Is he the best player in the world?
Plus, the original G3 lineup is coming back
This week’s issue has a bit of everything - Jackson came out with a killer guitar in the American Series Virtuoso, the original G3 lineup is reuniting next year, more and more people are moving to amp modelers, and a bunch more. If I missed an awesome video, lesson, or guitar story, let me know!
Let’s get into this week’s links!
This week’s guitar links
- The Virtuoso Mega Shred | American Series Virtuoso | Jackson Guitars - It's not often a product demo really blows me away, but that's exactly what happened when I watched this video for the new American Series Virtuoso from Jackson. Misha Mansoor of Periphery got together lots of great guitarists to demo this new axe. The guitar sounds incredible. I love Marty Friedman at the end of his solo, and Debbie Gough's tone is epic!
- Why Musicians Are Broke and How to Fix It - Any time I see a new app or service trying to help musicians make more money, I'm all for it. I enjoyed watching Rick Beato and Niclas Molinder talk about Session Studio. If any of you use this already, let me know!
- Rig Rundown: Steve Vai [2023] - Premier Guitar talks to Vai's newest guitar tech, Doug MacArthur. What a huge gig to land, especially after Vai's last tech, Thomas Nordegg. Doug shows off Vai's latest rig for 2023, including a ton of beautiful looking Ibanez guitars. The Ibanez Scofield finish is absolutely insane! It's also cool to see Steve using the Fractal stuff for some of his sounds.
- G3 2024 Featuring Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson & Steve Vai Announce - Speaking of Vai, we got a video this week from Vai, Satriani and Eric Johnson. The original G3 lineup is coming back in 2024! I watched the concert video for the original tour a million times. It's so exciting they're getting this lineup back together. Currently there are only west coast dates, so I'm hoping we get more dates announced soon!
- Eric Johnson - "Desert Rose" Live from the Paramount Theatre - And if you want to hear a recent version of one of Eric Johnson's classic songs "Desert Rose”, check out this video.
- He's the best guitar player in the world... probably - It's a great time to be a guitar player - there's SO much amazing instrumental guitar music coming out all the time. One of my favorite new players is the incredible Matteo Mancuso. Tyler from Music Is Win sat down with Matteo to talk about why his playing is "like Django Reinhardt mixed with Allan Holdsworth, mixed with Guthrie Govan”, and lots more.
- Finger Independence Workout - This was such a fun video from Late Night Lessons. He takes the theme to "Stranger Things", which it turns out, is a great finger independence riff.
- Why Julian Lage Uses the "Wrong" Guitar for Jazz - This is a good clip from Beato's original interview with Julian Lage. In this shorter clip, Julian sings the praises of the Telecaster. You don't typically see jazz players with Teles, but Julian's dynamic touch has made his tone, no matter what guitar, sound amazing.
- “We can do things with a Fractal that we can’t do with a real amp”: Kirk Hammett’s guitar tech reveals how a trip to Antarctica inspired Metallica’s conversion to Axe-Fx - More and more guitarists are moving to modelers for their consistency. In this post from Guitar World, Kirk Hammett's guitar tech talks about a crazy trip the band took to Antarctica, and how that was the breaking point where the band switched over to the Axe-FX.
We’re so close to meeting our fundraising goal for St. Jude - we’re just 50 dollars away! If you have even a couple bucks, please consider donating by using this link.