Hey Good People!

Like every guitar player I know, I love gear. I love vintage guitars, modern guitars, vintage amps, modern amps and I love all kinds of pedals and modelers, but my first love is music. What makes my guitar heroes special and so out of this world is not their flawless guitar technique or their expensive gear, it’s the creative aspect of the music they have created.

The sound is in the hands. I know it’s a cliché and we’ve heard or read countless stories on Eddy Van Halen always sounding like him on different rigs. The secret of EVH sound is not in his gear, but in his creative abilities. He was not afraid to experiment and be creative with his techniques: two hands tapping, whammy bar tricks, artificial and natural harmonics ideas, and his gear: amps, guitars and effects. EVH’s creative ideas gave him the freedom to develop is legendary style and be more than the sum of his parts. An example of this is the intro of Atomic Punk, the phaser and the delay are used in a very unique and creative way but the sound is very cool.

Like EVH you can also use gear to explore your imagination and create your own musical ideas. Don’t be afraid to break rules and use your favorite gear to create new guitar sounds. Those new sounds will give you the opportunity and inspiration to explore a new world of musical ideas. On Cigar Box Sessions, the first EP of Bad Moon Deluxe, three songs are the results of gear exploration. The song In the beginning was written on a Merlin, a musical instrument made by Seagull guitars. It is their version of a dulcimer, an instrument rarely heard on a blues project. The sound of the Merlin inspired me a vision of the musical world before Robert Johnson, before the birth of blues as we know it. That sound gave me an excuse to explore and create something different and brought a fresh approach for me to the classic blues genre. This musical approach is part of the BMD experience and I can’t wait to further explore it.

The modern cigar box guitar is based on the mythical instrument : the Didley bow. The limitations of the cigar box guitar put me out of my comfort zone and give me the opportunity to create music not based on my technique or my experience on the electric guitars. Old Shoes Blues, Black Smoke and Thunder are played on the CGB.

Don’t be afraid to push the envelope and explore your music with another perpective. If you use an high gain amp, play clean for a change. If you play straight jazz, use a fuzz pedal. You understand the idea. Playing music out of your comfort zone can be frustrating at first, but the experience will give you a fresh approach to your music and, with time, maybe you will develop a personal style. Have fun, be free, be happy.