Total Guitar June 2014

eddie Van Halen’s iconic Frankenstrat for the masses!

#254 june 2014 £5.50

featurinegCk, ,b ClaptoMnarvin, Hank n Mayer Srv, JoHMore! and

Sikth The Tech meTal pioneers reuniTe!

Kenny Wayne Shepherd on his blues heroes

Gus G Gus Goes solo for his hoTTesT album yeT! june 2014

PRInTeD In THe uK

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WorldMags.net FuTure PuBliShing 30 MonMouTh STreeT, BATh BA1 2BW Tel: 01225 442244 Fax: 01225 822763 Email: [email protected] Website: www.totalguitar.co.uk Editorial Editor Stuart Williams Content Editor rob laing Reviews Editor Dave Burrluck Deputy Reviews Editor Michael Brown Managing Editor josh gardner Senior Art Editor Mark Thomas Art Editor leanne o’hara Production Editor gary Walker Senior Music Editor jason Sidwell Music Editor Chris Bird Music Co-ordinator natalie Smith Editor At Large neville Marten Contributors Steve Allsworth, owen Bailey, Phil Capone, rich Chamberlain, Trevor Curwen, Charlie griffiths, nick guppy, jonathan horsley, jamie hunt, Andy Mcgregor, Kit Morgan, Matthew Parker, rob Power, Adam rees, Christopher Sutton, james uings, henry Yates Music Engraver Simon Troup Audio Mastering Duncan jordan Video Production Martin holmes Photography joe Branston, Adam gasson, neil godwin, Kevin nixon, gavin roberts, joby Sessions advErtising Phone: 01225 442244 Fax: 01225 732285 Advertising Sales Director Clare Coleman-Straw Sales Manager Amanda Burns, [email protected] Account Sales Managers james l’esteve, [email protected] Alison Watson, [email protected] Advertising Sales Executive Simon rawle, [email protected] MarkEting Group Marketing Manager laura Driffield, laura.driffi[email protected] Marketing Executive richard Stephens, [email protected] CirCulation Head of Trade Marketing james Whitaker Trade Marketing Manager Daniel Foley, [email protected] Direct Marketing Executive Alex Moreton Print & ProduCtion Production Manager Mark Constance Production Controller Frances Twentyman Prepress Future PreMedia liCEnsing Senior Licensing & Syndication Manager regina erak, [email protected] Tel: +44(0)1225 732359 Fax: +44(0)1225 732275 if you would like to purchase the images featured in this publication, please visit www.futuremediastore.com or email [email protected] FuturE Publishing ltd Head Of Music rob last Group Art Director rodney Dive Creative Director robin Abbott Editorial Director jim Douglas Managing Director, Future UK nial Ferguson subsCriPtions For orders and enquiries phone our uK hotline on: 0844 848 2852 For international order and enquiries phone: +44 (0) 1604 251 045 Subscribe online at: www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk Next issue on sale 9 June 2014 Printed in the uK by William gibbons on behalf of Future. Distributed in the uK by Seymour Distribution ltd, 2 east Poultry Avenue, london, eC1A 9PT. Tel: 0207 429 4000

editor’s letter

Welcome…

Stop reading this! Before you get too comfortable, ask the person nearest to you to draw an electric guitar from memory. i’ll get to why in a bit. i’m listening to a playlist while i write this. it spans many genres, but there’s a common thread; all of the tracks were recorded using a Fender Stratocaster. it’s testament to leo’s design that 60 years after ‘they’ all said it would never catch on, the Strat is still here, and has played a part in every major musical subculture since. My playlist starts with Dick Dale’s machine-gun assault Misirlou (which you can learn from this issue’s riff of The Month video lesson). it continues with one of my favourite hendrix tunes – Castles Made Of Sand. it takes in The Police, Smashing Pumpkins, rage Against The Machine, nirvana, The Clash, john Mayer, Chic, Creedence Clearwater revival, eric Clapton, Biffy Clyro, Stevie ray Vaughan, iron Maiden… some of the bands on the list played guitars that weren’t made by Fender, but borrowed the Big S blueprint to help create classic albums; green Day’s Dookie, Weezer’s ‘Blue Album’ and Sublime’s selftitled long-player all have their roots in the Strat. Finally, check out that drawing; i’m guessing it’s an attempt at the Strat’s classic silhouette. Send it in and you could even win our hotshots competition next month!

The ABC combined print and digital circulation for jan-Dec 2012 is: A member of the Audited Bureau of Circulations

19,262 Print: 16,744 Digital: 2,488

Future is an award-winning international media group and leading digital business. We reach more than 58 million international consumers a month and create world-class content and advertising solutions for passionate consumers online, on tablet & smartphone and in print. Future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR). www.futureplc.com

Chief executive Zillah Byng-Maddick Non-executive chairman Peter Allen Chief Ànancial ofÀcer (Interim) Simon Poulton Tel +44 (0)207 042 4000 (London) Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244 (Bath)

© Future Publishing Limited 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. The registered office of Future Publishing Limited is at Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. All information contained in this magazine is for informational purposes only and is, to the best of our knowledge, correct at the time of going to press. Future Publishing Limited cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies that occur. Readers are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers direct with regard to pricing. All submissions to Total Guitar magazine are made on the basis of a licence to publish the submission in Total Guitar magazine, its associated websites and all world-wide licensed editions of the same. Any material submitted is sent at the owner’s risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future Publishing Limited nor its agents shall be liable for loss or damage. We encourage you to recycle this magazine, either through your usual household recyclable waste collection service or at a recycling site.

We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from well managed, certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. Future Publishing and its paper suppliers have been independently certified in accordance with the rules of the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council).

stuart Williams, editor

making this month’s mag: Chris Bird IN between immersing himself in Kirk hammett’s style and devising our lead speed guitar Workout, Chris has had his mitts on the baby of Blackstar’s iD:Core Stereo series, putting the tiny combo through its paces in a 90-second video once-over. Check out Tg’s review on p80.

miChael Brown YOU’LL read a lot about the Strat this issue, and with good reason: music wouldn’t be the same without it. We salute the great design with a look at Squier’s new golden wonder on p83, as well as another Strat-inspired axe, the eVh Stripe, on p84. here’s to the next 60 years!

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roB laing OUR features fiend has been snuffling for prog metal truffles and got Pin and Dan from the reunited Sikth to play a lesson together for the first time in years, before chatting about their pioneering band. he’s also written a Basics guide to collaborating with others on p22. june 2014

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contents

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First Look LTD james Hetfield Iron Cross SW   & Kirk Hammett KH-WZ White Zombie ��������������������� On The Road Sonisphere Festival preview ����������������� Riff Of The Month Dick Dale – Misirlou  ��������������������� Scale Of The Month Major scale ���������������������������������� Guitar Shop Ammo jazz �������������������������������������������������� In Praise Of Parker Fly ������������������������������������������������������� Splurge, Save, Steal Triple-humbucker guitars ������� Basics Collaborating ����������������������������������������������������������� WTF? / Bring The Noise!  ����������������������������������������������� Sound Advice Octa-fuzz phase ������������������������������������� In The Loop Modern acoustic ���������������������������������������� In The Studio Slash ������������������������������������������������������������ On The Up jared james nichols, H�e�A�T�,   Little Matador ������������������������������������������������������������������������

Albums This month’s best guitar releases ������������������ Five Minutes Alone Chris Stein ������������������������������������� Win! A Fender 60th Anniversary Strat ������������������������� Feedback  �������������������������������������������������������������������������������

008 010 012 014 016 018 020 022 024 026 028 029 030 032 034 036 038

Legends 045 strat We ceLebrate the 60th birthday oF Fender’s cLassic

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steaL their styLe: kirk hammett

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Gus G Ozzy’s faithful sidekick goes it alone ���������������� 040 COveR FeATURe: Strat Legends TG salutes the  finest exponents of Stratocaster playing����������������������� 045 Sikth Inside the uK metal innovators’ reunion ���������� 064 Kenny Wayne Shepherd Covering the greats ��������� 068 Steal Their Style Learn the licks and ape the   tone of Kirk Hammett – on budgets for all �������������������� 072

Fix your guitar

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in praise oF...

Cover: Laurens Van Houten / Frank White Photo Agency, Rex Features x 3, Joby Sessions Contents: Rob Monk, Joby Sessions

Features

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First Look

gear 080

bLackstar id:core stereo 10

Blackstar ID��Core Stereo 10 �����������������������������������������������

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Squier 60th Anniversary Classic Vibe   ’50s Stratocaster �������������������������������������������������������������������

083 084 086 087 088 090 091 092

eVH Stripe ������������������������������������������������������������������������������� PRS Se Zach Myers Signature������������������������������������������� Boss Me-80 ����������������������������������������������������������������������������

Round-up Rotosound pedals ������������������������������������������ Zoom G1Xon & Boss OD-1X  ���������������������������������������������

Accessories  �������������������������������������������������������������������������� Fix Your Guitar Replace Strat pots �������������������������������

techniques

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kenny Wayne shepherd

Guitar Workout Speed ����������������������������������������������������� Guest Lesson Alex Skolnick Pt 2 ������������������������������������ ear Training Perfect 4ths ������������������������������������������������� Get Your Grades! RGT������������������������������������������������������ Get Your Grades! Rockschool���������������������������������������� Tab Guide  �����������������������������������������������������������������������������

097 101 105 106 107 110

SubScribe now & get a gift

Subscribe to Total Guitar – save money and get a free pedal! p108

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first look…

Thrill ’em all Riffs at the ready for Hetfield and Hammett’s new sigs

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he ESP/LTD stand draws plenty of attention at NAMM, but this year two guitars necessitated the ‘do not touch’ signs more than any others: the LTD James HetÀeld Iron Cross SW and Kirk Hammett KH-WZ White Zombie. Jaymz’s latest LTD is a cut-price, Snow White re-imagining of 2009’s original Iron Cross, with racing stripes and the eponymous cross decorating the mahogany body, while a cross inlay appears at the 12th fret. Elsewhere, all the modern HetÀeld appointments are in place: 628mm (24.75-inch) scale, ebony Àngerboard and, most importantly, the EMG JH pickup set. Kirk’s model serves as a reminder of his horror-movie fandom. Artwork for 1932 Áick White Zombie adorns the body of his addition to the LTD Graphic Series, with matching headstock, plus spider inlays and a bat at the 12th fret. Hammett’s signature traits are all present and correct, including the EMG 60/81 pickup pairing, Floyd Rose vibrato and 24 frets. HetÀeld’s LTD is £1,179, while the ESP costs £4,999. Hammett’s axe appears only in LTD form, at £949. If you’re a Metallica fan, it’s a case of for whom the till tolls…

“Kirk’s model serves  as a reminder of his  horror-movie fandom.  Artwork for 1932   flick ‘White Zombie’  adorns the body”

Photography: Neil Godwin

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on the road…

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“Whyspendbig moneyonthesehuge Americanacts,then putthemonatthe sametime,andgive peopleadilemma?”

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on the road

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Sonisphere

Aftertwoyearsaway,Sonispherereturns–withlegends

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put them on at the same time, and give people a dilemma? And the acts love playing to the whole arena, too.” Away from those bigger hitters, such as Deftones, Alice In Chains, Mastodon, Dream Theater and Chas & Dave (no, they really are on the bill), TG has been casting its eye down the line-up and making a list of who we’d recommend making a beeline for. Australian modern progateers Karnivool, French metal titans Gojira, Finnish cockrockers Reckless Love and power trio LostAlone are always worth seeing, but we’re glad that indie-bluesers Band Of Skulls and folk hero Frank Turner are adding some genuine diversity to the main stage, too. Alan has his own recommendation for the Sunday. “Check out Beastmilk; they could be huge. They cross so many genres. Imagine Editors and Interpol mixed with Killing Joke and Danzig. Huge songs.” But for those on budgets that only allow for one big festival this summer (surely most of us), and 2012 still in the memory, are two big heavy-rock and metal festivals in the UK sustainable? “I think there is room,” says Alan. “Reading/Leeds Festival was a lot more ‘rock’ for a while, and competed with Download, for example. I think there will always be competition, and it keeps us all on our toes.”

The UK Sonisphere festival runs from 4 to 6 July 2014 at Knebworth Park. For tickets and for further info, visit www.sonisphere.co.uk

© John McMurtrie

hen Sonisphere 2012 was cancelled, it was an awkward festival moment. The proposed event, to be headlined by Queen with Adam Lambert, Kiss and Faith No More, had not captured hearts, minds or wallets, in a “very challenging year” for the organisers. Two years later, and it’s ready to return to Knebworth in July, with bravado and metal legends in tow. “After the high standards of our previous shows at Knebworth, we decided to only bring it back if we could create the best party yet,” explains organiser Alan Day. “We ended up with one of the best festival line-ups in rock music.” The headliners are hard to argue with. The Prodigy (Friday), Iron Maiden (Saturday) and Metallica (Sunday) have live reputations that precede them – even if there is the nagging feeling that they’re on an alternating timetable of appearance with Download. But Sonisphere has at least one trump card over its nearest rival, which is due to take place between 13 and 15 June at Donington Park. Clashes between stage times are a common complaint for many festival-goers, and Sonisphere avoids them completely on its two biggest, Apollo and Saturn, stages. Alan explains: “Lots of rock fans, including me, love to listen to Limp Bizkit as well as Slayer and Reel Big Fish. You can see that in the rock clubs, also. So why spend loads of big money on these huge American acts, and then

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riff of the month

sELECtA sHrEd design your dream guitar with Jackson’s Custom select service if yOu can’t find the off-the-shelf axe of your desires, check out Jackson’s Custom Select service, where you specify the features and the company builds to your spec. The service is available from your Jackson Custom Shop dealer, and prices start around £2,000. See www.jacksonguitars.com for the order sheet.

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© Getty

Dick Dale

 misirlou 0:00 

Guitars and backing: Jamie Hunt

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his month, we look at the  opening riff from Dick  Dale’s 1962 classic Misirlou.  Dale’s surf guitar version had a  resurge in popularity when it was  used as the opening music to the  1994 Quentin Tarantino  blockbuster Pulp Fiction. This song  is in standard tuning, so tune your  guitar to e A D G B e.  Dale launches straight into  ferocious 16th notes on the sixth  string. The main phrase builds its  Middle eastern flavour with the e  double harmonic major scale (e F  G# A B C D#). Dale emphasises  this exotic scalic lick by sliding and  hammering to the notes within  each phrase. The trickiest aspect  is maintaining pick attack for the  16th-note feel while dropping in  slides and hammer-ons. To keep  the phrases flowing, try to lift your  fretting fingers quickly after each  note ends. This will give your  melody some much-needed  separation and stop one note from  bleeding into the next.   june 2014

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goPro launches the Hero+3 black edition/music camera if yOu’rE looking for a new way to film your band, GoPro has the answer: the Hero+3 Black edition/ Music is designed with musicians in mind, and costs £359.99. It can record two hours of footage at 1080p/30 frames per second, and captures audio via an in-built or external mic. See www.gopro.com

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Dick Dale gets his attacking tone by using a single-coil pickup in the bridge position. If you have a humbucker, you can get a slightly thinner ‘single-coil’ sound by taking off some gain and bass from the amp. You’ll also need to pick closely to the bridge for added twang. Use a pick of 1mm or above to get the authentic power and consistency in the 16th-note lines. To complete the surf guitar sound, use a decent amount of reverb. ViDeO leSSONS all our Video lessons are online at totalguitar.co.uk/video. To see the video for this lesson, type www.bit.ly/tg254rotm into your browser.

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OrANgEs & AppLEs iK multimedia launches amplitube Orange app for iOs pLAyErs sEEkiNg Orange tone on the go will be pleased to see the release of ampliTube Orange on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, priced at £10.49. The app features six classic Orange models, including the OR50, Rockerverb and Tiny Terror, plus four effects and a built-in recorder. For further details, see the IK Multimedia website at www.ikmultimedia.com

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OF THE MONTH

in association with

Master the magnificent seven-note scale that’s the cornerstone of all musical harmony

Gre en- eye d Mon ste r

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he C major scale’s notes are C D E F G A B; the same as all the white keys on a piano and none of the black ones. The spacing of major-scale notes is: tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone: it’s the same sequence in any key. The scale has a

light, bright sound and is used in rock, pop and folk, to name but a few. Our licks, inspired by Van Morrison, Dave Grohl and Paul Simon, show a range of uses for the major scale, from rock rifÀng to cheerful doublestops and syncopated African grooves.

Tracks 09-10

This Van Morrison-style riff shows how you can use doublestops in the higher octave of the major scale shape. With the exception of the the last couple of diads in bar 4, each doublestop is a 3rd interval. The two notes are three scale notes apart.

Foo d FiGh t

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Paul siGh Man

Tracks 13-14

Guitars and backing: Charlie Griffiths

This riff covers the lower octave of the scale shape and uses the root note as a repeating ‘pedal tone’. Play the root note with your second finger and use one-finger-perfret to reach the other scale notes. Pick with downstrokes throughout.

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This syncopaTed African-style groove starts with an ascending C major triad (the notes are C, E and G) and then descends through the scale. Use alternate picking and try to synchronise your hands. Aim to keep both hands as relaxed as possible.

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TG helps you blag a new style

ammo

t h i s m o n t h…

Jazz

he archtop is essentially a steel-string acoustic Àtted with electric pickups. The classic shape features f-holes instead of a more conventional soundhole. Archtops such as the Gibson ES-175 are also near-essential if you fancy yourself as a jazz guitarist. Jazz isn’t easy to blag, but dial in a clean tone via the neck pickup with some treble rolled off. Keep lead playing minimal – focus on simple melodies, with chromatic notes added for tension.

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Many jazzers prefer  flatwound strings, as they  provide a warm, mellow tone  and decreased finger squeak.

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The C7#5 b9 is an ‘altered’ chord, so certain intervals (the #5th and b9th in this case) are sharp or flat. These chords form a ‘II-V-I’ progression that sounds great accompanying our lick.

Guitar: Charlie Griffiths

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key players: joe Pass, Wes Montgomery,  Barney Kessel, George Benson,  Pat Metheny, Charlie Christian key techniques: II-V-I progressions, altered  chords, diminished and  whole-tone licks

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What You Need To Know

Charlie Christian was the  Hendrix of the 1930s,  popularising the guitar as a solo  instrument as opposed to an  accompaniment role.

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Most jazz guitarists ditch  rock techniques such as  string bends and legato,  preferring to focus on note  choice with a clean tone. The Gibson eS-175  Jazz has been in production  since 1949, making it one of   the longest-running electric  guitars ever. eS stands for  ‘electric Spanish’.

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The II-V-I progression (ie, using chords built on the second, fifth and first notes of the major scale) is the most common jazz chord sequence. Our lead lick outlines the notes of these chords and adds passing notes from outside of the key signature (‘chromatic’ notes) for tension.

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in praise of…

Parker Fly We soar through the history of a guitar that was ahead of its time

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ith the Parker Fly, it’s not just the shape that’s radical. A pioneering collaboration between luthier Ken Parker and electronics expert Larry Fishman, it boasts a carbon/epoxy exoskeleton, which surrounds the wood core – with a strikingly minimalist headstock, it makes the Fly one light guitar. Upon its unveiling in 1993, it was the Àrst six-string to give players the ability to mix signals from magnetic and piezo pickups, offering an as-then unheard of wealth of tones. The Fly’s various models have encompassed just about every combination of woods, necks and vibrato/bridge units. Notable incarnations include the MIDI Fly, with built-in MIDI facilities to control remote synthesisers, and the nylon-strung Spanish Fly. The cut-price P Series gave less minted players a slice of Fly in 2005, while 2009’s DragonFly offered a more traditional look. Yet, despite Ànding its way into the hands of players as diverse as Adrian Belew, Joe Walsh and Matt Bellamy, the Fly continues to divide opinion – and that’s exactly what makes its design so timeless.

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1993

Ken Parker and Larry Fishman launch the Parker Fly

1999

Parker loads its flagship with extra tech and introduces the MIDI Fly

2005

The affordable P Series makes its debut, opening up the Fly to a wider range of players

2009

A redesigned and more traditional body appears on the DragonFly

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Photography: Joby Sessions

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Triple-humbucker guitars

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Need a triple dose of ’bucker power? Try these on…

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basics

Collaborating There are no longer any boundaries to making music with other people – try it!

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riting and recording music alone is immensely satisfying, but bringing other people’s creative ideas into the mix can often enhance both the experience and the end results. But sometimes, life gets in the way of intentions; our day jobs, the distances between us and the challenge of finding the right environment to write with others can all be obstacles in our way. But they can be overcome with our good old friend – technology. Things have moved a long, long way since John and Paul first sat down together with their acoustics for their first co-write (it was called Too Bad About Sorrows if you were wondering…). With ever-faster internet speeds available to more of us and new apps and great software being released every day, it’s now not a case of if you collaborate, but how. And even if you’re not into the idea of collaborative songwriting, working with other players is a great way to exchange ideas and get tuition advice from people you know.

With new apps and great software being released every day, it’s now not a case of if you collaborate, but how

The Five Rs Of Co-writing 1  reflect 

Give the other musician or musicians a recording of your song idea, and let them go away with it to reflect and try out different ideas; the time will pay dividends.

2  relax 

Find A FRiend

Before you go online with your intentions to collaborate with other musicians, think about what you’re looking for and what you’re offering. Do you want to focus on a particular style? Do you have ambitions to play gigs as well as writing? Have a look at websites such as Join My Band, Musolist, MusoFinder, BandMix, Gumtree and Forming Bands, where musicians will often be located by the closest city to where they’re based. Search or consider posting your own profile or advert to get started.

Have you hit a wall at a writing session? Sometimes it really helps to just play something you know together, have fun performing, and then go back to the writing again with a fresh creative attack.

3  record 

never, ever presume the other person you’re writing with will remember what you were working on last time. Record everything you do that is worth further development.

4  ride 

Your car is also your vocal booth. Are you a vocalist struggling to find the time to sing over instrumental ideas you’ve recorded or have been given? Play it in the car on a loop, and try singing ideas over it.

5  ration 

The greatest musical resource available in the digital age is still other musicians

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There are plenty of online directories packed with musos

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Throwing loads of different song ideas at someone to work on can allow them to pick, but it can also be overwhelming and defocusing for some people.

try these 

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meeT & JAm Looking for other musicians to play with in your area can be a daunting, even arduous task. But this website allows you to sign up and not just find other musicians nearby who are looking for collaborators, but also to book rehearsal studios to play in, and keep a profile page to organise your plans once you do have a musical partnership or band. eveRnOTe A great app for iOS and Android that allows you to store song ideas and share them with others. Record audio ideas on your phone, tablet or desktop with the app; write lyrics and share notes on the song with collaborators. Simply hitting the share button will email your idea, or you can also share notes via Twitter and Facebook. WHOleWORldBAnd This iOS app is all about getting musicians to create together in ‘a global recording studio’. upload your music idea (eg, a chord progression) as video with a note requesting what you need, then other musicians contribute and you can combine the results. There’s even a system in place for potential earnings from your creations.

Control tiny players living in your iPad – you are their king

Sound quality is a priority, but practicality and portability are vital, too. With it being USB, you won’t need an audio interface either.

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You can record sessions with a remote producer

Remote collaboration WRiTing Webcams are your friend. It might initially seem awkward using the likes of FaceTime, Google Hangouts and Skype for real-time voice and video communication, but for musicians, they’re the next best thing to jamming in the room when songwriting. Alter Bridge’s Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy have used Skype to continue working on songs for a new album while in different parts of the country. A decent webcam (see below) and high bandwidth speed are essential to prevent muffled and stuttery sessions while you try to pen your first hit. ReCORding in ReAl-Time It’s possible to track remotely in real-time using a plugin such as Steinberg VST Connect Pro software that works with its Cubase 7 (or higher) and Nuendo 6 DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation software) on PC or Mac. Everyone involved in the sessions will need Connect Pro. Then, via an access key, you’ll be able to work with a remote artist who you can see tracking their instrument via a video connection. Cubase also offers monitoring for the performer, and you can send and receive MIDI. You’ll need a minimum 256kbps upload speed on your connection.

Collaboration kit samson go mic clip-on UsB microphone £45.99

basics

logitech Webcam C920 Hd £89.99 You can find this for £60 online, and we like it because it seems efficient with CPU usage. With HD capability and Carl Zeiss optics, you won’t have to put up with a stuttering video stream.

Tascam dR-05 dictaphone £129 We’ve seen these available online for under £75, and for that price, they’re a great companion for capturing your co-written magic and practice sessions.

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Gobbler integrates with certain DAWs to transfer files

Alternatively, Source-Connect Source Elements is a high-quality audio streaming solution that isn’t so limited by the DAW you use. It enables real-time, broadcastquality connections between audio systems anywhere in the world. The downside is the price starts at $650 for the Standard version. Still, there’s a free 15-day trial…

WeB-BAsed COllABORATiOn How about everyone involved in a project uploading their parts, ideas and comments to a central ‘hub’ for demos in their own time? AudioCommon is an ambitious new venture founded by musicians Philip Cohen and Chris Dorsey. Users of the site create a project, then build their own teams and upload audio content they’ve recorded to cloud storage. They’re even offering real-time collaboration, too, but if you have a situation where musicians are in different time zones, the ability to work on projects when you want and add notes for others is a great benefit. File-sHARing If you want to take charge and get your collaborators to send you their recordings, the quickest way is via cloud-based services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer and Gobbler. The latter is actually aimed at musicians, and gives you 5GB for free on sign-up. You can integrate Gobbler into Pro Tools, Logic and Sonar for fast file management, and it will also scan your hard drive to back up chosen projects to the cloud storage. Useful. june 2014

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What the ∫

Theory for lazy b*sT*rds

T h i s M o n T h… T r i a d s

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riads are chords made up of three notes: most commonly a root note, a 3rd and a 5th. All major and minor guitar chords use this structure, and more complicated chords (7ths, 9ths, 11ths, etc) are a variation on the idea. Starting with the C major scale (C D E F G A B), you can build a triad from each note. The easiest one is C major, which uses C, E and G – a root note, plus the third and Àfth notes of the scale. D, F and A are the root, minor 3rd and 5th notes in a D minor chord. You can also build E minor, F major, G major, A minor and B diminished triads in the same way.

bring the noise!

Chord struCtures Major = root + major 3rd + 5th, eg, C = C e G Minor = root + minor 3rd + 5th, eg, dm = d F A diminished = root + minor 3rd + b5th, eg, Bdim = Bd F C major d minor d minor C major open chord triad open chord triad

this is one way of arranging the notes of a C chord as a triad.

Like most guitar chords, this C chord repeats some triad notes.

this d minor triad has the notes d, F and A from low to high.

the notes of d minor are in a different order, but it is still dm.

video lesson

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o is e

Coax crazy sounds from your axe

#81: GImme A Buzz!

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n these days of vibrating mobiles  and ringtones that play your  favourite songs, the simple sound  of a ringing telephone is becoming  rare. However, as a guitar effect, it is  definitely something to call home  about. Our technique uses an item  you’ve probably got lying around, or  even may be attached to your guitar  right now; a whammy bar. If you don’t  have one, a metal pen or screwdriver  will also do the trick. We’ll also be  using the guitar as a kind of  microphone, so use plenty of gain to  enhance the effect.

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Step 1 Place your guitar on your  lap and use your first finger  to play the 12th fret, first  string. Mute the other  strings with your remaining  fingers. Detach your  whammy bar and hold it  like a xylophone beater.  Drop the bar on to the first  string and let it bounce  back up.

Step 2 When the bar starts  bouncing, increase the  pressure slightly and you’ll  find the bar will bounce  repeatedly at high speed,  creating a buzzing sound.  In between buzzes,  decrease the pressure of  your fretting hand so that  all the strings are muted.  The idea is to have  absolute silence between  your ‘rings’.

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Step 3 When you feel that it’s  time to answer the phone,  place your mouth close to  the guitar pickup and  speak. The higher the  output of your pickups, the  more effective this will be,  but you can increase the  volume by dialling in plenty  of gain.

TraCK 16

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Get down and dirty with the octa-fuzz  step one  ValVe amp 

The base of this  kind of tone is   a valve amp, often vintage, with an almost  clean sound. If you don’t have one, select  your clean channel and make sure the  sound isn’t breaking up.

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 step two  fuzz 

Set the gain on your  fuzz pedal to about 7,  but turn it down if you start to lose clarity. If  your pedal has an onboard octaver, look at  step five now.

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 step three  phaser Depth/intensity  Most phasers have a depth or intensity dial  that controls the ‘wobble’, much like a  chorus or flanger pedal. Set this to 1 or 0   –  you’re looking to create a gentle, wide  sweep effect.

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Set the speed  very low. You  want a slow sweep that takes four bars to  complete. This means the first few notes  will sound as though the midrange on your  amp is boosted, while the last few notes will  sound very woolly.

sound Advice

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Set your octave  pedal to produce   a note one octave above the notes you are  playing. You don’t want the octave sound to  swamp the original notes, so set the mix to  around 50 per cent. Your pedal might have   a direct input dial, and if this is the case, set  it so you have an even mix between the  original note and the octave.

Combine dirty fuzz with an octave pedal and phaser for a modern blues-rock tone ctave/fuzz pedals produce a fuzzy sound and notes an octave (sometimes two octaves) above or below the original note. The term ‘octa-fuzz’ has been coined for the kind of distortion these pedals produce. The alternative is to use separate pedals; one for fuzz and another for the octave.

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This issue’s tone is the kind you’ll hear at the end of The Black Keys’ Tighten Up and Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze. We’ve used a fuzz distortion with separate octaver and phaser pedals, for more control over the settings – a great setup for an alt-blues/ rock vibe.

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effect. If you’re using a pedal that allows  you to choose the type of reverb, go for   a large hall effect.

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Octave-fuzz can be quite a messy tone, so watch out for unwanted noise from open strings. If you’re getting any feedback, lower the gain on your fuzz pedal. 2

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© Joshua Black Wilkins

Guitar: James Uings

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Modern Blues-Rock Finally, add   Sound Advice a generous amount of  reverb to produce the psychedelic echo  Contributor: James Uings sound that is the icing on the cake of this  Engraved by DigitalMusicArt.Com

 step six  reVerb 

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in the loop…

Modern acoustic Useyourloopertolayer acousticpartslikeNewton FaulknerandEdSheeran

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looper pedal is a popular addition to the modern solo acoustic guitar player’s arsenal; the ability to layer up parts makes learning difÀcult multi-voice solo pieces unnecessary, as you gradually stack up full arrangements using your pedal. Acoustic guitars sound great when you let open strings ring out, so it is good to use keys that include open strings: E minor, E major and G major are great options. This month, our arrangement is in E major and keeps the open Àrst and second strings ringing. We’ve started with some chords and added some textural elements, using octaves, melodic lines and harmonics.

LOOP 1: OPen vOicings

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LOOP 2: O c tav e L i n e

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Start with a simple progression, using open voicings such as these. Keep your strumming hand relaxed and loose.

This phrase uses octaves to reinforce the previous loop. Sliding to chord tones as the first and second strings ring out gives a rich texture.

No looper pedal? We’ve included audio files on your TGCD for you to import into a DAW, such as GarageBand

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Guitars and backing: Charlie Grifths

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This final loop uses pull-offs, slides and natural harmonics to give a sweet melody to the top end of the tune. Harmonics are a great way to give the acoustic guitar a ringing, bell-like sound. Although the melody is almost identical in both bars, the changing chords give a sense of movement. june 2014

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in the studio

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In the Studio

© Scott Uchida

Slash recorded the album in the Florida studio of producer Mike Baskette

Artist:

slash

Ready for a bit of Slash ‘in the raw’? Fans oF Slash will have to wait until September to hear his second solo album with Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators. Slash spoke to TG on the !nal day of recording at producer Mike Baskette’s Paint It Black Studios in Orlando, Florida: “We’ve got one backing vocal to do, and then we’re onto mixing.” So far, there’s no title, and a label is yet to be con!rmed. What is clear is this record will be classic Slash, and fans of his G’nR period will not be disappointed. This is partly down to the in#uence of Alter Bridge producer Baskette, who wanted to “push for a more classicsounding album”, and capture Slash’s sound without watering it down. “Mike was great… He was so enthusiastic about getting guitar sounds. He would put as much time into that as I could possibly put in – sometimes more so. It was really inspiring. I haven’t had that in a long, long time.” Slash brought his ‘Appetite’ Les Paul, along with his ’57 Goldtop and “a bunch of Marshalls”, which he used to track most of the album’s lead work. The cat

in the hat tours with another guitar player, but in the studio, it’s a oneguitarist gig. “That’s when we started using a lot of different guitars and amps, to have this marriage of left and right guitar sounds.” Among that arsenal of gear were two hollowbodies (a Gibson eS-175 and eS-135), an explorer, an SG 12-string, some Melody Makers and two Les Paul juniors. “Those hollowbodies, I have to admit, I used a lot. They just sound fucking phenomenal.” The inception of this album began in hotel rooms during the Apocalyptic Love tour, with Slash recording parts into his phone: “I picked out about 20 different ideas, then we went into pre-production in October and just started jamming.” Mates Studio, a favourite of Slash since his G’nR days, was home to rehearsals and the tracking of rhythm guitar, bass and drums. By April, they were ready to track vocals and guitar overdubs. With so much time on the road and in the studio under their belts, this line-up have truly gelled, with Slash’s bandmates starting to shine – and Slash is feeling the pressure. “At this point, everybody feels comfortable being themselves and doing what it is they do best. But having such a great rhythm section means I have to really fuckin’ put together some great guitar bits on top of it!” We expect nothing less…

The as-yet untitled new album from Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators will be released in September.

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Jared James Nichols

t h A e

Young bluesman who’s old at heart

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ll good bluesmen have a killer back story. 22-year-old Jared James Nichols grew up in the shadow of Wisconsin’s Alpine Valley amphitheatre – the site of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Ànal show and tragic helicopter crash – and seems to have channelled the area’s aura. “I used to sneak up there with my guitar,” he tells TG. “I remember when I was about 15 years old, I rode my bike up there and stood right on the big X in the middle of the stage for three hours and just riffed out.” His tribute seems to have pleased the blues gods, as Nichols has since developed into one hell of a promising torch-bearer – blending his beloved SRV, Paul Kossoff, and Alberts Collins and King, into an electrifying brand of his own. “My mum used to take me out to blues jams and say, ‘My son plays guitar, can he play with the band tonight?’ he recalls. “They’d all look at her funny, and I’d be scared to death, then sure enough they’d call me up and I’d play with them. One thing led to another and we started doing that three or four nights a week.” The chance to get onstage and jam from such an early age helped Nichols Ànd his burgeoning inner bluesman – and get a hold on the essential ‘feel’ that can prove so elusive to younger players. “I just dropped what I thought I was supposed to play and started doing what felt good,” he says. ‘What felt good’ was losing his guitar pick, and now – aside from his Les Paul Junior and Blackstar Series One – it’s that which has the biggest impact on his tone. “When I play with my Àngers, I can coax all of the different tones I want with just the volume and the tone knobs,” he explains. “If something goes wrong, it’s the guitar, the amp or me!” It’s a stripped-back approach to the instrument that’s in-tune with the blues ethos, so if you’re struggling with your playing, start listening to yourself…

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“The biggest thing that hinders most players is not Ànding their own voice,” summarises Nichols. “You have to see the greatness of that [past] music and then take it somewhere else.” The next time Jared plays Alpine Valley, we suspect he’ll be on the bill, but in the meantime, you can catch his UK shows at London’s Borderline and Ebbw Vale’s The Steelhouse on 5 and 6 June, respectively. For FAns oF: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Kenny Wayne Shepherd HeAr: Let You Go

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on the up

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H.E.A.T.

Sincere Swedes building a steam

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out incredible melodic solos with the aid of a trusty Mexican Strat (“I haven’t found a guitar that feels ‘more right’”) and an Avid/ Digidesign 11 Rack. “You still miss, and want to have, the wind in your pants from playing an amp,” he says. “But I’m no gear slut – as long as I feel good, I can play whatever.” Feeling good is the aim of the game. “We’ve all tried different genres,” says Eric. “But there’s something about playing melodic hard rock in front of an audience. I think it’s the most fun music to play in front of the crowd – it’s a party, you know!” H.E.A.T.’s new album, Tearing Down The Walls, is released on 14 April.

© Gustaf Sandholm Andersson

here is a part of everyone – whether indie hipster or black-metal devotee – that cannot resist indulging in a bitching AOR riff. Swedish rockers H.E.A.T. have decided that life is, frankly, too short not to do this all of the time. Formed in 2007 when two bands merged, the new group found a blueprint in the sound of local heroes Europe, alongside the likes of Toto and Journey, adding a harder edge. “My Àrst guitar hero was Slash,” explains guitarist Eric Rivers. “I started playing guitar because I saw the Sweet Child O’ Mine video. That guitar intro just got to me, it was almost religious – like, ‘What is that sound?’ From that moment, I wanted to play guitar.” Four albums later, Eric now mainly spends his days blasting

For FAns oF: Journey, Toto, Europe HeAr: Tearing Down The Walls

Little Matador

Grabbing the raging rock bull by the horns

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n The Up interviewees don’t usually have four platinum records under their belt, but that’s the case with Little Matador’s Nathan Connolly, aka ‘Nathan from Snow Patrol’. “I kind of woke up and said, ‘I need to make this record,’” explains Nathan. “You get complacent if you don’t challenge yourself, and I felt like that was what was happening to me.” Appropriately, the result is light years away from his main band, a far heavier rock ’n’ roll affair, more akin to Queens Of The Stone Age or latter-day Arctic Monkeys. “It’s getting back to my rock roots,” says Nathan. “Myself and Dave [Magee, lead guitar] were in a band before I joined Snow Patrol, and it felt like we had unÀnished business, so I wanted to get back to making the music that I’d started with.”

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In doing so, Nathan’s had to totally rethink his sizeable rig and repackage it for a less predictable club environment. “It’s a lot more stripped back,” he says. “I’m down to the bare minimum – I have just a Tele Custom, a Diamond Del Fuego combo and a few pedals.” The next challenge is a summer of festivals, including heavy spectacular Sonisphere – not necessarily Nathan’s Àrst port of call with his day job. “There might be a few raised eyebrows!” he admits. “But I really am thrilled that we’re getting invited, because it is a world that I listen to and, hopefully, people will judge it on its own merits.” For FAns oF: Arctic Monkeys, Queens Of The Stone Age HeAr: Stitch Yourself Up

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Albums California Breed

California Breed

on first glance, replacing joe  Bonamassa with the unknown  Andrew Watt (as Glenn Hughes  and jason Bonham have  effectively done here) seems  doomed for failure, but California  Breed eclipses anything Black  Country Communion mustered in  their short existence. The Way and  Chemical Rain pack bombastic,  swaggering Led Zep-meetsAudioslave riffs, Spit You Out is  straight-up good time rock ’n’ roll  and All Falls Down is a decent stab  at the token power-charged  ballad. Watt’s undoubted spark  has pulled these two seasoned  vets out of a rut, and proved that  there’s life after joBo. Rich Chamberlain download: The Way

Lonely The Brave nuno bettencourt:

the last album i bought…

muse the 2nd laW “I’ve always loved Muse. They have a lot of the influences that I’ve always loved, and big vocals. If there’s a band out there I would love to open up for, it would be Muse – that would be a great honour. I’m still vibing on Resistance as well, but from this album I love Panic Station and Follow Me. With Muse, it’s old school, where it’s not just singles… you put the record on and you love the whole thing out.”

the day’s WaR

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ome of the very best rock bands, that masses connect to with their hearts, seem to come from nowhere in the beginning, to transcend scenes and trends; communicating something deeper but universal. Their first few singles suggested the goodwill growing around this Cambridge five-piece was justified, and this debut album confirms LTB really are something special. In David Jakes, LTB have a vocalist who recalls the Eddie Vedder of Ten in the way he’s digging inside himself to project hope and sadness, with a remarkable voice and total conviction. The music matches the intent, too: Mark Trotter and Joel Mason build waves of punk-rock urgency and post-rock majesty, driving Islands and Kings Of The Mountain onwards, painting bleaker scenes with volume swells and grand arpeggiated overdrive in Dinosaurs and the stunning finale, Call Of Horses. Among these songs are more future anthems that deserve to win a lot of hearts – there are great things beginning here.

Rob laing download: The Blue, The Green

exCePtional

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Pixies

indie Cindy

after a 23-year absence of new  material, merely ‘good’ was never  going to be anywhere near good  enough to satisfy the frothy fangs  of Pixies fans. Yet there are vintage  Pixie-isms on the highlights  here, with the remaining members  proving they still own the sound  and dynamic they pioneered way  back. joey Santiago’s lead playing  may not stir up the waves of  mutilation he managed back in the  band’s prime, but the Moog guitar  feedback of Magdelena 318 and  Silver Snail’s ghostly delay trails are  just as compelling. A decent  return from a once-remarkable  band, and well worth a listen.   Bill Weaving download: What Goes Boom

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albums

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dvds 

Rival sons

Great western Valkyrie

the Black Keys turn Blue

killer Be killed

the zomBie horror PiCture show

ConsiderinG he’s a horror  film director offstage, it’s  surprising this is Zombie’s first  solo concert film. And it’s a  good ’un. 16 of his prime cuts  are captured at a Dallas show  from 2013, with probably even  more camera angles. From  opener Teenage Nosferatu Pussy   on, the show keeps momentum  because, beyond the theatrics,  Zombie’s band are built on  solid foundations. john 5 brings  chug, bite and immense tone to  Superbeast and White Zombie  stomper Thunder Kiss ‘65. It  sounds live, too, unlike some  other bands’ overly-tinkered  live releases we could name. david hands

Killer Be Killed

Rob Zombie

on their third album, classic  rock’s favourite offspring continue  the Free-meets-Led Zeppelin  template, and once again, guitarist  Scott Holiday cuts an extremely  formidable figure, with gnarly  octave fuzz fuelling the bulk of the  album’s riffs – and what riffs they  are. Black Keys-esque grooves  dominate opener Electric Man,  while the tasteful overdriven licks  of the album’s epic ballad Where I’ve Been change up the pace. With  huge, swaggering choruses and a  wealth of raw guitar tones, Great Western Valkyrie is an utterly  convincing rock album, and it’s  thoroughly deserving of the  ‘classic’ accolade. michael Brown download: Electric Man

after the glitzy, upbeat romp  of El Camino, it was a safe bet that  Dan Auerbach and Patrick  Carney’s next move would be to  swerve left. The new record’s  expansive opener, Weight Of Love,  sets the tone for the cinematic  sounds that follow as we take the  back seat for a hazy late-night  drive through 1970s Los Angeles,  stopping occasionally to sip  poolside cocktails overlooking the  shimmering city skyline. even with  his trademark heavy fuzz mostly  disengaged, Turn Blue is home to  some of Auerbach’s most  considered and inventive guitar  playing to date. Where will he take  us next?   Chris Vinnicombe download: 10 Lovers

suPerGrouPs are often  greater than the sum of their parts.  This venture from members of  Mastodon, The Dillinger escape  Plan and Soulfly is, in fact, more a  compilation of their parts, with  each song feeling like a collection  of ideas and segments recycled  from their day jobs, not helped by  three different singers wailing and  barking their way through  the multi-headed Snakes Of Jehovah and bouncy riffs of Face Down. Though disjointed, there’s  still plenty of excitement, from the  majestic heaviness of Curb Crusher  to the oppressive cacophony of  Fire To Your Flag.  adam Rees download: Wings Of Feather  And Wax

doWn

arch enemy

avatar

marty friedman

down keeP the menu simple  here, with a sound reared on  grass-fed beef riffs and BBQ’d to  perfection by Pepper Keenan and  new guitarist Bobby Landgraf  through their matching Orange  Thunderverbs. There are few  surprises on this second in a series  of ePs, and there’s nothing here to  truly rival the emotional power of  Stone The Crow or the electric  nihilism that made Down II: A Bustle In Your Hedgerow such a  chaotic listening experience. But if  you hanker for a bite-sized slider  of hot-rodded Sabbath and  southern outlaw metal, this is a  tasty, if not wholly satisfying, treat. Jonathan horsley download: We Knew Him Well

anyone ConCerned that   Angela Gossow stepping down as  front woman might have an  adverse impact on Arch enemy’s  future needn’t have worried. After  all, the ace in the hole is guitarist  Michael Amott, whose  scintillating riffs and gargantuan  melodies are what made Wages Of Sin and Doomsday Machine  indispensable. With The Agonist’s  Alissa White-Gluz a perfect fit for  Gossow’s shoes, War Eternal is  another classic, with the  monolithic title track and stringladen epics Time Is Black and  Avalanche sounding as distinctive  and vital as anything they’ve done.  adam Rees download: Time Is Black

not to be confused with that  film featuring blue alien cat people  in a Dances With Wolves scenario,  these Swedish metallers are five  albums into a career that has seen  them move from melodic death to  more versatile territory. Death Of Sound is dense tremolo riffing and  blastbeats; Vultures Fly and Get In Line march in with industrial  Rammsteinery. Then they go all  sinister ‘oompah metal’ on Puppet Show and even throw in a  theatrical cover of nirvana’s  Something In The Way. Thankfully,  the recurring meat-headed groove  riffs link the album’s elements  together pretty well. Rob laing download: Get In Line

friedman desCriBes his  latest, mainly instrumental, outing  as “the most intense writing and  playing I can do”. This, of course,  means that Inferno is a full-on  face-melting shred-fest. Inferno,  Meat Hook and Hyper Doom race  along, showcasing Marty’s  terrifying picking skills. Like many  solo guitarists of late, Marty has  invited his mates to the party:  Rodrigo y Gabriela collaborate on  Wicked Panacea; Horrors is  co-written with jason Becker; and  the wildchild himself, Alexi Laiho,  plays on Lycanthrope. If you like  your guitar playing shreddy, this is  all great news. Chris Bird download:  Inferno

down iV – Part ii

war eternal

hail the aPoCalyPse

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WorldMags.net would be the one I have now because I play a carbon Àbre XOX Audio Tool, and it’s completely impervious to temperature and humidity, so certainly on a desert island that would be the weapon of choice! I really love the thing, and it weighs four pounds. I was very attracted to how it looks, and it sounds and feels like a normal guitar. It has a lot to do with the weight: I’m getting old, I don’t want to stand there with a 10lb Les Paul in my hand!”

When Jimi took over… “By the time the Electric Ladyland album came out, Jimi Hendrix was fully implanted [as a guitar hero], and I listened to that over and over again – in all kinds of mental states. I saw him play at Woodstock. Nobody gets that he played right at the end, and he played after Sha Na Na – and everybody hated Sha Na Na – so everybody left and, by the time he went on, there were not a lot of people there!”

5 minutes alone

Chris Stein

Blondie’s elemental guitar force on his no-nonsense approach, seeing Hendrix at Woodstock, and why he won’t lay 100 grand on a Les Paul... I got my first real six string… “I was probably 11/12, and I was wandering around in Brooklyn in about 1961 and I heard electric guitar notes coming out of a gas station. I still remember the moment. It was very haunting – it sort of struck me, you know? After that, I got my Àrst guitar – a Harmony single-pickup,

double-cutaway kind of thing that my parents bought for me.”

Up on Easy Plateau… “I was never a very technical guitar player, I was always a very emotional guitar player, like BB King or something, as opposed to Yngwie! Improvement was an ongoing process. I would go for a few years and then I would sort of plateau, then it would lift up again. I’m impressed nowadays how quickly I can learn something and have it stay in my head with muscle memory, but I’ve been playing for 50 years, so I guess it just becomes what it is.”

Off the rails on a crazy train… “[I started out] before the days of guitar worship – that’s only been going on for the last 20 or 30 years at the most – so I think it’s fucking insane paying $100,000 for a guitar! Some of that shit is nuts. We were in the Fender factory, watching one of the guys make a replica of the Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar, and he’s breaking his neck making this thing and copying all of the cigarette burns, then the fucking guy [who buys it] is just going to put it in a case!” Just a castaway, an island lost at sea… “My desert island guitar

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One way or another… “My main advice is that enthusiasm is not enough. There’s a lot of work involved with what we do. You can’t just go on pure excitement and energy. You need it, it’s one of the components, but you have to be able to work. Repetition is another thing that’s hard for people, too. [On Parallel Lines, producer Mike] Chapman would have us repeat things over and over again, and repeating things 30 or 40 times and still keeping it fresh is difÀcult. That is a learned skill.”

© Redferns/Getty

“I was never a very technical player,  I was always an emotional guitar  player, like BB King or something”

Learning from the man… “I opened up for The Velvet Underground in 1967, when I was 17. I had a friend who was working for Andy [Warhol] and he just arrived in Brooklyn and said, ‘The opening act didn’t show up – will you guys do it?’ We had a little blues-rock band, so we went and played with them. That show was in a big echo-y building called The Gymnasium, and we were completely daunted by the echo. Then when The Velvets came on, they used the echo as part of their sound. They used the reverb of the room, and that was a big learning curve moment for me.”

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WIN!

WorldMags.netWo

rth

£994

A60thfender AnniversAry clAssic plAyer ’50s strAtocAster

your chAnce to bAg t! A celebrAtory strA It’s not

often that you find yourself complimenting the curves of a 60-year-old model, but the Stratocaster is the exception. The Big F’s finest is as relevant and good-looking today as it was in 1954, and to celebrate 60 years of the Strat, we’ve teamed up with the good people at Fender GBI to give away a 60th Anniversary Classic Player ‘50s Stratocaster. Finished in a luxurious Desert Sand gloss nitrocellulose lacquer, the 60th Anniversary Strat certainly looks the part, with a gold anodised aluminium pickguard, vintage-style locking tuners and two-point Synchronized vibrato, not to mention an engraved 60th Anniversary neckplate and headstock medallion. Add in a trio of Fender’s American Vintage single-coil Strat pickups, and you have a seriously desirable guitar that will have you celebrating in style. To be in with a chance of getting your hands on this golden beauty, simply answer the following question correctly:

Which of these guitar designers worked on the stratocaster? a Freddie tavares b ted McCarty c George Beauchamp To enter, head to www.futurecomps.co.uk/tg254fender

T&Cs: The competition is open to UK entrants only. Under-18s must obtain parental consent to enter this competition, and be able to demonstrate this to Total Guitar’s reasonable satisfaction. Answers must be received between 03/05/2014 and 08/06/2014. The winners will be selected at random from all correct entries received between the relevant dates and will be sent the prize free of charge. Each winner will be notified within 28 days of the closing date and will be required to give details of a delivery address in the UK to which the prize should be sent. By entering this competition, you consent to us using your personal details to send you information about products and services of Future and Fender which may be of interest to you. For full terms and conditions, please go to www.futurenet.com/futureonline/competitionrules.asp

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Feed ack [email protected]

  letter

sta r P r i z E !

WOrT h

£75

TC Electronic PolyTune tuner no more tuning one string at a time – the PolyTune lets  you tune all six strings at once! www.tcelectronic.com

letters

emails

pics

etc…

duE a bluEs?

We live in an age today where every tab is at our  fingertips (via the tinterweb), but think back to  guys like Son House and Robert Johnson.   I can’t imagine Robert sitting for hours watching  boring YouTube channels, watching some fella  in his attic trying to sweep pick… but this brings  me on to just learning by ear and practice. If you  want to be a serious musician, and you want to  be taken seriously, then give it a go. 

Getty Images

Jonathan henry, Bradford Fair point, Jonathan. There are plenty of blues legends featured in this issue. Also, look out for some more extensive blues content later this year.

Son House and the blues pioneers managed fine without YouTube

EastEr Ed

The easter holiday is finally here,  which means no school for two  whole weeks! How did I spend this  time? Stuffing my face with  chocolate? Of course not! I dug  out all my TG magazines from the  attic and cut out every ed’s Shed  column I could find. After shoving  them all into an old French folder  from school, I can proudly present  The Bible Of Bodge. everything that  could possibly go wrong with a  guitar and how to rectify it in one  easy-to-reach place! I think it’s  safe to say that if any of the guys  at school need a quick fix on their 

axe, I’m the man for the job.  Cheers for all the help. ben bryan, via email

Horsing around

Hello Total Guitar, loving the horse  noises in issue 253. It reminds me  of how, when I was a kid, my old  man would make chicken noises  on his Telecaster and walk funny  around the living room. He also  used to make the doorbell chime  sound to trick my mum; he’d play  it, and you’d hear mum shouting:  “I’ll get it,” and we’d be giggling.  Thanks for giving me back these  happy memories from some  simple little horse noises. oWen sturGess, via email

P o d ’ s l aw

Dear TG boffins, digital amp  modelling and effects pedals  seem to be on the rise more than  ever. With so many outstanding  units available, one has to ask,  what is the best way to hear the 

facebook.com/totalguitar “You’ve only got four  fingers! I’ve enough trouble  mastering six strings –   I can’t imagine seven” Mike Greer, Facebook 38

  June 2014

twitter.com/totalguitar “Great [nirvana] feature;  made me check eBay to see  how many Jag-Stangs are  for sale!” rnday, Twitter

“Id like my fingers broken so  they could regrow and be  more supple, lol!” robert Wilson, Facebook

output from these units?   I currently use a Line 6 POD  HD500X, going straight into   a Line 6 Spider 212. Through  headphones, the POD sounds  blistering! However, through the  amp (with the amp on a clean  setting), the sounds are lacklustre  and just missing… something! Forums around the world  squabble over the best way of  outputting the sound from digital  modellers: active monitors,  speakers, bass amplifiers,  keyboard amplifiers, PA systems  all get a mention. So, my question  is, which will best replicate the  sound I am hearing through my  headphones? Please help! chris Vernon, via email What you’re experiencing, Chris, is the sound of your POD’s cabinet modelling going into another amp model (your Spider’s clean channel) – try disabling the cab modelling on your POD, or running the unit into the effects return/power amp in, if your amp has an effects loop.

hot shots

“Up on the rooooooof!”

ThiS Mark richards mOnTh’S WinnEr Shropshire

Send us your pics and win an Orange amp worth £193! email your shots to us with your full  name and address. The best wins an  Orange Crush PiX CR35LDX amp.

www.orangeamps.com

youtube.com/totalguitar “Cracking interview with   @chrisymas and   @Maxmeatsix in TG. now   I feel a 335 is on the menu.” alex Garland, Twitter

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#Speak up… Don’t be shy

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interview

gus g

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G-Force

The Ozzy Osbourne/Firewind supremo has shocked everyone with I Am The Fire – a classic-rocking solo album that showcases his most soulful playing yet. TG checks in as Gus goes it alone… Words Matthew Parker Photography Rob Monk

G

reek guitar hero Gus G is a man who likes to surprise his audience. First, he left a string of great positions to blaze his own trail with power-metal outÀt Firewind; then, in the ultimate heavy-metal fairytale, he was handpicked for greatness, joining Ozzy Osbourne’s band. Now, his latest left-turn is a solo album, I Am The Fire, that shirks the usual self-indulgent shred instrumentals for anthemic classic-rock riffs and bluesy solos. Gus sat down with TG to talk about the new record, his Àve years with Ozzy, and his love of risk-taking… Why record a solo album? And why record one now? “It was a combination of situations. First, I had some rock ideas that didn’t match what I was doing in Firewind; plus, I wanted to work with Mats Levén [Firewind’s interim live singer in 2011], because I always loved his vocals. I began writing with Mats and around the same time, Firewind’s singer, Apollo, quit the band, so we decided that Firewind should take a break, and that gave me the opportunity to continue writing. I didn’t know it was going to be a solo album; it was just for fun, because I love classic rock, hard rock and blues rock.” It’s surprising how classic rock and song-based I Am The Fire is, rather than the usual ‘shred-instrumental’ solo album… “There are two of the most technical instrumentals I’ve ever written [Vengeance and TerriÀed]. But I realised very early that I wasn’t going to do an instrumental album. To me, that’s kind of boring: who the fuck cares

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today if a guitar player does 12 instrumentals? I grew up on early Scorpions, UFO, Zeppelin, Purple – all of that stuff, so I was writing these songs, and it was just what I was in the mood for doing. I didn’t tell anybody I was doing it – I didn’t even tell my label!” There are some great guest spots on the record. You’ve even got Steel Panther’s Michael Starr doing a serious song! “I know. That’s a big step for Michael! It’s the Àrst song in his career that he doesn’t talk about licking pussy or getting his dick sucked! I’m glad he did that. He’s one of the best rock singers in the world. “A lot of those people came in through Jay Ruston, who mixed the album. I started writing with Mats, then I sent a song [Summer Days] to Jeff Scott Soto [ex-Journey] and I thought, ‘Wow, this is cool’. So that gave me the idea to do a Slash-type of album, where you bring other people into the mix.” What were your go-to guitars? “I had everything I needed with my signature guitars, to be honest. I used all of my favourite ESP Custom Shop guitars. My Eclipse EC Rock Art [pictured] was one of them. I also used another Eclipse that I have, which was a factory mistake. They put the wrong woods on there, so it’s like 10 times heavier, because it’s mahogany and it’s got an ebony fretboard. Then two or three of my favourite Random Stars – [primarily] the red one with the STBC Áame top. Then I play Lâg Tramontane acoustic guitars, and they also built me a 12-string, and that thing sounds like a

diamond! You play it, and it’s almost like keyboards. It’s beautiful.” What amps were you using? “I used my signature [Blackstar] BlackÀre 200 and I also used another Blackstar HT Stage 100, which I combined with a Marshall JCM2000 for a lot of the rhythms. I quadruple my rhythm guitars, so I’ll get two guitars to sound brighter, and two that are a bit thicker and have more mid-range. Then I did all of the leads with the BlackÀre. It’s a high-gain monster, but you can get a lot of tones out of it if you roll down the volume.” What are you most proud of in terms of your playing on the album? “I’m proud of the lead work on the song Dreamkeeper. That was my attempt to be ‘Gary Moore meets Mark KnopÁer’. I heard that melody in my sleep. Usually, I hear stuff in my sleep and wake up and think, ‘What the fuck is this crap!?’ But with that song, I woke up one morning and just ran straight to my home studio, so I wouldn’t forget it. As a melody, I think it’s one of the strongest I’ve ever written. There’s a lot of soulful playing on there. I was going through some hard times, personally, so I think it was a cathartic experience.” Do you think this album will appeal to Ozzy fans? “I think it would be great if they give it a chance to check out that side of me, because it’s very close to what the boss is doing. A lot of those riffs actually, they could be on an Ozzy album. Look at a song like Eyes Wide Open – that is a very Ozzy-inÁuenced type of thing.”

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gus g

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Do you feel as though you’ve made the Ozzy role your own now? “Joining Ozzy was the biggest challenge of my life. Before 2009, a lot of people told me ‘You’re a modern guitar hero… blah, blah…’ but I never saw myself like that. I still don’t, really. But after that, I thought, ‘You kind of have to be that guy.’ Because that gig is serious business. The guys that were there before you: their names are Jake E Lee, Randy Rhoads and Zakk Wylde. That was stressful at the beginning, but I thought, ‘Well, I always thought I was a good guitar player, so now’s my chance to really prove that.’ “Now I’ve been in the band for Àve years, but it’s not like I wake up in the morning and go down to the fucking mirror and go: ‘You’re the dude!’ The way that I look at it is, ‘I know I’m going to go down in history as Ozzy’s worst guitar player, but at least I was one of them!’ That’s the joke that goes around in my head!” Ozzy’s busy with Black Sabbath, currently. Is this solo album a way to shore up your future in the face of that uncertainty? “No. I always say that gigs like that, you can’t take them for granted. This is stuff that’s beyond my power. He’s the boss, and he’s a solo artist and you have to remember that. Just like I’m a solo artist now – I understand that I might need somebody else at certain points, and I understand what he’s doing there. My role is to make him shine. Like I said, I’m a member of Ozzy Osbourne’s band and as long as he feels like jamming… I’d love to do another album with him. I’ve got tons of riffs for him!” You’ve been stockpiling riffs for Ozzy? “Of course! I haven’t counted them, but my hard drive back home is full of ideas. I’ve probably written another 15 [potential] songs for Ozzy. I’ve sent him stuff from time to time, but it all depends on Black Sabbath and what they decide to do. I mean, they just won a Grammy! They’re doing alright for themselves, you know?” Do you feel that releasing this solo album is the biggest risk you’ve taken in a while? “Yes. But I like to take risks in life. It was a risk leaving Arch Enemy at the peak of their [popularity], and I left that because I wanted to do my own thing. Then the next big challenge was, ‘Ozzy’s asked you in – can you take that kind of pressure?’ And I worked my way through that. And now this, I don’t know if anybody’s going to give a shit, I don’t know who’s going to show up to the gigs, and I really don’t know if I’m going to sell any records, but I made an album that I’m very proud of – I know that!” 42

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G-SpotS Five moments that made the man

1  

GettinG his first real six-strinG – 1989 “number one would be picking  up the guitar, because of   Peter Frampton. I was nine  years old and my dad gave   me my first guitar.”

“the day i joined Ozzy changed my life… it made me a better musician”

2 

MeetinG fredrik nordströM – 1999 “Going to Sweden and starting  a band with Fredrik nordström,  Dream evil, really opened  doors for me, and was a big  learning experience.”

3 

focusinG on firewind – 2005 “I was on the road with Arch  enemy and that inspired me,   to see those guys and how  professional they were.   I was like, ‘That’s what   I need to do…’“

4 

JoininG ozzy osbourne  – 2009 “It was the kind of  shit you don’t even  dream about. But it  just felt right at the  audition, and that day  changed my life forever.  not only the exposure   and the fame – it made   me become a much   better musician.”

5 

recordinG I Am The FIre – 2014 “The final key moment  would be my solo album.  That’s been about   stepping it up and  standing on my own  – I’m just going my  own way here, and  trying it out.”

Gus used his eye-catching ESP EC Rock Art signature model on the album

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t a r t s

s d n e g e l iece p r e t s and r’s ma e e t d u l n a e F we s , 0 6 As Leo s t turn u c the e f l o b s u e o u d hniq c e t e h t study e the d a m who s r From e . y s a u pl o r fam e t s a dc y o o l t F a r o t S ang t w t l i o -c oin us single j , d e r d sh e p p i u eq the e t a r b cele as we said y e h t guitar ever n d l u wo n… catch o

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WorldMags.net We have Buddy to thank for The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Hank Marvin

Buddy Holly B

The leader of the Strat pack; the hero of our heroes uddy was taken far too soon, at the age of just 22 in an air crash on 3 February, 1959, immortalised by Don Henley as “the day the music died” in his 1971 song American Pie. In that time, Buddy had created a rock ’n’ roll blueprint of two guitars, bass and drums that would inspire Lennon, McCartney, Dylan and The Stones. He would do more to popularise the Stratocaster in the decade of its inception than any other artist. An accomplished guitarist, aside from his songwriting genius, Buddy brought a hybrid of rhythm and lead to fledgling rock ’n’ roll at a time when

single-note guitar breaks had been popularised by the likes of Scotty Moore. Though Fender had launched the Stratocaster three years previously, the appearance by Holly’s band The Crickets playing Peggy Sue and That’ll Be The Day on the Ed Sullivan Show on 1 December, 1957 thrust the guitar into the spotlight. Buddy (born Charles Hard Holley) bought his Strat on 23 April, 1955 with money he loaned from his brother Larry, at Adair Music in Lubbock, Texas. He would own four more Strats (two were stolen on tour) before his death.

Essential Strat Tone: Peggy Sue

“The misirlou sound is a sTraTocasTer” Dick Dale wrote one of the most memorable guitar riffs in movie history – Misirlou

The silver surfer with the red-hot riffs In the early 60s, he’d been a pioneer of surf-guitar, and while souped-up Fender amps and reverb played a part, Dale insisted the Strat was the cornerstone of his brittle, tremolo-picked tone. “The sound is a Stratocaster guitar,” he once noted. “It’s the solidity of the wood. The thicker the wood, the bigger and purer the sound. It was a Strat. not the jaguar, not the jazzmaster.” The surf scene wiped out, and Dale looked washed-up, but in 1994, he was at the heart of the most electrifying movie credits sequence of the age. “Any of you fucking pricks move and I’ll execute every motherfucking last one of you!” screeches Honey Bunny at the start of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction – and so begins the warp-speed, staccato-note thrill-ride of Dale’s Misirlou. The Strat had never sounded more sleazy, seedy or downright dangerous. Essential Strat Tone: Misirlou

Redferns Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer 46

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strat legends

Jimi Hendrix

Waving the Strat-spangled banner

© Laurens Van Houten / Frank White Photo Agency

J

ames Marshall Hendrix is famous for many things – and he had a Strat slung around his shoulders for most of ’em. Left-handed guitars were even harder to come by in Jimi’s 60s heyday, so he flipped his Strats over and restrung them back-to-front. This approach helped to shape his tone – the slanted bridge pickup gave more treble to his lower strings and a darker tonality to the high strings, while his tendency to jam his guitar’s three-way pickup selector in between pickups was partly responsible for Fender introducing the five-way pickup selector. Singling out Hendrix’s Strat

highlights is an unenviable task, but the graceful dexterity of Little Wing and outlandish aggression of Voodoo Child (Slight Return) are up there, for sheer control and tonal majesty alone. Yet it’s impossible to ignore the iconic moments: the rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock, each time teeth met string, and that guitar-burning incident at Monterey. To quote Hendrix, “I decided to destroy my guitar at the end of a song as a sacrifice. You sacrifice things you love. I love my guitar.” Essential Strat Tone: Little Wing

Jimi Hendrix partial cHords

track 23

JImI oFten used the ‘in-between’ pickup selection to augment his rhythm ideas. In typical Jimi style, our riff outlines a major chord by using lots of other related notes. It creates a rich weaving sound that’s much more sophisticated than playing straight chords.

Jimi Hendrix waH/dist lead

track 24

JImI wouLd often use the middle pickup for both lead and rhythm, and a wah pedal is the icing on the cake. Our example showcases Jimi’s minor pentatonic lead playing. Notice the C# and F# notes taken from outside the E minor pentatonic scale to add colour.

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“i’ve been playing guiTar wiTh fire my whole life”

Knocking the spots off other bluesmen When Guy hit the Chicago circuit in 1957, he was the wildest Strat cat in town, opening shows by bursting through the front doors playing guitar on a 100-foot lead, and ripping out feral solos that terrified his Chess Records paymasters. “I’ve been playing guitar with fire my whole life,” he says. Essential Strat Tone: Justifyin’

ThE In-bETwEEnErS From its launch in 1954, the Stratocaster was fitted with a three-way pickup selector switch, offering a choice of using each pickup on its own. Soon after, many players started to realise that by carefully positioning the switch between each setting, the Strat would produce two extra sounds. These ‘in-between’ settings would produce a thinner, quacky sound, and guitarists would often use

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matchsticks or toothpicks to hold the switch just-so. It took 23 years, but in 1977 Fender finally resolved to fitting the five-way switch that is now standard, appeasing tonehounds, and putting a dent in the toothpick industry. And, in case you are wondering, the position switches start at the bridge pickup (1) and follow up to the neck pickup (5).

3 2

5 4

Modern Strats feature five-way pickup switching, but this wasn’t always the case

Hank marvin

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The British invasion

Cliff’s gift to Hank Marvin of a Fiesta Red Strat was a gift to modern British guitar music

Hank marvin melodic lick

there were perks to being the sideman of teenybopper king Cliff Richard in 1959 – not least the chance to secure one of the first Strats on British soil. “Cliff wanted to buy me a good guitar, and we decided the Fender was the way to go,” recalls Marvin of his Fiesta Red model. “It came in a tweed case with red plush lining, and this magnificentlooking thing was just lying inside. It was like something from space, really, it was so futuristic in its design.” By the following year, Marvin had secured his place in the Strat pantheon with The Shadows’ hit instrumental Apache, which combined an economical twanged melody with expert wobbles of the revolutionary tremolo unit to create a vibe somewhere between surf-guitar and spaghetti western. A half-century later, that original Strat is insured for a cool £500,000 – but to the British guitar scene, it’s priceless. Essential Strat Tone: Apache

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thIS exAmpLe is in the style of early electric guitar pioneer Hank Marvin. Hank combined a glassy bridge pickup tone with subtle use of the vibrato bar, but picked the notes near the neck pickup to create his signature sound. Tape-style echo will bring things to life. 48

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WorldMags.net “george’s sTraT goT a psychedelic george Harrison makeover”

Here comes the sun(burst)

john are playing their Fenders in unison. Harrison’s Strat – neckplate dated December 1961 – would get a psychedelic makeover and become known as ‘Rocky’.Post-Beatles, George chose a white Strat for the 1971 Concert For Bangladesh that some have speculated was assembled from the same haul of parts that yielded eric Clapton’s Blackie. Essential Strat Tone: Nowhere Man

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FeBruAry 1965 saw Beatles roadie Mal evans purchase Strats at George Harrison and john Lennon’s behest. Although Harrison recalled this as during the Rubber Soul sessions, The Beatles were recording Help! at the time, as proven by photos of Lennon at Abbey Road with one of the Sonic Blue pair evans bought. Nowhere Man is probably the most overt example of a Strat on a Beatles recording: George and

eric clapton

Eric wasn’t always a Strat man… By the end of the 1960s, 24-year-old eric was already a guitar hero, having played with The Yardbirds, john Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Cream. His guitars of choice had been Fender jazzmasters and Telecasters, Gibson Les Pauls, eS-335s and SGs. However, once he unleashed the opening riff of Layla in 1970 – played on a 1956 sunburst Strat called ‘Brownie’ – Clapton and the Stratocaster were inextricably linked. ‘Brownie’ saw action during eric’s early 70s blues-rock heyday; his other celebrated Strat, ‘Blackie’, fashioned by Clapton out of three ’56 and ’57 model Strats, was his main guitar from 1973 until 1985. Since eric’s return to his blues roots in the late 80s, his Strat tones have come from Fender’s eC signature models. The noiseless pickups and mid-boost circuit are the key to eric’s sound of the last 25 years. Essential Strat Tone: /Cocaine

clapton’s ‘woman’ tone

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erIc BegAn his love affair with the Strat in 1970 on the Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs album. His ’Woman’ tone was originally performed on Gibson guitars with humbuckers, but you can replicate it by using a Strat neck pickup with the tone rolled off and the midrange on your amp boosted. 50

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nile rodgers The Hitmaker behind the Hitmaker

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oth the man and his instrument are known by one name: the Hitmaker. And there’s a damn good reason for that. In addition to penning disco floor-fillers with Chic (see Le Freak and Good Times), N-Rodg has worked his funky magic with David Bowie, Madonna and Diana Ross, as well as popping up on Daft Punk’s 2013 smash Get Lucky. Aside from his deft touch and supreme hit-seeking senses, the one common factor is Nile’s Hitmaker Strat, recently dissected by Fender’s Custom Shop bods to create the new Tribute ‘Hitmaker’ Stratocaster. Nile has described his original Strat as “the one guitar I can’t live without,” which makes perfect sense considering the one-of-a-kind traits uncovered

during Fender’s inspection. “I picked up this Strat and it wound up being the most unique instrument that I’ve ever touched,” Nile explains. “Even though I thought that it was a ’59, it was only a ’59 neck; it was a ’60 body, so it was shielded. My guitar weighs nothing compared to a regular Strat. Had I known any of this stuff, I would have said, ‘No, it’s not a regular Strat, I don’t want that’. But that is what makes it so amazing, because if you listen to my guitar compared to any other Strat, they don’t sound the same.” Essential Strat Tone: Good Times

nile rodgers rHytHm

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the AmAzIng rhythm work of Chic’s guitarist and producer Nile Rodgers is living proof that the Strat’s neck pickup is great for funk. Use a relaxed, but well-timed, picking motion and target your pick over the neck pickup. A clean sound with stereo reverb will add sparkle. 52

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strat legends

ritcHie Blackmore The pioneer of Neoclassical shred, inspired to pick up a Strat by Jimi

Weston-super-Mare’s most famous son was a relatively late convert to the Strat

weSton-Super-mAre’S only bona fide guitar hero, Blackmore did marvellous things with a Strat while blazing a trail through Deep Purple and Rainbow. And that included smashing the beejesus out of them. neoclassical shred, and the very existence of Yngwie Malmsteen in the guitar world, owe a heavy debt to Blackmore’s hands, but his allegiance to the model that he’s become synonymous with took a while. up until Child In Time, from the classic 1970 Purple album In

“we sTood There moTionless, salivaTing”

Rock, Blackmore had used his ‘61 eS-335 to cut every solo in the studio. But after he saw Hendrix live, he went on the Strat attack with the larger headstock 70s models – often literally: smashing them at the end of shows. But one of his favourites, the 1974 Sunburst model he used in one of his finest performances – in Munich with Rainbow in 1977 – at least lasted until 1980, when its headstock was broken off onstage. Essential Strat Tone: Black Knight

Jeff Beck and the Fender Stratocaster – love at first, lingering schoolboy sight

Jeff Beck Redferns REX/Andre Csillag NEIL ZLOZOWER/ATLASICONS.COM

Exploring parts that other Strat players can’t reach thAt cAn’t be a standard Strat. Those can’t be human hands. He cannot be of this earth. Such thoughts strike you when you see jeff Beck in full flight. For the 69-year-old, the Strat isn’t just an electric guitar, but a magic wand that has captivated him from childhood. “We stood there motionless, salivating, for at least five minutes,” he recalls of his first schoolboy sighting in the window of jennings Musical Instruments on Charing Cross Road. “We were completely freaked out.”

Of course, every player on this list has dragged the Stratocaster into bold new territories. But when this pickless, peerless master achieves lift-off on his long-running signature model, the instrument has never sounded more like Heaven, as with a tickle of the whammy, a swell of the volume pot and a perfectly weighted bend, he creates an ethereal swoon like the orgasmic moan of a humpback whale. Essential Strat Tone: Where Were You

Jeff Beck scoops and doops

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JeFF Beck got heavily into Strats in the early 70s. Our lick is perhaps more akin to Jeff’s 80s style, employing fingerstyle and deft use of the whammy bar to ‘scoop’ in and ‘doop’ out of notes. Ideally, use a guitar with a two-point floating vibrato or a locking system to help with tuning.

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WorldMags.net Mystery surrounds the origins of David Gilmour’s #001 Stratocaster

Know Your nEcK! c-shape The all-rounder. Fender uses its C-shaped profile on many guitars, as it offers a familiar, medium depth and is comfortable for rhythm and lead playing. The modern C-shape offers a shallower, flatter profile, making it the perfect partner for a wider fretboard radius and big string bends.

u-shape This palm-filler is Fender’s equivalent to the ‘baseball bat’-style neck. It’s thicker than a C-shape with a tighter curve, and Fender reckons it suits players who keep their thumb anchored in the back of the neck while playing. Not you? Read on.

david gilmour

Redferns

The number one Strat fan

A mAn known not just for what he does with his Strats, but the stories behind them, too. especially the pièce de résistance of his guitar collection: the #0001 Stratocaster. understandably with a number like that, there’s great interest surrounding the guitar’s origins – though it is unlikely to be the first production Strat. It could have been a special presentation model made for an employee when they left Fender. Gilmour purchased the guitar from his long-time tech Phil Taylor in around 1977, though it took some

understandable arm-twisting. ”eventually, Phil wanted to borrow some money to buy a house, so I blackmailed him!” David explained. “I said the only way I’d lend him the money to buy the house, was if he sold me the white Strat…” Guitarist’s David Mead examined the guitar in 1986 and suggested it could well be a genuine 1954 model, and it’s great that it’s still being played by the man himself, rather than a museum piece. just like Gilmour’s far more modded mainstay, late 60s ‘Black Strat’ (neck now replaced) and his 1983 ’57 red reissue. “There’s something in the thinness and particular range a Strat has that makes it a Strat,” he says of their unique appeal. Leo would be proud. essential Strat tone: Comfortably Numb

gilmour clean lead

V-shape The V-shape is perhaps the most divisive of the Big F’s profiles. Its vintage vibe means that fans of 50s Strats swear by it. It creates a pronounced hump in your palm (that’s what she said), allowing your thumb to comfortably fret notes over the top.

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dAvId gILmour is famous for coaxing silky tones from his black 70s maple-necked Strat. We’ve used a compressor to bring out the sustain, particularly on the string bends. Add a long delay or a big reverb for authenticity. 54

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Stevie Ray vaughan A Strat, a Stetson and soul

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he Strat is sometimes cast as the pedestrian choice of the ageing blues superstar. Tell that to SRV. Coming up on the hard-as-nails Texan circuit, the man in the Stetson went to war on his models, stringing them with heavy 0.013-0.058s and attacking bends and vibrato with such ferocity that he often had to pause sets to superglue the splits in his fingernails. “I like a lot of different kinds of guitars,” he notes, “but for what I do, it seems a Stratocaster is the most versatile. I can pretty much get any sound out of it.” By 1983, Texas Flood had made SRV a star, and for the remainder of his career, he would rely on two much-loved models that crowds craned their necks for. The ’65, known as Lenny, has the sweetest story, named in honour of SRV’s wife after she blagged the funds to secure it for him. But for gearheads, it’s the Number One hybrid that’s the real treasure, comprising a ’62 body, ’61 V-neck, ’59 pickups and left-handed tremolo. Tragically, SRV himself never became an ageing blues superstar – he was killed in a helicopter crash in 1990 – but his 60 Years of the Strat soul-in-fingers Strat work still inspires and his Fender signatureGuitar modelTechniques continues to shift. Hats off. Contributor: Jon Bishop Essential Strat Tone: Pride And Joy Engraved by DigitalMusicArt.Com

SRV lead lick

SRV waS fond of the neck pickup sound, and this lick is reminiscent of the way he sometimes navigated a turnaround section. We’ve employed a typical SRV trick of introducing the odd chromatic note (such as F and B b in bar 1), which adds colour to a minor pentatonic lick. 56

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Persuasive Strat tones

Robert Cray unusually opts to have his Strats fitted with hardtail bridges for stability

While the rest of the world got  busy butchering their Strats with  humbuckers and Floyd Roses,  Robert Cray lead the charge for  clean, bluesy Stratocaster sounds  in the 80s. His funky rhythm style  and smooth leads on hits such as  Right Next Door, Still Around and  Smoking Gun from his breakthrough  album Strong Persuader cemented his  place in blues history. He currently  has  two 60s-inspired signature Fender  Strats, both with hardtails. Chorus     pedal not included. Essential Strat Tone: Because Of Me

Yngwie’s Strats have been mercifully obscuring the front of his trousers for decades…

strat legends

bonnie Raitt

The queen of bottleneck She bought it for “$120 at three in the morning  in 1969”, and Raitt’s hybrid ‘Brownie’ Strat has  been key to her weeping slide magic at every  show since. Testament to her talent is that  she’s the first woman to be offered a signature  Strat – even if she initially sent Fender packing  (“I don’t really want to hawk products”). Essential Strat Tone: Gnawin’ On It

g n i y a l p s a w “even if i it would air guitar rat!” be with a st

yngwie MalMSteen

The forceful Strat virtuoso

ThE nEoclaSSical shred merchant is as  synonymous with the Strat as he is groingrabbing leather trousers. It was 1984’s Rising Force that brought Yngwie and his 1972 ‘The  Duck’ Strat to the forefront of shred-dom,  owing to his Paganini-influenced playing and  supreme harmonic minor chops. The speedy  fretwork was partly down to The Duck’s  scalloped fretboard, which came about after   a chance encounter with a 17th century lute: “I was 12 or 13 years old, and I was apprenticing  in a luthier shop. I saw a lute that had a  scalloped neck, and I was fascinated,” Yngwie  recalls. “I took a cheapo, piece-of-crap guitar  – one of those things you buy from a catalogue  – and I made my first scalloped-neck model.   It came out great.” nowadays, Yngwie’s more likely to be found  wielding one of his signature Fender axes, but  there’s still only one model for him. “There’s  nothing else. A Strat is the guitar for me,” he  enthuses. “even if I was playing air guitar, it  would be with a Strat!” Essential Strat Tone: Rising Force

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WorldMags.net Tremolo (or, how leo goT iT wrong) Despite not playing the guitar himself, it took Leo Fender just under half a decade to design two all-time classic guitars. Which is why we’ll forgive him for creating the biggest misnomer in guitar history at the same time. The incorrect use of the word ‘tremolo’ was applied to the Strat’s vibrato unit – an array of

springs and metal based on technology Leo borrowed from his kitchen scales. Originally expecting it to be used for creating shimmering Hawaiian guitar, Leo mistook volume fluctuations (tremolo) for fluttering pitch changes (vibrato). The principle is simple; the bridge pivots on a fulcrum, balanced by the tension

of the strings and retaining springs in the back of the guitar. When you depress the bar, you drop the pitch and the springs help to guide them back to their original pitch as you release the pressure. We’re sticklers for giving it its true technical name in these pages, but even we’ll admit – ‘trem’ sounds cooler than ‘vib’.

ose h t e g d e e v i “you g ll ’ e h d n a s l o to ” s e c a l p u o y take

MaRk knopfleR

Knopfler’s clawhammer fingerstyle makes his Stratplaying hugely expressive

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The sultan of strings

ThRough hiS playing with Dire Straits, solo  material and soundtrack work, the Knopf has  made his own mark on the world of guitar – and  though he’s wielded the odd Tele and Les Paul  over the years, it’s the Strat with which he  made his name on rock staples Sultans Of Swing, So Far Away and Walk Of Life. Hank  Marvin was the inspiration behind Mark’s own  red Strat – and luckily for us, Knopfler got hold  of his ’61 just in time to record the Straits’ debut  album in 1978. Part of what makes Mark’s Strat  sound so distinctive is his fingerstyle approach  to the instrument, as well as his heavy use of  volume pedals to further control his dynamics.  It all adds up to a hugely expressive approach  to phrasing, further emphasised by the Strat’s  trademark glassy tone. Essential Strat Tone: Sultans Of Swing

knopfleR fingeRStyle lead

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ThiS lick is reminiscent of Mark Knopfler’s lead work on many early Dire Straits tracks. The most authentic results will come from using a fingerstyle approach, as Mark does. Mark generally picks with his thumb on every eighth note in licks such as this. 58

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WorldMags.net Dave MuRRay

strat legends

TiMe aT THe BaR… cREaTiVE whammy baR TEchniquES

Maid-on a Strat The Maiden mainstay’s most famous Strat,  that he used on the band’s first five albums,  was actually owned by a guitar hero before  him; the ’57 was late Free legend Paul Kossoff’s  (see it when it was white on a Top Of The Pops  performance of My Brother Jake), and Dave  purchased it in 1976 after it had been     refinished in black. He later had a pair of  DiMarzio  Super Distortions retrofitted.  Essential Strat Tone: Run To The Hills

The Strat may not have been the first guitar to come equipped with a vibrato arm (Bigsbys were available in the 40s), but it is arguably the most iconic. although some Strat players prefer their bridge ‘decked’ (set flat against the body), we recommend getting your vibrato system set up with a little movement so you can try out a few creative whammy bar techniques.

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Divebomb and reverse divebomb

To perform a divebomb, simply play a chord and dip the bar so the strings go slack, giving an explosion-like sound effect. a reverse divebomb means starting from slack and gradually raising the bar to give a sense of growing and getting bigger.

the eDge

Where the Strats have no name

FoR a playER who takes an eye-watering  number of drool-worthy stage guitars and  back-ups across the globe on every massive  u2 tour, it’s perhaps surprising that David  evans, aka The edge, is associated with the  Strat to any significant degree. His ’76  Gibson explorer and ’75 Les Paul have  played their part on classic songs, but his  ’73 black Strat is still the biggie; it’s the  Where The Streets Have No Name guitar.  And, unlike the others, he still tours with the  original; it’s used for set staples Bad and  I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For live,  too. “The maple neck on this guitar is so  bright,” notes edge’s long-time trusted tech  Dallas Schoo. “This guitar through the  AC30, with an old analog delay – that’s a  magical combination. You give edge those  tools and he’ll take you places with them.” Essential Strat Tone: Where The Streets Have No Name

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whammy bar melody

Here, we’ve used the vibrato to play a melody. Our Strat’s setup allows us to pull the bar upwards to raise the pitch by a tone, but this isn’t necessarily the limit. On The Attitude Song, Steve Vai plays a two-tone shift using a Floyd Rose vibrato.

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Scooping into chords

©XBob Leafe / Frank White Photo Agency

This is an atmospheric idea that uses the vibrato to ‘scoop’ into a chord. Simply dip the bar a touch as you strum. Make the most of the technique by raking your pick across the strings and adding gentle bar vibrato as the chord rings out.

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Rhythmic pulsing

This is a textural rhythm effect, played by gently tapping either the bridge or the bar itself. For our example, we’ve played a straight eighth-note pulse on a chord, but you could experiment with your own different rhythmic ideas.

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John fRuSCiante

He can’t stop playing Strats…

D

uring his tenure as Red Hot Chili Peppers axeman, Frusciante became a contemporary Strat icon thanks to a rich vocabulary of Hendrixinspired chordal embellishments and fiery solos. But while John’s first contributions can be heard on 1989’s Mother’s Milk, it wasn’t until Blood Sugar Sex Magik that his signature clean, compressed lines made their mark, most notably on riffy funkathon Give It Away and addiction ballad Under The Bridge. Although funk was no longer the Chilis’ primary concern following Frusciante’s return in 1998, there are still plenty of stand-out Strat moments later on in the band’s career, from Scar Tissue’s sparse hybrid-picked intro to the snappy riffs of Can’t Stop and the Jimi-channelling solo in Dani California – John’s recent solo work, such as 2009’s The Empyrean, has its fair share of psychedelic Strat attacks, too. Frusciante is famed for his collection of endlessly desirable guitars, but none

more so than his ’casters – John’s favourite is an original ’62 Sunburst, but he also owns ’55 Sunburst and ’61 Fiesta Red models, fitted with Seymour Duncan SSL-1 pickups. We’re not jealous, honest. Essential Strat Tone: Under The Bridge

fRuSciante funk/Rock Riff

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FoRmER Chili Peppers funk-rock master John Frusciante is often pictured playing a beaten-up old Sunburst 60s Strat. Our example is a funky little ditty, reminiscent of some of his earlier work with the band. a clean, punchy Fender amp tone will bring the lick to life. 60

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billy CoRgan

Although most famous for his Arm  The Homeless mongrel axe,  Morello also rocked the hell out  of his ‘Soul Power’ Strat during  Audioslave’s seven-year career.  A stock FSR Strat, modified with a  Floyd Rose and killswitch, the  Soul Power fuelled a wealth of  ’slave riff-fests, including  monster singles Cochise, Like A Stone and Your Time Has Come. Essential Strat Tone: Cochise

The 90s saw a new slew of guitar heroes  emerge from the uS, but only one was loyal to  the Strat. “It was never a choice of, like, yeah,   I want to play a Stratocaster,” Corgan said in an  interview with Fender. “I just got one, and  when I played it, it suddenly brought alive  what I was looking for in music.” The versatility  of Corgan’s back catalogue is a testament to  the Strat’s own adaptability, and in 2008 he  was awarded his own signature guitar,  modelled after his first Strat – a 1973 model.    Essential Strat Tone: Cherub Rock

Killswitching in the name

StRat legendS

The infinite Strat-ness

“it brought alive what i was looking for”

John MayeR

© Frank White REX/Ian Dickson

In your Strat-mosphere

John Mayer’s had even more drool-worthy Strats than he’s had A-list romances…

wiTh chopS evoking the spirit  of Hendrix and SRV and boutique  tone to match, john Mayer is a  true modern guitar hero, and he  achieved it all with the help of the  Fender Stratocaster. john has a large collection of  Strats, including his Sunburst SRV  signature model, the iconic  battered ‘Black 1’, and a host of  jimi-inspired guitars.  “I have a prototype 1979  Hendrix Tribute Strat: white with a  reverse headstock, with a contour  on the front, and a prototype  Hendrix Monterey Strat that [San  Francisco artist] Pamelina painted  in 1997. I’m a big fan of prototypes!  I have a ’68 Strat, black, big 

John MayeR lick

headstock, classic Band Of  Gypsys, and I have a ’69 Olympic  White Strat with maple cap neck,  which is the Woodstock Strat.”  Then there’s his own signature  model, of course. The john Mayer  Stratocaster has some unique  features – string trees placed  towards the end of the headstock  to allow for more leverage when  bending behind the nut, a thick  C-shaped neck, and perhaps most  crucially, john’s ‘Big Dipper’  pickups. These have a scooped  midrange, further accenting john’s  Fender-ish tone when pumped  through his Two-Rock and  Dumble tone machines. Essential Strat Tone: Vultures

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John mayER is an exciting Strat player from the SRV school, so the neck pickup is featured regularly in his playing. This lick is all about hitting the strings hard with your pick and making sure your string muting is good. Dial in a clean sound with plenty of headroom.

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WorldMags.net ke a m o t y r t i “ ike l d n u o s t a r my st g” n i t p u r e o n a volca

kenny wayne ShepheRD The spirit of ’61

One of the key bluesmen of the  post-SRV period, Kenny Wayne is  a Strat man through and through,  like his idol. A prodigious talent, he  found his holy grail guitar at the  age of 16 when he and his father  visited Los Angeles and spied the  ’61 Sunburst Strat he fell for. Kenny  returned a year later to buy it and  it’s barely left his side since.  Essential Strat Tone: King’s Highway

alex tuRneR Pluck it and see

“wE’RE aRcTic Monkeys… Don’t believe the hype.” These are  the words Alex Turner spoke in  the live video for I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor. Within  weeks, Turner, his band and his  fittingly Arctic White Standard  Strat had rocketed to the top of  the charts, clocking up the 

fastest-selling debut album in uK  history. Often preferring 50s-style  maple necks using the bridge  pickup, Alex and his Strat tones  have reinvigorated the spiky  sound of indie-rock guitars,  incorporating punk, 50s-inspired  twang and surf, even drop-tuned  riffing. These days, Alex tends to  flit between Fender Broncos, Les  Pauls and various Gretches, but it  all started with the Strat! Essential Strat Tone: Fake Tales Of San Francisco

SiMon neil

Simon Neil uses an array of pedals to make his Strat sound absolutely massive

iF iT felt as if the Tele had been  lording it over its younger brother  in the 2000s, that’s probably  because the Strat seemed to have  fallen out of favour with modern  indie bands. except, that is, one of  the biggest British breakthroughs  of the last 20 years. Biffy Clyro’s  Simon neil even goes as far as  reviving Hank Marvin’s Fiesta Red  finish on his Strats, which create  the massive tones that have made  Biffy such a live force. “You need   a big loud guitar sound to make   a Strat sound full and heavy,” he 

SiMon neil’S dRop-tuned angulaR Riffing

says, “as it’s naturally very bright  and undistorted, bright and jangly.  I run it through my pedals of doom  and try to make it sound like a  volcano erupting! I love the shape  of a Strat, too, I feel so comfortable  with it.” Fittingly, and not just  because it was priced within reach  of the young fans he is inspiring,  Simon was awarded with his own  Squier signature model in 2010.   “My very first guitar was a Squier,  : so it’s come full circle,” he tells us. Essential Strat Tone: Get Fucked Stud

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Simon nEil has used his Strat to produce Biffy Clyro’s signature aggressive down-tuned riffing style. There’s an angular feel to our riff, thanks to onbeat rests and offbeat notes, so timing is crucial. One-finger powerchords are a key part of the Biffy sound. 62

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© Katy Winn/Corbis Joby Sessions Getty Images

The Captain of modern Strat-rockers

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interview

sikth

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Revenge of The SikTh

The most inventive metal band in Britain are reunited. We dissect what makes Sikth tick with Dan Weller and Pin

“w

Words: Rob Laing Photography: Joby Sessions

ow… this is the Àrst time we’ve been in a room together with our guitars in something like seven years,” reveals Dan Weller as he takes his treasured PRS from its case for our photoshoot. It’s a reunion TG is happy to host for the Sikth guitarist and his bandmate, Graham ‘Pin’ Pinney. When the London six-piece split in 2008 after nearly a decade and two pioneering albums, they joined an elite group of inÁuential metal bands that left us before their talents were properly recognised. We’ve seen Carcass and At The Gates reunite, now the most distinctive heavy British band in decades are regrouping to grab the success they deserve – starting with a comeback show on 14 June, headlining the Red Bull stage at the Download festival, Donington. The band’s founders are two schoolfriends whose Sikth sense together lies at the band’s core. Dan Weller is the right-hand man – the riffer with a degree from the HetÀeldian Academy and a producer’s vision. Meanwhile, Pin survived on a diet of lead inÁuences in his teenage years. The sound they would create with virtuoso drummer Dan ‘Loord’ Foord, bassist James Leach and dynamic vocal duo Mikee Goodman and Justin Hill is hard to categorise even now; wild but melodic, technical but tasteful… an unconventional

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melting pot brimming with creativity, one that’s frequently cited as a key inÁuence on the current generation of tech metal. Why did it feel like the timing was right for the Sikth reunion now? Dan: “There was excitement for playing the songs again. We’ve all stayed mates, and it was never an acrimonious split. There was no reason not to. But as you get older you’ve got lives to lead, you’ve got rent, mortgages or whatever, so you’ve got to make sure you can do it well. It’s not a case of meeting up for two weeks, playing a gig and then going. It’s months of leading up to it, learning how to play the songs again and making sure when we do the shows they’re really good. It’s quite a commitment, time-wise. This year felt right.” How do you feel the progressive metal scene has grown since Sikth parted ways Àrst time around? Pin: “It’s kind of gone full circle again. You’ve got inÀnite amounts of talented musicians, who are writing music that requires a skill. Because I think for a certain period of time things had simpliÀed, probably because through the shred times it had got overdone.

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video

w w w.bit .l tg 2 5 4 si k th y/ th ri ff s

Sikth’s two albums, The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait For Something Wild (top) and Death Of A Dead Day

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sikth

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Now, it’s sort of ramped itself back up. There’s also the technological aspect; everyone has their Axe-Fx or Kemper.” Was that feeling about the metal scene lacking creativity a factor that inspired Sikth to form, initially? Dan: “Yes…” Pin: “See, I don’t think we went that way. The roots of it really were that Dan really does the downpicking rhythm side, while I’d grown up with Vai and shredders. It was almost before we even thought about what’s going on in metal, we thought, ‘Well, you’re doing this tapping thing on a solo, why can’t you use it to make a riff?’. Almost melding things together that were out of place. That inspired it to be instantly different-sounding. Then we also got interested in time signatures and rhythms.” Dan: “We also loved death metal – Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse and Cryptopsy. But that style of music, it was shoehorned the way it was projected. The themes, the kind of look and the evilness of it all… and we thought ‘why does it have to go hand in hand?’ Why can’t it be progressive but tasteful, and not have to stand there singing about raping virgins and stuff? We were really into Pantera and Sepultura, too. I think we did have a bit of a masterplan. We thought ‘there’s deÀnitely a style here that is not getting played’. Bands like Dillinger [Escape Plan] had just started, and

video

“we just wanted to write really technical music that was really easy to follow” there was Botch, a few of the Relapse records bands… there was more progressive stuff. And, obviously, Meshuggah. But we had our own take on it, we wanted to just write really technical music that was really easy to follow.” Pin: “Although the structures are not straightforward, there’s still a context – to keep songs a major focus. So, although it could be progressive, you’ve got those choruses, the big parts and the melodies that hold it together. That’s probably the different thing, because there’s always been music that’s been more widdly, more crazy. But has it been contained in a way that still presents itself as a song?” Dan: “In a tasteful way. There’s a line between

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w w w.bit .l tg 2 5 4 si k th y/ g u ita r

showing off and doing something correctly for the song. A lot of technical bands feel maybe they miss the line. Most people who listen to music don’t give a fuck how hard it is to play, they want to enjoy it.” How democratic was Sikth in terms of songwriting? Pin: “Everyone had their input at different times and in different places. The democracy happened, but usually after a dictatorial battle between everybody to get their inclusion and say. It was Àne; the results are the main thing.” Dan: “I think [second album] Death Of A Dead Day is a good example of the practical side of

our writing. It sounds a bit nerdy, but we had a load of riffs and we collated them into piles of similar tempos. Dan Loord would know his optimum tempos for, say, doing triplets with his feet. Based on that, he’d know he was comfortable so would suggest using that as a tempo to start things off. Then Pin might have a riff, I might have a riff that’s roughly in that tempo. So let’s shoehorn that into that pile and before we knew it we’d Ànd ways of making riffs work together. You’d Ànd ways to steal a part from this riff, steal a part from that riff. Stitch them together, then before you knew it you had an organic selection of riffs that were all written in different places.”

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sikth

interview

Sikth Bastards The new school of techmetal salute the pioneers

Sikth are back to write the next chapter in their progressive metal story

Were you guilty of trying to shoehorn guitar techniques into songs? Pin: “I think we have very much done that, it was part of the creative process. Because we were always thinking of what else you can do with a guitar. That was a thing, but it wasn’t for the sake of it, it was the base of it.” Dan: “Applying it was the important thing. If we’re going to do that, make sure it’s functional for the song. In fact, Summer Rain is the perfect example, because I wanted to have a song that had tapping, slapping, sweeping in. Not because we could say to our nerdy mates, ‘Hey, this song’s got tapping’, but because it would be fucking cool, and it would look cool onstage when you’ve got these hands moving everywhere. Ironically, we only played it live once [laughs].” There are a couple of slower, more melodic moments on that second album. Was that a natural move? Dan: “I’m just a bit more of a cheesemeister, so I used to write cheesy rock riffs. Peep Show is the same, it’s just my cheesy rock riffs on the Àrst album. It’s not that anybody didn’t like them, but they were slightly shoehorned onto albums that sounded completely different.” Pin: “But at the same time, without those songs, the albums wouldn’t have as much. I’ve always felt it’s got the right variety.” Dan: “We never consciously tried to be more melodic. Even the more extreme songs are full of melody. Me and Pin are very in tune melodically, and we’ve always liked trying to keep up with the song [pace] and then just having these beautiful, almost orchestral moments. Like the beginning of Scent Of The Obscene we wrote together, and I still think it’s one of the best things we ever wrote. It was just intuitive, we didn’t know chords or theory, we were just hearing where the melody should

go. I was tapping the part, Pin was making up chords. We were just bodging it together.” Pin: “I’m pretty sure the concept of that part was, ‘it’s going to be in Àves, and it’s not going to repeat much at all’. That was it.” Dan: “That was the brief! In fact, I remember because we were endorsed through Peavey through [much of] Sikth they gave us some Wolfgang guitars. My dad worked near Corby, near the Peavey factory. So he picked up two Wolfgang guitars. I lived with my parents and Pin lived very close. So my dad brought these two Wolfgangs back, and because it was so inspiring to play a new guitar, we sat down and wrote Scent Of The Obscene on those guitars. And we didn’t have any amps, we were plugged into my dad’s hi-À. We had a quarter-inch jack split, so we both had a guitar lead going into a mono jack on my dad’s hi-À, all distorted and fuzzy. We recorded it and then we went to Dan Foord’s house and we showed them it, they jammed over it and James put the rolling bassline in.” Now that you’re back, do you sense that the Sikth fanbase has grown while you’ve been away? Pin: “It is there, but when we were Ànishing we were on the cusp of it growing anyway. Periphery had started up by that stage, and there was this sense of things widening up with technical music. Naturally, some bands have namedropped us as an inÁuence, and people have started listening to us that way.” Dan: “It keeps your name in there without having to shout about it yourself. Plus, we were there before MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. We were kind of the last dribs of when the music industry was still functioning in its traditional way. Everyone thinks we’re this old-school band, which is kind of cool.”

Sikth headline the Red Bull stage at Download Festival on 14 June. See www.downloadfestival.co.uk for more.

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Paul Ortiz Chimp Spanner “There hasn’t been  anything that comes  close to touching  [debut] The Trees... or  DOADD, they’re   a masterclass in the  style. Their music has always served as   a reminder that I can always push it   a little further; be a bit more melodic, or   a bit wilder. Kind of an antidote to my  tendency to be reserved, haha.” tOSin aBaSi animals as leaders “When I did the first  Animals As Leaders  album, I was listening  to Death Of A Dead Day every day. It was  the perfect  progressive metal album. It got proggy  enough, but it always stayed heavy and  had vocals that were amazing; melodic  vocals as well as the scream stuff.” JameS mOnteith tesseract “I remember first  seeing Sikth well over  a decade ago and  being amazed,  confused and  inspired! I’d never  heard such rhythmic intricacy, and they  opened up whole new music  possibilities for me. The ‘tech’ element  wasn’t just about the talent of the  individual players, like the shredders of  the 80s, it was about using advanced  techniques to create a whole new sound  as a band.” aarOn marShall intervals ”Sikth are one of  those bands that just  create complex, yet  digestible music with  ease and with  something for everyone. So, now that  I’m done buttering the bread, let’s just  say Intervals will sell organs (not just  Hammonds) on the black market for  a chance to tour with them!” 

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interview

kenny wayne shepherd

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Kenny’s Heroes

Forget the snoozeville stereotype of the blues covers album. Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s Goin’ Home ram-raids and rocket-fuels the genre’s greatest guitar moments – and the man himself gave TG the inside scoop… Words: Henry Yates Portrait: Mark Seliger

N

o project rings alarm bells quite like the blues covers album. Say the words aloud and they awaken images of a creatively dead pub band, sleepwalking through an autopilot photocopy of Stormy Monday with drool running down their chins. Well, scratch that stereotype, because Louisiana blues ace Kenny Wayne Shepherd has just released Goin’ Home: a covers album that raises the sunken treasures of the genre’s dead galacticos and douses them with rocket fuel. “I didn’t want to make an album of songs that had been covered a million times,” he tells TG. “I wanted to dig deeper into people’s catalogues, Ànd cool songs, turn the listeners on…”

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kenny wayne shepherd

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interview

Muddy WaterS

I Love The Life I Live

Kenny sees Muddy Waters’ soloing style as monumentally influential

Freddie KiNg

Photography: Richard E. Aaron/Getty Images, Kevin Nixon, Tom Copi/Getty Images, Joe Giron/Corbis

Palace Of The King They called him the Texas Cannonball, and to witness Freddie King ripping into his Gibson ES-345 with a metal banjo pick felt like being hit by one. No pressure, Kenny… “The minute you hear Freddie King, you identify that it’s him. He played what he felt compelled to play, with Àre, passion and intensity, straight from the heart. Most people would think of instrumentals like Hide Away, but I didn’t want to do that. Palace Of The King has a great groove and high energy – but there’s a lot of guitar parts! There’s the main guitar, the secondary rhythm guitar, the Àlls, and you have a guitar solo as well. So the challenge was to recreate all that in a live environment. We didn’t do it note-for-note. I tried to pay homage, and maintain the intensity and spirit, but I would always venture off into my own Kenny Wayne Shepherd territory.”

The Mud ruled 50s Chicago, lit the fuse of the British blues boom and mobilised thousands of pimply fanboys, from Eric Clapton to Keith Richards. Don’t overlook his chops, says Kenny… “People may not put Muddy in the same category as SRV or Hendrix, but he had an impact. He’s more remembered for his slide playing, and he had one solo that he would play almost every song, and just do slight variations. But if you listen to the players that have come since, so many guys learnt that solo and incorporated it into tens of thousands of songs. There are so many other Muddy songs that people name Àrst, and this one is a little obscure, but it has this great shufÁe. Joe Walsh plays the Àrst solo, and then the solo at the end, and he absolutely brought it to the table. I really just played guitar the way that I wanted to.” BB King, the king of the blues – still alive and picking at 88 years old

Stevie ray vaughaN

The House Is A Rockin’ Reigniting the sickly blues scene with 1983’s Texas Flood, SRV went on a Strat-Áaying hot streak that was cruelly cut short by a helicopter crash in 1990. For Kenny, he’s both a touchstone and a touchy subject… “His playing was an unconscious stream of soul coming outta the instrument. At Àrst, I wasn’t going to do an SRV song, because there are people that I refer to as the haters, that always want to slam me for my SRV inÁuence. But my drummer, Chris Layton, said to me in the studio, ‘How can you do an album of songs by your biggest inÁuences and not do SRV?’ People immediately think of Pride And Joy, but The House Is A Rockin’ is a fun song, and we needed another up-tempo one to strike a balance. I took a few liberties, like, I start off playing the original solo, then do my own thing, then wrap it up the way Stevie ended his solo. But we didn’t change it too drastically, because the original was pretty much perfect.” It wouldn’t have been a KWS covers record without an SRV song…

The Texas Cannonball captured in typically furious soloing style

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BB KiNg

You Done Lost Your Good Thing

BB stands out among Kenny’s heroes on two counts. Firstly, he’s not dead (88 and going strong). Just as importantly, his ES-355 lead vibe is less about Àreworks and more about minimalist, vibrato-drenched perfection. “They don’t call him the king of the blues for nothing. BB King can play a lot more than just ‘one note’, but he’s one of the Àrst guys who opened people’s eyes that it’s not about how many notes you can play, but the right notes, right time, right feel. That’s something I’ve taken to heart as I’ve matured. Was it hard to recreate his vibrato? No, because BB has always been a big example for me in vibrato. I’ve played with BB since I was a kid, and played along with his music as well. A characteristic of all these players is they had this fantastic vibrato. My favourite version of this was on Live At The Regal.” june 2014

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hoWliN’ WolF & huBert SuMliN

alBert KiNg

Born Under A Bad Sign

Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy All hail the dream-team of Chicago blues. Wolf was a thrilling guitarist, but as Kenny explains, it’s his lesser-known wingman Sumlin who drives this deathless cut. “Hubert Sumlin became like a father to me after we did the 10 Days Out Àlm. We grew very close, and I felt it was appropriate to pay tribute. His note choice was so interesting, and once he put the pick down and started playing with his Àngers, he came into his own. When he played, it just made you want to smile. This one has a great horn section, and I used a Gibson ES-330 with P-90s. I chose it because I wanted to motivate people to get into this music.”

Hubert Sumlin is the star of the show on Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy

Kenny chose this Bo Diddley number because it’s not typical of his style

Bo diddley

You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover Everybody knows the trademark chunkachunka Bo beat, typically played by the R&B legend on a cigar-box Gretsch. For Goin’ Home, remembers Kenny, he wanted to dig a little deeper into Diddley… “When I was 15, I toured with Bo Diddley, and he didn’t have a band, so I got to back him up with my group. He wasn’t a Áashy player. He often played open chords, and never put a whole lot of notes out there, but just because someone’s not a blazing player doesn’t mean their guitar playing didn’t have a signiÀcance. One of the reasons we chose this song is it didn’t have that typical beat the man was known for. He wrote so many songs that capitalised on that groove that we were trying to Ànd a song that didn’t have it. Mostly on this album, I used my ’61 Stratocaster, but for this song, I borrowed a modiÀed Strat with P-90 pickups. We were having fun, and I think that comes across.”

You didn’t mess with the Velvet Bulldozer: a pipe-smoking six-footer, whose rasped vocals and reverse-strung Flying V licks made this 1967 single his signature tune. “Albert King’s playing style just wasn’t like anyone else. He played upside-down, with the guitar strung backwards, so that was unique in itself. But it was his vibrato and phrasing. He didn’t play a lot of different licks – he just did variations – but what’s amazing is I’ve heard those licks so many times, and it never gets old. Born Under A Bad Sign is the most mainstream song on Goin’ Home, and I had second thoughts about including it, but Keb’ Mo’ did an outstanding performance with his vocal and guitar. It’s a killer groove. If anything, there’s even more guitar playing on our version, but I don’t really know too many ways you can improve on that song.”

Albert King – aka the Velvet Bulldozer – was a revolutionary player

JohNNy ‘guitar’ WatSoN

Looking Back

The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band’s new album, Goin’ Home, is released on 5 May. For more info, see www.kennywayneshepherd.net 70

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Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson: a guitarist who more than justified his nickname

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Photography: Brian Hineline/Corbis, Getty Images, Bettman/Corbis, Virginia Turbett/Getty Images

You have to be pretty tasty to adopt ‘Guitar’ as your nickname. Watson was a Áamboyant Texas showman, whose career pinballed between disco, funk and rock, but for Kenny, this 1961 cut from his blues years is the pick. “Speed wasn’t a huge thing for Johnny, but the fact he didn’t use a pick gave him a unique technique and sound. This song comes from the early part of his career, where he’s more of a blues artist. As the years went on, he transformed his image and music to Àt the revolutions that were taking place, like the disco and funk era. The guitar is very playful, the lyrics are about a guy and a girl noticing each other walking down the street. I really paid tribute to his original solo in several areas of my own. We’re already playing that one live, and the crowd loves it.”

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STEAL THEIR STYLE

kirk hammett Hammett was born in San Francisco, grew up listening to Hendrix, loves old horror films, and goes surfing on his mornings off. He was always going to be cool. That he is the lead guitarist for Metallica just makes it official. Hammett is one of the most high-profile guitarists in metal’s history – a former student of Joe Satriani, who took on board the shred sensei’s wisdom and developed a style that was all his own and instantly recognisable. Hammett’s explosive lead playing leans heavily on his wah pedal, his solos serving as a compositional power-up, without which Metallica’s sound would lose much of its power and vitality. Perhaps because of his flamboyant lead playing, all pyrotechnic legato and aggro-squawkin’ wah, we sometimes overlook Hammett’s contribution to the Metallica rhythm machine – but he is a fearsome wingman to riff-master Hetfield. When he puts a riff to tape – see Enter Sandman – it is always a doozy. He regularly abuses his signature range of ESP electrics, Jackson Rhoads Vs, Gibson Les Pauls and Mesa/Boogie and Randall amps. He uses less gain than you might think; instead, he drives his amp hard, dialing in plenty of punchy mids. The rest? Well, that’s all attitude.

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© Jesse Wild

THE TECHNIQUES & TONES OF YOUR HEROES KirK

SteaL their StyLe

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kirk hammett

KIRK’S gIgbAg

get the right gear and you, too, can nail Hammett’s tones, whatever your budget

THE ‘gARAgE SALES RE-REvISITEd’ RIg ➊ LTD M-100FM £308 Kirk has a formidable complement of signature ESP guitars, but this budget shredder will help you perfect his style. ➋ Line 6 SpiDer iV 75W coMbo aMp £249 With 16 amp models and onboard effects, this little combo is a no-brainer for high-gain metal on pocket change. ➌ DunLop cry baby originaL Wah £69 A Kirk Hammett lead tone without wah is like a day without sweet tasty lager. ➍ 20 MeTreS eLecTricaL pVc inSuLaTing Tape, WhiTe, 19MM £1.50 Kirk digs in so hard that he tapes up his right hand to give him protection from extreme palm-muting injuries.

➊ ➋

➌

➍

ToTaL: £627.50

(APProx. bASEd on WEb PricES)

THE ‘TO LIvE IS TO bUY’ RIg ➊ eSp LTD WhiTe ZoMbie £862 With an EMG-81 (bridge) and EMG-60 (neck), Floyd rose 1000 series locking vibrato and bela Lugosi graphic, this is classic Hammett. ➋ MeSa/boogie recTo-Verb 25 1x12 VaLVe coMbo £1,399 This portable recto-Verb has all of Kirk’s boutique Mesa tone, at gig-friendly levels. ➌ DunLop Kh95 KirK haMMeTT cry baby Wah £132 Modelled on Kirk’s dunlop rackmounted wah, this is authentically Hammett, and one of the best wahs on the market. ➍ The uLTiMaTe haMMer coLLecTion boxSeT £26 This 20-movie horror boxset will help you climb inside Hammett’s morbid headspace.

➊ ➋ ➌ ➍

ToTaL: £2,419

(APProx. bASEd on WEb PricES)

gET THE SOUNd aLThough Kirk’s setup has changed over the years, it’s still quite straightforward. His guitar mainstays are ESPs fitted with high-output humbuckers, so a guitar equipped with a humbucker at the bridge is vital. Amps have varied, from Marshall and Mesa/ boogie to his own signature randalls, so a high-gain American-style amp will get you a ballpark sound. resist the urge to overdo the distortion; too much dirt will turn your sound to mush. Keep plenty of midrange in your tone, especially for lead work; scooping out the mids works better in the studio than in a live mix.

Amp settings: dISTORTION CHANNEL 4

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KIRK’S pLAYINg STYLE

As a former student of über-technician Joe Satriani, Kirk’s tricks will add life to your metal soloing Much oF Kirk’s lead vocabulary comes from Aeolian and dorian modes, with nods to the darker b 2nd interval in the Phrygian mode in songs such as Wherever I May Roam. developing a thorough grasp of major-scale modes will

benefit you if you want to assimilate some of Kirk’s playing style. Make sure that you’ve got the pentatonic basics sorted, too, because Kirk is no stranger to fast pentatonic ideas. He uses a wah pedal for a rich cutting sound on

songs such as Battery and Enter Sandman. Fast two-string arpeggios are a feature of Fade To Black. You’ll hear Kirk’s : Finally, listen out pentatonic-style lead in Seek And Destroy. for the Jimi Hendrix influences in The Unforgiven guitar solo.

ASCENdINg pENTATONIC SEQUENCE TRACKS 39-40

FAST ARpEggIO LICK TRACKS 41-42

This Kirk-style ascending lick involves tricky picking, and includes the b 6th (13th-fret c) from the natural minor scale to extend the idea. Use legato if you can’t pick every note.

This lick is based around an E minor arpeggio, but the addition of the 17th-fret A messes with the four-note phrasing you’d get by ascending and descending a minor arpeggio.

MINOR 9TH SExTUpLET ARpEggIOS TRACKS 43-44

dIAdS ANd UNISON bENdS TRACKS 45-46

This inventive idea targets the root, b 3rd, 5th, b 7th and 9th, thus creating an Em9 sound, which is colourful and interesting over the powerchords.

Think of this as a rocked-up Hendrix lick, and you’ll get the idea. it’s blues-based and needs care to ensure that both notes sound at the same pitch on those unison bends.

MIxINg pENTATONIC ANd NATURAL MINOR TRACKS 47-48

Kirk often makes pentatonic licks sound darker by mixing in the natural minor scale, as we’ve done here. The final lick, using fast 32nd notes, will benefit from slow practice, initially. Try using a hammer-on at the 14th fret, instead of picking, for a more efficient way of tackling this lick.

HENdRIx-STYLE dIAdS TRACKS 49-50

These two-note chords (diads) lend themselves to clean playing, as you don’t get any of the note bleed associated with distortion. bars 2 and 3 are based around the standard ‘shape 1’ minor pentatonic scale, so you can easily create diads using the scale as a set of notes to choose from.

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Blackstar ID:Core Stereo 10 Massive stereo sounds from a compact combo�����������������������������������������������������

Squier 60th Anniversary Classic Vibe ’50s Stratocaster A vintage-vibed Strat that’s good as gold ����

EVH Stripe eddie’s Frankenstein rises once more �����������

PRS SE Zach Myers Signature The Shinedown man’s semi-hollow sig ��������

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Boss ME-80 A boatload of tones from the effects firm’s new flagship�������������������������������������������������������������

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ROUND-UP: Rotosound pedals The Aftermath Delay, The Wobbler Tremolo, The King Henry Phaser, The Pusher Compressor ������������������������������������

Quick Tests Zoom G1Xon & Boss OD-1X �����������������������������

088 090

Accessories Pedaltrain Volto, Planet Waves nS Artist Capo, Hogjim Pik-Tik, Palmer Pedalbay 60

Fix Your Guitar Changing Strat pots ����������������������������������������������

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blackstar id:core

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gear

blackstar id:core stereo 10

WorldMags.net voice six different voices give you a wide range of tones, from crystal cleans to all-out metal distortion

Usb the USB port lets you record and re-amp with the Core, as well as delve into deep patch editing and storing – most cool

speakers two diddy speakers lurk behind this smart grille, giving you Blackstar’s Super Wide Stereo for widescreen effects and tones

At A GlAnce tYPe: Solid-state programmable stereo combo oUtPUt: 2x5 watts SPeAKeR: 2x3” Blackstar Special Design contRolS: Voice, gain, volume, EQ, effects type, effects level, mod button, delay button, reverb button, manual button, tap tempo button SocKetS: Guitar in, line in, speakeremulated line out, USB WeiGHt: 4kg diMenSionS: [HxWxD] 266x340x185mm contAct: Blackstar Amplification 01604 817817 www.blackstaramps.com

Blackstar ID:Core Stereo 10 £89 core blimey – is this the best ‘first’ amp ever?

new ID:Core combos are Blackstar’s answer to the question: “I just bought my first guitar; now, what do I get for my first amp?” These stripped-down versions of Blackstar’s award-winning ID amps come in three sizes (10, 20 and 40 watts), and all feature the company’s clever Super Wide Stereo technology, which makes the sound appear to come from three feet either side of the cabinet. The control panel is practically identical on all three models – the only difference is an extra footswitch socket on the 20 and 40. A six-voice selector switch offers two cleans, two crunches and two leads, together with knobs for gain and volume, while Blackstar’s patented ISF tone control lets you sweep the tone from UK to USA responses. There’s a familiar digital effects layout, too, with selectors for modulation,

reverb and delay. Four types of each effect are accessed from a rotary selector, plus a level control and tap tempo button, which also accesses the Core’s built-in tuner. As well as the usual guitar input, you get outputs for emulated recording or headphones, and

Core’s preamp and effects and send the effected signal back for easy overdubs. Tonally, the lead sounds are very good – they’re a little fizzy if you turn the gain up to extremes on the two smaller models, but that’s not usually necessary; these amps

it’s amazing that you can get so many features and sounds a line in for your media player – not to mention the handy USB port, which allows you to connect the Core to your computer, where you can edit more parameters and store patches using Blackstar’s Insider software. The USB link also lets you record direct to your DAW, as well as re-amp tracks – take a dry guitar track out of your computer, pass it through the

have tons of overdrive. The crunch sounds are spot-on and offer the most versatility, while the two cleans cover bright modern and warm vintage tones with ease. We’re big fans of the effects, too: you get a nice chorus and a couple of solid delays and reverbs, making it easy to sculpt massive tones. The Super Wide Stereo effect really comes into play here,

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although it varies depending on how far you go with the effects. A cool feature is that you can store a sound for each voice setting without using the software, so you can use the amps for small gigs as well as home playing and practice. It’s amazing that you can get so many features and sounds for so little money – Blackstar’s ability to provide maximum bang for buck has struck again. Whether you choose the 10 or a higher-wattage version, you won’t be able to blame it for a bad sound, and it will be a worthy companion on your journey to being a better player. Nick Guppy

sUMMarY

Photography: James Looker

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gear

squIer 60th annIversary strat

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SqUIeR 60th AnniversAry ClAssiC vibe ’50s strAtoCAster £478 Break out the champagne: this ’Caster’s going for gold

If

you hadn’t already tucked in to our mammoth cover feature, it would be hard to believe the Strat was 60. As well as influencing just about every other guitar builder under the sun, it still attracts its fair share of modernday players, too. To commemorate the ol’ sexagenarian, Fender has launched a number of 60th Anniversary Strats, starting at just less than a grand. Fortunately for us, this isn’t a VIP-only party, and Squier’s commemorative offering lets us sneak past the bouncers. The Classic Vibe ’50s Strat has a clear message: if it ain’t broke,

perfectly for smooth pitch bends and subtle surf shimmer. Plug in, and the Squier delivers the obligatory five-way options, complete with dual tone controls for the neck and middle pickups. But while the usual settings are there – moody neck, in-between funk, slicing bridge, and here, a particularly strident middle – it’s not the snappiest Strat we’ve ever heard, and lacks a little presence. Still, anyone who finds the traditional Strat honk too obnoxious will be pleased with the Squier’s sonic performance. And if you feed it a bit of dirt, that

It’s rammed with usable tones to suit a huge range of genres signature sonic template cuts through, particularly when you engage the searing bridge pickup. There’s still the perennial hum with all-out distortion, and a touch of treble bleed as you roll back the volume, but these idiosyncrasies are all part and parcel of the authentic Strat experience. The Classic Vibe is as good an example of a modern vintagestyled Strat as any other. Yet while the guitar’s aural presence doesn’t sparkle as much as its finish, it’s rammed with usable tones to suit a huge range of genres – yet more proof that 60 years on, the Strat is still worth its weight in gold. Michael Brown

SUMMARY

don’t fix it; just pour gold all over it. The finish? Aztec Gold. The hardware? Gold-plated. The pickguard screws? Bla… nah, even they’re plated in the stuff. Our only disappointment is that the pickup polepieces are silver, although the gleaming, laser-engraved 60th Anniversary neckplate makes up for that, and reinforces this guitar’s collectable status. Of course, a Squier is made to be played, not to stand in a glass case, and you’ll want to get your hands all over this one. Despite the ’50s moniker, the Classic Vibe has a modern C profile neck, which will feel like home for players of contemporary Strats. While it may be a little glossy for fans of highend and vintage Strats, it’s not a million miles away from The Big F’s new 60th Anniversary Classic Player ’50s Strat – and at half the price. The Synchronized vibrato apes the supple action of more expensive models, too, and works

Body: Alder Neck: Maple Scale: 648mm (25.5”) FiNgerBoard: Maple FretS: 21 PickuPS: 3x Custom Vintage-Style Single-Coil Strat coNtrolS: 1x volume, 2x tone, 5-way pickup selector switch Hardware: 6-saddle vintage-style Synchronized vibrato, vintage-style tuners leFt-HaNded: No FiNiSH: Aztec Gold only coNtact: Fender GBI 01342 331700 www.fender.co.uk

neCk DeSpIte the ’50s model name, the Classic vibe features a modern C profile neck, with a gloss finish – fans of Fender’s newer necks will love it

FInIsh SqUIeR’S struck gold – Aztec Gold, to be precise. if you’re looking for a guitar that looks a million bucks but costs less than £500, this is it

PICkuPs theY may not be quite as refined as their Fender siblings’, but these vintage-voiced single coils still deliver a host of classic tones

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evH stripe

EVH Stripe £682

Want a taste of one of the most famous electric guitars ever? Here you go…

THErE

are few guitarists who can genuinely be credited with changing the musical landscape. Edward Van Halen is one of them, and this new guitar pays homage to the self-built axe, known as ‘Frankenstein’, that Eddie used to do it. We say ‘new’, but it was actually launched in early 2013, and it’s taken us this long to get one due to the demand. Are there really that many EVH tribute acts out there? Or is your next-door neighbour a closet Van Halen wannabe? You decide… The EVH brand is part of the Fender empire, and this guitar is made in Fender’s excellent Mexican factory. Yes, it’s a pretty

straight as any other maple neck. It’s not over-thin in depth, with a very slightly flat-backed D profile and 22 huge, well-polished frets that sit on a compound-radius maple ’board, which allows for an ultra low setup. In EVH style, the Floyd Rose vibrato sits flat on the body, meaning no up-bends but added tuning stability. The neat D-Tuna, once set, drops the low E down to D instantly, and as ever, the downbend range completely slackens the strings. Like any Floydequipped guitar, you must stretch your strings to ensure accurate tuning stability and return to pitch. With a slinky low setup, this is a dream to play in any rock

At A GlAnce BODY: Basswood necK: Graphite-reinforced quarter-sawn maple, bolt-on FInGeRBOARD: Maple FRetS: 22, extra jumbo ScAle: 648mm (25.5”) PIcKUPS: 1x direct-mount Wolfgang humbucker cOntROlS: 1x volume control (labelled ‘tone’) HARDWARe: EVH Floyd Rose locking vibrato with D-Tuna, EVH tuners leFt-HAnDeD: No FInISH: Red with black stripes (as reviewed), black with yellow stripes and white with black stripes cOntAct: Fender GBI 01342 331700 www.evhgear.com

Few guitarists changed the musical landscape: edward van Halen is one

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style. There’s a big kick from the powerful EVH ’bucker that’ll fry the front-end of your valve amp, similar to a DiMarzio Super Distortion. And, yes, with this much power, you can turn the volume control down for cleaner rhythm, and wind it up for leads. There’s an organic nature to the sound, and while the neck’s barebones feel means the fingerboard gets dirty quickly, the thumping resonance of this humbucking ‘Strat’ is what it’s all about. Whether or not you chase Van Halen’s ‘brown’ sound, if you play aggressive riffs – in any genre – you’ll be grinning from ear-to-ear. Dave Burrluck

SUMMArY

simple guitar: a maple Strat neck bolted in timeless fashion to a Strat-shaped basswood body, plus a licensed and EVH-branded Floyd Rose, single Wolfgang humbucker and volume control with, of course, a Strat’s tone knob. Under the hood, though, this is one very well-spec’d and wellpriced rock axe. The neck, for example, is hewn from quartersawn maple for added stiffness; it’s reinforced with graphite rods that sit alongside the truss rod, which is adjustable via a wheel at its base. These extra features – that you don’t find on a Mexican Strat, for example – add insurance: EVH doesn’t want the neck to move, especially since it only has a light oil finish, which means the sweat from your hand can penetrate the wood – moisture and bare wood isn’t a good mix. But so long as you periodically smooth the neck back with a light abrasive and re-oil it, it feels superb and should stay just as

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Neck All-MAplE with graphite reinforcement, the neck is oil-finished and will get dirty and need occasional maintenance. it’s very cool, though…

pickup THiS high-output Wolfgang ’bucker is a lot hotter than eddie’s original pAF. it’s direct-mounted to the body, and controlled from just a volume control with a Strat-like ‘tone’ knob

vibrato THE Korean-made Floyd rose apes the high-end Germanmade vibratos, and includes eddie’s D-tuna, which drops the low e down to D

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PRS SE Zach MyERS

PRS SE Zach MyErS

£750

The Shinedown axeman turned guitar designer may have created the best PRS SE yet…

YoU

can’t take more than six million sales away from Shinedown, whether or not the US rock troupe, powered by Zach Myers’ guitar, float your boat. A PRS signature artist since the launch of his first SE model in 2011, Myers opts for the Singlecut as his axe of choice – like the majority of SE signature players. While his first signature was a solidbody with three humbuckers, this new version is a semi-hollow with twin humbuckers – PRS tells us it’s the highest-demand SE since it introduced the classic Custom to the Korean-made range in 2005. Myers’ latest isn’t the first semihollow SE – the double-cut Custom Semi-Hollow takes that award –

nEck here, it’s done for us, but a light rub with a fine wire wool or sanding pad makes it feel smoother still. Then we get the old-style bird inlays, well-fitted frets and a setup that’s slinky – although we did up the string gauge to 0.011s, which work well on this slightly-shorterthan-a-Gibson, 622mm (24.5inch) scale. Heavier strings are catered for with Myers’ favourite bridge, the adjustable PRS Stoptail. It makes for an attractive well-priced package, that also includes a durable PRS gigbag. Whether or not you want to emulate Shinedown, this is one superb-sounding guitar. Okay, the SE 245 humbuckers don’t have the breathy edge of, for example,

This is the first semi-hollow PRS Singlecut model, period

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the USA 57/08 ’buckers, but from cleanish, bluesier styles through indie jangle to aggressive modern metal, there’s little it can’t handle. And it’s highly feedback-resistant, unless you want to lean into your amp and evoke some. The individual pickup controls are laid out differently from a Gibson, but they’re easy to get to grips with, and the shoulder-placed pickup selector toggle is positioned perfectly – turn off the neck pickup and you have an instant kill switch. Maybe if he wasn’t touring the world and helping to sell millions of records, Zach Myers might have a career as a guitar designer. Dave Burrluck

SUMMARY

but it is the first semi-hollow PRS Singlecut, period. The expensive USA Singlecut Hollowbody II (that’ll cost you around £3,500) is, apart from a block that connects the top to the back directly under the bridge, completely hollow. A solid two-piece centre-joined mahogany back is routed out, leaving the bass-side pretty hollow – including the area behind the bridge. The top is solid maple with a bevelled edge that simulates the USA PRS’s violin-like contouring. It’s faced with a flame maple veneer, giving some PRS-style bling, while the natural edge of the maple is stained and merges with the light brown of the mahogany. The Trampas Green stain on the top is a little misnamed: it’s closer to a faded stonewash denim – more blue-green. Another neat change is the satin neck back on the chunky but not over-big wide fat profile. Myers likes to sand his neck finishes;

At A GlAnce type: Chambered mahogany, maple cap w/flame maple veneer necK: Mahogany, wide fat FInGeRBOARD: Rosewood FRetS: 22, medium jumbo ScAle: 622mm (24.5”) pIcKUpS: 2x PRS SE 245 humbuckers cOntROlS: 2x volume, 2x tone, 3-way toggle pickup selector HARDWARe: PRS adjustable stoptail bridge, vintage-style tuners leFt-HAnDeD: No FInISH: Trampas Green only cOntAct: PRS Europe 01223 874301 www.prsguitars.com

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It’S the pretty chunky PrS wide fat shape, although unusually, while the rest of the guitar is gloss-finished, the choice here is satin

BODy It’S not the first semi-hollow PrS SE, but it’s the first semi-hollow SE Singlecut – the chambered design leaves the bass side pretty hollow

BRIDGE USUAllY, PrS SE guitars use replicas of the USa parts, made in Korea. But this wrapover bridge is almost identical to the USa one, which retails at $290!

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GEAR

boss mE-80

EQ/FX 2 Usb YOU can connect the ME-80 directly to your computer via USB, and once you’ve plugged in and downloaded the Boss Tone Studio, you can edit your tones and download patches

ThiS section didn’t even exist on the ME-70, and it’s a handy addition for finessing the preamp’s sounds, allowing you to tweak your tone even further or add another effect

ChAssis

BOSS ME-80

AS wiTh all Boss effects units, the ME-80 is built to take a pounding. The chassis is reassuringly tough, and there are no flimsy switches waiting to be trodden on

£269

Just call it superstomp

MOST

end, and a preamp and EQ module thrown in for good measure. With the unit set to manual select, each component can be accessed easily by the corresponding pedal, or you can use the memory mode to dial in your own presets. So far, so simple, right? Let’s start on that top row: the preamp gives you access to tried-

individual stompboxes, straight from Jesus’s pedalboard. From left to right, you have Compression/ FX1, with its range of sustainers, pickup simulators and the endlessly entertaining Slow Gear swell sound. Next up is Overdrive/Distortion, which has every filthy setting you’re likely to need, from

There’s something under that metallic hood for everyone and-tested COSM amp models – including Combo for an AC30, Stack for a ’59 Marshall and Metal for a Bogner Uberschall – as well as acoustic and clean settings. Once you’ve picked an amp, you can tweak your tone using the dedicated EQ/FX2 channel – a new addition for the ME-80, and an exceptionally handy one. The second row is basically four

a straight-up boost to metal, fuzz and blues sounds. Modulation has more flangers and phasers than you can shake a wobbly stick at, including the new organmimicking Overtone, plus an intelligent harmoniser that will have you Thin Lizzy-ing with yourself in a jiffy. Finally, there’s Delay, which has all the usual suspects, plus the atmospheric

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Tera Echo and a phrase looper that enables you to endlessly play with yourself. Ahem. The sounds are uniformly superb, mimicking individual Boss pedals to a tee. After an hour of use, the ME-80 becomes so easy to work with that building up your own presets, logging and recalling them is as easy as falling off a stage, while those new additions take the familiar Boss template and push it into a whole new realm of usability and musicality. The ME-80 is clearly, cleverly designed with a wide range of guitarists in mind, and there’s something under that metallic hood for everyone. Yes, even you, Johnny no-pedals. Rob Power

SUMMARY

guitarists have a weird relationship with pedals. There are the tone Gollums – the guys who won’t go near pedals for fear that they’ll muddy up their precious chain. Then there are the effects gluttons, who won’t play a note without three pedalboards between them and the amp. Finally, there’s the rest of us, who like plugging in the odd pedal, given the opportunity. Pedals give us the chance to mix things up, and can push a guitarist’s playing in a new direction. It’s these guys – the players who want creative, great-sounding, easy-to-use pedals – who will lap up the ME-80. Boss’s update to the ME-70 is pretty much a masterpiece of a multi-effects box. The unit itself is well proportioned, not too heavy, and more than able to withstand the clumsy stomping of our size 12 boots. The ME-80 is laid out like four effects pedals in a row, with an expression pedal tagged onto the

At A GlAnce type: Multi-effects pedal controls: 4x patch switches, 2 bank switches, control switch, memory switch, expression treadle, 30 parameter knobs effects: 63 (11 comp/FX1, 11 OD/DS, 11 modulation, 11 delay, 6 EQ/FX2, 3 reverb, 10 pedal effects) sockets: Input, 2x outputs, rec out/headphones, aux in, USB, power BypAss: Buffered power: 9V power supply, 6x AA batteries contAct: Roland UK 01792 702701 www.roland.co.uk

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rotosound pedals

rotosound £179-£199 round-up

the veteran British string company unveils a new line of retro-vibed pedals, including an analogue delay, tremolo, phaser and compressor

Words: Trevor Curwen Photography: neil godwin

stRing

manufacturer Rotosound is maybe not so well known for producing pedals, which is hardly surprising considering the company had a break from making any for more than 30 years. In the late 60s, you could buy a Rotosound fuzz pedal (essentially a Sola Sound Tone Bender), then there was nothing until a well-received reissue in 2012. This year, that’s been followed up with more retro-styled pedals, designed by electronics guru John Oram, with the brief that they had to “sound as though they have been in gigbags and flightcases for more than four decades”. The results are these brightly coloured pedals that, at more than 254mm (10 inches) long, are not going to appeal if you want to save pedalboard space, but will make a visual impact, as well as an aural one, offering a different take on some favourite effects.

Rotosound The AfTermATh AnAlog DelAy £199

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Rotosound The Wobbler Tremolo £179

not your everyday delay

throw a Wobbler on your ’board

Plenty of guitarists pick analogue delay pedals over digital ones because the repeats aren’t squeaky clean, which means they blend in as an integral part of your tone. The Aftermath seems designed for just that purpose – the repeats here are lo-fi and very dark compared with the dry sound. There’s plenty of variation, from a short slap up to much longer delays, and the feedback knob can also get endless selfoscillation going, if you fancy some sci-fi or dub effects. Give it a go if you like your delay dirty.

using optical circuitry, the Wobbler offers up the sort of tremolo sound that you might find in a vintage Fender valve amp. You get a nice rounded throb rather than a harsher square-wave on/off effect, with plenty of variation available from the rate and depth knobs. More options come via the silly/germ knob, which blends between silicon and germanium signal paths, from a softer sound to a more edgy one with more gain. All in all, it’s a great, natural way to add tremolo if you don’t have an amp with the effect built in.

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Gear

round-up

Rotosound The Pusher ComPressor £199

More sustain with less noise

While most guitar compressors available these days seem to be based on the MXR Dyna Comp/Ross design, Rotosound has gone its own way with The Pusher. The amount of compression is controlled with the squeeze knob, but you get more controls to counteract any unwanted compression artefacts. The regain knob offers noise reduction, which works a treat for getting rid of any background noise that the compression pulls up, while the bite control feeds some of the uncompressed signal’s high-end to the output, to compensate for any dullness that might have been brought about by the compression. Put it all together and that means plenty of sustain and top-end bite, but no hiss – cool!

Rotosound The King henry PhAser £179

phasing that goes phurther

PhAseRs might not be the most popular modulation pedals these days, but they were a big deal in the early 70s, before chorus and flangers – The King Henry offers lots of variation on that 70s sound, via rate and depth controls. Its secret weapon is the peak knob, which brings regeneration into the mix and emphasises the ‘wow’ in the sweep, giving you a sound like an auto-wah when you turn up the depth. It’s royally good phasing with a funky edge.

at a glanCe

rotosound the Pusher ComPressor Features sound quality Value For money Build quality usaBility oVerall rating

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rotosound the King henry Phaser Features sound quality Value For money Build quality usaBility oVerall rating

rotosound the WoBBler tremolo Features sound quality Value For money Build quality usaBility oVerall rating

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rotosound the aFtermath delay Features sound quality Value For money Build quality usaBility oVerall rating

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tyPe: delay, tremolo, phaser and compressor pedals Controls: The Aftermath delay: depth, feedback, rate The Wobbler Tremolo: rate, silly/germ, depth The King Henry phaser: depth, peak, rate The pusher Compressor: Squeeze, regain, bite soCKets: Input, output, power ByPass: True bypass PoWer: 9V battery, 9V power supply ContaCt: rotosound 01732 450838 www.rotosound.com

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zoom/Boss

ZooM G1Xon

£69

A well-priced portal into the efects realm

While

Type: Multi-effects pedal ConTrols: Home key, parameter knob, enter key, menu key, rhythm/looper key, 4x cursor keys effeCTs: 80 (22 amp models, 58 stompboxes) soCkeTs: Input, aux in, output, USB, power Bypass: Buffered power: 4x AA batteries (included), 9V power supply (not included), USB ConTaCT: Zoom UK 01462 791100 www.zoom.co.jp

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SUMMARY

latest-generation models, including a wealth of modulations, reverbs and delays, plus a smattering of classic amp and drive models. No-one’s going to mistake the high-gain sounds for the real thing, but it’s easy to shape the amp models to your rig, thanks to a range of outputs, from headphones to a combo front-end; the 30-second looper and 68 rhythm patterns are perfect for messing around with, too. Although we were disappointed by the number of preset patches, the range of tones is staggering, including a decent pitch shifter, particle reverbs and a Seek Wah-style filter. It might not stay in your rig forever, but the G1Xon is a stellar introduction to effects. Michael Brown

SUMMARY

the G and MultiStomp series have kept Zoom at the cutting edge of multi-effects, the G1Xon’s appearance recalls its former glories – in particular, the 707, which introduced a generation of guitarists to effects. The cost-effective plastic construction draws comparisons to the past, but the lil’ LCD display boasts the pedal-based interface of Zoom’s latest effects. It’s easy to use: the cursor keys navigate through your five-strong effects chain, while settings are adjusted with the control knob. The two footswitches navigate up and down the 100 patches, and you can assign the expression pedal to any parameter you like. The G1Xon sounds better than it looks, thanks to 80 of Zoom’s

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BoSS oD-1X £139

mDP-loaded dirt that goes far beyond overdriven

When

we heard Boss was giving two of its best-loved effects – the OD-1 Overdrive and DS-1 Distortion – an overhaul, we were sceptical. However, testing the DS-1X last issue convinced us the company’s Multi-Dimensional Processing (MDP) works. Like its heavily gained brother, the OD-1X promises high-definition tone and ‘flawless’ sounds. With all knobs set to noon, the OD-1X emits a warm, midrangeneutral crunch that doesn’t overly colour your amp. It’s responsive to pickup and tone changes, maintaining single-coil sizzle and humbucker heft. Most impressive is the clarity of chord voicings. No matter how much gain you dial in

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(and the last quarter of the drive dial capably delves into distortion territory), every note in a chord shines through, whether you’re playing a G major barre or a Bb7b13+9. That encourages you to stretch your vocabulary beyond the usual fifths and octaves, simply because all the intervals ring out so sweetly. While the DS-1X has a niche appeal, all guitarists can enjoy the OD-1X. It covers transparent drive, amp boosting and classic-rock crunch – and compared with our favourite analogue drives, nine times out of 10 we preferred the OD-1X. It’s not cheap, but it has a presence and clarity you’ll hear from few overdrives. Michael Brown

Type: Overdrive pedal ConTrols: Level, low, high, drive soCkeTs: Input, output, power Bypass: Bufered power: 9V battery, 9V power supply (not included) ConTaCT: Roland UK 01792 702701 www.roland.co.uk

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geAr

AcceSSorieS

Pedaltrain Volto

Power supply and demand

Pedals need power, but unless you’re running your ’board off batteries, a power supply tethers you to the mains. Enter the Pedaltrain Volto – a USBrechargeable lithium-ion battery that provides 2,000mA of power. A six-hour charge allows 36 hours of continuous use for an average five-pedal setup. Power-hungry digital pedals will shorten that time, while pedal fiends may crave isolated outputs; but at this price, the Volto is a worthy purchase. (£89, www.pedaltrain.com)

Planet Waves NS artiSt CaPo

Wave goodbye to your old ’po

tHe latest capo collaboration between Ned Steinberger and Planet Waves boasts some serious credentials. Principally, it offers a tri-action geometry that reduces the amount of force you need to prise the capo on and off your guitar’s neck, while retaining even tension across any neck profile. In a cunning feat of self-promotion, it even includes a bracket for the NS Micro Tuner, not to mention a pick holder. In use, we experienced a slightly abrupt snap when opening the capo, but it’s far easier to shift around the neck than other models. Combine that with buzz-free playing on acoustics and electrics, and it’s a solid choice for pro capo players. (£20, www.planetwaves.com)

Palmer Pedalbay 60

Sticking to the top of the ’bay

Hogjim Pik-tik

Are you Tikking the Pik?

moving between strumming and fingerpicking is never an easy transition: your pick ends up either on your lap, in your mouth or on the floor. The Pik-Tik is a simple yet ingenious solution. Just push it onto your pickguard and the sheer suction holds it in place, ready to insert your pick in. It’s easy to set up, and when it sticks, it really sticks – reassuringly, we struggled to prise it off, and happily, it left our guitar mark-free when we did. Sadly, the Pik-Tik won’t stick to pickguard-less electrics and acoustics (trust us, we tried), but it provides a stress-free way to alternate between different techniques on ’ guarded guitars. ($9.99, www.hogjim.com)

a fully loaded pedalboard can be a weighty, cumbersome beast, full of cables crammed into tight spaces. Palmer’s Pedalbay 60 hopes to make ’boarding that bit easier, with lightweight aluminium construction, movable slats and adjustable height. The familiarlooking frame is sturdy underfoot and fits around 12 Boss-sized pedals, secured via Velcro. The included gigbag is tough enough to carry the weight of a well-stocked ’board – and although you’ll need the strength of a thousand roadies to get the slats’ bolts out, the adjustable concept works well for awkwardlyshaped pedals and complex cable runs. We’re not entirely comfortable with Palmer’s suggestion of using the included elastic bands to hold a power supply beneath the frame, but otherwise the Pedalbay 60 is an affordable route to tidy ’boards. (£100.85, www.palmer-germany.com)

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fix your guitar

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replace strat pots

fix your guitar In assocIatIon wIth haynes

tools required ❑ Soft rag ❑ Phillips screwdriver ❑ Masking tape ❑ Pliers or crocodile clip ❑ Soldering iron ❑ Socket-type spanner

1

replace strat pots the principal elements of replacing the tone and volume pots are the same for most electric guitars – here's how to do it on your stratocaster 2

3

1

Remove the plastic knob from the offending control. These can become quite solidly fixed after a while, so in order to avoid damage to the guitar, use a soft rag wrapped around and under the knob for extra torque.

2

Electric Guitar Manual by Paul Balmer (Haynes Manuals), priced £19.99, is available now from www.haynes.co.uk.

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De-tension and if necessary remove the guitar's strings (the preferred option). using a Phillips screwdriver, unscrew the pickguard and keep the screws together in a small container (an aerosol can cap is perfect).

3

Beware of the metal parts of the electrical assembly scratching the guitar finish as you

carefully remove the pickguard. You may want to mask the finish with a lightly taped duster or some low-adhesion masking tape. The pickguard will not remove completely as the pickup wiring is soldered to the output jack. It’s usually worth separating the pickup assembly completely by carefully unsoldering the output jack at the pickup end – usually attached to the back of the volume pot.

4

Before unsoldering, label the cables connected to the old pot with some masking tape. Assign each cable a number, and draw yourself a little sketch of what goes where, noting the orientation of the tags on the old pot in relationship to the back of the

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5

6

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pickguard. This sounds elementary, but some old cables are not colour coded and there are alternative wiring options. Taking this approach restores your wiring intact and gets you back to the sound you’ve come to expect.

5

Place a crocodile clip – or use some pliers – on the wiring between the pot and the pickups to act as a ‘heat sink’, absorbing heat that might otherwise find itself cooking your pickups. Carefully unsolder the old pot with the lowest rating soldering iron you have – 15 watts may work, but a higher-rated iron used quickly will be fine.

6

use a socket-type spanner – the size will vary from model to model – to unbolt the nut retaining the pot to the pickguard. A socket-type spanner is best for the job, as it's less likely to mark the pickguard.

7

Sometimes the new pot has a slightly larger shank, in which case you’ll need to enlarge the pickguard hole with a rat-tail file or similar tool.

8

Place the new pot in position, retaining the old orientation, and fix with the new retaining nut.

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gear

fix your guitar

9

Tin the new connecting tags for the replacement pot with a little solder and solder them in place as per your labelling. A lollipop stick makes an effective aid, and also doesn’t waste any heat. Reassemble as before.

protect your eyes Replacing volume or tone controls involves soldering, so protect your eyes with safety glasses and cover any guitar parts that may be affected by stray solder.

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techniques

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guitar workout Your 12-minute workout guide… 1. CHOOSE AN EXERCISE… EX 1 Pull-off legato lick Three minutes EX 2 Hammer-on legato lick

Three minutes EX 3 Alternate picking lick

Three minutes EX 4 Tapping lick

Three minutes 2. SET YOUR METRONOME This month’s workout is focused on speed, so your practice will be enhanced by playing to a metronome at different tempos. We’ve suggested beginner, intermediate and expert tempos for each exercise. 3. START THE STOPWATCH… Each of this month’s exercises is suitable for all players to attempt. Either dip in and try out the exercise that interests you most, or for a tougher challenge mix and match any or all of the exercises. Make sure you don’t stop before three minutes have elapsed, though!

tracks 51-54

Speed

Possessing lightning-fast speed is probably on most guitarists’ wishlist. Get flying around the fingerboard with TG’s workout speed comes in many guises and associated techniques. Sure, Vai, Malmsteen, Gilbert, Becker, and so on get the glory, but there are many feats of musical rapidity performed by jazz, blues, folk and classical players, too. Speed can be relative as well, with fast alternate picking often viewed as more challenging than speedy legato, for example.

guest lesson Alex skolnick p101

Throughout the 80s, having ‘good speed’ was a toss-up between two-handed tapping and neoclassical-style sweeppicked arpeggios. now, there’s an even wider arsenal of techniques at your disposal, so you might become proficient in only one area, initially. When you practise, don’t ignore your weaker areas in favour of easier

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techniques. Fast playing is a by-product of a sound practice routine that covers picking, fretting and co-ordinating both hands. If any speed exercise is learned in a sloppy fashion, it’ll sound sloppy. Take your time with each example and don’t skim over any details. Try not to bathe your sound in distortion, as this can mask errors.

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ex 1

track 51 Start your practice session with this pull-off lick....................................................................................

aim for a light touch with your third and fourth fingers, using the very tip of each finger. This will make your pull-offs more efficient and less likely to pull into the adjacent strings. Keep your thumb behind the neck (don’t let it hang over the top) to ensure your fingers are in prime position.

AC/DC’s Angus Young uses speedy alternate picking on Thunderstruck

1

70 bpm

45 seconds

2 3

90 bpm 110 bpm

45 seconds 45 seconds

4

120 bpm

45 seconds

tg tiPs

Mute idle strings with the palm and fingers of your pick hand

20-sEcond challEngE Play the same exercise on the other strings

© Luke Macgregor/Reuters/Corbis

Your workout routine…

ex 2

track 52 Supercharge your hammer-ons with this three-note-per-string lick...........................................

Your workout routine… 1

80 bpm

60 seconds

2

100 bpm

60 seconds

3

120 bpm

60 seconds

tg tiPs

Warm up with a few of those tricky third- and fourth-finger hammer-ons

20-sEcond challEngE Move the seven-note phrase all over the fretboard, staying in key at all times

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Paul Gilbert’s virtuoso playing features a wealth of techniques

© Joby Sessions

ThE Trick here is to keep your fingers hovering over the relevant frets. For efficient movement and maximum speed, don’t place your fingers too high off the fretboard. You could try this exercise using just the simpler scale fragments, introducing the position changes as you gain confidence.

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techniques guitar workout

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track 53 Develop two-hand co-ordination with this alternate picking exercise......................................

tg tiPs

Emphasise the first of each group of four notes until you get the feel for the exercise

© © Larry Marano /Retna Ltd./Corbis

Yngwie Malmsteen is a neoclassical pioneer, who melds speed and accuracy

frETTing accuracy is just as important as picking here. You may find your fret-hand rushes ahead or lags behind your picking, so working out your ‘real’ maximum speed with a metronome is really important. Gradually edge your speed upwards over the days and weeks.

Your workout routine… 1

70 bpm

45 seconds

2 3

110 bpm 150 bpm

45 seconds 45 seconds

4

180 bpm

45 seconds

20-sEcond challEngE Play this lick using the A harmonic minor scale

ex 4

track 54 Round off your workout with this challenging gymnastic tapping lick......................................

tg tiPs Focus your attention

© WireImage/Getty

on the more challenging fret-hand part

ThErE’s not a great deal of speed here, but when you combine both hands and co-ordinate properly, there’s lots of scope for fast arpeggios. Learn the fret-hand shapes as hammer-on licks, before trying the tapping. Tap with the second finger of your pick hand and hold a pick as you play.

Your workout routine…

Co-ordinating your hands is the key to emulating lead heroes such as Ron Thal

1

70 bpm

45 seconds

2 3

90 bpm 110 bpm

45 seconds 45 seconds

4

140 bpm

45 seconds

20-sEcond challEngE Change the first shape from a Cmaj7 arpeggio to a C7

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guest lesson WorldMags.net

techniques

Alex Skolnick

video lesson

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le x

Alex demonstrates desirable diminished jazz licks in part two of our guest lesson Last month, Alex played jazz licks based around major 7th, minor 7th and dominant 7th chords. This month, he tackles diminished 7th chords. These chords have a unique dark sound, due to all the notes being spaced a minor 3rd apart. The chord intervals are: 1 b 3 b 5 ∫7. To tie in with the chords, Alex uses two diminished scales, which he bases his licks on: the ‘whole-half’ and the ‘half-whole’. These terms refer to the scale

intervals. The whole-half scale goes: tone (a ‘whole’ tone), semitone (‘half’ a tone), tone, semitone, tone, semitone, tone, semitone. The half-whole scale simply starts with a semitone. In the following examples, Alex demonstrates how to build these scales and use chromatic notes to fill in the gaps and add more jazziness. Work through the licks slowly and watch the videos to see how Alex breaks each idea down.

D DiminisheD arpeggio

Words and transcription: Charlie Griffiths Picture: Tom Couture

This arpeggio shape outlines the notes of a diminished chord, which has the intervals: 1 b 3 b 5, ∫7. All of these intervals are exactly three semitones (aka a minor 3rd) away from the next. This is known as a ‘symmetrical’ chord, because all the intervals are the same.

D DiminisheD arpeggio sequence

Alex plays this cool-sounding sequence using the notes of the diminished arpeggio. Break the pattern into small three-note chunks; the first one will start with your fourth finger and the second chunk will start with your first finger. Start slowly and gradually build speed.

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Alex Skolnick continued… D ‘whole-halF’ DiminisheD scale

PlAy the first three notes on the sixth string with your first, third and fourth fingers, followed by the 11th fret on the fifth string, played with your first finger. Now you’ve played those four notes, shift your first finger up to the 12th fret and repeat the same pattern again.

e b ‘halF-whole’ DiminisheD scale

˙

This scale uses the same notes as the previous example, but starting from a semitone below, turning it into the D half-whole scale. As you play through the scale, say ‘semitone – tone – semitone – tone’ and so on, until you can see clearly how the repeating pattern relates to the notes on the fretboard.

D ‘halF-whole’ minor 3rD lick

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techniques guest lesson

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This lick starts on D and uses the half-whole scale to play a seven-note melody. Play those seven notes using a combination of pull-offs and picking for a smooth, even flow. When your fingers have learnt what to do, move the lick down the neck in three-fret gaps.

D ‘halF-whole’ lick in one position

This is a shorter variation of the previous lick, staying in one position on the fretboard. The lick uses all four fingers, so practise slowly and make sure that all the notes are even in volume and length. If one of your fingers is weaker than the others, isolate and repeat the tricky section.

transportable lick in minor 3rDs

lAsT month, Alex showed how this chromatic phrase could be ‘transported’ into different licks over major, minor and dominant chords. Here, we have it again using the repeating minor 3rd pattern within the diminished scale; simply repeat the lick in three-fret gaps.

D ‘halF-whole’/chromatic lick

here, Alex combines the previous two licks into one idea. Practise the lick in small four- or eight-note chunks, slowly, and focus on making the picked notes and pull-off notes the same volume so that everything flows smoothly and sounds effortless.

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ear trainingWorldMags.net intervals

Perfect 4ths © Andrey Popov/iStock

Continuing our series on the sounds of intervals, we move on to the perfect 4th

Perfect 4ths are the basis of standard guitar tuning; four of the guitar’s six strings (A, D, G and e) are tuned a 4th above their adjacent strings, so you may already know the sound of this interval. On the fretboard, perfect 4ths are five frets apart. That’s because the tone and semitone intervals between the all-important first and fourth notes in the major scale add up to five frets. Remember, the interval is named after the four-note gap in the scale, not the five-fret gap on the fretboard. Perfect 4ths are a key interval in rock, cropping up in chords and sequences such as the I-IV-V progression (a progression with chords built on the first, fourth and fifth notes of the key). With thanks to Easy Ear Training. For more, visit www.easyeartraining.com

1

1

1

1 1

1

Perfect 4ths played on adjacent strings

tracks 55-56

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What’s perfect? In the last two issues, we covered 3rds, named ‘minor’ and ‘major’. So why are there no ‘major’ or ‘minor’ 4ths? Unlike major and minor 3rds, 4ths are the same in both major and minor scales. In classical terminology, these kinds of intervals are called ‘perfect’. Octaves, unison notes and 5ths are also perfect intervals.

Learn the sound Find perfect 4ths in songs you know The first two notes of Amazing Grace form a perfect 4th: just sing the first two syllables of the word ‘amazing’. The first two chords in the opening riff to Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana are also a 4th apart.

Learn the shapes Take a look at the neck diagram and it should be obvious that two notes next to each other on adjacent strings form a 4th interval. This is because the open strings are tuned a 4th (five frets) apart. The second string is tuned a major 3rd (four frets) higher than the third string, so the notes on these two strings are separated by an extra fret. Learn the sound with notes played both separately and together.

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video get your grades! WorldMags.net rockschool / lesson three / grade four

lesson

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Funk ‘O’ Meter

ck

Master expressive quarter-tone bends, staccato and doublestops There are many different expressive techniques to learn that, once mastered, can allow you to develop your own playing style. This issue, we’ll focus on the details of staccato notes, quarter-tone bends and doublestops, and on ways you can make them your own in your playing style.

Staccato dots (shown in notation either over or under a note) don’t indicate a precise length; they are simply to be played shorter than the note value shown. This means the exact way you play this note is up to you. Generally, staccatos have a funky, clipped feel. Similarly, quarter-tone bends do not require that you reach a

specific note (unlike, for example, bending a C note to C#), so it is up to you to decide how far to bend. Funk ‘O’ Meter’s sliding doublestops require skill to keep the notes ringing out cleanly, so watch the video lesson for tips on how to make them sound great. For more information go to www.rockschool.co.uk

Funk ‘O’ Meter (bars 3-10)

Grade Four Book Buy the Rockschool Grade Four book to get the rest of the Funkometer syllabus. Go to: Funkometer Rock School www.musicroom.com

tracks 57-58

This secTion of the song features the techniques we’ve mentioned. Quarter-tone bends are indicated by an arrow and a ‘1/4’; staccatos are indicated by a dot above or below the note head. Don’t confuse this with a dot next to the note, which is an element of rhythm notation.

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techniques get your grades

rgt / Performance award / Preliminary grade

Lead playing

video lesson w w w.bit .l

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t

Performance Awards

Learn a scale and you’ll soon be playing solos. RGT shows you how... Lead guiTar playing is an exciting aspect of electric guitar playing, and it is included as part of RGT’s electric guitar Performance Awards. For this section of the exam, you choose a track from RGT’s book/CD Improvising Lead Guitar: Total Beginner to play lead

guitar over. A choice of 10 tracks is provided, with four scales to use. The chord chart for one of the tracks is shown below. As the track starts with an A minor chord, the A natural minor scale can be used for lead playing (not all music works like this, but, for RGT’s early grades,

the first chord always tells you the key signature). The fingering for the A natural minor scale is below. Start by ad-libbing some simple melody ideas using notes from the scale. Refine these ideas into licks that fit rhythmically with the backing track, if you take an exam.

RGT is the UK’s only specialist guitar examination board. You can download a free Performance Awards syllabus and find a registered guitar tutor to help prepare you for RGT exams at www.RGT.org.

a natural MinOr scale

o o o

2 2 2

3 3

This monTh’s chord progression is in the key of A minor, so the A ‘natural’ minor scale will fit with the chords. Don’t worry about why it is called ‘natural’ for now. Practise running up and down the scale with steady, even timing until it starts to feel natural. ‘2’ and ‘3’ tell you where you should be using your second and third fingers.

rGt lead chOrd chart

track 59

This is the kind of chord chart you can expect at preliminary level. It’s not an ‘on the spot’ improvisation test, so remember to make up your solo in advance. Avoid your lead playing sounding too scale-like by playing some notes quickly and allowing other notes to ring on longer.

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Terms and conditions: This offer is for new UK subscribers to the print edition paying by Direct Debit only. Full details of the Direct Debit Guarantee will be provided and are available upon request. You will receive 13 issues per year. Your subscription will start with the next available issue. The gift is subject to availability. In the unlikely event your selected gift is unavailable we reserve the right to send an alternative gift of similar value. Please allow up to 60 days for delivery of your gift. If at any time you are dissatisfied in any way, please notify us in writing and we will refund you for all un-mailed issues. Offer ends: 13 June 2014

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worth £44.99! Free drive pedal

The Danelectro Cool Cat Drive is a good-looking, retro overdrive pedal that responds just like a valve amp would; low end/mids increase with gain – saturating and fattening the overdrive. Knock back the drive, keep the volume up, and the sound cleans up to a driving rhythm tone that’s good for those nice crunching chords. Beside the usual controls, the Danelectro Cool Cat Drive has an Input Sensitivity trim pot that allows the user to customise the drive to suit their guitar – match it to single coil or humbucker output levels for optimum response. It also has a ‘Lo Fi’ DIP switch so you can choose a second frequency range for an increasingly raw, unrefined drive tone. www.danelectro.com

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techniques tab guide

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Tab Guide

Get more from TG by understanding our easy-to-follow musical terms and signs

What is taB? Tab is short for tablature, a notational system used to give detailed information as to where notes should be played on the fretboard. Tab appears underneath conventional music notation as six horizontal lines that represent the strings of the guitar, from

Unfretted strings are shown with a ‘0’. The key and time signatures are shown in the traditional notation. TG also includes a timestamp to tell you where in the original track you’ll find each example. Finally, a tempo marking is expressed in beats per minute.

the sixth (thick) string at the bottom to the first (thin) string at the top. On these lines, numbers represent the frets where you should place your fingers. For example, an A note on the 2nd fret, third string, will be shown as a number ‘2’ on the third line down on the tab.

FRet BOXes: chORds, scales and capO nOtatiOn Hand labelling 3

2

nut and Fretboard i

1

m

cHord example

o o o o o o

a

o o o

c

4 T

1

p

2

3

G Here are the abbreviations used for each finger. Fretting hand: 1, 2, 3, 4, (T) Picking hand: p (thumb), i (index), m (middle), a (annular), c (little finger)

This fretbox diagram represents the guitar’s fretboard exactly, as seen in the photo. This design is used for ease of visualising a fretboard scale or chord quickly.

This diagram represents a G chord. The ‘o’s are open strings, and a circled number is a fretting hand finger. A black ‘o’ or circled number is the root note (here, G).

capo example

capo notation

scale example

o o o

CAPO 2nd FRET >

CAPO 2nd FRET >

o

x

o

4

1

1

2

2

3

4 4 4 4 4 A major scale

d (C)

THe blue line in the diagram represents a capo – for this A chord, place it at the 2nd fret. Capos change the fret number ordering. Here, the original 5th fret now becomes the 3rd fret, 7th fret now 5th fret, etc.

1 2 2

3 3

3

A (G)

1 1 1 2 2

Here the chord looks like a C in the tab, but the capo on the 2nd fret raises the pitch to make it a D. The 2nd fret capo’d notes are shown with a ‘0’ in the tab as if they were open strings.

THe fret box diagram illustrates the fret hand fingering for the A major scale using black dots for root notes and red dots for other scale tones. The photo shows part of the scale being played on the fourth string with the first, third and fourth fingers.

GuitaR techniques: pickinG down and up-picking

tremolo picking

palm muting

pick rake

appreggiated cHord

THe symbols under the tab tell you the

eacH of the four notes are to be alternate-picked (down and up-picked) very rapidly and continuously.

Palm-muTe by resting the edge of

Drag the pick across the strings shown

Play the notes of the chord by

your picking hand palm on the strings near the bridge saddles.

with a single sweep. This is often used to augment a rake’s last note.

strumming across the relevant strings in the direction of the arrow head.

first note is to be down-picked and the second note is to be up-picked.

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techniques tab guide

WorldMags.net FRettinG hand Hammer-on & pull-oFF

note trills

slides (glissando)

Fret Hand tapping

Fret Hand muting

Pick the first note then hammer down on the string for the second note. Pick the third note and pull-off for the fourth note.

afTer picking the first note, rapidly alternate between the two notes shown in brackets using hammer-ons and pull-offs.

Pick the first note and then slide to the next. For the last two notes pick the first, slide to the next and then re-pick it (RP).

SounD the notes marked with a square by hammering-on/tapping with your fret hand fingers, instead of picking.

X markingS represent notes and strings that are muted by your fret hand when struck by your picking hand.

bend and release

re-picked bend

pre-bend

quarter-tone bend

Vibrato

freT the first note (here, the 5th fret) and bend up to the pitch of the bracketed note, before releasing again.

BenD up to the pitch shown in the brackets, then re-pick the note while holding the bent note at the pitch shown.

SilenTly bend the string up from the 5th Pick the note then bend up a quarterfret (PB5) to the pitch of the 7th fret note, tone (a very small amount). This is pick it and release to the 5th fret note. sometimes referred to as a ‘blues curl’.

your fretting hand vibrates the string by small bend-ups and releases. Exaggerate this effect to create a ‘wide’ vibrato.

pincHed Harmonics

tapped Harmonics

toucHed Harmonics

Place your finger on the note as shown, but sound it with a quick pick hand tap at the fret shown (TH17) for a harmonic.

a PreviouSly sounded note is touched above the fret marked TCH (eg, TCH 9) for it to sound a harmonic.

gargle

wHammy bar Vibrato

BendinG and viBRatO

haRmOnics natural Harmonics

Pick the note while lightly touching the string directly over the fret indicated. A chiming harmonic results.

artiFicial Harmonics

freT the note as shown, then lightly place your index finger directly over ‘x’ fret (AH‘x’) and pick (with a pick, p or a).

afTer fretting the note in the triangle, dig into the string with the side of your thumb as you sound it with the pick.

viBRatO BaR / Whammy BaR wHammy bar bends

scoop and doop

THe note is picked as shown, then the vibrato bar is raised and lowered to the pitches shown in brackets.

ScooP: depress the bar just before striking the note and release. Doop: lower the bar slightly after picking note.

a noTe is sustained then the vibrato bar is depressed to slack. The square bracket indicates a further articulation.

SounD the note and ‘flick’ the vibrato bar with your picking hand so it ‘quivers’. This results in a ‘gargling’ sound!

genTly rock the whammy bar to repeatedly bend the pitch up and down. This sounds similar to fret hand vibrato.

pick scrape

Violining

Finger numbering

pima directions

pick Hand tapping

THe edge of the pick is dragged either down or up along the lower strings to produce a scraped sound.

Turn the volume control down, sound the note(s) and then turn the volume up for a smooth fade in.

THe numbers in the traditional notation refer to the fingers required to play each note.

any kind of fingerpicking requirements are shown at the bottom of the tab notation.

TaP (hammer-on) with a finger of your picking hand onto the fret marked with a circle. Usually with ‘i’ or ‘m’.

sustained note and diVebomb

OtheRs

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The Final Countdown

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odd-couple guitar duos 9. Pete Doherty & Carl Barât

From mic-sharing homoeroticism to bust-ups so violent they had to be restrained in the studio by bouncers, Pete and Carl were 2000s-indie’s most combustible bromance. “If you put them in a room together, you got explosive music,” says former Libertines manager Alan McGee, “but there was always the chance someone was going to get hurt.”

8. Billie Joe Armstrong & Norah Jones

Green Day’s punk prince and the fragrant coffeetable jazz chanteuse donned acoustics for a shared tribute to the everly Brothers on Foreverly – but Billie Joe didn’t offer to gob into her mouth, as he used to with Mike Dirnt in the early years.

7. Dan & Justin Hawkins The Manics: opposites attracted, early on

Two brothers, two wildly different personas, as Justin prances across the Darkness stage in shrink-wrap spandex, while Dan locks down straight-faced rhythm in a sober black T-shirt.

6. Kirk Hammett & James Hetfield

The phrase ‘fire and ice’ springs to mind. Hetfield is the teeth-baring grizzly whose pint you wouldn’t spill, while Hammett is the sort of kohl-eyed human pipecleaner you’d expect the frontman to have bog-flushed at school. Somehow, it works…

5. Keith Richards & Mick Taylor

Taylor seemed an unlikely wingman for the cackling, perma-sozzled Keef of the early 70s. Yet when the pair locked guitars, the planets aligned. Frustratingly, it was over by 1974, and Richards recruited virtual doppelganger, Ronnie Wood.

4. John 5 & Les Paul

Admittedly, it was for one night only in 2003 – but it’s hard to imagine the octogenarian’s thoughts when the ghoul-faced rocker climbed onstage with him in new York. “It was another of those situations,” John 5 told TG, “where I turned up with makeup all over my face.”

2. Phil Collen & Steve Clark

Def Leppard’s Joe elliott nailed the disparity when he described Collen as “a total, utter technician” and Clark as “the creative one”. Offstage, the so-called terror twins had more in common. “We once rode a tandem bicycle through the lobby of a hotel,” Collen told TG, “and we were sober…”

3. Tim Wheeler & Charlotte Hatherley

Ash became roughly 100 per cent more sophisticated when the saucer-eyed, SG-wielding guitarist joined in 1997. “I think a lot of people were a bit upset that I’d joined,” Hatherley told TG. “Loads of female fans were a bit like ‘What the fuck?’, especially as Ash were known as a young teenage boy band.” A rare picture of Leppard’s Phil Collen with his top on…

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1. Angus & Malcolm Young It’s hard to believe these men are in the same band, let alone from the same gene pool. There’s Malcolm: rooted to the spot, face etched with concentration. And there’s Angus: writhing, spasming, duckwalking and feigning electrocution. Sometimes, you suspect Young Snr is dying to give his kid brother a clip round the ear and tell him to stop showing off…

Photography: Getty Images

10. James Dean Bradfield & Richey Edwards The early Manic Street Preachers line-up was chalk-and-cheese, with Bradfield cast as the technically impeccable lead man, and edwards as the arm-slicing iconoclast with chops so rudimentary, the band often didn’t plug him in (when they did, festival soundmen would occasionally turn up the wrong guitarist, causing much cacophony and embarrassment).

Angus and Malcolm – opposite ends of the fretboard and the gene pool

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