Jason Becker
Jason Becker was born on July 22, 1969. His father played classical guitar and his uncle was a blues guitarist. This developed his interest in guitar at a young age. Practicing regularly from the age of five,
Jason was playing at coffeehouses from the sixth grade. He advanced so early that before he was 16 he was giving his music teachers lessons. At the age of 16, he met Marty Friendman. Marty had already recorded a couple of albums and was impressed enough by Jason’s playing that he suggest the two of them record an album together. The duo, performing as Cacophony, was produced by Mike Varney and released two albums. The first, “Speed Metal Symphony” was a typical neo-classical shred album featuring exceptionally fast and melodic music and exotic scales. The second album, “Go Off!” was more song oriented, but still showed off Marty and Jason’s virtuosic abilities on guitar.
Becker was showcased on several instructional guitar videos. On one he performed his own arrangement of violin master Niccolo Paganini’s composition, “Paganini’s 5th Caprice. Another video was recorded during a clinic Becker gave at the Atlanta Institute of Music, where he explained his trademark arpeggio sequence. The footage was released as part of Becker’s “Hot Licks” instructional video. In 1988 Becker released his
first solo album, “Perpetual Burn”, and left Cacophony in 1989 to replace Steve Vai in David Lee Roth’s band. While he was recording the album “A little Ain’t Enough” and getting ready for the tour, Jason Becker began to notice what he called a “Lazy Limp” in his left leg. He soon saw a doctor for the ailment and was diagnosed with Amyotrphic Lateral Sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. At the time, he was only given five years to live. His condition quickly
worsened and he had to resort to using thinner gauge strings and other tricks in order to finish the album. He did manage to struggle through the album, which was released in 1991, but was unable to perform on stage and could not go on the tour in support of the album. He was replaced by former Lizzy Borden guitarist, Joe Holmes. When Lou Gehrig’s disease took away his son’s ability to speak, Jason’s father developed a system which allowed him to communicate with his eyes. Jason continued to compose using his guitar and a keyboard for as long as the disease would let him. In 1996, he released an album he composed entitled “Perspective”. Eventually Lou Gehrig’s disease took away his ability to even use a keyboard, but Becker was still able to compose with the help of his friend and music producer, Mike Bemesderfer. Mike helped Becker to learn a computer program which allowed him to compose songs by movements of his head and eyes.
In 1999, Becker released a collection of demo records entitled “Raspberry Jams”, and followed it up with another album of demo tracks in 2003 called “Blackberry Jam”. His friends and admirers, including Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Joe Becker, Rusty Cooley and Mattias Eklundh got together to release two tribute albums to Becker. The albums were called “Warmth in the Wilderness I” and “Warmth in the Wilderness II”. All of the profits were sent to Becker to help him with his medical expenses. On November 4, 2008, nearly two decades after doctors told him he had five years to live, Becker released another album, “Collection”. It includes three new songs and a collection of older recordings. Guitarists Marty Friedman, Greg Howe, Joe Satriani, Michael Lee Firkins, Steve Vai, and
Steve Hunter contributed to the album. Also in 2008, Jason Becker teamed with Paradise Guitars to design a Jason Becker Signature Guitar. The design is based on a wooden Peavey with colored number fret inlays. The guitar features a genuine alder body, a maple neck with 2 way steel truss rod, a maple fingerboard with a 16� radius, 24 frets, a black Floy Rose Pro style floating tremolo with Floyd Rose Tremolo stop, Sperzel red satin tuners, headstock with a 14 degree tilt-back and a black Paradise logo. The guitar features DiMarzio pickups. The three pickups are colored, yellow and red, green, and pink and blue, and compliment the colored fret inlays. The five-way switch is red and the 1-11 volume knob is purple.