Guitar Smarts

🎸🎸 Welcome to GUITAR SMARTS - The Wildest Ride for Guitar Maniacs! 🎸🎸

Hey there, guitar junkies! Ready to unleash your inner rock god? GUITAR SMARTS is here to blow your mind and amp up your passion for everything with strings and frets. Join the rebellious duo, Kiran and Matt, as they turn their guitar madness into your weekly addiction!

What’s in store? Only the most electrifying content you’ve ever heard:

Gear Mania: Obsess over the craziest gear – from out-of-this-world pedals to legendary axes.
Epic Gig Chronicles: Laugh, cry, and headbang to their insane gig stories and outrageous live show escapades.
Guitar Lust Galore: Dive into their never-ending and unapologetic quest for the ultimate guitar collection. Warning: severe GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) ahead!

Forget being professional. Kiran and Matt are the rock ‘n’ roll rebels with years of wild gigging adventures in the UK’s pubs, clubs, and beyond. They’re raw, real, and ready to rock your world with their infectious energy and unfiltered banter.

Join the guitar revolution! Connect with us and be part of the GUITAR SMARTS crew:

Facebook: GUITAR SMARTS
Instagram: @guitar_smarts

Crank up the volume, smash that play button, and ride the wave with GUITAR SMARTS! 🤘

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20 episodes
Updated Mar 18, 2025

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Episodes20

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Mar 18, 2025 · 55 min
Guitar Strings & Chasing Tone - Guitar Smarts #102
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! Welcome back to the show! This week Matt & Damo talk about their life changing experience seeing Toto live at Wembley arena in February, Matt talks about his visit to Austin Tx where he paid homage to SRV, and the lads debate the importance of guitar strings and their place in the everlasting endeavour that is the chasing of tone! For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Jan 6, 2025 · 1 hr
The Podcast RETURNS! - Guitar Smarts #101
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! Greetings! Welcome back to the podcast! It's been quite some time since we released an episode of the show, due to a unplanned break. Our wonderful host and friend Kiran had to take a break to recover from a very unexpected health issue but we are so glad to say he is recovering well. Whilst he takes the time to concentrate on his recovery, our good friend Damo Lodrick has stepped into his rather large shoes, to help us bring the show back for regular service in 2025. In this episode we talk about modelling, valve amps, tone in general, modern music and the social media generation, and much more! Hope you enjoy and see you on the next one! For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Aug 28, 2024 · 1 hr 9 min
ASK US ANYTHING - Guitar Smarts #100
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! WE MADE IT! 100 Episodes!! We can't thank you enough for sticking with us for these last 3 and a half years, it's been utterly fantastic fun to do this podcast for you and ourselves. The best thing to come out of this podcast, for us, has been the connections we've made and the community YOU have built around it. We are so grateful. And to celebrate, we decided to dedicate our 100th episode to answering YOUR questions to us, as a thank you for the connections we've made with our listeners. Enjoy the show, we hope you enjoy the conversation - HERE'S TO THE NEXT 100! For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Aug 11, 2024 · 52 min
Theodore, Nuno and Enough of Wedding Gigs - Guitar Smarts #99
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! Welcome to the podcast! This week, Kiran and Matt mull over some recent news in the guitar world. From the hilariously ridiculous litigation battles between PRS and Gibson, to the intrigue around Nuno Bettencourt's involvement with the Positive Grid Spark II amp, culminating with Matt's realisation that he's DONE with Wedding gigs for GOOD! We hope you like this week's episode! For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Jul 22, 2024 · 53 min
Kiran Buys ANOTHER Tokai - Guitar Smarts #98
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! Welcome back to the pod! This week, we talk about a good few things but mostly we welcome another new Tokai to Kiran's family of guitars. It's another Les Paul, but what was it about this guitar that made Kiran part with his pennies? We also discuss the tantalising possibility of a Murphy Lab Red Special, and a great and good value way to get Brian's tone thanks to the folks at Catalinbread pedals. For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Some links from todays podcast... https://catalinbread.com/products/galileo https://www.musicradar.com/news/brian-may-on-prospect-of-gibson-made-red-specials https://www.whitstableguitars.co.uk/ Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Jun 3, 2024 · 1 hr 1 min
Our FAVOURITE Acoustic Songs - Guitar Smarts #97
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! Summer is here! And what could be better on a sweet summers day, thank grabbing your acoustic and sitting outside to serenade the world with your favourite tunes. But, which tunes? This week Kiran and Matt reel off their go to acoustic hits to listen to and to play when the time is right! Listen to a playlist of the songs here! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/25SYpyj3GMm1wBocox9muq?si=b777ead6e0134cd3 And as Matt mentions in the pod, here is a link to that fantastic performance of Somewhere Over The Rainbow by Tommy Emmanuel: https://youtu.be/0cHeNscKZN0?si=Qk39HYHkgao_R5-w For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
May 20, 2024 · 54 min
Kiran's Guitar Safari Part 2 - Guitar Smarts #96
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! Welcome back! This week we are looking at a couple of things, the most popular songs googled by guitarists around the world, and also Kiran takes us through the second part of his recent London Guitar Safari, where he falls for another Strat! Will he buy it? Find out in this weeks podcast.. https://woodandfirestudio.com/en/most-played-songs-and-riffs/ For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Apr 22, 2024 · 1 hr
The Importance of Ear Training With Damo Lodrick - Guitar Smarts #95
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! Welcome back! On this episode of the Guitar Smarts podcast, Kiran has tagged in our good friend and previous guest Mr Damo Lodrick to provide some valuable insight on the importance of training your ears. Music is something we experience in many ways, and often we find ourselves moved by things we hear but do not necessarily understand. Matt & Damo are here today to help you understand why it is a valuable endeavour to learn more about why music does this, and to train our ears to better understand the relationship between what we hear, how it makes us feel, and what is really happening in the nitty gritty of music theory. For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Mar 25, 2024 · 56 min
NEW GEAR From Keeley, Line 6 and GIBSON - Guitar Smarts #94
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! Greetings! This week we take a look at some of the finest new gear released by some of the biggest names in the industry. Line6 has released a new version of the POD, Keeley have once again innovated with their new drive pedals and Gibson have done exactly what Gibson do, revisit the past. For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Mar 11, 2024 · 56 min
Kiran Visits The London GIBSON GARAGE - Guitar Smarts #93
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! On this week’s podcast Kiran recalls his recent visit to the brand new UK Gibson Garage, a guitar store built and operated by Gibson guitars in London’s West End. This new store has got all the Gibson products you could wish to see, and is not just meant to be a high quality guitar store, but a shrine if you will, to the history and impact of Gibson guitars. You can head here to try out some of the finest Murphy lab guitars, Mesa amps, Epiphones and even Kramer guitars as they all now fall under Gibson ownership. What is it like to be there? Kiran will tell us in this podcast. For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Feb 19, 2024 · 1 hr 6 min
NAMM 2024 and Yamaha’s new PACIFICA - Guitar Smarts #92
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! On this week’s podcast Kiran and Matt are discussing some of the new releases from this years NAMM show in the US. What caught our eye though was Yamaha's re-release of the Pacifica model. Listeners of the show will know that we love the old Pacifica model, which was seminal guitar back in the 90’s whose build quality and playability changed the expectation of what your 200 pound or dollar learner electric guitar was capable of. Now though, Yamaha have taken aim at the premium, professional guitar market with the same brand name, which is equally exciting and also mind boggling, and Kiran & Matt discuss that to great length in this podcast. For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Feb 4, 2024 · 1 hr 9 min
Celebrating 60 YEARS of Eric Clapton - Guitar Smarts #91
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! We are kicking off 2024 by celebrating 60 years of Eric Clapton. Back in October 2023, Eric celebrated 60 years as a professional musician and artist. Arguably one of if not the most celebrated and revered guitarists of all time, it’s hard not to understate his contribution to the world of guitar playing and music making. Over on the Eric Clapton website, there was a fantastic article celebrating this milestone, that included a long list of achievements and considerations that reinforce Eric’s position as a living music and guitar legend. This week, Kiran and Matt dissect that list, and find themselves rediscovering their admiration for Eric’s contribution not just to the world, but to their own lives as guitarists. Find the article we spoke about here: https://whereseric.com/eric-clapton-news/303-eric-clapton-celebrates-60-years-as-a-professional-musician/ For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Dec 18, 2023 · 44 min
Ending 2023 With 2 New Guitars! - Guitar Smarts #90
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! This week we have our final episode of 2023. I want to start by thanking each and everyone of you who have joined us and listened to the show throughout the year, it’s really a great pleasure for Kiran and I to share these conversations with you and we have great plans to bring you even more in 2024, so keep those subscriptions active and look out for more as we get into January. This week we talk about 2 new guitars, one for Kiran and one for me. I recently purchased an old Fernandes superstrat that came up for an absolute steal on Reverb, and Kiran talks us through the special purchase he made at the London International Guitar show. It’s fair to say we have both ended 2023 on a high as far as our guitar collections are concerned, but lastly we also talk about what we hope for in 2024. Reach out to us and let us know what your guitar plans are for 2024, are you looking to buy that guitar you;ve always wanted, are you going to sell some stuff, or like me are you going to find a renewed motivation to practice and improve. Let us know over on the Guitar Geek Hangout on Facebook. For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Dec 4, 2023 · 23 min
Ian Edwards From Guitar Breaks - Guitar Smarts #89
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! This week we have a short episode for you - shorter than usual at least. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Guitar Breaks founder, Ian Edwards, at the London International Guitar Show in late October. Guitar Breaks are a company that specialise in all-inclusive guitar workshops offering you the opportunity to get away from it all, explore different techniques and skills, discover new styles, hone your own playing style and experiment with great equipment. All in the presence of some Pro Guitar Players, and top educators. Their list of pro player guest hosts speaks volumes, recently including people like Matt Schofield, Josh Smith, Ariel Posen, Joel Landreth, Jack Rush, Pete Friesen, Charlotte Hatherley, Chris Buck, Rabea Massaad, Mike Goodman and many more. Ian has a real passion for the musician community and the opportunities he creates to connect guitarists with the professional community are second to none, these events and clinics are not to be missed. https://www.guitar-breaks.com/ For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Nov 20, 2023 · 1 hr
The London International Guitar Show 2023 - Guitar Smarts #88
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! Its been a while, but we are finally back! After a few weeks of downtime due to some illnesses, work trips and general business we are finally able to bring to you our first episode from the London International Guitar Show 2023. It was a fantastic show, we met many people, introduced the show to a lot of new listeners, spent a little bit of money and enjoyed looking at some truly wonderful guitars and amplifiers from some of the UK’s finest luthiers. I think it’s fair to say that we learned you don’t have to travel far in this country to find someone building absolutely world class instruments and amps, and we spoke to some wonderful guitar builders that you will hear from in this episode. There was Rich from JWJ guitars who quite frankly is making the most stunning acoustics I have ever seen and played, we also spent some time with Karl from Karl Longbottom Custom Guitars, who’s carpentry roots helped to launch him into a new career as a guitar builder and it was very clear to us that he’s got the gift for it, his guitars were some of the most stunning on show for sure, and somebody else who’s flair for design and quality of work really caught our eye was Nick Burman from Burman Guitars, not many people manage to develop their own unique guitar designs that work but Nick’s models are absolutely stunning, and they are constructed to absolute perfection. So, enjoy our rambling today on this show, and enjoy the interviews with Rich, Karl and NIck, and please go and check them out on their websites, social media pages and join their mailing lists, you will not be disappointed! For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Oct 22, 2023 · 57 min
Kiran & Matt's Desert Island Discs - Guitar Smarts #87
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! We are here with another episode of the pod, this week Kiran and Matt are talking about their desert island discs. Each of them have chosen the 5 albums that they would be happy to listen to for the rest of eternity, knowing that they could listen to nothing else. Play along, make your own list, and head on down to the Guitar Geek hangout to let us know what albums you would have chosen for your personal stay on a desert island for the rest of eternity. For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Oct 9, 2023 · 46 min
Jam Nights, Custom Guitars & MIDI Rigs - Guitar Smarts #86
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! Welcome! This week we dissect a great night playing at Damo Lodrick's local Jam night, where we let loose and rocked out in celebration of Damo's birthday. Matt can't make his mind up about a possible Esquire mod or a new guitar build whilst Kiran feels the need to buy a new guitar. Finally, we finish off with a discussion about using Midi to control Matt's Line 6 Catalyst 100 guitar amp as a get out of jail rig for if and when his Helix decides to crash. For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Sep 24, 2023 · 1 hr 3 min
Tone Philosophy & The Rigs Of The GODS - Guitar Smarts #85
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! This week we are grateful for the suggestions of our friends over on the Guitar Geek Hangout page on Facebook. We asked what you might like to hear us talk about, and you spoke! This week we are taking inspiration from our listeners Fred Simpson and Olly Browning who both asked similar questions related to tone. Of all the famous guitar rigs there are, who’s would we choose to play through if we could, and along with that we talk about tone philosophy, is it good to chase the tone of someone else or does finding your own voice go hand in hand with creating your own sound? Is there a more tantalising topic for guitarists than that which speaks about our beloved guitar tone? I fear not, so, please come along to the Guitar Geek Hangout page on Facebook to have your say, and to see what the other listeners of the Guitar Smarts podcast think all about it. For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Sep 10, 2023 · 1 hr 8 min
Gig Journeys, Fret Levelling & Lee Anderton - Guitar Smarts #84
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! We are back...again! This week we discuss Matt's strange preference for relaxing after a long day gigging, we talk about the careful but accessible method that Matt took to finally level the frets of his much beloved Epiphone Les Paul that has been screaming out for this work for years, and we talk about the recent news brought to light by KDH about Lee Anderton and his personal involvement in some well known brands and the complicated relationship between this information and his retail business at Anderton's Music Store. For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show
Aug 21, 2023 · 52 min
Kiran's First Ever "In-Ears" Gig - Guitar Smarts #83
Love Guitar Smarts and want to get in touch with us? Send us a Text HERE! This week, We talk about the use of in ear monitors without having a guitar amp on stage following Kirans first ever experience of this. This seems to be the way that a lot of pro gigs are these days so how does that experience play out for a guitarist like Kiran who is only used to having blaring amp on stage behind him? We also talk briefly about the first ever Guitar Smarts Guitar Solo Challenge and how that played out, and we revisit the recent controversy of the Nuno Bettencourt interview regarding the Rihanna gig and the news all around that. For links to all our important stuff, check out our LinkTree... https://linktr.ee/guitarsmarts Remember to please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, and come to see us on our social media channels below: https://www.facebook.com/Guitarsmarts https://www.instagram.com/guitar_smarts/ Have a very merry time playing guitar this week, and we will see you soon! Support the show