Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i Guitar World

AS YOU CAN (hopefully?) tell by the cover, this issue is an ode to the Eighties — i.e. the guitarists, gear and other stuff that made it unlike any other decade before or since. But I’m not gonna talk about the Eighties in this column (BTW, that’s me in the Eighties... over to the right). After all, what more is there to say? Brad Tolinski’s feature on page 28 sets the tone nicely — plus I do enough Eighties chattering on pages 44, 47, 48, 51 and 53. Instead, I’m gonna talk about the previous decade! For the past nine-ish years (except 2020 and ’21), one of my bands has performed a charity show at an old theater in NYC. Each year, we play a Beatles album plus some other…

Black Map Melodoria (Minus Head) SOUND San Francisco’s Black Map are a power trio with a sound redolent of Eighties U2 cut through with a hint of shoegaze and a hefty dose of post-hardcore riff ’n’ groove. Former dredg guitarist Mark Engles’ heavily processed, delay-rich tone paints technicolor sonic soundscapes with a unique melodic sensibility and emotional depth. KEY TRACK “Super Deluxe” Baabes Baabes (Riot Records) SOUND Boston garage/punk-band Baabes’ first album mixes classic Stooges-fuelled punk rock with elements of New York Dolls sleaze to deliver a visceral, effervescent, heart-pumping record overflowing with killer hooks aligned to wryly amusing lyrics. Frankie Sinn’s minimalist, riff-centric guitar assault delivers equal parts Wayne Kramer and James Williamson. KEY TRACK “Too Cool for Pants” Blue Violet Late Night Calls (Me & My Records) SOUND…

“I wanted to do five really good songs that were like rapid punches to the face and then get out and leave listeners wanting more”— PHIL DEMMEL WHEN INFLUENTIAL BAY Area thrash band Vio-lence fell apart in 1993, co-founder Phil Demmel soldiered on for a few years with the ill-fated Torque. Then, in 2003 he joined ex-Vio-lence guitarist Robb Flynn in Machine Head. In January 2018, toward the end of his tenure with Machine Head, Demmel took part in an all-star benefit show for Vio-lence vocalist Sean Killian, who was suffering from stage four liver cirrhosis and needed a transplant. “He looked sickly, man,” Demmel says, recalling the day he saw Killian at his worst. “I didn’t know if I was ever gonna see him again.” That’s why Demmel was…

BIGGER, BRIGHTER AND MORE COLORFUL THAN A finalist on RuPaul’s Drag Race, the Eighties were not about subtlety. Fashion was dominated by gigantic shoulder pads, big hair, neon clothes and the mini-est of skirts. The theaters were glutted with high-concept blockbusters like Lethal Weapon, The Terminator, Die Hard and Escape from New York, and TV was fueled by extravagant, over-the-top primetime soap operas like Dynasty and Dallas. And most significantly, on August 1, 1981, MTV, the 24-hour music cable channel, was launched, creating a billion-dollar musical space race to see who could create the most jaw-dropping, attention-grabbing video. What was a guitarist to do? Whether consciously or subconsciously, many metal, rock, blues, jazz — and even acoustic — guitarists embraced the spirit of the times by developing flashy new techniques…

AS YOU MIGHT’VE guessed, the issue of Guitar World that you hold in your paws right now definitely does not represent the first time GW has revisited or celebrated the mighty Eighties. In fact, we did exactly that just as the decade was ending, way back in our February 1990 issue, pictured above [Editor’s note: Despite the issue date, the GW crew probably put the February 1990 issue together around October 1989]. In that EVH-fronted issue, we pinpointed the Eighties’ 12 “Movers & Shakers,” as in, one six-string mover and/or shaker per year, plus four young players that the GW editors believed would make an impact in the Nineties. They actually did a good job in terms of their predictions, bearing in mind that they hadn’t yet heard of grunge…

“WE TRIED ALL OUR EQUIPMENT FROM THE EIGHTIES — THE MARSHALL STACKS, ALL THIS EQUIPMENT — TO FIND THAT ORIGINAL, OLD EIGHTIES SOUND” —RUDOLF SCHENKER HAD SCORPIONS NOT become one of hard rock’s most enduring global forces, guitarist Rudolf Schenker would have taken himself down a much different, yet nevertheless high-voltage career path. “My mother wanted me to have a real job, as a power electrician,” the Hanover, Germany-born rhythm guitarist recalls with a laugh. Schenker adds that his mom just wanted him to have a more grounded backup plan in case Scorpions, the group he began in 1965 when he was still a teenager, didn’t pan out. Though Schenker did manage to find work as a tradesman for a few years, a heart-to-heart with his dad ultimately convinced the…

“I LEFT THE SMITHS WHEN I WAS 24. ANY 24-YEAR-OLD LEAVING ANY JOB WANTS TO NOT BE DEFINED BY THAT” — JOHNNY MARR THEN Meat Is Murder (1985) Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 (2022) NOW FOR JOHNNY MARR, the idea to record a 16-song double album came to him in a flash of inspiration. The title Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 simply popped into his head one day, and that was it. “That title solved a lot of problems for me,” he says. “First off, it’s a great title. If I just called it Fever Dreams, you know, that’s good, but it’s not that good. Fever Dreams Parts 1-4 makes you go, ‘OK, what’s that all about?’ It made me think that — ‘All right, what’s this business of four?’ So I…

PESSIMISTS MAY SNIVEL that $100 doesn’t get you very much these days, but the folks at Donner beg to differ. Case in point: the Donner Circle Looper pedal, which cost just a little more than a Benjamin and is packed with features and functions that rival those of loopers that cost much, much more. In essence, the Circle Looper is a stereo multi-track looper that provides 160 minutes of total recording time, 100 rhythm patterns and 40 memory locations. The pedal is designed to be very easy to use while still offering impressive capabilities for performance, recording and practice. FEATURES The Donner Circle Looper is arranged essentially with the looper functions and controls on the left and the rhythm functions and controls on the right, although the Merger button located…

STREET PRICE: $4,999 MANUFACTURER: Gibson, gibson.com The 1 ½-inch thick alder body, rounded lower bout body rim and sharp tulip-shaped “double Florentine” cutaways are radical departures from Gibson’s classic designs. Custom Soapbar P-90 single-coil pickups combined with the alder body material provide punchy, bright tones with full-bodied midrange and aggressive bass. THE BOTTOM LINE The Gibson Theodore is something new and old at the same time, providing a combination of familiar and comfortable features and playability while delivering a bold, entirely new voice.…

THIS MONTH, WE’LL continue investigating ways to find new ideas and musical inspiration to help break out of a soloing rut. Many blues and rock players learn how to devise single-note licks by studying the “box” patterns for scales like minor and major pentatonic. By “boxes,” I’m referring to fretboard shapes wherein all of the notes of the scale fall within three or four frets. One of the best ways I’ve found to break out of a rut when soloing and mine new musical territory is to move from one box and fretboard position to another as a line progresses, taking advantage along the way of what each new fretboard “destination” will yield. Last month, we looked at connecting various positions of E minor pentatonic (E, G, A, B, D).…

“GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS” Mötley Crüe THIS FUN, LATE-EIGHTIES hair metal anthem features guitarist Mick Mars and bassist Nikki Sixx laying down some fat-sounding blues-rock-style riffs, with their instruments tuned down one whole step, per their standard M.O. So while they play the song as if it were in the key of E, taking advantage of its friendly fingerings, convenient access to open strings and sonic heaviness, everything sounds in the lower, deeper key of D. For example, the opening G5 chord voicing, with its rich, resonant texture and pronounced strum and “rake” across all six strings, establishes the song’s swagger right from the get-go, with what sounds like and F chord. The song’s main riff, which is introduced at section B, makes great use of sliding power chords, with Mars…

THE DUAL-HUMBUCKER Gibson Les Paul Standard has earned rightful status as one of the most desirable electric guitars of all time. However, while the Standard may be the reigning Queen Bee, particularly amongst blues-rockers, certain discriminating breeds of guitarists, particularly those who perform more intense styles of music, consider the Les Paul Custom the King Kong of the guitar universe for its skull-crushing performance and monstrous tones. I could easily fill this article with the names of a few hundred players who have made history recording and performing with a Les Paul Custom. For brevity’s sake, here’s a short list of the Custom’s more notable champions: Randy Rhoads, Robert Fripp, Al Di Meola, Zakk Wylde, Vivian Campbell, John Sykes, Marty Friedman, Steve Stevens, Jan Akkerman and Les Paul himself. Its…

FENDER RECENTLY HONORED funk guitar legend Nile Rodgers with a new signature guitar, the Hitmaker Stratocaster. Rodgers’ ultra-bright, clean and propulsive guitar work — a great deal of it played on a white Strat with the neck of a 1959 model and the body of a ’60 — has powered innumerable hits, from Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” to Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” three decades later (and let’s not forget Family Style by Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan). The new Hitmaker Strat is a faithful recreation of that beloved anchor of Rodgers’ arsenal, and it’s the first production-line Rodgers signature Strat (an ultra-limited edition Custom Shop recreation of the Hitmaker was introduced in 2014). Finished in Olympic White, the Hitmaker Strat is built with a slimmed-down, more aggressively contoured 1960 Strat…

1 “Sí-XIV” Dvne I really love how the guitar varies and how the tempo changes throughout the song. It goes from this really deep to this very emotional guitar — and back again. Their latest album, Etemen AEnka, is amazing. It’s really been a big inspiration. 2 “Walk with Me in Hell” Lamb of God This is a no-brainer. The riffs are so amazing throughout the song. This is a song where there’s no time to sit down. The guitar just runs 100 percent, and I feel like headbanging every time it comes on. 3 “Marrow” Yob My early days with the doom genre were all about this song. When I hear the guitar, it always gets me so emotional. It’s an almost 19-minute-long song and the…

ELECTRIC GUITAR TECHNOLOGY HARDLY changed during the first 30 or so years. Les Paul and Leo Fender gave us solid body guitars, Jim Marshall accidentally created desirable amp distortion, a smattering of floor-based effects were created and a few bits of gear were borrowed from organ players — including wah pedals and Leslie speakers. But, for the most part, guitarists didn’t have many choices in terms of essential gear — and even fewer technological options for unique expression. And then it happened: The 1980s! It was a fortuitous convergence of events, a shade-your-eyes collision of technology and inspiration that transformed the guitar almost overnight. Silicon Valley was chiefly changing the world, as a by-product of the military industrial complex. Their affordable miniaturization of complex electrical pathways placed high-powered integrated circuits…

“IF YOU WERE JUST GETTING IN THE GAME LIKE ME, EDDIE VAN HALEN WAS THE GUY TO LOOK UP TO. HE MADE IT ALL SEEM SO EXCITING” —WARREN DeMARTINI NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD Warren DeMartini made the move from San Diego to Los Angeles in 1982 just as the Sunset Strip glam metal scene was on the cusp of exploding nationwide. For a young hotshot guitarist looking to get noticed, L.A. in the early Eighties was like a mecca. There were clubs teeming with women and A&R scouts. There were parties and strip joints. And there were thousands of other like-minded budding shredders hoping to be the next Eddie Van Halen. “Back then, Eddie was sort of the apex of a new direction for guitarists of my generation,” DeMartini remembers. “If you were…

“LOWELL GEORGE SHOWED ME HOW TO USE A COMPRESSOR TO LET THE NOTE LAST LONGER, AND THAT REALLY IMPACTED MY SLIDE STYLE” —BONNIE RAITT ROCK AND ROLL Hall of Famer Bonnie Raitt returns to some of her beloved musical and lyrical themes on Just Like That…, her first new album in more than six years. Her familiar smoky voice and biting slide guitar that still manage to cut to the bone — not to mention soothe the soul. But Raitt also stretches out on the album, and at its emotional core are four songs she wrote herself, each of which finds her taking different musical and lyrical approaches. Especially noteworthy are “Living for the Ones,” which pays rocking tribute to the friends and family she’s lost in recent years, and…

THE HAIR METAL Eighties was a time when you could’ve easily identified a famous guitarist simply by looking at his guitar. Having one with a flashy finish or decked out with hot-rodded modifications almost seemed a requisite in order to stand out among the growing hordes of competing ax-slingers. To do so — typically on a Superstrat — proved to be the ultimate billboard that flaunted the player’s persona just as much as his or her unique style of playing. Do I even need to point out Eddie Van Halen? Two players and their guitars that embody this idea (see what I did there?) are the Charvel Jake E Lee Signature Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 1 HSS HT RW — an affordable alternative to the Jake E Lee USA Signature —…

STREET PRICE: $109.99 MANUFACTURER: Donner, usdonnermusic.com The looper section records up to 160 minutes of audio (four minutes maximum per track) and allows infinite overdubs. The rhythm section provides 100 outstanding preset patterns in various styles, plus an additional 10 metronome patterns to facilitate loop recording. THE BOTTOM LINE The Donner Circle Looper delivers outstanding sound quality, sophisticated but easy-to-use functions and an impressive selection of rhythm patterns, making it a powerful performance tool.…

THIS MONTH, WE’LL look at “Grace,” a tune that's featured on my latest album, Electric Truth. I wrote the song after seeing a Jimi Hendrix Experience Tribute show, which, as always, features so many great guitar players performing and interpreting the timeless and brilliant music of Jimi Hendrix. But the most inspiring thing for me that night was meeting Jimi’s bass player Billy Cox and his wonderful wife Brenda. In our conversation, the word “grace” came up, which I really took to heart, and it inspired me to write this song when I got home. As a composition, the song is certainly Jimi Hendrix-influenced, but it was also inspired by my time with Billy and Brenda. FIGURE 1 shows the 12-bar “verse” form that begins “Grace.” The song is played…

ZAKK WYLDE METAL Marshall JCM800 2203 100-watt head into Marshall 1960B cabinet with Celestion G12T-75 speakers with Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive Tip: Zakk replaced the stock Gibson pickups with EMG 81 (bridge) and 85 (neck) pickups, which provide tighter, more focused tone. SEX PISTOLS PUNK Fender Twin Reverb combo Tip: Turn all of the volume and tone controls to 10 for maximum impact and grind, then back down the tone controls as desired to compensate for undesirable excess bass or treble. Hearing protection is highly recommended.…

THEY’VE ALWAYS LOOKED confident and comfortable onstage, but no one would call Lzzy Hale or any of her Halestorm bandmates ego-fueled rock stars. They’re pretty much the opposite — ever-friendly, self-deprecating, in awe of their heroes, and quick to praise others, even their opening bands. “We’re really excited because we’re taking out this young band from Mexico called the Warning, and I’m looking forward to seeing them every night and being inspired by them,” Hale says with tangible enthusiasm even before bringing up Halestorm’s new album, Back from the Dead. “There are three sisters in the band. They totally shred and they’re all under 21. We’re like, ‘Okay, we gotta step it up ‘cause we’re not the young guns anymore. The kids are alright!’” And so are Halestorm. It just…

“Saga is a keyboard band; Six by Six is a guitar band”— IAN CRICHTON IAN CRICHTON EXPLAINS that he “got a lot of mojo back” while recording the self-titled debut from Six by Six, the longtime Saga guitarist’s new collaborative project with keyboardist/bassist Robert Berry and Saxon drummer Nigel Glocker. Fans of the Canadian prog veteran can hear the proof in his effervescent playing, whether surging through melodic, shred-heavy runs in tandem with gospel choirs (“Save the Night”) or running roughshod on his whammy bar through a series of choice leads. You could argue Crichton’s gleefully aggressive approach was a natural reaction to Saga’s last album, 2017’s Symmetry, which was a crystalline, acoustic reimagining of various hits from their five-decade career. Then again, Crichton suggests it’s been a lifelong quest…

“I love all my Marshalls — and I love my smoke machines too. You can’t do a show without those!” Q: How’d you first get into the guitar? I come from a very musical family; my mother was a jazz singer [who also] sang in the choir, and my father was a guitar player. My older siblings were musicians too, playing classical violin and piano. I was given my first guitar, a cheap, shitty acoustic, on my 5th birthday but didn’t start playing it until I was 7 when I saw Jimi Hendrix smashing his guitar on TV. I thought it was cool and so I wanted to do that too! Q: What was your first “real” guitar? My older brother played guitar, but when I was becoming better than…

WHAT WAS THE GREATEST GUITAR SOLO OF THE EIGHTIES? How about the best guitar riff? The ultimate guitar album? The decade’s most underappreciated player? Was Back to School better than Back to the Future? (At least one GW editor screams yes!) Did A Flock of Seagulls’ Mike Score really have a more bitchin’ hairstyle than Steve Stevens? Well, whether you remember or not, we at GW have already opined on at least some of these burning issues — probably even more than once (and it all started with the February 1990 issue). Hey, we’ve been around for 42 years! This time, however, we decided to open things up to a host of guitar stars (plus a few GW editors), some of whom were already doing their thing 35 years ago,…

CONTRARY TO POPULAR belief, Guitar World — which came into existence right around the middle of 1980 — didn’t actually publish a ton of stereotypically squeakin’, squawkin’, screamin’ and/or honkin’ “ridiculously Eighties” covers! Sure, there are (literally) a couple of instances of Billy Idol axer Steve Stevens and his amazing hair… there’s definitely a heapin’ helpin’ of our Mr. Vai looking very “of the time” every now and then… But for the most part, these days, GW’s Eighties covers come off as more “generally vintage” instead of “insanely Eighties.” Above, check out what we feel are eight GW covers (all from the Eighties, of course) that somehow — whether for obvious reasons or more subtle criteria (For instance — Jeff Beck with his pink Jackson!) truly sum up the Eighties.…

“SO THE GUITAR RECORDED PRIDE — AND THEN IT DIED IN FRONT OF ME. IT JUST SNAPPED. IT WAS TERRIBLE” — VITO BRATTA IT’S LATE 2019 and Vito Bratta has started playing electric guitar again. Just around the house. Ten minutes here, 30 there. He’s careful not to play too long at one time, to avoid reinjuring his right wrist, which has been delicate since he heard it snap one day in 1997. It was a freak accident that happened as he was playing guitar lying on his back, wrist at a weird angle, while watching a baseball game on TV. These days when Bratta picks up an electric guitar and plays, it’s often classical-influenced arpeggios played with a pick. “And then every once in a while,” Bratta tells Guitar…

STREET PRICES: Jake E Lee Signature, $1,299.99; Satchel Signature, $1,399.99 MANUFACTURER: Charvel, charvel.com The JEL’s Seymour Duncan JB SH-4 humbucking bridge pickup and slanted single-coil DiMarzio SDS-1 middle and neck pickups offer powerful warmth and punch. With a super-slim maple neck and a 12-16-inch compound radius rosewood fingerboard with rolled edges, the JEL encourages comfort and nimble playability. The Satchel’s solitary volume control features push/pull activation for two different voicings on the active Fishman Fluence Classic humbuckers. Sporting a 12-16-inch compound radius all-maple neck with rolled edges and 22 jumbo frets, the Satchel is geared toward dexterous fret burning. THE BOTTOM LINE: The refreshed Charvel Jake E Lee and Satchel Signature Pro-Mod guitars are lean, mean six-string machines with street-lethal tones and looks that kill.…

“SAVE SOMETHING FOR Me,” the second track off my new album, Light of Love, is a slow ballad, in a style not unlike two of my favorite Jimi Hendrix compositions, “May This Be Love” and “One Rainy Wish.” Like those songs, “Save Something for Me” is built from a simple, repeating two-chord figure played during the verses. Additionally, all three songs utilize ringing open strings within the chord voicings, which serve to evoke a wide, atmospheric feel. FIGURE 1 illustrates the intro chord progression, including the improvised single-note fills that fall on beat 4 of every bar. The intro and verse are built around a two-chord progression of G - Em, which functions as a relative major-minor chordal axis: G (major) is the tonic, or “home,” chord, and Em is…

THE GUITAR PLAYER who influenced the greatest number of Chicago blues guitarists, though he got his start in Memphis, is B.B. King. By the early Fifties, B.B. had many records out, which were very accessible to everyone in Chicago, and during that time he played in the city a lot and had a big influence on other great players, such as Buddy Guy, Magic Sam and Otis Rush. As a tribute to B.B., I’d like to dedicate this column to offering some examples of his signature licks and phrasing. One particular earmark of B.B’s playing is something you’ll often hear in his song intros; a perfect example is the way in which he kicks off the blues classic, “Sweet Little Angel,” on Live at the Regal. FIGURE 1 is a…

“GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS” WORDS BY NIKKI SIXX. MUSIC BY NIKKI SIXX, TOMMY LEE AND MICK MARS. COPYRIGHT © 1987 CONCORD LANE C/O CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING, WC MUSIC CORP., THAT’S MY DAMN SONG, TOMMYLAND MUSIC AND MARS MOUNTAIN MUSIC. ALL RIGHTS FOR THAT’S MY DAMN SONG ADMINISTERED WORLDWIDE BY KOBALT GROUP PUBLISHING. ALL RIGHTS FOR TOMMYLAND MUSIC ADMINISTERED WORLDWIDE BY KOBALT SONGS MUSIC PUBLISHING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD LLC.…