REVIEW: Gibson Dark Fire
JUMP IN THE FIRE
To call the Dark Fire an update of the Robot Guitar is like saying that when Luke Skywalker learned to use the force he picked up a few cool tricks. One way to approach the Dark Fire is to imagine that the popular, stripped down Les Paul BFG model ran into Kristanna Loken’s T-X character in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, got it on, and 9 months later had a baby. The Dark Fire shares the BFG’s pickup layout of a P-90 pickup in the neck position and a humbucker at the bridge – here we have a P-90h for the former and a Burstbucker 3 for the latter – and it has the T-X’s ability to morph while remaining a seductively attractive yet altogether deadly killing machine.
Common to the Robot Guitar and the Dark Fire are the control layout (twin volumes and twin tones, with the bridge pickup’s tone control replaced by the Master Control Knob or MCK, the steering wheel of the whole shebang), but the MCK has been redesigned to give you more information (including a cool mode that shows you which pickup selections are active), and the brain itself is a little smarter and faster. Tuning seems to happen in about a third of the time of the Robot Guitar, making it just that little more likely that with some careful control manipulation and an opportune moment, you just might be able to change tunings between sections a song.
Changes compared to the Robot Guitar include an ergonomic neck shape with asymmetrical carving (which reminds me a little of perhaps a wider version of the Ernie Ball Music Man Axis, formerly the Edward Van Halen model), and a redesigned tune-o-matic piezo bridge with locking studs. Not only does this assist with sustain by securing the bridge more firmly to the surface of the guitar, it also helps with the tuning accuracy – tremendously important when you buy a guitar largely based on its ability to change between a few dozen tunings. By the way, Gibson points out that players who bought the original Robot will be offered an opportunity to upgrade their Robot’s self-tuning technology to the new and improved self-tuning technology found on the Dark Fire, with an upgrade kit to be made available at a price significantly lower than its standard retail price.
The frets are shaped with a PLEK system, a computer-controlled device which scans and dresses the frets under actual playing conditions, strung and tuned to pitch. (Other companies with PLEK systems include G&L, Duesenberg, Lakland, Warwick, Martin & Co, Suhr, and Heritage Guitar Inc). Now, as a connoisseur of fine fretwork my standards can be pretty strict, possibly bordering on the obsessive, and the fret job on the Dark Fire is beyond perfect for comfort, playability and buzzlessness. Yeah, I just invented a word. The Dark Fire inspires you to be inventive, y’see. There’s also a new frictionless faux bone nut, which is crucial for ensuring that the strings don’t get bound up at the nut and slip at an inopportune moment, sending your tuning to hell and requiring you to try to retune mid-song. The motorised Powerhead tuners are of the locking variety, further ensuring tuning accuracy. They’re also upgraded compared to those on the Robot Guitar, helping to speed up tuning changes.
So what else does the Dark Fire offer that the Robot Guitar doesn’t? Well, my only real concern with the Robot Guitar was that you were limited to three pickup combinations: neck humbucker, middle humbucker, or both. But by using what Gibson calls Chameleon Tone Technology the Robot Guitar offers over 20 separate pickup coil combinations via six low-noize relay switches. These selections, accessed via the MCK, are Gibson (straight Les Paul sound), Texas Blues (neck and bridge single coils), Funky (out of phase quack and pluck), Twang (think clean single coils), Acoustic (emulated acoustic guitar), L5 (vintage jazz tone with softer treble and thicker low mids), Solid Rock and Metal. These pickup combinations are fed through optimized traditional volume and tone controls and then through a studio grade 4-band parametric equalizer/preamplifier for further tone shaping. On top of that you can blend an actual acoustic sound, achieved via the piezo pickups in the bridge, and splittable to a different amp to the straight sound through the Robot Interface Pack (RIP). The blending is achieved by twisting a potentiometer which doubles as the tip of the pickup selector switch. Genius. Using this pot you can go from 100% acoustic sound to 100% electric sound, or anywhere in between. Oh, did I mention that when using the RIP you can send each string to a separate audio channel via a hex output, reminiscent of the revolutionary but overlooked Gibson HD.6X-PRO guitar system? No? Well I should have cos it’s kind of important, as is the fact that Dark Fire is bundled with Ableton Live recording software and Guitar Rig 3 amp emulation software.
There are lots of other great features – strap locks, Neutrik connector, cool carbon design touches echoed on the pickups, pickguard and inlays. Put it all together and you have a monster. A dark, firey monster.
LET IT RIP
The Chameleon and RIP features are so damn cool that you can spend a few hours playing around with them before you even think of trying out all the tunings. The Dark Fire picks up where the Robot Guitar’s 7 available tunings left off, then laughs derisively at the Robot Guitar as it ups the ante to a whopping 18 tunings in total across three banks (blue, green and red), with space for your own custom tunings. One of my favourite metal tunings, CGCGCE, isn’t there so it’s easy enough to dial in and save. Speaking of metal, the red tuning bank is where doom merchants are most likely to reside, as it is home to brutal low tunings such as B and C. Grrr.
The range of sound is also quite astounding. On its own the Dark Fire sounds a little, well, dark and moody, thanks in large part to the chambered mahogany body. Think Jerry Cantrell’s tone on Alice In Chains’ ‘Would?’ The Texas Blues mode sounds just as you would think and hope – tune down to Eb for authenticity. Funky sounds great with my old optical compressor pedal, and is also a surprisingly sprightly blues tone. Twang is great for clean baritone tunings as well as ringing double stops and oblique bends. Acoustic can be blended with the actual acoustic sound for some serious spacious jangle. L5 is great for jazz as intended, but is also a super lead tone that will get you somewhere in the vicinity of James Hetfield’s solo tone from ‘Nothing Else Matters’ when you pile on the gain. Solid Rock is killer with some mild distortion over palm-muted power chords, and extra super killer when you add a flanger pedal. Finally Metal is huge, powerful and demonic, reminding me of a cross between the output of aggressive active pickups and the attack and warmth of top-shelf passives.
OUT OF THE DARKNESS AND INTO THE LIGHT
So what we have here is not only a guitar that tunes itself. Factor in each tuning and you have 18 guitars that tune themselves. Throw in the 8 Chameleon modes and you have 144 guitars that tune themselves. Add pickup selections for each mode and that’s, what, 432 sounds? My math sucks. Then add the acoustic sound to any of those modes and you have… more sound options than you can possibly get through in any given set. Yet the MCK is so intuitive that it never quite seems as daunting as that. Whether the Dark Fire is for you comes down to this simple question: Do you think you can handle this much creativity on tap, or do you prefer to be reigned in by parameters such as only having one tuning, and three pickup settings?
CLICK HERE to buy the Gibson Les Paul Dark Fire Electric Guitar Standard from Woodwind & Brasswind.
If you’re here in Australia, support your local guitar shop! There have been a lot of killer Gibson deals in stores lately!
Here’s a little bonus. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to shoot a video demo of the Dark Fire while I had it for review, but who better to tell you about it than Aljon Go from Gibson and Tonefreq?
This review is also in the August 2009 edition of Mixdown Magazine.
NEWS: RIP Les Paul
Farewell, Les Paul.
From first reading about you in Denny Laine’s guitar book when I was about 9 years old and deciding you were my new hero, to buying Mrs I Heart Guitar a Les Paul & Mary Ford CD in our early dating days after we had both blissed out over ‘Hummingbird’ together, and many other points in between and since, it felt like you were like a grandad who I never got to see but who still sent me a birthday card with five bucks in it every year.
From CNN:
Les Paul, whose innovations with the electric guitar and studio technology made him one of the most important figures in recorded music, has died, according to a statement from his publicists. Paul was 94.
Paul died in White Plains, New York, from complications of severe pneumonia, according to the statement.
Paul was a guitar and electronics mastermind whose creations — such as multitrack recording, tape delay and the solid-body guitar that bears his name, the Gibson Les Paul — helped give rise to modern popular music, including rock ‘n’ roll. No slouch on the guitar himself, he continued playing at clubs into his 90s despite being hampered by arthritis.
“If you only have two fingers [to work with], you have to think, how will you play that chord?” he told CNN.com in a 2002 phone interview. “So you think of how to replace that chord with several notes, and it gives the illusion of sounding like a chord.”
The last word should belong to Les Paul himself, so, enjoy:
NEWS: Limited Edition Gibson Les Paul Florentine with Bigsby
Yowza, yowza, yowza. Just saw this press release over at the very extremely excellent Guitarsite. It combines two of my favourite things: Bigbsy tremolos and guitars with points so sharp you can use them to bring down a rampaging wildebeast.
The new limited edition Les Paul Florentine with Bigsby Tailpiece
Using Gibson’s Les Paul Standard as its base design, the new 2009 Limited Run Series Les Paul Florentine with Bigsby Tailpiece combines the Les Paul’s iconic form with avant-garde features that keep it one step ahead of everything else. The standard Les Paul cutaway gives way to the wider and deeper Florentine Cutaway.
First used in 1902 on Gibson’s O-style guitars, and traditionally found on legendary Gibson models such as the Byrdland, the ES-175 and the ES-295, the Florentine Cutaway comfortably enhances your reach to the higher register of notes. Like all the guitars from the Limited Run Series, only 350 of these unique Les Pauls will be produced and distributed. Each one comes with a black Gibson hardshell case and a special Limited Run Series certificate of authenticity.
The Les Paul Florentine’s most prominent feature is its chrome Bigsby vibrato tailpiece. Essentially the same design as when it was introduced in the mid 1940s, the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece model B7 allows you to bend the pitch of notes or entire chords for vintage-style vibrato. It has been a fixture on many Gibsons, and was named after its late inventor, Paul A. Bigsby, who sold his Bigsby Guitar company to former Gibson President Ted McCarty in 1966. This classic piece of guitar hardware performs flawlessly thanks to several added enhancements — including a white graphite nut for smooth string action, a set of locking Grover tuners to help keep the strings in tune, and a Schaller roller bridge to help the strings return to the original tuning after using the Bigsby vibrato.
The BurstBucker Pro features an Alnico V magnet (instead of the Alnico II), which offers slightly higher output and allows preamps to be driven a little harder to achieve a more natural break-up. Like all BurstBuckers, the BurstBucker Pro has asymmetrical coils — true to the original PAFs — which supply a more open sound. The BurstBucker Pro Neck is wound slightly less than the original PAFs, while the BurstBucker Pro Bridge is slightly overwound for increased output. The BurstBucker Pro pickups are also wax potted to allow loud volume pressures with minimal feedback.
The rest of the Les Paul Florentine with Bigsby Tailpiece is a traditional Les Paul. The body consists of a solid mahogany back topped by a AA-grade maple top with single-ply antique crème binding. The Florentine also sports the traditional Vintage Sunburst finish, and the neck is the standard Les Paul mahogany neck with a rounded profile and rosewood fingerboard. Other unique appointments include the new Quick-Connect control pocket assembly, which keeps your guitar cord securely connected to the guitar, and a set of Dunlop locking strap pins.
For more information, please visit http://www.gibson.com/
REVIEW: Gibson Les Paul Nashville Junior Double Cutaway
Gibson has released more variations on the Les Paul theme than most other companies can manage across their entire product line. From the highly tricked out Neal Schon model with Floyd Rose bridge and a sustainer pickup, to the simplicity of the 1957 Les Paul Junior Single Cutaway, there’s something for everybody in the Les Paul line. Personally I really dig the new Les Paul Axcess, but I’ve always had a fondness for Gibson’s Les Paul Junior guitars too.
The Les Paul Nashville Junior Double Cutaway shares many common features with the classic single cutaway model that was probably most famous in the hands of Leslie West and which formed the basis of Green Day front man Billy Joe Armstrong’s signature model, but it deviates from it in several distinctive and important ways.
REVIEW: Alice In Chains concert, Melbourne, Australia
Palais Theatre, St Kilda, February 26 2009.
The last time Alice In Chains toured Australia, I was still in high school and lived 4 hours away from the nearest capital city. The circumstances required for me to see them live were alarmingly insurmountable, and even after I moved to the big smoke and was geographically and economically able to see them, the tragic death of singer Layne Staley seemed to spell a permanent impasse to my ever witnessing them live. Jerry Cantrell has been one of my favourite players ever since I was about 14, so I was ultra-excited to be able to finally see him live.
Now, of course, Comes With The Fall vocalist William DuVall has taken up the front-and-centre position on stage, and within the first song of the night I’m sure anyone with lingering doubts about his place in the band had resolved to shut the hell up and just get on with having their socks rocked off. DuVall also provides rhythm guitar on certain key tracks, and is a very capable player.
I’ve heard reports from those who saw Alice In Chains back in the day that they were a less-than-inspiring live act, with dull stage presentation and sleepy musical delivery. How much of this is true I can’t really say, but the band who appeared on stage at the Palais last night were energetic and powerful, and certainly knew how to work a crowd. The set list included, but was not limited to, Angry Chair, Man In The Box (third song in!), Rain When I Die, Love Hate Love, Them Bones, Would? Rooster, No Excuses, Dirt, Junkhead and We Die Young.
In the years between Alice In Chains’ first incarnation and 2009, guitarist Jerry Cantrell seems to have picked up a more cultured, controlled vibrato, and was able to nail accurately-pitched bends with a confidence I don’t recall hearing in previous performances. Naturally it stands to reason that one’s playing will develop and evolve over a given time span, so this should come as no surprise, but the Jerry Cantrell on stage last night seemed to go that extra step beyond what the Jerry Cantrell of 1993 was capable of in terms of phrasing, dynamics and all out rock power. By the way, Cantrell still uses his original old G&L Rampage, as well as a few other Rampages, and some Gibson Les Pauls.
Mike Inez was, as always, a very solid player, keeping the sound full and powerful on any of the single-guitar songs in which Cantrell took solos. He seemed to be smiling all night, and locked in perfectly with drummer Sean Kinney’s behind-the-beat-yet-perfectly-in-time playing. Incidentally, I’m not sure how but Kinney has managed to not age one day since 1993. Dude must be into some kind of freaky age-defying voodoo.
Finally, special mention must be made of the band’s trademark vocal harmonies. Longtime fans of the band are surely well aware that Jerry Cantrell’s harmonies and backing vocals (and occasional lead vocal lines such as in the verses for Grind and Would?) were always an important part of the band’s sound. Well, despite the swapping of Staley for DuVall, Alice In Chains still sounds like Alice In Chains, and a big reason for that is that Jerry is still singing too. This is certainly not like in the case of Van Halen where the whole sound of any back catalogue songs changed when Sammy Hagar stepped into David Lee Roth’s gig.
If you haven’t seen the new version of Alice In Chains because you’re sceptical about whether they can hold it together and live up to their legacy, it’s time to put aside such concerns and check them out. Of course they’ll never be the same without Layne, but last night’s performance was a powerful demonstration that the Alice In Chains of 2009 deserves to be spoken of in the same reverential tones as the Alice In Chains of the 90s.
NEWS: Gibson Les Paul Axcess Standard
A couple of times over the last few days I’ve happened across photos of Gibson Les Pauls with Floyd Rose bridges (namely, Alex Lifeson in the current issue of Guitar Player, and a shot of one of Eddie Van Halen’s guitars from the 80s), and it’s got me thinking about the new Les Paul Axcess.
CLICK HERE to buy one from Music123.
NEWS: Gibson Jeff Beck 1954 Les Paul Oxblood guitar
Remember Jeff Beck’s iconic refinished Les Paul, used on Blow By Blow? I used to have a poster of it on my bedroom wall when I was, like, 14 or something. Anyway, if I knew then that one day Gibson would make a limited edition version of it, I would have started squirrelling away a few bucks a week.
Here’s the press release:
Gibson introduces the limited edition 1954 Jeff Beck Les Paul Oxblood Guitar
Gibson Guitar has announced the limited edition Gibson Jeff Beck Les Paul “Oxblood” guitar. The new Oxblood model is available in very limited numbers. The first 50 of these historic guitars have been put through an extensive aging and wear process by the master luthiers at Gibson Custom to closely match the look and feel of Beck’s original instrument.
Gibson engineers thoroughly inspected Jeff’s guitar and worked closely with him over a period of months to create as accurate a reproduction as possible. Fifty aged instruments have been personally hand-signed, numbered and played by Beck himself. An additional 100 Gibson Jeff Beck Les Paul Oxblood guitars will be prepared with Gibson Custom’s pioneering V.O.S. finish, bringing the total run to just 150 rare instruments.
Each guitar comes with a specially produced Gibson Custom case with Jeff Beck’s signature silkscreened on the top, a custom care kit and a certificate of authenticity. Once these guitars are sold they will not be reproduced. This is an essential purchase for any guitar collector or fan of iconic British guitarist Jeff Beck.
Many great off-the-shelf electric guitars have had their reputations elevated by the legendary artists who have played them. The best known and most revered of these is arguably Jeff Beck’s Les Paul Oxblood, a guitar from the heart of tone history. Now, Gibson Custom unveils the most accurate recreation of the Jeff Beck Les Paul Oxblood ever produced.
From its aged and authentic Oxblood finish to the custom-tailored neck profile modeled precisely from Beck’s original instrument, to the blistering and powerful sounds produced by Gibson’s legendary Burstbucker humbucking pickups, the new Jeff Beck Les Paul Oxblood from Gibson Custom leaves nothing to chance. It is simply one of the most exact replicas of any historic guitar ever produced by the master craftsmen at Gibson Custom in Nashville, Tennessee.
One of the most influential guitarists in the history of rock music, Jeff Beck burst onto the music scene in 1966 after joining the Yardbirds. Although his stint with the band lasted only 18 months, Beck played on almost all of the group’s hits. At the height of the Yardbirds’ popularity in 1967, Beck left the group and embarked upon an unpredictable journey of musical discovery that has lasted nearly four-decades. Over the course of his career Beck has left his distinctive mark on hard rock, jazz-fusion and modern music history.
During a trip to the US in 1973 Beck bought an early fifties Les Paul Goldtop, which had been modified by the Strings & Things music store in Memphis adding two humbucking pickups to replace the original P-90s, and a heavy dark-brown lacquer finish to the body. Beck himself calls it an “oxblood” color.
This Oxblood Les Paul attained legendary status when played and then featured on the cover of Beck’s groundbreaking jazz-rock album “Blow By Blow” recorded in late 1974 with Beatles producer Sir George Martin. Gibson Custom Division is honored to present this recreation of Jeff Beck’s Gibson Les Paul Standard Oxblood. Beck recently said “The Les Paul has a big powerful sound that no other guitar has. It just sounds rich.” The guitar’s features include a carved maple top under the aged Oxblood finish, a one piece rounded mahogany neck, vintage reissue .010 strings, aged nickel hardware and aged acrylic trapezoid inlays.
For more information, please visit www.gibson.com
I first saw this press release on the GuitarSite email.
CLICK HERE to buy Jeff Beck’s ‘Performing This Week…Live At Ronnie Scotts’ from Amazon.com
SPARKLY GUITAR WEEK: Day 6 – Les Paul Custom Shop Blue Sparkle
I have a love/hate relationship with Les Pauls. They sound cool, they look cool, but sometimes the neck pitch throws me off a bit and my left wrist gets a little sore. Having said that, I’ve got to meet a lot of great Les Pauls over the years and the wrist thing is certainly something I’ll work through if I ever get totally rich and buy a stable of Les Pauls. And most of them will probably be sparkly.
NAMM 2009: Vigier releases their first single cut electric
Here’s something very cool I saw on GuitarSite.com.
Vigier is preparing to release their first ever single cutaway electric guitar. It obviously seems to be very much Les Paul-inspired, with that general outline and pair of humbuckers, but check out what appears to be a stylish-as-heck carve on the bass side (it could just be a trick of the light and I’ll be on the lookout for a proper photo for confirmation), and an aggressively pointy treble side cutaway.
Over to you, press release (I always feel like Jason Lee saying ‘NOW, Silent Bob’ in Mallrats when I say that).
Vigier introduces its first single cut electric guitar
Vigier has introduced a new addition its family-the very first Vigier single-cutaway electric guitar. This elite baby will deliver the hottest sounds of all guitars in Vigier’s product line. The single-cut body design reflects a combination of modernism and tradition, which is exactly what this new Vigier model is about.
Like all Vigier instruments, the new single-cut guitar features a wood neck reinforced by a carbon-fiber bar that utilizes the company’s exclusive 10/90 system (10% carbon fiber/90% wood). The guitar is equipped with the new Vigier nut made of Teflon, which dramatically reduces friction at the nut, where most tuning problems typically occur. With a carbon-fiber reinforced neck and the new Teflon nut, overall tuning is greatly improved and the instrument itself is extremely reliable.
This sharp-looking babe has a solid alder body with a beautiful flamed maple top.
The bridge and tailpiece are Vigier’s original design and include a unique feature that makes it possible to lock any pieces of the bridge in place once the setup is done. This useful attribute guarantees an improvement in tone, greater sustain, as well as better tuning. The new single-cut model is equipped with a pair of humbuckers, a 5-way pickup selector switch for a variety of sounds, volume and tone controls.
For more information, please visit http://www.vigierguitars.com/
INTERVIEW: Seymour Duncan & Evan Skopp
Seymour Duncan is a legend in the guitar world. His pickups have been integral in some of the greatest guitar tones in rock history, and his company’s more recent forays into pedals and acoustic guitar processing are already attaining legendary status. I spoke to Seymour Duncan himself, as Evan Skopp, Seymour Duncan’s VP of Marketing and one of the brains behind the company’s new D-TAR brand of acoustic guitar sound solutions.
The D-TAR (Duncan-Turner Acoustic Research) company is a collaborative effort with legendary luthier and amplification expert Rick Turner. Their new Mama Bear processor is a revolutionary device which takes the signal from any acoustic guitar and remodels it to sound like other designs. “Rick has had a kind of legendary career,” Skopp says. “He started off as the guitar player in the Canadian folk duo Ian and Sylvia, then he was the soundman for the Grateful Dead. He pretty much invented the outdoor amplification concept, founded Alembic instruments, was president of Gibson’s West Coast R&D lab, and also had a guitar company, Turner Guitars. One of the most famous Turner guitars was the model played by Lindsay Buckingham. In a lot of ways Rick is to the acoustic amplification world what Seymour is to the electric amplification world. What Rick brought to this focus group was some really far out and amazing ideas. One of the ideas was that acoustic pickups had pretty much reached maturity in terms of the design, meaning using piezo film was not going to improve that much on the sound of the guitar. You can use secondary sources and EQS, but using current technology we’ve pretty much reached the limit of what we can do. Rick said the future is in the digital realm, because once you take the signal from an acoustic guitar and bring it into the digital realm, you can give it algorithms to do certain things. For instance, you can remove the artefacts that the pickup brings into the digital signal, and as long as you’re doing that you can do additional manipulation, for instance layer the sounds of other guitars.”
Seymour is the only non-famous-guitarist to have a Fender signature model. “I’ve always loved Esquires, so it’s based on my old Esquire. It has a black pick guard, an Esquire maple neck. It had one of my early tapped pickups and special wiring. Jeff Beck has used it many times. It’s one of those guitars that, everybody that plays it loves it.” Skopp, who helped oversee the project, says the Fender Seymour Duncan Signature Esquire features a few of Seymour’s guitar set-up secrets, as well as a specially wound Seymour Duncan pickup. “Seymour’s a great player,” Skopp says. “Midway between Jeff Beck and Danny Gatton.”
One of Seymour Duncan’s most well-known pickup combinations is the JB model in the bridge and the Jazz in the neck. “That’s what I use in my “TeleGibson,” Seymour says. “The first set I did for Jeff Beck. That’s neat that guitar, because he used it, Peter Frampton used it. A lot of other guitar players have played this guitar so it’s kinda neat to have a guitar with a conversation piece feel to it, so we give others a chance to play it too.” (For more on Seymour designing the JB and Jazz set with Jeff Beck, check out this interview on gibson.com)
This interview originally appeared in Mixdown magazine in 2006.
CLICK HERE to buy the Dtar Mama Bear Digital Acoustic Preamp from Music123.
CLICK HERE to buy the Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Humbucker Pickup (Black) from Music123.
CLICK HERE to buy the Seymour Duncan SH-2N Jazz Model Pickup (Black) from Music123.
Hi! I'm Peter Hodgson. I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), Blunt, Beat (including their weekly hard rock/metal column Crunch) and The Brag. And I'm Assistant Social Coordinator with Seymour Duncan.
I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've also dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.
You can check out my guitar playing at Bandcamp or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com