Paul Gilbert warming up

We've done numerous lessons with Paul Gilbert over the years, but none as extensive as the one we did here at Guitar World headquarters today! We flew Paul in just for this lesson with Andy Aledort, which will be used for a series of columns in the near future.

Paul was a true gent and came in fully prepared for a day of guitar teaching...he brought his full pedalboard, a dry-erase marker board for some visual aid, and of course his signature Ibanez PGM301 electric guitar.

A Paul Gilbert pick

Paul even hung around a bit after the lesson was done to talk technique with some of the multimedia crew, showing them various exercises that might improve their playing and imparting some of the fretboard wisdom he's acquired over the years.

The Guitar World office guitar as of July 2008

And of course, we couldn't let Paul leave without letting him sign the Guitar World office guitar. As you can see from the photo, the guitar is filling up fast...actually, it might be time to retire this baby and find a new axe for people to sign. This Les Paul Studio has been signed by such ace players as Rudolf Schenker & Matthias Jabs from the Scorpions, Yngwie Malmsteen, Glenn Tipton & K.K. Downing from Judas Priest, Dave Mustaine, John Petrucci, Michael Angelo Batio, Steve Howe, Slash and others.

Special thanks to Paul Gilbert for spending the day with us--watch for his new Guitar World column soon! Click on any of the thumbnails to see the photos full size.

Matt (left) and Corey warming up

On Monday, July 14, Guitar World was treated to a visit by two of our (now) old friends, Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu from Trivium. The boys came up to the office studio for a photo shoot with ace photographer Justin Borucki, as well as a brief interview with writer Kory Grow and a lesson with Guitar World's own Matt Scharfglass.

Heafy dialing in his tone

They were in town to promote their forthcoming Roadrunner Records album, Shogun, which is due out on Sept. 30. For the lesson, Matt had them deconstruct the album's first single, "Down from the Sky."

Beaulieu getting ready

As always, Matt and Corey were terrific subjects for our team and handled everything like true professionals...they gave us hours of their time, and for that we appreciate them.

Matt had his signature Dean Rising Sun guitar with him, so I figured I'd snap a few pix of it...it really is a striking guitar when you see it in person. Corey had his signature Dean CBV guitar in tow...and played a flawless version of Dokken's "Mr. Scary" while warming up. Corey was wearing his now customary Death T-shirt, which we always enjoy seeing. No doubt he would have gotten a kick out of playing the new Chuck Schuldiner B.C. Rich Stealth guitar that we just got in, but I forgot to show it to him! Next time for sure...

Watch for the story and lesson with Trivium in an upcoming issue...and thanks to the guys for coming by once again. Always a pleasure.

Matt's Rising Sun Dean

Close up of Matt's guitar

Delores Rhoads, April 2008

For our feature story on the new Marshall 1959 Randy Rhoads Signature amp, which is in the August issue, on sale now, Guitar World was granted special access to a private area of the Musonia School of Music--the music school owned by Randy's mother, Delores. As you can see from the pix in the August issue, reporter Alan di Perna was shown such Rhoads artifacts as his very first guitar (a Gibson Army & Navy flattop acoustic), a set list from the final Rhoads/Osbourne tour, his Super Lead head and more. Present at the photo shoot were Randy's mother, as well as his brother Kelle and sister Kathy.

As photographer Travis Shinn took so many photos throughout the day, I figured this would be a good opportunity to show you some of the ones we didn't use in the issue. Click on any of the thumbnails to see a larger version.

Thank you to Mrs. Rhoads and Kelle for helping us put this story together...we are forever grateful.

Delores Rhoads, April 2008

A miniature version of Rhoads' tomb

Delores Rhoads with Randy's Jackson

Delores and Kathy Rhoads

Kelle Rhoads, April 2008

On the evening of May 8, 2008, Guitar World was honored to have Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton and KK Downing from Judas Priest come to the office for an interview and photo shoot. The band was in NYC to promote Nostradamus, their highly ambitious and theatrical new two-disc set, coming June 17.

K.K. & editor Rich Bienstock

The guys were all in good spirits and stayed in the office until close to 9:00 p.m. to make sure we had everything we needed for a feature in the magazine. Our photo editor and ace photographer, Jimmy Hubbard, handled the photo shoot, while senior editor Richard Bienstock conducted the interview.

You can see Bienstock (or at least his curly mop of hair) here talking with K.K. Downing about K.K.'s interesting new KxK guitar. As you can see from the close-up shot of the guitar, it has no front-side knobs! There's a volume control on the back (K.K.'s right hand is over it in the one picture), and when he gets back home to the U.K. he's going to have his guitar tech drill a hole on the front so he can move it to a more normal position. The one knob will handle volume and pickup controls via push-pull mechanism.

K.K.'s KxK guitar

You'll also see photographer Jimmy Hubbard directing the boys during the photo shoot.

The photo session

And of course, no visit from an A-list group would be complete without having them sign the Guitar World Office Guitar. Rob and Glenn's signatures are at the bottom under the control knobs, while K.K.'s is below the bridge. Dig how Rob added "The Metal God" under his sig...nice touch.

The office guitar

Thanks to Rob, Glenn and K.K., as well as manager Jayne Andrews and publicist Chip Ruggieri, for making this special visit happen. Look for the feature in an upcoming issue of Guitar World!

Click any of the photos (as always, taken with an iPhone) to see larger versions.

JK

In 1993, Guitar World boldly tried to enter the German market by having each issue translated into German and then shipped overseas. Without the benefit of the computer firepower we have today, getting each issue translated back in 1994 was no easy feat.

Basically, we had two German editors (who we lovingly referred to as "the Germans") who would come in each night after we left for the day, and they would spend the next few hours translating all the copy in the magazine from English to German. And each morning I, a lowly Senior Editor back then, would come into work and clear the used coffee cups and food wrappers from my desk...they were not the neatest editors on the planet, to put it mildly.

Here you can see the cover of one of those issues from May 1993...click it to see a larger version.

You can also see the opening page of German text from the Eddie Van Halen interview in that issue, as well as Diamond (yes, he was still known as Diamond back then) Darrell's "Riffer Madness" column that month.

R.I.P., Dime...and the short-lived German edition of Guitar World. JK

Today we received a visit from Fredrik Thordendal and Marten Hagstrom from Swedish math-metallers Meshuggah, who were in town to promote their latest offering, obZen. Upon arrival they each asked for a cup of black coffee and asked what we would be doing during the videotaped session, and I explained to them that we would be doing a Dear Guitar Hero interview that would be used as a video here on guitarworld.com and as a DGH in an upcoming issue of the magazine, as well as a riff lesson that would most likely be posted to our extreme metal site, MetalKult.com.

The boys were happy to oblige, though Marten pretty much carried the bulk of the Dear Guitar Hero interview…Fredrik seems to let his playing do most of his talking.

I snapped this iPhone photo before we got started to give you a sense of what our office studio looks like and how it’s set up. That’s Fredrik standing, and Marten seated next to him (wearing a nifty Celtic Frost Morbid Tales hoodie, I might add)…both with their eight-string guitars slung over their shoulders.

You can also see our two Sony HD video cameras (yes, we shoot everything here in big, glorious high-definition, even though most of it gets seen in a small window on the web or our CD-ROM) and the two Sony monitors, as well as our new Pro Tools rig on the table next to the monitors. Our in-house amps vary from time to time, but right now we’re using a 100-watt Marshall JVM and a 100-watt Krank Krankenstein. Most of our guests seem to be happy with the sounds they get from these beasts…although the lawfirm on the floor below us is never happy to hear gargantuan riffing at two in the afternoon!

While the Meshuggah guys were here, we had them sign our second office guitar, which is the MetalKult guitar. We tend to have the A-list rock stars who visit us, like Slash, Mustaine, Yngwie, etc., sign the Guitar World Les Paul Studio (which you can see here)—but when the extreme metal guys come around, we have them sign the MetalKult B.C. Rich W.M.D. Warbeast. Some of the signatures we’ve acquired to far are Gary Holt from Exodus, Max and Iggor Cavalera from Sepultura, Bjorn from In Flames, Eric Peterson from Testament, Mikael and Fredrik from Opeth and some others. Click the photo to see a larger version.

That’s it for today…later.

JK

In the ongoing saga of the Guitar World office guitar, which just about everyone who comes through our doors signs, an opportunity arose last week that we had to pounce on…though the results weren’t quite what we had hoped.

When I heard that the Road Recovery benefit concert—featuring Tom Morello, Slash, Jerry Cantrell, Wayne Kramer, Perry Farrell and others—would be taking place in New York City on April 17, I immediately thought it would be a great opportunity to bring the guitar to the show and have the participants sign it, joining Yngwie Malmsteen, Dave Mustaine, Rudolf Schenker, Matthias Jabs, John Petrucci, Alex Skolnick, Steve Howe and others who have already signed the white Gibson Les Paul Studio.

After arranging for the guitar to be signed at a meet-and-greet at the venue before showtime, we sent intrepid reporter Richard Bienstock, who also serves as editor of our guitar tabs site, tabs.guitarworld.com, up to the Nokia Theater with the guitar in hand.

Upon arriving at the venue, Rich immediately recognized how chaotic a scene it was. No one was aware of the purpose behind our visit, and getting close enough to any of the artists to have them sign the guitar was nearly impossible. Until our old friend Slash happened to stroll by. Over the years, Slash has been a great friend of the magazine’s, willing to participate in photo shoots, columns, lessons, interviews, pretty much anything we’ve ever asked of him. And when Rich, who has interviewed Slash on numerous occasions, opened up the guitar case and asked Slash for a sig, he was more than happy to oblige…and for that, we thank him.

You can see Slash’s signature at the top near the toggle switch. Click the photo to see an enlarged version.

And as for Morello and Cantrell….we’ll get them one day.

JK

I often get asked about the number of CDs and things we receive here at Guitar World, so I figured I'd take this opportunity to show you what ends up in my mailbox on a typical day.

Today's postal delivery included an interesting assortment of music, including the new Anthology disc from Burzum, an advance promotional copy of the forthcoming Testament record, The Formation of Damnation, an advance of the two-disc Zappa Plays Zappa concert DVD from Razor & Tie, featuring Dweezil Zappa, Steve Vai and others, the next installment in Thrice's confusing multi-album Alchemy Index thing from Vagrant, a Korn Live at Montreux 2004 DVD from Eagle Eye Media, an advance of the new 36 Crazyfists record, The Tide and Its Takers, a two-disc set (one CD, one DVD-Audio) from Porcupine Tree called Lightbulb Sun, and some things I couldn't even begin to identify with, including Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida's The Hunters Lullaby, soul singer Keith Sweat's Just Me, and a disc entitled Immortalizer by a metal group called Valient Thorr.

 

For me, I probably only care about the Burzum and Testament discs...but what can I say, I have a hard head.

Click the iPhone camera pic at the left to see a larger version.

JK

We get a lot of mail here at the GW headquarters, and most of it is fairly normal...CDs, letters from inmates with subscription problems, reader artwork, etc. But every now and then we get mail from someone who seems to be straddling the line between sane and insane, and I wanted to share one of those with you.

For months, we've been on the receiving end of a steady stream of letters and packages from a woman, who shall remain nameless, who lives in some sort of mental facility she refers to as "program." And she's obsessed with both Dave Mustaine and Kirk Hammett.

Each week, she sends letters and packages to us hoping that we'll pass them along to Kirk and Dave (which, of course, we do not). Aside from the nutty, incoherent letters she writes, she often sends along such random items as bags of candy, Agatha Christie paperback books, artwork that would make a small child cry, food stamp receipts, V8 vegetable drink advertisements from magazines, and 4x6 photographs of her depressing apartment that show bottles upon bottles of detergent sitting on the floor.

Here is one such letter, this one for Kirk Hammett...click on it to see it larger.

JK

Last week Guitar World received a visit from legendary Yes/Asia guitarist Steve Howe...which was certainly a treat for a few of the longtime Yes fans here in the office (particularly editor-in-chief Brad Tolinski and music editor Jimmy Brown).

According to Jimmy, who conducted the interview and lesson with Steve, the guitarist was in great spirits and really seemed to enjoy himself. He talked extensively about the current Asia reunion tour and new Phoenix album, as well as the upcoming Yes tour. He gave a lot of interesting details about the gear he's using these days and talked at length about his diverse musical influences and his career as a guitarist, songwriter and arranger.

As for the lesson part, Steve took a liking to a Martin acoustic we had here in the office and showed how he plays such classic Yes tracks as "Roundabout," "Mood for a Day," "Starship Trooper," "Yours Is No Disgrace," "And You and I" and "Siberian Khatru," as well as signature Yes solo pieces like "Clap" and "Mood for a Day."

Look for the interview and lesson to appear in an upcoming issue of Guitar World and on the Guitar World CD-ROM! And yes, he signed the office guitar (see March 25 Fine Print post)...

JK