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Bach Piano
The Bach keyboard music has proved very popular for piano.
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Greg Howe- A Profile
(12 Nov 02)
Bio and discography
Greg started out playing guitar at age 10. His first big influence was Eddie Van Halen (he even learned to play the tapping part of "Eruption"... without tapping!!! That's right, folks, he played it with his left hand only and came pretty close to the original speed... the mind boggles...)
He taught himself how to play, and after the Van Halen-phase, he got into the music of guys like Larry Carlton, Hendrix, Holdsworth... After being featured in Mike Varney's "Spotlight" column, he signed a deal with Shrapnel records in 1988 and recorded his self-titled debut.
After that, he recorded to albums with the band Howe II (featuring his brother Al on vocals), and they even were featured on MTV a bit. It took a while until he released his second solo-album, "Introspection" (which, besides the debut, is probably my favorite Howe-record). He released several other instrumental albums, including two together with Richie Kotzen.
He also filled in for Jennifer Batten as the live-guitarist of Michael Jackson at one point. In 1997, Greg played n keyboard-virtuoso Vitalij Kuprij's "High Definition" CD (this is some neoclassical stuff, and Greg did a great job here, too). His most recent solo-album is called "Hyperacuity", but as of now (Nov. 2002) he is working on his next solo-release.
He is also doing sideman-jobs. He toured with the extremely popular boygroup N'Sync, and also was part of Enrique Iglesias' live-band. The newest project he is involved in is the solo-project of one of the N'Sync-guys, Justin Timberlake...
Releases (selected discography):
With Howe II:
"High Gear", 1989
"Now Hear This", 1990
Together with Richie Kotzen:
"Tilt", 1995
"Project", 1997
With Vitalij Kuprij:
"High Definiton", 1997
As a solo-artist:
"Greg Howe", 1988
"Introspection", 1993
"Uncertain Terms", 1994
"Parallax", 1995
"Five", 1996
"Ascend", 1999
"Hyperacuity", 2000
Most of this stuff can be purchased at Guitar9.com
More info about Greg:GregHowe.com
Sound, tone etc.
Greg has a very smooth & warm sound. If you listen to "Little Rose" from his debut, or one of the tracks from his most recent album, you'll notice that his sound features plenty of gain, and hardly any effects.
In the older days, Greg used the "STRAT" (aka "Heavy Metal Strat")by Fender, which was some kind of a hyper-version of a Stratocaster. Backrouting, HSS-configuration, double locking whammy bar, three knobs and a five-way switch. Greg emphasized that he especially liked the neck profile of these guitars. He still owns several models.
Later, Greg got into other instruments by Fender and ESP (he endorses ESP guitars these days). He seems to prefer classic-style guitars with modern features, like i.e. regular Stratocasters with humbuckers and a Floyd Rose system. His current favorite is a red strat with a humbucker in the bridge-position, a singlecoil in the neck, and a Floyd Rose system.
These days, Greg endorses Johnson amps, the JM 150 and JM 250. Before that, he used a modified Fender Dual Showman Head (which also is seen in his instructional video. Greg also appeared in an ad for that amp in the late 80s). Modifications include installation of EL34s (the amp usually runs on 6L6s), to add some compression and allow for more gain from the poweramp-stage.
Greg says on his site that (before he used Johnson amps), this modded Dual Showman provided the sound that was compatible with his style and playing.
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