My lovely students allowed my to set up a camera in the teaching room at Trevada, I filmed some of the lessons over the space of one week and put it all together using iMovie. The music is a little track I put together all recorded from my home studio.
Check out the time lapse lessons 🙂
Once again, its been a while since my last post. Super busy start to 2015. Lots of changes going on and many improvements to the course material happening all the time.
I have added some of the great testimonials sent to my by current CGL students and made some other updates in the website so make sure you go and check it out!
Over and out
I have gradually been putting a new pedal board together over the last few months, it has been a slight obsession of mine. I previously posted a picture of the amazing custom pedal board covered in Fender Tweed that I got from Sgt Pepper custom pedal boards. I have also been buying and selling various pedals and researching every aspect of the board. The main hard work involved drilling 25mm wholes in the board to insert grommets into it, these would be used for hiding leads and keeping the board tidy. There was also a lot of soldering involved to connect the Neutrik jacks and kettle leads connected. Here some pics of the fun I had with my dad over the weekend putting the board together, I have to admit he did most of the hard work 😉
I spent Saturday 12th April getting involved in the national learn to play day at Trevada music. It was the first I’ve been involved in and I have to say it was a great day.
Learn to play day is focused on giving people of all ages a chance to have a free taster lesson on a huge range of instruments to see if they like it. The taster lessons are 20 minutes so pretty short and sweet, but they gave me a chance to speak to people about the commitment and dedication needed to learn the guitar as well as all the rewards you get for putting the time in, and more importantly someone a chance to cover some of the basics of the guitar. The lessons were a mixture of acoustic and electric and were all great fun, It was great to meet everyone and brilliant to here the hustle and bustle of people coming and going to have taster lessons on all sorts of instruments.
I want to say a massive thanks to the guys at Trevada for putting in the time to organise my lesson diary for the day. Looking forward to learn to play 2015
I have always had a bit of an obsession with the Ibanez Tubescreamer, in particular the TS808 model. I am a massive Stevie Ray Vaughn fan, which is where this obsession began. In my time as an effects pedal nerd I have bought more overdrive pedals than any other type of pedal including Ibanez TS9 and TS808 tubescreamer models, which I bought and later sold….. Why I will never know.
It’s this quest to find an overdriven tone that I’m happy with that pushed me towards buying an Ibanez TS808 Tubescreamer clone from ‘Gojira pedals’. I came across Gojira when searching for guitar pedal business around the world that made pedal clones as well as there own models. Gojira are based in Ayrshire, Scotland and have a nice range of pedals, some of them producing some pretty crazy sounds, go check them out on Facebook.
Every electric guitarist should own at least one type of Tubescreamer pedal, it’s said that they’re most cloned guitar pedal going and a good choice for any board or collection.
So what can I say about this particular pedal? Firstly I have tried many tubescreamers both TS808 and TS9’s and famous clones including the Digitech Bad Monkey, Joyo vintage drive and Mooer green mile, and I have to say this is about as close as it gets to the real thing and at a fraction of the price. Just like the original pedal there are just three knobs, overdrive, tone and volume, so it’s not rock science to use and pretty easy to dial in a sound you like. I have mainly used it with the drive set low and volume high to give me a slight boost and extra crunch on a clean channel. As you can see my TS808 has custom art work which is a brilliant touch, it definitely allows you to put your stamp on the pedal and is a little bit of a novelty, as a kid and now I loved Batman and in particular the Joker character, so I jumped at the chance to have this character taking the place of the face in the famous scream painting. The design is great and the finish is extremely smooth.
Overall this pedal is pretty incredible and will be making a home on the current board I am putting together. It will feature a switcher made by ‘Disaster Area Amps’ from the US and a custom made board by the brilliant ‘Sgt Pepper Pedal Boards’ based in the UK. Make sure you check all these guys out, there are so many brilliant small companies out there with great products to help you achieve the set up and sound you like. In the coming weeks I will put together a demo of this TS808 so you can hear what I’m talking about. I also have fuzz on the way from them, which I’m looking forward to trying out.
Happy Strumming folks 🙂
Cornwall Guitar Lessons are taking part in this years National learn to play day at Trevada music on Saturday April 12th 2014. The day is all about giving you a chance to have a taster lesson on an instrument they you are interested in. Spaces are limited so please contact Trevada music on 01207 714353 to book one of the slots. All ages are welcome.
Spread the word about the ‘Learn to play day’
Another upgrade at the Cornwall Guitar Lessons HQ . I decided to upgrade one of my amps; there is now a ‘Fender Hot Rod Deluxe iii’ in the collection. After having 3 amps repaired in the last 9 months I have decided its time for a change and the Hot Rod seemed like the perfect choice. It is a 1×12 40watt combo amp and is regarded as the most popular tube amp in the world. There are not many ears in this world that wouldn’t have heard a Hot rod deluxe on a recording or in a pub gig. I am amazed by what this amp can do and wish I had
Students are currently able to use either a Marshall VS265, Marshall VS230, one of two Fender frontman 15G amps or an Orange Crush 10 amp, as well as the Hot Rod.
Here it is, If you haven’t had a chance to try one of these out keep an eye out for one in your local music store, the quality of this beast is far beyond my expectations, I have only used it at home at the minute and have only just managed to turn the volume up to 2. Cannot wait to try this out at some gigs over the next few weeks.
It’s been a great start to 2014 with lesson slots filling up very quickly. Truro is now pretty much fully booked apart from a slot between 8-9pm on Wednesday eve and 6:30 on a Friday evening. As I am often booked fore functions gigs on a Friday this slot wouldn’t be available every week.
I still have a few slots available at Trevada music in Camborne throughout the week on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday so please email info@cornwallguitarlessons.co.uk for more information.
So guys and gals, a quick update on my availability at Trevada music. I am currently teaching there on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
I have some scattered slots available on both Thursday and Saturday. At the minute Tuesday is fully booked, but if this is the most suitable day for you then please get in touch to go on the CGL waiting list.
For more information on the exact slots that are available please contact info@cornwallguitarlessons or Darren on 07970 365020
Happy New Year everyone, I hope you had an amazing night wherever you were and whatever you got up to, hopefully your heads aren’t to sore today!
I brought the new year in playing cover songs at The Carbis Bay hotel, despite waking up hangover free due to driving I am aching after a 3 hour set and lifting a lot of gear in and out, otherwise my head would be as bad as many others today.
I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who had lessons with Cornwall Guitar Lessons in 2013, it was a great year and it’s been a pleasure to meet every one of you. I will be starting back at Trevada music in Camborne on Tuesday 7th and in Truro on the 8th.
I’m looking forward to spreading the word of Cornwall Guitar lessons throughout 2014 and seeing some old and new faces. Enjoy your New Years Day.
Darren
Cornwall Guitar Lessons 