areas cme e oud iz o fit‘THE READERS’ CHOICE ‘AWARDS, 1990 ETAL GODIN WAG AON BECKER UANER UP LES i “TOP OF THE ROCK STEVE VA UANER UP aE SATRAN. BLUES POWER wSTEVE RAY VAUGHAN RUNNER UPREAC CLAPTON INSTRUMENTAL GUTAAIST OF THE YEAR STEVE VA AUNNER UPa,OE SATAN MAN ON BASS STU HAS RUNNER UPaBILY SHEEN ‘SONGWATER OF THE YEAR STEVEN TVLER& OE PERRY RUNNER UP a0 Sic ‘STL RELEVANT AFTER ALL THESE YEARS AKCSS FUNNER UPaTED NUGENT [NEW BAND OF THE YEA UNNER UPaSLALSHTER ‘OUTSDE CORNER FED HOT CHILI PEPPERS FUNNER UP aSMTHEREENS (GUTAR ALBUM OF THE YEAR PASSIOW ANDO WARFARE’ STEVE VAL UNNER Ube aFLYNG A BLUE DREAM DE SATRAN. ‘SOLO OFTHE YEAR “THE AUDIENCE'S USTENNG, STEVE VA ALL OF FAME STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN FATH NO WORE GUITAR, Tam wating in se ompson's article: A Privat (August Rhoads have always ally look up 10 this wonderful jab of her. | ha that Randy has that Chel me inged me for ans should be individuals o think that, mind once | started ing really technical see But reading this artic je me realize tha ied ortant. important feeling are just day | also playing wi kind, humble 11 his great taler it Rudy on Earth to PN BESS MERU o) gal (ale) ic TO SAVE UP FOR A QUALITY 4-TRACK. Se eee eur sealed ei ein ete el esiec ta and spare change, and wondering how to get Moen eae ins Tur Seto sits You know, aTascam. The one some said Rotten neomiats erty fede Te Sel a PEM ecute Lols for bere Fee ec oR eerie R Cee erates Bee uti g ease reduction, and a 2channel mixer with input trim control record track select switch and lin- ee eee ea scr features and functions that get you into mult track and up to speed in Dera Mien al Neegin a onolt A= RC) Peay seromest ye Ee ance TASCAM. see. Be rere re aFEBRUARY, 1991 VOLUME 8 NO. 4 DEPARTMENTS LETTERS TO THE EDITORS PAUL STANLEY/KISS, IN THE LISTENING ROOM RANDY COVEN BASS SECRETS: STU HAMM STEVE MORSE (OPEN EARS: TOM DOWD/PRODUCER ROCK CLIMBING PERFORMANCE NOTES TONY MACALPINE GUITAR SECRETS. RESUME ROBERT PHILLIPS CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED SOUND F/X STEVIE Ray VAUGHAN STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN. GUITAR IN THE 905 GUITAR QUESTIONS AMP QUESTIONS GUITAR GIVEAWAY THE VINYL SCORE 6 W 14 18 19 34 a2 46 a7 49 50 120 121 143 152 NEW PRODUCTS THE CALL BOARD. DAVE SHARMAN THE OUTSIDE CORNER ADVERTISER INDEX 158 162 164 166 FEATURES JIM MARTIN & BILLY GOULD/ FalTH NO MORE By Fete Prown STEVEN TYLER & JOE PERRY/ AEROSMITH By Bruce Pollock POSTER FEATURE JOHN FRUSCIANTE & FLEA/ RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS. By Tom Forsythe Phota by William Homes JASON BECKER By Jokr Six STEVE VAI By John Ste 23 66 81 137 oe oS ¢,GUITAR AND BASS Py° SHEET MUSIC EXPLAINING TAB FALLING TO PIECES FAITH NO MORE Transcription by Prank Fercara Bass tenascripion by Steve Gorenbery 36 TERMINAL BEACH STU HAMM Tranterition by Andy Aledor LOVE IN AN ELEVATOR AEROSMITH Transcription by Andy Aledort AIR JASON BECKER Transcription by Jason Becker Tobiature by Andy Aledor HIGHER GROUND RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS Transcription by Andy Aledor! 33 43 52 103 122 COVER & CONTENTS PHOTOS BY William HamesJASON BECKER agtheir ‘Cringe’ tour. at colestial force, Jn VieotekyDo you remember hearing music 28 you were growing up? On yeah. My parents were into Dylan, 50 Tm full on’ into Dylan. My dad also Played classical guitar, sa J got the whole Segovia thing. He wanted to be a guitar player for a while. He practiced 12 hours a day. | was into my dad when | was young. Whatever he id was the best, That's why | play. | used to hear him play and think, man, that is cool. He bought me a guitar for Christmas when | was five What could you do with it? At first he tried fo teach me the basics, like reading music, He'd write out the notes and try to make me learn the otes on each string before going on. But | just wasn't into it. He showed me the first string and said, as scon as you {get that (give you the second lesson. Six months later | came back and said ! {got it and learned the second string. A year later he bought my brother a little xylophone and he showed him @ Bob Dylan song, { said, "Why don’t you show me a Bob Dylan song? If he can piay it on that, why can’t | play it on this?” So he showed me "As | Went out One Morning,” from John Wesley Haraiing. Then there was @ song by Peter, Paul and Mary, “A Soulin.” It's a fun lite foik tune. There's a high part and a low part My dad showed me each part and I put acoustic guitar playing! | fe] eee i ern aca ate eee ee eer era ot eee tm) SSRI race Ree) JASON BECKER them together. About the same time when | was seven, my uncle showed me Dylan's "Bucket of Rain.” | played that for family and tends and it became my fist showpiece. ‘You must have taken to the instrument quickly if you could get a good sound at six and seven. I don't remember a time being uncoord nated with it. | remember learning the Bb chord and thinking | was realy happening. \ thought, man, the word is mine. Between five and ten did you study or just enjoy the guitar? {earned as many Bob Dylan songs as | could. | preter his old stuf: "Like @ Rol ling Stone,""Highway 61," Blood On the Tracks, even Desire. He has a few gems on newer records, lke "Sweetheart Like You," which is on Infidels. Siow Train Coming was Mark Knopfler, and that was kiling quia. Did you want to be in a band? Until | was ten | wanted 10 be Dylan, | fad the harmonica and sang and per- formed in front of the school with a cheap acoustic guitar. | did "Mr. Tam- bourine Man.” “Ail Along the Waichtow. er,” "Motorpsycho Nightmare.” When | was 11 or 12, saw the movie The Last Waitz. That's when | got into Clapton. | liked Robbie Robertson, too, | thought he looked cool and he was leading the and, So | told my dad, im going to be De er) rer ey een) Cae ee ae Renee ne em eee 92 GUITAR FEBRUARY 191 @ lead guitar player. He said, "You don't want to be @ lead guitar player. You've Qo! to know too many scales.” | learned Further on up the Road,” rote for note, from that record, I'd put on the clothes and stand in front ofthe stereo. | played the song thousands of times, That was the new showpiece. Refaives would come over and Id play slong to the record Was there a music scene happening at your high schooi? {was in a jazz band. I'd always go up to the teacher, right belore a jazz concert in front ofthe school, and work it out that | could do "Further on up the Road’ and Freeway Jam.” belore we slarted the jazz thing. So, the whole jazz recital Slated out with me jamming, showing off, playing with my teeth. Qur school was like 90% black. At that time, they didn't know about that kind of guitar playing and they thought | invented that kind of stutt. There was no rock scene. They were heavily into Prince. Basicaly, in high school, 'd have a diferent tavor- ite guitar player every week. Hendrix was my favorite ong week, then the fist Van Halen record. Beck was in there, Al DiMeoia. 'd go through stages. | stil go through stages Did you have @ mentor or friend who turned you on to all these diferent players? No. All through high school, | wasnt thinking band. | wanted to be atleast as {G00d. if not better than the guitar play 2s liked, before | got ina band.) cia't want to just play rock star. Even though | did the Bob Dylan thing, as far as get- ting a band, | was just beginning to write songs then and | didn't want to play ‘ther people's songs [Dig you cop songs and licks when you were an Al DiMeola fan for a week, or a Hendrix fan for a week? I'd lear a song or two, but I didn't copy any licks. It was just a matter of getting the vibe, trying itrmyself, and then going and istening again. | tried to sound like Hendrix. It didn't work at that time, My fingers weren't strong enough. Actual, it hasnt been until lately that ve been Qetting into fis chords. There's sth some old Beck that | haven't heard that tim saving for a special occasion, It you didn't have peers to help guide you how would you know if you were any ‘900d? Because | had to be as good as the records, or beter. | thought, ‘it Im not as good as Beck,’ which of course Im stil not, but | couldn't play Beck songs and. Hendrix songs, and. make them s0und cool, then why even be a guitar player? I worked atit full out. In the sixth grade, | started practicing every day. | Played with the records and while watching TV. 'd jam the biues with my uncle. It was full on 12-hour days, everyday. You kind of have to at fist, be- cause i's so much fun. That's when you're learning new stutt How would you go about it? Well, | aiways ought records. 'd put (on, say. There and Back, and play to | wouldn't stop and rewind it; '¢ play the whole side and pick out licks here and there, | would play the whole side over and over and over, until | got the whole song. There'd be litle sections in each song that | couldn get, and as it passed by i(d be, "I gotta get it next time.” The one bad thing about on! playing with records is you get to soun like them, but when you play without it FULL ON you say, "Hey, walt 2 minute, Im not sounding lke { thought 1 was” It was ood when I gat a 4-track. That's when | slatted seeing, "Oh, I'm not that good. | gotta listen to myselt Did you ever study trom books, or take litte lessons from other players? Udit study from books, but when + was 14, | took lessons for a while from Dave Creamer. He played on a record or two with Miles Davis, and George Benson's into him. Incredible jazz piay- er. Fluid, He was heavily into arpeggios. and he's got a touch that's incredible That was when | was into Clapton, so he showed me scales. He helped my play- When you want it to last forever. . . era ei pains te ea ar 00 0: Audio Mts from ASI, mak 94 GUTAR. FEBRUARY 10 Cece Ty oar ence uaa ml Cera) een oy CE OE aru ing a lot, Every time | start getting stale, or start slowing down and not thinking of anything new, | go find a teacher and take a lesson. That'll get you out of a slump. | took lessons from Steve Hunter because I'd played blues, but | wanted to be ‘blues.’ He's an authentic blues guy. with the vibrato, and he’s into all the guys. | took some lessons from him ‘and what we did was talk for two hours, and he played me an Albert King re- cord, Years Gone By. Killing! | heard that, and said, okay, | understand now. So | went home and tied to cop the bends and stuft. The blues | was playing was pentatonic, but it wasn't the ‘blues feel, it was my own fee! playing blues. There's nothing wrong with thal, but | wanted it to be more authentic. | wanted 2 few songs (0 really be blues, Old bluesmen would come up to me and say, "I bet you can? piay the blues, and I'd play my version of the blues, and they'd say, "Nopa, | didn't think so. hat happened one 100 many times, $0 | decided to go find out what they were talking about What did Steve Hunter tell you? He'd tell me about how he worked only on his vibrato for years. He stil works on it I's weitd, because | learned (ots of licks and he didn't show me one lick. Id go home and try to take what he said and play it It helped incredibly. | wish | could tell you more. | don't have a finger n it. | listen to Albert King and try to Cop it instead of adding my owe thing. Is just a matter of either you like it and play it, or you're net really into it, but you tty to play it When else did you take lessons through- ‘out your recent career? There's Marly Friedman. | didn't take lessons from him, but we learned {rom h other. That's a form of lessons. This year | took one lesson trom Ted Greene, based on Steve Hunter's rec: ommendation. Iwas a lot of talking. You play for him, and he's incredible, He's 80 far beyond, guitar-wise, that is oret- ty silly. What he teaches Hunter is the finger tap harmonics, and so he's in- credible at that, It sounds kind of ike a harp thing. Lenny Breau did it: and so ve been leaiming some of those just 10 keep the ideas fresh. If students come over, llask them what they te doing, I's ‘a matter of always going to someone and saying, "What ate you doing?” Atter high school, did you think about {going to college? No. | knew | was going 10 be a guitar player. The only step | took was to get better. When | was 16, | sent a 45-min: Ute tape to Mike Varney. | played a cou: ple of Paganini pieces, a couple of blues things. | thought. If 'm in his co! umn, I'm happening! When did Paganini enter the pack?Because of my dad, Ive always been into classical stuff. | had the Caprice bbook and I learned those for exercises. They're detinitely music, but if | was go- ing to listen to music, | wouldn't listen to them. They're more exercises. | wanted to be a lead guitar player. This violin stuff was single notes. | said, ‘Why can't play that? You stil hadn't played in a band when you sent the tape to Varney? Exactly. Most of the tape was improvis- ing over simple chords and a couple of melodies. They were cao! ideas and things I hadn't heard other people do, like Counterpoint with volume pot swells. It was sloppy as hell and very silly, but JASON BECKER Varney thought the ideas were cool. He told me ta call Marty Friedman, | went fo his, ‘house in San Francisco and we jammed ali day. We played a lot of blues. ‘Speed Metal Symphony is more Marty's vision than yours? Yeah. A couple of the ideas were on my tape from before and | was kind of go- ing in that direction already. But he showed me that you can actualy put it all together and make a tune out of it We wanted to be incredibly different When | listen to it | laugh, because it's 0 non-stop, chock full of funny things. When | heard that record | lumped you in the schoo! of classicalirock Ntwas a sage} was going through. For Serious About Tone. Chandlers proud tobe a part of Eric Johnson's great guitar tone. He uses our Tube Preamp Cee ee Une ee on Capitol Records. cere ORO reece cence 96 GUITAR FEBRUARY 1901 end a while, | got out of the Dylan thing and it was ike.) want to be @ lead guitar Player | was on my way. With Marty, every second counted. On my first demo, there were lots of spaces. Matty was like, ‘You stick th lick here, and we Could double it’ and every space need- ed to be covered. | said, ‘Wow. yeah why not? Why have a boring moment? That was my stage for ‘every second which is a cool thing for what tis, That's the thing about people who critique you. They don’ take it for what iis, Its not a biues record. I's not not-tasty because we cant do it. I's an all-out guitar re Cord, and itis kind of weird that | was fu (on info Dyan and then my first record is 50 diferent. There's a certain thing about im pressng people that | was into then. | warted to be oiferent but ! wasnt @ good enough songwriter to impress Dyan fans Why did Marty want a second guitar player? i was Vamey’s idea fo have us play together. | don't know it Marty was into it unlit he met me and and we played together. And then we cauld do it Jive, instead of it sounding weak. We were oth into the full on harmonies. But when | did my demos, | wasnt thinking, about live. Now } ke working with other Quitar players, I's not an ego thing with me. I'd rather learn with another guitar player in the band than be the only guy. J ike otter opinions and other things that | wouldnt necessarily do, 1 would rather have that than be the only guy. Let's tak a bit about the first Cacophony record The drummer, Atma Anur, had a lot to do with it. Marty and | were into the odd time stuf and having the whole band go completely mad in @ controlled format We just kind of did it, We knew the Notes, but he told us exactly what we were doing. This record was about tind: ing the codlest, weirdest licks and stick ing them in the weirdest places. | didnt even think about vocals. Marly aida? think about them much, eithe: Were most of the solos written out? Oh yeah, most ofthis record is writen out Is this the fst time you were in a major reoording studio? Yeah, and they made it comfortable. Of course | was nervous when | first picked Up the guitar. Sut it was just like hanging out with your pals. If you do it right, fine IN you dont do it right, you do it over. ittook a month and a hal, maybe. twas fun, and rmosty a learning experience for me.I got ‘me comfortable with the studio. Were you well rehearsed? Full on. We recorded only a short time after we'd been jamming together, so we had every note. Did you have your sound together for his? ‘No. ( used my basic 70's Strat, which now has Evans pickups. They'te kilingFULL ON Learn Your Favorite Guitar Parts with the Original Note-For-Note Tapes The Ultimate in Rock Guitar Transcriptions! Accurate & Complete Incredibly accurate solos, rhythms, and pages blank tab). fills, ver 300 songs by over 70. NOTE.FOR-NOTE™ Solo Tapes: artists fine tuned over Jim Gleason plays and describes each ‘years of success note by string, fet, position, letter name & any special tech- y niques. Now includes fret numbers. $17.50. NOTE-FOR-NOTE™ Rhythm & Fills Tapes: Jim Gleason describes everything the guitarist plays except the solo, Also with fret numbers, S21. ff, ‘by the originators of audio guitar transcription. On NOTE-FOR-NOTE™ Guitar audic cassette tapes you hear each phrase played exactly like the original, then each note played one-by-one with a detailed verbal description, No music reading! You get right to the fingering Each tape set includes 2-5 hours of lessons, real time recording, and an 80- page manual (30 pages instruction, 50 NEW RELEASE yt Rock Performance Music hese or mt ae ys Pe ae asin non Sc Tae oe ™ PARTIAL LEST OF TITLES xy Seka finan ‘SOLO TAPES $17.50 RHYTHM TAPES $21 coer peso 4 mane) "gp WASTE EBA A Hees AEE TH CLASS MAL I sssrvee xa ahs J verses rte I erat at we sont L080 je ne ey Sate pickups. They were what Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jefi Healey used for awhile, We used old Marshalls. Marty had a coo! Marshall, until it caught on fire in the studio. Then we had to borrow some student's gear. We were definitely oor then. Marty didn't have a car. Were there any favorite performances on this recara’? ''m most happy with “Speed Metal Sym. phony,” because | wrote almost halt of it remember there was a slow part in there that | was happy with. Whenever get siow parts, is always my favorite Par, ‘cause there's so many fast parts. | did the intro on "The Concerto.” This is my litle classical thing, and a litle Gary Moore in there, | hate il now. The tone is Weak and the part is just a fast guitar Player doing a fast guitar thing. In gen- eral, with this record we really didnt care about the vocals. We just put all the guitar on, and the vocals we did in two days. We kind of got antsy with the singer, because he wanted more time What did you lear from Marty during this particular experience? Basically, like anything eise, | took his style and put itinto mine. He had the Ui Roth thing, which | wasn't into at the time, | didn’t know about the whole di- rminished thing, and the coal bends, anc making everything coo! every second. It was the idea of everything being chock {ull and keeping an open mind, too, He was into all the weird stuff. which | was io, but | never knew how to stick it into music. } was doing Bach and Mozart and had heard Stravinsky, which was great, but | didn't know how to make it sound cool with guitars and fit all the harmonies together. He did. When you hear Speed Metal Symphony today, what do you hear? It sounds immature for me, but not com- pared to anything else out there, When listen to it for my playing, !™m glad t don't play tke that anymore. But when | isten to it and hear the licks instead of looking at the tone of my vibrato, | think, ‘Wow, no one really does it to that extent. I's 0 extreme that it's funny. There's so many guitars, 50 much stutf going on. Do you hear a carrelation between this player and the player on the David Lee Roth record? Not really. Maybe a lite bit. i's just a matter of hearing different things and feeling different ways about what hap- pens to you. When | do a record, | dont Want to do the same thing again, be cause | ike so much stuff don't want to {eal Ike | did the same record again. What was the immediate plan after ‘Speed Metal Symphony? We were writing for the second record Alter the first record, { wasn't entiely happy with my playing. | liked what we wrote and what we did, but | had apersonality that | had wanted to happen, 50 | started immediately writing for our ext record. | had a record's worth of stuff and | was playing it for Marty. Final- ly, | played my stuff for Mike Vamey, and he said, ‘Why don't you guys do solo records? Marty will be on your re- cord and you'll be on Marty's. So we started doing that, because | had just written so much stuff. | didn't plan any- thing. | wrote whatever | ett like doing. wanted to make a guitar fecord that like to listen to, that didn't have any bor: ing parts. “Alttude” is a winner. Here's a funny story about the begin- ning of “Altitude.” About two months af- ‘er | did that record, Marty and | were driving around and Yes came on with their first song from Big Generator, and wwe both thought it was my record. W's, the same chords and same sound key- board-wise. it's incredible. This kind of /board pattern with the melody | did a ‘couple times on Perpetual Burn. | got it ‘rom listening to Roy Buchanan's "The Messiah Will Come Again.” A lot of my record sounds kind of dramatic to me. Im into dramatic stuff. When I did this record | was full on into the cast record nig of Phantom of the Opera, with Sarah Brightman. When | heard Sarah Bright man | was just shivering, Listen to the end of “Altitudes.” | didn't quite steal, but you can defintely hear it. 1 also wanted @ ttle variety on this record There are unique things like “Air.” Ive never heard anything like that by a rock. guitar player. “Air” sounds like a harpsichord song, played on guitar. Its differem because lots of guys are ito the classical thing, bx they play a minor scale ang think that's a classical tune, This is a classical tune. It's not a Mozart tune by any standards. | got chicken pox: | listened to Mozart for a week. and then | said, “Okay, now | know what I'm gonna do," so I did it. was for my parents. | was thinking about them the whole time. | wanted to have ‘hem dig ths tune. Iwas doing Bach and Mozart and had heard Stravinsky, but ( didn't know how to make it sound cool with guitars and fit all the harmonies together. Marty did. What's the mark of a good solo? Itjust has to be interesting. It has to have a good feel. it has to be in the mood of the song, “Altitude.” is kind of a tramatic, thematic thing. | played with the chord progression a lot and figured out the right notes, and then it was just (0 for it” That's usually when the Dest stuff comes. Beck's "People Get Ready’ 00 Is perfect. I's just right in with the JASON BECKER RPM adds Video!! ‘Now the proven, popular Rock Performers Guitar Method includes video cassetes. Books 1 and 2 come to life with easy-to-follow videos on both Technique and Style. You'll look, learn and be inspired to work on your own distinctive style, Jim Gleason studied the masters for 30 years to produce this complete RPGM Set -5 books (1,248 pages), 11 audio and 4 video cassettes. “Highly recommended" - Guitar World. RPM VIDEOS - The best instruction ve ever had. Easier than a live jesson, With combined animated and live video, youl se and hea the notes, the rts the staf, every technique, clear and direct Four videos one each on {Technique and on Style for Books Land 2 make leaning so easy it’ fun. BOOK 1: Rock Guitar Fundamentals. 272 pages & three 90 min. audto tapes. ‘Teaches ll right & lft hand techniques {including tapping and sweep picking), Bentatonic scales and basie chords. Over 400 ick. 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Bvery scale and chord in common use; the most complete dictionary of useful chord synonyms and scale tone chords ever assembled, BOOK 5: Chord Progression, A 52 page supplement to Books 1-4 with one Sominute audio casete, Essential chord progressions used in Rock-related ‘music since 1955. 377 progressions written in diagrarn form. ¥ Books 1-4 use standard notation and tablature. Books 1 2, and 3 include progressive lesson guide, solo examples, ‘rhythm tracks, melodic scale @ 2 arpegi paler ay Music peters Oats se woo 2-s50 CO ook rok eo -s90 1 soon. s3250 Ol soor2 re. eo 10 TD soore-ss2s9 Cl woors sme woes J Oooors-ss Cl soorzsme woe -s0 1 pocc perme ere See ia FREE POSTAGE NUS. neo ooen ail in ordertorm or CALL 1-B00-678-FRET oun-sow, sr vane, Sa,tune, It hag feel, it fts the tune, but it's stil a good guitar piece. When peopie say, ‘let's ‘it the tune,’ and then play your basic, generic stuff, that’s not fitig the tune, that's just being a bonehead. You can have personality and your whole thing in there and stil fit the tune, | don't play for the tune. I's just a matter, of having the tune in your head, instead of blindly wailing over whatever's there. | play for the tune if the tune is worth playing for, but you have to fit it in there ‘hythmically—phrasing. “The Messiah is melodieally right in there, There's an- other Buchanan thing, an instrumentat cover he did called "Secret Love "Crosstown Traffic” was pretty happen FULL ON ing. On Stevie's solo in "Voodox Chile, he's walling for the tune, Isn't # possible that someone might say you'te just playing a bunch of fast me- lodic patterns, almost exercises; it's mathematics, more than music. Well, I'd have to disagree, because of the manner that | play them in. | put alot more aggression and different pressure fon the string. | can't play exact, like Vinnie Moore, to where every note sounds exactly the same. There's noth ing wrong with that, but with me you can hear all the litle nuances and it's not the same way every time. | think i's more aggressive, and is interesting, and it's not all scales and arpeggios, but it is 2 OV COLGAN The Guitar Ace™ and Bass Ace™ are the hottest high performance headphone amps around! Q Classic Rockman” sounds Q "Play along " input for jamming with tapes and drum machines Q New low price else een cast) PE ay OO GUITAR FEBRUARY 28) lot. If you were going to listen to the "Perpetual Burn” solo, it's pretty chock full tis pretty much a big exercise. It you were to just to hear that tune, then | ‘couldn't argue with you. On that record | played fast so much, | could see a guy would listen to it and think, ‘Okay, its fast” And not listen to things like “Air How do you feel about the argument that goes ‘he's got speed, bul he doesn't have soul?” You'te going to have good fast players, land you're going to have bad fast play- fers. It doesnt take away from the soul at all Listen to "icarus.” on the first Yngwie record. That had soul in there. Stevie Ray played pretty quickly in “Voodoo Chie.’ That has soul. He's playing it ike a man. Van Halen's "Atomic Punk” has plenty of soul. The way he attacks the strings, it doesnt matter how fast o: Sow he's doing it. ‘What guitars did you use on Perpetual Burn? [used all Hurricanes, through Marshall ‘amps. | prefer this sound to the one | got on Speed Metal Symonony. How long did it take to record? IL took a month How well rehearsed were you betore you went in? Pretty well rehearsed, but there was ‘ore improvising. | remember the last two cuts, “Dwelling in the Cellar” and "Opus Pokus,” were witlen very quick: ly. Three days betore we went in, | timed everything, and realized | was shor. ls interesting that you could work on Something for a long time, and have to do something at the last minute that's Just as good. ‘That's a good point. That's kind of why, fon the next Cacophony record, we didn't work hard at all, We wrote the tunes, went in, and improvised a lot oft Aller'Perpetual Burn, did you feel you went up a notch in recognition? Personally, | went up a noich. | didnt think it was moving as fast as it should have. | was writing music and Iving at home. My parents were into the music. My dad's an artist, $0 they were fu on supportive, Good thing. There's no way | could have done it. | really have com- passion and feel for the guys who have fo make it and work fuletime. | feel ike | made out lke a bandit. | know | could have done it, but the hard thing is fo want 10 be in there 12 hours @ day working on stuff. | gave lessons, t00. was an awiul teacher. [d think ofa lick during the day, and then whatever stu- dent would come, Id show them amy new lick. It probably wasn'ta good idea, | guess, but ( wasn't very good. | had some good students and bad students Mainly, the thing they came in with was, ‘Yo dude, show me arpeggios!’ The rea- sson | wasnt a good teacher is that most ‘Coninved on Page 119Comins trom Aage 100 guys who came and said they wanted to know arpeagios, didn't know bar chords for open chords, and | jus! showed them the arpeggios. I's not a good thing, but then again, most af therm wore fans, anyway, and 1d appreciate them. Cd usually talk to them for longer than the lesson was. What was the game plan for Go Of”? We ware on our way to being more of a vocal band. Getting into less guitar and not preparing, saying, ‘We've one this, | dont want to do it again. Let's wing i and.go fori itwas weird. We wrote some ba: Sic tunes, went in and played overt. twas our attempt al being a band as opposed to putting in all the interesting licks we could. | lke the tunes. They're not com- mercial, by any stretch of the imagination, We were into heavy. for lack of a better word, manly stuf We wanted to be very ener- gelic and very ballsy. While we were doing it! was nervous. | was going, man, we don't have any- thing, It care together. How do those tunes compare to Megadeth tunes? I think they compare rather well myself. With this kind of music i's more of a cult thing you have to get, and a bad. boy image. {Quess Marly and | might not have been bad enough Did you choose the singer? Yeah, We were into him. That's another thing. who else can sing over it and wna else would sing over it? If you get thesinger who is way into chicks and a full on front man, he's not going to want to have half the song be guitar “Images” is among the best tunes you've done. That's my thing with the counterpoint Keto sti in the beginning. Very Debus- sy. | was heavily ifa Debussy then. The mood is 80 different, wih the Tate thing and two tracks of harmonics. This was going to be a vocal tune and no one was into the vocais | wrote, and | don't blame them. Im glad, It's kind of classi cal, but i's not. Even though its an in- stumonial, i's the closest thing to a sing. 11S got a part, and a part that repeats, and then it gaes into aC sec- tvon. The end of "Images" is a classical guitar. It was my dad's famous acoustic There was a certain kind of delay in the studio that we stuck on there. Give me a ‘Best of Jason Becker. Hil take side two of Speed Metal Sym. Phony. and ll take “Altitudes,” “Air and "Opus Pokus" from the solo record From Go Off, Vd have ta take "X-Ray Byes" and “images.” Id use “Jewe! ftom Marty's record FULL ON ‘What equipment did you use on Go Off? Carvin guitars and Marshall amps. | own 2 Quadroverb. That's about the only el fects thing I've ever owned. Nothing wrong with it. I's coo! stuff, but I'm into the basic guitar sound, | understand at the live shows you did some cover tunes? Live we did "Highway to Hel," “Walk on the Wild Side,” the guitar riff to "Fast Car,” and "What | Am,” by Edie Brickell It started out with solo guitars doing the pan, We did a fast speed metal version, We played an EZO tune, haping people would think it was ours. We toured a month in the states on this record How successful were you at being a band? We were right in there. When we went (on tour our singer showed his true co! ors. There was a big arrogance thing. We had a big problem. | still like him, but 1 had to fire him in Kansas. It was a cringe tour. It was the van and the U Haul cartying the equipment—three wus, NO guitar techs. Me and Marty juned our guitars. Most of the shows wete great. Packed places. When you're doing it you're cringing, but it was fun, | used to play the tapping part of ‘Eruption” with one hand and do a yo- yo with the other. | used to play Marty's guitar and he would play mine. ‘What happened after the tour? I quit Cacophony pretty much right after the tour. It was September, '89. | wanted fo do something else. | wanted to do ‘more blues things, For a while, all of us wanted to do more commercial stuff, ‘wilh less guitar. After we toured I knew | couldn't do this anyenore. | was tired of being smalisime. Marty was into Kiss and Elvis and | was into Dylan and the Band. We were certain guys separately, and then you put us together and it's kind of ike a demon. Marly and | are stil best friends. We live ten: minutes away and jam all the time. The drummer went on to Starship and the bass player is in Eyes. Marty went to Megadeth. | did the Dave thing. Many moved'to L.A. to find Gig. | said, "You don't have to move to LA; Im staying here and doing my own thing’ | started writing tunes, more of what | was into from the beginning What's new about your new style? wanted to wiite for a singer. | wanted a singer whe was a full on front man and whno would be the main guy. | wanted to sell records. | didnt took beyond that point. | said, whatever it is, | want nor mal people to like it instead of lust the guitar players, There was stil plenty of Quitar, but it was all catchy and the beat wasn't s¢ mean. The first song | wrote fended up as the last song on Dave's record ‘So you ically abandoned your recent past?” Noi totally. | would say 1 added to it. sill playing exactly what | want. Its the Dave influence. You go in there and he's singing these incredible blues riffs Did you start listening to diferent players to get your blues chops back together? Not really. | went back to Hendrix. | re- membered liking him and playing him. How come | got out of that for a while? I's @ matter of doing the atural step that | guess | skipped. | hate to say I was going back to what | listened to in the Deginring, but that's exactly what | did How soon after you quit Cacophony did you get the Roth gig? A couple months later. Greg Bissonette wanted to know if Varney had any dudes. | was the dude that Vamey had. It was as simple as that. Mike played various bits and pieces of my work and the demo Id been working on. | had eight or nine basic tracks, I Nad sent the tunes to some singers that Varney rec: ommended and they sent me their ver- sions back. Some of them were pretty ‘good and some were hilarious. It was fun for me, | cant wite lyrics. | would have to take singing lessons, because it you play catchy tunes, like a Paula Abd- Ul song, oF any hit tune, i's going to sound silly on guitar. I's not going to sound right. But if you sing it, i's incred- ible, In order for me to write them, Id have to be into singing What was on the audition tape? Hot for Teacher, Skyscraper,” "Pana ma,” the basic tunes, Dave wanted to know I was a guitar player. | think they were sold on the tape. At the audition, they were the most incredible guys, ev- ery one of them. They made me feel great. We played a couple of new tunes. ‘Continued on Page 150 SERRLARY 1991, GUTAR 119,