Ivano Icardi interview: a new album So Far Away
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Ivano Icardi interview: a new album So Far Away

Here's Ivano Icardi Guitare in Hand interview in video this time. Last time we spoke with the italian musician, it was in 2013 to talk about Walking With Giants.

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Pickup Shootout: PRS McCarty vs Häussel Pickups 59

As promised in the article documenting the installation of the Häussel Pickups in my PRS McCarty, here's the pickup shootout between the stock PRS McCarty pickups and the set of 59 pickups from Häussel Pickups.

Pickup Shootout: PRS McCarty vs Häussel 59
I tried as much as possible to cover the same kind of guitar playing throughout the test: with the fingers only, with a pick, light and heavy riffing, etc.

Conditions of the test

Guitar: 2005 PRS McCarty
Strings: no change of strings to keep this parameter the same between both recordings
Sound: Universal Audio Apollo Twin interface
Types

The C.F. Martin Archives - A book to read and to visit!

The publisher Hal Leonard announces a book titled The C.F. Martin Archives retracing the history of the legendary American guitar brand. The Guitar Channel has been able to obtain a copy in advance to give you our opinion about the book.

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Here's an interview with Peter Malinoski an American luthier who has quite an imagination when it comes to guitar.

Häussel Pickups installation in a PRS McCarty
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Häussel Pickups installation in a PRS McCarty

The German pickups Häussel Pickups equip many high-end European luthiers, Nik Huber, Ruokangas and Springer to name only those three. It was necessary that The Guitar Channel studied more on those pickups.

Graham Maby interview - Joe Jackson legendary bass player
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Graham Maby interview – Joe Jackson legendary bass player

At the Montreal Jazz Festival 2016, The Guitar Channel was able to get in touch via guitarist Teddy Kumpel with legendary bassist Joe Jackson: Graham Maby! Yes, bass guitar is in the spotlight again, and it's a very good thing.

Walrus Audio offers, with the Bellwether, a very complete analog sound delay pedal offering a delay with many possible settings. In addition to the conventional time, level and tone settings, you can activate and set a modulation and decide the subdivision in time, not to mention the tap tempo button (to determine the delay time) and the possibilities with external connections.

Jamie Gale interview - 2016 Holy Grail Guitar Show
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Jamie Gale interview – 2016 Holy Grail Guitar Show

Jamie Gale is an important figure in the small world of high-end lutherie. He has been and still is the agent of some luthiers like Uli Teuffel, Nik Huber and others. The interview below was made during the 2016 edition of the Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin. Jamie Gale interview Until the next interview,

John Scofield interview, guitar in hand at the Issoudun Guitar Festival

John Scofield was the headliner of the 2016 Festival Guitare Issoudun in France. The Guitar Channel did an intense lobbying in order to be able to organize with John a video interview using the Guitar in Hand format which works so well. In fact, with this formula the musician has his guitar plugged in and ready all the time so he can illustrate an answer with a couple of notes here and there. John sure did that and more during the close to 30min interview.

Xtomp Hotone - Pedal Review of a chameleon tone machine

The XTomp Hotone pedal is a brand new pedal that has recently come on the market with an innovative concept: the ability to load an effect (or a couple of effects) on the pedal to make it sound like a reverb / delay, Chorus / reverb, overdrive, etc. The proposed catalog is very extensive and contains just about all the great classics of the analog pedal you can think of.

The effects are loaded on the pedal using an iOS / Android app that communicates in Bluetooth with the pedal.

Häussel Pickups: the upcoming projects with Harry

In 2014 I had the opportunity to meet Harry Häussel (Haussel Pickups - www.haeussel.com) at the Holy Grail Guitar Show (see interview below). Harry is a renowned manufacturer of electric guitar pickups whose products are used by Ruokangas, Nik Huber and Springer.

At each major guitar event like the Musikmesse or the Holy Grail, Harry was present and we always took time to discuss.

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Regularly The Guitar Channel organizes special events to showcase guitar builders in a rehearsal studio where it is possible to both try the instrument in a real playing environment and exchange with the luthier. Last week-end saw two events like that with Springer Guitars as the main focus points. The luthier Mikaël Springer was there in person to engage with the guitar aficionados.

Video coverage
A 2min video to get an idea of the events:

Springer Guitar Gear Evening Nov.

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Jason Kostal interview: top acoustic guitar luthier

Here's an interview with Jason Kostal an American luthier who has been building top quality acoustic guitars for several years.

Tomo Fujija explains Mixolydian mode on Instagram

Tomo Fujita is an active musician on Instagram. I highly recommend to follow him on his account @tomojustfunky because he often posts very cool clips with a high pedagogical value. Here's an example below where he talks about the Mixolydian mode with an example easy to implement.

It's a 2 chord vamp: F/G (F chord with G on bass) and Ab/Bb (Ab chord with a Bb on bass)

To play Mixolydian on the first chord, you play the C major scale. On the second, you play Eb major scale.

CAD and CNC as the Camera Obscura - By luthier Ulrich Teuffel

During the 2016 EGB (European Guitar Builders association) symposium, the luthier Ulrich Teuffel gave a conference about CAD and CNC as used in the guitar building domain. His conference was titled: CAD and CNC as the Camera Obscura.

The symposium took place during the two days prior to the 2016 edition of the Holy Grail Guitar Show.

Ulrich Teuffel website: www.teuffel.com
Introduction of the conference
For the industries CNC is just a production system.

Holy Grail Guitar Show 2016 - Day 2 interviews
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Holy Grail Guitar Show 2016 – Day 2 interviews

Day 2 of the Holy Grail Guitar Show 2016 was busy with a nice series of interviews that you can watch below. The first series of videos is online in this article. Day 2 interviews Thierry André, luthier from Québec, Canada (André Instruments) Isaac Jang, american luthier (Isaac Jang Guitars) Jamie Gale, luthier agent and consultant (Jamie Gale Music)

Nir Felder interview during the Montreal Jazz Festival

Nir Felder is a jazz guitarist that I met thanks to the official adviser on the subject for The Guitar Channel, namely Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert (a big thank you Bruno!).

Holy Grail Guitar Show 2016 - Day 2 interviews
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What the luthiers think of the Holy Grail Guitar Show

You want to know the point of view of the luthiers about the Holy Grail Guitar Show? Here's a compilation of the reactions from the builders during the 2016 edition with input from Jason Kostal, Nik Huber, Jamie Gale, Peter Malinoski, Sam Evans, Christina Kobler, Isaac Jang and Chris Larkin.

Jens Larsen Jazz guitar player and youtuber
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Jens Larsen Jazz interview – Guitar player and youtuber

Jens Larsen is a Jazz musician discovered through his great YouTube channel which is full of lessons about this style of music and many guitar techniques.

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Holy Grail Guitar Show 2016 - Day 1 interviews
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Holy Grail Guitar Show 2016 – Day 1 interviews

As for the previous two editions of the Holy Grail Guitar Show, the level of lutherie was extremely high so doing a selection among the 135 luthiers exhibiting was quite a challenge.

Anasounds (www.anasounds.com) is a French boutique pedal builder with already a wide range of products from overdrive to delay, the company is now launching a new pedal, the Bitoun Fuzz. It was developed with the musician and journalist Julien Bitoun, a Fuzz connoisseur, who wanted something special. And something special they created with this Bitoun Fuzz.

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On the weekend of October 8th and 9th 2016 will be held the 3rd edition of the Holy Grail Guitar Show, a luthier salon organized by luthiers via the EGB (european association of guitar makers) and for luthiers : 135 selected guitar makers will be in Germany to showcase their instruments. logo_hggs_2016_year_web Whether you are into acoustic guitars, electric, archtops, modern, vintage inspired, etc., you will be in for a treat for your eyes and your ears as it is possible to try all the instruments and see them played by professional musicians. HGGS2015_Pano As for the first two editions of the show, The Guitar Channel will be on site to conduct interviews of these luthiers and musicians and to make you live from inside this unique event.

Follow The Guitar Channel in Berlin

All along the Holy Grail, it will be possible to get the lastest updates through the social networks: Until the first news from Berlin, you can access all the archives from previous editions of the show in this list. Pierre. [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level0)]
You want to amplify your passion for the guitar? Get the Backstage Pass to watch all the video and more Buy your Backstage Pass
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The 2016 Holy Grail Guitar Show is coming up!
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Simon Ghnassia reviews his Did Telecaster guitars

Simon Ghnassia is a guitar player who ordered not one, not two but three Telecaster type guitars from the same luthier Didier Duboscq (Eden Lutherie).

Gator vs Mono - Electric guitar soft case shootout
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Gator vs Mono – Electric guitar soft case shootout

The offer for the soft guitar cases did a lot of progress lately. Gone are the days of ugly cases which do not really protect our beloved instruments. We now have a wide range of cases including ones manufactured by Mono (monocreators.com) and Gator (gatorcases.com).

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As Romain Morlot the author of the Guitar Cook Book says himself, you have to see this book as a humongous cheatsheet with all the scales and chords you can imagine. Romain spent a lot of time to come up with interesting ways to showcase the music theory we can be so scared of! You know what we mean. Get ready for the Guitar Cook Book version 2!

Video introduction about the book by the author

Here's the 4min video recorded by Romain to know all about the project.

Support the project on Kickstarter

In order to finance the printing and publication of the second version of the book, Romain has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. You can support this cool project by clicking on the link below:

The french Guitar Cook Book : a modern guitar cheatsheet

guitarcookbook2_2 Until the next article, keep on playing the guitar! Pierre.  

Get ready for the Guitar Cook Book version 2!
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Tobias Lund Lindberg luthier interview (TLL Guitars)

Here's Tobias Lund interview, luthier for TLL Guitars during the Holy Grail Guitar Show in 2015 where he was one of the exhibitor. Tobias website: www.tllguitars.com Tobias Lund interview (TLL guitars) during the Holy Grail Guitar Show Until the next interview from the Holy Grail Guitar Show or elsewhere, keep on playing the guitar! Pierre Journel.

Trescab, Shimverb, Ana Echo, Micro Looper Mooer pedals review
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Trescab, Shimverb, Ana Echo, Micro Looper Mooer pedals review

Here's a foursome review of Mooer pedals with the Trescab (cab simulator), Shimverb (reverb), Ana Echo (analog echo), Micro Looper (you guessed it, a looper).

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Walrus Audio Iron Horse distorsion pedal review
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Walrus Audio Iron Horse distorsion pedal review

Walrus Audio is an american builder of pedals. They propose a wide range of products. Here's a video review of the Iron Horse distorsion pedal. Get ready for some big and fat saturated tones with this gain machine!

www.walrusaudio.com

Walrus Audio Iron Horse distorsion pedal review

Review setup
Guitar used : Spartan Springer with a single P90 pickup (Haussel)

Sound : the base clean sound used throughout the review is provided by an Apollo Twin Universal Audio interface in which the guitar is plugged directly.

Gilad Hekselman interview guitar in hand
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Gilad Hekselman interview guitar in hand

Gilad Hekselman is a Jazz guitar player discovered by The Guitar Channel thanks to Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert who is our official Jazz advisor.

Name : European Guitar Builders association
Type : associations of luthiers from Europe
Web : www.europeanguitarbuilders.com
The European Guitar Builders (EBG) association gathers luthier from Europe to promote the artisanal building of stringed instruments like guitars and basses.

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