The Guitares au Beffroi 2016 festival just ended in Montrouge, just outside of Paris. It is time to make a summary of it. The Guitar Channel was an exhibitor at the guitar fair so this will be the main focus of the post.
Kudos to Armel Amiot, the guitar fair organizer (watch his interview here), who was able to organize an event in a difficult context.
Guitares au Beffroi website: www.guitaresaubeffroi.com
Snapchat stories of Guitares au Beffroi 2016
During the show I took a lot of short video clips with Snapchat. Those were compiled in Snapchat Story every day.
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Guitar Review – Fastback Alquier “Codetalker” by Maurice Dupont
Wednesday, 09 March 2016
This Fastback Alquier model Codetalker built in the Maurice Dupont luthier workshop is a design by luthier Jean-Yves Alquier. It's still possible to get a custom Fastback entirely made by Jean-Yves but you now have the option to get a more affordable version with the same design and built by Maurice Dupont team in France.
Spoiler: this instrument is a great luthier guitar.
Fastback Alquier "Codetalker" by Maurice Dupont
Fastback Codetalker photos
Here are a couple of photos of this very elegant instrument.
Rig used for the review
Here's the pedalboard used for the review.
As a big fan of Van Halen I had to read this book about the early years of the band. While at the 2016 Winter NAMM I took the opportunity to interview Greg Renoff, the author of Van Halen Rising.
The book website: www.vanhalenrising.com
Book review
No need to be an ultra fan of Van Halen to enjoy reading the book.
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The festival Guitares au Beffroi 2016 includes as previous years a guitar show called Le Salon de la Belle Guitare which means The Show of the Beautiful Guitar. Here's below a video interview with Armel Amiot, the guitar show organizer.
Guitares au Beffroi website: www.guitaresaubeffroi.com
Guitares au Beffroi 2016 - Interview with the guitar show organizer
As the guitar show organizer, Armel Amiot is the point of contact in case you are interested in being an exhibitors.
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Here's the Gear Evening debrief. On February 18th, the first Special Event of the year took place with the Gear Evening with Maurice Dupont (luthier), FX amps (guitar amps), Anasounds (boutique pedals) and Verspieren (insurance).
Gear Evening debrief video
Here's a video to give you an idea of this first Gear Evening of 2016. The first part of the video will show you the event while it is being setup and during. The second part of the video is composed of short interviews in French of people present for the event.
In the Snapchat app you have to keep a finger on the red button to record so unless you are an alien with a 3rd arm or you have a buddy around to take the snap while you play, you can't do it.
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Dynacord Echocord Super 76, a Real Tape Echo
Wednesday, 17 February 2016
Here's a review of a real tape echo and spring reverb studio effect, the Dynacord Echocord Super 76. One of the Backstage Pass subscriber, Philippe, who is very good at electronics repaired this nice piece of gear and lent it to me. It's quite something to experience for the first time ever to play with a real tape echo machine. I don't know if has to do with being able to see the tape move around, the quality of the sound itself or a mix of both but I was floored by the sound of this unit.
On Saturday, I organized a Gear Afternoon to spend some quality time in a rehearsal studio with some fellow backstagers playing and testing each other's pieces of gear (guitars, pedals, amps, etc.). It was a lot of fun to have this Special Event in this unstructured format.
Album photo of this Gear Afternoon
Here are some photos taken during this afternoon.
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Mason Marangella interview – Vertex
Tuesday, 19 January 2016
Here's a Mason Marangella interview done via Skype. Mason is the mastermind behind Vertex, the boutique pedal builder. The interview was a good opportunity to have an in-depth conversation with Mason about his approach to pedal building.
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The Laguz The Special guitar from Soultool Customized Guitars is an instrument which was presented by the luthier Egon Rauscher (watch his interview in this article) during the 2015 Holy Grail Guitar Show.
For the second consecutive year, The Guitar Channel will be covering the Winter NAMM, held in Los Angeles in Anaheim next to Disney.
The Heartbreaker model by luthier Christophe Grellier (grellier.fr) is a guitar with a very clean look but full of possibilities of sounds with its clever 6-position selector. Yes, there are six possibilities of sound on this selector that looks like a simple 3-position toggle switch. The 3 bottom positions are the combinations of pickups in
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Adriano Sergio interview – Ergon Guitars – 2015 Holy Grail Guitar show
Thursday, 03 December 2015
Here's the interview done with Portuguese luthier Adriano Sergio from Ergon Guitars during the second edition of the Holy Grail Guitar Show. I was seduced by the organic shapes of Adriano's guitars and by the quality of the lutherie.
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Cerbersus overdrive and Utopia delay by Anasounds – Pedal Review
Monday, 16 November 2015
In a previous gear review, The Guitar Channel had you discover the excellent Phase Lag phaser from Anasounds, now here's a double test with two pedals of the same French manufacturer boutique shop: the Utopia delay and Cerberus overdrive pedals.
Anasounds website: www.anasounds.com
Cerbersus overdrive and Utopia delay - Video review
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Overview of Utopia
The Utopia offers a very well done analog delay simulation that works great from a slapback (an echo very short often used in Rockabilly), to a
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Egon Rauscher interview, Soultool Guitars luthier at the 2015 Holy Grail Guitar Show
Thursday, 12 November 2015
Here's Egon Rauscher interview, luthier for SoulTool Guitars. He was one of the 115 selected guitar builders presenting their work at the 2015 Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin. The quality of the instruments from Soultool is top notch as the design which looks pretty cool.
Egon Rauscher interview
This video is publicly accessible because SoulTool has a Pro Backstage Pass
SoulTool website: www.soultool.com
Soultool guitars
My take on the SoulTool guitars
I really dig the design Egon found for his instruments. It's modern but with that classic vibe we all cherish.
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The magic of handmade guitars with Kathryn Marie Dudley at the Holy Grail Guitar Show
Sunday, 08 November 2015
The Holy Grail Guitar Show is not only the best luthier guitar show in the world (yes, I mean it) it's also a great opportunity to attend to a great selection of conferences.
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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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Here's an audio interview with Paul Marchand, the director of the Jaco Pastorius documentary.
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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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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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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.
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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When I used to live in Montreal I had the great pleasure to see Sonny Landreth live a couple of times during the Jazz Festival (where I will be next week for the first time officially for The Guitar Channel), it was always a blast to see him play so I jumped on the opportunity to interview him for the release of his latest album Bound by the Blues.
Until the next podcast, keep on playing the guitar,
Pierre.
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Here's the 11th episode of the Spartan Project video series. Watch Mikaël working on the neck of my next guitar. Check out how he works with a knife on the volute of the headstock and the heel: pretty amazing craftmanship.
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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The Guitar Channel will be in Montreal to cover the 2015 Montreal Jazz Festival
Monday, 15 June 2015
After several Musikmesse, a first NAMM show in January, the Holy Grail Guitar Show, and various others guitar shows in France, I am very pleased to announce that for the first time I will cover the Montreal Jazz Festival!
So here I am in full swing to organize the ten days that I will spend there.
On my program
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!
If you are on site and / or you have
Here's the 10th episode of the Spartan Project video series. Watch Mikaël working on the neck of my next guitar.
Playlist of the 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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Here's the 9th episode of the Spartan Project video series. Watch Mikaël gluing the fretboard and starting the work on the frets.
Playlist of the 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.
Video recorded on May 17th 2015 at Guitars Addicts in Paris, France when Nik Huber delivered the Blue Whale #6 to the owner, Didier. Etienne Prieuret, pro guitar player, improvised this demo on this superb guitar on the Rhythm channel of an Imperial amp from Tone King (above) and on the Leach channel (below).
Gear used
Guitar: Blue Whale #6
Luthier: Nik Huber
Amp: Tone King Imperial
Video and sound: Lumix GH2
The Blue Whale guitar is a 25 limited edition run. It is based on the Dolphin model from the Nik Huber catalog.
In this 8th video of the Spartan Project the luthier, Mikaël Springer, continues the work on the neck of the guitar.
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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