Innehållsförteckning för Holiday 2020 från Guitar Player

IT’S CHALLENGING TO create new electric guitar designs that are both inspiringly original and comfortingly familiar. Yet, Dennis Fano has done it time and again, formerly under his own name, and for the past half decade as Novo Guitars, whose instruments have received near-universal acclaim since their arrival in 2016. Now, two new Solus models, the F1 and M1, broaden Novo’s design vocabulary further while paring the guitar down to its appealingly raw essentials. Any player even vaguely familiar with the boutique guitar scene will likely be aware of Dennis Fano’s work. Over the course of a decade, I’ve reviewed guitars for GP that include models from the Fano-made Alt de Facto series, Fano-branded guitars built under license by the former Premier Builder’s Guild (PBG), and a Serus J from…

BACK IN THE 1980s, perhaps nobody understood better than Casio that electronics were getting smaller and smaller by the year. The Japanese company knew a thing or two about stuffing sophisticated circuits into small places, which may be why it made some of the most forward-thinking and feature-laden electric guitars of the era. Consider Casio’s late-1980s MG-500 MIDI Guitar, which is still considered one of the best of its kind. But in the early 1980s, before it delved into digital sampling, MIDI instruments, and synth guitars with built-in drum machines and so on, Casio devised the EG-5, a futuristic-looking plastic-bodied electric guitar made remarkable by having a stereo cassette recorder with an onboard amplifier and speaker built right into it. WEIRDO FACTOR Don’t be put off by the angular plastic…

IN 2016, WHILE still editor of the U.K.’s Total Guitar magazine, I visited Eddie Van Halen at his 5150 Studios to talk about his EVH brand and pioneering history as a player and tone shaper. It was a rare chance to sit down with one of the most important guitarists of all time, and I found the icon affable, humble and happy to reflect on his legacy. It won’t surprise you to hear that Eddie Van Halen was the cover star that every guitar magazine wanted, a pioneer who changed the way we approach pretty much every aspect of the instrument, from tone to technique and the gear we use to do it. Not since Jimi Hendrix has there been a guitar hero who revolutionized the electric guitar in so…

LAST MONTH, in the first part of our Frets feature with fabled fingerpicker Leo Kottke, he detailed the making of his fantastic duo redux with Phish bassist Mike Gordon, Noon (ATO). In this issue’s second and final installment, Kottke offers a profound examination of his singular stylistic evolution, seen largely through the wide-angle lens of the 12-string. The GP Hall of Famer’s impact is comparable to an unplugged Hendrix in that Kottke set the tone for the modern acoustic guitar hero. When aficionados discuss elite players, Kottke’s name always comes up, as it did when GP delved deeply into the subject for the August 2017 acoustic special issue. Cover artist Tommy Emmanuel said, “I remember when GP had a poll about a dozen years back for the readers’ favorite acoustic…

THESE TWO NEW additions to Taylor’s Builder’s Edition series are radical in their own ways. The eco-conscious 324ce is the first guitar to come from Taylor’s Urban Wood Initiative, which uses trees sourced from cities that have scheduled their removal due to age or safety concerns. The 816ce represents a redesign of Taylor’s Grand Symphony body style, with a shallow cutaway sporting an extra soundport. Shared elements include V-Class bracing, Silent Satin finish, Expression System 2 electronics and lots of Taylor’s West African Crelicam ebony. That’s where similarities end and unique qualities begin. Builder’s Edition 816ce The Grand Symphony has traditionally appealed to players that appreciate Taylor’s signature Grand Auditorium style but want a richer boom from its slightly larger body. I own one of each and generally choose the…

BILLY IDOL BE CAME an early darling of MTV when the cable channel took a fancy to his 1982 video for “White Wedding” and helped make it a hit. But the British rocker was still seen as a new waver, and he knew it would take a special kind of follow-up track to break him into the hard-rock mainstream. “That’s where ‘Rebel Yell’ came in,” guitarist Steve Stevens says of the title track from Idol’s 1983 sophomore album. The guitarist teamed up with Idol in early ’82 during the making of his self-titled solo debut and became his main co-writer and musical conductor. “For the next album, ‘White Wedding’ was the starting point,” he explains. “Everything we did had to be as good as that track, if not better. So…

No Stones Unturned Thanks for the amazing and thorough article on the Rolling Stones and the Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! tour [November 2020]. The record has been one of my favorite live LPs — right up there with the Allmans, Humble Pie, Yessongs and Frampton Comes Alive! — and maybe even better because it packs all its power onto one album, not a double or a triple. I really like the longer articles GP is running these days, and every page was well spent on this one. —BOB NEWMAN I was fortunate to have been at the [Rolling Stones’] November 28 [1969] show at Madison Square Garden and was actually straight enough to remember everything, from Terry Reid to Ike and Tina and the amazing B.B. King. I was thrilled…

COMPARED TO THE industry’s prolific output of the 1950s and ’60s, the 1970s brought relatively few new classics in the guitar department. Players came to view the market as divided among current-production guitars whose quality was often dubious or in decline, older models that made up the first semblance of a vintage market, and instruments created by a handful of forward-looking makers who believed electric guitar design had unfulfilled potential. Among the latter were independents such as Alembic, Veleno, B.C. Rich and Rick Turner, who were pioneering either the use of alternative woods and materials, more-versatile electronics or both. But of all the creative guitar makers of the mid ’70s, many players believed Travis Bean most worthy of future-classic status. Travis Bean guitars were the brainchild of former motocross racer…

OUR GUITAR UNIVERSE got kicked in the soul on October 6, 2020. That’s when we lost our king. Edward Van Halen left this mortal world on that day. It was a world that he seemed only tangentially connected to beforehand. But when he left it, there was a huge, unexpected, devastating, EVH-shaped hole in that world. Medical experts are divided on the severity of soul kicks. The consensus is they aren’t fatal, but they hurt really bad. You can recover from them, but it will probably take a long time. That’s where we find ourselves. In a world without Van Halen. A world without Ed. Say that again. You never thought about it, did you? None of us did. And yet here we are. It was easy to think that…

GUITAR-INTENSIVE MUSIC was a huge attraction during the summer of 1978, and I got lucky on my very first gig as the new guy at Guitar Player magazine. Our editor, Don Menn, sent me to Bill Graham’s Day on the Green concert in Oakland, California, to interview a guitarist named Pat Travers. I dutifully showed up, my little tape recorder and questions in hand, and knocked on Travers’ trailer door. Surrounded by scantily clad hangers-on, his face to a mirror, Travers looked up just long enough to slur, “Not today, man,” and he dismissed me with a petulant wave. I did not want to come back to the office empty-handed. To steady my anger, I picked up a basketball and started shooting hoop at a small court Bill Graham had…

READY TO BECOME a full-fledged fingerstylist? In part four, we addressed essential elementary plucking patterns, starting with a “clean” thumb to provide a solid anchor in the low end. Taking the next step to incorporate a melody on top requires an “educated” thumb. It’s a serious discipline, akin to learning stride piano, where one hand plays bass and the other plays melody, except that on guitar both hands participate to create a uniquely interwoven musical tapestry. Developing the ability to multitask on such a level unlocks fingerpicking styles from Travis picking to Piedmont blues, and it’s the final route in this series on our Path to Finger Freedom. HOW TO DEVELOP AN EDUCATED THUMB For starters, the thumb needs to be “smart” enough to execute elementary bass lines almost automatically,…

BACK IN THE ’ 80S, it was almost a requirement for rockers to play a Strat-shaped guitar with a locking whammy, hum-sing-sing pickups, and either outrageous graphics or wildly vibrant colors. Interestingly, although these instruments were certainly descendants of the legendary Fender, many of them were made by companies other than Fender. That changed in the latter part of the decade when Fender released the HM Strat, a hard-rocking departure from the Slowhand-style six-strings of yore. The instruments developed a loyal following, but as styles changed, so did guitar production, and the HM was discontinued in 1992. But now it’s back, with a limited-edition reissue. I was completely psyched to dust off my massive dive bombs, Brad Gillis–style harmonic swoops, Rockman clean tones, and whatever else I used to do…

OH, T O RE-LIVE the early 1970s, when an effect pedal was allowed to take up a square foot of floor space and look good doing it. Warm Audio lets guitarists relive those days with its new Jet Phaser, a faithful recreation of the original “jet phase” circuit found in Roland’s AP-7 Jet Phaser, a shag carpet–era effect that combined a phaser with a fuzz capable of creating downright filthy tones. The pedal was a favorite of Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham, and anyone who’s heard Ernie Isley’s searing lead tones on the Isley Brothers’ “Who’s That Lady?” knows how downright funky it can be. Guitarists with a home studio will likely recognize Warm Audio’s name from the company’s excellent re-creations of classic Neve mic preamps and…

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SOMETIME AROUND 1966, my mother turned me on to the Yardbirds. After hearing them on the radio, she bought an LP on her way home from work and played it on our family console stereo. As the music bled into my bedroom, I knew this wasn’t from the typical Campilongo family playlist of Andy Williams, John Gary and Herb Alpert. I heard a sound that called my name. I liked the band name, too. I was eight years old. Having a Rave Up With the Yardbirds was released on the Epic label in 1965. It’s an underrated record and well worth revisiting or discovering. The Yardbirds are rarely mentioned in the template of musical discussions concerning rock history, and then only for the Mount Rushmore guitar chair of Clapton, Beck…

AS A WORKING guitar player, I’ve gigged in backyards, dive bars, discos, hockey arenas, pizza parlors, symphony halls and living rooms, and on tropical islands and cruise ships. I’ve performed wearing everything from ripped-up rocker jeans, tuxedos and cowboy hats to West African dashikis. And I’ve played with rock bands, soul bands, jazz ensembles, Afro-funk groups, garage bands, legacy acts, DJs, orchestras and rappers. In other words, I have messed around with a range of guitar styles. And if you’re like many GP readers, you probably have too. But if you’ve never tried out the Eddie Van Halen guitar style — and what a multifaceted style it is — I can tell you something that the rest of the guitar galaxy already knows: It’s fun. TECHNIQUES WERE NEVER EDDIE’S FOCUS.…

EVER SINCE I can remember, my mega-Italian mother, Mary Buono, has prepared a mystical grain pie for Easter, the recipe for which is to be kept secret at all costs. It’s the stuff of legend. Anyone who’s lucky enough to have had a taste speaks of the pie with reverence. While Mother Superior is adamant about keeping the formula classified, in true Italian matriarchal fashion she is always more than generous with the dish, wasting no time putting a plate in front of you for you to enjoy. Edward Van Halen’s innovative and exciting lead guitar playing has had the same kind of presence in my life, and in countless others’ too. Like my mom, he guarded his secret recipes by literally turning his back on live audiences during some…

THE TRADITIONAL PRO V is the fifth and latest model in a line of Les Pauls that have been developed over the years by Gibson and Guitar Center, and are therefore available only from those companies. It’s the most advanced model thus far and is designed to bring exceptional versatility and playability to this carved-top classic. The Trad Pro V (as it’s labeled on the truss-rod cover) is available in two distinct finishes: gloss lacquer over a striped maple top in Washed Cherry Burst or Blueberry Burst, or as the Trad Pro V Satin, which wears a matte finish over a plain maple top in Satin Iced Tea or Satin Wine Red. Otherwise, these Les Pauls are identically equipped, and since Gibson thoughtfully sent us both versions to check out,…

FRYETTE’S FIRST ITERATION of the Power Station, which debuted in late 2014, was both a revelation and a virtual revolution among guitarists seeking to achieve cranked-up tones from powerful amps at the lower volumes that venues and studios have been demanding these past couple of decades. The thing is, while the Power Station performs attenuation duties extremely well, it isn’t built as a traditional power attenuator at all, and will do so much more than that once its full capabilities are understood. The first I’d heard of the promised 100-watt unit’s availability was in a conversation with amp maker Dave Friedman. He had added one to a custom rig he was making for Jimmy Kimmel Live! guitarist Toshi Yanagi, the results of which prompted Friedman to text designer Steve Fryette…

HANDMADE IN GERMANY, and the brainchild of Dr. Henning Vahlbruch, the Kaluna is a tube-powered overdrive pedal that uses a 12AX7 operating at 250 volts, and features drive and volume controls along with a post-tube three-band active EQ that provides 12dB of boost and cut. A power supply is not included, but any standard nine-volt unit that has a minimum output of 500mA will work. The unit looks nice with its metallic-gold aluminum enclosure (which measures roughly 4.5 by 3.5 inches), black retro-style knobs and slots for venting heat from the tube. The workmanship is top notch. The potentiometers are mounted to both the chassis and a glass-epoxy board that holds most of the circuit components. The 12AX7 resides in a socket on a small separate board, making it easy…