Indholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 160 i Australian Guitar

DAVE MUSTAINE ISSUES AN UPDATE ON HIS LONG-AWAITED GIBSON LES PAUL Dave Mustaine is continuing to build on his relationship with Gibson, as the Megadeth founder has confirmed that a signature Les Paul is definitely in the works. “I love what’s going on with my Gibson relationship. I look at a lot of that stuff,” he told our sibling magazine Guitarist. “We’re doing some models, like the Flying V with 24 frets, and we’ve talked about a couple of others and are making them perfect. One of those is the Dave Mustaine Les Paul. It will play like a beast, be a 24-fret guitar, and have the heel shaved down.” Mustaine previously teased the release of the Les Paul in a 2022 interview with Songfacts, saying, “We’re working on the…

INTERVIEW Tender yet urgent, with a slight smokiness for enhancing her darker lyrics, the singing voice of Emily Wurramara is rapidly maturing. Peppered with worldly wisdom and desires from the life of the proud Warnindhilyagwa woman from Groote Eylandt, NT, Wurramara’s latest batch of songs was released on August 24 as her second album, NARA. It represents a new artistic chapter. “I’m ready to let the songs go out there in the world and do what they need to do”, she explained to Australian Guitar. Wurramara grew up around the free form musical traditions of her family, brought up on a steady diet of R&B, blues and funk. As she explains it, the improvisational traditions of these genres bestowed upon her a “real rogue” approach that influenced the making of…

Bernard Fanning and Paul Dempsey have known each other for 25 years. Since emerging from their respective hometowns of Brisbane and Melbourne in the early ‘90s, they’ve performed around 70 shows together with their bands Powderfinger and Something For Kate and also as solo artists. They didn’t start directly collaborating until 2019. The opportunity arose when Something For Kate came to record their most recent album, The Modern Medieval, with American producer Nick DiDia (Powderfinger, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam) at Fanning’s LaCueva Recording Studio in Byron Bay. Fanning was recruited on vocals for the track ‘Inside Job’. After the sessions wrapped, Fanning and Dempsey chatted about their upcoming plans before toying with the songwriting partnership that led to the creation of The Deluge. It’s not the first recording from the…

The term ‘progressive metal’ often suggests the kind of indulgent, neoclassical futurism typified by Dream Theater and Symphony X, but Norwegian quintet Leprous – arguably one of the most exciting names operating in the genre today – have chosen moods and atmospheres over sprawling overtures. The group, formed by singer/ keyboardist Einar Solberg and guitarist Tor Oddmund Suhrke in 2001, cut their teeth early on as the live band for Ihsahn, the man who famously pioneered the symphonic black metal sound through his work in Emperor. Such an opportunity during the band’s embryonic years benefitted them greatly in terms of musical development and helped sharpen their collective tools of the trade. “We don’t sound like those technical progressive bands with all the fast leads ”, Tor says. “Our music is…

THE LAST DINNER PARTY They formed only three years ago, but in that short space of time The Last Dinner Party have become one of the most exciting new rock acts of the modern age. Their first full-length, released back in February andtitled Prelude To Ecstasy, ended up topping the UK album charts – becoming the first Britishrockdebut todo so since Royal Blood burst onto the scene adecade ago. “It was very unexpected,” admits lead guitarist Emily Roberts. “I never thought that would be a reality… it’s crazy!” It only takes one listen to the album, however, to appreciate why it was such an important release for this year. Combining elements of Kate Bush, David Bowie and Queen into a sound that feels completely new and unique, they’re the kind…

IN HIS BOOK, Outliers: The Story of Success, author Malcolm Gladwell asserts that at least 10,000 hours of practice are required to excel at any given skill. If that’s indeed the case, Australian guitar maestro Tommy Emmanuel certainly has a lot more than that under his belt. One of only five guitarists to be bestowed the title “Certified Guitar Player” by the legendary Chet Atkins — a “C.G.P.” inlay marks the 12th fret of his signature TE series Maton guitars -Emmanuel is a master of precision, control, touch and tone, with a signature style honed by decades of writing and interpreting a vast array of songs, while relentlessly refining his technique. It would be a daunting task to try to cover the totality of Emmanuel’s style in one lesson, as he…

FEATURE Gone are the days of the inferior bedroom producer. As production gear and software becomes evermore affordable, spare rooms become more viable alternatives to Abbey Road. Whether your homemade productions are for sharing with bandmates, seducing industry professionals or official releases, the tech is more accessible than ever – but making your music stand out in a saturated market isn’t. With so many variables to selfrecording and mixing guitars, as well as a raft of conflicting information online, we sat down with esteemed producers George Lever (Sleep Token, Loathe, Monuments) and Forrester Savell (Karnivool, Tesseract, Caligula’s Horse) to learn about what to do, and what not do, to make your productions pop. BEFORE RECORDING Like everything, preparation is key. Savell stresses the importance of players learning their parts before…

At the start of a long gone decade marked by sociopolitical upheaval, The Saints began to blaze their trail as one of the world’s first punk bands. Like The Stooges and MC5, they were another young group distilling their adrenaline, anger and anxiety into songs that hit speakers like sledgehammers to the hippy movement. After becoming schoolmates in Brisbane, vocalist Chris Bailey, guitarist Ed Kuepper and drummer Ivor Hay first collaborated in 1973 - the same year AC/DC were formed. With Hay back on drums after Jeffery Wegener departed, bassist Kym Bradshaw joined. The first and most famous iteration of The Saints began to capture their lightning in a bottle in 1976. Through a few abrasive minutes of buzzsaw guitar and snarling vocals, palpable feelings of Aussie alienation were distilled…

INTERVIEW “Vulnerability can be your greatest strength”, explains Claire Anne Taylor. The eleven songs on her third album Giving It Away exemplify this. While songwriting for this album, Taylor’s world was rocked when her 14-month-old son was diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome. While the genetic condition isn’t life-threatening, it’s incurable. In the depths of her resulting depression, having written a few new songs, the album’s titular track first arrived in her mind. It became a means to shed her drinking to cope, the guilt this resulted in, and her former sense of childlike innocence in a world that always seemed to work out for the better. “There’s a part of me that’s broken now since we found out the news”, croons Taylor on the song, alone at a piano, with characteristically…

DAVID GILMOUR PLAYERS | DAVID GILMOUR PROLIFIC IS NOT the word we use to describe David Gilmour, at least not when it comes to putting out music. His new album, Luck and Strange (Sony), comes nearly nine years after its predecessor, Rattle That Lock, which likewise ended a nine-year wait (although to be fair, he’d been working on the posthumous Pink Floyd set The Endless River, which came out the year before). Gilmour’s never been one to crank ’em out, of course, and since Floyd’s final tour, in 1994, he’s given us just three studio sets. “I don’t have a huge ambition any more,” Gilmour, now 78, told us during the Rattle That Lock campaign. “In past years there was a lot of thinking about the career and wanting to achieve…

Having grown up as a fan of Queen, Emily felt it was a no-brainer to accept the role of Brian May in a Queen tribute act, with plans to perform on cruises and beyond. And while she performed with them once before the pandemic put an end to their plans, eventually leading her to The Last Dinner Party, it was an experience that she learned from greatly. “I was around 21 or 22 years old when someone messaged me on Facebook about being Brian May in that band,” she explains. “I thought, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I loved Queen and knew it would be fun to learn all the solos and parts. Then the pandemic happened. We only did one gig in the end, at a Queen convention near Hull. It…

1. KNOW YOUR BODY TYPES If you’re shopping for an acoustic, realise that the different shapes and sizes of body are not only about what’s most comfortable, but also what style of music they most suit. Dreadnoughts are the goto for big strumming and bluegrass picking, while smaller bodies are often better for bringing out delicate fingerstyle parts. That said, if you love a particular guitar, don’t be put off if it isn’t the standard choice for your genre. Just be aware of the different sounds each shape can produce. 2. CHANGE YOUR PICK GAUGE Changing your pick is the most direct way to change your tone. The thickness and the shape of the tip both impact the sound. Generally, thinner picks have more attack and less of the fundamental…

AC/DC Formed in 1973 in Sydney, Australia by Scottish born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young, AC/DC need little in the way of introduction. There have been various lineup changes in the band, most notably Brian Johnson taking over as lead vocalist in 1980 following Bon Scott’s death, and Stevie Young taking over rhythm guitar duties from Malcolm in 2014. For our purposes, Angus and Malcolm represent the bedrock of the AC/DC sound. Angus Young’s influences range from Muddy Waters, Freddie King and Chuck Berry – and you can probably hear a kind of turbo-charged version of Chuck’s rock ’n’ roll style in Angus’ soloing approach. Malcolm was influenced by many of the same players, but it’s his rock solid rhythm guitar sound that was the foundation of AC/DC. Keeping this…

REVIEW If you’ve listened to a podcast over the last 10 years, then you’ll likely have heard the work of the Shure SM7B, which has become the go-to speech microphone of its era. Building on the legacy of the SM7B, the SM7dB, which we’re looking at today, aims to increase its capabilities by introducing a built-in preamp, offering up to +28dB of gain, making it, in theory, more usable across a variety of different applications. The SM7dB aims to simplify the recording process by essentially eliminating the need for external preamps. This feature is particularly beneficial for users with audio interfaces that lack sufficient gain, as it ensures optimal sound levels without additional (or more expensive) equipment. Less background hiss at higher levels, and a much cleaner sound available for…

REVIEW Epiphone has expanded its Inspired by Gibson Custom range, and in doing so has arguably narrowed the gap in quality between these guitars and those of the parent company. At the same time, Epiphone has expanded its offering of periodcorrect models, which so far has included renditions of the J-45, J-180 and SJ-200 acoustics. The new lineup features the 1959 Les Paul Standard, Les Paul Custom, 1963 Les Paul SG Custom, and the two more exotic offerings, reviewed here, the 1963 Firebird V and 1959 ES-355. While the majority of Epiphone’s guitars have been “inspired by Gibson” models since it was absorbed by its parent company in 1957, the series represents a much closer collaboration between the Chinese-made guitars and the luthiers of Gibson’s Nashville-based Custom department. The twofold…

INTERVIEW “I love a sunburnt country”, proclaims Doc Neeson in an acrid croak at the start of The Angels’ ‘Northwest Highway’ from 1998’s Skin & Bone. A pummeling guitar riff from the Brewster brothers kicks in, sending Dorothea Mackellar’s opening line to dusty antiquity. Now a thing of the past itself, the album it opened was the last Angels release to feature Neeson, who was killed by a brain tumour in 2014. Many tributes came flooding in for the Belfast-born frontman, who is remembered for his towering stage presence, his theatrical performances, and the songs he helped to write. One year prior, longtime Angels bassist Chris Bailey also died, from cancer. Back in 2008 after an eight year break-up, legalities about band name rights were quelled with an uneasy reformation…

INTERVIEW Named after a river near the house of their frontman-guitarist Cal Kramer, in the sleepy Perth suburb of Thornlie, The Southern River Band were placed in the global limelight last year by Justin Hawkins. In a video on his popular YouTube channel, The Darkness’ frontman praised the group as ‘a proper fucking rock band’. They’ve now performed with The Darkness at Warwick Castle in the UK. As Kramer explains with immense gratitude, “it’s not something that happens every day…especially to a bunch of fucking idiots from Thornlie”. Returning to Australia in mid-July after touring rigorously through the UK and Europe, The Southern River Band released their second studio album, D.I.Y, on August 16. Suitably, it was a homemade job recorded by the quartet’s other guitarist Dan Carroll at Rada…

DADGAD First up is the ever popular DADGAD tuning. It’s harmonically somewhat ‘ambiguous’ because it contains stable-sounding perfect 4ths (G), perfect 5ths (A) and the root note (D) – but no 3rds to make it major or minor. Strummed all at once, the open strings are a big, bold Dsus4 chord. It’s a de facto standard alternative to traditional E standard (EADGBE) tuning amongst fingerpickers and percussive players alike. Open D (D A D F# A D) Our next tuning is open D (aka D A D F# A D). As with DADGAD, drop the sixth string down a tone to D, then drop the first and second strings down a tone to D and A, respectively. The final step is to drop the G string down a semitone to…

REVIEW The fact that several of our own magazine and website staff have owned and gigged the original Player Series guitars is testament to how much Fender got right in 2018, when they replaced the previous Standard range. So, following in the footsteps of the US-built American Vintage II Strat and Tele, these models from Ensenada, Baja California were eagerly awaited. Most obvious of version two changes is a choice of new colours. Among the various models are four original Fender custom finishes that had lain undiscovered in the vaults, so it’s great to see something other than the same old suspects (we love them, too, of course). Our Tele’s finish is called Birch Green, while the Strat is Hialeah Yellow and with its tinted maple neck, white/black/white pickguard, yellowed…

REVIEW The acoustic guitar has never been more popular. Even before Covid gave everyone a reason and the time to take up a hobby (and acoustic guitar sales took off), the resurgence of the acoustic guitar, following MTV’s Unplugged presentations, has brought new ideas and technologies into play. The tragics talk about the guitar’s Golden Era: the late 1920s to the early-1940s. But that period has nothing on what has been happening over the last couple of decades. Guitars have never been better, never been cheaper, and there’s never been so many options: like interesting timber choices, great hardware, excellent pickups, and dedicated acoustic guitar amps. For four decades, Larry Fishman has been serving the needs of guitar players with great sounding and innovative pickups and, lately, amplifiers. His pickups…

“I would say it’s one of the important ones,” Ian Anderson remarks of Jethro Tull’s 1971 hard-rock classic. “It’s an enduring live performance piece, but it’s also important in terms of its prescient subject matter based on a runaway train of population growth and globalism. I’m pleased about that.” IN THE SHUFFLING MADNESS Throughout 1970, Jethro Tull fit recording sessions for their fourth studio album, Aqualung, around their hectic touring schedule, with the majority of their roadwork taking place in America. “We were quite busy in those days, so I would grab what time I could, usually a few hours before soundcheck, to collect songs for the album,” Anderson recalls. “The opening to ‘Locomotive Breath’ came to me while strumming an acoustic guitar as I sat in my room in…