Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i Guitarist

Unplugged acoustic may be the fundamental voice of the guitar, but its most viscerally exciting sounds are all electric. Brought in when radio, powered flight and the internal combustion engine were still new technologies, the electric guitar was designed to give guitarists the chance to be heard above the rest of the band. As such, the pursuit of volume seemed to partner with the pursuit of speed, altitude and horsepower that defined the technological leaps of the era. The electric guitar was as exciting as any jet aircraft or car, however, and the ability to make the guitar properly heard allowed it to come out from the shadow of other stringed instruments – notably the banjo – and emerge as the instrument of the rock ’n’ roll era. That’s why,…

PRICE: £370 ORIGIN: Indonesia TYPE: Single-cutaway slab-body solidbody electric BODY: Nato NECK: Nato,‘Thin U’ profile, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 629mm (24.75”) NUT/WIDTH: Synthetic/43.3mm FINGERBOARD: Bound laurel, pearloid ‘Neo-Classic Thumbnail’ inlays, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: Anchored Compensated Wrap-Around Bridge/tailpiece, die-cast tuners – chrome-plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm ELECTRICS: Gretsch Broad’Tron BT-2S humbucker (bridge), P90 Soap Bar single coil (neck), 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, master volume and tone controls WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.53/7.76 OPTIONS: Colour only RANGE OPTIONS: The G2210 Streamliner Junior Jet Club, with dual Broad’Tron humbuckers, unbound body and single-ply tortoise pickguard, is available in four colours and costs £320 LEFT-HANDERS: No. The only lefty Streamliner is the G2622LH Center Block Double-Cut with V-Stoptail and BT-2S humbuckers FINISHES: Single Barrel Stain (as reviewed), Mint Metallic, Sahara Metallic…

The Damn Truth Now Or Nowhere Sony Music 9/10 Prepare yourselves for some good ol’ fashioned rock ’n’ roll The Damn Truth’s third album could be the one that finally allows them the plaudits they deserve. They’ve toured with bands such as ZZ Top and Rival Sons, but still seem to have escaped wider attention. Strange, because their message is one of ‘pure rock done right’, and anyone with a hankering for bands who tip their hats towards the 70s is going to find something to enjoy here. Six tracks were produced by legendary producer Bob Rock and the results speak for themselves. Vocalist Lee-La Baum is a force to be reckoned with, conjuring visions of Maggie Bell in her heyday, and guitarist Tom Shemer does the same trick with…

Idon’t want to scupper what might be just over the horizon, but I’ve been ruminating on how it might be to get back on stage. I’ve spoken to a few musicians and all have voiced similar fears.“Will I remember the set? Will my amp work? Where are my stage clothes? Do I have [delete where appropriate] spare picks/capo/strings/batteries/music? Does my guitar need a setup?”And other imponderables. “It had been so long since we played that it was a worthwhile and cathartic thing to do, as the chances of a gear fail are at least minimised” So I decided that in order to cover every eventuality I would have a personal dress rehearsal – in my living room! Now that it’s in print that looks ridiculous, but in fact it’s a…

Last issue, we joined Taylor’s master luthier Andy Powers to learn how skilled luthiers can make small-bodied acoustic guitars sound larger than life. As promised, we rejoin Andy this month to learn how he prototypes and tweaks guitars during the design process until a new model is ready to join the official range. Taylor’s recently launched, medium-size GT Series was a particularly interesting challenge, Andy says, because its downsized body meant he had to use new construction methods to unlock the guitar’s full potential, rather than rely on existing templates of how an acoustic should be built. But it wasn’t easy at first, he admits. “It’s like this complex equation… There are all these shades of grey and there are very few definitive rules to voicing a small guitar” “With…

Bluegrass Meets Soul “The music I grew up on is not the music I ended up playing. It was the same as the Kentucky bluegrass, except Kentucky made more of it, commercialised it. [My home state of] Missouri had the same music, and I did get to work with some of those guys. Tom Brumley played steel guitar and he used to date my cousin, so when his band would play at fairs and all, they’d drag me along and I’d get to hear them when I was a little bitty kid. When we lived in West Plains, we went to one concert that had some of the old Grand Ole Opry people on it, like the Carters, Rod Brasfield and Minnie Pearl.” Silver Tones “My uncle didn’t play guitar,…

“After the first Capri body shape, they stretched it lengthways into what they call a ‘long body’ Capri (they only made three guitars like that),” Martin tells us. “And then they stretched it sideways, like the guitar on one of this issue’s covers [1959 365 Capri]. Then, in ’61, they widened the body shape again as per this ’66 365 OS Capri [left]. The rounded top came in in ’64, as per the ’67 365 [right]. It follows a logical evolution. The [semi-hollowbodies] are hollowed from the rear and have the back ‘plate’ put on, just like the Telecaster Thinlines Roger Rossmeisl designed for Fender in the late 60s.”…

Paul Reed Smith Since founding PRS in 1985, Paul Reed Smith has tirelessly advanced the art and science of electric guitar making through continual R&D. Today, his instruments are played by everyone from Carlos Santana to John Mayer, and Paul is one of the few living guitar makers who can be classed as genuine pioneers. Rich Lasner The US luthier behind one of the best-selling electrics of all time, the Yamaha Pacifica, and also a prime mover behind the iconic Ibanez JEM, Rich has a vast wealth of electric guitar making experience to draw upon. Tim Mills The founder of Bare Knuckle Pickups makes some of the best hand-wound pickups in the world for some of the biggest guitar brands in the world, as well as an army of devoted…

The sound of Brian May’s Red Special guitar is one of the most singular in rock. With its unique switching system wringing every drop of tone out of his trio of Burns Tri-Sonic pickups, it’s been Brian’s faithful companion on a hoard of hit records. American musician Arielle set out to replicate the Red Special’s tonal palette on her own self-designed instrument, ‘Two-Tone’, and it wasn’t long before discussions began regarding adding it to the stable of Brian’s guitars, albeit in a slightly modified form. The result is a beguiling blend of influences – a little bit Firebird here, with maybe a touch of Explorer there, but at its heart it has the fire and fury of a thoroughbred with a nod to the guitar that Brian designed with his…

The sub-£500 acoustic guitar market is surprisingly vibrant, but if all-solid woods is your mantra, maybe not so much. There is the Eastman E1-OM at around £499 with solid sapele back and sides and a Sitka spruce top, available in a rather zippy weathered finish. Faith’s FKVMG Naked Venus electro-acoustic is an all-mahogany instrument that has dimensions close to the OM model and streets at the £470 mark or thereabouts. Sigma’s OMT-28H has a more traditional livery, showing its Martin-inspired roots, with a Sitka spruce top and tilia body, and you’ll find it nudging over the £400 mark. Guild is another make that has models that hover around this price point, too.…

LINE 6 HX STOMP XL approx. £599 CONTACT Yamaha UK PHONE 01908 366700 WEB www.line6.com What You Need To Know 1 It looks as though someone has stretched an HX Stomp! That’s exactly what it is – an expanded version that adds five footswitches to make a total of eight. 2 Does it still sound the same? Yes, it has exactly the same models and the same presets. And it even has the same connections. 3 So, what’s the point of it? Well, the HX Stomp gave you Helix sounds in a smaller form that would easily fit into a pedalboard, but was perhaps limited by having just three footswitches. This unit adds switching flexibility while still being smaller than the larger Helix floorboards. Until now, the Line 6 HX…

Anyone who liked the idea of Origin’s original larger-format RevivalDRIVE pedals but not the price, or just wanted a simpler and smaller version more suited to pedalboard use, was well served by the RevivalDRIVE Compact. Its reduced, easily navigated set of controls kept the core sound, while losing some of the more nuanced parameter adjustments. Now the family line has been expanded with the RD Compact Hot Rod, which is basically the RevivalDRIVE Compact’s evil twin… Where the original Compact offers its take on vintage amp sounds, this new iteration takes its inspiration from amp techs of the 70s and 80s, who modified classic amps for more gain and sustain – think modded Marshalls, Randall Smith’s modified Fender Princetons mutating into the first Boogie amps, or Ken Fischer’s Trainwreck take…

When we first get into pedals, I’m sure we all start out with the classic serial signal chain. You know, we take our guitar, jam it into the input of our first pedal and from there it all just neatly flows from right to left until we hit our amp. So delightfully simple, which is why the majority of us stick to this type of setup and never feel a need to explore any further. But what if I told you there was another path? A parallel route that’s full of possibilities and one that will totally reinvent the way you look at sound design. Would you take it? You should! Utility pedals such the Old Blood Noise Endeavors’ Signal Blender, KMA Machines’ Tyler, the Boss LS-2 or the Tri-Parallel…

1951 Work on the Telecaster’s successor commences Late 1953 Synchronized Tremolo vibrato system design completed April 1954 Earliest known Stratocaster (serial number 0100) October 1954 Full-scale production; ash body; 2-tone sunburst; white single-ply pickguard; round string-tree 1955 Sharper headstock edges; chunky neck profile retained; c.450 shipped (c.70% increase on 1954) 1956 Alder body (excluding blonde finish); butterfly string tree; V-profile neck 1957 Transition from polystyrene to ABS plastic parts; V-profile neck 1958 3-tone sunburst; slimmer neck profile 1959 ‘Slab’ (flat base) rosewood fingerboard; 3-ply (w/b/w) nitrate pickguard 1960 Fade-resistant red/ bolder 3-tone sunburst…

It’s All Blues Tutor Richard Barrett | Gear used Knaggs Kenai & Kemper Profiler Difficulty 20 mins THIS ISSUE, I felt it would be interesting to draw a distinction between soloing in a clearly defined blues-based approach and one that uses the guitar as a lead instrument but avoids obviously bluesy/ pentatonic patterns, vibrato and quarter-tone bends. Players such as Steve Howe (whose radically different approach is derived more from jazz), Mike Oldfield (who prefers classical vibrato and picking technique) and Steven Wilson (who is known for his aversion to vibrato and blues scale licks) would not necessarily be described as ‘bluesy’ but nevertheless use sounds and techniques that are not considered ‘alien’ by a more obviously blues-based player. On the flip side, it’s completely possible for a blues-based guitar…

Matt Berry Known as a TV comedy star, Matt’s a committed musician who’s turned out many fine albums on the Acid Jazz label p34 Steve Cropper His Tele riffs were the engine driving dozens of legendary R&B recordings. We meet the master to talk about his storied life on p50 Cheap Thrills Gretsch’s fabulous little P90 Streamliner Junior Jet Club electric is one of the best-value buys you’ll find for less than £400 p22…

PRICE: £2,431 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: France TYPE: Solidbody electric BODY: 2-piece alder NECK: Vigier 10/90 system (10% carbon, 90% maple), maple, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 650mm (25.6”) NUT/WIDTH: Teflon string guide with hardened 6-piece removable zero fret/42.7mm FINGERBOARD: Maple, dark abalone dot inlays, 300mm (11.81”) radius FRETS: 24 (plus zero fret), medium stainless steel HARDWARE: Chrome-plated Schaller/Vigier 2011 vibrato with ball-bearing pivot; locking tuners with over-sized rear locking wheels – chrome-plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 53mm ELECTRICS: 2x DiMarzio PAF Classic humbuckers, 5-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume and master tone WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.48/7.66 OPTIONS: Rosewood ’board and fixed bridge at no cost. Up-charges include matching headstock (£300), push-pull pickup split (£154), kill switch (£154) and strap lock system (£58) RANGE OPTIONS: Top-line Excalibur Special with bound flame maple top and…

As the entry point into the vast Gretsch guitar range, the Junior Jet Club is simplistic by design. Available in dual humbucker or, as here, in a slightly more expensive P-90/humbucker format, it also comes in a trio of colours with cream body binding and pickguard to match the covered neck single coil. It certainly recalls the style of the classic single-cut Jet models, Gretsch’s response to the Les Paul. While the original Jet was a sealed semisolid design, this G2215 is a solid slab-bodied affair. The body and neck are both nato, and although you’d expect the neck to be glued in, it’s a bolt-on – quite a rarity in Gretsch’s catalogue. Granted, that does scream budget, and, while that’s the point of the exercise, it also gives these…

MIKE MITCHELL: 1944-2021 Kingsmen guitarist Mike Mitchell passed away on 16 April at the age of 77. Mitchell played on the band’s signature cover of R&B song Louie Louie and tracked its iconic solo. He was the last surviving member of the original line-up who formed in Portland, Oregon, in 1959. He remained in the line-up during the Kingsmen’s touring career. JASON ISBELL CUSTOM TELE The Grammy-winning guitarist has partnered with Fender on his signature electric (£1,249), and while he’s the proud owner of Ed King’s old ‘Red Eye’ ’59 Les Paul Burst, he holds the Tele in the highest esteem: “It’s the best guitar design overall… you can use it for anything. As a rhythm instrument, it’s leaps and bounds beyond any other electric guitar.” MARCUS KING HEIRLOOM TRIBUTE…

Artist: Matt Berry Album: The Blue Elephant (Acid Jazz) Matt Berry is well known for his starring roles in TV comedy series such as The IT Crowd, Toast Of London and Year Of The Rabbit. But he is also a committed musician who’s released a string of acclaimed albums on the Acid Jazz label. A multi-instrumentalist with a particular love for the guitar, Matt evokes everything from Dylan and early Floyd to Scott Walker on his recordings – but his latest, The Blue Elephant, is a psychedelic odyssey crafted from classic Rickenbacker tones captured the old-fashioned way with shrewd mic placement, not modelling. We join Matt to find out more about the elephant in the room… Does The Blue Elephant mark a creative shift from your previous work on Acid…

I bought my Strat in February of 1978, so little surprise that the frets started to go wonky some time (over a decade) ago. During lockdown I decided it was time so I got quotes from professionals for a refret and lacquering. Being tight and poor I had no option but to go for the YouTube videos, cheap tools off the net and ‘jump in’ option. I definitely made a few minor mistakes, but the neck is now lovely again. I also learnt about intonation, filing the nut, oiling the fretboard and lots more. Overall, this was one of the scariest but most rewarding things I’ve ever done. I fixed my guitar… me! The moral? Don’t be scared, go slow… what’s the worst that could go wrong? Landan England, via…

This is Steve Cropper’s first album for a decade. His last release was Dedicated: A Salute To The 5 Royales, and before that two albums with vocalist Felix Cavaliere. All were co-produced with old friend Jon Tiven. But Steve calls this “the first real Steve Cropper record since 1969”. Tiven also helped create this latest release featuring vocalist Roger C Reale. It’s a wholly authentic-sounding record, and some have even called it an instant classic. “Well, it is authentic,” exclaims Steve.“It’s all done from feel. I came up with the changes and the grooves. And when I say the grooves, I was playing to a loop that Jon Tiven already had going. That was nothing unusual for me, something I am used to doing. The new thing was we took…

“This [1933 Electro Spanish, pictured far right] has a conventional 14-fret neck join and the top is made from thick plywood,” says Martin. “I think that would have been specially requested so it could carry the pickup, which weighs a ton. The slotted headstock has the early ‘wing’ Rickenbacker logo. Rick worked out early on that the volume control was useful. The [1935] Electro Tenor Guitar is a ‘B-series’ (Bakelite) instrument, and the frets are moulded in. These came out in 1934 and they also made a regular six-string version. It’s small, but you’d hold it like a regular guitar. In a way, this is the first solidbody guitar.”…

“The Rose Morris guitars are interesting because they were a by-product of The Beatles’ association with the brand,” says Martin. “The Beatles still loom large in the Rickenbacker story today and they were the catalyst for the Rose Morris deal. That was the moment when it all blew all up for FC. The f-hole is the defining feature of these models and you see the same shape on the Fender Tele Thinline, which was essentially Roger Rossmeisl applying Rickenbacker production methods to a Fender. Pete Townshend put Rose Morris models to good use, as well as smashing quite a few along the way!”…

“The biggest improvement in pickup making has been the consistency of materials. And that then has a knock-on to the consistency of tone that you can reproduce. When you look back to the earliest pickups, they were being made with whatever was at hand, whatever magnets happened to be available, whatever wire was available… These days, components are manufactured specifically for purpose. So it’s much easier in that respect and that then leads to being able to replicate [desirable pickup characteristics] much more consistently. So, you know, people often harp on about the ‘golden age of guitar making’ and the Holy Grail of various types of pickups, original PAFs and original Strat coils and so forth. But there was a lot of inconsistency there. They’re not all brilliant and some…

PRICE: £795 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: Korea BODY: White Limba (Korina) NECK: Macassar mahogany SCALE LENGTH: 610mm (24”) NUT/WIDTH: PPS/45mm FINGERBOARD: Macassar ebony, abalone diamond snowflake facing inlays, 304.8mm (12”) radius HARDWARE: Chrome Wilkinson WVP 2-point knife edge tremolo, Grover 406 mini locking Rotomatic tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 53mm ELECTRICS: 3x BM brand Tri-Sonic style single coils with chrome covers, volume, tone with Brian’s switching system (see main text for more info) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.4/7.5 OPTIONS: None LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISH: Gloss polyurethane 2-tone diagonal burnt orange/translucent blue with matching headstock www.brianmayguitars.co.uk…

CÓRDOBA FUSION 5 & AUDEN YORK £450 & £1,099 CONTACT Selectron UK PHONE 01795 419460 WEB www.cordobaguitars.com CONTACT Auden Guitars PHONE 01933 391234 WEB www.audenguitars.com What You Need To Know 1 Tell us a bit about Córdoba. The Córdoba brand – created by the Córdoba Music Group who also owns Guild – is named after the Spanish city and is well established, catering from beginners to professionals. Though referencing the Spanish style of construction, the majority of its instruments, like our review model here, are made in China. 2 But I didn’t think Auden made nylon-strings? Not up to this point, but the York is a new model for 2021. Auden imports the ‘shell’ from a small factory in China and does all the important stuff at its workshop in…

What was the first serious guitar that you bought with your own money? “Now,‘serious’ is debatable. I bought a 1985 Gibson Les Paul Custom, a Pearl White one. I bought it because it looked like the pictures I had seen of Randy Rhoads playing one. I bought it for $500 and I had to borrow the money from my sister. I kept it for about five years or so. I’d started to play in bars – illegally, because I was underage – and played cover songs, so we would play all the bar-band favourites: Roadhouse Blues, Honky Tonk Woman, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Highway To Hell… I actually got a little adventurous then because I was really into Aerosmith and so I had us do Walkin’ The Dog and Mama Kin.”…

1. SERIAL NUMBER 0146; impressed into backplate and stamped in black 2. HEADSTOCK Stauffer/Bigsby-style profile; rounded edges; decals read ‘Fender Stratocaster with Synchronized Tremolo’ and ‘Original Contour Body’; nitrocellulose clearcoat 3. BODY Ash; double-cutaway; rounded edges; forearm and belly contours; two-tone sunburst nitrocellulose finish 4. PICKUPS Three height-adjustable single-coil ‘floating’ pickups; master volume pot; neck pickup tone pot; middle pickup tone pot; one tone capacitor; three-way selector switch; front-loading jack socket 5. HARDWARE Six nickel-plated Kluson ‘no line’ tuners; round metal string-tree; Synchronized Tremolo vibrato system with six fully adjustable saddles; two metal strap buttons; chrome-plated: jack plate, neckplate, detachable vibrato arm and ‘ash tray’ bridge cover (arm and cover not pictured) 6. PLASTICS White single-layer pickguard with eight screw holes; three white pickup covers with rubber spacers; three white…

YES CLOSE TO THE EDGE The first three minutes of the title track show both how forward-thinking this all was and remind us that this was not that long after the 1960s. However, Steve Howe is at the top of his game, with melodic and rapid-fire dissonant lines giving way to melodic doublestops and embellishments – also evident at the start of Siberian Khatru, which has some interesting twists and turns around some bluesy riffs. Not an obvious choice, but lots to steal! MIKE OLDFIELD OMMADAWN Mike Oldfield has said he considers himself primarily as a guitarist, and some of the nimble fretwork in Ommadawn (Part One) is seriously impressive. Eschewing conventional vibrato and picking techniques seems to open up possibilities for intervallic skips and melodies that don’t fall into…

Last year was Vigier’s 40th anniversary, quite a milestone for any maker, which in different times would have been celebrated. While we couldn’t pop a cork for that birthday, we can at least honour one of the finest – and now 30-year-old – modern bolt-on designs, the Excalibur. It marks a significant point in Vigier’s history, replacing the almost experimental, pioneering, out-there designs of the company’s first decade with a much more conventional style. “The way the guitars looked was one more reason why people were reluctant to try Vigier,” said founder Patrice Vigier back in 2012. “I made my choice: what is important is that people play the instruments or at least want to try them. If they’re reluctant to do that because they don’t like the shape, it’s…

EVENTIDE ULTRATAP £279 Continuing the revival of its classic effect algorithms, Eventide has announced the UltraTap, a time/modulation-based multi-tap stompbox, derived from its classic SP2016 and H3000 effects processors. Boasting “rhythmic delays, glitchy reverbs, huge volume swells and extraordinary modulation”, the pedal’s power starts with its ability to create up to 64 taps per preset. From here, you have super-deep control over how the taps interact and evolve over time with functions such as Slurm, built-in tremolo, envelope control, tap spacing and more, for some seriously creative sound-shaping. It’s MIDI-controllable thanks to a TRS MIDI socket on the back, and Eventide’s Device Manager software allows you to create presets on a computer then fire them into the UltraTap via USB. The UltraTap is available now. www.eventideaudio.com PRS MCCARTY 594 SINGLECUT…

Today’s double-session day at Abbey Road’s Studio Two involves some gear experiments for me. I’ve been asked to provide a DI unit for the morning and a traditional amp for the afternoon. The sessions are for two separate composers who have booked the same band, as they are both recordings for the same production music company, Audio Network. Commercial sessions such as these are often booked in three-hour time slots. Today’s is a fairly typical schedule with a morning session from 10am till 1pm, an hour’s break for lunch, and then 2pm till 5pm in the afternoon. The band is slightly larger in the morning when we are recording a fairly modern funk/jazz project, hence the necessity for a DI unit to avoid potential audio spill from the drums into…

I have been busy putting together a pair of ‘000’-size guitars for a couple of clients over the past few months. It’s been a great opportunity to reconsider one of my most popular models and go back to first principles to create new jigs, explore new ideas, and ultimately – hopefully – achieve an even better sound. At the time of writing, I have reached one of the most crucial parts of the process: the soundhole rosette. A sheet of guitar-shaped European spruce sits on the workbench in front of me like a blank canvas. It could be an opportunity to make a grand statement and show off my lutherie skills. Or perhaps it would be better to keep things simple and understated. Where to begin? “The rosette offers an…

One of the most insightful pieces of advice any musician can be given is: it’s not what you play, it’s how you play it. On the guitar this is particularly pertinent, given its ability to produce different tones depending on the way the string is struck (and with what). Further than this, we have the option of open or fretted strings, the latter giving a number of choices. For example, the A found at the 2nd fret of the G string is the same note found at the 7th fret of the D string, the 12th fret of the A string, or even the 17th fret of the low E. However, compare these side by side and you’ll hear a world of tonal difference. Logistically speaking, you will also find…

Want to see something in the mag? Tell us at guitarist@futurenet.com Reader David Elliott would like to know more about Gibson’s first ever reissue… I very much enjoyed the article on Anniversary Gibson Les Pauls in issue 471. As if most of us don’t have enough problems with GAS already! One notable absence from the collection was the more recent 2014 120th Anniversary Gibson Les Paul Premium. I am lucky enough to be the proud owner of a stunning example of these, in Ocean Water Perimeter. There were several finishes available, but all featured a AAA Premium Quilted top, which I believe was bookmatched in the Custom Shop, and the control cavity cover is signed by the Gibson craftsman concerned. The subject of reissues was also touched on in the…

01 BILL AITKEN The SynthAxe was an 80s British invention, designed by Bill Aitken, Mike Dixon and Tony Sedivy, and it set out to reimagine the guitar synthesizer. Looking like a futuristic spaceship, it dispensed with regular pitch-to-voltage converters and instead sensed every nuance of the required non-standard playing techniques and converted these to MIDI. The Synthaxe cost around £6,000, and fewer than 100 were sold. 02 LARRY ALLERS An unsung hero, Larry Allers was an important ideas man at Gibson’s HQ in Kalamazoo, where he began working during the 30s. He was promoted to head the firm’s woodworking department following the success of the Les Paul Goldtop in ’52, and Larry likely also spearheaded the original development and design of the SG, Flying V, Explorer and ES-335.…

“This blonde 1954 Combo 600 [pictured far right] is made from ash and features a German carve top,” says Martin. “They probably copped the ash/blonde/black ’guard idea from Fender, but I do think FC Hall was trying to create something original here. To begin with, the Combos had a blonde finish, but Turquoise Blue became an option later. This black [1957 Combo 1000] has a thinner/pointier treble horn than the earlier ‘tulip’ guitars, which have thicker inward-curving cutaway horns. It’s what you call a ‘half-and-half’ (because it’s ‘half tulip’). The next phase of development was where the bass horn followed suit into the familiar double-outward curve cutaway.”…

Paul Reed Smith: “I tune it and I play it. I play single notes then I play chords. I trust my experience. It’s not complicated. I go at it like a musician. How does it sound? How does it play? How does it look? How comfortable is it? What do I like about it? As a guitar maker, you have to be able to work in the language of woodworking, chemistry, electrical engineering, physics… As a player, you just want the guitar to work and you don’t want to have to think about it.” Tim Mills: “I plug it in: I want to hear it. I have a few pieces that I tend to play that allow me to quickly evaluate the setup of the guitar and how it feels.…

YAMAHA NCX SERIES FROM APPROX. £516 Released back in 2009, the NCX is more a crossover for the classic player with 12 frets to the body, excellent electro system and cutaway, wide neck and flat fingerboard. A new NX range was announced at NAMM 2020 centring on an improved Atmosfeel pickup system, which combines a film-type top sensor, an under-saddle transducer and a microphone, all controlled by three low-profile rotaries. Three models are promised: the NCX1 (pictured), NCX3 and NCX5, from approx. £516 to £1,785. https://uk.yamaha.com YAMAHA NTX SERIES FROM APPROX. £422 The NTX models are 14-fret cutaways, with a thinner neck and cambered fingerboard. The new range starts with the NTX1, while the Atmosfeel pickups are utilised on the NTX3 (pictured) and NTX5. Rodrigo y Gabriela, who use customised…

“On tour I have lots of guitars. I generally have six to eight, and that’s just because I love ’em so dearly. I don’t need that many, really. I have a handful of [Les Paul] Juniors: a ’56, ’57, ’58 and ’59. A few Esquires: a ’63 and ’65. And a few more. “My touring amps for the last several years have been a Germino Lead 55 head and 4x12 cabinet, and an Echopark Vibromatic 23 head and cabinet. “Pedals, I have a Fulltone Supa-Trem, which is fantastic; I’ve been using the same one for probably 10 or 12 years. A Cry Baby, a Klon clone called a [Piedmont Custom Electronics] Aluminum Falcon that’s really great, and I was bringing tape echoes on the road for a while. I had…

It’s a question we can’t answer, but we know a man who can. “The material and size of a pole screw affects magnetic conductivity and also the inductance of a pickup, both of which will have an effect on the tone a pickup reproduces,” explains Bare Knuckle’s founder and MD, Tim Mills. “There are two different-length Fillister 5-40 pole screws that we use at Bare Knuckle: 5-40 by ¾-inch, and 5-40 by 9/16-inch, both of which I designed with a custom-size head and are made exclusively for us. These are made from low-carbon electrical steel, so they are very magnetically conductive, resulting in a brighter tone with improved clarity and, depending on the length, it drives the coils harder, which can increase output. “The bolt poles we offer as an…

Aside from their fretted maple necks, 1950s Fender Stratocasters can be identified by either a two-tone sunburst (comprising dark brown and yellow) or, from ’58, a three-tone sunburst. Unfortunately, the red aniline dye used in these later finishes tended to fade severely, much like the ’Bursts/Les Paul Standards of the time. Consequently, many late-50s Strats are misconstrued as having a two-tone finish. However, by 1960, Fender had addressed this issue (as had Gibson) and, from that point onwards, Strats were endowed with a more stable and bolder-looking sunburst. Released in 1954, the Stratocaster was the first of Fender’s ‘electric Spanish’ solidbodies to feature a sunburst finish as standard. Its existing models, released earlier in 1950 – namely the Esquire and the Telecaster, which was originally known as the Broadcaster –…

“Lavender Lilac Fenders are incredibly rare, and we’ve got three of them at Well Strung Guitars at the moment. Two 1971 Lavender Lilac Telecaster Thinlines: one with a rosewood ’board and purple pickguard, and the other with a maple ’board. They made some Thinlines in Lavender Lilac, but the standard 1973 model we have is the only regular Telecaster I know of that was made in that colour. I guess they had paint left over! As far as I’m aware, they never made a Lavender Lilac Stratocaster or anything else like a Coronado around that time. It appears the colour was specific to the Thinlines. “I have a copy of [Fender employee] Freddie Tavares’ handwritten list from the late 60s of the new colours that were going to come out…

Truly great guitars are somehow greater than the sum of their parts and the best, such as Fender’s Stratocaster, seem to have an appeal that doesn’t stale with passing years – making them true icons of instrument design. Other guitars have, so to speak, greatness thrust upon them by association with epochal albums and legendary live performances: Brian May’s home-built Red Special comes to mind. But whether a guitar’s iconic nature is inherent to its design or earned in blood, sweat and tears during years of touring, such guitars are more than just metal and wood: they are the stuff of dreams. They also embody the history of the guitar as an instrument, too. Though as outwardly different as can be, the so-called ‘Oldest Martin’ built by CF Martin in…