Innehållsförteckning för June 2017 från Guitar Player

I RECENTLY HAD THE TREMENDOUS HONOR OF SURPRISING Andy Summers with the 2017 Certified Legend Award during a tribute at the Grammy Museum’s Clive Davis Theater on March 23. Presented by Roland and BOSS, the sold-out event celebrated the release of the guitarist’s 14th solo album, Triboluminescence [Flickering Shadow] with a Q&A hosted by Grammy Foundation vice president Scott Goldman, as well as Summers performing tracks from the album accompanied by projections of his globetrotting photography. (You can stream “A Special Evening with Andy Summers” from the video section of the BOSS Facebook page.) “Give me a little respect now,” Summers joked to the audience after donning his Certified Legend medal. This year looks to be one long festival of artistry for Summers, who never seems to slow down—even though…

“I’VE ALWAYS BEEN ENAMORED WITH trio recordings, but I’ve never been brave enough to try to do one myself.” That might sound surprising coming from a guitarist like Shane Theriot, because fear has never really been part of his game. The Louisiana native worked for years with “N’awlins” royalty, the Neville Brothers. He got thrown into the deep end of the jazz pool when he went on the road to play bass for Larry Carlton with no rehearsal. He landed the gig as music director for Live from Daryl’s House, where he arranges and charts out tunes for the diverse guests who play alongside Daryl Hall, again, with little or no rehearsal. And he’s also the MD for the Daryl Hall and John Oates live band. How scary can it…

EACH YEAR FOLLOWING THE AVALANCHE of new gear that rolls out from Winter NAMM, the staff at GP checks their notes and comes up with a list of new stompboxes to review for our annual Pedalmania roundup. True to form, for 2107, we’ve left it open to all types of pedals— from simple boosters to some of the freakiest boxes a twisted brain could devise. To our way of thinking, it’s all good when it comes to effects, because the inspiration they often provide can, at the very least, fire you up for that monthly gig at the local brew pub or possibly inspire something much bigger—like writing a tune for your next record that might not have happened if you’d been washing the car instead of messing around with…

SPECIFICATIONS IN RECENT YEARS, MANY TOURING sidemen have turned to low-wattage amps. These small heads and combos allow guitarists to push an amp’s power stage without irritating singers and soundmen, while in-ear monitors mean they can hear themselves without having to move so much air. The Supro Comet neatly fits this niche with its single 6L6 power tube wired in a class-A configuration, and a switchable plate voltage that allows for 14- or 6-watt operation. At the 2017 NAMM Show, thanks to Supro’s enclosed listening booth, I was able to hear the amp’s ability to deliver everything from crystal cleans to screaming distortion at the turn of a guitar knob, and at volumes friendly to even my ravaged ears. But until you play through an amp with your own guitars,…

CONCERT-SIZED AND DREADNOUGHT acoustic guitars offer an orchestral range of tones in solo performance, but their rich bass can muddy up a band’s sound or require being EQ’d out of an ensemble recording. One reason I have played and recorded with a parlor-sized Art & Lutherie Ami for years is its ability to surgically cut through bass, drums, keyboards, and electric guitars. The company has discontinued the Ami, but has fortunately replaced it with the similarsized and improved Roadhouse model. Art & Lutherie is a division of Godin Guitars, a Canadian company set in the same forest that provides much of the wood for their instruments. This allows them to offer the Roadhouse at a price well below what you might expect for an instrument with a solid spruce top…

LUTHER DICKINSON’S LATEST SOLO record, Blues & Ballads (A Folksinger’s Songbook), Vol. I & II, is a celebration of the heroes of Mississippi hill-country blues. Much like early bluesmen weaved folk heroes Stagger Lee, Casey Jones, and John Henry into the American songbook, Dickinson aimed to canonize the characters that inspired him with original songs. Those legends— including R.L. Burnside, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Junior Kimbrough—continue to inspire artists like Dickinson, Jack White, and the Black Keys. “Moonshine,” for example, recalls late nights jamming at Kimbrough’s juke joint. “If you could’ve seen Junior Kimbrough— he was a folk hero, man,” said Dickinson. “He had this crazy, wild juke joint out in rural Mississippi, but he had such a peaceful vibe, and it was a fun scene. And fife player Otha…

WESTERN SWING, ALSO KNOWN AS Texas swing, is a sub-genre of country music that developed and flourished in the 1930s, reaching its heyday during the early years of World War II before becoming overshadowed by other more popular musical styles and fads that emerged in the post-war era. Western swing embraces many of the elements of traditional country music, and spices them up with others borrowed from big-band jazz, blues, bluegrass, and folk, creating an appealing musical stew marked by generally upbeat tempos, swinging, syncopated rhythms, sweet, slick harmonized melodies, and inventive guitar- oriented riffs. Trailblazing musical pioneers like the Light Crust Doughboys, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, and Hank Thompson collectively helped shape the style and musical delivery, which at the time was completely original and invigorating. Contemporary…

“DJANGO REINHARDT IS THE ONLY MUSIcian I can think of who has festivals dedicated to him all over the world,” says Stephane Wrembel, reveling in the afterglow of Django A Gogo—a combination guitar camp and performance event he produced that culminated with a show at Carnegie Hall on March 3, featuring gypsy master Stochelo Rosenberg and maestro Al Di Meola. After years of focusing on his own music, Wrembel returned to his roots to record The Django Experiment I and II [Water Is Life] in tribute to the Belgian-born guitar legend, Django Reinhardt. Wrembel resides in New Jersey, but he originally hails from Paris, and was raised in Fontainebleau, France, where Reinhardt lived (and passed away in 1953). Leading the Quintette du Hot Club de France, Reinhardt was arguably the…

CL-3EQ Acoustic/Electric Traveler Guitar: Celebrating 25 Years on the Road Available May Massive Tone. Small Footprint. The super-portable, head-turning CL-3EQ is a brand new ¾ size travel guitar featuring a custom preamp, headphone amp, and onboard tuner. Specs, features, and our full lineup of cutting-edge travel guitars available online. $399.99 www.travelerguitar.com travel@travelerguitar.com 909-307-2626 TUSQ Picks Graph Tech Guitar Labs Available Now TUSQ Picks are a totally new class of pick. Each model comes in three different tones, (bright, warm, deep), three shapes, and three gauges. Drop TUSQ picks onto a hard surface to hear each tone. TUSQ Picks feel alive, transmitting the feel of the string and your picking attack instantly to your fingertips. MSRP: $5.95 (4 or 6 pack), $56.95 (48 or 72 pack) www.graphtech.com 1-800-388-7011 sales@graphtech.com E-Series Professional…

“MAN, I WAS SORE AFTER THE SUPER Bowl,” says Tim Stewart on Guitar Player’s No Guitar Is Safe podcast. Stewart’s complaint is somewhat perplexing, as during the halftime show he performed with Lady Gaga, he was onstage for only 12 minutes. What caused his aches and pains? “They had us on the smallest platform ever,” he says of the girder that he and coguitarist Ricky Tillo were standing on next to Gaga’s main stage. “My legs were aching from trying not to fall off! There were flames everywhere, and rockets going off around us. It was like Mad Max.” Stewart’s discomfort illustrates one of the aspects most guitarists might not realize about the job of playing guitar for megastars. You become part of the show—even if that means balancing precariously…

IF EVER THERE WAS A CAULDRON OF creative push-and-pull boiling over with contrary yet similar ingredients, it’s Art of Anarchy. The band is populated by two brothers (guitarist Jon Votta and drummer Vince), Creed vocalist Scott Stapp, Disturbed bassist John Moyer, and the musically subversive wild card—and former Guns N’ Roses guitarist—that is Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal. These differing elements all fuse together on the band’s second album, The Madness [Another Century]. There’s what Thal calls the Vottas’ “Megadeth vibe,” Stapp’s pop-metal smarts, Moyer’s propulsive sense of groove, and Thal’s aggressive, unique, and eerie artiness. Somehow, it all works, and it’s also an exciting evolution from the more brooding sound of Art of Anarchy’s self-titled debut in 2015, where the late Scott Weiland handled the vocal chores. That’s an outside view,…

“I DON’T HAVE SPECIFIC TECHNIQUES for anything,” says Rich Robinson. “Everything I do is in the moment. I can’t stand planned music.” Ever the cool cat, Robinson actually has plenty of tricky guitar techniques down cold, from managing the fretboard in oodles of open tunings to seamlessly alternating between playing slide and fretted—everything coupled with a tonal aptitude that facilitates his maestro-in-the-moment ethos. On this occasion, he has former Black Crowe Marc Ford by his side, and the concert debut of their new rock-and-roll revue—dubbed the Magpie Salute—sold out four consecutive shows at the Gramercy Theatre (January 19-22) in a New York minute. The band planned a different show each night—a total of 84 tunes—that they worked out quickly over just three rehearsals. COVER STORY MAGPIE SALUTE Other Crowes turned…

SPECIFICATIONS THIS NEW MODEL FROM NORTH CARolina- based Carr is based on the previous 2003 Skylark, but takes that platform further in a British direction courtesy of its High Volume and Low Volume controls, which can be configured via toggle switch to run in parallel (like “jumpering” the inputs on an old 4-hole Marshall) or in Series, which cascades the High (brighter) and Low (darker) channels, adding an extra 12AX7 stage in the process for much higher gain potential. The Boost switch furthers the fun by selecting three different preamp gain structures: Position 1 is low gain and designed for clear, ringing tones. Position 2 replicates the gain structure of an early ’70s-era metal-panel Marshall. Position 3 drives the power tubes harder for more distortion in the output stage, while…

THE DAYS OF MASSIVE RECORDING budgets are mostly over, which often makes interfacing between home studios and commercial recording facilities an essential component of modern record making. This was certainly true when my band, The Trouble With Monkeys, signed a deal with Mi5 Recordings/ Universal, and, major-label distribution notwithstanding, I had to manage a tight recording budget by doing some guitar, bass, and vocal parts at home on GarageBand, and then spin the audio files back to the main studio’s Pro Tools rig. This could have been a rather depressing scenario were it not for the Zen Tour ($1,495 street). FIRST IMPRESSIONS Antelope has a well-earned reputation for quality audio interfaces, and the Zen Tour looks beautiful, is built tough, offers all the I/O you need for small-to-medium projects, and…

I REMEMBER HOW EXCITED I WAS when Fender introduced its first acoustic amps—the Acoustasonic Series—back in the mid ’90s, and it turned out to be totally warranted. I’ve enjoyed using the Acoustasonic Junior 2x8 combo I bought way back when on countless gigs, and it still works despite being a bit banged up. Fender has introduced myriad variations on the Acoustasonic over the years, and newAcoustasonic 40 rekindled my interest because it’s designed on the original principles—simple, solid, and affordable— yet comes in a package that’s even smaller and way lighter than my old Junior. The Acoustasonic 40 has what Fender calls a “brown and wheat” color scheme— consisting of a dark brown front grille, brown control face, and tan texturedvinyl covering—and is about the size of a toaster. Weighing…