GUITAR SECRETS BLOG
1961 Sea Foam Green Fender Strat That Changed My Life
I’m fortunate enough to have collected a lot of guitars over the years. Not a LOT, like some guys I know, but around 70. My motto is, if it sounds good, don’t sell it. You may not use it for an entire year but one day it will be the perfect guitar for the recording...
Balance
I haven’t been posting much on social media this summer because I’ve been too busy. I’m in the studio every week producing and playing on two extensive projects that demand my attention every day. The CVB has played 3 festivals and 2 smaller concerts in between all...
From the Studio to the Stage
There have been many studio musicians that transitioned from a full time career in the studios to a full time career as an artist. Some of my peers straddled both worlds for a while and eventually ended up on the road. This slow transition eventually eases one out of...
Session Stories: Confidence
Real confidence only comes with experience. And real-world work experience can never be learned in the practice room or the rehearsal studio. I spent months teaching myself how to sight-read on the guitar in my apartment bedroom. But I never “owned it” until I’d done...
Life on the Road: a Reality Check
Sometimes in the middle of a long tour I get a little down. Everybody does. I miss my wife, my home and my familiar surroundings like guitars, studio and cappuccino maker. I stare out the window on long bus rides at the trees and the towns and wonder what’s going on...
Thoughts on Releasing a new Album, Formats and Streaming
Finishing a recording project and sending an album out into the world always feels a bit like giving birth. As you can imagine, the recording process is extremely creative. You’re deciding on the arrangements of the songs and what textures and instruments to add in...
The CV Academy
As I put together the universal concept laid out in the CV Academy, I realized that I learned to play the guitar from two completely different angles: From the outside in and from the inside out. From the Outside In simply translates into INFLUENCES. We start out...
Stratocasters
When it comes to guitars, every once in a while a real good deal comes along. I’m convinced you only get a few of those in your entire lifetime. The greatest one for me happened back in 1985 when a dear friend and fellow guitarist named Jeff Taylor offered to sell me...
Remembering Allan Holdsworth
I just finished writing an article for Guitar Player Magazine about the passing of my friend Allan Holdsworth. But there is so much more to say… I first met Allan in the early 80s after hearing him on a Bill Bruford album called “One of a Kind” that came out in ’79....
Wang Bar Height Adjustment
The amount of clearance of my vibrato bar off the deck of the pick guard is very important to me. It can't be too high, I want to be able to grab it in the middle of a melodic line. And not so low that it hits the jack when you spin it around. So I keep a two foot...
Gary Shandling
Gary Shandling passed away one year ago this week, and I'm reminded of the multiple times I worked with him over the years. During the "It's Gary Shandling's Show" back in the 80s I was called in to the TV sound stage to play his "hands." They needed some live footage...
Recording the Blues…Live!
Last week (March, 2017) I had the unique task of recording an entire blues album in 3 days. The self inflicted parameters were: I would play just 2 guitars, 2 amps, do no overdubs and everything must be played and sung live in the room with bass, drums and keyboards....
Intonating the Guitar
Making your chords perfectly in tune up the neck is next to impossible. The guitar isn’t really set up to do that, but we can temper our tuning to facilitate better intonation up and down the fret board. I almost never take all my strings off at once, preferring to...