Not long after I started playing guitar, I was fortunate to have a friend show me the basics of how to straighten my guitar’s neck and adjust the guitar’s action. Ever since then, I’ve been doing my own setups. However, even with that help I still didn’t have a full grasp of the basics of guitar setup. Enter the Fret MD: Electric Guitar and Bass Setup and Maintenance DVD.

Fret MD, which features luthier Al Malarsky, provides an outline for and illustrates the basics of guitar setup and maintenance. Malarsky lays out a five-step plan for maintaining your guitar. He also gives tips and tricks that he has learned through his years of guitar lutherie.

1) Neck adjustment
2) Nut adjustment
3) Action adjustment
4) Bridge adjustment
5) Pickup adjustment

For each step, Malarksy explains and illustrates the adjustment. He gives just enough detail for each step to teach you what you need to do to adjust the guitar. It would be easy to overwhelm the viewer with too much information, but Fret MD avoids that while still providing an excellent amount of information.

The DVD also features some extra features, such as how to clean a dirty fretboard and how to clean potentiometers. Additionally, Malarsky provides some bass-specific pointers for adjusting bass guitars.

Even though I knew a fair amount about guitar setup, I learned quite a bit from watching Fret MD. If you’re interested in learning how to set up your guitar, the Fret MD DVD is an excellent starting point.

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.

Although it’s only March, it’s looking like 2009 is going to be a great year for Joe Bonamassa. It’s hard to believe, but this year, at age 31, he will celebrate his 20th year in the music business. In May, he’ll be performing a concert at the legendary Royal Albert Music Hall in London. He’s featured on the cover of the April 2009 Guitar Player magazine. And, he’s recently released a new studio album called The Ballad of John Henry.

With each successive release, Bonamassa’s albums get just a little tighter and a little more fully realized. The Ballad of John Henry continues that tradition. Like his earlier albums, this one has a mixture of covers and originals, with the originals being fueled by a breakup Bonamassa experienced last year.

I think that one of Bonamassa’s strengths is picking out cover songs that he can personalize and make his own. On this album, he’s chosen songs by Tom Waits, Tina Turner, Anthony Newley, and Tony Joe White. One of the most interesting covers on the album is Waits’ “Jockey Full of Bourbon,” which is somewhat of a departure for Bonamassa. “Stop!” is also a standout track and one of my favorites on the album.

The original songs are also very good. Bonamassa’s songwriting is continuing to evolve. As mentioned earlier, most of the original songs on this album have been fueled by a heartbreak that Bonamassa experienced last year. As a result, the songs are a mixture of happiness, sadness, and regret. In the past, I think Bonamassa’s songwriting has been overshadowed by his enormous guitar talent and great covers. However, I think his songwriting really takes (or at least shares) center stage on this album. I think the originals are the strongest tracks on the album.

Anyone who’s a fan of Bonamassa knows to expect great tones on his albums. And, The Ballad of John Henry is full of great guitar tones. From the baritone-fueled heavy riffs of the album’s opener to the Les Paul-infused tones that make up most of the rest of the album, The Ballad of John Henry is drenched in great guitar tones. His signature Les Paul model, along with a number of other guitars, were plugged into a mixture of Marshall and Fender amps to achieve the tones on the album. If you’re a fan of the guitar at all, you’ll love the tones on this album.

In my opinion, The Ballad of John Henry is easily one of the top albums to be released so far this year. Joe Bonamassa continues to get better with each album, and The Ballad of John Henry is one of his best studio albums. However, no matter how good his studio albums are, they don’t quite capture the full effect of seeing him perform. He is truly a monster guitar player. If he travels through your area, I highly recommend catching him on tour.

This past Tuesday night, Odair Assad played a solo concert performance at the Belmont Mansion. Odair is very well known in classical guitar circles as a member of the world famous Assad Duo. A solo performance from him is apparently fairly rare, so this was a real treat.

Whenever I see a classical guitar concert, an anecdote I heard a number of years ago comes to mind. Rougly 10 years ago, Manuel Barrueco recorded an album called Nylon and Steel, which features many collaborative performances with well-known guitarists such as Andy Summers, Al di Meola, and Steve Morse. During the sessions, I remember reading about the contrast between Barrueco’s gear, which consisted of a guitar, a case, and a footstool, and the wall of amps and guitars that Steve Morse used for the sessions. It wasn’t really a slight against Morse, but a comment about the different worlds that each guitarist lived in.

That anecdote came to mind because Odair Assad came out and had a presence about him the entire night, and all he had with him was a guitar. No band, no amps, no cabinets, no pedalboards, and no roadies. Just a man, a guitar, and some beautiful pieces of music written by Kevin Callahan, Odair’s brother Sergio Assad, and one of my favorite composers, Leo Brouwer.

The thing that struck me perhaps more than anything else during the concert was Odair’s ability to not just play the music, but feel the music while he was playing it. I’ve seen some classical guitarists who play almost woodenly; the notes are there, but they lack passion. Odair’s playing most certainly did not lack passion. After more than 40 years touring the world, it’s refreshing to see someone that still so obviously loves the guitar and the music he’s playing.

I feel fortunate to have been able to catch this performance. I highly recommend checking out Odair if he performs in your area.

Classical guitar blogger Christopher Davis was also at the show, and he has written a review of Odair’s performance.

How you ever wanted to learn how to play slide guitar? I was searching YouTube a couple of months ago and came across some educational slide guitar videos by John Tuggle, who is a guitar teacher in Athens, GA and owner of Learning Guitar Now. John sells several blues guitar instructional videos on the site, including four that are focused on helping you learn how to play slide guitar. Specifically, John focuses on slide guitar topics in the style of Duane Allman, Warren Haynes, and Derek Trucks.

I was impressed with the YouTube videos, so I checked out John’s first video in the slide guitar series: Open E Tuning. The video features 80 minutes of instructional material, plus a PDF file containing tablature of the lessons and backing tracks that you can use to play over.

After watching the video, I like John’s instructional style. It’s clear he’s an experienced teacher. He starts off teaching the basics, including the basics of the Open E tuning. He goes over right and left hand technique in quite a bit of detail. If you’ve ever played slide guitar before, you know that it’s important to get the basic technique down right or you’ll never sound good. I like the fact that John doesn’t rush through the technique part of the video. In fact, he stresses multiple times how important it is to get the technique down before moving on.

After teaching right- and left-hand technique, John discusses the 12-bar blues progression and the major chords involved. Next, John introduces some licks from the major chords and teaches you how to play them. After you get familiar with the major chords, John goes over the minor pentatonic scale and how it can be used with slide guitar. Along the way, he provides examples and gives some helpful tips for how to use the scales in your playing. The scales part of the video is followed by some more technique exercises to help you get familiar with playing the scales.

Once you’ve got the scales down, John shows you 10 licks based on the scales you learned previously in the video. As with all the exercises, tablature is provided for each lick, which is very helpful.

Finally, John ties the lessons together in a sample slide solo. Again, tablature is provided for the solo, which should keep you busy for a little while. I like the fact that John has provided a sample solo to help you get started. Additionally, as I mentioned above, backing tracks are provided so you have some music to play over, which is a nice addition.

Learning Guitar Now’s Open E Tuning slide guitar video is only $19.99, which is a great value considering the quality of the content you get. Nowadays, guitar lessons cost $20-25 per half hour, so you get almost three times the instruction for less than the price of one lesson. Plus, you can rewind and replay parts to help you master it. I think John’s videos are a great value and would recommend them if you’re looking to get started playing slide guitar. Check out a sample video:

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.

Fret12 has recently released Mark Tremonti: The Sound and the Story, an instructional DVD featuring former Creed and current Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti. Thanks to Fret12, I’ve been watching the DVD over the past few weeks and highly recommend it.

Overview

The DVD is divided into three parts covering three hours of content. The first part is called “The Story” and features mostly background information about Tremonti, including a tour of his guitar rig. The second part features guitar instruction by Tremonti. The third part features guest lessons by some tremendous shredders. The DVD also comes with a 30+ page tab booklet, a Morley sticker, and a pick, which is a nice touch.

The Story

I’m somewhat of a biography buff, so I enjoyed this part. It was interesting to find out that Tremonti was only the second artist to receive a PRS signature guitar. Santana was the only other artist with a PRS signature guitar when Tremonti received his. It was also interesting to hear others speak about how much he plays the guitar; it sounds like if he’s awake, he’s playing guitar, which is probably one reason why he’s such a great guitar player. And, he is a great guitar player.

Even though he’s won numerous guitar magazine awards, in my opinion, Tremonti’s an underrated guitar player. This is partly because Tremonti was often overshadowed in Creed by frontman Scott Stapp’s numerous antics. Regarding Creed, there’s virtually no mention of his time in Creed. I understand that Tremonti has moved on past Creed, but given that Creed is a big part of Tremonti’s musical past, it would have been nice to have heard a little bit about how we wrote some of the music in Creed. However, it was interesting to get a backstage look at how Tremonti warms up as well as writes songs.

The Lessons

Tremonti’s lessons are divided into two parts: solos and techniques. The solos section covers eight of Tremonti’s solos from Alter Bridge’s latest album, Blackbird. I like the approach that is taken with this section. The solos are played full speed and then played slowly. The tab booklet includes tab for all of the solos, so you can follow along. There’s also some live footage of Tremonti playing the solos with Alter Bridge.

While I enjoyed the solos section, I am getting more out of the techniques section. There are some great technique exercises on the DVD; these alone are worth the price of the DVD, in my opinion! Tremonti demonstrates exercises for fingerstyle/alternate tunings, legato, vibrato, picking, and rhythm. Like the solos section, Tremonti first plays the exercises at full speed, and then plays many of them slowly so that you can really get a feel for them. Additionally, the tab book includes tab for many of the exercises.

The fingerstyle/alternate tunings exercises are very interesting and are quite nice. In the exercises, Tremonti demonstrates his approach to alternate tunings on an acoustic guitar. He mentions how sometimes if he gets writer’s block, he’ll use an alternate tuning to help break free of the block. For each alternate tuning, he includes what I would call etudes demonstrating how to play in the tuning. The etudes are very nice pieces in and of themselves.

The legato exercises are brutal! He displays a technique he learned from Rusty Cooley (who is one of the guest artists on the DVD) that helps improve finger strength and finger independence. I can already tell a difference, and I thought my fingers were pretty strong already! I suspect that I’ll be working on these exercises for some time to come.

The picking section covers techniques such as alternate picking and string sweeping. I’m still working through these exercises, but I can say that they really help you focus on picking. I found it interesting that Tremonti first fully warms up his left hand before working on his picking hand, which helps him ensure that any picking problems are actually a result of his right hand and not his left hand. This is an interesting approach that makes sense when you think about it.

The rhythm section also focuses a lot on picking technique. One thing he recommends during this section is “playing to failure.” I think this is a great recommendation. The only way to strengthen your hands and fingers is to build them up, and that requires working them to failure. Too often, I quit working on a technique when it gets hard, but in order to truly see results, I need to work to failure. This is some advice that I put to immediate use and can see results.

The Guests

Tremonti invited several of his friends to provide guest lessons for the DVD. The guests include Miles Kennedy, Michael Angelo Batio, Troy Stetina, Rusty Cooley, and Bill Peck. Each guest provides a unique insight into some of the techniques that they use.

Aside from Kennedy, who is the lead singer for Alter Bridge (and is a very good guitarist in his own right), the guest artists are some of the most elite shredders in the world. Batio is very well known for being a great shredder, as is Cooley. And, Stetina’s Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar is one of the most influential instructional books for metal guitarists.

Each guest has their own section and feature their own techniques. And, each guest lesson is high quality (although Cooley’s is a little lower quality due to the fact that he couldn’t make it to the studio to record his section). I think the guest lessons are a nice touch and help bring a little variety to the DVD.

Conclusion

As I said earlier, after watching this DVD for the past few weeks, I highly recommend it. Not surprisingly, much of the information focuses on metal or shred guitar, but many of the techniques displayed will help you improve in any style of music. Tremonti is a great guitarist and a great teacher, and this DVD proves both. The lessons are top-notch, as are the guest appearances. If you’ve never really been into guitar instructional DVDs, this is a great introduction to the genre.

Additionally, the Fret12 Web site is a nice companion to the DVD. There’s a lot of information on the site, as well as community forums.

The following is a trailer for the DVD, which is available from Fret12.com:

Guitarist Jimmy Herring recently released his debut solo album, titled Lifeboat. Although this is Herring’s first solo album, he is already well-known in the guitar community. He’s played with some great bands, including The Allman Brothers, Col. Bruce Hamptons’ Aquarium Rescue Unit, the Dead, and Phil Lesh and Friends, and he is now the lead guitarist for jam-band supergroup Widespread Panic.

In addition to Herring on guitar, Lifeboat includes some great supporting musicians, including Jeff Sipe on drums, Oteil Burbridge and bass, Kofi Burbridge on piano and flute, and Matt Slocum on clavinet, piano. Derek Trucks also plays on two songs. Even with these great musicians, Herring’s guitar is the centerpoint of this album.

I’ve been a fan of Herring’s for a while, ever since hearing of him when he was playing with the Allman Brothers and Jazz is Dead. However, I wasn’t sure what to expect with his solo album. What it is is a fantastic jazz-rock fusion album. The Dixie Dregs/Steve Morse influence is undeniable, but Herring definitely stands on his own in the jazz-rock world. The album includes six songs written by Herring, two songs by Kofi Burbridge, a cover of Wayne Shorter’s Lost, as well as an interpretation of Disney’s The Jungle Book.

I know I’m listening to a great guitar instrumental album when I forget that I’m listening to a guitar instrumental album. In other words, when the music grabs me more than the guitar playing. That’s what happens with Lifeboat. While the guitar playing is amazing, the music itself is equally good.

With Lifeboat, Herring further solidifies himself as one of the leading jazz-rock fusion guitarists of our time. His playing is fluid and harmonious, and the music sings with emotion. If you’re already a fan of Jimmy Herring, you’ll love Lifeboat. If you’re new to Herring, Lifeboat is a great starting point.

Note: To commemorate the release of the CD, Abstract Logix recently published an interview with Herring.

Win a Free Copy of Jimmy Herring’s Lifeboat!

Abstract Logix has graciously and generously agreed to give one lucky fan of Guitar Lifestyle a copy of Lifeboat! To enter to win: all you have to do is send me an e-mail by filling out the contact form using “Herring” as the subject and letting me know that you want to be entered into the contest. I’ll randomly select a winner on November 15, 2008.

Please enter only once. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d help spread the word about the contest! Good luck!

Last week, I met some friends at a local movie theater for a showing of David Gilmour’s Live at Gdansk DVD. I’ve been on a bit of a David Gilmour kick over the past few weeks, and I’ve recently watched Gilmour’s Remember That Night – Live at Royal Albert Hall and Pink Floyd’s Pulse. So, I was pretty pumped to see this new DVD.

Much like the Live at Royal Albert Hall DVD, the Live at Gdansk DVD includes many great Pink Floyd hits, as well as performances of songs from Gilmour’s latest album On an Island. In addition to Gilmour’s touring band, the DVD features the Baltic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, which adds an interesting touch to the music.

Overall, I thought this was a very good concert recording. Gilmour, as always, is great, and the band is also very good. However, having recently seen Remember That Night – Live at Royal Albert Hall, I can’t help but compare the two DVDs, and the Royal Albert Hall concert was better, in my opinion.

My first impression of the Live at Gdansk concert was that it took Gilmour a song or two to really get going. And, his playing, while tasteful as always, lacked a little bit of the spark that was in the Royal Albert Hall concert. By any standards, his playing was still great, but just not quite as crisp and sharp as in the Royal Albert Hall show.

That being said, I still really enjoyed the Live at Gdansk show and would recommend it to any fan of Pink Floyd and David Gilmour. However, if you haven’t seen Remember that Night – Live at Royal Albert Hall, I would recommend getting that DVD first.

Jonny Lang traveled back through Nashville a couple of weeks ago, playing a concert at the legendary Ryman Auditorium on 08/30/08. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Lang in concert three times now, and each time has been as good or better than the last.

I was actually surprised to hear that Lang was travelling back through Nashville. My wife and I saw him when he passed through a little over a year ago and since he hasn’t released any new music since then, it was surprising to see his name pop up on the Ryman Web site. What was perhaps more surprising was that the crowd was even larger this time around than the last! I’m glad to see that he continues to draw large crowds.

Another surprise was that when the show started, Lang came out on stage carrying a Les Paul. It was a little odd to see him with a Les Paul given his history of playing thinline Telecasters. I don’t recall him ever playing a Les Paul in the other concerts of his that I’ve been to. Of course, the Tele made an appearance later in the show. And, I thought his Tele sounded better than the Les Paul. While the Les Paul sounded good, the tone of the Tele was great!

As you would expect, he played a lot of his hits, which I always enjoy hearing. His playing was intense and inspired, perhaps even more so than the last time I saw him live. Although he’s a great guitarist, I wouldn’t categorize Lang as a highly technical player, but he always plays with a lot of passion.

I really enjoyed seeing Jonny Lang, and the Ryman is one of my favorite venues here in Nashville. If you get a chance to see either, I highly recommend doing so.