Welcome to the last issue of Six String Sunday for 2021! With Christmas coming up in less than a week, I’ll be taking a 2 week break from the newsletter, but will be back in your inbox in the new year! Let’s make 2022 the best year for guitar we’ve ever had. Thanks so much for reading this newsletter each and every week, hanging out in our Discord, on the livestreams, and everywhere else. I really appreciate your support! Let’s get into this week’s links.

Oh, one more thing, I just wrapped up the last livestream of the year! - Check out episode 13 of Chasing Sound Live! here.

Van Halen Was a MASTER at This… - This was one of my favorite videos of the week. As I try and work more and more on theory, being able to be triads all over the neck is so important. I loved this lesson where Chris shows us how to play 12 sets of triads all over the neck. Put in the work, and this type of practice will reward you a lot!
10 Pro Guitarists Solo Over The Same Track - Paul Davids has brought 10 guitarists together - Tom Bukovac, Ariel Posen, Lari Basilio and more to apply their unique soloing talents to the same track. Make sure you stay until the end of the video, as Tom Quayle plays some insane outside stuff that’s amazing.
Duplicate any guitar tone with this… - Brian Wampler put out a short and sweet vid on using EQ matching to make your guitar tracks sound great. He uses the Foo Fighters’ track “Breakout” and then creates 2 tracks of his own, and gets pretty darn close!
The FUTURE of Modern Guitar w/ Aaron Marshall - Rick Beato sits down with Intervals’ Aaron Marshall to talk about the future of guitar. Aaron talks about his new Schecter guitar, how he’s using the Neural DSP Quad Cortex, dialing in sounds and much more. If you haven’t check out Intervals yet, start with ‘The Shape of Colour’ and go from there.
John Petrucci’s New Neural DSP Plugin - John Petrucci has been working with Neural DSP on his very own amp/cab/effects plugin, and it’s finally here! Ola Englund demos the entire thing, going through heavy tones, clean tones, low tuning tests, and much more. This seems like Neural DSP’s best artist plugin yet - it sounds awesome!
🎸 Joe Bonamassa Guitar Lesson: Crafting a Guitar Solo - Joe Bonamassa’s new guitar course recently came to Truefire. In this video taken from the course, Joe shows us how he would approach crafting a guitar solo from scratch. Played, of course, on a beautifully worn Tele.
Ep. 7: I Tried Gabriela Quintero’s Guitar Warm-up: This Is What I Learned - I feel like we haven’t seen a video from this series in a long time, so I’m glad it’s back. This practice/warm-up routine from Reverb follows the warm-up routines of some of the best guitarists out there. For this episode, Reverb tries Gabriela Quintero’s warm up routine. If you haven’t heard of Gabriela, go run and check out Rodrigo y Gabriela’s entire discography!
How Every Type of Guitar Player Practices - I always like these types of videos, because I feel like Tyler really hits these stereotypes right on the head. I feel like I’ve been a noodler and scale runner for a while, before becoming more intentional with my practice.
Guitar Store Licks… And How To Play Them! - Ross Campbell is back with 3 tasty licks - 2 mixo based rock licks, and 1 more countrified lick that’ll be perfect the next time you decide to rock out in a guitar store. No Stairway!
3 Reasons Wes Montgomery Is Amazing And Worth Checking Out - Wes Montgomery is a giant of jazz guitar. I dug this video from Jens Larsen where he talks about 3 reasons to go check Wes out. Not only do these reasons make Wes Montgomery great, but they’ll also be perfect for any guitar player looking to make their playing better.
What to Practice on Guitar? - JustinGuitar posted a great video on how to be mindful in your practice sessions. From practicing only what applies to the type of music you play, to knowing why you’re practicing what you’re practicing, this is some no nonsense advice that everyone could benefit from.
Tom Murphy on the Four Levels of Guitar Aging - If you want to learn all about Gibson’s Murphy Lab aging, check out this interview that the man himself, Tom Murphy did with Sweetwater. Tom talks about the 4 levels of guitar aging.
The Pedalboard of Doom - I’m a huge fan of weird pedals…so this video had me grinning from ear to ear.
Jimmy Eat World | Phoenix Sessions: Futures (Live) - Jimmy Eat World recently released their 3 Phoenix Sessions livestreams on YouTube. I’ve always been a big fan of the band, and especially their album ‘Futures’. The livestream was really well produced, and features excellent versions of the songs. The band also released livestreams for their ‘Surviving’ and ‘Clarity’ streams. Here’s hoping they do one for ‘Bleed American’ sometime soon.
Eric Clapton successfully sues 55-year-old German widow for listing bootleg CD on eBay for $11 - Is Clapton actively trying to get people to dislike him these days?
How to get noticed by guitar brands on Instagram - Are you looking to get noticed by your favorite guitar, amp or pedal manufacturer on IG? Guitar World has some good tips that are good for nearly every platform. They touch on stuff like cleaning up your space and the importance of lightning, to audio quality and getting your captions just right.
Richie Faulkner is back in the studio following his life-saving heart surgery - One of my favorite stories this week is that Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner is back in the studio, following his heart surgery. It was really wild to see him deal with an aneurysm on stage, and I’m really happy to see he’s back in action.
Mesa/Boogie’s Randall Smith is Developing a New Line of Gibson Amplifiers | GuitarPlayer - Gibson’s purchasing of Mesa/Boogie is finally meshing. Mesa’s legendary Randall Smith is making a new line of Gibson amps. I’m a huge Mesa/Boogie fan, and am really excited to see where this partnership takes them!