Kookaburra
Photography

Kookaburra

A Kookaburra sits calmly on top of a cabin in the northern New South Wales hinterland near Bellingen. Photograph taken on Nikon D60.

2015 five favourite albums
Music

My favourite five new albums from 2015

Let me start by saying that I’m not suggesting this list is some kind of top list in any way. This is not the top five metal albums of the year. This is not the top five guitar albums of the year. No, this is simply my favourite five new albums from 2015. I’ll hopefully explain why as I summarise each album. I’d also like to say that 2015 was an amazing year for new releases. You need only check out the list of albums released in 2015 on Wikipedia to see that.

Marilyn Manson, Periphery, Slayer, Lamb of God, Joe Satriani, Motorhead … It was a good year for metal releases. For me though, there were five albums that made me very happy. These are those albums (in no particular order). … My favourite five new albums from 2015

Campese Guitar Tone
Guitar

Mike Campese performance at the Sonoma Wire Works booth—NAMM 2015

Last week at NAMM I was lucky enough to catch Mike Campese perform at the Sonoma Wire Works booth at the 2015 NAMM Show. Mike was showcasing the tones the iOS app GuitarTone is capable of. Even though I’ve used GuitarTone several times in the past—even writing about them a few times over the years—I was blown away by the audio quality. My embedded video is not going to do that audio any justice because I was only using an iPhone to capture video/audio, but trust me … It sounded awesome and was loud enough to ensure the NAMM decibel police were on hand to protect all sensitive ears.

Everybody won on this day. … Mike Campese performance at the Sonoma Wire Works booth—NAMM 2015

Fluff
Guitar

Ryan Bruce performance at the Cleartone Strings booth—NAMM 2015

One of the things I liked the most about the 2015 NAMM Show was how easy it was to come across people I’ve recognised from the Internet and/or bands. For example, I saw John Petrucci, George Lynch, Paul Riario, The Tone King and Ryan Bruce. I know those people aren’t all huge on Twitter, but that’s where I like to hang out (hence the Twitter links). I also came across people who knew who I was (once I gave them one of my business cards or plectrums). That was flattering and weird. Because I am nobody.

Better than just seeing someone I recognised, was watching and listening to them play live at NAMM. That’s exactly what I did when Ryan Bruce played at the Cleartone Strings booth. It was pretty impressive to be honest. … Ryan Bruce performance at the Cleartone Strings booth—NAMM 2015

Guitar Centre Block at Orange
Guitar

Visit two Guitar Center stores … Walk out with two new guitars

I mentioned yesterday how I went to my first ever Guitar Center. In that article I mentioned that I had planned to visit the Orange Outlet Guitar Center store. I have to say, that visit went well. It went very well. For me, for Ibanez and for Guitar Center. Mostly for me.

Why? Well, because I ended up buying two new Ibanez guitars that I now have to somehow get home to Australia. How hard can that be?! … Visit two Guitar Center stores … Walk out with two new guitars

Guitar Centre
Guitar

My first visit to a Guitar Center … OMFG

The four regular readers of this site—I’m pretty sure I gained a new reader in 2014—will know that I like guitars. When I say like, I of course mean I have a problem. I have a fascination. I’m not actually a good guitar player, but guitars bring me a whole lot of joy. Today, I visited the Hollywood Guitar Center on Sunset Blvd. It seems nobody here ever types the word Boulevard which suits me—it’s a tricky word to spell!

All I can say is … OMFG. If you don’t recognise that acronym, Google it.

Guitar Center is like my grown-up version of a toy store. I wanted everything I saw and I was trying to work out how to get it all back to Australia. I figured I’d work out the method of payment afterwards. Surely there is a 25 year lay-away plan or something. … My first visit to a Guitar Center … OMFG

BOSS DM-2W
Scarebear

52 pedals, week 1—BOSS DM-2W Delay

Every year I like to challenge myself to find 52 different guitar related items from a theme. Two years ago it was 52 guitars. Last year it was 52 amplifier heads. This year I’ve decided to write about 52 different guitar pedals. Knowing this would be the theme, I decided a few days ago to ask folks on social media for suggestions. I just didn’t let people know why I was asking. Evil right?

I asked the same question on Instagram. One suggestion I ended up with was delay. Many individual models of delay were suggested, but I decided to focus on one of the more recent models—the DM-2W—because it’s a very nice blend of old and new.

Let the next 52 article series begin. … 52 pedals, week 1—BOSS DM-2W Delay