In the last minutes of the show, he and the crew talked about the looming legislation that jeopardizes public access and net neutrality. They also talked about how the Tom’s Guitar Show posse all get paid the same for what they do: nothing. Tom says, “In fact, Phil’s been good for nothing on the show for years.”
Tom took his G&L Telecaster to the August 22nd episode of the show. He talked with callers about the state of the world and Teles. One caller thought Tom should be careful about talking about the war in Iraq on his show, but then agreed that guitars make a good pulpit. They went on to talk about G&L versus Fender, ash bodies and maple necks. Tom thanked another caller who requested Van Halen’s “Eruption” through the control room (opens Google video link). He thinks of it as the quintessence of 80s guitar playing, and one to spend some time appreciating.
Tom took one of his custom-made Telecasters to the May 23 episode of the show. A caller asked him to talk about the advantages of his Tele over other guitars, and then made a blues request which Tom doctored up in lydian and dorain modes with some chromaticism and natural minor, harmonic minor, gypsy scale and pentatonic in the minor degree. He also demonstrated pentatonic scales and jammed a bit of schlock
with it in C, A major and A minor. Tom’s been studying up on Steve Vai and Joe Satriani tone matrix theory on the Web. Learning about guitar via the Web would be less accessible and more expensive if the telecoms got their way, but fortunately, as of the House Judiciary vote on H.R. 5417 on May 25th, we’re a step closer to preserving digital democracy via the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006. The bill heads to the full House and needs our continued support!
