Innehållsförteckning för March 2016 från Guitar Player

ALL MUSICIANS HAVE THEIR HEROES, AND SOME go extremely deep. They inspire us in powerful ways, and they forge parts of our personality that seep into the very fabric of the music we make. David Bowie was one of those heroes for me. Of course, he’d never make a Top 100 list of exceptional guitarists—even though that “Rebel Rebel” riff is pretty darn righteous—but his career taught me far more about making music than most of the great guitar players who would make that list. I also got a few life lessons in the bargain. Admittedly, my first seduction by the guitar had very little to do with being a guitarist. I mean, even as a youngster who knew nothing, I knew that I loved the sound of the guitar,…

GOT A QUESTION FOR YOUR COMMUNITY? guitplyr@musicplayer.com AS “VINNI JAYMZ DIO”—GUITARIST WITH THE RONALD Reagans Big ’80s Show (theronaldreagans.com)—I need to sound like Van Halen, Nile Rodgers, The Edge, and Slash all in the same set. The heart of my rig is a Hughes & Kettner TubeMeister 18 head and 1x12 cabinet. My board was built by Tom Peck at pedalboards.com, and it includes a silent tune switch, a true-bypass loop, and a ground lift. It also has a dry output that allows me to route an uneffected signal into a DigiTech ISP33B for a “shimmer” effect that’s run through the house and controlled with an Ernie Ball VP Jr. volume pedal. My secret weapon is an Ibanez PDM1 Modulation Delay in my effects loop. I’ll toggle through multiple presets…

1 One of the most important skills of any metal guitarist is how hard they can consistently hit the strings without obfuscating the notes. A good exercise is to downpick and palm mute the low E string with consecutive eighth-notes at a medium tempo for a minute straight. Record yourself doing this and listen for consistency. Once you find your upper limit and can control it for extended periods, all other aspects of playing become clearer. 2 Figure out is how much amp gain you need. More gain provides saturation and sustain, while less gain gives a tighter low-end attack, clarity, and note separation. I watched Stevie Ray Vaughan on PBS as a kid, and his playing and tone were immaculate. I had my guitar in hand at the time…

I typically need three guitars onstage—my main one, a backup, and an electric 12-string—and I often set them up on three compact and near-invisible D&A Icestands. Yet as sturdy as the Icestands are, they are no match for careening musicians, a stage crew rushing through a set change, or my own clumsiness. I live in fear of collisions and snapped guitar necks. I also have to endure grumbling from band members about how much stage real estate my guitars take up. But no longer. The new D&A Hydra ($149 direct) triple-guitar stand is a sentinel of stability and security. It not only has six sturdy legs to guard against tipovers, it also includes three gravity-locking Headlock hangers that safely grasp your guitar until you remove it by lifting the instrument…

I WALKED INTO LONDON’S MORGAN STUDIO IN 1973, feeling the occasional pang of anticipation, because I would be playing with Aynsley Dunbar and the great Jack Bruce. Being such a huge fan of Cream, Jack was one of my heroes, and, today, this country boy from Decatur, Illinois was going to make music with him. I should have felt intimidated, but, strangely, I didn’t. My youthful ignorance and naiveté probably kept me from turning into a pile of rubble. Aynsley and I stayed at the same hotel, so we traveled to the studio together in a late ’50s Rolls Royce with a fine Scotsman as a driver. I loved that car, and the driver was a character straight out of Dickens. Thus began my longtime love affair with England. Not…

GODIN SUMMIT CLASSIC CT Goodies 24¾" scale, chambered mahogany body and mahogany set neck, bound Richlite fretboard and headstock, large dot inlays, Godin High-Definition Revoicer system, and Graphtech ResoMax bridge. Available with various Seymour Duncan pickup configurations. Color options include: Black HG, Burgundy HG and Cherryburst HG (pictured). Price $1,895 retail More Info godin.com KEELEY GOLD STAR REVERB Goodies The latest addition to Keeley’s line of studio-themed reverb pedals offers three different reverb modes: Compressed, Distorted, and Flanged. Compressed mode is meant to simulate the crowded main studio floor at Gold Star Records during the famous “Wall of Sound” sessions. Distorted Reverb mode is meant to be an exaggeration of dozens of people in the echo chambers at Gold Star, and Flanged Reverb mode is an imagined echo chamber that…

WELCOME BACK, MUSIC READERS. I hope you felt a surge of pride and a great sense of accomplishment when you made it through last month’s introductory column. You are keeping a valuable and age-old tradition alive, and for that, I thank you. Now, the real work begins, though, and some of it will be painful. Just like if you wanted to get in drastically better physical shape, you’re going to need to hunker down. We’re learning a new language here, and you’re not going to be super fluent in it right away, n’estce pas? That’s okay, though. Hang with me here. This is going to be worth it. I guarantee it. Last month we learned the notes on the lines of the staff (Every Good Boy Does Fine, low to…

ESTABLISHED IN AKRON, OHIO, IN 2004, EarthQuaker Devices has become a familiar name on the boutique stompbox scene by offering a wide range of hand-built effects in a line that consists of boost, compression, fuzz, and overdrive pedals; delay and reverb boxes; modulation units; and a number of other interesting devices that can help you to dramatically expand your sonic palette. On review this month we have three of the company’s newer releases. Admittedly this is a very small sampling of pedals that EarthQuaker has recently launched, so to view the entire lot, be sure to visit earthquakerdevices.com DUNES The Dunes ($185 street) is more versatile than many overdrives of this size thanks to a much wider range of gain—from clean boost to full on fuzz—and a 3-way toggle switch…

PRIOR TO ESTABLISHING NASHVILLE Amplifier Service in 1994, Todd Sharp had a distinguished playing career as a first-call sideman (with Delbert McClinton, Rod Stewart, Hall & Oates, Christine McVie, and many others), a solo artist, and a Top 10 songwriter. The JOAT 20RT is his first production model as an amp builder, though, and it’s a doozy of a way to enter the market. Short for “Jack of all tone,” the amp is an original design producing 20 watts from a pair of EL84s in fixed bias—unlike the cathode-biased, so-called “class A” topology of the usual Voxinspired template—with tube tremolo and a complex three-knob, two-tank reverb circuit driven by a third EL84. The JOAT has no conventional tone controls. Instead, a 5-position Attitude switch governs different bias networks on the…

IT MIGHT BE ONE OF THE HUMBLER pieces to achieve Classic Gear status, but the Ibanez Tube Screamer is deserving of the accolade many times over. Prior to this pedal and a few of its immediate predecessors, you could goose your amp with a treble booster, or hair it up with a fuzz pedal, but there was little inbetween to emulate gentle, natural tube distortion the way the TS series did so well. As a result, this green box has arguably been one of the most copied pieces of gear in the history of rock ’n’ roll, and original examples remain enormously sought after to this day. Ibanez pedals of the ’70s and ’80s were made by the Japanese electronics company Nisshin, which also made pickups for many Ibanez electric…

Jess Araten, 17, and Geddy Franco, 15, have been selected as the 2016 winners of the Ronnie Montrose Rock the Nation awards. Part of our Play It Forward initiative to evangelize the guitar and nurture aspiring players, the annual Rock the Nation awards seek out guitarists 12 to 17 years of age who already wield formidable and inspirational chops. The award—which was established by GP Editor in Chief Michael Molenda and Montrose’s widow Leighsa Montrose in 2014—honors guitar hero Ronnie Montrose, who loved to share tips, techniques, and lessons with young players. Ephiphone sponsored this year's awards and presented Araten and Franco with Epiphone Les Paul Standards. Araten hails from Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania, and plays a Gibson Longhorn Double Cutaway through a Fender Mustang III V.2 amp. Franco lives in…

Paul Trate “Inca Roads,” “Drowning Witch”— absolute beasts! Larry E. Crandall All of Hot Rats. Genius! Fred Evans “Black Napkins” cuts the most ice. Woody Woodward Trying to get “The Black Page” perfect for 30 years. Charlie Talmadge “Catholic Girls” takes limber fingering. Dan Rogan “Zoot Allures.” John Hawkins There’s an easy one? Fred Mease All too weird to listen to. Vinny Roth “Five-Five-Five.” Killer groove. Odd time. Vincent Cravero “Valley Girl” LOL! Glenn Nicolaas Swart Most of them. Steven Stevenson “Sinister Footwear.”…

AERIAL VISIONS VINNIE MOORE Vinman has done it again. I don’t know how, because he was so good so long ago, but Moore just keeps getting better. Consistently one of the most musical and exciting instrumental rock players on the planet. Plus, he covers “La Grange.” Have mercy! —MB A LITTLE MORE LES STEVE KING, JOHNNY PUTNAM These two radio personalities from WGN Chicago had a close relationship with Les Paul, and the warmth and trust shows through in these collected interviews and tributes. If you adore Les—and who doesn’t?—you need this delightful book right now! —MM THE SG GUITAR BOOK TONY BACON Bacon is the man when it comes to comprehensive and entertaining guitar lore. There are tons of wonderful photos, and, wow, there’s even one of Zal Cleminson…

SESSION GUITARISTS WALK INTO STUDIOS LIKE gunslingers laying down track after track of grooves, licks, and solos that make recordings come alive. Those who handle their business with the same care and precision as they do their craft often make a significant part of their income from session work. Here are a few key elements to consider when the phone rings summoning you to a recording studio. Songwriting. Are you being asked solely to record a preexisting song, or to help write it? The difference between being paid a one-time session fee and receiving royalties as a co-writer of a song can be huge. Scope of services. Is your session audio only, or do your services include the recording of a video or having photos taken that imply that you…

THE BIG FOUR. TO LAWYERS, BANKERS, AND WALL Street types, they’re major accounting firms. But to headbangers, metalheads, and acolytes of shred guitar, the Big Four—Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer—are the four bands that define the blistering hard rock/punk hybrid known as Thrash Metal. Inspired by proto-thrashers such as Motörhead, the genre began germinating in underground clubs and radio stations on opposite coasts in the early ’80s before blossoming into a full-fledged phenomenon before the decade’s end. By the mid ’90s, this fearsome foursome had combined to sell over 100 million records worldwide. Now when the Big Four play together on one bill for the occasional massive summer festival, they fill football and soccer stadiums around the globe. While Metallica wins the award for “most popular” of the bunch, Megadeth’s…

Most of us have heard this old chestnut… Question: “How many guitarists does it take to screw in a light bulb?” Answer: “One to screw in the bulb, and a thousand to say they could do it better.” Now, whether you happen to be one of the joke’s one thousand naysayers, or just someone looking to assess your skills, Ernie Ball and John Petrucci have partnered to offer the perfect contest to have some fun challenging yourself. Here’s the deal: The Ernie Ball/John Petrucci Match the Master contest invites all unsigned guitar players to click to musicman.com/matchthemaster, and study videos of Petrucci performing ten riffs from Dream Theater’s The Astonishing. Those who dare can upload a video submission of themselves performing one of Petrucci’s riffs. Starting January 29, 2016–and continuing…

WE LAST VISITED WITH THE FUZZY wonders of this Brazilian company when we reviewed their BOG and Kryptone pedals in the August 2015 issue. Designer Du Menegozzo likes to take classic fuzzes as inspiration, but then vows never to replicate the originals. As a result, Deep Trip pedals are almost figments of Menegozzo’s sonic imagination, as pulled from fuzzy dreams and a ton of research. Yeah, it makes sense when you stomp on the pedals. The Hellbender ($199 street), for example, is a mirage of a Sola Sound Tone-Bender MKII, but it’s extremely dynamic, possesses gain to burn, and sustains beautifully into harmonic feedback. I haven’t exhausted its ability to pull new sounds out of thin air yet, as the Volume, Bias, Fuzz, Highs (smooth to bright), and Lows (thick…

CALIFORNIA-BASED MAKER CURTIS Novak is many players’ go-to guy for creative approaches to alternative pickups for tricky modifications and restorations. We tapped him to reinvigorate a vintage single-cutaway 1960 Gibson Melody Maker D—a vintage gem notoriously let down by its underwhelming pickups—and also for his own take on a classic Gretsch-style Filter’Tron. For the Melody Maker, Novak prescribed a pair of MM Stealth P-90s. Our review test set displayed a neatly constructed pair that fit sneakily beneath the original Melody Maker plastic covers, each with dual alnico V magnets below and steel polepieces running up through the coil. Installed and tested through Tone King Falcon Grande and Imperial Mk II combos and a Komet 60 with a 2x12 cab, the Novak pickups delivered all the bite and grind you’d hope…

MURIEL ANDERSON HAS ALWAYS BEEN ONE of those rare guitarists who can put so much heart into demanding music that listeners tend to absorb her formidable melodic and technical skills as something like a film soundtrack. You hear the artistry and the creativity and the effort, of course, but the elements blend seamlessly together to create the wonderful experience of being transported into her musical worlds. But although she already has a kind of cinematic effect on listeners, Anderson found herself yearning to expand the audience experience—to find striking and evocative images to accompany her aural journeys. Enter visual artist Bryan Allen. He initially helped develop the innovative design for her awardwinning Nightlight Daylight CD, then started shooting her publicity photos. Somewhere along the line, he also won Anderson’s heart,…

Roadhouse Overdrive Arteffect Available Now The Roadhouse is an articulate and responsive low to medium gain overdrive that feels like an amp, excelling at fat and punchy singing lead tones but can also get amazing lower gain chimey clean tones. MSRP: $199 www.arteffect.co/products/roadhouse-overdrive support@art-tone.com Cement Lunch L0/rez Available Now Tube-like textures and lo-fi overdrive. The Cement Lunch is a boost/overdrive with a unique set of active dynamic/tone controls to give you the ability to precisely dial in the sound you need. MRSRP $135 www.L0rez.com Monster Grips™: The Ultimate Grip for Guitar Picks and More! Monster Grips™ Available Now Monster Grips™ is a revolutionary guitar pick grip that is super grippy, non-sticky, and stays clean. Surprisingly durable, yet ultra-thin, it is extremely comfortable and is certain to enhance your playing experience.…

REVOLUTIONARY FERVOR I’ve been a guitar-collecting happy subscriber since ’96, and one of my few disappointments was seeing the picture of Billy Gibbons wielding a guitar with Che Guevara’s picture on it [February 2016, p. 56]. It’s bad enough seeing dimwitted, uninformed teenagers wearing Che t-shirts in search of some misconceived cool. It’s another thing for a favorite rock icon to include that murderous thug’s image as a part of his style and presentation. —JOE GIBSON LOVE THE NEW LOOK… I want to compliment the gang on the new look of GP magazine. It’s absolutely stunning and such a pleasure to look at. I could go on and on about the content, but there’s no need, because nothing comes even close to how good GP is. Thank you for constantly…

Dick Nolan Truck Driving Man TRUCK DRIVING MAN WAS released in 1964 on Arc Records of Canada, and it features the great Roy Penney on guitar (credited as “Roy Penny on Shotgun Guitar”). Bandleader Dick Nolan was a Canadian country artist who released more than 40 albums and was known as the “Johnny Cash of Newfoundland.” Penney was Nolan’s lifelong friend, and the guitarist released three solo records, Boss Guitar in Teensville, Twistin’ the Pick, and Dobro Guitar, also on Arc records. Penney has a great style that is an amalgamation of Chet Atkins and Don Rich, and, at times, he sounds like a restrained Joe Maphis. As I’m a big fan of “truck driving” guitar, it’s a thrill to hear Penney glide through the changes on all 18 wheels.…

I’m signed to [former Allman Brothers guitarist] Warren Haynes’ Evil Teen label, and he’s producing my upcoming album, so the people at the Allman Brothers Band Museum at the Big House in Macon, Georgia, were hip to what I do. I guess they enjoyed my playing enough to invite me down to play his Gibson Hummingbird acoustic when my band had a gig in town. That was a thrill, so I asked, “Is it possible to play Duane’s ’57 goldtop Les Paul?” Well, I got to play it at the Big House, and I was also able to play it during my show at Macon’s Cox Capitol Theater. Richard Brent [The Big House Director of Collections, who told GP that he has inherited the title, “Keeper of the Goldtop”] brought…

YOU LIKE THE BEEFY SOUND OF HUMbuckers, but also the clarity of single-coils. You can create a split—whip out a soldering iron, find the connection between the two humbucker coils, ground it to take one of the coils out of the circuit, and end up with a single-coil sound. Or, you can fake it. Seriously? Well, the main difference between single-coil and humbucker pickups is the frequency response. So you can just analyze a humbucker’s response and the same pickup converted to single-coil. Then, apply EQ to the humbucker that produces the same kind of response as the single-coil sound. (And you don’t lose the humbucking properties—cool!) Different humbuckers sound different when split, but the general principle is the same. The blue line in Fig. 1 shows a humbucker’s spectral…

OKAY, LET’S BE REAL FOR A SECOND— if we were ranking cars by 0-60 acceleration times, or movies by numbers of tickets sold, we could easily come up with an indisputable Top 20 list. Blues turnarounds, however, are not so quantifiable. Winners exist solely in the ear of the beholder—that’s you. So, while we can’t guarantee that the extensive collection of turnarounds that follows will prove to be your top 20 favorites, we have done everything possible to ensure the best chance that you will, at the very least, discover some inspiring new blues turnaround approaches. In fact, to that end, we have recruited renowned jazz guitarist Sid Jacobs to contribute insight and turnarounds of his own in these pages. Remember: Few musical moments are as climactic as the final…

RONNIE MONTROSE’S FIRST MONtrose record set a mighty high bar for hard rock albums, and would inform many great bands that followed, not the least of which being Van Halen, who were so taken with the rock of Montrose that they enlisted the production team of Ted Templeman and Donn Landee for their own studio efforts. Every song on Montrose is solid, but the driving “Rock the Nation” is as good a place as any to dig in. The song’s intro features some “Smoke on the Water”-approved inverted fifths to create the A-A-C-D progression, which is repeated up a full-step (B-B-D-E). Ronnie then employs standard root-fifth power chords of E, D, C, A, and G to navigate the first two verses (give it a listen—you can figure it out). That…

AS PART OF BC AUDIO’S OCTAL PLEXI Series (which includes the JTX45 and JTX50), the JMX50 is based on a classic Marshall plexi circuit, but has been adapted for use with 6SL7GT octal (8-pin) preamp tubes. BC Audio’s Bruce Clement says these tubes provide a bigger and more powerful sound, and when coupled with a pair of EL34 power tubes under solid-state rectification, the result is a boutique vintage-Marshall hybrid amplifier that benefits tonally (as well as from a servicing perspective) by having a superbly rendered, point-to-point wired circuit (i.e. components soldered directly to each other, rather than being laid out on boards). Other quality details, such as a custom 16-gauge powder-coated steel chassis, American-made paper bobbin/paper layer-wound transformers, and stainless-steel hardware round out the build, making the JMX50 and…

“The Wond is an excursion into analog unpredictability. It drives the string initially with a chaotic series of strong impulses that converge to a coherent drive signal as the string responds with vibration. This gets the string vibrating quickly while the element of chaos tends to randomize timbre. The Wond is based on a patented collocated vibration-control system that establishes coherent two-way communication with a string. It’s a unique analog technology that makes many interesting and expressive things possible. Other sustainers don’t have this kind of drive signal or behavior. The venerable EBow has long defined the category of the hand held sustainer, but the Wond is very different and may be frustrating if you are expecting another EBow. This is why I advise users to set aside what they…

TWO NEW RELEASES FROM ELECTRO Harmonix expand the POG family and revive a classic ’70s stompbox. BAD STONE Released in 1975, the original Bad Stone was the first analog six-stage phase shifter to feature adjustable feedback and allow players to “freeze” a phase effect using manual mode. The new Bad Stone ($73 street) is a faithful reissue of this classic pedal, but now in a more compact and sturdy package. Without any real effort—with all the control knobs set at 12 o’clock—this was instantly one of the richest and more soulful sounding phasers I have heard. It has an impressive range that lets you choose between subtle quivers, underwater warbles, and extreme alien noises. The Rate can be set to even slower modulations than the original ’70s version, making the…