GEAR REVIEWS | INTERVIEWS | GUITAR LESSONS | TIPS & ADVICE
THE GUITAR MAGAZINE
ISSUE 380
www.guitarist.co.uk | £5.75 | May 2014
INTERVIEWS A N DY
SU M M ER S LES
CL AY POOL A DR I A N
BELEW DI A MON D
I V ER SA RY EDITION
ROCKABILLY
CLIFF GALLUP STYLE FILE
FABULOUS ’54
Inside Leo's first Strats + vintage Strat guide
SHADOWS STRATS
Hank Marvin talks twang
FENDER’S FINEST
Anniversary Strats on test
MONTEREY MAGIC
Jimi’s ’67 festival Strat
REVIEWS
Taylor 814ce Fender Vaporizer Gibson Derek Trucks SG Red Witch effects & much more!
MAY 2013
PR NTED N THE UK
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This year marks the 60th anniversary of Leo Fender’s masterpiece, the Stratocaster. It’s testimony to his genius for design that, even today, if you asked a child to draw an electric guitar, chances are the outline they’d scrawl would have twin cutaways, three pickups and a scroll headstock. Why is it so iconic? Well, part of the Strat’s appeal is that it was launched when rock ’n’ roll was itself new. It became a tool of choice for players such as Buddy Holly and Hank Marvin (see p82) who were taking guitar music to new places, which ensured that the voice of the Strat became part of rock’s very DNA. But, tellingly, when the era of Peggy Sue was eventually superseded by that of Purple Haze, and then Rising Force, the Strat continued to rise to the occasion, and that’s what marks it apart from decent but uninspired guitars that have fallen by the wayside over the years – it’s a supremely adaptable, balanced design, and remains so in the hands of players such as Simon Neil and John Mayer today. To investigate the Strat’s remarkable appeal further, Mick Taylor went to Sweden to get his mitts on a genuine vintage ’54 model (see p72) to find out what the first of the breed feels like to play today. We hope you’ll also enjoy his guide to what came next: the technical evolutions in the Strat’s design that propelled it into the future it seemed designed to inhabit when it was launched six decades go. Elsewhere, you’ll find interviews with masterly exponents of the Strat, including Adrian Belew and Andy Summers (yes, he used his ’62 model almost much as a Tele in The Police), plus reviews of two new versions of that other great double-cut, Gibson’s SG (see p10). Rave on…
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Jamie Dickson Editor
May 2014 Guitarist 7
Contents
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The Guitar Magazine
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People & Playing
98
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Robert Cray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Black Submarine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Les Claypool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Andy Summers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Aces: Cliff Gallup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Adrian Belew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Hank Marvin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Cover story We celebrate the Stratocaster’s 60th in style – with reviews, a vintage guide, Jimi’s Monterey Strat, a real ’54, and more
Regulars Welcome From The Editor . . . . . . . 7 Front End. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Readers Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 New Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Subscribe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108 Longterm Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Gear Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Readers Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
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ISSUE 380 MAY 2014
82
Hank Marvin The Shadows man reveals the secrets of his legendary tone COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY NEIL GODWIN
New gear this month Gibson Derek Trucks SG & SG Futura . . .10 Fender Pawn Shop Special Vaporizer . . . 18 Aria 511 Dreadnought & 505 OM . . . . . . . . . . 22 Scott Walker Phantom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Fender 60th Anniversary Classic Player 50s, American Standard Commemorative and American Reissue 1954 Stratocasters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92 Taylor 814ce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Boss ME-80 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Red Witch Pedals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Yerasov GTA15J . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 EHX Soul Food and Slammi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Pedaltrain Volto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Seiko STX-7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130 Free The Tone Red Jasper RJ-1V . . . . . . . .130 Supermegaultragroovy Capo 3. . . . . . . . . . . . 132
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GIBSON DEREK TRUCKS SG £1,399 WHAT IS IT: An old-school SG Standard with Lyre tailpiece
GIBSON SG FUTURA £799 WHAT IS IT: Economy SG with Min-ETune and level boost
TIME PIECES
Last issue, we looked at Gibson’s 2014 Les Pauls. Here, it’s the turn of its longest-running solidbody electric, the SG WORDS
DAVE BURRLUCK JOE BRANSTON
PHOTOGRAPHY
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Gibson 2014 Derek Trucks SG & SG Futura
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Gibson 2014 Derek Trucks SG & SG Futura
1. Trucks may be a slide player, but this should appeal to anyone who pines for a properly good classic SG 2. The Trucks SG has some irregular body contouring that leaves the body edge just few milimetres thick on the top side 3. All that’s left of the Deluxe Vibrola – this is a hardtail guitar!
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erek Trucks’ Signature SG is apparently based on his trusty ’61, complete with just the engraved Lyre tailpiece of the disabled Deluxe Vibrola. Now, guitar historians would tell us that technically this vibrato didn’t appear until 1963, and the guitar was still called a Les Paul Standard until 1963, despite the more-than obvious difference between what we all now refer to as the SG, and the prior Les Paul. The more modernist SG Futura has no such provenance issues. It’s a bang-up-to-date ‘economy’ SG, and loads in pretty much all the gizmos Gibson has at its disposal. So, clearly we have two very different SGs in prospect… With its slightly faded-looking Vintage Red gloss-nitro finish, the Trucks is a perfect picture of a guitar we’ve probably all dreamed of owning, whether we’re Trucks fans or not. It avoids any obvious signature guitar-isms, aside from the (easily swapped) ‘Derek Trucks’ truss rod cover. Gibson’s production consistency still falls a little short of most other premium USA-made brands – the finish, for example, is noticeably mottled, yet that in itself adds to a slightly vintage, less modern-precision vibe. And although Gibson is now, on certain models, putting its fret ends over the fingerboard-edge binding, here, it’s old school: the plastic still forms the fret end, with plenty of potential for a gap to open up and for your top string to slip into it. Gibson uses the Plek machine set-up, too, yet the frets here are hardly mirror shiny; there was a little buzz on the higher top-string positions also, and the rosewood ’board looks dry and pale in colour. At half the price, the Futura, like many other low-end Gibsons, begs the question: how can the company make guitars in the USA for this money? It’s amplified here when you consider
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The Futura, like many other low-end Gibsons, begs the question: how can the company make guitars in the USA for this money?
Gibson 2014 Derek Trucks SG & SG Futura
the fitted Min-ETune system, that retails as a retrofit item for around £250. What is immediately obvious is a hastier build. The purple finish looks like it’s been applied with a brush – clearly, it’s a quicker off-the-gun coating over a non-grain-filled mahogany body. Whereas the tips of the horns are sanded to softer, more rounded points on the Trucks, here they’re left square-edged and sharp. The neck is maple, not mahogany, with two additional frets where the Trucks has the classic coverplate between the end of the ’board and the neck pickup. The edges of the neck, too, feel a little squarer than the Trucks; the unbound edges are a little sharper, and there’s no binding either – just dot inlays and the 12th-fret 120th Anniversary banner. The Trucks model opts for dual ’57 Classics, a smaller ABR-1 Tune-o-matic (without the retaining wire), Tone Pros vintage-like Kluson Deluxe tuners and period-accurate silvertopped knobs. Only the stud tailpiece is shared with the Futura. The cheaper guitar gets a bigger Nashvillestyle bridge, an open-coil Burstbucker 3 at bridge, and a humbucking soapbar at the neck. With indented knobs, we have pull switch coilsplits on the volumes, while a two-position toggle switch on the pickguard introduces a 15db gain boost, with its battery hidden discreetly in the rear control cavity.
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Then, of course, there’s the Min-ETune system mounted on the slightly narrower headstock, which does look a bit bulky from the rear – the individual motorised tuners’ main housings are obviously larger than conventional tuners. The ‘brain’ sits between the two tuner rows and aside from housing the electronics, push buttons and display, it also has a removable and rechargeable battery. We also get large-diameter strap buttons that many will find a plus over the smaller vintagestyle ones used on the Trucks.
Feel & Sounds The SG has long been recognised as a nearperfect electric slide guitar, not least in the way the neck sticks out and especially with the really easy access to the full ’board. Trucks uses a hybrid medium/heavy string gauge, and what he describes as a string height that’s just high enough for clean slide, which he predominantly tunes to open E. Gibson ships the guitar with a normal, non-slide playing action and 0.010-0.046 strings. But all you need to do is swap the top two strings for an 0.011 and 0.014 and, via the thumb wheels, raise the bridge, tune to E and get out that glass slide. Of course, there’s absolutely no reason why you have to use the guitar like Mr Trucks. A standard action results in a simply fine classic rock/blues solidbody.
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Gibson 2014 Derek Trucks SG & SG Futura
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4. Last year, the MinETune was an optional extra; this year it’s standard on models throughout the Gibson catalogue 5. The Sidewinder P-90H might look like the fabled P-90 single coil, but it’s actually a humbucking unit
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5 There’s vintage-like low power, and quite an edge to the bridge played clean; the neck is a little hotter, with a nice round nose, but still some articulation. Into light-gain territory, and that almost generic Gibson all-mahogany tone appears, a little narrower than a maple-topped Les Paul and more focused. Certainly, on the neck pickup, it nails that Trucks-esque, fat, liquid tone. With both pickups on, you have all the subtle shades, and it’s easy to dial in a darker ‘woman tone’; if you want more bite, the bridge pickup just about stays on the right side of shrill. The Futura doesn’t feel as good as it could. The pickup heights seem to have been set a little randomly, and while that probably won’t bother a high-gain bedroom warrior, a little time tweaking the heights balances a little of the BB3’s spiky edge with the apparent darkness of the neck pickup. While the DC resistance of the BB3 hints at hot PAF, the whopping 14.5k ohms of the neck pickup suggests a reason why it’s so dark and softsounding; the coil-split drops it down to more P-90-like territory but then, unless you apply a boost, it’s overshadowed by the bridge pickup. But – ah yes! – a boost: we have one of those. Moving into the active world, suddenly we have clarity, and although primarily conceived as a solo boost to drive your amp harder and lift you above the band for solos, actually having
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6. With coil-splits on the volume controls and a handy 15db active boost, the Futura offers plenty of sounds
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Gibson 2014 Derek Trucks SG & SG Futura
Gibson Derek Trucks SG
6 the boost on and then reducing the volumes and adjusting the tones to suit sounds a little classier, as far as that neck pickup is concerned. We’ve written about how the Min-ETune works and, yes, it does. While tuning up is okay where you might have drifted slightly, changing to an altered or open tuning not only requires more button-pushing, but we managed to completely confuse it – somehow – and stood back while it raised the D string to break pitch. Literally. Re-stringing isn’t difficult: just remember the bass-side tuners work in the reverse direction. If we’re honest, the Min-ETune’s tuning isn’t 100 per cent accurate when we checked our Peterson Strobe or TC PolyTune tuners, and while you can manually adjust the tuners, with their 40:1 ratio, they feel odd and take longer to turn and tune to pitch. The added weight changes the strapped on balance a little and, at least in the opinion of this writer, we wouldn’t feel totally confident with the system for serious stage use.
Verdict With Gibson’s USA-made SGs starting at under £500 (see spec, right), you can’t be surprised that in terms of fine details, instruments like this Futura seem a little lacking. And if we’re honest, the voice of the neck pickup is odd, the BB3 veers on the toobright side of the tone tracks and, sorry, but the Min-ETune just doesn’t inspire stage confidence. That boost, however, could prove to be dead handy. If it ain’t broke… Well, the Derek Trucks signature model is pretty much the only ‘standard’ SG in the current 2014 line up. It’s a classic guitar, no question, but there’s some serious US-built competition out there and arguably its main appeal lies in its heritage, not necessarily its sounds or build quality.
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PRICE: £1,399 (inc case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric BODY: Mahogany NECK: Mahogany, ‘D’-shape, slim profile, glued in SCALE LENGTH: 624mm (24.6”) NUT/WIDTH: Corian/43.24mm FINGERBOARD: Bound rosewood, acrylic trapezoid inlays, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: Chrome-plated ABR ‘no wire’ Tune-o-matic and stud tailpiece with Lyre-style tailpiece, Tone Pros Kluson Deluxe vintage-style tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 51mm ELECTRICS: Two Gibson ’57 Classic humbuckers with chromed covers, three-way toggle pickup selector switch, individual pickup volume and tone controls WEIGHT (KG/LB): 3.4/7.5 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: The 2014 SG Special (£699) has a mahogany body with maple neck, unbound 24-fret ’board, gloss finish with 490R/490T ’buckers with coil splits. The 2014 SG Standard (£1,099) is all mahogany, with bound 22-fret ’board, gloss finished with dual ’57 Classic ’bucker, coils-splits and Min-ETune LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Vintage Red (as reviewed) – nitro gloss Gibson www.gibson.com
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Gibson SG Futura PRICE: £799 (inc case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric BODY: Mahogany NECK: Maple, ’60s slim profile, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 624mm (24.6”) NUT/WIDTH: Black Graph Tech/43mm FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, acrylic dot inlays with 12th-fret 120th ‘banner’, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 24, medium jumbo HARDWARE: Chrome-plated Nashville-style Tune-o-matic and stud tailpiece, Min-ETune tuning system with vintage buttons STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 50mm ELECTRICS: Gibson Burstbucker 3 open-coiled humbucker (bridge) and P-90H Sidewinder soapbar-sized humbucker (neck), three-way toggle pickup selector switch, individual pickup volume (with pull/push coil-splits) and tone controls, 2-way mini-toggle to engage 15dB gain boost WEIGHT (KG/LB): 3.52/7.75 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: The 2014 SG range starts with the SGJ (£469) with mahogany/maple construction, unbound 24 fret ’board, matt finished with two ’61 zebra-coiled ’buckers. The SGM (£599) is satin, with a Min-ETune LEFT-HANDERS: Yes FINISHES: Champagne Fade, Brilliant Red Fade, Inverness Green Fade, Bullion Gold Fade, Pacific Blue Fade, Plum Insane Fade (as reviewed) — all nitro ‘vintage gloss’
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G
Build quality Playability Sound Value for money
Build quality Playability Sound Value for money
Guitarist says: Essentially, this latest Trucks signature is an old-school SG Standard. Nothing wrong with that at all!
Guitarist says: This is a very affordable SG with nice upgrades such as the Min-ETune system. But is it a great guitar? No
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FENDER PAWN SHOP SPECIAL VAPORIZER £490 WHAT IS IT? Affordable valve combo with mass-produced electronics and a 1950s aesthetic
VAPOR TRAIL
We test the impact of this atomic bombshell from Fender’s retro rocket surgeons WORDS CHRIS
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VINNICOMBE
PHOTOGRAPHY JOE
BRANSTON
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Fender Pawn Shop Special Vaporizer
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he cobwebbed corners of the pawn shop in Fender’s head have yielded a mixed bag of curios since the series began with a range of mongrel guitar designs in 2011. 2012’s tremolo-packing Excelsior combo was the closest thing in the shop to an essential purchase to date, and the rate at which they were snapped up speaks volumes; you’ll have to head to eBay and hope for the best if you want to corral one now. The Vaporizer was announced at the turn of 2014, accompanied by a sci-fi promo video that reflects its Atomic Age stylings. An initial glance at the specifications made us wonder if this might just prove to be the best Pawn Shop Special amp yet; it certainly seemed more appealing than the too-dark-sounding Ramparte and more practical for everyday use than the Excelsior, thanks to a spring-reverb tank and a pair of brash 10-inch drivers. We caught a whiff of that rare excitement that only the combination of the genuinely cool and highly affordable can generate. But wait a minute, £490 isn’t that affordable, is it? It’s more than the average street price for a Blues Junior, for a start, and probably more than a second-hand Hot Rod Deluxe. Happily, at press time, the Vaporizer is around £375 at most UK retailers. It’s not quite as rip-theirarm-off tempting as the Excelsior’s borderline crazy price tag was, but it’s not half bad either. For the money, you get an amp that’s about as far away from the generic black box school of backline design as is possible without paying boutique money. The dimpled Surf Green vinyl on our Vaporizer is very well applied around the angular speaker cut-out, and the big, luggage-style handle and washing machinestyle dials are evocative of the US post-war manufacturing boom. Around the back, you’re reminded that this is no well-preserved piece of vintage esoterica by the usual printed array of warnings and a safety grille, all in order to comply with modern legislation. On the inside, the Vaporizer is every bit the modern production-line valve amp, with most of the electronics sitting neatly on two large PCBs.
Feel & Sounds There’s not much here to get in the way of the sheer raucous thrill of playing rock ’n’ roll
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Fender Pawn Shop Special Vaporizer
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Fender Pawn Shop Special Vaporizer 2
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1. One of the results of the Vaporizer’s unusual reverb arrangement is that the effect is more present in the mix at the cleaner end of the volume control’s sweep, gradually taking more of a back seat as you wind it up and things get louder and dirtier 2. Around the back, the safety legends break the retro spell somewhat. It’s overkill, of course, but it’s not Fender’s fault
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3. When the red jewel light is ablaze, it denotes that the rambunctious Vaporizer mode has been engaged, and that the volume and tone stacks have been bypassed
guitar. Once you’ve matched your instrument to the appropriate input jack, your volume control then doubles up as your gain control. That said, you should never be afraid to be inappropriate; a Telecaster or Strat bridge pickup plugged into the Vaporizer’s bright input is vicious, but sometimes that’s what a particular part calls for. Clean headroom is, of course, partly dependent on how hard your pickups hit the Vaporizer’s front end, but few would choose a 12-watt EL84 circuit for its pristine cleanliness, even if there are decent clean sounds here. The best sounds live just past lunchtime on the volume control in conjunction with vintage PAF-style ’buckers, P-90s or Filter’Trons, and bring to mind The Kinks, The White Stripes and early Zeppelin. It’s not polite, but it’s dynamic, responding well to an explosive picking-hand attack. Then step on the Vaporizer footswitch for loud, ragged and angry lead sounds; it’s not AC30-loud, but without the ability to attenuate, it’s unsubtle and untamed – there may be sound engineers in small venues who find the level unacceptable, and you certainly can’t get dirt without pedals at home. The short-pan analogue spring reverb tray is suitably surfy, if a little noisy. Interestingly, the reverb output is independent, so if you turn the volume all the way down but leave the reverb up, you just hear the wet signal. It’s a cool, spacey studio effect, and one we’ve only encountered previously on this reviewer’s own, similarly retro-themed, Swart Atomic Space Tone combo.
PRICE: £490 ORIGIN: China TYPE: All-valve Class A combo OUTPUT: 12 watts VALVES: 2x 12AX7 (preamp) and 2x EL84 (power amp) SPEAKERS: 2x Special Design 16-ohm Vaporizer speakers DIMENSIONS: 629 (w) x 432 (h) x 267mm (d) WEIGHT (KG/LB): 17/37 CONNECTIONS: Normal input, bright input, external 8-ohm speaker out CHANNELS: 1 CONTROLS: Volume, tone, reverb FOOTSWITCH: Included, activates Vaporizer mode ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Springreverb circuit independent of amp volume control, footswitchable Vaporizer mode bypasses volume and tone controls for maximum output OPTIONS: Surf Green (as reviewed), Slate Blue or Rocket Red texturedvinyl finishes available Fender GBI 01342 331700 www.fender.com
Verdict
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G
If the previous Pawn Shop Special amps have seen Fender trying to crack the quirky secondor-third amp market, the Vaporizer might just be a main gigging amp for the right sort of player. If you like your guitar sounds retro, upfront and nasty, then this is an immensely fun amp for gigs and rehearsals, as well as having a cool set of tones for studio work. Just be prepared for things to get out of control.
Build quality Features Sound Value for money
Guitarist says: Garage rock ’n’ rollers and lovers of sleazy surf sounds might just have found their new fave amp. Fun, fun, fun
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ARIA 511 £499 WHAT IS IT? All-solid-wood dreadnought acoustic guitar with mahogany back and sides
ARIA 505 £539 WHAT IS IT? All-solid Orchestra Model acoustic guitar with rosewood back and sides
INTO THE WOODS
Aria aims to be taken seriously in the low-end acoustic market with the reasonably priced solid-wood 500 Series ISOBEL MORRIS & JIM KIMBERLEY PHOTOGRAPHY JOE BRANSTON WORDS
I
n a forest of guitars priced at around £500, how do you make an instrument that stands out from the pack? Well, Aria claims to have worked extensively with luthiers and musicians and investigated superior wood supplies and quality manufacturing, and it seems to have paid off. When it comes to telling the wood from the trees, this new range of instruments really opened our eyes and ears. Aria released the all solid-wood AF-Mirage in 2012, and at the tail-end of 2013, announced the equally all-solid 500 series: a classic dreadnought and an OM, both available with either solid Indonesian mahogany or solid
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Aria 511 Dreadnought & 505 OM
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Aria 511 Dreadnought & 505 OM
Indonesian rosewood back and sides, designed in Japan and manufactured in Indonesia. With solid Sitka spruce tops, quartersawn nonscalloped spruce X-bracing, sensible prices, and a high level of build quality, fit and finish, they’re aimed squarely at the serious amateur and semi-pro market. Here, we’re going to focus on the 511 dreadnought with mahogany back and sides, and the smaller-bodied rosewood 505 OM. Immediately, these guitars have an attractive, friendly air about them. The clean, bright Sitka spruce fronts are edged with herringbone purfling, which also surrounds the soundhole, giving a clean and summery feel. There’s a whiff of the hippy 1970s to the styling, without being fey. The high-gloss finish on the body shows the figure in the mahogany and the rosewood to great effect, and there’s a further decorative strip dividing the excellently bookmatched halves of the back. A pickguard is provided separately for you to attach, or not: the simplicity of a clean uncluttered front definitely has its appeal. Both guitars are fitted with bone saddles and nuts, too – certainly not found too often on instruments at this level. Having retrofitted bone nuts and saddles to many guitars from the cheaper plastic ones over the years, it’s great to see them as standard here. Making a compelling guitar at this pricepoint is a challenging task, especially with so many of the elements normally associated with a much higher price. Here and there, it’s apparent where Aria may have made its savings. There are a couple of places where glue is visible, and out of the (price-included) cases, there was a roughness to the satin-neck finish. But, as ever, this quickly burnished with playing into a silkier feel. Speaking of which…
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Feel & Sounds The classic dreadnought 511 has a sturdy feel that encourages a strident approach: it responds well to vigorous and energetic strumming and picking. There’s a characterful low-mid grunt to the tone that lends a satisfying punch to rhythm parts, and there’s plenty of sustain with both more open voicings and even full barre chords. This business-like sound extends to a slightly bigger-than-you-might-expect U-shaped neck profile: more traditional Gibson Les Paul than
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24 Guitarist May 2014
It’s a pretty ambitious project to make a guitar at this price-point, especially with so many of the elements normally associated with a much higher price
Aria 511 Dreadnought & 505 OM
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1. Solid-bone saddles are well shaped and accurately compensated, with surprisingly accommodating string spacing 2. Herringbone purfling surrounds the soundhole and fronts of both guitars 3. The fretboard is unbound, but the fret ends are fettled nice and smooth 4. These unbranded enclosed tuners on the dreadnought perform well, but there’s a nicer vibe to the vintage-style, opengeared type on the OM 5. Carefully sourced, beautifully figured woods for the back are bookmatched pieces, enhanced with an elegant centre stripe
modern Taylor. String spacing at both nut and saddle feel very natural and quite airy: pulling and slapping is a breeze, and things don’t get too bright with these more percussive techniques. The guitar feels very stable in terms of tuning, and intonation is accurate enough to allow harmonious playing at the dusty end of the fretboard. Again, not always the case with lower end instruments. The dreadnought is often pigeon-holed as a strummer, but putting it through its paces with everything from a simple drop-D to a low C open-tuning, finger-picked or strummed, it worked just as well – only sounding a little flabby when you really dig in. By comparison, the OM definitely feels more delicate, catering for the trend towards smaller-bodied acoustics with its slightly shallower depth and smaller waisted body. It’s a delight to play, and it feels more like a parlour guitar after the size and boldness of the 511. But considering its comparatively small size, the OM has an impressively loud voice, with all the bright warm responsiveness of the 511, plus a little extra width in the highs and lows: the result, we suspect, of the extra £40 rosewood back and sides. As has been said before in these pages, we can’t help wondering how these guitars will develop with age and playing time,
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Aria 511 Dreadnought & 505 OM
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and how the character that the different woods impart will colour the sounds. Even so, the seemingly small differences in neck profile and body depth already have quite an impact: the OM is really another animal compared to the dreadnought. It lends itself to a different playing approach – more complex than merely strumming versus picking. Whereas the dreadnought is perfect for a boisterous campfire sing-a-round, the OM is a songwriter’s friend, an instrument for quieter spaces. The sound remains well balanced, and having lost some of the bottom end that the 511 has in spades, a sweetness and subtlety is revealed. Sustain is key to the sound. The harmonics decay at a remarkably even rate across the frequency spectrum, whether strings are held or left open. If there were any problems with intonation or tuning stability, these would be glaringly obvious, but there are none. This review sample is sensibly set up, too. The action is comfortably low, but still allows for a sensible amount of welly even if you drop the D. And its sound is versatile, too. Fingerpicked, it exhibits a clear folk voice. Strumming? Well, it’ll suit anything from gentle blues to smoky jazz accompaniment.
Aria 511
Aria 505
PRICE: £499 (inc case) ORIGIN: Indonesia TYPE: Dreadnought acoustic BODY: Indonesian mahogany NECK: Indonesian mahogany SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT WIDTH: Bone/4mm FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, small ‘snow flake’ inlay, radius unspecified FRETS: 20, medium HARDWARE: Enclosed die-cast tuners BRIDGE/SPACING: Indonesian rosewood pin bridge with compensated bone saddle/55.5mm ELECTRICS: None WEIGHT (KG/LB): 2.23/4.9 OPTIONS: The 515 dreadnought with Indonesian rosewood back/sides costs £539 inc case LEFT HANDERS: Coming soon FINISH: Natural high-gloss body with satin neck Aria UK 01483 238720 www.ariauk.com
PRICE: £539 (inc case) ORIGIN: Indonesia TYPE: Orchestra acoustic BODY: Indonesian rosewood NECK: Indonesian mahogany SCALE LENGTH: 650mm (25.6”) NUT WIDTH: Bone/44mm FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, small ‘snow flake’ inlay, radius unspecified FRETS: 20, medium HARDWARE: Open geared, vintagestyle tuners. BRIDGE/SPACING: Indonesian rosewood pin bridge with compensated bone saddle/55.5mm ELECTRICS: None WEIGHT (KG/LB): 2.23/4.9 OPTIONS: The 501 OM with Indonesian mahogany back/sides costs £499 inc case LEFT HANDERS: Coming soon FINISH: Natural, high-gloss body with satin neck
Verdict Unglamorous as it may sound, both these guitars feel and sound honest and dependable – a very good thing. There are a couple of minor cosmetic/construction blips, but nothing to spoil the party. Essentially, these are clearly defined, well-made guitars that should develop the more you play them. They invite you to have fun, too, and at this ticket price you won’t mind passing them around. There are no electro options in the current line-up: they are simply acoustic guitars that sound great, each in their own way, and played as an acoustic duo, they sound beautiful together. Try both. Buy both? Seriously, that’s not as daft as it might sound.
26 Guitarist May 2014
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G
Build quality Playability Sound Value for money
Build quality Playability Sound Value for money
Guitarist says: Bone-nutted and businesslike with a bold sound this is a cracking value dread’
Guitarist says: Sound, playability and affordability, this little OM has it all
Frontend
Don’t miss it! Must-see guitar goings-on for the coming weeks…
Dave Davies Of The Kinks 11 April, Barbican Hall, London
Kenny Wayne Shepherd dates
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© JEFF KATZ
Robert Cray UK tour 2-18 May, various UK venues Slick and soulful Strat seducer Robert Cray will be bringing his band to the UK in May for a 13-day tour. It’s in support of his Stax and Chess-influenced new record, In My Soul. See robertcray.com for ticket and tour info.
30 April, 1 May, London, Cheltenham It’s tours galore, and US blues-rock phenomenon Kenny Wayne Shepherd will be over here for two nights in support of his forthcoming bluescover album Goin’Home at the end of April. See kennywayneshepherd. net for ticket info.
© MARK-SELIGER
© PAUL UNDERSINGER
T
here aren’t many artists who could legitimately celebrate the 50th anniversary of a guitar sound they created. But in the case of Dave Davies of The Kinks, when he took a razorblade to the speaker cone of his Elpico amp, fed the output through a Vox and ripped into the powerchords of You Really Got Me, it was a seismic sonic breakthrough – and its shockwaves have influenced whole genres of musicians since. He’ll be playing his first UK date for 13 years at London’s Barbican Hall in April, so you’ll be able to hear Davies perform a mix of songs from The Kinks and his solo career for yourself. Tickets are on sale now, priced £35.50 and £32.50, available from barbican.org.uk. Plus, look out for a full interview with the man himself next issue.
www.cheltenham festivals.com/jazz for more info.
Medeski Martin & Wood feat Nels Cline Cheltenham Jazz Festival 30 April-5 May, Cheltenham The renowned six-day jazz celebration takes place in a tented Festival Village, and features a diverse line up including Radio 2-friendly acts such as Jamie Cullum, a Golden Age Of Jazzthemed night, and more experimental fare. See
6 April, London Hold on to your hats for what this experimental trio describes as an amalgam of avant-noise, funk and a million other musical currents and impulses.Joining them on guitar will be Nels Cline of Wilco, with whom the trio have just released a live album, Woodstock Sessions. See www.mmw.net for further info.
Frontend
Roundup: Stay Classy Retro cool and shabby roadworn chic are all well and good, but how about a guitar with a bit of style? Check out these recent six-strings for the discerning gentleman, or lady, below…
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1 Fender Select Series Carved Top Jazzmaster £2,302 www.fender.com
This Jazzmaster is part of Fender’s Select Series range, and recasts the venerable indie-rock favourite to include a flamemaple top, Adjust-o-matic bridge, Wide Range Special humbucking pickups and a ‘channel-bound’ compound-radius fingerboard. We said: “Continues Fender’s riposte to high-end luthiers – you can see the flair and enjoyment that’s gone into the design”
2 D’Angelico EX-SS £1,249 www.dangelicoguitars.com
The D’Angelico marque has produced some of the most breathtakingly stylish guitars ever created, but being able to afford one has traditionally been
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a stumbling block. Now, though, the company’s sumptuous new semi-hollow EX-SS and hollowbody EXL-1 models make the dream a tantalising reality, for around £1,000. We said: “More compact and hollow-sounding than an ES-335; a superb all-round vibe-y electric”
3 Gibson Luther Dickinson ES-335 £2,299 www.gibson.com
This recent signature-model ES-335, for North Mississippi Allstars guitarist Luther Dickinson, adds a dash of the unusual: Alnico II ‘dog ear’ P-90s, a Bigsby B7, and a finish that mirrors a vintage ES-175 owned by Dickinson’s father. We said: “The Bigsby B7 works beautifully, and contributes a less banjo-like acoustic response than a hardtail ES-335 – a seriously desirable guitar”
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4 Vigier Excalibur Special Limited Edition £2,339 www.vigierguitars.com
The scrunched aluminium finish of this limited-edition Vigier is the icing on the cake of a guitar that has always impressed over seven incarnations since 1994. Superb build quality and instrumental rock-oriented playability and tone make this a winner. We said: “Whether you like shred, funk or rock, make sure this eye-popping modern classic doesn’t pass you by”
5 Gretsch G6139CB Falcon Center-Block Single Cutaway £3,226 www.gretschguitars.com
With its reputation for histrionics and turning in troubled performances while remaining
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timeless, capricious and insanely desirable, Gretsch’s White Falcon will always be the guitar world’s Marilyn Monroe. Gretsch’s 2013 feedback-suppressing CenterBlock versions just made us fall in love all over again. We said: “A real looker with feel, vibe and sounds all its own. Scary price, scintillating guitar”
6 PRS Paul’s Guitar £4,030 www.prsguitars.com
This showpiece PRS may look superficially similar to the classic Custom 22, but there’s nearly two decades of constant progress on show here. Sound-wise, it’s a step forward, even from the recent 408 – we believe we have a new PRS tonal favourite. We said: “Covering earthy jazz tones, sweet Fender-y cleans, classic rock… The sounds are spectacular. And it will hold its value, too”
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Frontend
Wishlist PHOTOGRAPHY JOE BRANSTON
42 Guitarist May 2014
Scott Walker Phantom £5,650
O
utside of the cut and thrust of the mainstream electric guitar market there are plenty of smaller luthiers happy to push the boat out in terms of design and construction. Scott Walker is one of them. He’s worked with Santa Cruz, and now has his own line of unique electrics, acoustics basses and even a lap-steel. The Phantom is inspired by the work of the late Californian luthier Steve Cripe, known for the guitars he made for the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. Utilising an ebony/ padauk/maple/padauk/ebony sandwich construction, the chambered body has a Les Paullike weight of 4.1kg (9lbs). The bolt-on neck is beautifully figured maple, topped with a grained ivoroid-bound ebony ’board with signature diamond inlays. Unusually, the headstock is slotted and fitted with Gotoh
Waverly-style tuners. Those large Jazzmaster-sized blade singlecoils are made by Jason Lollar, controlled by a three-way toggle with dual volumes and master tone. With a 635mm (25-inch) PRS-like scale, chunky wellfinished frets and a Gibson-like fingerboard camber, the neck is a beautifully deep, almost U-shape that evokes early Fender. Fit and finish is absolutely superb. Sound-wise, there’s plenty of bite and stridency, quite Fenderfocused on full chat; wind down the volume and smooth the highs a little, and there’s an older-style P-90-ish voice. The sustain is extraordinary – and from lowervolume jazz on that neck pickup to quite barking heavier rock, it’s a guitar that handles a lot of ground. Of course, at this price, including a custom hand-made Scott Walker case, it should. thenorthamericanguitar.com
May 2014 Guitarist 43
Music
Music
Rodrigo Y Gabriela 9 Dead Alive
Rubyworks/Because
A
++++
ll-new studio album from the Mexican duo ups the ante This first album of all-new music since 2009’s 11:11 from everyone’s favourite Mexican acoustic-rock duo proves well worth the wait for their many fans worldwide. Whereas each track on 11:11 was dedicated to a musician that inspired them, this time round, it’s a sample of nearly nine centuries’ worth of historical figures. So opener The Soundmaker is a tribute to Spanish luthier Antonio de Torres Jurado, although it’s
such a ferocious display of rhythmic attack, relentless offbeat riffing and hummingbird tremolo picking, it could just as easily be a tribute to James Alan Hetfield. Other recipients of RyG’s nylon-strung tributes throughout the nine tracks include Dostoyevsky, poet Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, and Eleanor of Acquitane. You could be forgiven for thinking that in our age of hyperslick production, a predominantly acoustic album could be tiring for the ears, but thankfully, that’s not the case at all: the duo have clearly worked tirelessly on light and shade in their shapeshifting compositions, as well as the
variety in their individual performances. Gabriela’s fearsome strumming and percussion patterns are breathtakingly fluent and metronomic, while Rodrigo’s melodic phrasing and metal guitar-influenced leadlines are expressive and memorable – he even pulls out a slide on Torito. There are moments of reflection, such as when Megalopolis floats in and out of hazy reverb, and Sunday Neurosis has sampled voices, bluesey bends and organ; but the pair are at their best when they combine at full throttle, which they do to devastating effect on the intricate acoustithrash of The Russian Messenger.
The album was recorded and produced by the duo in their studio in Mexico, and whether it’s down to them or to the skills of renowned engineer and mixer Andrew Scheps, the sense of being present in the room with them as they go head-to-head is palpable.Touches such as whispered mid-song count-ins and snippets of conversation are essential to remind us of the craft on display here, and to bolster the feeling of intimacy. Overall, this is a passionate, skilful and thoroughly enjoyable record that has something in it for guitar players of any stripe. [BW] Standout track: The Russian Messenger For fans of: Paco de Lucía, Metallica
May 2014 Guitarist 45
Music
In-fighting, breakdowns and break-ups fuelled the mystique surrounding The Verve in the 1990s. Now the band’s mercurial guitar genius is back…
Black Submarine
W
hen The Verve finished, the feeling among us was that it was premature. There was definitely more mileage in it,” says Nick McCabe, the man former bandmate Richard Ashcroft once described as channelling “a whole other universe” through his shimmering, psychedelic sixstring textures. After The Verve split with some acrimony for the third, and apparently final, time in 2009, the remaining members, sans Ashcroft, planned to continue. Drummer Peter Salisbury pulled out before any new studio sessions began, so McCabe, bassist Simon Jones, electric violinist Davide Rossi – who had worked with The Verve on their final studio album, Forth, and joined them live on stage – recruited former Portishead drummer, Mig Schillace, and headed to Denmark. “The first two weeks of playing in Copenhagen yielded 80 tunes,” says McCabe. “We got into the habit of recording everything. There’s a lot of openness to the magic of improvisation, for want of a less precious term. It was a shame that Pete wasn’t on board, but in a lot of respects, it was probably for the best. I think Mig has a greater capacity to adapt to what is happening in a room at any one time. He was the obvious guy for the job, and he was a good friend, anyway.” Black Submarine’s line-up is completed by singer Amelia Tucker, who plays a key role in processing hours of improvised jams – McCabe describes her as the real ace in the hole. “She’s one of our key editors. I keep saying this, but she’s one of those people who can take a sort of macro view
and an overview at the same time. So she’s really good at detail, and she knows where she’s going in the greater scheme of things at the same time. Something like Here So Rain was mostly drums, violin and melodica with very little guitar. She got this skeleton of the thing and returned a fully finished song to us that just made absolute logical sense. Most things go through several reductions. It’s a distillation process.”
Modern love Although much of Black Submarine’s sound is the result of humans playing together in a room, technology plays an important part, especially for McCabe, long an advocate of a modernistic approach to guitar recording: “It was kind of my idea to bring Pro Tools into [Verve album] Urban Hymns. It was a way of getting myself off the hook, really. My technical skills aren’t that great, but what I am good at is inventing things and taking a lateral view. There’s nothing I dislike more than hearing unison acoustic and electric guitar. If I’d started following the chords it would have just killed it for me. It was funny at the time… Richard said my job was to f**k it up! I was sort of semiinsulted by that, but my impulse was to play against whatever was happening, and give it a different dimension. “I probably went through the same phase that everybody did: you start perfecting everything, just because you can. I understand that the imperfection is the beauty of it now. Tempo drift and little glitches in playing and stuff; you start editing that out, you end up with highly quantised, one-dimensional music. It’s difficult for kids in their late teens or early
20s now – they’re so accustomed to quantised music that everything else sounds sloppy. “But each band has its own rhythmic fingerprint. It’s still something that I find slightly mystical. You’ve got to take a kind of Eno-esque philosophical line – you speed up and slow down for a reason. Generally, little shifts in tempo are to do with the fact that the excitement in the room has ramped up. If you take that out, you lose part of the feeling of it. So with Black Submarine, we’ve
What we’re listening to Little Barrie Shadow Primal Scream man’s psych power trio get soulful and filmic on album four
46 Guitarist May 2014
Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa
Manchester Orchestra
Live In Amsterdam
Cope
Killer covers set from soulful rock siren and blues-rock star
Atlanta alt-rockers return with bold strokes and crunchy riffs
Music
“Each band has its own rhythmic fingerprint. It’s still something that I find slightly mystical. You speed up and slow down for a reason”
relished making an imperfect record… it’s perfect in its imperfection! It’s knowing where to stop. I think that’s probably where my experience counts more than anywhere else. I know not to tweak the perfection button too much!” McCabe’s main six-string squeezes in Black Submarine are Levinson Blade Texas Series electrics, along with cheap and cheerful Hofner and Agile models, but it’s his Kemper Profiling Amp that has proved the most revelatory acquisition: “That’s
fulfilled all the promise of digital. For the last year and half, the Kemper won out over everything. In a lot of respects, I prefer the profiles to the real thing now. Quite a lot of the time when I’m playing guitar, I’m f**king frustrated because it’s not working out the way I want. Generally, more tweaking happens than actual playing. But with the Kemper, because you have a crystallised version of something, you kind of go, ‘That sounds f**king good,’ and you get on with it. Every time I’ve finished a
Animals As Leaders
Emmylou Harris
The Joy Of Motion
Wrecking Ball
Abasi’s technique shines on one of the year’s most impressive displays of musicianship
Legendary singer-songwriter’s beautiful 1995 covers set remastered with bonus material
session with it, I’ve thought, ‘That is the best thing I’ve ever bought’. It sounds incredible, and there are no weird artefacts. It sounds as guitars should sound.” [CV]
Passing notes Out now: New Shores More info: blacksubmarine.co.uk Download: Here So Rain
Rock Candy Funk Party Takes New York: Live Bonamassa live again! This time, he brings the breathless funk
May 2014 Guitarist 47
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52 Guitarist May 2014
Andy Summers Interview
Circa’s Hero
Andy Summers’ pristine riffs with The Police added space and grace to Walking On
The Moon and dark poise to Every Breath You Take. We meet him to talk about his new rock outfit, Circa Zero, learn why right-hand technique is key to his style and why Strats are where it’s at… Words Jamie Dickson
A
ndy Summers has a genius for crafting elegant pop hooks that lodge in the memory like cool barbs of sound. Although there’s a more experimental, esoteric side to Andy’s playing, he’s returned to pop territory recently with his new band, Circa Zero, who have just completed a debut album loaded with surging rock riffs and the kind of lush, chorus-laden clean tones last heard when Molly Ringwald was Pretty In Pink. We join Andy to talk about the playing and studio gear on the record, wryly entitled Circus Hero, after a New York disc jockey mispronounced the band’s name on a breakfast show. We also find out why Strats were nearly as important to Andy’s Police-era tone as the battered, heavily modded ’61 Telecaster he’s known for, and hear how he nearly gave that fabled Tele back to its owner shortly after buying it – and not because it was bad, either… The new album’s quite a bit heavier than we were expecting…
“We really wanted to make a rock album that was full of hit songs. I even slightly feel we went too far in that direction. But that’s the way it came out and I do think that it’s a very strong album. In some ways, rockier and a bit edgier than some of the stuff we did with The Police.” The core of the music is your guitar and multi-instrumentalist Rob Giles’ vocals. How did you meet?
“He was in a band called The Rescues that were playing around LA – they’d been together for a little while. A friend of mine was managing them and I was taken to see them, and I was very impressed. “Then, a year later, I went to see them again, and again I was really impressed with Rob. About the same time, I was about to release a record and I was slightly unsure about what I had – I thought I had great tracks and I was working with this young guy who was very good, but there was something that wasn’t quite there for me. “Long story short, I spoke to the manager of The Rescues the next day, who’s a friend of mine, and said I’d really like to get together with Rob. I wonder if he would come down and sing a couple of these songs? So that afternoon we put one of the tracks up and he sang it and just… I said, ‘Oh, I think this is the guy’. I decided on the spot in my studio that we’d make a rock album together. And so, that’s really how it started. “We quickly found the chemistry was completely there. And that’s really why I stuck with this and went all the way through to make an album, because I don’t really need to do this. But we get on great, the music’s there and we worked our way through, on and off, for six months. And we’re very happy to be at this point with it.” We’ve always admired the economy of your playing – how do you keep things simple yet effective?
“It’s a good question; let’s just say good taste prevails, hopefully. You don’t really want to
piss all over the singer with unnecessary guitar just because you can play. What you want to do is make the most of whatever you’ve got and make it the most effective. But at the same time, this is rock music – it’s gotta be exciting, so it can be a bit wild and outside of the box, as it were. You have to learn to strike an attitude with every track: establish what’s right for every track. It’s the way it comes out with every person – that’s where my taste is, I want it to come out very strong and effective, but I don’t want to destroy the song, just because I can play the guitar.” There are echoes of Police riffs, especially on Whenever You Hear The Rain. Was that a deliberate nod to your past?
“Yes, well that track was a very late addition. It was actually a song that I’d written previously – one of those that was written in about five minutes flat, it was kind of amazing, you know. Sometimes they just come into your head complete. But we were fiddling around with it and I thought, ‘Christ, it’s too commercial – can we really go to this place?’ But what really sealed the deal was that lick I put on it, which is almost a reverse version of what I played on Every Breath You Take. I woke up at four in the morning and I’d got it in my head; just like I heard the whole song originally. So I went to the studio next day and tried it – and it gave that song a spine that goes all the way, and the right amount of tension. It is Policelike. But you know, that’s my legacy: I wasn’t particularly looking to play like The Police
May 2014 Guitarist 53
Interview Andy Summers
Avant-Gardeners ANDY Summers blends his instincts for a pop hook with more cerebral, leftfield influences. But he’s not the only player mixing Friday night with erudite. Here’s our pick of three players who have sure mainstream instincts but also know how to warp your mind… Jim Campilongo This intriguing New York Tele-toter is a musical collaborator of jazz-pop diva Norah Jones, but his solo work, such as his superb Orange album from 2010, is full of bitter ’n’ twisted Tele tones and languid blues that belong in a swampy other-world of tone. If you haven’t checked out this great player, who walks in the footsteps of Roy Buchanan, you really should.
© DENNIS SMITH
Marc Ribot The snarling Tele tones of Marc Ribot’s playing can be heard all over the back catalogue of Tom Waits – but the more sleazily abstract side of his playing comes out beautifully on Waits’ Mule Variations from 1999, especially on tracks such as the smokily narcotic Black Market Baby. Adrian Utley This Bristol-based guitarist may have made his name with Portishead’s sparse and moody trip-hop, but he’s an eclectic sonic explorer. His background was in jazz guitar, and recently he’s been performing and recording massed-guitar orchestra versions of minimalist composer Terry Riley’s mesmerising In C.
Circa Zero is a collaboration with singer and multi-instrumentalist Rob Giles, who plays with The Rescues
on this album, but it comes out here and there. It’s all unintentional – but if it fits something like that, then it can go in.” Tight arpeggio riffs, as on Every Breath You Take, are a hallmark of your style. How do you keep your picking so tidy?
“If it’s arpeggiated, I’m probably playing with my fingers because I played classical guitar for years. So I have a very good, pretty fluid right hand – I’m always going between the pick and the fingers, and sometimes I do the hybrid-picking thing. To play straight with a pick is almost unusual for me, now; I do so much else with the fingers and the thumb, or a combination thereof – and sometimes you can be more accurate doing it with the hand rather than with just a pick. You’re ‘one closer’, as it were. To me, it’s very natural – my advice to any guitar player
54 Guitarist May 2014
is that you’ve got to learn to play guitar with your fingers – you’ve got to learn how to play with the right hand. You’re just missing out on half of what you can do if you only play with a pick.” Watching vintage footage of a player such as Merle Travis, you realise how much can be done with the right hand…
“Yeah, he was a great player – but of course he used a thumbpick, which is difficult. I’ve tried it, and it’s one technique I just can’t quite get. I’ve tried it a few times where you got the thumbpick on, and then the first and second finger and… it’s hard. I like to play with the thumb actually on the string.” What was your studio rig for the album?
“In my studio, I have a battery of everything: I’ve got about 150 guitars or something.
I usually have about 12 out – but, mostly, guitar-wise it would usually have been a Strat or a Les Paul. I certainly used the Les Paul on most of the solos; there’s also a Collings guitar I really like: their take on the 335 [the I-35]. I’m a big fan of Collings guitars. So those would be the main guitars – I don’t see a lot of need to stretch outside of that for this thing. Amp-wise, there’s a few different amps that I plug into – I’ve got my actual stage rig, which is the pedalboard with a load of pedals and a Mesa/Boogie 2:90 amp with two 2x12 cabinets with sealed backs, which I always use live. Then I also use the Roland VG-99 [guitar synth] quite a lot on the record – and then the amps would either have been an old Fender Concert amp or a ’59 Deluxe, Princeton… And then I’ve also got a Mesa/Boogie – can’t remember what it’s called. It’s extremely
Interview Andy Summers
© CHELSEA LAUREN/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES
Summers describes Circa Zero’s sound as “harder and edgier” than The Police
clean, with a sealed back. It’s about the cleanest amp I ever played through. And I’ve got all the pedals of course – you name it, I’ve got it.” Do you still use any of your old Pete Cornish Police-era effects much?
“I don’t use any of Pete’s stuff any more. It’s still great, still works, and I’ve still got the ’board… But I’m mostly using newer stuff.” There’s some really thick drive tones on the album – what did you use for those?
“Actually, for a lot of the solos, the best sound I could get was out of the Roland VG-99. I sort of took the VG-99 and rewrote all the [multi-effect patches] in a different order than they have it. I don’t even know what the sound is that they call it. But the way I’ve set it up, it’s just ‘Number 150’ – sorry, that’s not very helpful [laughs]! But it’s a fantastic lead sound – a perfect sustain and fuzz. And as you can hear on the record, I used it with a wah-wah here and there.” Many think of you as a Tele player, but you used Strats for a lot of Police material…
“Yeah, I’m obviously known for the Telecaster – but of course, my major era of playing with Strats was with The Police. The first Strat I ever had was a white one that belonged to Buddy Guy. I don’t know where it went – and I didn’t stay with it, I went back to playing a Les Paul Junior. But
then somewhere, I think it was Austin Texas, I bought the red Strat that I used through most of my career with The Police for like $300 or something. I think it was a ’62 Strat. I’d use it for probably half the set – in the old videos you can see it a lot. I probably used it as much as the Telecaster in the end, and I’ve still got it. “Now I’ve got several Strats, and there’s two that I like. When we did the Police reunion tour, Fender made that [Tribute model] Telecaster for me, and at the same time they made me a couple of copies of my original red Strat, both of which are amazing guitars to play – very slick. And one of them, which is a very quiet guitar, is the one I mostly use.” How about your modded ’61 Tele – does that get used much these days?
“I don’t use it much – the actual one is hidden away, because it’s valuable and I don’t really like to get it out of the house much. But I have six other ones, copies that Fender gave me. But it’s got a really thick, meaty sound – it’s still a great guitar, and plays like liquid. That original one is a really magical guitar: a life-changer, actually.” Accounts vary as to where that came Tele from – what’s the actual story?
“I got it off a guy that I was teaching guitar, for, like, 200 bucks. I always remember that, because I got it home and was thinking,
“[My ’61 Telecaster] has a really thick, meaty sound – it’s still a great guitar, and plays like liquid. It’s a really magical guitar: a life-changer, actually” 56 Guitarist May 2014
‘Christ, this guitar’s amazing!’ And I actually offered to give it back to him: I said, ‘Look, this is a really great guitar, are you sure you want to get rid of it?’ But he said, ‘No, I don’t want it any more’. And that’s how I got that guitar. And it’d had all the business done to it already: it had a Gibson pickup in it and an overdrive built into it. But it was sort of perfect. My life started changing shortly thereafter in The Police, and that was the guitar. It became iconic.” The Circa Zero album is very much a poprock outing – but are you still interested in more esoteric stuff?
“Absolutely, I have enough skills where I can say, ‘Yeah, let’s focus on making a rock album’; and that’s we did. But over the last 20 years, I’ve made so many jazz and all kinds of different albums that just aren’t rock at all. For example, aside from this project with Rob Giles, I’m working on a ballet, which is mostly composed of really out-there, avant-garde electric guitar sounds. So I definitely have an ear for the ‘sonic palette’ kind of stuff.” What’s next? Any plans to tour with Circa Zero in the UK?
“Absolutely – we’re just really waiting to see, because as it stands, we’re still a month out from the record [at time of writing] and obviously everyone knows me, but they don’t know about this band, and I hope we get started this summer for the rest of the year. We’re looking for the right tour, the right setup, so that we can go out.” Circus Hero by Circa Zero is out now on 429 Records
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Aces xz
In an explosive five-and-half-month period in 1956, 35 tracks were recorded by Gene Vincent And His Blue Caps with the then-unknown Cliff Gallup on guitar. Little did this humble genius know that these tracks – almost his entire recorded output – would secure his place in history as one of the most groundbreaking guitarists of all time, influencing The Beatles, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and countless others along the way
Small Miracles W O R D S DENNY ILETT
T © MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
he year 1956 was when it all came together. For decades, blues, jazz, pop and country artists had mostly carved their own paths. Towards the end of the 1940s, new, hybrid forms of music began to emerge. By 1950, rhythm and blues or R&B – a fusion of blues melody and lyrics with swing/jazz rhythm – had come to dominate the pop charts. The new sound, led by the likes of Louis Jordan, T-Bone Walker and Big Joe Turner, inspired a record-company frenzy for more earthy, soulful music as an antidote to the ‘sophisticated’ sound of Frank Sinatra and the big bands. Into the mix came a country/pop movement championed by Tennessee Ernie Ford, Gene Autry, Merle Travis and the great Hank Williams. By 1956, jazz, blues, country and pop music had fused – and created Elvis Presley. In that same year, Cliff Gallup showed the world what this stylistic gumbo sounded like through a guitar amp.
NORFOLK NIGHTS Cliff was born Clifton E Gallup on 17 June 1930 in Norfolk, Virginia on the east coast of the USA. So little is known about his early life that, for years, his name was believed to be Clifford, not Clifton. What is known is that, like so many other greats, he took to music at a young age and displayed prodigious talent. By his late teens, he was performing at parties, dances and small local clubs with a band called The Virginians.
Fast-forward to the start of 1956: William Douchette, known as Sheriff Tex Davis, a local radio DJ, had heard a young singer calling himself Gene Vincent at a talent show in Norfolk. Vincent had been born Vincent Eugene Craddock on 11 February 1935, one month and three days after a certain Elvis Presley and, like Cliff Gallup, also in Norfolk, Virginia. After dropping out of school at 17, and with a desire to pursue a career in the US Navy, Craddock later suffered a huge setback in 1955 when his left leg was permanently damaged in a motorcycle accident. The leg was saved, although he was left with a limp and constant pain. His Navy dream was over. Eugene then started hanging out on the local music scene, and was beginning to make waves when Sheriff Tex heard him and signed up to be his manager. Heartbreak Hotel, the song that broke Elvis Presley and rock ’n’ roll into the mainstream, was released on 27 January, shaking the music world to its foundations. Record companies and talent scouts went into overdrive looking for any ‘next’ Elvis that might come their way. Sheriff Tex Davis was no fool. Being a local DJ, he knew that rock ’n’ roll was going to be the next big thing, and he wanted a piece of it. By May of 1956, he’d signed Eugene Craddock, who was now calling himself Gene Vincent, and put a band of local musicians together to back him up. Together, they were Gene Vincent And His Blue Caps; a term used to describe members of the US Navy. That
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© MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
wyAces Cliff Gallup xz
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Gene Vincent And His Blue Caps pose, with Cliff hiding from the limelight
group were Willie Williams on rhythm guitar, Dickie Harrell on drums, Jack Neal on upright bass and Cliff Gallup on lead guitar.
STUDIO STAR Davis wasted no time securing a contract with Capitol records and booking sessions; the first on 4 May, 1956. The musicians, despite being active on the local scene and handpicked by Davis, didn’t at first inspire the same confidence in Ken Nelson, the producer. He took the precaution of booking a group of seasoned session players in case Vincent’s sidemen were below par. The first track recorded by Gene Vincent And His Blue Caps was Race With The Devil. Once they’d run through it a couple of times, Nelson dismissed the session guys. Cliff takes two solos during the course of the song’s 2:06 minutes and, behind Vincent’s vocal, plays a series of effortless little runs and chord stabs that show a player, still only 25 years old, of remarkable maturity. The influence of Chet Atkins, Scotty Moore and Charlie Christian is evident from bar one, but there’s something else in this incredibly relaxed guitar work that is 100 per cent Cliff Gallup. It’s as though, on his first visit to a recording studio, Gallup wants to show us a little of everything he’s capable of, as he demonstrates with aplomb the full gamut of rock ’n’ roll guitar vocabulary. The 6/9th chord stabs, the relaxed, swinging eighth-note phrasing, the blistering triplet run that opens his first solo, the octave runs and doublestops; it’s all here! His gorgeous, fat-but-biting tone comes courtesy of a Gretsch 6128 Duo Jet, a semi-hollow electric with DeArmond DynaSonic single-coil pickups and the obligatory Bigsby vibrato arm. These guitars were first manufactured in 1953, so Cliff would have been one of the earliest users of them. Amp-wise, he plugged into a Standel 25L15, a tube combo sending 26 watts through a single 15-inch speaker, that was also a favourite of Chet Atkins. The setup is simplicity itself, with only the addition of studio-generated tape delay for that classic
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rockabilly ‘slapback’ echo. Gallup also found a way of rigging up a tape machine to his amp to achieve the same sound, much like Scotty Moore’s fabled Ray Butts EchoSonic amplifier with onboard tape echo that featured on virtually every early Elvis hit.
BLAZING A TRAIL With Race With The Devil in the can, it was time for the second number of the session. This turned out to be the now immortal Be-Bop-A-Lula; a simple, loping 12-bar blues with an even simpler lyric that became Vincent’s biggest selling song, and the one for which he is best remembered. Clearly influenced by Elvis’ Heartbreak Hotel, Be-Bop-A-Lula again showcases Gallup’s slapback guitar in two solos. There are some simple but perfect
JET PILOT
On Cliff’s glorious Gretsch GALLUP’s main guitar was the Gretsch Duo Jet, introduced in 1953 in response to the growing popularity of solidbodies from Gibson and Fender. The Duo Jet looks like a solidbody but is, in fact, chambered inside, making it perfect to cover 1953’s plethora of styles – from jazz to country, pop and rock ’n’ roll. A Duo Jet played its part in the reinvention of rock ’n’ roll in 1963, in the hands of a young George Harrison on The Beatles’ breathless debut album, Please Please Me.
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doublestop licks, and some Chet Atkins/Scotty Mooreesque chordal picking slowed right down to suit the tempoofthesong.Inthesecondsolo,therearesomevery tasty semitone bends (whole tone, and beyond, string bends were virtually impossible with the heavy-gauge strings that were standard then) and some subtle use of the Bigsby to achieve a semitone drop. Along with some of Gallup’s trademark triplet runs, despite being fairly simple, this is as perfect as a guitar solo gets; fitting the moodandpaceofthesong,andcomplementingthevocal verses almost in a call-and-response manner. To say Be-Bop-A-Lula was influential would be a monstrous understatement.Inlessthanayear,ithadsold over two million copies, one of them to a teenaged lad from Liverpool named Paul McCartney – it was the first record he ever bought. John Lennon would later record a version of the song on his 1975 covers album, Rock ’N’ Roll. Be-Bop-A-Lula inspired so many young guitarists and wannabe rock stars in the 1950s, including Jeff Beck, JimmyPage,AlbertLee,EricClaptonandTheBeatles,all of whom are on record stating what an important influence the Blue Caps were to them. And it was the Blue Caps’ extraordinary guitarist, Cliff Gallup, who, with his technical proficiency, his gift for melodic and rhythmic invention and his uncanny ability to play the right thing at the right time reaffirmed to these youngsters what rock ’n’ roll was all about, following the mainstream’s ‘sanitisation’ of Elvis . Gene Vincent And His Blue Caps never repeated the success ofBe-Bop-A-LulaalthoughcriticalacclaimforRaceWith The Devil and other tracks such as Blue Jean Bop meant that the group made several more trips to the studio that summer of 1956, notching up 35 sides between May and October (36, including a remake of Race With The Devil).
PICKIN’ GOOD
How Gallup’s hybrid style shaped his sound CLIFF had an unusual picking technique that involved holding a normal plectrum between thumb and forefinger, with two metal fingerpicks on his second and third fingers. This hybrid setup allowed him almost total freedom of expression. He would use the conventional pick
for those blistering pentatonic runs and flawlessly executed triplets, then bring the two fingerpicks into play when he needed some rolling arpeggios or country-flavoured chord picking – inspired by his heroes Les Paul, Chet Atkins and Scotty Moore.
tracks.Here,onewillfindhimplayingjazzstandardssuch as The Girl From Ipanema and September In The Rain alongside an instrumental version of Be-Bop-A-Lula. At this stage, Gallup had further distanced himself from the Gene Vincent days by trading his Gretsch Duo Jet for the more sedate Country Gentleman. It’s fitting that this last visit to a recording studio finds Gallup reflective, mellow, and in complete command of his guitar and the various playing styles heexhibitsthroughout the album. Cliff continued to play his guitar, work for the school system and look after his family until his fatal heart attack, at the age of just 58, in 1988. At the request of his widow, the local paper obituary didn’t mention his time as a Blue Cap.
Cliff was never comfortable with the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle, and hated touring. A reluctant showman, he found himself being goaded into embarrassing stage antics
FAMILY MAN Cliff, being around five years older than the other band members, was never comfortable with the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle, and hated touring. A reluctant showman, he found himself being goaded by his bandmates into stage antics that embarrassed him. Despite being only 26, hewasalreadymarriedandmissedhometerribly.Latein 1956, he decided to turn his back on a lifestyle that many of us dream of, returning home to be with his wife and family. His parting words to Vincent were: “If you think I’m gonna get down on the floor, you’re crazy!” Ken Nelson at Capitol offered him a solo deal, but Cliff turnedhimdown,althoughhedidreturntothestudiofor a few more Blue Caps sessions. He settled into a quiet life ofworkingasdirectorofmaintenanceandtransportation fortheNorfolkschoolsystem,andlocalgigsatweekends. He never regretted his decision to turn his back on potential fame and fortune. Gallup was enticed back to the studio in the mid-60s to record an album called Straight Down The Middle with his group, The Four C’s. It’s a potpourri of styles that, despite its rather dated sound, shows Cliff to be so much more than the rock ’n’ roller on those famous Blue Caps
YOU BETTER BELIEVE ThemoststrikingthingaboutCliffGallup’splayingishow far superior he was technically when compared to most other rock ’n’ roll guitarists in the 1950s. At a very young age,he’dmasteredmanyaspectsofplaying,demonstrating a greater control over his jazz-flavoured country-blues licks than anyone else. This is what future greats like JimmyPageandEricClaptonheardonthoseearlyrecords, and it’s what later players like Brian Setzer and Darrell Higham have taken as the blueprint for their musical personalities. It’s what inspired Jeff Beck’s 1993 album, Crazy Legs, a record so dedicated to Cliff Gallup that Beck leaves his signature sound behind in order to recreate Gallup note-for-note. “When I was learning guitar, Cliff Gallup was the biggest influence on my playing – the cut was pretty deep and the scar never healed,” Jeff said. “His solos are so beautifully formed with a beginning, middle and end, that they’re like small miracles.” Oneonlyhastolistentothesuperchargedsolosontracks suchasPinkThunderbirdandCruisin’nexttothebeautiful chord melody work on Up A Lazy River and Peg O’ My Heart to understand why Cliff Gallup is remembered and revered by players of all styles. He made us realise that there are no boundaries in music, no jazz, blues, rock, country.Ultimately,onlytaste,toneandtouchmatter–and Cliff Gallup had a pink Thunderbird-full of all three.
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x Aces
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Godfather of rockabilly Denny Ilett shows you how to emulate the chops of the unassuming but massively influential Cliff Gallup
Denny chose a semi-hollow guitar to help him approximate the punchy sound of Gallup’s Gretsch
CLIFF Gallup was widely considered to be one of the most technically proficient guitarists in the early rockabilly and rock ’n’ roll era. He was also one of the most unassuming: his spell in Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps lasted just six months, and he spent most of his adult life working in the school system while playing locally in Virginia. Yet the 35 tracks he recorded with Gene Vincent influenced generations of great players such as Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and George Harrison.
Gallup was equally comfortable with both the chordal, fingerpicked rockabilly style and a more swing-influenced single-note melodic style. He used hybrid picking, holding the flatpick between his index finger and thumb, but also wearing fingerpicks on his middle and ring fingers. This gave his solos a crisp sound, more akin to country guitar or pedal steel. Add to this a melodic sophistication and a daring improvisational flair, and it's no wonder Jeff Beck reveres him as a god! [AC]
Example 1 THIS example works over an A or A7 chord and is mostly built around A Mixolydian (A B C# D E F# G). The minor 3rd (C) adds a bluesy element, but the frequent F# notes (and almost total lack of G notes) give a sweeter, swing-like feel. – ©»¡£ qq=qce #
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Example 2 ALTHOUGH this example is mostly based around G Mixolydian (G A B C D E F), the individual phrases are built around the underlying chords, rather than from linear scale lines.
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Example 4 OVER a static E7 chord, this example also uses the Mixolydian mode (E F# G# A B C# D) but with lots of chromatic passing notes.You can really hear Cliff’s country influence in these kind of lines, especially with his crystal-clear pick attack. – ©»¡£ qq=qce
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64 Guitarist May 2014
Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew’s gift for conjuring extreme sounds from the guitar has seen
him work with some of the most visionary artists in rock, from David Bowie to Talking Heads. Here, he recalls the mind-frying learning curve of his debut in Frank Zappa’s band, explains how he and Robert Fripp wrote the parts for King Crimson’s technically tortuous Discipline album – revealing the effects he relied on – and explains why, for all his genius, Fripp will never be a bluesman… Words Jamie Dickson
© PICTURE PERFECT/REX
Sounding Off “I think sound is always what I’ve always enjoyed the most: making sounds, creating something that you’ve never heard before. Trying to emulate other instruments, or even, in my case, animals or ordinary everyday sounds like car horns. “In the mid-70s, just before Frank Zappa discovered me here in Nashville, I was yet again in a cover band that wasn’t making much money and was doing very poorly. I had schooled myself in how to play a lot of different styles of guitar, but I’d got to this point where I realised, Well, now I just sound like everyone else, and every time it’s time for me to do something, I was just picking different licks from all those different guys.
“So, that’s what I decided: that I had to stop doing that and replace it with something original, and be conscious about that. How are you going to do it and what are you going to do? At that point, the only [unusual] thing that I was doing was making sounds. I would emulate the sound of a car horn in the middle of a guitar solo – and the audience seemed to get a big kick out that. So I thought, this could turn into something, and this is actually what I enjoy the most about playing electric guitar, so let me see if I can go that direction. “It’s very difficult to find your own little piece of real estate in the world of guitars. There are so many great people, great guitarists, and so many styles that overlap –
and to stand out from that is not easy.”
Make A Jazz Noise Here “When I first joined Frank Zappa’s band it was difficult, especially during the rehearsal stages. I got the feeling from the other guys in the band that they didn’t quite get why I was in the band [laughs]. I mean, you’re talking to some guys who had just come off jazz tours, and they read the music from charts every Monday morning – but here was this guy standing around making weird sounds! “But Frank had a system in place for me, since I was a non-reader, and he rarely worked with non-readers. We would rehearse from Monday through Friday, and on Friday
night, I would get in his car and go home and spend the weekend at the Zappa residence. He would show me what was coming up the next week, so I could start memorising it. “So, on Monday morning, he’d come in to the rehearsal and pass out music to the other guys. But I would already know some of the stuff we were doing. There were things I was left out of, because I just simply wasn’t able to learn them in time, like The Black Page or something crazy like that. If you’re a non-reader that would really be hard to learn – it might take you a few months. “In the time period that I was with Frank, which was about 11 months, I learnt five hours of Frank’s material, so I was proud of myself for being May 2014 Guitarist 65
Adrian Belew
If It Is Broke, Don’t Fix It… Adrian Belew on the first Strat he ever owned – and why a broken neck pickup became part of his sound in King Crimson
able to make that transition. You have to understand, I was a guy who had played cover songs in many different types of bands, and never played anything in an odd time signature in my life! “But I immersed myself. I moved to LA. I got a little apartment. I didn’t even have a car. I walked everywhere, and just lived Frank Zappa’s music, day in and day out. That’s the only way I could catch up.”
Look Alive “The live shows I did when I was playing in Frank’s band went on for three solid hours, with no breaks in between songs. At any moment, Frank had a hand signal that he would make, and then point to you. When he did that, there would be something that you were supposed to do that night. “I remember one night, it was for me. Whenever he would make the signal and point at me, the band would stop and I was supposed to say: 66 Guitarist May 2014
‘Banjo,’ [laughs]. But I forgot the word that night, so he kept doing it, you know, over and over, and finally I said, ‘Oh! Banjo!’ [laughs]. “There were other things like that. I remember when it was the anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s death and we were in Atlanta playing at the Fox Theatre. Just out of the blue, Frank said: ‘This is the anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s death, and here’s Adrian Belew to play Jimi Hendrix!’ I was, like, ‘Okay, now what?’ “So I ran back to my amp, and started waving my guitar frantically in front of the speakers and causing feedback and making sounds and, you know, biting it with my teeth and all of that stuff. You really had to be on your toes – but that was the idea, and it was built into all his sets.”
Maintaining Discipline “In King Crimson, Robert Fripp and I would start out
“Out of the blue, Zappa said: ‘It’s the anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s death, and here’s Adrian Belew to play Jimi Hendrix!’ I was, like, ‘Okay, now what?’” quietly, just the two of us with our electric guitars – but not plugged in – and we would daily continue on an idea. We’d get to a certain point and we’d have, maybe, four or five ideas running, and then we’d decide: ‘Okay, is this a song or is this a piece of music?’ “If it was a song, at that point, it was turned over to me. It’d be like, ‘Okay, Adrian, you’re the frontman and the singer and the lyricist. You write the song, the chord changes from this point on that you need for the melody, and you write the words, and it’ll be a song’. “If it was an instrumental piece, it was quickly developed to the stage where we would play it with the rest of the
members of the band, and we would play many variations of it, until Robert was satisfied that this was the linear arrangement, and we would lock that in. “Then we would go out and play those things live. Almost always before we ever made a record, we’d play the material live, and that would kind of give us the final perspective on what might be changed, or what could be done better. That’s why it’s usually a twoor three-year process to do a King Crimson record.”
Personal Effects “My amplification was always the Roland JC-120. I loved that amp at that point. It was nice
© RAY STEVENSON/REX
Belew and Zappa play live at the Hammersmith Odeon, January 1978
“My first Strat, though, was just a regular old wood Strat. I went up to a store and bought it new in Washington that had good prices. I drove up there. It just had a natural finish, nothing unusual or different about it. It wasn’t the best-playing Strat, but it’s what I could afford at that time. This was right about the time when I was getting in Frank Zappa’s band, and it got stolen on the very first tour. “Then, in the Discipline era, I was using another Fender Strat. It was a 60s Strat. Again, it wasn’t a unique Strat – it was just an old beat-up one, and I’d beat it up even further. In fact, the neck pick-up had become unwound, and so you could get this really tinny, almost banjo-like sound out of it. I never got it fixed, because I liked that it was different.”
© DANIL GOLOVKIN
The sixth and current incarnation of the experimental and improvisational Krimson ProjeKCt
and clean sounding, with a beautiful stereo chorus. It never really sounded like a tube amp. It always had that kind of digital quality about it, but I still liked it. “In front of me, I had a small one-strip pedalboard that had eight on- and off-switches, and that’s all they did. There were no lights or anything; you just put them on and off. The lead from that travelled back into the top of my road case, and I could put effects in there, in any order I wanted. “I usually had, back in those days, a lot of ElectroHarmonix gear, because I found they were the quirkiest things, and you could get them to do things they weren’t supposed to do [laughs]. So I’d usually have an Echo Flanger, or maybe an Electric Mistress and, of course, I’d have one or two different fuzzes. One would always be the Big Muff, and I would always run that through a 10-band EQ, and push up all the mids a lot, to get a crunchier sound where you hear the pick noises more and it feeds back more. I always had a compressor, too. “Then I had a delay unit that was given to me by David Bowie. It was a Roland DC-30, I think. It was a chorus and delay unit, and it was fun too, because you could plug in an expression pedal and move the delay around. I had that rig for 68 Guitarist May 2014
a long time. I interchanged those things, you know, and I would try a new pedal or two, but that was the basic stuff that I had.”
“I used a lot of Electro-Harmonix gear, because they were the quirkiest things. You could get them to do things they weren’t supposed to do”
Blues Breaker “As a two-guitar partnership [in King Crimson] there was everything you could possibly want. But Robert is not a bluesguitar player: I did study blues when I was first starting out. I don’t put it on record much, but I do know how to do that. “One time, he was staying here in the guest quarters of my house, which was typical of how we wrote. He would stay here for a few weeks at times when we were writing. I heard him every day downstairs trying to play blues licks. He had a couple of records and he was trying to learn, and he was puzzled about it, I could tell. “We laughed over it, and I just have to say that although he’s brilliant, he can’t play the blues. He’s the whitest guy on the planet [laughs].”
On The Fly “These days, I play a modified Parker Fly. When I first got a Parker Fly I loved that it stayed really well in tune. It had a great tremolo system on it, and resonated with feedback really well; it was very light. “The main thing was the neck, to me, which was just unbelievable. I could play
faster, cleaner, more precise, almost instantly, from picking that guitar up. “The problem was, that guitar was created by Ken Parker in the 80s, and when it came my turn to start playing one, I decided I had to have all the stuff, the bells and whistles I needed. So, a long way to explain, I didn’t change really anything about the guitar, except the electronics. “I had them make it a MIDI guitar, but Ken Parker informed me that, at first, that was what they were planning to do anyway, but they didn’t go ahead with it because they felt like the guitar was already too revolutionary. Also, I had been using a Sustainiac for so long, I couldn’t imagine not having that, so we put that on the guitar. “Then, right about that time, the Variax system from Line 6 came out. They gave me a guitar but I couldn’t even keep it in tune – although the technology was brilliant. I thought, ‘Well, we’ve got to have that on my guitar,’ and that would bring this [Parker Fly] up to the state-of-art in electric guitars at that point.”
Seeing Red “In my opinion, King Crimson’s music – while it sounds great on record, and I’m happy with the records – is really a live entity. You have to see it to get the power of it. When we were writing the music, it was always done with the eye towards playing it live. “We never did overdubs or added things we wouldn’t be able to replicate. So it was meant to be live music from the get-go. It just comes to life more in performance, because you just can’t put that on a record. It’s big, it’s powerful, it’s kind of, intense, you know. “Then there’s also the fact that every night’s a bit different [Adrian’s currently touring classic Crimson material with the Fripp-approved Crimson ProjeKCt band – Ed]. The shows have improvisation built into some of the song arrangements, to keep it fresh for us and the audience, and that’s also something you can’t capture on a record, because it’s different all the time.” The Crimson ProjeKCt’s album Live In Tokyo is out now on InsideOutMusic
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FIFTY FOUR
Only a 4am start, a 120-mile drive, two plane rides and a European Capital Of Culture opening ceremony stood between Guitarist and a genuine 1954 Fender Stratocaster. Join us as we pack a bag and head on a personal pilgrimage to find the guitar that fired a lifelong obsession… WORDS
MICK TAYLOR
PHOTOGRAPHY
JOBY SESSIONS
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he guitar has always been totemic, to a degree. Many are the tales of wide-eyed hopefuls stood agog at music-shop windows, transfixed by a stringed conduit of wonder and possibility. These days, that shop window is more likely to be on your computer screen than in your high street, but it’s still happening every day, all over the world. This guitar, with its drop-dead curves and near-perfect functionality, has transcended totemic status. In its 60 years to date, the Fender Stratocaster has nestled right in there alongside the Ray-Ban Wayfarer and Levi’s 501s as a staple of 20th century culture and design that remains 100 per cent relevant. Much imitated, never equalled, not old, not new: it just is. You might even call it timeless. Like you, I remember the first time I ever saw one, for real, up close. I was 14 and our local pub had a band on. My dad insisted I watched them, having noticed the spark of enthusiasm in me ignited by electric blues. “You might learn something,” he said. “And he plays a real Strat!” Nobody I knew had a real Strat. The Aran B Sweaters featured one Marco Rossi on the fabled Fender, punching out Albert Collins and T-Bone Walker licks among many others, through a 4x10 Fender Concert. The combination made noises that stirred something very deep that remains with me to this day. My dad was right, I did learn something, and I’m still learning. I was thinking about Marco on the plane to Umeå, Sweden, back in January this year. It’s probably down to him I was making this journey at all; it’s probably down to him that what’s at the end of it will excite me more than any rock band or superstar ever could. I know it’s not a minter, I know it’s not 100 per cent original, but in many ways, that’s what makes it all the more interesting.
DON’T DROP IT Twin brothers Mikael and Samuel Åhdén have quite a few guitars. Over 300, it’s said, and thanks to the considerable efforts of a small team of collaborators and the municipality of their home town, Umeå, they’ve offered their collection up for public display in Guitars: The Museum. Throughout a handful of breathtakingly grand rooms, walls are augmented with gigantic glass cases, each containing treasures that may as well be the Crown Jewels to people like us, albeit way more interesting. They have quite the collection of vintage Fender Stratocasters on display, marking each significant transition in its design; a bewildering array of spaghetti logos, sunbursts, reds, blues and worn nitrocellulose lacquer. We’d arranged with the brothers to photograph one of their prize 1954 Strats for this feature. Playing it in anger – live or at a recording session – was unfortunately not on the cards, because of the museum’s public opening and all the security surrounding it. But just to see it, to hold it, smell it, knock out a few licks; to get the chance to look closely at another old gem and learn a little more, well, that would be enough. So here we are, the brothers sat around a table in one of the museum’s restaurants, having gone to the considerable trouble of freeing the treasure from its multiple-stage security. They’re shooting the breeze with the great and the good of the Swedish vintage-guitar scene, while photographer Joby Sessions and
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1108’s neck profile is neither overly chunky, nor V-shaped
I get to work on the Strat, just as we have done on hundreds, maybe thousands of guitars before. It never ceases to amaze me: how the hell did they even imagine this in 1954, let alone make it? In his book The Stratocaster Chronicles, respected guitar author and historian, Tom Wheeler, goes deep into the many accounts of how the Strat first came to be: who was involved and what their input was in order to present – if not entirely reconcile – some differences of opinion and memory from those early days. It was ultimately Leo’s baby, nobody disputes that, and in its debut year, featured a highly stylised, ‘Comfort Contoured’ ash body, partly in response to player feedback that the Telecaster’s body edges were ‘sharp’ and uncomfortable. There were no CNC machines back then – if there were, Mr Fender would surely have used them – so the bodies were cut on a bandsaw, then shaped and sanded by hand. Ash was reportedly a little harder to work than alder, with a more open grain structure that also required more pore filler before finishing, two reasons the Strat later switched to mostly alder bodies during 1956. Holding this one now, it’s hard to imagine that the solidbody guitar was still such a new phenomenon back then, widely referred to as the ‘Electric Spanish guitar’, in fact. It’s so curvy. Earlier Strats are known in general – and I stress ‘in general’ – to have slightly deeper, more rounded contours than later guitars. This one flaunts its 60-year-old shapeliness more elegantly than it has any right to, even if its thinned, worn nitrocellulose-lacquer coat has seen better days. It’s got to that wonderful point where it feels at one with the wood – and were it not for the prevalence of good vintage replicas these days, it
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These Klusons are retrofit replacements
The vibrato has been part of the Strat recipe since 1954
The nitrocellulose feels at one with the wood: you feel more wood than finish, hear more music than guitar would probably feel a little bit alien. You can feel more wood than finish; you can hear more music than guitar. This neck came as a bit of a surprise. You might expect something fairly chunky, maybe even a V (not introduced until 1955, as I later discovered). It’s not one of the very thick, rounded profiles of ’54 folklore, but something that I’d happily pick up and play every day of the week. It feels remarkably like some of the modern-day Fender Heavy Relic necks, which is a testament to the Custom Shop’s attention to detail, perhaps more so to the original design’s enduring brilliance: it worked then, it still works now. This one has had a refret at some point, making it all the more pleasurable to play; a little extra height on the frets makes choking less of an issue on the vintage-style, curvy maple playing surface (one piece with the neck, remember). You’d scarcely know this was a 60-year-old guitar, and that is perhaps the standout observation.
AGE BEFORE BEAUTY The first 100 or so Stratocasters from 1954 had their serial numbers stamped into the plastic vibrato-cavity plate, reverting to a four-digit number on the neck plate from around mid-1954. This guitar has a non-1954 back plate, given away by its oval string holes; originals were round, turning oval in 1955, in order to facilitate easier string changes. Likewise, the tuners are non-original, having been replaced with post-1956-spec Klusons at some point. As you can see, our guitar is numbered 1108, placing it most likely in latter ’54 (serial numbers were not sequential in terms of date, unfortunately), but along with certain other features,
Time to bin these old things and chisel out a humbucker cavity…
New Old Pickups Fender’s early Strat pickups were typically full- and fat-sounding. Here are five modern sets to get you closer to those early tones BARE KNUCKLE PICKUPS APACHE (AROUND £175 SET) Made by hand in England, these use Heavy Formvar wire, Alnico III magnets, fibreboard flat work and a choice of magnet stagger. Bridge pickup is wound a little hotter (6.4k ohms) than neck and middle. AMALFITANO VS (AROUND £199 SET) The man who makes pickups for Matt Schofield among many others also does a mid-50s Stratocaster set.You get Formvar wire and Alnico III magnets. The bridge pickup is rated at 5.7k ohms. FENDER PURE VINTAGE ’56 (AROUND £169 SET) The originator is often overlooked when it comes to retrofit pickups. No reason why: these are more ‘accurate’ than Fender’s ’54 set in our opinion: Formvar wire, Alnico III magnets and an average DC resistance of 5.8k ohms. LOLLAR VINTAGE BLONDE (AROUND £189 SET) The US’s most talked-about custom pickup builder chooses Alnico II for his vintage-inspired Strat set. DC resistance values are in line with vintage spec, but these have slightly less midrange prominence. LINDY FRALIN REAL 54 (AROUND £189 SET) This extremely well-respected US maker also uses Alnico III magnets, but with slightly higher DC resistance of 6 to 6.5k ohms. Fralin also offers the baseplate option on the bridge: not original, but some people like it.
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indicates that it may well have been produced on one of the first ‘official’ Stratocaster runs, in October 1954. A good many Strats predate that, of course, almost back to the beginning of the year, even before its ‘official’ release month of April 1954. The knobs, pickup covers and switch tip are made from what’s often mistermed ‘Bakelite’. It has that slightly translucent look – particularly the pickup covers – and is in fact polystyrene. As you can see, our Strat’s pickup covers have suffered the same fate as those on Buddy Holly’s ’55 Strat, one reason Fender moved to using less-brittle plastics for knobs, switch tips (and later, pickguards). By this point in late 1954, the Strat’s knobs had evolved to the modern shape we know now, and you might be surprised how white they are; the early white plastics didn’t discolour like later variants did. While Leo Fender and his colleagues were perfecting the ‘Synchronized Tremolo’ unit, 2,000 miles away in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Gibson was developing the Tune-O-Matic bridge. For the first time, guitarists would have individual adjustment for string length (intonation), but in the Stratocaster’s case, that also meant individual string-height adjustment and a vibrato unit. Blissfully simple when you look at it now, it was nonetheless a revolution in guitar bridge design back in 1954, even if it did take regular maintenance and a deft hand to confidently hold tuning stability. Many people – including me –
60 years aer it was first made, you could do tonight’s gig and treat it like any other Strat that has ever existed
Around mid-1954, Strat serial numbers began to be stamped onto the neckplates
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would argue that there is nothing better for the optimum blend of tone, functionality and feel to this day. Back then, if you’d chosen one with the new wobble-bar – non-Tremolo versions were offered a little later – you’d have had to fork out $249.50. The case was $39.95 extra, and: “of hardshell construction, crushed-plush lined… covered in a grain hair seal, simulated leather covering”, no less. The average US wage in 1954 was around $3,000, so a Strat would have been around a month’s wages.
FOREVER YOUNG What did we learn on our trip to Umeå to see what its owners laughingly call this “old, dusty guitar”? Are we just perpetuating a vintage myth that has no relevance in modern music? I don’t think so. What’s really astonishing about this guitar is that even 60 years after it was first designed and made, you could chuck it in a gigbag, go and do tonight’s gig and treat it like any other decent Stratocaster that has ever existed. Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised, because however revolutionary, the Strat’s near-perfect blend of form and function lies right at the heart of its many other ostensible contradictions: versatile yet simple; futuristic yet timeless; workaday yet remarkable; all different, yet all strangely the same. Above all, it’s a guitar that you dream about, yet one which you can just go out and buy with a few hundred quid… as long as you don’t want this original ’54, of course! So happy birthday Stratocaster, old buddy. I probably won’t see all of your next 60 years, but if they keep you safe, I know you’ll be as timeless then as you are now.
The ’54 is one of many stunning guitars on show at Mikael and Samuel Åhdén’s museum
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1. SERIAL NUMBER The earliest Strats – around 100 or so instruments – had their serial numbers on the plastic backplates. Mid-1954, it became a fourdigit number on the neck plate. (Five from 1955, though four-digit numbers still exist into 1956!)
2. HEADSTOCK 1954 and early ’55 Strats had a softer radius to the headstock edges than later models, where the edges became ‘sharper’. Patent numbers weren’t added to the decals until 1961
3. PLASTICS Fender’s plastics went through various transitions: early Strats used a very brittle material (polystyrene, often referred to as ‘Bakelite’), that was phased out during 1956 and 1957. Pickguards, knobs, pickup covers and switch tips all changed shape/profile during that time, too
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4. VIBRATO Fender’s original ‘Synchronized Tremolo’ has remained unchanged (although other variants have been developed) in 60 years. Early saddles were stamped with ‘FENDER’ on one side and ‘PAT. PEND.’ on the other
5. PICKUP SELECTOR Five-way switches weren’t introduced officially until 1976/77, but players worked out almost instantly that you could find unusual and usable sounds with the three-way ‘jammed’ between main settings, however
6. BODY
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Ash was the first body of timber for Strats, and was often a single piece or two pieces on early models. Alder became the standard body wood during 1956, with ash retained for the blonde colour option
7. NECK
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All Stratocaster necks were a single piece of maple, including the fingerboard, right up until 1959, when separate rosewood fingerboards were introduced
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MILESTONE ST R ATS Since its introduction in 1954, the Fender Stratocaster has evolved, diversified and gone right back to the beginning! Here are 10 guitars that chart the development of the model right up to the present day WORDS
MICK TAYLOR
1955-58 FENDER STRATOCASTER
1964-65 FENDER STRATOCASTER
The plastics changed progressively to ABS from the previous, more brittle polystyrene; bodies became predominantly alder from mid-1956. Pickups moved gradually from Alnico III magnets to Alnico V, the ‘V’ neck shape was introduced, then phased out by 1958 when the Three-Colour Sunburst was brought in. Clapton’s 1956 ‘Brownie’ sold at auction in 1999 for $497,500. His retired and iconic ’56/’57 ‘Blackie’ sold in 2004, for a record $959,500.
The last of the pre-CBS Strats are often referred to as ‘transition’ Strats. During this period, the headstock logo changed from gold spaghetti-style to block gold. Clay fingerboard dots changed to pearloid, pickguards changed gradually to white plastic, and the ‘grey-bottom’ pickups arrived, still with alnico V magnets. Robert Cray’s famous Inca Silver Strat is a ’64, while Bob Dylan’s Sunburst 1964 Newport Strat sold in 2013 for $965,000 (with all pre-transition specs).
1959-63 FENDER STRATOCASTER
1968-71 FENDER STRATOCASTER
1959 was a watershed year, as slab-rosewood fingerboards arrived along with three-ply celluloid pickguards. The ’board became a ‘round-lam’ veneer in 1962. During this period, Fender’s Custom Colour chart expanded, and it’s from this period you’ll find the most desirable models in Lake Placid Blue, Fiesta Red, Sonic Blue, Surf Green and so on, and of course, good old Three-Colour Sunburst. Fans include SRV, Rory Gallagher, Mark Knopfler, Hank Marvin…
By now, the Strat’s headstock had enlarged considerably, and the blocky black logo had arrived. Bodies became less contoured and heavier, finishes got thicker (both more so in the mid-1970s). Three-bolt necks appeared in 1970, and it was all a bit regrettable… except many artists had great success with these guitars! Hendrix’s ’68 ‘Woodstock’ Strat (that sold in 1990 for £198,000 and again for $1.3m in 1993), Blackmore’s ’68, Malmsteen’s ’71… those guitars made history in good ways, too.
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MILESTONE STRATS
© NIGEL OSBOURNE/ REDFERNS/GETTY • JAWBONE
1982 FENDER SQUIER SERIES STRATOCASTER ’62
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1997 FENDER RELIC STRATOCASTER
Facing immense competition from the Asian makers and seemingly unable to make great Strats in the USA, Fender Japan was established. The results were the first Squier Series instruments, harking back to original Strat specs and aesthetics in many respects. There was a ’57 maple neck variant and a ’62 rosewood ’board model: genuine Fender copies, by all accounts.
Hailing from Fender’s Custom Shop, you might have wondered if the company had lost its mind when the first artificially aged guitars started appearing. Over 15 years later, Fender is still churning out Relics by the truckload from its hallowed Custom Shop in Corona, California. The Strats have generally vintage specs with a twist or two here and there, and they’re beaten up to look and feel like old workhorses.
1987 FENDER AMERICAN STANDARD STRATOCASTER
2006 FENDER CLASSIC SERIES 50S STRATOCASTER
Following years of turmoil, Fender regained its vision and proudly released the American Standard Strat in ’87. This was a sea-change: four-bolt neck, 22 frets, 9.5-inch radius ’board, two-pivot trem, TBX tone control – it was a Stratocaster that was respectful of the early models, but also had more modern, player-friendly features. Though the spec has evolved, it remains the staple of Fender’s American production to this day.
Fender Japan established a market for high-quality, lower cost, vintage-style Stratocasters through the 1980s and 1990s. Fender took that model and applied it to its wholly owned operation in Ensenada, Mexico, with the Classic Series. They’re the affordable ‘vintage reissue’ Strats of choice to this day, sitting way below American Vintage in terms of price. In 2013, Ensenada debuted its first nitro-finished Classic Series guitars.
1988 FENDER ERIC CLAPTON STRATOCASTER
2014 AMERICAN VINTAGE 1954 STRATOCASTER
This was the first official Fender signature model that kicked off a highly successful artist program. The collaboration with Clappers took his famous ‘Blackie’ ’56/’57 as basic inspiration, with a V-shape neck profile and more modern tweaks, including Gold Lace Sensor pickups and a 25dB mid boost circuit. EC used prototypes in ’86 on the Eric Clapton & Friends shows, and it became Fender’s most successful signature guitar.
60 years since those first, history-changing Stratocasters, Fender has honoured them with a replica (for 2014 only). The American Vintage Series in which it sits was upgraded in 2012, and now makes the most historically accurate reissues of old models ever produced outside of its Custom Shop. It’s a neat, full-circle journey for a guitar that is all at once timeless, and yet ever-evolving. Turn to p92 for more on the latest model.
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HANK MARVIN
ST R AT O -M A ST ER As The Shadows’ King Of Twang, Hank Marvin was Britain’s first guitar hero of the electric era, inspiring a generation of players with single-coil tones as springy and lush as a manicured lawn – but he also played the first Fender Stratocaster to reach these shores. We join Hank to hear previously unrevealed details of the Strats that he used to carve out his inimitable sound… WORDS
ROGER NEWELL
F
ew Strat players are as iconic as Hank Marvin – it’s hard to picture him without also seeing in your mind’s eye a Fiesta Red Strat with a maple fingerboard and gold-plated fittings, the guitar with which he made his name in The Shadows. It’s a guitar that seemed electrifyingly modern in drab, post-war Britain, and in fact, it was the first example of Leo Fender’s contoured masterpiece to enter the country. It’s testament to the Strat’s adaptability that Hank’s still relying on the design decades later – and over the years, several other Strats have passed through the hands of this hugely influential player. As Hank prepares to cut a new album, we caught up with him to chat about the ‘significant other’ Strats that he’s used on landmark recordings over the years, plus detailed insights into the Strat setup and component mods that he favours…
anyway, we ordered that in what was pretty much the top-ofthe-range specification.” Its arrival must have been exciting?
“Very! It came in a tweed Fender case with the red plush lining and this magnificent-looking thing was just lying inside. It was like something from space, really, it was so futuristic in its design. The three pickups, the white scratchplate, the red guitar, the beautiful birdseye maple neck and all the gold plating, it just looked sensational. We just looked at it for a while, then took it out of the case, tuned it up and played it. Unfortunately, the strings were really heavy; I was told back in the 70s that they were sent out then with 0.013 to 0.056 gauge or something like that, with a 0.026 wound third, so they were much heavier than I was used to. I found it difficult to adjust to the effort.”
© CHRIS BARHAM/REX
So, that first Fiesta Red Strat. How did you come by it?
“That first Strat made an appearance in 1959. My Antoria had a horribly bent neck, so Cliff wanted to buy me a good guitar, and we decided that the Fender was the way to go, because we’d seen Buddy Holly with one on the Crickets album cover, and it was pretty cool. It was great looking, and we liked the sound of it, and we’d heard that James Burton used a Fender, so we got a catalogue from the States. We could see that Buddy’s guitar was the Stratocaster and as that was their top-of-the-range model, we assumed that James Burton would also have one. For some reason, we always thought it was called Flamingo Pink. But apparently they never had any such colour; it was Fiesta Red –
So did you have to adapt your style of playing as a result?
“Undoubtedly – but the tremolo arm was great, because I found it helped me in different ways. The second string you could bend but probably only half a step, but I could bend it up with my left hand and pull it up a bit more with the whammy bar. The other thing was I could get vibrato on the strings, which I’ve always enjoyed in other instruments, to make it sort of say more. I could hit a note and dip it down or hit it under pitch and let it come up, just little things – and, of course, I loved giving it a good old shake. You know that trick where you push the second string up against the first and give the bar this wild
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HANK MARVIN
The original Shadows: Bruce Welch, Tony Meehan, Jet Harris and Hank with their first Fender guitars
shake, like the beginning of Man Of Mystery? Things like that were fun to do, and they were different. So, clearly, the guitar itself and the fact that it had the vibrato bar helped me to develop a style that wouldn’t have happened without that. Also, the guitar itself, the sound, the shape of it with the contoured body was very comfortable, and it’s not a heavy instrument. So therefore you could swing it around a little bit for posing and leaping about. It lent itself very much to the visual aspect of rock ’n’ roll.” So what was the first recording session you used it on?
“I’m not sure about that. Saturday Dance [from August 1959 – Ed] has the Strat on it, and I used it on Cliff’s second album [Cliff Sings]. We did things like The Snake And The Bookworm, but I don’t remember which came first, that album or Travellin’ Light.” Is it true that the vibrato arm was particularly short?
“Well, I didn’t have anything initially to compare it with, but I noticed that some of the Strats I had later seemed to have longer arms. So I would say that it was shorter. It would be interesting to compare photographs.” That particular guitar went back to Cliff, and he had it sprayed white for a while?
“Yeah, well, when Jennings [Vox’s manufacturers – Ed] became the importers of Fender equipment once the trade embargo was lifted, they wanted us to use Fenders. Initially, I still had
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“You could swing it around a bit d for posing and leaping about. It lent itself to the visual aspect of rock ’n’ roll” that first guitar, so Bruce [Welch] and Jet [Harris] got the Jazzmaster and Precision Bass. Then they said we could have red Strats and a bass, and we thought great, that would be a good look. They gave me one as well with a rosewood fingerboard, so the original went back to Cliff. That would have been 1961, and I think we had them sprayed white for a while. I know we had white Burns guitars, but before that, we had white Fenders during the time that Licorice [Brian Locking] was playing bass. We didn’t have the red ones as well, so I think they took them back and sprayed them for us. Cliff liked the look of them, so he said: ‘I’ll get this one sprayed white, so when we’re working together and I use it, it’ll look really cool’.” What were the first recordings the rosewood Strat was on?
“The first session? Good question, but I can’t remember! When we did the Crackerjack TV show playing The Frightened City and FBI [in late April 1961] we had those guitars, but we didn’t necessarily record and release things immediately. It could have been two weeks later, or a track could have been sitting around for months.”
HANK MARVIN
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Cliff Richard shows off his new purchase to film star Jayne Mansfield…
By early 1963 the band’s Fenders had all become a matching shade of white
So which did you prefer at the time, the maple-neck Strat or the rosewood ’board?
“I preferred the maple neck; it was a better guitar, I thought, with a particularly good sound. When I got the rosewood ’board, it just sounded a bit different to me. And I just preferred the feel of that original guitar, which was a particularly nice instrument with a nice fingerboard.” Did you get a choice of the guitars that Jennings supplied?
© REX · GETTY IMAGES · PHOTOSHOT
“No, they would just send them over. We just thought a Strat’s a Strat, and if there was a problem they would obviously fix it – you know, rough frets or anything like that – but we didn’t get to choose them ourselves; they picked out two guitars and a bass for us. There were at least two, maybe three sets going through from then until 1963. They replaced them as necessary. We did get newer guitars as ours got a bit bashed or whatever, and they’d take those back and do whatever they do with them, probably renovated and sold them, I guess.” As you preferred the feel, why didn’t you go back to an all-maple neck?
“Well, I asked, and they said they couldn’t get the maple necks. Whether Fender had stopped making them at that point I’ve really no idea, but that’s the story we were told and accepted.” How much of a problem was noise in the early days?
“It depended on the venue, particularly when they used the dimmers on the lights, as that seemed to affect the noise
Hank being filmed for The Young Ones and using his rosewood ’board Strat
tremendously – it was really ‘frying tonight’. Once you were all playing, it wasn’t really that noticeable, but back then, people’s sound-quality expectations weren’t what they are now.” So are you still favouring Kinman pickups on the Stratocasters that you use today?
“When we did the remake of all the old numbers for the Cliff and The Shads reunion album, I decided to try out some of the Fender ’57 reissues, which I was introduced to when trying out the TVS3 echo. I thought it might be an idea to go back to the kind of pickups on the older guitars to get the sort of sound that we were trying to recreate. I had those fitted on all the guitars for the album, and they’re still on! They sound really good. They have a nice twang to them, and although they’re not as quiet as the Kinmans, they’re not as bad as they used to be.” Why did you decide to switch back to Fender guitars from Burns instruments after Marvin, Welch & Farrar reverted to being The Shadows?
“Well, I’d already gone back to Fenders by then. When Marvin, Welch & Farrar were doing the Palladium with Cliff and Olivia Newton John, I had several guitars stolen – two Burns, a 12-string Gibson and an acoustic six-string – on the night before we opened. Bruce had lent Cliff’s [now white] Strat to Terry Britten, who was in Cliff’s band at the time, so he got it back for me. I used it for the time we were there, then I decided, yeah I love it, I’m back on to the Strat! So that’s when I bought the Sunburst one, or one with that terrible colour that looked like
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HANK MARVIN
Bruce Welch (right) holds the notorious humbucking Strat from the 1970s
“I had a black one” says Hank and here it is! It was originally Sunburst, however
an undercoat, but anyway, I bought a Strat. I should have kept hold of Cliff’s one!” During the time that you were working with John Farrar, there was a Sunburst Strat with a maple ’board and large headstock and a much-modified white one…
“I had a black one! But, from memory, I had that sprayed at least once so that was probably the Sunburst one that I decided to have black, eventually with a tortoiseshell pickguard. I tried different pickups, too. I had a Fender humbucker on the bridge and something else on the front, a Gibson humbucker, I think, and a single coil. Actually, I still have that scratchplate in the studio with the pickups attached. I saw a black Telecaster in a guitar store in Manchester, and thought it looked really sharp, so I decided to do it black, and I had it for a few years until I gave it to Ben Marvin.” Do you have any wiring mods done to your Strats?
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that maybe I should look at that again. I do use that betweenpickups sound sometimes, just for a tone colour change, but usually, I use the pickups individually – and more often than not, I end up on the bridge pickup.” Do you still have Easy-Mute vibrato arms on your Strats?
“Yes, I do, along with the block that Ian St John White does that matches the actual bar. The material it’s made of stops the bar working loose like the standard arm tends to do. We’ve all tried tape and loads of things to stop that rattle, but these never do that, they’re brilliant.” Let’s be honest, there wasn’t actually much wrong with the original 1954 design, was there?
“No, not at all! I’ve seen a ’54 belonging to a friend of mine in France, Jean-Pierre Danel, who’s got one that he calls Miss Daisy, and it’s very nice. Whew! Great design – looked great, comfortable to play… they got it right first time!” It’s totally functional, beautiful and iconic at the same time…
“Absolutely! And it’s a very practical instrument, too. They’re as tough as old nails and you’ve got a variety of sounds available. I’ve seen people playing jazz on them; you can play country on them, blues, rock, heavy rock and everything you can think of, really. I think it’s an incredibly versatile guitar.” Hank Marvin’s new album Hank is out on 2 June via Demon Music Group
©PHOTOSHOT · REX FEATURES · ROGER NEWELL
“Well, a few extra switches in the days when you tried to get those in-between pickups sounds, but I think that was on the one with the humbuckers. On one of my signature models, I’ve got a pull/push switch on the lower tone-control knob which does something, although I’m not sure what, as I’ve never used it! I think it engages the neck and bridge pickup together, and I think that’s why I had it done. That’s quite an interesting sound, and I’m pretty sure I used that on a couple of my early album tracks, although it doesn’t figure very highly on my Richter Scale of pickup choices – but you’ve just reminded me
Hank with ‘The Scotsman’ Strat backstage at the Colston Hall, Bristol 2004
MONTER EY M AGIC Jimi’s era-defining Monterey Pop Festival Strat is at home in Seattle – but a return to London is on the cards…
hen you think about Jimi Hendrix, it’s hard not to imagine him playing the 1968 Olympic White maple-’board Strat he used in 1969 at the Woodstock Festival. But it’s arguable that his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 was almost as epochal in terms of his explosion onto the world stage – and for that electrifying show, he used a Black, rosewood ’board 1966 Strat, now on show at the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle, which boasts one of the world’s biggest exhibits of Hendrix gear. Although Seattle is, fittingly, home to the guitar for now, it is owned by a British musician. Although he spoke to Guitarist on
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condition of anonymity, he was happy to shed more light on this iconic guitar. “Monterey is generally regarded as the first ever large-scale rock festival,” the Strat’s current owner told Guitarist. “Hendrix was relatively unknown in America until Monterey offered a platform for his combination of virtuoso musicality and showmanship, which propelled his career to nationwide fame across the United States – the technical term is, he smashed it! “This particular instrument’s importance to Jimi’s career and the seminal Monterey performance starts back in London on 4 June 1967 at the Saville Theatre, where Hendrix played a live cover of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band just a few days
MONTEREY MAGIC
after its 1 June release. Paul McCartney was already a fan and in the audience; suitably impressed, he recommended The Jimi Hendrix Experience as the headline act to the organisers of the Monterey Pop Festival. “Photos confirm the ‘Monterey Strat’ is also the guitar Jimi used for that Saville Theatre show, although sadly, no film footage has surfaced. Shots taken during BBC sessions appear to show Hendrix using the same guitar, and it was used soon after Monterey at the Fillmore West and Golden Gate Park shows in San Francisco. “For the last number of arguably his most important performance [at Monterey], Hendrix chose to swap guitars, and played Wild Thing on a less-treasured instrument which he famously burned and smashed. Monterey and Woodstock are certainly Hendrix’s most important live performances, and this appears to have been his favourite guitar during one of the most dynamic stages of his all-too-brief career.” The guitar’s current owner acquired the instrument from ex-Hendrix roadie James ‘Tappy’ Wright at auction in London in 2012, receiving notarised affidavits affirming the guitar’s authenticity from both him and Bob Levine, Jimi’s US manager, who had no personal stake in the sale. “Aside from documents supporting the guitar’s movements and history, it has been closely examined by many specialists including curators at the Experience Music Project and London’s Handel House Museum, highly reputable auctioneers and leading rock memorabilia experts on both sides of the Atlantic,” its owner told us. “Also, before the auction, a photography expert carefully compared still shots taken from digitally enhanced film footage of the Monterey
COVER FEATURE
“Being involved with a unique and important item like this particular guitar isn’t something I take lightly. I’m merely looking aer it for the next generation” concert against high-definition photos of the instrument, so I could be sure it was the same guitar.” He adds that as you might expect, the wear on the guitar is extensive, particularly on the reverse of the instrument, which bears the scars of heavy use including belt buckling and has worn “right through to the wood” in places. The guitar is still strung for a left-handed player, but there’s no way of knowing whether the strings themselves date to Hendrix’s heyday. “Being involved with a unique and important item like this particular guitar isn’t something I take lightly,” he adds. “I’m merely looking after it for the next generation.” The guitar is currently exhibited at the Experience Music Project in Seattle until the end of this year; after that, the intention is to display it in Hendrix’s old flat in London at the Handel House Museum. Guitarist would like to thank Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle, USA for its assistance with this feature. www.empmuseum.org
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CONCLUSION
LEO’S M A STER PIECE 60 years on, the world’s most imitated and iconic electric guitar still satisfies the needs and fires the imaginations of players WORDS
JAMIE DICKSON
udged solely on the sheer variety of music that has been created with the Stratocaster in the past six decades, it would qualify as a classic. But its appeal is deeper than that – arguably, it’s more sophisticated than the workmanlike Telecaster, but also simpler in control layout and functionality than the Jazzmaster that followed in 1958. In other words, for many players, it’s the ‘Goldilocks’ guitar of Leo Fender’s creations. Its blend of tonal versatility, playability and looks turned out to be ‘just right’ for thousands of players since 1954. In starting with a blank canvas, without decades of guitarmaking heritage behind him (or even personal knowledge of
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how to play a guitar), Leo Fender turned those potential handicaps into virtues – by beginning with the question: what do guitarists need? Leo put it to leading players of the mid-50s, such as Western Swing guitarist Bill Carson, who suggested ways in which the Tele could, in his view, be improved, including a ribcage contour for comfort and extra pickups. The value of a talented engineer asking that simple question of players can be judged by the fact that the Strat is not simply still with us, but has inspired so many other cool variations on the solidbody, twin-cutaway guitar in the years that have passed since ’54. I hope you’ll join us in wishing the Strat many happy (slight) returns on this, its anniversary year.
© MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
Buddy Holly And The Crickets perform Oh, Boy! on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1958
FENDER 60TH ANNIVERSARY STRATOCASTERS £994-£2,278 ELECTRICS
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FENDER 60TH ANNIVERSARY STRATOCASTERS £994–£2,278 ELECTRICS
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Fender 60th Anniversary Stratocasters £994-£2,278 To celebrate the Stratocaster’s 60th birthday, Fender brings us upgrades on three of its most popular and important variants. So is there new life in the old dog yet? WORDS Neville Marten PHOTOGRAPHY Joe Branston
What We Want To Know
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So what’s this ‘flashcoat’ finishing? It refers to the very thin final lacquer coat that’s said not only to impart a natural, ‘breathing’ tone, but also to assist in the instrument looking more authentically vintage-accurate. Fat neck or thin neck – which one’s for me? Fatter necks seem to suit players who like ‘thumb over the top’ styles, while slim necks are seen as being for ‘thumb behind the neck’ or ‘three notes per string’ playing. Floating vibrato, or vintage-style? The vintage, six-point vibrato is limited by the fact that it lays directly on the body. The floating ‘knife edge’ style vibrato was developed to eliminate this friction. Both have their fans.
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he mind boggles when one realises that the Stratocaster turns 60 this year. We said the same on its 40th and 50th anniversaries,of course, but this guitar really could have come off the drawing board six days, let alone six decades, ago. Putting it into context, that same year, Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill were both still in office. At the bottom of our price ladder comes the Mexicanmade 60th Anniversary Classic Player 50s Strat; in the middle sits the 60th Anniversary American Standard Commemorative Strat; and topping out this birthday trio is the 60th Anniversary American Reissue 1954 Strat. You’ll forgive us for sticking to more manageable abbreviations throughout this review.
vibe, we loved the 9.5-inch radius ’board, medium-jumbo frets, American Vintage Strat pickups and tuneful two-post vibrato with stamped-steel saddles. In fact, it’s hard to know how Fender could improve on such a winning formula, but improvements
there are. These include an ash body, vintage-style locking tuners, gold anodised pickguard and backplate, commemorative neckplate and headstock medallion, gold hardware and gloss nitrocellulose finish. That final detail should tell tone hounds that this Classic Player occupies a loftier space than its already illustrious predecessor. It comes in Desert Sand finish that gives off an ultra-cool ‘surf’ aura, with its gold anodised aluminium plate and tinted plastic parts. Mexican build quality rarely disappoints. In fact, it’s impossible to find a flaw of any
Classic Player 50s Stratocaster There was little wrong with the Classic Player even before Fender gave it the 60th Anniversary treatment. With its great build quality, value and
The Classic Player’s two-point vibrato reduces friction: but not with the purists
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FENDER 60TH ANNIVERSARY STRATOCASTERS £994–£2,278 ELECTRICS
Rivals Fret-King’s Korean-made Corona JV (£649) received high praise when we reviewed it in issue 374. With a two-piece alder body, Wilkinson floating vibrato, graphite nut and humcancelling dummy coil, it’s a lot of guitar for the money and an obvious rival for the Classic Player 50s Strat. Further up the price scale, G&L’s stunningly built USA Legacy (£1,456) has direct links with Leo Fender himself (Leo formed the G&L company in 1980). With Leo’s own-design Dual-Fulcrum vibrato system, three CLF-100 alnico single coils, a choice of ash or alder body and maple or rosewood fingerboard with Plek-finished medium-jumbo frets, it’s a serious contender in the pro marketplace. And if you love the vintage vibe but hanker for something not so specific to 1954, Fender’s own Custom Shop ‘Team Built’ Strats (circa £2,199) offer the full vibe with modern playing touches such as 9.5-inch radius fingerboards, medium-jumbo frets and tone control on the bridge pickup. They also come in a variety of aged and not-soaged finishes
kind throughout this guitar’s construction or finish. In the hand, the Classic Player’s gently V-shaped neck is neither too thin nor too fat. Strung with 0.010-gauge strings, which actually feel lighter, the action was perfect for almost any style and one could noodle on it all day.
American Standard Commemorative Stratocaster Available for 2014 only, the American Standard Commemorative Strat is an impressive-looking animal. Dressed in classic two-tone urethane ’burst over a twopiece side-jointed ash body, it brims with special features. Again boasting an anniversary commemorative neckplate and headstock medallion, here, the heel is dressed away at its corner for improved access. Further aiding playability is a compound-radius ’board carrying the Standard’s usual 22 medium-jumbo frets. Other high-end touches include gold hardware, pearloid tuners and pearloid dot markers. The American Standard usually features Fat 50s pickups, but here, Fender graces it with a trio of special-design 1954 single coils. They sit in a parchment pickguard with
Available for 2014 only, the American Standard Commemorative Strat is an impressive-looking animal that brims with special features 94 Guitarist May 2014
similar-coloured knobs and switch and the Standard’s usual control set-up; these include the No-Load tone that acts on bridge and middle pickups. From zero to nine, it works normally, but turn it full up and it’s bypassed for “increased output and overall tonal response”. For our video demo, we kept it fully clockwise to take advantage of that extra zing. The Standard’s neck is a slim, slinky affair that’s a little wider than its two siblings, and with its compound-radius fingerboard, feels even slicker. The satin finish is drag-free, and the fat frets and low action beg for speedy licks and big bends. Fender fits it with 0.009-gauge strings that feel rather floppy – we appreciate the guitar is perhaps aimed at younger players, but surely a pro instrument should come with
0.010s? That aside, it’s classy and modern, and we can think of few Strats less ‘standard’.
American Vintage 1954 Stratocaster And here’s where it all started! Although looking like any other Two-Colour Sunburst, maplenecked Strat, the 1954 differs in certain respects. The headstock edges are rounder, as are the pickup edges; the polystyrene knobs and selector-switch tip
The Commemorative Strat has a rounded-off heel, and birthday bling
FENDER 60TH ANNIVERSARY STRATOCASTERS £994–£2,278 ELECTRICS
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are slightly stockier than on later versions, too. Early Strats in general had deeper body contours; Fender is spot-on with the ’54, and it instantly feels ‘right’. It looks great in flash-coated nitro lacquer, too (see What We Want To Know). The body is two-piece, sidejointed ash, but so expertly have the pieces been joined that it took us minutes to locate the faintest line running under the jack socket.
Pickups are newly designed 1954s, and Fender says they sing with the tone of the originals. These would have been mated to a master volume, two tones and a three-way switch; however, the more usable five-way is fitted and the former is supplied, should your vintage sensibilities win out. Although possessing the fattest neck of the three, it’s also incredibly comfortable, filling the palm and seeming effortless
The ’54 cries out to be used and abused, gain dings and become a patina-laden musical instrument to play. In hindsight, Fender got it right with the 7.25-inch radius, as playing barre chords doesn’t tire the hands, and pushing string bends ‘up the hill’ makes real sense. Limited to a run of 1,954 units, the
American Vintage 1954 looks set to become a collector’s item. And that’s a shame, because it cries out to be used and abused, gain dings and dents and become a patina-laden musical instrument – not a pristine museum piece!
Sounds You can hear the three guitars demo’d in our videos. Each went through our house AC15 with the same settings and no outboard trickery, so any differences you hear belong to the guitars themselves. Generally speaking, the Classic Player was darkest; its tones were fattest and most ‘rounded’. It accepted overdrive beautifully, and thickened further as a result. There’s no need to change these pickups: so no ‘pimping’ costs further down the line! The middle-priced guitar was the brightest. And although we kept the No-Load tone control
The 60th Anniversary American Vintage Stratocaster has chrome hardware and vibrato/bridge cover – all is as it should be
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FENDER 60TH ANNIVERSARY STRATOCASTERS £994–£2,278 ELECTRICS
bypassed, this was still evident on the neck pickup, which is not affected by that pot. The light strings could be something to do with it, but whatever the reason, we liked this brightness as it stacked up beautifully in our track. It’s the most versatile of the three, no question. Sitting sonically in the middle of our trio is the American Vintage 54. If you know what a great Strat sounds like, then picture it in your mind, and this is it. Better still, check it out on the video demo.
Verdict So, three Strats, three price points – and three very different guitars. We’re often asked: “Aren’t they all the same?” and this trio gives the answer better than the most eloquent writer ever could. Fender has put thought into the balance of features, materials, hardware and electrics and come up with three superb guitars to float the boats of very different players. Priced and styled to capture hearts, the Classic Player is a peach. It looks wonderful, its vintage-meets-modern neck won’t offend a soul, and its big, fat tones make it the bluesrocker’s new best friend. The American Standard Commemorative is the Strat fully formed for today: sonically, it’s the most versatile, and its neck, frets, dressed-away heel and compound-radius ’board mark it out as the modernplayer’s guitar. And so to the ’54! What better accolade to Leo and Freddie’s design – that the present company can remake it as closely as this, and still it sets pulses racing and fingers flying? It marked the art of the maverick genius back in 1954, and it marks the art of musical instrument production engineering today – albeit laced with real heart and soul. 60 years on, Fender should be congratulated for not only upholding the legacy of the world’s most recognisable electric, but also for continuing to push the boundaries of quality and choice with these terrific guitars.
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Fender 60th Anniversary Classic Player 50s Strat PRICE: £994 (including tweed plushlined case) ORIGIN: Mexico TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric BODY: Ash NECK: Tinted maple, with 6-a-side headstock SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT/WIDTH: Synthetic bone/ 42mm (1.650”) FINGERBOARD: Integral maple with 241mm (9.5”) FRETS: 21, medium jumbo HARDWARE: Gold anodised aluminium pickguard and back plate; commemorative neck plate and headstock medallion, 2-point vibrato with stamped-steel saddles, vintage-style locking tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 53mm/2.08” ELECTRICS: 3x Fender American Vintage single coils with volume and two tones (tone works on bridge pickup), 5-way switch WEIGHT (KG/LB): 3.63/8 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: See 60th Anniversary American Vintage Strat LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Desert Sand (as reviewed) Fender GBI O1342 331700 www.fender.com
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Fender 60th Anniversary American Standard Commemorative Strat
Fender 60th Anniversary American Vintage Strat
PRICE: £1,498 (including tweed 60th Anniversary plush-lined case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric BODY: 2-piece side-jointed ash NECK: Maple, with 6-a-side headstock SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT/WIDTH: Synthetic bone/42.8mm (1.685”) FINGERBOARD: Integral maple with compound-radius 241mm (9.5”) to 355.6mm (14”) FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: Gold. Commemorative neck plate and headstock medallion, 2-point synchronised vibrato with bent-steel saddles, pearloid button tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 53mm/2.08” ELECTRICS: 3x Fender special design 1954 single coils with volume and two tones (second No-Load tone pot works on bridge and middle pickups; full up bypasses tone control), 5-way selector switch WEIGHT (KG/LB): 3.4/7.5 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: See 60th Anniversary American Vintage Strat LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: 2-Colour Sunburst (as reviewed)
PRICE: £2,278 (including tweed 60th Anniversary plush lined case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric BODY: 2-piece side jointed ash NECK: Maple, with 6-a-side 1954-style headstock SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5’) NUT/WIDTH: Bone/41.3mm (1.625”) FINGERBOARD: Integral maple with 184.1mm (7.25”) radius FRETS: 21, vintage narrow HARDWARE: ‘Nickel chrome’ vintage vibrato with bent-steel ‘Patent Pending’ saddles, vintage-style tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 53mm/2.08” ELECTRICS: 3x Fender special design 1954 single coils with volume and two tones (tone works on bridge pickup), 5-way switch WEIGHT (KG/LB): 3.63/8 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: There are six guitars in the 60th Anniversary range. As well as those reviewed, there’s the Squier 60th Anniversary Classic Vibe 50s Strat (£478), the American Deluxe Stratocaster Plus HSS (£1,774) and the Deluxe Stratocaster HSS Plus Top with iOS Connectivity (£814) LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: 2-Colour Sunburst (as reviewed)
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Build quality Playability Sound Value for money
Build quality Playability Sound Value for money
Build quality Playability Sound Value for money
Guitarist says: Almost impossible to criticise, the 60th Anniversary Classic Player 50s is a stunning Strat for the money
Guitarist says: The modern Strat for the modern player – the culmination of the breed, if you like
Guitarist says: This is where it all began – there wasn’t much wrong with it then, plus it’s even better-built now
TAYLOR 814CE £3,023 ACOUSTICS
A Classic Redefined Celebrating 40 years of guitar making this year, Taylor has taken its original 800 series, redesigned it and added a new pickup system. All change? You bet WORDS Dave Burrluck & Mick Taylor PHOTOGRAPHY Joby Sessions
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TAYLOR 814CE £3,023 ACOUSTICS
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TAYLOR 814CE £3,023 ACOUSTICS
Taylor 814ce What We Want To Know
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Redesign? The 814ce looks the same… Well, the actual outline of the Grand Auditorium shape, introduced by Taylor during its 20th anniversary (1994), is about all that remains the same compared to, say, a 2013-spec 814ce. So the new model’s about more than cosmetic changes? This is a fundamental re-evaluation of the entire 800 series — the firstever Taylor-brand guitars from 1974. The voicing has changed – and to achieve that, bracing, top and back thickness, the glue, finish thickness, the pickup and even the strings are all new. Who’s it aimed at? So long as you have the necessary funds, pretty much any acoustic player. The Grand Auditorium 814ce is a real all-rounder.
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F
rom the very early days of Taylor, innovation has been key to the brand. From the use of modern computer-driven machinery — Taylor’s first CNC router was recommended by Tom Anderson — through to UV finishing and, not least, the NT neck joint, which allows a level of consistency and repair, should it be needed, that remains quite unique. Of course, this modernism isn’t always welcome in the often rearwardlooking guitar world, where ‘old is best’ is a maxim many players adhere to. And that’s where Andy Powers comes into the story, employed by Taylor a couple of years back to add his considerable luthiery and playing skills to take Taylor forwards. As Bob Taylor has said, he was looking for the impossible when he recruited Powers: “A guy who could really design guitars; who had over 20 years of experience; who was a professional player; who came from San Diego and, the real kicker, who was under 30!” Powers is highly versed in the guitars of yesteryear, and as we’ve already seen with the 2012 refresh of the 700 series,
he’s adding a vintage sensibility, not for the sake of it, but to enhance the musicality of the guitars. For 2014, the original Taylor range – the 800 series – receives his considerable input.
814ce There are a raft of cosmetic changes to this year’s 800 series. The headstock facing moves from rosewood to jet-black
ebony, and is gloss-finished. The binding around the head, fingerboard and body edges is still maple but, by design, plainer and unfigured. Conversely, the ebony fingerboard, is noticeably streaked, ‘smoky’ in Taylorspeak, and features new ‘Element’ inlays – less fancy than the ‘diamond-like’ inlays of the previous spec. The soundhole rosette still has an abalone centre but is edged inside and out with rosewood, while the actual soundhole gets a maple-bound edge; the edge purfling, too, adds a rosewood
The 800 Series back bracing is slanted on the GA and GC models to aid midrange
TAYLOR 814CE £3,023 ACOUSTICS
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Taylor’s new ES 2 piezo system has three adjustable sensors behind the saddle
line with a thinner black/white stripe. Most noticeably, the pickguard is a diagonally streaked thin piece of rosewood, not tortie-like plastic. As Andy Powers explains, he aimed to specifically voice each body style to maximise its potential. The top thickness and bracing was re-evaluated and the easily visible offset ‘diagonal’ back bracing is all part of freeing up the back. Another change is the addition of vertical side struts, presumably to reinforce the side and prevent impact splits. Overall, there’s a noticeable effect on the weight
of the guitar – some 300g lighter than our 2012 714ce, and 200g lighter than a 2013, smallerbodied 812ce. Finally, the hardly thick UV-cured polyester finish has been halved here to approximately 3.5 thousandths of an inch – about the thickness of a piece of copy paper or just over a third of the thickness of your 0.009 first string. Our review sample is mirror flat, too – a superb job. If that wasn’t not enough, Taylor’s Expression System (ES) has received a complete redesign – moving away from the soundboard and neck-
The new 814ce is 300g lighter than our 2012 714ce, and 200g lighter than a 2013, smaller-bodied 812ce
These m-o-p ‘element’ inlays are subtler than the previous 800 Series design
East Indian rosewood remains the back-and-sides material for the 800 Series
placed magnetic sensors of the original design back to piezos. But, as Taylor’s David Hosler explains, the sensors are placed behind the Micarta saddle, not underneath it. If you look closely behind the saddle, there are three mini-Allen key screws that actually allow you to push the three piezo sensors onto the saddle and ‘tune’ the sound. We’d advise extreme caution; if you have a problem, ask Taylor to sort it. Interestingly, should the pickup go down, it can be replaced without even slackening the strings. Aside from those three microindicators of the ES 2, Taylor has retained pretty much the same preamp, with its centrenotched volume, treble and bass rotary controls on the upper shoulder; likewise, the same base strap pin/jack socket output, and tray for the single 9V block battery. The internal preamp circuit board still has its red LED indicator and a small slide switch, which, on the ES 1, turned off the body sensor for a different tonality and feedback rejection at higher levels. Here, as on the piezo undersaddle ES-N system, for example, it acts as a phase switch – again, a good source of
Don’t Forget Your String ALONG with everything else, Taylor has even looked at strings as part of the 800 Series redesign, developing a custom phosphor bronze set (standard fitment was previously 80/20 bronze) with new gauges 0.013, 0.017, 0.025, 0.032, 0.042, 0.053 – halfway between a traditional ‘light’ and ‘medium’ set. We’ve always found a 0.012 and 0.016 can sound a bit thin on the top two strings of our Taylor guitars, whereas a whole set of medium-gauge strings (0.013 to 0.056) can feel a bit heavy. Also, 80/20 bronze strings tend to sound ‘zingy’ out of the packet – both D’Addario and Elixir class these as their brightest acoustic strings – so our personal preference is for phosphor bronze. So, the new Elixir Nanoweb HD Light phosphor bronze set addresses all those issues pretty squarely, though the same-gauge set is also available in 80/20 bronze it you want to maximise that zing. It’s up to you!
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TAYLOR 814CE £3,023 ACOUSTICS
feedback rejection, if not all that accessible.
Feel & Sounds The quoted 44.45mm (1.75inch) nut width provides ample space for all but the most diehard fingerstyle players; likewise, Taylor’s 56mm saddle spacing is very airy. String height and action are relatively low, and the feel is enhanced by a neck profile with reasonable depth (21.8mm at the first fret), but not too much shoulder.
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Part of the reason why the Grand Auditorium (GA) body style is so popular is because it’s an all-rounder. Yes, Taylors have a family resemblance soundwise: brighter or more hi-fisounding that an equivalent Martin, or conversely, less muddy with more clarity. But the interesting thing here is that the redesign seems to have subtly changed that character – certainly when compared to our 714ce and 2013 812ce – both spruce/rosewood guitars.
Volume-wise, the 814ce has more to give: it’s also more intimate and even more versatile than its predecessor Primarily, it concerns the midrange, which sounds bolder and less ‘scooped’. Not least with the new-gauge strings (see p101), there’s also a little more thickness to the highs, and the guitar feels like it’s got more to give, volume-wise. But the
Elec-trickery For the new ES 2 pickup system, Taylor’s David Hosler returned to piezo… but in a radically new way “BASICALLY, we had abandoned piezo crystals a long time ago, because we just really couldn’t get the results from them,” muses David Hosler, referring to the path that he and Taylor took with the now-called ES 1, introduced in 2003, which used magnetic sensors to capture acoustic sound. But via laser images specifically aimed at uncovering exactly how the saddle moved, Hosler and his team began what was to become a reevaluation of the humble piezo pickup. It was quite a startling discovery you made… “Our theory was that when you pluck a string, we know that the energy travels along the string and that the saddle has a lot of forwards energy. But the laser images proved that up and down, absolutely nothing is happening. So, when you put a pickup under the saddle, the reason it’s working is because the material is compressed; the saddle is not moving, it’s not bouncing; these images showed us that you couldn’t even tell that it was working hardly at all. However, when we looked at this motion – forwards and back – it looks like a whole football stadium of people waving at you. It’s incredible. “The ES 2 pickup has three adjustable arms, each with a piezo sensor on the front. We wanted to capture the energy that was going in this direction – forwards/backwards – and that goes into to the guitar, and the guitar throws the same energy back. So even if I’m not plucking the strings, just talking at it, the saddle still moves. Secondly, the crystals sound the way they do because in the location they’re typically at (ie under the saddle) they are pre-compressed, and they can’t re-expand. Piezo material is very sponge-like. There’s like 27kg (60lbs) of down pressure from the strings pushing at that – approximating 3.6 to 4.5kg (8 to 10lbs) per
102 Guitarist May 2014
string. So these crystals are being crushed, and they can’t re-expand. There’s no motion in that up/down direction anyway, so that ‘quack’ we hear is nothing more than a crystal that is overstressed, in a position that has no movement.” So, what you’re saying is that there’s a fundamental misunderstanding about the way we’ve previously used the piezo pickup? “I’m saying that we’ve been doing it wrong. Because of where we’ve placed the sensors [behind the saddle] we can adjust them, via three small screws: we can move each of the three elements forward to barely touch the saddle or back it off. And by barely touching the saddle, there’s almost no pressure on the piezo crystals. So now all the ‘piezo’ sound is gone, the sound of the string is going into the pickup, the sound of the guitar is coming back into the pickup. It’s an approach that works!”
David Hosler’s ES 2 system is a new approach to the piezo
new guitar also feels a little more intimate, responding just as well as that old-spec 812ce when played quietly, fingerstyle. The GA always has plenty of bass, helping it ape a classic dreadnought, but also meaning fingerpicked basslines sound strong. We relaxed the truss rod a little to just give dropped tunings a little more air and actually, in standard tuning, the resulting subtly higher string height in the main area of the ’board induced a little more fight than the often almost slinky, electric-like playability of a Taylor. The point being, the 814ce is even more versatile than its predecessor. Plugged in, the first thing you’ll notice over the ES 1 is a much stronger output, even
Rivals Martin admits its GPCPA1 Plus was inspired by Taylor’s Grand Auditorium design and even called it the Grand Performance shape. The top tier of the series features Indian rosewood back and sides, Sitka spruce top with gloss body and a satin neck. It has a Fishman undersaddle system onboard, with highspec F1 Aura+ preamp. Takamine’s NEX-shaped P7NC (£2,098) is a wellfeatured spruce/rosewood electro cutaway with gloss finish and much more onboard control than either Taylor or Martin, with its Cool Tube preamp with three-band EQ and onboard tuner. Like Taylor, Yamaha has completely redesigned its popular non-cutaway L Series acoustic range with new voicing, neck profile, AREtreated spruce tops and passive pickup. The all-solid spruce/rosewood LL16 ARE is expected to retail at £804
TAYLOR 814CE £3,023 ACOUSTICS
Andy Powers is Taylor Guitars’ master luthier
Taylor’s New Generation We grill Taylor’s Andy Powers over the genesis of the new 800 Series guitars
So what was the start point? “Bob said,‘The 800 was the first guitar I designed as a model for Taylor, and has become the quintessential modern acoustic guitar: it’s been my baby for the past 40 years. I want you to make it your guitar, and make them better than they’ve ever been.’ That was the impetus.” Is there a fundamental change to the design, or a raft of small improvements? “I look at it as a fundamental departure — we’ve just walked through a door into a new generation of instruments. It also marks the departure from a sort of ‘one size fits all’ mindset, because I don’t look at instruments that way: I like to look at each one as an individual, and optimise it. To me, a grand concert (GC) guitar is not the same as a dreadnought (D) guitar. They can both be wonderful, but they’re not the same. I want the same qualities out of both of them, but it’s going to come out in a different way. Like different members of a family.
104 Guitarist May 2014
“I evaluated every one individually, starting with the grand auditorium (GA). I wanted more sustain, a more bold response, more volume, bigger carrying power: more projection, and a more balanced response over its whole register. In some cases, it was about refinements, in others, a distinct, major change, like the back bracing on the GA and GC. They’re now slanted, it’s not a straight ladder bracing anymore.” What’s the reason for this? “Because it changed the way the back moves in relation to the top. I changed the top bracing and optimised that for each model individually, then I looked at the back bracing and then the thickness of the wood: the top and the back.”
Are you moving Taylor backwards a little to come forwards? “In some ways… Having the experience that I have, I like to look at the entire history of instruments and take out what I feel are valuable insights and valuable practices from every era. One of Bob’s great gifts to the guitar world is the NT neck: that’s a neck that can be consistently made to play well. Using that as a starting platform, I can say I want to, for example, reintroduce the world of hide or protein glue because I can make a better-sounding guitar using that. That’s technology that went out of fashion a 100 years ago, but still the chemistry and technology is sound, and it works very well. One of the most challenging things was the new finish…” It’s a thinner version of what was already a pretty thin finish… “It was 6 mils [six thousandths of an inch] – about the same thickness as most average finishes. At the end of the day, the thinnest we could possibly go with it, on average, was 3.5 mils. But, great, we got the finish just about half as thick as it used to be. But now, what I end up with is another ingredient in the recipe for a better guitar. All of these things combine into making a more musical instrument.”
“Bob said, ‘The 800 has been my baby for the past 40 years. I want you to make it your guitar, and make them better than they’ve ever been’”
TAYLOR 814CE £3,023 ACOUSTICS
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when using a balanced TRS cable on the previous system, as recommended: no need for one of those here. The next thing that strikes us is a bolder lower midrange: a thicker sound, less ‘polite’ than the lower-position sound of the ES 1. Moving up the fingerboard, the sound we’re hearing from the amp sounds more like the guitar, whereas the ES 1 gets progressively more magneticsounding. It does have more piezo character, but without the ‘quack’, the lack of which is especially noticeable on percussive, hard-picked parts. At volume, it’s certainly lively, with plenty of body noise – and unlike the ES 1, you can’t turn off the body sensor – there isn’t one. Plugging into an LR Baggs Venue DI gives us the chance to, ahem, tailor the sound a little before it hits the PA and here,
some subtle thinning of the midrange has good effect, likewise pulling down the presence. Compared directly to a Fishman system on a Martin dreadnought, although the character of sound is quite different, there’s a more natural low end without that ‘quack’ – the Taylor definitely seems to deal with percussive pick attack better right across the guitar’s range, from high-to-low, making it sound more naturally acoustic-like.
Verdict There’s a lot to evaluate here with the new 814ce: a sea of subtleties, perhaps, that results in really quite a different voice for Taylor’s definitive modern cutaway electro-acoustic. The improvements to the acoustic sound of the guitar, to our ears, broaden its versatility –
Many subtle changes have resulted in quite a different voice for Taylor’s definitive modern cutaway electro
especially for fingerstyle. It doesn’t compromise Taylor’s renowned clear voice, but does seem to bolster the midrange and thicken up the highs a little. All good. The ES 2 might seem a radical departure from contemporary piezo pickup design, yet our tests illustrate the differences over the ES 1: it’s more conventional, and as a consequence is therefore user-friendly, both for the musician and soundman, especially if you’re using otherbrand guitars on your gig. And while the more magnetic upper-position character of the ES 1 certainly has its fans, here, the sound is more acousticaccurate. The livelier, lighter build could potentially cause some problems at higher volumes on stage, but that’s something we’ll hopefully be evaluating when we secure one for a Longterm Test. In the meantime, we can only conclude that one of the finest modern electro acoustic guitars has just got better.
Taylor 814ce PRICE: £3,023 (inc case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: 14-fret grand auditorium-size cutaway electro acoustic TOP: Solid Sitka spruce BACK/SIDES: Solid East Indian rosewood MAX RIM DEPTH: 114.5mm tapering to 96.4mm MAX BODY WIDTH: 406.4mm (16”) NECK: Tropical mahogany SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) TUNERS: Individual Taylor-logo’d enclosed, nickel-plated NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech Tusq/44.8mm FINGERBOARD: Maple-bound ebony, pearl ‘Element’ inlays, 381mm (15”) radius FRETS: 20, medium BRIDGE/SPACING: Ebony with compensated Micarta saddle/56mm ELECTRICS: Taylor Expression System (ES 2) with volume, treble and bass rotary controls WEIGHT (KG/LB): 2.13/4.69 OPTIONS: Special order only RANGE OPTIONS: All other 14-fret 800 series guitars – GS, D and GO – with cutaway and ES 2 are same price as the reviewed 814ce. Non-cutaway electros cost £2,821; purely acoustic, £2,519. The 12-fret GC electro cutaway costs £3,174; non-cut electro is £2,972 and acoustic only at £2,670 LEFT-HANDERS: Yes, same price FINISH: Natural UV-cure polyester, gloss (body), satin (neck) Taylor Guitars +31 (0) 206 676030 www.taylor.com
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G Build quality Playability Sound Value for money
The rosewood pickguard is a lovely visual touch. The grain runs this way to help disguise pick marks, according to Taylor
Guitarist says: A re-evaluation of the guitar that made Taylor’s name, with a redesigned electro system. A new benchmark?
May 2014 Guitarist 105
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BOSS ME-80 £269 EFFECTS
110 Guitarist May 2014
BOSS ME-80 £269 EFFECTS
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BOSS ME-80 £269
The Rivals
The latest in a distinguished and evolving line of Boss multi-effects pedals offers versatility in effects switching WORDS Trevor Curwen PHOTOGRAPHY Joe Branston
What We Want To Know
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Aren’t Boss multieffects units usually prefixed with GT? The GT-100 is the current Boss flagship processor; the ME series is cheaper, and the ME-80 replaces the ME-70. So is it a complete pedalboard in one unit? You can have eight switchable effects: two assignable effects, distortion, modulation, reverb, delay, a pedal effect, and a preamp. Is that better than buying stompboxes? Well, it certainly gives you more options and programmability, but better? That’s up to you…
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his latest Boss multieffects made its debut at Winter NAMM 2014, and is a more tactile unit than the menu-driven GT-100, with effects selections and parameter adjustments made using a huge array of front-panel knobs. Battery or adaptor-powered, it features a set of ingeniously designed footswitches that can be used in two ways: either to switch a collection of individual effects pedals, or for instant recall of complex patches featuring multiple effects. The patches are constructed from up to eight simultaneous effects, including, if you want them, COSM amp sims. The actual range of onboard effects is really wide, featuring all of the standard stuff you would expect, plus some new things such as Boss’s Tera Echo, which incorporates Multi Dimensional Processing (MDP) technology to create a range of
ambiences. The ME-80 also has tap tempo, tuner, a phrase-loop function with 38 seconds of recording, and a built-in USB audio interface for recording to a DAW that includes the possibility of recording a dry sound while listening to the ME-80’s effects, and then re-amping it later.
Having discontinued its more affordable HD300, HD400 and HD500 multi-effects units, Line 6 has the POD HD500X (£429) and if you have the budget for that, you may consider the Boss GT-100 (£379) as an alternative to the ME-80. DigiTech’s RP1000 (£359) offers 200 memories and a Pedalboard Mode to use five footswitches to turn stompboxes and effects on and off. There’s also the smaller RP500 (£249). Zoom’s G5 (£259) sports 297 onboard patches featuring up to nine effects with instant switching for four of them, plus a switchable valve boost
You name it, the ME-80 has it – including new additions to Boss’s stompbox line
May 2014 Guitarist 111
BOSS ME-80 £269 EFFECTS
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Boss ME-80
The wealth of knobs gives you plenty of control over your effects
The ME-80 is versatile, practical, and just the thing for anyone wanting a whole effects solution in one go Sounds There is really nothing complicated about the ME-80, but don’t let that fool you – it’s packed with excellent sounds, and its impressive array of rotary switches and knobs make it easy to assign effects and tweak parameters. However, if you prefer, you can connect it to a computer to access the Boss Tone Studio application, which provides a graphical interface for tweaking and archiving the ME-80’s effects. An internet connection will let you access Boss Tone Central for direct access to free patches created by professional guitarists.
112 Guitarist May 2014
PRICE: £269 ORIGIN: China TYPE: Floor-based multieffects pedal PREAMP MODELS: AC, Tweed, Clean, Crunch, Combo, Lead, Drive, Stack, Metal EFFECTS: Comp/FX1 (11), overdrive/ distortion (11), modulation (11), delay (11), EQ/FX2 (6), reverb (spring, room, hall), pedal FX (10) PRESETS: 36 user; 36 preset OTHER FEATURES: Tuner, phrase looper, tap tempo CONNECTIONS: Standard jack guitar input, mini-jack aux input, mini-jack stereo headphone/ recording output, standard jack outputs (L/mono & R), USB (type B) POWER: 6x AA or LR6/R6 batteries or AC adaptor DIMENSIONS: 447 (w) x 231 (d) x 70mm (h) WEIGHT (KG/LB): 3.6/8 OPTION: AC adaptor: PSA series RANGE OPTIONS: GT-100 (£379), ME-25 (£159), ME-50B (£265), ME-20B (£189) Roland UK 01792 702701 www.roland.co.uk
wah-wah and Whammy-like octave shifts, or you can use it to control selected effects parameters for some expressive real-time sound shaping.
Verdict There’s complete flexibility in how you use the ME-80 onstage. In manual mode, you have footswitches to access individual effects, but you can switch between that and memory mode with the eighth footswitch. Doing so will reconfigure the footswitches so you have four for the presets in a particular bank, while the others select the bank and a control function, which is assignable in each patch for toggling grouped effects on/off, or for real-time adjustment of a specified parameter. The pedal treadle can be used for foot volume and pedal effects like
With eight footswitches rather than four, the ME-80 is a massive step up from its predecessor in the Boss range, the ME-70, and is effectively a complete and comprehensively equipped pedalboard. There are some really nice-sounding effects on offer here, and they’re all wrapped up in an easily operated and relatively compact unit. Versatile and extremely practical, the ME-80 may be just the thing for anyone who wants to put together a whole effects solution in one go: and with street prices at around £229, you’ll be getting superb value for money.
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G Build quality Features Sound Value for money
Guitarist says: An affordable do-it-all effects solution for onstage use and recording
RED WITCH PEDALS £99-£249 PEDAL ROUND-UP
Red Witch Pedals £99-£249
Ding-Dong! The Witch is Red. Here’s an effects sextet from the South Pacific WORDS Trevor Curwen PHOTOGRAPHY Neil Godwin
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ed Witch’s analogue pedals, designed by Ben Fulton and made in New Zealand, count rock aristocracy such as The Police, U2, Guns N’ Roses, The Black Crowes and many more among their users. Until recently, the company had just two basic ranges. There’s the Premium range, consisting of eight larger pedals, and the Seven Sisters, a series of tiny pedals, all with female names and featuring rechargeable battery power. The new Original Chrome range recently saw its first pedal introduced.
Red Witch Seven Sisters Grace PRICE: £99 ORIGIN: New Zealand TYPE: Compressor pedal FEATURES: True bypass CONTROLS: Volume, compression CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output POWER: 9V rechargeable internal Lithium ion battery or 9V DC adaptor DIMENSIONS: 45 (w) x 85 (d) x 55mm (h) Sounds Great Music 0161 436 4799 redwitchpedals.com
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hen the Seven Sisters range arrived they offered the world’s smallest pedalboard footprint, an honour now belonging to the budget Hotone pedals. Of course, shoehorning circuitry and a battery into a small enclosure isn’t easy, and while the Hotones run from a 9V adaptor only, the Seven Sisters can operate from a rechargeable lithium battery as well as a 9V adaptor. The Grace offers 120 hours of constant use from a four-hour charge. Finished in a shade that complements any Seafoam Green Fender, it’s a simple two-knob design, with one to turn up the compression and one for the volume. It’s sonic range isn’t dissimilar to an MXR Dyna Comp: from a clean boost, through a tightening and thickening of your sound, to more obvious compression with a snap to the front end of the notes.
Verdict Amazing Grace? Well, we wouldn’t go that far, but she’s a decent-sounding, value-for-money compressor that will slot neatly into any ’board.
116 Guitarist May 2014
Red Witch Empress Chorus PRICE: £189 ORIGIN: New Zealand TYPE: Chorus and vibrato pedal FEATURES: True bypass CONTROLS: Mix, depth, voice, velocity, vibe/chorus switch, bright switch CONNECTIONS: Standard input, 2x standard output POWER: 9V battery or 9V DC adaptor DIMENSIONS: 125 (w) x 95 (d) x 60mm (h)
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nlike most chorus pedals, the Empress has a (voice) knob to adjust the delay time, allowing, says Red Witch, “an infinite number of analogue chorus pedals in one box”. Modulation depth and speed (velocity knob) are adjustable, as is the wet/dry blend via the mix control. You can choose between vibrato and chorus modes, with the former yielding vintage vibe sounds, plus a neat line in rotary speakers, but it’s the chorus that’s special – sparkly, spacious and varied. Early Boss units are the benchmarks here, and next to vintage CE-1 and CE-2 units the Empress lacks some of their warmth, with more of a ‘modern’ treble content, but is able to replicate the range of chorus available and then some. It’s especially good when hooked up in stereo – like mic’ing a JC-120’s speakers separately and panning them. No wonder Andy Summers uses one.
Verdict Great sound and versatility make this one of the best chorus pedals around.
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G
Guitarist says: The cutest compressor around, and it sounds good, too…
Guitarist says: A full chorus line compacted into one box
RED WITCH PEDALS £99-£249 PEDAL ROUND-UP
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Red Witch Seven Sisters Ruby PRICE: £99 ORIGIN: New Zealand TYPE: Fuzz pedal FEATURES: True bypass CONTROLS: Volume, fuzz CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output POWER: 9V rechargeable internal lithium ion battery or 9V DC adaptor DIMENSIONS: 45 (w) x 85 (d) x 55mm (h)
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nother of the Seven Sisters, the Ruby offers a functional twoknob fuzz, and 300 hours of use from a single charge. Volume and fuzz knobs dial in the sound, which is voiced somewhat like the Fuzz God II (see p118) with its sputter knob fixed at around 2 o’clock. Ruby’s not a polite lady; what she gives you is raucous, spitty fuzz with an attitude. We like it. So what of the lithium battery? Considering that most of us run our pedals off a power supply rather than batteries these days, and you do need an adaptor to charge it anyway, perhaps it’s not that relevant, except in two ways: one (good) is that it will still work if your power supply goes down onstage; and the other (er, not so good) being that lithium batteries need replacing every couple of years.
Red Witch Synthotron PRICE: £249 ORIGIN: New Zealand TYPE: Synth/filter pedal FEATURES: True bypass CONTROLS: Octave toggle switch (ch1, ch2), level (ch1, ch2), decay (ch1, ch2), trem toggle switch, velocity, dry, sample/hold toggle, range, velocity CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output POWER: 9V regulated DC PSU (supplied) DIMENSIONS: 125 (w) x 95 (d) x 60mm (h)
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he Synthotron has two different functions that can be used independently or together, each with its own footswitch; a twin-voice analogue synth, and an envelope filter that’s really cool for auto-wah and Mu-Tron-esque stuff, but can also function as a sample-and-hold generator. The synth (oscillator triggered by signal to voltage conversion) offers two channels, each with level, decay and a choice of octaves (unison, or one octave up and one or two octaves down). It’s monophonic, and tracks best further up the neck (anything below the 9th fret can be glitchy): it’s probably best used mixed with some dry sound for solidity. You can also apply tremolo with variable speed. Synth and filter together is a recipe for sonic madness.
Verdict
Verdict
Characterful fuzz with plenty of appeal, although a little more output would have been nice, rather than having to keep the volume knob almost fully up.
Not everyone wants analogue synth sounds from their guitar, but the Synthotron offers it in a small footprint with bonus funky-filter action.
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G
Guitarist says: A red-hot fuzz pedal that’s great for tight spaces
Guitarist says: A game of two halves – funky and bonkers – sometimes at once!
May 2014 Guitarist 117
RED WITCH PEDALS £99-£249 PEDAL ROUND-UP
Red Witch Violetta Delay PRICE: £120 ORIGIN: New Zealand TYPE: Delay pedal FEATURES: True bypass CONTROLS: Delay, mix, mod, repeat CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output, expression pedal socket (mini-jack) POWER: 9V rechargeable internal lithium-ion battery or 9V DC adaptor DIMENSIONS: 46 (w) x 85 (d) x 55mm (h)
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ith the same footprint and powering system as the Seven Sisters, the Violetta is the first in the new Chrome series. Three tiny knobs adjust the standard delay pedal parameters of wet/dry mix, delay time and number of repeats (also adjustable via an expression pedal), while a fourth adjusts modulation. Red Witch has voiced the Violetta for a retro sound with the top end rolling off the repeats as they decay: this beds in nicely with the guitar tone and sounds great. There’s plenty of range here: everything from slapback up to a full one-second delay, and the modulation knob adds a touch of tape-echo-esque pitch wobble. The expression pedal is a great idea for controlling your repeats and bringing in self-oscillation dub effects, but you may need an adaptor or a special lead, as the socket is a mini-jack.
Red Witch Fuzz God II PRICE: £159 ORIGIN: New Zealand TYPE: Fuzz pedal FEATURES: True bypass CONTROLS: Volume, fuzz, wrath, sputter, gain doubling switch, treble boost switch, internal trim pot for transistor bias CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output POWER: 9V battery or 9V DC adaptor DIMENSIONS: 125 (w) x 95 (d) x 60mm (h)
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eaturing silicon transistors, the Fuzz God II sports two footswitches: a normal bypass and one designed to “incur the wrath of the Fuzz God,” says Red Witch, unleashing oscillation and octave effects governed by the wrath knob. Volume and fuzz controls are standard, while a sputter knob dials in a sweet spot or descends into dying battery weirdness. On top of that, you get toggle switches to double the gain and bring in a treble boost. While you encounter thick and musical character fuzz with the sputter knob fully clockwise, going backwards makes things more ragged, as the fuzz hangs on for dear life. The second footswitch brings in sonic chaos that you can leave running to ensure you get an encore (just so it gets turned off!).
Verdict
A very nice-sounding and versatile delay pedal, with the added advantage of its compact size.
If you like the madness of the ZVex Fuzz Factory, the Fuzz God II will appeal. Lining up your knobs is crucial, as there’s so much interaction, but get them right and satisfaction is guaranteed.
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G
Guitarist says: A delay pedal that shines in more ways than one
Guitarist says: LIke fearsome fuzz from the top of Mount Olympus
Verdict
118 Guitarist May 2014
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What you need to know about…
Compressor Pedals
If there’s one type of effects pedal that guitar players are most unsure of, it has to be the compressor. No worries, let Guitarist explain what it does… by Trevor Curwen WHAT EXACTLY IS COMPRESSION? Although compression can be used as an obvious effect, it’s more likely to be used as a subtle tool. One of the reasons guitarists may be wary of compressors is that what they do isn’t always that obvious. Take the compression away, however, and it will be missed. The simplest explanation of a compressor is that it’s an automatic volume control that turns down your signal when it exceeds a predetermined threshold, attenuating or squashing signal peaks. Basically, it makes the quieter parts of an audio signal louder and the louder parts quieter: in effect, it’s narrowing the dynamic range of a signal and delivering a more consistent overall loudness.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT KNOBS FOR? There’s usually a volume/level knob, which sets the outp t level of the pedal; and a knob (often marked sustain, sensitivity or gain reduction) that increases the amount of compression. In addition, you may get an attack knob which determines how fast the compressor kicks in, letting more of the transient through and influencing the note ‘snap’. There may also be a tone control, as compression can be perceived to dull the sound.
120 Guitarist May 2014
you need to know about…
DO I HAVE TO COMPRESS THE WHOLE OF MY SIGNAL? There’s a technique known as parallel compression, where some compressed signal is mixed with the dry signal. This allows you to retain some of the attack and dynamics of your original signal, but still have some of the benefits of compression. Pedals such as the Barber Tone Press and the Wampler Ego will let you do this. Another technique is multi-band compression, where you compress separate frequency bands to a different degree – useful if, for example, you want to keep only the bottom end of your signal really tight. This type of compression is quite rare in stompboxes, but EBS incorporates it into the MultiComp.
SO, HOW WOULD THAT HELP MY GUITAR SOUND? Well, it can smooth, thicken and tighten your sound by evening out the volume differences between the notes or chord strikes. If you are less than consistent with your pick strikes, a compressor can come to your aid, delivering more constant dynamics: great for chord work or playing tight, highly rhythmic funk. Similarly, in country picking where there are likely to be lots of notes played quickly, including plenty of hammer-ons and pull-offs, a compressor will make sure they are all weighted equally. In that context, there’s another thing that a compressor can do as it works on the transient (front edge) of the note to alter its envelope – this is often referred to as giving some snap, pop or click to a note. Another aspect, some may say the most important, of a compressor’s action is that it can increase sustain, and can do it while still maintaining a clean sound rather than using overdrive/ distortion. As your note is fading, the compressor is working to keep the level up so your note lasts longer, benefiting slide players or anyone that wants clean notes to ring on. That’s not to say it’s just for clean sounds: a compressor works fine with overdriven amps, and can be used as a booster to drive your amp into more dirt.
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What you need to know about…
Compressor Pedals
Joyo JF-10 Dyna Boss Compressor CS-3 The budget buy
C
ompressor pedals are available at all price points, from Chinesemade budget boxes up to £300plus units from Origin Effects (reviewed in issue 361). The JF-10 Dyna Compressor is at the lower end of the scale, but is robustly built and has a picture of a scorpion on the front. So, does it take the sting out of your dynamics? Well, it certainly has a lot of output, making it a useful clean boost, and the compression doesn’t sound bad, if a little bright. The Dyna doesn’t have as much ‘squash’ as others here, but you could just leave it on all the time to enhance your sound.
Verdict A workmanlike compressor for those of us on a tight budget. 122 Guitarist May 2014
Versatile, compact compression
Joyo JF-10 Dyna Compressor PRICE: £29 ORIGIN: China TYPE: Compressor pedal FEATURES: True bypass CONTROLS: Sustain, attack, level CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output POWER: 9V battery or 9V DC adaptor DIMENSIONS: 72 (w) x 120 (d) x 55mm (h) Coda Music 01494 535333 www.joyoaudio.com
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G Guitarist says: You don't need to spend a fortune to get a compressor that works
A
fter the CS-1 and CS-2, the latest compressor in the Boss Compact series is the CS-3, offering plenty of control over the sound with the addition of a tone knob to the more standard level, attack and sustain. Capable of going from mild compression to a very squashed compression-aseffect tone, the CS-3 lets you sculpt quite a prominent note snap via juxtaposition of the sustain and attack knobs – with the tone knob dialling in plenty of top end if you want it.
Verdict With the four-knob setup, Boss has built enough versatility into this to make it a decent allround buy, for comparatively little outlay.
Boss CS-3 PRICE: £75 ORIGIN: Taiwan TYPE: Compressor pedal FEATURES: Buffered bypass CONTROLS: Level, tone, attack, sustain CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output POWER: 9V battery or 9V DC adaptor DIMENSIONS: 73 (w) x 129 (d) x 59mm (h) Roland UK 01792 702701 www.roland.co.uk
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G Guitarist says: A decent purchase, poised between budget and boutique
Watch it, hear it, read it Guitarist magazine on Newsstand for iPhone, iPad & iPod touch
Packed with video, audio, picture galleries and a whole lot more…
What you need to know about…
Compressor Pedals
MXR ’76 Vintage Keeley 4 Knob Compressor Dyna Comp The original. Revived!
A boutique favourite
L
O
aunched in 1972, the MXR Dyna Comp was the original guitar-pedal compressor, and is still available from Jim Dunlop’s revived MXR line. This is the more expensive Custom Shop version as opposed to the standard M-102 Dyna Comp (£74), and is faithful to the ‘script logo’ original – with the same components, batterypower only and no LED. This pedal shows MXR got it right from the start when it comes to guitarists’ needs: it thickens tone and gets squishy if you need to, with a note attack that can have a pronounced snap but still sound natural.
Verdict Basic facilities for sure, but it does the job very nicely. 124 Guitarist May 2014
MXR ’76 Vintage Dynacomp PRICE: £165 ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Compressor pedal FEATURES: True bypass CONTROLS: Output, sensitivity CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output POWER: 9V battery DIMENSIONS: 70 (w) x 110 (d) x 50mm (h) Westside Distribution 0844 326 2000 www.jimdunlop.com
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G Guitarist says: Vintage features, vintage looks and, yes, vintage sound, too
ne of the most revered vintage compressors was created by Ross, using modified Dyna Comp circuitry. The Keeley, regarded as one of the best boutique examples, is derived from that. Available in two versions, this four-knob unit adds attack and clipping knobs over the original (£165), which instead incorporates them as internal trim pots. Level and sustain are similar to a Dyna Comp’s, and that clipping knob adjusts the input level (with different settings to suit humbuckers and signal coils) so they don’t add distortion to the signal.
Verdict It sounds great: a quality compression with adjustments to suit pro players.
Keeley 4 Knob Compressor PRICE: £215 ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Compressor pedal FEATURES: True bypass CONTROLS: Sustain, level, attack, clipping CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output POWER: 9V battery or 9V DC adaptor DIMENSIONS: 65 (w) x 110 (d) x 52mm (h) Andertons 01483 456777 www.robertkeeley.com
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G Guitarist says: Modern boutique version of a respected design with added refinements. Superb!
What you need to know about…
Compressor Pedals
Effectrode PC-2A
Wampler Ego Compressor
Valve-powered compression
Mix-and-blend compression
T
W
here’s a nod to the Teletronix LA-2A Leveling Amplifier, a legendary studio compressor, in the name of the PC-2A – a rugged, valve-driven optical compressor pedal. A limit/ compress switch selects light, subtle compression or a much heavier squashy effect, all dialled in by the peak-reduction knob, while gain sets the output and can provide a great clean boost to drive amps. This is classy, natural compression that will even out your string response while adding sustain – a real tone enhancer to be left on all the time.
Verdict It isn’t exactly cheap, but it will give you lovely smooth studiostyle compression. 126 Guitarist May 2014
Effectrode PC-2A PRICE: £249 ORIGIN: UK TYPE: Valve-powered compressor pedal FEATURES: True bypass CONTROLS: Peak reduction, gain, limit/compress switch CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output POWER: 12V DC adaptor (supplied) DIMENSIONS: 94 (w) x 125 (d) x 50mm (h) Effectrode 01782 372210 www.effectrode.com
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G Guitarist says: Natural compression with added valve-based mojo
ith more knobs than any other pedal on test, the Ego adds some extra features to its own variation of the classic Ross/ MXR Dyna Comp circuitry. The main differences are a blend knob, which gives many more options for a natural but compressed sound by letting some of your unprocessed tone sit alongside the compressed. There’s also a tone knob, which can add a touch of airy sparkle in just the right area. Careful juxtaposition of the knobs yields enough compression variations to take on a whole range of guitar tasks.
Verdict Those five knobs offer a versatility that makes this a compressor for all seasons.
Wampler Ego Compressor PRICE: £199 ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Compressor pedal FEATURES: True bypass CONTROLS: Volume, sustain, attack, tone, blend CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output POWER: 9V battery or 9V DC adaptor DIMENSIONS: 63 (w) x 114 (d) x 55mm (h) First Line Distribution 07894 747041 www.wamplerpedals.com
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G Guitarist says: One of the most versatile, compact compressors around, with great blend options
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Yerasov GTA15J 1x10 combo £319 Crème de la Krem – a bold new 15-watt budget boutique combo CONTACT: Yerasov UK PHONE: 07534 429269 WEB: www.yerasov.co.uk
Now available in the UK, the
Russian-made Yerasov GTA15 may look a little like a 1970s catalogue practice amp, but underneath the skin, it’s a serious tone tool with a pair of JJ EL84s powering a Jensen C10Q loudspeaker. Inside the tough steel chassis, there’s a decent-quality non-throughplated circuit board, with lownoise metal film resistors and Wima film decoupling capacitors – arguably the best you can buy. Hand-wired ceramic valve bases are bolted to the chassis, and the board layout and wiring is superb. Controls couldn’t be simpler,
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comprising volume and tone, fed by separate inputs for guitar or line-level devices such as multi-effects floorboards.
Sounds The Yerasov’s noise performance beats most of the valve amps we’ve tested in the last decade, with practically inaudible hum and hiss at lower volume levels. Combined with the excellent Jensen C10Q loudspeaker, this makes it a superb recording tool. Used with a PAF-loaded Les Paul, the amp stays clean up until around 10 o’clock. Beyond this, the GTA15’s smooth creamy
overdrive progressively takes over. Depending on the guitar you use, it may be a little too warm; however, for the relatively bright tone of a PAFstyle humbucker or single coils, it’s superb, with a deluge of harmonic overtones accompanying power chords, and a bloom that flatters singlenote soloing, making it ideal for classic rock and blues when cranked.
Verdict The Yerasov is a real ‘stealth’ boutique amp, with portability, great tone, excellent build quality and superb low-noise
performance. If you think the styling is a little austere, then close your eyes, listen to the sound and reflect on the price. You’re getting a top-quality hand-made valve amp for the cost of a mass-produced solidstate product. The line inputs make it ideal for floorboard users, too – a pair of GTA15s would make a portable and powerful stereo rig. Definitely one to watch out for. [NG]
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G : Guitarist says: Forget the rather drab styling, this is a serious boutique tone machine
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Electro-Harmonix Soul Food and Slammi £49 & £109 Two new pedals with something familiar about them CONTACT: Electro-Harmonix PHONE: N/A WEB: www.ehx.com
Electro-Harmonix has been introducing so many pedals lately that it’s increasingly difficult for us to keep up. Here are two of the latest – the Slammi, a pedal in the EHX Next Step range, is a footcontrolled polyphonic pitch shifter, while the Soul Food is EHX’s take on the transparent overdrive of the Klon Centaur.
Sounds Slammi enables you to change pitch up or down to a fixed note that is selected by an 11-position rotary dial offering Detune, Half Step, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Minor 7th, 1 Octave,
2 Octaves or 3 Octaves/ Dive Bomb. If you don’t want your whole sound to change pitch, then a second dial sets the amount of dry sound that’s mixed with the pitched signal so you can have harmonies or a faux 12-string sound. Control of the pedal might take a bit of getting used to, but the results are excellent: lush detune/chorus, octave bends, instant baritone or bass sounds and more, all remarkably glitch-free. The Soul Food is an excellent complement to a valve amp.
The Klon is beyond the means of most of us, but if you’re looking for that type of touch sensitive, transparent overdrive and boost that keeps your core sound intact, the Soul Food delivers it.
versatile pitch shifting at a great price, and the Soul Food is an affordable alternative to a pedal that is way out of the reach of most players. [TC]
Verdict
Guitarist says: Two new pedals that offer a more affordable option to two established favourites… and do it in style!
A fine pair of pedals. The Slammi (a coincidence that it rhymes with Whammy?) offers
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G
Pedaltrain Volto £89 A rechargeable power supply for your pedalboard CONTACT: Westside PHONE: 0844 326 2000 WEB: www.westsidedistribution.com
Pedaltrain seems to have the market sewn up when it comes to its pedalboards, so producing power supplies for the pedals you put on ‘em is pretty sensible. Alongside the existing and hefty Powertrain 1250 supply comes the new Volto, and it’s not your usual power supply. It’s USB rechargeable, which means, once charged, your pedalboard will be mains-free: ideal for the travelling/busking musician or indeed any of us who need an ultra-quick set-up time; at an open-mic slot, for example.
In Use Slightly wider than an original iPod, it takes six hours to charge from zero to full capacity via the supplied USA cable and mains
plug with USA, European, Australian and UK adaptors included. There are two (nonisolated) 9-volt outlets – it’s only designed to power 9-volt pedals – and included are two single-use right-angle plug pedal leads, and two threeconnector daisy-chain rightangle plug cables. With a total of 2000mA, Volta could in theory power a lot of 9-volt centre-negative Boss-style pedals (it will work with centrepositive pedals, although you’ll need an adaptor lead, not supplied) but bear in mind the more you power, the less time you have per charge. According to Pedaltrain, one to five pedals
will give you about 36 hours use; while six to 10 pedals will provide 18 hours use. Plenty for long rehearsals and gigs.
Verdict Compact, discreet and easily mountable on your Pedaltrain or other pedalboards (Velcro strips supplied) or simply a
compact power supply for those who need to get mains-free power to any pedals. [DB]
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G Guitarist says: Perfect power supply for the travelling musician, or those beachside jams/busking slots with a battery-powered amp
May 2014 Guitarist 129
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Free The Tone Red Jasper RJ-1V £239 High-quality overdrive with amp-aping tones
Seiko STX7 £34.99
CONTACT: Guitar XS PHONE: 01227 832558 WEB: www.freethetone.com
A rechargeable clip-on tuner with LED torch Billed as Free The Tone’s first CONTACT: JHS PHONE: 01132 865381 WEB: www.jhs.co.uk
The headstock tuner has taken off in a big way, certainly judging by the number of them out there. While most get the tuning job done well enough, many have poor battery life, and when the required batteries are invariably those expensive button types, things can start to get rather costly. Seiko’s answer is a USBrechargeable tuner that also features a very handy dualpower level torch – ideal for those backstage/onstage lowlight situations, or even to illuminate your pad. It’s larger than many, but that means the clip will fit any acoustic and electric headstocks and the actual tuner can be rotated 360 degrees and tilted up or down. Fitted to the back of your headstock, the note display is upside down, but the bright bar-tuning display is still easily used in this fashion. The STX-7 features the usual tuning calibration and either mic or clip (vibration) mode.
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In Use It may not be the most discreet headstock tuner we’ve encountered, but it’s faultless in operation, with fast and accurate note recognition in both tuning modes. Charge time from zero is roughly three hours, and so long as you remember to press and hold the switch to turn the torch on, it proves plenty bright enough to illuminate amps, effects or your chord charts. In low-light mode, it offers 30 hours use per charge.
Verdict Not the cheapest headstock tuner on the market, but as far as we’re aware, the only one that’s USB-rechargeable. Plus that torch is extremely handy for live use. [DB]
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G Guitarist says: Say goodbye to batteries, get in tune and see what you’re doing. Nice
‘low-gain overdrive’, the Red Jasper is similar in size to its Heat Blaster HB-2 distortion with a fairly wide 100mm diecast enclosure. Inside, you’ll find what the Japanese effects maker calls its Holistic Tonal Solution circuitry, which runs off a 9-volt centre-negative PSU or battery, while current draw is a fairly hungry 15mA. For the uninitiated, Free The Tone says HTS combines the best aspects of true bypass and buffered circuits. In brief, the circuit filters out noise from redundant frequencies in the input signal and also features a noiseless on-off switch. It also ensures that the output impedance of the Red Jasper remains constant when it is switched on and off. Control layout is simplicity itself with Level, Hi-Cut and Gain dials the only tweakables.
Sounds Designer Yuki Hayashi told us that both the natural overdrive of cranked valve amps and Klon’s Centaur inspired the pedal’s sound – although we’d say the Red Jasper is less glassy
and toppy than some Kloninspired pedals out there, with an extremely musical, flattering character all its own. It seems to work best plugged into smallish EL84-based amps, producing a detailed drive tone with an incisive edge but an open and airy bloom. Plugging in to a 6L6-powered amp with more headroom accentuated softer fuzz-tones at the cost of some bite and definition. We got the best results here by using the Jasper as a clean boost, with gain low and level high, to sweeten and lift the amp’s natural tone rather than as a full-out overdrive.
Verdict If you want an overdrive pedal that thinks it’s a good amp, this could be for you: warm, naturalsounding drive tones that will suit blues, jazz-fusion and classic rock to a tee. [JD]
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G : Guitarist says: This pedal isn’t cheap, but there’s no snake-oil here: one of the more sophisticated and characterful overdrives we’ve tried
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Supermegaultragroovy Capo 3 £20.99 Could this new app lead the way when it comes to learning to play in the future? CONTACT: Supermegaultragroovy PHONE: N/A WEB: supermegaultragroovy.com
Okay, you can have lessons, but
we suspect the way most of us learned to play was by listening to our favourite recordings over and over, trying to figure out the notes and chords and then playing along. Now, while a small proportion of readers will remember dropping the needle on vinyl records playing at half speed, things have moved on quite considerably. This is perfectly reflected in Capo 3, the latest software from Supermegaultragroovy, who claim that it is “the future of learning to play”. Running on a Mac, Capo 3 can import any song from your iTunes library and offer you a choice of phrasetraining functions such as slowing down the tempo without changing pitch, transposing the pitch of a song, fixing loop points to repeat sections and vocal reduction/ elimination. What is most
132 Guitarist May 2014
remarkable, though, is the claim that it can automatically detect a song’s chords.
In Use Loading a song is a case of following menus, or simply dragging and dropping the file onto Capo 3’s icon. As you play back the song and listen to it, you will see its wave file, plus a spectrogram that shows what’s going on musically over the full frequency range. It’s basically a series of blobs at the correct pitch, but you can pick out which blobs represent the notes in a guitar solo, and then click on them with a mouse to hear the note played back on a virtual piano. What’s more, you will find that dragging the mouse over the note puts it into the tab display below – not necessarily on the right string but you can then edit that accordingly.
As for the automatic chord recognition, as a song plays, the chords appear below it. We try this with loads of different songs and the results are mixed, we have to say, depending in part on how dense the song’s instrumentation is. For one, it sometimes doesn’t pick up on all the chord changes, and for those it does, sometimes you get the right chord, sometimes the wrong chord. However, Capo 3 invariably displays related chords in the right key, so is a definite starting point and a genuine help when you are figuring stuff out, as long as you have a modicum of musical knowledge. You can easily correct chords and then add new ones, so you can also use it to chart your own songs for passing on to bandmates for learning — assuming that they have a Mac and a copy of Capo, that is.
Verdict Capo 3 is undoubtedly a very useful app, although it’s a personal choice whether it’s worth shelling out £20.99. Its chord recognition is not perfect, but it may be asking the impossible to get it to accurately spit out every single chord from every song you put into it. As it stands, it gives you a real headstart on figuring things out, plus its standard phrase-training facilities are excellent (the slow tempo feature sounds very clean), with helpful features for the guitarist. Whether you’re learning guitar, teaching it, or just need to work out a new repertoire quickly, Capo 3 could be an invaluable tool. [TC]
G U I TA R I S T R AT I N G Guitarist says: A practical software solution for working out how to play songs
Longterm Tests
Guitarist’s test products
Eventide H9 Mick Taylor
Fender Starcaster Stuart Williams
Fender Pawn Shop Special Ramparte Josh Gardner
Longtermers A few months’ gigging, recording and everything that goes with it – welcome to Guitarist’s longterm test reports
Fender Modern Player Starcaster Stuart Williams NEW PRODUCT
Total Guitar’s editor finally gets his hands on a semi
I’ve never been one for indie poseurisms. My jeans sag, my haircut’s not angular enough, and I pronounce Bon Iver the English way. So, when Fender set moustaches twitching all around the world by announcing the reissue of Jonny Greenwood’s favourite guitar, I was merely interested rather than rushing to express my joy on
Instagram. That said, many of my favourite rock guitarists have used semis over the years. Perhaps it’s an age thing. Turn 30, purchase slippers, appreciate semi-acoustics. Thinline Teles don’t seem hollow enough, and an ES-335 has always felt too cumbersome and expensive. However, I have always liked Fender’s offset bodies, so the Starcaster’s skewed, narrow
waist seems like an ideal choice. Throw in the modern ‘Wide Range’ humbuckers and sturdy bridge, and it has the makings of a sound modern-rock machine. First things first, then: that headstock. To begin with, I wasn’t sure whether to reach for the screwdriver (to attach my Strat neck) or a wood saw. Then I plugged the guitar in. It could be down to preconceptions, but the
more I play it, the less I want to go for distorted barre chords. I started with some heavy rhythm parts, dialled back the gain to play along with some Gaslight Anthem, then rolled back even more to join in with some Counting Crows. Full open chords with mild overdrive seem to be where this guitar’s heart is. I’ve loved Wes Montgomery’s Four On Six since a mate (and infinitely better guitarist) played it on his ES-335 years ago. I sat down, readied my thumb, flipped to the neck pickup and forced myself to get past the opening single-note part, to the chords that have my fingers in knots. An hour later, I was playing (albeit poorly and slowly), jazz. Plus, I’d forgotten all about that headstock. Like I said, it must be an age thing…
Fender Modern Player Starcaster
First reviewed: 378 Price: £802 Type: Semi-hollow, offset-body electric Body: Maple laminate with alder centre-block Neck: Maple, C-shape Pickups: 2x Wide Range humbucking pickups Hardware: Pinned chrome Adjusto-Matic bridge with anchored tailpiece, cast/ sealed machineheads Fender GBI 01342 331700 www.fender.com
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Longterm Tests Gretsch G6137TCB Panther Center-Block Chris Vinnicombe
Mesa Engineering Recto-Verb Twenty-Five Jamie Dickson
Fender Pawn Shop Ramparte Josh Gardner INTERMEDIATE
Has an impulse pickup led our managing ed down a dark path?
Last time out, I explained why my indecisiveness had led me to man the Ramparte rather hastily.Yes, I’d listened to demos and read the reviews, but when I got it home, the old adage of try before you buy proved gallingly accurate. I should preface all this by saying that the Ramparte is undoubtedly a cool, great-looking little amp with some really fun retro sounds – just as I’d hoped. However, while I’d heard that it was a dark-sounding amp, I didn’t expect it to be this dark. And while my Cabronita and Strat have the required trebly quality to compensate, my Les Pauls’ humbuckers just turn things to a low-end mush. I was despondent – I love my Fenders, but at heart,
I’m a Les Paul man, and the notion of not being able to get the best out of mine niggled me. Since then, I’ve tried to remedy the problem with the aid of a MXR Micro Amp+, turning the treble
knob right the way up, but it’s still a compromise that feels like I’m not really getting the best out of either guitar or amp. So, it the Ramparte isn’t the home amp for me, but I still want
Peerless Retromatic P3 Dave Burrluck
to take it to some jams before I throw in the towel. When I’ve cranked it, the high-end opens up somewhat as the valves start working. If the Ramparte can endear itself in a band setting, there’s still hope. But if not, this Pawn Shop Special could find itself in the window of one of its namesakes pretty sharpish…
Fender Pawn Shop Special Ramparte
First reviewed: 377 Price: £264 Type: All-valve preamp and power amp, with solid-state rectifier Fender GBI 01342 331700 www.fender.com
Peerless Retromatic P3 Dave Burrluck INTERMEDIATE
Our reviews editor can’t get a gig, but the Retromatic is in high demand!
“Well, if you need a guitar player…” I offer.“Sorry, didn’t hear that,” says my mate on the other end of the phone.“Did you say I could borrow the Retromatic again?” Bloody typical – I can’t get arrested, but the guitar I’m supposed to be longterm testing is getting busier by the day. It’s the end of 2013, and there’s a packed house at the local for a night of pub rock par excellence featuring Nine Below Zero’s Dennis Greaves and Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook, not to mention the now ‘official’ Peerless tester, Mike Dearing and a host of other local luminaries. New Year’s Day, I awake with a cracker of a head and no idea how I got home. How old am I? “How are you?” laughs Mike.
“Enjoy the gig?”“Yeah, it was great,” I croak.“Didn’t Glen use the Peerless first?” “To be honest,” Mike replies, “He’d make a Woolworth’s guitar with four strings sound good – he made it sound good on an odd
Varitone setting. For the second number we adjusted the knobs, and he sounded blinding. Then we swapped around and I made it sound a bit weird, then Dennis made it sound good. Then I was back on it and I thought, I’m going
to have to sort out that Varitone!’” Were there any comments from the chaps? “‘Well constructed’… ‘too much finish’ and ‘could be a bit lighter?’ I told ’em we can’t do much about those things but we could make a new scratchplate and move the controls, couldn’t we?” Oh, God. Another DIY project looms. I go back to bed.
Peerless Retromatic P3
First reviewed: 376 Price: £899 (inc case) Type: Single-cutaway, centreblocked semi-solid electric Peerless Guitars 07838 667630 www.peerlessguitars.eu
May 2014 Guitarist 135
Longterm Tests
Guitarist’s test products
Anderwood Style 1M Rob Antonello
Taylor 814ce Dave Burrluck & Mick Taylor
Tronical Components TronicalTune Owen Bailey
G6137TCB Panther Center-Block Chris Vinnicombe FINAL REPORT
Will a simple mod transform this Panther from house kitty to jungle cat?
Last time around, despite being hopelessly smitten with this instrument, I hadn’t yet found the cojones to release the Panther into the wild at a gig. Why? Chiefly because the combination of the factory Adjusto-Matic bridge and Bisgby B3C didn’t produce enough downward pressure on the saddles to prevent the low E popping out of its groove when attacked with gusto. The full force of my clumsy right paw in a live setting would knock that sixth string out of its seat throughout a set, wreaking tuning havoc and causing unwanted headache after unwanted headache. Happily, help was at hand. Adam Bowden-Smith, European product manager at Gretsch Guitars, informed me that he’d managed to cure the same problem while playing in a surf band by installing a Rocking Bar bridge (approx £80). These chrome-, nickel- or gold-plated brass bars are an old-school Gretsch design developed in the 1950s in conjunction with Chet Atkins. Not only do they rock smoothly back and forth when used with a Bigsby, but they are also notched in a way that is more resistant to lateral string movement than the average tune-o-matic-style saddle. There’s far less control over intonation, of course, but as fitting one is a completely reversible, 30-second mod, I opted to give it a whirl. With the Panther’s strings slackened, it was simply a matter of lifting the Adjusto-Matic off the bridge posts, replacing it with the Rocking Bar, realigning the strings in their slots, adjusting the action to taste with the thumbwheels and tuning back up to pitch. Easy peasy. The result? The addition of the Rocking Bar gives the Panther an even more vintage aesthetic, and
136 Guitarist May 2014
adding a lump of solid brass into the equation has its tonal benefits too: but mainly, despite attacking the low E string with as much venom as possible, I couldn’t make it pop out of its notch. There don’t seem to be any detrimental effects as far as radius or intonation are concerned, but anyone who’s looking to perform a similar mod could always opt for one of the Tru-Arc radius-correct bar designs (www.truarcbridge works.com) or a Compton Compensated Bridge (www.comptonbridges.com) for a more sophisticated solution. Armed with a guitar that’s now more than robust enough for the task, I took to the stage for my first live show of 2014 and, well, I haven’t had as much fun onstage in ages. Aside from accidentally knocking the pickup switch towards the neck on a couple of occasions, playing the Panther
for a whole set went like clockwork: not only did those Filter’Trons sound great, but the stability of the Bigsby allowed me to throw caution to the wind and give the whammy bar a serious leathering. Remarkably, despite closing with our set’s customary cacophonous wall of feedback
and guitar abuse, I took the Panther out of its case the next morning to find it was still in one piece (phew!) and was also perfectly in tune. Now I just have to call Adam and convince him that he definitely doesn’t need this wonderful guitar back any time soon…
Gretsch G6137TCB Panther Center-Block
First reviewed: 372 Price: £2,926 Type: Semi-acoustic Body: 3-ply maple top, back and sides with spruce centre block Neck: 3-piece maple Hardware: Chrome Bigsby B6C vibrato,Adjusto-Matic bridge with pinned base, Grover Sta-Tite die-cast tuners, Schaller straplocks Electrics: 2x High Sensitive Filter’Tron pickups, master volume, bridge pickup volume, neck pickup volume, master tone, 3-way toggle Fender GBI 01342 331700 www.gretschguitars.com
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