Secrets from the Masters: Conversations With Forty Great Guitar Players

Rating:
Summary: extremly helpful
Review: I will be brief. This book is not only informative and interesting but, exteremely fun to read. To get into the mind of a genius like Jerry Garcia, to learn how Jimi Hendrix played that solo that you could never figure out. Things like that are the coolest thing that could happen to a person (while reading).

Rating:
Summary: Well worth reading
Review: This 1992 book is a collection of interviews with famous guitarists - primarily rock and jazz guitarists from the 60s, 70s and 80s. There are some big names missing, but most are there. There are some interesting insights and anecdotes, and some music history. Sometimes I wished the interviews would get more a little more technical - rather than re-hashing the stars band-hopping history. I would like to know more specifics about how these top players view the neck, how they think and how they learnt, for example. That said, the book does contains a lot of insights and variety. I particularly enjoyed the interviews with Steve Morse and Howard Roberts -- guitarists that I was not previously familiar with. Les Paul is incredible. Actually - there are just too many good bits to itemize them here. A good read, and each chapter stands alone. I find that I re-read parts of this from time to time. Worth buying, for a classic rock/jazz (and possibly blues) oriented guitarist.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing and full of information
Review: Would you like to know how Chuck Berry started playing? What kind of strings did Eric Clapton use in the early 70's? How Eddie Van Halen learned to play? Suffer no more, this grat book answers all the questions any guitar lover could think of. From Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Ray; from Duanne Eddie to Alan Holdsworth, this 40 masters of the guitar reveal some of their secrets, techniques, tips or simply talk about life in this great compilation of interviews conducted by top journalists from Guitar Player Magazine. Most of the interviews range from 1970 to the early 90's. The book has a very nice white cover, with black and white texts and a picture of every player interviewed. Of course one would love color pics, but then the price would go up. My only complaint with this book is that it is too short and features none of the blues greats (They mention why in the intro, though) and maybe that some interviews could seem far too old for the average modern player. You can consider Conversations... as a bible of the modern electric guitar (though Segovia and other acoustic players are featured). If you are into Blues-Rock-Jazz or play guitar, you can't let this one pass.