Take a peek behind the scenes of Fender's Custom Shop
Plus, a super helpful guitar app that'll help you learn the fretboard
I have a true grab bag of links to share with you this week - and for the first time in a long time, this week’s issue is focused a lot more on gear than on lessons. We’ll start off with a tour of the iconic Fender Custom Shop, take a detour to check out some rig rundowns with Julian Lage and Marcus King, and even throw in a helpful online tool that was brought up in our Discord chat.
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Alright, let’s get into this week’s links!
This Week’s Best Guitar Links
- Fender Custom Shop Factory Tour with Master Builders Andy Hicks & Austin MacNutt + John Bohlinger - Premier Guitar's John Bollinger stopped by the Fender Custom Shop to take a tour, and talk with master builders Andy Hicks and Austin MacNutt. If you ever wanted to see a true behind the scenes at one of the most legendary guitar production shops ever, you owe it to yourself to check out this vid.
- Rig Rundown: Julian Lage - I've long sang the praises of Julian Lage, one of my favorite jazz guitarists. His clever use of dynamics and his incredible overall style makes him one of the best players to learn from. While I think Julian would sound good on any guitar really, it's interesting to see what he's using on his latest tour - including a classic "nachocaster" Tele. One of my challenges this year is to learn "Persian Rug" from Julian's 2016 'Arclight' album. I have my work cut out for me, and will let you know how it goes.
- It’s Impossible To Play Guitar Like Him - Speaking of huge jazz influences, John Scofield is high up on the list for me. When I was going to college for guitar back in the early 2000's John was one of the first players (especially with his ‘A Go Go' album), that made me see jazz guitar in a different light. In this video Rhett Shull goes into different aspects that make John such a unique player. If you haven't seen the recent Scofield documentary, you should check it out.
- Riff Retrospective: Megadeth's Youthanasia - I still think that the Marty Friedman/Nick Menza days of Megadeth were the absolute best lineup the band has ever had. One of the awesome albums from that era was ‘Youthanasia’. This week, Ben Eller breaks down some of the heaviest and most fun riffs to play from that album.
- Hear Eddie Van Halen and Steve Lukather’s isolated guitar parts from Michael Jackon’s Beat It - There have been countless stories about Eddie Van Halen and Steve Lukather's work on Michael Jackson's "Beat It". Guitar World just shared the isolated guitar tracks from the song, and it's a lot of fun to hear them on their own.
- STEAL THESE STEVE VAI LICKS - Cam Cooper shows off some of his favorite licks from Steve Vai's David Lee Roth days. If you want to work on your legato, bending and whammy bar technique, this is a great lesson to work on over the weekend.
- This virtuoso is using a Hello Kitty Stratocaster to cover Eric Johnson’s Cliffs of Dover… in a bunch of different scales - These videos just go to show how creative you can be with a song when you view it through the lens of different modes. But the even bigger lesson is how good it sounds on a Hello Kitty guitar.
- Rig Tour: Marcus King - I hadn't listened to Marcus King a ton over the years, but in the last year or two I really fell in love with his playing. I especially loved the production and huge sound on his last album 'Young Blood’. Sweetwater caught up with Marcus to check out what guitar, pedals and amps he has out on his current tour.
- Metronauta - simple metronome with a random note generator - Friend of the newsletter David Donaldson found this really helpful online tool called Metronauta. The web app combines a metronome, and a random note generator, which also tells you the type of interval from one note to the next. I instantly thought of this as sort of a Solo light edition, but it's really it's own thing. If you want to work on your fretboard knowledge, check this website out.
- Gallery: The Most Outrageous Finishes We Could Find | Reverb - I could scroll my phone all day looking at beautiful looking guitars. Reverb put together some of the most eye popping finishes they could find on their site, all in one place for your viewing pleasure.
- How to use palm muting to add weight and tighten up your playing - Channel your inner Hetfield, and get ready to use palm muting to add some heaviness to your playing. Guitar World shares some great ideas on tone, tips , and cool examples to practice this essential technique.
Hey did you know, not only do I talk guitar each week, but I also teach it!
Try out a half an hour to see how much you can learn when you know the right things to practice. Whether you want to learn guitar, recording, mixing or more, I can help you out!