Drew Roller interview - Director of the documentary

The world of acoustic guitar is currently booming with locomotives such as Andy McKee, Jon Gomm, Maneli Jamal, Antoine Dufour and many others who follow the path opened by Michael Hedges, Don Ross and other guitarists. The documentary Acoustic Uprising tells the story of this movement. This film was directed by Drew Roller, an Australian

Back in September, The Guitar Channel proposed you to listen to a guitar only using the audio file of the review. The objective was to use more our ears than our eyes to evaluate the sound. The suspens is over, now is the time to reveal the mystery guitar! It's a guitar hand built by

Godefroy Maruejouls is a French luthier who has been building high quality guitars, acoustic or electric. Last time we reviewed one of his acoustic instrument, this time this is an electric guitar called the Sorcerer 62. Video review of the Sorcerer 62 Audio version of the review For those into audio, here's the podcast version

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Guitar Review – Try to discover the mystery guitar!

In order to change from the usual format of guitar review, here's a new idea: you will find below the audio recording of a guitar reviewed on The Guitar Channel, the goal is to guess which guitar or at least which kind of guitar it is!

Review setup

Path: guitar > jack > Kelt V-Twin amp > Shure SM-58 > Tascam DR-70D
No equalization applied or reverv or anythyng: just the dry signal coming from the SM-58
The settings on the amp were the sam throughout the review

Any idea about the guitar?

Jessica Lynn interview: Country music singer and guitar player

Jessica Lynn is a Country music singer and guitar player who tours a lot in Europe. We did this audio interview while she was right in the middle of a big European tour.

Subjects discussed

Her first guitar
Her influences
How she went into Country music
The process she uses to write a song
The experiences she had from the road
Her next projects

Jessica Lyn video clip - Not Your Woman

Jessica Lynn is often referred to as the ‘new’ Shania of pop-country and one can easily see why.

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Kenny Wayne Shepherd interview – Lay It On Down

Kenny Wayne Shepherd continues a career filled with excellent albums. Lay It On Down is no exception and offers a beautiful collection of Blues, Blues/Rock and Country songs. It will not change the face of the world, it does not invent much but God, it is excellent music!! In the interview below Kenny talks about how

The Mag Mic system from Seymour Duncan is a solution that is seen more and more often in the instruments of pro musicians. So recently Adam Miller came to the Backstage showroom for a Guitar in Hand interview with his guitar made by the luthier Jeff Traugott which is equipped with this system, same for Shai

Pedal Review - @Strymon Sunset, double overdrive/boost Swiss army knife

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.

Julia Crowe interview, author of the book

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.

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.

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 €.

Eric Bibb is a very prolific musician who is now releasing Migration Blues, a magnificent album about a theme which is very tragically present in the news. Supported by the French harp player Jean-Jacques Milteau and by Michael Jerome Browne for a multitude of stringed instruments (guitars, mandolin, banjo, etc.), Eric delivers here a masterly work that is a treat to listen to.

Luthier Guitar Review: Oniric from Franfret (Spain)
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Luthier Guitar Review: Oniric from Franfret (Spain)

Francisco Rodriguez is a Spanish luthier The Guitar Channel interviewed during the Holy Grail Guitar Show.

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.

Mojo Classic Ruokangas Guitars review: a Telecaster coming from Finland
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Mojo Classic Ruokangas Guitars review – A Telecaster coming from Finland

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).

Peter Holmsröm interview, guitar player from the Dandy Warhols

The Dandy Warhols were in Paris for a concert, a perfect opportunity to record this video interview with their guitar player Peter Holmström.

Andy Timmons interview: Theme From A Perfect World, his new album

During the 2017 NAMM there was no time to record an interview with the one and only Andy Timmons even though we met during the great X-Jamm concert so a couple of weeks later we organized this Skype interview to catch up.

2017 Guitares au Beffroi festival / Salon de la Belle Guitare: organizer interview

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

An interview to know all you need to know about Reverb.com

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?

Alteratio Tocxic Instruments - Guitar Review

Here's an unusual instrument for a review, the Alteratio model from Tocxic Instruments. It's designed and built in France by a small team of passionate people. This might as well be the Explorer type guitar that Mad Max would use.

Maneli Jamal interview - Fingerpicking rising star
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Maneli Jamal interview – Fingerpicking rising star

Here's a Maneli Jamal (www.manelijamal.com) interview done Guitar in Hand with the iranian born musician now living in Toronto after an epic and long journey. it is through Shaï Sebbag that The Guitar Channel heard about Maneli as they had met during a guitar festival in Mexico. They hit it off so well that Shaï decided to help Maneli organizing a tour in France. It was during Maneli's stay in France that we did this 30min video interview at the worldwide intergalactic headquarters of the show (meaning, my home).

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.

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.

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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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).

Joe Jackson guitar player Teddy Kumpel pedalboard demo

Joe Jackson and his band were part of the official indoor schedule of the 2016 edition of the Montreal Jazz Festival.

Charlie Hunter interview during the 2016 Montreal Jazz festival

Discovered in the excellent podcast No Guitar Is Safe produced by Jude Gold, The Guitar Channel is very happy to present you with an interview with Charlie Hunter, a 7-string guitar player. This Guitar in Hand interview took place during the 2016 Montreal Jazz Festival before his concert. Charlie plays an electric guitar built by luthier John Traugott with 3 strings from a bass guitar and 4 string from a regular guitar.

This instrument allows Charlie to sounds like two musicians playing when there's only him.

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Ana Popovic interview about her triple album Trilogy

Here's Ana Popovic interview done in Paris to talk about her triple album called Trilogy. You have to admit that it takes a lot of courage to release a triple album nowadays. Ana proposes three different moods in those three CDs: Blues, Funk and Jazz. It's the second time I meet Ana, last time was in 2013 in audio, this time we did it in video.

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Honk Machine IT-11 Audio: a vocal overdrive pedal

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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Teddy Kumpel: guitar player for Joe Jackson

Here's Teddy Kumpel interview. He was in Paris touring with Joe Jackson so we took the opportunity to record this video the morning after the concert. I met Teddy at the 2016 NAMM show through Julie Cord from Blue Mouth Promotions (thanks Julie!).