Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i Guitarist

This month’s feature on Japanese guitars is a great lesson in how mercurial the world of guitar making can be, and how slow, sometimes, our own prejudices are to react to rapidly changing realities. Looking at some of the wilder designs that Japanese companies such as Teisco, Kent or Guyatone – to name but three – put out in the heady days of the 60s, you can see why some players in the UK and America might not have taken them that seriously at first. Festooned with buttons, odd-looking pickups and outlandish body shapes, it must have seemed like something was lost in translation from American guitar-making to Japan’s home-grown efforts to make rock ’n’ roll instruments. But any complacency the big American makers may have felt on that score…

Cliff Cooper, Orange’s first CEO, founded the company back in 1968 during the beat combo heyday of British music, creating one of a select handful of history-making British valve amplifier brands. Orange had no issue marking itself out with a slew of oversized, colourful cabinets and even a trendy London store called, naturally, the Orange store. Business boomed and soon the brand had expanded to include both a record label and an artist management company. Ownership and production issues from 1978 to 1998 led to only a few products being manufactured with various partners including Gibson. However, since the millennium Orange has managed to rebuild its market position, retaining the esoteric sound and styling that has set the brand apart since its inception. Today’s market for guitar amps can perhaps…

NAMM 2025 Report Five years on from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the NAMM Show seems to have well and truly recovered. This year saw big players back in the exhibition halls, and while we seem to get a steady flow of new releases throughout the year, there were still plenty of tricks up the guitar industry’s sleeve for the event at the end of January. This year, we saw a strong trend towards 90s revival, plus (we’re glad to report) plenty of gear that won’t require a remortgage. The guitar, it seems, is in one of its healthiest places in years. Here, we present some of our favourite releases that you’ll see in the months ahead. [SW] MARSHALL JCM800 MODIFIED, 1959 MODIFIED & STUDIO 900 From £1,099…

Artist: Smith/Kotzen Album: Black Light/White Noise (BMG) Thinking back on his unlikely pairing with the ever-nomadic Richie Kotzen, Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith says, quite simply: “I can see it. I can see a place for us out there.” But it wasn’t always that way. Before their successful self-titled 2021 debut, Adrian was sceptical. “The blues-rock thing is something I’ve wanted to do,” he says. “My wife, who was a fan of his music, said, ‘Why don’t you get together with Richie?’ I said, ‘Well, he’s got a lot going on, his band; I don’t see how that would work.’” Against the odds, Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen’s union did work, leading them to their 2025 follow-up, Black Light/White Noise. “Adrian might do something with a solo that I wouldn’t, something…

We get different voicings of a chord when we shuffle the order of the notes around. Though we still have the same chord harmonically speaking, it will have a slightly different character. We can also arrange to have the Root, 3rd, 5th, 7th (or any other extension) at the top or bottom to facilitate chord melody arrangements or Bach-style moving basslines. In the classical world, this practice would usually be called ‘inversions’ of a chord. Briefly, a major or minor chord with the 3rd shifted to the bottom (such as D/F#) is a first inversion. Move the 5th to the bottom (D/A, for example) and we have a second inversion. If we were to take a dominant 7th chord and move the 7th to the bottom (D/C, for example), we’d…

With an ultra-clean fingerpicking technique and a vocal delivery that straddles Irish folk and Americana, Muireann Bradley first came to prominence via YouTube when she was 13 years old, gaining thousands of views for her versions of the blues standards, Vestapol and Blind Blake’s Police Dog Blues. Her subsequent independent album, I Kept These Old Blues, gained her even more attention, particularly from the producers of Jools Holland’s annual Hootenanny, who booked her to appear on the show in 2023. Remarkably, she handled playing on live TV like an absolute pro, even though she’d only played a handful of local gigs beforehand. Now that her album is being remastered and released on a major label and her tour schedule is positively bustling, she looks back on a time when martial…

It’s a characteristic of the best bands that they are loved by millions but also completely unique. It’s a trick that Manic Street Preachers have pulled off for years, from the angular, agit-rock of The Holy Bible to the beauty and tragedy of their breakthrough 1996 album, Everything Must Go, recorded in the wake of lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards’ disappearance, their sound is instantly recognisable and wholly their own. Today, with the release of their 15th album, Critical Thinking, that vital spark of originality and vivid honesty is undimmed – even if the band do the shopping on the way home from sessions these days, following the establishment of a permanent studio near their homes in South Wales. We join guitarist James Dean Bradfield at the studio, to…

GODIN 5TH AVENUE P90 £949 Although Godin no longer makes an acoustic archtop, this variant illustrates the progression and development of our reviewed 5th Avenue Thin Line. The original body here is slightly larger and deeper, and this non-cutaway version really harks back to the swing era when the guitar’s role was primarily as a rhythm instrument. The addition of the Godin P90 means you’ll be heard. Also check out the Nightclub version (£1,949) with Bigsby vibrato and TV Jones Classic neck pickup. GODIN RADIATOR £1,299 This model dates back to 1999 and was a retro-themed entry-level electric that fairly uniquely used a pearloid faceplate like an oversized scratchplate. The current version returned in 2020 with a more regular single-cut Godin outline, though the body is still heavily chambered (and…

VOX VALVENERGY PEDALS FROM £159 CONTACT Korg UK PHONE 01908 304664 WEB www.voxamps.co.uk What You Need To Know 1 These pedals look familiar… That’s right – that little window in the front marks these out as Vox Valvenergy pedals, which have been around since 2020. The four pedals here are new additions to the range. 2 Valvenergy – what’s that all about? Vox’s parent company, Korg, has developed the Nutube, which has many of the characteristics of a conventional vacuum tube (valve) but is much smaller. And it’s this technology that powers these pedals. 3 So these have a different sound from solid-state pedals? Well, the idea is to put valve sound in a pedal. Vox says that the Nutube’s “real triode structure produces a warm, unique vacuum tube sound”.…

Back in issue 518 I’d begun a custom build with Jason Snelling at Maybury Guitars. We wanted to create something a little different from the Fender-style partscaster builds that many of us end up creating, purely out of convenience. The idea was that The Mod Squad would supply the parts (pre-used if possible) and Jason would create a body based on his own Saguaro outline using recycled wood: the top is a slice of figured-ash chopping board, and the quite heavily chambered back is from old pine that was salvaged from the office of a long-ago-demolished garage. Because Jason had done such a good job of lining everything up, putting it together in the white – without a finish – was pretty easy, even though I got a bit delayed…

“You could probably count on one hand the number of Inca Silver Stratocasters with gold hardware that Fender made. Even though gold hardware was very inexpensive, maybe five per cent on top of the price of the guitar back then, most people didn’t want to pay extra. Gold hardware on a silver guitar might seem like it’s a bit too much, but whoever had the foresight to order this must have realised it would look fantastic. “The paintwork is still very silver and it hasn’t greened up. There are some blemishes on the back, and the neck finish has worn through quite a bit because this guitar was played. This is a loved guitar that retains its original white case and weighs just 7lb 3oz [3.26kg]. “Because it was most…

Smith/Kotzen This fiery alliance between Maiden’s guitar man and one of the most gifted alumni of the 90s shred movement has yielded a great album p36 Need For Tweed Fender’s Deluxe has been arguably its most important amp, in its various guises. So it’s very interesting to see where it all started p120 Yvette Young We join the Californian instrumental guitarist to hear about the gear that has helped define her sound – and stuff that didn’t p114…

It’s just three years since we first got our hands on a Cream T Crossfire, and barely had the paint dried before the manufacturing hub that made it, UKGB, got hit and went down. To be honest, it seems longer, not least that Cream T dusted down, found a new UK manufacturing partner and simply carried on. Since then we’ve seen a Mk II version of the brand’s first electric guitar, the set-neck Aurora, while its first new post-UKGB design was the mainstream super-S Polaris, followed by the T-style Astra ‘Decades’, which features some quite inspired and unique circuitry. These models have all been limited in numbers and some, but not all, use the Guitar-X (originally Relish) pickup-swapping system where you can swap a pickup in seconds to instantly revoice…

Artist: Lea Thomas Album: Cosmos Forever (Triple Dolphin Records) Hawaiian-born and based in New York state’s Hudson Valley, guitarist and singer-songwriter Lea Thomas makes beautiful, spacious music that combines pop-oriented sounds with something more ethereal and less focused on traditional structures. The music is quietly complex, with precise production, but Lea is also an adept live performer, something seemingly innate. “I remember being at this piano recital at around five years old with one of my best friends,” Lea laughs. “We had the complete opposite experience of being on stage. I was having a great time and thinking everyone’s going to be fucking stoked that I’m killing this recital, and my friend was mortified and so shy. It was the first moment I felt that I liked this and not…

Before we get onto that particular fellow, back in the early to mid-70s I shared a house with a great friend who was and still is a fabulous guitarist. He owned the 1963 Vox AC30 that I’ve often talked about and which we both jammed through, full blast, with our respective SG and ES-335. His sister also lived there (it was their family home) with her husband. He was and still is a fabulous saxophone player called Dave Winthrop. At the time, Dave was in a new band that had had some success with their debut album but not yet hit the big-time. They were called Supertramp. Dave and I also played in a local Essex rock ’n’ roll band and had a joyous time doing so, too. But we…

STAR LETTER HISTORY REBORN I thought readers may be interested in something a little different. Clearly inspired by the cigar-box diddley bow guitars made in America around the turn of the 20th century, my grandad Harry Aldridge made this [see pics] on his return from that country around 1908. My brother and I inherited it in a dirty and broken state. I’ve restored it, retaining the original colour, wear and tear, and evidence of minor repairs over the years. I gave it a good clean to remove over 100 years of grime then used guitar polish to bring life back to the wood and bring back the original colour. The body is French-polished pine, the top left natural. The smooth slender neck and man’s head carved headstock is out of…

It’s the late 70s, and Paul Stanley of KISS tells an interviewer about the band’s great successes – he guesses they’ve sold something like 20 million records, and they’re just back from a Japanese tour. It was there, he says, that he found out more about the abilities of Japanese guitar makers. He discovered they have the skills, as he puts it, “to make anything”. That’s a lot more than can be said for America at the moment, he adds. “Japan,” Stanley concludes, “really is the country of the future.” Japan’s guitar industry was certainly healthy when he made those comments, and it surely had no reason to doubt that the future would be just as rosy. It had overcome a shaky start, when critics said it simply copied well-known…

Andy Fairweather Low’s career is a smorgasbord of musical successes. He hit the big-time in 1968 with Amen Corner. Top 10 hits such as Bend Me, Shape Me, High In The Sky and the chart-topper (If Paradise Is) Half As Nice propelled the Cardiff-based pop-soul outfit to heady heights. Following a stint as Fair Weather and scoring a Top 10 with Natural Sinner, Andy forged a solo path with his beautiful composition Wide Eyed And Legless. However, for decades he was guitar-playing sideman to superstars including Eric Clapton and Roger Waters, toured with Chris Rea, Paul Carrack, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. He’s even recorded with Joe Satriani and jammed with Jimi Hendrix. And that’s the tip of a very large iceberg. Andy’s new album, The Invisible Bluesman, could give…

Given that it was designed by the man who quit The Smiths at the peak of their powers in 1987 – having single-handedly invented indie-rock – perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that Johnny Marr’s new signature Martin M-7 doesn’t stick to the script. Teaming with the fabled Pennsylvania-based luthier for the project is a logical move: Marr has been loyal to the Martin brand since he hired his first D-28 for The Smiths’ 1985 Meat Is Murder album (and refused to give it back). But from the hybrid body shape to the three-piece back – not to mention the pièce de résistance, an octave G string – the 61-year-old’s creation is anything but a cynical rebadge, its widescreen jangle and seventh tuning peg making fans question their eyes and ears…

Say the words ‘Tweed Deluxe’ and most guitarists will automatically think of the 5E3 that is so closely associated with Neil Young, Mike Campbell, Larry Carlton, The Edge and pretty much every guitarist in the Eagles. But the 5E3 was just the last in a line of Tweed Deluxes that began in 1949 with the 5A3 and developed from the even earlier Model 26 ‘Woodie’ Deluxe. Every iteration had a pair of cathode biased 6V6 power valves, but there were some significant differences. The 5A3, 5B3 and 5C3 all had octal preamp valves, with smaller nine-pin valves only appearing in the 5D3 and 5E3. Negative feedback from the speaker output was unique to the 5C3, and for the 5E3 Fender reconfigured the inputs and changed the phase inverter from paraphase…

VIDEO & AUDIO ► http://bit.ly/guitaristextra Flatpicking Bluegrass Tutor Richard Barrett | Gear used Atkin J43T Difficulty | 15 mins per example IN THIS MONTH’S BLUES HEADLINES we’ll be looking at an unaccompanied acoustic piece. The tempo marked is approximate as this was played ‘freehand’ without a metronome. Flatpicking is a bit of a catch-all term since the piece contains crosspicking, alternate picking, Carter picking and strumming. Crosspicking, as the name implies, uses the pick to cross the strings, giving a similar effect to fingerpicking but with a bolder and more consistent tone. This is a different discipline to the two- or three-note-per-string alternate-picked scale patterns more commonly used when soloing. Having said this, the crosspicked arpeggios towards the end of the example piece are alternate-picked, though there are other options.…

Having said “a new model from Lowden”, there were actually two fresh acoustic releases from the Northern Irish company at this year’s Winter NAMM Show, our F12 being the spruce-topped stablemate to the otherwise identical cedar-fronted F10. We didn’t want to use the term ‘entry level’ for this guitar as it’s a fully grown-up instrument. That said, it’s made more simply than even the simpler models in Lowden’s roster. So we spoke to company founder George Lowden in order to put the instrument into context within his extensive catalogue: “My aim with this guitar was to provide a ‘real’ Lowden but at a more affordable price,” he tells us. “Also, I’ve been itching to design a bolt-on neck at a lighter weight for several years, so this seemed like the…

Crazy Tube Circuits has a penchant for creating pedals that pair classic amp sounds with a classic drive or boost pedal. Following on from the Crossfire, Unobtanium and Hi-Power is the fourth in that twin-footswitch series, the Heatseeker, which is inspired by the gear setup of AC/DC’s Angus Young, pairing a Marshall amp sound with footswitchable boost, plus enhancement from the circuitry of a vintage wireless system. The amp portion of the pedal offers a choice of three different Marshall models with full tonal control available via a six-knob array consisting of Volume, Master, Bass, Middle, Treble and Presence knobs. Using an all-analogue JFET circuit, it does a great job of delivering that Brit amp flavour. Juxtaposition of the Volume and Master knobs will run the gamut from glassy cleans…

Tuning a guitar is probably the first thing everyone is taught to do when they initially pick up a guitar. Regardless of your choice of axe, clip-on tuners are pretty ubiquitous these days and they make getting the process of bringing everything up to pitch a doddle. Gone are the days of banging a tuning fork against a table edge, or aggravating pets by blowing into a pitch pipe. However, players comfortable tuning their guitars without such aids may have noticed that there are occasional discrepancies between these clever gadgets and their own well-honed perception of pitch. If you’ve ever struggled with tuning the B string in particular, you may know what I’m talking about. As a guitar maker, it’s my job to understand exactly what’s going on here, otherwise…

John Sykes belonged to that exclusive club of musicians – a golden circle whose members also include David Crosby, Ronnie Wood and Dave Grohl – notable for their vital roles in not one but two major bands. Unlike those galacticos, there’s a case that the former Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy guitarist, who died in December aged 65 after battling cancer, never became as famous as his talent deserved (‘underrated’ being the key word in the tributes paid). Yet those who found Sykes followed him until the end. “In John’s final days,” ran the statement on his website, “he spoke of his sincere love and gratitude for his fans who stuck by him through all these years.” John James Sykes was born 29 July 1959 in Reading, and discovered his gift…

Faith acoustics are everywhere. The chances are if you see a busker in town, an acoustic player at an open mic, or an artist in concert at a local theatre, they will have a Faith in hand. And for good reason. Faith’s brief has always been to provide a quality, all-solid wood, acoustic guitar at a reasonable price point, with good looks and great tone as a given. But the acoustic world doesn’t stay still for long, and Faith’s stage-ready Eclipse models have just undergone a serious upgrade to make them better than ever. Faith’s Patrick James Eggle tells us more. Can you explain more about the origins of the Faith Eclipse series? “The Eclipse was one of the earliest models and it was originally conceived as a stage guitar.…

What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money? “That one’s interesting! And I have two answers. The first guitar I had was a C1-E acoustic that I actually taught myself guitar on. It’s one that I got during high school, when I was trying to write my own stuff and trying to learn. And then the first actual serious guitar that I had was an SX Tele[-style model] that I traded for a drum machine [laughs]. At the time, I didn’t have any money, but my friend Ethan from Louisiana needed a drum machine, and he was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll give you my Tele for a drum machine.’ So he’s kind of responsible for me playing electric guitar.” What was the last guitar you bought and…