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The 200th Backstage Pass has been activated! It took about 9 months to reach the first milestone of 100 activated passes and less than 4 months for the next 100. There is therefore a clear acceleration that can only delight me. There are more renewals of the Pass, it is clearly an indicator that The Guitar Channel is going in the right direction. This proves it is possible to build an independent guitar media, 100% Passion, 0% Ads. Thank you all for your support and here's to the next 100! Thank you for sharing this great news with your friends to grow our community of enthusiasts. Pierre - Passion Amplifier since 2009.

200th Backstage Pass activated: thanks!
Jonny Lang fights for his soul
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Jonny Lang fights for his soul

In June 2013 I had the pleasure of meeting Jonny Lang for the release of his album "Fight For My Soul." You can see an excerpt of the interview video above.

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I had the pleasure to meet Frank Deimel during the 2nd edition of Guitares au Beffroi. I saw his booth at the Musikmesse but did not have the opportunity to interview him so I was super happy to have in on video at Montrouge and ask him some guitar questions. To tell you the truth

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Become an active player of The Guitar Channel

Become an active player of The Guitar Channel
An active player of The Guitar Channel not only helps finance it but he/she is way more than that: as in a music band, he/she is taking part in the discussion to make the band even better.

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Michael Lee Firkins is not a newbie in the guitar business. Some may recall his first albums in the Mike Varney stable of shredders, Shrapnel Records. Michael provides us with Yep (on the Magna Carta label) an album very far from this era with a powerful guitar music.

It's not complicated the only thing I did not like about the album is the cover. That said, I agree, it is a matter of taste and what matters is the music inside.

Pierre-Marie Châteauneuf, luthier for PMC, is a great guitar builder from Montpellier in France. I am reviewing here a new creation of his with the Thelonious model.
The guitar
With PMC, we are in the high class guitar area. Starting from the choice of woods to the attention to details and quality of the building, the guitar is a great job and it sounds awesome as you can judge for yourself in the video.

The look of the beauty is beautiful, simple and elegant.

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2014 Musikmesse Paul Reed Smith interview at PRS Guitars

It's the 3rd time I have the huge pleasure to meet Paul Reed Smith. The first time was in 2004, I was living in Montréal, Canada at the time and Paul was in town for a clinic. It was 5 years before I started The Guitar Channel so no need to say I did not do any interview.

The second time was 7 years later in 2011, it was my very first Musikmesse. I went straight to the PRS booth when I arrived in Frankfurt.

Here's a 1min video trailer to explain what is The Guitar Channel and how it can amplify your passion.

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Ivano Icardi interview: all the passion of Italy on a Stratocaster

I interviewed Ivano Icardi in this episode to talk about "Walking With The Giants", here he comes again with a new video clip for his song "To you", a few videos to learn some of his tricks and his full album in backing tracks.

How to play like Ivano
In this series of video, Ivano shows how to play key parts of his album at regular speed and then at slow speed.

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In this December video chronicle I present you with plenty of cool boutique pedals and with the short version of the interview I did recently of Pierre Bensusan, acoustic fingerpicker extraordinaire who has just released a triple live album to cover 40 years of concerts!
Summary
+ Review of future pedals to be tested
+ Short version of the interview with Pierre Bensusan (the long version will be published soon)
+ Some news about the show and future giveaways

The full interview of Pierre Bensusan will be available for the Backstage pass subscribers in a protected article.
Pedals presented in

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Here's the video chronicle for November 2013 with videos of the interview of Al Di Meola as well as some exclusive footage shot during the soundcheck, a treat you only get to see very rarely.

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Here's the Skype interview I did with Peter Frampton, the legendary guitar player with the triple humbucker Les Paul. I had a blast talking to such a huge musician.

Done just before the soundcheck of the concert that evening as headlining of the 2013 Issoudun Guitar Festival, here is the interview with one and only Al Di Meola.
The video above is an extract of the interview
Get the Backstage Pass to view the full version
With the permission of the management I was able to attend the soundcheck of the duo and shoot some images.  It's a rare moment where we you get the impression that the artists play only for you.

Stéphan Forté

Support the show: get the Backstage Pass!

The full video interview is available in this article.
Stéphan Forté was at the Festival Guitare Issoudun in the middle of France for a masterclass with his usual bass player Franck Hermanny, I jumped on the opportunity to do a video interview with him.
Subjects discussed during the interview
+ His recent change of guitars from Lag to Ibanez
+ The specs of the Premium Ibanez he uses at the moment
+ The details on the future custom guitar with Ibanez
+ His practice philosophy
+ How he works on the instrument
+ His projects for

Masterclass App

We lost count of the smartphone/tablet applications that promise to teach you guitar. Unfortunately for many of them , the promise is far from being held. With Guitar Masterclass , it is a more pragmatic approach: learn to play the guitar popular songs.

The application does not promise you you will play like a god in 10 lessons or improvise like an old jazzman in 2 days , no. It shows you how to play in video a popular song on the guitar from beginning to end .

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The Guitar Channel Video Chronicle

Here's a video chronicle in a magazine format packed with news, mini gear reviews and interviews from Richie Kotzen, Billy Sheehan who were in Paris for the european tour of the Winery Dogs and Eric Bibb, a great bluesman who is about to release a superb album called Jericho Road.

Summary

News from The Guitar Channel
Giveaway to win the great book from Jean-Pierre Danel The Legend of the Fender Stratocaster
Mini gear reviews of picks : the Chicken Picks and the ergonomic Niglo
Eric Bibb interview (short version) - The long version is here for the Backstage pass owners

Here's the short version of the Billy Sheehan interview done when he was in Paris for the european tour of the Winery Dogs (Richie Kotzen on guitar and lead vocal, Mike Portnoy on drums) on Sept. 15th 2013.

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Frankenstrat Project – End of part 1

One day in June I went to see my luthier Patrick Querleux to get the guitar finished of the Frankenstrat Project. It was almost finished.

Support the show: get the Backstage Pass!

Here's the short version of the Richie Kotzen interview done when he was in Paris for the european tour of the Winery Dogs (Billy Sheehan on bass, Mike Portnoy on drums) on Sept. 15th 2013.

In order to wait until the full soundseeing, here's a video teaser of the Riff Shooter pedal that Judge Fredd conceived in collaboration with JMB Experience. I only had the time to play with it for a short while but I can assure you it sounds awesome. I can't wait to get a unit to review it.

As the name Riff Shooter kind of implies, this pedal is an overdrive. The possibility to voice the sounds is pretty big yet it remains very easy to operate. The "Shoot" switch allows to turn on and off the pedal.

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.

David Wallimann
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Backing Track – “Dorian Floyd” David Wallimann

Here's the bonus for episode #211 with David Wallimann interview : Dorian Floyd, a great free backing track to practice your Dorian mode and minor blues scale.

David Wallimann

I found David Wallimann through his awesome YouTube channel so when I heard about his excellent book Guitar Methods Made Easy I contacted him to organize an interview. You will discover in this interview how he wrote his book, how he developed his approach of modes and many other things.

At one point or another in their learning life all the guitar players are exposed to modes without always understanding everything and above all without actually integrating all the wealth that they have in their playing, at least that was my case.

Gus G

Here's some heavy rock with this Gus G interview. This guitar player from Greece not only plays with none other than Ozzy Osbourne but also fronts his own band Firewind.

I  already said several times, there is a lack of women in the guitar community so when the opportunity arises to interview a musician like Ana Popovic class, I jump at the chance.

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Pedaltrain makes some excellent pedalboards (see my review of the PT-2 here), they sent me a Mini model and a Volto battery pack to review. The Volto can power up to 9 pedals and is charged either straight from a wall wart plug or from a USB connector.

As you can see it allows you to have a pedalboard without any wire attached to an outside power source which can be very useful.
Review of the Pedaltrain Volto

What I liked about

The compact format
The ability to power a full pedalboard
The integration with the Pedaltrain products

What I did

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Pro Backstage Pass from The Guitar Channel

Here's a 3 minute Backstage Pass video with all you want to know about it and why you should get one to amplify your passion for the guitar.

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The Aristocrats - Culture Clash

In partnership with Jam Track Central, this is the original backing track of "Dance of the Aristocrats" from the album "Culture Clash" after the interview with Guthrie Govan in this episode and Bryan Beller in this one.

Link to the backing track of "Dance of the Aristocrats"
If you want to buy other backing track of Guthrie Jam Track Central, here is a code reduction of 10% for the exclusive use of subscribers Backstage: B7F24-99CB9-F01A5-78BBF-545E7

Enjoy!

Pierre.

Here's an original backing track from Fred Chapellier, great French guitar bluesman, who composed the tune "Gary's Gone" to pay hommage to Gary Moore death in February 2011.

Link to the "Gary's Gone" backing track
Here's a Spotify player to listen to the original version :

Enjoy,
Pierre.

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Top 10 interviews as of July 2013

Ranking by download since 2009 (interviews accessible via the Backstage pass)

Popa Chubby interview
Bjorn Berge interview
Paul Gilbert interview
Paul Reed Smith interview
Eric Bibb interview
Nuno Bettencourt interview
Marty Friedman interview
Steve Vai interview
Paul Gilbert interview (2009)
Donal Gallagher interview (Rory's brother)

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