2013 is already getting off to a great start–I’m proud to announce the official release of my Guthrie Trapp Signature Model Overdrive Pedal!

I was thrilled to get involved with this project a few months back with Chris VanTassel and Jay Rockett of Rockett pedals and J Rockett audio. They make a variety of great guitar effects including overdrive, tremolo and delays.

This is a wonderful sounding and feeling pedal with plenty of gain, a very usable tone control and volume control. It is based on their Chicken Soup pedal (modeled after the Nobels ODR-1) with some Mark Sampson (Matchless) tweaks and improvements.

This pedal will live on both my live and session boards. It is well defined, thick, warm and slightly compressed with a great feel under the fingers. This OD also sounds surprisingly good with all my guitars and amps.

For more details, ordering info and video clips please head over to Rockett Pedals. Thanks again and hope you enjoy!

Vox Ad

I’m very happy to have teamed up with Vox amplifiers last year!

I’ve been working with Evan O’Brien, and it’s been a pleasure.

I have recently acquired from them the AC-30 Handwired and Bruno 2×12 amps. Both sound great, and I’m having a blast playing through them.

Here is a pic from the ad we just did in the March issue of Vintage Guitar magazine. Thanks to Anthony Scarlati for the great photo!

Session News and Other Projects

Pistol Annie’s

Being a part of the 2nd Pistol Annie’s record was a great way to wrap up 2012! I can’t tell you how much fun making this record for 5 days was!

It was, first of all, a huge pleasure to track with the 3 girls–Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angileena Presley–who all three sing and write their asses off.

The band was Glen Worf (bass), Fred Eltringham (drums), Randy Scruggs (acoustic) and myself (electric, mando and reso). Frank Lidell, Chuck Ainley and Glen all three shared the producer chair and killed it.

We cut everything live with VERY few overdubs and just made great music. Can’t wait for this one to come out friends.

John Oates

Next up is John Oates’ new record. We are going to be starting this next week on January 17.

I have had the pleasure of getting to know John over the past few years, and he’s a great guy (and obviously very talented). I met him in Telluride while on tour with Jerry Douglas a few years ago, and after we all sat in with Sam Bush late Saturday night for the grand finale, John insisted on giving me his guitar!! (Yea, crazy, I know.)

Anyway, I can’t wait to get in the studio with him and start tracking his new project. Keep your eyes and ears out for this new release by Oates.

Garth Fundis

I also really enjoy working with producer Garth Fundis. He is a great guy and an unreal talent.

We have done a ton of projects together and have another coming up mid-January. I can’t wait to see what this one will be.

We never really know until the day we show up. Most of the time we done even know what other musicians are going to be on the session. (This goes for most Nashville tracking dates and not just the project I’m mentioning with Garth.)

It keeps it interesting and we don’t really want to hear the stuff too much before we go in. I personally like that approach.

And More Studio Fun in February…

February 5th is another tracking date with a producer from NYC named Dennis D’Amico doing a project for an artist on Sony records.

I met Dennis through Chad Cromwell and we did some online lesson video shooting out at Chad’s studio. I’m looking forward to working on this project with Dennis.

18 South Band

18 South is kicking off nicely in 2013.

We are headed to the Winter Grass festival March 1-4 and will be playing multiple times there in Tacoma, Wa.

If you haven’t checked out this band, please do so! It’s a favorite of many including Sheryl Crow, Delbert McClinton, Leon Russell and many others (who have all sat in with us on various occasions).

In late March we will be heading back out west to Sonoma, Ca for a good friend’s private birthday gathering. This is going to be an outrageous event at a resort/spa in the heart of wine country. I can’t wait. It’s these kinds of “road” gigs that we love to do. It gets no better than making great music with people you love to be around and call your brothers and sisters. Life is good!

Documentary and Short Movie Score Projects Coming Up

I am thrilled to have received a few emails and calls about doing some soundtrack work this year. I can’t really go into too much detail because they are not completed yet, but they’re going to very cool.

Two of my all time favorite guitar players have done tons of scoring and they are Mark Knopfler and Ry Cooder. These guys in my opinion are as cool as it gets!

I really can’t wait to dig into these projects as I think this is going to be very interesting, fun and another adventure in music!!

I hope your 2013 is getting off to a great start.

Let it roll, GT