We’re closing out February with a bang over here on the newsletter.

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In this week’s issue we have news about where Dave Mustaine’s new signatures have landed, lots of new and upcoming music to talk about, Nita Strauss visiting Sweetwater, and a bunch more. Let’s get into the links!

Gibson Welcomes Dave Mustaine of Megadeth - Cesar of Gibson sits down with Dave Mustaine to announce his multiple signature models, from Gibson, Epiphone and Kramer. After months of speculation, the news is finally official. Guitar World has a photo of each of the new models. There are flying V’s, and even a 24 fret acoustic, which apparently gave Gibson a little bit of an issue in its creation. Im a big fan of the green Rust In Peace V, and wonder if they’ll come out with a Gibson custom shop version of Dave’s main guitar, like they do for some of the Slash models.
Dave Mustaine Sells Gibson... But Who's Buying? Megadeth News - Meanwhile, Levi Clay isn't buying the new partnership between the iconic brand and guitarist. He makes a number of great points in his latest video.
Nita Strauss Visits the Sweetwater Guitar Gallery - In less dramatic, but still fun news, Nita Strauss visited the Sweetwater Guitar Gallery and had one of her signature Ibanez Jiva models set up by the team. It was really cool to get a behind the scenes look at how much attention to detail goes into checking instruments.
My Search for the First Guitar I Ever Owned (warning: NOSTALGIA) - Tyler from MusicIsWin put out a video this week where he receives a Donner starter guitar pack. As one of the comments points out, it just goes to show how great you can get a $100 guitar to sound.
Anniversary Wax from Extravaganza / Mr. Fastfinger Trio Wax on - Wax off / Mika Tyyskä - I loved watching Mika Tyyska’s Mr. Fastfinger Trio play “Wax On/Wax Off” from their upcoming live album. This is a song that I've been working on for a long time, and some of the riffs are a practice in endurance.
Guitar Triads for Beginners - The BEST way to learn Triads - If you're moving into more intermediate territory as a guitar player, you owe it to yourself to learn more about triads. Thankfully Ray Naylor just recently put a video out on the topic.
The most important ARPEGGIO lesson you'll get (easy to hard)- Paul Davids put out an awesome video on arpeggios. This video really goes well with the triad lesson above. Paul guides us through 10 levels of getting good at arpeggios, from easy to pro.
New Universal Audio Pedals are Game Changers - Golden, Astra and Starlight - Josh Smith breaks out the “Wows” for Universal Audio’s new pedals. Ever since these had been announced, I was eager to hear how they sounded. The same folks who worked on the Ox Box, worked on this trio of pedals - modulation, echo and verb, You also can't miss Josh’s recent interview with Tom Quayle.
McRocklin Talks About the Time Vai Cut Into His Floral Jem - Tom McRocklin just started a new series where he talks about his guitar collection. The first video is all about his floral Ibanez Jem, which has a crazy Steve Vai story to go with it. He also did a video on another custom Jem that has a very interesting secret behind it.
Shh... My Secret for Hand Synchronization | Guitar Technique - JustinGuitar shares his tips on hand synchronization. Get your metronomes ready!
“I'm interested in making a little world out of each song”: Wild Pink on channelling great songwriters on A Billion Little Lights - Wild Pink’s new album has been on heavy rotation for me the last week, so I was really excited to see Guitar.com’s feature on the band, where they talk about songwriting and who their influences are.
Dinosaur Jr. announce new album Sweep It Into Space, co-produced by Kurt Vile - And speaking of new music, the Jazzmaster wielding J. Mascis and co. have announced a new Dinosaur Jr. album is on the way. To make this news even cooler, indie rocker Kurt Vile will be producing the album. The country tinged lead single is out now.
Welcome to the Wasteland Revised feat. Angel Vivaldi | Playthrough by Nino Helfrich - Nino Helfrich has released a play through video of his song “Welcome to the Wasteland”. This has Angel Vivaldi’s play through as well, and some of his sweep picking is on another level.
Nir Felder on Removing the Boundary Between Pop and Bop, Practicing for Improv, and the Beauty of Open Strings - I'm so happy Nir Felder is getting more attention, because I've loved listening to his music this year. In this interview with Guitar Player, Nir talks about his influences, how he likes to mix styles, and gear, including his original Tex Mex Strat.
Smith/Kotzen drop bluesy new single Scars from upcoming debut album - The first single from Richie Kotzen and Adrian Smith’s upcoming album was all about the hi-gain rock. With their second single “Scars”, it’s all about blues rock. I never thought I’d see this pairing, but I'm glad these two got together. Really looking forward to hearing the full album.
Frank Zappa once told Steve Vai his guitar tone sounded “like an electric ham sandwich” - Zappa has always been one of my all time favorite musicians. I think it's because I love how he always injected so much humor into everything he did. And telling Vai one time that his guitar tone sounded like an “electric ham sandwich” actually turned out to be some sage advice.