DIY Guitar Strap Lock with a bottle cap - How to - Tutorial

When you're touring and and the promoter brings you a spare guitar without strap lock, you definitely don't want to see that '78 unique Les Paul fall on the floor, right?
Well to avoid to argue with him, create your own strap lock in 5 minutes!

TIP 1 - The clip is just a quick idea, obviously you wanna match the hole with the screw in your guitar body. But it works, it saved my life several times.

TIP 2 - Keep in mind this technique doesn't work if you just forgot your strap but your screws come from a real strap lock system. Usually the top of that screw is not large enough to avoid the strap to tear away, with or without cap. So find another "locker" around or replace the screw with the original larger one before placing the plastic cap.

Thanks to my ex bandmate Ronald Dondez from Driving Dead Girl for the tip.

YouTube e l'etica delle lezioni di chitarra: Decadence Dance by Nuno Bettencourt

Il bello di fare lezione a quelli che suonano bene, è anche essere "costretti" a rispolverare dei riff della madonna datati 1990 e rendersi conto di averli suonati per 26 anni leggermente diversi.

Anzi diciamolo: sbagliati.

Di poco, ma sbagliati.

Ma che ci vuoi fare, mica c'era YouTube.

C'era il vinile e l'olio di gomito, la puntina su e giù per delle mezze giornate cercando di beccare sempre lo stesso solco o quasi. Nella migliore delle ipotesi c'era una  trascrizione ufficiale di Wolf Marshall pagata quanto un distorsore della DOD.

Dal video qui sopra mi sono accorto del mio piccolo errore.

Adesso che vedo quel riff suonato da chi di dovere mi sembra la cosa più ovvia del mondo, ma è un po' come andare a leggere la soluzione a pagina 46 della Settimana Enigmistica e poi dire "Lo sapevo"

Una regia pessima, una fotografia agghiacciante, un Nuno Bettencourt simpatico come la forfora nel minestrone.

Eppure dice una cosa interessantissima. Ovvero che la mancanza di materiale didattico video di un tempo obbligava i veri appassionati a tirarsi giù le parti di chitarra ad orecchio ed in maniera assolutamente personale. Era impossibile sapere esattamente cosa facessero davvero i mostri sacri del calibro di Van Halen. Nella ricerca stessa c'era un allenamento dell'orecchio migliore di qualunque altra scuola, e nell'esecuzione personale (ovvero sbagliata) si celavano le basi di uno stile chitarristico personale anziché un esercito di cloni.

Un grazie ai miei allievi che mi obbligano a tenere alta la soglia di attenzione e la curiosità.

How to play Metallica "Hardwired" at the guitar - #1 - Advanced level Tutorial (+ Presonus Studio One Click trick)

If you're just looking for chords and riffs you can find it everywhere on the web.

This is a slightly different kind of tutorial, focusing on the sound, the position you should use, how to practice, how to make your riffs sound as close as possible to the original version, and how to put all together in the easiest way possible, since the main goal during a live show is Don't stop the flow!

I had a great time yesterday playing this one!
There are a lot of different parts to learn.
The positions on the freatboard are not difficult, but it's a challenge for the right hand, instead!
Also it was not so obvious for me to learn the arrangement (even if I know Metallica wrote much more complicated songs) and keep focusing on each single part with the same power and timing!
Don't try to detect the right tempo in Pro Tools or what since there is not a single tempo start to finish, the tempo flows and it is on "on grid" unless you warp the whole song, and please don't do it!
Or you should write an automation lane on the master tempo track, and I don't think it worth the effort, I just add a 2 bars count-in click to start at the right point.
Here the "rendering" click option in Presonus Studio One 3 made my day, since I wrote down the audio click on a track just between loops marker. Just select 2 bars before the song, render the click, disable the real click and you're done!
About timing and playing, since it is a fast tempo and since it is played "live" and not "on grid", I really need a pair of headphones to match the song and playing along the song with a good amount of glue. Listening to it just from speakers is a little bit confusing, specially during the fastest parts, where your ears tend to identify the snare beat with the downbeat, while it's still the upbeat, and it is not so obvious to catch the perfect sync.
Headphones helps to be more "in the song" and play with the band.

Thank you all, see you next time!

Nuno Bettencourt Washburn N2 - this little monster blows me away

Last summer I was playing in a piece called "Elle(s)" at the Avignon OFF Festival.
I saw that 2nd hand Washburn N2 (made in Indonesia) in a guitar shop, I've tried it once.
I've tried it again 2 days later.
Then I've tried it a 3rd time.
I came back home with that guitar, end of the story.
I had an original N4 model at that time, I think it was in 1991, I've sold it straightway due to an issue to the bridge.
So I can say I know how a real N4 sounds, and that little monster N2 has nothing to be afraid of.
IMO, the only real difference is the lack of the Extended Cutaway.
Pick-ups are the same, the neck is comfortable, the sound is as it should be, and the sustain it is just incredible.
Nuno Bettencourt influenced my playing for so many years, and even if I don't think I could play that kind of stuff on stage anymore, I'm just having great time remembering that kind of sound.
And thank you Nuno for the eternal inspiration.

I think this guitar is just here to remember me one simple thing.
I'm not talking about bands, fashion, managements, courses, money, shredding, ostentation.
I really don't care about.
This guitar is just here to remember me one simple thing.
I love playing the guitar.

So, I'm talking to you.
Play. Play your guitar. Play as much as you can. It is just amazing.