Hendrix's Inspiring Advice
Plus, things that guitarists should never do
Welcome to another issue of Six String Sunday Club! In this week's edition, we'll be diving into the latest guitar news, highlighting some incredible musicians, and sharing tips and tricks to help you level up your guitar playing skills.
But before we delve into this week’s links, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for your time. I understand that in today's fast-paced world, time is a precious commodity, and there are countless newsletters vying for your attention. That's why it means so much to me that you’re a part of the Six String Sunday Club. We’ve been doing this for over 5 years at this point, and I’m always trying to make changes and tweaks to what the newsletter is.
I’m striving to create a newsletter that not only informs and entertains but also becomes your favorite amongst the handful you make time for each week. That's why I am reaching out to ask for your input. What can I do to make this newsletter the highlight of your inbox each week?
So, please, feel free to share your thoughts, suggestions, and even your favorite guitar-related stories.
- Things Guitarists Should Never Do - I loved this video from SamuraiGuitarist, where he breaks down things guitarists should absolutely never do. There's some great tips in here, like always making sure to tune up when you're adjusting tuning, and not letting yourself be jealous of other guitar players. Totally worth your time to check this one out.
- On the Road with NDV: Paul Gilbert’s Mr. Big Road Rig - I don't always link to rig rundowns, but I'm such a huge fan of Paul Gilbert. Sweetwater caught up with Gilbert to check out his Mr. Big road rig. My favorite part of the video is Paul’s PGM1000T, which is a cream burst, awesome looking signature model (which, turns out, goes for around 6-7K here in the U.S.) Have you seen any fun rig rundowns lately? Let me know!
- CAB-LAB 4 is here and it's FREE! | Fractal Friday #33 with Cooper Carter - Cab-Lab 4 just was released, and the best part? It's absolutely free to use as a standalone program or as a plug-in inside of your DAW. The app lets you mix up to 4 impulse responses at once, and if you pick up the dyna cab packs, you also have access to microphones, and their placement around the speaker cone. Cooper Carter takes us through the app in his latest video.
- Do THIS Every Day to MASTER the Pentatonic Scale - I feel like pentatonic lessons are like catnip to most guitarists...myself included. John Cordy recently put up a video, playing some great sounding runs that link all the pentatonic box shapes together.
- Combining Chords and Scales for Guitar - Chris Sherland shows us some super easy examples of how to find scales from chords, and makes it crystal clear on how the two are so interconnected.
- Musician Mansion Season 1 Trailer - Jared Dines is doing a musician “hype house" sort of thing, and I'm actually excited to check out the first couple of episodes. This is a trailer for season 1, featuring a lot of musicians you might know from YouTube.
- Andy Wood At TPS [Playing Insights, Pedalboard Run-Through, Suhr Signature Guitar & Much More!] - Andy Wood is such an incredible guitarist. He sat down with the guys over at TPS, and discussed his entire pedalboard, his Suhr signature model, his upcoming album ‘Charisma’, and a bunch more. There's even some picking lessons in the video, if you want to work on flat or hybrid picking.
- A Bunch Of Useless Guitar Facts - 5 and a half minutes, 15 useless guitar facts. Might be good for your favorite trivia night!
- Plini – "EMBER" - Plini's new single clocks in at 6 minutes, and has all sorts of fun time signatures, huge production (as always), and a very cool video shot in widescreen format. Can't wait to see what else he has up his sleeve.
- The Deep Dive Into Mike Bloomfield - I've been getting into Jack Ruch's channel a bunch lately - the topics of his videos always seem to be up my alley. His latest gets into the amazing playing of Mike Bloomfield. Not only does Jack show us some great Bloomfield inspired licks, but he also talks about his overall style and concepts Mike uses.
- “Playing scales up and down is dumb… this isn’t a f**king recital!” We meet the outspoken cartoon shredder who teamed up with Gary Holt, Alex Skolnick and George Lynch for one of this year’s biggest shred guitar albums - You gotta love when we get some weird cartoon personality for a band, like Mr. Fastfinger or even the Gorillaz. The latest one I've seen is the new "band” called The Shredderz. The group actually put out a pretty killer self-titled record recently, with guest guitarists like Gary Holt, Alex Skolnick, and George Lynch. Guitar World sat down with the band's frontman, and they actually had some solid advice. 😊
- "Advice? Sometimes you are going to be so frustrated you want to give up – you’ll hate the guitar. But if you stick with it, you’ll be rewarded.” Jimi Hendrix talks technique, songwriting, making records and more in this 1968 Guitar Player interview - Speaking of advice, I loved reading through this classic 1968 Guitar Player interview, where they sat down with none other than Jimi Hendrix. The main quote they used for the article's headline really resonated with me. If you're thinking about giving up on guitar...don’t! You're going to be rewarded if you keep at it.
- Eddie Van Halen's rig builder recalls “torture test” late guitarist used to put his amps through - I love reading stories about EVH - I was a huge fan of the book Eruption (go check that out if you haven't already!) On a recent radio show, Dave Friedman (who's a legend in the guitar world) talked about how Eddie would test amps - “He did do that… He’d hit the strings on his guitar, lay it on the floor, have the amp cranked up, leave his studio, and leave it on for, like, days. And it was still operating when he came back. That was his torture test.”
- Mike Portnoy rejoins Dream Theater! - While not directly guitar related, I had to share the news of Mike Portnoy rejoining the legendary prog band, Dream Theater. I've always felt like Portnoy was the life of Dream Theater, so it's great that he's back in the fold after all these years. I'm hoping we get some new music and a tour, sooner than later!