LCG #195 – Rodney Branigan interview

Posted on 17/05/2013 by pjournel

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:57 — 36.9MB) | Embed

My first contact with Rodney Branigan was through this amazing YouTube video of the song “Body Language” (see below) where he can be seen playing simultaneously a guitar and a mandolin while singing! When the opportunity arised to interview him I jumped on it.

Rodney Branigan is part of this new generation of guitarists which completely revisit the field of acoustic guitar bringing a very personal approach which gives great music.

From the album “Sketches” played before the interview:

The Songwriter
Body Language
Going Gone
Muddy Jesus

Enjoy,

Pierre.

The Hellfest : a hell of festival!

Posted on 16/05/2013 by pjournel

The Hellfest festival has become a must for all that concerns heavy music. It takes place West of France in Clisson.This year I think the program is very attractive with some of the biggest names in heavy rock like ZZ Top, Europe, Whitesnake or Def Leppard as well as other bands like Gojira, Korn. In all it’s more than 150 groups that will feed the torrent of decibels 21-22-23 June 2013 in Clisson.

For the first time, I’ll cover this festival with a Press pass to bring a maximum of picture, audio and video. This should be fun!

Who’s going? Why don’t we organize a Guitar Channel meetup at the festival?

Pierre.

Video setup to record soundseeing

Posted on 08/05/2013 by pjournel

This is the setup I use to make video soundseeings for the show. The MOTU Ultralite mk3 interface plays the lead role since it serves both as a preamp for Shure SM58 for vocals for comments and as a mixer for the output of Torpedo CAB Two-Notes.

Note that the camera used is a Lumix GH2 with a 14-42 lens. This camera has a stereo mic stereo input required to make a good sounding video.

Be careful though as this input is very sensitive and is quickly saturated if you are not careful. It is possible to display a VU meter on the display of the GH2 but unfortunately it is not accurate at all so it’s close to useless to accurately judge the input level. The only solution is to test and to write down the good settings.

Another limitation of the GH2 is that it does not have a headphone jack to monitor the sound. So I use a headset connected to the audio interface itself for monitoring during recording. This headphone jack is available on the GH3, the GH2 successor.

That’s how it looks like during recording:

If you have any questions about my setup, please post a comment below or on the Facebook page or via Twitter @theguitarchnnl.

Pierre.

LCG #193 – Mika Tyyskä (Mr FastFinger) interview at the 2013 MusikMesse

Posted on 04/05/2013 by pjournel

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:55 — 12.6MB) | Embed

When I stumbled onto Mika Tyyskä (aka Mr Fastfinger) in Hall 4.0 of the MusiMesse, I immediately asked him to do a video interview and he accepted at once. We talked about his upcoming album “Stringweaver” to be released May 21st 2013 (listen to the extracts played before the interview).

The interview is available on YouTube (see viewer below) and in mp3 in the podcast feed.

The superb visual for “Stringweaver” :

Extracts from “Stringweaver” played :

Awaki-Waki
Practice Heart
Nightvisions

You can also check the interview I did with him via Skype in episode #173 in 2012.

Enjoy,

Pierre.

Frankenstrat Project – Body prepared for paint and neck varnished

Posted on 28/04/2013 by pjournel

Here’s an update on the Frankenstrat Project as I received some pics from the Patrick Querleux who has just finished the preparation on the body and the varnish on the neck. The EG Solidbody neck and body are looking better and better with each update. Can’t wait to see the final results !

LCG #191 – Mattias IA Eklundh interview (MusikMesse 2013)

Posted on 16/04/2013 by pjournel

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:54 — 28.7MB) | Embed

Here’s an interview I did at the MusikMesse 2013 with Mattias IA Eklundh. I met him for the first time in 2009 for an audio interview you can find in episode #38. This time we talked about his latest solo album “The Smorgasborg”, his True Temperament equiped Caparison guitars, his next projects and many more.

The video of the interview is available online on YouTube (see player below) and as an MP3 file in the podcast feed.

Extracts from “The Smorgasbord” played before the interview in the MP3 version :

Musth
Hells Bells
Crossing The Rubicon
That’s Amore

Yes you HAVE to make a stupid crazy face pic when you meet with Mattias, it’s mandatory so here you go :

Mattias Apple Horn model from Caparison :

Enjoy,

Pierre.

Ola Strandberg interview (MusikMesse 2013)

Posted on 15/04/2013 by pjournel

During the MusikMesse 2013 I had the opportunity to meet Ola Strandberg who is the master mind and luthier behind .strandberg* guitars. The design of his guitars is pretty radical and optimized to have the best ergonomic.

Here’s the interview done in the noisy environment in front of Hall 4.0:

Enjoy !

Pierre.

LCG #189 – International guitar blogcasters chat with Guitar Noize, Six String Bliss and Muzicosphere

Posted on 27/03/2013 by pjournel

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:09 — 54.1MB) | Embed

Here’s a special episode for you with an international conversation among guitar bloggers and podcasters from Australia, the US and France ! As a long time fan of what those guys are doing I thought it would be a good idea to setup this talk, they all agreed immediately to the project.

Participants :

Jonathan Bloomer from GuitarNoize
PT from Six String Bliss
Semi from Muzicosphere
Myself, Pierre for The Guitar Channel

We talked about :

The origin of our respective sites
Why we enjoy doing it
The current projects
Some war stories

I hope you will enjoy listening to this as much as we had fun doing it.

Thanks Jon, PT and Semi for your collaboration.

Pierre.

Frankenstrat Project – The body, the neck, the vibrato and the luthier

Posted on 24/03/2013 by pjournel

Here is a series of pictures documenting the evolution of the Frankenstrat Project at the moment where I have the neck and body supplied by EG Solidbody and vibrato provided by Hantug.

I read a long time ago somewhere on a guitar forum that a test to do to check the quality of the couple body / neck was to see if the body would hold to the neck without any screw.

Test result: it holds as you can see in the picture below.

Patrick Querleux, luthier of project inspecting the 3 elements that I brought him. Note that he found that the body and neck were very well made by EG Solidbody as well as the vibrato by Hantug :

After discussion with Patrick we agreed it would be a shame to use a completely opaque paint on the body because it would hide the beautiful Ash wood grain. We therefore opted for a white Mary Kaye style, ie translucent kind of white

Next step: preparing the body and the neck.

Pierre.

Setup of a PT-2 Pedaltrain pedalboard

Posted on 07/03/2013 by pjournel

Hello,

The trend is more than ever to host our beloved pedals in pedalboard. In this area Pedaltrain is a brand that offers well designed and reasonably priced products.

As my collection of pedals began to grow, I contacted Pedaltrain who graciously provided me with the PT-2 with soft case below (151 €).

Apart from the soft case and the pedal itself, the equipment supplied includes two rolls of Velcro to install on the pedalboard and the pedals and the brackets to install the power supply of your choice below the pedal board.

The Velcro being installed on the pedalboard :

Once the job done:

Note that it does not matter where you put the Velcro hooks versus the one that is soft.

Pedaltrain said in their videos on YouTube that both ways work fine. In my case, I put the Velcro hooks on the pedalboard and the soft Velcro on the pedals.

Installation of the Velcro on a pedal :

Sections of the Velcro roll are cut to the width of the pedal which is then cut again the other way to get two stripes to put at the top and bottom of the back of the pedal. This will ensure the best grip with the Velco on the pedalboard itself.

To power the pedals, I bought a Carl Martin Pro Power supply which has the advantage of being compatible with the PT-2 and a bit cheaper than the equivalent at Voodoo Lab 129 € instead of 185 €.

The power supply in the box:

The power supply placed on the pedalboard turned over before holes are done to screw the holding brackets provided with the PT-2:

Hole to connect the power cord:

My PT-2 in the effects loop configuration amp:

Another configuration with the excellent speaker simulator Torpedo CAB from Two-Notes (You will you hear the beast in a future soundseeing but in a nutshell: it’s great!)

Conclusion:

A very good pedalboard
Easy to install and configure
Very good ergonomics proven use

I think you get it, I’m a fan of my PT-2 !

Thanks a ton to Pedaltrain for providing me such a great piece of gear. I would have gladly paid the price of 151€ as I think it is worth every penny.

Pierre.