Tone. At Home.
Guitar World has posted another video lesson from Andy Aledort. In this lesson, he’s looking at how to emulate the open-tuning sound of the old delta blues masters on standard tuning.
This video is helpful if you’re looking to improve your understanding of what makes the delta blues sound work, or if you want some tips on how to improvise around this concept.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Andy’s video.
YouTube loves to play adverts, and most of the time they’re either totally irrelevant to me, or worse I can’t work out who the advertiser is or what they’re trying to sell.
So when YouTube said it was loading up a 26 minute advert, my first thought was “who on Earth would make an advert that long?”
The cast of the upcoming Bat Out Of Hell – The Musical recently did a promo event in front of an invited audience. The event was filmed, and turned into a YouTube advert.
I’d forgotten just how good some of these songs are. Take a listen. Maybe you’ve forgotten too.
Rabea Massaad has just posted a demo of the new Danelectro Cash Cow distortion pedal. It’s a paid demo (as many of these kinds of videos are), and thank you to Rabea for making that clear at the very start.
This has a thick, saturated tone to it – the kind that might be very enjoyable to just noodle on at home unaccompanied.
Rabea does say that he thinks it’s one of the darker distortion pedals that he’s played through. I’d love to hear it in a mix, to hear if it can cut through for lead duties, or whether it works best as a rhythm pedal.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Rabea’s video.
Shane’s been teasing us about the Kemper Profiler that he borrowed from Sky Music of Melbourne … and now we have his thoughts on it.
I’m going to save my thoughts on the Kemper until I’ve had time to sit down and record my own Kemper demos. For now, I agree with what Shane thinks about the Kemper – especially when it comes to pedals – but I have a lot more to share about profiling accuracy soon!
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Shane’s video.
The first batch of PRS Silver Sky guitars is out in the wild. Tim Pierce has borrowed one, and he’s posted a comparison of the Silver Sky vs an original Fender Stratocaster from 1965 – a guitar that costs about 10 times as much as the Silver Sky.
Have a listen.
I couldn’t hear a difference between the two guitars, not in the mix at any rate. And, honestly, I think that’s impressive.
Folks have been trying to recreate the fabled 59 Les Paul tone for decades, and so far no-one – including PRS – has managed to do so. We’ve ended up with some really good instruments to choose from if we don’t want a Gibson, but that hallowed tone has remained elusive. (In part because no-one can agree on what it is …). The PRS McCarty 594 is a fantastic guitar, but it does not sound like a Les Paul.
With the Silver Sky, it appears that PRS have managed to recreate that 60s Strat tone, and then improve on both the tone and the playing experience.
Once people get over the headstock, I’m sure this guitar is here to stay.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Tim’s video.
Ben and Christopher from Crimson Guitars tackle a viewer’s question, and one that certainly bugs me about a couple of my guitars: why do we get string buzz on the first few frets of a guitar?
They call this the impossible question, because once a couple of simple things have been eliminated, the list of possible causes quickly balloons out to a crazy extent. Watch the video to see just how many things can be causing the problem.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed this video.
David Gilmour’s lead phrasing is amongst the most iconic ever recorded, instantly recognisable whenever we hear it. But just what is he doing? Paul Davids shows us.
Be warned: this video features extreme 5 semi-tone string bends. Just watching Paul’s fingers getting caught under the strings made me wince!
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Paul’s video. Or even if you just felt sorry for his poor abused fingers.
Leo from Frog Leap Studios has posted a demo of his Line 6 Shuriken Variax, and how it enables him to perform his famous metal covers live.
It’s really cool how far the Variax has come from the early days. I had the original Variax – boy was that a long time ago – and it was so bad it ended up in the recycling. I couldn’t even give it away. But the Shuriken – especially paired with the Helix – looks worlds apart. Check out Leo’s video to see just what it can do.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Leo’s video.
Dan and Mick have posted a video all about Dan’s new Fender Custom Shop Telecaster 52 Reissue, and how it compares to the Custom Shop 63 Reissue that he’s been using on That Pedal Show for the last couple of years.
This video is full of surprises: side by side, the 52 reissue doesn’t sound anything like they (or I) expected. It’s nowhere near as bright or sharp as a modern maple-boarded Tele would be, and of course it doesn’t rock like Dan’s red Tele famously does – yet it still has its own thing going on.
Even if you’re not into Fender Teles, it’s still worth watching just to watch them geeking out over gear, and trying to learn licks off each other. There’s an important lesson there: it’s no different to the last time you and your mates did exactly the same thing.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed this video.
What would a wall of 100W Marshall heads, with eight 4×12 cabs, sound like at home? Johan Segeborn has found out for us, so that we don’t need to upset the neighbours.
I swear that you can see the camera shaking from the amount of air that these Marshall stacks are moving!
I think it sounds glorious too. The room looks (and sounds) very lively – it’s adding a lot of reflections to the recording, because Johan’s using a room mic to capture this. Treat the room to take some of that away, and it would sound truly immense.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Johan’s video … or if you’re just jealous that he has somewhere to do this 🙂