First, thanks for all the great music and great albums you have released. You are an inspiration for all musicians, an specially guitar players.

Joe, sorry about the basic question but I am getting conflicting information on this: which string brand and gauge are you using? They seem to be 09. Do you use the same gauge or thicker gauge for practicing? Also I will appreciate if you describe some tips on how to get the famous Satch squeal (have read about pulling the whammy bar, picking on the 4th string open, I believe, and then releasing the whammy bar -- warning: so far this tecnique has only allowed me to break up to 2 thin strings at once, ouch!!

Last question, this about you prior session work: how it was your experience recording and playing with Mick Jagger? How it differ his to your songwriting approach? I heard Mick works really hard in the studio, trying many different vocals over the song. Did you get to play with Jeff Beck also during those sessions?

Throught to pass this info along (specially for those asking about taking lessons from the genius himself, Joe Satriani):

The July Isue of British magazine Total Guitar (Slipknot on the cover) includes a lesson from Joe Satriani on picking. The magazine comes with a CD that also includes the video of Joe's lesson. The magazine mentions they met with Satch for one hour and this is the first installment of (I believe) 5 more articles with Satriani in coming editions.

http://www.futurenet.com/totalguitar/magazine/default.asp?pagetypeid=2&articleid=30370&subsectionid=1069