Introducing Franklyn Guitars

Guitars, Luthier

My focus of late has been to build a guitar brand with it’s own models and designs. I feel that focussing of a specific offering is more helpful to a potential Franklyn Guitars guitar owner than a blank canvas*

So we’re starting off with the Skybeam model, my take on a double cutaway twin humbucker electric guitar.

I’ll write more about the company and the models later and why I couldn’t spell Franklin properly and call it Franklin Guitars.

* That said, anyone is free to come at me with their own ideas!

Pine Guitar Challenge 2020

Luthier

I’ve got something in me that wants to build a series of guitars out of one type of wood (in start contrast of the the monstrosity I’m making for the Great Guitar Build Off 2020 out of everything). So when Tomster from IP Guitars announced he and a friend were doing a pine guitar challenge I thought I’d like a piece of that action and invited myself to join in.

I never expected it to stretch over 9 long videos!

What we ended up with was a guitar with a pine body, a pine neck and a pine fretboard. From firewood, an old desk and a floor board respectively.

Months later, despite having a few truss rod tweaks, we have a guitar that I’m still playing on a daily basis. Yay for pine 🙂

Raining 5 Guitars (Guitar Challenge) – Learning to play Episode 15

Chris Learns Guitar

Completely inspired by Mary Spender and Pete Cottrell, I decided that it’s about time I made a video and to further the challenge I wanted to do it from beginning to end in one day. I’m currently trying to learn Raining Blood by Slayer, so it seemed ideal.

It turns out that I had to do it over two evenings (I can’t really start working on anything for YouTube before 8pm) The end product isn’t remotely how I envisioned it, meaning I need a lot more practise at playing, recording, mastering and making videos.

Guitars used:

  • Fenix Jazz Bass (Fender Jazz bass copy)
  • Fender Mexican Stratocaster with a Seymour Duncan hot rail
  • Yamaha Pacifica 120SD, adapted, with Warman G-Rail
  • Brownsville Choirboy with Warman Mini Humbuckers
  • Behringer iAXE 393

Another video for me to use as a marker of progress in the future 🙂

Video Link

The Guitar Show – Birmingham – 2018

General

I’ve never been to a guitar show before so had little idea what to expect. The answer to that is a mixture of guitar store and a jumble sale.  What I wasn’t prepared for was the noise, I don’t like crowds too and whilst some bits were chockablock you were able to chart an irregular course around.

Before going I’d made a list of who I wanted to visit and managed to hit most of them – some just were nowhere to be seen. They might have been cohabiting with another exhibitor – but were not on the plan.

Continue reading →

Chris Learns Guitar – Week 4

Chris Learns Guitar

Bit of an odd week, mostly due to the style of video I was following – especially as I was left a little unsure of how some of the riffs went. It was also a lot of fun with the AC/DC and Rage Against the Machine licks.  The video/lesson followed was Campfire Guitar Star’s Super Easy Electric Guitar Songs For Beginners

This week I’ve also switched away from using Reaper and plugins, to playing and recording using the free and a lot of fun ampLion Free. Which I can heartily recommend.

The tabs.

Smoke On The Water

E -0-3-5--0-3-6-5--0-3-5--3-0-

7 Nation Army

A -----3---------
E -5-5---5-3-1-0-

TNT – AC/DC

D --------2---2----
A -2-|----0---0----
E -0-|--3---3---3--

D -2-----------------------------
A -0----2--2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-
E ----3-0--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Bullet in the Head

D -----2----4---2---
A -2---0----2---0-2-
E -0-3--------3---0-

I love Rock & Roll

G -----x-------x----2-2--x---4-4-x-----
D -2-2-x---2-2-x----2-2--x---4-4-x-----
A -2-2-x---2-2-x----0-0--x---2-2-x-----
E -0-0-x---0-0-x3--------x-------x3----

Iron Man

D -4---7--7/9-9--12\11-12\11-12\11--7-7/9-9-
A -2---5--5/7-7--10\9--10\9--10\9---5-5/7-7

Bombtrack

G ----------------------------------6-5-4
D ------4----------4-2------4-------6-5-4
A ----------------------------------4-3-2-
E -0-2----0-2-0-2-------0-2---0-2-0-------

Albert King – Born Under A Bad Sign

D -----------------2------------------------
A ---4-------2--4----4---------2----------------
E ------2--4------------2---4------0------------

Pumped up kicks

G |------------------5-8--8-8-5------------------|
D |---------5-6--6-8------------8--8-8-5---------|  
A |--8--8-8------------------------------8-------|
E |----------------------------------------------|

Come as you are

A ---------0---0---------2---2---------------------
E -0-0-1-2---2---2-2-1-0---0------------------------