Innehållsförteckning för July 2021 från Guitar Player

FOUNDED IN 1 995 by guitar maker Juha Ruokangas, the Finland-based company that bears his name handcrafts astonishing instruments that are built by a small team of highly skilled people. There are seven basic models in the Ruokangas line, which includes the Duke Classic (the Duke series also features the Artisan and Supersonic models), spotlighted here as equipped with the optional tube-powered Valvebucker pickup. I was initially turned on to the Valvebucker by Sonny Landreth, who said the sound of this unique pickup that he experienced on a Ruokangas Mojo guitar had such uncanny transparency and note detail that it sounded like it was running through a vintage Neve console pre and EQ. Intrigued by Sonny’s comments, and with his assistance, we eventually obtained a review sample from Ruokangas. Removed…

I DISCOVERED THE music of Trio Matamoros at a record store a few doors down from my place in Brooklyn. I walked past the shop many times but resisted going in because the window displayed LPs one could find at any suburban garage sale. The owner, who ran the place for five decades, showed up like clockwork every day, wearing a suit and tie, and with dyed, pitch-black hair. I love Brooklyn. When I finally wandered into the store one day, the owner looked me up and down and showed me a Barbara Streisand LP. I shook my head, no. Despite the language barrier, I asked him for old Latin music. “Old,” I said, “old. Viejo!” Out of nowhere, he pulled a Trio Matamoros LP. I got a good feeling…

LIVE GIGS ARE suddenly coming back, and lots of players who’ve stripped down their sound during the pandemic are seeking ways to translate it faithfully to the stage. Last month we looked at saddling up an acoustic workhorse. This month, we’ll talk about how to assemble a stage-worthy signal chain. The rig can be as simple as a direct box or as complicated as NASA’s Mars Perseverance Mission. Your own dedicated acoustic amplifier is the most reliable companion, but let’s back burner it for the sake of this discussion, since it represents the end of the signal chain, and you may not be able to use it for every gig. It all starts with a pickup, and since we addressed the pros and cons of piezos and magnetics in the…

HAVING PUT ITS elaborate headstock on a range of creative solidbody offerings in recent years, as well as a large selection of semi- and fully hollowbody electrics, the revived D’Angelico brand has reimagined a classic from the glory days of its namesake, John D’Angelico, in the new Excel 59. The flat front view might imply a period-correct take on the legendary New York archtop maker’s cornerstone Excel model of the late ’50s — something already available in the existing Excel EXL-1 model — but a thinline (though still fully hollow) body and other contemporary features help to make it a more timeless creation, and likely broaden its appeal for the contemporary player. Although the Excel 59 looks and feels pretty big, its 16-inch-wide body is a couple inches smaller than…

May Showers Thanks for the gracious nod to Brian May, one of the finest and most gentlemanly guitarists to grace rock and roll for perhaps ever [May 2021]. The interview was entertaining and informative. I had no idea Queen had toured with Mott the Hoople — of all bands! But what I found most enlightening was the article on “10 Queen Songs You Never Hear on the Radio — But Should.” I would add “Long Away,” from A Day at the Races. Brian not only wrote it but sings it too. It’s catchy and sweet and should have been a hit. Brian himself said it’s one of the songs he’d like to be remembered for, and for good reason. It’s a hidden gem! —STEPHEN SPE CKLER I have been reading…

THE GREAT PERSIAN philosopher Rumi once spoke of a metaphorical field beyond notions of right and wrong where the soul would be fulfilled beyond words. If such a place had a soundtrack, it could very well be Anomalia (Cherry Red Records), the imaginative new album by Jane Getter Premonition. Anomalia is a phantasmagoric trip that twists and turns between King Crimson–esque sturm und drang, heavy funk, psychedelic blues, lyrical anti-folk and melodic pop rock. At its center are Getter’s formidable talents as a guitarist, composer and vocalist. Joining her for the ride are keyboardist Adam Holzman, second guitarist Alex Skolnick, bassists Stu Hamm and Mark Egan, and drummers Chad Wackerman and Gene Lane. What were the challenges of making an album during a global pandemic? I essentially work with two…

“IMPROVISATION IS THOUGHT of as something you can’t cultivate,” Julian Lage says. “And yet anyone who’s an improviser and thinks of themselves that way understands that improvisation is one of the strictest musical territories.” With that in mind, Lage sat down with Guitar Player to share a few great tips for incorporating improvisation into your playing. STRATEGIZE BEFORE YOU MOBILIZE “As a piece of advice, understand that you have permission to strategize as an improviser. And that doesn’t necessarily mean working up a solo ahead of time. [Famed jazz vibraphonist and composer] Gary Burton used to talk about this: If someone says, ‘Take a solo,’ you’re allowed to decide how you want it to go. For instance, you can decide how many choruses you’re going to play. You don’t have…

HAVING FORGED A stellar reputation in the world of plug-in software, Finnish developer Neural DSP announced its move into amp-modeling hardware more than a year ago, eliciting excitement from a world already enthralled by the works of Fractal, Line 6, Kemper, Atomic and other amp emulators. Units of the long-awaited Quad Cortex Floor Modeler finally started shipping a few months ago and are just coming to market at the time of writing. On paper, this excitement was totally warranted, given the Quad Cortex’s promise as “the most powerful floor modeler on the planet.” That boast encompasses 2GHz of six-core SHARC- and ARM-based processing; more than 50 amps, 70-plus effects and over 1,000 IRs; 256 factory presets and up to 2,560 user preset slots; amp, cab and pedal-capture capabilities; comprehensive touch-screen…

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IN ADDITION TO his two-decade run as a member of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Ricky Byrd has played guitar alongside a list of music legends that includes Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Ringo Starr, Alice Cooper, Ian Hunter, Smokey Robinson and Mavis Staples. When asked if he’s got a cool rock-and-roll story, he comes up with a beauty. “I was playing a benefit at Carnegie Hall with Roger Daltrey,” he begins. “At the soundcheck, I said, ‘Rog, you’re going to swing the mic, right?’ He said, ‘Do you think I should?’ And I go, ‘I’ve been waiting for this moment for 20 years, man. Swing that mic!’ “So we’re doing the show, and during ‘Behind Blue Eyes,’ we get to the middle section and I hear this whizzing sound. I…

YOU KNOW A design is special when it attains “classic” status not just in its most iconic iteration but in several revamped versions. Such is the Fender Bassman. First introduced in 1952 as a 1x15 combo, the tweed Bassman hit its stride in the late ’50s as the narrow-panel 4x10 5F6A combo, which achieved major crossover success with six-stringers and became known as one of the greatest guitar amps of all time. By 1961, however, the Bassman had evolved beyond all recognition into an amplifier that was very different both inside and out. It was bigger, bolder and more accurately bass-intended. And it proved yet again to be another classic design for electric guitar. At the turn of that decade, Fender’s tweed combos evolved into two new lineups, both very…

ACCLAIMED FREELANCE RECORDING engineer and producer Hans-Martin Buff began his career working as a studio tech at Paisley Park in 1995. He summarily became Prince’s recording engineer and worked on the albums The Gold Experience, Chaos and Disorder, Emancipation, The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale and Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. “One of the reasons I got the gig with Prince is because I was young and I was hungry and I was kind of unformed,” Buff says. “And Prince had a specific way of working. It was always, ‘I have an idea that I want to put out. You help me capture it.’ And that’s kind of how it was. With a lot of people I work with these days, I offer sounds that help start the ideas for…

GUILD DROPPED BIG news at NAMM’s Believe in Music Week in the form of two baritones: the BT-240E and a fascinating eight-string model, the BT-258 on review here. Built on Guild’s bodacious jumbo body platform, they occupy a sonic range right between a bass and a standard acoustic. The BT-258 is especially interesting because it features octave string pairs in the third and fourth slots. In the virtual landscape of BIMW, where it was impossible to lay hands on the merchandise, its unique appeal prompted a request for a test sample. Was it really as cool as it seemed on the screen? The BT-258 arrived in a box that appeared a bit small for a jumbo, and the reason became apparent upon opening it. (The almost-too-nice price started to make…

FOR DECADES, ENGINEERS have used micro-pitch shifting to create detuned delays, chorusing, modulation and stereo widening. The effect began in the mid 1970s as an untended consequence of the then-new Eventide H910 Harmonizer, whose clocking mechanism would flicker between two pitch ratios. By placing two units in parallel, studio engineers found they could use the anomaly to achieve a rich stereo spread. The H910’s successor, the H949, had improved clocking and used techniques to produce more precise deviations in pitch, helping further establish micro-pitch shifting as a production tool. Eventide has now made the effect available in the MicroPitch Delay stomp box, and it’s a remarkably versatile tool. In essence, it’s a stereo delay with controls to independently adjust pitch for the left and right channels, as well as pitch…

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES HAS made uncommon reverbs a specialty of its extensive pedal line. Yes, you can opt for an amp-like spring reverb with the company’s Ghost Echo, or hi-fidelity digital delay and reverb with the Dispatch Maker. But I’ve also been drawn to EQD pedals like Afterneath, which uses a multitude of short digital delays to create everything from scattered, rhythmic echoes to cavernous reverbs with multiple reflections, and Levitation, which lets you regenerate the higher frequencies of the trails to create harmonic ringing reverbs. Astral Destiny is the latest reverb pedal in the company’s line. It serves up eight types of ambience, some with, and some without, octave effects. As you might guess from the name, these are big-sounding reverbs, with chorus modulation that can make them sound ethereal…