Innehållsförteckning för November 2023 från Guitar Player

MUSICAL VIRTUOSITY IS a theme we can never explore enough in these pages. This month we speak with three virtuoso guitarists, each from a different generation, who ply their talents in uncommon ways within their respective genres. Brian Setzer remains one of the most audacious and talented guitarists of the past 40 years. When he arrived on the U.S. scene with the Stray Cats in the early 1980s, his rockabilly revivalism in the era of punk and new wave got more press than his fearsome guitar chops. The shift came over the next two decades as he pursued a solo career in the mid to late 1980s before bursting out of the gate with the Brian Setzer Orchestra in the 1990s. His big band’s success was astounding, not the least because…

WHEN I PUT on Noel Boggs’ Magic Steel Guitar, I feel content and where I’m supposed to be. It has no chest-pumping phrases, no jaw-dropping, lightning-fast virtuosity. But it’s a mature ensemble work and a well-played record featuring craftsmanship. That’s not to say Boggs doesn’t speak through his instrument, or that his guitarist Neil LeVang isn’t absolutely superb. But I think it’s obvious the goal of these musicians was not to knock us over and kick our asses; I think it was more their intention to give us a kiss on the forehead. I dare say, we can all use a kiss on the forehead now and then. Boggs was born in Oklahoma City in 1917 and started playing lap steel while in junior high. Within the short span of…

Brian Setzer is, as he once sang with the Stray Cats, built for speed. And you have to keep the pedal down just to keep up with him — especially when it comes to his music. OVER THE PAST nearly 50 years — primarily with the Stray Cats and on his own — Setzer has puzzled and confounded listeners and been a master of doing what you’d least expect. Just sporting a pompadour and playing rockabilly during the AOR- and punk-dominated late ’70s would have been nonconformist enough, but Setzer, now 64, has made a career out of keeping us guessing — and pleasing us far more often than not. Born in Massapequa on Long Island, Setzer started out playing the euphonium in his school’s jazz bands. He could be…

IN THE 1980S, the Stray Cats, led by Long Island, New York–native Brian Setzer, were something of a time machine, transporting audiences to the bygone era of the 1950s, with its heyday of Sun Records legends like Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. On their 1982 album Built for Speed, the band fused early rock and roll and rockabilly with more modern elements of punk music, quickly finding a place in a pop landscape that from the outside might have seemed a tad unwelcoming. After all, that year saw the release of seminal albums like Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Prince’s 1999 and Roxy Music’s Avalon. But with songs like “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut,” and their complementary videos in constant rotation on the burgeoning cable channel MTV, the…

THERE ARE TEISCOS, and then there are Teiscos. The 1968 May Queen shown here is definitely in the latter category. Made for just one year, it’s one of the rarest and most sought-after Japanese-made Teiscos, and with good reason: It’s a proper guitar, not a knock-off made for department stores. While the name May Queen brings to mind a certain British band and its celebrated guitarist, this model predates them both by some four or five years. In fact, the name refers to the young girl who leads the parade celebrating May Day, a mostly British holiday marking the start of spring and/or summer. WEIRDO FACTOR The shape is something akin to an artist’s palette, or like a cross between a Vox teardrop and a Rickenbacker 360. Speaking of Vox,…

KIRK HAMMETT’S wiry, wah‑scorched lead tones have been a core component of Metallica’s sound since the band reshaped the landscape of metal in the early ’80s. Now 60 years of age, Kirk’s youthful looks mask the fact that he’s been at the sharp end of one of the world’s biggest acts for 40 years, after he replaced Dave Mustaine in the band in spring 1983. And although Metallica’s juggernaut touring and recording schedule has made extraordinary demands on the band’s members, four decades of music making have also left Hammett with enough room to reflect on and evolve his sound far more than some might know. You might think, for example, that he still builds his sound primarily around active pickups. But as our free-ranging conversation with the guitarist reveals,…

SELWYN BIRCHWOOD CAN recall exactly when he committed himself to the blues. “When I first heard Jimi Hendrix as a kid, it sounded to me like I was hearing music from another galaxy,” the Florida-based guitarist/vocalist/lap-steel player explains. “I started reading a biography about him to find out what possessed someone to make sounds like that, and it was there I first came across the name Buddy Guy. Coincidentally, Buddy happened to be playing in town that same week, so I bought a ticket, not knowing what to expect. “Now, anyone who’s seen Buddy live knows what an incredible showman he is, and it was then and there I said to myself, Whatever this music is, this is what I want to learn, and this is what I want to…

BEAUTY MAY BE no more than skin deep, but that radiant, thin layer of paint on a Fender guitar that was sprayed at the factory in one of the official custom-color finishes of the late 1950s and ’60s adds a level of desirability that runs right through the instrument. Not only does the look of a custom color appeal to many players and collectors, but the presence of this alternative finish — when original — adds considerable value to any vintage Fender that carries it. And yet the concept of custom colors came along pretty casually at Fender. It was little more than a brief, almost throwaway mention at the bottom of Fender’s 1956 sales sheet for the Stratocaster, which was then still relatively new: “Stratocaster guitars are available in Du-Pont…

FEW GROUPS THAT formed in 1969 are still going strong with their founding members intact. Hot Tuna are an exception. Aside from a hiatus from 1978 to 1985, the band has been an ongoing collaboration between guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady. Through all that time, they’ve been a hybrid act of sorts, performing in both electric and unplugged formats for their devoted fan base. But this fall’s 14-date tour will be the group’s last time on the road playing electric. Beginning next year, the band’s shows will be acoustic only. While no one is coming right out and saying it, those quieter, seated unplugged appearances are likely more to Kaukonen and Casady’s liking, now that they are, respectively, 82 and 79. For that matter, Hot Tuna’s electric days are…

FEW GUITARS COME with such a historic and evocative backstory as this one. Pretty much whatever your age or taste in music, at least one if not all of the players involved — Peter Green, Gary Moore, Kirk Hammett and let’s not forget Les Paul himself — will be on your playlist. The appeal, the blanket publicity and the social media buzz mean that this guitar is a more than significant introduction. But what do we actually get for just shy of $3,200? It seems like a modded Les Paul Standard ’50s, the cornerstone of the Original Series, which has remained unchanged since its introduction, under Gibson’s new ownership, in late 2019. But thanks to its satin nitro finish, it’s actually based on the Faded version that appeared last year.…

JOHN McLAUGHLIN’S steel-string work in Shakti is some of the all-time most astonishing acoustic virtuosity, right alongside his hugely influential nylon-string playing with Paco de Lucia and Al Di Meola in the Guitar Trio. McLaughlin and tabla master Zakir Hussain are celebrating a half century since joining worlds as Shakti by releasing This Moment (Abstract Logix), the group’s first new studio album in 46 years, and going on tour. To that end, on September 9 at Davies Symphony Hall, Guitar Player Presents helped SFJAZZ welcome McLaughlin back to San Francisco, where he has a storied history. The City by the Bay was the site of McLaughlin’s latest live album, 2018’s Live in San Francisco as well as the Guitar Trio’s celebrated Friday Night in San Francisco album, recorded in late…

PRS’S EXPANDING SERIES of artist guitars now includes an instrument created for Myles Kennedy, guitarist/vocalist/songwriter for Alter Bridge and Slash and the Conspirators. This signature model is a bit different for PRS, as it features a Tele-esque flattop body made of swamp ash, and a bolt-on, scarfed-construction maple neck that’s carved to Kennedy’s own custom shape. The 25 ½ inch–scale maple fretboard has Birds inlays and carries 22 well-groomed medium frets. The strings run across a smooth bone nut on their way to a set of nickel-plated vintage-style tuners, and at the opposite end there’s a top-loading PRS plate bridge with two large brass saddles that carry three strings apiece. Each round saddle is adjustable for height via a recessed set screw at each end, while intonation adjustments are made…

THE NEW HIFI active acoustic bridge-plate pickup system could represent a sea change, both at Baggs and throughout the industry. It’s different from traditional systems, such as the venerable Baggs Element, which use an undersaddle piezo pickup. In the HiFi system, a pair of transducers adhere non-invasively under the bridge plate, while a high-fidelity preamp sculpts the output signal. The design delivers a balance of string and body energy for a holistic tone that fully represents the unique qualities of a particular acoustic. According to Baggs, the HiFi is the next-level version of the company’s iBeam active bridge-plate pickup system, as well as a response to a challenge thrown down about a quarter century ago by Lloyd Baggs’ friend Jackson Browne, a notorious tone chaser. HiFi’s installation is not particularly…