August 23rd, 2026

Homeskoolin’ Volume 689, Tom Bukovac, “Blues From Neptune”

Chapters
00:00 - Playing: Slow loop with Danelectro
04:47 - "Don't get too rowdy" / "The frets of the guitar no one ever plays"
06:32 - Happy Sunday / "Bonus Years" - longer than Hendrix and Cobain
08:13 - Silvertone U2 (Rick Vito) / Rick Vito story / Silvertone was only a name
12:45 - Danelectro amp
13:19 - Robert Keeley new pedal (Keeley - Tube Driver) / Base sound and playing
14:48 - Tube Driver settings
16:14 - Everything at 10 o'clock
17:25 - Robert Keeley
20:33 - "How to make money in life?" / "Bend over and pick it up" / Baseball bat company and Bella Canvas shirts


Notes
Nat Daniel gave the world guitars made from Masonite that were high quality yet very affordable ….Uncle Larry gave the world quality t shirts

August 21st, 2026

Homeskoolin’ Volume 687, Tom Bukovac, “New York Tweed”

Chapters
00:00 - Playing: National New Yorker
03:13 - Hello, friends! / Fender Tweed Deluxe
04:00 - '40 National New Yorker ("Satan's Banjo")
04:54 - "The thickest high E string"
06:49 - Special thank you to Smacker Bats
08:32 - Robert Keeley - Tube Drive / Dead Ringer rubber bridge
09:21 - Bone chords / Marshall amps aren't selling
13:08 - Tommy Emanuel


Notes
Uncle Larry shows the class some really fun new items…and most importantly he sends out a huge thank you to sweet Brian Carter at Smacker Baseball Bats for sending the family a nice trio of personalized bats so Uncle Larry can crush some bombs outta the park

and class, you might want to take note.....if you ever get a chance to check out one of these old National New Yorker guitars you should DEFINITELY do it....but sadly, they only made that guitar with this exact design and layout for one year...1940.

With a little work and a few tasty upgrades these can become very dangerous weapons.

This is very much like the one Memphis Minnie played, except hers was sunburst and had a slightly different pickup.

People think the original pickup on these guitars is a humbucker when they look at it, and even more so when they hear it because it's so loud and ballsy....but it's not friends.

I have taken one apart and it's just a big loud raunchy single coil with a VERY unique design and a ridiculous gnarly tone with a metric SHIT LOAD of particularly nasty midrange cut....

it basically sounds like this through any decent rock and roll amp.

Uncle Larry thinks it's a damn shame that they only used this pickup for such a short time because they are so insanely cool and unique sounding...if they would have put this pickup on more guitars for a longer period of time, Uncle Larry believes that they would have become iconic in the annals of rock and roll history.

I have had them all friends...there is no other pickup that sounds quite like this.

August 20th, 2026

Homeskoolin’ Volume 686, Tom Bukovac, “Doozy Day”

Chapters
00:00 - Playing: Duesenberg Double Cat
02:36 - Hello, friends! / Fall
03:15 - Duesenberg Double Cat / John Oats / Morgan Wallen / Fakin' steel
04:41 - Playing: Faking pedal steel
05:53 - "Weird EQ" / Coolest moves on a multibender
06:22 - Lesson: Keeping the G while hitting the B
07:41 - "That move right there"
08:51 - Getting to a cool Major 7
09:51 - "Cool move" / "Sound of the benders"
10:51 - Lesson: Crippled by the slide
13:27 - '63 Gibson Firebird V / Taking out high end by swapping potentiometers (pots)
16:26 - '64 Gibson Firebird III
19:00 - Robert Keeley - Tube Drive
19:38 - The Doors - People Are Strange


Notes
Uncle Larry shows the class the discontinued Duesenberg Double Cat Multi Bender guitar that he has been wrestling with for almost 20 years now….and then he gets into some old Firebird minutiae

May 14th, 2025

Homeskoolin’ “A Complete Guide To Overdrive Pedals That Actually Work”

Chapters
00:00 - Shredding
03:28 - Howya doing?
03:49 - Harmonic Minor
04:40 - Shortcomings of the Kramer
06:55 - What makes a pedal sound like a pedal
14:08 - Boss SD-2 Dual Overdrive, Blues Driver, etc.
15:47 - Boss EQ-10
18:16 - Gruhn's shopping and finding a bass
18:53 - Fender Precision Bass
19:13 - "Rare"
19:52 - Jazz bass vs Precision
21:16 - Hellcat


Notes
Uncle Larry demonstrates how he won the Cleveland Ohio "Guitar Wars Contest" in 1987...
and dips his foot in the water of talking about gear…at the risk of pissing off all the tube screamer and klon lovers

May 13th, 2025

Homeskoolin' Volume 446, Tom Bukovac, "Wild 700 Horses"

Chapters
00:00 - Playing Special
01:30 - Just Larry / Real Tube and MXR Sugar Drive
02:25 - '58 Gibson Les Paul Special through Princeton Reverb
02:50 - Real Tube pedal
04:58 - Nobels ODR-1
05:37 - MXR Sugar Drive
08:42 - VCB (Viewer Comment Bin) / Let everything go
09:40 - Good sound from Nobels with Les Paul comment
10:32 - Dodge Durango Hellcat
12:27 - Touring to bus level / Doing your own thing vs sideman
14:50 - Stalker Guy channel tanking
15:24 - Hellcat


Notes
Why do we still use horses as a unit of engine power measurement anyway?
Is it to further belittle the horse?

May 11th, 2025

Homeskoolin’ Volume 444, Tom Bukovac, “Caddy Shack”

Chapters
00:00 - Dean Cadillac string change
10:15 - MXR Sugar Drive / Real Tube
12:00 - Dodge Durango Hellcat / Stolen measures


Notes
Uncle Larry talks about road life and shows you a VERY rare guitar

January 3rd, 2025

Homeskoolin’ Volume 384, Tom Bukovac, “Empress New Clothes”

Chapters
00:00 - Some crunchy goodness
02:25 - Hello, dear friends! / Morgan Wallen
03:54 - Dann Huff and producing record
05:49 - Empress new drive pedal / Controls / Distortion
07:13 - Gibson Les Paul Goldtop clean into amp
07:35 - Pedal demo
09:12 - Bass to match Lake Placid Blue Strat
11:30 - VCB (Viewer Comment Bin) / Getting excited about music / 1978 Elvis Costello / Bruce Thomas bass
13:47 - Born without tone? / Being able to decifer tone
16:13 - Did you see you have a stalker?
17:48 - Nasty weather
18:37 - '57 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop / Outro playing


Notes
This is basically a live recording from 1978…try to imagine being in a band THIS good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KI9eN-AY1s

October 27th, 2023

Homeskoolin' Bonus, "The Early Years"

Chapters
00:00 - Bending the Country out of that thing
01:36 - Real quick check-in
02:02 - Old school pedalboard
04:11 - Boss Dual Overdrive SD-2, Boss Tremolo TR-2, Hughes & Kettner, Tube Rotosphere, Nobels, ODS-1, Boss, Dual Overdrive, SD-2, V-Wah, PW-10, Tremolo, TR-2, GE-7, Ernie Ball, Volume
05:53 - Custom Shop Tele relic / Uncle Larry's Garage Sale notice
08:09 - Lesson: Old Country Western licks


Notes
Thanks to Jeff Grossman for unearthing that ancient photo

This tele is a custom shop 2021 "1960 Telecaster Custom HVREL"

which i assume stands for "heavy relic"...or "heavy fake memories" as i call it

Its a super fancy custom shop piece that comes ALL the outrageous case candy...AND i put some good brass saddles on it for ya...you're welcome

April 2nd, 2023

Homeskoolin' Volume 206, Tom Bukovac, "Disclaimers Are A Sign Of Weakness"

Chapters
00:00 - Tinkering around / Loop
03:09 - Hello, friends! / Beer cans / Old stuff and born out of time
04:11 - Old neck, new body Telecaster with Ron Ellis pickup / Thanks
06:30 - VCB (Viewer Comment Bin)
07:10 - Original 10" speaker in Princeton (Jensen)
07:50 - Nobels pedals and no disclaimers / Mini
10:00 - The Klon thing
10:34 - Use your ears not your eyes and blindfold test
11:40 - Klon value
12:47 - Pedal video
14:00 - Randy Rhoads tone
16:20 - Billy Sims (NFL)
16:45 - Todd Sharp - Vacuum Tube Loop Driver


Notes

Uncle Larry gets busy on a Ron Ellis tele bridge pickup through a device that Todd Sharp made into a device that Leo Fender made.

and...just try to get through this whole video without bawling like a baby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Sa7Yfb7Lo

October 27th, 2021

Homeskoolin’ Hump Day Bonus “I’m In The Mood For A Heiny”

Chapters
00:00 - Beautiful, soulful playing


Notes
Well, guys….after ALL the love i have given to my trusted brand for years, not a single soul from Latrobe has reached out to help your sad old uncle…no calls, no letters, no emails…crickets….

now, he is SERIOUSLY considering switching to another green bottle…the same one your old Uncle Eddie enjoyed….

Taking you back to 1983 here with one of the greatest guitar solos ever recorded in my humble opinion….Robbie Blunt’s brilliant contribution to the Robert Plant song called “In The Mood”….which also featured some fine drumming by another English bloke that your uncle holds dear to his heart…..

The super sparkly high end on the '60 Strat i bought at an estate sale is being provided by the Vertex Ultra Phonix Special Overdrive pedal that dear Mason was kind enough to send me....delay is Vahlbruch Space Time that Vahlbruch was kind enough to send me....reverb was a Boss RV-6 i bought at a music store going out of business sale...amp is a dead clean '65 Vibrolux Reverb with the factory Jensen 10's that you DEFINITELY want in your old Vibrolux that i bought off the craigslist.

Record is coming Friday folks on the website Bandcamp….Ill post a link as soon as i know it.

Paypal tip jar is tombukovac@gmail.com