I have just visited Paul Gilbert’s website, www.paulgilbert.com. He has a section called magazines featuring magazine covers presenting him. Used to seeing him with his signature models, it was strange to see him using some guitar that I think it is a Danelectro Longhorn. Check the picture, I think I am not wrong and compare it to the one here.

I think it is Danelectro, no doubt here. Check the round pickguard , the horns and the 2(I think) volume/tone controls plus the switch.

Later edit: searching on Google, I have found the guitar collection of Paul Gilbert and indeed, he seems to own at least one Danelectro electric guitar. Check here the collection and here the guitar itself. However, it is not the one in the picture above.

Considering my previous post here about Danelectro Longhorn could we consider Paul Gilbert as being brave?

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Yesterday I was caught in a traffic jam and I had noting to do than listen to the radio in my car. So I turned on the radio and there was a girl singing on top of a bass guitar, drums and keyboard. I was not paying attention to it in the beginning. Then, I remember the progress of my thoughts: hmm, sounds interesting, but for this music style it would need some strong electric guitars here, some power riffs. And I tell to my wife, sitting next to me, in what language is this girl singing? I sense I understand every word of what she sings there, just that I don’t actually understand anything, it is somehow close to English, an Anglo-Saxon language, but a Nordic one, also the way the music is composed tells me a Nordic band.

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I was watching a video of Michael Angelo Batio after somebody reached my site looking for some of his guitar tabs and I was just wondering: why would you need Michael Angelo Batio guitar tabs?

You would probably not be able to do anything with them. I think that no matter how many guitar tabs you will have from Michael Angelo himself, you will not be able to shred the way he does. He did it his whole life and beside that he plays with his both hands at the same time so…

Later edit: it sounded bad. I meant to say that it is not easy to play both hands, if not impossible (for me). If you can do it, you have all my respect. If you can do it the way Michael Angelo Batio does it, then you must be great, so send me a CD and a couple of tickets to your concerts, I will be there!

Anyway, this is not a reason for you to stop trying, just that you should not put all your trust in these guitar tabs you find on the internet! Instead, practice, practice and again…practice!

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A few days ago I was thinking about how Eric Clapton’s music evolved over time. I don’t say “evolved” as in “it was bad-now it is good”, far from me such an idea, just that Clapton’s music changed over time as the music business itself. I am not a big fan of Clapton,not in the way I could say about other artists or bands. I can not say that I know all his songs and everything he does or did, but Eric Clapton always had and always will have a special place in my heart.

My first contact with Eric Clapton’s music was when I bought 2 tapes, one with Metallica and one with Eric Clapton (as you may see, my taste in music was not quite oriented at that time as Clapton and Metallica had nothing to do one with the other). The tape was kind of a best of, at that time, so it offered me kind of Clapton’s best works. From that tape I remember Layla, the electric version, and Bell bottom blues. I kept this second song till now in my memories, without listening it again for a long time since I have lost that tape and I can say that it left a strong mark on my musical path.

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As you have already seen, I love strong screaming voices, I am in constant search for new and old ones. Also, I am looking for anything new that I can find out and even, at one point, I imposed to myself that each and everyday to find something I didn’t know(in most of the cases this means to find out about a rock band I didn’t know about).

One of those days I was looking on YouTube for some music and I have found about a great voice that, to my shame, I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT!!! When I have started to listen it I felt shivering down my spine: how could I not know about this band? How could I not know about Steelheart when they play since so many years and when Mike Matijevic has such a great voice that is just made for electric guitars?

I was looking for more and more and I can only say that for 3-4 days I played on and on “She’s gone” and “Can’t stop me loving you”. Steelheart’s “She’s gone” is one great power ballad that shows the voice of Mike Matijevic in it’s full power and shows his easiness to get those high notes. I was just amazed, really! She’s gone is great but the voice of Mike Matijevic gives it the real value. When I have found Can’t stop me loving you I thought that these guys just needed to be great, they had such a great music, but just unknown here in Romania, at least from what I know.

Looking for more information, I have found their website, www.steelheart.com. What I have read there turned me upside down and to be honest I have perfectly understood why they didn’t make it big even if they had what it takes and most of all, they were on the wave at one point: life is what that hit them, fate, call it however you want. I am not going to get into details but Mike Matijevic, or Miljenko Matijevic by his real name had an very ugly accident in the beginning of their career and that was what cut them from the start. Despite the difficulties he faced, he seems to recover after some time. I have found some songs after Steelheart came back on stage, about 4 years later, losing the exact period when the musical style they play lost ground before other musical genders. Anyway, Today, Steelheart goes on tour constantly, which can only make me happy and Mike Matijevic seems to have the same love for live performances that I have seen in his early days videos, which is great. However, seems that,even if the electric guitars remain somehow the same,the musical style changed a bit to match today’s musical taste, which is not quite good from my point of view, but I guess everybody’s got to eat.

I can only say that at this moment, my favorite videos list on YouTube contains Steelheart and I am trying to get some recorded materials on CD for my car CD player since I became somehow of a fan. Steelheart rules!!!

I couldn’t stop myself thinking what would have Miljenko Matijevic been if it wasn’t that stupid accident he had on stage, where would he be today? Maybe next to Ozzy? Maybe next to Dave Coverdale? Steven Taylor? Anyway, Steelheart became one of my favorite bands of that great period which was ruled by hair metal, heavy metal, hard rock and electric guitars!

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I have always thought about that summer camp I was telling you about and how this Guns’N Roses unplugged ballad made the change. If it weren’t those acoustic guitars maybe I would have still loved rap at this age, even if I doubt, since probably rock would have finally broken through one way or another. Today, the acoustic guitar I have in my room is one of the 3 things I need, along with my computer and my digital camera. I play every day and it clears my mind when I get back home after a long and busy day. I am also in love with electric guitars, but that is another story, I can not play the electric guitar every day since I live in an apartment and I do have my neighbors, you know…

For me, acoustic guitars are one of the most beautiful things on this earth, the sound is that pure and clear and in the middle of the night, after a few drinks with your friends at a party, this is all you need.

An acoustic guitar is the best way to bring back the long gone past

Do you realize that there is nothing better to bring back the memories of the past than an acoustic guitar, a bunch of old friends and a bottle of wine? Of course, this is if you know how to play that guitar. If you have that magic trio, then all that songs that you have thought forgotten come to life again and everybody will start singing along. That is why I love acoustic guitars, for the fact they remind me of all those lovely high school parties, of late night college fun, of playing on the seaside by night or by late nights around the fire in the mountains.

The acoustic guitar was part of my life since many, many years and I don’t know if I could live without it. I love electric guitars, I love how Joe Satriani makes those alien sounds and how Steve Vai pushes the music to where no man has gone before, but most of all, I love “Patience” of Guns’N Roses, I love Mr Big’s “Be with you” and the whole unplugged movement that started, in my universe, with Nirvana’s unplugged sounds.

That is why I love acoustic guitars…

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I remember the feeling I had when I first started to like rock music. I was in a summer camp, during high school period and it was this girl, one of my class colleagues, who was a big fan of Guns N’ Roses, and I mean really big fan of Guns N’ Roses and their music. I remember back then I used to listen rap and dance music and totally rejecting anything related or only close to rock music.

Back then, Guns N’ Roses’ “Don’t cry” was in heavy rotation on radio here in Romania and I had a lot of chances to listen to it, but I was just…turning off the radio just to not listen anymore since I was feeling that inside me, something is changing with each note I was hearing and I just didn’t want to. I was such a stubborn teenager back then, I guess…

So, I was running away from “Don’t cry” because I felt that anytime I was hearing it on radio, on TV or anywhere else, my love for rap music was fading away and it seemed less and less interesting, personal and close to my soul. Instead, rock music was gaining more and more of it. “Don’t cry” was getting to me and I was running away, I was fighting the feeling that was growing inside me for the lovely electric guitar sound, those starting riffs of Slash’s Gibson guitar and Axl’s scratchy voice. Of course, back then I had no idea what guitar Slash had, I only knew a thing or two about electric guitars but not much.

Anyway, I remember that a few months before this, I had bought an acoustic guitar of smaller size from a friend of mine (back then I didn’t know that acoustic guitars come on sizes so it didn’t make too much difference to me). I can not tell you now why I bought it, I was listening rap, no rock, but I think I just found that brownish acoustic guitar one of the things I must have so I’ve bougt it and how handy it came from that moment on.

Coming back to my story, I was in this summer camp and this girl brought with her 42 tapes (I am dead serious!) with Guns N’ Roses and some other rock bands, but mostly Guns N’ Roses. Of course Guns N’ Roses doesn’t have that many tapes, but there are compilations, best of, albums, live shows and this girl had them all! And I really mean all, plus tones of black t-shirts with Guns N’ Roses and the skull. We had some Walkmans with us in this camp and I remember borrowing tapes from her and starting to listen.

And the acoustic guitars broke the defense line

I remember the moment I dropped the defense line and I let myself in the hands of music…And, most of all, I remember the song that made this change possible…

It was not “Don’t cry”, even if it is of the songs I really love even today and it was part of my transformation. It was “Patience”, a song that broke my heart in two, a song that I found so sweet and clean that I could not resist anymore. I came back an other person, I came back a rocker. I remember sitting in the dark while driving back from the camp, at night and listening Patience over and over again, I remember the acoustic guitars, the clean sound, the sparks in those treble sounds and Axl counting in the beginning…one..two…

And so a rocker was born, a guitar player and an avid seeker of new sounds, thanks to Guns N’ Roses, thanks to Patience, thanks to acoustic guitars and their lovely, clean sound. And thanks to that girl…

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