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Totally Guitars News Podcast

Last week I had a great catch up call with my old friend Richard Hoover, of the Santa Cruz Guitar Company. We caught up about old times and he told me about the string set they have developed, over quite a few years. It is a really interesting concept about balancing tension rather than worrying about string gauge. He sent me some samples and today’s update started off with me playing the strings I had just put on the guitar last night without really touching them until the camera was running. I have to say they felt and sounded quite different from the D’Addario EJ-17s I have played for a couple decades. I was pretty impressed and I will explore more in the next few hours. I improvised a little A Minor piece with them as I recall.

I apologize for not getting to an update last week but a few technical issues arose with the lesson I was working on and I had to address them. As it was part of a lesson on Al Stewart’s Time Passages was finished and posted early this week, with the rest to follow soon. The next part will be based on the type of stuff Dave Nachmanoff plays when he accompanies Al live nowadays.

Other recent new lessons included Those Magic Changes by Sha Na Na, Still by The Commodores, and a FOTW lesson as Sandy’s project Landslide continued.

Max brought us a couple lessons with a different take than most of what we have once again. It started last week with a theory lesson on Soloing Over Dominant chords, and followed this week with a classic jazz tune from Herbie Hancock, Cantaloupe Island. Both of these offer great insight into the inner workings of the guitar.

I just got some of the last video from IGC 2017 and took a moment to remind people that all the video from every year is available to anyone signing up for this year’s camp. We have room for about 5 more people so if you are thinking of joining us, please do it soon.

The last thoughts I had were about a couple of the recent uploads from the TG Community, Bob’s Jamming With Friends thread, John’s nice rendition of In My Life, and Craig’s double tracked Wonderful Tonight. For that one I offered suggestions on embellishing and smoothing out the melody, after congratulating him again for a job well done.

And, as usual, there was a bit of random playing as I enjoyed the new strings. I definitely encourage everybody to give them a try. Maybe we’ll even look into a TG discount at Santa Cruz Guitars, if a few people seem interested. I would also like to hear from anybody else who has tried them. Maybe we need to start a new thread on the Forum to trade thoughts and experiences with strings.