I'm goin' home! See my baby! Goin' home! See my wife!

Another mind altering guitarist from the late sixties, may I present Alvin Lee of Ten Years After. Alvin is a blues guitarist from England who rocked my world when I bought their album Ssssh... An amazing work from "Bad Scene"to "Two Time Mama". But he is most remembered for his fantastic virtuosity on "I'm Going Home" off of the Woodstock album. This just blew me away, three chord blues structure, I-IV-V. A to D to E. Couldn't be more simpler than that. But the passion and style, whoa! It's still one of my all time favorite guitar pieces. Check out his work on their other albums, Cricklewood Green, A Space in Time and Watt. I would love to see him live playing that Gibson ES-335 semi-hollow body. Rock on, Alvin! Electric guitars truly rock!

Sir Lord Baltimore! Check them out, now!

One of the baddest ass guitarist of the early 1970's. Louis Dambra set a new standard of playing long before Frank Marino, Robin Trower, Eddie Van Halen and a host of other shredders going back to the '80's. Check out his phenomenal chops on their debut album Kingdom Come. Sir Lord Baltimore was, to me, the first heavy metal band. Three guys, only three guys created a mind blowing wall of sound.

Their home base was New York City. John Garner was drummer/lead vocalist, Gary Justin on bass and Dambra on all guitars. Listen to Garner a fantastic drummer who also sang lead! Don't know how he did it!

I bought this album back in the early 70's. I don't remember why, but I was probably drawn to the cool cover of a pirate ship made entirely of bones. "Master Heartache", "Kingdom Come", "Hell Hound", "Helium Head", and even the slow harpsichordal "Lake Isle of Innersfree" blew me away. High levels of distortion (even in the bass), multi-track recording and overdubs were way ahead of their time.

Unfortunately they never gained traction along the likes of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Alice Cooper. Their second album "Sir Lord Baltimore" was a complete 180 from "Kingdom Come". They added another guitarist and slowed the frenetic pace of the songs. It's OK, but their debut is definitely the bomb! You can sometimes get both on one CD. Check out their website at Sir Lord Baltimore

Even now I'll pick up and play one of their songs. Just overall great heavy metal music! Later gator! Rob

Sticker shock!

OK, it's been awhile since I bought picks or a guitar strap. I went to the local Guitar Center today just to kill time at lunch. I needed a strap of my Messenger guitar which I want to play some Grand Funk songs in the band.

I checked out what I thought were cheaper straps. I bought a leather one for my Les Paul last year at the same GC for about 45 bucks (which I think is still high). The strap I chose was like the ones I bought years ago for about 10-12 bucks. Not now. There was no price on it and an employee named Luis scanned it for me. 23 bucks.

Hmmm. OK, I need it so I put it around my neck and picked up a Mexican Strat to noodle around with. Played through a small Marshall. Since our band had no practice this week, I played the songs on our set list. I got bored after some time, put back the guitar and wandered around checking out their Gibson stock.

Luis found me and I decided to check out. I asked for two sets of Ernie Ball blue label strings and a pack of Fender medium picks. He rang me up and said $42.56 please. Damn! There must be a mistake, the strap was 23 buck, how much was the rest? I scanned the receipt. The strings were $5.49 per set and the picks were $5.99 for 12!

Now bear in mind I'm always surprised by the receipt no matter where I go. Home Depot, the grocery store, doesn't matter. I can't add it up in my head and I always think it should be a lot less.

But here's a case where I remember when strings were a couple of bucks for a set and picks were three for a quarter. But 50 cents a piece? WTF! Maybe I'll check out eBay for cheaper picks! It's not like the picks have changed over the years. The same crappy plastic! Anyway, rant over, I'll have to deal with it. Come on over to Electric Guitars Rock! Got a new page on patch cords.

Whoa! A trip down memory lane.

This was taken back in 1974. Jeff is at the left. I don't know what he's playing. Paul is next on the drums. John is in the middle playing my Messenger Stereo and I am on the far right with my Gibson SG Special.

I'm not sure what Jeff played through, but John and I played through my Univox 100-watt stack which I bought because it was endorsed by Jimmy Page. We practiced in Jeff's back yard. We got complaints from two miles away. We played mostly what was popular at that time. Free, BTO, Grand Funk and Bad Company. What a blast. We never went anywhere but had a great time regardless.

A Man and his Guitar!

What more can be said about Jimi Hendrix? Not a whole lot. I have nothing new to add except my first impression and thoughts about him as a pioneer rock guitarist. I first heard him on AM radio back in the late sixties. It might have been Purple Haze or Foxey Lady. Man, did he sound different. I was used to guitarists like Eric Clapton, Alvin Lee and Pete Townsend. Jimi turned the guitar sound upside down.

My first album was "Are You Experienced?" followed by "Greatest Hits then "Band of Gypsy's". I tried to imitate him the best I could considering my talent at that time. I could figure out a chord or two but, difficult? Oh Yeah!

After seeing him play on the film, Woodstock, I pretty much gave up. Now, thirty some odd years later, I still have difficulty imitating(!) him. It seemed like whatever popped in his mind came out his hands on the fretboard. I'm still simply amazed whenever I hear or see him on youtube. It's crazy what he accomplished in three short years as the Jimi Hendrix Experience. It's even more amazing the absolute plethora of Hendrix recordings released over the years. It is almost like he never left the planet. Listen to Frank Marino (of Mahogany Rush) or Robin Trower or even Dan Hartman (of Edgar Winter Group) doing a turn on the Stratocaster channeling Hendrix during the middle of "Lets get it on".

He's still amongst us. Smoking a cigarette and saying only "cowboys are in tune"...

Peace out until next time, Rob

Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad and his Messenger guitar

Here's Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad. Probably taken around 1969. He is the one who turned me on to the guitar as an instrument to play. I originally wanted to be a drummer. I would tap along on an old cigar box to Steppenwolf, Steve Miller, Ten Years After and the Rolling Stones back when I was growing up in Connecticut.

I belonged to the Capitol Record Club at that time. You would sign up for a 12 month stretch and receive a monthly catalog of records(!). You'd choose either their selection for the month or you could choose your own.

One month, Grand Funk Railroad (the Red Album) was the rock selection. Usually I would forget to send the card in with my selection and Capitol would automatically send out their choice. Well I received the GFRR album in the mail and thought "great, another crappy selection I'll play once!" Since that time, a mistakenly sent album rocked my world! I have been a Grand Funk fan since then but only recently had a chance to see Mark Farner play. It was fantastic! He played a Parker Fly guitar because of back problems.

The guitar he originally played was a Messenger Stereo made by San Francisco-based Musicraft. It was a green type of sunburst finish with two pickups, an aluminum neck (very futuristic for the time), built in fuzz unit and stereo outputs. It was also had a semi-hollow body style. (He would tape over the cats-eye f- holes to try to control feedback).

Needless to say, I had to have that guitar! I found one back in 1974. A dude was buying a Les Paul Custom and he needed the money. I got it for two hundred bucks.

It has a regular sunburst finish along with a Bigsby tremolo unit (but no built in fuzz). Everything else is the same as Mark's Messenger. It's a great guitar that stays in tune like nobody's business! Supposedly the neck is tuned to "A". The tone is great. Playing "Closer to Home" and "Aimless Lady" sounds like the man himself. The only problems (inherent on all Messengers) is the crappy single coil DeArmond pickups, sonically very weak, and the nut at the top of the neck. Somehow they filed it too low on the high-E side causing the string to slip out of the groove. Otherwise a groovy guitar that you don't see very often. I understand there are only around 300 or so that were made since Musicraft didn't last very long in the guitar production business.




Check out my website at Electric Guitars Rock!

I just added another page to my website, Electric Guitars Rock!
It concerns the ever present guitar solo. What is it that sears a particular solo in ones brain? They're just a collection of notes strung together to form a musical phrase.

But somehow they stick in my head. I can remember solos from many years ago (in my head, of course!), but trying to pick them out on a guitar is difficult without practicing them before hand.

Anyway, I gotta practice tonight for band practice tomorrow night! I have to work on Journey's Wheel in the Sky. Having a bit of trouble, but I'll figure it out!