September 25th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Volume 346, Tom Bukovac, “18 Strings And A Dozen Roses”

Chapters
00:00 - Feeding back through the doubleneck
02:45 - What's up
05:23 - Thanks for playing / Greco
05:51 - Greco Doubleneck / Sympathetic ring
06:37 - VCB (Viewer Comment Bin) / New house / WiFi
09:26 - Blackbird Studios and Lauren Watkins
09:53 - New guitars
10:14 - Nice chord progressions
10:48 - Fuckstick, dickweed comment with a throat punch / Confrontation via keyboard warriors / Restraint in playing
14:55 - Finding a good balance and not jacking on guitar all day
17:03 - NGD (New Guitar Day) '54 Les Paul Jr. with Gibson GA5 amp / '53 Fender Blackguard
18:29 - Richard Smith - Fender the Sound Heard Around the World (book)
20:57 - Paul Simon / Writing the book of the shit I could never say


Notes
Unclectric Larryland


I’ve been told that the new Gwen Stefani record is out friends…it’s chock full of Cleveland guitars…let me know if it’s any good

September 24th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Volume 345, Tom Bukovac, “Hitchhike From Saginaw”

Chapters
00:00 - Plunking, looping, and soloing
06:10 - Hard to stop looper
06:19 - Fucking amazing Reggae
06:55 - "Everything's hard" / Amazing playing cont. / Blackbird Studios / Singing and playing Alex Harvey Band Cheek To Cheek
08:21 - Lesson: Simon and Garfunkel - America / Yes
09:40 - Lights out / Complaining about lighting in free videos
10:30 - Amp guessing game
12:07 - Tweed Deluxe / Thanks for gifts
13:00 - Marshall Plexi / Good people getting ahead
14:06 - Lesson: A little finger work
15:15 - Lesson: Harmonies - Steely Dan - Led Zeppelin
16:05 - Play that sound all night / New room vs kitchen
17:12 - Lesson: That guy got the lick wrong / Fast pull-offs
19:56 - PayPal thanks / Rental house? / Thanks for the help / Dave Grohl scandal mention / Dating apps and advice
24:25 - Listen to America by Simon and Garfunkel / Vocal Harmonies, counter-rhythms
25:45 - Yes - America (version)
25:53 - Lesson: Yes - America part / Creamy center of songs, sweet little moments
27:31 - "Slightly different than the original" / Doing covers
28:28 - Giveaway


Notes
Uncle Larry gets in the weeds after a long day of sessioneering with some stream of consciousness music and speech

September 23rd, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Volume 344, Tom Bukovac, “Rock And Roll Mountain”

Chapters
00:00 - Bringing out those tones
04:23 - Hi friends!
05:17 - More tones
05:54 - I Love Rock 'n' Roll
06:27 - Wings of Pegasus crusade
08:50 - VCB (Viewer Comment Bin) / East Lake Ohio bar / Surfside Jack drawing
10:17 - Thanks / 5 minutes to sell guitar / "How long does it take to know if it has it or not?"
14:15 - Not my first PA head (Paul Kossoff)
14:41 - Break off toothpick / Rickenbacker
16:20 - Marshall Basketweave cab
16:49 - "Would you just use modeling gear?" / "Kemper, it's good enough"
19:00 - Drunk emails?
19:43 - Placid Blue Strat
20:22 - NFL games


Notes
Uncle Larry gets into some knee deep VCB on a fall Monday

September 19th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Volume 342, Tom Bukovac, “Play Your Ass Out”

Chapters
00:00 - '70s rockin' and singing
02:44 - Turning the knobs on your guitar / Secret treble bleed
05:05 - Lesson: Making it sound British enough / Play softer / Bag of subtleties
08:00 - Lesson: Old school '60s sound
08:46 - Thank you to Nick Drushel / Frets on guitars
09:30 - No shortage of tone on the SG Special
10:08 - "What kind of fret wire"? / "What kind of action" / Action and setup
11:38 - SG vs. Les Paul (sustain and dead spots)
12:34 - Nylon saddles
13:13 - Fret jobs
16:25 - Rebinds
17:20 - Neck sets / Gruhn knowledge
21:16 - Sting - Bring on the Night - Piano solo by Kenny Kirkland


Notes
There’s a hilarious old bit of Nashville session folklore that I have heard since I first moved here…

It’s about a Japanese record producer who didn’t quite “know the lingo” getting really excited on a session and yelling “you play your ass out!!” to all the musicians hahaaaa

September 18th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Bonus , “Silver Spoon”

Chapters
00:00 - Day job in a session/producing


Notes
Session log:
9/18/24

Nashville TN

I thought you guys might like to watch the way a song develops over several takes…
from a project your Uncle Larry is producing on a gal from St. Louis named Jaime French.

aside from being an amazing singer, Jaime is well known in YouTube land for being a comedian…she is actually about to embark on her own comedy tour, and she’s making this record to help support it.

Her and her husband Nick are here in town for a few days while we worked on 4 songs over the last two days at one of my very favorite studios in this town….the Smoakstack in Berry Hill.

Yes that’s the same place where we did all the Ann Wilson stuff back in the day…in fact we had three of the original Amazing Dawgs assembled on today’s session.

Jaime and I put together a pretty swingin little crew for these sessions…

Zack Zinck engineering (you know how Larry ALWAYS says that the engineer is the most important guy in the band…and our boy Zack is VERY VERY good at his job…)

Stix Mchugh on the drums

Tony T Bone Lucido on the electric bass

Sweet Davey Cohen on the piano and synthesizers

Paul Moak on guitar and synth

Dearest Samuel was our invaluable session assistant (also known as the SECOND)

the assistant engineer is the SECOND most important guy in the band)
A good assistant can absolutely make or break a whole session friends…this is a fact

Anyway, crack yourself a beer and take a little ride down creation road…it’s a good song and she’s a damn good singer. Hope you enjoy watching “the process”

I swear friends, even after all these years I am still mystified by how it all works…as I have said many times before , the power of collaboration is my favorite thing in all of music

September 14th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Goes To Gruhn’s Episode 8

Chapters
00:00 - Discussing life along with instruments
01:34 - Dean Guitars / Golden years
13:00 - Dean bridge pickup
16:48 - Burst bridge pickup
19:22 - Dean neck pickup / Comparison
24:24 - Discussion
34:00 - ES-335
36:35 - Burst
37:19 - ES-335 discussion
38:00 - Burst neck pickup
38:34 - ES-335 neck pickup
39:30 - ES-335
40:00 - '64 Gibson Firebird 3
41:29 - Firebird
42:48 - Conclusion


Notes
Starring
George Gruhn
Cory Terrell
Greg Voros
Nathan Golliher
and Peter

September 14th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Volume 340, Tom Bukovac, “Camera Shy”

Chapters
00:00 - Plucking those unusual chords beautifully
01:07 - Changing it up to an amazing progression
01:32 - Lesson: Dm - Gm - C - F - Ab/C - Caug - F (Etta James - At Last) / Best R&B Singer
03:21 - Gibson Les Paul Special from the '50s / What friends' guitars do you like?
05:27 - Greetings first (pet peeve) / Family
06:15 - The Doors - Love Me Two Times
07:35 - VCB (Viewer Comment Bin) / "Sonically Pleasing Record?" AC/DC - Back in Black
08:50 - Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name Of (damn good sonic pleasing properties)
09:48 - Lesson: Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name Of
11:00 - Dodge Ram truck stereo with Zach Bryan music
11:43 - Forgotten how good records can sound
12:46 - Keith Urban
13:07 - V vs. Explorer
14:11 - "Has YouTube changed you?" / Ham in front of a camera now
16:30 - "Guilty pleasure album?" / CDs and multi-load CD player / Liz Phair
18:17 - Banding together in Nashville / Variety
19:48 - Bruce Springsteen concert best ever / Bad muther fucker
21:53 - "Good guitar sound live?" / Blackface Deluxe Reverb & Tweed Deluxe


Notes
Uncle Larry gets deep in the weeds early on a Saturday morning ….

What’s he building in there??

September 12th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Bonus “What A Weird Job”

Chapters
00:00 - Commercial - behind the music


Notes
My favorite thing about the life of a session man …you just NEVER KNOW what you are gonna be doing from one day to the next …it’s literally impossible to predict….

Working on a new commercial for some heavy hitter race car folks …guitars on loan straight from the Gibson showroom…

I bet a lot of you guys don’t even realize that I grew up playing a Floyd ….

September 12th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Bonus “Built For Speed”

Chapters
00:00 - McLaren


Notes
Havin a little fun down at the Gibson Garage with a different kind of hot rod than those old Chevy’s I normally drive.

Special thanks to Julian Raymond, Erik Logan, Nolan Siegel, Erica Krusen, Scott Borchetta and Dave…

September 9th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Volume 336, Tom Bukovac, “How To Make A Loop Like Larry”

Chapters
00:00 - Funking picking and hammering loop
05:18 - How to make a loop / Erase loop in time
06:19 - Struggling with loopers (internal rhythm) / Boss RC-1
07:00 - Lesson: Sportsbar Blues loop timing / Finger counting / Erasing on the fly
08:12 - Lesson: Funking picking and hammering lick / Internal click track
13:13 - Lesson: Using different sounds for contrast and make frequencies work together
14:22 - Lesson: Sharp vs. bassy tone / Frequency range (Bass: 100-200hz, Chunky guitars: 500-800hz, Tough mid-range guitars: 1K-2K, Vocal: 3K and up)
16:20 - Lesson: Tremolo on 1 track, not the other
20:30 - Lesson: Too much melody in the loop sucks / Melody holes


Notes
After eight million requests I figured it might be time to tackle this subject

September 6th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Volume 335, Tom Bukovac, “Red Zone Blues”

Chapters
00:00 - Pluckin the P90s
05:10 - Hey friends! / Bukovac birth (father rheumatic fever and heart attack)
07:10 - NFL game
08:52 - Tom Bukovac vinyls after 50 years old / Old friends catching up Mark Bright / Carrie Underwood
11:53 - '52 Gibson Les Paul / Show stopper / Neck pickup is amazing
15:02 - 50 watt tremolo plexi through Bogner 212
16:19 - That Fizz enemy
17:20 - '52 Les Paul / MojoAxe bridge
17:55 - "Wasn't sure at first" / Neumann u67 mic / Let the instrument teach you


Notes
No, I didn’t use a 335 for this episode…it was too cliche

September 5th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Volume 334, Tom Bukovac, “The Arc Of Life”

Chapters
00:00 - Some traditional guitar
03:25 - Hello, friends!
04:00 - '57 Gibson Les Paul / Mark Bright, Carrie Underwood connection
05:41 - Looking back on life ("Arc of Life")
09:19 - Black Keys stuff / Dan Auerbach & Pat Carney
09:38 - Creative studio vs Corporate studio / Music as a painting and delivering
13:47 - Randall Bramblett / Putting your hearts into it vs. time and budget radio play
14:52 - Playing the Goldtop / Good guitar gives you everything / Thanks
16:04 - Led Zeppelin stealing, but amazing / Blues


Notes
This is the tune I mentioned, but check out this whole record friends…
Randall Bramblett

August 26th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Volume 331, Tom Bukovac, “Royal Power Pop”

Chapters
00:00 - Plucking out a song to a loop with a little Leslie in it
03:23 - Hello, friends! / Life update / NFL diddy
04:46 - Morgan Wallen session
05:58 - '79 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe / Playing
06:30 - Lesson: Blue Oyster Cult / 2 parts as one / Burnin' For You
07:30 - Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear the Reaper lyrics
09:00 - "Hardest thing about being a session man?"
11:00 - Numbnuts from Tulsa in the comments / "Jam off" / "Off his meds"
13:53 - The Gear Page Moderator and getting banned
14:45 - Lesson: Smear with hammer into bend / Pre-bend dead in tune
16:50 - Lesson: Bending strings / Tightly slammed fingers


Notes
Uncle Larry gets his English melody on.
God Save the Queen

so, do you think i even stand a chance in a "jam off" against this fella?

• Early 70s Carvin AS50

August 24th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Bonus “White Funk Railroad”

Chapters
00:00 - Doing that funky playing with a loop


Notes
You can bust some shit up real good with just two chords…music is mostly about rhythm.
The rhythm and the phrasing of the notes gets noticed by the human ear more than the actual notes themselves get noticed

In this example it’s just the 1 to the 4 back and forth in the key of C

If you get bored by just two chords, keep in mind that this groove actually has one more chord than “chain of fools” by ‘Retha does

August 22nd, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Volume 330, Tom Bukovac, “Idiometry”

Chapters
00:00 - That Country type thing
07:57 - Uncle Larry hello/update (Morgan Wallen / Dan Auerbach) / Thanks
09:10 - '52 Gibson Les Paul
10:04 - Lesson: Staying withing idioms or it just sounds untrained
12:42 - Playing into singing
13:49 - Buying a Plexi / Update / Playing


Notes
Uncle Larry checks in in the middle of a long week of plunkin’ on guitars to pay the rent.

If you haven’t seen this yet, please do yourself a favor and watch this video friends

• I interviewed legendary guitar player...

Please understand, my interest in this video has absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that he mentions a couple things about uncle Larry here and there…what I TRULY LOVE about this video is how it so clearly showcases what a beautiful person Dann is and always has been

so sweet , so genuinely humble..so supremely talented….such a special guy

August 14th, 2024

Tom Bukovac, “Gold Digger”

Chapters
00:00 - Looping some amazing shit


Notes
A little tone from way back before the patent was actually granted …

August 14th, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Western Bonus “Swangin’”

Chapters
00:00 - Western licks
01:55 - Live stream of Guthrie Trapp and Tom Bukovac $20


Notes
Here is the link to the livestream of this weekends gig friends...
https://volume.com/t/oIiehV/

August 3rd, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Garage Sale with your host Peter Blacklarge

Chapters
00:00 - '69 Gibson Les Paul Custom - Uncle Larry's Garage Sale


Notes
Thanks for tuning in friends

This is gonna be someone’s daily driver

Respond to tombukovac@gmail.com for in person pickup

That white 63 sg special I have with the vibrato arm is about to get thrown on the launch pile


That thing is TOTALLY tricked out Larry style…

Accepting offers on that

August 1st, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Bonus “Lord Loves A Workin’ Man”

Chapters
00:00 - Building some Blues
01:56 - Hello dear friends! / Checking in / Hot outside
02:54 - Vince Gill gig at the Ryman
03:17 - Julian Raymon (producer) garage sale
04:21 - Nashville commute to Cleveland delivery driver
05:10 - '65 Gibson Firebird I
05:45 - Guitar vault cartage
05:58 - Signing vinyl records (Guthrie Trapp & Tom Bukovac)


Notes
I forgot to mention one thing on my housekeeping list…I’m currently searching for a bad ass bug guy in the south Nashville area.

we used to call them “exterminators” in the old days but we can’t use that word anymore because the insects thought it was “insensitive”

Anyway, I need a bug NINJA…not just some big corporate bullshit company that gives everyone the same bullshit corporate treatment…I want some PERSONALIZED service…a guy I can text or call directly …a guy who is PASSIONATE about killing bugs

If anyone out there has has a REALLY good experience with any exterminating company PLEASE let me know

July 31st, 2024

Homeskoolin’ Bonus, “Who’s On Burst?”

Chapters
00:00 - 3 of the finest guitars on planet Earth.
01:14 - Vince Gill's 1959 Les Paul - Neck pickup
02:10 - Option B - Neck pickup
03:07 - Option C (1958) - Neck pickup
03:57 - Vince Gill's 1959 Les Paul - Neck pickup 2
04:42 - Option B (1959) - Neck pickup 2 (Lightest one in weight)
05:29 - Option C (1958) - Neck pickup 2
06:06 - Option C (1958) - Bridge pickup / B-string D note
07:22 - Option B (1959) - Bridge pickup
08:22 - Vince Gill's 1959 Les Paul - Bridge pickup
09:10 - "This shit makes me nervous" - Jedd Hughes / Second time around - Bridge pickups
09:52 - Option ? - Bridge pickup
10:46 - Option ? - Bridge pickup
11:25 - Neck shapes? / Bridge pickup
12:23 - Vince Gill's 1959 Les Paul - Bridge pickup
13:13 - Conclusion


Notes
Killin time at rehearsal with some golden age Kalamazoo…talent by Jedd Hughes

Lets hear your thoughts on favorite neck pickup and favorite bridge pickup…cuz we sure as hell can’t say