Guitar talk with parts, players, and records.
Guitar Speak Podcast treats guitar culture as both craft and record-collection obsession. Matt Wakeling moves between interviews, hands-on gear reviews, and relaxed Iconic Albums conversations with Rob Rhodes and Gabor Jasika.
PRESS PLAY
Guitar Speak Podcast is a long-running guitar culture show produced in Sydney, Australia by Matt Wakeling. It has the patience of a workshop conversation and the enthusiasm of a record-store hang. The show moves across three main lanes: interviews with guitar figures, practical gear reviews, and Iconic Albums roundtables. Each lane feeds the others. A discussion of Toto IV can linger on vocals, studio musicianship, sophisticated grooves, and the way a song sits in a player’s memory. A NAMM episode can pivot from new instruments to YouTube guitar jokes, oddball designs, and the feel of a Stingray-inspired guitar body. The technical episodes go deep without turning sterile. Glyn Evans Pickups Q&A brings scatter winding, pickup values, passive designs, active circuits, and player expectation into plain conversation. The Jerry Garcia Alligator guitar episode treats a famous instrument as a system of decisions: pots, boost circuits, cable runs, lore, and the parts fans still want even when history is complicated. Artist interviews add road texture. Andy Scott talks through guitar modifications, stage realities, Bigsby behavior, serial-number oddities, and the quirks that make an instrument personal. Tim Shaw’s Stratocaster conversation frames the design as both 1950s invention and modern benchmark, with attention to body geometry, pickup switching, and repair-shop history. Gear reviews keep the show grounded in current playing life, from Gretsch anniversary Electromatics to the Fender Tonemaster Pro and other instruments taken into gigs and studio use. The pacing is relaxed. The substance is specific. Rather than flattening guitar enthusiasm into buyer advice, Guitar Speak Podcast follows the questions players actually ask each other after the first answer is done. It suits listeners who want the story behind the sound, the tool, and the player’s hands.
Made for: For guitar players, gear watchers, record collectors, and music fans who enjoy detailed conversations about instruments, tone, album craft, and working musicianship.
What sets it apart: Its mix of long-form interviews, hands-on reviews, and recurring Iconic Albums roundtables gives it a broader texture than a straight gear show or artist-chat format.
We speak guitar! Interviews with leading guitarists, luthiers and gear manufacturers, plugged in gear reviews and the home of the ‘Iconic Albums‘ series.
A pickup question becomes electrical engineering, and suddenly your Strat has homework.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Tim Shaw traces the Stratocaster's familiar design from its comfortable body to a pickup switch he once modified.
Why does a 2024 Stratocaster look so much like a 1954 one? Matt Wakeling and Tim Shaw take that question into the details of the guitar's design. Shaw starts with the body: it rests comfortably on a lap and suits players of different heights and builds.
Apple details, software habits, and everyday technical friction.
Records worth hearing, reasons worth arguing over.
Celebrity, clothes and chaos, talked through at full speed.
Host Matt Wakeling introduces a new sub-series on iconic guitar albums, starting with Joe Satriani's Surfing With The Alien, and promotes sponsors The Pedal Movie and Fretboard Biology.
Bobby Kimball’s “Africa” chorus was captured once, then manually aligned across two tape machines.
Matt Wakeling, Rob Rhodes, and Gabor Jasika review their standout NAMM 2025 gear, including Fender, Marshall, Gibson, and PRS's event sponsorship.
Glyn Evans of Mr.
Guitar Speak Podcast host Matt Wakefield and Nashville tech Chad Wynn examine Jerry Garcia's 1955 Fender Strat, serial number 7310, known as Alligator.
Guitar Speak Podcast host Matt Wakeling interviews Andy Scott about more than 50 years playing guitar with Sweet and the band’s heavy guitar legacy behind songs including “Fox on the Run” and “Love is Like Oxygen.” Scott explains how Sweet’s B-sides drew from the Yardbirds, Deep Purple, the Kinks, Led Zeppelin, and Cream, while studio producers often allowed only one or two takes.
Interview with Fender chief engineer Tim Shaw about his career and the 70th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster.
This episode features a promotional segment for Fretboard Biology guitar course, followed by host introduction and overview of the Guitar Speak podcast.
A guitar-focused podcast featuring gear reviews, interviews with guitarists, and a sponsored segment promoting an online guitar course.