Brent Mason - Hot Wired

My husband says this is his favorite guitar book. As the wife of a guitar player, I feel an urgency to warn others who may consider buying this book for a loved one: you might not see them for a while once they get their hands on this book. It may in fact alter their lives and personality permanently.The day Hot Wired arrived, my husband went into a trance. I was heading to a Bible study that night, and he could not wait to put the kids to bed and get to work on mastering some new licks. Tragically, he could not resist the allure of this Pandora's Box of musical genius and, in an almost out of body experience, he made the fatal flaw of opening Brent's book AND picking up his guitar BEFORE bedtime. He became so engrossed that our free-roaming toddler took some time to fine tune her own talents, namely Diaper Escape and finger painting. Let's just say her choice of paint that night was a putrid brown that brought guitar practice to a halt and the next thing my husband can remember is finding himself on his hands and knees cleaning our white carpet.You would think that would be a clear indicator to STEP AWAY FROM THE BRENT MASON BOOK, but no. He yet again responded to the siren call of Hot Wired, so much so that the next morning I discovered a trail of lipstick starting at one end of our microfiber couch leading to a book SMOTHERED in lipstick and surrounded by tiny toddler handprints all over the other end of the couch. When I first caught our toddler's artwork out of the corner of my eye, I feared that she had smeared poop all over her children's Bible (my lipstick is a mauve color). What a "relief" to find it was "just" lipstick and not poop! Good thing our couch is red, so my aspiring studio musician wasn't in the dog house for too long.As a Brent Mason addict (he is in denial, but I am planning an intervention as soon as I finish this review), my husband highly recommends Hot Wired. However, please be cautious about its addictive nature. Never leave a guitar player alone with this book and your children at the same time, at least not if you expect the house to be standing by the time you get home. Music books that are this awesome should seriously come with a warning label, or maybe a security code to be entered by a trusted support person when the musician can be closely monitored. Also, although I'm sure this goes without saying, do not drive or operate heavy machinery while under the influence of this substance.

The album these are taken from is great. That Brent was involved with these transcriptions just makes it even better. These aren't, "Well, close enough." No, these seem accurate.That said, some of these are not for the feint of heart. They do require a bit of dexterity. But if you've ever wanted to sorta get into Brent Mason's head...this is a good collection.

It goes without saying that Brent Mason is one of the best guitarists in the business. This book is excellent: accurate, nicely engraved, easy to read, and features transcriptions of the entire song (and the whole record). A great resource for any musician

I have been playing guitar since I was 7 years old. I can play anybody, anywhere,anytime. Clapton, Hendrix,Page, Gibbons. I was looking for something to raise the bar and this was it. The fingering patterns, the Tablature is spot on. It is a mental exercise, and well worth the investment. When you get done, ( it will be months not weeks) your guitar skills will be drastically improved no matter how good you are in the beginning. Brent Mason is one of the best guitarists around. His phrasing, unique picking style right and left hand dexterity, are all beyond words. The explanation regarding the finer points of reading tablature phrasing is well thought . Hats off to Dario Cortese. They also take the time to discuss how the sound is electronically achieved. I love this book and play it every day. Thank You Brent.

I just picked up the official transcription of Brent Mason's seminal solo release, "Hot Wired." After a couple of decades of the record being out of print, Brent sat down with fellow guitarist Dario Cortese and worked out this transcription lick by lick.It's full of definitive country picking and slick jazz. If you can't find a download of the album there are videos out there of most of the tunes, so you can see Mason's fingers at work.This book shows exactly how he plays all those hot licks.There's something here for every picker who can sit still long enough to dig into it. The notation is impeccable, and the tab is first rate.Even if I wasn't already a superfan I'd still recommend this as essential to every guitarist's library.

The book is everything I was hoping for! A transcription of an album from one of the greatest guitarists ever!

Garbage. First song I look at to learn has Huge error in the notation. Not even something thats subjective like a slide or pulloff interpretation. I mean a huge Melody error. Even clarified with online videos of Brent playing to prove the tab is incorrect. Sloppy tab like this is unacceptable.

Accurate transcriptions and very well written !

I am so glad that I purchased this book. Very well done and though it will take some time to get these tunes down it will certainly make it easier. Thanks for putting it out there

Perfect transcriptions. :)

Very good book with accurate music of the album, however a few short sentences on how the right hand picking may be approached does not give the reader the exact way each musical note would be picked. The book would have been much improved if the right hand picking directions were given under the music as featured in other books I have read.

The book seems very good, but I expected two things:1) notation for right hand picking technique or a brief introduction.2) audio samples for the songs.Not a big problem, at least for me. I know something about hybrid/chiken picking and I know how to find Brent's songs.

Book material is great. Presentation through kindle however is terrible. Can't zoom in really small print and can't enlarge even on desktop little disappointing. Save yourself the hassle and waste of money and buy the hardcopy paperback.