Jeff Floro's All About Guitar

Jim "Kimo" West is a man of many talents. Besides being the guitarist for Weird Al Yankovich, he is one of the premiere Hawaiian Slack Key guitarists and just an incredible musician. Jim has a new album out, "Guitar Stories: Slack Key & Beyond," and he raises the bar and pushes his music into even more directions. We take a look at Jim's new album, where he is taking his music, and, of course, his incredible technique and tone! Joining me as my guest host is guitarist Steve Fister, of the Tri-Fecta Band and the new Steve Fister Electro Acoustic Band! It's a night of some great music and new insights into the creative genius of Jim "Kimo" West!!

I am very happy to welcome back several people who have been on All About Guitar and The FLO Guitar-Enthusiasts, but the topic for tonight is a somber one. Guitar theft. In preparing for this show I have talked to various musicians that I know and pretty much all of them have had an instrument stolen from them at one time or another. (I have had a drumset stolen from me too.) So we are going to look at instrument theft and how we can prevent it and what to do when we see our stolen property in a store or somebody else playing it. Joining me is Craig Chaquico, of the Jefferson Starship, who has had his prized Les Paul stolen in the 1970's. On the other hand, Snuffy Walden will also be joining us who fairly recently had his prized strat and pedalboard stolen. To get more information on the what the music stores have to deal with, I have Gary Roudenko of the Bass Exchange. He will talk to us about what he has to do before he can sell a used piece of equipment. My guest host is Monique Caravello, who also had her Les Paul stolen! This is a program every musician should listen to!

I remember talking with Jean Pierre Durand last November. He was busy finishing up mixing Incendio's Christmas Album "O Night Divine." He also mentioned as soon as the Incendio album was done he and Liza Carbe were recording a new album as a duo. They had toured and played in China earlier in April and that was the inspiration and motivation to do this new album. And thus "A Bridge Between" was born! JP and Liza toured China as duo, just two guitars, and a lot of the material on the new album were arrangements developed for their tour. We talk to Jean Pierre Durand and Liza Carbe about this new album which took them into new territory, both in terms of music and in recording! Some very inventive arrangements, killer tone and monster playing!

Way back when I did my Senior Recital at USC, I had the privilege to use a prototype pitch to voltage converter, monophonic, that eventually became the 360 systems guitar synth that Lee Ritenour used on his legendary album "Captain Fingers." Later we saw such instruments like the SynthAxe, used by Allan Holdsworth and one of the first mass produced guitar synth, the Arp Avatar. Later we saw the Roland system come out, which has been the most popular guitar synth controller system. But now we have You Rock Guitars, who gives us new technology and makes a controller that is as elaborate as the SynthAxe, but at a much more affordable price. We are joined by electronics engineer and inventor, Cliff Elion, and he shows us a new recording, composition, and performance tool for guitar players. Using the power of MIDI, guitarists can now explore electronic music, and do it affordably. Joining me for the show is Bo Astrup. Bo is a recording engineer and mixer, having mixed Jim Stubblefield's recent award winning "Encantado" album. Bo is the one who turned me onto the You Rock system and he is well versed in electronic music and MIDI. Also joining me is synth guitarist user Jean Pierre Durand, of Incendio. Jean Pierre uses a Roland system live and in studio with Incendio. Join us as we take an in depth look at this amazing controller!

"By Bass Players, for Bass Players." That is the what Trickfish Amps are all about. Started in 2014 by bassist, designer, and businessman Richard Ruse, Richard's background came from working for such companies as SWR Enginerring, JBL Professional and KRK Systems, Richard has brought all this knowledge to ultimately come up with the ultimate bass amp! We talk to Richard about his amps and what he is trying to achieve. Joining us is also bassist, composer and producer-engineer Tim Landers to demonstrate these incredible amps! My guest host for tonight is yet another bassist, the amazing Liza Carbe, from Incendio! We are all bringing our basses to the show, so join us as we explore Trickfish Bass Amps!!

We have a great show tonight! I am proud to have Rafael Moreira on the show! And international guitarist and artist hailing from Brazil, Rafael started singing at age four and playing guitar at age six! Since then, Rafael has played guitar for such artists as Don Felder, Steven Tyler, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Shakira, Stevie Wonder, Adam Levine, Kelly Clarkson, among many others, and is now playing guitar for Paul Stanley's new band. Rafael also was part of the house band for Amercian Idol, The Voice, and Rock The Cradle. We take a look at Rafael's solo career, his new band Magnetico, and his diverse guitar playing! A great night of tone, gear, and great playing! And joining me, as my guest co-host, is another great guitar player, Steve Fister, of the Tri-Fecta!

It's all about jazz tonight on All About Guitar. My guest is renowned guitarist David Becker. Another graduate of Musician's Institute, the Grammy nominated guitarist has gained recognition, both by the public and his peers, playing in his group, the David Becker Tribune, and doing a highly acclaimed album with legend Joe Diorio, "The Color Of Sound," which has been touted as "one of the best guitar duo recordings of all time!" We talk to David about his playing, his technique, his tone, and his new signature guitar made by Heritage.

I was introduced to Michael Lemmo through Norm Harris when he was on the FLO Guitar-Enthusiasts. I was impressed with his playing then. Michael called me a couple of months ago and told me about his new album, and I knew it was time to have him on and take a good look at this accomplished musician. Having started playing guitar at 11 and earning a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, there is much more to Michael Lemmo that meets the eye. We talk to Michael about his guitar playing, his gear, his tone, and his music.

It's another night of great tone and extraordinary technique. I am honored to have guitarist Dan Sistos on the show. A sought after session and touring musician, Dan has played with such notables as Christine Aguilera, Toni Braxton, Paulina Rubio, Macy Gray, Martina McBride, Juan Gabriel, Antonio Solis, and Shaila Durcal, to name a few. A graduate from the Berklee School of Music in Boston and the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood, CA, Dan has been hailed as a "Spanish guitar master" and "the Carlos Santana for the next generation." Joining me as guest hosts for tonight's show are, amazing guitarists in their own right, Jim Stubblefield and Eric Hansen.

I met Andy Alt last September at the LA Amp Expo and got a good listen to his revolutionary "A Little Thunder" guitar pickup. The pickup is designed with an algorithm that takes the signal (from the low E and A strings) and translates them into a bass signal (either an octave or two octaves lower than the orignal note) while still preserving all 6 original guitar strings. The pickup utilizes a stereo output, which sends the bass signal to a bass amplifier and a guitar signal to a guitar amplifier. Very cool! But there's more to Andy. Andy is the online marketing director for Steve Vai and, together with Vai, founded GuitarTV, a website of 24/7 streaming of guitar-only related content, launched in May of 2011. He also, of course, is a guitar player, having been the lead guitarist for Drake Bell, of Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh." We will look into Andy's career and check out, first hand, this revolutionary pickup he has designed!