Here is a Gopro Hero 3 camera acting as a stunt camera on my guitar during a totally over the top solo in Nutbush City Limits.EnjoyPeaceNeil
Quick Lick #11 Steve Vai Sliding 5th Lick
Well it had to be Steve Vai one day didn't it :)Here is a Steve Vai inspired lick today, lots of double notes and slides. Based on E Lydian. The tab will be posted when it reaches 30 likes here http://www.spencerbruce.com/For those of you who lead busy lives and struggle to get guitar practice into your daily schedule, quick licks offers a way of improving your vocabulary and ear in just 10 minutes a day.
Improve your playing NOW
For more in-depth information on maximising your practice time and finding your own voice on the instrument, check out my book Guitar Creativity – A new way of thinking Follow me onTwitterFacebookInstragramLinkedInEnjoy!Peace
Neil
Acoustic cover of Rather Be by Clean Bandit
Another day another video! Here is a video that my duo North and South, just made. We have done a cover of Clean Bandit's Rather Be hit which also seems to be all over the television at the moment. It is a great tune and really fun to play.Enjoy!!PeaceNeil
Time after Time (Acoustic Cover)
Here is a little acoustic cover version I recently recorded, produced and played on for country artist Amanda-Rose Hill. The song is the Cindy Lauper classic, Time after Time. (Oh and I shot the video too!)Enjoy!!PeaceNeil
Killer chops or killer tone?
So here is a hypothetical question I was recently asked, 'If you had to choose between having killer chops or an killer tone (but you could only have one), which would you prefer?'I have thought very, very long and hard about this, but at the end of the day it is a no brainer really, plus the older I get the more I realise and appreciate great tone. I guess one analogy would be that chops without tone I think is a like food without seasoning. To me, the best food doesn't taste any better that the least without a bit of seasoning.The reason it is a no brainer for me, is if you consider the examples, Dave Gilmour pretty much has the holy grail of tone for me, and Comfortably Numb is my all time favourite solo, I get goose bumps everytime I hear it. Chops are fantastic, but when you look on line and everyone is shreding away with a thin fizzy tone it isn't that great. The more I get into thinking about tone, it is players like Stevie Ray, BB King, Eddie Van Halen, Nuno Bettencourt, Gary Moore, Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden), Nile Rogers, Albert King, Son House and on who's tone really gets me excited now. I am getting a tad bored with some of the technically profcient players who seem to be able to play everything but don't sound good. Actually, maybe that is a bit cruel, perhaps their sound is one that I don't find inspiring and that it is it.Now my biggest problem is that I don't like my tone much of the time, sometimes it is too thin and weedy, my cleans are too piercing. I love the tone of the unamplified guitar, but can't recreate that, with some of the gear I have. I am more than happy with my rhythm sound, especially through my Cornford Roadhouse 50 Watt Head, it is just the lead which suffers, but then again it is all in the fingers, I need to change my fingers perhaps! Here are some of the things I have done to change my tone
- Upped my string gauge
- Tried Telecaster, Stratocaster, new pickups in my Ibanez guitars
- Switched from Marshall to Fender amps (valve) and now Cornford, switched effects etc.
- Constantly try different EQ settings.
- Changed pick to thinner pick (from Jazz III)
Now a lot of these elements sound good in isolation, but when on stage they seem to just don't sound as good! Now there are a variety of reasons that that happens, and some of those are in the realm of psychoacoustics, but my goal is not improve tone (and still have some killer chops!Love to hear your thoughts!EnjoyPeaceNeil
Acoustic Covers of Titanium (David Guetta ft. Sia)
So after a few busy weeks, a little project duo I am working on called North and South have got all our material together, and I thought I would share some of the recordings we have made of some acoustic covers. The first one is our cover of Titanium by David Guetta ft. Sia I would like to thank Nuno at SSR Manchester for sorting out and doing a fantastic job engineering and mixing the session. It was a little tricky as a duo we are so used to performing together and (unfortunately) to my time, so there we decided to just go for it and do a guide vocal in my headphones and then hope that we could match the performance up. Having said that, it is a great testament to the fact that we have performed together for the last four years, so we kind of know exactly when we are going to come in and stop! Was a really fun experience and we are looking forward to recording a few more songs soon (and a video!!).EnjoyPeaceNeil
NAMM 2014 Fender announce 65 Deluxe Reverb head and 57 Deluxe
Okay, over the last couple of years (as I have been getting older !), I have started to come to love the sound of Fender valve amps above many other amps! Yes, in my formative years, if you cut me I would have bled Marshall, through and through and Marshall still is my go to rock amp, no denying! In those years, I hated Fender amps, I just didn't get it, yeah so they are clean, so what...I want to rock and yes Marshall cleans (for me) aren't great, but I can certainly work with them! Anyway, roll forward and I took a chance one day and tried a Fender amp, and was kind of hooked on that gorgeous bluesy, clean, glimmering tone. Needless to say, I have been gigging with a Fender Blues Junior III (because of it's size and wattage) for the last three years, and it works very well with pedals. But I have always had my eye on the 65 Deluxe Reverb reissue (DRRI), and tried them out countless times, it is a lovely lovely amp, but rather pricey in the combo form, but not too bad. I am therefore overjoyed to see that Fender are releasing a head version (which I could use with my lovely 2 x 12 cab), this should be awesome and I am sure it will be a great seller.From the press release
Fender is proud to offer fresh takes on two perennial favorites, the '65 Deluxe Reverb® Head and '57 Deluxe™ Amp.The '65 Deluxe Reverb Head amp in classic Black is perfect for rock, country or blues players who want a moderately powered amp they can crank up at the gig or in the studio. Featuring 22 watts of tube power, the '65 Deluxe Reverb head offers two 6V6 Groove Tubes output tubes, one 5AR4 rectifier tube, four 12AX7 preamp tubes, two 12AT7 tubes, dual channels (normal and vibrato), tube-driven Fender reverb, tube vibrato and two-button footswitch for reverb and vibrato one-off.
I am very excited about this one, now if TC Electronic release an update to the Nova system, I will be totally sorted for years to come :)PeaceNeil
