Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2019 i Total Guitar

Do you remember your first pedal? Mine was bought from a college friend, a plasticky distortion by an obscure brand I can’t even remember the name of. And it lasted about two weeks before it stopped working. But I can still remember how it felt to kick that thing in with my red Marlin Slammer on Smells Like Teen Spirit. It probably didn’t sound very good, but to my teenage ears back then it sounded huge. And it opened a door to possibilities. Pedals are like catnip for guitarists, and they allow us to trade up and tinker with our tone, and there’s always something we have to buy right around the corner. My recent journey to the Winter Namm show (more on p36) proved just how healthy the pedal…

GEAR New Classics Fender have revised the whole Squier Classic Vibe line with 13 retro guitar and bass models. All the instruments are fitted with new Fender-designed pickups and the slim C-neck profile. The range includes a 70s Custom and Deluxe Tele (the latter pictured with period correct oversized Strat headstock), 70s Jaguar, Bass VI and a 60s Mustang. Prices range from £359 to £439. GEAR The Axe Factory The guitar interface market is showing no signs in slowing down in its quest for your cash, and the latest from IK Multimedia has some interesting controls. The Axe I/O (£369) has a pickup selector to help deal with active pickups to remove the extra gain stages you don’t need for tracking. The JFET switch offers added saturation and warmth and…

More a loosely-defined sound than full-fat genre, shoegaze emerged during the late 80s as a strain of rock music characterised by its unusual guitar tones. Taking the scorched-earth pop of groups like The Velvet Underground and The Jesus & Mary Chain and feeding the guitar parts through a meat-grinder of effects and feedback, shoegaze created a dreamy soundscape awash with white noise – what shoegaze bigwig Kevin Shields once described as “the opposite of rock’n’roll”. Whatever you call it, here are the cuts worth checking out...…

Value Electro-Harmonix Soul Food £76 Most guitarists are aware of the mythology of the Klon Centaur, a superlative transparent overdrive that goes for obscene prices on the used market. EHX head honcho Mike Matthews set himself the task of creating an affordable alternative with the Soul Food, which offers a tasty range of dynamic low-to-mid-range drive tones – it stacks beautifully, too. Boutique Origin Effects RevivalDrive £459 It doesn’t get much higher-end than this ridiculously fully featured offering from the UK’s own Origin Effects. You may baulk at the price, but this robust stompbox recreates a valve-style signal path to serve up just about every British and American amp tone you could dream up – a range of mid boosts, gain staging and amp-matching filter controls ensure this is the…

Value Electro-Harmonix Oceans 11 £127 You have to fork out a fair amount for a good feature-rich reverb pedal, and EHX’s compact take is one of the best out there. It features the usual hall and spring modes, but excels at more ethereal settings, such as reverse, shimmer and auto-infinite. You can even double-tap the footswitch in spring mode to recreate the effect of kicking an amp with reverb springs. Neat. Boutique Strymon BigSky £449 You’ll have seen this crop up in countless rig tours, but Strymon’s crowning glory is pretty much the ultimate realisation of reverb in a pedal. Twelve ‘reverb machines’ are onboard, which can be comprehensively tweaked via the BigSky’s deep onboard editing. The textures you can create are jaw-dropping; add in the Infinite Sustain and Freeze…

Value Ibanez Analog Delay Mini £75 The AD9 is a classic proponent of dark, analogue repeats, and the Analog Delay Mini recaptures that sound in a mini-pedal format. Like the original – and unlike many other mini pedals – this is a legit analogue delay, with times spanning 20-600ms and repeats that degrade the longer the time is set. There’s no better mini analogue delay. Boutique MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe £199 The Carbon Copy gave the analogue delay market a shot in the arm when it was launched back in 2008, and this new launched Deluxe version bumps up the feature set considerably. There are up to 1.2 seconds of time, plus tap tempo with tap division, the choice of bright and dark repeats, and modulation, complete with speed and…

Value Electro-Harmonix Neo Clone £59 The Small Clone’s watery swirl was a favourite of Kurt Cobain, best heard on Nirvana classic Come As You Are, and this downsized reincarnation nails its lush analogue sweeps for cheap. Despite its limited control array, the Neo Clone is surprisingly versatile, going from subtle shimmers to Leslie-style wobble with just a depth switch and a rate knob. Boutique Boss CE-2W £189 Boss’s CE-1 and CE-2 set the standard for chorus pedals at the tail-end of the 70s, and the reissued CE-2W revives both those pedal’s BBD-enabled analogue tones, with a number of new features. The CE-2W includes a stereo output, plus vibrato settings for fully wet pitch variations, all the while maintaining the trademark CE-2 warmth and sheen with which it made its name.…

The history of music is littered with artists creating outlandish onstage personas, courting controversy and exploring taboos, with early wild rockers Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Arthur ‘god of hellfire’ Brown and ‘godfather of shock-rock’ Alice Cooper influencing acts like Kiss, Misfits, GWAR, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and more. Musically speaking, hard rock and metal are at the core, with distorted powerchord riffs and dissonant harmonies backing up the special effects, costumes and pyrotechnics of live shows. Songwriters will need to think about glam, art rock and industrial metal too – shock-rock isn’t so much a musical style as an umbrella label. Inspired by a handful of the greats, this month’s jam track is a medium-paced, shuffle feel tune that provides a perfect canvas for heavy riffs and extended solos. As ever,…

Songwriting is a brutal art. There’s no practice schedule, no spiritual accommodations, no dietary regime and certainly no lucky underwear that’ll guarantee safe and swift passage for your every musical idea. Sure, some songs come easy. They’re the exception; you’ve got to be prepared to suffer. David Gray is. But then you get the impression he enjoys it. Take Tight Ship, from his latest album, Gold In A Brass Age. Here was a puzzle that took 18 months to solve. “I had a million different ideas and they were all far too pretentious and up their own arse,” he laughs. As it happened, one line resolved the song lyrically and now it’s on the album. That’s songwriting for you. It takes as long as it takes. Little wonder Gold... was…

1 ZILLA KEMPER HEAD SHELLS Ever wished your Kemper Profiler looked a little more… amp-like? Or wanted to give it protection from knocks onstage? Zilla Cabs reckons it’s developed the answer with its KPA head shells. Designed to sit on top of traditional guitar cabs, the Kemper shells feature the same box joints as Zilla’s other cabs, and are worked, glued and sanded by hand. The shell adds 4kg to the Kemper, measures 410mm x 243mm x 226mm, and is available in a wide range of Tolex colours. (£150, zillacabs.com) 2 MXR MINI ISO-BRICK MXR has shrunk its Iso-Brick down to seriously compact proportions while retaining those all-important isolated outputs. Four 300mA 9V outs are onboard, while the fifth can be set to provide 9 or 18V at a whopping…

1 BURLY A burl is technically a cut of deformed wood, and its look is divisive, but we can most definitely dig it 2 NECK Schecter’s Ultra Thin C neck profile certainly is slim, but it’s reinforced by carbon fibre rods for increased tuning stability 3 PICKUPS Schecter’s own-brand Diamond Decimator humbuckers are direct-mounted to the body for increased resonance and sustain Shred guitars come in all shapes and sizes, but a recent trend has seen the rise of the burl top – yep, that’s that freaky cosmic finish you see on Schecter’s latest Indonesian speed machine. The term actually refers to deformed wood, hence the wide variety of grains all over the top – underneath is a more conventional mahogany body. But while the look is highly likely to…

It’s a long way to the shops if you wanna rock’n’roll on a double-cut, mahogany body, humbucker-loaded guitar. That’s why we picked four of the best examples for you to shortlist before you set off. The LTD Viper-400M stands out from the crowd as the shredder’s dream. We reckon that’s where most examples will find their forever homes. Of course, if you happen to love a super-satin top offset by the rest of the guitar’s gloss finish slim neck but don’t sweep-pick or tap, the pickup choices give the Viper appeal beyond your classic ESP/LTD customer base. We also have to salute this guitar’s exceptional build and finish quality. The Yamaha RS620 and Guild S-100 are the pretty boys. We love the former’s satin and gloss finish combination and the…

CHRIS BIRD TG’s tuition editor has been jamming along with Richard Barrett’s backing audio for this month’s Classic Track (p66). “Still Got The Blues? Still got the blisters more like!” wails Mr B, “Gary’s solo is immense.” Time to let those fingers cool off and engage your feet with this month’s stompbox cover feature! MIKE ASTLEY-BROWN Mike is recovering from a heady bout of NAMMitis – an overindulgence of tasty gear, free buffets and too much coffee from the press area. Still, it fuelled his coverage for MusicRadar.com  where he nabbed an interview with new Gibson CEO James ‘JC’ Curleigh, and Ed Sheeran for a cheeky press conference grilling. ALEX LYNHAM Our pedal guru has proved invaluable for this issue’s cover feature. But what’s his favourite pedal? “I’m…

1966 Fellow Yardbird Jeff Beck gives Page the ’59 Tele and he uses it with the band. 1967 Page decorates it with eight circular mirrors. 1968 The guitarist paints the dragon artwork and uses it on Led Zeppelin I. 1969 A friend of Page’s strips the guitar back in a move the guitarist later recounts as a “disaster”. 1971 Page tracks three improvised solos with the Tele during the recording of Stairway To Heaven. 2018 Page approaches Fender about recreating his now restored Dragon Tele. “It’s so absolutely as it is, as it should be and as it was,” he says.…

1 “This is my signature guitar with a maker in Germany, called Andreas Cuntz. An amazing independent builder from the south of Frankfurt. This is a modification of his Indian Rose [CWG23s+] model, it’s available as the Mike Dawes model and there are a few things that make it a bit different.” 2 “Here we have Indian rosewood back and sides with beautiful quilted maple binding. A 38-year-old sitka spruce top and there’s beautiful bearclaw and some grain visible as well. There’s a very minimalistic Indian rosewood rosette.” 3 “Electronically, there are four pickups with this guitar. It’s a little bit unusual as there’s a lot more stuff going on inside the guitar than most regular steel string guitars. We have a DiMarzio piezo that’s stuck under the bridge plate,…

You’re used to counting along with music to stay in time, right? Well, in 7/4 you’ll be counting to seven to keep time. Simple enough, but the trick is knowing which beats to emphasise. Listen to Dream Theater’s Solitary Shell and Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill – both great examples of 7/4 time and with a similar feel: just count ‘1 2 3 1 2 3 4’; the emphasis is on the ‘1’s. Also make sure to check out Steve Vai’sDie To Live and Broken Social Scene’s7/4 (Shoreline). Again, these are in 7/4, but, with a ‘1 2 3 4 1 2 3’ count, the rhythmic emphasis is different. Read on and we’ll explain all. 1 7/4 TIME BASICS TRACK 11 With seven beats in every bar, counting in time in…

If you had a mission statement for what you want to achieve with Gibson, what would it be? “When you think about Gibson, the story is our mission. I mean, we’ve been synonymous with creating, shaping and, quite frankly, owning sound for every generation, every genre, every gender, for 125 years. And so for us, the mission is really, ‘How do we continue to shape and create and deliver… own the share of sound going forward?’ And when you step back, you say, ‘Okay, so the vision for Gibson should be that we want to be the most relevant, we want to be the most played, and the most-loved guitar brand and music instrument company.’” What can we expect in 2019? “I think the first thing was really just to…

Value Boss DS-1 Distortion £52 The DS-1 is a classic for a reason: beloved by Joe Satriani and Steve Vai and Kurt Cobain, it’s the original distortion pedal and available for a very reasonable outlay. It produces a highly saturated tone that also cleans up nicely with your guitar’s volume knob. For a more polished version of this classic effect, look to modded incarnations from boutique builders such as Keeley or JHS. Boutique Friedman BE-OD £199 Based on amp-building legend Dave Friedman’s all-conquering BE-100 head, the BE-OD nails the Marshall-on-fire high-gain tones with which the company made its name. Packing top-notch definition and musical character across a wide gain range, the pedal also offers controls for bass, treble, presence and tight, enabling you to nail the distortion sound you’re after.…

Value TC Electronic Flashback 2 £99 With recent price drops, TC’s ultra-flexible compact delay is now an absolute bargain. A host of faithfully replicated delay types are married to TC’s innovative new MASH footswitch – essentially an onboard expression pedal. Then there’s the excellent new shimmer tones and, of course, TC’s TonePrint Editor, which allows you to go unfathomably deep into designing your own delay sounds. Boutique Boss DD-500 £291 Boss is the pioneer of digital delay pedals – and any of its compact offerings come highly recommended – but the DD-500 is the pinnacle of its efforts. Its 12 delay types can all be edited to your heart’s content via the LCD screen, and they deliver tonally, too; pristine repeats, analogue-style echoes and syncopated rhythmic patterns are all there…

If you’ve ever heard Know Your Enemy or the solo for Guerrilla Radio by Rage Against The Machine, then you’ve heard the distinctive sound of a guitar kill switch. Whether it’s the square-wave tremolo sound of the former, or the more ad-hoc signal cutting of the latter, both of these techniques, and other far more glitchy ones, can also be executed with a floor-based footswitch. Not only is a momentary kill switch one of the simplest DIY circuits you can make, or even buy as a pedal, but there’s a range of options to purchase with every imaginary combination of momentary and latching, often for not much more than the price of a guitar strap. 01 Electro-Harmonix Chill Switch £42  ehx.com 02 EP-4926-000 Momentary Kill Switch £8.50  allparts.uk.com 03 JHS…

Value Valeton Coral MDR £69 MDR stands for Modulation Delay Reverb – a truly impressive array of options from such a small enclosure. Onboard are a pair of phasers, flangers and tremolos, which can all be tap-tempo’d via the pedal’s footswitch. The knobs are tiny, making setting the MDR a little tricky, but with a load of chorus, delay and reverb chucked in, too, it’s hard to argue at this price. Boutique Strymon Mobius £395 Strymon has become a byword for FX perfection, and the Mobius is no different. 12 modulation types are onboard – and, like the BigSky with reverbs, here’s plenty of extreme tweakability on hand. We’re talking six types of phaser, a sextet of flangers, plus more radical offerings like the autoswell fade-in/mod effect, bonkers Quadrature filter…

At the end of the 80s Irish blues-rocker Gary Moore would return to his first musical love: the blues. His seminal 1990 album Still Got The Blues featured white-hot soloing alongside contributions from greats George Harrison, Albert King and Albert Collins. The incredible solo on the album’s title track was Gary’s sound test – a single-take blast of such blazing majesty that it would earn a permanent spot in the final mix. Aim for a tidy but expressive feel during the main melodies but improvise around Gary’s faster licks in the solos – omitting a note or two can make those tough lines easier to play. Gary used a high-gain tone, but would back off the intensity using the guitar’s volume control in the intro. We’ve also marked another tonal…

Cutting his teeth in the 70s and 80s with jazz-fusioneers LA Express and Yellowjackets, Robben Ford would go on to become a prolific solo guitarist, releasing numerous albums. Having also played sideman to the likes of Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis and Kiss, he can truly be described as the archetypal jazz, rock and blues guitarist. Often compared to Larry Carlton, Robben plays with a rockier edge. Equally happy with humbucking pickups or single coils, Robben has played a variety of Gibsons and Fenders throughout his career – he’s perhaps best known for his double-cut, twin-humbucker signature Fender based on the Esprit model. And, though he owns many classic amps (including the supposedly mythic Dumble Overdrive Special), Fender Twins and Super Reverbs are often found in his backline. Robben…

1 POWER SWITCHING The Studio Classic’s standby switch provides 20-watt and five-watt output power options. It’s loud by any comparison, with plenty of volume to handle most gigs 2 INPUTS The high-sensitivity input jack is the gateway to classic JCM800 tone; the low gain option provides all the headroom you need for effects pedals 3 EFFECTS LOOP The simple series effects loop is great for hooking up chorus or delay pedals and can be switched out of circuit if it isn’t needed If you always wanted to own a classic Marshall stack, but were put off by the sheer power and weight, your prayers have been answered by the folk at Marshall, who just unveiled the new Studio range, featuring three scaled-down 20-watt versions of some of Marshall’s most famous…

BODY: Mahogany w/ burl top NECK: 3-piece maple, w/ carbon fibre reinforcement rods SCALE: 648mm (25.5") FINGERBOARD: Wenge FRETS: 24 PICKUPS:2x Schecter Diamond Decimator humbuckers CONTROLS: 1x volume w/ push/pull coil-split, 1x tone, 3-way pickup selector switch HARDWARE: Schecter hardtail bridge w/ through-body stringing, Graph Tech XL Black Tusq nut LEFT-HANDED: No FINISH: Charcoal Burst (as reviewed), Aurora Burst, Aqua Burst CASE: None supplied CONTACT: Westside Distribution schecterguitars.com…

The sharp, tight slapback echoes of spring reverbs, such as the classic Fender 6G15 outboard reverb tank defined the sound of surf guitar. Before the spread of tape echo units, reverb was the first real ‘sound effect’ available that drastically altered the guitar signal, as tremolo is really just a change of the signal amplitude, and distortion and fuzz merely clip the signal. Lots of weird and wonderful guitar effects would follow, of course, but spring reverb is ground zero – and it remains a crucial addition for country, surf and indie guitarists to this day. In this month’s pedal round-up, we’ve pulled together a few of our favourite recent spring reverb releases to see which of them come the closest to that authentic slapback that we’re seeking. TC Electronic…

Got my first real six-string… “THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION IS THAT I’M THIS MECHANICAL SHRED MACHINE THAT HAS NO FEEL...” “I still have my first guitar – it was this cheap classical that my dad got me, made by Valencia. I was stuck with it for a few years before I got an electric. I don’t know if it’s the same in England, but in Greece parents would always start their kids on classical before moving on. So I got lessons in this small neighbourhood music school and my teacher Maria was an absolute sweetheart. She could play piano, guitar and accordion and was able to teach the kids pretty much anything.” There goes my hero… “My dad used to play Frampton Comes Alive! on vinyl a lot, so that ended…

Kiszka has a simple setup including a 1961 Les Paul (in fact, a first generation SG – known in ’61 as a ‘Les Paul SG’) and a Marshall Astoria 1x12 combo. Select a bridge position humbucker, raise your amp’s midrange and treble, and, for an authentic vibe, keep the gain low but crank the volume. If you’re playing at neighbour-friendly levels you’ll lose that seductive power amp valve saturation, so try lifting the gain a little to compensate. Finally, add plenty of reverb for ambience – Kiszka uses an EHX Holy Grail Nano.…

1 GIBSON EXPLORER “I decided to leave my old Ibanez Destroyer at home because it’s quite valuable and I didn’t want it to get messed up on the road… plus I love Explorers. I own about three in total and there’s something about having that big piece of wood, which might just help when it comes to tone! They look cool too, which doesn’t hurt. It could be the James Hetfield in me, all those hours spent learning songs of Kill ‘Em All like Seek & Destroy. I had a chance to buy a Korina model about 10 years ago, but it was really quite expensive. Now I wish I could go back and get it!” 2 GIBSON ES-335 “I own a few 335s including the black one I used…

Value TC Electronic Spark Mini £49 This diddy offering from TC offers up to 20dB of clean boost via an all-analogue circuit, which means you can really slam your amp’s front-end, or use it as a smaller boost for solos. The coolest feature is the pedal’s PrimeTime switching, which detects when you hold your foot on the switch for a momentary boost, or whether you want it permanently on. Perfect for those ‘eat this!’ moments of lead-fill excess. Boutique MXR Echoplex Preamp £139 The original Echoplex EP-3 tape delay was used by countless pro players not just as an echo, but also as a tone-shaper, with the likes of Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen and Eric Johnson all extolling its virtues as a boost. MXR’s recreation of that effect’s preamp…

Value Electro-Harmonix Nano Big Muff Pi £67 When it comes to high-gain fuzz sounds, the Big Muff is hard to beat. This Nano incarnation harnesses the iconic NYC sound in a compact enclosure, offering massive sustain and a thick, woolly attack. The pedal’s chainsaw grind works wonders in recordings. Boutique EarthQuaker Devices Hoof Fuzz £185 Based on the green Russian Muff variant, this boasts a number of features taking it to next level fuzzdom. It pairs the silicon transistors with germanium transistors, which is what you’d find in many vintage, lower-gain fuzzes. A Shift control to adjust the amount of mids is the icing on the cake. Unique Orange Fur Coat £119 Octave fuzz is a variant of the effect, adding an additional octave up to the signal and, in…

Value Fender The Bends £99 Fender’s recent foray into effects pedals produced a number of stars, but none more so than this bargainous compressor. This is a simple, to-the-point squeezer that doesn’t mess with your core tone. Recovery dials in how quickly the compression hits, while blend allows you to balance your dry and compressed signal. Drive and level controls also allow you to boost your amp. Boutique Empress Compressor£249 If you really want the most transparent compressor on the market, you don’t have to look any further than the Empress. This studio-grade offering isn’t for the faint of heart: it offers full control over attack and release, plus three compression ratios, just like the plugins on your DAW. Handily, an onboard meter also shows how much squash you’re delivering…

Value DigiTech Whammy£149 The iconic red treadle heard across legendary recordings by the likes of Rage Against The Machine, Radiohead and The White Stripes remains the best pitch-shifter on the market in terms of tonality and tracking. The latest incarnation features polyphonic and classic modes, ranging from a Killing In The Name two-octave squeal to a three-octave-down divebomb, plus octave doubling and harmonies. An essential purchase for players seeking to step outside the norm. Boutique DigiTech FreqOut £124 One of the standout pedal releases of recent years, the FreqOut is the only stompbox that really nails realistic feedback sounds at any volume. Gain and onset knobs allow you to adjust how much feedback hits your signal and how long it takes to kick off, while a type control switches between…

One of many singles from Biffy Clyro’s hugely successful album Only Revolutions, Many Of Horror is a great lesson in fingerstyle playing. And, though the original recording is played on electric, it’s ripe for an acoustic treatment. Simon Neil’s intro is a classic case of developing independence between the thumb (which essentially just plays the sixth string) and your first and second fingers (which flesh out the chords). Start slowly and focus on the first two bars, which outline the main patterns for you. We’ve provided ‘pima’ style picking directions in the tab below. The track also features 10th interval chords (made infamous in Blackbird by The Beatles). These chords allow you to move up and down the fretboard using only two shapes – one major and one minor. The…

Welcome to the GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome*) Station! Every issue, TG scours the market for the hottest new gear and brings you transparent reviews that you can trust. From the smallest of accessories that make your life easier, to big investments such as brand new guitars, amps and effects pedals – if it’s worth your attention, you’ll find it here! HOW WE TEST CURATION Our product selection is driven by our love of gear. We select the most exciting products on the market every month to bring you opinions you can trust. FACE-VALUE REVIEWS We’re not gear snobs here at Total Guitar. We judge it on whether it looks good, sounds good and plays well – not by the name on the headstock. NO SNAKE OIL You won’t find us…

While the 2203 and 2204 models had been around since 1975 as master-volume versions of the original four-input 1959 and 1987 Super Lead heads, 1981 marked the end of Marshall’s 15-year distribution partnership with Rose-Morris. The amp range got a bold redesign to mark the occasion with full-width gold control panels, black elephant vinyl and white piping – the now iconic style. The JCM800 designation came simply from Jim Marshall’s initials and his personal number plate. Bigger filter capacitors gave the JCM800 a harder edge that was a perfect match for heavy metal and hard rock, which exploded in the 1980s. This was the era of hair metal in the States and the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal when bands like Mötley Crüe and Saxon ruled the airwaves, and…

1 SHAPE The A in the name here refers to PRS’s Angelus cutaway body shape – somewhere between a grand concert meets OM that still feels fairly big – while the 55 reflects the wood combination; a quilted maple back and sides 2 NUT AND SADDLE Both are bone, as we’d expect on an acoustic at this price point, and help aide the sustain and resonance 3 BRACING PRS’s bracing is a hybrid of the traditional and most common X shape with classical to deliver a “resonant top with stiff and reflective back and sides”. That’s pretty much the aim for most acoustics to be fair, and it manifests as a bright and clear tonality here From bracing to bridge pins, there are a lot of variables involved with acoustic…

MIKE HAND-WIRED THE FIRST RUN, INCLUDING ONE FOR JIMI HENDRIX The Muff Fuzz was so named by EHX founder Mike Matthews because of its “muffled sound”, and the Big Muff was a big box, three-control evolution of that first circuit. Designed by Bell Labs engineer Roger Myer – not to be confused with Roger Mayer, of Octavia fame – the original perfboard version was released in 1969, with Mike hand-wiring much of the first run, including one for Jimi Hendrix. Because of its triangular control layout, this came to be known as the ‘triangle’ Big Muff. Although the originals differ greatly, with as many as 17 different versions and sets of component values known, this reissue is the authoritative modern version. With all that history, and such a wide range…

The first song I remember noticing… The Muppet Show Theme– Jim Henson / Sam Pottle “TV was the only way I would’ve heard music when I was a kid and this was my favourite show. Watching episodes back now it’s amazing to see how great the music and performances were, so I’m sure the Muppets had a big influence on my appreciation of music.” The tune that made me want to play… Now I’m Here–Queen “When I was a little kid I pretty much exclusively listened to my Queen Greatest Hits cassette. I remember being particularly fascinated by the main riff in Now I’m Here and I needed to find out how that was done with a guitar.” The first song I learned… La Bamba – Ritchie Valens The first…