gringopig's guitar channel

This is a new model made in limited quantities to celebrate Gibson's 130th year and is a recreation of a very early 1958 ES-335. The very early models featured Gibson's new fangled Humbuckers as standard and an unbound fingerboard which soon became bound later in the year. It was a new concept for Gibson and the brainchild of Ted McCarty - a hollow body look from the front but thin in depth and with a solid block of maple running the length of the guitar. This cut down the resonances that would cause uncontrollable feedback when a purchaser turned his amplifier up; as guitarists are known to do funnily enough. Gibson are doing 130 of each colour: tri-burst, tobacco sunburst and blonde and it looks like the blondes have sold out already. I was lucky to get this one and I'm playing it through a Two Rock Classic Reverb with guest star, my 1974 Norlin era 335 as contrast. These guitars have achieved iconic status and Gibson has chosen it to represent their 130th birthday. The aging is spot on and I would be hard pressed to tell this apart from a real one. Except of course for the price! It isn't cheap but as my 1974 cost me an Ibanez Blazer plus £495 back in the early 1980's, it better be good. Luckily it is fantastic. The attention to detail in the heavy relic finish on this tobacco sunburst is amazing but it's the sound of those unpotted custombuckers and the feel of the guitar that win the day for me. I have recorded this with 2 microphones: an SM57 and Rode NT1-A into a Presonus Studio 68C with no compression, added reverb or any post processing at all - just the sound of the guitars into a Two Rock Classic Reverb just as I heard it in the room. All items bought by me and no sponsorship or funny stuff. Please like and subscribe as it really helps a small channel and visit my website at www.gringopig.com for more geeky guitar stuff. Thanks!

A borrowed gem: a 2020 Squier Affinity Strat plugged into a Friedman JEL-20. Firstly into the Plexi Channel and then into the hot Channel, Channel 2 for some distorted fun! This is a guitar I did a demo of in comparison to a Fender custom shop and had the amp set relatively clean to draw out any differences. No such restriction here and it's full on Friedman Grind™ all the way. Plexi Channel overdrive then face melt Channel 2. What a fun, great sounding guitar! Please visit me at www.gringopig.com and like and subscribe!

Candy Apple Red. Tasty but bad for your teeth. Not so the 1965 Fender Jaguar. That is only bad for your wallet. Here's a solo demo of the guitar that featured as part of my Jaguar Shootout video. I bought this from JTKM Studio recently and it is very nice indeed and in excellent condition. I had a fret dress done and added Staytrem bridge and tremolo arm and collet as I always do to offset guitars and it plays like a dream. So this was recorded into an Origin Effects RevivalDRIVE and then into a Two Rock Classic Reverb. The amp was recorded with a Rode NT1-A and SM57 straight into a Presonus Studio68C and Studio One without any processing or change in the sound. The previous video was clean, so I decided to add a little rock'n'roll flavour to this one and tried to show that the Jaguar isn't some cliched 'shoegaze' guitar or 'surf' or whatever genre people claim to think the Jaguar is best used for. It's a guitar. It can play anything. In fact, a Les Paul can't do what the Jaguar can do. I do love Les Paul guitars too though. Visit my website www.gringopig.com and like and subscribe as it does help small channels and independent creators not give up in despair :-) Thanks!

The Fender Jaguar™. Much misunderstood due to either being considered an 'indie' guitar and plugged into a sea of effects pedals or a guitar played by wanna-be Beach Boys surf people, the main downfall of this top-of-the-line Fender was Jimi Hendrix. As soon as Hendrix strapped on his Strat, the Jaguar's days were numbered. Later on, players looking for something cheap picked them up and the reputation of the Jaguar being an 'indie' guitar arose - beloved of effects pedal jockeys and hipsters. However, all of this is tosh. As wrong as suggesting the Jaguar is 'short scale'. It isn't. If it was then a Gibson Les Paul should be as the scale length is almost the same. Anyway, I was turned onto Jaguars by Kurt Vile and the tremolo swoops he does just sounded incredible so I bought an old one as the price wasn't that much more than a Fender Custom Shop. I have bought more in the intervening years and I have done this shootout of 5 Jaguars: 1962 slab board sunburst 1965 original Olympic White 1965 original Black 1965 original Candy Apple Red 1967 original Lake Placid Blue CBS era block and binding. Just to see what the differences were and just because it was a cool idea to do! I recorded this with a Two Rock Classic Reverb into a Two Rock 2x12" cabinet using an SM57 and Rode NT1-A. Then into a Presonus Studio 68C and Studio One with no post processing or effects. The reverb is from the amplifier entirely. I do an intro for each then some examples of the guitars. The last section is a sequence of each guitar back to back for each pickup combination. I love Jaguars. I use 11-52 gauge strings and Staytrem bridges. 4 of the 5 have Staytrem tremolo bars and collets too. They stay in tune perfectly and you can really rip on the tremolo bar and tuning remains rock solid. Try THAT on a Stratocaster Mr. Hendrix! Visit my website for more: www.gringopig.com and thanks for watching. Please like and subscribe should you want to. :-)

This is a demo of my mostly complete Broadcaster Partcaster build. It's just waiting on an Allparts FAT neck from Golden Era guitars. Come on Scott, get a move on!! It was bought from an auction house: Gardiner Houlgate and I set about replacing hardware with a Callaham bakelite pickguard, Fender bridge plate and Callaham saddles, A set of Monty's Broadcaster pickups and loads of single slot screws and other hardware from Charles Guitars. I said it was a Callaham wiring loom but it's actually a Charles Guitars loom. Oops The body appears to be a one piece ash and came with an ultra skinny Fender neck from 1992. It must have come from an early '90's '52 re-issue and looks aged. It actually looks really aged just like the real thing but I'm sure it was expertly done as the frets look perfect. They may be low and skinny but that was vintage frets for you. So I did a video of it before it gets its chunky neck. I played it into a Two Rock Classic Reverb miced with a Rode NT1-A and SM57 straight into a Presonus Studio68C and recorded in Studio One. No processing was used on the guitar parts and they sound like they did in front of the amp. Please visit my website: www.gringopig.com and like and subscribe if you would like! :-)

Here's my new Partscaster! So called because it's made from parts I bought and assembled in the hope it might sound good. Well I think it did... It comprises: An Axecaster purchased ash body with ferrules MusiKraft Tele neck with D shape 0.9" to 1.0", fretted and tinted. Monty's Broadcaster and full Monty neck pickups Callaham bridge Kluson aged tuners Various parts from Charles Guitars Neck to body assembly and nut from Bob at GuitarGuitar Edinburgh I quite fancied doing another Tele build as it's simpler than a Strat in terms of set up and I like the Telecaster sound, so I fully assembled the body in preparation for the MusiKraft neck to come from the US. Very nice it is too! Highly recommended for the feel and quality. It came with frets but I ordered it without a nut so I asked Bob at Edinburgh GuitarGuitar to do one of his excellent nuts and drill the neck to match the body. The Hosco body was a bit wider at the pocket than the neck weirdly so they don't obey the unwritten laws of Fender assembly but luckily Bob sorted all this out for me and the setup is perfect on it. The Monty's pickups are ace and this one in particular has a sound with the tone control that remains clear even when turned down fully. It sounds more like a cocked wah than a muffled woolly sound like you normally get. Odd but just a fluke of the components given I bought a standard 0.047uF Sozo cap just like last time. So here's my demo through a Two Rock Classic Reverb miced up with Rode NT1-A and SM57 and recorded without effects and no post processing with a Presonus Studio 68C and Studio One. Check out my website for more! www.gringopig.com and please like and subscribe if you want to. :-)

A demo of my Fender Precision bass as I try vainly to play like James Jamerson. Sadly, I cannot approach that man's genius however I can but try. This is a 2022 custom shop heavy relic Precision bass with La Bella flat would strings, tone rolled off and played into an Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 amp with the signal taken out via XLR into a Presonus Studio68C and recorded with Studio One. I made a backing drum track with EZ Drummer and played live with it. I then added a smidgen of compression in post on the bass. For more, please visit www.gringopig.com and give me a like. It matters to us small creators! :-)

An American phenomenon, Grateful Dead have always been a slight puzzling thing to the rest of the world. Pioneers in fusing improvisational aspects of jazz with the bluegrass sounds of their roots, Grateful Dead were unique. The history of Grateful Dead and the American countercultural movement were parallel although they avoided political concerns almost totally, existing in a peculiar space of being seers to the tie-dyed bus-living fans that were fanatical about their scene and almost being completely distant from them. Jerry Garcia was the main focus. He was sharp and insightful, funny and passionate about music as well as being subject to the burden of drug addiction. As much as the fans loved Uncle Jerry, he was very different from how they viewed him. So when he died in 1995, it was not really possible for them to continue. I was at a Dead concert in Oakland 1989/90 but only in the parking lot while they played but more people were outside than in. Some were outside and inside at the same time! So when John Mayer joined the offshoot Dead and Co. with Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, I was astounded to hear him play exactly like Jerry Garcia. It was uncanny! Garcia had a unique style but Mayer is such a great player he nailed the tone and the free flowing spidery bop lines. The last tour in summer 2023, John Mayer asked Paul Reed Smith to make him a special Silver Sky with some of the features that marked one of Garcia's best known guitars: Alligator. A '50's Strat made from parts with distinctive stickers, brass all over, a string retainer on the low 4 strings and a custom pickguard and bridge with an Alembic Strat-o-blaster installed. This was on board pre-amp made by the Alembic company which has strong ties with Grateful dead and can still be bought by the name 'Blaster' as Fender found issue with the name. This 'Dead Spec' Silver Sky is therefore a signature of John Mayer with a loving nod to Jerry. 1000 made as a limited edition, I demo this through a Two Rock Classic Reverb straight in with no effects and turn it up a bit with an Tone King Ironman attenuator. I hope you can hear the differences between the Dead Spec and the standard models: a 2023 rosewood board Moc Sand and a 2020 maple board Lunar Ice - also a limited edition. Mics: Rode NT1-A. SM57 Interface: Presonus Studio 68C DAW: Studio One Amplifier: Two Rock Classic Reverb turned up a bit Visit my website www.gringopig.com for more guitars, amps and basses plus features. Enjoy! Please subscribe if you want to. 00:00 Intro about PRS Silver Sky 00:06 2023 Silver Sky rosewood board Moc Sand 02:29 2020 Silver Sky maple board Lunar Ice 04:05 2023 Silver Sky Dead Spec 07:48 Dead Spec neck pickup Blaster off 08:04 Dead Spec neck pickup Blaster on 08:24 Dead Spec neck and middle Blaster off 08:24 Dead Spec neck and middle Blaster on 09:03 Dead Spec middle Blaster off 09:21 Dead Spec middle Blaster on 09:44 Dead Spec middle and bridge Blaster off 09:59 Dead Spec middle and bridge Blaster on 10:24 Dead Spec bridge Blaster off 10:42 Dead Spec bridge Blaster on 11:15 Dead Spec bridge Blaster off - chord 11:26 Dead Spec bridge Blaster on - chord 11:40 Dead Spec bridge and middle Blaster off - chords 12:07 Dead Spec bridge and middle Blaster on - chords 12:27 Dead Spec middle Blaster off - chords 12:48 Dead Spec middle Blaster on - chords 13:13 Dead Spec middle and neck Blaster off - chords 13:35 Dead Spec middle and neck Blaster on - chords 13:54 Dead Spec neck Blaster off - chords 14:11 Dead Spec neck Blaster on - chords 14:58 2023 Silver Sky rosewood board all positions 18:37 2020 Silver Sky maple board all positions 20:58 Dead Spec Blaster on middle position only 22:51 Dead Spec Blaster on neck and middle 24:28 Dead Spec Blaster on middle position

I modified my Huber Orca 59 with a couple of special humbuckers. Marc from Mojo pickups in the UK must have unearthed a reel of old wire from the era that birthed the Golden Era™ Les Paul guitars. Maybe an abandoned engineering works in a northern industrial town, or a ghostly transformer factory lying in dilapidated condition just outside Manchester perhaps? Wherever he found it, he made some pickups with it and created a PAF replica. he makes great pickups and I have heard these in a Les Paul owned by my pal Brian. They sound fantastic. I decided to take out the Häussel humbuckers as I wanted unpotted ones. The Häussel ones are good I have to say but I wanted the extra top end airiness that unpotted pickups exhibit and wanted to try the Mojo. I had to lose the 4 wire coil split function but I never really used it anyway and in the new ones went. I did an earlier demo with the Orca 59 into my Fender Twin Reverb so decided to play through that again and you can watch the first one to get a sense of what the Häussel pickups sounded like. Link in the end screen! I think the Mojo NOS PAFs sound amazing! I do some clean playing into the Twin Reverb on the vibrato channel 1 on a setting of 4 and later turn on a Benson pre-amp for some dirt. I recorded without any post effects and tried to be as true to the sound in the room as possible with a Rode NT1-A and an SM57 going into a Presonus Studio68C then Studio One. I bought everything with my own money and am sponsored by no-one! Visit my website for more! www.gringopig.com and like, subscribe if you want to :-) 00:00 Intro 02:08 Clean neck pickup 03:34 Clean both pickups 04:18 Clean bridge pickup 05:11 Clean neck pickup again 05:27 Clean both pickups 06:21 Clean neck pickup 06:48 Clean bridge pickup 08:15 Clean both pickups 08:42 Clean neck pickup 09:07 Fingerpicking clean on bridge 09:44 Fingerpicking clean on both together 10:22 Fingerpicking clean on neck pickup 11:12 Benson pre-amp and neck pickup 12:09 Benson pre-amp and both pickups 12:33 Benson pre-amp and bridge pickup 16:10 Benson pre-amp and both pickups 16:51 Benson pre-amp and neck pickup 17:45 Dirty chords neck pickup 18:28 Dirty chords both pickups 19:07 Dirty chords bridge pickup

Made as a limited edition in 2020, this oddball guitar features what appears to be a set of 1970's Tele Custom attributes. Look closer however and there is no bullet truss rod. Turning it over and you will find a 4 bolt limited edition neck plate plus a very flamey neck too. So, this is ostensibly a re-issue of the first year release of the Gibson beating revamped Telecaster. It was shortly followed by its sister model, the Deluxe which featured 2 wide range CuNiFe pickups. This was the first time Fender actually made the proper wide range pickup with the unique magnetic material which I believe is an alloy of Copper, Nickel and Iron (Cu/Ni/Fe) and it sounds incredible! Unlike the often done drop in PAF style humbucker which always is hard to balance, the lower output wide range humbucker slots in well with the traditional Tele bridge. It's not as dark. The guitar also has 3 brass saddles unlike the 6 of the original and reading the spec, the body is modelled after a '67 with a C oval neck measuring 0.850" to 0.920" at the heel. Not too thin but not like a 60's style to my hand really either. I like the Gibson control layout a lot and It's a light guitar! 2 piece ash but it's really light and resonant. I'm playing it into the plexi channel of my Friedman JEL-20 with a Strymon Flint on spring in the loop. That's going into an EVM 12L loaded Zill Fatbaby cab and miced up with a Rode NT1-A and SM57 off axis by the dustcap. I record into a Presonus Studio 68C and Studio One. Check out my website for other stuff plus reviews of the gear. www.gringopig.com Please like and subscribe if you would like!

Dave Friedman's new amp, which has been garnering a lot of attention for its fantastic gain channel, is given a demo here and I'm switching to the main attraction: Channel 2 This is a 20 Watt Marshall inspired valve head which has a complement of 3 12AX7 and 2 EL84 valves in the pre-amp and power section respectively. 20 Watts is LOUD though. It's not a bedroom amp but in comparison to the Jake E Lee 100 Watt version, this one is actually useable outside stadia. Jake E Lee is a fantastic guitarist who, to my shame, was unknown to me prior to this signature amp being released but having listed to Ozzy's 'Bark at the Moon', I can see why he is so revered. So my demo features a Gibson Les Paul 1968 re-issue with Humbucker Alnico III pickups and I'm cutting to the chase and just going max on the channel. I didn't use the pull boost so rest assured, there is even more gain on tap but the pickups in the Les Paul aren't potted and I don't want to sound like a pig being slaughtered. I was using a Tone King Ironman II attenuator as well and a Strymon Flint reverb in the loop at the back of the amp. The presence at the back was set to noon. I'm recording with an SM57 and Rode NT1-A on a Zilla cab with an EVM 12L and the mic is slightly off X axis. Hopefully you get the idea that this amp is hugely versatile and the combination of foot switchable channels could be perfect for any style. Switch to the raging beast of channel 2 and you have everything. Check out my website for other stuff plus reviews of the gear. www.gringopig.com Please like and subscribe if you would like!

Dave Friedman's new amp, which has been garnering a lot of attention for its fantastic gain channel, is given a demo here but for this one, I'm sticking to the Plexi channel. I'll try to give some idea that the amp isn't just a metal monster but actually a great amp for all styles. This is a 20 Watt Marshall inspired valve head which has a complement of 3 12AX7 and 2 EL84 valves in the pre-amp and power section respectively. 20 Watts is LOUD though. It's not a bedroom amp but in comparison to the Jake E Lee 100 Watt version, this one is actually useable outside stadia. Jake E Lee is a fantastic guitarist who, to my shame, was unknown to me prior to this signature amp being released but having listed to Ozzy's 'Bark at the Moon', I can see why he is so revered. My demo can't really compete with the shredders and Metal Chuggers™ doing demos of this amp. There are great demos out there, so I thought I would do a part 1 with the amp featuring only the 'clean' channel: channel1. It's not exactly Fender Twin clean but in comparison to the monster gain of channel 2 it can be described as the Plexi Channel. That is, the sound of an old '60's Marshall without master volume, made in the days where loud was loud and distortion could only be obtained by turning the amp up to apocalyptic levels. This amp in fact has 2 master volumes and 2 gains as it is a 2 channel amp but that gives you 2 completely different voicings available. So my demo features firstly a Gibson Les Paul 1956 re-issue with P90 pickups and then a PRS Silver Sky. I run through the pickups of each and you can see in the video where the controls were set for each example. I was using a Tone King Ironman II attenuator as well and a Strymon Flint reverb in the loop at the back of the amp. The presence at the back was set to noon. I'm recording with an SM57 and Rode NT1-A on a Zilla cab with an EVM 12L and the mic is slightly off X axis. Hopefully you get the idea that this amp is hugely versatile and the Plexi channel could be perfect for any style. Foot switchable to the raging beast of channel 2 and you have everything. Check out my website for other stuff plus reviews of the gear. www.gringopig.com Please like and subscribe if you would like!

If John Mayer left Fender to use his Silver Sky model then surely there must be something about the PRS that Fender cannot do? In this demo, I take a 2020 Lunar Ice Silver sky, a 2023 Moc Sand with a rosewood fingerboard and a 2014 Fender custom shop 60th anniversary '54 model and make a comparison. Does the Silver Sky compete? Does the rosewood board sound 'darker' than a maple one? Lots of interesting questions... I was always told that a rosewood board would sound darker and more 'woody'. I was sort of sceptical really as a lot of information on the internet is just nonsense. So I am putting it to the test. Bear in mind that any differences could be down to the setup or the pickups but in this case I have meticulously duplicated the factory set up of the rosewood board one (which was stock from the factory) on the maple board Lunar Ice, which need a set up after purchase as the previous owner had made it a floating tremolo. All pickup heights and string heights are identical and with fresh strings on all 2 guitars, it's interesting try them. I'm using a Two Rock Classic Reverb and for the first round, straight in clean. For the next 2 I'm using an Origin Effects Revival drive for some very light dirt. I don't want to flood any subtle differences with distortion. What do you think? Can you hear the difference between the maple and rosewood? Is the Fender better or worse? I am using 2 microphones on one 12" speaker of the Two rock 2x12" cab: a Rode NT1-A and an SM57 placed centre and to the left of the cone just off axis. Check out my website for other stuff plus reviews of the gear. www.gringopig.com Please like and subscribe if you would like! I'm going to start uploading to Rumble from now on as well as YouTube as I really object to the advertising and restrictions of that platform

I was asked to see if the new JEL-20 could do the old Skool 70's rock stuff: specifically the Allman Brothers Band style. So, here is a demo done to try and replicate the sort of sound you can get if you use the Plexi channel (Channel 1) with the Sat switch on to get that pumped power section feel with an arrangement of sorts of something that might be an Allman Brothers feel. The video is a series of pictures showing the settings and the guitar used. Presence is midway on the back. I used Studio One to mix and master this, so there is processing on pretty much everything. Guitar was a Gibson Les Paul 1959 60th Anniversary, drums from EZdrummer3, Bass was a Fender Jazz and other guitars were the same Les Paul just turned down a notch. The Friedman JEL-20 can definitely do this sound. Plus high gain. Plus clean. What a great amp! Check out my website for other stuff plus reviews of the gear. www.gringopig.com Please like and subscribe if you would like!

A short demo of the new Friedman JEL-20. Dave Friedman's new Jake E. Lee signature amp. Cut down to 20W but no less fire breathing than the 100W version. The amp is set to channel 2 without pull boost but with the Sat switch on for the first bit then off for the second. The pull boost takes it into another level of gain really and I wonder how much gain you really need. Perhaps an awful lot? Well you got it. The guitar is a Gibson Les Paul 60th anniversary '59 re-issue and there is a Strymon Flint set to '70's reverb in the loop. No other jiggery pokery is employed. This is the raw sound of the amp just as you would hear it in the room. No EQ, no effects in post. Just a Rode NT1-A and an SM57 on the Zilla cab with EVM 12L slightly off axis. Straight into a Presonus Studio 68C and Studio One. I'm going for as honest a depiction of how awesome this amp sounds here. Hope you get a good idea of how it sounds. The second bit was done with the Sat switch off and it's slower paced. Check out my website for other stuff plus reviews of the gear. www.gringopig.com Please like and subscribe if you would like!

Dave Friedman's new amp, which has been garnering a lot of attention for its fantastic gain channel, is given a demo here and I'm switching to the main attraction: Channel 2 This is a 20 Watt Marshall inspired valve head which has a complement of 3 12AX7 and 2 EL84 valves in the pre-amp and power section respectively. 20 Watts is LOUD though. It's not a bedroom amp but in comparison to the Jake E Lee 100 Watt version, this one is actually useable outside stadia. Jake E Lee is a fantastic guitarist who, to my shame, was unknown to me prior to this signature amp being released but having listed to Ozzy's 'Bark at the Moon', I can see why he is so revered. So my demo features a Gibson Les Paul 1968 re-issue with Humbucker Alnico III pickups and I'm cutting to the chase and just going max on the channel. I didn't use the pull boost so rest assured, there is even more gain on tap but the pickups in the Les Paul aren't potted and I don't want to sound like a pig being slaughtered. I was using a Tone King Ironman II attenuator as well and a Strymon Flint reverb in the loop at the back of the amp. The presence at the back was set to noon. I'm recording with an SM57 and Rode NT1-A on a Zilla cab with an EVM 12L and the mic is slightly off X axis. Hopefully you get the idea that this amp is hugely versatile and the combination of foot switchable channels could be perfect for any style. Switch to the raging beast of channel 2 and you have everything. Check out my website for other stuff plus reviews of the gear. www.gringopig.com Please like and subscribe if you would like!

Dave Friedman's new amp, which has been garnering a lot of attention for its fantastic gain channel, is given a demo here but for this one, I'm sticking to the Plexi channel. I'll try to give some idea that the amp isn't just a metal monster but actually a great amp for all styles. This is a 20 Watt Marshall inspired valve head which has a complement of 3 12AX7 and 2 EL84 valves in the pre-amp and power section respectively. 20 Watts is LOUD though. It's not a bedroom amp but in comparison to the Jake E Lee 100 Watt version, this one is actually useable outside stadia. Jake E Lee is a fantastic guitarist who, to my shame, was unknown to me prior to this signature amp being released but having listed to Ozzy's 'Bark at the Moon', I can see why he is so revered. My demo can't really compete with the shredders and Metal Chuggers™ doing demos of this amp. There are great demos out there, so I thought I would do a part 1 with the amp featuring only the 'clean' channel: channel1. It's not exactly Fender Twin clean but in comparison to the monster gain of channel 2 it can be described as the Plexi Channel. That is, the sound of an old '60's Marshall without master volume, made in the days where loud was loud and distortion could only be obtained by turning the amp up to apocalyptic levels. This amp in fact has 2 master volumes and 2 gains as it is a 2 channel amp but that gives you 2 completely different voicings available. So my demo features firstly a Gibson Les Paul 1956 re-issue with P90 pickups and then a PRS Silver Sky. I run through the pickups of each and you can see in the video where the controls were set for each example. I was using a Tone King Ironman II attenuator as well and a Strymon Flint reverb in the loop at the back of the amp. The presence at the back was set to noon. I'm recording with an SM57 and Rode NT1-A on a Zilla cab with an EVM 12L and the mic is slightly off X axis. Hopefully you get the idea that this amp is hugely versatile and the Plexi channel could be perfect for any style. Foot switchable to the raging beast of channel 2 and you have everything. Skip chapters as follows: 00:00 Intro 00:19 Gibson Les Paul R6 on neck pickup 02:40 Gibson Les Paul R6 in middle position 03:33 Gibson Les Paul R6 on bridge pickup 04:28 Gibson les Paul R6 on neck pickup again 05:10 Gibson les Paul R6 in middle position 05:29 Gibson les Paul R6 on bridge pickup 06:38 PRS Silver Sky all positions part 1 09:30 PRS Silver Sky all positions part 2 Check out my website for other stuff plus reviews of the gear. www.gringopig.com Please like and subscribe if you would like!

If John Mayer left Fender to use his Silver Sky model then surely there must be something about the PRS that Fender cannot do? In this demo, I take a 2020 Lunar Ice Silver sky, a 2023 Moc Sand with a rosewood fingerboard and a 2014 Fender custom shop 60th anniversary '54 model and make a comparison. Does the Silver Sky compete? Does the rosewood board sound 'darker' than a maple one? Lots of interesting questions... I was always told that a rosewood board would sound darker and more 'woody'. I was sort of sceptical really as a lot of information on the internet is just nonsense. So I am putting it to the test. Bear in mind that any differences could be down to the setup or the pickups but in this case I have meticulously duplicated the factory set up of the rosewood board one (which was stock from the factory) on the maple board Lunar Ice, which need a set up after purchase as the previous owner had made it a floating tremolo. All pickup heights and string heights are identical and with fresh strings on all 2 guitars, it's interesting try them. I'm using a Two Rock Classic Reverb and for the first round, straight in clean. For the next 2 I'm using an Origin Effects Revival drive for some very light dirt. I don't want to flood any subtle differences with distortion. What do you think? Can you hear the difference between the maple and rosewood? Is the Fender better or worse? I am using 2 microphones on one 12" speaker of the Two rock 2x12" cab: a Rode NT1-A and an SM57 placed centre and to the left of the cone just off axis. Chapter list for quick comparison: 00:00 Intro 00:16 Maple board Silver sky in position 5 01:01 Rosewood board Silver Sky in position 5 01:29 Maple neck Fender in position 5 02:01 Maple board Silver Sky in position 4 02:30 Rosewood board Silver Sky in position 4 02:58 Maple neck Fender in position 4 03:24 Maple board Silver Sky in position 3 03:47 Rosewood board Silver Sky in position 3 04:14 Maple neck Fender in position 3 04:39 Maple board Silver Sky in position 2 05:11 Rosewood board Silver Sky in position 2 05:38 Maple neck Fender in position 2 06:03 Maple board Silver Sky in position 1 06:34 Rosewood board Silver Sky in position 1 07:00 Maple neck Fender in position 1 07:27 Maple board Silver Sky in all 5 positions with Revival Drive 09:05 Rosewood board Silver Sky in all 5 positions with Revival Drive 10:39 Maple neck Fender in all 5 positions with Revival Drive 12:04 Maple board Silver Sky Final round 13:50 Rosewood board Silver Sky Final round 15:22 Maple neck Fender Final round Check out my website for other stuff plus reviews of the gear. www.gringopig.com Please like and subscribe if you would like!

This is a demo of a first year re-imagined Martin. The re-imagined series is now what you get as a standard Martin but it was quite an upheaval in the model range, resulting in a new neck style and carve known as the modified low oval carve, open gear Grover tuners, an aged toner to the Sitka Spruce top and forward shifted X bracing. These changes were first brought to the D-28 model and the year after applied to the rest of the range. If you have played a recent Martin you will be familiar with the neck carve. It's not what I would choose for electric but perfect for acoustic as it's more stressful on the hand anyway and the finger position benefits from support around the carve. Previous V necks which still feature in the vintage recreations feel awful after a while due to the lack of support for the hand. They may be deeper at the biggest point but it's the sides that support the hand. I like the carve on Martin guitars. This was a used purchase: someone's daily player and it sounds really good. Open and full but even across the strings. It's got some nice rosewood too. Indian rosewood for the re-imagined. My demo features a Rode NT1-A and SM57 on fretboard and behind the bridge and I have added a touch of 'small studio' reverb from a Lexicon plug-in in Studio One. Check out my website for other stuff plus a round up of this guitar. www.gringopig.com Please like and subscribe if you would like!

Martin makes some beautiful guitars like the D-45, resplendent in abalone, herringbone and looking like an explosion in a Chinese trinket factory. These are nice to be honest and sound fantastic but I like the simplicity of the 18 model too. This guitar is a custom shop 000 body style. No model desgnation on these but it is essentially a 000-18. However, it has a sinker mahogany back and sides which is a special feature. Sinker mahogany is apparently wood which was lost to a river in the 1800's in Belize and fished from the bottom by scuba divers and after removing the discarded shopping trolleys and Buckfast bottles they set about making guitars from it. Now, this wood was 100 years old at the time it fell off the boat, so that's some very old wood indeed. It certainly looks great. The whole guitar has a stripped down aesthetic typical of the 18 model but this is a special guitar. I had been playing every time I went into the shop but after I heard that someone else was aware of how good it was, I had to rush in at opening time and buy it. The other guy apparently came in an hour after I left with it. Heh heh... I am doing a quick demo with 2 microphones, a Rode NT1-A and a Shure SM57 placed on the upper fretboard and behind the bridge recorded into a Presonus Studio 68C with a small amount of Lexicon 'small studio' reverb added as a plug-in to make the room I'm in sound better. Check out my website at www.gringopig.com for more and like and subscribe if you would like to!

This is a demo of a 2012 Gibson R6 featuring P90 pickups and an ABR-1 and stop tailpiece combination. This is a recreation of a transitional model which straddles the eras of P90 pickups and the subsequent Humbucker and uses the new arrangement of bridge which replaced both the trapeze style of the original models and the one-piece wraparound bridge of the 1954/5 era. I am playing this into a Two Rock Classic Reverb clean initially and then using an Origin Effects Revival Drive for overdriven and then very overdriven sounds. I am using a Rode NT1-A and a Shure SM-57 into a Presonus Studio 68C and Studio One to record with no post processing. A funky sounding Les Paul with a different flavour to a traditional Standard model. Check out my website: gringopig.com for more about this guitar and much more!

An aberration in more than one way; a pragmatic response to a threatened lawsuit, Leo Fender snipped off the Broadcaster part of the headstick logo at the behest of Gretsch who were under the impression that people would become confused and walk out the store with a solid body electric guitar rather than their now forgotten drum set. Hence the 'No Caster' labelling after the Broadcaster was dropped. Soon it was renamed the Telecaster and the rest was history and it joined the Stratocaster when it came out in 1954 and the '50's were all about the modern. The new solid body from Fender was certainly modern, freeing travelling musicians from carting around a big archtop guitar and allowing them to utilise Leo Fender's fancy new amplifier range too and consequently inventing a new vocabulary of loud raucous country music licks too! This is a twist on the model, featuring a Seymour Duncan Antiquity in the neck position and a heavy relic white blonde finish over ash with period correct slotted screws throughout. I play it into a Two Rock Classic Reverb and recorded with a Rode NT1-A and a Shure SM-57 into a Presonus Studio 68C and Studio One with no post processing. At some point I switch on an Origin Effects Revival Drive too for some overdrive. My thanks to Brian for this one. Check out my website: gringopig.com for more about this guitar and much more!

This is an ostensibly budget solid body Stratocaster guitar made by Squier and bearing the Fender brand logo also, featuring quite a low cost feature set. However, it is the beloved first guitar of my friend Ronnie and be careful what you say about people's beloved guitars. I will say, it sounds pretty good really. Listen for yourself. Could you pick it out blind fold as a budget entry level guitar? Especially into a decent proper amp, it would be hard to tell. Now, holding and playing it would alert you soon enough but the frets are good, the pickups are fine and it has no issues with tuning or holding tune and I can't say this about all guitars, even those worth considerably more. The neck is weird however. It's got a pronounced D shape but the fretboard is really really flat. I measured 16" on a radius gauge. So it has an odd combination of fattish D neck and no radius to speak of; the frets are really flat. I personally wouldn't get on with it long term but it's just a matter of taste. I know these black logo Korean Squiers are regarded as very budget but it was pretty good in my opinion and I have set it up, cleaned and polished the frets and set the intonation and string height. It plays really well now. I have ordered a whammy bar for it - a 6mm metric thread one and I hope it fits. Not got it yet but it might be best to just treat it as an aesthetic thing. I screwed the trem plate into the body to stabilise the guitar. Thanks Ronnie for the loan! Visit my website for more demos and stuff https://www.gringopig.com/ Like and subscribe if you want to! :-)

This is a demo of my Knight 600 valve tester with 3 NOS Mullard ECC83as test subjects. I wanted to try out some valve testing as I have valves from different suppliers here in the UK and all have different measures of performance. Hotrox, Watford Valves and Karltone all supply valves with non standard measures of match. This may not be an issue for complete sets but given the problems with valve supply these days, it might be nice to swap out one single valve from a Hotrox set with one from Watford for example and there is no correlation between the two suppliers. So I bought a valve tester. Now this one is not the one for the job as it is a simple emissions tester and won't measure transconductance or any other parameter related to bias. It is however, a nice wee tester that I found on ebay. The seller told me it was 240V but it wasn't. It had a a US 2 prong plug on it! So this was swapped out for an earthed US plug and I bought a step down transformer to supply it with the US voltage. It actually was calibrated too! I get 6.3V between pins 2 and 7 of the 6V6/6L6 octal socket with the line adjust set to put the needle on the exact midpoint of the meter. That's all you can do apparently and I tested these 3 old Mullard valves in this video. No need for matching with these but it can be good to know the strength of each triode pair in the glass bottle and see if both are matched together for Phase Splitter use (even if it's not really important in valve amps) I have an AVO Mk3 characteristic meter and I will do a demo shortly of this more scientific tool which can grade and match valves. Please visit my website for more cool stuff: https://www.gringopig.com/

This is a demo of my Knight 600 valve tester with a 6L6GC valve from Tube Amp Doctor as a test subject. I wanted to try out some valve testing as I have valves from different suppliers here in the UK and all have different measures of performance. Hotrox, Watford Valves and Karltone all supply valves with non standard measures of match. This may not be an issue for complete sets but given the problems with valve supply these days, it might be nice to swap out one single valve from a Hotrox set with one from Watford for example and there is no correlation between the two suppliers. So I bought a valve tester. Now this one is not the one for the job as it is a simple emissions tester and won't measure transconductance or any other parameter related to bias. It is however, a nice wee tester that I found on ebay. The seller told me it was 240V but it wasn't. It had a a US 2 prong plug on it! So this was swapped out for an earthed US plug and I bought a step down transformer to supply it with the US voltage. It actually was calibrated too! I get 6.3V between pins 2 and 7 of the 6V6/6L6 octal socket with the line adjust set to put the needle on the exact midpoint of the meter. That's all you can do apparently and I tested a 6L6GC in this video. The next one will feature 3 ECC83 or 12AX7 valves. Please visit my website for more cool stuff: https://www.gringopig.com/