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Optiweb Elixir Strings product specialist Justin Fogleman interview
Wednesday, 05 July 2017
During the NAMM, The Guitar Channel had the opportunity to chat with Justin Fogleman, product specialist at Elixir Strings.
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The Guitar Channel official partner of the Festival Guitare Issoudun
Saturday, 01 July 2017
Very pleased to announce that The Guitar Channel is now an official partner of this major guitar event of the year in France which is the Festival Guitare Issoudun (www.issoudun-guitare.com).
- Published in News
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Alhambra Guitars master builders interview – Javier Mengual and José Margarit
Tuesday, 06 June 2017
The Alhambra factory in Muro de Alcoy in the province of Allicante employs many laborers specialized in lutherie and also has a team of expert luthiers, masters builders: Javier Mengual and José Margarit.
- Published in Interviews
Here's the Sunset, the latest effort from Strymon to attack the analog kingdom of overdrive and boost pedals. After the Riverside also reviewed on The Guitar Channel, this new double pedal propose another angle with 6 types of overdrive and boost, 3 per sides of the pedal, that you can combine. In fact you can have A going into B, B going into A or both running in parallel.
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On the recommendation of Bruno Pelletier-Bacquaert, I contacted Julia Crowe via Twitter to receive her book My First Guitar. Let me tell you right away that I loved this book from the first to the last page.
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A nice shred machine in video review with this Soul Renegade built by the French luthier Benoît Guilbert.
Soul Renegade video review
Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar!
Pierre.
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The compressor is an effect that is always a bit intimidating because of the number of parameters often: attack time, release time, compression ratio, output volume, etc. That's why Alexandre Ernandez, the designer of Anasounds, made the choice with this Lazy Comp pedal to propose a compressor with ... one button!
The parameter controlled by this single button is the percentage of mixing between direct sound and compressed sound.
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Here is in review a new exceptional guitar, the Unicorn Classic model built in the Finnish luthier Juha Ruokangas workshop. It is an instrument that was kindly lent me by a backstager (thank you David!). Given the very small number of guitars made by Juha and his team, it was an unexpected opportunity to test a guitar of this caliber.
We are indeed here in the super high-end realm. The price of this model with the options included in this specific instrument (superb table, gold hardware, etc.) requires a budget of about 9 500 €.
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Joe Walsh Double Classic from Analog Alien review: overdrive/compressor
Wednesday, 03 May 2017
Analog Alien (www.analogalien.com) is an American brand of boutique pedal that offers a range of products with a very original look and a beautiful palette of sounds. After the Rumble Seat (reviewed in this article) The Guitar Channel offers you to discover another cool pedal built by the Napoli brothers, the Joe Walsh Double Classic.
As its name implies it was developed for the legendary guitar player from The Eagles: Joe Walsh.
- Published in Gear
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Alhambra Guitarras presentation with Valeria Torregrosa interview
Wednesday, 26 April 2017
While in Spain to visit the Alhambra Guitarras manufacture (see the full video in this article), The Guitar Channel did a interview with Valeria Torregrosa who was recently appointed the General Manager for the guitar company. Here's below the video of this encounter. Valeria Torregrosa interview - Alhambra General Manager To learn more about Alhambra
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Each time The Guitar Channel is covering an event like a fair or a festival, we record a live report which is then available later for replay. This allows all the guitar aficionados to live the event from the inside. Here are all those videos in one playlist. Here's the list of the events covered:
NAMM
Musikmesse
Holy Grail Guitar Show
Festival Guitare Issoudun
Guitares au Beffroi
Gear Evenings organized by The Guitar Channel
Factory Tour
Video reports playlist
During those events, interviews are recorded and available
through the Backstage Pass subscription.
With the NAMM, the Musikmesse is one of the key events of the musical instrument industry and what revolves around (sound system, lights, etc.). The part reserved for the guitar is increasingly reduced year after year which diminishes the interest of coming for visitors fans of six-string. Nevertheless this fair continues to offer a great concentration of people who are present for 4 days in Frankfurt.
- Published in News
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Telecaster pickups shootout – Lollar Pickups vs Dreamsongs Pickups
Tuesday, 04 April 2017
Here is shootout of two sets of Telecaster pickups, one from Dreamsongs Pickups (www.dreamsongspickups.com) with the Classic Blues-Rock reference from Italy and one from Lollar Pickups (www.lollarguitars.com) from the US with the 52 T reference.
- Published in Gear
The festival Guitars au Beffroi (www.guitaresaubeffroi.com) 2017 and its luthier guitar show closed their doors last week on the 5th edition. This major event of the guitar in France has proposed two and a half days of high quality festivities around our favorite instrument.
Juha Ruokangas is a Finnish luthier well known on The Guitar Channel since he has been the subject of several interviews and has also animated a series of luthier chronicles. Juha (pronounced Yu-A) manufactures with a small team of luthiers instruments of very high quality entirely by hand, without the help of CNC (ie without Computer Numeric Control machine).
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During the 2017 NAMM, The Guitar Channel had the opportunity to meet Colt Westbrook, CEO of Walrus Audio, American maker of boutique pedals.
- Published in All, Interviews
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2017 Guitares au Beffroi festival / Salon de la Belle Guitare: organizer interview
Wednesday, 15 February 2017
The 2017 Guitares au Beffroi (www.guitaresaubeffroi.com) festival and its guitar show the Salon de la Belle Guitare will have its 5th edition from Friday March 24th until Sunday March 26th in Montrouge, right next to Paris. There will be luthiers coming from more than 10 countries, check-out the full list on the festival website. Interview with Armel Amiot
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I met Isaac Jang for the first time in Berlin during the 2016 Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin. Isaac was born in Korea and arrived in the US when he was 13. After being an apprentice with master luthier Kathy Wingert for 9 years, he setup his own shop to build his own high-end acoustic guitars. As he proposed me when we met in Germany, I contacted him while organizing the 2017 NAMM trip to see if he would actually be my guide in Los Angeles to help me discover the guitar places in that city.
- Published in All, Interviews
What better than to ask all the questions we have to one of the guy in charge at Reverb.com in order to understand better how this marketplace works?
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- Published in Interviews
This year again the NAMM was incredibly rich for The Guitar Channel. Just take a look at the numbers below to be convinced.
- Published in Events, Interviews
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The Strat In The Attic: a fascinating book about Vintage guitar stories
Tuesday, 03 January 2017
There is a good chance that in one way or another you will have seen the superb cover of the book The Strat In The Attic during your wanderings in cyberspace. Indeed the book written by Deke Dickerson is illustrated by a superb image which necessarily gives rise to lots of fantasies in our minds of guitar enthusiasts. Who has never dreamed of finding a fabulous guitar forgotten in a dusty attic, at a pawnbroker or during a garage sale? .
No it is not yet another book about Vintage guitars more beautiful and more inaccessible than one another.
- Published in News
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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Chronicle #16 Spartan Project with Springer Guitars – Final episode
Thursday, 02 June 2016
Here's the 16th and final episode of the Spartan Project video series. You will see how the luthier Mikaël Springer is putting the last touch to the guitar. You will also get to hear the very first notes played on the instrument, an historical moment!
#16 Spartan project - Final episode
Photos extracted from the guitar setup 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.
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.
- Published in News
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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.
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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The Journey of Luthier Adriano Sergio, Ergon Guitars, to the Holy Grail Guitar Show
Wednesday, 27 April 2016
In 2015 I had the pleasure of doing a video interview luthier Adriano Sergio (Ergon Guitars) at the Holy Grail Guitar Show. The story of his journey from Portugal to Germany has been documented in a beautiful video you can see below.
The journey of luthier Adriano Sergio to the Holy Grail Guitar Show
Sit down comfortably and get ready to enjoy this great documentary where you will learn a lot about the life of a luthier. In addition to Adriano Sergio, you will also see other guitar builders such as Juha Ruokangas, Michael Spalt or Andy Mason.
- Published in Interviews, News
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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.
- Published in Gear, Interviews, News
Here's the mobile guitar rig I use when I want to play in the park right next to our house.
