;) I love a good hot cereal.

Hey skippygirl, here ya go, it's almost like a lil private lesson with Joe

You'll be 'boogie-ing' before ya know it :)

Skippy: I grabbed my camera and asked Joe to give Skippygirl 10 personal tips directly aimed at helping her improve bends, hammers and all sorts of fun stuff!!

So here you go: Personal tips for SkippyGirl straight from Joe.

Actually, that's utter crap... I just found it on youtube... But it useful anyway..

Cheese and roo - aw thanks for that guys :0) I find Joe's instructions easiest of all to follow but way above my skill level at the moment. I tried bending last night and it ain't happenin, just like my attempts at hammer ons you need a hearing aid to hear the sound :0).

Mind you, Ode To Joy is sounding better. My daughter stands there and makes the time signature thing with her hands (you know the up down side side thing) whilst I try to play it. Then she says "very good Mum, keep practicing" and leaves.

Good Morning from Arkansas.
Joe has the best mini lessons on the net. His teaching style is great. It is always a plus when the listener feels at ease with any teacher if it be guitar or mathematics.

Have you all checked out Joe's "Lesson on Modes"? I am not comfy yet with this format on links so you can Google it if you are interested. I went to a very small school and graduated 28 total in 1984. So not much of a music program, needless to say I am clueless on the subject. My brother who is a genius in these areas has tried to explain the modes to me. Joe's explanation and demo brings it all together in about 17 minutes. Now I am able to venture out of the "rut" I was in. check it out.

Thanks guys so far on feedback on the Satchurator and I would like to hear more. I am thinking you guys across "the big pond" have gone to sleep. Or at least roo and Skippy.

Oh and compare for me if you will the JS 1200 with other Ibanez models. I have never picked up a JS but did play a JEM @ Guitar Center.

SuperSwingDog, I don't actually recommend either show. Paranormal state are flat out frauds and in fact have been busted faking stuff. As for TAPS their methods are flawed. I won't go so far as to call them frauds as I believe when the show first started they had good intentions, unfortunately reality television isn't real and they do have to make sure they keep the show dramatic and exciting enough to keep viewers.

The reality of it is that what we do is actually boring a majority of the time. Not something that people would want to watch on a weekly basis. Sure there are times that we are in some pretty interesting locations and sometimes there are interesting things that happen, but for the most part an investigation is a few hours of pure boredom. Then you get into the analyzing of photos, video, voice recordings and the like which is many more hours of boredom with just a few minutes of excitement when you manage to find something. Then you have to analyze the anomaly that you have found which takes even more time and if your lucky you have something that isn't easily explained through normal means.

Usually though you find just regular stuff, dust particles, people talking in another room, light reflections and all of that good stuff. The few times that you actually do find something are what makes it worthwile and keeps us going. At the same time though we have to fight against groups such as TAPS and Paranormal State because they muck up the waters and actually negatively influence people's opinions of us and what we do.

burly: I'm not sleeping, just resting my eyelids....

skippy: are you trying this on an acoustic????!?!?? Bends, slides and hammerons are NOT easy for beginners on an acoustic. Just your comment about the "need a hearing aid" made me think you were.

hammer-ons are exactly that, you do need to whack the string a bit to make it work, but on a distorted electric its very easy, much easier than a clean electric and worlds ahead of an acoustic, same with slides.

Bends just take a bit of muscle.

My latest venture is the wonderful world of vibrato... Woo bloody hooo... Anyone got some good tips for me? I am trying to work out the whole locked finger, drive from the wrist and forearm/elbow, but I just cannot seem to get a natural "wobble". My vibrato was always sub-standard.

Hey Joe, I went into Gary's tiny shop to ask him to strip some guitars and had no idea he did a lot of work with you... LOL!

I found the place on the internet as I was heading to the states only for a few days.. When I get there, I went in and thought "bloody hell, I'm not leaving my guitars here", it looked so run-down and a dodgy operation! HA HA HA...

Then I saw some of the framed albums around the place, got talking and the penny dropped... DOH! that's who he is!!!

That was funny. Do you still do work with him? Fernando (I think it was) was telling me about being at the 20th anniversary replay gig of "surfing" at the original studio. I wish I could have got to that.. Surfing was the album that got me hooked.

Did anyone have a boot video or cd of that whole gig?

CommodoreDrake...I hear ya. Maybe I prefer TAPS because I grew up in New England and they do a lot of research in towns that I've lived in or been to. And I agree that they have to keep things exciting for the TV crowd. My favorite episode is when they investigated the Mt. Washington Hotel in New Hampshire. Made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up..

Ok here is a Joe related question..

Grandma's Don't Know Everything

Little Tony was 7 years old and was staying with his grandmother for a few days.

He'd been playing outside with the other kids for a while when he came into the house and asked her:

'Grandma, what's that called when two people sleep in the same room and one is on top of the other?'

She was a little taken aback, but she decided to tell him the truth. 'It's called sex, darling.'

Little Tony said, 'Oh, OK,' and went back outside to play with the other kids..

A few minutes later he came back in and said angrily,

'Grandma, it isn't called sex. It's called Bunk Beds.