The Guitar Channel - Passion Amplifier

Joe Jackson and his band were part of the official indoor schedule of the 2016 edition of the Montreal Jazz Festival. As I already did an interview with his guitar player Teddy Kumpel in Paris, the contact was already established, we did a pedalboard demo and interview right on the stage where they performed the same night. Teddy Kumpel website: www.teddyjam.com Joe Jackson guitar player Teddy Kumpel pedalboard demo Summary of the pedalboard demo: * Demo of the main sounds used live with Joe Jackson * The detail of the configuration of the pedalboard * How Teddy uses his iPad and Bluetooth keyboard * The full setup of the pedalboard * The unusual pedals combination Audio version of the video interview Here's the audio track of the video recording: Teddy Kumpel gear photos A couple of pictures taken on the stage before the interview: Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar! Pierre.

Discovered in the excellent podcast No Guitar Is Safe produced by Jude Gold, The Guitar Channel is very happy to present you with an interview with Charlie Hunter, a 7-string guitar player. This Guitar in Hand interview took place during the 2016 Montreal Jazz Festival before his concert. Charlie plays an electric guitar built by luthier John Traugott with 3 strings from a bass guitar and 4 string from a regular guitar. This instrument allows Charlie to sounds like two musicians playing when there's only him. It's quite something to see (as per the video below). Charlie Hunter website: www.charliehunter.com www.traugottguitars.com :Charlie's luthier Charlie Hunter: 7-string guitar player Video of "No Money No Honey" Here's a song extracted from his album Everybody's Got A Plan Until They Get Punched In The Mouth: Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar! Pierre.

Here's Ana Popovic interview done in Paris to talk about her triple album called Trilogy. You have to admit that it takes a lot of courage to release a triple album nowadays. Ana proposes three different moods in those three CDs: Blues, Funk and Jazz. It's the second time I meet Ana, last time was in 2013 in audio, this time we did it in video. So here's another interview in the Guitar in Hand series of articles. Ana Popovic website: www.anapopovic.com Ana Popovic interview about her triple album Trilogy Ana Popovic vintage Strat Here's the vintage Strat used by Ana during the inteview. It was plugged in a vintage Tube Screamer then a Mesa Boogie Mark IV amp on the orange channel. "You Got The Love" video clip Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar ! Pierre.

The Honk Machine overdrive pedal from IT-11 Audio is a very vocal overdrive pedal with its specific Honk setting which allows to increase or decrease a 700Hz frequency bump right in the middle of the human voice. Honk Machine IT-11 Audio: a very vocal overdrive pedal This video is accessible to all because IT-11 Audio owns a Pro Backstage Pass on The Guitar Channel What I enjoyed the most on this pedal * The overall sounds * The possibilities given by the Honk setting * The look What I enjoyed the least * The changing colours of the LED is kind of distracting Conclusion Frankly the market overflows a little beyond a bit with overdrive pedal from around the world. So it is refreshing to find a manufacturer that offers an original angle with one of his pedals. This is the case of this pedal Honk Honk Machine and its Honk setting which with its midpoint can boost or cut a bump in the 700Hz giving access to a very palette of sound. For Rock / Blues / Country type of sounds, this pedal is great. With the settings Tone and Honk at zero for example, we get a sound which is awesome with a little slapback echo to play Country for hours. Turning the Honk control completely on the other side you jump to a Rock sound. In short, this pedal is a great success. Until the next gear review, keep on playing the guitar!

Here's Teddy Kumpel interview. He was in Paris touring with Joe Jackson so we took the opportunity to record this video the morning after the concert. I met Teddy at the 2016 NAMM show through Julie Cord from Blue Mouth Promotions (thanks Julie!). To prepare the interview I listened to his album Loopestra Volume One which I thoroughly enjoyed. Teddy Kumpel website: www.teddyjam.com Teddy Kumpel interview, guitar player for Joe Jackson Subjects discussed in the Teddy Kumpel interview * His first guitar * His training and influences * How he got the gig with Joe Jackson * How he recorded and composed his album * The next projects * and more Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar ! Pierre.

Here's Sungha Jung interview done during the latest Musikmesse in Frankfurt. Sungha was there on the Lakewood booth to promote his signature model and play a couple of shows in Germany. As one of the rising star of fingerpicking this guitar player from Korea has just released a new album called L'Atelier. This interview is also available in audio format in The Guitar Channel Podcast to which you can subscribe for free via iTunes or any other podcasting platform. Sungha website: www.sunghajung.com Sungha Jung interview, the latest news from the 2016 Musikmesse Subjects discussed in the Sungha Jung interview * His 1st guitar * How he became a professional guitar player * How it feels to be at the Musikmesse * His new album called L'Atelier * The projects for 2016 Bonus: extracts from his show during the Musikmesse. Thank you very much to Michel Haumont, French guitar player, who has been a big influence on Sungha and who introduced me to Sungha to do this interview. Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar ! Pierre.

During the NAMM I was intrigued by the DV Mark Micro 50 amp. It's super small and quite powerful with 50W. DV Mark is a brand more established in the bass amp market but big players like Greg Howe or Frank Gambale are using their guitar amps so it says something about what they propose. This model is in the direct line of the DV Mark Jazz or DV Mark Little Jazz with a lot of value in a compact package.DV Mark website: www.dvmark.it Micro 50 DV Mark review The Guitar Channel podcast The audio version of the video is available in the podcast on iTunes, Spotify and below: Until the next gear review, keep on playing the guitar ! Pierre Journel.

Universal Audio is highly respected for its great plugins which run in their interface. So far, the guitar amps plugins available were geared toward the big distorted sounds with the Friedman or Marshall plugins. It was possible to get some cool clean tones from the existing plugins but not as good as a real Fender amp. Until now. Universal Audio has just released a plugin for the Fender '55 Tweed Deluxe amp. Here's below the Tweed Deluxe plugin review in video. Universal Audio website: www.uaudio.com The cool looking user interface for the plugin. Easy to use and very elegant: Universal Audio Fender '55 Tweed Deluxe plugin review Note that the amp has 4 inputs which you can bridge and a choice of 3 speakers (Jensen P12R, JBL D120F or Greenback Celestions 25). For this review, I did not touch the microphones settings at all, I only used one of the input and was on the Greenback speaker the whole time to minimize the number of changing parameters. Only the guitar was changed and the volume of the amp. Setup used for the review The video was recorded with 3 different guitars plugged straight into the Apollo Twin interface. The first one is a Monster Relic Strat loaded with Hepcat pickups, the second is a Rittenhouse Telecaster loaded with Dreamsongs Pickups and the third one is a Gibson ES-335 Reissue. What I enjoyed the most * Great sounds from crystal clean to crunch * Very easy to dial-up a great clean tone * Responds really well to the volume swells * Cool user interface What I enjoyed the less * Nothing Conclusion At 199€ I think this '55 Tweed Deluxe plugin is a no-brainer as it brings some awesome clean tones which were missing from the arsenal of existing plugins. I really dig the tones with the lower setting of the volume (around 2 or 3). When you start to play and you don't stop for a long time, it's a good sign that the sound is great. When you turn the volume the amp starts to growl in a very pleasant way without sounding muddy. The Fender character is present all the way. Well done Universal Audio! Can't wait to try to other Fender amps which will be done with such a level of quality. Until the next gear review, keep on playing the guitar ! Pierre.    

Here's Toni Götz interview done during the Guitares au Beffroi festival in 2016, a perfect opportunity to hear the whole Maybach Guitars story. This brand is proposing a full range of high quality Vintage inspired instruments with an excellent price/quality ratio. But don't take my word for granted, check-out for yourself the instrument in a store near you. Maybach website: www.maybach-guitars.de Toni Götz interview: the Maybach Guitars story As Toni is the boss of Maybach Guitars, he is the best person to tell the full story about that guitar brands which is getting a lot of positive feedbacks from the musicians without spending any resources in advertisements. In this video he shares the different development stages of the company, the current models and the up coming original projects for the future. Note that this interview is subtitled and translated in French in case you are interested, here's the list of the interviews available in this format on La Chaîne Guitare. The Maybach Guitars presented during Guitares au Beffroi Here are two photos taken during the guitar show where Maybach Guitars was an exhibitor. At the end of the festival, I took home with me the gorgeous red Lester you see above to do a full review of it in this article. Here's a full shot of that guitar: Until the next interview, keep on playing your guitar! Pierre.

Maybach is a guitar brand launched a few years ago with a line of instruments manufactured in Prague, Czech Republic with German pickups. The Maybach Lester is their version of the venerable Les Paul Gibson. Maybach website : www.maybach-guitars.de The Guitar Channel podcast The audio version of the video is available in the podcast on iTunes, Spotify and below: Until the next gear review, keep on playing the guitar! Pierre Journel.

During the 2016 Winter NAMM I had the pleasure to finally meet a long time Twitter friend, Johnny Beane (@johnnybeane). Of course I met him in front of the EVH guitars as he is well known for his love for Edward Van Valen guitar playing. Here's the Johnny Beane interview in audio, recorded in sunny California. Johnny Beane website : www.johnnybeane.com Subscribe to The Guitar Channel podcast If you enjoyed this audio interview, you can subscribe to The Guitar Channel podcast to get the latest show directly on your smartphone. The subscription to a podcast is completely free. The 100 last episodes of the show are available for your listening pleasure with interviews of Tony Macalpine, Grover Jackson, Bruce Kulick, Derek Trucks, Greg Koch, Glenn Hughes, Leslie West and many more. Until the next interview in the audio podcast feed or in video, keep on playing the guitar! Pierre.

As a big fan of Van Halen I had to read this book about the early years of the band. While at the 2016 Winter NAMM I took the opportunity to interview Greg Renoff, the author of Van Halen Rising. The book website: www.vanhalenrising.com Book review No need to be an ultra fan of Van Halen to enjoy reading the book. It's really a fascinating read to get all the details of what it takes to make it big in the music business. We forget too often the incredible amount of hard work and energy needed to get to a level where you can actually become a major player. Of course, if you are a Van Halen fans you will enjoy the book even more as it is full of stories about the early years. Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar! Pierre.

Here's a Mason Marangella interview done via Skype. Mason is the mastermind behind Vertex, the boutique pedal builder. The interview was a good opportunity to have an in-depth conversation with Mason about his approach to pedal building. We covered a lot of subjects in the interview, including the controversial story about his Wah and chorus pedal. Vertex website: www.vertexeffects.com Questions asked in the Mason Marangella interview * 1st guitar * How did you become a pedal builder? * How do you usually develop a new pedal? * Tell us about the boost pedal you have released recently? * Same with Dynamic Distorsion ? * Same with Steel String Clean ? * On 2014 you came clean in a blog post on The Gear Page about the Axis Wah, where are you now on this ? * Any top secret project you are working on you can share with us? * What's the best piece advice you give to enhance the tone of guitar players? The Guitar Channel podcast The audio interview is available in the podcast on iTunes, Spotify and below: Vertex pedals Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar! Pierre.

Here's an audio Bryan Beller interview. Bryan was in Paris for a concert of the world tour with Joe Satriani, he took time from his rest period to answer all my questions about the current tour with Satch and about the latest Aristocrats album Tres Caballeros. The Artistocrats website: www.the-aristocrats-band.com Questions asked during the Bryan Beller interview * What’s new since the last time we saw each other in Paris in June 2013? * How is it to prepare for a tour with Joe Satriani? * Do you have to forget all the complex Aristocrats tunes to make room for Joe’s songs? * Any update on your stage rig? * How was « Tres Caballeros » was recorded? * Are you the three of us big fans of ZZ Top? * What was the idea behind « Smuggler’s Corridor » one of your composition? * The song « Pressure Relief » sounds almost like a Frank Zappa song on Shut Up N Play your Guitar, was that some kind of influence on you guys? * Is there some kind of contest between the three of you to find the weirdest song title? * What did you use to get your bass recorded? * You play a very complex music with the Aristocrats or with Satriani, do you have some kind of super power to memorize all the songs? * Any trick to work on that? * Word of conclusion Bryan rig for the tour Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar or... the bass! Pierre.

Here's an audio interview with Paul Marchand, the director of the Jaco Pastorius documentary. A couple of weeks ago I presented you with an in-depth video interview with Robert Trujillo, Metallica's bass player, to talk about his role as a producer in the documentary. Questions asked about the Jaco Pastorius documentary * What’s your connection with Jaco Pastorius? * How did you approach the work on the documentary? * There are a couple of great live sequence with Jaco, how did you pick what to include? * What was the most difficult in putting out such a movie? * Any interesting stories you could not include in the movie? * Interview with stars? * What’s the biggest legacy Jaco left according to you? * When and how will the movie be released? Official trailer Until the next interview, keep on playing the guitar... or the bass! Pierre.