Shred With Shifty Chris Shiflett

The influential British shredder talks about how he formed his playing style and demonstrates how to rip one of his most iconic leads.

To hear Phil Collen tell it, he joined Def Leppard almost by accident. He had loaned the band one of his amps, and when they asked him to play some leads on their upcoming record Pyromania, Collen thought he was just doing his friends a solid. The rest is history.

He and Shifty talk through Collen’s formative years on guitar, where he soaked up the scorching playing of classic guitar heroes: Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, Mick Ronson, Michael Schenker, and Gary Moore all played a hand in Collen’s high-flying fretwork. 

Collen’s solo on “Photograph” is a perfect example of the sort of “ear candy” that producer Mutt Lange encouraged the band to chase in the studio—and yes, he did record individual notes to build a single guitar chord on Pyromania. But there weren’t many tricks to Collen’s sound on the solo. His Ibanez Destroyer and a 50-watt Marshall were all he needed to get the job done for the slick, Blackmore-inspired solo. Tune in to see how he worked that two-piece setup to record one of the most influential guitar solos of the ’80s.


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Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642
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Follow Chris Shiflett:
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Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag

Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudoin
Video Editors: Dan Destefano and Addison Sauvan

Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.

Being born into rock royalty doesn’t make you a rock star—you’ve gotta earn it with your own chops. And whether it’s the classical pedigree of his first name or the hard-rock infamy of his surname, Wolfgang Van Halen has a long lineage to live up to. As he displays on this episode of Shred With Shifty, he’s more than up to the task.
Wolf joins Shifty to teach the blistering, tap-heavy solo for his song “Take a Bow,” from 2023’s Mammoth II. It follows in his dad’s footsteps, sure, but it also shows Wolf has a voice and vision of his own—both of which are just as potent and theatrical as his father’s. 

Wolf treats us to a tour of his new signature semi-hollowbody EVH model, the SA126, with details from EVH managing director Matt Bruck. But he doesn’t hold out on the family jewels: Wolf shares the story of his father’s iconic Frankenstein Strat and brings it on the show, with some extra dirt on his dad’s journey from Marshalls to his signature Peavey 5150 amps. When Shifty asks who’s stewarding his father’s invaluable gear, Wolf eases our concerns: “If the world ended, they would still be okay,” he grins.

Click below to subscribe to the podcast!

Full Video Episodes: http://volume.com/shifty 

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4B8BSR0l78qwUKJ5gOGIWb
iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shred-with-shifty-116270551/
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Follow Chris Shiflett:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisshiflettmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifty71
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.shiflett
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisshiflett71
Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag

Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion
Video Editors: Dan Destefano and Addison Sauvan

Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.

If you can’t figure out how to play Joe Bonamassa’s solo from “Blues Deluxe,” don’t worry. It all changes when Shifty sits down with Bonamassa for this special episode of Shred With Shifty. No surprise that both of them reach for their Les Pauls, and Bonamassa even reveals why he switched from Strats to Gibsons in the early 2000s.

Bonamassa is known for his dazzling collection of vintage guitars—which he says has become a target for haters—but he explains that you don’t need a ’58 Les Paul to get the goods. “It’s also the mystique,” he says. “If Jimmy Page played a Tokai, everyone would want a Tokai.” A guitar made two weeks ago, he says, is just as good as a classic.

Bonamassa’s lightning-quick soloing style, which conjures a hurricane of major and minor pentatonic notes with some phrygian flair, is the stuff of legend, and his tricks on “Blues Deluxe” are plenty. Even though he tries to adhere to a “divide by two” rule to simplify his phrasings, he still stumps Shiflett with a volume swell trick he learned from Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton.

This solo is no walk in the park. Any brave takers up for giving it a shot? Share it and tag us so Shifty can have a look! Most importantly, remember to have fun. “Do whatever you want with the damn thing,” says Bonamassa. “It’s just a guitar.”

Click below to subscribe to the podcast!

Full Video Episodes: http://volume.com/shifty 

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4B8BSR0l78qwUKJ5gOGIWb
iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shred-with-shifty-116270551/
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Follow Chris Shiflett:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisshiflettmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifty71
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.shiflett
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisshiflett71
Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag

Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion
Video Editors: Dan Destefano and Addison Sauvan

Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.

It’s time for Chris Shiflett to rip another solo—solo episode, that is. During this first season of Shred With Shifty, our host has been keeping an eye on fan submissions of the lead parts explained in each episode, hand-picking sharp renditions to share. This time, he spotlights takes on the guitar theatrics from “Alive” by Pearl Jam, “Stay a Little Longer” by Brothers Osborne, and “The Waiting” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, plus a snippet of a Hendrix classic that inspired a listener to pursue lead guitar. The question on everyone’s mind: Will anyone be brave enough to tackle Brent Mason’s brain-melting shred on “Southbound Train?” Step right up, brave soul. It’s your moment.

Stick around for some choice cuts from this season’s interviews, including Mason laying out his signature pickup arrangement, Ace Frehley sharing how his bodyguard helped him recharge after days of partying, and Mike Campbell running down his old studio rig.

Stay tuned for the next episodes of Shred With Shifty featuring Joe Bonamassa and Wolf Van Halen.

Click below to subscribe to the podcast!

Full Video Episodes: http://volume.com/shifty 

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4B8BSR0l78qwUKJ5gOGIWb
iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shred-with-shifty-116270551/
Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shred-with-shifty/PC:1001071314

Follow Chris Shiflett:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisshiflettmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifty71
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.shiflett
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisshiflett71
Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag

Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudoin
Video Editors: Dan Destefano and Addison Sauvan

Brent Mason has picked for the biggest and best names in country music: Alan Jackson, Willie Nelson, Shania Twain, Brooks & Dunn, Blake Shelton, and George Strait are just a few of the country stars on whose records you can hear Mason’s Fender-on-Fender fretwork. But his solo on “Southbound Train,” the closing track on Travis Tritt’s 2000 record Down the Road I Go, might be his hottest work of all.

As Mason explains, the song scoots along at his favorite country tempo—a Cajun two-step, Mason says—which provides the rhythmic framework for his face-melter lead. Mason says the melodic and structural components came in part from his familiarity with jazz, and the mixing of jazz and blues with his usual twangy conventions. In fact, Mason’s furious note barrages occasionally earned him some raised eyebrows (and some choice words from Conway Twitty) in the more traditionalist Nashville studio system.

This might be the toughest solo our host has taken on so far on Shred With Shifty. The key to wrestling it? “You gotta keep playing [it] til you wanna pull out all your teeth and hair,” says Mason. Which Nashville producers and stars would let Mason off-leash in the studio? How does a session ace deal with hand injuries? Listen on, shredders. And if you’re brave enough, send in your take on Mason’s solo.

Click below to subscribe to the podcast!

Full Video Episodes: http://volume.com/shifty 

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4B8BSR0l78qwUKJ5gOGIWb
iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shred-with-shifty-116270551/
Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shred-with-shifty/PC:1001071314


Follow Chris Shiflett:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisshiflettmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifty71
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.shiflett
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisshiflett71
Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag

Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudoin
Video Editors: Dan Destefano and Addison Sauvan

Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.

Shifty’s biggest guitar hero joins the podcast to run down his unique lead picking on the 1977 Love Gun hit.

Ace Frehley is the reason Chris Shiflett picked up a guitar in the first place, so it’s only natural that Shifty invites his original tone teacher onto the pod to recap one his iconic solos. Frehley, saddled with a classic black-and-cream triple-humbucker Les Paul, shares that “Shock Me” was the first KISS track on which he took lead vocal duty. The first time he sang it live, he remembers, was in front of 18,000 screaming fans at Madison Square Garden. As Frehley explains, that was quite a step up from how he recorded the vocals in the studio for Love Gun: lying flat on the floor on his back, racked with stage fright.

Frehley recalls that he ripped most of his solos through a dimed Marshall stack, and always on the bridge pickup. Turns out, he never went for pedals or boards because he’d trip over them onstage. “Wearing those boots?” he snorts. “Forget about it. It’s like a minefield!” His signature sauce, he says, is in the way he picks the strings: He holds his picks loose, but plucks in such a way that his thumb often hits the string at the same time, producing a sound just shy of a pinched squeal, but more spunky than a regular strike.

Frehley drops tons of golden bits of KISS history: the engineering behind his famous “smoke bomb” effect, the time he woke up in Paris with his eyes swollen shut from makeup, how he accidentally roadied for Hendrix, the shared genealogy between his technique and Eddie Van Halen’s, and which KISS member smelled the worst after shows.

Click below to subscribe to the podcast!

Full Video Episodes: http://volume.com/shifty 

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4B8BSR0l78qwUKJ5gOGIWb
iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shred-with-shifty-116270551/
Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shred-with-shifty/PC:1001071314


Follow Chris Shiflett:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisshiflettmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifty71
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.shiflett
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisshiflett71
Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag

Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudoin
Video Editors: Dan Destefano and Addison Sauvan

Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.