some dipshit blues lawyer wrote:This is a brand new Fender Strat just took the plastic off it, only has a few hours of playing time. I'll throw in a guitar strap, three guitar cables, the Jimi Hendrix Signature Licks tab book & CD instructional set, the Jimi Hendrix Blues album's tab book, the Robert Johnson Signature Licks tab book & CD instructional set, the Blues Rock Riffs For Guitar by Jon Chappell (lots of smokin licks!) tab book & CD instructional set, all of Jimi Hendrix's CDs (Are You Experienced, Axis Bold As Love, Electric Ladyland, the double disc BBC Sessions CD set, the double disc Woodstock CD set, Blues, Live At Berkeley, and Band Of Gypsies), Amy Winehouse's new CD (Back To Black), Jonny Lang's debut CD (Lie To Me) which is an encyclopedia of rock and blues licks, and a special bonus that by itself is worth more than the guitar - at least it will be to you.
Any serious blues guitarist (and many rock guitarists) will tell you that the difference between good and GREAT players is mojo. What is it? Hendrix had one, Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin had one, the singer Robert Plant from the same band went all the way down to the Mississippi Delta near Robert Johnson's old stomping grounds to get one, of course Robert Johnson famously had one and mentioned it in most of his songs, Muddy Waters dedicated a whole song to his ("I Got My Mojo Workin"), Steve Vai talked about his mojo in an interview one time, Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones has his mojo too - and let's not forget BB King. Carlos Santana too. So what in the world is it? Well let me tell you a little story about how I acquired mine, and exactly what it is - and why you want it.
You and I probably have a lot in common. Like many of you, I went to music school and played in a lot of bands. At one point I was in a group that had a song on the radio - but still felt like I could go further. Don't get me wrong, playing shows and getting chased by girls was fun - but I didn't want to still be playing the same bars and clubs for the rest of my life, I wanted to travel and play around the world like my heroes - Clapton, Hendrix, SRV and Keith Richards. One day I was jamming with an older blues guitarist that's a walking history of rock and blues music especially in the South.
He's jammed with the Allman Brothers, John Mayer (before John left Atlanta and started playing pop music - although he recently went back to his roots by starting a blues band called The John Mayer Trio, Google it) Rolling Stones, BB King, Albert King, Stevie Ray AND Jimmie Vaughan, and even Clapton himself (back when Clapton was making the Derek And The Dominoes album with Duane Allman). Now he lives in New Orleans but at the time this guy was the baddest blues guitarist in Atlanta - and even though he was older he could shred with the best of them, he sounded like a mix of Clapton and Vai and Satriani crossed with Eric Johnson.
I asked him what it took to go to the next level, since he'd known and played with many of the people I idolized growing up as a young guitarist. He said one word - "mojo". Now we'd been throwing back some great home made Tennessee whisky from one of his friends that night, so I was thinking maybe it was the whisky talking - cuz I didn't know what "mojo" meant. But then he started to explain what he meant. A mojo is something mentioned in many famous songs, it's a type of specially made little bag or packet with different roots, herbs and/or feathers along with certain traditional Native American or Deep South items that many people believe are good luck charms. If made by someone who knows what they're doing, a mojo can be a powerful "edge" in your quest to achieve your goals - giving you the luck and confidence you need.
What the best players had in common, the ones who could send chills down your spine with one note, is they all had a mojo. Now has he said to me that day, I'm not telling you what to believe - you can go to your library or online and find all the history, examples and facts behind the mojo. But let me tell you what my mojo did for me.
He sent me to an older lady that lived on an Indian reservation, it was a long flight but I couldn't sleep cuz I was excited about finally getting my mojo. She spent 2 days making it and then gave it to me along with a special bracelet, and warned me to be careful because along with great luck comes great responsibility - I would now have everything I wanted and needed, so I had to be careful not to be greedy and take anything that didn't belong to me. If I did, I would have to pass on my mojo to someone else because it would no longer work for me - only for others. Now I didn't pay attention to this at the time, because I've never stolen anything in my life and I assumed that's what she was talking about. Big mistake, but more about that later.
Pretty soon, I got the opportunity to play in a great band and was traveling all over - the Caribbean, Europe, Mexico, and the entire US. I was living my dream. I also noticed my guitar playing had improved - it was more confident, more edgy, and more spontaneous. Sometimes it seemed like the notes were just flowing, I didn't have to think about what I was playing or force it - it was almost like my fingers had a mind of their own or the guitar was playing itself, cuz it was effortless to play even the most difficult guitar parts. That's not to say I didn't still practice - cuz I did. But playing the guitar and writing songs just seemed easier. Unfortunately I forgot about the Indian woman's words, and made what turned out to be a major mistake.
Backstage after one of the shows a beautiful woman walked up and said she'd been waiting on me - she was Spanish, with really long black hair but surprisingly she had green eyes. At first I thought they were contacts, but I looked closer and saw they were real. She had an unbelievable body, slim but all curves like a '63 Corvette. And those green eyes were hypnotizing. It was like she'd walked straight off a magazine cover - on a one to ten scale with ten being the hottest, I'd say she was a thirty-five! Well needless to say I didn't get much sleep that night and when the tour bus pulled out the next morning I was still thinking about her. She surprised me by showing up at a few other stops on the tour, flying into whatever city we were playing in and waiting backstage just like the first time - but I never knew when I was going to see her, because I didn't have her number and she was very mysterious, like she was hiding something. Well later I found out why! She was married. With kids.
Now I didn't know that at the time, but it didn't matter - I'd forgotten the Indian woman's warning and taken something that didn't belong to me, which according to her words meant the mojo she'd given me wouldn't work for me anymore - only for other people.
Well you can guess the rest of the story. The band broke up in the middle of the tour, I hadn't been saving too much money since I'd assumed the band wasn't gonna end anytime soon - and our manager still had to be paid a lot of money according to the contract we'd foolishly signed, even though we weren't touring anymore and making the type money we needed to pay him what we'd agreed to kick him each month for the next TWO YEARS. And according to the contact, we had to pay the balance of that money owed IN ONE LUMP SUM if the band broke up and violated our end of the contract. Yup, it was ugly. I ended up selling my fancy car, big house, and most of my guitars and amps. My model girlfriend dumped me, cuz I was no longer a "rock star" in a band - now I was just another unemployed guitar player. Models don't find that quite as attractive
I called the Indian woman who gave me the mojo and begged her to make me another one, she refused - said there was nothing she could do now cuz I'd ignored her warning and brought all of this on myself, by taking something that didn't belong to me. So she told me to pass on the mojo to someone else, because it would work for others but not for me - so I'm including it with this guitar at no charge. I hope it brings you as much success as it brought me (for a while) - and I hope you don't waste it like I did. Remember her warning. $299 cash gets you everything (the guitar, the mojo, the CDs, the tab books).
