What gear do you use?

My main guitars are all Ernie Ball Axis models.

1. Tobacco Burst with custom Gold Hardware
2. An all black on black Axis Super Sport with crème MM90's
3. And the very last purple Axis guitar (quilt top) ever produced at Ernie Ball.

Other Gear?

Amplifier wise I use the Bugera 333XL head and Bugera 6260 Combo. These amps are simply the best I have ever used!

Also Celestion has recently given me an endorsement deal for the new G12EVH speakers from the line of EVH gear. I'm using these in the Bugera cabinet with the Bugera 333XL head.

Who are your influences?

If I had to choose just one it would be Eddie Van Halen! Eddie's music really reaches me, you know? I can listen to a Van Halen song like Drop Dead Legs 1,000 times and on the 1,001 time I’ll hear it in a new way. No other guitarist has ever had that personal effect on me. Of course there is Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Johnny Hiland, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jack Black Tenacious D.

On a personal level, Phil Hilborne has proven to be my favorite guitarist. Not only because of his amazing technique and skills as an artist, but because of the type of person he is! Phil and I recorded "Is this thing On?" in his home studio in London, England. Phil wrote the song - along with Jamie Humphries who is an amazing guitarist! (and a Music Man player - Ed)

Phil made me feel like we were old friends getting together. His wife would make the best coffee I have ever had and we would sit and just talk before going into the studio every day. Not all musicians are that comfortable to let you into their world! Phil and his family are the best! www.PhilHilborne.com

Do you have any advice you'd like to share with us?

Be humble and sincere! I learned this from Phil Hilborne who is an amazing musician and can play any piece of music put in front of him, yet you would never know it by just looking at or talking to him. He has nothing to prove. Music should be enjoyed and not used as a status symbol or for your ego just because you can play with great technique.

That changes daily! Some days it's for the sheer look of these amazing instruments. the quilted maple tops, along with the birdseye maple necks, they're a work of art! Then it's about the TONE , and just the feel on them. They're like an old friend who knows you better than you know yourself. Funny thing is when I go to the Namm Show in Anaheim I'm surrounded by thousands of guitars everywhere, but I'm only interested in the Ernie Ball booth. If you ask Music Man I'm sure they already know I'm their biggest fan!

What's in the pipeline music wise?

Well Australia's very own Brett Garsed just finished recording a solo on a new track called Dreamscapes along with my Ernie Ball friend Ivan Mihaljevic who is mixing and mastering the song.

It's hard getting this CD together when I have only been playing the guitar for a little over 3 years. As I grow as a player so do my musical ideas. It's a rollercoaster for me! But I will have it finished by December 2008.

How do we find more about your music?

The CD will be sold exclusively on my website JohnDennerRocks.com, and proceeds will be going to several charities I'm working with. If this were just about the fact that I was born without a right hand, and not about the music itself, I would walk away from it today!