Les Paul

I just finished reading "The Early Years Of The Les Paul Legacy" by Robb Lawrence. Very informative with some excellent 'burst pictures. This is the first of two volumes with the second being due in October.

The book details Lester's life from the early days to 1963. There is information on his earliest professional outings right up to his days with Mary Ford. All the great innovations are there from multi-tracking to studio effects. And of course, the guitar itself. It wouldn't be a complete book without that.

The book goes over the timeline of the model giving dates and changes over the period from it's development to the first demise of the model in 1963. The second volume is supposed to pick up in 1968 with the first re-issue.

A really well done book about the man and the guitar and well worth the money.

ZZ Top Live in '82

Incredible tone from the Rev.

Gary Moore - The Messiah Will Come Again

Phenomenal performance.

If you have a 'Burst fetish

Well, I do if you haven't noticed yet. Here is one that has the most extensive photo set I have ever seen.

59 'burst

The detail is amazing. Not to mention it's a great looking guitar.

Magnets

I got my hands on some rough cast Alnico magnets. Rough like they used in the 50's. I like the look of them as opposed to the polished. I am using them as an option on my humbuckers and P-90's but I only have Alnico 2 and 3 at the moment. I'll get A4 and 5 when they are back in stock at my supplier.

Ted McCarty

I recently purchased "Gibson Guitars Ted McCarty's Golden Era". For those of you who don't know McCarty was president of Gibson from 1948 to 1966. His main passion was engineering though. He was responsible for the ABR-1, the Explorer, Flying V and the Moderne among other things. McCarty also oversaw the development and production of the original Les Paul. I'm thinking everyone knows that story though.

Not to give too much of the plot away the book follows McCarty from childhood to Wurlitzer and then on to Gibson ( with a lot of detail of that period obviously).

Sandy Mary

This is live from the BBC recordings. An absolutely kickass version with the boys in top form. I picked this one from the listing at the back of Strange Brew. It is not disappointing. All the recordings were done for broadcast on various shows for the BBC between 1968 and 1970, although 4 of them were done after Peter Green left. As always great tone and playing.

Sandy Mary

Peter wrote this for his girlfriend of the time.