SITE UPDATES

7 June 2008

25 May 2008

We're back! Added news about the Canberra clinic in August.

18 July 2007

Fixed a broken link on the Forums page.

26 February 2007

Added a note about Brett's upcoming tour of England, and his mention in GP.

29 December 2006

Uploaded the fifth lesson to the Lessons page.

9 October 2006

Uploaded the fourth lesson to the Lessons page.

15 July 2006:

12 July 2006:

  • Added news item about Italy tour photos.
  • Removed notice of Italy tour from front page.

18 June 2006

  • Added news about Brett's Italy tour with William Stravato; updated the Gig Guide.
  • Fixed a broken link in the news item about the second guitar lesson. Sorry about that!
  • Changed a few links in the Press pages so they no longer open in a new window.

18 May 2006

Uploaded second lesson to the Lessons page.

4 April 2006

Added a link to the full version of "Undoing" to the current Lesson on the Lessons page.

2 April 2006

Added inactive preview links for the next couple of Lessons to the Lessons page.

1 April 2006

Added new Lessons section with debut lesson.

25 March 2006

Changed all the links on the Links page so that they no longer open in a new browser window.

26 February 2006

Added a link for Gustavo Assis-Brasil to the Links page. Gustavo has written a book on hybrid picking, and Brett reckons it's a good one.

28 January 2006

  • Revised the look of the Audio and Gig Guide pages.
  • Added the upcoming John Farnham concerts to the Gig Guide page.

27 January 2006

Added a link for Phil Herbert to the Links page.

20 January 2006

Added a link for TJ's new website (at last!) to the Links page.

12 January 2006

3 December 2005

Updated the Gig Guide.

8 November 2005

Added news about Brett's DSL Straps endorsement.

31 October 2005

Updated the Gig Guide with 3 new clinic dates.

29 October 2005

Added DSL Straps to the Links page. Brett uses & endorses DSL straps.

23 October 2005

Updated the Gig Guide.

29 September 2005

Updated the Gig Guide with 2 new clinic dates.

4 September 2005

Added testimonials for the DVD to the front page.

28 August 2005:

18 August 2005:

Updated the Gig Guide.

Under the Lash of Gravity now on iTunes

7 June 2008

Under the Lash of Gravity (otherwise known as UTLOG), Brett's third—and much sought-after—collaboration with TJ Helmerich, is now available from iTunes. UTLOG did not get a commercial release, and has consequently been hard to find. Its welcome availability on iTunes will hopefully address this problem.

If the link above doesn't work for you, open iTunes manually and search for "Garsed and Helmerich". This should take you to the releveant location in the iTunes Store.

In other news, the Rock Improvisation DVD is available in the UK/Europe from Hamcor. This is welcome news for fans in that part of the world looking to buy locally.

Clinic in Canberra for August 2008

25 May 2008

Well, an update at long last! Due to the constraints imposed upon my time by work and family, I've had very little of it over the past year to attend to this site, and for that I apologise not only to all Brett's fans, but to Brett himself. I'm (more or less) back in the saddle now, and will hopefully be catching up on things over the coming weeks. We start with some excellent news for any Garsed fans in the Canberra area.

On Wednesday August 27, Brett and band will be doing a clinic in Canberra for ESP and Hughes & Kettner, courtesy of Davis Wheeler Music. Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Brett is an endorser of ESP guitars and Hughes & Kettner amplifiers and will be putting the gear through its paces in a set with a first class band that includes Farnham alumni Craig Newman on bass, Stuart Fraser on guitar and Angus Burchall on drums. A Q&A segment will also see Brett sharing his immense industry and musical knowledge.

Get along if you can!

Brett touring Australia with Paul Stanley in April

4 April 2007

Brett will be playing rhythm guitar and backing vocals for Paul Stanley during his "Live to Win" Austalian tour. The tour kicks off on April 11 at the Gold Coast, finishing in Adelaide on April 26. Check out Paul Stanley's MySpace page for more details and booking info.

Brett touring England in March

26 February 2007

For those of you who haven't checked the Gig Guide lately, Brett will be doing a few clinics in England in March, beginning Tuesday March 13. My understanding is that not all of these clinics are open to the public, so it's probably best to confirm with the venue first.

In other (old) news, Brett gets a mention in the February issue of Guitar Player magazine as one of their "101 Forgotten Greats & Unsung Heroes!". It's only brief, but very positive, though I won't republish the text here as GP might take a dim view...

Fifth lesson online

29 December 2006

After an altogether longer gap than I'd anticipated, the fifth lesson in Brett's series for Australian Guitar Magazine has been uploaded to the Lessons section of the website. This one is from Issue 49 (does anybody spot a pattern here?), and is called Two-Hand Tapping. For those of you only familiar with Brett's more recent work, it may come as a surprise that he once had a competent and innovative approach to two-handed playing, but gave it away in 1990 after seeing TJ do it for the first time! This lesson includes scans of the transcriptions and all the audio samples as MP3 files.

Fourth lesson online

9 October 2006

The fourth lesson in Brett's series for Australian Guitar Magazine has been uploaded to the Lessons section of the website. This one is from Issue 48, and is called Scales and Arpeggios. Like the others, it includes scans of the transcriptions and all the audio samples as MP3 files.

Third lesson online

15 July 2006

The third lesson in Brett's series for Australian Guitar Magazine has been uploaded to the Lessons section of the website. This one is from Issue 47, and is called Chromatic Passing Tones. Like the others, it includes scans of the transcriptions and all the audio samples as MP3 files.

New to this instalment is a Power Tab file (generously provided by Chris Johnstone) with all of this lesson's transcriptions on a single page. Reading and printing the notation from this file is a much better experience than using my grungy scans. As Power Tab is a Windows-only application, I've provided an alternative in PDF format for Mac and Linux users.

I've also retrospectively added Chris's Power Tab file (and alternative PDF) to the previous lesson, as I'd forgotten about them at the time. Thanks for all your great work Chris!

New Interview with Brett at Metal Theater

15 July 2006

A new interview with Brett has been posted to the Metal Theater website.

Brett & William Stravato Italy Tour - Photos!

12 July 2006

Simone Cecchetti has posted some photos of Brett & William Stravato live onstage in Italy. Check 'em out!

Brett & William Stravato Italy Tour

18 June 2006

Brett will be touring Italy with the William Stravato Band during late June & early July 2006. The tour will consist of a mixture of clinics and live gigs, and details can be found on the Gig Guide page.

Second lesson online

18 May 2006

The second lesson in Brett's series for Australian Guitar Magazine has been uploaded to the Lessons section of the website. This one is from Issue 46, and is called Non-pattern Pentatonics. This lesson includes scans of the transcriptions and all the audio samples as MP3 files. Plenty to sink your teeth into there!

New Lessons section!

1 April 2006

I'm pleased to introduce a brand new Lessons section to the website (there's a new menu item for it too). The content will mostly consist of Brett's articles from Australian Guitar Magazine, which will be unfamiliar to most non-Australian fans (and perhaps some Aussie fans too). Each lesson will feature commentary and advice from Brett, transcriptions and audio examples (pretty much everything that's in the original magazine article). I've posted the first lesson, from Issue 45, which describes how to negotiate "Undoing". Please note that this one does not yet feature the accompanying audio examples (I'm still trying to find my cover CD!). I've just discovered that there was no accompanying audio for this particular lesson (thanks to Chris Johnstone for pointing this out), so I've linked to the full version of "Undoing" for those who may be interested in the lesson but haven't heard the song.

We aim to post a new lesson every month for the rest of 2006, so there'll be plenty to keep you all going. Enjoy!

A new demo tune!

12 January 2006

Brett has recorded a new demo tune, which he has simply called "Slide Tune". As the name suggests, it showcases Brett's slide playing. I've posted it to the Audio page, and it's also available at Brett's mp3.com.au page.

Brett's new straps

Brett signs with DSL Straps

8 November 2005

Brett is pleased to announce a new arrangement with Australian company DSL Straps. DSL has designed a Brett Garsed signature model strap, customised to accommodate Brett's slide when not it use (see the photo at right, which you can click to enlarge). The straps feature a small pouch to house the slide so that it's within easy reach. Check 'em out, they're pretty neat!

Three more clinic dates!

31 October 2005

Two new clinic dates

29 September 2005

Garsed wallpapers for you PC or Mac

28 August 2005

Shane "NightOwl" has produced a number of Garsed-related wallpaper images for use with PC or Mac computers. He's generously donating them to Brett Garsed fans wherever you may be. Follow the link below to check them out.

Brett Garsed Wallpapers

More video and audio!

14 July 2005

There's another full-length video clip from the DVD at Acid Planet, this time of the song "Brothers".

There's also a new MP3 on the Audio page featuring Brett showcasing his THD Flexi 50 amp. THD dood Ed DeGenaro has also posted it here.

Here's what Brett had to say about the new demo track:

I used the ESP Horizon Custom with a DiMarzio Bluesbucker in the neck and a DiMarzio Virtual PAF in the bridge. The melody/solo is a complete pass (I did quite a few passes to get a decent one though!) so I used the front pickup at half volume. You can hear a gap in the playing where I switch to the back pickup and open the volume out to full. I'm just explaining this to indicate that there was no channel switching or guitar changing involved. It's all one guitar on the one amp setting using only the volume knob of the guitar and the dynamic of the hands.

It's the THD 2x12 cabinet with Celestion Vintage 80s mic'ed with a Shure SM57 off-axis about 5" from the speaker grill and at very quiet volume. I'm always concious of the neighbours! I didn't really muck around too much, just bang the mic in front of the speaker and get going.

I have a EL34 and 6L6 tube in the Flexi 50, runnning it on half power with the boost and master volume on. For live I'd probably like to have the option to switch the boost in and out but that's about it. The amp responds so dynamically that you can almost clean it up with the amount of attack you apply to the guitar.

I recorded it into Pro Tools LE 001 using the mic pres in the interface so it's all affordable consumer gear. Drums are courtesy of Groove Masters Mads Michelson CD, heavily edited to make it work! Bass is courtesy of yours truly so my apologies to all bass players everywhere.