Innehållsförteckning för April 2020 från Guitar World

WELL, ANOTHER WINTER NAMM Show has come and gone. Although I’ve been at Guitar World since 2011, I actually attended my first NAMM Show in 2010, back when I was a “civilian,” a wide-eyed East Coast guitarist who was so incredibly happy to be staring at miles and miles of shiny new gear for three glorious days in sunny Southern California. At some point that weekend, Adrian Belew — he of Frank Zappa, Talking Heads, King Crimson and Twang Bar King fame — was suddenly walking in my general direction in Hall D, so I had my girlfriend take our photo together. It was my first-ever “NAMM Show celebrity sighting.” The weird thing is, this past January 15, exactly 10 years to the day that Belew walked on the down…

Katina St. Onge AGE: 20 LOCATION: Montreal, Canada GUITARS: Fender Squire SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: Journey, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Mötley Crüe “Kickstart My Heart,” Bon Jovi “Wanted Dead or Alive,” Kiss “Firehouse” GEAR I WANT MOST: Fender Sienna Sunburst Stratocaster, EVH signature guitar Jack St. Onge AGE: 14 LOCATION: Montreal, Canada GUITARS: Fender Squire Mustang, Ibanez JEM Junior SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Lithium,” Van Halen “Eruption,” The Beatles “Come Together,” Queen “We Will Rock You” GEAR I WANT MOST: Gibson Les Paul (Ace Frehley Signature), EVH signature guitar Damiano Christian AGE: 20 HOMETOWN: Middletown, CT GUITARS: Bolt prototype “Jerk in the Box” (pictured), Custom Shop Gibson Les Paul Custom, Warmoth guitars, GMW Randy Rhoads Polka Dot V SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: Randy Rhoads/Ozzy “Revelation…

LAST SUMMER THE Darkness, Britain’s favorite riff-slinging, Seventies-rock-worshipping sons, found themselves onstage in some of the biggest venues in the U.K., opening a series of dates for, of all people, Ed Sheeran. As for how they felt they went over as the support act for the acoustic pop phenom? “I enjoyed the opportunity to delight, beguile and offend,” says Darkness singer and guitarist Justin Hawkins. “Any sort of reaction was a bonus, because it was just apathy at the beginning of our sets.” “The crowd started off with their fingers in their ears,” acknowledges guitarist and younger brother to Justin, Dan Hawkins. “But by the end they had their hands in the air. It was a massive success, actually.” “The crowd started off with their fingers in their ears, but…

JÄGER VOLANT GUITARIST Ronnie Day is on a mission. “We’re trying to do smart rock,” he says. “I think that’s the antidote to the dumbed-down, lowest-common-denominator music that’s pretty much all you can hear on the radio. Rock is having a really hard time in the States. Pop is so dominant.” Some of that smart rock can be found on Furthermore, the debut album by the international foursome who met online — and decided to form a band — after hearing each other’s music on Kompoz.com. According to the site, Kompoz lets musicians “crowdsource songs with a bass player in Stockholm, a drummer in Nashville and a guitar player in Kalamazoo.” In reality, Jäger Volant bassist Markus Brunner lives in Germany, drummer Alex Zulaika lives in Spain, vocalist Matthew Villeneuve…

TONY IOMMI HAS SPENT THE LAST half-century conjuring the loudest, heaviest, most evil-sounding racket known to man and beast. But even he can still be stunned into silence every now and then. Take, for instance, the moment when the 71-year-old guitarist first laid eyes on his new Gibson model, a note-perfect replica of the cherry red 1964 SG Special (affectionately known as “the Monkey” due to a sticker on its body of a cartoon primate playing a fiddle) that was his primary instrument on the first five Black Sabbath albums — a clutch of records that, together, form something of the ur-text of heavy metal as we know it today. “I was amazed when I saw it,” Iommi tells Guitar World. “I went, ‘My god!’ It just shocked me.” The…

IF “1970 IN Beatles history” conjures mental images of a miserable-looking John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr sitting around playing “The Long and Winding Road” in a dark, depressing studio, you’re missing out, my friends. First of all, all those long faces seen in the band’s 1970 film, Let It Be, were filmed in early 1969. During the bulk of ’70, all four Beatles were diving head first into their brand-new solo careers, and it was an exciting, fun time for all involved — fans included. That energy comes through in the dynamic guitar work of all three Beatles guitarists on their debut solo albums — and let’s not forget that Ringo was hangin’ with some serious pickers himself. Here are nine studio albums that explain exactly…

“I NEVER GET TO SLOW DOWN— AND I DON’T WANT TO.”—MARK TREMONTI It’s been roughly 16 years since Alter Bridge first rose from the ashes of Creed’s initial incineration, and in that time the group has proven itself to be nothing less than a continually dominant force in the modern rock world. Guitarist Mark Tremonti and singer/ guitarist Myles Kennedy, the creative duo at Alter Bridge’s helm, are among the most prolific musicians around, evidenced by the sheer volume of output between them in the past 16 years. With Alter Bridge, Tremonti and Kennedy have issued six studio albums, four live albums and a handful of box sets, EPs and assorted other goodies; Kennedy handled lead vocals for three Slash albums and issued his first solo album, The Year of…

STREET PRICES: Plasma Pedal, $299; Plasma Coil, $350 MANUFACTURER: Gamechanger Audio, gamechangeraudio.com The Xenon gas tube displays high-voltage electrical discharges as brilliant blue (Plasma Pedal) or dazzling yellow (Plasma Coil) lightning-like bolts. The Plasma Pedal features a Blend control that mixes the balance between the dry and distorted tones, with EQ selectable for distortion only or both. The Plasma Coil provides a six-position rotary switch for selecting voltage boost or a variety of dazzling octave up and/or octave down effects. The Plasma Coil’s second footswitch can be set to latch or momentary settings when toggling between the standard Plasma and boost/octave effects. THE BOTTOM LINE Gamerchanger Audio’s Plasma Pedal and Plasma Coil radically update the beloved fuzz effect with precise definition and bold, unusual textures that satisfy the needs of…

ERNIE BALL MUSIC Man’s artist signature models tend to be acclaimed by discerning players for their original, visionary designs. But although the company recently collaborated with Omar Rodriguez-López (At the Drive-In, Mars Volta, solo) on yet another bold new design, they all opted to name the guitar the Mariposa instead of the Omar Rodriguez-López model, most likely because they felt the instrument is strong enough to stand out on its own and doesn’t need a celebrity endorsement for players to take notice. FEATURES With its angular, offset body design, the Mariposa fits in with the modern aesthetics of Music Man’s Albert Lee and St. Vincent models. The body is very compact, featuring a very slim bass bout and an overall width that’s about an inch narrower than the St. Vincent,…

TAKE FIVE Major pentatonic scale positions and patterns ONE OF THE eternal questions guitar players ask themselves is, “What should I practice?” as well as “How much and often should I practice, and how do I best utilize every practice session?” There are, of course, a myriad of answers to these questions, each of which is best suited to the needs and goals of the individual player. But for any serious student of the guitar, a clear understanding of scale patterns will reap great benefits for every aspect of playing, and this is especially true in terms of developing one’s soloing abilities. The scale heard and utilized most commonly in rock and blues is minor pentatonic. Pentatonic means “five-tone.” In the key of E, the five notes of E minor…

“N.I.B.” Black Sabbath INCLUDED IN OUR transcription of “N.I.B.” is bassist Geezer Butler’s solo showcase, titled “Bassically” on the original U.S. version of the band’s self-titled debut album. (A later remastered version of the album includes this same track as the untitled outro to “Behind the Wall of Sleep.”) Butler bases just about every phrase in this solo on an elongated, two-octave fretboard pattern of the E minor pentatonic scale (E, G, A, B, D), using finger slides to seamlessly shift positions. Notice how the bassist takes a very aggressive, guitaristic approach and employs bluesy string bends, which make his licks sing. While Black Sabbath is often credited for inventing heavy metal, an often overlooked and crucial component of the band’s sound is Butler’s growling, heavier-than-death bass tone. While his…

SEND LETTERS TO: Sounding Board, Guitar World/Future, 347 W. 36th St., Suite 1700, New York, NY 10018 or GWSoundingBoard@futurenet.com. All subscription queries must be emailed to guitarworldmag@icnfull.com. Please do not email the Sounding Board with subscription matters. Our Opeth Oops! As an Opeth fan, I’d like to be able to read the first paragraph of the story [February 2020]. Don’t tell me he was in an accident and that’s where his thought ended. —Bob [Editor’s note: Sorry about that, everyone! The missing info is, “As he sat at a red light, a thought rang through his mind. ‘What if we do the entire album in Swedish?’”] The Dating Game Isn’t it premature to be naming the Guitarists of the Decade [January 2020] when the decade is a year away from…

TIMO SOMERS IS enjoying one of the busiest years in the guitar galaxy, but you’d be forgiven for not realizing it. Over the course of a career that stretches back to the early 2000s, he’s made a name for himself as a consummate guitarist in the Dutch symphonic metal band Delain. In January he made a stop in Anaheim, California, to demo several brands at the 2020 NAMM Show; on February 7 Delain dropped a new album, Apocalypse and Chill (Napalm Records), and festival dates are on the horizon. That’d be enough to keep most musicians busy, but Somers also has a long-in-the-works solo album on his mind and a new album from Arrow Haze, a band he describes as “modern metal, like Periphery meets Pink Floyd.” Then there’s the…

THIS YEAR, THERE WAS CERTAINLY A TIP of the hat to the past in a number of reimagined classics, but there also was plenty of astonishing innovation in evidence around every corner. And while we can’t possibly cover every nook and cranny of the NAMM Show, here’s the gear that made the biggest impression on us. C. F. MARTIN & CO. SC-13E The Martin SC-13E is a new guitar with a brand-new body shape, designed from the ground up to have the comfort and playability of an electric and remove the limitations of a conventional cutaway acoustic-electric. The SC-13E features a revolutionary cutaway design that completely removes the heel, allowing full access to every fret without contorting your hand. Martin’s groundbreaking “Sure Align” neck system, with its linear dovetail neck…

In Order, Based on Worldwide Sales Diana Ross & the Supremes – Someday We’ll Be Together B. J. Thomas – Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head The Jackson 5 – I Want You Back Shocking Blue – Venus Sly & the Family Stone – Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) / Everybody Is a Star Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water The Beatles – Let It Be The Jackson 5 – ABC The Guess Who – American Woman / No Sugar Tonight Ray Stevens – Everything Is Beautiful The Beatles – The Long and Winding Road / For You Blue The Jackson 5 – The Love You Save Three Dog Night – Mama Told Me (Not to Come) The Carpenters – (They Long to Be) Close to…

THE FOOTAGE FROM the Let It Be sessions leaves no question as to the band’s gear choices during that time. George Harrison is often seen playing his custom-made rosewood Fender Telecaster (serial number 235594), which he later gave to Delaney Bramlett, and “Lucy,” the 1957 Gibson Les Paul Standard (refinished to cherry red) given to him by Eric Clapton and famously seen in the “Revolution” promo film. John Lennon is rarely seen without his stripped-down Epiphone Casino. Paul McCartney uses his 1963 Hofner 500/1 exclusively, although he can be seen playing his 1961 500/1 at Twickenham Film Studios (that model was stolen soon after filming — read on for the full story…), while his Rickenbacker 4001S was also present, but only as a backup. In terms of acoustic guitars, Harrison…

MARCUS KING IS NOT A BLUESMAN. HE MIGHT PLAY SOME BLUESY RIFFS and know his way around a fuzzed-out pentatonic solo — but Marcus King is definitely not a bluesman. Just ask him. “I never called myself a blues artist,” he says in his soft Southern drawl. “Any time you see it written down, it’s another man’s words. It’s because for me I think the authentic nature of the blues, only a few people truly hold that. I’m an admirer of the craft. Someone like Eric Clapton really holds the title because he’s such a reservationist to the music and he goes through his fair share of shit as well. Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Kimbrough, those are blues men to me, and I don’t hold a candle.…

STREET PRICE: $999.99 MANUFACTURER: Lâg Guitars, lagguitars.com The HyVibe system provides effects and looping heard via the guitar’s acoustic chamber and even converts the guitar into a Bluetooth speaker. The free HyVibe Mobile App allows users to modify effects, configure looper setting, record performances and more. THE BOTTOM LINE By combining revolutionary “smart guitar” technology with a killer affordable acoustic, the Lâg Tramontane HyVibe THV10DCE greatly expands sonic and performance capabilities for acoustic guitarists in the modern age.…

STREET PRICES: Mariposa, $2,899; Mariposa Deluxe, $2,999 MANUFACTURER: Ernie Ball Music Man, music-man.com Two custom-made Music Man humbucking pickups, each with its own volume control and no tone controls, provide perfectly outstanding body and clarity. The pickguard also features a highly detailed laser-etched floral design in individual color schemes that match whatever finish option you go for. THE BOTTOM LINE The Mariposa is a truly stunning addition to the Ernie Ball Music Man line, offering outstanding playing comfort and tone that is as original and distinctive as its visionary design.…

LATERAL MOVES How to get to where you want to go on your guitar IN THIS LESSON, I’d like to present some techniques that I have found to be very helpful in overcoming the challenges of moving around the fretboard freely and creatively in the quest for new and different sounds and the discovery of uncharted territory. In performing my dad’s music, I have had to figure out alternate ways to play specific passages, because at one tempo, you might play it one way, but at a different tempo you find it’s better to play it another way. This led me to learn how to approach and play scales in different ways, which in term has reaped additional benefits as an improvisational tool. Let’s start with a commonly used mode,…

THE 1984 FILM Purple Rain turned Prince into a superstar, although the accompanying album and the strength of the material within also played a big role in his ascension to new heights of fame. One of the most enduring songs from that album is the opening track, “Let’s Go Crazy,” which blended heavy guitar riffs with new wave synths and drum machines and a dose of funk to deliver a massive hit with irresistible crossover appeal. Prince recorded the basic tracks for “Let’s Go Crazy” live with his band the Revolution in an industrial warehouse rehearsal space that was converted into a makeshift recording studio for the sessions. While the instruments were both miked and recorded direct, there isn’t much separation between instruments, which, combined with a rather dense mix…

If you’ve created a drawing, painting or sketch of your favorite guitarist and would like to see it in an upcoming issue of Guitar World, email GWSoundingBoard@ futurenet.com with a scan of the image! Also, please let us know if you’d like us to share it on Instagram! With the 50th anniversary of the death of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones winding down, I thought I’d submit this excerpt from a comic strip I did about my mother watching as Brian met dance legend Rudolf Nureyev in London in 1967…

1 “Country Guitar” Phil Baugh Phil Baugh takes us effortlessly through the history of hillbilly guitar — on a double-neck Mosrite to boot! He’s relaxed as heck with music just pouring out of him! 2 “Tenderly” Luiz Bonfa Luiz’s rendition of this song, which was written by Walter Gross, is just so beautiful — and the range of sounds he produces on a nylon-string is demoralizing! 3 “Blue Bossa” Pat Martino Pat Martino takes flight through this standard by Kenny Dorham. There are weaving lines and amazing syncopation at a ferocious tempo. 4 “Love and Peace” Duke Levine Duke Levine is the man! Talk about beautiful, slinky, tone-to-die-for, loungy, soulful and bluesy guitar on such a beautiful tune. Whoa! 5 “Feels Like a Good Thing”…

THE 19-YEAR-OLD country music star-in-the-making co-wrote all the songs on his new EP (Payton Smith EP). He also plays every guitar part on the disc, which let him show off his innate ability to nail a memorable lead line. It seems you’re primed to clean up with the teen country market. Any thoughts on that? I want to win the girls, their boyfriends and then their parents and grandparents, If I can. I want my music to appeal to everyone, all age markets. What’s great about country is that it covers so many styles, so there’s something for everyone to like. Your EP perfectly encapsulates two main strands of modern country; “92” and “Can’t Go Wrong with That” channel the roadhouse feel of ZZ Top meets Hank Williams, while the…

1. John Lennon forms a band that becomes the Quarrymen in March 1957 in Liverpool, England. Paul McCartney joins in July. 2. George Harrison joins the Quarrymen in February 1958. 3. The Quarrymen change their name to the Silver Beetles in 1960, and Pete Best is hired as their drummer that August. They also change their name to the Beatles soon after. 4. The Beatles make Brian Epstein their manager in January 1962. 5. They sign a recording contract with EMI's Parlophone Records in June 1962. George Martin is their producer. 6. Ringo Starr joins the band as their drummer in August 1962 after Best is fired. 7. Their first single, the McCartney-led "Love Me Do," is released in October 1962. 8. The Beatles first appear on the Ed Sullivan…

John and Yoko ended the year with a one-two punch of rough-around-the-edges albums recorded at the same time with the same band; Lennon is the only guitarist in the vicinity and Ringo is the drummer (Of course he is! He appears on eight of the nine albums on this list). For Lennon’s most avant-garde guitar playing, look no further than “Why” and “Touch Me” from the Yoko disc; for a continuation of Lennon’s “I’m gonna sing along with these pentatonic licks as I play them on my guitar” approach heard on Abbey Road’s “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” check out “Well Well Well” and “I Found Out” from the John disc. Perhaps coolest of all, however, is the acoustic gem “Look at Me,” which sounds like a younger sister…

THE FUZZ BOX was one of the very first effect pedals created for the electric guitar, with a history reaching back more than 55 years. Over the years, pedal designers have used various means to generate the distinctive heavily saturated and compressed square wave clipping known as fuzz, including germanium and silicon transistors, tubes, LEDs and even digital modeling. With their new Plasma pedals, Gamechanger Audio has innovated the most radical, new extremes — both in circuitry and sound — to come along since the first fuzz box was introduced. The technology combines a step-up flyback transformer, a Xenon gas tube and an antenna to convert a guitar’s signal to extremely high voltage impulses (up to 3,500 volts) and transform electrical energy into an audio signal. The end result is…

STREET PRICE: $999.99 MANUFACTURER: Fender, fender.com A rear panel output power selector offers the full 85 watts of power and five attenuated settings (1W, 5W, 12W, 22W and 40W) for the stage, studio or bedroom. Going direct live or into a DAW is as easy as tapping into the rear balanced XLR line output with level control, and using the three-way cabinet simulation switch with impulse responses (IR) for dynamic and ribbon mics, and a flat setting. THE BOTTOM LINE The Fender Tone Master Twin Reverb is an astounding achievement for a digital amp that faithfully replicates the same sonic complexity, feel and look of the renowned Twin Reverb.…

I GOT RHYTHM, PART 2 Rests and ties LAST TIME, WE began studying rhythm fundamentals and learned how to count beats in 4/4 meter, also known as “four-four time,” by counting “1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4,” etc., with an emphasis on “1,” which is considered the downbeat of each bar, or measure, of music. As you recall, I explained how a bar of 4/4 is like the fraction 4/4, in that it can comprise any of the following equivalent rhythmic values: • one whole note, which is played on beat one and held for all four beats, • two half notes (picture “cell division” under a microscope), each of which is held for only two beats (played on beats one and three), • four quarter notes (cell…

FROM BACH TO DJANGO The traditionally popular and widely used harmonic minor scale IN THIS LESSON, I’d like to focus on a scale that is widely used in classical music, gypsy jazz and other styles — harmonic minor. The degrees of the harmonic minor scale are 1(root), 2, 3 (flatted 3rd), 4, 5, 6 (flatted the 6th) notes and 7 are (major A, B, 7 C th , ) D . , In E, the F, G key # . Harmonic of A minor, minor is very similar to the natural minor scale, also known as the pure minor scale and the Aeolian mode differing by only one note: in the latter, the 7th is flatted ( 7), which in the key of A minor would give us G instead…

GUITAR: Late-Seventies Hohner/ H.S. Anderson MadCat with maple neck, Strat-style pickups and Stratstyle bridge (bridge pickup), Volume: 10, Tone: 10 AMP: 1981 Mesa Boogie Mark IIB (Volume 1: 7 with Pull Bright, Treble: 7, Bass: 4, Middle: 5, Master 1: 8, Presence: 6, Full Power) into two Bag End Q12 4x12 cabinets with JBL D120F speakers EFFECTS: Colorsound Wah, Boss DS-1 (Tone: 6, Level: 7, Distortion: 9), Boss OC-2 Octaver (Oct 2: 10, Direct Level: 7, Oct 1: 6.5), Boss BF-2 Flanger (Manual: 9, Depth: 9, Rate: 3, Res: 10) STRINGS/TUNING: GHS Boomers Medium .011-.050/Standard PICK/SLIDE: Regular celluloid medium…