#83 RON "BUMBLEFOOT" THAL

Audio only version of my YouTube Livestream Podcast with Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal of Guns n Roses, Sons of Apollo, Asia, Art of Anarchy and Whom Gods Destroy.

Full video version can be viewed over on my YouTube channel youtube.com/c/rickhollis where you can subscribe and hit the notification bell to catch the show live and ask my guests questions via the live chat room.

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
[Music]
down

(00:30):
oh

(00:53):
[Music]
[Music]

(01:16):
good morning Facebook and good morning
YouTube I'm doing it to both today I
normally don't do that so I'm trying
things out if things mess up that's the
way things go but it's very early for me
I don't usually do these so early so if
I seem a little bit Blair eyed it's
because I have uh the pleasure of having
a guest by the name of Ron bumblefoot

(01:37):
Thor get a
Ron
Hey keep it down keep it down yes I got
a room full of people over here now I
just have a little control how are you
man I am good thank you for awaking up
ear and doing this I yeah I hope it's a
good strong cup of coffee it is I always

(02:00):
make it a double it's it's instant
coffee but I always put two scoops in
there and it's a very big cup so I've
I've already I've already filled him in
if I start doing this in the background
that means keep talking I need to run
off and go to to the bathroom or
something but hopefully that won't
[Laughter]
happen Mr bumblefoot Ron do they call
you Ron or

(02:21):
bumblefoot please call me Ron Ron
okay so inhuman yeah I'm sure we'll get
why bumblefoot that is a very cool
name thank you it's either cool or
horrible depending yeah uh thank you so
Ron as I said to you before I I don't

(02:42):
know too much about your your background
and I um I detect a bit of an accent
where are you
from Brooklyn New
York really no yeah I'm I'm I know I got
a weird [ __ ] voice it's it's I don't
know how it happen happened where it
happened like where things went wrong

(03:03):
but I've lived in New York City all my
life well half my life in New Jersey
which is kind of the same uh the other
half of my life but somehow ended up
sounding like Yogi Bear uh you send
European to
me everyone hears something they hear
either European well you know what it is
if we start talking about pizza then the

(03:24):
Brooklyn comes out okay so so that's the
thing otherwise I'm like hello how are
you and and people like you sound
European like no I don't and and then
it's like so you know they're like what
kind of pizza do you like like all right
now we're going to talk about pizza and
you know you got to go to Ellen Beast
bony and get the square and yeah well

(03:46):
okay I could I I'm shocked I thought for
sure oh you're some type of European or
something there but anyway I usually
start these yes sorry one could say that
I'm sorry interrupt I'm sorry uh I mean
most of New York are Europeans and they
did most of them now at this point come

(04:07):
from Europe I mean it was built by the
Irish and and leis Manhattan and with
Ellis Island and everything my
background originally uh a lot of them
came from Poland and bellarus
and uh when the Nazis started doing
their thing uh my grandmother and
grandfather changed her name to

(04:28):
something that sounded more German
bloomenthal meaning Flower Valley and
got out and and made it to Brooklyn and
that's where my parents uh met and lived
there as a kid and then moved to the
other burrow right next to it Staten
Island and would bounce back and forth
between the two I had a studio in
Brooklyn for a while and stuff in Staten
Island and then for the second half of

(04:51):
life I've just been across the river
right in New Jersey on the mainland so
technically I'm European ish
maybe that qualifies that qualifies
yeah now Ron as I said to you just
before man I I um had a bit of a listen
uh looked you up on YouTube and and I
came across uh a new song of you was

(05:13):
Simon in space from bumblefoot returns
and that is some of the most original
music and refreshingly original music
that I've heard in a long time uh so
yeah I take my hat off to that man but I
just want to jump right back and just
find out from you what sparked the fire
for music for
you oh just life anything uh I equate it

(05:39):
to coming home after a crazy day and
saying honey you wouldn't believe the
day I had and you just want to tell the
story but instead of just saying it like
this you say like you know through music
you tell a story and I think everyone
that makes uh a song or writes a poem or
writes a book or paints a picture it's

(06:00):
all because they have some kind of story
they want to tell yeah one where they
just connect to people in that language
instead of talking talking talking yeah
yeah so did you originally start out on
guitar or did you start on another
instrument I was 5 years old when I
moved to from Brooklyn to Staten Island

(06:22):
and there were all these kids my age uh
they all had older brothers and sisters
that were buying albums that parents
were buying albums so I would go over
the neighbor's house knock on doors like
I come in want to play and come in we
were just hang out and there would just
be albums everywhere of all these just
you know current releases of rock albums

(06:44):
uh Paul McCartney solo albums Elton John
albums just whatever it was I remember
vividly and then I picked one up I was
five turning six this was around
September of
1975 yes I am old proudly happy to have
made it this long
without so so we put it on I remember I

(07:05):
went up to my neighbor Bob we went onto
his into his room he had his turntable
we sit on his bunk bed and just put on
the record and just stare at the
speakers like we're watching TV wow and
it just blew my mind hearing that album
at five years old and immediately I knew
like this is what I want to do I want to
be in a band I want to be in a rock band

(07:26):
I want screaming crowds I want that
energy I want all of that and at that
age I started trying to make it happen
with with with what like few tiny tools
I had at that point didn't have a guitar
uh didn't have
anything so I wanted to be a drummer

(07:47):
because I could at least go like this on
my knee yeah uh but my brother my older
brother wanted to be a drummer and he
was two and a half years older better in
motor skills he got to be the drummer so
I wanted to be a bass player like gen
Simmons you know the the the fire and
the
blood and all of that so my mom took me
to a music store to start taking

(08:09):
lessons and I'm like this little kid is
like I want to play Bas and you know I'm
this big a Bas is this big this it
wasn't going to happen they didn't have
any kid-size bases and they didn't want
to lose a sale so they lied to us and
said in order to play bass to become a
bass player you have to take two years
of guitar lessons wow and they sold

(08:31):
kid-size
guitar and started taking lessons just
studying all the academic stuff reading
music theory over the years getting into
classical and jazz and when I would go
home um I would jam with my brother and
the neighbors and we would we had our
band and we would put on shows in the
backyard and and then at the school and

(08:52):
then when I got my puberty mustache at
age 14 I started playing bars because it
was the 80s and no one gave a [ __ ] how
old you were as long you looked old
enough they didn't check ID or anything
it was a good time for fun uh the'80s
and so I started playing bars around 14
and and just kept on going so as a kid

(09:13):
just watching what my Idols were doing
you know they were writing songs they
were recording their songs they were
making they were doing shows so I did
the little kid version of that with
whatever I had available to me which at
that age you don't have much but also at
that age you don't have the ego and the

(09:36):
super ego and everything battling yet
and saying I can't I can't do this sure
you're just completely open and you just
make it happen so uh I would write songs
about what I was interested in and at
that point I was mostly interested in
astrophysics is what we call it when
we're adults as kids you just say outer

(09:57):
space space yeah so very interested in
space and it never went away obviously
and still am
and my first song I wrote was about the
planet Jupiter cool I didn't know what
else to write about so it was called
Jupiter is nice and I didn't know how to

(10:19):
make Melodies anything original yet
because no one really does you simply
take all the things you hear and you
build a vocabulary into until you can
say something of your own with all those
pieces and I didn't have those pieces
yet at that young age so I would just
steal Melodies and everything from what

(10:40):
I heard on the radio so my very first
song Jupiter is nice I stole from the
band sweet and I ripped off Fox on the
Run so it was just
[Music]
like and I couldn't play that I could
just hear it in my head and sing it yep
so I was just

(11:10):
[Music]
saying and then I went to the verse that
had different words so even then I was I
was a better songwriter than I am now I
knew it was like start with the hook
Jupiter is nice take my advice I get on
the ass Jupiter is nice and then I went
to the verse many crows of
GES po they
are they are so colorful you can see

(11:35):
their Mir fall back to the chorus
everyone thank God sweet didn't sue me I
never did anything at that young blatant
ripoff but that's kind of how I started
so from there writing songs about the

(11:56):
planets and things and then starting a
band with my brother who played drums
and my neighbor John who also played
guitar and when I say also I shouldn't
call myself a guitarist at that point I
didn't know how to play my idea of
playing was to smack it like a drum and
I would
go and then someone showed me he like no

(12:17):
you hold it like this like that makes no
sense you can't see the strings it's
like awkward yeah but you know I started
to learn and we started writing songs
about just things that interested kids
uh we had a song speeding on the highway
another one called stunt man and just
stuff that would be interesting to a
little batch of kids that were 68 n

(12:38):
years old and we figured out how to
multirack record we take a cassette
recorder put it in the corner of the
room we had our little kid nylon string
practice guitars we'd be a foot away my
brother got this uh drum set uh that he
got at Sears that had Bugs Bunny on the
the kick drum I remember he was holding

(13:00):
a carrot like a cigar and I said what's
up doc and that was his Bugs Bunny drum
set so he would be like 10 feet away so
that it wasn't too loud so we knew just
you know the farther away you were
that's how you get a quieter level and
everything and bounced it out we would
record the music on a cassette recorder
and then when we were done we would take

(13:22):
it and we would hit play and have
another cassette recorder we would hit
record so this one is recording this
music playing and we would sing along
with the music and that's how we overdub
vocals onto this one so now we had the
music with the vocals on this one and
then if we were going to make copies of
our final recording with the vocals on

(13:42):
we would bounce it back onto the the
first one and just be
like while that recorded and made copies
and when we did
shows on show day well first we would
just take like little Post-it notes and
we draw like you know it be the name of
our band and we went through a couple of

(14:03):
names uh first name was Smoke in
space and that it wasn't a real band
that's just you know the concept and
everything the first real band but we
still didn't get to do any shows or do
anything we called it Viper five and I
made the logo it was a snake shaped like
a number
five and never did anything it was just

(14:26):
you know bunch of kids and it was five
of us so was just five neighbors that
would just hang out and call ourselves a
band but we weren't a band and then
eventually it became a trio and we
called ourselves Target and we drew like
a Target on a piece of paper and taped
it to the back wall where we practiced
and that was our logo and so for Target

(14:47):
that's when we started doing shows
and uh we would have posted notes I say
Target concert Friday night 6:00 p.m.
couldn't be too late we were young you
know
and 25 cents a ticket and we would give
them to all our neighbors and friends
and I doubt they paid uh but on show

(15:08):
day I would take little paper cups and
pieces of paper and just cut them up
into tiny little pieces and fill the
cups with homemade confetti and I would
hand it out to the audience and then for
the last song I Would cue them give them
a nod so they all throw the confetti up
in the air so we were doing everything

(15:28):
we saw are Idols doing like at a kiss
show all the confetti at the show so we
just did the kid version of that so we
would play in in the basement in our
backyards uh then eventually at the
school we went to and just kept ramping
it up as we got older and our gear got
better the recordings got better we went
from just you know these little tape

(15:51):
recorders to getting a mixing board and
getting some microphones to uh
eventually getting a real toore like a
quarter inch a track and uh then getting
a better mixing board and getting
starting to get some good effects and
you know a delay and a Reverb unit and
things like that and just kept on going
and I kept taking guitar lessons and

(16:13):
everything so one philosophy I always
had is whatever you are taught you must
teach so if someone teaches you
something uh you owe it to the
world to teach them them so as soon as I
knew enough I started giving guitar
lessons at age 13 to all the local high

(16:35):
school kids that were just starting out
I started young I already had a head
start so I was teaching them uh the
recordings that I was doing living at
home in the basement record making our
own demos and everything when everyone
started having bands all the kids I went
to school with bring them down and start
recording them and and getting into that

(16:57):
and that led to produc in and everything
escalated I view it like a tree with
different branches and every Branch was
growing so let's take the teaching
Branch went from teaching in the
basement to teaching at friends opened a
music store and so teaching there to
teaching at the Sam Ash Music Academy

(17:19):
that was a chain of stores to becoming
the musical director at a private school
teaching everything from a gospel choir
to music for children to a jazz band and
making a whole music curriculum for the
whole school uh to eventually teaching
at a college and becoming an actual ad

(17:39):
junk professor at a State University in
New York wow uh that Branch built up the
recording Branch uh that allowed me to
be able to record my own albums and to
record other people it led to doing more
producing where first you're just
recording the bands and then uh they

(18:00):
start asking your advice for things and
trusting you with the mix and all that
so now you're a producer and then they
say hey do you want to lay down a guitar
Salon the song yeah why not so now
you're becoming a session guitarist and
that Branch keeps growing and growing
and then doing all the gigs and and

(18:20):
having cover bands and original bands
and everything and and just having a
million bands with your friends uh that
starts leading to hey do you want to do
a gig could we hire you as a guitar
player and now you're getting into the
whole Hired Gun thing and that Branch
kept on growing uh everything just kept
on growing and whatever I learned how to

(18:44):
do for myself I did for others and your
circle of people your world keeps on
growing in that way as well uh just it
just feels like the thing to do yeah uh
yeah so I'm talking a lot I'm sorry no
that's that's fine that's fine that's
that's I I actually like it when guests
do that um I've had a couple of years

(19:05):
off from doing this I'm because I'm
going to University studying music
myself so I've been a bit quiet uh with
doing this for the last couple years
I've just started building it back up
and I've had a couple of guests where
I've had to pull the words out of their
mouth but um I had a really good guest
yesterday who I just asked him a
question he' talked for half an hour I
went this is perfect so feel free to
just keep talking Ron yeah that's

(19:27):
amazing man and like you say um how
things just Branch off into different
little areas uh very similar story to me
where you know you start doing a bit of
production here for for yourself and
other people hear it and then they want
you to do it and playing for others now
you said before are you a
professor um well I don't get out there

(19:51):
anymore because the touring killed a lot
of it so I was I was and I was teaching
you know
semesters every semester every and then
I joined this band that had a lot of
touring and I couldn't make my own
schedule anymore so I had to cut down on
that so

(20:13):
between uh legs of touring I would come
back to the school and do like a day
with everybody and do that whenever I
could y yeah so did you find through
teaching and I really like the way you
said as soon as you learn you need to
pass it on and teach others uh did you
learn much from students coming up was

(20:33):
there ideas that you like wow I would
never have thought of that and um you
know did you find yourself learning from
students along the
way absolutely everybody has something
to teach and something to learn both yes
we are all forever students is how I
look at it it's like you never stop
learning and you learn from experiences

(20:55):
and you learn from people y yeah y now
there's a bit of a Kickback some people
um think that oh no I don't want to know
music theory that will destroy my
creativity and all that and I just think
that's utter [ __ ] because as I said
to you before man like when I heard
Simon in space I thought [ __ ] this is
some of the most original guitar playing

(21:16):
I've I've ever heard in my life and I
think knowledge helps you achieve that
really would you not
agree well I think knowledge doesn't
hurt for me I'm a little biased I'm
always have been a sponge for learning
anything and
everything uh I don't feel that learning

(21:41):
why Music Works hurts your feel it
doesn't sterilize you uh I don't feel
like ignorance is bliss when it comes to
that because you can put all that aside
and you just play for the feeling that
you have it's like okay I know shitload

(22:01):
of Music Theory but that's not going to
stop me from just you know if I go to
Jam oron song
[Applause]
Just and I'm not going to be like well I
need to play the third and the
[Music]
fifth no no [ __ ] that no it's not about

(22:23):
that at all it's simply for those that
want to understand the universe the math
of Music the math of emotion just what
the green gobbly look like in The Matrix
all that [ __ ] if you want to see that
and know what makes everything what it
is uh learn music theory if you want to

(22:45):
take the other pill don't it's fine and
either is fine for everybody you get to
make your own choice you don't have to
learn music theory but if you want to
you should if you don't want to don't
but the idea that knowing it hurts your
playing absolutely not that's on you uh
if you decide to take music theory and

(23:09):
just be like this anal robot with it
that's your choice and you have the
freedom of that choice or you could just
say okay I know the stuff but that
doesn't mean when I get on stage that I
have to act like a mathematician no you
throw that [ __ ] out the window and you
just [ __ ] play yeah yeah yeah so Ron

(23:29):
in in the comments there mate um there's
an Uber fan by the name of pun ninja all
the YouTubers know him and he's saying
we came to hear what you have to say Ron
so feel free to keep talking mate so um
of course now you you said when you were
younger about um discovering a way to to
multi Track by you know dumping from one
machine to the other and staying quiet
and everything do you find that when you

(23:51):
have those kinds of limitations that
you're so much more productive because I
found when I was a Youngster and I just
had a for track and a drum machine and I
was striping uh time code onto one track
so my my four track so I could sync up
my my Atari computer and everything so I
can make it sound like this big
production so essentially I had three
tracks audio tracks but [ __ ] me every

(24:14):
week I would have this new song fully
produced because my drum machine had
five kick drum sounds now I have
5,000 do you find that limitations
actually work in your
favor oh they could I think what works
most in our favor is a simple
life when life is not getting in the way

(24:37):
and you're not pulled in a 100
Directions That's What Makes You the
most productive yeah uh if you can
simplify your life and just get a lot of
things out of it you will be as
productive as you were when you were 10
15 uh when you could just live music
that's really what it boils down to um
also I think just the fact that as we

(24:58):
get older we are made of the universe
and as the universe expands into chaos
with entropy so do we uh and that's
something that we all battle so
definitely we are more productive we run
with it but also another thing is
absolutely 100% when you're younger you

(25:19):
don't stop yourself you use what you
have uh and you don't say I can't do
this because I don't have this it's
absolutely a case of whatever you have
you make it work y uh yeah if you have
half a coconut you can turn it into a
radio um just to you know just tip the

(25:41):
hat to Gilligan's Island I was going to
say I've seen Gilligan's
Island so but that's the thing it's like
you I always say this you don't need
what you don't
have and you just need to be creative
with what you have anyone in this day
and age
where we have all the information of all

(26:03):
of mankind in the palm of our hand to
access
instantaneously where we have
connectivity to the entire world
immediately where we have
every possible tool at our
disposal to say I can't because I don't
have this it's [ __ ] absurd it's

(26:24):
embarrassing and the person needs a slap
because if 7-year-old kids can figure
out how to record and make Demos in
multitrack with a cassette deck with a
cassette recorder there is no [ __ ]
excuse now yeah yeah so that is just
laziness and just bullshitting oneself

(26:44):
and saying that's just saying oh I don't
want to do it because um yeah it's just
a lame ass excuse yeah you know as an
example of that uh when I started
wanting to do the YouTube thing I was
talking to a a friend of mine that I
worked with at Apple and um he's an
American chap who worked for the
Washington Post as a photo journalist

(27:05):
for 25 years I've never seen anybody
that can just walk past something with a
phone in his hand and just go snap and
it'll be the best photo you've ever seen
because he knows it's all about
composition and everything and not the
gear you're using and I remember talking
to him and saying oh man yeah I'm saving
some money I need to get this camera
everyone saying I need a Sony A7 Mark II
and this and that and he was the one

(27:26):
said no no what have you got I said ah
somebody lent me this really cheap
Canada goes that's good enough just
start and make do with that and it was
the best bit of advice anybody ever gave
me because you learn the art with what
you've got and then when you get the
fancy stuff it's even better because
we've all seen the guys with all the
gear who have no idea how to how to use

(27:47):
it right right yeah it's like your main
piece of gear as a
photographer your eyes and everything
else is just an assistant to them is
just help for that same thing like in
the studio the main piece of gear is
your ears it doesn't like I've heard
such [ __ ] come out of million dooll
Studios and amazing things come out of

(28:09):
someone's bedroom laptop uh your ears
are the main piece of gear and so are
your eyes and everything else is just an
assistant it's not your boss it's your
helper yeah uh we tend to make
technology our boss and that's when we
start to fail that's when we start to to
lose ourselves and weaken our our

(28:32):
ability yeah so yeah yeah it's mhm now
speaking of gear uh there's quite a few
comments about your your guitar already
and I'm sure it's quite an evolution
that got you to playing a double neck
and Etc what was your first
guitar my first guitar my first electric
guitar it looked like a Sunburst Les

(28:56):
Paul but it was not a Gibson it was
$80 and it was just some Gibson
knockoff a company called Pace p a CE I
have never in the rest of my life seen a
guitar from a company called Pace I
don't know where this thing came from or
who made it but that was my first guitar

(29:16):
yeah uh after that I got an
ianz uh artist ar-50 BK from 1980 which
was a real nice guitar it was more of a
Jazzy guitar though I wanted at that
point I was getting into I should say
metal was just beginning to emerge and I

(29:36):
wanted to play that and I wanted
something with a the bar and something
that screamed so from there trying to
get something with a bar I
got uh a Fender Stratocaster in
82 and the thing hummed like a lawn
mower it was just like

(29:59):
and just so much feedback and just a
real weak sound it would not stay in
tune it was and it was just weird the
neck didn't feel right didn't like it uh
so I started painting album covers
mostly Iron Maiden albums on the backs
of dunger jackets for $20 a pop cool and

(30:20):
saved up enough money so I had 180 bucks
and got another ibz that looked like a
strap cter but it had a real good uh
Floating Bridge a good bar on it and I
got that after like two years and that
was an I been as Road Star from 83 I got

(30:41):
it in '
84 and first thing I did is I chipped
the paint off it and started doing weird
things to it uh I was very into
experimenting and deconstructing and
modifying
guitars uh So eventually that became the
Swiss cheese guitar car where I put in
uh new pickups actually it was Demario

(31:03):
they wired it up for me and they put in
the setting of pickups that I still use
now which is a Demario tone Zone by the
bridge a Demario Chopper by the neck and
a five-way toggle where it's your Bridge
pickup as a humbucker then as a single
coil then the two together and then the

(31:24):
two out of phase and then just this one
and that's what I use in all my guitars
is that setup wow and that was my main
guitar I drilled holes in it there was
like barely any body left to it and
painted it yellow and it was the Swiss
cheese guitar and that was my main
guitar that I used for touring and
recording and everything for 13 years

(31:47):
$180 guitar that was missing half the
wood and it work great that that was my
guitar from there when I had my first
tour real tour in France in
1997 and I was doing a clinic tour with
my little swiss cheese guitar and
somebody from a French company called

(32:08):
vigier VI ier uh they brought one of
their guitars to the clinic and asked me
to try it and I remember being so
stubborn I was like I I'm not looking
for an endorsement I make my own guitars
blah blah blah he's like just try it I
mean just put it who you're hurting just
play just see how it feels and sure

(32:28):
enough the thing played so much better
than my guitar and I realized just how
terrible I am at making guitars and I
should really leave it up to the
professionals that know what they're
doing uh so I met with Patrice vigier
who was just a absolute wonderful
wonderful guy such a good guy and to

(32:51):
this day I still play vigier guitars and
he's a dear friend he's like family uh
love him to death and and I've been
playing Vier guitars since
1997 and I experimented with making my
own double necks and fretless guitars
and all kinds of horrible monstrosities
that if you go to my website go to
bumblefoot

(33:12):
docomo pictures and have stories of all
my old guitars and you can see these
atrocities these horrible things that I
made that were just awful I should
not ever go near a power tool and a
guitar like no like it's bad things

(33:34):
happen I don't know how to build guitars
I'm still working on playing them uh but
VI we went to our first n convention
together which is the big music gear
convention that was in 1998 and I saw
one of their they didn't make double
necks they only had single necks and I
saw the single neck fret list that they

(33:55):
were making with the metal neck and and
my eyes got big I'm like oh my God why
did you tell me you made these and
Patrice he just I still remember it it
was so funny he just looked up so
frustrated just looked up at the sky and
let out this big side
like he's like in the 18 years this

(34:15):
company has existed we have only sold
one of them nobody wants these
things and I told him I do give me one
to take home and immediately I started
making making music with it writing with
it and it became a bigger and bigger
part of my playing to the point that I
really needed like continuous access to

(34:39):
it where I didn't want to trade off and
play Fred or fretless so in 2009 started
making
these and now I can do both and in every
band I'm in in all my solo music I'm
always trading off between one and the
other uh usually different tunings where

(34:59):
this one is tuned
[Music]
down and this one I would have tuned
usually down to a drop
[Music]

(35:20):
D and I just switched between the two so
for uh my own stuff for art of ani for
Sons of apalo for Gods destroy all those
bands this is what I write with and the
tuning that I have
uh so when I first saw that you uh were

(35:43):
using the double neck I I kind of
assumed that you would just use that for
lead parts but then having listened to
some of your stuff and seen some of the
clips you playing with sons of Apollo
Etc I saw that you were actually playing
riffs on that thing uh do you find that
hard to get in tuned it take you a while
to actually learn your intonation

(36:03):
properly and
everything practice practice practice
practice practice practice Yeah that's
all yeah I mean we all every guitar
player can remember just trying to get
down their first chords and their F
chord where this is flat and these are
rounded how am I supposed to do that
practice practice practice practice yeah
same with this if I could do this any

(36:25):
ape can do this absolutely uh practice
that's all
um use your eyes ears and prayers put
the three together and the more practice
practice practice the better it gets
yeah so
having you go oh no no no please I was I

(36:49):
was gonna say I didn't realize it was a
metal
fretboard um and does that sort of help
give it more of that sound like more
like a fr guitar but giving you um the
ability to play microt tonally I guess
and secondly does it get cold because
I've picked up those aluminium
neck like the Kramer style in the past

(37:10):
and it was just I was somewhere recently
and I saw a an aluminium guitar and the
guy was with like oh check that out I'm
like touch it and I live in a very hot
part of the world and this was middle of
summer this is only a week or two ago
and it was freezing cold so do you get
the same with your steel fret

(37:31):
wood yes oh yeah and I can't play that's
my cryptonite if if it's cold the
fingers just turn into just stumps and
they don't move uh yeah so uh the metal
neck does give you more sustain
absolutely uh what I find with this is

(37:54):
the the thicker strings more sustained
the metal neck more
sustained but on the thinner string it
could die
quick so what I do is when I'm playing
notes that I need to hold out I tilt my
finger and use my

(38:15):
fingernail and it just keeps going and
going and
[Music]
going so do a lot of that
and into a just a stick of ice
absolutely uh it's brutal yeah I any

(38:40):
chance I have to not play in the cold
weather I will take uh yeah if I get out
my way I would live somewhere that's 90
degrees all the time yeah yep so um I'm
interested about your choice of pickups
there because
um I've got a spare deasio Chopper which
I had in the bridge position of a guitar

(39:03):
and I was thinking about trying it in
the neck position and I heard some of
your neck tones and thought that's
that's really nice geez I wonder what
he's using there uh is it the particular
Bridge model that you use sorry the neck
model or do you think a bridge version
might work in there as
well I think they version of it I think

(39:25):
they make two I could be wrong a stand
to be corrected if if I'm wrong I don't
know but all I know is I'm real happy
with it uh it has all of the
articulation and Humanity
of a single coil pickup but it's a
hugger it has all that stuff yeah cool

(39:47):
cool you know you've really inspired me
I've got my um very first guitar in
pieces that's it just behind my shoulder
back there uh that was my original Strat
and I've I've pulled that out of the
cupboard I'm going to get it it's
absolutely gutted um get a new pick
guard made some I've got pickups and
things laying around um and I thought

(40:10):
yeah it' be really nice to to redo that
and hearing you say that you used the
the Swiss cheese guitar um for for the
longest of times that's really inspired
me to do that now
Ron stick that in there I will I will um
amp wise did you start out with a nice
ample did you have something pretty
crappy and evolve and and what are you

(40:30):
using now I had all kinds of random amps
whatever they were selling at the store
and the local music store uh different
PVS and whatever else and uh the first
real amp I got I was about 13 and I
really wanted to get that Randy

(40:52):
roadstone so I got an mxr Distortion
plus uh
Distortion box and I got a marshall
combo tubes two 12s and that thing
sounded great absolutely from there uh I
went to I think I had a jcm 800 head
that I had modified and had an

(41:14):
attenuator put in it so that you could
just blast everything but it's not going
to be the volume of being on 10 so it
all just go to that attenuator and you
adjust the volume from there and that
thing cooked and it sounded so nice and
warm and just great amp uh then I did an
ADA mp1 preamp and then the Marshall JMP

(41:36):
version of it and where did I go from
there oh and then the lion 6 Veta amp
yeah right and I would combine two
different amp models together and each
one had something the other didn't and
they would really smooth each other out
and it was great I loved that app I
still have it uh had that thing for at

(41:58):
least 20 something years yeah yeah and
great amp so from there I started
playing Engle amps real nice juicy tube
head that had like all the energy of
like a diesel or Rectifier but all the
warmth of like a just a good classic

(42:20):
Brown Marshall and things like that
which which angle I was using the
Invader 100 Wat head was the main one I
would use which I don't think they even
make anymore now I think it's just the
150 with all these dip switches in the
back that you could really tweak it so I
would use that and then I started using

(42:41):
the uh line six Helix pedal going into
the back end of it to use the power
section of the angle yeah and just get
all the the preamp and effects from the
Helix and eventually I just went to all
Helix where I have custom presets that I
made with this weird routing that really

(43:02):
sounds like air moving in the room it
doesn't sound gritty and and digy uh so
that goes straight to front of house
played Health just going straight out of
out of the Helix to the you know and
also just doing a clinic to 10 people uh

(43:22):
for everything I record same thing I do
the line six helix plugin that has all
the
same internal Gunk as the pedal so
anything I make on one I could use with
the other all the sounds that I've made
for this album I've made some weird
sounds uh I could just dump them right
into the pedal

(43:44):
identical uh speaking of I also made
them available at line6.com your presets
yeah all my presets for this entire
album every single guitar track every
preset you can get at line6.com it is
getting darker and darker in this room I
think so I'm going to put okay I'm just

(44:05):
gonna say I I I was going to ask you off
off air once we finish it's like hey man
I got a helix sitting right there can I
have some of your presets but you're
already sharing them that's that's
amazing um yeah I'll send you let me
know what you want I'll send it okay
cool cool I'll let you go put the light
on but uh you mentioned a couple of
things there Ada mp1 I've got one of
those sitting I'm not sure if you can

(44:27):
see it on camera here I think my mic
stand is in the way but I got an mp1 oh
it's all backwards just sitting down
there
somewhere you got some nice toys I do I
do I've got a um a nice rack of amps
back there all connected to an amp
switcher um so I've got a fredman I've
got a a Lany Iron Heart I've got a Vox

(44:50):
ac30 head uh there's an 88 mp1 there's a
fender blues junr uh connected
to I can see like the Freedman I see the
the blue buttons of yeah that's the Ada
yep uh I used to have my quadraverb uh
and the Ada for the longest time was uh

(45:10):
my rle through the 90s and that seems
like I've had a lot of guests that that
see that go hey I used one of those and
a quadraverb it's like yeah we all did
um yeah so when you're using the Helix
uh is there a particular amp model that
you
favor yeah I use my main one is the
angle clone yep yeah so I use that and I

(45:34):
have that going into a cab and then I
have a second amp what I do is I take
all my pre effects whatever they are you
know whatever I'm using and then I split
the signal into angle amp and cabinet
and another amp I went through like a
100 different ones and just this one
line six amp that just have like maybe

(45:55):
minus 12 DB that I just mix in a little
bit and it fills up the sound in a nice
way uh it just adds little things that
the one amp you don't even know what's
missing until you put that in it's like
oh there's the smooth mids now and now
there it's like it's bringing them out
and into a cab and then I sum them back

(46:16):
together and then the trick is I put
them into an IR of another cabinet at
50% it I lose a little bit of high end
which which I bring back with an EQ but
it just warms everything up completely
nice it just it Smooths out the wave the

(46:36):
sound wave and gets rid of like even
with all the drive and everything it
Smooths it out as if you're standing
just 6 feet away 10 feet away from the
amp yeah and that is the trick to make
it sound like just natural yeah wow I
going have to download some of your
presets and try this but I have been

(46:57):
playing with the the parallel path on
the um on the Helix for my reverbs and
delays so I was um a split take a split
that feeds a Reverb which goes into a
delay other way we sorry it feeds a
delay which goes into a Reverb um but I
keep my direct signal signal dry so it's

(47:18):
not being all washed out but all my
delays are washed out and that's just a
beautiful sound it's something that I do
in my music production on vocals and I
thought why not try that on guitar it's
like ah there it is there it is it's
just incredible the routing and the
possibilities you can do in this virtual

(47:39):
world that would be pretty much
impossible in the analog world just
couldn't be done yeah I've made things
where an expression pedal changes
parameters of an EQ while while slowing
down a delay and and switching amps and
like all kinds of things that would take

(48:00):
a whole room full of people turning
knobs to do yeah uh it's amazing it's
wonderful and I love this Evolution
absolutely speaking of
Photography uh the things you can do now
with besides photo editing but just the
quality of the megapixels compared to
paper it is

(48:22):
surpassed uh we haven't
surpassed real sound yet with what we
have as far as sample rates and and and
bit rates and everything and but we
might someday we might actually get it
to the point
where it's moving quicker than actual

(48:44):
sound and I guess someone would have to
school me on that whether it's
even I wouldn't say possible but worth
anything to do uh uh if you would even
notice the difference I they say that
Beyond a certain point we can't
hear uh the sampling rate or the

(49:06):
difference in a bit rate
but I think we can feel it like you'll
have things like all right we can hear
20 to
20,000 but it tapers in at 20 and it
tapers out by 20,000 so if you have
something that goes 5 to 80,000 and the
taper is happening beyond what we can
hear you're getting the fullness that we

(49:26):
experience in in reality that so like
there are little tiny
things I'm sure there's a lot of
harmonic information that gets um taken
away by by the limitations of digital um
you know we're talking about um being
educated in in music and I got to say

(49:47):
that's one of the most fascinating
things that I learned about going to
University was the harmonic series um
every classical musician seems to know
about the harmonic series
but you bring that up with rock
musicians and they was like what and I
just found that absolutely uh
fascinating to learn about that you're
talking about the ratios of doubling

(50:08):
frequencies tripling tripling
Etc now somebody talked to me before on
the chat they asked about uh the thimble
yep
and it has to do big part of that is uh
waiting to utilize the harmonic series

(50:28):
and just the divisions of lengths of
string where you get those breaks and
changes and using those so the thimble
thing is something I started doing
decades ago where uh you have the string
we are shortening lens of string by
pressing down the string against the
Fret and it only vibrates from that fret

(50:50):
to the
bridge once we are beyond the fretboard
the notes can continue
but we can't access them so instead of
pressing the string against a metal fret
I have this mobile fret I keep on my
picking hand smallest finger that I will
touch to the string to get the rest of

(51:14):
the range
so and you can keep on going like that
so someone was asking before and I
apologize to everyone in the chat that
I'm ignoring like I'm not because I'm
I'm looking at our our host we come back

(51:34):
and go through the questions later yeah
I apologize for not answering questions
uh so the trick to finding the notes
beond the fretboard has to do with the
the simple beginning of the harmonic
series and for those that don't know
about it here's a string vibrating 110
times a
second if we cut the string exactly in

(51:56):
half
that's where your 12th fret is and what
it does is that 1/2 becomes 2 over one
it becomes twice the speed and we get an
octave yes if we cut the length of
string into thirds the seventh threet is
where our first third is and 1/3 the
length of string vibrates three times as

(52:16):
fast and it gives us the fifth of that
[Music]
octave and if you go 12 Frets higher you
get the next break where the third is
is
good that's how Pythagoras came up with
the uh cycle of fifths and figured out
that there's uh theoretically not

(52:40):
perfectly 12 tones before it repeats and
you're back at the first one when you
keep just taking the second to third
harmonic and making that the foundation
and
doing making that the foundation
and just keep pulling back the octaves
of that and you end up with well let me

(53:06):
[Music]
turn then speeds
double so anyway we're dividing the
string now with that if we just keep in
mind
that half the length of string gives you
the octave

(53:28):
and that's anywhere on the neck if
you're on the ninth fret of the third
string cut the string in
half and it will be the arave and the
way the Frets are arranged 12 Frets
higher will always be half the length of
string compared to your starting

(53:49):
[Music]
point so if an octave is 12 Frets higher
is half the length of string
then you could just remove one of
those uh things you could say okay let's
say you at the 17th fret of the first

(54:10):
string okay if you don't have 12 Frets
higher you don't really need it because
you know that half the length of
vibrating chunk of string starting from
the 17th fret is where you'll find the
octave so you just go to the halfway
point and you hit it there and that's
how you'll find it so when you are

(54:31):
beyond the
fretboard when you want to find where
the notes
are double it go back to where the
fretboard is and cut that in half and
that's where you will find it so if you
want to find the B note the high B
note

(54:51):
[Music]
there you would just say okay where's
the bee here cut it in half yep and
hopefully if you do it enough your sight
gets better at it and you can nail it
yeah so I uh I had guitarist Brett gared
Australian guitarist not sure if you
know know Brett

(55:13):
yeah amazing player yeah super nice guy
uh now Brett does a thing where when he
picks he picks exactly at the octave
point of the notes and gets this
harmonized sound by doing little pick
squeals exactly at
halfway smart man yes pick and choke at

(55:35):
half the length of
[Music]
string or go to the fifth of
it now somebody no points where they

(55:58):
[Music]
break and chirping there yes yeah now
somebody that utilizes the chirp that a
lot of people Overlook is Brian May
because he uses a six pence coin to pick
and I was uh in a queen tribute show for
for a while and touring and I had well

(56:19):
you can't get the old six P anymore but
as luck would have it the closest coin
in circulation to that is the Australian
5cent piece and it's got the serrated
edge and everything it's the same size
so A friend gave me a bag full of those
and um you don't realize how much of
Brian May's tone is that little chirp
that you get from the coin at the start

(56:40):
of the note and once your ear picks up
on it go it doesn't sound like him
without
that very interesting yeah nice yeah so
speaking of the church yeah so here's
the thing now you have these division
points starting from the center
and then you have
thirds

(57:01):
quarters
[Music]
fifths and
six take
[Music]
this so what you notice is that they're

(57:22):
the same distances they're they're the
same like from here to here is the same
as here to the 19th fret uh everything
is like a
mirror the distance that you find these
division points which makes sense uh a
quarter each quarter equals itself uh in
length so this first quarter is the same

(57:45):
distance as this third
quarter so that means that whatever
happens in One Direction happens in the
other direction so with
that we have a neck and we have these
Fred
notes working toward the center so

(58:07):
another way I use the thimble is that
whatever happens in this direction can
happen in this direction if the harmonic
series does it the string itself when
you shorten the length should do it as
well so if I am going to go from an open
string to the first fret

(58:27):
and I'm shortening the length of string
by that much if I take that spacing and
just stop the string from vibrating in
front of the bridge and do the
same cool so what I do is I play from
both directions of the neck and that

(58:48):
Simon and space video you could kind of
see it there where um
extending uh bends where I Bend but I
also
almost like I use the thimble to sort of
move the bridge forward so it shortens
the length of string
[Music]

(59:10):
and and you could do things like here's
a good exercise that someone was asking
about like what are some tips for it
okay play from in front of the bridge
and shorten this way instead of
going this little bit right here
shorten the length of string from

(59:31):
[Music]
here very cool the string yeah and this
one it slides
[Music]
so and I saw on a a video online that

(59:54):
you actually have a hold up
for for your thimble uh buil in your
guitar there maged hle that keeps it
from disappearing yeah so I just kind of
grab
it gets right back in there the only bad
thing is that it could get magnetized
and
get very cool very cool now Ron you

(01:00:18):
you've played with some very cool cats
over the years man how do you get uh
sidan gigs is that a word of mouth do
you see people are advertising and go
I'm going to put in a submission for
that how does that work um I never
pursued the San thing it's just
something just comes out of left field
and and hits

(01:00:41):
uh yeah I was that was not my uh my goal
to be a sid man it's just that people
say hey you want to play together it's
like okay but my main goal was always to
just do my own music and have my fand
with contributors and we're all writing
and playing in one big happy family yay

(01:01:01):
and and every once in a while someone
would reach out and say hey you want to
play with us so like I did in summer of
2009 played with Lita Ford uh remember I
did one gig where I was for a show in
New York where I did a whole set as
Nancy Sinatra's guitar player so just

(01:01:22):
like random things yeah and got to play
with some cool people yeah uh the
comedian Sandra burnhard with her yeah
yeah she was such a sweetie
um who else um one time Satriani called
me on stage to jam with him at like a
big place uh so these random things just

(01:01:44):
start to happen uh I was asked by a
certain
band uh to play with them and I
originally had turned it down because I
didn't want to be a side man and I was
very particular about who I led into my
life and uh but then they reached out
again and I ended up playing with them

(01:02:06):
for eight years
and uh but with
that I couldn't teach I couldn't produce
I couldn't do there were all the things
that made me feel fulfilled that
completed my life that made me love
being a musician all those other

(01:02:27):
branches to the tree those were just
they were forced to
wither and I couldn't nurture them so
after eight years I like I need to get
back to these things sure and I did so
uh you know playing with bands that I
would write with and create with because

(01:02:47):
the creative part was always more
important to me than the Performing part
uh that's the part that mattered to me
so having people that I could create
with uh whether it was just my friends
in the band art of an and just helping
them out and and just being more than
helpful and and being the guitar player
and the producer and recording and
everything and uh or sons of Apollo and

(01:03:10):
whom Gods
destroy uh Asia that was that that one
tour we did opening for yes and they
were just wonderful guys great music
everything it was
fantastic uh but I knew it wasn't going
to be a a long-term thing and that it
was I didn't know how long it would be
at all I didn't expect us to write music

(01:03:32):
or do anything it's just I knew Jeff DS
and just a wonderful guy uh got to know
everyone else and they were just
wonderful guys and that means more to me
to me it's about the people you bring
into your life and them not being
[ __ ] poisonous and bringing the worst
out of you and rather bringing the best

(01:03:52):
and it's very easy for just one person
one wolf in the fold to [ __ ] that up and
and turn you into a monster and I don't
want that uh it's not that important to
me life is too short and none of that
[ __ ] matters like what band you played
with when you die the last thought you
have is oh I'm glad I played with that

(01:04:13):
band no you're going to be thinking of
the people that matter to you and and
was life worth living and and did you do
good things for people did you do things
that are that are positive that are
going to outlast you that's the things
that matter so I don't give a [ __ ] about
like the Rockstar [ __ ] uh never did

(01:04:35):
uh for better or worse uh you know I
shied away from it uh I like the music
getting the attention more than me
getting the attention sure sure yeah
it's amazing just being a good dude gets
you a long way in the industry um
because when you're on the road with
people as you know you you you're
surrounded by by them all the time
you're hanging out at airports

(01:04:56):
and um you know I've had quite a few
people on um who are make quite a good
living out of being a sideman uh Pete
Thorne uh last week I had a chap named
Tim Henwood who plays with Susie Quattro
as well as all these big Australian
bands over here and I keep saying to

(01:05:16):
these guys you you must just be a good
dude to hang out with and when you're at
the airport at 6:00 a.m. and you're
struggling for your morning coffee
you're not somebody that you're just
going
[ __ ] just go away you know yeah that
goes a long way doesn't it well it's
it's definitely important because

(01:05:38):
everything is contagious especially when
you're drained and and your defenses
aren't strong uh when the travel is
kicking your ass you're missing home
whatever it is that's sort of beating
you down a bit uh it's hard to stay
at your best so if someone else cracks

(01:05:59):
it's very easy for it to really break
everyone else as well and that works the
other way if uh if you're laughing and
having fun in a good time that's
contagious as well yeah yeah I've been
in every aspect of you like every shade
of gray of those
situations uh where other people are

(01:06:21):
cracking where I am where I'm the one
making everyone laugh where someone
else's and and all the different things
I'd say the biggest detriment is um
narcissists that like real ones that
that truly you know all they give a [ __ ]
about is themselves and what purpose you

(01:06:41):
serve for them and it never works out
and they are just a nightmare there's
nobody that can make you want to rip
your hair out and choke a [ __ ]
to death uh than a narcissist and being
on tour with one is just
you
get from that [ __ ] uh and I'd say that

(01:07:01):
they might even be worse than sociopaths
to deal with uh yeah and they really
destroy a band and very often you find
that like a that they're often drug
addicts as well uh that it goes hand in
hand I think just the selfishness of of
you can't call it selfishness because

(01:07:22):
like it's almost like selfishness is a
choice uh with them
it's like they don't even have the
choice they are just constructed in a
way where uh All That Matters to them is
what feels good for me right now and it
doesn't matter who it hurts even later
or now even if it hurts me later I want

(01:07:44):
this now and they end up like screwing
themselves and everybody else and I've
seen that happen so many times uh and
it's a terrible thing it is and such a
yeah so so man talking about touring um
your double neck that must be hard to

(01:08:05):
Lug around do you have backups for that
how many double necks do you have when
you're on the road how many do you take
with you and is that a logistics
nightmare to be dragging that along and
um while you're answering that I I I'm
going to do the code of keep talking
while I have a little little break oh
the is kicking in okay this guitar I

(01:08:27):
tend to live dangerously I usually just
bring one guitar with me on the road
and uh there have been times if I had a
good bus tour or something then I'll
bring two but if it's flying everywhere
then I I just bring one and just hope
fate is not going to have a sense of

(01:08:48):
humor for that trip or that batch of
trips uh with this guitar you're
definitely at the mercy of individuals
at the
airlines sometimes you'll meet someone
that just has their own set of rules and
says that can't go on the plane no no no
no no then you try to show them like the

(01:09:10):
2012 FAA ruling that says well if it can
fit in the overhead it has to go on the
plane to prevent it from breaking like
that's not real and and sitting there
just yeah so that happens once in a
while in which case cuz I'm I'm bringing
a soft case and putting it overhead and
it almost always fits and if not is

(01:09:31):
usually a vertical storage closet that
it will fit in and most of the time the
airlines are totally cool with it but
every once in a while there's someone
that just wants to exercise a little bit
of power they have and just give you a
[ __ ] and uh I've yeah had some
interesting things where I I don't get

(01:09:51):
mad I don't get angry I just say let's
find a solution uh can we G it do a
little pink tag and and you know just
put it on last on top with the baby
carriages and everything and hope for
the best and if the guitar
breaks it's just a thing and life won't
end and I'll figure it out from there uh
yeah but so far I've been pretty lucky

(01:10:14):
the worst has been when I had it in a
hard case oh really and I would put it
into luggage and I've had things pierce
the hard case and just like put a
big just stab wound right into the wood
and all kinds of horrible things happen
I did a twoe tour in a hard case and the
guitar was destroyed wow and I've been

(01:10:34):
doing years and years in a soft case and
it's been fine yeah yeah it it is
amazing you see the videos of the way
baggage handlers throw things around and
I've had that as well where there's been
straight out holes in my guitar luckily
it hasn't actually pierced the guitar
but um yeah no you you see that where

(01:10:55):
actually sitting on the plane you're
watching them just throwing your gear
it's like dude you got no idea don't do
that like I'm watching you kill my baby
yeah yeah they're very personal
things Hey Ron um I want to get to uh
your your
album but I want to talk about
production leading up to that because um

(01:11:17):
you you've talked about you got into
production early I'm assuming you
produced your own album um how did the
journey start for you with production
where you uh start out early days like
with a notator Lo notator logic setup
like some of us did or um yeah what was
the progression for you with
production it was there was multiple

(01:11:40):
cassette players at age six seven eight
nine uh eventually you know just getting
a better mixing board and then getting a
Forex eight trck quarter inch 15 IPS
machine and that thing sounded so good
holy [ __ ] wow on like squashing tape
yeah and then getting two ads and a

(01:12:01):
Mackie board yep and then working in a
studio that had da 88s the Tascam
version of the Elis you digital tapes uh
and then there I started connecting a
computer with
qbase to that and the combination of the
two and eventually just started
recording solely on qbase and I've been

(01:12:23):
using qbase since 1999 and I swear by it
uh I'm not a Protools guy yep qase back
in the day they were the first ones to
go to 24-bit where they saturated they
they created the random dithering noise
pattern that sounded the most like
squashing tape and you could you could

(01:12:44):
go into the red and you didn't get
digital breakup you didn't get all the
no it fattened it up it took all those
little sterile tiny 16bit recordings and
like boom right in your face it was
phenomenal uh so I stuck with qbase and
I still swear by it

(01:13:06):
the uh the plugins that just come stock
with it are
phenomenal okay
the best tool the best weapon that you
have in qase and I don't know any other
programs that have it is is a multi-band

(01:13:27):
envelope shaper where you could control
the bands of it has three crossover
points so you have your lows you have
your low mids your high mids and your
highs you could control the peaks of
things and add a sharper a bigger
transient yeah you
could how much it grabs for that
transient yeah it

(01:13:49):
controls your release as well where it's
almost like you're amplifying the resin
in those EQ ranges or squashing them
down and the things you can do to Drums
to everything it's incredible uh let's
say you want to give a snare more

(01:14:09):
brightness and more attack and crack but
every time you brighten it up that high
hat bleed is just exploding and it's
just unmixable yeah but with this thing
you find the range in the high mids and
you get high attack
and let's say you want to
boost the highs you can lower the

(01:14:32):
resonance in the high range where it's
actually killing killing off your bleed
but it's not
hurting the snare and you can shape in
four
bands just you reshape the shape
of your hits and it's incredible what

(01:14:55):
you can do to bring out everything in
the drums and you can do it for so many
other things I mean I'm just using the
drums as one example but that
thing uh you don't even have to trigger
yep like you can make the drums sound
like they're like perfectly balanced
well recorded you could take the

(01:15:15):
shittiest recording of drums and bring
things out that you couldn't possibly
bring out
otherwise yeah
so has cubas had that for a while
because I am starting to see uh
multiband transient designer style
plugins um I think waves have got one
I've got something inserted on my mix

(01:15:37):
template lately on my drum bus that I'm
doing the same thing um but you're
saying qbase has had that for quite a
while as a stock plugin yeah yeah they
are so ahead of the game with so many
things yeah right abely yeah yeah yeah
it it really does amaze me that protool
still has such a a strangle hold on the
industry because a their business model

(01:15:58):
of subscribing it's like man I've bought
this [ __ ] program so many times
bought it and now you still want to
charge me monthly and I use it under
protest but I'm noticing going to
University that a lot of the younger
people now uh are either on logic or
Ableton I haven't really given Ableton
much of a world but I here can do some

(01:16:18):
amazing things yeah logic has a lot but
qbas is still my go-to and the other
thing with protols I mean I understand
it was kind of the first so people stick
with the first they don't want to
relearn a program you just keep
relearning your program
and I so many times I've seen people say

(01:16:40):
oh I can't use my Protools because my
operating system upgraded and it doesn't
work with the new operating system until
they catch up to it and never ever in
all the decades has there been any issue
like that with qbase ever it has been
the most stable Rock Solid thing I've
ever used yeah cool so Ron your new solo

(01:17:02):
album is this your first you've got a
few solo albums out previously or is
this a first for you yeah you've got got
a few 30 years of them yeah 30 years and
it's the the kind of thing where I'm not
on the radio my music is too weird it
doesn't fit the formats or anything but
it would be all over TV and video games

(01:17:26):
and like Indie movies and things like
that my music is weird so it's it's good
for visual stuff so every day I would
watch TV and suddenly he like oh [ __ ]
I'm on a McDonald's commercial oh [ __ ]
I'm on So You Think You Can Dance oh my
God I'm on Oprah Winfrey oh like for
real all these
things yeah so that's what I uh I knew

(01:17:49):
where my music belonged and that's what
I pursued and that's where it flourished
instead of trying to force it into a
place where it doesn't belong my music
is not radio music yeah uh it's not kind
of stuff but it's great for sync
licensing for visual things it's a good
match yep so when it came time to doing

(01:18:11):
uh Bumble foot returns did you have a a
game plan at first did you write down
okay I'm going to record myself a new
album it's gonna have this many tracks
or did you just look at oh I'm starting
to amass some a collection of works
again must be time to put those into an
album how did how did that all work uh
it was the pandemic sitting in this
chair for a year or two a lot of time on

(01:18:33):
my hands all the time to do all the
things that people always said hey would
you ever do this again I finally had
time to do that and started doing it so
we're going to jump all the way back
sure all right
uh
199 well actually let's go to 1989
that's really when it all began when

(01:18:55):
everything started going legit I was in
a guitar magazine in August of
1989 uh Guitar Player magazine Jeff
hilly on the cover another one and it
was uh it was a column on unknown guitar
players written by Mike vanney the head

(01:19:16):
of shrapnel Rec the guitar label yep and
he gave me a real nice write up
and we talked about maybe doing
something on his label he proposed a
band situation with a drummer and a bass
player doing some instrumental music and
I told him like it's not really what I'm
looking to do I've got my band I'm I'm

(01:19:38):
into vocal music I'm into rock bands and
metal bands and that's what I want to be
part of and that's how I want to enter
this world is doing that not being an
instrumental guitar person so I was like
okay so we always stayed in touch but he
uh and his brother would do comp CDs of

(01:19:58):
instrumental guitar music his brother
Mark had a label called Legato records
and they would do the series called
guitar on the edge records so I did for
shrapnel in I think it was 91 they had
one called ominous guitarist from the
unknown and I did a version of a shopan

(01:20:18):
piece uh like this kind of shred metal
version
[Music]
and just did that
whole still kind of remember
it and just did this whole wacky version

(01:20:38):
of a chopan fantasy impromptu thing and
that was on that um and then his brother
Mark I ended up putting some original
instrumental songs Just One On guitar in
the edge two three four uh uh in the
early 90s
and then in

(01:20:59):
'94 Mike Varney told me that they're
looking to expand the label and start
doing bands like music with vocals so I
was like perfect so I signed a deal with
them and as soon as I signed he said
well would you mind just doing an
instrumental guitar album just to
introduce you to our fan base and I was

(01:21:19):
like I like that was the deal he said no
it's like I know your potential
and do it
so uh so I made an album and that point
I had a song called
bumblefoot which uh my wife is a
veterinarian is the name of an animal
disease alterated of pood dermatitis

(01:21:41):
that I came across while helping her
study back then and I got inspired it
was such a silly name so I wrote a song
called
bumblefoot
and then I I proposed to Mike Varney I
said okay let's call it almost like a
comic book or a sort of some kind of you

(01:22:02):
know science fiction thing sci-fi movie
The Adventures of
bumblefoot and every song will be named
after a different animal disease and I
just found the most [ __ ] up diseases I
could find Strawberry foot rot uh Q
fever blue tongue all these different
diseases and I wrote songs instrumental
songs and it was very weird especially

(01:22:23):
for that label because most of the stuff
on the label was neoclassical shred or
like you know Fusion shred and then I
come along playing these weird Zappa is
type just strange not taking itself
seriously kind of songs and it was
something different and then after that
we did do a vocal album called hermit

(01:22:47):
and it was pretty out there uh and then
after that uh the deal ended after those
two albums and I started my own label
just for putting out my own music and I
got distributors in different parts of
the world and I would manufacture or
they would and they keep an extra Buck
per CD and and just did the whole thing

(01:23:09):
and I was a record label for my music
and and would always jump on whatever
the emerg like whatever the new
technology was I would keep a computer
uh 247 connected to Napster and on there
I would keep songs that I wanted to
promote as my singles you know and just
keep them for people to listen to and
download or live versions of things
things that weren't on albums and and

(01:23:31):
just anything and that was good and then
uh Amazon they started doing a program
for independent musicians called Amazon
Advantage so I would send my CDs to
Amazon and then this nice guy named
Derek cers reached out to me and said oh
I see you're putting out your own CDs

(01:23:52):
and uh I'm starting a company would you
you know like to sell them online at my
company and he was just working out of
his apartment in New York and the
company was called CD Baby so I was one
of the first artists there and and and
started doing that and just

(01:24:12):
always yeah so I put out many many
albums and every year I would put out an
album of all kinds of wacky music and
most of it would be vocal music but I
would throw in here and there a guitar
instrumental and I would think of it
like well Van Halen does it you know
they puts on eruption in Spanish Fly and
intro a little guitars and things like

(01:24:33):
that so I can still do some instrumental
music and and not feel like I'm changing
my path of my trajectory of where I'm
trying to go so I always did that and
they were doing better and better and
things were going well then I started
getting involved in other bands and it
slowed down my progress of what I was

(01:24:54):
doing the albums became more few and far
between in between all the touring and
everything else so uh I did in 2008 well
I had I mean there's a long list of
albums if you go to bumblefoot docomond
discography the first thing you'll see
is all the albums and everything there
and then you'll see all the click on top

(01:25:16):
there's bands and there's guest
appearances uh I finally redid my
website last year like 2008 I think was
the last time I had fixed up my web so I
spent weeks going through as many of the
guest solos that I did for different
people and found all the different
YouTube and Spotify links for the songs

(01:25:39):
and made a list of hundreds of all the
stuff so if you want to hear some other
people's music also just to hear some
things you may not have heard some
really good stuff uh go to the guest
appearances and then there's produced by
so all the different bands that I
produced
uh artists everything on there as well
so it there's a ton of music on my

(01:26:00):
website now uh just a lot of links if
you ever feel like going down a rabbit
hole and and hearing some interesting
stuff uh one of my favorite bands that
have produced a band called the dois d o
d i s their third album is about to come
out called dreamisdreams

(01:26:24):
guitarist has this voice and this range
he almost like the darkness sounds like
like Justin from the darkness like that
kind of range but so many different
tones he gets out of his voice and so
melodic and his lyrics are so so deep uh
they really yeah the drummer plays the

(01:26:45):
whole kit which is one arm and plays
bass yep plays Basse on a keyboard while
singing backing vocals and everything I
record with them they're in a room just
staring at each other just playing
locking in no click tracks nothing just
all natural just the natural flow and
first or second tape they got it and

(01:27:05):
they're phenomenal and every once in a
while the dro will pick up his drumstick
off his little keyboard and play and the
guitarist will kick on an octave pedal
that runs direct out to a Bas amp so
they take turns being the basist and
they got this huge
and it's so good just such great

(01:27:28):
songs check out a song they have called
faletto and that's the first single they
put out from this this third album they
put out a ton of singles and they're
finally getting some nice numbers and
some awarenesses happening such a great
band The dois the doties definitely

(01:27:48):
check them out yeah highly recommended
uh another band I don't produce them but
just such an amazing band if you don't
know them they called Thank You
Scientist and it's just
like the only way to describe it is
music that lights up every part of your
brain it's just phenomenal it's like if

(01:28:09):
Dream Theater met Zappa met Incubus met
like just just so [ __ ] good uh genius
stuff so yeah that's my other
recommendation uh okay so I'm putting
out lots of my own
albums and then it was you know slowing

(01:28:32):
down as I was getting very busy just
doing stuff with uh a lot of bands and
putting out a lot of other bands albums
so in 2019 I just busted out one
instrumental song called
chintu which is an Indonesian term of
endearment my
love and then yeah and started working

(01:28:54):
on the second sons of Apollo album that
year as well and toured with Asia that
year and the second sons of Apollo album
came out in early 2020 we got about four
shows in to our 20 show tour and the
world shut down so back to this chair
and I took one song that I had that I

(01:29:15):
didn't use with sons of
Apollo uh I had this this riff that
and I turned into a song that I aptly
called

(01:29:36):
uh I just got a brain fart part of the
the pandemic and and the the long covid
where I'm about to say a word and it
takes me 10 seconds to say the word it's
still [ __ ] hav oh really
uh planetary lockdown okay so uh yeah so
I put out a song called planet lockdown
and just an instrumental song and it's

(01:29:56):
the first thing I did while being stuck
in this chair finished up that riff and
turned it into a song
and did this thing where uh I made it
like a little one minute with a backing
track and other people could add their
solos to it and add whatever they want
to it and I would share it and about 500
people did it and different drummers

(01:30:17):
bass players guitarists singers Dino
jalus the singer in whom Gods destroy uh
he did it wrote lyrics and uh Joel hoer
did this wonderful one uh all different
people horn players keyboardists and it
was a nice way for everybody to just
stay musically connected while we're all

(01:30:40):
isolated so I did that and then I did
two uh acoustic EPS that I put on my
band camp just bumblefoot bandcamp.com
and put them on there and then did some
Beetle covers
with uh poroi and Jeff Scott stto stuck
them on the band camp

(01:31:00):
and yeah and
the uh people would ask would you ever
do
another uh acoustic EP like I did one in
20 2008 I was like yeah someday so now I
had the time so I did two of them uh
people would say would you ever do
another instrumental album I was like

(01:31:21):
yeah maybe someday here we are well I
already put out two songs so I got a
headstar on it I have planetary lockdown
and chintu so why the [ __ ] not so I
started working in 2020 said all right
let me start making another instrumental
album so the first thing I

(01:31:43):
did is I took a riff I had from when I
was 19 years old from
1989 and it was a riff that I just never
turned into a song that's just been
collecting dust
[Music]
so I just recorded it and then uh just
started building it saying okay after

(01:32:03):
four times of that let the drums come in
with the Basse and just laid a random
Bas line just whatever
felt and then just came up with a Melody
just whatever without overthinking it or
anything just say just usually hum
something and then just play it on
guitar
[Music]

(01:32:27):
then from there it's like all right two
times of that that's enough let's build
on it and add harmonies and octaves and
changing chords to change the meaning of
that
Melody and just where to go from

(01:32:51):
there and and bring it to almost like
like uh it's like flat two to the
five and make it its own thing
just and then there was like a picture

(01:33:13):
of a long stretch in the Middle where
there's just like this open playing
field to just Jam for however long I
thought about it I like all right this
is RI from
1989 and I just thought about how I was
in that guitar magazine in 1989 and from
that magazine this teenage kid guitar
player wrote to me and said hi I'm I'm a

(01:33:36):
guitarist from the UK my name is Guthrie
I'd love to hear your demo and here's
mine
and yeah got three Goan and we became
pen pals and we would write to each
other handwritten letters and send each
other cassettes of just like song ideas
and demos and say Here's I did in this
Rift and like handwritten transcriptions

(01:33:57):
and it was before email or anything and
we were just actual pen pals and for
years and anytime I was touring in
Europe doing solo tours and stuff and I
would uh pass through the UK and he
would join and hop on stage we would
play together and if we would do n shows
we would just sit on the floor for an
hour and just jam and wow and it was

(01:34:19):
great so I thought if you know what he's
I should ask him if he would trade off
with me in this song and if we could
just do some of our our jamming that we
do so we did and he threw down these
great Guthries amazing little solo bits
where he went I went he went I went and
and then back into the song uh so that

(01:34:42):
was the first thing I did thinking okay
I'm going to make a guitar album that
was the first thing and I did not want
to have a lot of guests I didn't want it
to be like this whole you know variety
hour with this and this and this and
this and this I just I figured that
might be it but as I was writing
different songs and they were coming
together I just started seeing that

(01:35:05):
final puzzle piece for these songs and
it was not me uh certain things that
that I can't do I could imitate and
channel and try and
just imitate but it's not me I'm just
playing someone else es someone else is

(01:35:26):
and I wanted to get the real deal so
there were really two songs like that
that uh the song monstruoso where it has
this dubstep monstrous you
know going on throughout it and it all
dies down and turns into this whole
other just goes to this other thing and

(01:35:46):
it's like a different song and then it
just kicks back in bam Just Hits so hard
and I knew it need needed something that
sounded like it was not from this planet
it needed something that sounds like an
alien and I could make some weird sounds
but the best person to do that the most
qualified person on this Earth to sound

(01:36:08):
like he's not from this Earth is Steve
by so I asked him I was like would you
lay a solo on this he's like yeah so he
threw down something that I can't still
I I have no [ __ ] idea what the hell
he did and I still can't figure it out
it's something with a momentary
uh button that raises everything a fifth

(01:36:28):
and a bunch of harmonies like a
harmonizer plus the fifth and all his
just weird Rifts and a combination
between all those I spent weeks trying
to figure out what he did and I think I
figured it out I was slowing down his
recording of of his solo track to see if

(01:36:48):
I could hear like an open string
accidentally ring out between notes and
if I could
hear it if it had harmonies on it or
anything
like I
just it broke my brain for weeks trying
to figure out what the [ __ ] he did
because I transcribed the whole album

(01:37:08):
and the transcription book is going to
come out of every single detail wow the
fingers the fingers used the direction
of the picking which finger I'm tapping
with the musical notation the tab for
every single track backing thing
whatever it is every Harmony
everything work that's a lot of work oh

(01:37:29):
yeah yeah yeah so I wanted to you know
so I I did Guthrie solo showed it to him
and he corrected me he's like no
actually did this and this like ah yes
uh Brian Mays uh Steves and I asked him
like what did you do and he's like I
think I started off where he played this

(01:37:51):
but added a harmonic as he
Dred and had a harmonizer on it and then
hitting the button so it's
[Music]
like wow this down and it's was like all
right let me start with that and see if
I could figure it out from there uh yeah
so that and then the Brian May song the

(01:38:13):
same thing I was just I had this song
that just had this nice slow feel it
almost sounded like a Clapton ballad or
the Eagles or something
[Music]
I should really T this
[Music]

(01:38:41):
[Music]
thing like you could I could almost
here Clapton's voice like in his
[Music]

(01:39:04):
falto it's like eagles's
harmonies like those take me to the
Limit type harmonies and stuff and
uh yeah
um so yeah so I was um good friends with
Jerry Gaskill the of King's X oh yeah

(01:39:25):
and yeah we just had dinner two nights
ago and and every time we we get
together we say we should do something
together uh so I thought this would be
the perfect song because he's just got
that great as I describe it like a botom
type feel like just his feel whatever
he's playing he just has that pocket
that classic Killer pocket that just

(01:39:48):
feels so [ __ ] good uh but he just
plays his ass off with it too and and so
I asked him if he would want to play in
the song he like yeah yeah so he came in
here right right there on that gray rug
behind me and and laid it down and then
as I was putting the song together more
and more and it had the first uh like

(01:40:11):
really the second
break and goes
into that's just me I
[Music]

(01:40:41):
two and I can just hear riffs answering
those and the riffs I heard were
very uh
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
and I was like [ __ ] he like I should not
be playing there he should uh this

(01:41:02):
song needs him uh that's just nothing
else will do for this song and if I just
do my pretend version of it it's just a
fake ass version and the song deserves
better so I as Brian like would you play
those Rifts there would you play on the
song and he did and for everyone it just
said do your thing you know just

(01:41:24):
just be you do what you do you know
everyone loves you because you're you
and I am not going to get in the way of
that just do your thing
and yeah and he did his thing uh and
it's funny because the way he comes in
with this like dive bomb on the guitar

(01:41:45):
it's like you hear the the high
homies and there's some hear that's just
like it's like
really like wow it was not what I
expected it's like ho [ __ ] but his tone
and everything like you just know it's
him yeah and his phrasing the way he
just ramps

(01:42:06):
up you know it's so just like an opera
singer the way he plays and and just
everything about him that makes him him
that that we all love yeah I I don't
want to Sidetrack where you're going
with all this talking about the guests
of your album but just talking about
Brian May when you were describing the
um pickup configurations on your guitar
and you had one that was neck and Bridge

(01:42:29):
or no you don't have a middle do you but
out of
phase yeah yeah was that inspired by
Brian because a lot of the time he solos
in the neck and middle out of phase to
get that quack
yeah yeah this one is really exaggerated
it's
very yeah it's very uh

(01:42:58):
[Music]
it has that that like you can hear when
you compare all right in
phase out of
[Music]

(01:43:19):
phase it's it's a nasty sound but
sometimes it's the the right sound to to
cut through when you need it isn't it oh
yeah you
like oh God I'm just destroying this
guitar oh I just totally killed the
tuning I think when I did the dive bomb

(01:43:41):
and these are still a little bit you got
them Lo down
yet yeah
but yeah
[Music]
it definitely has that that that kind of
quacky thing to

(01:44:02):
it awesome so man you you've I was going
to ask you about who you've collaborated
with on this album um and you've dropped
some pretty cool names Man Steve VI
Brian May
Guthrie uh yeah so the Brian May song
that's the one that Jerry is on on drums
and then Derek Sherin my keep ERS he
heard that and he's like you can't use a

(01:44:23):
a VST on there you need a real Hammond
B3 come on so he put in his
[Music]
growling and put that in there so
they're all on that and then there was
one song that i' had written for piano
and it was just this very sad

(01:44:44):
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
and as I built the
song I just realized that piano wasn't
the answer uh the orchestration as it
went on there and and it was just go

(01:45:04):
through different rounds with just
different emptying out in different
layers uh that it needed a violin that
just cried that top Melody just that you
know
that so yes I asked from thankk You
Scientist I asked the keyboardist Ben

(01:45:26):
keyboardist violinist violinist Ben
Carris and said would you make this
thing cry and and he did and did
beautifully he just totally did exactly
what that song needed and that's the
thing that everyone that that every
guest on this album did something that I
can't uh they made it something so much

(01:45:47):
better than it would have been uh if it
was just me and I can't express my
gratitude enough to all of them for and
then okay the big star of the show Kyle
Hughes the drummer that played
everything else on that album all the
crazy drumming on that album yeah I met
him when he was 16 years

(01:46:08):
old and I was playing in Newcastle UK
and his band was opening and they
reached out and said we'll learn your
songs and be your backing band for your
show I was like all right cool and there
was just this Young Band and and and
they kicked ass and and the drummer
stole the sh this kid with his long

(01:46:28):
blonde hair shaking it everywhere and
singing Back In vocals and just killing
it on the drums and a great showman and
he was just 16 years old and he was such
a pro and such a just like a levelheaded
good Pro I like this kid is more mature
than the six-year-olds I play with and
his parents were lovely and and I was
like I want him to be my drummer from
here on and he has been so he yeah like

(01:46:52):
anytime I would do a tour he's my
drummer uh from record I actually
thought that was program drums when I
heard um Simon in space I thought it was
program drums I was going to ask you
about that but that's live drums that's
him live wow wow let me see let me see
if I can even find some video because
every once in a while I would just take
a little bit of video of him just

(01:47:13):
playing and recording and I'm such a
dick I should have put him in the video
like playing uh you should have been in
there on one of the screens of the
spaceship that's my [ __ ] up uh he yeah
let's see music videoos Simon in space
other actually let me find okay Studio

(01:47:34):
okay I got like a million folders of a
million things okay we're looking for
Studio for returns okay Kyle Hughes is a
bunch let's see he is such a
[ __ ] of a drummer my god let's
see what we got

(01:47:56):
[Music]
now I don't know if I'm going to be able
to play that so the viewers can see it
oh yeah I'll flip it and
okay let's
see okay here he is playing that song

(01:48:16):
uh come on
[Music]

(01:48:37):
Jump Ahead to the crazy part
[Music]
[Music]

(01:49:04):
y real drums wow wow it's amazing just
the how good drummers have gotten over
the years um you know when we talk
guitarists we always talk about you well
I talk about prev Van Halen players
versus post Van Halen players and I
think with worlds yeah yeah and I think
it's the same in drums with Joey

(01:49:28):
jordison interestingly yeah I I don't I
don't know if I'm right if if but it
seems that a lot of the guys that now
are just completely owning it when it
comes to the double kick and all that
seems to be U they listen to a lot of
Joey jordison I mean man I've just been
watching videos of um eroy kasag Grand
there uh oh [ __ ] me how good is

(01:49:51):
he it mind-blowing and there's videos of
him at 14 at the uh modern drama
Festival
what yeah new level again
huh the drummer of whom God's destroy
Bruno Val he is someone to look at yeah
he is [ __ ] amazing my God yeah yeah I

(01:50:15):
don't know what's in the water in Brazil
but the drummers that come out of Brazil
best of the best I mean their culture is
based around you know drumming and stuff
is it you know um so where I live here
on the Gold Coast we have um place
called Burly heads it's a really
well-known surfing Beach and on a Sunday

(01:50:36):
afternoon for years and years this has
gone gone on for about 20 years now they
have a drummer Circle and everyone
brings their hand drums gem Bay Etc and
um you always got the Brazilians there
and they just own it with their rhythms
so I think it's embedded in their
culture well that's a good thing

(01:50:57):
definitely
uh they've made the drum world so much
better but yeah Joey uh
Neil bonam the drummers that changed the
game for sure yeah absolutely so
Rush Zeppelin uh certain drummers that

(01:51:20):
just changed everything like I
find from my generation it was all about
Rush yeah and it was about rush and the
emergence of metal in the early 80s and
the combination of the two where there
were so many drummers that were just
playing this old school progressive

(01:51:41):
metal style that was just [ __ ]
phenomenal yeah yeah it was the rush
yeah and I guess each generation is
standing on the shoulders of the
previous one and that's where it comes
along and that's that's where Joey comes
in he's the next yeah that next
Generation yeah so the one before him it
was about Rush the one before that it
was about Bonham and just that big sound

(01:52:02):
he had and and yeah and then you can
look at who they all listen to like who
did Bam listen to and he still looking
at the Jean kers and the the Buddy
riches and and all those dudes
yeah but yeah you know speaking of
standing on on the shoulders of the
Giants before us um I I kind of skipped
over just your influences when you were

(01:52:23):
younger we
um
yeah who who were your
dudes
well I didn't care about guitar players
I cared about bands like for me it was
all about the songs and the bands and I
just love these bands but as far as
guitar players it was definitely all the

(01:52:44):
classic rock dudes like the ones that
it's because I love the bands they were
in and the music they were making so Ace
Freely totally you know just that
slow kind of feel and the
double and
the and uh definitely Jimmy pige for

(01:53:07):
what he wrote in the production and the
sounds and everything as well as his
playing and and just the songs the riffs
uh definitely Brian
May uh Hendrick of course who made the
guitar sound like never sounded before
uh Clapton 2 uh uh Angus was a big one I

(01:53:28):
was very much into Reckless Blues playe
just that kind of you
know kind of thing and uh that's how I
played until I heard Eddie Van Halen and
I was late hearing it I didn't hear it
until 82 and someone said do you know

(01:53:50):
how to tap I'm like I don't even know
what that is and they showed me they
said you put this
[Music]
here and I'm
like like no no no no no this first and
then
that I'm like oh I don't want to drop
the pixel I'll just use my second

(01:54:10):
singer and then he played me eruption
and it just blew my mind of course and
was like I didn't know a guitar can do
all of this holy [ __ ] remember the first
time I heard it as well yeah mhm and
then he played me uh fair warning came
out uh just you know not long

(01:54:32):
before and that that [ __ ] me up for
good like I heard that and I was like
all right everything has changed the
whole world what I thought it was it's
not and that's what sort of it was like
the permission slip to to go wild and
explore and be eccentric and and just
make the guitar its own voice and see

(01:54:54):
what it can do and find dig deep into
yourself and and experiment it was all
about that yeah wow it's funny hearing
you play the Main Street intro uh after
Eddie Van Halen died there was a a
tribute show getting around
Australia um with this amazing band from

(01:55:15):
Sydney that
um Frankie's world famous house band or
something they call themselves The
Amazing players but anyway they had
guests at every capitals at Capital City
and I was asked to be one of the guests
and I chose to play um Mean Street and
uh punished myself learning that

(01:55:36):
intro [ __ ] that's
hard that is so hard and I actually said
to the crowd beforehand I was like hey
I've uh chosen possibly the hardest
thing Eddie Van Halen ever came up with
on the guitar to play I'm probably going
to eat [ __ ] here but if I do start [ __ ]
just clap and cheer as if I'm doing
great and uh I start doing the thing I

(01:55:58):
start doing the start doing it and
everyone's clapping and cheering and I'm
thinking oh am I really eating [ __ ] and
it wasn't until I saw the video
afterwards that one of the guys in the
band was behind me leading everybody
with the Clapping so at the time I
thought I'm not doing that bad am I but
talk about the harmonic series
[Music]

(01:56:19):
yep that's it right there absolutely
[Music]
yeah he utilized it to the fullest
absolutely yeah yeah uh but he was a he
was a Pianist to start with and I find
that yeah people who have a background
in classical music tend to know about

(01:56:40):
the harmonic series and understand it
yeah and it's one of those things once
you hear the overtones as well I do
since learning about it and you said
about passing on the knowledge I've been
showing uh guitar students I walk over
to a piano and I'll play like a low C on
the piano and I'll say how many notes
can you hear right now and they go just
one and then I'll play the overtone the

(01:57:01):
the the first overtone on the piano I
said now listen for this and then I'll
jump back to the other note I say you
can still hear that other note can't you
and they just look at me and that you
see their eyes
go [ __ ] I can't like I was today old
when I learned yeah yeah that is a
combination of all the harmonics that
produce the the tamber of each sound
yeah

(01:57:23):
so here's something that no one talks
about yeah the invisible third note that
we feel and don't hear okay tell me more
you're like okay what the hell is he
talking about okay is the speed of the
clashing between the two
notes that tension that disturbance is
what gives us emotional content so it is

(01:57:46):
when you're tuning a guitar and you feel
the whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa
that is the third note who who W who
when it's going slowly we don't
recognize it as a note because it's not
going faster than 20 times a second
where we start to hear it as pitch yep
but if you go to higher

(01:58:07):
notes like let's say we take this and
this if we play them
[Music]
together there's something in between
them resonating that we sort of ignore
but that's what gives us the happy or
the sad or the
danger or whatever it is yep so what I'm

(01:58:28):
going to do is I'm going to slowly move
one note toward the other so that the
speed of the
clashing slows down until it's not there
and it sounds at that speed you can hear
it as a note and it sounds like someone
humming
going so I don't know if we'll hear it
through the the crappy phone mic but

(01:58:53):
so you can make it go
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
like that is the invisible third note
that I just showed you all yeah that is
the thing that gives us tension that
gives us peace that gives us all those

(01:59:14):
things and we ignore it we don't listen
for it we listen to the two main notes
but the speed of the clashing in between
that third note is the one that we
actually feel and without that it would
be like two separate things that don't
touch each other that don't connect and
don't give us any emotional content it's

(01:59:36):
that thing that makes this sound
sad this sound
happy so sad you know
[Music]
happy there's a

(01:59:56):
lady
that and
she's Stairway
[Music]
to yeah it's turns into a [ __ ]
lullaby compared to what it is yeah so
it's those

(02:00:18):
distances that the notes are from each
other and the speed that Clash registers
in our brain mixes with our brain waves
and makes us say oh that sounds happy oh
that sounds sad oh that sounds this that
sounds that and we don't we we ignore
the note we don't hear the note itself

(02:00:41):
we just
feel the emotional response is very
interesting but it's a third note it's a
wave at a speed so it would qualify as a
note so it's that invisible third note I
noticed that when I was a kid when I
first started playing guitar uh of when
I was you know doing Unison bends and I
and I'd hear that dissonance down low

(02:01:02):
and it was like a dive bomb and I was
like what is that what is
that yeah some amps more than others um
my fredman small box back there um that
really brings out that subharmonic when
you do that kind of thing nice yeah so I
like do that on the front l where I play

(02:01:22):
Unison but imperfectly so that they
[Music]
shake and it just more of this weird
voice y but talking about hearing the
harmonic series that you don't notice

(02:01:44):
until till you notice it and it's the
same thing it just reminded me of that
that third note the invisible feel note
so I saw a video not that long ago on
YouTube and it was called something like
rhythm is
pitch um or it could be pitch's Rhythm
or something like that and it starts off
and it was a fairly common kind of

(02:02:05):
Rhythm maybe like a three over four kind
of thing you know that typical I try and
play
uh where you got two things going on
right yep
um and then when you speed sped that up
to the point
um like you said once you start getting
past 20 20 hits a second there you speed

(02:02:28):
that right up and that was actually a
perfect fifth would come out or perfect
a major third or something I think it
was a perfect fifth it would be a major
third because the ra is three to four
yeah three to four moving and that would
[Music]
be right yeah yeah but I was absolutely
blown away two four no it would be

(02:02:50):
actually it would be a fourth right
fourth
it was a pretty common interval I can't
remember exactly which one but um I was
blown away when you speed up that Rhythm
it it actually plays that
interval that means that it slow down
notes all the way to
just that their rhythms yeah absolutely

(02:03:12):
interesting yeah I like that yeah Hey
Ron you were singing there and and
you've done a bit of singing uh both on
your solo stuff and with Asia have you
Always sung with from the start yeah
yeah because that's something I've
always struggled with I've never been a
good singer I've I've played in bands
where I've fronted but it's more you

(02:03:32):
punk you know kind of thing but I'm not
a nice singer and
that and yeah I'm just interested people
who can sing it's like is that something
you've always done you need to start at
a young age
and no you definitely don't uh you don't
need to start at a young age no you
think you can learn it

(02:03:53):
absolutely yeah and the thing is
everybody has different physiology and
everyone is going to have a different
voice
so you can really work hard to sing in a
way that's not natural for you and
eventually get it and you can sing in a
way that's natural for you and more
quickly easily get it but like

(02:04:14):
everything it's practice is learning
what to relax what to tense uh how to
shape
your body your skull to where you want
things to resonate yeah uh yeah yeah and
it's funny when you say about um shaping
your body and your skull to

(02:04:35):
resonate um I've heard people say that
people sing in an American accent and I
say no it's not it's a universal accent
it's people playing the pockets of
resonance in their head and there was
this thing that was quite popular in
Australia for a while and some artists
still do where they sing in an
Australian accent and to me it doesn't

(02:04:56):
sound like they're singing and the
people I know who do that have a lot of
trouble with their voice with losing
their voice and I was trying to explain
to somebody
that um when you listen
to okay I'm GNA say Pink Floyd Wish You
Were Here the first words so and I've
heard people s singing in Australian

(02:05:16):
accent so no no so it's like you got to
find that
and the traditional Italian
Soul uh a e o yes and that's pretty
natural the thing is speaking is
unnatural language the way we talk is

(02:05:37):
the worst things for our voice in fact
we do it to try and create a code that
other people can't figure out that's the
whole thing what languages are and to
make them difficult you know the Dutch
saying groing you know things like that
you know know or going to Israel you
know uh or

(02:05:58):
France or
Spain and whatever it is it's to have
your own thing that you
develop but it's not the natural way to
sing so when we start to sing like we
speak we [ __ ] ourselves up but it does
make for good storytelling like if you
want to be a singer that's all not all
about you

(02:06:19):
know and you want to just be more like a
Bob Dyan like you're just telling a
story with a hint of Rhythm and Melody
to it then you want to talk and then
yeah and just finding that balance
according
to what kind of vibe you want to give
yeah whatever that is so yeah language

(02:06:42):
speaking if you try to sing the way you
talk eventually you hurt yourself yeah
yeah I guess it'll be easier for an
American
because you've you heard people say it
before and I'm not dissing Americans but
Americans are loud when they speak and
it's because um they project their vows
from their hard pallet whereas the
Australian accent they draw it right

(02:07:04):
back and and especially when I hear what
they call Bogen Aussies which is I guess
is like a redneck American they talk
they talk like this here young mate and
they really draw their vows back in
their mouth and that's really quiet and
that's the one I'm talking about when I
hear Australians trying to sing in that
accent and they're really hurting

(02:07:24):
themselves it's because they're trying
to push that but they're projecting the
veil to the back of their their throat
uh where it's not loud so I guess
Americans have got that advantage of
being able to speak the story and still
be close to that the sulage sounds that
you're talking
about and I I guess it's sort of going
back to Europe and and Americans were

(02:07:46):
Europeans and and it's really just like
a combination of all those languages
that just
became if you go to different spots in
the US uh yeah some of it you could hear
the different accents and you can hear
where it came from and and the different
influences for sure but yeah overall

(02:08:08):
it's just a a lot of things we talk like
this you know
just yeah it's it's very
uh we make uh it it requires a lot of
tolerance to put up with us as guests in
your country let's put it that way uh
and I I I don't apologize for saying

(02:08:29):
that I recognize it um yeah we tend to
be loud and almost attention
is and it's like you know don't be like
you know hey take a picture of this you
know it's like no stop stop disrupting
the piece of this place don't do that

(02:08:50):
sure yeah
uh I guess a good thing for for pushing
the voice is it's almost like the
military thing where it's like you know
like getting that push from the
diaphragm uh when you get that but then
just relax everything and just be this

(02:09:11):
this lifeless tube that just lets the
air pass through and let your laryn just
let out x amount of puffs of air per
second to get the pitch and thicken or
thinning thinning as much as you need to
uh to fill it up like there was an

(02:09:31):
exercise I used to do where I would hit
a high note where I would start with the
vocal folds thin and slowly thicken them
up I was like I don't know if I could
even do it right now I was
like it was like a
high I can't do it now it's going to
crack but I used to practice it back
when I used to be able to sing and and I

(02:09:51):
would be able to go from like a thin
whispery voice or like a
full full bodied voice and I would
practice
just that so that you have control over
how much you want to push for the note
don't think of a higher note as like a
heavier weight that you're lifting
that's not the case it's more of just

(02:10:13):
matching the pitch and how much you want
to thicken the vocal folds to cause more
uh
restraint I guess and then from there
pass it through there and you shape it
and the tone and everything here um yeah
so it's it's all the the whole thing
with singing is just it's all just the

(02:10:34):
body and getting in touch with the body
it's not about the note so much any note
could be hit uh it's more about figuring
out what to relax not even what to push
but what to relax yeah right yeah cuz
great singers do make it seem effortless
but at the same time they're putting

(02:10:55):
their heart and soul into it it's yeah
like pav said um good singing is crying
on pitch and I really do hear that being
good good
singers yeah yeah hey R um I want to ask
you just a couple more questions about
gear before um I go through the comments
and see if there's some questions for
you um now you mentioned you you've got

(02:11:16):
a couple of uh acoustic EPS what's your
choice of acoustic
talk I use a Court Gold Series A8 I know
there's so many amazing like the Martins
and the Taylor and people don't think of
Court as one of the high-end things but
court their Factory they actually build
all the high-end guitars for the other

(02:11:38):
companies yep so so I use their uh gold
A8 uh there's one right there let me get
it here it is
[Music]

(02:12:02):
strings are like years
[Music]
old and I mean the the intonation
beautiful is great yeah
[Music]

(02:12:42):
very
[Music]
nice so yeah just a court gold and
eight and that's what you
used that's what you've used on all your
um acoustic EPS just that that one
guitar yeah yeah nice and on the new

(02:13:02):
album too anything acoustic yeah
beautiful this okay how about pcks mate
do you have a a preference you know for
a heavy pick a um softer
pick I used to use heavier picks and
then one day just by accident I picked
up a thinner pick like a 60 and
everything was so much brighter I was

(02:13:23):
like holy [ __ ] so I stick with lighter
like medium gauge pics which is not very
metal but but I like the extra
brightness
yeah I I did the opposite where I was
using a lighter Pick and then I was at n
and I bumped into Andy James you know

(02:13:44):
Andy James oh it's so um and I remember
just man n's blowing isn't it you just
walk around you go holy [ __ ] there's oh
holy [ __ ] there's and I bumped into Andy
James and I just looked at him and said
dude you're picking is just out of this
world so clean and precise he stuck his
hand in his pocket he goes I got a

(02:14:05):
secret and he hands me his new signature
pick that was about to come out and it
was so thick no flex whatsoever and I've
used heavy pcks ever since then um and a
quote Guthrie if I use something that
flexes it feels like I'm trying to write
with a rubber pen
well how is the point on it does it come
to like a very fine point or uh the one

(02:14:27):
he had was slightly and I've gone
slightly thinner now I'm using
these what are these because the one
issue I've had with with heavier gauge
picks is that there's so much thickness
on the end that they get a little
Scrapy sure and I would

(02:14:48):
rather which is also I mean my pick
straighter then it won't get that but
still yeah I've since gone to a thinner
pick but it's still no flex and it's a
Dunlop Altex
1.14 all right that's pretty that's
pretty serious or 1.14

(02:15:10):
yeah so yeah that's what I've arrived at
uh after trying trying a few different
things
there um I was going to ask you as well
about computer noises that you seem to
make on your guitar and that's that's
something I hear someone like Buckethead
do as well um how you doing
that this

(02:15:33):
random um what am I doing it's probably
just a lot of stuff
with
[Music]
the are you just going for like some
atonal kind of scale either it's going
to be something just some some Archer
too [ __ ] with this yeah you know
just like you know

(02:15:56):
just that kind of thing yeah or uh or if
I'm using something like some kind of
crazy effect I made with the line Helix
let me see if I could
find uh in fact you know what let me see
if I can get just to hear some of the
sounds I'm going to shut off this and
I'm going to put on let me see if I can

(02:16:17):
find
um uh
I'm going to find Simon in
space and we can hear some of the guitar
sounds from it because some of the the
sounds on there
it's uh it's because of the Helix it's
not it's not my playing it's what I made

(02:16:40):
the Helix presets that I came up with
that really do it and there's no shame
in that uh not at all like you should be
creative with your guitar tones and use
this technology that we have to get very
creative with guitar tone so let's go
through a couple of sounds from that
song let's say

(02:17:02):
uh we
have this one
[Music]

(02:17:24):
cool man I was going to ask you to play
me that riff that and that's how you do
it huh mhm so that riff that I showed
you the video of Kyle playing on the
drums so what it is it's in 74 if you
watch the hands it's like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 but the feet are doing

(02:17:46):
what I call a seven Shuffle so normally
a shuffle is 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
boooom but this is Shuffle in seven 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 so you have
like and when you speed it

(02:18:09):
up so that's what the feet are doing
they're going
Bo doing a seven and this low guitar is
following that so it's 716 in the and
that low guitar and the hands are
holding it steady boom boom seven boom
yeah some pretty [ __ ] up [ __ ] uh but

(02:18:31):
beautifully [ __ ] up [ __ ] I love it
like I said when I had a listen to it
last night I was like hello wasn't
expecting that that's what I needed to
hear right
now we like [ __ ] up yeah yes yep we
like we like um originality like
creativity um the we've been listening
to people
playing the same stuff since the 70s for

(02:18:54):
a long time and it's good to hear people
pushing the boundaries so one thing I
really like about someone like Tim
Hensen is that he's getting his
inspiration from synthesizers and coming
up with patterns on an arpeggiator and
going how do I do that on guitar and
yeah that's yeah whatever whatever works
yeah and use the technology we have I

(02:19:14):
mean hell if Hendrick didn't do that
half of the sounds like half the electr
harmonics pedals wouldn't exist it's
like that was the new technology and
this is our new technology yeah so use
it

(02:19:46):
[Music]
oh let's go to the next one uh so many
sounds so many sounds let's do here
where is it where is it where is it
there we go

(02:20:07):
okay it's going to have filters in a
chopper that
like so I'm just hitting everything with
one hand and just touching the harmonics
harmonic series first one
[Music]

(02:20:35):
and I have in the background a reverse
DeLay So that one second later whatever
I play in the background goes the
opposite direction
cool nice
[Music]
[Applause]

(02:20:56):
[Music]
[Applause]
what do we got
next okay and then I'm using a delay
followed by another DeLay So I have a
filter going like a cutron type of [ __ ]
and it response how hard you hit so it's
different every time uh it's doing 116th

(02:21:19):
note so you hit once and it goes B
and Then followed another delay that
does it on dot day so you
have so you

(02:21:42):
have that is cool that that for me that
was something that I was like wow that
that's cool whatever you doing there and
I could see in the video you were
tapping out that
but then you follow it up later with a
beautiful Melody played on the neck
[Music]

(02:22:08):
[Music]
pickup and then that weird weird sound
let's find that weird weird sound it's
like what is he doing is he tapping what
is that while you're finding that I'm
just going to say um in that Melody you
you did something there which I'm a big
fan of and I've heard people say oh I

(02:22:28):
don't know fast guitar playing and stuff
it's like now I grew up in the 70s where
all the theme shows had orchestras
playing in unison and to get to the
money note they didn't just go they all
went in unison
exactly yeah and it's such a cool sound
it just and you classical composer has

(02:22:50):
been doing that for hundreds of years
and absolutely love it oh it's like
imitating The Voice
going yeah yeah just build up yeah uh so
this
sound so what I do is I have two pitch

(02:23:12):
delays doing uh two whole steps each
going at the speed of uh trip
like triplet I guess triplet 16th notes
16th note
triplets so everything I
play oh cool

(02:23:45):
[Applause]
and if anybody didn't catch it you've
put all your presets on line6.com
huh yes that is very generous of you and
I'm going to be downloading them myself
because yeah I'm gonna I'm very
interested to just see how you've got
things routed and um yeah pinch some of

(02:24:07):
your sounds uh one last question before
I get to the comments uh section is
where can I buy your music but to own it
and what I mean by that is Apple have
changed
now I used to buy music off music or
iTunes so that I could drop it into my

(02:24:27):
door or other software so that I could
slow things down now with logic with the
stem separators and and the like you
know it's great oh I can really pull
this apart but now they've put copy
protection on it and you can't import it
into third party software not even third
party logic or anything and I'm like no
no no that's why I want to buy music

(02:24:49):
you've just destroyed the last reason I
would want to buy music is there
somewhere I can buy your album and
actually have a copy that's not um copy
protected oh yeah bap
bap perfect perfect that's what I'm
going to start buy my music from Apple
you blew it you blew it

(02:25:10):
Apple I'm one of these guys that
actually used to buy music but I can't
buy music and use it what I wanted for
so I'm jumping Shi to band camp no all
right good good yeah get it right from
the bands and it's the same thing you
could get actually it's better because
you could get all different formats that
you can't get from Apple so if you want
the waves you can get them if you want

(02:25:31):
flak you can get them whatever it is not
just mp3s and shitty MP3s so uh what
else what else what was I about to say
[ __ ] uh damn oh well it'll count yeah uh
I'm just having a look through the
comments people were asking about um
your cheese guitar and you've already
answered them saying yes you still have
the cheese guitar I still do yes yeah

(02:25:54):
yeah and that was the one that you said
was your original guitar from way back
in the day and You' yeah yeah um was
that a solid body or was that like a a
plywood
body I think it was solid yeah I think
remember it was pretty solid yeah a lot
of lot of cheap guitars of playwood I
know my my strap back there that I'm

(02:26:15):
going to redo is plywood body and you
know any tonewood purist is going to get
well that's going to sound terrible but
[ __ ] him I'm going to redo my old guitar
you know
what between pickups you're playing your
amp settings you can compensate for
anything and make I believe you can make

(02:26:36):
any guitar sound good yeah y all right
Russell banister music wants to know how
do you play
strangles oh god um been a long time uh
let me see let me find a
a
nicer so strangles was a song off my
very first

(02:26:59):
album there was this crazy thing in 11
was
like so there was like a Groove
like then throwing
Rift and they were all these harmonies

(02:27:21):
that sort of had the vibe of like a horn
section it was
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
like and throughout it was a guitar that
was playing a chromatic

(02:27:43):
riff but it was skipping let me find
something cleaner this is like so full
of
effects all right let's just get off
that that there we go all right off the
delay off the
Reverb there we go so I was doing it
tapping inversions of those flat twos

(02:28:06):
doing major
[Music]
sevens 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
11 so
[Music]
so that was in the background of
it it was just a lot of weird ass Rifts

(02:28:28):
yeah that was off that very first
Adventures of bumblefoot album from
1995 wow wow and that answered the
question I was going to ask of where did
the name bumblefoot come from but you
you explained that earlier on in the
piece uh Russell ban music also wants to
know uh will Sons of Apollo ever reunite

(02:28:50):
uh never saying never but at this point
it's not looking very likely uh our
drummer's a bit busy at the moment uh
so so that's sort of how whom God's
destroy happened Derek and I were
writing what could have been the third
sons of Apollo album but when we saw
that it wasn't in the cards uh came a

(02:29:12):
new band with with Dino and Yas and
Bruno and and they're fantastic so cool
cool uh Russell has loaded us up with
the questions here because there's
another do you have any exercises for
playing with a thimble now I'm going to
jump in there and say every time I say
thimble it sounds like I'm a drummer
with a lith a li thimble hit the right

(02:29:35):
thimble
yeah so do you do you have any exercises
for playing with the
thimble yeah the thing what I was
talking about before where we
visualize whatever note you want picture
it on the neck and then cut it in half
that whole thing that's an exercise and
then playing from the other direction

(02:29:56):
and shortening lens of string from this
direction instead of that direction so
if you watch this back those two things
those are the exercises that I suggest
with the
thimble now it's in your head isn't it
it is I'm screwed for life I will never
be able to say it from now I'm calling
it a
symbol it's a a reverse lisp yes so I'm

(02:30:20):
going to take everything with a th and
say s instead okay so good symbol
exercises now uh my friend Dominic
Simone hey Dom thanks for watching mate
uh wants to know hi Ron any chance of
bringing whom Gods destroy down for an
Australian
tour oh I would love to

(02:30:42):
oh It's Tricky you know the band formed
during the pandemic when everybody had
time and now that every everybody's back
in on their hamster wheel running
running running running uh
getting everybody to be free to do it
and also we should do a second album
before Touring that was kind of the idea

(02:31:02):
why we didn't tour is that we wanted to
have two albums out before we toured and
we have not made a second album yet uh
so it might be a good minute before we
get out
there uh I've got another one here uh in
insania
Mania right do you have a favorite set

(02:31:24):
of musicians you play
with uh a favorite no no I mean I love
playing with with Kyle the drummer
absolutely uh but really just anyone was
cool to be around anyone you enjoy being
in a room with and spending time with
sure yeah it doesn't even matter how
they play as long as they're they're
decent people uh and there's plenty out

(02:31:44):
there so I don't really have favorites
no it's people that definitely are on
the I don't ever want to see their
[ __ ] faces ever again list but but
there's enough good people and I'm
probably on their list too so um I got
another question and while you're
answering it I'm I'm just going to let
you know I don't think I'm seeing any uh

(02:32:06):
of my comments from YouTube so if you
see me looking at my phone I'm going to
log in there and just see if there's any
more questions so it's not that I'm like
G to ask you a question and go yeah
whatever
buddy so uh Russell Benn the music also
wants to know again um pot pickups
versus
vintage I like vintage I like having an

(02:32:28):
organic tone that has character and then
if you want to drive drive it from the
amp from a pedal but these
days I like something where you get the
tone of the guitar more in fact what I
do with this is I put in a treble bleed
into the volume knobs so that they

(02:32:49):
brighten up as you go down so that I
could even get like they don't darken if
anything they they brighten
up and I get even more of the organic of
[Music]

(02:33:10):
it I have to say I I agree with you on
that um I've I've got a strat that I is
my Workhorse if I only have to take one
guitar to a gig and I've tried so many
different pickup configurations and I
started out with a Duncan Invader uh
hucker which is I think the highest
output um passive pickup available

(02:33:30):
because I thought yeah it's all about
it's all about the the high output and
as I've gone to lower output pickups I
feel like I'm hearing more of the wood
of the
guitar uh whereas when I've got higher
output pickups I'm hearing the amp more
and the way it breaks up so Los a bit of

(02:33:51):
character and personality and identity
when the output gets higher on the
pickups it's a it's a trade off you know
it's like when you have low output yeah
I mean they're low output but there's a
lot more identity to the guitar and the
higher output goes that way so these
days I would rather push it from an

(02:34:11):
external source and just have the
character of the guitar showing through
more so I go for lower output yeah
that's my vult and everybody's different
but that's that's my fault absolutely
absolutely uh Russell Ben music man he's
loaded us up with the questions which is
really cool uh do you have a practice
routine um yeah to spend 10 hours in

(02:34:35):
front of my computer and every once in a
while look over at my guitar and say I
should really play and then say Oh it's
time to go home and do that for weeks on
end I do not practice
enough not at all especially with the
album release there been so much
business stuff and taking care of this
and that and that I barely get to play

(02:34:56):
yeah uh but that's that's me being bad
sure there's nothing stopping me from
when I'm home eating dinner I have a
fork in one hand and a you know
fretboard in the other and there's
always a way so no
excuses uh I don't know what this is but
someone is asking do you ever use conol
I don't know what conol

(02:35:17):
is oh wait is he talking about t second
that uh it's the the
Indian uh counting and it's it's a vocal
thing all right very interesting uh you
know matius Eckland he's really deep
into that the guitarist uh a free

(02:35:37):
kitchen phenomenal band and uh he's
really deep into that stuff it's cool uh
me I don't do it much because I I'm
still trying to get down just speaking
let alone the t t like I just I don't
have it I could do it with my my fingers

(02:35:59):
my my
hands but not with my mouth yeah wow uh
here's a couple I'm gonna drop these
these comments in here this is from
David Wan who is quite a well-known
educator on YouTube and he's saying why
is there only 15 people watching this
this is great

(02:36:20):
uh thank you David
um I'm doing this organically I'm not
paying for likes and Subs I've seen a
few people around the place doing that
it's so obvious when they do uh and
they're destroying their chances of
actually growing organically through the
algorithm by doing that but um do people
watching and listening to this because
this is available on the audio podcast

(02:36:42):
sites as well uh can always help by
liking sharing subscribing all that kind
of thing um and po ninja also said the
chats never get the attention they
deserve always a great interview here
thank you Mr ninja I still haven't
worked out who he is somebody's going to
fil me in on who the the mystical po
ninja
is David wman I I gotta say right where

(02:37:03):
I'm sitting I've got my TV set up here
like so my studio is my lounge room and
I was watching YouTube and I'm sitting
there and David came up on the big
screen and I'm watching it and when
David was in Australia about a year ago
he he looked me up and and he was
actually standing right here here where
I'm sitting and I was I was laughing
seeing him on the big screen going he

(02:37:24):
was standing right in front of that TV
about a year
ago okay uh whoever here whoever is here
we appreciate you being
here it's just 15 of you thank you to
the 15 of you mate we've we've had uh a
lot of people come and go I've seen
there's currently 17 watching live but I
do notice that um with these kinds of

(02:37:46):
things you might get you know up to 30
people watching but then in 24 hours 300
people have watched it and then when the
algorithm picks up I've had things go
whoa 150,000 overnight so we plant these
little seeds um now po ninja also wants
to know does Ron ever run wet dry

(02:38:08):
wet oh um not lately I think I have done
that stuff yeah I've gone through every
type of configurations and
everything uh
not so much these days no haven't yeah
now it's
just my Helix that's it my Helix presets

(02:38:30):
and just that
that
effects split into two amps come back
more effects out that's it yeah so as I
mentioned by running my delay in Reverb
in uh parallel within the Helix I think
I'm getting a a similar thing where I
can run my

(02:38:50):
main signal dry and just have my delays
going through the Reverb and I've just
started doing that [ __ ] it's cool what
you're doing with it I like that yeah
yeah just like fullblown and just kind
of mix it to the level while keeping the
dry and the balance between
theck that dwson Walters wants to know

(02:39:14):
do you have any advice for a 20-year-old
guitar player I'm sure you've got a lot
of things
it's hard to narrow it down is there
something
that you find now and this is one thing
I find about me going to to University
and with the younger people and there's
a couple of kids there I don't want to
call them kids but younger people who

(02:39:36):
are really talented and it's like hey
let me save you 35 years of [ __ ] [ __ ]
up to find out what not to do try this
try that is there little bits of pieces
anything that Springs to mind advice for
20-year- old guitar
player um every player is Expendable and
the thing that makes the difference

(02:39:57):
between one and another is the kind of
person you are uh be someone that people
prefer uh as a person uh don't be fake I
mean genuinely just make choose to be
someone that's on time that's not late
that doesn't make people wait that shows
that you respect them be early for

(02:40:18):
everything uh be extremely prepared
don't just know what you're supposed to
know in your part but know everybody's
parts so that you can bust out a Harmony
to the vocal on a guitar for that second
chorus if you want to and they're going
to love you for it
uh be calm be relaxed don't add to drama

(02:40:39):
and stuff uh if you see things getting a
little wonky just go silent don't add to
it uh wait for it to blow over be be the
one that
that yeah so those are the first three
things that I could think of uh it's not

(02:40:59):
so much about playing of course you want
to be your best do your best always be
genuine there's only one of you and you
will put here to be you so don't try and
be anybody else don't do that you're
creating a whole where you were supposed
to be uh none of it is up to you
whatever happens the rest of the world
decide

(02:41:20):
uh what they going to do with you yeah
the only thing that is in your power is
to be the best you uh not just the best
player but just a a good person to to be
in people's lives that's worth the most
uh so that's what you want to work on as
much as you work on scales with a

(02:41:42):
metronome start reading some stoic
philosophy uh start really we are all a
working in progress and we are all
broken and battered and [ __ ] from
this life and what we do is we spend the
rest of our time trying to fix that uh
and slowly just

(02:42:03):
becoming less broken person yeah and
don't go the other way with it uh I
think that's great advice man because
but yeah the best person that you can be
and don't worry about success or any of
that stuff what makes you successful or
let's say like what we call success is

(02:42:24):
not up to us sure it isn't uh but what
really is success is when you overcome
the things that are holding you back the
things that are challenging you when you
overcome that [ __ ] and you become the
the best person that you could be for
right now in the situation you're in

(02:42:45):
with who you are and that's going to
change uh I look at myself from 10 years
ago and say I made a lot of stupid
choices and I could have made better
ones now 10 years from now I'm going to
say the same thing about who I am right
now you just keep growing forgive
yourself and just accept that you know
just try be the best person you can be

(02:43:05):
right now and if you keep doing that in
the
end everything will work out one way or
another that's fantastic mate anybody
can look up lessons on YouTube uh on the
guitar if you want to learn to play a
Fran dominant scale or whatever
but yeah what you're saying is is the

(02:43:26):
truth um very good answer very good
answer um paramedic Pete I just saw this
comment uh that said PS I like listening
I I listen to your music in my ambulance
when driving
fast oh
[ __ ] thank you that is cool be

(02:43:47):
careful to fast don't listen to too much
of it uh but cool thank you old friend
wants to know can you ask Ron what his
opinion is on why some bands are so
stubborn with releasing concert video
and some are not this has been a big
mystery for a long very long
time oh there could be so many reasons

(02:44:09):
uh it could have to do with who owns the
rights to the songs that are disallowing
it or someone who's just being difficult
about it or or just
a lot of it could be bad business deals
it could be just issues of saying it's
not good enough uh people want to put
their very best into the world and if it
wasn't filmed well if the sound wasn't

(02:44:31):
good or if they didn't perform well or
whatever it is they don't want to put
that out there they only want to give
the best of themselves out there so it
could be anything could be the reason
yeah and it's always different like with
sons of Apollo we did a a live Blu-ray
DVD album and there were some songs that
we couldn't well we put them out on the

(02:44:53):
album but we couldn't put them out on
the video because they were covers and
we weren't given permission they
wouldn't let us do it y so that happens
so if whoever owns the rights decides
nope you can't do it then the ban is
[ __ ] yeah you know and there's so many
people filming concerts now that

(02:45:14):
um wow you want to watch something just
look it up on YouTube you know I went to
see the darkness you mentioned Justin
Hawkins a little earlier um what a
talented guy that is how can one guy be
such a good singer good guitar player
and so damn charismatic on stage um now
and he's just like a funny dude like
watch yeah and I got to

(02:45:37):
say they played in Brisbane about a year
ago or so now and um I was there and
first song I pulled out my phone and I
don't like to watch it through small
screen so I do this I'll get the shot
and then I'll watch it and it's like
okay I can watch this back later but um

(02:45:57):
I saw him look at me
disapprovingly and after that first song
he gave the speech to everyone he goes
look can you all just put your [ __ ]
phones away and he turned to the band he
said will I give him the speech Yes I'm
going to give him the speech and I'm
paraphrasing here I hope I get it close
to what he said but he said look the
only reason you're filming right now now

(02:46:19):
is because you're thinking hey I'm going
to look back at that video footage I
took of the darkness in 2024 in
Brisbane no you're not you're going to
run out of space on your phone you're
going to delete it um just be here
secondly he said you want to uh post it
on Facebook and just show your friends
who couldn't make it you know how cool

(02:46:40):
am I I actually went i' got to show my
friends [ __ ] your friends they if they
really wanted to come they should have
come um it was four points
third was
um no it escapes me but the fourth one
um was and I'm not going to say the c
word on on here but he said fourthly

(02:47:04):
you're and then just turned around and
launched into the next into the next
song and I just thought that was gold
that was gold that was a really good
little and everyone did put their phones
away which was great huh yeah
interesting good yeah funny the opposite
I used to tell people bring your phones
get a momentto of the show yep uh yeah

(02:47:27):
tell people to do the opposite but yeah
everyone's different yeah paramedic Pete
also wants to know Ron what is your
favorite electric non-double neck guitar
to
play electric non-double
neck oh uh I mean there's the classic
guitars that are classic because they

(02:47:48):
just have have you know like a good
Telly uh nothing sounds like it or an SG
even uh Les Paul Strat like you know
they're still around for a reason you
know there's something special about
them but I still I got to go with if
it's not a double Nick it's a single
Nick vigier no they're not paying me to

(02:48:08):
say this [ __ ] I actually really love
their guitars they feel great they sound
wonderful they are my favorite guitars
to play great that's why I play them yep
yeah yep awesome man uh now the last one
I've got here
is no question but just want to say what
a cool down toe guy up bumblefoot is and

(02:48:30):
I just want to say same thing mate as as
I said to you I just woken up I'm a late
night person so the getting up uh to be
here ready to to talk to you at 7 a.m.
uh I was considering streaming this both
to Facebook and to YouTube for the first
time and I went to back out of that
thinking I've got no idea what Ron is

(02:48:51):
like he might be grumpy and keep this
short uh I have had guys that have been
like oh no more than half an hour I'm
walking out kind of thing um and within
two minutes of talking to you I realized
nah this guy's a cool [ __ ] and
that's I you mate give me five five
seconds I'm just going to quickly adjust
this so I can stream it directly to

(02:49:12):
Facebook as well and it has been an
absolute pleasure talking to you man you
too absolutely and I appreciate
everyone's questions and comments and
being part of this so thank you all and
[ __ ] we've been doing this for 3 hours
you were right you were saying I was
right wasn't I I told you into three
hours you're just shooting the [ __ ] y y
and I'm only cutting it off because you
said you you you promised your wife you

(02:49:33):
had somewhere to be and stuff and that's
the only reason I started rounding
things up because it's funny the longer
ones seem to be the
um the most popular so somebody said to
me recently a friend oh you should keep
them a bit shorter you know who's got
three hours to watch I said now dude if
I look at my statistics they're the ones
that go viral and I end up with 150,000

(02:49:55):
views um for some reason so I think
people in this day and age are liking to
sit in on a conversation and speaking of
which Tim Henwood is just dropped a
little uh Flex there just to say he's
here and that he's watching Tim was uh
the guy I said I had on last week that
plays with Susie Quattro as well as a
whole bunch of really well really well

(02:50:17):
known um Australian so yeah yeah so if
anybody else has anything that they want
to ask Ron before I uh round things up
now's your your time otherwise uh okay
somebody else just jumped in with a
thanks this has been absolutely great
I'm just going to say folks like I don't
get much exposure on here it is a love

(02:50:38):
thing
so likes comment uh like subscribe share
all that stuff spre the love yeah yeah
so Ron thank you so much mate I'm going
to cue my little outro sting there it is
it's that button dude I I've got a
little controller and I've been
switching like the screenshots and and

(02:50:59):
things and that's where my little
Applause button comes from I used to
have an end broadcast button on here I
took that away because you know you drop
things and I had Thomas mcrocklin on a
couple years ago and I dropped my
controller and I ended ended the show
halfway through him talking and I was
like oh I'm sorry I'm sorry let's uh
start back again so uh I've taken that

(02:51:21):
away so any fumbles the worst thing that
could possibly happen now is that it
just plays a little video but once again
everyone thank you to
Ron thank you thank you thank you and
plug the new
album yes fumble foot returns available
on bandap oh and on vinyl yes yes with

(02:51:45):
printed vinyl with artwork on it and
everything
so that is my Shameless plug I would
feel stupid if I didn't mention you know
just
like yeah okay I'm a dick I did it all
right are you finding that you're
selling a bit of vinyl because there
seems to be a Resurgence in
it yeah and I'm just like I'm just I'm

(02:52:07):
proud of this I I'm happy about this I
like there's so much artwork and and
stuff to it
that it just feels good to hold this in
the hands and have it right in front of
your eyes again it's been a long time so
so I'm just like yay yay can I buy that

(02:52:28):
vinyl on band camp because I want to get
that vinyl copy seeing as you've put
some effort into that is that a vable a
bumblefoot
do.com just the the Shameless plugin
bumblefoot do.com yep see these
cassettes did
cassettes old school we have a video
game go to bumblefoot dcom is a free

(02:52:48):
free video game just to have fun
listening to the songs while playing
this free little space shooter retro
video game I tried to make this as fun
as possible as far as a release goes
with all that kind of [ __ ] so
definitely I hope I just hope everyone
enjoys the music and and has fun with
the game and just enjoy that's it that's

(02:53:09):
I'll sum it up right there enjoy awesome
and on that I will say adios amigos
thank you Ron thank you everyone for
tuning in bye
nowk you
[Music]