GuitarFlame.com - Electric guitar stories,rock cul

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3

Unbelievable guitar player with birth disabilities rules us all!
2008-04-07 21:13:00
I don’t know if you are familiar with Guitar -Idol.co.uk website. I wasn’t until I recently found it and I can tell you I was surprised. To say in a few words what it is about this site (even if I think the name it is self describing) Online competition to find the hottest new guitarist - have YOU got what it takes to be Guitar Idol 2008? Play in front of thousands of guitar fans AND open up on the main stage for a LEGENDARY guitar virtuoso at the London International Music Show - and win tons of fantastic prizes! … So, curious, I have started to listen the guys there trying to bet on the next guitar idol. Of course, most of them were Malmsteen, Satriani, Vai fans. Nothing to surprise me here. By the way,at a first glance, I think Malmsteen has more followers than Satriani and Vai. Just an observation… And then, while listening around, I’ve seen this guy,Rick Renstrom! He has entered the competition with a video posted on YouTube. I thought I don&rsquo...
More About: Player , Rules , Birth , Unbelievable

I have been rated E for excellence
2008-04-07 10:26:00
This week started quite well! This morning I managed to solve something that was bothering me for a few days and I had a great feeling of things going well! Then, when less expected, I’ve found I have been honored by Jack Pribek (pribek.net) with the E for excellence! Thanks, Jack! I am happy to know that my blog and everything here can be taken for useful or good or at least funny and relaxing, as for excellent, I couldn’t dare to hope! So, as the rules of this E game state, I must give this E for excellence to 10 other fellow bloggers. I don’t know if you can pass it back, but even risking to break the rules, I will pass it again to Jack because I read his blog almost every single day with great joy. So, here’s my list: Jack Pribek (pribek.net) for making me think, for sharing his over 30 years experience in “applied” music and the cool exchange of ideas we often have by commenting on our blogs Dr J (Mixin’ it with Dr. J, jinright.edublog...

Hard times come easy
2008-04-04 14:08:00
I know a lot of people(mostly men) consider Bon Jovi as a band for women, ballads, etc, not my thing…right? Well, at one moment I came across Richie Sambora’s solo albums, and that, my friends, turned me into a a fan! I don’t know if you have listened “Hard times come easy”. If you haven’t, I suggest you do. I have both his albums at home and I love to listen them with the light off at night. I realized that I don’t know other band to relax me the way his music does. I guess the reason for this is the beautiful mix between the voice and the guitar, because, you know, on his solo albums, Richie Sambora plays “another” guitar. He is closer to his blues roots and honestly I have been surprised by what he plays there. I know Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi’s albums, I am used to his playing, but the guitar on his solo album is an other thing…The guitar on his solo albums, is bluesy, he seems calm and relaxed, feeling that ...
More About: Times , Easy

Satisfaction is not among the top 25 greatest guitar riffs of all time!
2008-04-03 12:25:00
I’ve seen via Guitar MX an interesting list of top 25 greatest guitar riffs of all time! Man, this should have been one of my next posts, now I can’t write it anymore! So, what can I do about it? Well, join it and sustain the post! So, here’s my short thoughts on this: I think that Metallica patented the dark clean guitar riff. I don’t understand why Enter sandman is there and One is not. I remember about 10 years ago we used to consider One as being the hymn of rock fans. I don’t know if this is something international or not, but, man, that riff identify Metallica and rock music IMO. Enter sandman has a great starting riff but, man, One is better! Regarding Paradise city (GNR) I can’t tell what’s more easy to recognize: the fast picked/strummed chords in the beginning or the solo part on the same starting part. Iron Maiden’s Run to the hills…well, I love’em but no! There are far better starting riffs like for ex Metalli...
More About: Time , Satisfaction , Greatest

“How to build an electric guitar” online workshops
2008-04-03 07:04:00
I should start this post by saying I am not one of those persons that love getting their hands dirty. I don’t fix my car. If it stops, well, I just take it to car dealer service and they fix it, that’s why I pay for it, right? I don’t especially like fixing pipes or things that get broken around the house. I call the guy who’s in charge. Let him fix it, he’s better at it. Don’t think I am some kind of a lazy guy, no, because 6 months ago I have purchased a new apart, and for the next 3 months after that, I had to just FIX A LOT OF DAMN THINGS there. And I am just sick of fixing things, installing, making holes in the walls, moving furniture and painting things. That’s it! I don’t want anymore! Let the guy who’s in charge do it properly! But wait! When it comes to guitars, it’s an other thing, right? I don’t usually open my guitar, maybe just to fix some wire that got loose or to clean the pickup switcher from time to ...
More About: Online , Electric , Build , Workshops

Top most recognizable guitar tones
2008-04-02 10:31:00
These last days, something keeps on running through my head: the most recognizable guitar sounds/tones (without really trying, I usually think about rock music, because this is my “business”, let’s say). Please keep in mind that I am not considering the style of each guitar player, but his tone only, even if when trying to identify a guitar player both are considered. Brian May (Queen) ,the overdriven tone, has an electric guitar sound that in my opinion can be recognized in an instance. It is somehow a strange sound, and for sure I wouldn’t set my guitar this way, but it really defines him. I don’t think that his clean tone has anything special. Slash (GNR), the overdriven and the clean tone. I am not a big fan of Slash, if you constantly read this blog you may already know this, but I really believe he belongs here. I think that the one thing that helps defining the tone of Slash is the fact that he is tuned one step down, thus using low tensioned g...
More About: Guitar , Tones

Left Handed Dunlop guitar picks, homage to Albert King
2008-04-01 11:06:00
I have found a very interesting news today, seems that last week Dunlop released a limited series of guitar picks, “Left Handed Dunlop”, designed as an homage for famous left handed Albert King . Seems that there are only a few thousands such left handed guitar picks and they were only released in USA. Guitar picks usually tend to get “polished” on one edge after repeatedly playing them. As a design particularity, these left handed guitar picks seem to have a tougher structure on the edge that usually comes in contact with guitar strings when playing left handed. Due to being a limited edition, they may be quite hard to get. Anybody managed to get one of these? Bookmark It

Today is my birthday, happy birthday to me!No joke, I have papers to prove
2008-04-01 09:19:00
Believe it or not, today I need to modify my About page because I am not 30 years old anymore! Starting today, I am 31! For real! No freaking joke! I am born on 1st of April, doh! On the left you see a part of my identity card, the red spot shows I am not joking: born on 01. April 1977!There!(Usually nobody believes me so I have my papers ready. ) To feel important, here’s “other” famous people born on April Fool’s Day (what do you know? I am born on the same day with Sergei Rachmaninoff!Man!): 1981 Hannah Louise Spearitt - singer (S Club 7) 1980 Bijou Phillips - singer, actress 1967 - Phil Demmel, American musician 1961 Mark White - guitarist (ABC) 1954 Jeff Porcaro - drummer (Toto) 1952 Billy Currie - keyboardist (Ultravox) 1949 Gil Scott-Heron - jazz musician 1948 Jimmy Cliff - Jamaican singer 1947 Norm Van Lier - basketball player 1945 John Barbata - rock drummer (The Turtles; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Jefferson Starship) 1942 Phil Margo - singer ...
More About: Joke , Today , Happy , Birthday , Happy Birthday

Why did your band fail?
2008-03-31 11:05:00
These few days I have been quite busy and to be honest I didn’t have that much of a mood for posting. I don’t know why, really, just that over weekends I try to spend more time away from my computer since I give it too much time, in my wife’s opinion. So, due to my target I have thought about what makes a site move better or worse. And I don’t speak here about optimization for search engines, but i speak about YOU! Yep, you are the main factor, believe it or not. And if you think about, it has nothing to do in particular with websites, it is the same with anything around us driven by people. Think about a company, think about your family, thing about your BAND! Yes, I really believe this! What makes a band move is you! OK, there are other factors such as luck, knowledge, a particular situation where you fit, talent, but I can observe that one of the main factors is you and how much are you willing to put into this. Think about it. If you wait for other peopl...
More About: Band

Reflections of an obtuse, guitar centered mind, namely me!
2008-03-27 11:15:00
This morning, Cosmin, my band colleague (bass player) sent me some links to a few YouTube videos, asking me something like “Uuh?What do you say?!” All the videos were oldies, like for ex Wonderful life from Black. Man, this song is old and used to be on heavy rotation here about 17-18 years ago (?) when our TV stations didn’t have too much to play so they played the same old stuff over and over again. I remember from that period Cars with Drive. Man, I liked that stuff back then, but it stuck so deep into my brain that I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy it again. Also Stevie Wonder’s I just called to say I love you! Damn, and it was an other one, Stevie B, Because I love you. This one I had it on tape… Now, listening to this song that Cosmin showed to me on YouTube, I asked him why does he show it to me? Well, how about we play it? What?!! I started to laugh! He then showed me some Al Bano and Romina Power, that made me feel suspicious, he is a ...
More About: Guitar , Reflections , Mind

Brilliant but unreliable guitar player, looking for work…
2008-03-26 10:10:00
After watching some of those giants of music behaving totally unpredictable and missing concerts when everybody was expecting them on stage (as an example I had the happening with the lead singer of Velvet Revolver skipping a show when the others were there) my mind jumped to some rehearsals when we were waiting on our drummer and he was not coming. Calling him at home, his sister tells us he’s sleeping. Well, wake him up!!! She comes back 1 min later to tell us that he said he won’t come! He is tired! Fuck! At least warn us before we come here! Well, this is a little example where no money were involved, we had nothing to lose than our time cause without the drummer you can’t do much, if you think about it. However, when money are involved it is an other thing. So I was wondering what would come first? (to stick to the subject, I speak about guitar players): a guitar player that is just unbelievably creative and a technical monster but (as it happens in most of ...
More About: Guitar , Player , Brilliant

Learn to not be the best!
2008-03-10 09:31:00
(Photo credits,cbcastro) For a few years, every year, I used to go with my band to a national rock/jazz/folk contest open to students, that takes place in Romania since 20 years or so. This show had actually 2 parts: one where various bands play in a contest and the second part where famous Romanian bands come and play as guests. I enjoyed both, but to be honest, I enjoyed the first part more. First because I was in that contest and I was competing against the other bands. Second, because the famous bands were no news to me, while the underground bands were always a source of fresh music and musical styles. I am not speaking about fresh songs, of course, every band had their own songs, new to me; not the songs were what interested me but the diversity of musical styles. It is amazing how creative underground musicians are! You could see there a lot of styles, from Led Zeppelin’s followers to death rock musicians but everyone of them had something that made their playing unique...
More About: Learn

We Are The Seekers Of Tone
2008-03-08 07:51:00
This post is brought to you by Jack Pribek of Pribek.net. I have discovered Jack Pribek about 2 months ago as a very interesting person, very nice to talk to and always willing to share the experience he gained in over 30 years of guitar playing. His first gigs were playing in southern rock bands at biker keg parties in the rural Missouri hills as a teenager. He spent much time as a sideman in various rock, country, r&b bands and even had a stint playing modern jazz in San Francisco. After backing a succession of young country singers that aspired to be the next big thing during the line dance boom of the ‘90s, he decided to chuck that life and concentrate on songwriting. In recent years, he has collaborated with and produced legendary songwriter Bill Dees. This included an appearance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio last year. Also, beside his music, Jack has some interesting ideas regarding society and politics, ideas that he shares freely on his person...
More About: Tone

Kind of a top 10 list for a successful blues song
2008-03-07 09:22:00
(Photo credits lowfatbrains) When I posted the funny top ten list for a power metal band, I didn’t think it will be such a hit. Now, on a music blog that I read everyday (littlerockjams.com) I have found an other one that looks kind of a “Top 10 tips for a blues song”. I will put here a few “funny tips”, without ruining the original list, that I invite you to read on the original site: Most Blues begin with: “Woke up this morning…” “I got a good woman” is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line like, “I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town.” The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes… Sort of: “Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher, and she weigh 500 pound.” The Blues is not about choice. ...
More About: Song , Top 10 List , List

Ken Leeeee, tulibu dibu douchoo!!
2008-03-06 13:51:00
A few minutes ago, a friend pointed me to this video. God, I laughed my heart out, can this even be possible?!! Not related to guitars, only to music and human stupidity, but worth every second of it. I beg you, take a few seconds to watch this cause it’s freaking unbelievable! And, guys, please have mercy, spread this around!!! God, we are too many on this earth! Ken Leeeee, tulibu dibu douchoo!! Bookmark It

What do you do when you feel you have reached a plateau on your musical jou
2008-03-06 08:58:00
(Picture courtesy of rachel) Yesterday I have found on GuitarNoise.com forum a very interesting topic that made me think. One guy there was complaining about reaching a plateau as a guitar player and not being able to grow anymore in the last years. He asked for suggestions to overcome this. Being a forum, people answered. My first thought was that people will give guitar related suggestions, but it was not like this. The answer he received was on an other level, was about feelings, music, expressing… I will try to reproduce here the original question and the answer that got me started: “I feel that I’ve reached a plateau the last 3-4 years and I’m hoping someone can give me some advice that will help me move my playing up the ladder. I suppose I don’t really know what to do with all I’ve learned, or perhaps I’m not aware of what I’m missing. I’ve been in bands, studied college level theory, know all the technical stuff (ie ben...
More About: Musical , Plateau , Feel

Eddie Van Halen in hospital for not-yet-diagnosed disease
2008-03-05 10:11:00
I know Eddie Van Halen had problems with his health since a while, he had drinking problems and in the 90’s he was diagnosed with mouth cancer but in 2002 he announced he got well. Now he is again in hospital, for an illness that has not yet been made public. Doctors say that tests need to be done. I don’t know, it feels like something breaks inside me every time I hear such things. Eddie Van Halen is a legend, an icon. He was one of the guitar players that influenced rock guitar playing very much, if we consider tapping techniques, beside his huge contribution to what rock means. I am not a big fan of Van Halen, like as in having all his albums or knowing all his songs, but I appreciate his contribution to worldwide rock culture and to what guitar means. Van Halen has postponed concerts this week as guitarist Eddie Van Halen undergoes medical testing for an undisclosed condition. “According to Eddie Van Halen’s physician, he is undergoing a battery of compr...
More About: Hospital , Disease

Extreme Test Of Steinberger Guitar Neck Stablity Or Kids, Never Do This At
2008-03-05 08:15:00
I have seen this on YouTube, but I would surely not do this with my guitar at home. I actually wouldn’t do this with this guitar either! I think it is a crazy and extreme test and I don’t think it is relevant because you will probably not find your guitar in this situation that often, right? So, is this a “white ball” for Steinberger guitars or it is not relevant at all? Would you consider such a criteria when buying a guitar? (I am not saying you should stand on a guitar in the guitar shop just to test it before you buy it, you would probably end up beaten by the guy selling it) Well, what do you think? Bookmark It
More About: Kids , Guitar , Extreme , Test , Neck

A song I recorded 8 years ago still hunts me
2008-03-04 13:27:00
Today, a friend of mine told me that another one of our songs has been uploaded on a local “YouTube like” site. Well, I was wondering some time ago if I should upload it myself or not, since this is a song very dear to me. Seems that Costin (axlfuckinrose here), is the one who uploaded it in the end, so why not? The song is a pop-rock ballad recorded I think in 1999 or 2000 I can’t remember, it was from our pop-rock period, after we decided to forget the damn trends that everybody was trying to follow back then and go to for the good old pop-rock. Whatever… Here’s the song: The song is about 20 years old now, if I counted well, it is written by Costin and his guitar friends long time ago. Going together at some parties, we used to sing it with only one acoustic guitar and because it fits Costin’s voice perfectly, I insisted to sing it with the band, even if he had his doubts regarding this.I was mad about acoustic guitars at that point, I still...
More About: Song , Years

Ten most valuable teaching secrets of a Ph.D. in music education
2008-03-03 07:58:00
This post is brought to you by John Jinright, aka Dr J. from jinright.edublogs.org. John is Ph.D. in music education and currently teaches music theory, applied oboe and bassoon, audio production at TROY University. Before that, John worked in the music business, started a music store and finally decided that teaching fits him best. Dr. J played vibes in a Dixieland band (Jack Marshall and the Alabama Dixiecats), and piano in a big band (Tony Marino and The Checkmates) plus filled in on percussion with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, studied mixing with Charles Dye, Ed Seay and Roger Nichols, three Grammy-winning engineers/producers and film/tv scoring with composer/sound designer Michael Wynne. Quite an impressive history, reason for which I am more than happy to introduce Dr. J to you. So, here we go: Howdy, Ya’ll. I’m honored to guest blog on GuitarFlame.com. Frankly, I don’t think of myself as a great guitarist, but I’d like to share my best tips on p...
More About: Education , Music , Teaching , Secrets , Music Education

Running away from blogging
2008-03-02 19:09:00
One of the rules of blogging says that after a good traffic spike you need to post good content so your returning visitors read something interesting and come back for more. Well, this is the theory. In my case I could just not apply this since I needed to leave the city on a long time planned WE holiday in the mountains. So, even if I felt I could have done more to my blog on Saturday morning after the 3587 visits I had on Friday, I had to pack my clothes, take my acoustic guitar and together with my wife and best friends, we headed for the snowy mountains. I could only say it was beautiful. A warm hotel in the middle of the mountains, cold and clean air, grill at below zero degrees (Celsius that is ) a lot of beer and best friends. What more could you ask for? Well, in the middle of the night a blizzard suddenly started and we decided to go out for a snow fight, even if the snow stopped us from seeing clearly, while the wind was blowing us away. (that’s me on the left) A...
More About: Running , Blogging

First stats report on my 6 months goal of 5000 visitors per day
2008-02-19 07:15:00
Hi! This is my second post in the series of my 6 months target of reaching 5000 visitors per day. The first one is here. Pretty bold, I know, but you need to aim high to reach high! So, since yesterday it was February 18th, this is the big day of sharing my thoughts on how the first month has been and in the end of this post, the real stats. I must confess it was a fire and ice month, because I had ups and downs, I had days where my heart jumped with joy and boring days when nothing happened. I have thought a bit about sharing the stats here, since if you are big and brave and share your stats, people will go wow!! But if you are small and just starting to grow and publish your stats, well, people may just find that they have higher traffic than you and may say, well, he’s not worth looking to, I have nothing to learn, he’s too small! Well, I will take my chances, I believe in being open and sharing information. So… What I have done this month (more…) Bo...
More About: Report , Goal , Stats , Visitors , Months

12 Years For A Song (memories of a long gone past)
2008-02-18 15:09:00
I remember while in high school, our English teacher, a totally original and kind of rebel teacher used to try to teach us English in various ways. One of these ways was gathering us to watch a movie that had no subtitle, for ex I remember watching like this Dickens’ Great expectations. There were many ways she tried to teach some stubborn teenagers a language that will later serve us in so many unexpected ways. So, once she brought a cassette player and she played 2 songs asking us to reproduce those songs after that hour. Nobody managed to reproduce those songs, if I well remember but those songs followed me to this day! I didn’t know who was singing there and I couldn’t tell the lyrics either, I only remembered a few of them that didn’t make sense in English, the melody and the warm feeling they started in me each time they came to my mind. It was I think 5 years later when I identified the first song, after searching it on the internet for those 2-3 verse...
More About: Song , Memories , Past , Years , Long

Spending the money the right way
2008-02-17 22:49:00
This weekend I was invited by Costin, long time friend and lead singer in the same band as me (he comments from time to time here on this blog under the name of axlfuckingrose), to a private party with some of his friends. I didn’t know what to expect, but he told me it involves playing the guitar so I brought my acoustic guitar with me, in case I would need it. Well, seems that it was some kind of getting together of old friends that didn’t see each other for some time now. Everything happened at the headquarters of a private company that one of his friends owns. This friend had the pleasure of throwing this party for his friends in this building he arranged so they could spend the weekends there: gym upstairs and table tennis and offices downstairs. To my surprise, he had also the pleasure of buying some instruments so they could all jam there during weekends: one electric guitar, one bass guitar, 2 combos, 2 microphones, 2 bongos and a mini PA system(with mixer, power...
More About: Money , Spending

Living on the edge…
2008-02-15 08:43:00
Today, Jon posted on his blog a review of a Doolin guitar, a very beautiful one, that I really liked. So I followed the link in order to see more. To my surprise, I have seen an other acoustic guitar that made me very curious, due to the particular design. I am speaking about Justin King’s Double-Neck Doolin acoustic guitar (kind of a long name for a strange guitar). So, my first reaction was WTF? How can you play such a guitar? Is it for an ambidextrous guitar player? I thought that he’ll turn the guitar around and play it the other side, cause I couldn’t see any other possibility of playing it since the distance between the two necks is so small so you could never slip your hand between those 2 necks! I didn’t know Justin King plays both hands (you know what I mean)!! Well, the video here cleared it all and revealed an other extreme playing technique of an amazing guitar player on a strange guitar! Enjoy! Bookmark It
More About: Living

Happy Valentine’s Day!!
2008-02-14 11:19:00
Of course, I had to say it! Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you guitar geeks out there!!! I hope you have prepared a good, lovely tune for your wife/girlfriend to impress her this evening, after she supported you in so many long hours rehearsing/repeating the same senseless licks over and over again!!! Later edit: I think I won’t post anything else for today, I have decided to forget about my computer until tomorrow morning. At least for one night! It’s Valentine’s day, right? Bookmark It

The science of playing the acoustic guitar
2008-02-13 13:08:00
What I am going to say now stayed in my head for a lot of years, even it may seem of low importance for some. Acoustic guitar players, however, may know better what I mean. I happen to  see a very good electric guitar player playing the acoustic guitar in an one on one session. Very good electric guitar player, classy shredder, out of my reach, he took the acoustic guitar, (a large and beautiful sounding box) and started playing. You know what? Something didn’t sound right, he was playing it like an electric guitar! Even perfectly played from a technical point of view, the notes were too sharp and sparky, taking away exactly the feeling that acoustic guitars give. The guitar didn’t sound the way it should, the notes didn’t work well  together. (more…) Bookmark It
More About: Science , Guitar

Country promotion strategy:the musical way
2008-02-12 12:25:00
Until today I didn’t know about Jet Lag Gemini but I have seen an article in the local newspaper about them and I got curious. The reason is that the bass and the guitar players are Romanians, they are brothers, and sons of a quite famous Romanian writer(for some political reasons also), Paul Gheorghiu, who is now established in USA from 1990 I think. I didn’t know this part(with the rock-and-roll brothers) but I must admit I love to find out such news, they make me feel proud I am Romanian. Our government promotion strategy to the “outside world” for the last 18-19 years was to complain, show what we don’t have and show dark “realities” of Romania, “realities” that exist worldwide in a more extreme way, without making a big fuss about them. But we do. It’s our country branding strategy. We are stupid. (more…) Bookmark It
More About: Country , Musical , Promotion , Strategy

Mine is bigger than yours!
2008-02-11 16:38:00
I was writing a post about moods in playing the guitar but suddenly a question hit me: what is more difficult to do from the point of view of transmitting emotions? 1) (To transmit emotions to the public) playing some predefined notes in a classical piece of music? 2) Or (to transmit emotions to the public in) solo improvisations? To argument a bit my problem, I have started stating that improvising is way harder than playing predefined notes(as in classical guitar) because you need to find those particular notes, licks that touch audience’s soul. When you play classical music, well, somebody has already told you which are the notes!! But then I have thought about how difficult it must be for a classical guitar player to not be able to break the constraints of the imposed form of music he/she is playing and still create his own style and transmit emotions…. I think that classical musicians need to be way more creative in finding nuances, subtle variations to the music E...
More About: Mine

Is today the pedal day,or what?!
2008-02-11 09:58:00
I was reading some blogs today and I just realized that out of those few blogs about guitars that I read everyday, 3 speak about pedals: GuitarToyBox, IGBlog and PickStroke. Or they just read each other too and they’ve got inspired by one’s post? Bookmark It
More About: Today , Pedal