Joe, I wanted to personally thank you and your management staff for the after show passes this past Friday night at your Chicago show. I truly appreciated you taking "YOUR TIME" and spending a few minutes to chat with us! It was an honor and a pleasure to be given the opportunity to meet you in such a setting! I can only hope that I have the chance to do it again in the future.

You are a true professional and nothing short of a class act! Your performances are ALWAYS the best around and there isn't anything that I can add that hasn't already been said about you and the rest of the boys Friday night in Chicago! Enjoy the rest of the tour and I can't wait for your next go round! Thanks again!

Austin-I loved NOTE when I was a child.I originally had it on a cassette that had Passion and Warfare on the other side.Whenever I would finish "Love Secrets", the tape would flip over and the opening chords to NOTE would begin.To this day, If I ever hear Love Secrets, I expect NOTE to play right after.

I think I just outgrew the album.The production is a pretty big turn off compared to modern recordings.It's not that I dislike the tunes, I still play Brother John on my guitar occasionally, and I do like the Dreaming #11 live versions of the songs.

The studio versions of "Hordes..." and "Memories" just sound silly compared to the D#11 versions.As far as Driving at Night and New Day, I don't dislike them, but I can go without listening to them.Just sort of dull.

I pretty much only listened to Sufing, Flying, NOTE, Passion and Warfare by Vai, 5150 and 1984 by Van Halen, The Best of the Dregs, A Farewell to Kings by Rush, Apostrophe & One Size Fits All by Frank Zappa over and over again until I was like, 11-12.

There were a few other albums that I would listen to occasionally, but it was mainly those 10 albums over and over again.Mainly Joe and Vai at that time.Shoot, from 88-90 I probably only listened to Surfing and Flying,When I got Passion in 90 is when I got NOTE.Weird.

So-So setlist, obnoxious performance from Vai, and the reused shots were irritating.They only had like, 2 different shots of Macalpine soloing, and they would just reuse them.

The cutaways to Vai changing clothes while Donati soloed were just irritating.I really HATE what he does in Bad Horsie.I would probably be tempted to leave if I saw him do that at a show.I can't recall if he did that during the Real Illusions tour here in Seattle, but I probably went to the bar to get a drink if he did.

I understand Vai didn't have a lot of quality footage to work with, but I just didn't enjoy it.I think that DVD was the beginning of my losing interest in his playing.

I coundnt dream up a better idea for a movie...only thing is Joe should be there too. It Might Get LOUD! Click on Trailer NOW!...its amazing!!!

axeshredderjc - The Yamaha Frank Gambale's signature model has something similar to Steve Vai's guitar, but only on the first two frets (more info here). I don't know how long that guitar has been around, but it's at least as old as 2002, when it appeared on the cover of the third GHS album (you can see one of the frets at the very top of the image). I remember there was a discussion here about that guitar when the album came out.

So the idea isn't new, but the extent that Steve Vai is utilizing it certainly is!

And I'm psyched about It Might Get Loud. I've known about it for a while (it's been finished for at least a year), so the waiting has been tough. There's a theater in Hollywood that's showing it at midnight Thursday night; that's probably when I'll go see it...cosmic_ape, I don't know if/when you have class on Fridays, but do you want to join me? Or any other T2Jers?

WOW thanks for all the great links peeps, it's been like a candy store the last couple of days!

Axe - is that Bryan Adams in the back wit EVH/S Crow?

Michelle - if Dachshund puppies really are chick magnets you should patent that fast! The question about which do you prefer - Steve or Dave - was genuine. I think you mention Dave more than Steve so am assuming you dig his music more? Not least because he doesn't dress in a girly way?

Roo - cool news about your CF trip. Do those SWTA picture discs normally come with a 'proper' sleeve?

Do The Stu & Scubadaz - thanks for the info on Astoria.

For me, I prefer Ep 2 & 3 although they cram way too much in to 3. I can't find much reference to it, possibly a site edit, but there was a lot of info on Ep 7-9, some of which is towards the end of this link. The emporer staying alive idea is a bit 'thin' for me

Axeshredder - I just figured if Steve adopts it - the vid implied he was having it on all his guitars(?) - then it'll become main stream. But looking at it in close up from your link it's a bit freaky. Not sure how much you'd need to adapt to that! So I take it back... the FG version looks more sensible

That movie looks COOL!

Pip, I do like Dave's music. Since Steve's catalog is bigger, it's not really fair for me to say I like Dave's better since he only has one cd out so far. I do like Steve's music - just not all of it. I dig Alive in an Ultra World, and I love the Live in Astoria dvd

Mornin' peeps!

Michelle - yeah, fair comment about Dave. He's local to you right - have you met him?

Roo - cool, thanks - appreciate it.

Turbo236 - I noticed that too. The black with white logo (to me) only seems to have appeared recently. On a guitar I don't think it works as well as the one he's been using for most of the shows (as per SBE vid).

Personal preference tho

Cosmic Ape - cool! Maybe the question should have been who isn't coming

Skippygirl - You know, I thought that guy in the back behind Sheryl looked familiar but I couldn't place him. I think you might be right about Bryan Adams.

Then of course something like R2-D2 being able to fly is lame. If he could fly in the prequels, why didn't he fly straight to Obi-Wan after the pod landed on Tatooine at the start of Episode IV? They could've destroyed the Death Star before it had approached Alderaan and the movies would've been over before they really got started.

Also, the prequels bug me because they make it seem like there are only a dozen or so people who play an important role in the entire galaxy. I think movies 7-9 could have introduced more characters than 1-3 did.

Reading your link, I think it's dumb for the emperor to stay alive. Surely there's enough of a fleet elsewhere with plenty of imperial leaders to where future stories could be told without him.

And I wrote a reply about the guitars, but then saw that Phil said exactly what I would have...haha. But I can add that I think he has a few of the black-on-white guitars, because he gave one to Conan at the Tonight Show and still had another to play live.

Skippygirl - White T-shirt , Strat, funny haircut hiding his face...yeah that must be Bryan..good call!

Pip & Austin DTS - Gambale may have a version but True Temperment has really refined it to a science.

On YouTube.... heres a page that show some more current users and the Vai Gemini Vid that shows a brand new guitar with the frets......i was watching the previews of the DVD and didnt see them....i also wondered if stretching would be an issue but youll see in one video (lespaul) that theres no issue. My guess is this fretting system is excellent in the studio but not so necessary live...i surely would want to keep the frets in excellent shape for recordings and have reg's to beat up for shows...If this ever catches on and a big guitar manufacturer purchases the rights, it will become more common but will always be a premium feature. I would like to try one!

If you dig into the site some more youll see theres different levels and types for different type players and tunings...like the low tunings of todays hard rock / metal

There's a meteor shower (the Perseids) tonight, if anyone's interested...it's always one of the best of the year. They're easy to see after 11 p.m. (midnight or 1 a.m. is even better)...get away from city lights and try not to look at the moon. The meteors originate from the constellation Perseus, which you'll find in the northeast, to the lower left of Cassiopeia (the big "W").

It Might Get Loud sounds like a great start to your vacation...good choice.

I don't know how much money he makes from it, but he's also involved with Red House Live. You can see a page on him here...he's been with them for a few years, I think.

Jeff was in attendance at the Chickenfoot gig in SF back in May. Our group of T2Jers spotted him as he was leaving...I asked what he was up to and his response was a happy "Not being on tour!", so I think he's enjoying the time off.

Pip - Dave Weiner is a pretty cool guy. I bought quite a bit of his stuff that he sold back in the Spring and got to know him a little while swapping emails back and forth. I never bothered him other than our exchange of info about the gear. The other night I was logged on to Face Book and he saw I was logged on and popped up and chatted with me for a few minutes. He seems to be a great guy and I think does great with his efforts with ROTW. Never met him in person but would enjoy doing so.

Skippy, oi, it IS only 11 days! August & December are the two fastest flowing months of the year for me with back to school & Christmas. It's like they're over in the blink of an eye. I'm really hoping for nice weather. It would be a shame to have all my peeps in AC and not be able to see the sights over the weekend. I'm also hoping for no massive hangovers... ;-)

Pip, yep, he's local. Funny you say that today. I was driving with my daughter right after work a few hrs ago, and we passed a couple walking & I said "That looks like Dave Weiner". I don't think it was because the dude was a little taller than Dave, but my daughter thinks I need to put my twitter down and back away slowly. lol! I've talked to him a few times. He did a clinic here with a meet & greet, and I saw him at a Joe show in Philly. He was hanging out in the lobby with his gf. I was like "Holy shit, that's Dave Weiner, so my hubs and our friends went over to say hi. He's very friendly. I've never run into him at any shops around here...yet. lol! He says he's moving back to LA, but his parents are still here, so he'll visit :-)

Scubz, yep, I'm on that cd as soon as it comes out. He's a twitter whore, so I know all about his websites. Last I was at dw.com it wasn't finished yet. Looks like he's made some progress on it.

Heeey! - I was just looking at DW's photo's and I thought "That picture looks familiar." It looks familiar because I sent it to Dave from the clinic he did in Reading a while back. lol! I forgot I sent it to him. lol! I didn't take the others he has posted from that day. Just this one.

Al, nice site. Now start working on that next cd and stop dilly dallying around.