How long have you been an instructor at Guitartricks?
Eight years. Actually nine years if you count the very first one. I posted MultBar Lesson in 1999 and kind of disappeared for a year...totally forgetting about Guitar Tricks. Then I signed on again and Jon was wondering where I'd gotten to. So he asked me to apply to be an instructor.
At what age did you start playing guitar?
Age 13 playing nothing but a D chord. Then I started getting into it when I turned 18. From there I went straight into working in a country band touring northern Canada so I had to learn 40 songs in less than a week. Definitely an experience.
Did you have lessons, or are you self-taught?
I tried lessons but always ended up teaching the teacher how to play stuff so I felt like I was wasting my money. The only guy that showed me anything decent was after I'd been playing for 20 years. I saw him on a local cable show and contacted him. I took four lessons just so I could figure out how
he played a certain song he did.
Do you play any other instruments, besides guitar?
Drums, Bass, Keys, Guitar Synth to do all the other instruments of the orchestra. I basically play everything on my albums and then hire musicians to play live.
What was your first guitar?
No-name brand K-Mart guitar worth $18. Then I graduated on to an Ibanez Blonde Ash. (that warped in less than a year). Then I got a Yamaha 12 string that also warped. Then I got a 75 Gibson L6S deluxe to go on the road and still use the same guitar now. In 1985 I bought one of the first Roland GR700/808 guitar synths and still have that too.
What sort of rig do you currently use?
Gibson L5S Deluxe Guitar (1975), customized with Seymour Duncan TB-'59 and Joe Barden Dual Blade Pickups
Yamaha Eterna Acoustic 6 string
Roland GR808 Guitar/Synth Controller
Diatone Acoustic Guitar
Giannini Stratasonic Bass
Large set Rogers Drums with double kick
Medium Jazz set Rogers Drums
Rototom Set Tama Drums
Small Remo Practice Drum Set
32 Cymbals of various sizes
Aria microphone, model unknown
Rhode NT1 Microphone
Radio Shack mics, models unknown
AKG k240 Headphones
Koss headphones, model unknown
Sennheizeser HD500 Headphones
Sony MDR CD180 headphones
Koss R80 Headphones
Koss computer subwoofer system
Luxman L410 Amp
Denon DRM800 Cassette deck
Sony PCM170
Paradigm 3se Speakers
Monster Cable
Custom Headphone Amp
Mac G3 with G4 466 upgrade, 6mb vRam, 768ram, OS9, CDRW
MacPro 8 Core 3Ghz, 3TB, 16GB ram, OSX Leopard, 3 X 30" Cinema Displays
Cubase VST 5.1 software
Cubase VST 32
Cubase Nuendo
Cubase SX
VSTi Synths: Absynth, DX10, Moog Modular, NI Pro-52, PPG-Wave,
NI-B4, Battery, LM-4 Mark II, NI FM-7,
Halion, Plex, The Grand, SampleTank 2, ReBirth
VST Plug-Ins: BBE Sonic Maximizer, PSP Vintage Warmer,
Steinberg Voice Generator, Voice Processor, TC Native Reverb Master,
PSP42, PSP84, MDA De-ess, Silverspike Reverb, Spektral Delay,
Voice Designer, Voxiter, Karlette, Magneto, ME Compressor,
Spectralizer, Ambisone,
Antares AutoTune 3, Audio Rate Pan, Average Injector, Bassline,
Chamberverb, Cyclotron, DaD Valve, daTube,
DeNoiser, Dynasone, Grungelizer, IK Amplitube,
JOEMEEK Meequalizer, Lexicompress, PC90,
Lexicon PC90, LMaximizer, Magneto, MDA SubSynth,
ME FreeFileter, PhaseScope, Spectrograph,
Mic Mod, Pluggo, PROSONIQ, Ambisone,
Magenta, VoxCiter, PSP MixBass, PSP PianoVerb, StereoAnalyser,
Reaktor, Space Echo, Steinberg Symphonic, subBass, TC|N-EQ, DeX,
Turntablist Pro
Audio Applications: sonicWORX, Sonicfire PRO,
Peak, SoundEdit, SndConverter,
ReCycle, N2MP3, Soundmaker, UltraRecorder, Deck 3.5, MetaSynth
500+GB custom and royalty free loops & sound effects on HD, AkaiLoops,
Voices from the Blackbox, Voices of Turkey, PlanetSample Emu, Wizoo,
JazzTrap,
Performance Loops, PLPLoops etc etc...
Adobe Photoshop CS3, Dreamweaver, Acrobat Pro, After Effects, Flash CS3
Lightroom, QuarkExpress, Maya, Filemaker Advanced Pro, Logic Pro, Boris
RED, Carrara Pro, iWeb, iLife, Portfolio
What's your dream rig?
I've already got it except for a Synclavier and original Moog
Who was your biggest influence, both musically and in general?
Van Halen who jump started my career in tapping, Thomas Dolby and Howard Jones who taught me that I could multitrack on my own and bands such as Saga and Supertramp who taught me that music can have multi-layers and hidden meanings.
What musician do you most admire and why?
Thomas Dolby. Excellent solo musician who can push boundaries.
What is the best guitar playing lesson you ever learned?
Eruption, Hemishperes
How has your taste in music changed over the time you've been playing, if it has changed at all?
Definitely. I started out learning Partridge Family songs, then graduated to Pink Floyd, Supertramp, FM, SAGA, Rush, Van Halen
What was the first song you learned to play all the way through?
Song Sung Blue by Neil Diamond
What's the most challenging piece of music for you to play currently?
MoogBoog.... my own song.
Classical Gas
Extreme - Get The Funk Out ( cause you have to do vocals at the same time)
Check out my music, video, lessons & backing tracks here![br]https://www.renhimself.com
