

Original members Doyle Bramhall II, Charlie Sexton, and Chris Layton are part of the reunited group. Unfortunately, original bassist and Double Trouble member Tommy Shannon will not be a part of the new group.

Here’s what Bramhall and Sexton have to say about the reunion:

“Charlie and I started to write together again and decided that we should get the band back together. The chemistry that we all have together is one entity and it’s something very real. It’s fun,” said Bramhall. “We’re trying to take advantage and savor the good things and one of the good things is the Arc Angels,” added Charlie Sexton.

The group will be kicking off the reunion with a show at SXSW tomorrow, March 20. They will be playing more shows this Spring and will be opening for Eric Clapton during his Royal Albert Hall run in May. Check out the band’s MySpace page for tour dates and information.

Producer Kevin Shirley recorded much of Joe Bonamassa’s recording sessions for his latest album The Ballad of John Henry. I think the goal is to include this footage on a DVD at some point in the future. In the meantime, you can watch the recording sessions for the song Stop! below.

It’s pretty cool to be able to watch a snippet of the recording process. You get a glimpse into the guitars he used for the different parts. For example, he used a Gibson Lucille guitar for the first section of the first solo and followed that up with his Les Paul. A Strat even makes an appearance in the video!

The Reverend Billy Gibbons gives us a blues guitar lesson. In the lesson, he starts with the basics and shows how to embellish on top of that. Enjoy!

You may not have heard of Tomo Fujita, but you’ve probably heard of at least one his students. John Mayer, while a student at Berklee College of Music, studied with Tomo.

Tomo is not only an accomplished teacher, he’s also an accomplished guitarist. He counts among his influences B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Larry Carlton, Jeff Beck, James Brown, and Ray Charles. Each of these influences is evident in Tomo’s playing, but Tomo merges each of these influences into his own style, which is probably best described as a mixture of blues, funk, jazz, and rock.

The 10 tracks on Tomo’s latest instrumental album, Right Place, Right Time, fuse all of his influences into a unique musical concoction. The album starts off with the uptempo track “Catty Woman,” which showcases Tomo’s strong melodic phrasing. “Confidence Cat 2,” the second track on the album, starts off clean and funky and Tomo’s slightly distorted guitar comes in for the solo. “Texas Heat” follows up true to its title, with a Texas blues feel to it. The next song, “Sweet Home,” slows things down a bit and highlights Tomo’s tasteful phrasing. “Funky Thang” is another funky tune, as its title suggests. “Orange Juice and Vodka” is my favorite track on the album. It’s got a funky, catchy riff that Tomo really shines over. “Gogo” highlights Tomo’s trademark slap guitar stylings, as well as a nice acoustic interlude. This track also features a horn section, which is an interesting addition to the track. The next tune has an interesting title: “Drive Me Nuts,” which is another uptempo song with a catchy riff. Tomo then puts his take on “Twinkle, Twinkle”. He really takes the melody of “Twinkle, Twinkle” and adds a great jazz feel to it. Finishing the album is “Just Funky 2006,” which is a funky, uptempo song with the horn section making a return.

I really enjoy Tomo’s guitar playing on Right Place, Right Time. Tomo’s a fantastic and tasteful guitarist, and this album really highlights those traits. If you’ve never heard of Tomo, this album is a good introduction to his music.

Tomo offers this album as part of a collection he calls the “Hot Set” which also includes several instructional and performance DVDs, his “Put on Your Funk Face” CD and enough instructional sheet music to keep you busy learning for a year. You can purchase the “Hot Set” directly from Tomo by emailing him at music -at- tomofujita -dot- com. Alternatively, you can purchase this album directly from retailers such as Amazon. If you enjoy good, and funky, guitar music, I think you’ll enjoy Tomo’s music.

While at his recent tour stop in Milwaukee, Joe Bonamassa gave an impromptu guitar lesson to young guitar prodigy Tallan “T-Man” Latz, who you might remember was recently banned from playing in bars around Wisconsin. In the lesson, Joe gives Tallan some good advice about being able to play anywhere on the fretboard.

Later that night, Tallan got to sit in with Joe at the show. What a day for Tallan!