1
Dec
2009
David Gilmour – The Black Strat
Interesting video with the legendary David Gilmour about the new David Gilmour Signature Series Stratocaster from Fender.
I don’t really get the whole “relic” thing myself, but it would be a fantastic guitar for an over-cashed Gilmour fan. Certainly something I’d have on my post-lottery-winning list of things to get 
Oh, and it the vid has Gilmour playing a great Comfortably Numb solo, so it’s worth seeing just for that 
5
Nov
2009
A Picking Exercise a-la Nuno
I decided the other day, after successfully tracking down a copy of one of my favourite CD’s of the very late 80′s (Extreme -- Extreme), to re-learn the intro to Mutha Don’t Wanna Go To School Today.
It turns out it’s harder than I remember, despite the abundance of 4 year olds on YouTube that can play it one-handed whilst asleep 
The part that I’m really trying to focus on at the moment is a “simple” repeating pattern, three notes per string, that comes in at about 0:32 on the track. It’s a pattern that is used a lot by Zakk Wylde, and many other shred dudes.
Here’s a sample of the pattern, thanks to tinylick.com:
The actual pattern is a little different, but as a picking exercise I find that what’s tabbed here is pretty good.
Picking pattern is down-up-down-up-ad infinitum, although unless I really concentrate, it turns into a mess of downs, ups, hammers, pulls and who knows what else
So, give it a go, play it so slow that you put yourself to sleep and marvel one day when you can play it as fast as Nuno
29
Oct
2009
NZGuitars.com Auckland Gearfest – October 2009
I travelled up to Auckland for the NZGuitars.com gearfest last weekend, and what a fantastic gearfest it was! Good turnout of people and some fantastic gear to drool over 
The Manor is a great venue.
ThatGirl was on camera duty, and I’ve posted the photos here, in the photos section of the site.
I had a chance to blast the JSX amp through two Bogner 2×12″ cabinets at almost half volume. It was loud! And it sounded a lot better than it’s ever sounded before (the change to 6L6 tubes and new preamp tubes seems to be a winner). I was a little unhappy with the sound of some of my drive pedals though, but that might be a combination of needing to tweak the settings on them, or the fact that I have too many pedals on the board at the moment . I tried the pedalboard through the Bogner as well, and it was a bit lacking, and there is no way that was the Bogner’s fault, let me tell you… That amp is just pure tone of win. So yip, lots of testing to do, and eliminating of pedals (oh, and getting better quality cables between the pedals).
Did I mention how incredible the guitar playing at the gearfest was? No? Well, it was. Too much talent for one day almost
Looking forward to heading up to another Auckland gearfest in the future
9
Oct
2009
Orcon Iggy Pop Audition
A New Zealand ISP, Orcon, are doing an online remake of the Iggy Pop classic song “The Passenger” with Iggy himself as the front man for the project. They are asking for audition videos to be sent in to choose 8 people to be the “virtual band” to play the tune with Iggy.
So, I decided to whip up a quick solo and send it in to see what happens Had a play through the supplied progression a couple of times, and then realised it was time to go to bed, so I just recorded what I was jamming
Here’s the result:
I’m not sure if it was the late-nightness of it all, but I was struggling to pick some good notes to play! Can’t beat the olde pentatonic sometimes, eh?
8
Oct
2009
Guthrie Govan Talks About Hybrid Picking
The guitar super-human, Guthrie Govan gives some examples about what he likes about hybrid picking:
Now normally, I can’t stand YouTube comments, but this one was rather good in relation to this video:
“What a very rude bald man that was,
Guthrie should have slapped him like Bennie Hill did to the old guy on his show.”
3
Oct
2009
1
Oct
2009
Guitar player, IT guy, web designer, Photoshop hack
