Sick tones at home, the weirdest Fender guitars, and smooth soloing with Paul Gilbert
Plus, Yngwie has a podcast?!
This week’s issue of Six String Sunday has lots of awesome guitar related links - new podcast episodes, gear, lessons, and a lot more.
What have you been getting into lately in the guitar world? Any new guitarist you’ve been loving that I should know about? What about gear? Any interesting guitar, plug-in, or effects pedal been catching your ear? Reply to this email/post to let me know! Alright, let’s get into this week’s links.
Dire Straits‘ “Sultans of Swing” | Mark Knopfler‘s Brilliant Outro Guitar Solo Dissected - Mark Knopfler is a favorite around the Chasing Sound Discord, which is why I was so happy to see Sweetwater doing a lesson on Mark’s outro solo to “Sultans of Swing” - a truly memorable classic. Don nails the solo and the tone, with a great sounding Strat. If you’ve ever wanted to learn this solo broken down into easier parts, this lesson is worth a watch.
The 3 Note Per String ANNIHILATOR! SHRED THIS! - I loved this 3 note per string idea from Ben Eller. The picking sequence that Ben shows us employs a 6 note pattern per string, and the cool thing about these types of sequences is that they often make your leads sound speedier than usual. Ben also showed up on Premier Guitar’s channel to do a helpful lesson about alternate picking.
Rock Guitar Lesson: Smooth Soloing with Paul Gilbert || ArtistWorks - Paul Gilbert makes the case that sometimes not picking every note is the right musical technique to use. Paul shows us how a well timed pull-off or hammer-on will make our solos sound a lot more fluid.
The Importance of Listening for Guitarists - Sam Bell breaks down the most important thing he’s learned as a guitarist and musician - the necessity of being a good listener. This might be one of the best 6 minute videos you watch this week!
Lies We Tell Beginner Guitarists! - Just getting started with guitar? Don’t buy in to these common misconceptions about theory, tone, and what guitar to start off with.
SRV’s 12 Bars of MINOR BLUES Magic! (Tin Pan Alley, Montreux ’85) Guitar Lesson - Stevie Ray Vaughan - The fretLive system that Pow Music has on his channel, is still one of my favorite visual guitar tools anywhere on the internet. In his latest lesson, he breaks down an awesome lead run from SRV, from a classic gig at Montreux in 1985. If you haven’t seen this bit of guitar wizardy, both from SRV and from watching the notes go by on the fretboard, go give it a shot.
Slash’s ‘Appetite’ Sound… | Iconic Tone #1 - Ross Campbell just started up a new series on his YouTube channel called “Iocnic Tone”. For his first episode in the series, he tries to replicate Slash’s ‘Appetite for Destruction’ sound. Ross is using a Neural DSP plugin to nail the tone, but he also gives general tips if you’re trying to get this tone with your own gear.
Free Course - Sick Tones At Home - Speaking of tone - Ryan from Riffs, Beards and Gear knows quite a bit about tone! I just signed up for his brand new mini-course called “Sick Tones at Home”. Check out his announcement video to sign up (it’s free!)
Yngwie Malmsteen’s COFFEE TALK - Episode 1: Steve Vai pt. I - At first, when David from our Discord told me that Yngwie Malmsteen was doing a podcast, I thought it was a joke. Turns out, it’s a real thing, and it’s very laid back! The maestro has none other than Steve Vai for his first guest, and after a little reminiscing, Vai tells a pretty funny story about his first Alcatrazz gig.
5 Reasons Chris Cheney is an UNDERRATED Guitar Player! - Chris Cheney of Australia’s The Living End has a new solo album coming out, and has already dropped his first single “California”. If you haven’t heard Cheney’s incredible playing on a number of Gretsch guitars, go check him out! In this vid, Adrian Whyte gives us 5 reasons why Chris is underrated.
The Weirdest Guitars Fender Ever Made: Player Plus Meteora, Maverick, Performer & More - I dug this video from Reverb where they talk about the weirdest Fender guitars of all time. They include the new Player Plus Meteora, which looks and sounds great. What’s your favorite from this vid?
Walking The Floor – Walking The Floor with Chris Shiflett - I just recently found out that Chris Shiflett of the Foo Fighters has his own podcast! I instantly subscribed, and enjoyed listening to the new episode with Wolfgang Van Halen. In the episode, Wolfie drops the news that his signature guitar will be coming out at some point. We’ve already seen some photos of this semi-hollowbody, and it looks awesome. In a heartwearming touch, the model name is a nod to EVH’s birthday.
John Mayer Pt. 2—A Song Too Perfect To Record? - Premier Guitar - Speaking of podcasts, last week I linked up the first part of Cory Wong’s interview with John Mayer, and I had to link part 2 this week. Mayer and Wong do a lot more playing in this 2nd episode, and we also find out that John owns the Dumble amp that SRV used to record ‘Texas Flood’. Mayer also plays part of an unreleased song from the ‘Contiuum’ days that “might have been the best song ever”, but that he struggled with in regards to the bridge. I loved how this song sounded, and I hope he finishes it and puts it out for real at some point. Not only that, but he mentioned that ‘Contiuum’ almost was a double album. So many fun tidbits in this one.
“I’m feeling Like FrankenStern – Kind of Rewired and Half Bionic”: Mike Stern Reveals How He Perseveres One Gig At a Time - It’s so inspiring to hear about how Mike Stern persevered, and got over injuries to his picking hand. Stern’s been one of the most unique jazz guitar players for a long time now, which is why I always enjoyed listening to guys like him and John Scofield growing up. After reading this interview with Guitar Player, check out the album that was inspired by his mishaps, which is ironically called ‘Trip’.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading Six String Sunday!
Want to learn guitar? Sign up to take guitar lessons with me!
If you’d like to support my work, check out the Chasing Sound merch store.
You can find me at: Chasing Sound, Twitter, YouTube, Discord, Instagram, Facebook and even TikTok.