Homespun Video Bluegrass Banjo Backup submitted 10/15/2007 Submitter sjyokel Where Purchased Amazon.com Overall Comments Making this DVD was a great idea, but it has some flaws. I'll cut to the chase... 1. There is a LOT of talking in this DVD, so even though it's 2 hours long, at least 30 minutes of that doesn't include any practical information. 2. A good bit of the 2 hours worth of programming struck me as sales pitches for other Homespun DVDs. If you think of it as cross referencing, you'll be fine, but if you can't stand advertising in something you paid good money for, be warned. 3. I haven't worked through all of the licks in this DVD yet, but for the first half of it, I've found that the DVD doesn't really give you a way to practice along. The idea is that you need to buy the slow-jam DVD too in order to be able to practice the licks. With this DVD, you get short clips from the slow-jam DVD so you can hear how the licks sound, but not enough to play along with. (Kind of like buying a car and finding out the engine is sold separately...looks good but doesn't get you very far). Basically, this DVD will "introduce" you to some basic fill-in licks but it's up to you to figure out how to fit them into the songs you want to play. If you already have Janet Davis' Mel Bay Back-Up Banjo book, you've already got far more than you'll get from this DVD. And if you absolutely can't learn from tab alone, it's nice to be able to see how the licks look being played. But if I had my $29.95 to spend all over again, I'd buy Janet Davis' book instead. Overall Rating 5

Intelli MT500 submitted 10/15/2007 Submitter sjyokel Where Purchased Overall Comments Everybody has these things, and for good reason. This is an excellent tuner. Great concept. Great design. Works perfectly, even when you can't escape from background noise. The only thing I would want is a battery meter. When the battery gets low, it has a hard time finding the pitch. Overall Rating 10