Rob Chapman, Eddie Kramer and Waves at the Strongroom – Part 1
Oct 13, 2009 Guitarists, Other Instrument
Rob Chapman aka “The Monkey Lord”, was kind enough to invite me along to a Waves plug-in event at The Strongroom in Shoreditch. Hosted by the legendary Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Steve Vai, The Beatles) it was certainly going to be an educational night for anyone interested in sound engineering.
Prior to the presentation, Eddie sat down for a chat and a thorough inspection of Rob Chapman’s new brand of guitar, the ML-1.
The ML-1 is due for release very soon and will be retailing at £290. A bargain considering what you get. Featuring a reverse head stock, from a “Telecaster” and possibly a reversed reverse headstock (don’t ask) on the left handed models (if they’re released!). The ML-1 is a good combination of a “Strat” and a “Les Paul. You’d think that this idea has already been done many times by now, but the ML-1 does it in a more subtle way. At first you’d think that the guitar was like any normal strat, but when you pick it up, you soon realise it feels more like a Gibson, or at least as heavy! The guitar uses a humbucker in the bridge, a single-coil in the middle and the neck, giving a good balance between a heavy rock sound (ala Les Paul) to an exceptional clean tone (ala Strat). The neck plays beautifully and is based on a strat neck, which should give it a familiar feel to those people that already have a Fender style guitar. The build quality is perfect and the fretboard is made of real ebony, which has an infinity symbol on it. The manufacturer’s have even engraved the Monkey Lord logo onto the neck plate.
Overall, for the money, this guitar is truly flawless and you certainly couldn’t go wrong with it. It fills the gap of a certain price bracket. Cheaper than an Epiphone “Les Paul” and something that’s a bit more adventurous than a Fender Squier. The bonus will be, that you get the best of both worlds at an affordable price. All the guitars and parts have been manufactured in China but come with Grover USA machine heads and Wilkinson trems.
Follow the link to Rob Chapman’s site to reserve your own ML-1 http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=tycFJlM2VKU75jMQhOc5Z0Q&hl=en
Tags: Eddie Kramer, ML-1, Monkey Lord, Rob Chapman, Strongroom, Waves
Kostas Alexakis becomes “Alex K”
Sep 7, 2009 Guitarists, Kostas Alexakis/Alex K/Kotsadoros
A very good friend of mine will be launching his new album soon. When I say soon, I mean it could be anytime between now and the theoretical end of the universe. The album is estimated to be released at the end of this year (in time for your Christmas stockings to be filled) but it might even happen sooner.
Back to the point! His name is Kostas Alexakis, hailing from Corfu in Greece. This is a spontaneous interview I did with him on MSN messenger. The idea is to promote “Alex K” and his up and coming album and to give everyone an idea of what “Alex K” and his music is about.
VS: “When did you start playing the guitar?
Kostas: “It all started when My father bought me a guitar for my 16th birthday. It was a Fender Squire, with a Floyd-Rose tremelo system. I eventually sanded the whole thing down to the wood, by hand.”
VS: ”What made you do that?!”
Kostas: ”Because it was pink!” (Camp laughter…kidding)
“I played that for a year, then wanted to sell it and quit guitar, but I sold it and got my white Ibanez RG 550, brand new!” (A guitar which is used on the album)
VS: “What made you want to quit the guitar?”
Kostas: ”I wanted to buy something else, but to buy that something else, I had to sell my guitar to raise the funds for it.”
VS: “What made you decide to keep the guitar?”
Kostas: “My mother told me to keep the guitar, but I thought it would be okay if I bought another guitar with the money I made from the Squier.”
VS: ”So it looks like you should be thanking your mother for your guitar playing, at this point?” 
Kostas: “That’s for sure.”
“She motivates me, when it comes to music”
VS: How so?
Kostas: “If I’m down about being abroad and away from home, she’s always there to remind me of why I’m doing music. That it’s for my own good and my chances of a career are far greater in London etc.”
VS: “Okay, that’s always a good thing.”
“So what happened next in your life?”
Kostas: “I started a business degree.”
VS: “??????”
Kostas: ”I know, it’s not what you would have thought, a Malmsteen, Vai and Satch obsessed guitarist doing a boring business degree.”
“I was driven by my parents to do it though. I still got through the degree without any problem’s, and I did more playing than ever.”
“I was doing a lot of transcribing at that time as well.”
Speaking of Malmsteen! Now is a good time to show you just how much of an inlfuence Malmsteen was. Kostas is playing on a borrowed Malmsteen strat and blasting over “Blue”
VS: “Looks like you managed to do music and educate yourself at university just fine then.”
“No excuses for other individuals wishing to do music and have a good education.”
“I’m guessing ACM came next?”
Kostas: “That’s right. I decided to audition for the Higher National Diploma at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, England.”
“It was a spontaneous thought really. I just wanted to do something with music at that time.”
VS: “Would you say that, that was the first time you started to believe in yourself as a player?”
Kostas: “The only reason I started to believe in myself as a player, was because of the support I got from my guitar teacher and my friends.”
“Otherwise, yes, that was the first time I started to think I could do this for a living.”
VS: “I’m guessing you aced the audition at ACM?”
Kostas “The teacher’s at ACM really liked my playing and put me through for the HND without any hesitation.”
VS: “Sounds like a pretty good start.”
“Who inspired you the most at ACM?”
Kostas: “There were 3 players that inspired me the most.”
“Eric Roche, Pete Callard and Guthrie Govan.”
VS: “Eric Roche was an acoustic guitarist, how did you draw influence from him? Was it his playing or his personality?”
Kostas: “Both. Mainly what he had to say about music. He was very spiritual, and he taught me music theory of course”
VS: “Favourite bit of advice from Eric?”
Kostas: “Always try new things.”
VS: “Good advice!”
“Onto the next thing then. You finished the HND at distinction level and went on to do the degree.”
“What was the highlight of the degree for you?”
Kostas: “Meeting Paul Cornford and getting to demo some of his amps at trade shows.”
“That was when I was first getting into valve amps and “real tone”.”
“Jamie Humphries leant me his Harlequin 6 watt Cornford and I was hooked!”
“Otherwise I went on to finish the degree, which was during a very hectic period in my life.”
VS: “What have you been doing since the end of the degree?”
Kostas: “I moved to South-West London and started teaching from a music shop in Wimbledon.”
“I also played in various bands and put the idea of recording an album on hold.”
“I got together with a friend of mine (Jonathan Graham) and we started the band “The Unnamed Faces” http://www.myspace.com/theunnamedfaces
“This, alongside my own project, is what I’ve been working on.”
VS: “So looks like we’ll have a singer/songwriter and a band to blog about soon?”
Kostas: “I hope so.”
VS: “What can you tell us about your debut album?”
Kostas: “I was thinking of calling it “Supernova”
“Because I’m planning on exploding onto the scene hahaha!”
“More because that word describes the way I output music though. SRV, Malmsteen, Vai, Satch and Timmons are all compressed into one small space and are unleashed as an explosion!”
Here’s a video of Kostas doing an amazing version of the famous Satch song “Summer Song”
VS: “You’ve also chosen a new artist name, so that people can identify you more easily. What made you decide to do that?”
Kostas: “Not many people can remember the name Kostas Alexakis very easily, or sometimes even pronounce it. Most people stop after they say Kostas Alex…so I decided to just leave it as Alex, then put my first initial at the end.”
VS: “I guess when you pick up the guitar you become “Alex K”?” (Hands Kostas a virtual guitar)
Alex K: 
http://www.myspace.com/kostasa
http://www.youtube.com/user/kotsadoros
Tags: acm, alex k, eric roche, Guitar, instrumental, joe satriani, kostas alexakis, kotsadoros, malmsteen, satch, Shred
Chris Geden, the guinea pig for Virtuosic Synergy
Aug 2, 2009 Guitarists, Other Instrument
I’ll be posting my work on here, as I was too scared to post anyone else’s stuff up without testing the site first.
The first video, is my “Shred This” competition entry, which has been featured on the “Truth in Shredding” website, by Laurie Monk. I’m using a Fender standard Stratocaster, running through “Guitar Rig 3″. I wasn’t able to record direct unfortunately, so I did the best I could with the video camera’s mic.
The second video is a cover of Tommy Emmanuels song “Lewis and Clark”. Here I’m using a Taylor 315ce and a barking dog…
Tommy Emmanuel – Lewis and Clark by Chris Geden Shred This Competition Entry
In the following videos, I’ve taken some photo’s of my younger brother and my cat and added caption’s to them to create a short story.
The first video is done over the Blues Jam Tracks backing, which is freely available to download from their website at http://www.bluesjamtracks.com/
Guthrie Govan does an excellent take on this track and it’s more than worth checking out at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71izserFcek
Tags: blues, blues jam tracks, Chris Geden, fender, Guitar, Guitar Solo, Guitarist, guthrie govan, Lewis and Clark, Shred, Shred This, shred this competition, strat, stratocaster, Taylor, Tommy Emmanuel