Innehållsförteckning för May 2016 från Guitar Player

An absolute giant in the world of production, pop music, and popular culture in general, George Martin had a massive impact on how music was written, produced, arranged, and recorded. He saw potential in four young Liverpool lads, and guided them as they created the soundtrack for the lives of billions of people. Aside from giving the Beatles the freedom to be the Beatles, Martin made timeless contributions to many of their greatest tunes. The doublespeed piano solo to “In My Life,” the string arrangements to “Yesterday” and “Eleanor Rigby,” the piano in “Lovely Rita,” and the insane beauty of “Strawberry Fields Forever” are just a few examples of his greatness. Through it all, he was an erudite, dignified gentleman who elevated the work of everyone around him, as he…

WE ALL KNOW THAT LEARNING GUITAR ain’t easy, and anything that can keep beginners interested while they try to overcome the inevitable obstacles is a good thing. There’s also no substitute for private lessons, because the instant feedback a teacher can give a student is crucial to learning right from wrong. The Jamstik+ ($299 direct) aims to address both of those issues with fun, arcade-style tutorial apps to keep students engaged, and sensors in the neck that actually see finger positions to let students know in real time if they’re hitting the right notes or not. Plus, it’s super portable and features Bluetooth connectivity, so today’s tech-savvy guitar pupils can practice anywhere they can bust out an iPad or iPhone (and, in the coming months, Android Marshmallow supported devices). Getting…

NOT YET 30, JULIAN LAGE HAS ALREADY been playing guitar on stage for two decades. He sat in with Santana when he was nine, played on the Grammys at 13, and joined jazz legend Gary Burton’s band at 17. There is apparently no genre that eludes his talent, from his beginnings playing blues to traditional and modern jazz with Burton and others, bluegrass with Chris Etheridge, and free improv with Nels Cline. If he hasn’t taken on metal yet, it isn’t for lack of technique, only current interest. In fact, Lage strikes you as someone for whom technique is no longer an issue. Anything he hears he seems able to play. After years of employing electric archtops and flat-top acoustics, his latest record, Arclight [Mack Avenue] explores the possibility of…

[The following is an account by multi-instrumentalist Jim Hurley, who played in Blackmore’s Night from 1999 to 2000. Hurley has also performed and/or recorded with Al Stewart, Ancient Future, Trans Siberian Orchestra, the Waybacks, Queen Ida, and the late Dan Hicks]. In early 1999 Ritchie was looking for a violinist, who might double on other instruments. He heard a solo recording of mine, on which I played multiple instruments. His manager contacted me, and asked me to go to buy the Blackmore’s Night albums “Under a Violet Moon” and “Shadow of the Moon,” and then to produce multi-tracked replicas of three of the songs, playing the rhythm section parts on guitar and bass, and the vocal melodies on violin. I did this, and mailed a mixed CD back to his…

FOR A COMPANY THAT GOT ITS START in 2004, Blackstar has quickly earned a reputation for great-sounding amps, and can boast an impressive list of pro users to back it up. Recent endorsements by Waddy Wachtel and up-andcomer Jared James Nichols for the new Artist 30 combo on review here should be enough to make anyone who’s in the market for a 2x12 tube amp want try it out. Though based on the costlier, handwired Artisan 30 combo, the Artist uses 6L6s instead of EL84s, and it adds to the features list by offering footswitchable channels, an effects loop, and the patented ISF control—which provides continuous blending between American- and Britishtype sounds. The upward-facing control panel carries Volume and Tone controls for Channel 1, along with Gain, Volume, Bass, Middle,…

AT THIS YEAR’S NAMM SHOW, LINE 6 celebrated 20 years in the industry, and to illustrate the company’s proud history, they lined up pretty much every product they’ve come out with. It was a blast to look at game-changing pieces such as the original AxSys 212 amp, the POD, the green, blue, and purple stompboxes, and more. The culmination of all that tone-chasing brainpower can be found in the stunning creation you see before you: the Line 6 Helix ($1,499 street). Much more than a guitar processor, the Helix is more like the command center for all of your gigging and recording needs. If you’re willing to get to know the Helix, you will have an awe-inspiring amount of signal-routing and tone-shaping power and flexibility at your disposal. Before we…

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR THE BIRTH OF the jangle, this is it. The Rickenbacker 360/12 is ground zero for that chiming, trilling, orchestral electric-guitar sound that shimmers through the music of the Beatles, the Byrds, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, XTC, R.E.M., the Smiths, and too many other formative pop, rock, and indie bands to mention. Ever since its arrival in 1964, when it was placed in the hands of prominent Rick-o-phile George Harrison, the 320/12 is where artists have gone when they needed a guitar to sound like more than a guitar. Plug it in, play the simplest of arpeggios, and your arrangement is instantly ear catching—all thanks to the clever gamble Rickenbacker took on reconfiguring an ungainly folk instrument as an electric powerhouse more than 50 years ago.…

IF THERE IS ONE HARD-FOUGHT BATTLE THAT CONSISTENTLY emerges in the music industry, it’s the one surrounding trademarks. From the pre-emptive strike of preventing a record label from using a pre-existing name, or the post break-up battle over band members associating themselves with past glory, a basic understanding about trademarks goes a long way to saving relationships and legal fees. Used synonymously with the term “brand,” a trademark is a valuable form of intellectual property distinguished from copyright. SWIFT VERDICTS THE VENEER OF LOGIC MATTE HENDERSON WITH MARCO MINNEMAN Although this CD/DVD came out in 2014, I’m just now getting hip to it. Massive distorted riffs comingle with angular melodies, soundtrack-y noisescapes, and vocal parts lifted from voicemails. It’s intriguing, disturbing, bizarre, and freaking cool! In addition to Minneman, David…

ASK ANYONE HOW TO HAVE A successful band in this second decade of the new Millennium and the answers would not likely include recording jazz/funk/fusion with a rotating cast of 18 musicians and touring with as many as 13 at a time. Fortunately bassist Mike League didn’t ask. He went ahead and created a band of just that description, called Snarky Puppy, through a series of jam sessions at the University of North Texas in 2004. Snarky Puppy has since carved their niche in the music landscape through masterful musicianship, catchy compositions, and a dozen years of hard work, garnering two Grammys and a rabid following who voted them Best Jazz Group in Downbeat’s 2015 Reader’s Poll, as well as Best New Artist and Best Electric/Jazz-Rock/Contemporary Group/Artist in Jazz Times’…

A FEW ENGLISHMEN WHO BEGAN THEIR CAREERS IN THE ’60S are now rightfully revered as rock guitar’s “greatest generation.” Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck are universally cited as exemplars and role models for the legions of rock guitarists that followed. However, a later and more virtuosic generation of guitarists—including Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Brian May, Steve Lukather, and Yngwie Malmsteen—who took rock guitar to dizzying heights scarcely imagined by earlier axe-slingers, all add this significant name to their short list of influential Brits: Ritchie Blackmore. Blackmore was the original wizard of rock guitar, seamlessly incorporating fluid arpeggios, classical cadences, and astounding technical flourishes into what had been an almost exclusively blues-based musical idiom. Blackmore blazed a trail for the elite generation to come. Through the…

WHEN AEROSMITH’S JOE PERRY CAME up with the riff that eventually turned into the intro to “Walk This Way” during a 1974 Honolulu soundcheck, it’s likely he never imagined it would become one of classic rock’s most endearing earworms two times over—first in 1976, and again ten years later as a remake with proto-rappers Run D.M.C. Heavily influenced by the Meters’ “Cissy Strut”—both songs share the same opening rhythmic motif—Perry fashioned a lowregister E blues scale into a memorable and downright nasty four-bar riff that functions as the song’s intro and re-intro figure, and is as much fun to play as it is to hear. It’s also a testimonial to the concept of rhythmic displacement. (And who knew? The song’s title lyric was gleaned from a line of dialog by…

SINCE SETTING UP SHOP IN 2003, Nashville-based guitar maker Jeff Senn has been known for his accurate, easy playing, and great sounding bolt-neck S- and T-style guitars. All the while though, he has had his sights on an original model, finally unveiled this year in the Original Senn Model One. Stylistically, the Model One draws from Silvertone, Teisco, Guyatone, Harmony, and other C-list inspirations, while capturing those characterful tones in a more broadly capable voice, with unfettered playability. The result is an instrument that will elicit a hushed “ooh!” from a great many players. In the hand, the Model One quickly proves adept at far more than garage rock and rust-belt grunge-blues. To keep things lithe and slinky, Senn has opted for a 24¾” scale length and simple ingredients. The…

IT IS NOT OFTEN WE SEE SOMETHING truly different in the world of guitar pickups, but the Willcox LightWave Analog Optical Pickup System surely qualifies. The system, which we first encountered in 2000, uses infrared light to sense each string’s vibrations through separate transducers, resulting in no electrical or mechanical crosstalk. The HexFX Edition on review here featured a 13-pin output in addition to the mono 1/4" output. This enabled synth access, modeling, or the use of a Fanout box (not included) to record each string separately. The 13-pin output follows the Roland GK Protocol, making it compatible with Roland’s GK synths and Virtual Guitar (COSM) modeling units like the VG-99, as well as Axon audioto-MIDI converters and other devices. The chambering of the Atlantis results in a very lightweight…

DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR JOE Walsh, this dual effects pedal combines Compressor and Classic Amp circuits, which can be used independently or in tandem. The rugged, diecast metal enclosure features Bass, Treble, Gain, and Output controls for the amp side, and Sensitivity, Ratio, and Output for the compressor. LEDs indicate when either or both effects are active, and there’s also a Pre/Post switch that puts the compression before or after the amp stage. Besides providing more efficient use of pedalboard space, putting these two circuits in one box is a hip idea as they can work together to give you the best of both worlds when it comes to dialing in your overdriven tones. The distortion side is based around what Analog Alien calls a “Classic Amp,” in reference to the…

IF YOU COULD SCRIPT OUT A TIMELINE LIKE ONE of the soaps on which he so famously kicked off his U.S. career in the ’80s, Rick Springfield’s fortunes are definitely on an upswing. The Aussie rocker got a huge cred boost in 2013, when the super-cool pop-culture icon that is Dave Grohl asked him to perform in the Sound City documentary— itself a celebration of not just the renowned Van Nuys, California, studio it profiled, but also a salute to the excitement of creating music raw and live. Then, last year, Springfield enjoyed worldwide kudos for his sensitive portrayal of an aging club musician in love with his frontperson (played by Meryl Streep) in director Jonathan Demme’s intelligent popcorn flick, Ricki and the Flash. Even better for his fans, and,…

THE SIGNATURE GUITAR CLASS OF 2016 is a pretty exciting and varied lot. The party place cards include legends The Edge, George Benson, Billy Gibbons, Steve Stevens, Billy Corgan, and Allan Holdsworth, as well as art-alternative icon St. Vincent, rocker Devin Townsend, punk-ska hero Eddie Casillas, and metal artists Bjorn Gelotte and Ted Aguilar. Each guitar represents these players’ individual styles, design sensibilities, and wish lists for playability and tone. Prices run from an affordable $799 to more than $4,000, so most budgets are represented in this year’s mix. While GP always preaches celebrating your uniqueness as a guitarist, just like taking classic licks and transforming them into your own, if you dig the artistry of any of these fabulous players, grabbing one of their signature models will give you…

DIGITAL SIMULATIONS OF CLASSIC tape echo are so commonplace that most players don’t have much reason to bother with magnetic-tape delay units. Unless, of course, you have an appreciation for the warm and enticingly characterful sound that tape provides. This ’50s-era technology certainly hasn’t gone away, either. Many players covet vintage tube and solid-state Echoplexes, and Fulltone’s Tube Tape Echo is an excellent modern unit that has garnered its own share of aficionados. Now T-Rex has rolled out the Replicator ($899 street), a Danish-made solid-state tape delay that features two playback heads: Head 1 is for longer delays (250ms to 1,200ms) and Head 2 is for short delays (125ms to 600ms). The heads can be used independently or combined, and an LED changes color to indicate the status: “Green” indicates…

SCOTT HEATLEY HAS BEEN BUILDING guitars in British Columbia since 1997, and currently produces about 20 hand-made guitars each year, in a limited range of “standard” models that are generally kitted out as custom-ordered instruments. Following noteworthy interest in his flagship Retro-Matic semi-hollow, Heatley recently introduced the Parisienne, which uses the same ’60s catalog-guitar-inspired body shape as the Retro-Matic, but with a reduction of about 30 percent in its overall dimensions, resulting in a compact and comfortable single-cut, set-neck guitar. To call the Parisienne the other Heatley’s “little brother,” however, overlooks the fact that this is one decked-out showstopper itself—especially as equipped in our review sample, with striking candy orange metalflake finish contrasted by white binding and plastics, block markers, large “H” headstock (think Kay Kelvinator), and nickel pickup covers…

THE A MOEBA- LIKE GIANNINI Craviola may be somewhat of a curiosity here in the USA, but the company has deep roots back to 1900, when Italian luthier Tranquillo Giannini established an acoustic-guitar factory in his beloved Brazil. The Giannini family still runs the operation, blending Tranquillo’s age-old techniques with modern technology, design, and production. That said, the Craviola line—which includes nylon-string, steelstring, and electric solidbody models— looks decidedly Renaissance, as if a cittern or lute maker around 1500 had imbibed too much mead and set about to craft a “new concept in stringed instruments.” It’s certainly an eye-catching silhouette. Its unique shape also makes the Craviola very easy to play. It sits comfortably on your thigh when you play sitting down, and the sloped cutaway allows access to the…