Tag Archives: shred

Chapman Guitars ML-B1

I have been avidly watching ‘Monkey Lord’ Rob Chapman‘s YouTube output for quite some time now. His charismatic attitude towards life and music comes clearly through on his videos. This guy loves to play!

A few years ago Rob set up Chapman guitars in collaboration with Barnes & Mullins and Lee Andertons music shop in Guildford. Using Robs strong fan base to develop the worlds first fan collaborative developed guitar range users were encouraged to vote on aspects of such as body wood, pick up configuration and finish.

Early last year Chapman guitars in collaboration with Dave Hollingworth threw down the gauntlet to develop a bass guitar. First prototype has just been delivered to Dave and it looks amazing. Now I have some serious gas to get my hands on one! I think with a few modifications it will seriously versatile. Some Aguilar DCB pickups and OBP3 (I have a similar set up in my old Sadowsky) along with a Hipshot D-tuner will make it the perfect axe for teaching and my varied gigging schedule. I’m super excited to try one asap and can’t wait for the final production model.

Here’s a video of Dave putting the bass through its paces and demonstrating his demon chops:

Leave a comment

Filed under bass

The Aristocrats

Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

Last Thursday myself and guitar shredding friend were invited to see The Aristocrats play at the Robin 2 in Bilston (nr Wolverhampton) by the bands bass player Bryan Beller (@bryanbeller on that there twitter).

We were lucky enough to catch Bryan’s bass clinic where he spoke in detail and about groove, tone and the importance of being yourself in music. Bryan is a master of the low end and excellent educator who was captivating and motivating. He demonstrated some of the metal bass concepts from his recent DVD (which I will be adding to the bass resources for Leicester College students).

Bryan invited us to hang out for sound check which really demonstrated what an amazing group of musicians The Aristocrats are. Tech heavy shredding that actually sounds like music is no mean feat and these guys are at the top of their game.

The gig was a high octane performance, full of humour, fun, great grooves and awesome music. I came away from the evening truly inspired to practice more, that rarely happens these days.

A big thank you to Bryan, Guthrie and Marco for making us feel so welcome and a jaw dropping live show.

If you’ve not heard The Aristocrats I can highly recommend them. Check out http://www.the-aristocrats-band.com

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized