ovation1, I have to agree with you on Vai! For me, he reached his peak around the Alive In An Ultra World and Live At The Astoria period. He had his band together and he featured their talents fully, but it was still all about him and his music. That's the way it's meant to be.
I went to his Real Illusions show in London last autumn (fall) and it was cool but there was so much image going on! he spent 5 precious minutes telling us how Jeremy likes to go out to strip clubs after the show is over......I want to know what part of my ticket paid for me to hear about some over-grown kid spending his money on lap dances, 'cause I really don't care.
Grrrr, I have really been disappointed by Vai and his clan in this new era, the "Breed" era. And yeah, what was the point in getting Billy to play bass on his album when he could have done it himself?!
Meanwhile, Joe is like a fine wine.....he gets better with age! hehe.
Satriella, I have no idea when my guitar is coming back.....it could easily be a couple of months :-(
Austin, oh man.....that sounds like a real headache. How come it all had to end up so awkward? Is there no way the two of you can agree to differ on things and just tolerate each other? It seems such a shame that you should have to sacrifice so much just because you can't deal with each other being around.....has she had to make the same sacrifices as you?
Sorry for all the questions bro, obviously I don't expect you to answer them if you don't want to!
mthead, that's so cool, I wish we had things like Moose in the UK! haha, there wouldn't be room for them I guess, but they're so cool!
Delfino, happy birthday bro.....I swear it's not 12 months since your last one....are you like the queen or something, do you get 2 birthdays? haha. Hope you had a groovy weekend anyway!
summersong05, not as far as I know, but Paul Gilbert and Troy Stetina both have.
edit:
js1200js1000, sorry dude, forgot to answer you about the hotplate! haha
American amp producer THD started making this thing which is basically the same as a Marshall Powerbrake, a few years ago.
It's not a pedal, no. It's a box which creates artificial impedence - what that means is as follows:
Say you're using a Peavey JSX head and a 4x12 speaker cabinet to go with it......the JSX is a 120watt all-valve head, with an impedence (as far as I know) of 16ohms. Impedence is basically resistance.
You need to make sure the cab is a 16ohm cab, otherwise the resistance won't match up. If you try using an 8ohm amp with a 16ohm cab you'll have things making smoke, loud noises and bad smells.
A Hotplate is a box which creates the same impedence that the speaker cabinet would. You take the output of the amp and run it into the Hotplate, which takes up the load (the big electrical current) but lets the sound, the audio signal, through to the speakers.
You connect the output of the Hotplate to the input on the speaker cabinet and you're sorted. What it means is that you can crank up the power (volume) on the amp which make the valves run hotter and thus get their best tone, but the actual sound that comes out of the speakers can be at easy-listening, practice level.
It's great, 'cause you get to properly use your amp to it's full portential without destroying your hearing or getting complaints from family and neighbours!
I don't properly understand the physics behind how it works, but basically you get this:
Guitar >>> Amp >>> Hotplate >>> Speaker cabinet >>> hours of fun! :-D
