This week there’s a big focus on gear - whether it be new Fender models and the company’s appearance on TikTok, John Petrucci’s brand new 8-string, or how to maintain your axe, it’s all here in this week’s issue.

I’m also including a healthy dose of the week’s best guitar lessons, and how to get your guitar playing back on track. If you’re seeing any great guitar stories that aren’t in my weekly email, let me know! I’m @ChasingSound everywhere on social media, and you can always email me at Brian@ChasingSound.com! Alright, let’s get into these links.

Put The Root In The Middle - Chris Sherland breaks down two interesting ways to look at the fretboard. His root in the middle concept gives you a middle ground so you have both ways of moving vertically on the fretboard, and gives you a good anchor point. He also explains another concept that has us looking less at the pattern of scales, and more at the notes contained in them. If you want even more ways to learn the fretboard, check out Ry Naylor’s recent vid on the topic.
Why A Fender Strat Or Tele With Humbuckers Doesn't Sound Like a Gibson - DylanTalksTone explains why you can’t just throw humbuckers into a Tele or Strat, and expect it to sound like a Les Paul. Everything from scale length to bridge design, pickup placement and more is talked about.
How to Make Your Guitar Play GREAT w/ Uncle Ben Eller - Ben breaks out one of his Suhrs to show us the best way to set guitars up - starting with a string change, talking about truss rod adjustments, through to intonation, if you’re looking to set up your guitar, this is a great video to start with.
How To Make The WORST Chords....Sound GREAT! - Awful chords…we’ve all played them. But how do we make them sound better? The answer is easy - experimentation. That’s exactly what SamuraiGuitarist does in his latest video. Whether it be boring, ugly, or a hand twister, there’s always a way to make it sound better!
How to Make Your Blues Licks Sing - Isaiah Sharkey helps us make our blues licks sound more vocal, by showing us how important bending is.
10 Classic Guitar Riffs That Will Make You a Better Player - Rhett Shull takes us through 10 classic riffs that’ll make your guitar playing way better. From bands like Zeppelin, The Police and Dire Straits to newer classics like Rage Against the Machine, this type of lesson is my favorite - rather than running boring drills, you’re playing actual music to learn techniques.
8 Pedal Companies you haven't heard of YET! - #42GSTHREE BUILDERS BOARD - In the market for a new pedal? Aren’t we all? The Guitar Geek checks out fuzzes, boosts, overdrives and more in his latest video. The coolest part is that these are from 8 pedal companies you might not have heard of yet. Pick one of these up before they get super popular and go for high prices on Reverb!
BRAINWORX SUHR PT100 PLUGIN! NOW AVAILABLE - Pete Thorn’s demo videos are known for their fantastic tone and great songwriting. Pete could make anything sound really, really good. In his latest video he’s checking out the Brainworx Suhr PT100 plugin. If you want to have Pete’s amp available in your DAW, you’re in luck, because it’s finally here in a native format.
Your guide to John Mayer's guitar gear, era by era - John Mayer’s come a long way from using a Fender SRV Strat and a Dave Matthews signature acoustic. In this post, Guitar World breaks down Mayer’s gear from his humble beginnings at Berklee, all the way until today.
John Petrucci's signature 8-string Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty has arrived at last - John Petrucci’s Majesty guitar is one of the most popular in Ernie Ball’s lineup. Recently Petrucci unveiled the long awaited 8 string model of his signature axe. Check out his announcement in this post, and then check out Jason Richardson shredding on it.
Fender launches all-new Player Plus electric guitar and bass models with fresh finishes and switching options - Fender made big news this week by announcing their Player Plus guitars and basses. They come in some wild new finishes, are priced all around the thousand dollar range, and look to be some of the best mid-priced instruments you can get. If you’ve tried one of these in person, let me know how they were.
Fender becomes the first major guitar brand with an official TikTok account - In other Fender news, to announce their Player Plus series, the company joined TikTok. Apparently they’re the first major brand to join the social media site. I’ve had a lot of fun filming short videos for TikTok over the last couple of months. I’ve heard others call it the modern day MTV, and I couldn’t agree more. There’s a lot of visibility on the app, and I think it’ll continue to push new artists out there. Check out my videos on TikTok here.
Jackson teams up with former Megadeth guitarist Chris Broderick to launch impressively spec'd Pro Series Soloist model - Combining the best of both worlds, Jackson just teamed up with Chris Broderick to make a beautiful looking Pro Series Soloist model. Chris’ demo video is very wild - covering everything from searing leads and heavy rhythm, to two handed classical tapping.
Home Rigs of the Stars: What Do Guitar Heroes Play When They’re Off the Clock? - I really enjoyed reading this feature in the print version of Guitar Player, so I’m glad they brought it online. Check out what Petrucci, Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert and others use as their home rig when they’re not on tour.
Why The Line 6 POD Sounds Really Bad - Not gonna lie, it might be time to get my old school POD out from the attic and put it back into play for practice.
Melodic Rock Lick Inspired by Andy Timmons | Spicy Licks #15- I always love Ross Campbell’s Spicy Licks series vids. In this one Ross shows us an Electric Gypsy inspired lick that combines open strings, slides, and nods to Hendrix.
The ONE Solo Tip I Wish I'd Been Told! - Chris Buck makes the connection between Buckethead, Derek Trucks and GnR’s Chinese Democracy album to show us why being able to solo on one string is so important. This is something that comes up a lot in one of my favorite books, The Advancing Guitarist - check that book out, if you haven’t already!
40k Sub Rage Time - Stop Letting Artists Sell You BAD Tabs!! - And finally, congrats to Levi Clay for hitting 40 thousand subs on YouTube! In this video he talks about artists who sell inaccurate tabs online. Levi knows a thing or two about transcription (seeing as this is his job!), and I always love his rage time vids.