Innehållsförteckning för Vol. 151 från Australian Guitar

Billy Corgan has joked in a new video for Larey that he felt Butch Vig “stole” his guitar sound when he went in to work with Nirvana on Nevermind. The Smashing Pumpkins man has recently signed with Laney and in a spirited longform video interview with the amp brand, he dipped into the ongoing debate on who developed the grunge sound. “Success has many masters and failure has but one,” acknowledges Corgan. “People say, ‘Who invented the grunge sound?’ Soundgarden were the first band of that era where I thought, ‘OK, something different is happening… But I think, being from Chicago, we were very influenced by what came out of Detroit: the Stooges, Ted Nugent, Bob Seeger. Those are tougher, rougher bands. Seattle was a little more psychedelic.” Corgan says…

FIVE ISLAND DRIVE THEY ARE A trio of genre-bending vibronauts wreaking havoc on Eora country with a fierce sound and even fiercer message. They (quite aptly) describe their “trance-flavoured mosh” as what would happen “if Denzel Curry met with Rammstein to write a Sega soundtrack”. KINDA LIKE Hacktivist, RedHook, Ecca Vandal and Enter Shikari. CHECK OUT Their equally poignant and pernicious debut EP, White Rose. Armed with an arsenal of intense riffs, mind-shattering beats and cold-hot vocal flows that put some of nu-metal’s greatest to shame, the record named in tribute to one of history’s most iconic anti-fascist movements - sees Five Island Drive raise a pissed-off middle finger to a cruelly regressive status quo. PLATONIC SEX THEY ARE A quartet of Meanjin-based luminaries carrying the torch for the kind…

THE GREATEST BLUES GUITARISTS OF ALL TIME If you haven’t seen the video of this American gospel singer wowing a stunned English audience on a disused Manchester railway station back in 1964, then Google it. Said to have influenced legends including Elvis Presley. Little Richard and Bob Dylan, Sister Rosetta lost many of her religious fans when she moved from gospel into blues, but gained a whole new following. Cracking out scary licks on a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop or white SG Custom in open E tuning, her distorted guitar lines matched her powerful, heartfelt vocals. A trailblazing electric guitarist and superb singer, her place in blues history is assured. CHARLEY PATTON The founder of delta blues The 58 surviving songs we have from Mississippi resident Charley Patton come from…

Samuel John ‘Lightnin” Hopkins went from humble beginnings (he constructed his first guitar from a cigar G box, scraps of wood and wire) to become one of the most influential blues guitarists ever. Informed by Blind Lemon Jefferson and hours spent playing without a backing band, Hopkins developed a self-accompanying fingerstyle technique which involved playing bass, rhythm, lead and percussive parts simultaneously. He elevated the 12-bar blues template with his penchant for improvising, elongating the stretches between changes and spinning loose, imaginative licks on his Gibson J-50, which he had fitted with a DeArmond soundhole pickup. His influence would he heard in artists such as Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix.…

BUDDY GUY Still recording and performing at the age of 86, Buddy Guy has lived the archetypal blues story. His first job was picking cotton in Louisiana before he moved to Chicago at 21. He didn’t expect to become a star; he just wanted to live somewhere he could see the greats play. After starving for several months, he lucked into jamming with Otis Rush at the 708 club, where Guy caused such a stir that the owner phoned Muddy Waters to come and watch. With Waters’ patronage, Guy quickly landed a record deal, but his early recordings were watered down, without the distortion and feedback he used live. “I told [label boss] Leonard Chess we should get that sound on record,” he recalled later. “He just told me, ‘Ain’t…

THE GREATEST BLUES GUITARISTS Of the legendary ‘Three Kings’, Freddie was the youngest and most raucous. His guitar style was fast and ferocious, with huge string bends and vicious vibrato, his vocals almost guttural in their delivery. Born in Gilmer, Texas in 1934, Freddie learned guitar from age six, but moved to Chicago while in his teens. Freddie would sneak into the blues clubs and watch legends like Muddy Waters, Elmore James and T-Bone Walker. He took onboard their stagecraft, marvelled at their musicianship and determined to make it big, just like them. But after continual rejection by Chess Records on Chicago’s South Side he finally struck a deal with Federal Records on the city’s West Side, where a hipper blues scene was burgeoning. Freddie became a hit in the…

1951 EPIPHONE FT 79 Hendrix owned this for nearly three years, longer than any other guitar, picking it up in New York shortly after his Monterey Pop appearance. The unclear butfootage is he appears to use it for a version of Hound Dog in one of only two known videos of him playing an acoustic. 1960S ZEMAITIS 12-STRING The mesmerising acoustic performance of Hear My Train A Cornin’ that opens Blues employed this hand-built model by luthier Tony Zemaitis. It’s tuned down to C standard for that Leadbelly-style recording. Little else is known about it, but some wood shavings purportedly from the guitar sold at auction for £90 in 2019. DALLAS ARBITER FUZZ FACE The secret of many of Jimi’s sought after clean tones, such as the Voodoo Chile intro,…

THE GREATEST BLUES GUITARISTS You kind of get the impression from Joe Bonamassa that his position as the highest-grossing blues artist of all time is a little embarrassing - thrilling, sure, but it’s quite the affirmation. Perhaps this is why he has made it his life’s mission to widen the blues’ appeal. There’s the KTBA blues cruise, the label, the production, Nerdville… But ultimately, Bonamassa leads with his fingers when it comes to advocacy, toting a muscular, pyrotechnic style that not only references the 60s British blues scene, and the pantheon of electric blues greats, and classic rock and prog when the song requires it. DEREK TRUCKS The best slide player in the world right now As the nephew of Allman Brothers’ drummer Butch Trucks, Derek Trucks had music in…

INTERVIEW CLASSIC TRACK This month we’re looking at AC/DC’s iconic Back In Black album opener and staple in the band’s live show still today, Hells Bells. This is AC/DC at their rocking best, and, with trademark driving rock riffs, easy powerchords and some incendiary minor pentatonic licks, Hells Bells has something for every guitarist. The main riff is an arpeggio that outlines an Amu chord and, though not too technically demanding, it can be tricky to get the feel. Practise slowly while making sure to always target the right string. Beware of the tempo in the intro, though. It shifts from a stately 96 bpm to a mid-tempo 108 bpm by the time the whole band comes in, so make sure to match your timing with the gradual push of the…

The guitar solos feature many of Angus’s trademarks such as fast runs, doublestops and fierce finger vibrato. Most of the lead lines are based around the trusty A minor pentatonic scale, either at the 5th fret, mirrored up the octave on the 17th fret, and also in a slightly different shape at the 12th fret. We’ve also included a fingering for the D major pentatonic scale, which Angus uses briefly to add colour and contrast during the change to the D5 chord in the solo.…

1 The first step to achieving a great guitar sound in your mix is to make sure you’ve captured it at a tolerable level, and not too high a volume that you’re peaking the input signal. Keep your eye on the red, because if you’ve got a crackly sound, it’s hard to fix later. 2 Every DAW provides a different layout and a set of tools, though there are some established methods for sculpting your guitar sound to exist comfortably in a mix. Here we’re working in Logic, on a track that features a full band, as well as a virtual string section. 3 It’s key to get a handle on the overall shape of the track, and how you’d like your guitar parts to sound. Do you want acoustic…

HALLIE HAILS FROM MEANJIN/BRISBANE, QLD PLAYS SOLO (WITH A BACKING BAND) SOUNDS LIKE EARLY ’00s POP-ROCK WITH A MODERN SHEEN LATEST DROP THIS IS LOVE (EP OUT FEBRUARY 3 INDEPENDENTLY) What’s your current go-to guitar? My current go-to is my sunburst Stratocaster. It’s been my favourite for years now and I’m just in love with it. It sounds so beautiful, and it was the first guitar I bought for myself so it holds a lot of sentimental value for me! How did you initially fall in love with the instrument? Growing up, I had my dad’s Maton acoustic around the house. I remember my parents bought me one of those pink K-Mart nylon-string guitars, which was also really cool, but I also wanted to play dad’s Maton. We used to…

MASTER THE I-IV-V PROGRESSION Get to grips with the most important chord progression and you’ll always know where you are in any 12-bar blues jam The most common blues chord progression is the I-IV-V [one-four-five], so called because the chords are built upon the first, fourth and fifth notes in the relevant major scale. So if we tell you that the notes in the key of C are C, D, E, F, G, A and B, it’s easy enough to tell that a I-IV-V follows the C (first), F (fourth) and G (fifth) chords. Still with us? It’s hard to remember the right notes for every key, but you can work out the right chords just by using the notes on the two lowest strings… BLUES IN E The notes…

FENDER BLUES JR IV Quite possibly the world’s favourite blues amp, and now in its fourth generation, the Blues Jr is loved for its compact portability and single-channel front end that can be dialed in for luscious cleans that work great with pedals, or turned up for spongy overdrive. Take it to the edge of break-up, throw a Tube Screamer in front of it, and it’ll get you in the same ballpark as Stevie Ray Vaughan. Alternatively, just dime it and use your guitar’s volume control to keep things orderly. LANEY CUB-SUPER This is a boutique amp in a production-line amp’s Tolex, and, frankly, it has no right to sound as good as it does. This stylish little combo has pretty much everything a blues player could want. There’s plenty…

Arguably no musician has ever been the subject of such incredible mythology as Robert Johnson. Would rock ’n’ roll ever have given us Sympathy For The Devil and Highway To Hell and if not for rumours of Johnson selling his soul at the crossroads? Would metal fans be scrawling pentagrams on guitars and throwing the horns if Johnson hadn’t sung Me And The Devil Blues? Beyond the incredible imagery, there’s a sophistication and variety to Johnson and his delta contemporaries that modern blues often lacks. The art form is often reduced to endless 12-bars, while Johnson’s own work embraced jazz and country. His blues compositions did not limit themselves to the 12-bar format, and his debut recording, They’re Red Hot, was an uptempo ragtime number. Playing unaccompanied allowed Johnson and…

THE GREATEST BLUES GUITARISTS You might know songs like The Sky Is Crying, Shake Your Moneymaker, Dust My Blues and Bleeding Heart by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall and Jimi Hendrix. But all these and many more were written and originally performed by this fabulous singer and slide guitarist. Elmore’s version of It Hurts Me Too is perhaps the definitive slow 12-bar blues, with its plaintive slide guitar motif and high, moaning vocal. James is also responsible for popularising the ‘diddly-diddly-diddly-diddly-dee-dum’ slide intro as heard on Dust My Broom and many others. It became Elmore’s signature, but he was about much more than that. He was one of the biggest influences on the 60s blues revival in both America and the UK, and songs performed by James were…

PICKING “No one ever sat me down and showed me how to play anything, even how to hold a pick. Until BB King told me to get a straight pick, I was just playing with my fingers. In fact, I still do, using my fingers and the pick. A lot of the time I just put the pick in the palm of my hand and then swap back and forth, but I don’t know how I do it!” VOLUME “When I started recording at Chess, Willie Dixon told me to turn it down; [he] said I was too loud. Then they all heard Cream and Hendrix and saw how many albums they were selling, and decided that perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing after all!” SLIDE “I always wanted…

THE GREATEST BLUES GUITARISTS There was always something otherworldly about Johnny Winter, as though he had one foot in this life and one in the next. The rake-thin Texan with the long blond hair and Gibson Firebird was all angles. And his style was all action, all attitude. He had the voice to match, too. Winter approached the electric guitar differently to most blues players, preferring a thumb pick and applying a country-esque, Chet Atkins-style approach to blues-rock, and would glean insight not just from blues guitar practitioners but from mouth organ licks, expanding his vocabulary on the guitar, and taking blues-rock forward. Winter started out young, and his big break arrived in 1968 when Mike Bloomfield invited him to play with him at New York City’s Fillmore East, where…

THE GREATEST BLUES GUITARISTS The writing on the walls of 1960s London said everything: “Clapton Is God”. Theologically unsound? Sure. But back then Clapton was providing plenty of evidence. He introduced himself with The Yardbirds before leaving for John Mayall And The Bluesbreakers. The band’s studio debut, simply titled Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton but most commonly known as The Beano Album, remains a touchstone. But more greatness was incoming, and Clapton was in a hurry. He formed Cream with fellow Bluesbreakers alumnus Jack Bruce and cut some of the most classic rock tracks of all time. The Marshall stack was expanding the possibilities, and Clapton’s ‘woman tone’ brought the electric guitar - in this instance his 1964 Gibson SG -closerto a soul singer’s voice than anyone had got before.…

THE GREATEST BLUES GUITARISTS Gary Clark Jr is a blues player but you might not have said that 30 years ago; the tent would not be big enough to accommodate all his stylistic turns through rock, folk, soul, and - look away, purists - hiphop. But what is blues if not protest music and storytelling in verse, just like hip-hop? Clark’s talent lies in bringing all this together without it making a curate’s egg of it all. A song such as Your Land shows exactly what he is about, referencing Woody Guthrie, drawing a line through American history to confront the racism of today, and doing so with celebratory power. That’s where he is coming from philosophically. Tone-wise, his guitar sounds like electricity that’s geysering out of the earth. Whether…

REVIEW We could start with some spiel about how much guitar players get for their money with a Squier compared to 40 years ago, but the brand started out very strong with Japanese-made instruments, and this is one with an RRP of $999, so is not exactly entry-level. Instead we should focus on the more interesting Squier narrative that’s been unfolding in more recent history: the brand is becoming increasingly distinct in its own right. In addition to affordable takes on Fender cornerstones, there’s plenty of alluring models exclusive to Squier. And if they can hold their own with the Mexican Fenders, that’s cause for real celebration. We’re here to find out. The 40th Anniversary models have come in two waves; the gold hardware/block inlay ‘Gold Edition’ example we have…

Lire 6 has introduced what looks like a game-changing firmware update to its Helix multi-effects and amp modeler family, which has been dubbed “the biggest sonic improvement to Helix since it first shipped back in 2015”. Usually, such bold claims are viewed with caution, but it looks as though Line 6 has well and truly delivered on its word. As an overview, the free 3.50 update is impressively comprehensive, debuting five amps, seven effects and a swathe of new features. The biggest news is the updated IR engine, which has been completely rebuilt in a bid to deliver improved sonic options and usability, the likes of which have never been seen in the Helix family since its inception. With the new IR engine, Line 6 has also introduced 20 guitar…

For much of the last decade, Joji Malani was best known for doling Gang Of Youths their musical bedrock, armed with an ear for theatricality, a fierce will to break the boundaries of genre, and a love for rock ’n’ roll at his core. But in 2019 - just when Gang Of Youths became mainstream darlings on the back of their insta-classic second album, 2017’s Go Farther In Lightness - Malani bid adieu to his chosen family, eager to explore a new direction as a solo artist. Under the moniker Pei (a Fijian word for “baby"), Malani’s new material glimmers with a hint of the charm heard in his work with Gangs - ‘Growth’ and ‘Trying’, for example, are both progressive indie-pop songs made epic with operating strings and soaring…

There was a five-year gap between Sly Withers’ self-titled debut and Gardens, with the latter album - which arrived last June - presenting a truly reinvented band. Eager to ride its high, the Boorloo-native quartet wasted no time knuckling down on album number three, building on the sentiments explored on Gardens for what shaped up to be their first-ever sequel: Overgrown. As implied by its title, Overgrown picks up a short while after Gardens, when its protagonists - dual frontmen Jono Mata and Sam Blitvich - had gained just enough perspective to answer the questions they posed on their second opus. And, as is the case with most sequels, the stakes here are higher - Gardens was an unexpected hit for Sly Withers, debuting at #10 on the ARIA Charts…

If there’s ore thing we’ve learned over the past three years, it’s that everyone dealt with the pandemic in their own ways. Some artists wandered deep into the void and made their darkest records yet; some chose to embrace the calm and unlock their inner zen; some leaned into the chaos, or went ultra-pop as a form of escapism, or ignored the shifts in mood entirely, or chose not to make new records at all. Ever the man of a million thoughts, Devin Townsend couldn’t settle for just one option. The omnipotent prog-metaller wrote hundreds of songs over the COVID era, siphoning material into different categories. The more chaotic songs were bundled into The Puzzle, while those a little more serene went into Snuggles. Both albums arrived last December, accompanied…

INTERVIEW Few bands have cultivated the same kind of reverence as The Wonder Years. The band cut their teeth on jokey pop-punk jams they’re admittedly embarrassed by, but over nearly two decades, they’ve grown into one of the most venerable forces in emotionally charged alternative music. They’d long stuck true to their pop-punk roots (albeit with increasingly darker tints), but on 2018’s Sister Cities, the band shed it entirely to explore a more strait-laced emo and post-hardcore sound. Though polarising for some, that one-off musical detour proved incredibly beneficial for The Wonder Years. They’ve returned to pop-punk for their justreleased seventh album, The Hum Goes On Forever, but they’ve done so with a matured perspective and poise that shows the band in their strongest form yet. It’s led to their…

If you’re anything like us, when you’re inspired to play guitar you’ll often find yourself gassing for new gear. The most versatile option is to go digital: there are loads ands loads of you amplifiers, foot-pedals and floorboards loaded with countless effects and amp models that’ll cover almost any conceivable playing scenario. But for the blues purist, analogue is the way to go. Read on as we run through some of the best gear options available today for the aspiring blues hound. And while tone is foremost in our mind here, we’ve also got one eye on versatility, too.…

OVERDRIVE IBANEZ TUBE SCREAMER If its signature mid boost was good enough for Stevie Ray Vaughan… Available in compact ‘mini’ form. MXR TIMMY With three clipping modes this is a versatile drive that’s great for kicking any tube amp into rich saturation. WAMPLER TUMNUS MINI Wampler’s Tumnus was one of the first transparent overdrive Klon ‘klones’, and remains one of the best. EFFECTS DUNLOP CRY BABY WAH One of the most commonly found effects on the ’boards of blues purists. Wherever you need a workhorse do-it-all wah, use a Cry Baby! KEELEY VIBE-O-VERB A UniVibe-style phaser and a reverb in one pedal. Great for soft shimmery echoes and wobbly modulation. MXR CARBON COPY MINI DELAY The pristine nature of digital repeats means that for blues you’re better off with the…

THE GREATEST BLUES GUITARISTS Six-time Grammy winner McKinley Morganfield ruled the Chicago blues scene from the mid 1940s on. Moving from Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1941 and switching from acoustic to electric guitar two years later, Morganfield (now Muddy Waters] assembled a band of the finest players in town, including Little Walter (harmonica], Otis Spann [piano] and Jimmy Rogers [guitar]. Live, Muddy’s band was a powerhouse. Jimi Hendrix found it terrifying-“I first heard him as a little boy and it scared me to death,” quipped Jimi, who took a famous Muddy lick and turned it into Voodoo Chile. Muddy’s playing was almost primeval. Bluesman John P Hammond stated, “Muddy was the master of just the right notes; profound, deep and simple.” Although he wrote songs, he is mainly remembered for covers…

BB King was pure class, from his exquisite licks to his heartfelt vocals. Brought up on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, he was born Riley B. King in 1925. King attended various churches, attracted to the blues-tinged gospel songs they sang. His pastor taught him three chords before his plantation boss advanced him the money to buy his own guitar. King taught himself to play and by 1946 had moved to Memphis with his cousin, slide guitarist Bukka White. Before long he was playing on local radio and scored a residency at a West Memphis grill. King soon gained his own show, where he was dubbed ‘Beale Street Blues Boy’, shortened to ‘Blues Boy’ and then ‘BB’. At this time he was still playing acoustic guitar, but influenced by…

1958 FENDER STRATOCASTER Buddy’s first Strat, bought new in 195B for $159, has the very rare combination of a 3-tone sunburst body with one-piece maple neck. He used it almost exclusively until it was stolen on the road in the 70s. Guy superfan Bobby DeVito sold it back to him in 1995. 1959 FENDER BASSMAN The tweed Bassman was just for bass until Buddy discovered its magic for guitar. He runs everything on 10 except the bass at around 2 o’clock, and controls everything from the guitar. With no overdrive pedal, all his distortion comes from pushing the amp. He now uses a replica with a cabinet built from the oak countertop of a local store in his hometown of Lettsworth, Louisiana. BUDDY GUY SIGNATURE WAH Decorated by Dunlop in…

JIMI HENDRIX In the tradition of many itinerant bluesmen before him, Jimi Hendrix spent his formative years travelling around North America, from his upbringing in Vancouver and Seattle, down to the birthplace of the blues, the Deep South. “I was largely influenced by blues artists when I first started,” he said, picking up inspiration from his father’s record collection and other musicians. “The first guitarist I was aware of was Muddy Waters. I heard one of his old records when I was a little boy and it scared me to death. Wow, what is that all about?” It was in the South, though, as a professional musician on the ‘chitlin’ circuit’, that he developed his unique musical style, fused from a combination of Delta blues, R6B, rock ‘n’ roll and…

THE GREATEST BLUES GUITARISTS Stevie Ray Vaughan brought physicality and soul to guitar playing, and he brought it in spades. The soul came through the speaker. The physicality was there for all to see. To watch him play, there were occasions in which SRV would throttle the guitar as though it were an arm wrestling contest at last orders in a Nantucket alehouse. His strings were the stuff of legend - 13s? No, Ws; 17s! Heck, some might argue he used piano wire. Either way, he went down the heavy-gauge route and had the dexterity to manipulate them as though they were dental floss. This, the fire in his belly, and the tonegussying Tube Screamer playing mediator between Fender Strat and amp give him a range of dynamics that few,…

Hells Bells has five main chords to learn (A5, D5, C5, G5 and E5), plus a few variations. It’s worth noting the G5 has no 3rd interval on the fifth string, thus turning it into a rockier sounding powerchord. We’ve included a fingering for an Am11. This chord isn’t featured in the track per se, but it outlines the sound of the main riff and it could come in handy should you wish to strum out an acoustic version. The G/B is a classic way to transition between C5 and A5 thanks to the low notes in the chords which spell out a descending C-B-A bass melody.…

ERNIE BALL PAPA HET’S HARDWIRED MASTER CORE GUITAR STRINGS (3 PACK) RRP: 99.95 • cmcmusic.com.au Papa Het’s new hardwired Master Core signature string sets have been co-developed with Metallica’s James Hetfield over the past decade to best meet his demanding performance requirements. This signature set consists of James’s preferred 11-50 gauge combination using thicker Paradigm core wire and plasma enhanced nickel-plated steel wrap wire. They are ideal for James’s aggressive style and technique, offering a heavier sound with extra pitch stability. FENDER AMERICAN VINTAGE II SERIES RRP: starting from $2,399 • fender.com Fender has unveiled the American Vintage II series, an electric guitar and bass line that celebrates Fender’s iconic models released during the monumental musical decades of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s - a time in which Fender forever…

REVIEW Cort is ore of those guitar brands - Godin is another - that doesn’t feel a need to overload its books with a huge list of famous players to lure you into buying their guitars. Instead they seem to rely on the in-store experience to entice new buyers. These are the kind of guitars that you spy out of the corner of your eye and decide ‘Y’know what? Before I make my final decision I’m gonna try that thing over there.’ And before they know it, you’ve found your new guitar. Cort does this by building on its reputation as an OEM builder of guitars for other brands, and you could be playing a guitar from a Cort factory without even knowing it. But the end result for the…