[Music] [Music] what's up everyone my name is gam this is's guitar and bases and I have the absolute pleasure to be with Mato manuso today thank you so much for being here man thank you man and Welcome to our Ted Talk masterclass slash of every guitar technique you can possibly play in an introduction that was incredible man um I have many things that I want to ask you today I think we'll uh we'll do well first off thank you guys for your patience this is an Italian and a French man speaking about modes and scales in English so that's going to be fun it'll be hard for sure but yeah I want to talk a little bit about your gear how you set things up uh technique obviously maybe a second part and finally everything that you've got going on right now what's going to happen in the near future where can those beautiful people catch you that kind of thing yeah um first off yeah I'd say let let's start with the gear what what do you use why do you use it how do you use it yeah that's a good question be we got time don't wor yeah first of all I'm a big fan of digital amp modeling so I always gravitated towards this kind of things you know elix um and my first elix was DLT is the like the economic version of this Alex floor but has basically the same possibilities the so what I'm was trying to have is like a all-in-one pedal board with the amp modeling and uh you know effects as well um so what I use now is mostly my elix straight to the pi okay uh I go stereo most of the time like like now uh and I mainly use four sounds I use the uh the snapshots first of all the snapshots lets you um pass through the Sounds in a very peaceful way yeah without having to you know the Peace of Mind component is way up there yeah snapshots are really one of the best inventions one of the best features of this pedal board and I mainly use my clean sound that is this one is more um clean Jazzy sound rather [Music] than so this is the sound I use most of the time and then I have did you uh did you model that first sound after something specific was it just tailored to like something that you heard in your head or artist I have some like specific sounds in my head maybe something that I heard on some albums and like for example one of my favorite players is for sure Eric Johnson so it's a big influence of how ideal in my sounds so this clean sound is actually more inspired by the Jazz tradition let's say so uh like Pat Martino for example or Pat Mei also they have this kind of uh big dark sound yeah and I I'm a big fan of this kind of sound so yeah right now I using I think it's a Twin Reverb or a princess on riverb but it's a fender for sure and U of course the simulation and yeah I I just add at the start of the chain um a a little compressor it's called thee Camp yeah so I have a slightly uh little compression of this kind of sound okay and also on the guitar I always roll the uh volume knob a little bit that's I was going to ask nine or eight okay so you don't have the that kind of ey end on your clean sound tone is on 10 uh usually yes because this sounds here it's particularly dark so if you also the tone will be too muddy you know so I always prefer to have my tone at 10 and then maybe just a little bit less volume yeah yeah yeah it does a whole lot for that for sure yeah I'm sure okay awesome and then of course I have the the same sound but with the chords added so [Music] so and this kind of sound I use it mostly with the bridge pickup yeah so I have like a kind of cord layer especially when the maybe the base player is doing a and I can add some cord layers to it you know cuz you mostly play in Trio Duos like kind sort of situations so I mostly play on the trio setting so I I'm the only one that can make cords yeah uh um so yeah I have to do all the Dirty Work Well you do it beautifully but the there's also like the the the question of frequency and like the amount of space that you have because you only three people and you two uh like melodic instruments yeah nothing nothing against drummers I like you too but uh you you still have like quite a lot of space to use those choruses and those dark sounds of that because you basically yeah half of the spectrum the Basse is going to cover the the lows but you have so much room to play with as well that's really cool yeah yeah that's why I always try to have different sounds depends on the setting and uh like for example if I'm playing with the trio I like to have very big sounds so I can fill up the spaces you know yeah absolutely when when I am on another setting like I'm playing with a Pianist or there there are more instruments I tend to have like a thinner sound but the thinner sound tends to be better on the mix you know yeah yeah absolutely yeah yeah and I always take for example the Steve Lu at sound if you isolate the tracks from the total um uh songs for example you realize that the the sound especially the l sound that Steve has is not really big you know it's a thin sound but it it sits perfectly on the you know exactly like the yous like what frequency do I have and just like peek on that one like yeah because the guitar will sound better on and that's why yeah on the on the tree on the other end you have to make up for that and yeah but those like those are really nice big Dark full sounds I I really appreciate that thank you um all right I see crunch yeah this this is the my crunch Channel and it's not really a an aggressive sound like I say [Music] so so the sound I use here is a really sometimes I use it also with a digital delay [Music] yeah [Music] so you kind of have this kind of distortion where it really um especially when you are playing chords if you have too much Distortion it will not sound good you know so I always try to make a Distortion for the cords and a Distortion for the lead notes yeah yeah absolutely but that sounds like yeah it's got the organic like almost push clean like if you were into an amplifier just like maxing out the preamp like no that's that's yeah yeah and I always use the same I think it's always the same Fender amp yeah but with a with a drive pedal before Delux yeah okay yeah yeah it's the deluxe with this kind of distortion ped that it's called the edog D9 of course they they can't use the real no no no okay and and then I have my lid sound and it's really insired by one of my favorite players and it's for sure Eric Johnson and Alan osworth as well it's kind of a mix of both sounds so really dark sounds without getting too aggressive uh but at the same time it's of course more distorted than the CR so you have this kind of big uh dark sound but with a little bit of Sparkle so you have the aggressiveness what's your what's your process when it comes to that CU every time I make patches for uh helix or like we've used the the the HX stor a whole lot as well every time I I just sort of start googling okay what did that guitar player use like aric Johnson okay so you got the fuzz you got the tube screamer you got that can of Van boosted that way and then I really try and mimic mimic that exact exactly like how do you go about it is it is it similar or do you just go with your ears and and I kind of go with my ears first but I'm you know I'm a guitar nerd too so I I search for who uses this stuff and so uh you're not alone you're most welcome on this channel and with this audience that's that's epic okay yeah I'm of course I'm aware that everyone has his own personal touch so even if you the exact same rig as Eric Johnson you will never sound like him because the the tone touch and I don't play with a peek and that's a big part of my sound um so I have a very different attack um yeah from compared to Pak players of course um what I try to do is first of all listen to the recordings and be aware that the sound on the recording is another thing the sound live needs to be treated in on a different way because of course on the recording you have a lot of different you know aspects and uh yeah in the U mixing and mastering mixing and mastering and most of the time the guitar gets uh uh modified a lot so the starting point is is really sometimes is really far from the final result absolutely um so what I'm trying to do here is uh trying to use like my four main sounds and try to get the most of it I I don't like to use like four different amps or just because you can that doesn't mean that you have to do it you know because this kind of pedal boards are limited I I think it's better to uh know your gear rather than have a tons of stuff and don't don't know everything uh with them you know it's better to have like five pedals and know everything about them rather than have 15 different pedals and don't really know how to use it you know words of wisdom right there that's yeah no no absolutely I'm uh I'm 100% with you on on that and another thing I always like to work wherever I have an amp uh or a on the cabinet section you have this low cut and ey cut and I think these are the most important values amen yes yeah because they they really they really transform your sound they really transform your sound on everything absolutely so so right now I'm using IR but it's the same with the stock cabinets as well and um of course the the the choice of the MC so you have also a a mick placement here yeah and it it it's going to transform your playing if you have like a sure sm50 s or a rebor it is completely different so I suggest to experiment a lot with like okay I like this cabinet but I would like like a darker sound or a thinner sound go to the low cut and I cut they are the most important values for me yeah now let's talk about that right hand of yours um you display so many different techniques some of which uh the human mind can comprehend the all the tapping and the multifinger tapping all that is it's super interesting to see you sort of powder that in your playing but there's something that baffles me you go from a very classical uh finger style position and you'll go for more of a like sideways position with your wrist and it doesn't seem to be a pattern you'll go play like this and like this on ascending or descending lines and I I couldn't figure out why is he choosing that technique there why that one here like is there is there like a conscious thing behind it of how you going to pick is it just for sound is it for Comfort specific client um basically sometimes I'm not even aware because it's part of my muscular memory so sometimes I it's just the muscular memory F in and I play this kind of line but the I think the rule should be that I mainly use two positions the Bas like technique and this one and I think this is more fitting for like three not per string scales or like phrases that they don't need a big jump you know so really close things to one [Laughter] [Music] another so these kind of lines I always tend to play with um this kind of right hand technique [Applause] so when I switch to course or double stops I I switch to this kind of technique because I can hit the multiple strings in a very easy [Music] way so the classical like double stops Blues Stuff I always do them with the classic the prop classical technique let's say so if I have like uh string skipping or this kind of stuff [Laughter] [Music] like this kind of lines I tend to play them with this technique because you you have four fingers available if I play like that I don't have my thumb available because I have to hold it like that yeah um and of course when you play like that you have more volume so for for example if you want to play like more aggressive things like for example Paul Gilbert runs so this gives you more attack and is more similar to the sound of the [Applause] peak so this is more similar to the attack you have with the Pak so the popular line by Paul Gilbert for [Applause] example so I tend to play this kind of lines with my um apato technique in Italian is called like that um and then you have the Pato technique that is this kind of technique position and I tend to play lines like one not per string for example with this technique so you have lines like [Applause] uh so yeah it it it's really a mix between those two and depending of the line I want to play I change my right hand technique and of course for for the tapping because I have nails and if you have long nails they get in the way while you do the tapping so for this kind of stuff it's because I take my nails I keep my nails very short because of that so otherwise I it will be getting the way you know does it feel like a compromise so would you like to have them longer if you weren't doing the tapping for example no actually I prefer them shorter on everything because longer Nails I I think they get in the way sometimes I yeah I understand um so I I always try to keep them short this is the length just tag the slow-mo guys in the comments because I'd like to have Mato back in the studio but with like a 2,000 frame per second camera and we can just focus that on his right hand to try and understand what's happening I'd love to do that uh but um okay that's uh how do you find that how much of an effort was that to uh reconcile those I'd say mostly acoustic classical techniques with the electric guitar sound uh did you have to like be conscious about the like clicky noise or was it like a WID so transition from acoustic to electric or was it always the two at the same time yeah I think the the funny thing is that I started with the electric so okay my um it was kind of the opposite when I got got to play classical I I was like oh the strings are too big and the neck is too big and everything was too big and um from the electric guitar perspective I think one of the problems one of the first problems is that I started without nails okay and the sound was just too dark you know I I wasn't getting the attack I wanted and that's why I used Nails after like uh you know after I studied a little bit of classical guitar I started to realize okay you also need nails for the electric guitar otherwise you you can't hear you can really hear the attack um and another one of the problem was the the string noise sometimes because when especially when I play like that with this kind of Base technique you you can't do the pal muting I was going to ask yeah how do you mute anything so one of the first okay IED a little bit I know but the way you jump from one cuz I'm trying to see how you mute the upper strings and the way your thumb just kind of follows up like I have the same the same sorry I have a similar much slower technique for slide guitar okay because I play a lot of slide and that's also noisy in its own respect and so I I move my thumb to the basically the upper string of where I'm playing to try and keep it as quiet as possible and I saw something kind of similar there yeah it's kind of similar especially when I play like that yeah I the travels with it yeah yeah the thumb follows the the line you know so you see that the thumb is slowly following and when I play like that is more difficult because I don't have my P so what I trying to do is uh of course the left hand position really helps you especially when you're playing like you uh you step on a note and what I try to do most of the time is to have my index finger on the string so I have kind of muted the strings with my left hand I sometimes I do it sometimes I don't so that's why sometimes I use a sponge on on the part of the neck so yeah so if I switch [Applause] to so I control the strings with my right hand and uh whenever I I switch to this technique I try to you know uh adjust my left hand a little bit Yeah so that yeah that that's I forgot what we were here to talk about this is no this is really cool uh I do want to mention that we're going to have uh at least one more video with Mato playing through one of his new songs or upcoming songs yeah um is one song from the album from the album uh as well as a video by our friends at who going to dive deeper into uh mat's history as a guitar player and how he got to that which is yeah um okay so um where are you taking that playing now I see like you're going to be you you're here on your way to guitar Summit uh are you working on more conventions touring new music what what what have you got going on yeah I'm I'm actually working on some new music okay so my first album uh uh got out in July MH um I'm already thinking about the musical Direction I want to take for the second album you know and one of my let's say issues musically speaking is that I'm interested in so much different styles of music you can hear that yeah that it's it's really uh hard to like uh prepare an album and say okay this will be a rock and roll album or this will be a jazz album and I I can't really do that because I I I want that the music I like has a lot of different styles and influences so I I want that my music is also like that so I think uh um the second album will be spaced up with some other influences as well while maintaining you know my myself my my style my kind of style and uh you keep your album coherent like it's many different styles but it's you playing all of those things so there's still your identity in there yeah so I'm thinking about you know the the identity that the second album needs to have uh and then of course I'm always studying guitar I always try to get better as a player and uh as a musician and as a human as well you know that's that's the objective yeah uh all striving to be our best um it's it's super interesting though I've done a few interviews in in in my days and uh I think you're one of the first person who actually mentions the the practice side of it like like spending your time is obviously you know you get busy you get touring you get doing clinics and everything but how much of how much of your time is dedicated to just sit down and either learn a new piece or practice a particular technique or some something like this yeah and it's a lot of time I mean I I try to play guitar every day first of all uh because I like to to be um it doesn't need to be an obligation you know I I don't I don't really like the word word practice because for me it's a you know it's a personal thing it's something that I do because uh it it refresh my brain in a in a way so in for me I see I see it always like a funny thing to play guitar and at the same time I practice of course uh but I never felt that I have to practice I always practice because I want to practice and that's the key in order to um do a let's say a good practice routine you you you have to love the process yeah and so yeah I try to play every day I try to listen as much music as I can uh especially music where the guitar is not really the protagonist because we guitar players we have the tendency to listen too many guitar players you know yep and uh the thing is there so much music out there where the guitar is not the protagonist but somehow it's also uh incredibly interesting uh good I I I absolutely love that take I'm I'm I'm So Into like soundtracks like either movie or like video game soundtracks for the most part like a lot of my musical ideas and licks that I play over and over and over again on this channel uh come from like Skyrim or The Witcher soundtrack wow Skyrim is one of my favorite games it's absolutely incredible and those things I can listen to on repeat there's there's not a single guitar it's just like there's a bit of loot there might be a bit of classical here and there but like very sparse and like they so inspiring to try and take those ideas and then like translate them people think that if you listen guitar you will learn more about this but the thing is that even if you listen uh other players saxophone players piano players or even you know cinematic soundt tracks this will transfer to your guitto playing because you're absorbing musical ideas and that's the point you have to absorb musical ideas you you don't have to all absorb guitar leaks you know that's that's yeah again more wise words uh I'm I'm gonna let you uh play yourself I'm I'm really looking forward to the performance uh you guys definitely go check it out we'll link all the other videos whether that one the one from Bono as well as everything uh M social media websites the touring schedule Clinic schedule everything check out the description down below we'll also be linking uh all the uh gear that M has been using in this video and the others all similar instruments in beautiful different colors and pickup configuration so go check it out um thank you so much this this has been an absolute pleasure and treat to pick your brain and uh please do take us out as melodically as as you know how thank you guys so much and we'll see you in the next one [Applause] [Music] a [Music]