Yes, I know this will definitely date me but my first big musical influence was seeing The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. Since then I have been playing rock, pop and blues. I play lead guitar and I sing both lead and background vocals. Some of my favorite guitarists are old pros such as Clapton and Hendrix. My most recent guitar hero is Eric Johnson, His latest release is called "Bloom". This guy is the benchmark to which one should compare all others. Eric has listened to the greats, absorbed them and has created his own distinct sound. Majestic is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear him play. Sort of Hendrix, Clapton, Brian May , Wes Montgomery, Stevie Ray, Albert Lee etc melted down and served back up into one impressive sound.
Another one of my favorite players is Robben Ford. I had the opportunity to catch Ford live a few years ago. It was just a trio , guitar , bass and drums. Robben really knows how to pull it off. I've played a lot in a trio configuration and I know how hard it is. There are so many others great guitarist that come to mind such as Mark Knopfler, Brian May, Alan Holdsworth, Albert Lee, Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteem etc. Then again I have listened to Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Django Reinhardt....
My first guitar idol was Keith Richard because he was so cool and was easier to copy. Later on I got into Jeff Beck. I still have problems figuring his licks out. Get a copy of the Jeff Beck Group. Beck like Eric Johnson, unfortunately has relatively little recorded works available and does limited touring. I recently listened to a live Beck, Bogart & Appice recording from 1973 and Beck was amazing.
I spent a lot of time delving deeper into the blues. I set a goal to become a blues man. I went out to blues shows, I listened to the old records, I drank and smoked too much. Ah yes! "They was fast times with even faster women". I met Muddy Waters, Howlin` Wolf and B.B.King whose autograph is a treasured artifact. Maybe it would rub off, so I thought. I even got to backup Chicago's, Eddie, the Chief, Clearwater. They were special times for sure.
My favorite blues guitarists are the ones that play with balls and know how to bend a note without going flat. I have very little tolerance for bad notes. B.B.King can still cook. B.B.King Live at the Regal is still one of my favorite blues albums. Albert King probably was the ballsiest player ever. I saw him live years ago. When he wasn't singing or playing riffs he was filing his nails and smoking a corn cob pipe. Stevie Ray Vaughan took Albert's and Hendrix's sound to even greater heights. If you have never heard of the late, great Mike Bloomfield, try to find a copy of "Super Session" and listen to "Albert's shuffle". You may also be able to catch him on "Fathers & Sons". I spent lots of time listening to Eric Clapton licks but my blues playing is still heavily influenced by Bloomfield. Listen to a young & inspired Clapton burn on the John Mayall`s Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton CD.
There are a couple of newer kids that should blow you away. One is Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The other is Jonny Lang. If he was that good at 16 imagine what he will become. Unfortunately there are a lot of mediocre blues guitarists making the rounds these days so beware.
I have recently rekindled an interest in Jazz guitar. " Jazz is much too crazy, I'll play it when I'm old." A friend of mine turned me on to Ninine Garcia, a gypsy jazz guitarist in the style of Django Rheinhart. I recently when to see Ninine in Paris and he is great.He plays in a small bar/restaurant named la Chope des Puces. The restaurant holds no more than 20 seats and the bar much less. Ninine sits beside the door and jams all day with his Dad, Mondine and other members of the family , DD & Rocky. They all are amazing players. Great guys.
EFFECTS
Back in the old days I went through this purist period refusing to use any kind of pedal and played through a 100 watt Marshall stack with three 4 x12 cabinets (only two were plugged in, no reason, it just looked cool). Today I have become a pedal freak. My band buddies call my pedal board the electric pig because of the occasional grunts and squeals that come out of it. I only use discrete pedals, none of these multi-effect boxes. By the way name me a hot pro player that uses a multi-effect box and I'll eat one of my 3 Fuzz boxes.
A few years ago I finally threw together a pedal board. It's just a
rectangular black piece of plywood. I use plumbers metal pipe strapping that I
bend and tape then screw into the board to secure the pedals. This way I don't have to physically modify
any pedals. The most recent configuration, which runs right to left starts with
a Boss compressor sustain CS-3 
Then it's distortion
boxes. I use a Ibanez TS-9 Tube
Screamer, an old Boss
OD-1 
(which I modified so that the LED. stays on
without help from Boss I might add) and a Marshall Gov`nor. Then there’s a Vox-King wha wha( circa 75) that I bought at
Manny`s. I changed the pot (RS 271-1722) to an analog one to get a smoother
attack. From there I go into a Boss tremolo-pan, a Boss delay DD3,
a Boss flanger BF2
Boss Hr-2
harmonist 
and finally there is a homemade cloned Electro-Harmonic
LB-1. All of this is powered by a custom-made regulated power supply that I designed
and built. It has the following outputs ( -9,+9,+/-9 , +15). Without the power
supply I would go broke buying batteries. There's this story about Eric Johnson
(the tone freak) being able to tell a type of battery by the tone of the pedal.
Boss has two types of battery eliminators and I finally found out that while
one puts out 9 volts, the other puts out 15 volts. The latter being recommended
for the chorus, delay and even their Heavy Metal pedal. Beware of those
adjustable volt units made in China and Taiwan. The voltages rarely are
correct. Get yourselves a voltmeter and measure using a 1000-ohm resistor in
series with the wall warts output. Measure for the correct voltages. Build your
own pedals if you know how. If you want schematics of these classic pedals
check out Harmony Central . They
have links to all types of schematics. I have cloned a TS-9, a MXR distortion + and a
Fuzz face that I might some day incorporate. By the way I have tried out many
different germanium transistors with the Fuzz face and I do not hear much difference. Check
out Craig Anderson' s " Electronic Projects for
Musicians". I think it's in its third edition. There is a lot of B.S.,
mystique and hocus pocus involved with guitar effects. The reason I suppose is
that a lot of guitar player know sweet dick about electronics. I have tried my
newer plastic TS-5, a re-issue TS-9, my clone TS-9 and a vintage TS-9 built
into the UE-300 side by side and I'll be damned to hear any difference. So I
you want to believe that a $300 vintage TS-9 is better than a newer one, go
ahead buy it, it's your money. There are some real ugly sounding pedals out
there. The room that you play in has probably more to do with your sounds that
any other factor. I have found that in some rooms my amp sounds great and in
others I'm ready to chop it up into firewood. One of the reasons that I am
pedal freak is that I want to be able to have a decent controllable sound
regardless of the room that I'm working. When your sound is good you worry less
and you play better. Always leave yourself time to do a proper sound check. If
you can afford it get a wireless transmitter or if your budget is more modest
buy a long cable. Listen to your sound from afar.
AMPS
I've been using a Fender model 75 amp
for a long time
but I miss the my old Marshall 100
watt stack .
Then again the Fender fits in the trunk of my car. The Fender was a result of
my research into buying a Mesa Boogie
and versus the amount of money that I had to spend. You can probably find an
old '75 for quite a low price. It weighs in at 60 lbs. Another feature is
channel switching. The circuitry is almost identical to the Twin Reverb. They
didn't last long in the Fender line but they are quite good. One day I hope to
find a VOX AC-30 
Vox amps but I not
going to pay a collectors price for it. If you are into finding out more about
tubes check out the Aspen Pittman book The Tube Amp Book . It's full of info
and includes schematics for tons of famous amps.
My first amp ( I wish I still owned it) was a National. It was sort of like a Twin but smaller. Then I bought a Sears Silvertone. When I starting gigging for real I had to buy a louder amp so I bought this Canadian amp made by Traynor. There are now know as Yorkville sound. It was big and sort of had the same tube arrangement as a Fender. You would turn it up and after 3 it would just distort more. I bought one of those puffy Kustom amps. It had a great clean sound at low volume but it was the worst amp ever at high volumes. I toured with Sunn Amps but they had no oomph when you cranked they up. It was only when I bought the Marshall that I experienced sonic Heaven. I had a Princeton rated at 15 watts that sounded great but useless to jam with. So rather than finding out the hard way try to rent or borrow an Amp before buying it. I could say that you need about 30 watts to be heard over a drum but it all depends.
MORE MUSIC
My taste is music runs all over the place. I still like the Everly Brothers . My list would not be complete with out mentioning Oasis, Crowded House, Del Amitri, The Rembrandts, Elvis Costello (in my opinion pop music's best writer), The Raspberries, REM, The Byrds. Then again I enjoy Green Day, The SEX Pistols meet The Jam. Remember The Jam? They played Montreal twice in '81 & 82. I went both times. I must also mention again The Beatles and Stones. I still love to play and sing Beatle tunes but it's so hard to find other people that can. I insist on playing them in the original key, the correct voicing and the correct harmonies to make it sound right. My current band "Second Wind" plays Strawberry Fields, Taxman, plus other Beatle tunes in our repertoire. Hey ! I'm an older guy! Can't you can tell? My clothes fit. I don't have to reach below my knees to put a pick out of my pocket. I still prefer music that has a bit of melody.
More Blues
I still daydream about a blues project. You see you can still play blues when you're older. Initially I would form a blues based trio, kind of like I used to do so many years ago.
Eb tuning or Jamming with Jimi
It is a well known fact Jimi Hendrix tuned mostly in Eb. So if you want to blow along with your favorite Jimi song, I suggest you tune down to Eb. In case it's not clear, just tune every string down half a tone i.e. Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb. You will soon see that almost every one that was ever influenced By Hendrix was tuned down all the time or at least on some recording. Just a few names: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robin Trower, Yngwie Malmsteen, Frank Marino, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eddy Van Halen . If you can think of some more drop me a line. There is a another way to jam along without re-tuning. Find a Win Amp plug in called Pacemaker. It may only work with Win Amp 2.78 or older. You can slow down a song without affecting the pitch or lower the pitch without affecting the speed. It's great for learning riffs. It can be found for free.
Although they never were linked to Hendrix, what famous group often
performed in Eb ??
The Beatles often tuned to Eb in concert. It was probably to save their voices. On both first and third Sullivan shows (the third show was taped the same day). This is when George Harrison was sick with the flu or whatever. The Washington show, the EMI awards show, Shea stadium, and one of the Bodakan (Japan) shows were also in Eb. This has never been documented anywhere to my knowledge and never even been discussed in interviews. Recently I hear studio tracks also in Eb. Any comments, Sir Paul?????
Guitars
I haven't said much about guitars so here I go. I have played Gibsons,
Fenders and Ibanez. I suppose that I am partial to Les Pauls and Strats. The
loudest Guitar that I ever owned was a 50's something Les Paul jr, the same
kind that Leslie
West used in Mountain. Coupled with a Marshall 100 Watt it was a monster. I
currently use a Japanese Fender (Contemporary) Strat that has a strange locking
mechanism and a humbucker in the bridge position. 
At first I had tremendous problems adjusting this guitar but I have grown to like it. Don't buy a certain guitar just because you' idol plays one. Your idol may have bigger or smaller hands than you, stronger fingers etc. If it feels and sounds good then consider it. Always try to buy a well know brand and popular model. This will help if you ever want to sell it. Buy second hand but not at vintage prices. Paying huge sums of money for a guitar should be strictly reserved for people that have too much money to burn.
I have a wish list such a maple neck Strat and a Gretsch 6122 Country Gent. I have found some Fender (Squire) Mexi-casters and Korean casters sound and play very well. Some great player use Squires. I bought a Electric 12 string Hawk by Jay Turser.Want to get that Byrds, Beatles sound without a second mortgage then buy one of these.It's great and it a beautiful axe. I paid $225.00 US new. Made in China . I also bought an Epiphone ej160e , acoustic-electic. Both these last two are made in China. Don't let anyone tell you that these aren't fine instruments. There are a lot of unpopular Gibsons out there that should sell for very friendly prices. Recently I bought a HR-2 Boss harmonist pedal. Besides being able to add 2 harmonies, you can get a reasonable electric 12 string sound by setting the harmony to one octave higher. It doesn't sound bad and a heck of a lot cheaper.
GIGGING
I have been playing gigs for longer that I like to admit. There are some things to check. Some of these are basic. Some are common sense.
Always carry spare strings. I always carry a few new sets and spares of the ones that I tend to break more often. I always carry two guitars. Whether you gig for free or get paid no one wants to wait while you re-string. I carry spare batteries, picks, tools, flashlight, tape, wire, spare guitar strap and soldering kit. Always bring another jack cable. I bring pot cleaner.
If at all possible bring a spare amp. If not bring spare tubes, possibility one of each type. It's better to play with a weak tube than not to play at all.
If you carry a PA system bring a spare mike and spare stand. Things happen no matter how careful you are.
I have two tennis sweat bands that I wear one at a time. I always have a change of shirts and tee shirts. I never forget to bring a towel. Baby wipes come in handy especially after wrapping up wires. I now use Velcro strips to hold rolled wires.
What else? How about paper & pens. Some times you have to make last minute adjustments to the set list because that easy going pop bar is now frequented by heavy rocking bikers.
Be prepared. What could go wrong, will!
LINKS
Harmony Central This is a great place for demo's and links to schematics etc.
DIY page My new Do it Yourself page.
MIDI & Recording Go to my MIDI page for more links.
Manufacturers
TCElectronics FX's
Gibson Legendary guitars
Godin Guitars. Robert Godin used to work at LaTosca Music where I bought my Gibson SG. He was always a real nice guy. It is good to see him doing so well. He makes great guitars.
Retailers