Playing Iconic Mark Knopfler Guitars
Plus, Tommy Emmanuel's unique way of practicing
Right at the top here I wanted to shout out American Musical Supply. I grew up working at their brick and mortar store (Victor’s House of Music) in NJ when I was a teenager, and got to meet a ton of great people in the process.
Over the past year or so, AMS has started to do a ton of great interviews. One of the interviewers is Ryan Dacey, who is another person I worked for when I was working at Sam Ash. Not only is he a great guitar player and interviewer, but he’s a good guy too. That’s a hard mix to find nowadays.
I love these interviews, because both guys love guitar and are fans first, and often ask questions that other people wouldn’t. Their latest interview was with Satriani and Vai, which you can check out here. Check out some of the interviews, and let me know what you think.
Alright let’s get into this week’s links!
This week’s guitar links!
“Dickey was larger-than-life, and his loss will be felt worldwide”: The Allman Brother’s Band’s Dickey Betts has died at 80 - One of the integral players in the Allman Brothers Band has died this week. Dickey Betts passed at 80, and was one of the most notable guitarists in southern rock history. Dickey’s sound can be heard in so many other guitarist’s playing - his influence will be heard for a long time.
I Played Mark Knopfler's Iconic Guitars - It was so exciting to see Mary Spender attend the Mark Knopfler auction events from a few months ago. She got to play some of Knopfler's most legendary guitars, including a Pensa Suhr MK-1, Les Pauls, Strats (of course!), and a number of great acoustic guitars too. Not only did this auction fetch millions of dollars, a good chunk of it went to charity.
Tommy Emmanuel's CASE AGAINST Practicing - Speaking of great musicians, I enjoyed watching this video from Jon MacLennan, where he broke down Tommy Emmanuel's case against not practicing in a traditional way. Emmanuel's practice is like a performance. Certain things happen when you're on a stage, and playing in front of people. Tommy breaks out 5 songs, and plays them as his "practice session". What do you think about practicing this way?
“I didn’t want them to be traditional”: Martin's Satin Black M/0000 is the first of a Reverb-exclusive line of experimental builds – and a glimpse at the future of one of America’s oldest guitar brands - The last two links had to do with some iconic acoustic players. So I thought I'd include this interesting news from Martin. The company is teaming up with Reverb, to exclusively offer a satin black acoustic, that's limited to only 24 guitars. I hope we see more custom shop Martin builds in the future, but that they're a little more affordably priced.
20 Guitars in... ONE!? - What if you only have 1 or 2 guitars, but want to virtually enhance your collection? That's exactly what the folks are doing with BIAS FX 2's “Guitar Match" feature. This features reminds me of the old Line 6 Variax. Except in the BIAS FX 2 software, you choose your initial guitar and the pickups, and then you choose the guitar you'd like it sound like. It's not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction for guitar modeling.
BOSSA NOVA is beautiful! (and why every guitarist should know the basics) - Dominic Miller is well known for his work with Sting. I liked watching this video where he sat down with Paul Davids, to basically give him a guitar lesson on why bossa nova is so special. This genre always holds a place in my heart, because I listened to a ton of it when trying to get my kids to sleep when they were younger. Plus, both Dominic and Paul are playing some beautiful acoustic guitars. Later in the week on Rick Beato's second channel, Miller talked to Rick about playing the Police's music with Sting. You can check that out here.
Josh Smith: More on “call and response” soloing - One of the best ways you can make your solos more exciting, is to work on your call and response technique. I've listened to countless blues players that are great at this technique, one of them being Josh Smith who taught a lesson about it for GW's latest issue. Check out this short lesson, and you'll definitely start thinking about your solos differently.
All of the Pickups! (Nearly) | Friday Fretworks - This was a fun video of Chris Buck trying out all sorts of different pickups. From single coils and humbuckers, to P90s, gold foils and many more. If you're in the market for a new guitar, and you want to get an idea of what each pickup sounds like, you should check this video out.
Fractal Have Outdone Themselves | FM3 Firmware 8 - If you're a Fractal FM3 user, this week's news is a cause for rejoicing. Not only did we get some amazing sounding Cygnus modeled amps, but we also now have gapless switching! No more will you have to worry about a short bit of dead space between presets, etc. With its small form factor, and amazing sound amps and effects, this is my go to amp modeler of choice.
“You can find all the guitars I was using with Megadeth. All the tours, and also the recording of The Sick, The Dying… and the Dead!” Kiko Loureiro is selling his Megadeth gear on Reverb - Late last year, Kiko Loureiro parted ways with Megadeth. Now he's doing a "hard reset" on most of his Megadeth gear - from guitars and amps, to effects boxes, and even some brazilian jiu-jitsu gear (seriously). The store goes live on April 24th.
This song has the most Googled guitar chords in the world, according to new study - Do you know what song has the most Google searches in the world? What about the most searched riffs? Wood and Fire Studio looked into the data, and the song that topped the list actually surprised me.
P.S. Is there anything better than Rick Beato freaking out about tuning?
I think the important thing about practice is to do it. Whether it is scales, learning new music, or practicing your setlist for your upcoming gigs.