Before visiting Tom Hess's website I had been playing guitar for about 5 years. I started off playing classic guitar tunes by Metallica, ACDC and other bands before I began getting into more technical lead guitar work. After a while I reached a barrier in my playing and began exploring different ways to get better. At first I merely looked around online at videos and free tabs, but then I made the decision to find a teacher.
After looking around at the different teaching sites online I came across Tom's site and I was blown away by all the great articles and guitar playing resources he has. After looking around at his free stuff I decided to dive in and try lessons. This decision turned out to be a truly great step forward for my guitar playing. I was surprised by how quickly Tom showed me what was wrong in my learning approaches... it only took me a short while before I not only could play lead guitar like I wanted, but I could play things I never knew were possible. In fact, I still take lessons with Tom right now.
Couldn't recommend this site any higher!