End-Of-Year News: Becker, Vai, Lynch, GNR

Kind of a news round-up:

New Jason Becker Guitar (and more)

If you don’t know who Jason Becker is, do a Google search on him. He went from being one of the hottest six-string gunners on the planet to one of the most enlightened human beings on the planet (which would you rather be?).

The good folks at PremierGuitar.com noted that Jason has a new signature guitar modeled on his “24” guitar (I don’t know if that’s the right name — the one with numbers instead of fret dots). If you’re a fan of Jason’s, or want some of his mojo, or like ’80s shredder axes, this one’s for you: alder body, 24 thin-jumbo-fret maple neck (flat, 16-inch radius), floating Floyd and a volume knob that goes to 11. Click here for the details from Paradise Guitars USA. I hadn’t heard of the company before, but it looks like they make some cool guitars.

Jason also has a new JB Distortion (and/or boost) pedal out from ProTone Pedals of Crossroads, Texas. The tone-stack part of the pedal sounds cool, as does the artwork for the pedal, which was painted by Jason’s father, Gary. If you know anything about Jason’s history, his dad seems like a stellar person.

ProTone will make a limited edition of the pedal, which, according to Premier Guitar, will enable the company “to pass along a greater share of the proceeds” to Jason to help with his medical bills.

Last but not least, Jason was what sounds like a very cool new disc out, on Shrapnel. Read more about it here.

New Vai Guitar, Amp, Masterclasses

Steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeve Vai. Super good, super cool, super fast, super everything. According to a note he posted on his website back on Dec. 4, he and Carvin are coming out with a new amp (the Legacy II). He didn’t divulge any details on it, and Carvin doesn’t have anything about it on its website, so nothing to tell yet – but here’s a link to the existing Legacy amp page.

Steve also said a new signature Ibanez Jem is in the works. All he said is that it’s a h*** t***. Hard-tail, I guess. Definitely different for him.

He said both will be shown at Winter NAMM.

Do you have what it takes to hang with Steve? Or do you just want to bask up close in the warm breezes generated by his fiery hands? If so, sign up for his 3-hour Alien Guitar Secrets masterclass — as long as you can get to Fullerton, Calif. Click here for the details.

New Old Lynch Mob New Old News

Somehow I missed the fact that earlier this year, George Lynch mended fences with Oni Logan, the singer for his first post-Dokken solo album, Wicked Sensation. That is still one of my favorite albums and is a guitar tour de force. Don’t believe me? Buy it and listen.

So apparently George, Oni and two other guys whose names I strangely could not find on George’s website have been touring out West and in Australia under the Lynch Mob moniker. But it’s not the original Wicked Sensation Lynch Mob, as the band is missing original bassist Anthony Esposito and original drummer Mick Brown, who was also in Dokken and is again at present.

Oni had a great voice on that record but apparently didn’t do as well live (he sounded great when I saw them at the time!). Hopefully some new tunes are in the works because George is still great.

Just to round out the Lynch Mob-related news, I recently read that Robert Mason, singer on the Lynch Mob’s second album and the more-recent REvolution CD (Dokken and Lynch Mob tunes done in dropped tunings), just joined Warrant. I believe Robert’s most recent gig was with the tongue-in-cheek project Big Cock.

Chinese Democracy: Killer or Filler?

In mid-December Guns ‘N’ Roses and Chinese Democracy got kicked in the shins by an article in The Wall Street Journal. The bottom line of the piece is that Wal-Mart is doing well with AC/DC’s 1 mil-plus selling new CD Black Ice, but Best Buy, which tried to swing for the fences in a similar deal with Chinese Democracy, isn’t looking at nearly as many sales so far.

Whatever. Either you like the disc or not – and while I am an AC/DC fan, I can honestly say that I was a bit disappointed by Black Ice overall (mostly the production – give me the guitars, man, the wood!).

The only interesting part of The Wall Street Journal article was the citing of anonymous sources throwing Axl under a bus: “The reclusive singer declined interviews with Rolling Stone and The New York Times, according to people familiar with the matter. He also didn’t complete a music video in time to promote Chinese Democracy, which diminished Interscope’s ability to advertise the album online and on television, and undercut Best Buy’s ability to promote it on monitors in stores.”

Hey, if you don’t need the money….

Category: George Lynch, Guns N' Roses, Jason Becker, Steve Vai