In January 2016, while The Guitar Channel was in California to cover the NAMM, the opportunity presented itself to not only do a factory visit at the Taylor Guitars El Cajon facility, but also do an in-depth interview with the founder Bob Taylor and record three video chronicles with the in-house master builder Andy Powers in his very own workshop.
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We are continuing our series on “Blues For Alice” with an arpeggio study. All of the arpeggios played here are ascending. Note that we are not playing all of the arpeggios in this particular study: since there are so many ii-Vs in sequences, I chose to only play the 3rd of most Dominant 7 chords.
Blues for Alice (Part 5/6) - An arpeggio study
I wrote some diagrams above the music notation to indicate optional fingerings for some of the lines.
This study should give you some ideas for creating your own lines while improvising.
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Honk Machine IT-11 Audio: a vocal overdrive pedal
Thursday, 09 June 2016
The Honk Machine overdrive pedal from IT-11 Audio is a very vocal overdrive pedal with its specific Honk setting which allows to increase or decrease a 700Hz frequency bump right in the middle of the human voice.
Honk Machine IT-11 Audio: a very vocal overdrive pedal
This video is accessible to all because IT-11 Audio
owns a Pro Backstage Pass on The Guitar Channel
What I enjoyed the most on this pedal
The overall sounds
The possibilities given by the Honk setting
The look
What I enjoyed the least
The changing colours of the LED is kind of distracting
Conclusion
Frankly the market
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During the 2016 Musikmesse I had the pleasure to meet Alan Chaput, product specialist at Eventide.
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“Blues for Alice” by Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert : 4-note groupings
Monday, 06 June 2016
We are continuing our series on “Blues For Alice” with the 4-note groupings. What we call 4-note groupings are simple patterns that are used to outline a chord progression.
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After several Musikmesse, NAMM shows, Holy Grail Guitar Shows, and various others guitar shows in France, The Guitar Channel will cover again this year this great event in Quebec.
Montreal Jazz Festival website: www.montrealjazzfest.com
On my program for the 2016 Montreal Jazz Festival
Interviews with musicians programmed on the festival
Meetings with local luthiers, and God knows there are some very very good ones!
Contact catches with professional guitar for business development
And of course concerts!
The interviews in preparation
As usual with the Montreal Jazzfest the program is full of incredible musicians ranging from all the spectrum of Jazz so you
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In January 2016, while The Guitar Channel was in California to cover the NAMM, the opportunity presented itself to not only do a factory visit at the Taylor Guitars El Cajon facility, but also do an in-depth interview with the founder Bob Taylor and record three video chronicles with the in-house master builder Andy Powers in his very own workshop.
- Published in All, Interviews
Discover in this acoustic session recorded at the intergalactic headquarters of The Guitar Channel, the great guitar duo composed by Serge Lopez and Anouck André. They have just released their debut album together called "El Tren Del Sur", a great guitar CD full of great music.
The fully instrumental album offers a great mix with the Flamenco style coming from Serge Lopez and the Flatpicking style provided by Anouck.
Name : Eventide
Type : effects builder
Web : www.eventideaudio.com www.eventidefrance.com
Eventide has been a synonym of super high quality studio effects for a long time and more recently in the guitar world with the range of pedals like the Time Factor, the Space or the Pitch Factor and also with the release of the new format H9 which is a very powerful multi effect.
Interested in the Pro Backstage Pass ?
The Pro Backstage Pass is tailored to help grow your business and increase your visibility in the guitar community.
Read all the information on this page.
Join pros like :
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Beatbuddy pedal demo by François C. Delacoudre
Tuesday, 24 May 2016
Here are a couple of video demos recorded to demonstrate the variety of contexts where the Beatbuddy pedal can be used.
BeatBuddy wbsite: www.mybeatbuddy.com
Beatbuddy demos by François C. Delacoudre : from contrabass to slap and 2-string bass!
On a 2-string bass :
Slap:
With a contrabass :
En jam à deux :
Conclusion
As you can see from the video demos, it's possible to use the Beatbuddy pedal in many different contexts. François C. Delacoudre who is a professional bass player in France really enjoyed playing the pedal in very different styles.
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We are continuing our study of “Blues For Alice” with 2 simple comping studies.
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Discover Crossfire, a duo composed of Allison Mareek (guitar/vocals) and Etienne Prieuret (guitar/vocals) who proposes a powerfull and bewitching Folk/Rock kind of music. Their self-titled debut EP is great. We did an interview in French with Allison and Etienne on La Chaîne Guitare and took also the time to record the sessions you see below.
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“Blues For Alice” is a great Charlie Parker tune. It is a 12-bar Blues, but it moves through a lot of ii-V sequences. That modified version of the Blues is usually referred to as “Bird Blues” changes.
Blues for Alice (Part 1/6)
The lead sheet shows the fingerings I use. Keep in mind that those are only suggestions.
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Taylor Guitars has recently done a full rework on their 12-string Taylor guitars range. We took this opportunity to do a Skype interview to talk about it with Andy Powers, the master builder at Taylor Guitars in San Diego.
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Here's Sungha Jung interview done during the latest Musikmesse in Frankfurt. Sungha was there on the Lakewood booth to promote his signature model and play a couple of shows in Germany.
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Chronicle #15 Spartan Project with Springer Guitars – Guitar setup
Tuesday, 10 May 2016
Here's the 15th episode of the Spartan Project video series. You will see how the luthier Mikaël Springer is doing the final guitar setup.
#15 Spartan project - Guitar setup
Photos extracted from the guitar setup video
Final drilling for the stop bar installation:
Installation of the Häussel P90 pickup:
Shielding of the electronic cavity:
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.
Universal Audio is highly respected for its great plugins which run in their interface. So far, the guitar amps plugins available were geared toward the big distorted sounds with the Friedman or Marshall plugins. It was possible to get some cool clean tones from the existing plugins but not as good as a real Fender amp. Until now. Universal Audio has just released a plugin for the Fender '55 Tweed Deluxe amp. Here's below the Tweed Deluxe plugin review in video.
Universal Audio website: www.uaudio.com
The cool looking user interface for the plugin.
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Here's the 14th episode of the Spartan Project video series. You will see how the luthier Mikaël Springer is doing his fretting on the guitar. It is a very crucial step of the process as the way the frets are dressed is paramount to the quality of the sound and of the comfort of the instrument.
#14 Spartan Project: Fretting
Close up photo of the fretting once finished on the guitar:
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.
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Hubert Hochleitner interview (Hoovi Deeflexx) at the 2016 Musikmesse
Monday, 25 April 2016
Here's a Hubert Hochleitner interview, inventor of the Deeflexx, done during the 2016 Musikmesse.
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The day I did the in-depth interview with Bob Taylor, I did a full Taylor Guitars factory tour of their El Cajon facility near San Diego, California.
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All 7 Diatonic Arpeggios in Major Key by Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert
Monday, 18 April 2016
This exercise will have us play through all of the arpeggios of a same tonality.
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Here's the mobile guitar rig I use when I want to play in the park right next to our house.
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Playing in and out of position (part 2/2) by Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert
Tuesday, 12 April 2016
Here's the second part on the Playing In and Out of Position theme (part 1 is here).
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Marco Viola (MOV Guitars) is a luthier based in Italy. He was one of the exhibitors of the guitar show during the 2016 edition of the Guitares au Beffroi festival.
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Playing in and out of position (part 1/2) by Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert
Monday, 04 April 2016
Here's the first video of a two part series on the Playing In and Out of Position theme. When we first learn our Major scales, we are generally told to practice them in position. We visualize certain shapes all over the fingerboard and that helps us play more efficiently, more smoothly.
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Yes you can get Slash Guns N'Roses Paradise City sound (or at least get close to it) with the Apollo Twin Universal Audio interface with a couple of plugins and the Burst guitar from luthier Mikaël Springer.
Paradise City sound with the Universal Audio interface and a Springer guitar
It's always a challenge to try to get close to a legendary tone from a hit like Paradise City.
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We all know that some drummers have a problem with alcohol. Some drink way too much and become unreliable time keepers. This can be a real disaster when you are trying to make it big or just trying to survive playing your music.
Here's a video review of the Friedman BE100 plugin available in the Universal Audio Apollo interface. Friedman is well know for the quality of their high gain tube amp. That's why I was very curious to test drive the plugin based on the BE100 model.
Here's a screenshot of the plugin in what I call the simple mode where you see only the amp settings:
Here's a screenshot of the plugin in what I call the rack mode where you see in the top half all the settings to fine-tune the sounds : noise gate, cab and mikes, delay, etc.
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Test drive of the Deeflexx during a concert and rehearsal
Thursday, 24 March 2016
Through the partnership with Deeflexx which is a Pro Backstage Pass owner, The Guitar Channel is able to have Backstage Pass owners to test drive the products using their own gear and in a real situation rather than simply in a guitar store. Here's the full testimony from José.
Deeflexx website: www.hoovi.at
Here's a picture of José playing his Telecaster and experimenting for the first time the Deeflexx during the Gear Afternoon #1.
Deeflexx test drive by José
As a Backstage Pass owner on The Guitar Channel I was able to test a Deeflexx product live in a bar.
