Although I mostly listen to hard-hitting metal bands, every once and a while I like to kick back and listen to some mellow tunes. When Crosby Still’s and Nash won’t cut it I like to slap in something from these artists. If you play guitar, or even if you don’t, I’m sure you’ll be able to appreciate the acoustic talent these players have.

One of my favorite acoustic albums is Friday Night in San Francisco, which is a live jam session with John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucia, and Al DiMeola. It really has some great guitar playing.

Check out these guitarists for some great acoustic music:

Jesse Cook
Strunz and Farah
Eric Clapton - Unplugged
James Taylor
Al DiMeola
John McLaughlin
Paco De Lucia

If you are not familiar with John McLaughlin or Paco De Lucia I really suggest you watch this video on Google Videos. They both play their own flavor of flamenco classical guitar and it really is amazing to hear them jam. I own a live CD from these two that also has Al DiMeola and I always put it on when I have just had a little too much Metal. It is basically acoustic shredding.

The Guitar Shred Show lessons site takes a unique approach at teaching guitar players how to shred. The site has a flashed base interface and is all in a video form. We follow the path of Mr. Fastfinger who teaches us to shred by example. It’s really easy, you just press a key between A and Z or 1 and 0 and Mr. Fastfinger will demonstrate a different lick for you. Along the bottom of the screen the lick is shown in tab form for you to learn as well. The really fun part is you can make your own shredding solo by pressing different keys from A to Z in succession. Mr. Fastfinger will move from riff to riff creating a wicked guitar solo.

It’s fun for quite a while actually. There is even a story mode where you have to dual with an evil tribe god to win the praise of the village people.

It’s always fun to play with another guitarist. But what if you have the urge to jam but can’t find anyone to jam with? Sometimes when you are writing songs you need someone to play the rhythm part so you figure out a solo. Have you ever been the guy who has to play that rhythm over and over again?

The DigiTech JamMan Looper Phrase pedal is the solution to all of those problems. The JamMan is a 24-minute looper that allows you to record and play back up to 99 tracks. You can record your rhythm, record a lead, and then record a harmonizing solo on top of that.

This isn’t your ordinary looper though, it’s packed with tones of exciting features. The pedal supports compact flash cards up to 2GB to allow for 6 and a half hours of loops. It comes complete with a USB port for downloading your tracks to a computer. To help you get those loops just right it also has an auto record function to start when you start playing.

The pedal is a standard stomp box style floor unit. It has two switches, one to control playing and recording, and another to control the built-in rhythm and tempo features. If you have difficulty keeping your timing without a beat track the JamMan is for you. It has a simple percussion function that will have listening to a bass and cymbal track with a few simple toe taps. The JamMan isn’t limited to just 4/4 timing either.

In addition to the compact flash and USB ports the JamMan includes a mic Input, aux Input, and a port for an auxiliary footswitch for added live control.

ature Overview

• Compact Flash Slot supports up to 2GB of storage (128MB Included)
• 99 Loop Banks
• USB Port for downloading loops to a computer
• 44.1k Sampling rate
• Rhythm function with tap-tempo and multiple time signatures
• Sturdy stomp box metal casing
• Included power supply

For any guitarist who loves jamming this is the one pedal they should have in their setup. It is also an essential tool for the songwriter.