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Presentation of the 2016 Gibson acoustic guitars in Paris
Wednesday, 21 October 2015
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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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
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Bryan Beller interview: one of the caballeros with the Aristocrats
Saturday, 17 October 2015
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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.
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Two luthiers (re)introduce the fast pickup change electric guitar
Friday, 09 October 2015
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.
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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.
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Amp Demo – BriceDelage rocking the Leo ’64 amp from Heptode Effects
Tuesday, 06 October 2015
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 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.
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Mike Keneally interview on stage during the Joe Satriani tour
Wednesday, 30 September 2015
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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.
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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.
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Renaud Louis-Servais soundcheck at the Sunset Sunside in Paris
Monday, 21 September 2015
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.
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J.S. Bach played on a Jazz Bass by Philippe Bussonnet (Magma)
Friday, 18 September 2015
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...
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Paul Marchand interview: director of the Jaco Pastorius documentary
Friday, 11 September 2015
Here's an audio interview with Paul Marchand, the director of the Jaco Pastorius documentary.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
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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 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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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.
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.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
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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
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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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Let's face it, I am a huge fan of Philip Sayce.
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Discovery Interview: Mitch Laddie, great guitar player and singer
Friday, 14 August 2015
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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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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Chronicle #13 Spartan Project with Springer Guitars – Paint & finish
Wednesday, 05 August 2015
Here's the 13th episode of the Spartan Project video series. You will see how the luthier Mikaël Springer will do his TV white color on the guitar paint. It's quite fascinating to see how it is done.
#13 Spartan Project with @SpringerGuitars: Guitar paint & finish
A few pics from the video
Previous episodes of the Spartan Project
The goal of the Spartan Project is to document the building of a guitar for me by luthier Mikaël Springer.
I discovered Antti Paranko through the luthier Juha Ruokangas, also from Finland. In fact Antti is endorsed by Juha and has worked with him to compose some music specifically for his brand. After hearing this music (which you can hear at the beginning of every Luthier Chronicle with Juha) I decided I wanted to hear more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
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Let's face it, I don't know much about acoustic guitars. I am definitely more an electric guy. When I prepared my trip to Montréal to cover the Jazz festival, I asked my luthier friends about who I should try to meet while in Québec, the name of Michael Greenfield kept popping up so I contacted him and he accepted right away to have me visit him in his Montréal workshop.
He gave me a full tour of his workshop then we sat down for 40min in-depth video interview.
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Robert Trujillo Interview Metallica: producer of Jaco Pastorius documentary
Thursday, 23 July 2015
While in Montreal for the Jazz Festival, I had access to a press showing of Jaco, an excellent documentary about the late Jaco Pastorius who passed away tragically in 1987.
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Here's the 12th episode of the Spartan Project video series. Mikaël works now on the neck/body ensemble. He finalizes the neck profile, does all the routing for the pickup and electronics and prepares the guitar for the final finish steps.
A few pics from the video
Previous episodes of the Spartan Project
As a reminder, the goal of the Spartan Project is to document the building of a guitar for me by luthier Mikaël Springer.
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Interview with Adam Reiver explaining the magic behind the FU Tone products
Friday, 17 July 2015
Maybe you don't know it (yet) but on vibrato equipped guitar, the metal block below where the strings attached has a very important role in your tone. I heard about the FU Tone product through the years and I thought it would be interesting to have the guy behind the product to talk about it. So here I am presenting you with an interview with Adam Reiver from FU Tone.
Here's below the block Adam sent me to try on my Ernie Ball Music Man EVH model. I will try it and report here on the website my findings.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
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Here's Scott Holiday interview. I confess I only recently discovered Rival Sons and their guitar player. In fact the luthier Mikaël Springer listened to their music full blast while building my guitar for the Spartan Project so I had to eventually check-them out! Thanks to another luthier, Doug Kauer who builds most of Scott's guitars, I was able to get in touch with him to organize this interview in Luxemburg City.
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