Not the solo… it was fairly easy compared to the SRV one, but the audio and video somehow got out of sync when I recorded it and trying to find a halfway decent video editing suite that would run on my ancient desktop took way longer than it should have.
Once I got one, the actual edit only took a minute or two…
Anyways, this one might be really easy for ya, it might be really challenging. It all depends on whether or not this style of playing is in your wheelhouse or not. For me, it was right in there. The phrasing isn’t your typical blues inspired rock phrasing, nor is it “jazzy” by any stretch of the term. I don’t know what I’d call it, but it’s quite distinct.
I was at the NAMM show this past weekend. It was a great show overall. Much less crowded than previous years and way fewer artist signings and things like that crowding up the floor. I ended the weekend with probably my most exciting and unexpected NAMM moment ever though…
Yeah! I got a compressor straight from the hands of Robert Keeley himself! I dropped by the booth hoping to try out the Memphis Sun. They didn’t have any there, but they did have the Compressor+, which had recently caught my eye online.
I’ve had the Keeley 2 knob compressor on my board for years. However, when I got my Delta King, I started noticing that it was hitting the compressor way too hard. No matter what I did, the compressor would just crush my sound and never let up. It’s a common issue with humbuckers or active pickups and compressors, but that guitar rendered my Keeley pretty much useless. I need a nice, spanky, compressed tone for the Copy Cats… Basically, I needed a different compressor or a different guitar.
After talking to Robert a bit, he affirmed that the Compressor+ was designed to address exactly the problem I was having. The toggle in the middle switches between single coil and humbucker modes. Single coil mode behaves like the old 2 knob, but when you flip over to humbucker mode it eases up a bit. I’m not sure if it raises the threshold where the compressor kicks in, lowers the input gain a little, or what… But it works! Check out the video for a comparison between how the 2 knob handles humbuckers compared to the Compressor+.
In addition to the single coil / humbucker modes, the Compressor+ also has a tone and blend knob. Both behave as you would expect. The tone brings in some extra brightness and the blend is a simple wet/dry mix (a really clever addition to a compressor that I’ve not seen in a pedal before). The big feature is the toggle switch though. If you’re a humbucker player, but like those classic single coil humbucker sounds, the Compressor+ is worth a shot.
One of my students asked to learn this song recently. Whole the song itself is really simple (just 3 bars of E then a bar of A over and over again), it’s got a really cool little guitar solo. It’s a good introduction to sweep picking too!
This is the first in a new series I’m doing where I try to correct common misunderstandings, bits of misinformation, or shortcomings common amongst guitarists. It’s kind of like “Adam Ruins Everything” but for guitar… and my hair is nowhere near as magnificent as his. This first episode is about tuning.
I’m often baffled at how anyone who has played the guitar for more than a month doesn’t know how to tune their guitars without the aid of tuner. Whenever I get a new guitar student I spend the first 15 minutes of our first lesson going over how to tune relatively and why it is important.
So why is it important? Well, we’re musicians, right? And if you’re going to be a musician, you need to develop your ear. You need to develop your sense of intonation. You should be able to recognize when two pitches match! Tuning your guitar is a simple way to work on those skills every day (yes, every day).
In this video I show you the most basic way to tune by ear, but I also show you a simple way to gamify the tuning process. Have fun!
This is a pretty common question, and folks often have a variety of answers ready to go. But which scale or pattern would be most prudent to learn next really depends on what type of music you’re looking to play!
This video was recorded live, so there are moments where I’m directly responding to viewer comments. I try to restate the questions before responding to them, but if some parts are a bit confusing, that may be why.
So I’m building my own pedals now! This was my first, the Classic Phaser from Build Your Own Clone. It’s a clone of a 70’s “script logo” Phase 90, but the kit includes an extra 22k resistor that, supposedly, turns it into a modern “block logo” pedal. This is a bit of an unusual kit from BYOC from what I can tell, because Keith apparently only sells kits for currently unavailable pedals. Word is when Bill Finnegan resumed production of the Klon Centaur (as the KTR), Keith pulled the Silver Pony kit from the website. The Phase 90 is stupid easy to get ahold of, even the vintage reissues, and for roughly the same price as this kit. Which brings me to my one, and really only, criticism of this kit: it doesn’t offer the same value as other diy kits because the pedal it copies is so readily available AND affordable. The kit cost me roughly $70 on sale, after shipping. That’s pretty much what reissue Phase 90s are going for on Reverb right now.
However, it IS a great phaser, and I’m satisfied with what I got for the price. The build was very simple and fun (you can watch the whole thing here). As I mentioned earlier, one of the really cool things about the kit is that it can be used to recreate an early spec version of the Phase 90 and the later spec (it’s just one resistor). In the video, I’ve rigged up some alligator clips (a little rig I usually use to hot swap tone caps when rewiring guitars) and clipped the extra resistor in to compare the sounds. In general, I prefer the extra resistor in there. There’s a bit more high end and volume in general, and the resonance peak seems to shift slightly higher with it in there. I also found the full-clockwise position to be a bit comical with the “script logo” spec compared to the “block logo”.
However, I could easily imagine myself preferring either in different situations. The vintage specs sound much better when playing Isletys, Jacksons, Zeppelin, or other classic 70’s recordings that feature a phaser part (be it guitar or keyboards). So my plan is to wire in a SPST toggle switch that will let me flip between the two versions. If Keith were to modify the kit to make that a standard feature, this kit would definitely be worth the price, as you’re getting both vintage and modern versions of a single pedal.
Not being a phaser fan, I was surprised at how much I liked this pedal. Maybe I’ve only tried crap phasers before, but this one sounds good to my ears. If you like how it sounds too you can buy the kit at the link below, but if you’ve already got a phaser, I’d recommend the Phase Royal or another phaser with more options.
No, I don’t expect you to watch a 4 hour video of me building this pedal (unless you really want to). I would like to say a few things now that it’s finished though!
This was the first electronics project I’ve done since I was a kid, but I never did anything with PCBs back then (I always did breadboard projects), so there was a bit of a learning curve for me. I’m used to doing mods and repairs, but populating a whole circuit board from nothing is a much different experience. The instructions were easy to follow, although they left out the part about orienting the IC sockets. Thankfully they include a photo of the completed pedal guts, so I was able to reference that to figure out the proper direction for the chips to face.
The kit includes an optional extra resistor that supposedly changes the pedal from an early Phase 90 spec to a later version. I left the extra resistor out (old spec), but I might try clipping it in to compare the sounds later. Perhaps I could add a mini toggle switch so I can go back and forth.
Anyways, it sounds… like a 70’s phaser. I don’t have a real Phase 90 to compare it to, but it sounds pretty legit to my ear. The pedal has a nice throaty tone to it and a focused sweep. The whole range of the speed control is useable. At slower speeds it provides just a little bit of movement that could help something stand out in a crowded mix, while at the top you get a rapidly oscillating phase sound reminiscent of JPJ’s Rhodes piano on “No Quarter” (which I will undoubtedly be using this pedal to cover).
The only downside to the kit is the value. A big part of the appeal of DIY pedals is that you can get some great quality stuff for half the price or less (since you’re providing the labor). This kit cost me about $70 after shipping (and a discount). I could buy a real Phase 90 for that price. If you don’t have a phaser, and are into electronics, I’d recommend it. But if you already have one, I don’t really see the value. Perhaps if I could compare the pedal directly with a vintage Phase 90, the various reissues, and the mass production models, and it outperformed them, then perhaps I’d change my tune.
It’s been over two years since I published an entry in my 100 Greatest Guitar Solos lesson series, and I never stopped getting questions about when I’d get back around to it. I figured the new year is as good a time as any to jump back in. I actually learned this solo quite a while back. I’ve been coming back to it occasionally, slowly working it up to speed. I’m not quite there yet, but I’ll get there.
There’s lots of cool stuff going on in this solo. Not being a blues guy myself, it was interesting getting inside the mind of a legendary bluesman like SRV. He sticks entirely to the E blues scale for most of the first chorus. The exceptions being the B7#9 (well Bb7#9, since he’s tuned down) chord he bangs out and the descending 3rds near the end (which yield a b9 and b13 over the V chord)
The second chorus features a cool tritone lick that really exemplifies the blues tonality for me. Sliding between two tritones a half step apart, SRV gets the 3rd, b7th, #9th, and 13th. It’s something I’d never think to do, but I’m glad I’ve got that little trick in my bag now (in case I ever find myself in a surprise blues jam).
What fascinates me about these first two choruses is how SRV seems to really dislike the IV chord. He just sort of bullshits his way through those two bars both times, aggressively repeating the same notes as if he’s anxious for that moment to be over. It certainly works, but it’s still curious. The third chorus has a much more inspired lick over the IV chord, hitting a quick little b9 as well as a couple chromatic notes.
Probably the coolest thing about learning this solo is that you’re sort of learning the whole song when you do! The song is less than two minutes long, and the solo incorporates the main riff of the tune. I might just have to learn this whole thing!
This is a question I see/hear asked a lot. Much like confusion over modes (it’s pretty much the same question), the reason people have this question is because they’re focusing on the wrong thing! If you’re just looking at the notes, then there isn’t any obvious difference. However, if you focus on the intervals and how all the notes relate to the tonic, then the differences are really clear.
But what’s even more clear is the sounds! So give the video up there a watch and see if you can’t hear the difference.
BuildYourOwnClone.com was having a holiday sale recently: buy 3 kits and get a 4th free! I’ve been wanting to get into building my own pedals for a while. I used to build radios and other stuff when I was a kid, which is how I developed the skills to do all the various electronics repairs I’ve done on guitars, amps, pedals, etc over the years. But this will be the first time in over 20 years I built something.
I’m thinking about livestreaming the builds on my YouTube channel… Should be fun!
