As it starts to get warmer, and as we hear more and more positive news, I can’t help but feel optimistic for the Spring and Summer over here. Rather than wanting to curl up and not be cold during the winter, I’m at my desk practicing, recording, mixing. All really welcome after a rough winter. How’s your year been going so far? What are you most looking forward to? I for one, can’t wait to get back to live music.

I have a lot of great links to share with you this week - new gear, new music, new lessons and lots more. Let’s get into it!

WAMPLER RATSBANE DISTORTION - THE RODENT RETURNS! - Brian Wampler and co. just put out their take on the iconic Rat distortion. There were so many gear demos of it the day it dropped, but my favorite has to be Pete Thorn’s. As I look to build a brand new pedal board, this might be a pedal I look at. It sounds awesome, and is priced nicely at under $150.
GUITAR GODS Ep.1 Steve Lukather - Alex Hutchings Guitar Gods series kicks off for real with a first episode on session legend Steve Lukather. Alex talks about Luke’s influence on him, shows us a really cool Lukather-esque riff, and more. I really enjoyed the way this video was laid out, and I can’t wait to see the upcoming episodes.
Thank you, Daft Punk || Digital Love - Solo - Mateus Asato played the solo to one of my all time favorite Daft Punk songs, “Digital Love” recently. Daft Punk have called it quits, but at least we have their great back catalog to listen to.
5 AWESOME DLR era STEVE VAI Style Licks! - MasterThatLick!- MasterTheGuitar hits us with 5 DLR era Steve Vai licks that you can incorporate into your lick library. Lots of tapping and legato going on over here!
The Pro's SECRET WEAPON! | Friday Fretworks - If you’re a fan of Tubescreamers, you gotta check out Chris Buck’s “secret weapon” pedal, the Nobbel’s ODR-1. I loved listening to the back story behind this gem.
John Petrucci: The Big 5 - John Petrucci sat down with Premier Guitar to talk his guitar heroes, favorite albums, his favorite guitar and more.
The EASIEST Way To Spice Up Your Chord Playing. Rhythm Guitar Lesson. Guitar Fundamentals - StichMethod put out a great video recently that shows a few ways to spice up our chord playing. If you’ve never learned 7th chords, this is a great video to start with.
50 guitar chords you need to know - Speaking of upping your chord game, Guitar World just put up a post on 50 chords you need to know.
The 50 greatest guitar solos of all time - And because everyone loves lists, here’s another “50 xxx of all time”. This time, for guitar solos. There’s some great choices on here, but do you agree with the top 10? What’s your favorite solo of all time? Let me know by replying to this email!
Transcribing For Beginners - Final Fantasy NES Video Game Music - Into video games and want to start transcribing? Levi Clay recently livestreamed a “transcribing for beginners” lesson, involving Final Fantasy music from NES.
Practice Scales to Improve Hand Synchronization | Guitar Technique - One of the old schoolers of YouTube guitar instruction, JustinGuitar shows us how to better sync up our hands. This is one of the biggest issues I always see with new and intermediate students. Break out your metronome for this one.
Steve Vai Made Me a VERY Special Promise | Guitar Villains - Steve Vai joined Tyler at MusicIsWin for season 2 of his Guitar Villains podcast. What a great guest - Vai always seems down to earth. In other Vai news, looks like he played a chord so long he hurt his hand. Here’s hoping he’s back in action soon, because it sounds like he has so many different musical projects he’s working on.
This Needs to STOP 🛑 - InTheBlues got together a lot of YouTubers to talk about why getting free stuff and not disclosing it to your audience is dangerous.
Ariel Posen - Heart By Heart (Live) - I’m ecstatic that Ariel Posen’s new album ‘Headway’ just came out. I really can’t get enough of his music, tone and playing. Ariel’s band did a live version of “Heart by Heart” the first track off the new album. Reverb also sat down with Ariel to learn his warm up routine, and Premier Guitar talked to him about his current rig.
Quick and Dirty Video Series - Skunk Tree Lesson - Josh Smith does a quick lesson on his song “Skunk Tree” from the ‘Still’ album. It’s country, it’s jazz, it’s awesome! Go check this lesson out.
Sam Bell's Desert Island Guitar - Caged System Soloing - I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have a strong handle on CAGED, but I do use some of its premises in everyday playing (barre chords for instance). Licklibrary asked one of their long time teachers Sam Bell what he’d take on his desert island of guitar, and he chose CAGED soloing. I really liked his explanation of why.
Rig rundown 2021 - Mika Tyyskä . Double pedalboard with Hughes & Kettner Nano amp Spirit of Vintage - What’s better than one pedalboard? Well, for Mika Tyyska’s, it’s two! I love needing out over pedals, and this was such a cool rig to hear about.
Expensive Pickups In A Cheap Guitar - Is It Worth It? - That Pedal Show puts great pickups into a cheap guitar to see if the guitar is transformed. What do you guys think? Can you hear the difference?
I Bought a $500,000 Guitar Pedal (the first Klon ever) - Won’t spoil anything here, but this is the content I’m on YouTube for. 😊
Why Eddie Van Halen Stopped Throwing Picks into the Crowd - And finally, you have to check out this story of how EVH was getting ripped off back in the day by a crew member. Crazy stuff that goes on, on the road.