Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2019 i Total Guitar

One of my favourite things about the world of guitar is that its past and future are always entwined. It’s something we try to reflect in TG because every great innovation in guitar music and gear will often come about as reaction to something that has gone before. Whether it’s being inspired by the groundbreaking guitar work of the 60s and 70s or an invention, guitar’s evolution is indebted to its past. Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who and – more than anyone – The Beatles changed guitar music in fundamental ways that we could fill a year’s worth of TG issues with. But to mark a brace of golden anniversaries we’ve taken a snapshot of each band with their landmark records from 1969. We salute a different but equally…

GEAR Smashing News Twenty seven years after it was stolen at a 1992 gig in Detroit, Billy Corgan has been reunited with the 70s Strat he used to track Smashing Pumpkins’ debut album Gish. The yellow model, with a hand-painted design by Corgan, is believed to be from 1974. For years it hung on the wall in the Michigan home of Beth James (pictured) after she bought the guitar in a yard sale for $200 before researching its roots. Corgan told journalist Gloria Ruth Finney: “I wrote a lot of great songs on that guitar and hopefully there’s more in it.” SONG Feel Player Mayer John Mayer is making a move back into the hearts of his guitar-playing fans with new song, I Guess I Just Feel Like. While Mayer…

1 “This is the Jackson Pro Series HT7FM in Ocean Burst – it looks like the ocean, right? A beautiful top. The FM is for flame maple. This guitar is very deliberately what I wanted it to be. I wanted to be able to offer a more affordable option of my guitar that still had all the features that are very important to me.” 2 “We’ve got wonderful locking tuners here. Essential because I pick very, very hard so that is an absolute necessity for me.” 3 “We’ve got a nice hardtail bridge. This style I find is very balanced sounding. A lot of people don’t realise that the bridge style, material and quality can make a difference in the sound. And I wanted something that has a lot of…

1. DROP D POWERCHORD This easy to play, hard-rocking powerchord shape can be fretted with just one finger and easily moved around the fretboard to any pitch you like. Soundgarden’s Outshinedis a classic example from their Badmotorfingeralbum. 2. DROP D SUS2 CHORD The ‘sus’ in Csus2 is short for suspended. Dial in a distorted tone and this chord sounds epic in a post-grunge Foo Fighters meets Alter Bridge way. This shape (played two frets lower) rounds off the intro lines in Shinedown’s Fly From The Insidefrom their 2003 debut.…

The fact that Brighton-born rockers Blood Red Shoes were conceived as a two-piece band has shaped the way guitarist/ vocalist Laura-Mary Carter approaches tone. With fellow bandmate Steven Ansell holding it down on drums, Laura-Mary fills the band’s distinctive alt-rock sound with some judicious and, frankly, iconoclastic gear choices. Augmenting her Telecaster’s innate twang with a suite of pedals? Taking a mass-production no name electric and placing it at the heart of her setup? Well, this girl will take whatever works. The pièce de résistance, however, is a backline that sees Marshall’s flagship 1980s rock amp, the JCM800, running in tandem with a 5-watt Fender champ combo – it’s a Transatlantic tone cocktail that’ll knock you for six. We caught up with the experimentally-inclined musician to get the lowdown on…

“It’s a must-have, essential guitar,” says James of his trusty Taylor GS Mini travel guitar. “In fact I think a GS Mini is pretty much the Holy Grail for me. It’s great to have on your back if you’re songwriting and travelling around. Busted was dead and buried – the band was no more. I had a GS Mini and I would just play it. I would get better at guitar just by playing my GS Mini all the time because I’d play it everywhere I went. I went to visit McFly up in Manchester because they were playing the Apollo [in 2012]. They said, ‘You should go up and play a few songs,’ and I had my GS Mini so went out and did three songs. And from that…

Don’t worry about the weird name. ‘Parallel’ just means you’ll be switching from a major key to a minor key using one root chord. It’ll sound much more mysterious than staying in one key and it’s a great way to freshen up any chord sequence. Here’s how it works… 1. D – A Start by playing a D chord followed by an A. Easy, right? It’s a basic change that’s ripe for improving upon. 2. D – DM – A This time play a Dm chord after D. D and Dm can’t be in the same key – they’re said to be ‘parallel’ because they are a major and minor pair of chords built on the same root note. 3. D – A – AM – G Try it wherever…

1 CHOOSE A FINGER Generally, your third finger is best for slide. You’ll have a free finger on either side of your slide for regular fretting duties. 2 SMACK YOUR PITCH UP Accurate pitch is key. The frets are where the right notes are, so target your slide directly above the fret of the notes you’re playing. 3 MUTE POINT Use your first and second fingers to touch the strings behind the slide to prevent excess noise and keep your licks sounding pristine.…

The mammoth fourth single from Metallica’s über-hit Black Album, Wherever I May Roam clocks in at over six minutes long. For the sake of brevity, though, Rockschool’s arrangement cuts the track down, focusing on the main riffs to make it more digestible for Grade 3 players. The opening riff is based around the exotic sounding E Phrygian scale (E F G A B C D) and the most colourful note is the F (a b 9th interval). This crucial note comes up time and time again, lending a slight Eastern vibe to the song as the riff makes the semitone shift between the E and F notes. Lots of Metallica songs use E Phrygian and the E to F move, in fact, you could call it Metallica’s trademark! For an…

For many brands, rosewood is off the table for now. Import restrictions, price, and sustainability issues mean that manufacturers need alternatives. The Tribute Plus boasts a pau ferro fingerboard, one of the many sustainable alternatives that we’ll need to get used to. Pau ferro sounds like a cheap aftershave but it’s a tonewood found in Brazil and Bolivia. How does it feel? It is harder than rosewood. But anyone who has played an ebony fingerboard will find the pau ferro’s tight grain reassuringly crisp and familiar. What that means tone-wise is that there will be a little more brightness, more snap. With Fender’s Mexican models also using pau ferro, it’s here to stay – at least for now.…

One question kept coming up while reviewing this quartet: are these guitars designed to hang on a wall, or are they there to be played? If it’s the latter, then they need to offer more than a natty paint job. Overall the Vintage V6 Icon and LTD TE-254 succeed because there’s always room for a workhorse Strat or Tele, even if it’s one where you don’t get to give it the workhorse vibe yourself. The Washburn HB36 scores highly on a number of fronts, too, but we wonder if its aesthetic is somewhat limiting. It’s truly nailed the bourbon-barrel Americana thing to a tee, but is that what the wider world is going to want? And the Cort Sunset TC ticks a lot of boxes; it’s interesting to look at…

The Grand Canyon is EHX’s latest and greatest delay. It takes the patches from its popular Canyon multi-delay and adds additional controls, a tap-tempo footswitch and the ability to do sound-on-sound looping on every setting. THE RUNNER-UP FOR MOST FUN SETTING HAS TO GO TO THE ECHO... If that makes it sound like a space cadet’s dream, then you’d be right. Looping on top of delays is great for soundscaping, but we didn’t find much use for it in a song context. That’s not the case with the global momentary mode, however, which can be used for sound effects in solos, punctuation in riffs, or shoegazey surprises in chord progressions. In the reverse mode, with some relatively extreme settings and a short delay, using the momentary footswitch with tails engaged…

CHRIS BIRD TG’s tuition editor donned his gear testing hat to put Victory Amps’ V4 The Kraken preamp through its paces in our new Gear Diary regular (p108). Clearly impressed, Chris is in crisis. “I was in the market for some digital modelling gear,” he explained, “but now I’m thinking I need to stay analogue.” Sounds like a typical case of GAS to us! MIKE ASTLEY-BROWN We already spend half our lives stroking and caressing touchscreens, so Mike was right at home with the reassuringly intuitive signal chain management of HeadRush’s Gigboard multi-effects – just as soon as he managed to tear himself away from the reams of cat videos that make up his Instagram feed, natch. JON BISHOP “Right up my street,” remarked TG man Jon when offered the…

GET THE TONE #1 COUNTRY SLAPBACK Depending on the speed of the song you’re playing, you’ll need to alter the exact repeat rate setting to taste, but this should get you in the general area for the 100 series. With the 200, consider taking off some bass, adding some treble, and adding in just a little bit of reverb blend for country bliss. GET THE TONE MODE short REPEAT RATE 1-3 o’clock INTENSITY 1 o’clock ECHO VOLUME 12 o’ clock GET THE TONE #2 WASHY POST-ROCK Look at the feet of many post-rock guitarists, and you’ll see some kind of tape echo emulation pedal. The natural chorus caused by the ‘wow and flutter’ of the motor and tape, combined with the darker repeats is mesmerising. If you have a 2XX…

1 2004 SCHECTER DIAMOND SERIES OMEN 6 James: “A lot of my friends who play guitar say, ‘You’ve got to lose that guitar,’ but songs sound great on it. I always use it on Year 3000 because it just has this thing, a very Busted sound. I’ve played the same song on 15 guitars, good ones, that got delivered to the rehearsal studio. The song just wasn’t the same – I can’t get it from those guitars.” 2 FENDER JAZZMASTER AND CUSTOM SHOP STRATOCASTER James: “The Jazzmaster is my favourite guitar apart from my Schecter. But I love all my guitars. I like Fender because they’re good all-round guitars. ” 3 FENDER JIM ROOT TELECASTER AND JAZZMASTER Charlie: “I love Tele guitars but they just don’t have the output I…

Tommy’s Pinball Wizardfeatures a classic example of the major to sus4 chord change. Townshend’s simple shift from B to Bsus4 outlines the main riff, but it’s also a handy songwriting trick used subtly throughout the album to add flourishes to other more basic chord changes. Try it out with the sus4 chord then take things a step further with our easy sus2 chord change. 1. C – G This change from a C barre chord to a G can sound pretty simple, and maybe even a bit boring. Try it out. 2. C – GSUS4 – G Now, start on C, end on G, but this time play a Gsus4 in the middle to make more of the change. Simple! 3. C – CSUS2 – GSUS4 – G This time…

These five shapes all outline the E minor pentatonic scale. How so? Well, you probably know that most notes on the guitar can be played at more than one fret – and this simple fact means you can play entire scales all over the neck. Each shape sacrifices some higher and lower notes compared to its neighbour, but that doesn’t matter. Start shifting from shape to shape in your next E minor solo.…

Eddie Van Halen embodies all that we love about 80s rock, practically writing the book on the somewhat gymnastic techniques that we take for granted today – from two-handed tapping and fast legato to whammy bar divebombs and squealing pinched harmonics. 1978’s Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love started life as a simple two-chord punk-parodying tune that Eddie was actually embarrassed to bring to the rest of the band due to its simplicity, but it has become one of their best known and popular tracks. This means that it’s not so much of a technical workout and will allow you to really focus on the important basics such as your guitar tone, picking execution and overall timing. There are a few whammy bar scoops and ad libs that might be challenging if…

Born in Mexico in 1947, Carlos Santana’s first instrument was the violin, which he began playing at the tender age of five, before eventually taking up the guitar at eight, taught by his father, who was a street musician. As the young Santana came of age, he was influenced by blues greats such as John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker and BB King. He was also inspired by Ritchie Valens (famed for timeless mega-hit La Bamba) who demonstrated ably how it was indeed possible for a young Mexican to succeed in the music business. By 1966, Santana was living with his family in San Francisco – and what a time and place for an aspiring guitarist to live! His synthesis of blues and Latin American influences caught the public’s attention and,…

Even we were puzzled when we first heard effects being amplified through an acoustic unplugged – how do Yamaha do it? An actuator, that’s how! The actuator vibrates on the guitar’s inside back in response to the vibrations of the strings when you play. Its vibrations then bounce about in the body of the guitar and around it, causing the effects of reverb, chorus or both together – and boom! You have sound. You can control the levels of the effect on the mounted controls with a push / pull knob to activate the AA battery-powered actuator.…

Their line-up change in 1975 saw Mac members Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie joined by guitarist Lyndsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks for their self-titled tenth album. It would top the US charts, spawning a few singles including massive hit Rhiannon and this month’s song, the fingerpicked Landslide. Buckingham’s original recording has a layered arrangement of several 12-string guitar overdubs. Typically, each is played slightly differently so we’ve tabbed the most prominent parts for you. To play along with the recording your guitar must be in standard tuning with a capo on the 3rd fret. This is actually pretty handy if you’re singing along – just place the capo higher or lower on the fretboard to suit the pitch of your voice. All the chords you’ll need are…

1 MACHINEHEADS  Not only will the Tribute Plus support your string bends with sustain, these locking Grovers will keep you in tune. 2 ELECTRICS  The Mallory-150 tone capacitors in the Tribute Plus’s circuitry might go unnoticed but they are a considerable upgrade and evidence of Epiphone’s attention to detail. 3 FINISH  Rainbow Burst is not for everyone, but if you are more denim jacket than Hawaiian shirt, sober finishes are available! There’s plenty that is audacious about the Epiphone Les Paul Tribute ‘Prizm’ Plus Outfit. And we’re not just talking about a multicolour finish that would be more commonly sighted flying above the treeline in the Amazon, nor the SEO-friendly, convoluted name it goes by (we’ll call it the Tribute Plus for brevity). No, it’s in the fashion that Epiphone…

The first song I remember noticing… Eruption– Van Halen “I have a brother who’s eight years older than me. I vaguely remember being about six or seven and hearing him playing Van Halenon eight-track. I remember hearing the sound of the guitar on Eruption and imagining that being what a UFO sounded like. It sounded like it was from another world and that was intriguing to me. I owe a lot to the music coming out of my older brother’s room; a lot of AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aersomith, Van Halen, Boston... a lot of cool rock.” The first track I learned… Should I Stay Or Should I Go– The Clash “I picked up the guitar for the first time when I was 12. It was just a really simple nylon-string,…

Introduced in 1974, the RE-201 is arguably the definitive model in the Roland Space Echo line, although it was preceded by the RE-100 and RE-200 the year before. The RE-201 was a runaway success, and according to Roland’s official website, was produced until 1990, although most of the units we’ve seen were built considerably earlier. The 100 series was a slimmed-down version in the same enclosure with a slightly different fascia, and crucially, no spring reverb. The RE-201 had extra controls for the reverb, with a reverb mix as well as additional EQ controls for bass and treble. Widely used in everything from prog to dub, the RE-201 has been used by Sonic Youth, Radiohead and Pink Floyd amongst many others. WITH THE IMPERFECT NATURE OF THE CHORUSING, SMOOTH DELAY…

Last month’s lesson on 7/4 time will mean you're well-used to counting along to songs with seven rhythmic pulses in every bar of music. Seven pulses means a count of seven – simple! So how is 7/8 time different to 7/4? Well, the answer comes down to feel. In most cases, you could nod your head or stomp your foot to a 7/4 pulse; 7/8 is double time, so, unless you’re into some serious headbanging, it’ll usually be too quick to nod to. It’s not an exact science though and obviously you’re free to write slower 7/8 tunes or faster 7/4 pieces. 1 7/8 TIME BASICS TRACK 10 The most common 7/8 groove emphasises the first, third and fifth beats. The best way to count this is to say ‘1…

“This year we’re doing the launch of my newest line of my Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty guitars. When we first came out with them, we didn’t think we could make it any better – so all the different versions have all been tweaking the aesthetics. These new models are especially beautiful… they’re just mind-blowing to look at. We actually tweaked the pickups a little bit, they’re still DiMarzios but these ones sound that extra bit better. They’re not drastically different, but they’re an improvement. The Majesty is getting more fine-tuned as we go! “On the new record, we just brought my live rig into the studio. I tracked it all like that, so there’s not much new stuff on there. But I did buy a Boss reissue of the…

FENDER JIMMY PAGE TELECASTER £1,259 By the time Jimmy Page came to form Led Zeppelin, the 1959 Telecaster Jeff Beck had given him two years before was a very different beast. The guitarist and former art student had stripped the white finish, painting his own dragon swirl motif on the body. This was the Dragon he used to track Zeppelin’s debut in 1968; released at the beginning of the following year. Within the year the follow-up had been tracked and released but signalled a switch; adding a ’58 and then a modified ’59 Gibson Les Paul to the armoury, the latter purchased from Joe Walsh for a reported $500. A savvy investment indeed. But for his most iconic solo on Stairway To Heaventwo years later, Page returned to the Dragon.…

In the late 90s and early 00s a wave of new bands would emerge, taking inspiration from original garage rock bands of the 60s and 70s. Acts like The Hives, The Strokes and The White Stripes were hugely popular, even inspiring a second wave of revival bands who would in turn branch out from the core garage and post-punk influences of their recent forebears. The Black Keys, The Raconteurs and Arctic Monkeys can all be said to fall in this broader category. Taking a number of these bands for our inspiration, this month’s jam track is an uptempo rocker. You don’t need to be a technical whiz to join in. If you’re soloing, simple bluesy melodic licks work best; for rhythm you’ll by and large be using basic powerchords and…

Molly Tuttle’s acoustic playing is, without hidden asterisk or clarification, among the best we’ve heard. A virtuoso picker and Berklee graduate, she has taken the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Instrumentalist Of The Year prize for guitar for the last two years running. Our US sister magazine Guitar World described the effect as “like listening to two guitarists at once” and we’d agree. For evidence, check out her version of Townes Van Zandt’s White Freight Liner Blues on YouTube, in which she plays both the fiddle and guitar sections, while also singing. Tuttle is more than a fine picker, though. Her duality is represented by debut album When You’re Ready. Produced by Ryan Hewitt (The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers), it’s a songwriting vehicle first-and-foremost, taking influence as much from the likes…

Welcome to the GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome*) Station! Every issue, TG scours the market for the hottest new gear and brings you transparent reviews that you can trust. From the smallest of accessories that make your life easier, to big investments such as brand new guitars, amps and effects pedals – if it’s worth your attention, you’ll find it here! HOW WE TEST CURATION Our product selection is driven by our love of gear. We select the most exciting products on the market every month to bring you opinions you can trust. FACE-VALUE REVIEWS We’re not gear snobs here at Total Guitar. We judge it on whether it looks good, sounds good and plays well – not by the name on the headstock. NO SNAKE OIL You won’t find us…

BODY: mahogany w/ flame maple cap NECK: mahogany (set) SCALE: 24.75" FINGERBOARD: Pau Ferro w/MOP trapezoid inlay FRETS: 22 PICKUPS: 1x Gibson USA ‘57 Classic humbucker (neck), 1x Gibson USA ‘57 Classic Plus humbucker (bridge) CONTROLS: 1x three-way pickup selector, 2x volume, 2x tone w/push-pull parallel-series switching HARDWARE: Nickel, LockTone Tune-omatic bridge LEFT-HANDED: No FINISH: Rainbow [as reviewed], Faded Cherry Burst, Midnight Ebony, Midnight Sapphire, Vintage Sunburst, Aquamarine, Black Cherry CASE: Hardcase included CONTACT: Gibson epiphone.com…

1 SWITCHES The Blues King’s preamp features a cascaded FET overdrive section; like having your favourite drive pedal inside the amp 2 CABINET The Blues King’s cabinet is based on a 1950’s Comet combo. Like some exclusive boutique designs, it’s made from poplar, for light weight and increased resonance 3 LINE OUT The Blues King’s gain and boost features are footswitchable, and there’s also a useful line out and a series effects loop “THE UN-BOOSTED SOUND IS SWEET AND CREAMY” One of America’s most famous amp brands and one of the world’s oldest, Supro can trace its origins way back to the 1920s. However, it was the Chicago era between 1935-68 that truly established Supro as the voice of the blues. Practically all influential blues artists from that era used…

Based on the architecture of Victory Amps’ VX The Kraken head, the company’s V4 The Kraken is an all-valve preamp, bringing the amplifier’s tones to pedal form. Just like its big brother, the pedal’s two channels are inspired by a classic duo of rock-voiced amplifiers - the Marshall JCM900 and the Peavey 5150, allowing the V4 to offer a mix of classic British tones and more powerful modern American-style metal sounds. And, with four valves in its all-valve signal path, Victory assure us that this is no ‘ordinary’ overdrive pedal. So, with plenty of time on our hands and the ‘V4 The Kraken’ at our feet (er, thanks for the extra ‘The’, Victory!), we test out Victory’s claim as we plug in and get playing… DAY 01 STANDALONE MODE We…