Thanks to Thomas, a student of mine, for giving me the heads up an old but amazing thread over on gearslutz.com where the producer Michael Wagner talks about the recording of Extreme’s classic album, Pornograffitti and engineer Bob St. John talks about following albums!:

the solos are NOT composites, but were recorded and punched in ala the old linear method; it was rare to have the solo recorded and go back and fix a small piece (besides there were some days i was getting a reputation as “eraserhead” i don’t miss the old analog method that much it was just the way we worked. i wish i could say how MUCH time we spent on each part, but that is so obscured in my memory at this point; i know that to record the typical solo was about 4-5 hours of work. although i can’t remember exactly…i believe we spent a little more time on the rhythm tracks; although they were doubled.

as far as people slagging nuno…look, i worked with the guy from when he was 16. complicated? sometimes. gifted…more than anybody here could know. royal pain in the butt? you KNOW it. it’s hard to fall off that pedestal…even if you keep climbing back up on it yourself =) but…to sit in front of that guy in the studio…watch his mind (and fingers) work…has been something i’ve rarely seen. to me…it’s not about those rippin’ guitar solos…but about his innate sense of harmony and rhythm. i have yet to meet someone with that command. i lived through schizophonic (and like extreme III and IV, was listed as co-producer but nuno has a VERY large shadow to stand inside…and to be honest, the records are more a product of gary and nuno’s imagination than anybody’s…and that includes pornograffitti and extreme I).

and from a link withing that thread the actual settings for Nuno’s ADA preamp on that album

Here are the real settings:
Overdrive 1 : 4.0 dist
Overdrive 2 : 5.5 dist
Master Gain : 7.5 dist
Bass : 12
Mid : 6
Treb : 6
Pres : 12
Voicing : .tube
FX loop : off

From the ADA it went into the McIntosh 2100 (transistor) poweramp and from there into a vintage Marshall 4×12 cab with the original G12H inside. At that time I normally used Fostex M11RP ribbon mics and Countryman Lavalier mics through a John Hardy M1 to record guitar.

Don’t know how I managed to miss this! But here is Guitar World’s Top 10 Shred Albums of All Time:

10) Greg Howe (Shrapnel, 1988) Greg Howe A funk-savvy speedster, Greg Howe injected the shred scene with some much-needed shake and soul. The funkdafied “Kick It All Over” kicks off the festivities, and the following track, “The Pepper Shake,” offers a spicy display of Howe’s legato and alternate-picking chops.

9) Speed Metal Symphony (Shrapnel, 1987) Cacophony Speed Metal Symphony, a mighty opus featuring first-chair guitar virtuosos Marty Friedman and Jason Becker, uses “speed metal” rhythm beds and shifting time signatures to help break up the cacophonous onslaught of all-out shred.

Michael Lee Firkins (Shrapnel, 1990) Michael Lee Firkins A unique shredder, Firkins employed hybrid picking, subtle whammy wobbling, and country-flavored intervallic leaps to craft some surprisingly listenable tunes.

7) Powers of Ten (Warner Bros., 1992) Shawn Lane From his debut, the now out-of-print Powers of Ten, to his fusion work on Tri-Tone Fascination, the late Shawn Lane exhibited a tremendous sense of melody, even while melting picks with his incendiary technique. If Eric Johnson were a pure shredder, this is what he might sound like.

6) Surfing With the Alien (Relativity, 1987) Joe Satriani Just how badass is Joe Satriani? Well, his list of students includes Steve Vai. And “Satch Boogie” was (and still is) the only shred tune that FM radio would touch. But the real highlight of this release is Side 2, which contains the gemini-like clean and distorted tones of “Circles” and “Lords of Karma,” as well as the clean-toned two-handed tapfest “Midnight” and the hypnotic “Echo.”

5) Passion and Warfare (Relativity, 1990) Steve Vai Remember the cute MTV video for Vai’s “The Audience Is Listening”? What school-age guitar player didn’t want to live out that fantasy? Melodic, flashy, humorous, and filled with hooks, Passion and Warfare is the bar by which all other instrumental guitar albums are measured.

4) Edge of Insanity (Shrapnel, 1986) Tony MacAlpine The album that launched Mike Varney’s Shrapnel Records, Edge of Insanity shows off Tony MacAlpine’s fearsome shred chops not only on the six-string (“Quarter to Midnight”) but also on the ivories (“Chopin, Prelude 16, Opus 28”).

3) Mind’s Eye (Shrapnel, 1986) Vinnie Moore Only one year after Yngwie unleashed his fury on U.S. shores, Vinnie Moore responded with the “Oh yeah? Check this out” release Mind’s Eye. On “Daydream,” Moore demonstrates his grasp of classical themes and motifs; then, on “The Journey,” he shows he can do it with “feel.”

2) Live: Extreme Volume (Shrapnel, 1988) Racer X In the mood for a steaming bowl of notemeal? Check out this 1988 live release from shred poster boys Paul Gilbert and Bruce Bouillet. The best part? There was no pretense of cultural significance with these guys; Racer X was simply speed for the sake of speed.

1) Rising Force (Polydor, 1985) Yngwie Malmsteen I’m laying it on the line right now: Yngwie J. Malmsteen was, is, and always will be the greatest shredder of all time. Hell, he invented the genre with his 1985 debut. The standout track “Far Beyond the Sun” was far beyond what any guitar player had ever imagined possible.

Interestingly I have eight of those ten albums, with two being hugely influential on my playing.

Check out this great article from the fantastic Musician Wages website entitled “What I Learned at My Record Label Job“.

The author, Cameron Mizell, writes about his time at Verve Records and what he learned from working with various departments such as digital production, strategic marketing, design, manufacturing and distribution etc.

One way to understand the whole process of selling records is to actually start with the Sales department suggesting a new angle on a product, such as a reissue series, that they feel will do well at certain retailers. Then the A&R, Creative, and Production departments jump into action to make the product a reality. Sometimes this involves creating exclusives for particular accounts (such as a Borders’ version with a bonus track). Exclusives are usually added to the schedule last minute and involve some quick manuvering through the processes mentioned above.

Forgot to blog this when the June Edition of Premier Guitar was published, luckily the RSS feed just popped up with the article .

Informative post from Tony Pasko talking about how speakers affect your overall sound as well as the common wattage vs volume problem:

The thing you want to consider is that what you like or dislike about your guitar tone could very well be the speaker—it is after all 40 percent of your tone. Picture your amplifier as a sports car. Now picture your speakers as the tires. The wrong speaker in an amp is like having bicycle wheels on your sports car. That’s how important the speakers are.

Wattage vs. Volume
This is a huge misconception among musicians. These two ratings are not the same. 50 watts isn’t half as loud as 100 watts. Wattage really comes into play when you start considering your function—how many watts is going to produce the level of volume you need for band practice, or playing a club?

Great post up on the Rock House Blog looking at the different types of neck woods:

Rule 1: Good wood is paramount in achieving good tone. Always select quality pieces, if the wood is cheap the tone will suffer, and you will run into neck stability problems.

Rule 2: Wood is a living thing and the grain is telling a story of how it was cut, how it will dry, and how it will age. Knowing how to read the grain will save you from purchasing a lemon, or selecting the right piece that will bring you a lifetime of performance.

Via Guitarnoize, you can now read through an online digital version of Guitar Player Magazine called GP2.

GP2 presents those expansive tutorials from GP’s “All About…” series that details the science and applications behind essential tone tools such as speakers, tubes, pickups, whammy bars, and effects processors. And while every issue of GP2 offers current interviews with legends, hit makers, and new and edgy hot shots, we’re also including classic articles dredged up from the exhaustive 42-year-old Guitar Player archives. Here, guitar zealots can peruse the first “tone and technique” discussions with Hendrix in 1967, or Clapton when he was in Cream, or Jimmy Page when Led Zeppelin was just starting to explode, or even one of the only guitar interviews George Harrison ever gave.

As a resource for gear news and reviews, artist interviews, guitar lessons, and comprehensive how-to’s, the monthly GP2 digital magazine offers a stunning bounty of data to help guitarists sound better and play better. It’s like a massive warehouse of guitar goodies delivered to your computer screen each and every month!

And the really cool thing here is that GP2 is absolutely free.

Here’s what’s in the inaugural issue of GP2…

COVER STORY
• Roundup – Five affordable flat-tops

ARTIST FEATURES

• Rock: George Lynch
  Metal: Meshuggah

CLASSIC INTERVIEWS

• George Benson, 1974
• Jeff Beck, 1975

GEAR

• Egnater Rebel-20
• Roland Mobile Cube & Cube Street
• EVH Wolfgang
• Richmond Belmont & Dorchester
• All About… Pickups

MASTER CLASS

• ‘80s Rock Boot Camp

SESSIONS

Interactive guitar lessons powered by TrueFire.

Great news! Guitar Player articles are always top quality.

Recall when greg Howe posted up his very cool improv over ‘Sunny’?

Well the fantabulous Adrian Clark has posted his transcription of Greg’s solo for FREE!!

Bless his outboard ‘brane’.

Nice short article from Premier Guitar looking at ‘The Endless Quest for Distortion’.

… there are many ways to get to that nirvana of singing leads, crunchy riffs and swirling jangle. I find it interesting that we’ve had the tools to create killer distorted guitar tones since the fifties, yet it wasn’t until a bit later that a few brave souls really began pushing the limits of amplifiers and defining the sounds that we still use today. When guitar amplifiers were first created the idea of “distortion” was considered a bad thing.

Very handy for the ‘teenage’ years of buzzy ‘wasp in a jam jar’ tone. I know I was that teenager many many years ago with a RAK Distortion Pedal plugged into a Solid State Marshall reverb 12 .

All praise the Valve.

New Premier Guitar column from Greg Howe called ‘Fierce Guitar’. First article asks ‘What Is Shred?’

Actually, shred is still a term that confuses me. Perhaps I’m missing something. I’m pretty sure it refers to an approach to soloing or lead playing that relies heavily on the use of fast passages. Great! Easy enough (I always do well up to this point). So why, then, do I get strange looks when I point out my favorite shredders? Is there something odd about being a fan of Oscar Peterson, Charlie Parker or Niccolò Paganini?

At this point in a conversation, as it becomes apparent that my choices don’t seem to qualify, I usually find myself seeking clarification. After all, the above-mentioned artists certainly fit the definition. And right about at this point, I’ll find myself responding to some remark about guitar exclusivity. I am reminded of my blatant oversight, and respond appropriately with something like, “Ah-ha, now I see the light… the term only applies to guitar playing. Great! I think I’ve got it!”

Okay, so let me make sure I’m clear. Playing fast on the guitar is called ‘shredding’ and playing fast on the piano is called… ‘playing fast?’ ”

Am I really the only one who thinks there’s something odd about this?

No! I totally agree.

Great review of Greg Howe’s ‘Sound Proof’ over on the Guitar Channel.