Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2022 i Guitarist

The most important thing about playing the guitar is that you are enjoying what you’re playing and that it’s something meaningful to you. You’d be surprised at how many people do not allow themselves to do this because of conditioned thoughts they were taught by the world, believing they should be doing something different. My advice is to abandon all dreams of the future. Forget about it completely. Forget about the fantasies of wild success – because they might happen and they might not. I can tell you if they don’t happen, you’ll blame yourself, or somebody else, or the world in general, or the music business, or your parents. I can also tell you that if you do get there and you do have that success, it’s not going…

One of the questions I get asked most from students and people looking to break into freelance guitar playing is ‘How do I get started working as a session guitarist?’ I’ve always found this difficult to answer – mainly because there is no real definitive answer and everyone’s experience is different. However, I’ll give it a go and hopefully it will be of use. “I said yes to every gig that came my way, including playing banjo at Bernard ‘Turkey’ Matthews’ house in front of Ronnie Corbett at 1am” The only caveat is, when I was starting out in my 20s (I’m 44 now), the internet was in its infancy and social media didn’t exist. There was more emphasis on whether you could cut it in a studio or on…

As a repairer of guitars both old and new, I cover everything from minor setups to time-consuming restoration projects. It might be valuable, worthless, historical or absurd; I feel like I’ve seen it all (seemingly, that is, until the next customer walks through the door). But what also fascinates me is the motivation that gets musicians to restore and repair instruments in the first place. My favourite reason to fix a guitar is because the owner simply loves the sound of it. This makes for an interesting repair challenge when the very reason why the guitar sounds so good can have a lot to do with why it is broken in the first place. So it was that I found myself casting an eye over a very fine 1960s Harmony…

On paper, the idea of extended chords is reasonably simple to grasp: adding extra notes to a chord beyond the root, 3rd and 5th from its ‘parent’ scale. However, once we add in the conventions that govern add, sus and 7th chords, plus concepts such as leaving the 3rd out of a dominant 11th chord to avoid dissonance, and the lack of strings/ fingers to hold all these notes down on a guitar, dark clouds within the mind can start to gather… This issue’s article is an attempt to demystify at least some of this and put you back in charge of your harmonic destiny, as it were! The examples start with an E7 (aka E dominant 7, if you want to use ‘theory’ jargon). From there, we extend to…

Back To Bass-ics: Although nowadays I play six-string guitar, too, I was originally a bass player and as such am always interested when a bass sneaks into the pages of Guitarist,such as David Davidson’s interesting Vintage Icons article in issue 480 featuring a 1958 Fender Precision Bass. Mention was made of storing the guitar properly, thereby avoiding the headstock leaning forward because of tension over the years. My question is, what is the correct way to store a guitar? And also, does it depend on how long it goes without being played? I have a Fender Precision, a Rickenbacker 4003, an Ibanez semi-acoustic bass and a 1980 American-made BC Rich Mockingbird bass. Limited space sees them in their cases when not being played and standing virtually upright, just leaning back…

Also known as Amir John Haddad, El Amir is something of a double agent. Known internationally as one of the top flamenco stylists of his generation, he can also occasionally be found toting a Kramer guitar and rocking out on his own brand of “heavy rock funk metal”. It’s a curious mix of styles, but El Amir himself insists that there is a connection between these two seemingly disparate musical entities and that is the dynamo of pure emotion that drives him. Having played with artists including Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller, El Amir also tours with film composer Hans Zimmer, playing film scores to stadiums and arenas worldwide in a live show. It was only a matter of time before his latest mission unfolded… HOW DID YOU COME TO…

THE JEM HAS BEEN AROUND FOR 35 YEARS. AT THE BEGINNING, WHY DID YOU FEEL THE NEED TO DEVELOP THAT GUITAR? “I was fortunate working for Frank Zappa because one of the things I learned from him is if you want something, just do it. So Frank was molesting his guitars with electronics and putting things in them, like frequency modulators and parametric EQs, and I’m changing the necks, changing the pickups. I thought, ‘Well, that’s what you do. You find what you want.’ I loved Strats because they had a whammy bar, but I didn’t like the way they sounded. They weren’t rock ’n’ roll enough to me. I loved Les Pauls because Jimmy Page played a Les Paul and they had a better sound for me, but they…

“These rare variants of the Capri range were aimed at the jazz market. The F-body (Full Body) guitars share the same outline as late-40s Roger guitars. I’m sure Roger was fond of that design and thought,‘Why not recycle it?’ Roger guitars were all hand-carved and therefore time-consuming to build, whereas the F-body Rickenbackers have flat tops and flat backs. “In ’59, Rickenbacker stopped hollowing these ones out and they switched to gluing pre-cut sides. If you think of the size of that body, hollowing it out would have taken a long time – significantly more time than it would take to hollow out a regular-sized Capri. When they moved to glued sides, the pitch of the neck became a lot flatter and more in line with body. “In 1966, Dick…

Coincidentally or not, the PRS SE Silver Sky has virtually the same full list price as Fender’s Mexican-made Vintera ’60s Stratocaster (£879 including gigbag). Specs include alder body, six-post vibrato, ‘mid ’60s C’-shaped maple neck, 184mm (7.25-inch) radius fingerboard and 21 vintage-style frets, available in three colours with pau ferro fingerboard only. Oh,and the right headstock! Slightly more affordable is the Mexican-made Fender Player Stratocaster (£679 excluding gigbag), one of the world’s best-selling electric guitars. Again, alder is used for the body with a two-post vibrato (with bent steel saddles), a ‘modern C’ neck profile, with 22 frets on a 241mm (9.5-inch) radius fingerboard. It comes in a whopping seven colours with maple fingerboard options on some. A more modern Mexican-made Fender is the recently released Player Plus Stratocaster (£939…

What was the first serious guitar that you bought with your own money? “An American Standard Strat when I was 15, so it would be a 1995. I’ve actually still got that guitar. I don’t really use it very much, but it’s one I’ve managed to hold on to.” What was the last guitar you bought and why? “An Epiphone Riviera, 10 minutes ago! I’ve wanted one for a while, but they’ve all been out of stock. I don’t know if it’s because of Brexit or something. One came in so I thought, ‘I’ll buy it.’A lot of people think that Otis Rush and Magic Sam were Strat players, but both their big early albums like Magic Sam’s West Side Soul, that’s a Riviera – but because of the mini-humbuckers…

Crimson Guitars offers a large range, including UK-made neck and body kits, and no-spray finishing materials and tools. www.crimsonguitars.com Guitarbuild holds a big range of UK-made bodies and necks as well as scratchplates; custom orders undertaken. www.guitarbuild.co.uk Northwest Guitars is a one-stop shop for all you’ll need, from necks and bodies to nitro-finishing materials and tools. www.northwestguitars.co.uk SC Relics provides a superb service of nitro-finished bodies, necks and full builds, plus ultra-authentic Golden Era Ageing. www.screlics.co.uk WD Music UK and Allparts are one-stop suppliers for everything you’ll need for your partscaster build. Fast and excellent service, too. www.wdmusic.co.uk/www.allparts.uk.com Wilkinson HMI Guitar Kits come in a range of styles and include everything you need to create a very credible build. www.scan.co.uk Wudtone Guitar Innovation specialises in proprietary designed hardware and offers…

Cost, for most of us, is central to any instrument. Yet we have a strange take on that sometimes, not least when innovation is involved. People happily pay upwards of £3k for a replica of a solidbody plank unchanged from the 50s, but when Fender put out its first American Acoustasonic Telecaster, the design of which involved a huge amount of costly R&D, many dismissed it – before even playing one – as too expensive. “If they did a Mexican version, we might be interested.” At the tail end of last year, Fender did exactly that. Fender’s factory in Ensenada – where its ‘affordable’ guitars such as the big-selling Player and Vintera series are made – is a few hours’ drive south from its US manufacturing base in Corona, California.…

PRICE: £1,049 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: Mexico TYPE: Single-cutaway, solidbodysized electro-acoustic BODY: Mahogany (hollow) with inset Sitka spruce top NECK: Mahogany, modern ‘deep C’ profile, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) TUNERS: Fender standard cast/ sealed staggered tuners NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech Black Tusq/41.9mm FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, white dot markers, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, narrow/tall BRIDGE/SPACING: Rosewood w/ compensated Black Tusq saddle/53.5mm ELECTRICS: Fishman under-saddle transducer, Fender Noiseless N4 magnetic. master volume, Blend knob, 3-way Voice Selector lever switch. Single mono output. 9V block battery WEIGHT (kg/lb): 2.33/5.13 OPTIONS: Colour only LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Artic White (as reviewed), Brushed Black, Butterscotch Blonde, Shadow Burst – colours over inset spruce top only. Polyester satin matt to body; satin urethane to neck and headstock Fender Musical Instruments EMEA 01342 331700 www.fender.com PROS Clean build, excellent…

Gibson’s Artist Collection currently holds some big-name thinlines such as the Chuck Berry ES-355, Trini Lopez and Slim Harpo ES-330. But this release from a more contemporary artist – My Morning Jacket’s Jim James – outwardly nods back to Gibson’s Norlin-era models with its all over walnut finish, a common colour during the 70s, although it first appeared in the latter half of the 60s. Now, the once-reviled 70s are cool again and this comes across as a workingman’s thinline, not forgetting the owl motifs on the headstock back and case – a cracking example powered by the new Gibson T-Type humbuckers, used across the current ES range. “As the name implies, the T-Types are a tribute to the ‘T-Tops’ from the late 60s to the late 70s/early 80s,” says…

Ibanez AS Series 2022 additions from £289 CONTACT HEADSTOCK DISTRIBUTION PHONE 0121 508 6666 WEB WWW.IBANEZ.COM Ibanez? The only sweeping I do is with a broom… It’s time to put the shred preconception down. While Ibanez has had a huge hand in creating modern instruments for technical players, there’s a long history in the brand outside of divebombs and down-tuning. Its hollow and semi-hollow bodies have been revered for decades. In fact, long before Shrapnel, Korn and djent, one of the first artist models Ibanez produced was for none other than jazz great George Benson. What do we have here, then? New for 2022 are a number of additions to Ibanez’s AS series, spanning a range of budgets. We’ll start with the AS113-BS, which, with a price of £829, takes…

As I get older and (as it so often seems these days) not wiser, nothing fails to amaze me. Do you have certain preconceptions about the gear you like and don’t like? I certainly do. And two of these were blown right out of the window for me recently. I’ve always said that I’ve never really got on with classic Fender amps. I love Blues Juniors and adored an old red-knob Twin I had yonks ago, but the joys of the Bassman, Deluxe, Twin and Super Reverb have always eluded me. There’s something about the middle frequencies that I don’t warm to. Ibanez Tube Screamers, too, have never seemed to do for me what they so clearly did for many people whose tone and playing I admire. “The joys of…

Last issue we looked at how the finish of an electric guitar influences its tone. Luthier Patrick James Eggle concluded that the key quality a finish – be it nitrocellulose or poly – should have is to be as thin as possible while still protecting the guitar. This principle is even more important when it comes to the world of the acoustic guitar. Achieving a thin finish that doesn’t affect the resonance of the guitar’s soundboard – which is effectively the ‘speaker cone’ of the guitar – is clearly desirable. But surely a spray-on finish couldn’t make that much of a difference, could it? Think again, says Patrick James Eggle. Did you know, for example, that a heavily applied finish can weigh as much as the soundboard itself? “On an…

LIGHT MY FIRE Your photo of Jimi at the Hollywood Bowl in August of ’67 [in issue 478] brought back memories for me as I was at that concert. It was the first of five Hendrix concerts I attended. Though my seat was far from the stage, the image of him setting his guitar on fire still burns (sorry) in my memory, as well as fans splashing in the pool in front of the stage. I don’t recall if he threw the guitar into the pool or not. Jimi inspired many people to take up the guitar, but as a left-hander he was especially inspiring to me. I’m still trying. Bob Gervais, via email How we envy you that memory, Bob, thanks so much for writing in to share it…

“Wanna see something cool?” Steve Vai offers shortly after we arrive in his aptly named Harmony Hut studio space in Encino, California. Guitars adorn almost all available wall space, including various incarnations of his iconic JEM signature model. There are PIA models, too, the newest in his signature line, a little more sophisticated and a little more dressed up than its predecessor. However, it is toward the centre of the live room that we are being ushered, where a very out-of-place, drab-looking grey towel is covering something obviously different, something ominous, and by the playful glint in Vai’s eye, it’s something he is excited to reveal. Vai exudes a calming confidence and awareness – instantly talkative and eager to share, yet measured and articulate whenever he jumps into a subject.…

TIM HENSON “Tim Henson [of Polyphia] is exploring new grounds. I’m seeing an evolution in a direction that I didn’t… that I couldn’t even see coming. And it’s magnificent. I just love hearing those ideas and watching the execution of them. He thinks totally outside the box. And if you listen to early stuff, you can hear when he was thinking conventionally, but something happened and he just surrendered to some kind of creative vision. And that’s what their music is. It’s fantastic.” CORY WONG “I love watching him play. It’s rare for a guitarist to truly understand what it means to lock and what it means to groove. Of course, everybody has a level of understanding of groove. You may have a shredder that just has this powerful ability…

“Based on the 330, the 331 Light Show Guitar is part of the Capri series,” Martin tells us. “Rickenbacker also made a 4005LS bass and the 331-12 [12-string]; Roger McGuinn had one of only two 331-12s that were made. The idea was taken to FC Hall in 1969 by a couple of guys called Stephen Woodman and Marshall Arm. FC Hall was always keen on bringing in new ideas and the pair suggested,‘What about making these speaker cabinets with lights inside them? They flash in time with what you’re playing.’You know,‘Wow! Psychedelic, man!’ FC then suggested,‘Yeah, that’s cool, but what if you put the bulbs inside the guitar?’And that’s how the Light Show Guitar was born. “Depending on what you’re playing, certain light bulbs will flash, which is quite a…

The majority of PRS’s SE models are based on prior or existing USA models, as you’d expect. The SE Silver Sky is the first bolt-on in the range, and while it’s not obvious from a few metres away – indeed, this version might look identical to the USA model – just about every part has been re-engineered and there are virtually zero ‘off-the-shelf’ parts or components. Headstock Style Probably the most polarising part of the original Silver Sky is the reverse PRS headstock. With its extended scoop from the nut to the top E tuner, it is back-angled so string trees aren’t necessary. It’s easy to identify the SE model thanks to that bold logo and the truss rod cover, which is smaller and recessed on the USA model, while…

If you’re into effects pedals, you might have noticed pedalboards made by Schmidt Array cropping up more and more on stages in recent years. Used by an eclectic range of pro players, from Tele-twanger extraordinaire Josh Smith to J Willgoose Esq of Public Service Broadcasting, their curving, retro-looking cases attract the eye and mark them out from the common run of cattle-grid-like pedalboards. Intrigued, we decided to drop the company a line, knowing very little about it beyond the fact that it’s based in Germany. So when we called, we were surprised to hear a British voice. The founder of Schmidt Array is Martyn Smith, who married a German woman and emigrated from Rushden, Northants to Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia many years ago. It doesn’t take a linguist to realise…

“I play a Custom Shop Strat. It’s like a limited release: 1961, Fiesta Red. I’ve had it for almost 20 years. Then a couple of years ago, I found a late ’59 reissue that felt exactly the same so I bought that as a backup – and I use a Firebird for slide. They tend to be the guitars I use the most. Then I take two Blackstar H-40s. I was approached by Blackstar for an endorsement and they sent me a [100-watt] amp, but then I had a fly-in [gig] and I asked them to provide an amp and they provided a 40-watt combo. I just found that the lower power was sort of sweeter in the midrange. So I use two of those – one’s a backup, literally…

‘Iwas very lucky to meet world-renowned luthier Bharat Khandekar, the most selfless person I have ever met,” recounts Phil Marshall, who founded Guitarbuild back in 1999. “We were able to see all his vintage original bodies and necks, and take measurements. His detailed knowledge and subsequent checking of the bodies and necks ensured they are perfect replicas and the best quality available on the market today.” It’s an attractive backstory that (some £110 and a few days later) is backed up by receiving a very nice and cleanly machined HSH alder body weighing 1.8kg (almost 4lb). Guitarbuild’s bodies and necks are all machined here in the UK using woods sourced from the USA, India and Indonesia. “We buy all our wood kiln-dried,” Phil tells us, “and we check it in…

From the early 1940s, guitar-building materials were in increasingly short supply due to America’s war effort. Furthermore, following President Roosevelt’s formation of the War Production Board, Gibson was forced to turn its attention to the manufacture of military hardware. These monumental changes may have signalled the end of the Kalamazoo firm had it not been for the immense efforts of the female staff who, against the odds, not only helped keep guitar production going but also happened to create some of the finest flat-tops to ever leave the factory. Crafted between 1942 and 1946, these revered wartime instruments are often referred to as ‘Banner’ guitars on account of a headstock decal that reads ‘Only a Gibson is good enough’. Appearing in 1942, the 14¼-inch-wide LG series fleshed out a limited…

August 1942 First LG-2 shipped; first LG-3 shipped; mahogany backs/sides; spruce tops April 1943 First LG-1 shipped; all-mahogany 1943 LG-3 and LG-1 production suspended; some LG-2s with maple backs/mahogany tops 1944 Switch from Adirondack to Sitka spruce tops 1946 Headstock banner discontinued; LG-1 and LG-3 production recommences 1949 LG-2¾ released 1958 LG-0 released; all-mahogany; discontinued 1973 1962 LG-2, LG-2¾ and LG-3 superseded by B-25, B-25¾ and B-25N respectively 1968 B-25¾ and LG-1 discontinued; LG-0 now with spruce top 1977 Last B-25 and B-25N models shipped…

1. SERIAL NUMBER Factory order number (FON) ink stamped inside; number prefixed by letter (denoting year) 2. HEADSTOCK Gold silk-screened Gibson logo; black nitrocellulose face 3. HARDWARE Kluson tuners with white keystone buttons (replacements); rectangular Brazilian rosewood bridge with fixed saddle 4. NECK Glued-in; single-piece mahogany; shorter 22¾- inch scale length; unbound 19-fret Brazilian rosewood fingerboard with mother-of-pearl dot markers 5. BODY 12 11/16 inches wide; ladder-braced Sitka spruce top with sunburst finish and three-ply (w/b/w) binding; w/b/w soundhole rings; single-bound mahogany back; mahogany sides 6. PLASTICS White bridge pins; tortoiseshell celluloid pickguard; black ‘bell’ truss-rod cover…

“This is a 1952 Fender Esquire that is factory-fitted with two pickups. Interestingly enough, ‘Esquire’ is not indicated on the back of the neck heel or on the body; usually, it would say ‘esq’ in either of those places. I’ve seen eight or so double-pickup Esquires from this era and this is the only one I’ve ever seen that isn’t marked as one. It doesn’t say it on the neck or the body, so my feeling on this particular guitar is that there are two possibilities: one, somebody bought an Esquire and ordered the $15 [neck] pickup option; or, two, the guitar went through [production] and was somehow decaled incorrectly. “It could have gone either way, but I tend to believe that this guitar was decaled incorrectly. Only because I…

Got Rhythm? TUTOR Richard Barrett | GEAR USED Knaggs Choptank, Vox AC15 C1 DIFFICULTY 10 mins per example BEFORE WE GO ANY FURTHER, I want to define what I am calling ‘rhythm’ guitar. Many of the great blues artists such as BB King, Albert Collins and Albert King were soloists who didn’t really ‘do’ chords, but I wanted to have a play here with the guitar as a ‘featured instrument’ – not necessarily playing a solo or melody but not relegated to strumming inaudible block chords, either. That said, the bass and drum backing provides very little harmonic detail, so it is also necessary that the guitar steps in here, while providing a bit of rhythmic and melodic variety. This sounds like a very tall order indeed, but if we…

Great job with this Player Telecaster, we’re really enjoying the guitar. We’re told work started on the project over two years ago. Was the plan always to offer  a streamlined version of the USA platform? “We’re glad you like this version! While we started work on the Acoustasonic Series here in Nashville in 2016, the work on the Acoustasonic Players did begin about 26 months ago, and it involved a huge team across many locations in the US and in Mexico. We’d always planned multiple models, and always knew there’d be a variation like this one. We also knew we’d need a new factory to do it in Ensenada. That took a bit!” The reduction in price (40 per cent) equates to the fewer sounds we have. Are the acoustic…

PRICE: £3,099 (inc case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Double-cutaway, semi-solid thinline electric BODY: Laminated maple/poplar/ maple with f-holes and solid maple centre block NECK: Mahogany, slim taper profile, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 624mm (24.57”) NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech/43.5mm FINGERBOARD: Bound Indian rosewood, acrylic dot inlays, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium/jumbo HARDWARE: ABR-1 tune-o-matic bridge, lightweight aluminium stud tailpiece, Kluson Waffleback tuners – nickel-plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE:51.5mm ELECTRICS: Gibson T-Type calibrated covered humbuckers, 3-way toggle pickup selector, individual volume and tone controls for each pickup WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.55/7.81 OPTIONS: No RANGE OPTIONS: The Modern ES-335 Satin (£2,499) kicks off the current range; the Original ES-335 is £2,899. Other artist models include the Chuck Berry 1970s ES-355 (£6,099) and the Slim Harpo ‘Lovell’ ES-330 (£2,599) LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISH: Walnut (as reviewed) – gloss nitrocellulose…

Artist: Eric Gales Album: Crown (Provogue/Mascot) There’s no denying that Eric Gales is a man in motion. His 2019 album, The Bookends, heralded a new energy and sophistication to his music. For many years, by his own admission, he struggled with addiction; now clean for some time, he’s on the form of his life. His new album, Crown, stakes Eric’s claim to the place among guitar’s royalty that his playing deserves. But, much more than that, it is also a powerful platform for an anti-racism message, which Eric says is the culmination of years of lived experience as a black American – and, now, on his new album, he is inviting his audience to have “a conversation” with him about it. Stinging, stylish, powerful, soulful – Crown is all these…

Having reached the age of 72 I have recently stopped gigging due to failing health after playing in local covers bands for over 50 years. I have been reflecting on my many influences over the years. One band that I have followed since the very early days is John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers, and it is great to see that he is still performing. My first repertoires consisted mainly of songs from his early albums with Eric Clapton and Peter Green. I have seen the Bluesbreakers live many times over the years and have loved the solo work of people like Walter Trout and Buddy Whittington. I have recently been revisiting my favourite of [Mayall’s] guitarists, Coco Montoya. He is probably not as well known as some of the other…

“I don’t change how I play my riffs and solos live because I’m a music fan – I want to hear it just like the album” What are your memories of playing the Brixton Academy in 2004? “The excitement. The crowd. The anticipation. Brixton is one of those magical places for us. From the moment we got back together, we were definitely going to play that room. That was a no-brainer. Like, ‘You guys are getting back together.’ ‘Okay, when do we hit Brixton?’You know what I mean? We just love it. We love the town. It’s a magical venue. It’s one of those few in the world that gets us that excited.” What do you remember as the standout tracks at those shows? “Let’s see. For those kinds of…

With her towering silver locks, strings of pearls and her love of cats, the Upper East Side socialite cuts an unlikely figure in the shred-guitar world, but Mrs Smith – the alter ego of comedian, musician and actor David Hanbury – has the chops to stand her ground, whether busking on the streets of NYC or making an appearance on America’s Got Talent. And after famously challenging Kirk Hammett to a wah-off, and winning, who better to ask Steve Vai the questions no-one else will dare to? Mrs Smith, over to you. Mrs Smith: “On stage, you infuse your guitar playing with serpentine sexual energy and aggression. Yet off stage, you are known as one of the most approachable guitar legends. Describe your pre-show rituals, wherein you invoke these demons…

PRICE: £895 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: Indonesia TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric BODY: Poplar NECK: Maple, 635JM profile, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT/WIDTH: Synthetic bone/41.8mm FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, small bird inlays, 216mm (8.5”) radius FRETS: 22, medium HARDWARE: PRS-designed 2-point steel vibrato, PRS-designed vintage-style tuners – nickel-plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 54mm ELECTRICS: Three PRS 635JM ‘S’ single-coils, 5-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume, tone 1 (neck & middle), tone 2 (bridge) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.21/7.1 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: The USA Silver Sky, with either rosewood or maple ’board, costs £2,620 (inc gigbag) LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Moon White (as reviewed), Ever Green, Stone Blue, Dragon Fruit – polyurethane gloss body; polyurethane tinted satin neck PROS Price, build, playability, sound, all with PRS’s ‘nerdy’ attention to detail; great neck shape – it really…

During the previous Longtermers article (issue 480) I tried a number of my own guitars through the new Da Capo 75 amp. This was my way of getting to know it even better with my own gear, having already reviewed it for the magazine. If you missed it, here’s a brief recap… The Da Capo is the brainchild of Udo Roesner, the designer of the AER Compact 60 amplifier that is beloved by the acoustic guitar world in general. With the Da Capo, as the name suggests, Roesner has literally redesigned it from the top down and, we were so delighted with the adjustments and new features that we awarded it a rare 10/10 Guitarist Gold back in issue 479. As I have previously mentioned, I am working towards a…

‘This modding lark isn’t cheap,” observed our editor-in-chief, Jamie Dickson, whose Fender American Vintage Tele [pic 1] has now been pimped to perfection after a series of mods, from its pinstriping, replacement Lollar pickups and new control harness, to its new saddles and, finally, a stainless steel refret. As an exercise in gradual modding it’s typical of what many of us undertake: a little at a time. But tot that lot up – not only the parts but labour, too, if you can’t do the work yourself – and you’ll have a pretty sum that could have been invested in a superior guitar in the first place. And there will be some wise ol’ owls out there reminding Jamie, ‘Good luck if you need to sell it!’ A couple of…

ROBERT WHITE MOTOWN ANTHEMS Robert was an integral part of the Funk Brothers, along with guitarists Eddie Willis and Joe Messina. Their ‘onefor-all’ teamwork resulted in interlocking, complementary parts on many classics, but I’ve singled out Robert for his pentatonic intro on The Temptations’ My Girl, the Morse-code-style octaves on The Supremes’ You Keep Me Hangin’ On, and the strummed chords that deliver the foundation for Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie Amour. CURTIS MAYFIELD ROOTS You’ll need to listen closely for Curtis’s inventive rhythm guitar in the mix among the orchestrations, but this is well worth the effort. Check out the way he weaves in and out of the rhythm on the anthem Get Down. Other highlights include his embellished arpeggios on Keep On Keeping On, and Now You’re Gone is…