Zinc Master, A page all to yourself! nice!

The new run of Chrome JS's are wood-bodied, and yes, to my knowledge, use an aluminium-enriched undercoat which the chrome then sticks to. Again, its just a guess, but if the undercoat finish is enriched with aluminium, you could then hook the guitar up a run a positive current across it's surface. Spray a bottle of negatively-charged chrome paint at it and it will stick flawlessly, all over. So it's sort of like anodising, but without the ionised water.

It's the same process used to paint a bike, for example, only a Bike tends to have an ally frame which means no undercoat is needed!

What I find exciting about this is that the potential is there for having a properly anodised finish. I don't know if you've seen much anodised stuff, but the colours have the richest, most vibrant, most perfect metallic textures and hues you've ever seen. I still reckon a JS in metallic Burnt Copper with black hardware would look superb!

js1200js1000, no problem. If you want me to give a basic explanation of what Anodising is and how it works, I'm happy to, but only if you're really interested! haha.

Also, yeah, Joe uses arpeggios for the crossed-arms bit in the chorus sections of TMPHGT. Arps don't necessarily have to be the notes taken straight from a chord, 'cause you can take a bunch of notes from a scale and make an arpeggio. but because chords are built using notes from a scale, an arp can often be played straight as a chord.

You can use some of the curious ethnic and jazz scales to come up with some really weird arpeggios, but sometimes you'll hit on one that sounds f*ck*n fantastic!

alexandre, no I've not been to Red Rocks - not been to Colorado actually - but Julie sent me some photos of it! It looks like an awesome place, and I checked out your photo of you playing on the stage area! Good stuff!

New tunes? erm, I don't know if you heard this one already, but I uploaded "The Jester" a few weeks ago. You can check it out here if you're interested! how's things with you amigo? Hope you're safe and well, it seems you're pretty busy?!

Aluminium isn't magnetic, so you can't magnetize it to make the paint stick. But, what you can do is run an electric current through the thing being painted. You charge it up with positive electric energy. You hook a spray gun up to a bottle of aluminium-enriched powder. It's generally not wet paint (although I believe it can be), but you run a negative electric current through the bottle. This charges all the aluminium particles in the paint with negative electricity.

You then just spray the bastards at the bike/wheel/flashlight and they stick like a cat to velcro. It's just like firing iron filings at a big magnet! You can also anodise with a chrome finish using the exact same process - it's the properties of the chrome that give it it's perfect finish.

Obviously a guitar isn't made of aluminium, it's made of wood. But you can coat the entire guitar body with a fine layer (or two) of aluminium enriched paint/solution, and then hang it up and run a positive current through it. When you fire the negatively charged colour - in this case Chrome - at it it sticks perfectly all over without running and dripping and gathering round contours.

That's basically how it works, and is about all I could remember from what I was taught at school. but I think it's about right!

edit: I meant to say, the new Chrome JS is real chrome, it's just Chrome on Ally on wood rather than chrome on Luthite.

LucySorets, thanks for your kind words and encouragement! Yeah, you're right actually, each musician has something to offer, something I'm trying to build on with some of my students at the moment, but I should believe a little in my own stuff too! haha. I haven't come up with much lately, but I'm currently very busy transcribing a Piano duet arrangement of Handel's Cortége ~ The Queen Of Sheba. The transcription is for three guitars and a bass, and when I've done all that and recorded it note for note I'll try rearranging it too! It's cool, I'm learnign some interesting stuff from it and it seems my music theory is better than I thought it was, so it's not all bad!

"El Corte Inglés"....The English Court? That sucks, your own stuff is so much more interesting! hehe. That's funny that you heard Lotus Feet being played, you'd never hear anything like that here in a store. It's always just top-40 chart/MTV type stuff, if somebody played some Vai they'd be fired for being uncool! How ironic that "The English Court" should be doing something so non-English!

I would guess that it's that kind of plastic that is used for a Luthite guitar like the Ergodyne or the JS10th, 'cause it means the body can be cut in one piece from a block with a laser-cutter or a CNC Router. A CNC Router is a router controlled very finely by a computer! I would think the luthite guitars are cut rather than moulded, just because it's cheaper, otherwise Ibanez have to set up a whole new production line for moulding plastic, and that costs $$$

Like I said, I'm not sure, but that's my best-educated guess! You're welcome, by the way, I'm always happy to try and help! :-)

mikesb, dude, I'm really sorry to hear what happened. That is all kinds of wrong man, I hope your cops are better than ours!

js1200js1000, I'm assuming they are going in a JS or something like that anyway? Something with a Floyd?!

Well, your question implies that one is F-Spaced and one is not, in which case yes, the F-Spaced pickup is the one that needs to go in the bridge position.

OCPS470, "louder than....well, loud". Hahaha, that's hilarious. Yeah I'm using it with the Legacy and loving it! I've been using the direct line out and experimenting with recording this evening. I haven't recorded anything worth working on 'cause I'm in a relatively uncreative mood at the moment, but the quality of the tone I'm getting is amazing. I haven't even got around to getting the H&K Red Box pro yet, just using the Hot Plate's line out and it's really nice!

Funny you should mention the Powerbrake - I called my local and the guy said "i don't stock THD stuff, but I can get you a Marshall Powerbrake, which is what THD copied for the hotplate". My thought about that was "oh, sure, I'm really going to choose that Marshall piece of cr*p over the THD (although I didn't say that to him, of course!). I don't care if the THD unit only caters for one Ohmage level, it's a real corker! Thanks loads for the heads-up about it!

Suzie, yeah I'm going to London earlier in the day with the intention of meeting up. I didn't realise everybody was working in the day though, so I'm happy to arrange something with mari. I'll give you a call next weekend if that's okay?

Bendie Ben, you need to listen to some hardcore rhythm players. Check out anything that Nuno Bettencourt did, he's one of the best rhythm players out there. Also, if you find a copy of "T-Ride" check that out, but it's like gold-dust, so don't put any money on finding a copy! I think you can get it on amazon-usa though.

Listening to Nuno's rhythm playing has helped me more than anyone else. In conjunction with that, try to play rhythm to imaginary drum patterns in you head....think of a drum fill or a shuffle or something...anything...and replicate it on guitar.

Stevee T, thanks a lot for checking out the new tune, and thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you're diggin' it......I'm not too happy with the intro and outro.....just listening to it again with my "fresh ears" on, and I think they let the rest of it down! Oh well, haha, that's what you get for trying to arrange a tune at 1 in the morning, fuelled by a Vodka and Orange! hehehe

Oh my god, I can't believe how f*ck*ng stressy vai.com messageboard members are! What a bunch of assholes. Ok I know some of them are cool, but some are such self-centered retards, it's crazy....T2J is so much more groovy and sociable!

Also, dude I think it's great to see your comment on Robert Fripp's influence on you, and how much you got out of his G3 contribution. After all the negativity surrounding his involvement, it's great to see that somebody else though he was ace! I'd like to hear that 2-Disc special of soundscape when you get it done! Also, I reckon you could find yourself, in a few years time, in a pretty strong position for integrating epic soundtracks into epic videogames or movies, just like Vai did with Halo 2.....I look forward to following your progress!

Since my last two tracks I've realised how average my T2JCD2 submission was, and although I want to rewrite half of it and do it again, am quite happy that it didn't get selected!

Brother Al, I wish I was talking about just the f-spacing thread! haha, it's almost every damn thing I post, rather than somebody giving the sort of response that they would here if they disagreed with something I'd said, they give all this "oh that's complete bullshit", "oh are you a f*ck*n retard?" kind of thing....it's so HOSTILE!!!! By the way, I noticed you remained neutral, so thanks!

Also, haha, yeah I always think of that when I play my bass - "oh yeah, mark played this a few weeks before I did in a shop in Canada!". It's crazy man, but cool! Actually the electronics got a bit sick recently, but I think they just need replacing. I got a second opinion and we thought one of the pickups needed rewinding, but I'm not sure now, I think it just needs the other electronic parts just replacing! It's fine right now though, and very useful!

Also, go easy on yourself dude......you've got a load of cool friends here and I'm sure we'd all agree that you're a cracking musician! I know the sort of rut your in though......just try and analyse what aspects of playign you take from different influences and then build on it! And if you haven't bought any new CD's in a while, do that....fresh inspiration is the best aid!

I can't see that ever happening here.....last time there was a bit of civil unrest, Joe himself stepped in and said "cool it folks" and everyone did. Joe commands a certain easy-going-ness that you generally find among his fans.

Even outside the forums - last year I met with some other T2Jers before a G3 gig and everyone got on fine and it was cool to meet everyone. A few months prior I had met with a bunch of vai.com 'board members prior to one of Vai's shows in Holland, and it was all really uncomfortable and awkward!

LucySorets, oh that's cool, I didn't realise the señora/señorita thing was about marital status.....I think I was conusing it with French where it's an age thing! Also, the poor reception of Robert Fripp was a great disappointemnt to me - as far as the G3 jam was concerned, he played by far the best bits. I have a sneaking suspicion that most of the narrow-minded heckling was coming from the Vai loyalists.

Sorry, you said focus on the cool Vai fans didn't you?! haha. Hope you're having a groovy weekend!

marimariSRV, hey, welcome to the UK! I'm glad you got here safe and sound and didn't miss a flight or anything. Sorry to hear your supervisor was being an a-hole, but hey, you're on vacation now and nobody's gonna stop you having a good time! HELL YEAH! haha. Hope you're getting hyped about wednesday....I'll probably speak to you on the dog-and-bone before I see you, but until then, have a great time with Suzie and Matt!

Also, "I Believe" is Joe's only serious vocal track, if that's what you're asking. The rest have "fun" lyrics.....I personally love "Lifetsyle", the vocal layering and harmonies complement the 7-string rhythm guitar so well!

edit:

gotta have joe, oooh, "not having enough time" is a bad excuse! haha, just kidding. Seriously though, you should try and get a little time in each day. What sort of thing are you learning and what sort of thing are you stuck on, and what sort of thing do you want to be able to play?

Climber, sorry I missed something.....is who back in the studio?

haha, sorry I'm probably being lame! :-)

LucySorets, cuthbert, thanks to you both for explaining the masculine/feminine thing with Spanish language! The bit about a group of people with one or more male members automatically being "hermanos", collectively, does sound familiar! (as does the plural thing, thanks!)

Yeah, I did see the season finale of the F1 this weekend! It was kind of an anticlimax for me......the track conditions were weird, the race never really got up and running, and I was really disappointed by Montoya's misfortune. In case you're unaware - he hit a drain cover that was sticking up at right angles. If he had have been a foot further over to his right he would have been skewered, which is pretty sickening.