Innehållsförteckning för November 2017 från Guitar Player

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU’RE DONE? Well, hopefully, we’ll all keep playing until the moment we depart the planet for the great unknown. The almost indescribable bliss of having a guitar in your hands while you noodle through some riffs, or play a favorite song, is powerful enough to sustain a love for playing through advancing age, infirmary, and many more of life’s challenges. In fact, playing guitar can heal a lot of wounds, as well as bring a measure of joy and hope to those beset with serious physical and emotional trials. We know this to be true. We may not want to admit that fingers, aspirations, and desires can falter and wane, and threaten the relationship with our beloved instrument. This thought occurred to me while editing…

THIS IS THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GUITAR PLAYER Hall of Fame Awards. We revived our Gallery of the Greats and Lifetime Achievement honors in 2012, because it just seemed like the time once again to celebrate all the wonderful players who have enriched our musical lives. We also felt the awards would provide a fantastic opportunity to salute the manufacturers, gear, and technical visionaries who have given us the tools to make our beautiful noises. The staff nominates the inductees each year, and we argue back and forth until we’re in (nearly) total agreement over the awards. Congrats to all of this year’s GP Hall of Famers! Gallery of the Greats Jerry Douglas One of the most awarded country musicians of recent years—we’ll now add our award to the…

IN ADDITION TO PLAYING WITH THE Steve Miller Band for many years, I’ve also taken other gigs in small clubs, wineries, and showcase rooms when not touring. When I hit the road with The Joker years ago, I thought “Wow! European tour! U2 opening! Outdoor festivals! I need to get some stacks!” Wrong. Instead, we went out with 1x12 tube combo amps. Steve figured out that big, loud amps went the way of the dodo light years ahead of most of us. He pioneered setting up fake stacks with empty 4x12 cabinets, placing a Princeton or some other small combo amp inside the cab, and miking it through the grill—just so the concert goers got their visual treat of seeing a wall of amps. He was able to control the…

“THE JAPANESE LIKED OUR MUSIC AND THEY UNDERstood us. We’re still around, so maybe they were on to something,” says Rick Nielsen when asked about the upcoming 40th Anniversary of Cheap Trick’s 1978 breakthrough album, Cheap Trick at Budokan. It’s been so long since that record blew up in America via the Top 10 single, “I Want You to Want Me,” that it’s hard to believe there was a time when the band actually had difficulty connecting with audiences on the other side of the Pacific. Following that seminal album wasn’t easy, and it would be 1988 before Cheap Trick’s fortunes would soar again with Lap of Luxury. But in the meantime, the band proved itself to be a force to be reckoned with, especially in concert, as the gonzo…

ON THE SURFACE, GUITARISTS JOHN MCLAUGHLIN AND JIMMY HERRING COULDN’T BE more different. McLaughlin, who is British by birth, has lived for decades in Monaco, and has a distinctly European air about him. Herring—who is based in Atlanta, Georgia—is as American as baseball, apple pie, and RCA 7025/12AX7A preamp tubes, and he rarely plays outside of the United States. “John gives me a tough time for not having a fly rig and playing all over the world,” says Herring, “but I just wouldn’t be able to rent the stuff I need in most countries.” And that’s another point of departure—their approach to gear. Although 20 years Herring’s senior, McLaughlin takes a decidedly new-school strategy at times. For example, during the recording of his latest album, Live @ Ronnie Scott’s [Abstract…

E-Series Professional In-Ear Monitor Headphones Audio-Technica Available Now With the E-Series, Audio-Technica brings the critically acclaimed sonic signature of its M-Series headphones to an in-ear design. Three new models feature powerful drivers, sound-isolating housings and detachable cables. $399 (ATH-E70) $199 (ATH-E50) $99 (ATH-E40) www.audio-technica.com pro@atus.com AmpliFire 12 Atomic Amplifiers Available Now AmpliFire 12 is the latest professional digital guitar amp modeling processor from Atomic Amps featuring patented tube amp modeling powered by Studio Devil. Custom speaker impulses cab IRs via USB, a full suite of effects, and now with 12 programmable footswitches, dedicated expression jacks, and more. PC and Mac editor app. Meet your total amp rig replacement and direct recording tool! $799 www.atomicamps.com Ratio® Machine Heads Graph Tech Guitar Labs Available Now Tuning has never been faster, more precise…

PEER COMMENT I WANTED TO COMPLIMENT YOU ON THE September 2017 “Noize From the Editor” column. For more than 26 years, I have been preparing university students to enter the world of work. I constantly remind these young people that while they may have incredible talents and skills, the subjective quality of “fitting in” to the work environment is paramount to employers. Your editorial really hit home when you wrote that the “good hangs” are the ones constantly employed. I have been telling students for years that there are many folks that are professionals at their craft, but are, in fact, amateur human beings. — MARTIN KRAL THE AUGUST 2017 ISSUE OF GP IS ONE OF MY FAVES OF ALL TIME! All acoustic, Tommy Emmanuel, and, best yet, a flashback…

A guitar arrangement should be something unique to its own part. It’s a hard thing to describe, but it’s almost like looking at an old watch. You’ve got these gears moving in there, and some are little, and they move twice the speed as the big gear. So I always look for something that’s polyrhythmic or harmonically different from the other instruments. Jimmy Page is the best teacher for that stuff—making all the parts work together to make the whole so much bigger.…

THIS IS THE STORY OF AN EXPERIMENT. ON DECEMBER 8, 2011, I sat down with guitarist Gretchen Menn at a Peet’s coffeehouse and asked her, “What if you did something as different as possible from your last album, Hale Souls, and, perhaps, even unlike the typical guitar albums I receive at the magazine every day?” I pushed a scrap of paper towards her with an album and theatrical concept sketched out for a modern retelling of Dante’s epic poem, Inferno. What Menn accomplished with that basic idea required five years to complete. The creative journey necessitated an intense study of classical orchestration, involved serious overhauls of her guitar technique, caused her to evolve her approach to composition, and it also entailed the weathering of a personal tragedy. It was almost…

“I am super into things a lot of players don’t care much about,” says Jimmy Herring. “For instance, instead of getting a new pedal, I’d rather buy an old Bugle Boy or RCA preamp tube. I’m into that kind of stuff to an almost unhealthy degree, and I’ve come to rely on certain things. It’s almost a crutch.” One such “reliance” is Herring’s $27 guitar pick. “I’ve been using a Red Bear from the C-II line. That thing is good. That pick has a sound. For strings, I use standard D’Addario .010-.046 sets, but I’ve been thinking of going down to a .015 for the G, because I heard Hendrix did that. They say the G is the loudest string, so a lighter G might balance things, volume-wise.” Herring’s biggest…

REVERSE BENDING” IS A HIGHLY expressive lead playing technique, one that has been put to great musical use by countless rock guitar gods, such as Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Shawn Lane, and Jeff Beck. Also known as “pre-bending and releasing,” it involves silently bending a string, then picking it and releasing the bend. The effect is akin to a reverse, or backwards, playback of a tape recording of a conventional string bend (à la Jimi Hendrix’s solo in “Castles Made of Sand”) and creates an eerily emotive sound that brings to mind that of a whale’s call. In this lesson, I’ll show you the mechanics of this cool technique and some musical ways to incorporate it into licks. For demonstration purposes, we’ll focus exclusively on half-step pre-bends, which are an…

BILLED AS A STEREO MULTI-INSTRUmental overdrive, the Operation Overload (a.k.a. the code name for the Invasion of Normandy in WWII) packs pairs of left and right 1/4" input and outputs, and features a footswitchable Boost function along with active 3-band EQ, a Dry blend control, and a 3-position switch for setting input level. It’s all about making the Overlord suitable for guitar, bass, keys, etc., and you can even have the Boost function be independent of the JFET overdrive stages by selecting “Boost Independent” on a slider switch that resides inside the die-cast aluminum housing (put on your readers to find it though!). I’ve used the Overlord ($147 street) on several gigs and have appreciated its tube-like distortion, ability to deliver gutsy lows and mids while staying sweet on top,…

IT’S NOT REALLY FAIR TO CHARACTERIZE A MONO 170- WATT amp as “little,” but given that the PowerStage 170 ($399 street) doesn’t deliver 700 watts per side like the stereo PowerStage 700—or offer cabinet simulation—it’s definitely a more demure beastie. However, the tremendous benefits here are a small footprint that’s perfect for mounting on pedalboards and tank-like toughness (even at just 2 lbs of “lug weight”)— both of which make for a “fly rig” that’s light and super compact. Even better? You’ll never have to plug into a busted house or rental amp that messes with your sound ever again. Take the 170 along, and you’ll always know your baseline guitar tone. Just have the venue provide a decent speaker cabinet, and you’re set. Whatever cabinet you use, however, sonic…

CELESTION CONTINUES TO PUSH AN “it’s back” theme as a distinguisher of variations on classic guitar speakers, this time with the über-powerful 150-watt G12H-150 Redback ($169 street) topping out well above the Greenbacks and Creambacks of this world. Alongside it, the G12-35XC ($169 street) is a Limited Edition that applies the company’s cumulative knowledge to a new vintage-meets-modern take on the legendary Pulsonic cone. I tested each speaker in a 1x12 StoneAge cabinet with a Les Paul and a Stratocaster into JTM45-style and AC15-style amps. G12H-150 The “H”—for “heavy magnet”—rendition of Celestion’s G12 guitar speaker has been applied to several variations of the breed since the late ’60s, when it was first introduced largely as a bass speaker, but one that found favor with many heavy hitters, Jimi Hendrix among…

EACH MONTH, WE RECEIVE HUNDREDS OF ENTRIES FOR MY GP50 Gear Giveaway—some including stories about how guitar has impacted you, or become a love of your life—and I can relate. I started playing guitar when I was in middle school, and although percussion is my “thing,” I’ve always viewed guitar as special and powerful. So, thanks to all the readers out there who support Guitar Player’s crusade to further glorify and promote the guitar. Thanks also to our generous manufacturing partners for making this GP50 contest possible. For November, Randall is giving away three heavy-duty pedals: an RGOD 2-channel preamp, a MOR boost, and a Facepunch overdrive. The only way to get your hands on one of these babies is to send an email with “Randall” in the subject line to…

I WAS HESITANT TO COVER Cream’s Wheels of Fire. It’s so obvious and well documented that it’s almost like a movie reviewer revisiting The Godfather. That said, this record was monumental to me, and it’s a major reason I’ve dedicated myself to playing guitar for more than 45 years. I bought Wheels of Fire in 1972, while I was still purchasing records based on the length of their tracks. For example, if a non-Beatle or non-Hendrix record had three-minute tracks, I wasn’t interested. My “blind” purchases based solely on such criteria included John Coltrane, John McLaughlin, and Larry Coryell, and I really hit the jackpot with Wheels of Fire. The track “Spoonful” served as a beacon of information on free-rock improvising, and, being an obsessed pre-teen, I literally listened to…

ON HER 11TH SOLO ALBUM, SUE FOLEY PROVES SHE’S as vital a songwriter and guitar player as ever, taking on the challenge of recording it almost entirely live in the same studio where she recorded her debut album, Young Girl Blues, for the Antone’s label back in 1992. A veteran of the Texas blues scene, Foley’s signature guitar sound and powerful voice have made her a showcase example of a female artist who flourished under the Antone’s mantle and established herself as one of the premier modern blues guitarists, following a long line of trailblazing women artists reaching back to Elizabeth Cotten and Memphis Minnie. Foley’s deep interest in how guitar playing was shaped by female players has also led her to conduct around 100 interviews over the last 15…

WHENEVER RONNIE MONTROSE AND I WOULD TALK about music, he was always looking to the future. He’d be thinking about his next tour, or his next project, or he’d say something like, “Wait until you hear this acoustic stuff I’m working on. It will blow your mind.” So he was probably juggling a ton of ideas when he passed away on March 3, 2012. Many of those creative strategies ended that day, as well, but one of Montrose’s projects was saved from oblivion by his wife, Leighsa, and bassist/ producer Ricky Phillips (Styx). If you want to hear a tale about a near miracle, you might want to check out the backstory of how Montrose’s final album—10x10 [Rhino]—almost never was. In March 2003, Montrose called Phillips and drummer Eric Singer…

THE GIGGING WORLD CAN BE CRUEL and unforgiving, so most savvy guitarists carry a screwdriver, wire cutters, and perhaps a wrench or two in their kit bags. But in decades of playing shows, the equipment fail that tends to bedevil me the most is a guitar’s output jack loosening up. I’m never prepared for it—shame on me—and I always end up risking the fleshy tips of my fingers by tightening the jack by hand. So I’d buy an Octopus ($12.99 street) simply for its handy jack-tightening hex wrench. Hooray! But I’m low-balling the Octopus’ capability here, as the screwdriver-sized device offers eight helpful tools: five hex wrenches (10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 1/2", 7/16"), two screwdriver heads on a reversible shaft (flat-head and Phillips #1), and a 1/2" narrow-profile hex wrench (for…

D’ADDARIO HAS BUSY RELEASING a bevy of cool accessories for acoustic players throughout the year, and I found these items particularly intriguing. The company teamed up with the former Black Crowes and current Magpie Salute guitarist to create the Rich Robinson Signature Brass Slide ($19.99 street). IN GP’s June cover story on the Magpie Salute, Robinson explained how his slide facilitates a wide vibrato: “It’s the weight of the brass. I learned that from Lowell George. He believed the slide’s density gives it a particular sound. For example, Derek Trucks uses glass or Pyrex, and it’s effortless. You can do a lot when you don’t have much weight. When you use a heavy slide like mine, you let the slide do the work, and it becomes more natural.” Having mostly…