As we enter the holiday season, it’s time to start thinking of gift ideas for that special guitarist in your life. Perhaps consider a unique handmade guitar-related item from Etsy, a site where craft artists can sell their handmade products. You can find unique picks, straps, and even complete guitars on Etsy. There’s a little something for everyone.

Eric Clapton is one of my favorite guitarists. He has been for almost as long as I’ve been playing. Most guitarists I know feel the same way. However, I wonder if non-guitarists feel the same way?

Several years ago, I was driving a younger relative around in my car, and I was playing a Clapton CD. When he asked what I was playing, he looked incredulous when I told him it was Clapton. The feeling I got was that he was thinking, “Who still listens to Clapton?”

I wonder if this is a sentiment shared by most younger non-guitarists. Even though Clapton helped shape rock music and holds a significant place in musical history, has he done anything over the past few years, or even the past decade or so, that speaks to the next generation of musicians. Or, is he just a piece of musical history.

In my opinion, Eric Clapton is definitely still relevant. But, my opinion is and always will be clouded by the fact that his music (past and present) has had such an impact on me and my playing. If I didn’t play guitar, I’m not sure I’d feel the same way.

What do you think? Is Eric Clapton still relevant to the next generation of fans?

I can’t remember how I came across this article, but I recently found a classic article about Eric Johnson from 1986. The article was written around the time of the release of Johnson’s album Tones. Several of Johnson’s contemporaries are quoted in the article, including Steve Morse, Billy Gibbons, Johnny Winter, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, who had this to say about Johnson:

“Few people understand that when the guy was 15, he was playing Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery stuff, and he was doing it right–that’s pretty cool! If the record that he made years ago, The Seven Worlds, had come out at the time it was ready, instead of being held back for the reason of dollars and pennies–someone besides Eric was holding out for too much money for a deal–he would have been as big as Jeff Beck. He would have been very much in the public eye for modern jazz, rock, and fusion. The guy deserves a lot more recognition than he’s ever gotten. Eric is an honest human being, and he cares about everything. Just listen to him and learn.”

I didn’t realize that Johnson’s first album was stalled for so long by management issues. However, it’s good to know that after those early struggles, Johnson finally started to get the recognition he deserved. Of course, now he’s very well known as one of the greatest guitarists playing today, but it’s interesting to read about him at a time when he wasn’t nearly as well known.

For better or worse, Stevie Ray Vaughan is a dominating figure in the blues world. So much so that anyone who picks up a Stratocaster and plays notes from the pentatonic scale is automatically labeled an SRV clone. Anthony Stauffer, who runs StevieSnacks, which is a site that teaches how to play in the style of SRV, knows this all to well. In a recent post titled Blues is More Than SRV, he talks about why you shouldn’t be deterred in playing SRV-style music, if that’s what moves you:

If you want to play like SRV, then by all means, tackle that pursuit with everything you’ve got. Ignore the critics and get all that your heart can hold or your fingers can bear. As you learn to play the music you love, you’ll be more happy than anyone who criticizes, but don’t expect them to realize that. Do it because you love it, not because you want to please anybody.

I couldn’t agree more. There are people who seem to thrive in putting other people down. Don’t let them stop you from doing something you love.

I should note that if you do want to play in the style of SRV, Stauffer’s lessons are the best I’ve seen in explaining how to play in that style. He’s not only an excellent guitarist, but an excellent teacher.

Anthony Stauffer has posted an interesting article about how he has arrived at playing music for a hobby instead of as a career. After trying to become a rock star for over 10 years, he had to be honest with himself:

This simple truth created a situation where I resented having to do the very things that were necessary to put me in a position to do what I though I loved. I thought I wanted to travel the world playing music on stages in front of thousands of people. But I hated packing up all my gear to go play a show for 50 people. And even more, I hated packing up all my stuff at odd hours of the morning, and taking it back home. I simply wanted to get on stage and play, and that’s it.

It’s easy to romanticize what it must be like to be a rock star, but, as Anthony points out, making it as a musician requires much more than playing music.

I’ve been a fan of Tool’s Adam Jones since hearing their album Undertow in 1993. Jones seems to make his Les Paul sound larger than life on all of their recordings. In 2006, Mix magazine interviewed Joe Barresi and Bob Ludwig, who were responsible for recording Tool’s most recent album 10,000 Days. They discuss how they recorded the album. Of particular interest to me was the gear that Jones used in the studio:

The signal chain for tracking guitar was a bit complex. “Adam would play into whatever pedals he needed,” Barresi says. “That signal then went into a Systematic Systems Splitter. Then it would go to between three and five heads. The signal from the heads went to their own individual cabinets. Each cabinet had two or three microphones on it. Then all the microphones came back to the console, and they were blended down as separated for each amp. The Diezel amp went to its own track. The Marshall amp went to its own track. The third track was a blend of the Bogner and the Rivera, or whatever I liked for the song. And that would be one take — three tracks of guitar.”

Also discussed in the interview is how Jones recorded the talkbox solo in the song “Jambi.” In addition to talking about how they recorded the guitar parts, Barresi and Ludwig also discuss how they recorded Danny Carey’s drums, Justin Chancellor’s bass, and Maynard James Kennan’s vocals. Check out the interview here.

If you spend any time on the Gear Page forums, you know about the legend of Alexander (”Howard”) Dumble. If you don’t, Dumble has created a series of almost mythical amps used by tone hounds, such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, Robben Ford, Sonny Landreth, and John Mayer. He’s notoriously reclusive and builds amps only for people he deems worthy. Used Dumble amps go for around $50,000.

Author Jesse Schwarz has written a book about Dumble amps, called a Dumble Book. The book features a Dumble history, photos of Dumble amps, and interviews with Dumble and others. The cost of the book is around $300.

Christopher Liscio, the developer of the excellent learning tool Capo, let me know that he has recently updated the app. I’ve previously reviewed Capo and really liked it. Probably the biggest new feature of the app is the ability to save the slowed music so that you can listen to it on an iPod, thus enabling you to practice away from the computer. You can export an entire song or just a looped portion of a song enabling you to customize your learning experience. A podcast series is available on the Capo Web site; the podcast describes how to use the product as well as basic ear training techniques.

TinyLick.com is a fun Web site that lets you create licks and then share them on other sites, such as forum sites or on your own Web site. For example, here’s a three-note per string lick in G:

Virtual Woodshed has an interesting interview with pickup designer Lindy Fralin. If you’ve ever looked into buying aftermarket pickups for your guitar, then you know that Fralin is one of the best out there when it comes to making pickups. In the interview, he discusses tone, how he got started playing guitar, how he got started in the pickup business, and playing in his own band. Here’s his take on why he’s mostly known as a “Fender guy”:

That’s probably Hendrix’s fault.  But I was always, even on an acoustic guitar or anything, I was always attracted to that bright wound string. [ed note: Fralin pickups are highly regarded by tone purists for their remarkable clarity on the bass strings] I can remember the first guitar I noticed [that on] was “Hanky Panky”.  And what I liked about it was not the singing or anything else, it was when he went “duh duh duh duh”, how it started at a verse you know?  And it was low guitar, but you could hear clarity on it, it was a single coil pickup sound. I liked that sound! My dad had a classical guitar, before I ever owned anything of my own.  And it had real bright wound strings on it and I would just sit around and noodle on it and think how cool they sounded.  I’ve always liked that to this day.  I’m a big fan of single coil pickups.  I like distortion too, but I like to hear where I’m playing.  Especially playing rhythm, I like to hear that really bright wound string.

Check out the rest of the interview on the Virtual Woodshed site.