Joe Satriani

One of the most influential and respected instrumental rock guitarists to emerge in the past three decades, Joe Satriani is that rare “musician’s musician” who’s crossed over into the mainstream with music sublime and complex, appealing to a wide variety of tastes.

A true master of the six-string, Satriani worked as a guitar teacher in his early career, with a number of his students—among them Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Larry LaLonde, David Bryson (Counting Crows), Charlie Hunter and more—achieving their own considerable successes.

While in considerable demand as a sideman throughout his career—he’s toured with Mick Jagger, Deep Purple and many others—Satriani has pursued his own musical vision over the years through a series of instrumental rock albums (many of them Grammy nominated) which chronicle his evolution as an artist and his eloquence as a guitarist.

A tireless performer who draws strength and inspiration from live shows, Satriani is consistently one of the world’s top concert draws. He is a core member of the rock supergroup Chickenfoot (with Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith) as well as founder of the highly successful G3 tours, each teaming Satriani with a pair of top-flight guitarists with shows often featuring special guest artists and other musical surprises. A nearly annual event, G3 launched in 1996 with Steve Vai and Eric Johnson and has showcased a wide variety of axemen over the years including Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Yngwie Malmsteen, Robert Fripp, John Petrucci, Steve Morse, Neal Schon, Brian May, Billy Gibbons, Steve Lukather and many others. Most recently, the G3 tour played South America in 2012.

Over his career, Joe Satriani has earned 15 Best Rock Instrumental Performance Grammy nominations alongside Platinum (Surfing With The Alien, Flying in a Blue Dream) and Gold (Surfing With The Alien, Flying in a Blue Dream, The Extremist, Time Machine) certifications for his solo recordings. He also racked up Gold and Platinum certifications for the DVD Live in San Francisco and 2 G3 DVDs, G3 Live and Live in Denver.

Paul Gilbert

From platinum album sales and number one chart success as a founding member of MR. BIG, to frightening the guitar community with new levels of ferocious picking technique with shred-pioneers RACER X, to exploring punk, pop, classical, blues, jazz, and progressive instrumental styles in his solo career, Paul Gilbert has recorded a massive amount of stunning guitar music, all while circling the globe to play sold-out arenas from Japan to Jakarta.

Paul’s style stands out for it’s rare combination of accuracy, creativity, and power – all which are balanced with Paul’s sense of humor and pure love of music.

Although Paul is best known for his work with MR. BIG and RACER X, he has also toured with Joe Satriani’s G3, played in a host of tribute concerts with legendary drummer Mike Portnoy, and been integral in the design of his signature Ibanez PGM and Fireman guitars.

Paul’s legacy as a guitar instructor began when he was eighteen, when he was hired to teach at Hollywood’s Guitar Institute of Technology. Paul’s groundbreaking “Intense Rock” videos and DVDs have inspired legions of guitarists to improve their accuracy, speed, and phrasing. Years as a columnist for Guitar Player and Premier Guitar magazines, along with giving countless clinics, private lessons, and serving for five years as the dean of MI Japan, have given Paul deep experience in the art of communicating music to all levels of guitarists. Paul recently opened his Online Rock Guitar School at Artistworks to help guitarists everywhere improve their technique and musicality. And of course, Paul’s GREAT GUITAR ESCAPE is his most exciting yearly event for those who want more information and inspiration on guitar.

Over twenty-five years in the music business have only increased Paul’s passion to explore the possibilities of music and the art of playing the guitar. Whether he’s playing to 10,000 fans or jamming one-on-one with a student, Paul is living his childhood dream of taking the sounds in his head and bringing them into reality – on the electric guitar.

Phil Collen

Philip Kenneth Collen was a late starter by all standards, especially when you consider his current iconic rock star status as lead guitarist for a world famous multi-platinum selling rock-n-roll band. Born in Hackney, East London, England on December 8th, 1957, Phil was influenced by everything from the Rolling Stones to the Motown sound to glam rock, hard rock, punk, or anything with a flair. He got his first guitar at the age of 16 after pestering his parents for two years. Ken, a cross country truck driver and Connie, a devoted housewife were persuaded that it was the right thing to do. This came about after Collen was taken to his first rock concert to see Deep Purple at age 14 by his cousin. “The experience changed my life,” said Phil.

Collen left school at sixteen to work in a factory and as a dispatch rider. Influenced by guitar players such as Ritchie Blackmore, Jimi Hendrix, and Mick Ronson, he soon developed a flashy, aggressive style of playing rock guitar. Phil quit his day job he went on tour as a guitarist with the London-based post-punk glam rock band ‘Girl’. Collen joined Def Leppard in 1982 during the Pyromania album recording sessions, playing guitar solos on the hits ‘Photograph’, ‘Foolin’’, and ‘Rock Of Ages’ among others. Pyromania was Def Leppard’s breakthrough album and turned Def Leppard into rock super-stars almost over night. They spent the summer of 1983 at number 2 on the Billboard charts, behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the biggest selling album of all time. Pyromania sold in excess of 10 times platinum and received a Diamond award in the US and Canada.

After the Pyromania tour ended, tragedy struck the band. During the recording of the Hysteria album drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in a car accident on New Year’s Eve 1984. The band chose not to replace Rick. He re-learned how to play the drums using his left foot to replicate left arm percussion. His dedication to the band paid off and upon the release of Hysteria, Def Leppard had their best selling album to date, releasing seven singles from the album including the smash hits ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ and ‘Love Bites’. The band received their second diamond album, selling over twelve million copies in the U.S alone, putting them in an exclusive group of only six bands ever to achieve two diamond albums in America. Def Leppard was now among rock-n-roll’s elite which included The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, and Van Halen.

Fortune and fame, however, often have a price to be paid, and tragedy was to strike the band again. While creating songs for the Adrenalize album Steve Clark was found dead in his London home due to a mixture of painkillers and alcohol. Clark had been Phil’s best friend and guitar partner in the band. The pair had been dubbed ‘The Terror Twins’ due to their “on tour shenanigans”. Soon the name became synonymous with more than pranks and their classic harmonious guitar playing became known as the ‘Def Leppard sound’. Adrenalize was released with Phil Collen recording the guitar parts for both players and was the number one album in the U.S during the 1992 L.A. riots.

The nineties also saw the release of the Slang album and the ever popular Vault, Def Leppard’s greatest hits album which has achieved quadruple platinum status in the U.S.A.

Expanding their reach Def Leppard collaborated with two country superstars. Tim McGraw was featured on their Sparkle Lounge single ‘Nine Lives’ while Taylor Swift teamed up with the band swapping hits on CMT’s Crossroads which also has been released as a DVD and garnered the band two CMT nominations.

Phil and his bandmates from Manraze are currently creating music for a second album. As lead vocalist and lead guitarist he performs a modern day mix of punk, rock, and reggae with bassist Simon Laffy formerly of Girl and legendary Sex Pistols’ drummer Paul Cook. The band’s debut album Surreal has been released in the US and the UK to rave critical reviews comparing the band to the Police, the Foo Fighters, and the Clash. Phil Collen was the only artist to play twice at 2009’s Download Festival with both bands, Manraze and Def Leppard.

These days there is intense interest in Phil Collen’s health regimen and diet as there is in his music and artistic expression. Phil trains as a practicing Muay Thai kickboxer and utilizes weight work-outs culminating in three workouts a day, seven days a week under the watchful eye of his trainer Muay Thai kickboxing champion Jean Carrillo to get to and maintain his current fitness level.

Phil Collen has been a vegetarian for 27 years and alcohol-free for 22 years, busting the myth of the classic ‘rockstar’ stereotype wide open.

Warren DeMartini

DeMartini was born on April 10, 1963 in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of five children, all of them boys. The family later relocated to San Diego. He spent his early years in the suburb of River Forest, Illinois. He became interested in rock music due to the influence of his older brothers Bernard and James, whose band rehearsed in the family basement. DeMartini’s grandmother was also a musician of note, playing piano accompaniment to silent movies in Preston, Minnesota.

DeMartini’s mother bought him a guitar at his request when he was “around seven or eight years old”. According to Warren, he struggled early on learning to play it due to the tuning pegs being cheap, causing the instrument to constantly fall out of tune. As a result, he became frustrated and smashed the instrument as he had seen Pete Townshend of The Who do onstage. As a result, that was the last guitar he would receive as a gift. At age 14, he had to get himself a job in order to raise the money to purchase a new electric guitar, a Cimar Les Paul copy. The first song DeMartini learned was Sunshine of Your Love by Cream, which he learned by ear.

Warren played his first concert with his band “The Plague” in front of a small crowd at San Diego’s La Jolla High School at the age of 15. By this time he was emerging as one of the San Diego area’s most talented and sought-after young guitar players. The first year he signed up, he won “Best New Guitar Player in San Diego” at Guitar Trader on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. He graduated from high school in 1981. DeMartini began taking classes at a local college, but in the first semester was invited up to Los Angeles to join Mickey Ratt; the band that would eventually become the highly successful 1980s metal band, Ratt.

DeMartini replaced Jake E. Lee, who would be hired by Ozzy Osbourne in December 1982. DeMartini was at one point the roommate of Lee, and each greatly influenced the other’s styles. DeMartini’s lead guitar became one of Ratt’s most recognizable aspects, and he would co-write several of the band’s best known songs, including “Round and Round”, “Lay It Down”, “Dance”, and “Way Cool Jr.”. Ratt would ultimately become one of the top-selling and most popular glam metal acts of the decade, issuing four consecutive platinum albums and one EP in the 1980s before disbanding in February 1992.

After Ratt broke up, DeMartini had a short stint with the band Dokken before briefly becoming a touring guitarist for hard rock band Whitesnake in 1994. After that, he released two solo projects; the EP, Surf’s Up! in 1995, and his only full-length album to date, Crazy Enough To Sing To You in 1996. Ratt re-united in 1996 and released two albums, Collage in July 1997, and a self-titled album in July 1999, which was a critical and commercial failure. In 2003, DeMartini was hired to replace guitarist Doug Aldrich in the band Dio but after several rehearsals he decided to leave the band due to musical differences with band leader Ronnie James Dio. Ratt reformed again in 2007 and began a tour in the summer of that year.

Over the years, DeMartini has cited many legendary guitarists or other musicians as his primary musical influences such as Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, Robbin Crosby, Michael Schenker, Steve Lukather, Uli Roth, Joe Walsh, Jake E. Lee, Joe Perry, Frank Zappa, Tommy Bolin, Miles Davis, Eddie Van Halen, George Lynch and Randy Rhoads.

DeMartini has often been praised for his technique and ability.[citation needed] VH1 labeled him as one of the ten most under-rated “hair metal” guitarists of the 80’s. His playing often incorporates 4 note per string passages, which is still fairly unorthodox and some chromatic runs give DeMartini an almost jazz fusion sound for some solos. Along with that, his playing includes fast minor scales and wide vibrato.

Warren uses finger vibrato, similar in style to George Lynch and Greg Howe. This technique features moving the finger/wrist rapidly back and forth along the length of the string to alter the pitch (like a violinist), as opposed to bending the string.

Stu Hamm

Through his innovative work as a solo artist and his contributions as a sideman to Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, Stuart Hamm has firmly established himself as one of the most influential electric bassists of the past half-century. Extending the non-­traditional function of the electric bass previously revolutionized by Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke in the 1970s, Hamm helped to reshape the contemporary concept of the bass guitar as an unaccompanied instrument with the utilization of polyphonic, two-­handed tapping, slapping and popping techniques, chords, and harmonics. Hamm was the first bassist to have a Signature Model Electric Bass with Fender, and has designed sounds and gear for the Hartke, Warwick, Zoom and Korg musical corporations. As one of today’s leading bassists, Hamm has released six critically acclaimed studio recordings and has enjoyed recording and touring stints with guitar icons Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Greg Howe, Carl Verheyen and Frank Gambale. His long-­time associations with Vai and Satriani garnered him award-­winning recognition on a global scale, and as a result, Hamm has received an extensive list of accolades such as being voted “Best Jazz Bassist” and “Best Rock Bassist” multiple times in magazine polls conducted by several major print publications worldwide. As an educator, Hamm has released multiple best selling instructional courses and taught at the Berklee School of Music, Blue Bear School of Music and served as Bass Program Chair at Musicians Institute.

Mike Manning

Mike has worked for years (and years) as the backbone of Joe’s tech crew.

Jonathan Mover

When it comes to world-class drummers, few would dispute that Jonathan Mover is in a league of his own. At the age of 18, Jonathan began his international music career in London with the progressive rock band Marillion, which led to landing the prestigious gig with Steve Hackett (Genesis) and Steve Howe (Yes) in the supergroup GTR. Following the success of GTR, Jonathan began working with Joe Satriani. After nine prosperous years of touring and recording with Joe, Jonathan had become one of the most well-recognized and respected drummers on the scene.

Having a penchant for business, Jonathan spent seventeen years successfully owning and operating one of Manhattan’s top state-of-the-art recording studio in known as Skyline Studios NYC, with a clientele that included Steely Dan, Wu Tang, Jessica Simpson, David Bowie, Avril Lavigne, David Byrne, Debbie Harry and many others, before relocating to Los Angeles in 2015 to merge with and co-own Swing House Recording and Rehearsal Inc., one of L.A.’s largest music and film facilities. Swing House, a 22,000 square foot entertainment multiplex, houses Mover’s recording studio, 9 producer suites, audio and video sound stages, rehearsal rooms, backline equipment rentals, event management and production, artist relations, instrument sales and more. Garbage, Dr. Dre, M83, The Hollywood Vampires, Dave Grohl, Moby and Seal are just a few of their recent clients.

His latest venture in the drumming world was the launch of his own drum magazine, Drumhead, which in less than ten years has become the number one drum magazine in circulation.

Stig Mathisen

Stig Mathisen is a guitarist and educator from Northern Norway, currently residing in Los Angeles. Stig has a Masters and a Doctoral degree in guitar performance from University of Southern California, where he graduated with numerous awards for outstanding achievements. He studied Classical guitar at Tromso University for over 6 years, and has worked extensively as a freelance guitarist and University lecturer in both Norway and in the US. An eclectic guitarist by nature, Stig is equally comfortable with rock, jazz and classical music, and has rubbed shoulders with numerous world-class musicians over the years. A passionate explorer and a relentless seeker of all knowledge pertaining to guitar, improvisation, composition, music history and music philosophy, he has been on a quest since his formative years to discover the inner mechanics and the deeper secrets of music. Stig is currently the Chair of the Guitar Program (GIT) at Musicians Institute, in Hollywood, California, and he has written several of the books currently in use as core curriculum at the college.

Doug Doppler

With a disc out on Steve Vai’s esteemed Favored Nations label, tours supporting the likes of Michael Schenker, and a session background that includes Guitar Hero, Doug Doppler clearly took the lessons he learned as a student of Joe Satriani to heart.

In 2014 Doug launched GearTunes.com to connect the dots between gear, demos, and dealers. The GearTunes marketing platform helps brands get their message to market by engaging gear enthusiasts in new and innovative ways.
Doug remains a passionate music educator, offering Skype lessons, and teaching one day a week at the same Berkeley teaching studio he inherited from Joe Satriani.

Andy McKee

Andy McKee is among the world’s finest acoustic guitarists. His youthful energy and attention to song structure and melodic content elevates him above the rest. He entertains both the eye and the ear as he magically transforms the steel string guitar into a full orchestra via his use of altered tunings, tapping, partial capos, percussive hits and a signature two-handed technique.

McKee’s crossover success has helped him to achieve millions upon millions of YouTube viewers, underscoring his emergence as one of today’s most unique and influential artists. He has been featured as a cover story in both Acoustic Guitar Magazine in the U.S. and Acoustic Magazine in the UK, and is also the figurehead of the unique Guitar Masters tours. McKee’s tour dates have taken him through Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, including tours with legendary acts including Prince and Dream Theater.

Gary Brawer

Gary Brawer is one of Joe’s guitar tech gurus and will be giving info and hints about Joe’s guitars and equipment.

Gary founded a full service Guitar Repair shop in the SOMA district of San Francisco on October 1, 1978.  They have the latest PLEK technology for fret work and keep up to date on all current products.  They take care of anything you need on your acoustic or electric guitar or bass, vintage restoration, setup, fretwork or just advice.

Alan Rosen

Alan Rosen is considered one of the foremost leading authorities in the Professional Audio & Musical Instrument Retail Industry. For over 34 years Alan has been working in and around the music equipment industry. His current clientele base includes Joe Satriani, Metallica , Carlos Santana, Neal Schon, Journey, Nine In Nails, Slash, Doobie Brothers, Booker T, Seal, Buckethead, Les Claypool, Huey Lewis and the News, John Doe (X) and many more.

Alan designed and facilitates the Friends of Fender artist relations program. Alan currently assists in artist relations for Fender, Gibson, Martin, Roland, Korg, Yamaha, Porter & Davies, Heritage, Ibanez, Ampeg, Hartke and many more. Alan Rosen is on the board of NAMM (Former Chairman and current primary advisor of the Grants and Scholarship Committee), Little Kids Rock, Music In Schools Today Alan is a Member of NAMM, Alliance of Independent Music Merchants (AIMM), AES, and Synergetic Audio Concepts. As a Producer and/or Engineer, Alan has been involved in over 20 major label recordings and several film and film soundtracks.

He has produced such artists as Neal Schon, Marco Mendoza, Brain, Lisa Fisher and more. He is also an accomplished Voice Over talent appearing on several major commercials and 2 animated Films. Alan will be on hand assisting in showcasing all Artists Endorsement brands and products. He will be available to answer questions about products, set up, current, old and upcoming products. As a registered attendee you have access to the very person the pros trust.

Jeff Bowders

Jeff Bowders is a touring, recording and educating drummer in Los Angeles. Most notably recognized as playing drums for some of the greatest guitarist on the planet such as Paul Gilbert, George Lynch, Larry Mitchell, Kim SeHwang, Richie Kotzen, Justin Derrico and Michelangelo. When not corralling all the notes from guitar wizards he has also had the opportunity to work with such artist as Puddle of Mudd, Shakira, Nelson and Graham Bonnet. As an international clinician for Tama Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Vater drumsticks and Evans drumheads, he has released three books and one instructional DVD through Hal Leonard publishing.

Craig Martini

Based out of Cleveland Ohio, Craig Martini is an active bassist that has recorded and toured with some of the biggest names in the music industry. Craig has recorded, as well as toured, with The Paul Gilbert Band, recorded with Alan Parsons and toured with Colin Hay. Craig was the bass player for The first G4 Experience with Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert, Mike Kneally, Andy Timmons, Bruce Bouillet and Doug Doppler. In addition, he was the bass player for Paul Gilbert’s Great Guitar Escape 2016, with Andy Timmons, Mimi Fox, Kiko Loureiro, Bumblefoot, Doug Doppler, and Stig Mathisen. Craig’s own band, Unified Culture, has been performing for 25 years.