The Mike Baggetta Interview

Mike Baggetta joins a rarified cohort of guitarists—Bill Frisell, Nels Cline, Eivind Aarset, and David Torn—where serious technical ability meets a mastery of sonics.  His band mssv with bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, The Stooges) and drummer Stephen Hodges (Mavis Staples, Tom Waits, David Lynch) has a new album out, so it seemed a good time to catch up. We talk about the difference between the first studio record, Wall of Flowers, and this one, and go deep into Baggetta’s bag of sonic tricks (check out the photos of his pedal setup).

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Red Panda Context Revamped

Every now and again, I like to show a little love to the companies that have supported this endeavor for the last few years. I admit to being bewildered by the Red Panda Context reverb when it first came out. It seemed something of a quotidian pedal from the inventor of the Particle, Raster, and Particle. But when Curt sent me the 2.0 version I realized that in its own way it was as inventive as his other, more obviously out-there effects. Here are a couple of videos that show why.

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NAMM 2020

At NAMM 2020 back in January, the worst thing you had to worry about was getting NAMMthrax (or NAMMonia), that is, a bad cold from shaking all those hands. We live in different times now; hope you and yours are healthy.

What this year’s winter show lacked in number of interesting product debuts it made up for in decibels. Complaints were constant about being unable to hear the gear, or talk to the vendors. (You can experience this in some of the videos). That said, there were a few cool releases that should appeal to the modern guitarist. If April seems late for the roundup, consider that many of these products are just now shipping.

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WOW! GUITAR MODERNE TURNS FIVE!

Five years ago, I found myself scouring YouTube for videos of guitarists like Nels Cline, Derek Bailey, and Eivind Aarset. I was amazed at how much was available and how those videos led to others by strange and wonderful guitarists I didn’t know. I wanted to share this find—but where? I had many guitarist friends and “friends” on Facebook, but only a small percentage of those would be interested in the avant-garde excursions of the players I enjoyed.

The man who helped inspire guitarmoderne.com takes an awesome solo at 5:25

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