Play a Little Guitar

Bathroom a la Guitar

2011-03-09T10:49:00.001-05:00

I'm planning my dream bathroom. It may take some doing, though, to get these accoutrements past the re-decorating committee but I'm not compromising. Not even on the soap dish.

Before you ask, the cheese grater is for the callouses on my feet.

Dozing With the iPod

2011-02-03T08:29:00.000-05:00

Who's at the wheel here? Anyone? Has this blog dozed off or something?

Well, sort of. Posting has become intermittent. I still pick up the guitars -- although not as often lately, it seems -- and enjoy them but other things have been keeping me busy lately. When/if inspiration strikes, activity here will pick up.

Until then, all I can do is put the iPod on shuffle and see what it sings:

"Don't Back Down," Beach Boys
"Helter Skelter," U2
"The Bottle," Pat Green
"Let Me Love You, Baby," Stevie Ray Vaughan
"Boogie Chillen," Canned Heat & John Lee Hooker
"'Til the Money Runs Out," Tom Waits
"Lonesome Fugitive," Merle Haggard
"It's Only Rock 'n' Roll," Bon Jovi
"Good-Hearted Woman," Waylon Jennings
"I Still Can't Believe You're Gone," Willie Nelson
"Splendid Isolation," Warren Zevon
"Heard It on the X," ZZ Top
"Howlin' at the Moon," Hank Williams

The Politics of a Smashed Guitar

2011-01-17T18:08:00.001-05:00

Here are a couple of things I'm not down with -- crimes against crimes against guitars and politicians with guitars.

This blog has long stood in unwavering opposition to guitar smashing (although Pete Townshend has a lifetime get-out-of-jail-free card) so it was nice to read about a guitar fighting back and taking a piece out of would-be guitar smasher.

The rapper known as The Game was shooting a video for a song last week and apparently thought busting up an acoustic splinters would make a creative statement of some sort. A piece of the shattered guitar ended up cutting one of his fingers and Game had to go to the hospital to stitched up.

And then there's Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, 2010 Republican presidential candidate and Fox News political pundit. He's a bass player from way back and stopped in recently at the massive National Association of Music Merchants trade show in Anaheim, Calif. When somebody stuck a bass in his hands and Huckabee ended jamming with Phil Collen, the Def Leppard guitarist, and a guy from Martin, as seen in the photo on the left and this video.

"One of things I feel we've got to learn is that music is a life skill," Huckabee told the masses at NAMM. "People my age aren't playing tackle football anymore but I'm still playing msuic. In fact, I'm having more fun now doing it that I've ever had in my life because I'm doing it for the joy of it."

Huckabee also spoke about how important it is for schools not to drop their music and arts programs. So maybe I'm going to have to rethink my stand on guitar-playing (and bass-playing) politicians.

Guitar Quote of the Year (Maybe of the Decade)

2011-01-10T09:56:00.005-05:00

It's only Jan. 10 and we already have a winner in the Guitar Quote of the Year competition. The winner is Mr. Keith Urban of Nashville, Tenn., by way of Brisbane, Australia.

Urban was discussing the flood last year that inundated the Nashville storage facility where he kept his valuable guitar collection and told Guitar Aficionado magazine:

Computer Nerd vs. Guitar Nerd

2011-01-09T21:31:00.004-05:00

Little Miss Big-Time Movie Star Gwneth Paltrow is talking trash about me. She says I'm a nerd.

Paltrow took up guitar in order to play a country singing star on the skids in the movie "Country Strong" and even got lessons from her husband Chris Martin, who happens to be the frontman of Coldplay. She's sticking with the guitar but sounds a little disdainful of pluck and pickers like me.

"I'm such a nerd," she told one interviewer. "I go on the Internet and I get the chords of a song. I love it. I do it all the time. If there's a chord I don't know, you can go on the Web and see it drawn out ... It's nerdy. The musicians I know would not have to do that."

I'm not sure how all my rock star friends do it and I'm stuck with a spouse who doesn't know a thing about the guitar but Miss Paltrow just described my standard instructional technique. Sitting there at the computing machine, Googling up chords and tablature for songs I want to play.

There's no shame in playing your guitar in front of the computer. It's possible to be a computer nerd and a guitar nerd at the same time.

New Year, New Randomness

2011-01-01T11:27:00.000-05:00

A new month in a new year, which means it's time to put the iPod on shuffle and see what the musical gods want me to hear in 2011. It goes a little something like this:

"What Can I Say," Boz Scaggs
"Dead Flowers" (live), Willie, Keith Richards, Ryan Adams & Hank III
"For Your Love" (live), Patti Smith
"Playin' It Safe," Tracy Nelson
"A Stone's Throw Away," Valerie Carter
"Rita May" (live), Bob Dylan
"In the Open" (live), Stevie Ray Vaughan
"Depot, Depot," Tom Waits
"Hateful," The Clash
"Que Sera, Sera," Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women
"That's How I Got to Memphis," Buddy & Julie Miller
"Burning," Zachary Richard
"South by Southwest," Delbert McClinton & Lee Roy Parnell

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 40

2010-12-30T18:44:00.000-05:00

Mine is changing, too. From bad to worse.

Stray Notes

2010-12-29T10:33:00.013-05:00

There's an article in Acoustic Guitar magazine titled "How to Flatpick Fiddle Tunes Like the Pros." I just read it but I still can't. Can even flatpick those fiddle tunes like a rank amateur because I didn't understand more than three consecutive words of the piece. So don't come up to me and ask me to play "Shove the Pig's Foot a Little Closer to the Fire." I'll just act like I didn't hear you ...

Another long-gone Texas bluesman is getting some recognition. About six weeks after a plaque went up in Houston to honor Lightnin' Hopkins, Blind Willie Johnson got his own plaque in Beaumont.

Johnson roamed East Texas, mixing blues and gospel and singing in a voice that could be described as a rumbling growl or a growling rumble. As this Texas Monthly story tells it, he left behind a lot of legend, mystery and myth when he died in 1945, as well as a legacy of how to play slide guitar.

Austin guitarist Steve James gives a lesson on Willie in this video ...

They keep coming up with guitar accessories like the doohicky on the left, which is called a piknboard. It's a miniature rub board that attaches to your soundhole for a little extra percussion. Ideal for the guitarist who aspires to be a one-person zydeco band. I'm not sure how you would work an accordion in to your guitar, though.

You can get a piknboard for $30 here.

The way to girl's heart apparently is through her guitar strap.

At least that's the approach Taylor Swift's boyfriend, actor Jake Gyllenhaal, is taking. As a 21st birthday present for Swift, Gyllenhaal reportedly spent $11,000 on a vintage Gretsch guitar autographed by Chet Atkins.

Make It a Merry One

2010-12-24T09:55:00.002-05:00

The Captain's 10 Guitar Commandments

2010-12-21T06:34:00.002-05:00

Captain Beefheart's music was beyond avant garde. Several miles beyond avant garde, it seemed, and out of range for my tastes (what would you expect of a high school classmate of Frank Zappa?). But critics consider his cacophonous 1969 album "Trout Mask Replica" a landmark work (No. 58 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums) and lots of rock musicians cite him as an influence.

Don Van Vliet (the captain's legal name) died of multiple sclerosis last week in California, almost three decades after he had given up the music business in favor of painting. But long ago he issued his 10 commandments for guitarists, which are about what you'd expect from someone who came up with song titles like "Big Black Baby Shoe" and "Ice Cream for Crow."

LISTEN TO THE BIRDS: That's where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast but a lot of times they aren't going anywhere. (Dogs know a lot about music, too. I can make the howl.)

YOUR GUITAR IS NOT REALLY YOUR GUITAR: Your guitar is a divining rod. Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you're good, you'll land a big one. (The guitar also can be used as a frying pan to cook any fish you might catch.)

PRACTICE IN FRONT OF A BUSH: Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush doesn't shake, eat another piece of bread. (One night I went through a loaf of whole wheat, two baguettes and a substantial stack of that flat Indian bread. Damn bush just sat there.)

WALK WITH THE DEVIL: Old Delta blues players referred to guitar amplifiers as the "devil box." And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you're bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts devils and demons. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub. (My playing attracts mostly flies.)

IF YOU'RE GUILTY OF THINKING, YOU'RE OUT: If your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing. (This drowning man technique sounds like something I can handle.)

NEVER POINT YOUR GUITAR AT ANYONE: Your instrument has more clout than lightning. Just hit a big chord then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field. (When guitars are outlawed, only outlaws will have guitars.)

ALWAYS CARRY A CHURCH KEY: That's your key-man clause. Like One String Sam. He's one. He was a Detroit street musician who played in the fifties on a homemade instrument. His song "I Need a Hundred Dollars" is warm pie. Another key to the church is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf's guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty — making you want to look up her dress the whole time to see how he's doing it. (I have to ask -- what kind of pie?)

DON'T WIPE THE SWEAT OFF YOUR INSTRUMENT: You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music. (Stinking music -- this one is within my reach.)

KEEP YOUR GUITAR IN A DARK PLACE: When you're not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don't play your guitar for more than a day, be sure you put a saucer of water in with it. (Absolutely; I'll put a fifth of Patron, lemons and salt in there if it'll help me play better.)

YOU GOTTA HAVE A HOOD FOR YOUR ENGINE: Keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house, the hot air can't escape. Even a lima bean has to have a piece of wet paper around it to make it grow. (Yes, on hats. The bigger the better.)

Happy Birthday, KR

2010-12-18T14:09:00.002-05:00

It's Keith Richards' 147th birthday! Actually, only his 67th birthday but his mileage is pretty high for a 67-year-old.

To mark the occasion, here is an instructional video from himself on how to execute classic guitar-slinging rock star stage moves. As you'll see, the key is kicking out the left leg and yanking the right hand up at just the right moment as if the guitar was hot.

Learn from the master.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 39

2010-12-15T09:19:00.001-05:00

I'm a guitar legend in the making.

Strings & Things

2010-12-07T10:42:00.001-05:00

If playing those guitar apps on your iPhone or iTouch doesn't seem real enough, try this device called the Fingerist ($150). It gives you a semi-guitarish body and you plant the iPhone/iTouch in the fretboard area and run guitar simulation app like Garage Band or Guitar.

It has a volume control, plugs into an amp and comes with a strap and gig bag...

Not everything is manufactured in China these days but it seems like everything is counterfeited there -- and that would include D'Addario guitar strings.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York is on the case, however. He went to the D'Addario manufacturing plant on Long Island this week and said he's asking federal agencies to crackdown on the long-running problem of intellectual property violations in China. He's also calling on a China-based website to stop selling the bogus strings.

D'Addario was started in New York in the 1930s by Italian immigrants and is still a family-run operation. Guitarists who play D'Addarios include Johnny Winter, Robert Cray, Lou Reed, Robert Earl Keen and yours very truly (I don't have an endorsement contract, though) ...

Look at the names in that file cabinet below -- Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Boz Scaggs, Buddy Guy. That's a picture from the Fender custom shop in Corona, Calif., where the superstars go to have guitars built to their precise specifications. I'm sure my file is in there somewhere. Probably in the very back, which is why you can't see it.

An interesting story on the custom shop here.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 38

2010-12-06T09:42:00.000-05:00

Mathematical? Please, no! Let's not bring math into this. It's hard enough already.

Rock a Lock

2010-12-03T18:11:00.007-05:00

This item, which is called a Rock Lock, will not be on my Christmas wish list.

Not that it isn't a good way to prevent guitar theft. You just loop one end of the cable around something not easily moved and lock the other end on the neck of your guitar. Great for a performer who wants to ensure his Strat will still be on stage when the returns from a break or for someone who wants to keep a presumptious roommate from using his guitar without permission.

But if the Rock Lock was allowed in my house, I'm sure my family would lock up all my guitars and throw away the keys. Then they'd give me some line about the guitars being in protective custody or something.

Holly Jolly Shuffle

2010-12-01T09:23:00.000-05:00

Since it's December it was nice to see a Christmas song turn up in the monthly iPod random play.

"I Miss You So," Jimmie Vaughan
"The Weight," Joe Cocker
"Nolan Street Bridge," The Krayolas
"Patience," Guns 'N Roses
"Dallas," Joe Ely
"I Wanna Be Sedated," The Ramones
"Santa Claus Got the Blues," The Drifters
"Travelin' Light," Robert Earl Keen
"Twilight," Jon Dee Graham
"Working for the Man," Roy Orbison
"Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold," Townes Van Zandt
"Lost in the Shuffle," Bugs Henderson
"Now She's Gone," Bobby Fuller Four

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 37

2010-11-26T08:46:00.000-05:00

And you are admired around the world for your guitar work.

Who's No. 1?

2010-11-17T09:17:00.004-05:00

Jimmy Page has a favorite finger -- his left ring finger. Page broke his in 1975 while getting off a train in England and said it was especially unfortunate to break the left ring finger because it's "the most important finger for a guitarist ... the one that does all the leverage and most of the work."

I'm not sure I agree with Page's premise. If there is an El Supremo among a guitarist's fingers, speaking as a right-hander, it most definitely would be on the left hand, the one doing all the fretting. Let's face it, any finger or fingers on the right hand can do the strumming and picking work. That job often gets sub-contracted out to a piece of plastic anyway.

If you're going to pick a most valuable finger on the left hand, I would start by ruling out the pinky, just because it's so puny. But I'm not willing to choose a favorite among the index, middle and ring fingers. Call me a wild-eyed, Kenyan-born socialist but I like to think of those three fingers as equals, part of a collective working for the common good of the guitar and sharing the resulting glory.

If I played before audiences, though, my middle finger would take on greater importance because I'm sure I would have to use it frequently in response to hecklers. And I guess I shouldn't marginalize my right thumb because of the key role it plays in pulling credit cards from my wallet when I go into a guitar store.

For the record, despite that broken No. 1 finger in '75, Page went on tour with Led Zeppelin as scheduled, altering his technique a bit to let the unbroken fingers pick up the slack of the bum ring finger. But in 2007, as Led Zeppelin was about to start a much-awaited reunion tour, Page again broke a finger in a fall in his garden (must have been startled by a bustle in a hedgerow) and the tour had to be delayed for two weeks.

Which finger did he break? The runty little pinky.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 36

2010-11-13T09:59:00.000-05:00

What am I supposed to say to that?

Stray Notes

2010-11-12T09:50:00.016-05:00

The late Lightnin' Hopkins gets some overdue recognition on Saturday in Houston. It will be Lightnin' Hopkins Day and a state historical marker will be placed on Dowling Street in the city's Third Ward, where Hopkins spent much of his life. The site is near where Hopkins used to catch the bus and play as he rode and the dedication ceremony will feature a performance by Lightnin's cousin, Milton Hopkins.

Hopkins, who died in 1982 at the age of 69, was an influence not only on other bluesmen but performers as disparate as ZZ Top and Townes Van Zandt and Houston resident Eric Davis thought it was a shame that there was no formal recognition for him in his hometown. Davis petitioned, campaigned and raised money for a year to make the marker a reality, accoding to the Houston Chronicle ...

A few months ago that beautiful guitar was part of the most famous tree in Maine, a 217-year-old, 110-foot-tall elm known as Herbie.

Herbie was believed to be the biggest and oldest elm in New England but his 15th case of Dutch elm disease proved to be fatal and he had to be cut down in January. Instead of making firewood out of the 10 tons of tree leftover, the town of Yarmouth passed out pieces of Herbie to artists, craftsmen and luthier Andrew Olson of Freeport, Maine, even though elm is not one of your main guitar-making woods.

On Saturday all the vases, bowls, furniture, jewelry boxes, sculptures, baseball bats and other items that were made from Herbie will be auctioned with the proceeds going to the Yarmouth Tree Trust. Olson says bidding on the guitar will start at $3,500 (check out his other work at his website) ...

I once cut my own guitar pick out of an old credit card but there's an easier way to make your own -- the pick punch.

Pickpunch.com sells this handy little punch ($25) with which you can create your own design from anything thin, firm and plastic-y. It also sells sheets of nylon, polycarbonate and other materials so you can set up your plectrum factory.

Go to 11 With Nigel Tufnel on 11/11/11

2010-11-09T08:37:00.002-05:00

Be sure to crank it up one louder next year on Nigel Tufnel Day, which is, of course, scheduled for 11/11/11.

As frontman for the mythical Spinal Tap in the 1984 movie (portrayed by Christopher Guest), Tufnel was the first make-believe rock star to realize the value of an amp that could be dialed up beyond the unilaterally imposed sonic limit of10. The repercussions are still being felt to this day.

The Facebook group pushing for a special day for Tufnel, the man who had guitars so extraordinary that they couldn't be played, is closing in on 5,000 members. Some amplifier manufacturers now have amps that actually do go to 11.

Tufnel's greatest legacy can be found in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, which includes an entry for "go to 11" to denote maximum volume.

Sunshine Strat

2010-11-07T16:54:00.002-05:00

As I've said before, I'm not the kind of guy who names his guitars.

No, really, I'm not. I think you have to be a really great player to get away with naming your guitars.

But if I was to give a name to my newest guitar, the Stratocaster, I'd call it Sunshine (possibly shortened to Sunny) because of that beautiful sunburst finish.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 35

2010-11-04T09:38:00.002-04:00

You'd like the smell of my guitar playing then.

Simulated Guitar, Real Criticism

2010-11-02T06:06:00.004-04:00

My daughter called from college the other day to say she had acquired "The Sims 3," the latest version of the simulated-life computer game. She told me she was thinking of me.

"Hey, I'm playing 'Sims' right now," she said, "and one of my characters is learning to play guitar. It reminded me of you -- it sounds terrible."

I get this kind of loving constructive criticism from family members a lot.

"Well, he's probably old and talent-less and his brain has locked up and can't learn anymore," I said of this Sims character for whom I had already developed a strong affinity. "Plus, he probably doesn't get to practice much because he comes home every day really, really tired after working really, really hard to put ungrateful children through college."

It turns out that these fake people can get pretty good at guitar, though. All it takes is practice. I read on a message board that one Sims character was playing like Segovia after practicing every day for seven weeks. And then there's this Sims girl; I don't know how she does it with gloves.

Wandering iPod

2010-11-01T06:50:00.001-04:00

The first of the month means we roll the dice, throw caution to the wind and put the iPod on random play. I'll be damned if I can find a theme in this baker's dozen, though.

"Just in Case," Todd Snider
"Mary Anne," Marshall Crenshaw
"Danny's All-Star Joint," Rickie Lee Jones
"Banks of the Old Bandera," Rodney Crowell
"Slowly I'm Falling," Webb Pierce
"Whole Lotta Love," Black Crowes
"Red Dress," Ray Wylie Hubbard
"I Should Have Known It," Tom Petty
"Sweet Virginia," Jerry Lee Lewis & Keith Richards
"Semi Suite," Tom Waits
"Nasty Dogs & Funky Kings," ZZ Top
"Trudy & Dave," John Hiatt
"The Deep End," Jimmie Vaughan

Seasonal Greetings

2010-10-31T07:08:00.009-04:00

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 34

2010-10-28T09:23:00.003-04:00

You bet I do. I'm always expecting the police to bust in and confiscate my guitars.

Keith Speaks

2010-10-26T20:19:00.008-04:00

Interesting tidbits gleaned from a quick skim of Keith Richards' new autobiography, "Life," which was released Tuesday:

* Being a Boy Scout was one of the highlights of his childhood and he took it very seriously.

* Before going into music, Richards made a half-hearted effort to put his art school education to use by applying for a job at an advertising agency.

* The index lists 11 mentions of former Stones bass player Bill Wyman, which seems relatively light.

* If you like bangers and mash, an indigenous British dish comprised of sausage and mashed potatoes, the book has Keith's recipe.

* One of the Stones' first U.S. shows was in San Antonio when they shared the bill with George Jones.

* Richards once "got rid" of Ronnie Wood's pet parakeet because he thought it was a malfunctioning alarm clock.

* The book has a photograph of Richards and his father, who is, for reasons unexplained, wearing a Texas Longhorns T-shirt (yes, that's the father whose ashes Keith snorted). There also are lots of other pictures I'd never seen.

* Many of Richards' guitars are named for the quality-control inspector who signed the guitars' seal-of-approval stickers.

* Richards met wife-to-be Patti Hansen at Studio 54, where he had gone to dodge actress Britt Ekland, who he said was chasing him all over New York. Patti was not a Stones fan.

More details later as they become available.

Just in Case Your Guitar Needs a Home

2010-10-25T08:56:00.009-04:00

Guitar cases have never been a big priority for me since I generally don't travel with a guitar (apparently there's a clause in the Homeland Security Act that forbids me from doing so). I only use my two cases to evacuate the more expensive guitars from their stands in the office when the housecleaners are coming, so as to reduce the chances of the cleaning crew damaging them. There's a ding on the side of the Alvarez that I'd like to have forensics specialists take a look at.

But the folks at Acoustic guitar magazine take their cases seriously, of course, and recently reviewed several rangingn from $1,200 to $500. To test these cases, the writer put thermometers in them and set them outside on a hot California day for 30 minutes (the resulting temperatures ranged from 90 to 120 degrees) and then put them in a shower for two minutes to see if they were watertight (there was no significant leakage).

I'm thinking they should have hung the cases from a tree and taken a baseball bat to them, pinata style, to see how they held up because that's apparently what some airlines do with guitar cases.

If I had no budget constraints, I'd go with the beauty pictured up top. It costs $1,200, which is about six times more than my Alvarez, and is made by Accord, a Croatian company that also manufactures parts for Ferraris. The reviewer says it has a "beautiful crushed velvet" interior with dual-density foam suspension. If it were a little bigger, I'd get one just to sleep in. The Calton cases are nice, too, and come in 22 exterior and 12 interior colors. The Kaura cases are custom fitted and can withstand 2,000 pounds of pressure

As winter approaches, it will be time to crank up the central heating soon, which is a bad time for uncased guitars because all that warm air can dry out the wood and make it susceptible to cracking. That's when one of these Humicase cases with the built-in humidifier would come in handy.

Even better would be one of these rigs from Guitar Humidor, pictured on the left. You can adjust the humidity and it comes with display lighting.

The coffin shape of this thing makes me think of Lenin preserved in his glass-topped tomb more than 85 years after his death. Somebody should have stuck a Telecaster in there with him.

Fish, Football, Flood

2010-10-20T08:29:00.004-04:00

One of Jimmy Page's guitars has inspired the name of a newly discovered species of fish. Auburn University grad student Justin Havird thought the double-bladed fins (follow the red arrow) on this little fishy, which is found in southern Asia, looked like Page's legendary double-neck Gibson EDS-1275. And being a Led Zeppelin fan, he named the fish Lepidocephalichthys zeppelini in tribute.

Havird said he came up with the name because he was listening to lots of Zeppelin while doing his research. I've studied the pictures closely and, frankly, I'm not sure I see the resemeblance between the fish and the guitar ...

Kyle Turley was one of the best and baddest offensive tackles in the NFL during his days with the New Orleans Saints and is probably best remembered for pulling off an opponent's helmet and flinging it across the field during an on-the-field fight. Since retiring from football in 2007 he's concentrated on music, starting his own label and touring with the likes of Hank Williams III.

Turley (left) recorded a guitar-heavy country album titled "Anger Management," which he told ESPN is essentially the story of his football career set to music. Long-haired and much-tattooed, Turley was always an iconoclast and on the record he takes potshots at a former coach and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and lashes the NFL players union for not adequately looking after the best interests of former players. He talks about that and sings "Flyin' Helmets" in this video ...

As Nashville recovers from May's deadly flooding, the music industry is putting on an online auction to raise money for various relief programs. Many, many instruments and lots of gear were damaged when floodwaters inundated a massive storage facility and some of those instruments can now be bought through the Nash2o auction.

The guitars are no longer playable but are promoted based on their souvenir value. Keith Urban, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Brad Paisley, Peter Frampton, Duane Eddy and Keb Mo have all donated instruments for the auction, which runs through Dec. 10.

Herman Munster: Monster of Rock

2010-10-18T14:10:00.004-04:00

With Halloween looming, it seems appropriate to pay tribute to one of television's monster guitar pickers -- the mighty Herman Munster. He might have been one of the least scary monsters ever created but in a 1965 episode of "The Munsters", Herman showed what he could do on the acoustic.

Check out the video below. I'd like to see Gomez Addams do that.

In "Will Success Spoil Herman Munster," Herman recorded a song titled "Dry Bones" on son Eddie's reel-to-reel tape recorder with Herman-specific lyrics ("my neck bone's bolted to my head bone"). It became huge radio hit -- so huge that (cue the laugh track) it went to Herman's already-too-big head. As you've probably already guessed, hilarity ensued.

Fred Gwynne, the hulking actor who played Herman, was known to be a decent guitarist and liked to play during idle moments on the set. He even bought the show's makeup artist a guitar like his. But according to a synopsis of the "Dry Bones" episode, it wasn't Gwynne but guitarist-composer Jack Marshall who was actually playing (Marshall also wrote and performed "The Munsters" unforgettable theme song), even though Gwynne appeared to know his way around a fretboard.

This "Munsters" episode is the sort of thing that hard-core guitar geeks love and it triggered a couple of discussions on the Acoustic Guitar Forum. The guitar was determined to be a pre-war Martin but there was some question as to whether it was an OM-18 or 28. These people are so detail-oriented that one poster knew it was a Martin because of the bracing (the network of wooden struts inside the guitar that support the top) he briefly saw when Herman smashed the guitar late in the episode.

Just in time for Halloween and in Herman's honor, I'm working on playing "The Munsters" theme song. So far it's still pretty scary to hear.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 33

2010-10-13T10:05:00.003-04:00

Sometimes it makes them cover their ears.

From the PaLG Archives

2010-10-12T13:08:00.002-04:00

Since today is the two-year, eight-month, one-week and five-day anniversary of the first publication of the following post, this seems like a great time to re-run it.

-0-

Some rare Rolling Stones concert footage has just been discovered in the basement.

Frank admission, even though I'm putting it in really small print in hopes that you won't see it: OK, I ripped off the idea, making this after seeing something similar on youtube.com.

Musical Activism

2010-10-11T13:46:00.004-04:00

Hurricanes and oil spills aren't the only disasters Louisiana has to face. There's been a slow-motion disaster under way for decades -- erosion of the state's wetlands. In a nice example of musical activism, guitarist-singer Tab Benoit started Voice of the Wetlands in 2004 to do something about it and he puts on money-raising festival in his hometown of Houma, La., to help the cause. The most recent festival was last weekend and it featured Cyril Neville, Beausoleil, Anders Osborne and lots of other only-in-Louisiana acts.

The wetlands are a big part of Louisiana's environment, culture and economy (more about them in this visually striking book). They provide wildlife habitat, a buffer for storms, help provide flood control and even purify the water and Benoit's efforts were rewarded last year when the governor named him Louisiana's conservationist of the year.

When he's not trying to save the state's shrinking coast, Benoit (that's pronounced ben-wah) plays a swampy, soulful blend of rock and blues that is pure Louisiana.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 32

2010-10-03T14:26:00.000-04:00

That's because your bad notes are better than my great ones.

The Random iPod Blues

2010-10-01T08:32:00.005-04:00

Even iPods get the blues -- and in Lucille Bogan's case, the X-rated blues -- in the October baker's dozen of random plays.

"Hully Gully," Mike Bloomfield
"Skin Game Blues," Lucille Bogan
"Mendicino," Bottle Rockets
"Rock 'n' Roll," Jerry Lee Lewis
"A Border Tragedy," Robert Earl Keen
"It Don't Come Easy," Bettye Lavette
"Worried Life Blues," Eric Clapton
"Whole Lotta Rosie," AC/DC
"Down and Down," Georgia Satellites
"Bad Karma," Warren Zevon
"Feeling Alright," Joe Cocker
"Does My Ring Burn Your Finger," Solomon Burke
"Jubilee," Patti Smith

Chord Letters

2010-09-28T09:24:00.001-04:00

My relationship with the guitar can be pretty complicated. Even when it comes to simple guitar chords. I'm always asking myself if I'm getting as much out of it as I'm putting into it. As a player, I'm still struggling but a man's got to do what a man's got to do. But I'm trying to communicate to strengthen these relationships.

Dear G-major,
You were the first chord I learned and a guy never forgets his first chord. You're still my favorite, too, and always will be. Whenever I pick up a guitar, you're the first chord I play. I'm always interested to hear what you have to say. We're going to last forever.

Love always,

Dear C-major,

I can't tell you how much respect I have for you. It goes without saying that your contributions to music are immeasurable. Without you, how many songs would there be in the world? Five? Six, at the most? I know I need you but, still, sometimes things between us just aren't right. When I reach for you, I often can't find you. My fingers go astray, stumbling onto strings where they shouldn't be. I'm not saying it's you. Maybe it's me. Whatever, I think we need to work harder at it.

We can work it out,

Dear A-major,

I hope you don't take what I'm about to say the wrong way because I'm going to offer it in the spirit of constructive criticism. But, man, whoever designed you just wasn't thinking. How can anyone be expected to fit three consecutive fingers cleanly on to three consecutive strings within one fret? There's just not enough room! You're always crowding me, causing my fingers to lap over on other strings or creating a buzz that sounds like someone miked a bee hive. It comes down to this -- I need more space.

You're on probation,

Dear F-major,

Wow, we got off to such a rocky start. When we first met I sincerely disliked you, found you impossible to deal with. You asked way too much of me way too soon in our relationship. You were my first experience with a barre chord and I don't know how many times I vowed to myself that I would walk away from you and only play songs that didn't have any F chords. I made jokes about what the F stands for. But something made me hang in with you and I got the hang of you. I'm glad I stayed.

Let's work together,

PS: Of course, you're the "little" F chord. That full F chord barring all six strings? No way! Not my type. You're all the F I need.

Dear E-major,

Hola, senorita. You're one of my favorites. I love your vaguely Spanish sound and the way it rings. I definitely know why I was first attracted to you -- you were so damn easy. Just like your equally beautiful cousins, the E-minor and E7.

Bienvenidos,

Dear B-major (and B-minor and B-minor9 and all other forms of B),

We live in different worlds. You're completely unattainable to me (except for maybe the B7). You're haughty and elitist, taunting me with your barre and preventing me from playing a lot of the really rocking Rolling Stones songs. You're part contortionist, part sadist. I don't see how human fingers can do what you require -- or why they would want to.

Go away,

Lightnin' & Pickin' on Elmo

2010-09-26T12:10:00.010-04:00

Lightnin' Hopkins was so cool that the bus drivers in Houston would let him hop on (no charge) and play for the passengers until he reached his desired destination. And he was so cool that he wore sunglasses at night ("I'm a hidin' man. Been hidin' all my life," was his explanation). He could play a bit, too.

Seems like I should have learned about Lightnin' Hopkins 40 years ago since I grew up in the Houston area when he was still the king of Dowling Street. But I didn't really discover him until a few years before he died in 1982 at a time when he was said to have been the most frequently recorded blues singer in history.

Alan Govenar lays it all out in "Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life and Blues," a dry but still worthwhile biography tracing Lightnin's rise from the cotton fields of Centerville, Texas, through the juke joints of Houston and the highly profitable folk/blues fad of the '60s. Through it all he was an iconoclastic, stylish figure with a suffiicent taste for drinking, gambling and womanizing to make him a legend and a playing style that influenced just a whole bunch of people.

"Po' Lightnin'," as he called himself, wasn't much of a businessman, though. He turned down royalty contracts, preferring to be paid $100 for each song he recorded ...

This may be the ultimate in musical recycling -- making guitar picks out of old vinyl LPs. "I love that we can re-generate something that had music on it, to now play music with it," says David Harbaugh, the man behind Green Guitar Picks.

Does this mean that if I made a pick out of "Are You Experienced?" I could channel Hendrix's playing? ...

You never know what's going to go down in a Guitar Center. You might fall in love with an unobtainable guitar or you might walk away offended by the 20-year-old slacker clerk who insists on calling you "buddy" (this happened to me). Or you might see Elmo from Sesame Street open up a can of whoopass in order to fend off some nutcase who attacked him.

A man dressed as Elmo was making a promotional appearance at a mall in Winter Park, Fla., last week and, while still in costume, decided to take a break in a Guitar Center store. Another customer saw him and felt threatened, police said, and laid into Elmo.

The troublemaker ended up with a couple of broken fingers and a pysch evaluation. Elmo was unscathed.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 31

2010-09-24T10:42:00.003-04:00

Yeah? Can you make it sound like a cat with its tail caught in the door with a four-car collision in the background? I can.

Rock the Block

2010-09-20T18:37:00.003-04:00

I reached a career milestone last night. My wife was at work, my daughter was at college and my son was working a baby-sitting gig so with the everyone gone, I indulged myself and the Stratocaster by turning the volume knob a wee bit to the right. And then another wee bit to the right. And then just a teeny bit more.

I was working my way through what passes for my repertoire -- a little "Louie, Louie," some Stones, a little "Smoke on the Water," of course -- when the phone rang. It was my son, who was baby-sitting a couple of houses down the block, maybe 50 yards away.

"Uh, dad," he says, "are you playing the guitar?"

"Uh, yeah," I respond. "Why? Whoa! Wait -- you can hear me all the way down there?"

"Yeah," he says, "I figured you were either playing or the sound was just ingrained in my brain."

I won't lie -- I was pleased. It's not often that a middle-aged suburbanite gets a chance to be the neighborhood's obnoxious guitar-playing teenager. But I turned the volume way down because, (a) I try to be a good neighbor, and, (b) if the neighbors think I'm playing for them for free, they're dead wrong!

Now my goal is to get loud enough to bring the cops.

It Might Get Louder

2010-09-19T20:30:00.007-04:00

Another cinematic love song to the guitar is coming. In the wake of last year's "It Might Get Loud" comes "Turn It Up," an 84-minute look at the world's love affair with the electric guitar, narrated by actor-musician Kevin Bacon and featuring testimonials from B.B. King, Slash, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Nancy Wilson of Heart and the late Les Paul, as well as lesser-known and unknown players.

The Ventura County (Calif.) Star has a good interview here with director Robert Radler telling how he became inspired to make the movie.

"Turn It Up" opens in late winter or early spring of 2011 and the trailer can be seen here. My favorite moment of the trailer is the Bangladeshi guitarist who says: "I can speak through that and tell the whole world that I exist and have this beautiful thing in me, you know. I can express myself."

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 30

2010-09-18T02:27:00.001-04:00

Unless one of those guitars is mine.

Fresh Cream

2010-09-14T15:11:00.005-04:00

Take note, Eric Clapton. Yesterday I set a personal record by playing the intro to "Sunshine of Your Love" 18 consecutive times without error.

OK, there's nothing particularly tricky about that intro but it doesn't take much to please me.

Even more pleasing, I did it with the Strat cranked way, way up to jet engine decibel level, which I wouldn't have been able to do if I hadn't had the house to myself. If anyone else had been home, they would have tried to shut me down after about six or seven repititions, citing some obscure anti-noise ordinance and laws against monotony.

"Sunshine of Your Love," written by Clapton, Jack Bruce and a poet named Pete Brown, was Cream's big break-out hit in the U.S. and it's been covered by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Trini Lopez. I'd like to see Trini Lopez nail the intro 18 times in a row.

Jimmy's Pages

2010-09-13T09:18:00.003-04:00

Judging from the price, Jimmy Page is pretty proud of the new pictorial book he has coming out this month. "Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page" is leather-bound, silk-wrapped, signed and printed on extra-fancy paper. It's not really an autobiography -- just 650 photos with captions by Page. The book is a limited run of 2,500 copies and sells for the U.S. equivalent of $685.

Instead of this very expensive book, you could spend that $685 on a Paul Reed Smith SE 25th Anniversary Custom 24 electric. Or maybe 135 sets of D'Addario strings or 1,644 picks from Clayton's Hula Hotties series. I'm leaning toward the latter.

Page says that if he ever does do a proper autobiography, he prefers that it be published posthumously. Apparently to lessen the liability. I just wish he would explain the mystical "Zoso" that first appeared on the Led Zeppelin IV album cover.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 29

2010-09-11T13:31:00.001-04:00

It's easy to see why U2 fans love me.

Art Appreciation Class

2010-09-06T20:01:00.009-04:00

No, that painting above is not a projection of what Eric Clapton will look like in 10 years. It's "The Old Guitarist," a 1903 piece by Picasso during his Blue Period (I have just expended 87 percent of my knowledge of art; thank you, Wikipedia). It would eventually inspire artistic works in two other fields.

Poet Wallace Stevens was said to have seen the painting and then trundled off to write "The Man With the Blue Guitar."

The man bent over his guitar,

A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.

They said, "You have a blue guitar,

You do not play things as they are."

The man replied, "Things as they are

Are changed upon a blue guitar."

And they said then, "But play, you can't

A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,

A tune upon the blue guitar

Of things exactly as they are.

I know less about poetry than art but I'm not sure what made Stevens think that guitar is blue. Artistic license, I suppose.

And then there's Paul McCartney. In this video from a British chat show he tells a charming story about seeing "The Old Guitarist" in his wife's hospital room and noticing that the old-timer is making a chord with only two fingers, thus inspiring him to write a two-finger song for his newborn daughter.

Not to question Sir Paul's tender story but it sure looks to me as if the old boy's ring finger is the only one on a string while his index and middle fingers are riding the top rail and the pinky is catching nothing but air. More artistic license.

But, like they say on the infomercials, wait; there's more. The old blue guy was also the basis for this poster by Joel Elrod to promote a couple of 2001 Willie Nelson shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco. That very same poster currently has a place of honor in my office, thanks to the generosity of my brother.

In this rendition the old guitarist is coughing up one bird and has another flying out of his headstock in flames. Don't ask me to interpret. I didn't even get the poem.

I thought an updated guitar might cheer up the old boy but apparently not.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 28

2010-09-03T09:48:00.000-04:00

Not a problem. I could do a Jimmy Reed song and Jimmy Reed himself would have no idea what it was.

Pick up the Pick

2010-09-01T21:40:00.003-04:00

Next time you drop a pick in the soundhole, try this no-nonsense solution:

Or maybe make a trap door on the back side.

The iPod Plays On

2010-09-01T08:51:00.006-04:00

Shuffle mode on the iPod will never let you down.

"Midnight Rider," Allman Brothers
"Be That as It May," Willie Nelson
"I'm a Thousand Miles From Home," Joe Ely
"Kern River," Dave Alvin
"Walking Man," James Taylor
"Best," Jon Dee Graham
"Just the Right Bullets," Tom Waits
"Deuce and Quarter," Keith Richards & Levon Helm
"Loretta," Lyle Lovett
"Shout Bamalama," Otis Redding
"Rock 'n' Roll Music to the World," Ten Years After
"Kingfish," Levon Helm
"Hey Joe," Joe King Carrasco

Perhaps Keith Can Get Out of Jail Free Now

2010-08-31T07:32:00.005-04:00

The song may have to be renamed "Tumbling Monopoly Dice."

The Rolling Stones have teamed up with the little guy from the Monopoly game to create a special Stones version of the old board game (Sympathy for the devil? More like a deal with the devil). And as you can see Mr. Monopoly (aka, Rich Uncle Pennybags) is pretty excited about it.

Instead of streets, you try to get monopolies of Stones albums and then develop the properties with gold records. And instead of a race car and a little doggy, the tokens include a drum set, a thumb (as in "Under My Thumb"), horses ("Wild Horses") and sugar cubes ("Brown Sugar."

Surely such a game can give birth to really bad lyric-related puns, like "Going into Exile on Main Street with three houses will cost you $1,800."

If that's not enough, there's also a Stones Trivial Pursuit. And if that's still not enough, a Beatles version of Monopoly was released a few years ago.

iGuitar, iSuppose

2010-08-30T20:36:00.004-04:00

The photograph above has set the merry denizens of Geekland to hopping from one foot to the other in excitement. It was featured on the invitations Apple sent out for its Wednesday news conference and tech blogs are buzzing about what it means. The theme of the invitations usually has something to do with the news so the word is that the Apple will be announcing something about iPods or iTunes (Get it? Guitars = Music).

My question is, is that a real guitar or a product of Photoshop? And if it's for real, who made it?

And since we're talking about iThings, Castiv Media has a little device called the Guitar Sidekick to hook up your iTouch or iPhone to your guitar for easy reference.

It hooks on under the strings just north of the nut, much like a capo, and holds your iDevice in a clamp. That makes it handy for using Apples many guitar-related apps, tuners and reading chords and lyrics as you play. It also makes it easy to follow along with youtube instructional videos. I tried it out and the whole rig is not so heavy that throws off our balance.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 27

2010-08-28T08:56:00.000-04:00

I can't tell you how many times people have also compared my playing to criminal activity.

The Day My Music Died

2010-08-27T19:50:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe that the goofy-looking kid in the sunglasses would go on to become one of the world's greatest guitarists -- and my personal favorite. He was known as just Steve back then in Dallas' Oak Cliff neighborhood, before a publicist properly concluded that Stevie Ray Vaughan had much more marquee appeal.

That "American Pie" song said that the "day the music died" was when Buddy Holly's plane went down but for me it was when Stevie Ray Vaughan's helicopter hit a mountainside in Wisconsin, 20 years ago today. It certainly doesn't seem like it's been 20 years.

I spent some time today reading various stories about Vaughan's death and the anniversary and there were three comments that really struck me:

* "... I think he's become a myth in a way. I don't think he'd be real happy with that part of it. Some people he left this earth in a blaze of glory -- going on to a higher purpose. It wasn't exactly like that at all. Stevie was a human being. He had all these hopes and dreams just like the rest of us. He was excited about life. That's one of the other many reasons his death hurt so bad. At the time, he was optimistic about just being alive. We had already been talking about how much we were looking forward to our next record." -- Double Trouble bass player Tommy Shannon in the Austin Chronicle

* "It's just a horrible tragedy that doesn't seem real to me still. I'll never get over it. I had to come around realize that I'm here and I have a life and I had a life before he got killed and there's nothing I could do about it. So I decided to be happy." -- brother Jimmie Vaughan in the Dallas Morning News

* "I run around the Town Lake [in Austin] hike and bike trail four or five times a week. Every time I do, I swerve off the trail, stick out my left hand and touch the right hand of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Touching Stevie's statue gives me a boost, a touch of hope." -- Bill Crawford, co-author of "Stevie Ray Vaughan: Caught in the Crossfire," in the Austin Chronicle

So, if this were a bad TV movie trying to teach a lesson, I guess the lesson would be that life goes on, sometimes painfully so. I do know, though, that next time I'm in Austin I'm going to run on that trail and slap hands with Stevie Ray Vaughan.

As for personal recollections, I met Stevie Ray Vaughan a couple of times after shows and he was patient and gracious with someone who was just another backstage hanger-on taking up his time after a long day at the office. He shook my hand (his hand was huge) and responded politely to small-talk along the lines of, "Wow, that was a great show," which is pretty feeble even it was a great show.

(Young SRV photo from the Oak Cliff Advocate)

Hendrix Slept Here -- And So Did Handel (but not at the same time)

2010-08-25T12:18:00.002-04:00

A couple of expatriate musical geniuses with really big hair would have been neighbors in London's Mayfair neighborhood had they not been separated by a couple hundred years.

The German composer and harpsichord ace George Frederic Handel lived at 25 Brook Street for almost 40 years before his death in 1759 and that was where he wrote "The Messiah." In 1968 Jimi Hendrix moved into the upper apartment next door at 23 Brook Street with his English girlfriend and lived there through the height of his career until his death in 1970.

In 2001 Handel's old crib was converted to a museum paying tribute to his work and Hendrix's flat became the administrative offices for the museum. To mark the 40th anniversary of Hendrix's death on Sept. 18, the Handel House Museum people have set up a Hendrix exhibit in the office that will run through November. The exhibit will include a big-brimmed Hendrix hat, a jacket, film clips, his Flying V, recordings and some lyrics from "Third Stone From the Sun" scribbled on stationery from the Hyde Park Towers Hotel.

In addition to an address, Handel and Hendrix may have shared a ghost. A womanly apparition smelling of perfume was said to haunt 25 Brook Street and Hendrix claimed to have seen the ghost at his place, too.

Stray Notes

2010-08-23T20:43:00.003-04:00

You could use this Ouija board guitar to contact the spirits of Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Holly. Then they'd probably ask you, "Why the hell did you buy this goofy guitar?"
Then you could say, "Oh, yeah? Well, Kirk Hammet of Metallica plays a black Ouija board guitar."

And then Buddy and Jimi would say, "Doesn't matter. It's still goofy."

It might sound pretty good through a Magic 8 Ball amp, though ...

I'm hoping the National Guitar Museum will bring its road show to Washington. The fledgling museum is putting together a traveling exhibit called "Guitar: The Instrument That Rocked the World" that will make its debut in Orlando, Fla., next June. It will focus on three themes -- the evolution of the guitar, its cultural impact and the science of sound. The website says it will have lots of "touchables" and "playables." After taking the exhibit to various cities, the museum will decide on a permanent home.

The museum's board includes Johnny Winter, Steve Vai, Steve Howe of Yes and Ritchie Blackmore, formerly of Deep Purple ...

Some people have called him the space cowboy and some have called him the gangster of love. Some have even called Steve Miller Maurice but this fall he's going to be called the artist in residency at the school of music at USC.

Miller will hold master classes on the music industry and seminars on planning a tour and producing records.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 26

2010-08-17T09:23:00.004-04:00

And they'll say the same thing about me, too. Except for that "sounded good" part.

Bits & Pieces

2010-08-16T08:28:00.005-04:00

Here's a heart-warming story about a Heartbreaker. It seems Griffin Blacka a 14-year-old kid from Virginia, is a major fan of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, particularly guitarist Mike Campbell, so he decided to make a replica of Campbell's much-modified "Red Dog" Telecaster.

Black spent three months rounding up the proper parts, including a pair of Gibson pickups and a Bigsby tremelo, and three days to assemble them. He finangled his way backstage at a Heartbreakers show in Philadelphia last month to show the guitar to Campbell, who was so impressed that he played it onstage that night. The kid was thrilled more than somewhat ...

And speaking of the Heartbreakers, here's a bit of trivia: Don Felder of the Eagles taught guitar lessons to a young Tom Petty back in their hometown of Gainesville, Fla. Felder said in those days Petty was a "scrawny, scraggly, blond-haired kid," a description that still applies. Except for the "kid" part, of course ...

You can't deny there's a great deal of craftsmanship that goes into these Blueberry guitars but they don't appeal to me (click the picture for a better view). They're just way overdone, so much so that I think I'd have trouble concentrating on playing.

The company has an interesting strategy, though. The guitars are handmade in Bali and mostly sold on eBay, as well as a few stores in the U.S. and Canada.

Mufasa's New Home

2010-08-14T09:58:00.002-04:00

My little guitar family has grown to five. My daughter ships off to college in four days and she has designated me to be caretaker of her Washburn (seen on the far right), figuring she'll just be way too busy with studying and stagework to play.

Three years ago the Washburn was the only guitar in the house -- not that it was ever played. My daughter loaned it to me when I started out so it's greatest historical value lies in the fact that it was the first guitar I ever played a chord on. Someday musical historians will find that fascinating, I'm sure, and the guitar's value will skyrocket.

The daughter named the guitar Mufasa after the father in "The Lion King." She never played it much, although we did have a musical moment or two. Now it will be in my office but it won't remind me of her because I'll probably already be thinking of her.

The blue Post-It note on the guitar says: "Dad, I'm leaving Mufasa in your care. Please don't overplay him. He's a good friend of mine so be nice to him!"

The Sad State of Rock 'n' Roll

2010-08-11T08:39:00.007-04:00

Disillusionment is setting in. Lately I have heard some music-related news that has left me deeply troubled.

Steven Tyler reportedly to be a judge on "American Idol."
.

I think he would be better suited to be a judge on the Supreme Court.

Rolling Stone Ron Wood is into hard-core philately.

That doesn't mean what you might think it means. It means he a serious stamp collector -- so serious that he has people who search shops and the Internet for stamps to purchase.

Let's see: multiple trips to rehab and girlfriends one-third his age -- very rock 'n' roll.

A British Guinea 1-cent stamp from 1856 -- not very rock 'n' roll, even if it is worth almost $1 million.
(Apparently John Lennon and Freddie Mercury also were stamp collectors. Don't ask me to explain.)

Roger Daltrey breeds trout.
.

The Who's lead singer is featured in "Underwater World of Trout, Volume 1" talking about the trout farm he designed in England. He's also tried worm farming.

Bill Wyman has a line of signature metal detectors.

I'm not making this up, as Dave Barry used to say. “My Bill Wyman Signature Detector is lightweight, easy to use and affordable – yet has significant performance levels," the former Rolling Stones bassist says on his website. "It is the ideal metal detector for anyone starting out treasure hunting.” That website also includes Wyman's tips on metal detecting, his favorite spots and favorite finds, which supposedly include a coin from the 14th century. He can also recommend a good podiatrist in Sheffield if your arches are giving you trouble again.

All this makes me think that rock 'n' roll isn't dead. It's just heading down to Denny's (with the left turn signal blinking incessantly) for the early-bird special.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 25

2010-08-09T09:24:00.003-04:00

You're lucky. My guitar just wants to be friends.

The Stratocaster Makes Room

2010-08-07T09:37:00.002-04:00

Leo Fender and his design wizards unknowingly did me a big, big favor when they were creating the Stratocaster more than half a century ago -- a big favor for me and every other middle-aged, not-as-svelte-as-I-used-to-be guitarist. It accommodates the stomach and is the guitar equivalent of those hidden bits of elastic in the waistband of certain pants.

As they sculpted the Strat, Fender and his associates scooped out a bit of the upper side and back, creating what Fender calls a comfort contour. It's right there where the player's torso comes into contact with the back of the guitar, providing a nice, snug fit.

Leo Fender had a reputation for seeking and acting on the input of guitarists and a couple of LA-area players of the time -- Rex Gallion and Bill Carson -- had complained that the flat slab body on Fender Telecasters was a bit uncomfortable, especially when played while sitting in the studio or onstage, as was the style of the time with big bands. By some accounts Fender was reluctant to alter the design but finally gave in and the contour went over well. "It fits better to your body like a well-tailored shirt should," was Carson's review.

The company was so pleased it advertises the contour cut on the headstock. There are plenty more things that could be said about the design of the Stratocaster if there were more room on the headstock. Things like what Guitar World magazine said in a 2009 story titled "50 Years of the Fender Stratocaster: Dangerous Curves":

The Stratocaster is the product of a more simple and idealistic era — a time when people felt they could change the world with paper, pencil and maybe a few hand tools ... The Strat is an icon of post-WWII prosperity and optimism. It shares the confident flare of a full-length Fifties pleated skirt, the unstoppable thrust of a Cadillac tail fin.

Now that's a pretty poetic description and very fitting for such an iconic design. Makes me feel a little crass because I always think of that comfort contour as a "gut cut."

Randomly Shuffling Across Texas

2010-08-01T15:22:00.002-04:00

My iPod is definitely and unapologetically Texas-centric. Six of the 13 random selections for this month are Texas acts.

"God Bless," Arthur Conley
"Have You Heard," ZZ Top
"Me and Billy the Kid," Joe Ely
"Mind Your Own Business," Hank Williams
"Yabba Ding Dong," Joe King Carassco
"Tenth Avenue Freeze Out," Bruce Springsteen
"No Rope, Daisy-O," Joe Ely
"Steady With Betty," The LeRoi Brothers
"Small Change," Tom Waits
"Jesus Is on the Mainline," Mavis Staples
"Love Like That," Heavy
"I Know You Can Hear Me," Todd Snider
"Can't You Feel It," Johnny Winter

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 24

2010-07-30T11:20:00.005-04:00

I've got that second sound mastered but the first is giving me a little trouble.

Chuck Pays Tribute to Jimi & a License to Play

2010-07-26T11:32:00.003-04:00

It's been a long, long time since Converse's Chuck Taylors were just about basketball. Now they're all about funky hipsterism. My daughter, owner of five pairs of Chucks, told me so but I had figured it out myself about 35 years ago.

As you can see above, Chucks has a rock-related line with the most recent addition being the three Hendrix-themed shoes. Perhaps someday Stinktown Willie & the Hard Liquors will have their own Chuck ...

You don't need a license to play guitar but if you did, there would be plenty of license-plate guitars to chose from, even though none of them actually play. Some of the artists who created these can be found here, here and here, as well as here.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 23

2010-07-23T11:11:00.001-04:00

In that case, I'd like a '59 Les Paul sunburst with a side order of talent.

Scenes From My Life (Continued)

2010-07-22T11:07:00.004-04:00

Apparently there's no need for hear me play when you can just go to the nearest construction site.

Scene VI

A father, mother and teenage son are gathered in the kitchen of their suburban home in the morning, preparing to leave the house and start their respective days.

Wife (abruptly): Wait! What's the sound?

All stop what they're doing and listen intently.

Son: Yeah, what is that?

Wife: I've been hearing it all morning.

(to husband): I swear, I thought it was you plucking on the guitar.

All fall silent and listen intently again.

Son (looking out kitchen window): Oh, it's just the construction guys working on the house next door.

Husband looks non-plussed, not exactly flattered by the comparison.

Reading List

2010-07-17T10:44:00.005-04:00

If you have spare time, here's some suggested reading:

* An interview on the Gibson site with Claude Nobs, who is the founder of the Montreaux Jazz Festival but also has a special part in rock history. He's the guy mentioned in Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" -- "Funky Claude running in and out/pulling kids out the ground" -- and talks about the fire that inspired the song.

* The Rock and Roll of Fame won't be getting Steve Miller's guitars anytime soon. He thumbs his nose at the hall, and especially founder Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone, on spinner.com.

* Blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughan tells the Austin Chronicle about founding the Fabulous Thunderbirds and cranking up Austin's blues scene. And some words of wisdom from JLV have been added to the GUITARTALK sidebar on the right.

Also, there's an iPhone app called Touch Chords: Jimmie Vaughan that shows you finger positions, chords and tabs to play along with his new album, "Jimmie Vaughan Plays Blues, Ballads and Favorites."

* What makes a middle-aged guy take air guitar serious? I read this Washington Post story and I'm still not sure.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 22

2010-07-15T11:11:00.009-04:00

Since I don't have any shotguns, I'm going to really load up on the guitars.

Grateful Bobblehead & Ice on the Strings

2010-07-13T09:32:00.004-04:00

Jerry Garcia is gone but not forgotten in the Bay Area. Aug. 9 will be Jerry Garcia Tribute Night at the San Francisco Giants' game against the Chicago Cubs with Garcia's daughter Annabelle throwing out the first pitch and surviving Dead member Bob Weir will sing the national anthem and Mickey Hart will lead a kazoo-driven rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch.

If you fork over $175 for the VIP ticket package, you get to sit in the special Jerry Garcia Tribute Section and take home a Jerry bobble-head like the one above ...

I'm wondering if my strings are too warm. The GHS company has a line of strings that frozen with liquid nitrogen to a temperature of 300 degrees below zero before gradually being restored to room temperature. This, GHS says, "improves the dimensional stability of the strings, keeping them in tune, while increasing resistance to corrosion."

These would have been ideal for Albert "The Iceman" Collins.

Slice of Guitar Pie

2010-07-12T09:52:00.000-04:00

Now Batting Last and Playing Right Field ...

2010-07-11T09:50:00.001-04:00

Having been salvaged after Nashville's devastating spring flood, John Fogerty's baseball bat guitar is now going to Cooperstown.

The guitar, created by Philip Kubicki and bearing an authentic Louisville Slugger logo, is the one Fogerty uses on "Centerfield," his ode to baseball that is played at least 14 times per game at every major and minor league ballpark. He'll crank it up on July 25 at the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction ceremony and then the guitar will go on display in the hall. That may make Fogerty the only person to be represented in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The bat guitar, known as Slugger, was one of hundreds stored in a Nashville facility that was inundated when the Cumberland River overflowed. It was underwater for five days and had to be restored.

In this interview, Fogerty says he's always loved baseball but was never any good at it in his youth. In fact, he usually ended up playing right field, which is traditionally the exile home of the worst player on the Little League team, especially when compared the faster, more skilled and dashing center fielder.

You could say I'm the right fielder of the guitar world.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 21

2010-07-09T09:27:00.002-04:00

If garbage and mistakes are the raw materials for great music, then I'm well on my way.

Hank Vai

2010-07-07T08:34:00.005-04:00

Guitar demi-god Steve Vai not only was executive producer of "Crazy," the story of legendary guitarist Hank Garland, he also had a small role in the movie, which recently came out on DVD and Blue-Ray. Vai's long, gaunt face made him a excellent choice to play the part of Hank Williams.

Garland played on many of Elvis's early hits in the '50s and later became a much-sought player in Nashville, where he backed up the likes of Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers and Conway Twitty. Garland also gets credited with bringing jazz influences to Nashville and was playing with black musicians back when that sort of thing was frowned upon.

Garland is played in the movie by Waylon Payne, who has a fairly impressive musical pedigree. He was named for his godfather, Waylon Jennings, and his father, Jody Payne, was a long-time guitarist for Willie Nelson and his mother is country singer Sammi Smith.

Vai discusses the movie with musicradar.com here (be sure to play the "Sugarfoot Rag" video on the second page) and some interesting background on Garland can be found here.

How to Write a Song, Stewie Griffin Style

2010-07-06T15:39:00.001-04:00

Where would the music industry be without songs about girls? There would be a whole lot more instrumentals, that's for sure.

Here we have a couple of videos from "Family Guy" -- the first with a heady discussion of the impact of women on songwriters and the second with a tutorial from precociously evil Stewie Griffin on how to construct a song.

There are lessons to be learned here, I'm sure.

Miscellaneous

2010-07-03T07:17:00.000-04:00

How's this for a trouper? Hubert Sumlin, one of the few survivors from Chicago's golden blues era, performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago late last month -- even though he had to be hooked up to an oxygen tank. The New York Times review said he "still sang with gusto" despite the tubes in his nose, which you can see in this picture.

The festival featured players like Jeff Beck, ZZ Top, Ron Wood, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Cray and Johnny Lang and it's pretty much a certainty that all of them were influenced by the 78-year-old Sumlin in one way or another from his work as Howlin' Wolf's long-time guitarist ...

Here's a way to respond to those infernal vuvuzela horns at the World Cup. This guitar is officially sanctioned by FIFA, international soccer's ruling body, and it has a built-in, battery-powered amp so you can play it in the stands. I like how the headstock is designed to be a soccer shoe with the tuners as cleats.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 20

2010-07-02T08:33:00.001-04:00

Yeah, those fancy plug-in guitars will never last.

iPoddities

2010-07-01T08:44:00.012-04:00

This month's random iPod play has a plurality of Texans but otherwise I don't see any particular theme.

"Rolling Across the USA," Kinky Friedman
"Highway 99," Dave Alvin & the Guilty Men
"A Lot to Ask," Reckless Kelly
"Check Your Head," Buckcherry
"Mary Anne With the Shakey Hand," The Who
"Hasten Down the Wind," Warren Zevon
"Coming Down," Todd Snider
"Livin' It Down," Delbert McClinton
"Get It While You Can," Janis Joplin
"Sheik," ZZ Top
"Lillian," Link Wray
"What Good Am I," Solomon Burke
"Through Your Hands," John Hiatt

Nightmares of a Bad Guitarist

2010-06-28T10:46:00.006-04:00

You know the classic bad dream -- you go to work or school and then realize that you're wearing nothing but your underwear and become an object of great ridicule. That one doesn't bother me at all. In my nightmare, I realize that I am suddenly solo in front of a big audience with a guitar that I'm expected to play.

These are some of my guitar-related nightmares:

* Just as I'm about to enter Chuck Levin's Music Center, I notice a crude poster in the window with my picture and the slash-in-a-circle "NO" symbol.

* Fender, Gibson and Alvarez file suit against me, claiming I am defiling their creations and causing great damage to their reputations as guitar makers.

* Also concerned about their reputations, the Martin and Paul Reed Smith guitar companies get restraining orders that forbid me to buy their products.

* Keith Richards walks by my house and hears me butchering "Dead Flowers." He is so angry that bursts in and punches me in the mouth. Then he laughs that phlegm-y Keith Richards laugh and walks out, taking my guitar with him.

* Actress Sofia Vergara of the sitcom "Modern Family" says she will have dinner with me on one condition -- that I sell my guitars.

(For sale: four guitars -- priced to move)

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 19

2010-06-23T08:52:00.004-04:00

So far, it's a tie:

Musical Knowledge Scoreboard

Eddie Van Halen 0
Me 0

What is this? The World Cup?

Credibility Gap

2010-06-20T07:41:00.005-04:00

My guitar ignorance is deep, wide and vast. I'll freely admit that here but still I try to hide it as best as I can by saying as little as possible on the subject when I'm around anyone who might actually have some knowledge of guitars. (I find this approach to be pretty useful in life in general, too.)

But I almost blew my cover and exposed myself as a no-credibility dilettante when I noticed something that seemed amiss with the new Strat. There was an alarming gap of about a quarter-inch between the bottom of the bridge (for those who know even less about guitars than I do, the bridge is the piece of hardware at the butt-end where the strings attach) and the body of the guitar. It looked like the bridge was about to come out of the body and was so loose that I could push it down with my hand.

I was semi-devastated. This beautiful new free guitar was defective and would have to be replaced or repaired. I immediately began composing an indignant e-mail in my mind, telling my benefactors at Guitar Edge magazine how offended and disappointed I was in them for sending me a broken guitar. I toned it down, however, deciding to ask in a firm but friendly manner what could be done about this unfortunate situation.

Before I actually started writing the e-mail I decided to Google the words Stratocaster, gap and bridge to see if this was a common problem and if it was difficult to fix. What followed was one of those Homer Simpson "doh!" moments as I came across the phrase floating bridge. Sure, I'd seen floating bridge while reading up on guitars but I couldn't have differentiated between a floating bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge. I had no idea what a floating bridge was. Now I do -- it's a bridge that floats. It goes up and down when you work the tremelo arm (aka, whammy bar), that thing that changes the pitch and gives you all that great vibrato sound that guys like Hendrix and SRV used to such great effect.

I was mildly embarrassed (but not surprised) by my ignorance. I mean, it sure looked like something was wrong. But I was not as embarrassed as I would have been if I hadn't Googled first. I would have been crushed to have received an e-mail reply from Guitar Edge saying, "re the gap on the bridge of your guitar: uh, it's supposed to be like that, dude."

I would have felt like the rube in the fancy French restaurant who orders vichyssoise soup and then tries to send it back because it's cold.

Stratlove

2010-06-18T17:20:00.000-04:00

“The time I burned my guitar, it was like a sacrifice.

You sacrifice the things you love. I love my guitar.”

-- Jimi Hendrix

Now that's how Hendrix and I are different (well, there are several thousand other differences but I'm not sure the Internet is big enough to hold all of them. For starters, though, he could actually play). I love my new Stratocaster, too, but I definitely will not be dousing it with lighter fluid and making a flaming sacrifice of it.

Sometimes I just stare at it. It's that pretty. I was never much of a fan of sunburst finishes but this one (Sienna Sunburst is what Fender calls it) speaks to me. Especially the way the natural grain of the alder wood comes through.

Due to work and various other tedious distractions, I haven't been able to play it as much as I would have liked yet but the schedule is all clear for tomorrow. So if you hear some odd, vaguely guitarish noises, don't call the police.

I can say this, though: with three pickups, two tone knobs and a whammy bar, you sure can get a lot more sound of a Strat than the Telecaster. It gives me that mad-scientist-in-the-lab feeling and makes me want to get deeper.

This may get me to resume lessons. Seems like it would be a shame to have such a great guitar and not be able to get more out of it.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 18

2010-06-17T08:27:00.003-04:00

And that, right there, is why I hate the piano.

The Eagle Has Landed

2010-06-16T20:14:00.003-04:00

The Strat has arrived and as Mr. T might say, no time for jibber-jabber, fool! Gotta go rip open this box!

Guitar Cabinetry

2010-06-14T21:33:00.003-04:00

Every now and then you have to think about creating a home atmosphere that's conducive to guitar playing. These cool guitarist-inspired cabinets by Paul Carbo, a former newspaper illustrator living in West Virginia, will do just that.

If you don't like the guys pictured below (the one who looks like a dour Warren Buffett is Andres Segovia), Carbo's website also has Hemingway, Hepburn, Roosevelt (Teddy and Franklin), Einstein, Chaplin and the Three Stooges, among others. He also works on commission.

I think the Jerry Garcia model has the greatest capacity.

This all reminds me of the Dylan song "Knockin' on Heaven's Cabinet Door."

Where's That FedEx Truck?

2010-06-11T12:35:00.003-04:00

I'm keeping a close eye on the driveway. The FedEx lady is supposed to bring the Strat today -- and I haven't even bought a stand for it yet.

After I'd told the rest of the family the good news about winning the guitar, it took about 45 seconds for them to come to the consensus that I shouldn't keep it. There were two votes for selling it on Craigslist and one vote for keeping it in my daughter's dorm-room-to-be. I declared the election to be invalid. They just don't understand.

(Update: The family gets a reprieve of a few days. As it turns out, the guitar is not arriving here until Tuesday.)

While I'm waiting for the FedEx truck to roll up with my musical bounty, I'm looking at this list of the 50 greatest guitarists of all time from the Los Angeles Times magazine. There are several million best-guitarists lists but this one is a bit different in that it includes flamenco players Paco Pena and Paco de Lucian and jazz guys Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery.

The list generated some heated comments ("What brainless moron put this list together?") because, among other reasons, Jimi Hendrix was listed at No. 21 and Jimmy Page was No. 31. Apparently not all readers noticed where it said the listings were alphabetical.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 17

2010-06-10T09:13:00.002-04:00

Finally, someone has given me hope.

Gift From the Stratocastersphere

2010-06-08T20:06:00.005-04:00

There's only one thing better than a shiny new guitar and that's a FREE shiny new guitar.

Fate smiled on me today. After entering approximately 12,583 online guitar give-aways in the past two years, the guitar gods have bestowed upon me a Fender American Standard Stratocaster in that beautiful sienna sunburst finish you see above.

The guitar comes courtesy of the good people at Guitar Edge magazine, which is now my favorite magazine in all of guitardom. A fellow from the magazine called to inform me of my good fortune and I had to give him a few details to confirm my identity. I have to say I felt a slight pang of guilt when he asked my birthday, which is Aug. 24, 1883. "Damn," I thought, "should an old dude like me really win this? Am I depriving some young kid of the opportunity to have this guitar?

Then I said, nah, getting a new guitar makes me feel like a young kid.

The Strat will increase my little guitar family to four, which means I'm going to need a bigger staging area. My daughter's going off to college in the fall so maybe I'll set up in the bedroom she's vacating. She can sleep in the hall when she comes home on holidays, I suppose.

Little Guitars & Paper Guitars

2010-06-07T20:59:00.005-04:00

The little guitar is held in high esteem on this blog and advancements in the little guitar industry do not go unnoticed. In an admirable quest for realism, this miniature Telecaster replica at the Fender online store comes with a little wireless setup and three teeny-tiny picks. You can even adjust the strings but, as always with this sort of thing, you have to provide your own miniature groupies ...

If this guitar thing doesn't work out and Guitar Hero turns out to be too difficult and if air guitar proves to be too technical, I have another option -- Paperjamz.

These are made of inch-thick paper (which I guess would actually make them more like cardboard) and plug into real speakers. Each model comes loaded with three songs ("Mississippi Queen," "Smoke on the Water," "You Really Got Me" and "Take It to the Limit" among them).

They're string-less but have sensors that make guitar-like sounds when you strum. There are three play modes, including one in which you can freestyle.

They're supposed to sell for $25 to $30 when they hit the market and you'll also be able to get paper amps and drums. They're guaranteed to go quickly if you want to pull a Hendrix and set it afire at the end of your show ...

I think I now know why I'm such a slow learner -- I'm using too many strings. Consider what Pete Townshend said in this long-ago interview:

"My grandmother bought me a guitar when I was 12 and it was just a really, really cheap guitar. I broke a lot of strings on it and it was finally when I got to just the D, the G and the B strings left, it was then that I broke through and learned a few chords. And essentially most of the shapes are centered around those three strings, so I played for about six months on just those three strings and learned a lot of chords and then finally when I managed to get enough pocket money to buy the rest of the strings I could suddenly play. It was really weird. I felt that it all fitted into place."

The iPod Digs Deep

2010-06-02T07:59:00.003-04:00

The baker's dozen for June includes a couple of obscurities -- Washington legend Root Boy Slim (for the purpose of this exercise, yes, a legend be obscure) and Deke Dickerson & the Real Bad News (not just bad news but real bad news).

"Bo Diddley," Sonny Boy Williamson & the Animals
"Blue Hotel," Chris Isaak
"Fool in Paradise," the LeRoi Brothers
"Express Train," Root Boy Slim
"Missing Pieces," John Hiatt
"Two Hearts," Bruce Springsteen
"I Hate Fords," Deke Dickerson & the Real Bad News
"Too Long in Exile," Van Morrison
"Shake Your Hips," Rolling Stones
"Start Me Up," Rolling Stones
"Will You Visit Me on Sunday," Marty Stuart
"That's Not Me," The Beach Boys
"I'm a Changed Man," Otis Redding

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 16

2010-06-01T08:22:00.002-04:00

Yeah, and a case! They should give you a free case, too. And maybe an extra set of strings.

Creed's Midnight Confession & Nashville's Woes

2010-05-23T14:34:00.003-04:00

Long before he was Creed Bratton the creepy kleptomaniac oddball on "The Office," he was Creed Bratton the guitarist in one of the most successful American bands of the late '60s and early '70s.

Bratton was part of the Grass Roots, who once were all over the rock charts with songs such as "Let's Live for Today," "Temptation Eyes" and "Midnight Confessions" and also wrote some of the group's songs. One episode of "The Office" was to have included a reference of Creed's rock 'n' roll days but it was cut.

Now Bratton is reviving his music career with a just-released album, "Bounce Back," that includes "Office" co-star Ed Helms on banjo, has been playing a few shows in California and performed at Austin's SxSW festival this year.

This video has Creed in both professional incarnations (he's in the blue-and-white striped shirt in the vintage clip) ...

The Sweetwater guitar retailing people have a list of charities that are helping Nashville recover from that devastating flood. Click right here.

The Tennessean newspaper says a Gibson plant that had been churning out 2,500 guitars (including lots of Les Pauls) a day was especially hard hit by the flood and won't be shipping for about three months, which is going to cost retailers millions of dollars in sales.

My Conversations With Rock Stars, Part 15

2010-05-19T19:07:00.003-04:00

No, but if it does pass away unexpectedly, I'm sure I'll be a primary suspect.

Guitar Styles of the Rich & Famous

2010-05-17T22:53:00.005-04:00

Guitar Aficionado magazine is like Playboy, only with pretty guitars instead of pretty naked women.

It's a relatively new, very slick publication and its message seems to be: if you get really rich, you can have a whole lot of really, really nice guitars, as well as the finer things in life. I get the feeling that my annual income is a few million dollars below the target demographic for this magazine. The ads for Serac bottled water (it costs about $2.50 per ounce) and the $8,000 Ulysse Nardin wristwatch flew right past my bank account without a second glance. I could barely afford the $7.99 for the magazine.

The magazine's fifth issue gives you the lowdown on Yngwie Malmsteen's addiction to Rolex watches and Metallica's James Hetfield talks about his collections of customized cars, Flying V's and Les Pauls (a '58, two '59s and a '60). And there are the stories about the amateur -- but extremely rich -- guitar guys. The founder of Mesa Boogie amps shows off his guitars, as well as his timber-and-stone desert home, while the CEO of Barnes and Noble, the co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival and celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito all talk about their guitar collections.

There also is an interesting feature about how U.S. law and an international treaty designed to protect endangered flora and fauna could put a crimp in the guitar-making business. Lots of unique tone wood is covered by these regulations and could prohibit luthiers from using certain woods, even if they were cut well before the laws went into effect.

Coverboy Jeff Bridges talks about his lifelong interest in music and his Oscar-winning portrayal of down-and-nearly-out country singer Bad Blake in "Crazy Heart." When watching the movie I thought it odd that in this era of product placement, you never got a good look at the logos on the guitars Bridges was playing. The electric was a Gretsch and the acoustic was a Gibson (on loan from Buddy Miller) and seems to me Gretsch and Gibson missed a very good opportunity to advertise.

Bridges said there was some pre-production debate on what sort of electric guitar the character should play. The director and music coordinator T-Bone Burnett wanted the Gretsch but Bridges' friend Jackson Browne had suggested a Telecaster. I'm going to have to agree with Jackson Browne on this one. Bad Blake definitely was a Telecaster type of guy -- basic and old school.