Innehållsförteckning för October 2020 från Guitar World

THREE OR FOUR years ago, Jeff Kitts, the previous editor-in-chief of GW, wrote a Woodshed column that asked readers to share their unusual, offbeat, original, guitar-centric story ideas. You know, stuff other than, “Why don’t you do a 4,700-page story on Frank Marino?” I was the managing editor back then, and I remember we received plenty of impressive, interesting, “Dammit — why didn’t we think of that?!? ideas, many of which became features in Guitar World (Sadly, the only ones that come to mind at the moment are a guide to the different kinds of pickups and something about the debate over “to relic or not to relic?”). Anyway, three or four years is a very long time indeed, so I’m hereby making the same request. Is there anything you’d…

FENDER’S LEAD SERIES guitars are the most underrated instruments of the company’s CBS era, if not its entire history. Consisting of the single-humbucker Lead I and dual-single-coil Lead II produced from 1979-1982, later joined by the dual-humbucker Lead III produced in 1982 only, the Lead series was designed by the ace team of Gregg Wilson, John Page and Freddie Tavares, while the powerful ceramic humbucker was designed by pickup legend Seth Lover. Despite being a short-lived, medium-priced model, Lead series guitars were embraced by numerous pros like Steve Morse (most notably on “Punk Sandwich” with the Dixie Dregs) and Elliot Easton, who played various Lead guitars on the Cars’ Panorama and Shake It Up albums (including the solo to “Touch and Go”). Bono played one on U2’s breakthrough Live at…

STREET PRICE: $1,049.99 MANUFACTURER: Charvel, charvel.com •The guitar’s triple single-coil pickup configuration includes a reverse-slanted Seymour Duncan Custom Hot Rail and two Seymour Duncan Custom Flat Strat SSL-6’s for a wide tonal range of brawny snarl and glassy cleans. •The “Shredder’s cut heel,” combined with a gracefully scalloped lower back bout, allows for unimpeded reach to the upper frets. THE BOTTOM LINE: •The Charvel Pro-Mod DK22 SSS 2PT CM is an awe-inspiring example of a superstrat with universal appeal that will empower you to push the boundaries of your playing.…

STREET PRICE: Starting at $89 MANUFACTURER: Distributed in North America by ILIO, Overloud.com •The Amp Tweaks feature allows users to swap preamp tubes or diodes, power amp tubes or types (solid-state, Class A/AB) and adjust Variac voltage. •The new Rig Player provides access to complete rig models available from an impressive variety of optional Rig Library packages. •THE BOTTOM LINE Between the provided models, the modification capabilities of the Amp Tweaks feature and the impressive library of tones in the optional Rig Library, it’s hard to think of an amp tone that TH-U Full can’t replicate.…

Nobody expects the Metal Inquisition! I didn’t expect a Metal Inquisition [jarring chord]. Nobody expects the Metal Inquisition. Our chief weapon is riffs… riffs and power chords… power chords and riffs. Our two weapons are riffs, power chords… and pointy guitars… our three weapons are riffs, power chords and pointy guitars… and an almost fanatical devotion to Marshall amps. Our four… no… Amongst our weaponry… are such diverse elements as riffs, power chords… I’ll come in again. —David Pickering Long-time subscriber; I still consider you guys and girls the best guitar magazine ever. One thing I noticed in the issue I received today [August 2020]: The interview with Dave Mustaine, Mark Morton, Matt Heafy and Björn Gelotte makes reference to the Clash of the Titans tour being roughly 20 years…

1 “This Godless Endeavor” Nevermore Aggressive heavy riffing? Check. Melody and emotion? Check. Extreme shred? Double check! (AK) 2 “Angels and Demons” Angra Kiko [Loureiro] and Rafael [Bittencourt] showed me how far power metal could go beyond the traditional chord progressions and sounds. (AK) The songwriting and musicianship on Temple of Shadows is bar none, and the guitar solos and bridge sections are out of this world. (GT) 3 “Night Marauders” 3 Inches of Blood One of my very first concerts was seeing 3 Inches of Blood on Vancouver Island. I was 12 and crammed front row into a youth center up in Courtenay, BC. Two decades later, 3IOB is still one of my all-time favorite bands. (GT) 4 “Fives” Guthrie Govan This song took me…

1. To minimize the pitch-sharpening effect that can occur when deploying a spring-loaded capo, especially on an electric guitar and/or at higher fretboard positions, firmly press down the “blade” side of your pick hand across the strings over your guitar’s pickups or sound hole as you deploy the capo on the neck with your fret hand. Doing this “isometric karate chop” while placing the capo will help take up any slack in the strings and even out the tension in front of and behind the capo as it clamps onto and grips the strings, resulting in truer intonation and less “capo weirdness.” 2. Just as you would do when fretting strings normally with your fingers, when deploying the capo, leave a little space, or gap, between it and the fret…

STREET PRICE: $599.99 MANUFACTURER: Fender, fender.com The Lead II features a brace of Player Series Alnico 5 Strat pickups and a three-way pickup toggle, plus a two-way phase switch. The Lead III features a pair of Player Series Alnico 2 Humbucking pickups and a three-way pickup toggle, plus a three-way bridge split/humbucking/ neck split switch. Both models feature necks with modern dimensions, including a 9.5-inch radius, 1.65-inch nut width, modern “C” profile and 22 medium jumbo frets. Each model is available with a choice of three finish options, including the vivid Neon Green Lead II and dazzling Purple Metallic Lead III. THE BOTTOM LINE: With their irresistible combination of affordability, tonal versatility and outstanding playability and construction, Fender’s new Lead models should inspire today’s generation even more than the original…

SOONER OR LATER, I believe you’re going to be seeing a lot more power amp pedals. Nearly every guitarist I know relies on multiple stompboxes or modeling/effects-processing floorboards as their main guitar rig, and at this point you’d be foolish not to have one of these compact power amps as the last part of your signal chain on a pedalboard. In the rare occurrence that your favorite amplifier fails you, at least you’d have this as a backup. However, in the interest of downsizing and convenience, there are many players who already use a power amp pedal in their rigs. Carvin is one of the latest companies to throw their hat in the ring by introducing the MACH100 100W Stereo Pedal Amplifier, a 100-watt stereo two-channel pedal (50-watts per channel)…

I GOT RHYTHM, PART 8 Introducing 16th notes IN THE PAST few episodes of I Got Rhythm, we looked at a bunch of different examples of ways in which musicians will typically accentuate the eighth-note upbeats — those “and” counts between the beats — to produce a variety of interesting and dramatic syncopations in 4/4 meter. As we saw, this can add rhythmic flair to a groove or song and create an energetic feeling of forward motion. I’d now like to introduce you to a deeper level of rhythmic complexity, using what are called 16th notes, which involve dividing a bar of 4/4 into 16 units. In the same way that you can split, or subdivide, a quarter note in half to produce two eighth notes, you can likewise split…

THE 10TH POWER Crafting chord progressions using 10th intervals IN THIS COLUMN, I present the acoustic guitar part I recorded for the solo section of the song “After All,” featured on the latest Whitesnake album, Flesh and Blood. The rhythm parts of this song are performed on acoustic guitar utilizing finger-picking, with the thumb striking the lower strings and the index and middle fingers picking the notes on the higher strings, which are played in a syncopated rhythm. I’m not using a standard fingerpicking approach here. Instead, I created a fingerpicking pattern that accentuates a melodic line as sounded on the highest string for each chord in the progression. Most of the chord shapes used here begin with two-notes that are played together and form a 10th interval, which is…

WHEN BUDDY GUY recorded Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues in 1991, he had not been in a studio to record his own music for nearly a decade. Even though numerous guitar legends like Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Johnny Winter had praised him as a primary influence, Guy missed out on the Eighties blues revival, seeming content to slug it out on the club circuit or occasionally make guest appearances on bigger stages. With Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues, Silvertone Records and producer John Porter sought to finally earn Guy the acclaim he deserved with a proper “comeback” recording that showcased him at his finest. Appropriate for an electric blues guitarist with a classic Chicago pedigree, Guy used a bare-bones, stripped-down rig consisting of just…

Mike Palumbo AGE: 59 GUITARS: Slick SL57, Slick SL50, Mitchell Electric 400, Yamaha F325 acoustic, Estrella classical acoustic SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: John Lennon “#9 Dream,” Bob Dylan “Lay Down Your Weary Tune,” Jefferson Airplane “She Has Funny Cars,” Yes “Roundabout” GEAR I WANT MOST: Fender Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster, Martin acoustic, Mesa Boogie Lone Star Gordie O’Shea AGE: 47 HOMETOWN: Detroit, MI GUITARS: Homemade V, customized Epiphone Explorer, customized partscaster SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: Aerosmith “Train Kept a Rollin’,” Led Zeppelin “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” Metallica “Orion” GEAR I WANT MOST: Doubleneck Gibson SG, Vintage MXR Flanger Tatum Schoeppler AGE: 16 HOMETOWN: Mound, MN GUITARS: Jackson Soloist, Schecter Demon, Gibson Melody Maker, Fender Stratocaster, PRS Custom 24 SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: Poison “Talk Dirty to Me,” the Beatles “Helter…

I got my first real six-string… The first guitar I played was probably one of my dad’s. That was just what was around the house. I got my first guitar when I was 17, like my own guitar, and it might have been an acoustic Alvarez. I think I got the acoustic first and then I got my first electric when I was 17 or 18. One was an acoustic Alvarez and the other was a Strat, a hand-built one my dad picked up for Christmas. Still got the blues… It’s so much more about the player and the feeling that you are putting on. The form is what it is — it’s blues! And you can adjust it, change chord structures and everything, but to me that style of…

BORN IN 1984 in Austin, the musical heart of Texas, Gary Clark Jr. plays a lot more than just pure blues. Though he has performed alongside legends like Eric Clapton and B.B. King, the young guitarist’s musical style also reflects strong funk, soul and rock influences, which tastefully inform both his playing and singing style. When it comes to tone, the guitarist opts for a mix of Fender and Gibson-style guitars, which he plays through Fender amps with a small selection of pedals. For this lesson and its recorded examples, we’ve gone more with the fat Gibson hum-bucker tones than the brighter Fender single-coil sounds, but the licks presented herein also sound great with the latter. Just dial in a little more gain, mids and bass to fatten up the…

A LEX LIFESON. NEIL YOUNG. FRANK MARINO. JEFF HEALEY. CANADA HAS never had a shortage of guitar heroes. But for every six-stringer who braved the winter cold in their youth before going on to international fame and fortune, there are tons more who have settled for being beloved heroes at home. The average American might not know who Paul Langlois and Robbie Baker are, but every Canadian can sing the intro riffs to Tragically Hip classics like “Little Bones” or “New Orleans Is Sinking.” Over the past decade, Canada’s musical reputation has only grown — the world’s biggest pop star (Justin Bieber) and rapper (Drake) were both born and raised in the province of Ontario, as was the Weeknd. “ONE OF THE THINGS I’VE NOTICED WITH CANADIAN ARTISTS IN DIFFERENT…

SURE WRECKLESS ABANDON IS THE DEBUT ALBUM FROM THE Dirty Knobs, but the band, headed by Tom Petty and the Heart-breakers and Fleetwood Mac guitar great Mike Campbell, is hardly a new concern. Rather, they’ve existed for going on 15 years now; it just took a while for the four-piece — Campbell on guitar and vocals, Jason Sinay on guitar, Lance Morrison on bass and Matt Laug on drums — to find the time to cut a record. Explains Campbell, “The Knobs started out as a project to do between Heartbreakers tours. I met the guys very organically, and I didn’t really intend to audition a band, per se. But I had some songs and we just hit it off. I thought the music was really…

THERE EXISTS A world filled with a variety of hot rod guitars, metal shred machines and superstrats where the choices for acceleration and breakneck speed are boundless. But let’s say that — to accomplish such fleet-fingered odysseys — certain key features are necessary. Slim, fast-feeling necks with jumbo-style frets and overwound high-output pickups are essential, and a slick tremolo system will take your playing to dizzying heights of virtuosity. But do you gravitate toward a pointy guitar or groove on a more traditional body shape? My tastes tend to fall more for the latter, so when I was greeted by the sleek Charvel Pro-Mod DK22 SSS 2PT CM, a “modern classic” guitar on steroids, it immediately felt natural in my hands. Charvel has mostly stayed in their lane as the…

PHRASEOLOGY Fast-moving melodic phrases that chromatically ascend the fretboard A GREAT WAY to sharpen your pick- and fret-hand skills is to take a fast-moving lick and move it chromatically up the fretboard through rising positions and keys. The faster and more complex the lick, the more challenging it will be to recreate it perfectly in each new, higher position. The benefits of this exercise are many: first, crafting a solid, fast-moving lick that is both melodic and “flashy” will always come in handy when soloing; focusing on the details of the execution will improve pick-and fret-hand ability; if it’s a long phrase that moves across all of the strings, one can break it down into smaller pieces that fall on specific adjacent string groups. Additionally, when you break the lick…

CROSS PLAY How to crosspick and play “Wildwood Flower” I DISCOVERED THE flatpicking technique known as crosspicking when I was already a few years into learning how to play the guitar. What I like about crosspicking is that it enables you to fill out the sound of a chord around a melodic line. It’s also a more intricate and detailed way of playing through a chord progression, as compared to simply strumming through the chords, enabling the player to present the changes and the melody at the same time. Some of the guitar players that inspired my interest in crosspicking are Dave Rawlings, David Greer, Tony Rice, Clarence White, and many others. I would also include George Shuffler, who played with the Stanley Brothers and was one of the first…

GUITAR: 1988 Fender Custom Shop Eric Clapton Stratocaster with Lace Sensor Gold pickups (individual neck and bridge pickup settings used throughout), Volume: setting varies, but mostly at 10, TBX Tone: 7, Active Mid Boost: 2 AMPS: 1958 Fender Bassman (Presence: 12, Middle: 12, Bass: 2, Treble: 11, Vol. Bright: 10, Vol. Normal: 0, Bright 1 input) with four Jensen P10R alnico 10-inch speakers EFFECTS: none STRINGS/TUNING: Ernie Ball Power Slinky .011 - .048/Standard PICK: Jim Dunlop celluloid Triangle heavy…