zorrow

I'm almost having two blackouts because of these things. Those are f!@#$% P.E.R.F.E.C.T.!!!!!!

I just have a small bag in where there are five pedals, all connected to a VoodooLab power source. Will picture them next Wednesday at the rehearsal, but this is the content of my bag: Morley George Lynch Dragon 2 wah --> Korg Black Pitch tuner --> BSP custom treble booster --> Digitech Bad Monkey Overdrive --> Tech21 Liverpool I'm no longer using a noise gate, as I'm at most mid-gain in my current gig, so I don't need that little tone sucker anymore. I might also get rid of the treble booster in my current rig, as my GL wah has a fixed position switch that does marvels with the overdrive, but I'm still not very sure about it --need to get used to it first; I've been relying on my treble booster for too long already.

I hadn't taken the time to listen to this album. Now just did. I don't dislike it, but I wasn't hooked. I think my mind still is in the early Rush and never evolved. Will try to retry later though. However, with so many new things I do like popping around, I'm really having a hard time to keeping the pace.

HELL

I insist on Fates Warning. New album about to be released, Frank Aresti returning... and nobody seems to care: http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/topic/61638-fates-warnings-new-album-and-frank-aresti-is-in-hamer-content/ Support American Bands!

Fates Warning -sadly underrated, not widely known pioneers of the prog metal genre. Crimson Glory -a slightly heavier, but also more glam-oriented Queensryche-like band. They did have a prog edge, but never went over the top. Loved them! Rage -German power metal with a thrashy edge and with a special taste for blending orchestral parts with metal. Their most recent albums are to me open lessons of modern metal riffing. They remain virtually unknown in America though. Annihilator -two albums: "Alice In Hell" and "Never, Neverland". 'Nuff said! Watchtower -think about Rush on steroids. Another prog metal pioneers who got, sadly, quickly forgotten. Force Of Evil -it's basically the Mercyful Fate guys with a more classic metal-oriented singer. Vintage-flavored guitar leads, great tones, great songwriting and energetic and tasteful playing, but with a modern production. They released just two albums and one DVD. If this band had ben formed in the early 80's they would have been HUGE. UFO -I know we all here know them, but just try around you and you'll see how criminally unknown they still remain.

Well, just Googled. It's that simple nowadays. It's Rudy's brother and he plays guitar. In addition, he played in Quite Riot with Tony (not Carlos) Cavazo, who is Carlos' brother and plays bass. Kinda confusing!

"Rudy and Robert Sarzo will be on tour with..." -reads on an email I just received. Cannot read the email body right now, but I wonder if Rudy has a son now and is doing like EVH with Wolfgang. Who is this Robert (not Rudy) Sarzo?

If I was her dad, I would be proud. Maybe she got signed while we were at it?

^Boomerang-Junkie, that's spot on... and you got balls too. To be frank, I didn't watch her other videos and took it very lightly my side. I didn't even give it a deep thought, but I think you're right. We as a crowd here can be very unfair and merciless. What if this was a video of the daughter of one of us, posted on a "Proud Dad" thread? I bet we would praise and applaud!

No fake boobs? OK, now I feel more positive about her. But as I already said, I think she's a nice player and a nice singer -and she's of course beautiful. She seems to be on the good path to some kind of glory. BTW, at 17 y/o the desire to be seen and to get other people's recognition is very normal. But yes, she does her stuff very well and also, as you say, got the balls to make it public -she got a big pair of'em, indeed!

She's cute, but I don't see anything smart about her. In addition, those look like fake boobs. But she sings and plays quite well, which is great. In short, I'm not an instant fan, but I don't dislike either.

A stupid question here: are we supposed to upload videos of our own guitar wankery as well? The topic title seems to say so -unless I'm missing the point or something.

Let's say a friend arrives in Frankfurt with a pile of cash and falls in love with this beauty. Will she be open to move to Canada with your friend? She looks culturally compatible with us here.

Dig too!

^This is it, really. If I had had a spare mahogany Vector, I would have never made the mistake of selling my DDs. You know the saying "you don't sell tone", right?

Amazon link, please? Will buy it immediately.

I love the look of the "ordinary" Talladega, with the DD pups and the simpler features. Buying one is not a priority at this time, but I still have a Tally in my wish-list -or "wishlust", if you prefer. There's also another Hamer model that triggers my GAS big time: the Monaco III Korina. Every time I see a picture of one, I just get stunned -or "stoned", if you prefer.

Just received mine and can barely put it down. What a great job you have done, fellas! Everything is awesome about this GAS-inducing work of art. I bow to the authors and thank them for the pleasure I'm having while reading the book and watching the pictures. I just regret not having contributed with at least one picture, but that's the price of procrastination. Once again, you get my deepest, most sincere and heart-felt thankfulness. Congrats!

Exactly. You're among the few.That's kinda harsh, but it's also kinda true.Nonetheless, copiers and trend followers have had little or no luck at all, as far as I can witness. I know that's easier to see when one gets older (as Cynic put it so well) but the fact is that, at this very moment, I would better bet on something a little different, instead of trying to follow current trends. At least in the metal world, "current" is often synonym of mediocrity. Luckily there's Hell, no BS. It's dark, but it's not a King Diamond copy nor just another cheesy black metal band. It's old-school enough, but it doesn't sound like Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. Their singer can sing, but it's not power metal nor AOR. Still, all the key ingredients to please the average metal fan are there, so it remains marketable. In short, it's not a total musical revolution, but you do see they have chosen to be themselves... and they are succeeding! So, hats off to Kev and his band, really. They prove talent and effort can still lead to somewhere, even nowadays.

That's exactly what I think. Being labeled under a metal sub-genre IMHO lowers the chances of your band of leaving the pack (of losers, I must say) behind. Nowadays many bands sound the same, songwriting is poor and they just imitate each other, continuously. Sometimes I think there's just no hope -and that's why I'm no longer looking to play with any [place-your-preferred-narrow-minded-metal-subgenre-here] band.

Yeah, my younger brother is younger than me too. -sorry man, couldn't help it.

Lessons can also act like catalyzers when one wants to expand one's horizons. For example, at this very moment I'm toying with the idea of studying rhythm guitar at the school of gypsy jazz here in Montreal. It will force me out of my comfort zone, but not too much -still using a pick and still playing pumping rhythms, you know; but at the same time I'll be learning a new-to-me harmonic vocabulary, as well as some specific-to-the-genre idioms. Doing this from the hands of some highly-skilled local musicians will be both a challenge and a blast. And, as my teachers will also evaluate me periodically, studying there should also prove to be a humbling and stimulating experience. But most importantly, I don't think I'd have the discipline and drive to do something similar just by myself, keeping the pace steady for six months. You know, DVDs and online lessons are certainly great, but they won't replace human-to-human interactions and immediate feedback, mostly when self-motivation and spare time are issues.

I started by spending one year studying classical guitar, which included history of music courses, solfeggio and guitar itself. Then, when I got into metal and stuff, I just tried electric guitar by myself and sadly forgot almost everything I had learned during my time at the conservatory. That's why I would say I'm rather self-taught. However, I think my classical training gave me a good solid foundation to rely on -at least when I was making my firsts steps with the electric guitar. Also, I've taken some few private lessons all along my life in order to improve on some aspects of my playing. Quite often the effect of the lessons has been dramatic, in a positive sense. So, to me it's always a plus following a structured program and having a good teacher, even if that hasn't been my own case. Sure, everything depends on your personal effort and talent at the very end, but you're going to save some precious time if you have a good coach guiding you, IMHO.

Wise words. I support!