If last week’s issue was a “short one” at right around 700 or so words…this week’s issue is going to make up for that. I have tons of lessons, new gear, and so much more guitar related stuff to share with you this week! I’m glad to say I’m feeling a lot better than I was feeling last week, and that really pushed me to make a mega-issue of the newsletter.

I really hope you enjoy reading Six String Sunday. If you ever have any guitar questions, feel free to reply to this email or hit me up on Twitter. Let’s get in to this week’s links!

How to Play “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath - We’re kicking things off the right way with Nick Bowcott over at Sweetwater, teaching us Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”. The song is a 3 minute metal masterpiece that anyone can, and should learn! Pretty great song for an “afterthought”.
The ULTIMATE Bark at the Moon Guitar Lesson w/Ben Eller - Moving from Sabbath to straight up Ozzy, spend some time with Ben Eller as he deconstructs the classic “Bark at the Moon”. Learn all the Jake E Lee-isms. Oh, and if you want to catch up with another Ozzy guitarist, read this great Zakk Wylde interview.
Giant Steps at 330bpm! - What do you do when you want to take an already painfully difficult song like “Giant Steps” and make it harder? Crank up the speed to 330 beats per minute!
Positive Grid Spark Pearl - demo - Positive Grid’s Spark amp has been one of the most popular practice amps for a while. It sounds pretty decent, and has all sorts of jamming tools built in to its app. For a short time, PG is offering a limited edition white “Pearl” version of the amp. If you want to get a great idea of how it sounds, MusicIsWin did a video of 7 Famous Guitar Intros That’ll Give You Chills, exclusively featuring the Spark.
Metallica's James Hetfield: Music Saved My Life - I loved this short video from Rock Feed reporting on how music saved James Hetfield’s life, and how he’s giving back.
Not Getting Better at Guitar? You Might Be Practicing The WRONG Way! - The title says it all - David Wallimann shows us how just noodling will get us nowhere on guitar. You need to have a plan when you sit down to practice. Later in the week, David posted another video on how to design a perfect practice schedule.
The Guide To String Gauges 2021 - What string gauge is right for you? Fluff from Riffs, Beards & Gear goes over a ton of different options whether you’re in E Standard, Drop D, E Flat Std, and many, many more tunings.
Ariel Posen - Headway (FULL ALBUM LIVE) - Ariel Posen has now released a live video for every song off his new album ‘Headway’. The songs off this album were already great, and it’s nice to have them all in one video. It’s even more inspiring to see Ariel nail all the riffs and tones from the album.
Six Secrets Of Sustain For Electric Guitar [And Quite A Bit On Feedback Too] – That Pedal Show - One of the most important things you can do for your own tone, is learn how to develop sustain with your guitar rig. I’ll be honest, this video is worth it for the intro alone. Stay for the sustain tips!
All About Vibrato: tips for developing a killer wobble - You know what goes well with sustain? Vibrato! The YT channel Anyone Can Play Guitar helps us develop a killer “wobble”.
One FANTASTIC guitar solo by STEELY DAN - This is more of an appreciation post. If you have around five and a half minutes, go geek out over the solos in Steely Dan’s “Reeling In The Years”, featuring some of the best guitar playing ever. Whenever I listen to Steely Dan, I always go down a rabbit hole and start listening to their whole masterful catalog. It’s just so good! What’s your favorite Steely Dan song?
The Ultimate GUITAR SOLO Guide - Speaking of solos, if you want to supercharge your own leads, check out Paul Davids’ guide to soloing. He goes over all the common things to check out - pentatonic scales, tension and release, chromatic notes, and more.
How to Solo over Key Changes || Practical Exercises - If you want even more soloing tips, check out Johnathan Cordy’s lesson on soloing over key changes, and how he approaches the task.
Mark Lettieri - Deep: The Baritone Sessions Vol. 2 - AVAILABLE NOW - Mark Lettieri of Snarky Puppy, The Fearless Flyers and more is back with his 2nd volume of his Deep Baritone Sessions. This album is funky, tuned low, and a lot of fun to listen to.
The History Of Phaser Pedals - I absolutely adore phaser pedals. So when I saw Josh and his crew at JHS Pedals was doing a history on the effect, I couldn’t click fast enough. Josh starts with the Univibe, and takes us through the history of the effect by pulling pedals from his massive collection.
John Petrucci | Liquid Tension Experiment 3 | Interview | Thomann - John Petrucci and Liquid Tension Experiment have dropped nearly 2 hours of prog madness with their new, long awaited album (we’ve been waiting since 1999!) Thomann’s Guitars & Basses sat down with Petrucci to talk all about the new album - from songwriting to gear, and more.
12 Pedal Brands Share Their Origin Stories | The Pedal Movie Extras - We’re so close to the release of The Pedal Movie. I feel like I’ve seen a crazy amount of clips from the movie at this point! In this new clip from the movie companies like Analogman, Keeley, JHS and others share their unique origin stories. Look out for the full movie April 30th.
Scanning The Pearly Gates w/ Thomas Nilsen : The Tone Mob - The Tone Mob dropped a monster podcast episode with Thomas Nilsen of Cream T Pickups. The whole show is fantastic, but I especially loved his story about scanning a legendary guitar from Billy Gibbons.
A Repair Shop Sparked a Revolution: The Charvel/Jackson - Recently Reverb put up a post detailing the humble origins of the Charvel/Jackson brand. It was amazing to read how a small repair shop in Azusa, California turned out to be one of the most popular guitar brands of all time.
How TikTok is changing the face of guitar music - While many people are shying away from social media, others are embracing it head on. I enjoyed checking out Guitar World’s take on how TikTok is changing the landscape of music.
Bill Kelliher: “It’s not the gain from your pickups, pedals or amp that makes your riff heavy – it’s the riff itself” - Eddie was always Eddie, no matter what guitar he played. Same thing for SRV, Vai, and countless others, that had tone in their fingers. I loved reading this interview with Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher. The number one takeaway from it all? - “It’s not the gain from your pickups, pedals or amp that makes your riff heavy – it’s the riff itself”
Watch CeDell Davis Play Slide with a Butter Knife - Want to take that gear quote to a whole different genre? How about getting some serious blues done…with a butter knife?
Watch Stevie Ray Vaughan Make the Slickest Guitar Swap of All Time - What about Stevie making one of the most seamless guitar switches of all time, mid song? You love to see it!
10 Different Ways to Hot Rod Your Guitar - And finally, if you have time this weekend, you might want to get a mod project going with one of your guitars. In this new post Guitar Player shows us 10 ways to hot rod our guitars. Everything from pickups to frets, swapping out the nut and more. Don’t be afraid to mod your own gear!