Innehållsförteckning för September 2021 från Guitar World

AS I WROTE on page 41, we reached out to a lot of guitarists, asking them to choose the songs that feature George Harrison’s greatest Beatles-era guitar solos, riffs and more. At first, the results were a little disappointing; several artists declined to be involved, adding that they really didn’t know enough about the topic (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!). Some artists chose solo-era Harrison songs, which (frankly) didn’t help me at all or give me much hope for the finished product. Some artists even chose songs on which Paul McCartney or John Lennon played the guitar parts described in their answers. But, as you can see when reading the 14-page feature that starts on page 40, things turned around eventually, and we got some truly great answers…

IN HONOR OF THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF GEORGE HARRISON’S PASSING ON November 29, 2001, we wanted to present a guide to his greatest studio guitar moments with the Beatles. However, instead of simply listing our own choices or putting it to a vote on GuitarWorld.com, we went a completely different route: We asked a slew of respected professional guitarists (and other artists) to pick their favorites and, more importantly, to back up their choices. Fortunately, word got out about “the George project,” and that original slew grew and grew, even including musicians with very real connections to Harrison, including Robben Ford (who was in Harrison’s 1974 touring band), Steve Lukather, Bernie Marsden, Mike Campbell and Nita Strauss’ father — James Strauss, who with his band, Jiva, was signed to Harrison’s…

ALL THINGS MUST PASSIS THEWAR AND PEACEOF ROCK AND ROLL. It’s a lot to wade through, but the wade is well worth it. Like Tolstoy’s great novel, George Harrison’s massive 1970 triple album is an epic, monumental, somewhat daunting masterwork. It captures the irrevocable march of time (the passing of the Beatles and the swinging Sixties) with a profound sense of loss, resignation, renewal and an all-encompassing spiritual perspective based on universal love. While it wasn’t the very first rock triple album — the Woodstock soundtrack album came out six months earlier — All Things Must Pass was the first triple-disc rock studio album by a single artist, and an ex-Beatle at that. It would yield the first Number One hit by an ex-Beatle, the wistfully expansive “My Sweet Lord,”…

STREET PRICES: Epiphone ES-335, $549; Epiphone ES-339, $499 MANUFACTURER: Epihone, epiphone.com A pair of Alnico Classic Pro humbuckers provide harmonically rich tones with excellent definition and slightly higher output boost than vintage-voiced pickups. The ES-335’s body measures 16 inches across the lower bout while the ES-339’s body is proportionally two inches smaller, measuring 14 inches. Differences between the two models include Epiphone Deluxe tuners and a top-mounted output jack for the 335 compared to Grover Rotomatics and a side-mounted output jack for the 339. The ES-335 is available with a Cherry or Vintage Sunburst finish, while the 339 offers both, plus Pelham Blue or Natural options. THE BOTTOM LINE: Epiphone’s new ES-335 and ES-339 models allow guitarists to enjoy the original ES semihollowbody experience at an affordable price that doesn’t…

“THAT GREAT GRETSCH sound” has remained a beloved marketing slogan by Gretsch for several decades now. That “sound” previously encompassed everything from the rip-roaring twang of a full-size hollowbody with Filter’Tron humbuckers to the sizzling spank of a chambered Duo Jet with DeArmond/DynaSonic single-coils. However, in recent times, Gretsch has expanded the range of tones its instruments offer guitarists significantly enough that maybe the slogan should be changed to “Those great Gretsch sounds.” Several recent additions to Gretsch’s Streamliner collection are a great example of how Gretsch has expanded its tonal range without sacrificing the je ne sais quoi that makes a Gretsch a Gretsch. With its thinline semi-hollow body and pair of P90-style FideliSonic 90 single-coil pickups, the new Gretsch G2622-P90 Streamliner pushes beyond classic Gretsch parameters, offering a…

I GOT RHYTHM, PART 20 Sextuplets and 16th-note triplets SO FAR, IN our exploration triplet rhythms, we’ve learned about eighth-note triplets, which are three equally spaced notes per beat, and quarter-note triplets, which are three equally spaced notes spread out across two beats. To review, quarter-note triplets may be thought of as “half-time triplets,” as they’re half as fast as eighth-note triplets and have a staggered, slow-motion quality. We’re now going to venture in the opposite direction and dimension and learn about a smaller, faster subdivision called the sextuplet, and its nearly identical twin, the 16th-note triplet, which has the same rhythmic value and duration. Sextuplets and 16th-note triplets may be thought of as “double-time triplets,” as they’re both played twice as fast as eighth-note triplets, with six evenly spaced…

GYPSY MELODIES How to play the Jimi Hendrix-inspired tune, “Electric Gypsy” A SONG OF mine that is among the most requested at gigs and clinics is “Electric Gypsy,” which goes all the way back to my very first CD, Ear Ecstasy, from 1994. Over the years, I’ve seen a variety of people playing their renditions of the tune on YouTube and social media. I am very honored by that, and it is very humbling to see. This song is based primarily on single-note riffs that outline the underlying chord progression. In that way, the construction of the guitar part is more like a chord-melody approach. As you’ll see in the following examples, I utilize various pedal-tone approaches that serve to present the harmony — the relationship between the melody and…

“SCARLET” The Rolling Stones (featuring Jimmy Page) THIS RECENTLY UNEARTHED gem, recorded in 1974 and featured as a bonus track on the 2020 deluxe reissue of Goats Head Soup, presents a rollicking musical collaboration between the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, who graced the track with tasteful lead guitar licks that mesh beautifully with Keith Richards’ open G-tuned riffing. The result is a funky rock and roll affair that celebrates the swagger and overlapping stylistic signatures of these legendary musicians in their early 70s heyday. The recorded arrangement features a dense layering of numerous electric guitar parts, in both open G and standard tunings (Page, and probably Ronnie Wood too), plus an acoustic part (compliments of Mick Jagger) that makes a brief appearance during section F. For our…

1 Thin Lizzy, “Running Back” Something about the way they wrote riffs just sticks out. I’ve never heard more nostalgic-sounding guitar solos from any band. The riffs sound like someone singing to you at a campfire, but badass. 2 Tigercub, “Stop Beating on My Heart” The way this song builds into the heavy riff is insane. It starts out soft like a Hozier song, and then it smacks you like a Black Sabbath riff out of nowhere. Brilliant. 3 Suicide Silence, “Unanswered” This is still, in my opinion, the heaviest song ever made. The riff feels like a chainsaw ripping through your chest, and when I sit back and listen to it without moving, I always get chills.…

“We used to want everything to be overwhelming, and sometimes we shot ourselves in the foot” —HAMILTON JORDAN WHEN EXPERIMENTAL METAL band Genghis Tron decided to take a break after spending 18 months on the road promoting their last full-length studio album, Board Up the House, they never imagined it would be another decade before guitarist Hamilton Jordan and keyboardist Michael Sochynsky would start working on new music together again. Over the years the two musicians exchanged musical ideas over the internet, but their priorities were elsewhere. Both had gone to law school and joined firms, and Jordan moved first to California, then Detroit, leaving them little time to consider the future of Genghis Tron. Then in 2018, Jordan and his wife spent three days visiting Sochynsky and his family…

FIFTY YEARS AGO, George Harrison was basking in the afterglow of his late-1970 debut album, All Things Must Pass, which is still (in some circles) considered the greatest studio album by a former Beatle. But put yourself in George’s shoes. What do you do, now that ATMP’s three discs have claimed most of your best compositions, some of which you’d been squirreling away since 1966? Well, being George, you dive into the relatively stress-free business of playing guitar on other people’s records. (Of course, being George, you also dive into some seriously stressful business, namely organizing the Concert for Bangladesh that August). Harrison released only two songs in ’71 — “Bangla Desh” and “Deep Blue.” The rest of the year, he found himself in studios with two old Beatle buddies,…

IN THIS TECHNOLOGICAL age, guitarists are more likely to toggle between a Deluxe Reverb and a cranked Super Reverb from an amp-modeling processor than use the real thing. Thankfully, veteran boutique amp designer Steve Carr, who hand-builds extraordinary point-to-point wired tube amplifiers at his North Carolina workshop, will have none of this digital hogwash. Carr’s latest creation, the Super Bee, is a lightweight 10-watt all-tube combo with reverb and built-in attenuation. It features a novel rotary “Sting” switch that offers three curated Black-panel amp-voicings that range from glassy warmth to revved-up punch. Now, while I can’t say for sure that this is Carr’s response to modeling amps, I can tell you Carr has managed to nail high-powered “Fullerton-era” tube tone in a powerful low-wattage combo with a springy liveliness that…

STREET PRICE: $499.99 MANUFACTURER: Gretsch, gretschguitars.com The brand-new FideliSonic 90 single-coil pickups deliver snarling midrange and brilliant treble that’s more aggressive than typical Gretsch twang. The body features a chambered spruce center block and real f-holes to provide the ideal balance between full-bodied hollow tones and the feedback resistance of a solidbody. THE BOTTOM LINE: The Gretsch G2622-P90 is perfect for players who love the classic Gretsch look and feel but want a slightly different, hard rocking sound that stands out from the crowd.…

AROUND THE BENDS, PART 8 String-bending strategies with the E Mixolydian mode OVER THE COURSE of the last seven columns, we have taken a detailed look at a variety of string bending and finger vibrato techniques on the high E and B strings, with the focus on the E minor pentatonic scale and E Dorian mode. This month, we’ll shift our attention to string bending and vibrato techniques based on the E Mixolydian mode, played on the B string. Just as we had done previously, we’ll focus on each degree of the scale — E Mixolydian is spelled E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D — and utilize each of these notes as a pivot point or note of emphasis in a handful of musical phrases. There are seven different…

THE LATE DANNY KIRWAN WAS SO TALENTED that — when he was a mere 18 years old — he was invited to join Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac on the strength of his performances with a pub band, Boilerhouse. Danny immediately made the leap to playing on international concert stages, becoming a foil to Green and playing harmony guitars on Fleetwood Mac’s much-loved classic, “Albatross,” plus bringing his fiery and highly refined bend vibrato technique and love of different styles such as jazz to slightly lesser-known tracks like “Jigsaw Puzzle Blues.” Sadly, Kirwan — whose vocals and guitar playing would shape Fleetwood Mac’s early Seventies output, including Kiln House, Future Games and Bare Trees — died in June 2018 at age 68. Kirwan was a huge fan of Green’s playing before…

NO OTHER BAND has been examined under a microscope as meticulously as the Beatles. Detailed books have even been written focusing solely on the instruments they played and the gear used to make their recordings in the studio. But with all this exhaustive research, some details are still unknown. For example, historians may know what instruments were brought to and available for each recording session, but the exact guitars and amps used on many songs still remain purely the subject of speculation. Although many photos were taken of the Beatles working in the studio, only one video exists of them at work while recording. On February 11, 1968, the Beatles showed up at Abbey Road Studio Three to shoot footage for a promotional film for “Lady Madonna.” To make the…

“I’m a big believer in doubling guitar parts with a different amp and guitar; it’s not just a bigger sound — it gives so much more separation” JOURNEYMAN AXE-SLINGER Gilby Clarke has toured and recorded with artists as diverse as Guns N’ Roses, Heart, MC5 and Nancy Sinatra. He’s just released his first solo album in 20 years, The Gospel Truth, a collection of hard-rocking, instant rock ’n’ roll classics. Your last solo album, Swag, came out in 2001. Why such a long gap? I actually never set out to be a solo artist; it was just something I did in my spare time. I had songs, I made a record, then another. As time went on, I started getting a lot of live dates as a solo artist and…

A LOT OF great guitars were conceived during Ted McCarty’s reign as president of Gibson from 1950 through 1966, including the Les Paul, Explorer, Flying V, Moderne, SG and Firebird. These solidbody models have withstood the test of time admirably, but in my opinion the greatest and most innovative achievement to come from Gibson’s McCarty era was the semi-hollow thinline ES-335. By combining the best attributes of solidbody and hollowbody designs, the ES-335 and its offspring (the ES-345, 355 and more recent 339) is somehow more than the sum of its parts. A perfect guitar for almost any style of music, the semi-hollow Gibson ES has been a favorite of a diverse crew that includes Chuck Berry, B.B. and Freddie King, Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen (in his early days),…

STREET PRICE: $2,430 MANUFACTURER: Carr Amplifiers, carramplifiers.com The rotary “Sting” switch offers three “Fullerton-era” amp-voicings that encompass shimmery scooped cleans, Black-panel punch and hot-rodded drive. The Super Bee’s built-in attenuator can vary the amp’s output from 2 watts and below without losing any touch-sensitivity and dynamics, or bypassed to run at 10 watts of full power. THE BOTTOM LINE The Super Bee is an outstanding achievement for a low-watt tube combo with built-in attenuation and reverb, and three souped-up Black-panel ampvoicings delivered with power and authenticity.…

MODULATION RESOLUTION Breaking down of the last section of “2.65” THIS MONTH, I’D like to offer a detailed breakdown of the last section of a tune of mine called “2.65,” which I originally recorded way back in 1994 for my album Strat’s Got Your Tongue. As I’ve described in the past two columns, the guitar part was devised in such a way as to emulate the block-chording sound of a Hammond B3 organ, as I will add syncopated bass notes against shifting chord inversions, à la the funky, “fill in the gaps” approach we hear in the playing of all of our favorite B3 players. To review, the tune’s “A” section introduces the primary theme in the key of A, followed by a modulation down one whole step, to the…