Hey, how’s it going? I just finished doing episode 9 of Chasing Sound Live! where we talked about finding notes on the fretboard. I’ve been having so much fun doing these bi-weekly streams. If you’re just getting started on guitar, or if you’ve played for years, I think this is one of the best lessons with a ton of tricks that’ll be helpful for you. You can check out the replay here. If you have an idea of what you’d like me to cover next, let me know. Alright, let’s get into this week’s links!
Never Buy a Patch Cable Again - Want to save money? Break out your soldering iron and check out this video from the Rig Doctor, who shows us how to make our own cables. Later in the week, he talked about incorporating MIDI into your rig, which you can check out here.
This guitar pedal has a 4-YEAR waiting list, so I bought one - Have you ever been on a waiting list for anything for four years? What about a guitar pedal? That’s exactly how rare the Analogman King of Tone is at this point. Luckily, Tyler from Music Is Win bought one and gives us a fun demo of how it sounds.
Are you making these mistakes with compressor pedals? - Compressor pedals are one of the most understood pedals out there. Many can’t hear the difference when a compressor pedal is on - and that’s part of the point of a compressor pedal! Unless you’re using a compressor to get an effected squashed sound, it should bring the low volume guitar notes up and compress down the highest volume notes so your tone is even. In this vid, Brian Wampler talks about some of the mistakes people make with compressor pedals, and how to better use these really helpful pedals.
You’re Using Your Boss DS–1 All Wrong! - I can give you a pass for using a compressor wrong, but a Boss DS–1? How could anyone not use that right? Well, that’s exactly what the guys at That Pedal Show are here to show us in this week’s video. The guys talk about the difference between distortion and fuzz, mods, comparisons against other pedals, and so much more. If you can believe it, they spent nearly an hour on one of the most popular pedals of all time.
Guitarist Reacts to Famous Guitar Scenes from Movies -From Spinal Tap to Crossroads and even Wayne’s World, there have been so many awesome guitar moments in movies. In this vid, Steve reacts to some of the best guitar moments of all time. “No Stairway to Heaven”!
THE MAGIC OF SMALL TUBE AMPS - Some of the hugest and most popular songs, have been recorded with some of the tiniest/lowest wattage amps. Paul Davids shows off 4 amps that’ll let you hear why small amps are so effective.
FINGERPICKING Patterns You MUST Know - The ability to fingerpick can turn your straight ahead chords into wonderful arpeggiated lines. In this video Marty Music shows us a couple of patterns to get under our fingers.
Ghost Songs You Can Play in Drop D Tuning! - We’re only about a week away from Halloween, and like clockwork, Ben Eller is back with a handful of Ghost songs you can play in standard drop D tuning! And he’s doing it on a sick Dunable R2.
Epiphone B.B. King Lucille Semi-hollowbody Electric Guitar Demo - The B.B. King Lucille models are some of the most iconic blues guitars of all time. I remember sitting down with a Gibson signature version of this guitar decades ago, and being inspired to play licks in the BB box. Now we can grab this axe for under $1K, as Gibson just released the Epiphone version of this classic ES series guitar. And speaking of B.B., Marty Music just put out a great lesson on his collaboration with Clapton a while back, “Riding With the King”. Check that out here.
Dream Theater | A View From the Top of the World - I’ve been loving the new Dream Theater album ‘A View From the Top of the World’. It reminds me of older DT albums like ‘Awake’ and ‘Images and Words’. The album closes out with an epic 20 minute title track. Somehow, some way, Evan Bradley has already tabbed out this beast of a track. If you want to play along, check out the video, where there’s live tab. What an awesome transcriber!
The One Studio Guitar Trick I NEVER Do - Rhett Shull takes a deep dive on re-amping - how to do it, why you might want to if you’re recording at home, and why he personally never re-amps himself.
Justin Derrico Has Recorded 4,000 Songs for ‘The Voice’ | Feedback Loop | PRS Guitars - There’s productive music output, and then there’s Justin Derrico, who has recorded 4,000 songs for “The Voice”. PRS caught up with Justin to give him some quick fire questions.
Practice Without Looking - I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of Chris Sherland’s videos lately. In this one he talks about not using your eyes once you’ve learned stuff on guitar. Chris has also just put together a new level of his Patreon, which involves a guitar community called The Studio. Go check it out if you’re interested in learning more about the theory behind guitar/music.
What are Diminished Chords? Stop the Panic!!! - Speaking of theory, what about diminished chords? They’re part of 4 of the most important chords you can learn (the other being maj, min, and augmented chords). Johnathan Cordy explains what diminished chords are, and how you can use them in your playing.
Polyphia’s Tim Henson Responds To “Boomer Bends” Controversy - Tim Henson responds to the “controversy” around “boomer bends”. Do you want to write riffs like Polyphia? Check out this video from Ben Levin.
3 ELEMENTAL KEYS OF LEFT-HAND MASTERY🎸 - Al Joseph dropped an awesome, nearly 40 minute long lesson on how to get your fretting hand up to speed. He goes over 3 different ways to get rid of bad habits, make sure you’re focusing on efficient movement, and lots more. This is one of the best lessons of the week!
18 pro guitarists who play cheap guitars | Guitar World - A little while ago we talked about how the guitarist from Genesis was using $200 Squier Bullet Strats. This week, Guitar World is back with 18 pro guitarists who play cheaper guitars. You have everyone from Brian May and EVH, to Billie Joe, Derek Trucks and more on this list. Who’s your favorite player on here?
Snark’s new rechargeable tuner could solve a fundamental problem with waste - I’ll be the first to admit that I hate buying batteries for anything - especially pedals and accessories. Which is why I was so happy to see that Snark is now selling a USB rechargeable version of its popular clip on tuner. Will definitely be picking one of these up!
Matt Bellamy hits 88 mph in new Manson Guitar Works teaser-trailer - Matt Bellamy from Muse (and owner of Manson Guitar Works) just put out an awesome Back to the Future inspired teaser for a guitar that’s going to be announced next week. I hope it allows you to play “at least” 88 BPM.
How To Get WAY Better At The Guitar (even if you’ve been playing for decades…) - If it seems like I’ve been linking to David Wallimann a bunch, it’s because he’s been on a roll with his lessons. This latest one has us putting the guitar down, stop thinking in patterns/shapes/licks, and get more creative.
One last bump for this, but I'm still selling my Fractal AX-8, and have dropped it $100 bucks to an insane $875 with a case and expression pedal, plus some cool patches. You can pick it up here, while it lasts!
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading!
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