Going to be a shorter newsletter than usual this weekend. Have been feeling pretty rough this week, but I still wanted to share some of the guitar links that I found to be helpful or interesting. I’m sure I missed some videos, posts or lessons, and if I did, please hit me up on Twitter and let me know what you found! Alright, let’s get into it!

The Best Guitar Lesson I NEVER Had | Nuno Bettencourt - Rabea Massaad breaks down a Nuno Bettencourt video that influenced his playing in a major way while he was growing up. Nuno’s video is about having a supremely funky/drummer-esque sense of rhythm while playing guitar. I always find it fascinating to see what players pick up from different videos. What’s a video or two that’s heavily influenced your playing?
John Mayer Does This And Sounds Amazing!... Now We Can Too! - Robert Baker gets into how John Mayer uses 6ths for really great sounding rhythm harmonization. Also, John is blowing up on TikTok, and you can actually duet one of his videos for the song “Stop This Train”. Check that out here.
Playing Scales in 3rds - So we just talked about 6ths, but something even more common is playing scales in 3rds. 3rds are obviously so important to chords (because they determine whether a chord is minor or major), but using 3rds for scales is even more powerful in hitting chord tones while you’re playing lead.
I Played the Most Famous Guitar in the World - Tyler from MusicIsWin has been playing some of the most iconic guitars over the past couple of years. He recently played a Strat from Clapton, and in this vid he plays a Kramer that Eddie Van Halen used. Later in the week he also played Kirk Hammett’s Ouija ESP KH-2 to run through his favorite Hammett guitar moments. The Ouija ESP is now up for auction, starting at 250 thousand dollars!
How To Play Bass (even for guitar players) - This video is from last month, but I hadn’t linked to it here in the newsletter, and I think it’s important for all guitar players to watch. Rhett Shull sits down with his bassist and they discuss how you should start learning bass coming from guitar, and why it might help your guitar playing too.
Eventide ULTRATAP - SERIOUSLY LUXURIOUS AMBIENT DELAY TONES! - I might have to unsubscribe from Pete Thorn’s YouTube channel. Every time he demos a new pedal, I immediately want to buy it. His latest demo has him showing the lush tones of the Eventide UltraTap ambient delay.
This none-more-punk electric guitar is made entirely of skateboards - The headline says it all. Burls Art who’s known for making guitars out of weird materials like colored pencils, epoxy resin, and even coffee beans (yes, really) made a guitar out of 14 skateboard decks. The finished product looks like something B.C. Rich might have made, and it sounds pretty good! I love watching these guitars getting made.
Daniel Donato Checks in From Cosmic Country to Share His Secrets to Six-String Success - I’m a big fan of Daniel Donato, and couldn’t get enough of his album ‘A Young Man’s Country’. Donato linked up with Guitar Player to talk about everything from his love of Jerry Garcia, to recording techniques, working with Robben Ford and more.
Someone Spent 22 Years Learning King Crimson’s "Fracture," and Wrote a Book About the Journey - This was one of the most wild stories I’ve heard in a while. Someone spent 22 years learning Robert Fripp’s admittedly “impossible to play” King Crimson song “Fracture”. Anthony Garone, on a challenge from his father, spent 22 years attempting to learn this daunting 11 minute instrumental piece from Crimson. But that’s not it, he also wrote a book about his journey, and has uploaded videos about the process to his YouTube channel as well. He even got Fripp himself to say, “Actually, he’s done a pretty good job.” That’s a win in my book!