Interview guitar in hand with the Big, Bad and Beautiful Popa Chubby

It's always an experience to interview such a colorful musician like Popa Chubby, this time we did it Guitar in Hand.

Cerbersus overdrive and Utopia delay by @AnasoundsFr - Pedal Review

In a previous gear review, The Guitar Channel had you discover the excellent Phase Lag phaser from Anasounds, now here's a double test with two pedals of the same French manufacturer boutique shop: the Utopia delay and Cerberus overdrive pedals.

Anasounds website: www.anasounds.com
Cerbersus overdrive and Utopia delay - Video review

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Overview of Utopia
The Utopia offers a very well done analog delay simulation that works great from a slapback (an echo very short often used in Rockabilly), to a

Here's Egon Rauscher interview, luthier for SoulTool Guitars. He was one of the 115 selected guitar builders presenting their work at the 2015 Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin. The quality of the instruments from Soultool is top notch as the design which looks pretty cool.
Egon Rauscher interview

This video is publicly accessible because SoulTool has a Pro Backstage Pass
SoulTool website: www.soultool.com
Soultool guitars

My take on the SoulTool guitars
I really dig the design Egon found for his instruments. It's modern but with that classic vibe we all cherish.

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Francisco Rodriguez interview from FranFret guitars

Francisco Rodriguez is the luthier behind FranFret Guitars (www.franfret.net). He was already an exhibitor at Guitares au Beffroi guitar show in France this year but it's at the 2015 Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin, Germany that The Guitar Channel took the opportunity to interview him.
Francisco Rodriguez interview from FranFret Guitars

 
This video is accessible to all because FranFret is a Pro Backstager on The Guitar Channel.
It was still early on that Saturday morning when we did the interview so neither Francisco or I are smiling yet.

The Holy Grail Guitar Show is not only the best luthier guitar show in the world (yes, I mean it) it's also a great opportunity to attend to a great selection of conferences.

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Renaud Louis-Servais interview – Epic Circus album

Renaud Louis-Servais is one of the very best Fusion guitar player we have in France. He hast just released a new album called Epic Circus where he collaborated with none other than keyboard player Philippe Saisse and drummer Virgil Donati.

In fact it is as if the 2nd edition of the Holy Grail Guitar Show (www.holygrailguitarshow.com) was organized especially for me. Indeed, you cannot help but notice that the visual part of this year is very oriented toward the psychedelic sixties which fit perfectly with my legendary floral shirts and my hair (usually) long!

Here I am last year in Berlin interviewing the legendary Ken Parker with...

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Presentation of the 2016 Gibson acoustic guitars in Paris

Yesterday I had the pleasure to spend the afternoon in the private showroom of Gibson France to discover the 2016 range of acoustic guitars from Gibson. For this event two people from the US Acoustic Division were present, Josh Taborski (General Manager) and Jeremy Morton (Product Specialist), see the interview below.
The 2016 guitars in a few photos
From left to right:

A J-45 Vintage (so with the thermally processed top)
A Hummingbird (same comment as above)
A J-200
A J-100

Some others models from the 2016 range:

The Bob Dylan J-200
The signature model is truly a magnificent instrument.

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Gilad Hekselman during the 2015 Montreal Jazz Festival

This summer while I was covering the Montreal Jazz Festival I had the pleasure to meet again Gilad Hekselman for an in-depth interview about his latest album Homes which was just released this October.

Questions asked during the interview

How does it feel to play the Montréal Jazz festival?
Is that the occasion to play with other musicians and to jam?
Last time we met it was in Paris last year, what's new since?
How come jazz musicians are able to sound good on the first note of the first tune at the soundcheck?
How do you approach soundcheck

Bryan Beller interview: one of the caballeros with the Aristocrats
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Bryan Beller interview: one of the caballeros with the Aristocrats

Here's an audio Bryan Beller interview.

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Interview with Eric Bibb digging for Lead Belly’s gold

It's always a pleasure to do an interview with Eric Bibb as he is very generous and thoughtful in his answers. Eric has just released and album with harp player Jean-Jacques Milteau mostly around Lead Belly songs and a couple pf compositions by the duo.

Guitar wise, in this interview Eric is playing an all mahogany Larson Bros guitar (www.larsonbros.com) built by Maurice Dupont (www.acoustic-guitars.com) in France.

Album Review
The 16 song album is excellent to revisit with a new twist all the Lead Belly repertoire.

Here's an interview with two luthiers Sébastien Gavet and Godefroy Maruejouls who collaborated to develop an electric guitar system with fast interchangeable pickup system. They came to show me the first prototype some time ago, this is the video where they explain everything.

The project continues to progress as they have recently introduced a new version of the guitar with an improved system to change the pickups:

What I think of the project
The guitar interchangeable pickup system that has been tried several times in the past.

Nik Huber luthier chronicle - The Guitar Channel
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Nik Huber on the Holy Grail Guitar Show

In this new Luthier Chronicle I asked Nik Huber what was his opinion about the Holy Grail Guitar Show which had its first edition in November 2014 in Berlin and which will happen again at the end of this month.

Website of the Holy Grail Guitar show: www.holygrailguitarshow.com/

The Holy Grail Guitar show is an event organized by the luthiers for the luthiers and it makes all the difference.

Check-out the one and only French guitar player Brice Delage rocking the brand new high end solid state amp Leo '64 from Heptode Effects.

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Mooer Trescab: a great pocket cab simulator

Mooer is a Chinese brand that has caused a stir when it released her mini pedals range of guitar effects. I longed for a while to test out one to see what they were really worth.

Mike Keneally interview on stage during the Joe Satriani tour
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Mike Keneally interview on stage during the Joe Satriani tour

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For the first time The Guitar Channel presents you with an interview with Mike Keneally done right on the prestigious stage of the Grand Rex in Paris before the Joe Satriani concert of the Shockwave Supernova world tour.

Nik Huber luthier chronicle - The Guitar Channel
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Nik Huber – For or against the CNC machine?

On this new Luthier Chronicle, I asked Nik Huber a question to know if he is for or against the CNC machine. Of course he went much further than the basic answer (see the details below).

As a reminder or for your information, CNC means Computer Numerical Control (Wikipedia link). Basically in the guitar world it means that parts of an instrument are built by a machine who will carve the element from a piece of wood or metal.

Renaud Louis-Servais was playing with his band at the Sunset in Paris for the launch of his new album Epic Circus. The Guitar Channel was there to shoot some video during the soundcheck. The full 14min video is shock full of cool guitar playing. Log on Backstage to watch Renaud rip it on his gorgeous Tom Anderson blue Drop Top.

Renaud website: renaud.ls.free.fr

Chronicle of the concert
The concert in the evening was awesome from start to finish. Period.

J.S. Bach played on a Jazz Bass by Philippe Bussonnet (Magma)

Here's 2min of pure happiness with some J.S. Bach played on a Jazz Bass by Philippe Bussonnet, bass player for the mythical band Magma. It happened yesterday in The Guitar Channel studio right after we recorded an in-depth interview with Philippe.

Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar or...

Paul Marchand interview: director of the Jaco Pastorius documentary

Here's an audio interview with Paul Marchand, the director of the Jaco Pastorius documentary.

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Interview guitar in hand with Ron Bumblefoot Thal

Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal is always running around the world playing somewhere with Guns N Roses or solo so it's quite a feast to be able to catch him for an in-depth interview guitar in hand.

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Joseph Luttwak interview – Blackbird Guitar

Joseph Luttwak is the man behind the Blackbird instruments (www.blackbirdguitar.com).
Joseph Luttwak interview

Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar!

Pierre.

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Phase Lag pedal by Anasounds, an awesome phaser - Pedal Review
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Phase Lag pedal by Anasounds, an awesome phaser

Anasounds is a French boutique pedal builder based in Nice in the South of France. They have a large range of pedals with fuzz, overdrive, distortion, delay and the Phase Lag pedal, a very cool phaser with some interesting hidden features.

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The Beauty of The Burst, a must for guitar lovers

I recently had the opportunity to play a real 1960 Sunburst Les Paul thanks to Matthieu Lucas, a French collector. It gave me the idea to read again The Beauty of the Burst, a book I received a while ago. My first reading was more concentrated on the great pictures of the book, you can really spend hours gazing at all those beauties.

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Here's a audio Jon Gomm interview. Jon is one of the current guitar players who is really pushing the enveloppe in the acoustic guitar world. His latest album "Live in the Acoustic Asylum" was recorded live as the title implies and his full of guitar and yet still avoids the default of being annoying because of pointless technical prowesses.

This interview with Jon is more than 45min long as he is very generous and detailed in his answers.

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Nik Huber: his take on varnish and paint

On this new Luthier Chronicle, I asked Nik Huber about varnish, finish and paint.
Subjects discussed

Nitro-cellulose versus 2 component finish
His take on the thickness of the finish
Is-it possible to hear the difference between a nitro and a 2 component finish on a solid body?
The development of new colours
His source of inspiration for new ideas
The story of the new metallic finish presented at the 2015 NAMM show
The aging of the finish oh his first guitars

An example of a Krautster II in Gold Top finish

Until the next chronicle, keep on playing your guitar and check-out your

Zane Carney masterclass in Paris - The Guitar Channel
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Zane Carney Masterclass in Paris – Part 3/3

Here's part 3 of the Zane Carney masterclass given in Paris on May 25th 2015.
What to expect in the masterclass

In-depth talk about music theory
What to play on the V chord
Several full pieces of music played
His approach to composition
How he practice with and without the guitar
His theory about relative pitch
The story about his upcoming Jazzica signature model with Hofner
A full demo of his travel pedal board

Zane travel pedal board

Until the next masterclass, keep on playing the guitar!

Pierre.

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Philip Sayce interview – 2015 Montreal Jazz Festival

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Let's face it, I am a huge fan of Philip Sayce.

In the Discovery Interview series, I am happy to present you with an interview I did a while ago with Mitch Laddie (www.mitchladdie.com), an excellent guitar player and singer. He has some strong influences from SRV, Hendrix and Eric Johnson but he has developed a style of his own which you can listen throughout the excellent album Burning Bridges.

Extracts of Burning Bridges before the interview

Would You
Mr.

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Nik Huber: being a guitar builder in Germany

On this second Luthier Chronicle, I asked Nik what's different about being a guitar builder in Germany.

Until the next chronicle, keep on playing your guitar and check-out your local luthier.

Pierre.

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