Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i Guitar World

AS THREE OF you might know (including friends, coworkers and extended family members), I love guitars that look normal but have one or two hidden superpowers — sort of like six-string versions of Clark Kent or Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow’s Scarlett Johansson, of course). Examples? OK, well, there’s the Reverend Pete Anderson Eastsider T and its incognito push/pull phase switch in the tone knob; there’s the Fender American Performer Strat, which sports a push/pull pot (also in the tone knob) that activates the neck pickup; and, of course, there’s my B-bender-equipped Gibson Music City Jr. and late-Nineties Fender Nashville B-Bender Tele (the guitar that will join me in my glorious viking-style funeral pyre in 2053!). Um, anyway, this brings me to my latest acquisition, a Lake Placid Blue Fender Vintera…

Q: HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO LEARN TO PLAY GUITAR AND SING AT THE SAME TIME? ALSO, WAS IT SCARY TRANSITIONING TO ME AND THAT MAN’S CLEAN VOCAL STYLE? — NICHOLAS ANGELO You know what’s the scariest? The worst is having no guitar, and just doing vocals. [Laughs] That’s the worst. Every guitar player that sings will tell you that. I’ve always had a guitar and been a songwriter. I couldn’t even play well for years, and I would keep making songs, writing lyrics and singing along. I had this vision and it took me at least a decade or longer to become an okay instrumentalist. It’s still tricky. Yesterday we did a tour preproduction and I found out it’s not going to be super easy to perform…

Zaemisch is one of the all-too-often anonymous guitar techs, a profession that is done best when nobody in a gigantic audience realizes he exists. Going by stereotypes perpetuated by pop-culture oddities like 1980 comedy Roadie (a forgotten film whose unbelievable cast includes Meat Loaf, Alice Cooper, Roy Orbison and Blondie) or the Tenacious D song of the same name, life running the backline is a cycle of shlepping amps and then partying till you puke. The reality, according to Zaemisch, is far more mundane. On Metallica’s recent summer tour, his day started at 9 a.m. to load in and didn’t stop until well after tens of thousands of fans had filtered out of the venue. “By that time, it can be 11:30 or 12 at night. It can be a…

ABOUT 37 YEARS ago in late 1983, Boss introduced the very first digital delay stomp box — the DD-2. What was truly impressive about the DD-2 is that it featured the exact same IC as the one found in Roland’s flagship (at the time) SDE-3000 digital delay studio rack unit, which means it delivered the same stellar sound quality. In fact, the DD-3 (which is identical to the DD-2, and the name was only changed after a drastic price reduction in 1986) sounds so good that it remains a favorite with pro and gigging guitarists to this day. Since then, Boss has introduced more than 15 additional new delay pedal models to provide musicians with expanded delay times and features and to compete with the ever-growing amount of new delay…

STREET PRICE: $999.99 MANUFACTURER: PRS Guitars, prsguitars.com The body is entirely constructed of mahogany to provide richer, darker tones to complement the fully hollow-body design’s enhanced resonance. A pair of 58/15 “S” humbuckers deliver articulate, detailed response across the entire frequency range while exuding distinct tonal character. THE BOTTOM LINE The PRS SE Hollowbody Standard is an incredible value for players seeking the bigger, fatter tones of a fully hollowbody electric without sacrificing the slim, sexy feel of a standard solidbody axe.…

WHETHER YOU USE speaker isolators or not is a question best left with studio engineers and experts who work in the audio industry. When it comes to guitarists, most of us don’t really have the time or energy to explore this option when it comes to our own guitar amps, but the general consensus has long been that the concept works. IsoAcoustics, who have been manufacturing isolation products for pro audio, live sound, radio and television, and consumer markets, just released the IsoAcoustics Stage 1 Board (with integrated isolators) aimed at guitarists and bassists, which provides a portable isolated platform that decouples stage monitors, sub woofers, guitar and bass amps from the stage or floor to improve sound clarity, tighten up bass response, and generate more natural spatial sound reflections.…

I GOT RHYTHM, PART 3 Eighth notes and rests IN I GOT Rhythm, Part 2, we learned about two essential musical elements, rests and ties. A quick review: A rest is a “hole of silence” between any two notes or chords, and every rhythmic note value, such as a whole note, half note or quarter note, has a corresponding rest of equal duration, as indicated by the traditional symbols, or pictographs, shown in FIGURE 1, which are used in both Guitar World’s rhythmic tab notation and standard sheet music. To remember these symbols, I’ve always found it helpful to think of a half rest as looking like a top hat and a whole rest like an upside-down top hat. And a quarter rest looks like a seagull in flight but…

HARMONIC MINOR PART 2 Exploring the positions of the A harmonic minor scale LAST TIME, I introduced an essential scale for gypsy jazz, harmonic minor, which is intervallically spelled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. In the key of A minor, the notes are A, B, C, D, E, F, G . To review, what sets harmonic minor apart from most other seven-tone scales is that there is a wide gap of an augmented notes 2nd (three , specifically half steps between ) between the two b 6 and of the the major 7th. This serves to give harmonic minor its unique sound, especially in regard to how it functions over the i (one minor) and V (five major) chords. I generally rely on positions of A harmonic minor…

SEND LETTERS TO: Sounding Board, Guitar World/Future, 347 W. 36th St., Suite 1700, New York, NY 10018 or GWSoundingBoard@futurenet.com. All subscription queries must be emailed to guitarworldmag@icnfull.com. Please do not email the Sounding Board with subscription matters. Need a Chord? There’s an App for That I am a Guitar World fan (since I was a teenager in the Nineties). I am also a (very) amateur songwriter/guitarist, but I’m pretty good with data/software (my day job is researcher at Bose). I often get stuck in a chord progression where I have an idea of the chord I want, but I can’t find it. I decided to make a free iOS app to help that (this is just a hobby project for me). I trained some machine learning on 10,000 popular songs,…

“Dirt” Alice in Chains I love how Jerry Cantrell uses guitar to create emotion and tension. The little licks and octave pieces he slides in around the vocals are always so complementary. And his feedback control is showcased a few times in this gut-wrencher. “Artificial Red” Mad Season There’s so much space in this song, you can literally hear every nuance of what Mike McCready is doing on the guitar. It feels almost like a duet the way he’s able to create such a voice with it — so subtle at times, so up front and hostile at others. “Evidence” Faith No More Trey Spruance is so diverse, and I love how smooth his playing is here. The guitar doubling the piano, or doubling the vocal, I live for that…

I'M ALWAYS SAYING THE MOST ridiculous things out loud, because that’s the only way they’ll ever happen,” explains ANDREW WATT, the 29-year-old songwriter, guitarist and producer who has charted hit singles for the likes of Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello and other modern pop stars, and is now, amazingly, the newest axe man for OZZY OSBOURNE, taking his place in a rarefied space alongside iconic shredders like Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee and Zakk Wylde. As for the “ridiculous thing” he said out loud that got him here? That involves another pop icon and frequent Watt collaborator, Post Malone — who, as the story goes, was at legendary Sunset Strip hangout the Rainbow one night when, motivated by his longtime love for the Prince of Darkness, he purchased an…

METALLICA’S members performed more than enough hijinks and shenanigans to earn their reputation for alcohol-fuelled hedonism. For the past 16 years, CHAD ZAEMISCH has been along for that ride — just don’t count on him for too many debauched stories from the road. While James Hetfield is playing the opening riffs to “Nothing Else Matters” or “Master of Puppets” to thousands of adoring fans, Zaemisch is the guy who made sure the guitar was set up, restrung and in tune, that the ever-evolving amp and effects rig was in order, that the wireless system isn’t pulling a Nigel Tufnel and that the metal god is, in general, a happy deity.…

STREET PRICES: DD-3T, $139.99; DD-200, $249.99 MANUFACTURER: Boss, boss.info The DD-3T offers identical features and sound as the beloved DD-3 but adds new tap tempo functions. The DD-3T’s direct output jack is located on the left side underneath the output jack for more convenient wet/ dry setups. The DD-200 packs many of the same features and sounds of the DD-500 in a compact package that is a little more than half the DD-500’s size. 127 user-programmable memory locations can be accessed quickly from the front panel, providing a comprehensive selection of delay effects. THE BOTTOM LINE Whether you prefer “plug and play” simplicity or a sophisticated delay unit with a vast selection of effects, the DD-3T and DD-200 offer affordable satisfaction with pro-quality sound.…

OF ALL THE guitars I’ve come across, one of my favorites is the Pallet Guitar. More than 20 years ago, Bob Taylor constructed this legendary acoustic entirely from oak pallets and scrap two-by-fours found at the back of his factory, and which still resides at Taylor Guitars. The impetus behind the guitar was to demonstrate that the builder’s craftsmanship is just as integral to a great-sounding guitar as the wood used. Fast forward to the present, and it seems this notion has grown some “green” new legs. Bob Taylor, along with master builder Andy Powers, and director of natural resource sustainability, Scott Paul, decided to explore responsible wood sourcing from trees that were being removed in the asphalt jungles and suburbs of Southern California. After partnering with a company called…

THE BURNS BUZZAROUND and Dallas Rangemaster are two of today’s most valuable vintage effects boxes for good reasons. The former was a critical element of Robert Fripp’s tone from King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” thru David Bowie’s “Heroes” and beyond; the latter helped shape the sounds of Brian May, Tony Iommi, Marc Bolan, Judas Priest and more; and both are extremely rare. Fortunately for those of us without deep pockets, Massive FX recently introduced a bunch of cool pedals inspired by these classics that deliver the original sounds and much, much more for modern fuzz fanatics and demonic distortion divas. We took a closer look at Massive’s Rangemaster redux the DallasDevilsPlay and their G.O.A.F., which starts with a Buzzaround-inspired circuit but goes well beyond. FEATURES Like the original Rangemaster,…

SIX SENSE The six-note major hexatonic scale LAST MONTH, WE looked at one of the most essential scales for improvisation, major pentatonic. Pentatonic means “five-tone,” and spelled intervallically, the scale degrees are 1(root), 2, 3, 5, 6. In the key of E, that would be E, F , G , B, C , and in the key of A, the notes are A, B, C , E, F . Every well-known and influential guitarist of the last 100 years in virtually every style of music has utilized major and minor pentatonic scales, moving seamlessly between them while soloing. I encourage everyone to learn both scales in every key and in every position of the fretboard. Equally useful, as an improvisational and compositional resource, is a six-note scale that simply adds…

“MONSTERS” Shinedown THE KEY TO recreating the rich sound of this song’s haunting, melodic riffs is to make sure the notes of each two-note chord shape ring together, as indicated by the directive let ring throughout above bar 1. During the song’s intro and verse sections, you can best accomplish the desired effect by keeping your index finger planted on the 5th string throughout, allowing all notes fretted on that string to ring as long as possible while adding your middle finger as needed for the notes on the 6th string. The one exception is for the G5 chord in bars 4 and 8, which does require a change of fingering. To further enhance the dense, full sound of his riffs heard on the recording, Shinedown lead guitarist Zach Meyers…

OZZY OSBOURNE’S 1988 album, No Rest for the Wicked, may have introduced Zakk Wylde as the Prince of Darkness’s new guitarist, but his 1991 follow-up studio album, No More Tears, is the record that established Wylde as a bona fide guitar hero. The title cut, which was released as the album’s first single, is an epic track that proved that Wylde had his own distinct voice and truly deserved to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads and Jake E. Lee. During the early Nineties, mammoth refrigerator-sized racks were all the rage with metal and hard rock guitarists, but Wylde relied on a much simpler, comparatively primitive rig to lay down his huge tones. His main setup consisted of various Gibson Les Pauls with EMG 81…

Miles Oppinger AGE: 14 HOMETOWN: Houston, TX GUITARS: Gretsch Electromatic Pro Jet, Epiphone Les Paul SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: AC/DC “You Shook Me All Night Long,” Led Zeppelin “The Ocean,” Jimi Hendrix “Purple Haze” GEAR I WANT MOST: Gibson SG Javier Carrascal AGE: 55 HOMETOWN: Las Rozas-Madrid, Spain GUITARS: Gibson Les Paul Traditional, Rickenbacker 360/6, Rickenbacker 330/12, Fender Telecaster Classic Player with Lollar pickups, Squier Jazzmaster DLX with SMJ pickups, Guild acoustic SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: Gigolo Aunts “Where I Find My Heaven,” Matthew Sweet “Someone to Pull the Trigger,” the Model Rockets “Hitchhiker Jane,” the Rubinoos “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” GEAR I WANT MOST: Gibson ES-335 Bill Sosnoski AGE: 39 HOMETOWN: Halifax, PA GUITARS: Gibson Les Paul Standard, LTD EC-1000, Epiphone SG Pro SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: Songs…

THEY’RE NOT THE kind of band that finishes a song and then delivers a rehearsed speech to the crowd. They don’t dwell on chart numbers or write music for the times. And they’re not easy to categorize. Yet Code Orange are one of the most exciting and forward-thinking new ultra-aggressive bands — and they’re not even that new. Arising from gritty Pittsburgh as Code Orange Kids in 2008 when they were barely teenagers, the group released several galvanic hardcore demos and EPs before signing to Deathwish Inc. in January 2012. Since then, they’ve released four albums, changed their name and evolved into an eclectic and sonically unpredictable band that seamlessly combines hardcore, metal, alternative, noise-rock and industrial into their contorted tunes. As complex and variegated as their music has been,…

THE FULLY HOLLOW thinline is one of the most underrated electric guitar designs of all time. Part of the problem is that the first ones were introduced in 1955 just after the solidbody electric was starting to rapidly gain momentum, and they also were soon overshadowed by thinline semi-hollow models introduced in 1958. Even so, a lot of great music has been recorded with hollowbody thinline models, including about a dozen of Chuck Berry’s earliest singles for Chess, much of the Beatles’ work and Ted Nugent’s Seventies classics. PRS is one of only a handful of companies that has offered thinline hollowbody models on a regular basis. While PRS offers an impressive variety of these models as part of their Core and Private Stock series, they recently introduced two SE…

STREET PRICE: $2,999 MANUFACTURER: Taylor Guitars, taylorguitars.com The super-dynamic and lively ES2 electronics capture the guitar’s nuanced voice, which makes it a perfect stage-friendly acoustic for fingerpicking and strumming. The Builder’s Edition 324ce combines V-Class bracing and a new “Urban Ash” tonewood, which is sourced from trees removed from urban areas. THE BOTTOM LINE: Incorporating an alternative tonewood with a warmly articulate acoustic voice, the Taylor Guitars Builder’s Edition 324ce is a stunning new instrument that is the pinnacle in comfort, tone and playability.…

STREET PRICE: DallasDevilsPlay, $174; G.O.A.F., $299 MANUFACTURER: Massive FX Pedals, massivefxpedals.com The DallasDevilsPlay’s mode switch provides classic treble booster, Tony Iommi-style scooped distortion and modern full-range sludge tones. The G.O.A.F. starts with a classic Buzzaround fuzz circuit but goes well beyond with an added octave-up effect and wider range of tones and textures aplenty. THE BOTTOM LINE: Based on two of the most valuable distortion/fuzz pedals of all time, the Massive FX DallasDevilsPlay and G.O.A.F. deliver coveted vintage tones but go well beyond with expanded tonal range and professional-quality construction.…

KISS ME DEADLY How to play the intro and opening solo to “Shut Up and Kiss Me” HELLO EVERYONE, AND welcome back to my column, School of Rock! As always, it is my hope that these lesson will inspire your playing while also expanding your musical horizons on the guitar. In this column, I’d like to focus on the intro riff and intro solo I play in “Shut Up and Kiss Me,” from the latest Whitesnake album, Flesh & Blood. The song is played in the key of E, with a chord sequence and intro solo based on the notes of the E minor pentatonic scale: E, G, A, B, D. The intro begins with a long finger slide, or “gliss” (glissando), down the low E string, from a random…

GUITAR: 1981 Gibson Les Paul Custom with EMG 81 (bridge) and EMG 85 (neck) active humbucking pickups (bridge pickup), Volume: 10, Tone: 10 AMPS: Two late-Eighties Marshall JCM800 2203 100-watt heads with 6550 tubes (Presence: 3, Bass: 10, Middle: 5, Treble: 9, Master Volume: 4, Preamp Volume: 10, High sensitivity input) into Marshall 1960B 4x12 cabinets with Celestion G12T-75 speakers EFFECTS: Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive (Level: 6.5, Tone: 5, Drive: 6.5), Boss CH-1 Super Chorus (Effect Level: 8, EQ: 5, Rate: 6, Depth: 5) *CH-1 stereo outputs to individual heads STRINGS/TUNING: GHS Boomers (.060 ## , .052 ## , .036 # , .017, .013, .010); C#, G, C, F, A, D PICK/SLIDE: Dunlop Tortex 1.14mm; chrome-plated brass…