I haven’t heard anything really specific re: the stolen gear slowing things down. The latest recording sessions are indeed taking a bit longer than they were originally intended (hence leading to a bit of homesickness for LA) but I didn’t pry about the reasons why this was the case. I think things are going OK but I’d bet if you actually added up the total time they’ve spent working so far it would only be 4,5,6 weeks, maybe. It’s not like they’ve been holed up in a studio for the last 3 years making "Use Your Illusion I & II"

J tends to use different guitars in the studio from the ones he plays live — much of his recorded soloing has been played on Les Pauls, oddly enough. That used to be the case, anyway, and J doesn’t seem like the kind of musician who radically changes approaches that have worked for him in the past. So I doubt that the recording has been affected materially, however bummed he may be.

They can take as much time as they want on the album, so long as I have that goddamn dvd to tide me over!

I read that about his studio guitars in an article posted somewhere on the site — it’s from ’97 and has photos of most of the gear he was using at the time. He might’ve changed things up since then, but J doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who messes with what works for him.

What dvd? Good question. It was supposed to be out by the end of the summer, but there’s been no word from the Dino camp as to its status. Maybe they’ve just quietly decided to bag it. Whatever the case, I’ve been downloading tracks from the Bologna one on freesofree.net, and that’ll have to do for now.