Joe Satriani’s G3 returns with Reunion Live, an album that sets out to capture the energy and essence of their sold-out 2024 US tour.
This reunion features guitar icons Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson and Steve Vai—who first joined forces in 1996. The live album showcases the boundary-pushing performances that define G3. Fans will enjoy full sets from each guitarist, including hits like Satriani’s “Sahara,” Johnson’s “Cliffs of Dover,” and Vai’s “For the Love of God,” along with a thrilling encore jam of Hendrix and Clapton covers.
In addition to the live experience, Reunion Live offers new live albums from each artist, plus a collaborative supergroup LP. Available in multiple formats, the deluxe edition features a different colored vinyl for each artist, a special splatter LP for the jam sessions, and a 64-page photo book, divided into separate artists and jam chapters, documenting this monumental event. It is also available in a 2CD set with a 16-page photo booklet. The album perfectly mirrors the live tour format, with individual sets followed by an epic jam session featuring all three guitarists.
Pre-order here.
Satriani says, “This live album recorded at The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles captures all the energy of the live performances while shining a spotlight on the ever-evolving art of playing the electric guitar.”
Tracklisting (all formats):
- Gravitas (Vai)
- Avalancha (Vai)
- Little Pretty Intro (Vai)
- Little Pretty (Vai)
- Tender Surrender (Vai)
- Zeus in Chains (Vai)
- Teeth of the Hydra (Vai)
- For the Love of God (Vai)
- Land of 1000 Dances (Johnson)
- Righteous (Johnson)
- Trail of Tears (Johnson)
- On-Ramp Improv (Johnson)
- Freeway Jam (Johnson)
- Desert Rose (Johnson)
- Venus Reprise (Johnson)
- Raspberry Jam Delta-V (Satriani)
- Surfing with the Alien (Satriani)
- Satch Boogie (Satriani)
- Sahara (Satriani)
- Nineteen Eighty (Satriani)
- Big Bad Moon (Satriani)
- Always with Me, Always with You (Satriani)
- Sumer Song (Satriani)
- Introductions
- Crossroads (Encore Jam)
- Spanish Castle Magic (Encore Jam)
- Born to Be Wild (Encore Jam)
Introducing the Jimmy Page 1964 SJ-200 and 1964 SJ-200 Collector’s Edition from Gibson.
Made in close collaboration and with significant input from Jimmy Page, only 50 of the 1964 SJ-200 Collector’s Edition and 100 of the Jimmy Page 1964 SJ-200 will be available worldwide in this extraordinary limited run via authorized Gibson dealers and online at Gibson.com.
Jimmy Page SJ-200
Jimmy Page 1964 SJ-200 from Gibson Custom.
This special recreation features highly flamed AAA maple for the back and sides, along with AAA Sitka spruce for the top. The Super Jumbo body has multi-ply binding on the top and back and is slightly deeper than a standard SJ-200 at the neck joint, contributing to its unique sound.
The highly-figured maple motif continues with the 3-piece highly flamed maple neck, which features a comfortable Round profile, a bound rosewood fretboard with 20 standard frets, and mother-of-pearl Graduated Crown inlays. The 60s-style, solid rosewood Moustache bridge plate is also adorned with 60s-style mother-of-pearl hourglass and teardrop inlays and is equipped with a gold Tune-O-Matic bridge with nylon saddles, which also contributes to the unique sound ofthis beautiful Artist model. The bound headstock has gold Kluson Waffleback tuners withKeystone buttons that add to the guitar’s vintage appeal, and Jimmy Page has personally hand-signed the soundhole label of each Jimmy Page 1964 SJ-200 guitar.
Jimmy Page SJ-200 Collector's Edition
Jimmy Page 1964 SJ-200 Collector’s Edition from Gibson Custom.
The Gibson Custom Shop’s famed Murphy Lab artfully used their light aging techniques customized for this specific model to aid in recreating the original guitar honoring both the guitar and the legendary guitarist who made it famous, Jimmy Page.Jimmy Page has personally hand-signed the rear of the headstock of each Jimmy Page 1964SJ-200 Collector’s Edition guitar, which has been made in close collaboration and with significant input from Jimmy Page on everything from the sonic character and wear to the playability andeven the vivid Cherry Tea sunburst finish.
This very special recreation features highly flamedAAA maple for the back and sides, along with AAA Sitka spruce for the top. The Super Jumbo body has multi-ply binding on the top and back and is slightly deeper than a standard SJ-200at the neck joint, contributing to its unique sound that’s not quite like any other SJ-200.The stunning, highly-figured maple motif continues with the 3-piece highly flamed maple neck, which features a comfortable Round profile, a bound rosewood fretboard with 20 standard frets, and mother-of-pearl Graduated Crown inlays. The 60s-style, solid rosewood Moustache bridgeplate is also adorned with 60s-style mother-of-pearl hourglass and teardrop inlays and is equipped with a gold Tune-O-Matic bridge with nylon saddles, which also contributes to the unique sound of this Collector’s Edition model. The bound headstock has gold Kluson Waffleback tuners with Keystone buttons that add to the guitar’s vintage appeal.
Explore more at Gibson.com.
Vintage Fenders are some of the best-sounding amplifiers around, but from time to time, they need a bit of love to give up the goods. Here are the top issues you’ll encounter with your black- and silver-panel Fender amps, and how to fix them.
Trouble and worrying are part of a vintage tube amp owner’s life. In this article, I will try to teach some basic troubleshooting for vintage Fender amps. It will only require a little practice, patience, and, most importantly, curiosity, which to me is the single most important skill in life—we can accomplish great things by reading, seeking advice, trying, failing, and not giving up. So, let’s start!
As usual, I will refer to the silver- and black-panel Fender amps, but everything is applicable to earlier amps as well. I will often refer to tubes: On a Deluxe Reverb, for example, the tubes are referred to from V1 to V9. Always consult your amplifier’s schematic to confirm these placements.
No Reverb
The reverb tank is the most delicate component of these amps. The springs, wires, and soldering joints are thin and weak, and the reverb cables and plugs are also easily damaged, as they are exposed on the backside of the chassis.
First, check the plugs on both the amp and reverb tank. Unplug and switch the input and output to see if the previous player made a mistake. Often, the plugs are damaged and not conducting current, or the inner wire or outer insulation are broken. I recommend replacing old cables with new, vintage-correct ones if you suspect the slightest cable or plug issue.
“Trouble and worrying are part of a vintage-tube-amp owner’s life.”
A bad V3 or V4 preamp tube may also cause reverb loss. If replacing tubes or reverb cables does not help, you should try hooking up another amp’s reverb tank to verify whether you have an amp or reverb tank issue. The reverb springs may also have jumped out of position and need to be re-attached. I recommend refreshing soldering joints here.
No Vibrato
First, the footswitch must be plugged in for the vibrato to work. If you don’t have one or suspect that it’s malfunctioning, you can either buy or make yourself an “always-on” phono plug that is shorted internally with solder. A bad vibrato-driver tube may also cause vibrato loss, which is fixed easily by replacing the V5 with another 12AX7. If none of this helps, a tech should open the amp and inspect the vibrato tube circuitry, and/or replace the opto-oscillator component.
Blown Fuse
Pull all the tubes before replacing a blown fuse. If the fuse blows repeatedly without any tubes installed, a tech should be involved for inspecting the filter caps/resistors, power transformer, and the high-wattage resistors on the power-tube socket pins.
If the pilot lamp light is on when all tubes are pulled out, start inserting tubes one by one from the V1 rectifier tube. Turn power/standby on. If the fuse blows, the rectifier tube is bad. Then, insert both power tubes and turn power/standby on. If the fuse blows, you need new power tubes, and possibly new screen and plate resistors. Continue this procedure for each of the preamp tubes until you identify corrupted tubes that draw too much current.
Weak Tone
Check speaker cable(s) and speaker terminals. I find it useful to connect to a second amp’s speakers to determine if it’s the speakers or an amp that is the problem. (Remember to turn off or set the amp in standby whenever speakers are disconnected.)
Then, verify that the tubes are working by following the previous “blown fuse” procedure. Look for loose power-tube sockets causing bad connections by gently pushing them around in the socket. If speakers, tubes, and sockets are working fine, a tech should further inspect the amp.
Distortion, Reduced Volume, or Weak Bass
When playing powerful 40-watt amps at low volume, it can be difficult to hear if only one tube is working. If one of the power tubes is malfunctioning, you will experience distortion and farty bass. Non-matching power tubes can also result in distortion and reduced clean headroom, which is detected by measuring with a bias meter.
Preamp tubes in wrong positions may also affect volume response and cause an amp to distort too early or too late. Check all tubes and replace them one by one with fresh ones as you listen for tone changes. Sometimes we prefer the wrong tubes because we like more distortion. (My tube strategy is to replace tubes only when they fail entirely. I don’t mind weaker power, rectifier, or phase-inverter tubes since these amps are more than loud enough.)
Rattling Noise
Loose screws and nuts can cause rattling noise and should be inspected and tightened regularly, including on the chassis, baffle board, tilt-back legs, speaker, handle, and anywhere else. If the baffle board is warped and worn so that the screws are not tight, I never hesitate to install a new, solid-pine baffle. This usually improves tone and robustness compared to old, warped MDF baffles
A chance glance at a Stefan Grossman LP led our columnist to discover the acoustic connections between the U.S. and Japan.
When acoustic guitarists like myself hear an album that just sounds so good, we might fuss less about gear and home in more on performance and atmosphere. Indeed, those were the things that blew me away on country-blues guru Stefan Grossman’s album from the late ’70s, Acoustic Guitar. Dynamic playing with a healthy big-room sound, the production was a far cry from a lot of Grossman’s late-’60s output, some of which was recorded in closets on budget reel-to-reel decks.
The back cover of this particular LP offers some important clues, including one that turned out to be the jumping-off point for this column: Acoustic Guitar appeared on Japanese EMI subsidiary East World, and was recorded at the EMI studios in Toshiba, Japan, by an entirely Japanese crew. Stefan reveals some more details to help me understand why I found the sound of this record so striking:
“At EMI at the time, the big thing for audiophiles was direct-to-disc recording, which is funny, because that’s the way that all the old records from the 1920s were recorded. You would have to do a non-stop performance, while the masters were cut in real time. It was like a concert. Play a song, wait 3-5 seconds before playing the next song. You couldn’t stop. You would do two sets right through, one for each side. Then you would do it twice more, because the masters for direct-to-disc were then only good for a certain number of copies. If the label sold out of the first pressing, they couldn’t go back to the first master, they would go to the second, then the third. So, each set was ever so slightly different: the same music, but different changes and licks.”
I’ve discovered that in the world of fingerpicking acoustic guitar, there has been a long and fruitful exchange of ideas and experiences between players from the U.S. and Japan. I spoke to several amazing guitarists from these countries, and one name that came up often was Tokio Uchida.
As it happens, Uchida got turned on to fingerstyle guitar when he read about Grossman during one of Grossman’s earliest tours of Japan in the late ’70s. Uchida became a student of Grossman through correspondence and study, visiting the U.S. for the first time in 1987. Uchida’s playing impressed Grossman, and he appeared on stage with his hero at a concert in California. The two became fast friends. Uchida later appeared at a festival marking Robert Johnson’s 100th birthday in Greenwood, Mississippi, and recorded a duet album with Grossman. Back in Japan, Uchida has followed in the footsteps of his mentor, writing his own original music and also starting the TAB Guitar School, which offers instructional materials for acoustic styles. Uchida has also promoted concerts and tours for many fingerpicking heavyweights, including Duck Baker, Ernie Hawkins, Pat Donahue, and Woody Mann.
“Every single venue owner that I’ve worked with over there knows how to run sound. They’re listening rooms, and everything works!”
One of the players that Uchida brought to Japan for their first visit was Minneapolis ragtime guitar legend Dakota Dave Hull. Hull has since toured Japan multiple times, and just this year did a five-week, 33-date run that resulted in his new CD, Live in Japan. Hull offers some insights on differences between the American and Japanese acoustic scenes: “A lot of the venues are tiny. It’s pretty insular, not a lot of crossover between old time, bluegrass, blues, trad jazz. We end up playing in small rooms; some might be as small as a dozen people! But these rooms are built around the idea of live music; the stage and the sound system went in first. Every single venue owner that I’ve worked with over there knows how to run sound. They’re listening rooms, and everything works!”
During an early tour of Japan, Hull was paired on bills with a humble ragtime guitar wizard named Takasi Hamada, and the two hit it off in a big way, collaborating on all of Hull’s Japanese excursions ever since. Hamada is, in my opinion, one of the finest ever purveyors of ragtime on the acoustic guitar. His playing is very sophisticated, but never sounds dusty or academic. It has a joyous bounce, and he makes turning 88 piano keys into 6 strings seem almost easy!
Hamada’s signature sound is a combination of his amazing arranging and playing ability, but also a tuning that he devised himself. “I really wanted to arrange Tom Shea’s piano piece ‘Little Wabash Special’ for guitar, so I devised an irregular tuning based on C as C–Ab–C–F–C–Eb,” Hamada explains. “In 1995, I changed the 6th string to Eb so that I could play beautiful alternating bass: Eb–Ab–C–F–C–Eb. It seemed to suit me, and I later named it ‘Otarunay Tuning’ after the Ainu name of my hometown, Otaru.” Since to this day ragtime is predominantly played and taught on piano, its a testament to Hamada’s mastery of the form that he was one of the only guitar players invited to appear at the 2023 Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Missouri.
Watch the livestream of "Concert for Carolina" featuring Luke Combs, Eric Church, Billy Strings, and James Taylor on October 26. Free access for Hurricane Helene-impacted areas, $24.99 for others. All proceeds go to hurricane relief efforts.
Due to overwhelming demand, Luke Combs, Eric Church, Billy Strings and James Taylor have partnered with Veeps to livestream “Concert for Carolina” on Saturday, October 26. The livestream was added to ensure that all fans would be able to see the show after tickets immediately sold-out this past Thursday. The stream will provide an additional opportunity to raise as much money as possible for Hurricane Helene relief efforts. Link to livestream HERE.
The livestream will be available worldwide with free access for those impacted by Hurricane Helene, as “Concert for Carolina” and Veeps have used geotargeting to ensure that those in the affected areas will not be charged. For those not directly impacted, the livestream will cost $24.99 with an option for additional donations available. All proceeds from the stream will go to the same organizations that Combs and Church selected for ticket sales to benefit: Samaritan’s Purse, Manna Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC, Eblen Charities and the organizations supported by Chief Cares.
As noted above, North Carolina natives The Avett Brothers, Scotty McCreery, Chase Rice and Parmalee have all now joined the line-up.
Presented by Explore Asheville and the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority, “Concert for Carolina” will take place at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium and also feature performances from Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban and Bailey Zimmerman. The event will be hosted by ESPN’s Marty Smith and Barstool Sports’ Caleb Pressley. Full details can be found at concertforcarolina.com.
“Concert for Carolina” is made possible due to the support and generosity of David and Nicole Tepper and Tepper Sports & Entertainment, Explore Asheville, Biltmore Estate, T-Mobile, Jack Daniel’s, Whataburger, Miller Lite, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Belk, Lowe’s, Atrium Health, Tractor Supply Company, Bank of America, American Airlines, Food Lion, Duke’s Mayo, GE Aerospace, Harris Teeter, Pinnacle Financial Partners, United Healthcare, Bud Light, Preferred Parking and Gildan.
Born outside of Charlotte and raised in Asheville, Combs is a proud North Carolinian. Growing up singing at school, it wasn’t until he attended Boone’s Appalachian State University that Combs first performed his own songs at a beloved local bar, leading him to his now historic country music career. Since moving to Nashville in 2014, Combs continually returns to North Carolina for landmark moments including his first-ever headline stadium show at Appalachian State’s Kidd Brewer Stadium in 2021 as well as sold-out, back-to-back nights at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium last summer.
Church, a native of Granite Falls, also began his musical journey in Western North Carolina, playing gigs locally throughout high school and into his time at Appalachian State University before chasing his dream to Nashville. He continues to split time between Tennessee and North Carolina with his family, even returning to the Appalachian Mountains to record his most recent project, the three-part Heart & Soul, in Banner Elk. In 2016, he was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame and in 2022, he was awarded the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest civilian honor. Most recently, he released the song “Darkest Hour” in response to the recent devastation, with all publishing royalties being donated.
Although he is a Michigan native, Strings’ life and career has been deeply impacted by the state of North Carolina both personally and professionally, as it is home to some of his most passionate and supportive fans. Over the past few years, Strings has performed at major venues across the state including an upcoming six-night run at Asheville’s ExploreAsheville.com Arena this winter.
Singer-songwriter Taylor moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina with his family when he was just three years old. Taylor’s father served as the Dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Medical School from 1964 to 1971. Taylor’s childhood home was on Morgan Creek Road in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. In April 2003, a bridge over Morgan Creek was dedicated to the musician and renamed the James Taylor Bridge. Taylor’s childhood experiences in North Carolina influenced many of his most popular songs including “Copperline” as well as the beloved “Carolina in My Mind.” As a recording and touring artist, Taylor has touched people with his warm baritone voice and distinctive style of guitar-playing for more than 50 years. Over the course of his celebrated career, he has sold more than 100 million albums, has won multiple Grammy Awards and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
For more information, please visit concertforcarolina.com.