The Fab Faux – Abbey Road Side 2 (mostly) from The Fab Faux on Vimeo.

There are copy bands and then there are top-tier players who can positively nail great moments in music history. These guys are the latter. This superbly captured performance deserves to be in Internet viral hit. I have been seeing tons of sites using the videos I created here for you guys. Now I am spreading the love and featuring a video I did not create. Are these guys great or what? Comments?

Do you own a tube guitar amplifier? Have you ever been at a gig and under pressure when your amp stops working? What do you do? How can you keep your amp in tip-top shape and prevent a disaster? What part of your amp repair can YOU do, and what should you leave to a pro?

So many of us depend on tube guitar amps to get us through the rehearsal, gig or recording session while delivering the sound that only a tube amplifier can deliver.
It’s so easy to get caught off guard and find yourself in a nightmare scenario with humming, popping or smoke emanating from your prized amplifier ten minutes before the downbeat. Relax. I went to the effort to seek out an expert who knows tube guitar amps inside and out; Rick Marshal.

Rick has worked on tube amps for years at Carruthers Guitars in Venice, California. In case you don’t already know, John Carruthers builds amazing handcrafted guitars that are played by world-famous guitarists and musicians that demand the best. So when musicians take their vintage tube amps to the Carruthers shop, the bar is set very high.

While there is some emphasis on vintage Fender amps in this series of videos, this video series focuses on tube amplifiers as a general category. If you watch this four-part series and don’t learn something important, you are probably qualified to be a department head at Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, CA, just like John Carruthers .

So kick back while you listen to the voice of experience on how to prepare for the worst and how to prevent the worst from happening in the first place.

by David Caris

Video 1 – Tube Amp Survival Guide With Rick Marshal

Video 2 – Tube Amp Survival Guide With Rick Marshal

Video 3 – Tube Amp Survival Guide With Rick Marshal

Video 4 – Tube Amp Survival Guide With Rick Marshal

WANT TO CONTACT RICK FOR  REPAIR WORK?

VISIT WWW.CARRUTHERSGUITARS.COM

Rick went through my 1966 blackface Princeton Reverb and re-capped it. The amp sounds spectacular and I will never sell it. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

The latest creation from the folks at Matchless has their recognizable tonal characteristics in a more affordable package. The Matchless Avalon 30 can be ordered in numerous configurations to suit just about anyone’s taste. Here, chief designer Phil Jamison plays his Gibson Les Paul Standard with TV Jones humbuckers and a G&L Legacy at a variety of volumes and dynamics to demonstrate the tonal spectrum of this new amp.

The latest Matchless masterpiece which is as-yet without an official name. However, they are now shipping this amp.

I recently made a visit to Matchless Amplifiers in West Los Angeles and met with their chief designer Phil Jamison to discuss their unique products. If you have been reading and watching GuitarBandDVD.org, you know I only interview musicians and gear makers that are top-notch. Matchless is no exception.

The product-pride and the laid back, but highly-professional demeanor made it clear that these people are very focused on being the best while loving what they do.

Granted, you can buy a much cheaper good sounding amp, but Matchless has never targeted the lower-end customer. You certainly get what you pay for however. You can’t use the best components and hand-craft amplifiers that sound like a Matchless, and be the low-priced leader.

If you need an amplifier to cover up sloppy chops, this would not be a good choice. This amp line has characteristic shared by every model they make; clarity and nuance. Guitarists can build a style around Matchless gear. This will make you a better player and bring out your true sound.

Phil and I started by discussing the new more-economical amp they are starting to ship (which is as-yet unnamed). In the interview(s) we cover what goes into a Matchless, some of the components and design that make these amps sound the way they do, and gain insight into the technology utilized in the new designs.

For what it’s worth, I have owned a Matchless SC30 since 1992 and I can honestly say, this is the ONLY amp I have never had for sale. I have owned a dozen other high-end amps since then, but sold them all. I never, for a moment considered selling my Matchless.

by David Caris

The term “overbuilt” really applies towards Matchless Amplifiers. You can tour the world with their gear without fear…and many people have.
Click on these pictures to enlarge the details.

The man behind the amps, Phil Jamison.

This is part one of the interview with Phil Jamison

Click on image to enlarge.

I passed country stores and ranches, hovels and estates and then I got to Carl Verheyen’s lovely house where he ushered me in to his home studio and I set up to do the interview. He had two blackface Princeton Reverbs, shelves of effects pedals, and a beautiful original 1958 Stratocaster that he bought on the recommendation of pickup czar Seymour Duncan.

Carl proceeded to noodle in a way that would have silenced all those kids playing high-gain metal riffs at your local Guitar Center. His tone was pure, clean and magical and was only enhanced by a T-Rex Replica delay. Though he had just returned from a six-week tour of Europe with his own band days ago, he had been busy working on the soundtrack to a Will Ferrell flick.

Thankfully, he took time from his busy schedule to do this interview. There was so much great stuff there I decided to break it into two parts. I also made filmed him playing Goodbye Pork Pie Hat by Charlie Mingus. What a treat. Be sure you register for www.GuitarBandDVD.org and get his video lesson and 10 Minute Blues Bootcamp. His lesson should keep you busy for some time. It is brief, but packed with useful tips.

by David Caris

View Part 1 of the Carl Verheyen Interview here

View Part 2 of the Carl Verheyen Interview here

I want you to get out there and find some musicians to play with who are at your approximate playing level and play some music. I think you should also write your own music and not get hung up on how good you sound compared to other people. Everyone has to start somewhere and if you keep at it YOU CAN DO IT.

You don’t need to know lots of chords or sing really well to make music. All you need is desire. If you know five chords, chances are you know the basis of tons of existing songs and tons more you can write with those same chords. Here is a simple way to write a song. If you keep doing it, you will in time write something really good.

And consider this when you get self-critical: recorded music now is so slick and the production is so perfect that in many cases the bands don’t sound anything like their recordings without “augmenting” their live performances with pre-recorded tracks and special effects.

So let’s get started.

1). Find a catchy line or phrase from anywhere. This could be a headline, a common phrase or just something that sounds good to you. This will be the title of your new song.

2). Write a verse that relates to the title of the song.

Here’s a quick example I will make up instantly for this article: let’s say the song title is “Wave”

She rolls in and washes over me
I’m drowning in her deepest tide
Pulling me into her world
With no place for my fears to hide

3). So there’s a verse that makes some ocean-like references. Now we need a hook. We need a chorus where the key word is WAVE since that is the title to our song. So here’s something quick:

I can’t fight the ebb and flow
So I am riding out this wave
And the past cannot be saved
So I am letting go and riding out this wave.

So there are eight lines. Four lines are a verse and four are a chorus.

4). Now all you need to do is apply some music to the verse and the chorus using some or all of the five chords. You can do this with a little effort. If you want to use my sample words and write the music around them first you can do that and then replace the words later with your own original lyrics.

5). Once you have done this just write another verse using the first verse as a template.
Write a verse that tells more of the story as it relates to the first verse and the chorus.

Pay close attention to step 6. You must do this:

6). Make sure you can sing the verse and chorus to the music you have created. Record yourself using any device and make sure you can play the verse and the chorus the same way every time. This is crucial to song form. You have to be able to reproduce the song every time or the other musicians won’t be able to follow you.

So now your song form looks like this:

verse 1
chorus
verse 2
chorus

6). You have the basis of your song now. That wasn’t too hard was it?

In my next article I will show you how develop your song further. I truly believe that once you get into this you will be addicted to songwriting. Once you start hearing your original songs being played in your own band you won’t be able to stop. Nothing else can give you that feeling. You can do it.

I am in my forties and I think it’s great so many younger players and listeners are embracing the music I grew up with. These certainly is no shortage of great players today, but classic rock is big with plenty of younger players and even, well… kids. My 12 year old daughter has friends that love the Beatles and Jimmy Hendrix. How cool is that. Some of them have Hannah Montana and Creedence on the same iPod.

I find this amazing and I want to know why you think this is happening.