Super happy to be back this week for another issue of Six String Sunday. If you can believe it, I just hit episode 10 of Chasing Sound Live! You can check out the full replay right here.

We lost a couple of good ones in the music world this week, with both Pat Martino and Emmett Chapman passing. If you want to read more about each of them, check out Guitar World’s feature on Pat here and their feature on Emmett Chapman here.

In, finally news, Randy Rhoads was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hallof Fame. Guys like Zakk Wylde, Tom Morello and Kirk Hammett paid tribute to the legendary Ozzy axeman. Check out the story here. I’m really looking forward to seeing the entire ceremony, which should air on HBO later this month.

Alright, let’s get to the rest of this week’s links.

Fireside Festival 2021 feat. Paul Gilbert - Artistworks recently invited a number of their teachers to play the virtual Fireside Festival. I loved Paul Gilbert’s contributions, which include playing, stories and mini lessons inside of 17 minutes. I also really dug what Guthrie Trapp contributed to this year’s festival. If you want to hear some awesome country, check out his video here.
Solo Over The ENTIRE FRETBOARD In Just 3 Simple Steps - Rather than just playing scales vertically, it’s important to be able to play horizontally up the neck as well. Anthony from Best Blues Guitar Lessons teaches us 3 ways to navigate the entire fretboard.
5 PICKING MYTHS THAT JUST PLAIN SUCK 😝 - Al Joseph breaks down 5 picking myths that just aren’t true. Myths like it matters how you hold your pick or that you have to get your picking hand quick before you can fret anything quickly. What do you think of Al’s advice? Check out later in the lesson too where he gives us some great picking exercises to try.
The CRAZIEST Guitar Store Stories Across the USA - Tyler Larsson has finally completed his Guitar Store Tour, where he’s been to a guitar store in each of the 50 U.S. states over the last couple of years. Having worked at a guitar store in the past, I absolutely loved this video where Tyler talks to guitar store employees all over the country, and asks them what’s the craziest guitar store story they’ve ever experienced.
How to Build Speed on the Guitar - Do you have a need? A need for speed? I’m sorry, I’ll show myself out. But honestly though, pretty solid video from Ross Campbell on building speed on guitar. On the same day, Johnathan Cordy also talked about speed bursts. Let me know if either of these things increases your speed on guitar.
OPEN D: The most beautiful tuning for guitar! - Paul Davids makes a solid case that open D is one of the most beautiful tunings for the guitar. I love how he intros this video and builds up a great sounding, fingerpicked song throughout 8 minutes!
5 ESSENTIAL TIPS TO LEVEL UP YOUR LEGATO TECHNIQUE | How To Practice - Part 2 | TOM QUAYLE - If you have about a half an hour, and want to learn legato from one of the kings of the technique, check out Tom Quayle’s latest video. It’s the second in his how to practice series.
Ola Impulse Responses - The One - If you’re a fan of Ola Englund’s tone, you’re in luck. He just started selling the impulse responses that were previously only available to his YouTube members, to the general public. Check out the video to hear how it sounds in action.
Pedalpocalypse Episode 01: Josh Smith - Josh Smith sat down on the first episode of Pedalpocalypse to discuss his top 3 pedals of all time. I linked to this channel a while back, and it looks like they’re slowly putting out videos from time to time. Seems like a cool bunch of concepts they’re trying. I hope to see more videos from this channel soon.
How To Set Your Overdrive & Distortion Pedals In A Band - Spoilers for this one - less gain is better! If you haven’t learned this very important tone lesson yet, you really owe it to yourself to watch this video from the guys at That Pedal Show.
History of the ProCo RAT Pedal and Myths Debunked - What do you get when you study over 100 different RAT pedals? Well, you get Josh over at JHS going over the history of the ProCo RAT pedal - one of the most famous distortion pedals of all time. There are versions of the RAT on here that I’ve never seen in my life. Really well done video.
Warren Haynes Reveals His Secret Studio Weapon | Big 5 - Warren Haynes sits down with Premier Guitar for the Big 5. He talks about his favorite guitar of all time, his desert island album pick, what his secret weapon is, and much more. Really insightful lessons from Warren. I’m looking forward to new Govt Mule releases and their upcoming tour.
Adam Jones 1979V2 Les Paul Custom - The second round of Adam Jones 1979 Les Pauls are here. I really liked this video (it reminded me of an Apple product demo). If you want to read more about the guitar, check out this Guitar.com link. Looks like most things are staying the same, but there’s only one version of the guitar this time, and the ageing is also different on this second go around.
Fender announces acquisition of PreSonus Audio Electronics - Big industry news this week, as Fender acquires Presonus Audio. I’m interested in seeing what Fender does with Presonus, and if they’ll leave the company be, or roll them in to their already established Fender pro audio line. Either way, seems like a good deal for both brands.
Ariel Posen: “If you’re playing something great all the time, it has a lot less impact – if you play sparingly then you really notice what is going on” - I really enjoyed this short interview with Ariel Posen, that was taken from a recent issue of Guitar World magazine. In it, Posen talks about the importance of dynamics and building a story over time, what he’s using to dial in his signature tone, why it’s important to diversify as a musician, and more.
Gretsch Set to Open Its Own Museum in Savannah, Georgia Next Month | GuitarPlayer - Gretsch has been around for over 130 years, and soon the classic guitar brand will have its own museum. The site will feature all sorts of classic Gretsch models from Chet Atkins to Malcolm Young. The museum opens up in the middle of November in Savannah, Georgia.