Sick Riffs: Will Knaak teaches you the delay-driven licks of Blue October's Italian Radio

Sick Riffs #2: Welcome back to Sick Riffs, the series in which your favorite self-isolating guitarists teach you how to play their most well-known riffs.

In this episode, we've got Will Knaak of Texas alt-rock quintet Blue October, who's going to show you how to play the dazzling licks of fan favorite, Italian Radio.

The delay-soaked passage, inspired by Eddie Van Halen's Cathedral and U2's The Edge, includes several impressively fiery syncopated licks and is awash with techniques that'll surely wow your fellow isolatees...

Regarding gear, the guitarist used a Berly Custom Telecaster electric guitar into a 18W Handwired Plexi amp and a Line 6 M9 multi-effects pedal for delay.

"Not being able to tour due to coronavirus has put my income at a standstill," Knaak expressed. "With a baby on the way, and all the uncertainty of when this will clear up, it definitely is worrying. I pray everyone will stay safe and we find a solution soon."

Support Blue October

Website - https://www.blueoctober.com/
Merch -
https://shop.bandwear.com/collections/blue-october-shop

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC4hFfTfQuCepDgVEsUZfiA
Spotify -
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1TJbmc7jTpw78GKCiMpvDh
Facebook -
https://www.facebook.com/blueoctober/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/blueoctoberband/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/blueoctober

Sick Riffs is a Guitar World video series designed to help guitarists affected by the coronavirus. Self-isolating players around the world have each filmed a lesson where they teach you one of their own guitar riffs, up close and personal. If you dig the lesson, we encourage you to buy music and merch from the artist or stream their music.

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Sam Roche

Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.