Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2019 i Total Guitar

JAKUB ZYTECKI Beauty, beats and sneaky techniques from the chilled Polish progressive Jakub Zytecki uses a guitar like no one else we know. The guitarist and songwriter cut his teeth with proggers DispersE, but it’s his laid-back new solo record Nothing Lasts, Nothing’s Lost that feels positively box fresh. “It’s changed over the years,” admits Jakub of his playing. “But I’m interested in making music that may be an easy listening experience at first, but if you give it a chance, you discover there’s more to it – both in terms of arrangements and guitar parts.” His material is like a technical Trojan horse, smuggling in astonishing fleet-fingered feats under broad strokes of melody. It’s euphoric and dynamic, too, bottling a sort of sunshine-y warmth. In the ambient runs of…

2019 has been a breakthrough year for the North Shields singer-songwriter, winning the prestigious Critics’ Choice Brit Award and hitting the top of the UK album chart with his triumphant debut, Hypersonic Missiles. It must be good – Sam’s released a full seven singles from the album so far. We’re looking at the most recent release here. The Borders features chiming cleans courtesy of Sam’s, er, Fender American Pro Jazzmaster. The JM single coils don’t quite have the bright top-end of, say, a Strat, so even if your guitar has humbuckers you may still get a suitable tone with just a tweak of your amp’s treble. If your guitar is in standard tuning place a capo on the 3rd fret to play in key with the recording. Sam sometimes downtunes…

It may sound like one of those dubious internet guitar tuition scams promising instant god-like shredding abilities, but the CAGED system is actually essential learning for every player. The name refers to five vital open chords: C, A, G, E and D obviously! Let’s face it, most guitarists know these chords – so that’s a great starting point. The question is, ‘what comes next?’. Well, try playing an open C chord, followed by an ‘A shape’ C barre chord, then a ‘G shape’ C barre chord, and, well, you get it, C barre chords using all five shapes. We’ll explain more below – suffice to say the benefit to you as a guitarist is that you can build sophisticated chord runs covering the entire fretboard. 1 CAGED CHORD SHAPES…

Since forming in 2007 London’s hugely successful Mumford & Sons have had No.1 albums on both sides of the Atlantic, won Brit Awards and earned Grammy nods, and they’ve become poster boys for the ‘neo-folk’ revival. Winston Marshall’s powerful five-string banjo playing has been a trademark on hit records like Sigh No More and Babel, and it’s there amid the more electronic textures of Wilder Mind and current album, Delta. Marshall has now teamed up with leading US banjo company Deering to produce two new models. The Winston Marshall Signature model is a high-end instrument aimed at similar, top-level professionals, and comes with a price tag to match. Then there’s the GOTR Goodtime Banjo, a more affordable model produced with the aim of encouraging more people to give the banjo…

We loved the scuzzy roots-rock fuzz tones on January’s Feral Roots. Scott Holiday used Doug Kauer Super Chief and master-built Gretsch Blue Penguin guitars through a 50-watt Supro Statesman. For tonal experimentation it’s worth following Scott’s two-pronged approach if you can. Dial in a fuzz distortion on one channel and use a fairly clean sound on a second channel – crucially, at the same time. To do this you’ll either need to play with a second guitarist or use a multi-fx such as Line 6’s HX Effects to split your signal into two paths then feed it back to your amp. RIVAL SONS RIFFING TRACK 14  We’re looking at Holiday’s riffing style here, a typically retro approach in the vein of Scott’s own heroes, Led Zeppelin, Free and The…

It’s shred but not as we know it! Paul’s 2019 release, Behold Electric Guitar, takes in epic ballads, ballsy rock and even jazz fusion, all delivered with Gilbert’s deft, quirky style, naturally. It’s always big news when PG releases a new album and his maturity and classy phrasing are becoming more and more evident year on year. A perfect opportunity to look at his technique, then! Take a look below where our example focuses on that tricky skill of string skipping. STRING SKIPPED PHRASING TRACK 17  Here we’re looking at one of the shred icon’s most-used technical approaches – string skipping. The idea is that each short phrase is arranged over two strings – but with the challenge of skipping over an idle string in between the ones you’re…

Not even a 13 year wait for new material can test the faith of Tool’s devoted fans. Yes, August finally saw the return of the alt-metal legends with their acclaimed Fear Inoculum album – and fans lapped it up. With most ‘songs’ clocking in at over 10 minutes, it’s fair to describe this as a concept album, but standard fare for Tool. Typically of Tool’s progressive style you can expect warped, textural tones and plenty of odd time riffing. We’re looking at the band’s odd time riffing here. Watch out for the chords on the offbeat too. ODD TIME RIFFING TRACK 23  In typical Tool style we’re looking at odd time here with a riff in 7/4. With seven beats in every bar and several chords played on the…

13 ROB SCALLON’S PEDALBOARD RECORD Jaws dropped when the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Guitar Effect Pedalboard was set by US music retail giant Sweetwater and YouTube guitarist Rob Scallon back in August. The stats give you an idea of the scale of their endeavours… A 70-foot board comprising 319 different effect pedals on 34 separate boards hooked up with 500 feet of cabling was set up to run into the logical conclusion – a massive wall of Marshall stacks. As for Scallon, he had 1,248 knobs to dial in the tone he wanted! 14 GILMOUR’S GUITAR SALE Another world record would be set in June, this time courtesy of David Gilmour who auctioned off 120 of his most famous guitars. The star of the show?…

25 WEEZER – THE END OF THE GAME Rivers takes inspiration from the great Eddie Van Halen here. Tap, pull off, hammer on. Rinse and repeat. Just make sure to keep those idle strings as dead as you can make ’em! 26 ALTER BRIDGE – WOULDN’T YOU RATHER Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy’s pre-verse riff just oozes cool. Harmonically dark and syncopated too, but without veering into proggy odd time. Alt metal at its best, we’d say! 27 SAM FENDER – THE BORDERS You might see this as more of a chord progression than a riff, but Sam’s quickly executed arpeggios essentially form a partly repeating phrase. And we just love those Jazzmaster cleans. Check out our lesson this month on p18.…

Brian famously plays his own homemade Red Special guitar which has three single-coil pickups which can be used in a multitude of combinations. Add to this the Vox AC30 amp and the Treble Booster pedal to add gain and you have the core of Brian’s sound. For straight-ahead rock songs like this Brian typically used the middle and bridge pickups in an ‘in phase’ position. For our track we used a Brian May Guitars Red Special through IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube Brian May plugin. We selected the Now I’m Herepreset and off we went, picking with an old English sixpence for that Brian style metallic pick attack.…

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…

With so many models and features on offer here, the choice is less about the quality of the sounds and build, and more to do with the application you’ll be using it for. We’ll start by saying that all of these amps sound great, and with the number of tonal variations on offer for most, there’s an almost overwhelming amount of tinkering to be done. THERE’S AN ALMOST OVERWHELMING AMOUNT OF TINKERING TO BE DONE The Blackstar, Yamaha and Boss all offer a wide variety of sounds and effects across the board. We liked the smooth, rich overdrives of the Blackstar as we upped the gain, and the little Yamaha pumps out some beautifully lush reverbs. Of course, tweaking is optional, and one of the criticisms of digital amps is…

Brian May’s tones have been the stuff of legend since the 70s and now you can have them all at your fingertips in IK Multimedia’s new AmpliTube signature model pack. Don’t have a Brian May guitar? No problem, thanks to the genius-like inclusion of IK’s ‘Red Special’ stompbox which simulates Brian’s guitar. First select whether your guitar is single coil or humbucking – then let AmpliTube do the rest. Each of the virtual ‘Tri-Sonic’ pickups has an on/off knob as well as a phase switch, giving you all of May’s own sonic permutations. “WE HAVE THE ‘MAY WAH’ AND ‘FOX PHASER’ EFFECT PEDALS” The next ingredient is IK’s treble booster based on the KAT Brian uses to add gain and tighten up the low end of his tone. A nifty…

1. Bulls On Parade Rage Against The Machine Do we need an excuse to crank this riff? A surprise second RATM reunion is certainly a good one! 2. Diamond Jimmy Eat World New album Surviving is a 36-minute tour de force of all the band’s strengths. 3. Pyramid Song Astrosaur This instrumental post-rock cover version is our favourite take on Radiohead ever – stunning guitar/bass interplay and righteous tones that have lead us all the way to their original material. 4. The Ghost Of You My Chemical Romance Another reunion calls for a timely revisit to the MCR back catalogue. 5. Crush With Eyeliner REM We’re not sure if Scott Litt’s 25th anniversary remix of Monster was necessary, especially as the album was already pleasingly guitar-heavy. But it does give…

“What’s the minor pentatonic scale?” This is a sequence of notes which guitarists use a lot. And we mean a lot! It appears extensively in blues, metal, jazz and almost any pop- and rock-based styles for that matter. Greats like Angus Young and BB King as well as more contemporary rockers like Scott Holiday, Jake Kiszka and Joel O’Keeffe base loads of riffs and solos around it. “Interesting. Tell me more.” Well, the minor pentatonic scale gets its name from ‘penta-’ meaning ‘five’ and ‘-tonic’ meaning ‘tones’, or, more simply, ‘notes’. Obviously, what we’re telling you is that it’s a five-note scale. And, just like a minor chord, there’s a dark, moody vibe – that’s what minor means, if you remember. “It’s a moody five-note scale. I get it! How…

In production since 2000, the Line 6 DL4 not only brought a huge variety of high-quality stereo delays to the hands of ordinary players, but had a powerful looper. So deeply tied to the growth in instrumental looping was the DL4 that it’s featured in pop culture beyond guitar circles, with Pitchfork even publishing a long-form think piece on the musical legacy of the unit. Other pedals like the Akai Headrush could probably claim to have been as influential for looping, but the additional features of the DL4, accessed by footswitch, like overdub, double time and one-shot triggers, put it far ahead in terms of functionality. Even today, there aren’t many loopers as fun or intuitive. IT’S FEATURED IN POP CULTURE BEYOND GUITAR CIRCLES… THERE AREN’T MANY LOOPERS AS FUN…

As you would expect of any blues-rock player out of Austin, Texas, Emily Wolfe’s tone has a whole heap of sizzle. But don’t expect her self-titled debut album to ease into a 12/8 shuffle. Wolfe laces the blues with a pop sensibility gleaned from the Billboard Top 100. It’s a heady combination, a sound that saw her at home sharing stages with the likes of Heart, Gary Clark Jr and the Pretenders following the release of her 2014 EP Roulette. A couple of singles followed, but her debut album is a long time coming. It saw her head into Portside Sound in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to record with producer Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes) before finishing the recording in Austin. Evan Nicholson on bass and Clellan Hyatt on drums rounds out…

And we mean it when we say old-school. The 11 tracks of soulful Southern rock on 2019’s Signs were recorded on analogue tape via a suitably veteran Neve desk. Of course, Derek heads the current crop of slide guitarists and Signs sees him on fine form, delivering stratospheric solos, both with and without bottleneck alongside Tedeschi. We’re looking at some of his trademark slide style here. DEREK TRUCKS STYLE SLIDE TRACK 15  Get Trucks’ signature phrasing down by tuning to open E (E B E G# B E) and placing your slide on your third finger. One of Derek’s tricks is to press down on the string with the slide – effectively fretting like normal, but with his slide. It sounds cool – just don’t overdo it.…

In July, Dan Auerbach told TG, “There’s not a single keyboard on the record… We wanted to make a rock ’n’ roll record”. We’d say they achieved their goal, producing a reckless, crunching album, full of unhinged leads, strange textures and rattling, heavy riffs. The 2019 sound? Look no further, we’d say. SHUFFLE FEEL BLUES-ROCK TRACK 18  Our riff outlines a simple shuffle feel blues riff on the sixth string – open string to 3rd fret is a typical blues-rock move. You could even add a subtle bend on the 3rd fret G if you like. The powerchords are a useful way to help fill out the sound.…

Two Door Cinema Club released their stellar fourth indie-pop album False Alarm this year. The guitars are often laid-back in the mix and highly produced, but make no mistake – lead guitarist Sam Halliday and frontman Alex Trimble can play. From the slick tapping grooves in Satellite, the funky delay lines in Talk and the driving rhythms throughout, it’s an accomplished album. We love it! EASY CHORDS AND UPBEAT RHYTHMS TRACK 21  Here we’re looking at some of the rhythm work both Trimble and Halliday deliver throughout TDCC’s music. Full barre chords would fill out the sound. By contrast, these three-note shapes sound funky, so they’ll cut nicely through a mix. Take these chords further by experimenting with notes on the first string.…

Eric Gales has been a red hot blues-rocker for years. He’s even graced these very pages with a specially recorded video guest lesson for Total Guitar back in 2014. This year, we feel his playing has hit new heights –even Joe Bonamassa proclaimed Gales to be “the best guitarist in blues-rock”. High praise indeed, and Eric’s 2019 album, The Bookends, sees him in full flight. We’re taking a look at his funk-rock lead guitar style here. GALES STYLE FUNK-ROCK LEAD TRACK 24  Playing tightly in the pocket is Eric’s thing so here we’re looking at the funkier side of his playing. Bars 1 and 3 feature strummed chords in the backing music – you’ll be delivering fiery lead licks in between. We’re mainly using the A blues scale here,…

1 ARISTOCRATIC WAH SOUNDS FROM THE GOVAN-ER OF GUITAR Guitarist Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats) Song D-Grade Fuck Movie Jam Album You Know What…? Without doubt one of the world’s most visionary guitarists, Guthrie Govan’s playing is near impossible to pigeonhole, taking in elements of rock, jazz, fusion and myriad other styles too. Turns out he’s quite the tone hound too, and the filthy, distorted wah tones on the opening track to this year’s Aristocrats album could well be an ode to Jimi Hendrix – one of Guthrie’s acknowledged heroes. Our pals at musicradar.com spoke to Guthrie in June, and, though we didn’t get specifics for this song, we know he’s been rocking his signature GG Charvel guitar, a Victory V30 MKII head and 2x12 cab equipped with Celestion V30s.…

TG prides itself on bringing you the best new ‘real world’ gear throughout the year. Whether it be a purist’s dream or a brand-new innovation, we love getting our hands on the gear you want to see, and nothing excites us more than when it plays and sounds great within a sensible budget. Picking a single best product from the triple-figures we see each year is a difficult decision, so to keep it fair, we’ve looked back over the last 13 issues to revisit the products that really caught our eye and achieved the highest ranking scores in their category. So, check out the guitars, amps and pedals that rocked 2019, and here’s to another great year of gear! BEST ELECTRIC CORT G290 FAT VERSATILE QUALITY MADE AFFORDABLE We see…

There are a lot of chords here, but they fit together in logical progressions, which means learning them in context isn’t such a challenge. The intro starts in D and has a descending sequence (Csus2, G/B, B b 6) – these chords all have an open G note in common. The chorus section has an ascending sequence of major chords, which account for most of the chords here, but there are only two essential shapes which are barre chords rooted on the fifth and sixth strings. Finally we have the verse which follows a rock ’n’ roll style riff on 5th and 6th diads.…

Tying in with the Am7 root chord, the A blues (A C D E b E G) and minor pentatonic scales (A C D E G) are great options to base your soloing ideas on here – they’ll work through the whole track too. To take your solos to the next level, try adding in some other chord tones, ie, notes from the chords you’re playing over. For example, you could target an F note over Fmaj7 (F A C E) and Dm7 (D F A C). F can potentially offer an unexpected sound because it doesn’t appear in the scales. And, with its G# and B notes, E7#9 (E G# B D G) offers a few opportunities for invention too.…

he first six shapes are used in the intro, verse and refrain; you can then switch from fingerpicking to a simple strum pattern for a lift during the second half of the song. Perfect when performing solo. Use the regular D shape (instead of D/F#) for the strummed sections. SHALLOW (FROM A STAR IS BORN) Words and Music by Stefani Germanotta, Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt and Anthony Rossomando © 2018 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, House Of Gaga Publishing LLC, Concord Copyrights, Songs Of Zelig, Downtown DMP Songs, Downtown DLJ Songs, Stephaniesays Music White Bull Music Group, WARNER-BARHAM MUSIC LLC (BMI), WARNER-OLIVE MUSIC LLC (ASCAP), SONY/ATV SONGS (BMI), IMAGEM MUSIC BV (BUMA), and CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC (BMI). All Rights on behalf of Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC and House Of Gaga…

1 BARE KNUCKLE SILO RABEA MASSAAD SIGNATURE Bare Knuckle has teamed up with progsman and YouTube star Rabea Massaad for the Silo humbucker. Designed by Bare Knuckle MD Tim Mills, Massaad and Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood, the Silo boasts “clean and split-coil tones that are pure, warm, and full bodied, responding extremely well to pick dynamics and changes on the volume pot”. The Silo is available in six-, seven- and eight-string iterations, with a range of finishes. (from £139, bareknucklepickups.co.uk) 2 GIBSON PHONE Gibson has teamed up with Thalia Collections to offer a series of handmade cases that cover your phone in style, in three designs: AAA curly Hawaiian koa engraved with a Les Paul signature and pearl Gibson logo; Indian rosewood with a Gibson Holly logo inlay; and Indian rosewood…

The locking nut is integral to the high performance tremolo system – it removes the non playing part of each string from the equation by locking it down. This Floyd Rose one is the most commonplace but it’s also quite common to see the nut height set wrong – often by the factory. We figure it must be too fiddly for the regular assembly line to get it right each time so they err on the high side each time. Mankind has not come this far to put up with that minor annoyance! Being as this will be set for life let’s take care to do this properly and it will be a small but important victory that you can reap the rewards from! Set a nut too low and…

When it comes to his guitars, Eddie Van Halen is most often associated with his instantly recognisable Frankenstein or Wolfgang body shapes. However, there are other models that have served their time under Ed’s hands, not least the fan favourite ‘Shark’. First seen on Van Halen’s 1979 tour, then the following year on the cover of Women And Children First, this pointy, striped rock machine even played its part on Van Halen’s debut album. Eddie’s original started out life as an Ibanez Destroyer, before rock’s most influential tinkerer took a saw to its hind quarters and readied the masking tape and spray paint to produce the silver/ burgundy finish. What we have here, then, is EVH’s much-requested replica of the Shark. The eye-catching model apes the look of Eddie’s with…

I got my first real six-string… “My first guitar was a guitar my dad built me. He just made it out of pieces of wood he found in the garage. He tried to encourage me to play the guitar, so he gave it to me and I was like, ‘yeah, but I don’t really want to play,’ so… I strummed it once in a while.” The kids are alright... “ASK THE QUESTION, ‘WHAT IS IT I WANTTO EXPRESS WITH THIS?’. FIND THAT, AND I THINK THAT’S KEY” “It wasn’t until I was 18 or something that I bought a guitar and started playing. So I started very late, and I bought a black Epiphone Les Paul Junior, and then I started practising like, ten hours a day, listening to all…

JAZZ Back in the days of big band jazz, guitar was simply an afterthought for bandleaders; guitarists were confined to the rhythm section, beneath serious consideration as solo performers. It wasn’t until the innovations of all-string band players such as Django Reinhardt and later electrified axemen like Charlie Christian that jazz guitar became a creative force in its own right, developing a complex musical language that guitarists of all stripes should consider adding to their vocabulary. START WITH DJANGO REINHARDT DJANGOLOGY (1961) 1 Django Reinhardt’s music was a creolisation of influences whose geography stretched from Romani camps to Parisian hotels and New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, drawing into it French folk, Spanish flamenco and American jazz. Minor Swing and Daphné retain a European flavour akin to French-Italian musette waltzes, albeit sped…

CHOOSE YOUR WEAPONS Not all slides are created equal… “When you’re playing slide guitar, obviously you need one of these. The slide you use and the finger you use it on is really personal. I’ve come to slide guitar from playing lap steel, so traditionally I’m comfortable playing that way with a heavy tonebar. But for this new record, this instrument is much better. So it’s very much a learning curve for me. I’ve been through glass, ceramic, short, fat, heavy, and all kinds of slides. I’ve settled on this fairly heavy brass slide at the moment. I’m not sure how much it weighs, but it’s quite thick, so heavier than the regular Jim Dunlop slide that you’d just walk into a store and buy. It’s a bit more cumbersome,…

2019 has been an amazing year for all things guitar-related. We’ve seen countless amazing albums including long-awaited comebacks from Tool and Rammstein, legendary instruments being sold at auction for record figures, a raft of new players breaking through, and loads of new and innovative gear to get creative with. With all that in mind, we designed this month’s retrospective to both inspire and inform. Get a handle on the sounds and styles of 2019 with our tab lessons. Play along with three of our favourite riffs of the year, complete with slowed down video play throughs. And, finally,take a look at TG’s gear of the year - our round-up the of the finest new equipment on sale now. Plug in, switch on and let’s get started! ON YOUR DISC Find…

After nearly 40 years of heavy riffing, 2019 marks the year the fearsome foursome embarked on their final world tour. As one of the ‘Big Four’ thrash acts alongside Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax, Slayer have been one of the most influential metal bands of all time. If you want to play even just a small amount of metal, be sure to take a listen to Kerry King and co. Our tab example will help you get a feel for their palm-muted thrash riffs on albums like Reign In Blood. Slayer often top 170 bpm with this kind of riff, so practise slowly to develop your skills. 16TH NOTE THRASH RIFF TRACK 19  Aim for precise timing here – the fast 16th notes need steady picking. We’ve shown picking directions…

Early in the year Weezer released their Black Album, but little did we know then that come September Rivers Cuomo and co were about to take a new direction and pay homage to rock ’n’ roll pioneers Van Halen with The End Of The Game. A full-on EVH style tapped intro and pedal tone riff morphs into a verse which is pure Weezer alt-rock fare. You’ll have to wait to hear more though – the Van Weezer album doesn’t drop until May. EVH STYLE RIFF TRACK 25  This is the kind of rhythm riff that Van Halen are famous for and Weezer used in The End Of The Game. So what’s the all-important EVH bit? We’d say you need to learn the three-note chord shapes played over the open…

22 RAMMSTEIN – DEUTSCHLAND Appears at 0:39-1:02 Tempo 120bpm Key D minor Main techniques: Alternate picking / drop C tuning (CGCFAD) Tool weren’t the only band making long-awaited returns this year. Ten years have passed since Rammstein’sLiebeistfüralle daand this year’s untitled album’s lead singleDeutschland features one of our favourite riffs. Guitarist Richard Kruspe’s impressive alternate picked 16th note line is pretty tough to play. It’s not just the picking that poses a challenge – practise slowly to synchronise both hands together. We recorded a slow play through of the riff back in our September issue. 23 SLIPKNOT – UNSAINTED Appears at 1:00-1:19 Tempo 204 bpm Key E Phrygian / E Phrygian dominant Main techniques: Powerchords / drop B tuning (B F# B E G# C#) Another of our…

The two solos are played over a B-E-A chord progression – the fifth, first and fourth chords from the key of E major (the notes of E major are E F# G# A B C# D#). However, B is the root chord, so Brian is using a ‘mode’ of the scale known as the Mixolydian mode. This is the name given to the mode starting on the fifth note of the major scale – so here it’s B Mixolydian (B C# D# E F# G# A). Great for blues-rock but with a sometimes overly cheerful sound, a common trick is to darken the Mixolydian mode by using the minor pentatonic scale. During both solos you can hear Brian having fun with the interplay between the minor and major 3rd intervals…

William DuVall and Jimmy Demer are close enough that DuVall can borrow his J-185 whenever he is in town, but taking it on the road? Luckily, Gibson hooked DuVall up with a Hummingbird that is essentially the same acoustic he’s been playing with Alice In Chains for the past decade. “You just have these guitars that speak to you every so often and that 185 was one, and now this new Hummingbird is another,” says DuVall. As for the electronics, he’s had an LR Baggs pickup installed over the soundhole.“I didn’t really want to put a pickup under the bridge. There’s something about electrifying an acoustic guitar. I didn’t even want to hide the fact that that’s what we’re doing! But I dig the sound of it.”…

LADY GAGA & BRADLEY COOPER SHALLOW Intro TRACK 44 Although this part sounds simple it’s quite intricate, requiring you to pick with your thumb (marked pin the tab) and the first three fingers (i, mand a). Watch out for the ‘push’ into the first G chord, where you’ll pinch all three notes simultaneously and time the notes just before beat 1 of bar 2. LADY GAGA & BRADLEY COOPER SHALLOW Verse TRACK 44 This verse immediately follows the intro. Essentially it’s the same, following roughly the same chords and timing. Still, it’s worth practising the two sections. Once you get the small variations down you should find it easier to make up your own fingerpicked ideas around this chord progression. BACKING TRACK (TRACK 44) This song comes with a backing…

Let’s face it: guitarists love valves. From the minute you first started honking your guitar through a little solid-state practice amp, you’ve dreamed of owning a ‘real’ amp, with glass bottles glowing hot and bursting forth with even harmonic distortion. Well, that been the case for many of us, but in the last decade, modelling and digital technology has continued to improve, to where we are now at a point of difficult debate. Purists will tell you that there’s no substitute for a valve amp. They’ll probably tell you about their hearing loss and back problems while they do. But, joking aside, the tones produced by digital amps are now so convincingly valve-like that the benefits of lighter units and more manageable perceived volumes, plus a whole range of benefits…

To anyone still exclusively eyeing up valve amps for their next investment, we say: take a look at these four. They really are all that good. With every one of these lines offering alternative models except the Yamaha (although we’d be surprised if an update to the THR head doesn’t come soon), you’ll be hard-pushed not to find an amp that can be used for your purpose. The Yamaha’s updated features make it the obvious choice for convenience and speedy practice if you’re not gigging, leaving nothing between you and getting going. Meanwhile, Blackstar’s Silverline is our pick if you’re looking to bridge the gap between using the amp at home for practice or recording as well as on stage. Fender’s Tone Master is our definite choice for simplicity, plus…