Innehållsförteckning för November 2023 från Guitar World

IN 1993, I lucked my way into my first editing/writing job at a daily newspaper in upstate New York. A year later, I asked our music reviewer if I could review a CD or two — and that’s when all this began — the kinda unthinkable thought of melding my love of editing/writing with my love of music. (Of course, as a longtime guitarist, coming to Guitar World in 2011 was a whole new level of “I can’t believe this is happening!” — but I’ll just stick to the Nineties for now.) I’ll never forget the albums I reviewed in ’94 and ’95; I still listen to them, still love them, still mentally review them… still mentally review my reviews! That said, those albums — and a lot of my…

“AAARRRRRGGGHH!!! THIS IS so flippin’ AMAZING! Hahahaha. Hmmm, what should I do first? Burn my guitar … or light MYSELF on fire! Give me MORE, but GOD ALMIGHTY, MAKE IT STOP!” Does that sound insane? Yes, indeed. But that was the kind of crazy talk many guitarists engaged in during the Eighties. And who could blame them? George Lynch, Vito Bratta, Steve Vai, Nuno Bettencourt, Reb Beach, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kirk Hammett, Eric Johnson, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman and about a billion other handsome virtuoso shredders just kept getting faster and better until all you could scream was, “I surrender! Fuck playing the guitar, I’m gonna join the Marines.” Then suddenly on September 10, 1991, a date that will live in infamy, everything changed. Nirvana, a melodic punk rock band from…

PICTURE THIS: YOU’VE wrapped up an episode of Seinfeld and have time to burn. But you’re bored of the latest via Z100 pop-fodder, and the slick songs that VH1 has been slinging via Pop-Up Video aren’t cutting it. No; this time, you’re looking for the raw energy that can only be delivered through rockin’ live music, but you’re stuck at home. What’s the next best thing? Peruse your CD collection and dig into the tastiest discs you’ve got on hand, of course. If that bit of nostalgia sounds familiar, then you were probably a rock- and metal-loving kid in the Nineties. But what if you missed out? Not to worry; Guitar World has got you covered. We’re taking a trip back to dig into some of the finest live performances…

THE '90s ISSUE GUITAR WORLD SPECIAL ISSUE ELECTRIC GUITAR TECHNOLOGY progressed at a steady pace for four decades from the Fifties through the Eighties, but by the Nineties many guitarists seemed ready for a break. The sudden shift of the dominance of “hair metal” to grunge was partially responsible for the revolution against evolution that took place, as the renewed interest in guitars and effects from the past that developed seemed to be inspired more by a desire to challenge the status quo than nostalgia. Another factor was the ever-increasing prices of super Strats, rack effects and high-gain multi-channel amps, which helped cash-strapped musicians realize that many unpopular guitar models and low-tech classic stomp boxes maybe weren’t as crappy as they previously were led to believe. Although retro spirit dominated…

THE '90s ISSUE PERSONALITIES THEN Pop Smear (1993) Threads (2021) NOW-ISH HAILING FROM EAST Lansing, Michigan, the Verve Pipe’s Brian Vander Ark and his cohorts quickly built a following among a vibrant Midwest indie rock scene. The recording of 1993’s Pop Smear did nothing to slow the momentum of the young band, leading to their signing a deal with RCA, a label that saw the Verve Pipe as its ticket to the top of the alt-rock charts. “I think the whole reason RCA wanted us, to be honest, was that they were severely lacking in rock bands at the time,” Vander Ark says. “They had Dave Matthews, who no one knew at the time, and they had ZZ Top, but they weren’t relevant at that point. We got a ton…

THE '90s ISSUE PERSONALITIES THEN Superunknown (1994) The 2nd 3rd Secret (2023) NOW FEW MUSICIANS COULD say they shaped the Nineties quite like Kim Thayil. The Soundgarden co-founder laid the foundations for what would become known as the “Seattle sound” and later get referred to as grunge or alternative rock, paving the way for a whole movement of world-conquering noise that included the likes of Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam. Typically seen with a black Guild S-100 electric in his hands, and on occasion its S-300 sibling, his approach to guitar has been an incredibly multifaceted one, with an easily identifiable personality to his riffs and leads that ranged from the fast and furious to the doomy and esoteric. In that regard, he was and very much still…

IF YOU’RE LIKE me, you did a double-take when you saw the images for the ODD and Mutation Phasor II. No, neither of them is the original stompbox that we’ve seen before (and probably own); rather, both are very faithful recreations of the originals from Warm Audio. Right now, Warm Audio is smoking hot with its “inspired by” pedals that accurately replicate the specs of tried-and-true originals that have attained legendary status. One look at its Centavo and Warmdrive clones and you’ll quickly understand why the company is gaining traction for producing lookalike rare pedals with tones nearly identical to the originals — and at a fraction of the cost. Now, with the release of the ODD “Over Drive Disorder” Box and Mutation Phasor II, Warm Audio aims to continue…

IN THE LAST two columns, we learned how to build harmony guitar lines by stacking diatonic (scale-based) 3rd intervals above melody notes. To review, this technique involves taking each note of the melody and adding above it a note that’s the interval of a 3rd, or two scale degrees, as it occurs within a related scale. You can then add another note a 3rd above that one, to build three-part harmony. Oftentimes, the most musical-sounding harmonized line will involve using a variety of intervals in addition to 3rds, such as 4ths or 5ths. This will be the case with the harmonized lines presented in this lesson The line we will harmonize is played over a 12-bar blues progression in the key of D with a shuffle, or triplet-based, feel. Stylistically,…

THIS MONTH, LET’S continue to investigate ways in which to incorporate ii - V - I (two - five - one) turnarounds into one’s improvised solos. In the previous column, we went over the substitute ii - V - I chord forms and arpeggios themselves. Now I’ll demonstrate how to use these ideas within a melody. Let’s begin by looking at how to use ii -V - I harmony to get from the I (one) chord to the IV (four) chord in the key of A. The first bar of FIGURE 1 illustrates the move from the I chord, A, to the IV, D. In bar 2, I play Em7, with slight embellishment added on the B string, to A7 and A7sus4, which deliver us to the IV chord, D7,…

“NEED YOU TONIGHT” WORDS AND MUSIC BY ANDREW FARRISS AND MICHAEL HUTCHENCE. COPYRIGHT © 1987 INXS PUBLISHING PTY. LTD. AND CHARDONNAY INVESTMENTS LTD. ALL RIGHTS FOR INXS PUBLISHING PTY. LTD. IN THE U.S. AND CANADA ADMINISTERED BY UNIVERSAL - POLYGRAM INTERNATIONAL TUNES, INC. ALL RIGHTS FOR CHARDONNAY INVESTMENTS LTD. IN THE U.S. AND CANADA ADMINISTERED BY WC MUSIC CORP.…

STAY CONNECTED WITH GUITAR WORLD ON AND GET THE LATEST GUITAR NEWS, INSIDER UPDATES, STAFF REPORTS AND MORE! Sophie’s soulful shred I’d like to thank you for the excellent cover story on Sophie Lloyd [September 2023], who is like a breath of fresh air. As a longtime contributor to Guitar World (for 37 years, from 1982 to 2019), I’ve listened to — and interviewed — hundreds of great guitarists. What I enjoy so fervently about Sophie is the sheer exuberance of her playing; she combines finesse and technique into a spellbinding style that lifts my mood every time I hear it. — Joe Lalaina Vito Bratta, still the Lion king I just read your interview with Vito Bratta in the September 2023 issue, and I savored every word. He’s been…

WHAT WAS THE greatest guitar solo of the Nineties? How about the best riff? The ultimate guitar album? The decade’s most underappreciated player? Was Seinfeld really better than Beavis and Butt-Head? Burning questions, all of them. But instead of answering them ourselves, we decided to open things up to a mess of guitar stars, some of whom were already doing their thing 28 years ago, and some who weren’t even born yet. We asked them to answer these nine questions about the Nineties — and to elaborate whenever/wherever they deemed it necessary: 1. Guitarist of the decade2. Ultimate guitar album3. Greatest guitar solo4. Best riff5. Best TV show6. Underappreciated guitar hero7. Piece of gear that screams “Nineties”8. Doc Martens or Converse?9. Pop-song guilty pleasure. And now, let us kick things…

THE '90s ISSUE PERSONALITIES THEN World of Noise (1993) Live at the Whisky a Go Go (2023) NOW BY THE TIME the sessions for 1993’s World of Noise began, Art Alexakis had reached the end of his rope. A raging punk-rocker at heart, the then 31-year-old songwriter had reached an impasse, leaving him in a make-or-break situation. “God, if Everclear didn’t hit, man, I was fucking done,” Alexakis says. “I’d spent years trying hard to make it work, but nothing was happening. My back was up against the wall, and I knew I had to try something different. My kid was on the way, and life was staring me in the face, telling me, ‘Get this done, or get out.’” Luck shined down on Alexakis as the underground success of…

THE '90s ISSUE PERSONALITIES THEN The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion (1992) Neil Songs (2023) NOW IN RETROSPECT, THERE’S no denying that while the Black Crowes might’ve been a touch shy on originality, they were nonetheless outliers of an era that was simultaneously watching hair metal flame out as grunge was meteorically rising. One listen to 1990’s Shake Your Money Maker will tell you all you need to know: the young and rowdy Georgia band were dutifully beholden to the icons they grew up watching and hearing — Keith Richards, Mick Taylor and their comrades. Still, Shake Your Money Maker was an unexpected smash success, injecting ounces of boogie-woogie into a scene yearning for something more. And the Crowes were more than happy to serve up heaping doses of said…

SOUNDCHECK LAST YEAR’S REVIVAL of the Maestro pedal line by Gibson was sort of the music industry equivalent to the most recent Star Wars trilogy. The first five pedals released were familiar (overdrive, distortion, fuzz, delay and chorus) but perhaps a bit too predictable — kind of like The Force Awakens. More recently Maestro came out with another set of five pedals that offer a few surprises and twists without deviating too far from the familiar plot—a scenario similar to The Last Jedi. This latest Maestro lineup, which consists of the Agena Envelope Filter, Arcas Compressor Sustainer, Mariner Tremolo, Orbit Phaser and Titan Boost, still retains the same populist approach of its predecessors by delivering very sensible designs that get the job done without getting arty or weird. FEATURES The…

THIS MONTH, I’D like to talk about the utterly unique Tommy Bolin 1960 Gibson Les Paul. It took me a decade to find this guitar, which makes it the object of my greatest “guitar safari” of all time! The iconic Tommy Bolin, one of rock’s greatest guitarists and known for his work with the band Zephyr, the James Gang, Deep Purple, Billy Cobham and as a solo artist and performer with other artists, used this guitar in just about every one of these musical situations throughout his career. The guitar did not belong to Tommy; it was owned by his guitar tech, David Brown, who bought it in 1966 for $150. David lent Tommy the instrument to use all the way back in the Zephyr days, after Tommy’s own goldtop…

“KILLING IN THE NAME” Rage Against the Machine THIS TIMELESS ANTHEM of social angst and enormously popular breakout song from RATM’s 1992 debut album elevated innovative axman Tom Morello to modern guitar god status, but not for the usual reason. Eschewing the shred credo that was de rigueur for rock players at the time, Morello took a different but equally compelling approach to creating musical drama, focusing instead on crafting an arrangement that features the use of drop-D tuning and the DigiTech Whammy pedal to perform powerful, in-the-pocket ensemble riffs and a uniquely angular, otherworldly solo that sonically darts to the stratosphere like an alien spaceship. With his Fender Telecaster plugged into his Marshall JCM800, Morello exercised judicious restraint in his moderate application of gain and non-use of reverb or…

Haldane Bradshaw AGE: 36 HOMETOWN: West Valley, UT GUITARS: Jackson 7-string Dinky, LTD M-100, LTD MH-53, Firefly Pure Series semi hollow Telecaster, Squier Mustang, Washburn acoustic, Ibanez GIO Bass, 1969 Ampeg Jet J12, Ampeg BA-115, Line 6 Spider IV, Crate 112 SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: Avenged Sevenfold “Afterlife,” Slipknot “Psychosocial,” Muse “Hysteria,” Journey “Separate Ways” and stuff I’ve written GEAR I WANT MOST: Fender Telecaster Deluxe, Gibson Les Paul, 1977 Marshall Master Volume amp head with 1960B cabinet Rick Patt HOMETOWN: Los Angeles, CA GUITARS: Jackson Soloist, Peavey Vandenberg w/DiMarzio pickups, Jackson 8-string, Fender Telecaster and Martin X Series acoustic SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: “Bat Country,” “Nightmare,” “Shepherd of Fire” and “Unholy Confessions,” all by Avenged Sevenfold; plus Paul Gilbert “Colorado Bulldog” and Nita Strauss “Alegria” GEAR I WANT MOST:…

FOR THE 90,000 screaming fans on their feet at London’s Wembley Stadium this past July, it must have seemed like it was the spring of 1994 all over again. Back then, Blur had just blown up on the back of the disco-ish, new wavey hit “Girls & Boys,” the first single from their third album, Parklife, and it looked like they were going to lead their countrymates through an exciting international scene that steered around the boilerplate alt-rock sounds of the day and paid tribute to some of the greatest bands in the history of British rock. Deemed the pioneers of Britpop, Blur spoke for a generation of British youth — at least for a while. Their guitarist, Graham Coxon, was one of the most skilled and innovative players on…

THE '90s ISSUE PERSONALITIES THEN Stain (1993) Shade (2017) NOW-ISH UNLIKE MANY BANDS that got big in the late Eighties, Living Colour’s sound didn’t require an overhaul to avoid obsolescence once the new decade hit. The prismatic metallics and social consciousness on the New York band’s 1988 debut album Vivid scanned alternative immediately. Their dino-riff breakthrough hit, “Cult of Personality,” in addition to being one of rock’s best singles ever, was an off-ramp from Eighties hedonism to the next decade’s underground-music uprising. In a Reagan-rock sea of perma-sloshed white dudes, Living Colour was full of thoughtful Black virtuosos. So the band, which featured singer Corey Glover, guitarist Vernon Reid, bassist Muzz Skillings and drummer Will Calhoun, was a refreshing contrast to say the least. Although they were future-proof, during the…

THE '90s ISSUE PERSONALITIES THEN Nowhere (1990) This Is Not a Safe Place (2019) NOW-ISH BEFORE ANDY BELL strode across grand stages with the U.K.’s most cocksure band, Oasis, he handled six-string duties for Ride, one of the shoegaze genre’s preeminent acts. Bands like Lush and Slowdive linchpinned shoegaze on the other side of the pond. And, sure, they were stout, but Ride’s first two records, Nowhere (1990) and Going Blank Again (1992), proved to be high points of the period. Looking back on his reaction to Nowhere and Going Blank Again, Bell tells Guitar World, “I think there’s one moment that I remember that came after we finished Going Blank Again. When we finished that album, and it was mastered, [Ride guitarist] Mark [Gardener] and I drove back to…

SOUNDCHECK WITH GRETSCH’S INTRODUCTION of its new 140th Anniversary Electromatic models, the gap between an affordable sub-$1,000 guitar and a professional-grade model costing $3,000 and up just got a lot narrower. In addition to being some of the coolest and most luxurious deluxe-looking guitars in their price range, the Gretsch 140th Anniversary Electromatic models deliver playability, craftsmanship and tantalizing tones that come pretty damn close to their more expensive counterparts with the main differences coming down to finer details of the tone woods, pickups and hardware. We looked at the (deep breath) G5420T-140 Electromatic 140th Double Platinum Hollowbody with Bigsby model. FEATURES With its hollow body measuring 16 inches across the lower bout and 2.75 inches deep, large f-holes, trestle block bracing and laminated maple top, back and sides, the…

SOUNDCHECK THERE ARE MANY here among us who feel that tube amps are the only way to go, regardless of how good digital modeling amps and apps may sound. One of the few problems with tube amps is that they can be pretty damn expensive, and for some of us the prospect of buying a new amp demands sacrifices like walking to work or going without food for a year. Fortunately, the Driftwood Purple Nightmare Tube Preamp Pedal offers a more pleasant alternative thanks to its ability to function as an additional fully independent amp channel or even as a standalone amp itself, in addition to the usual front-end preamp applications. This is no solid-state or digital preamp masquerading as a tube preamp — it features a pair of 12AX7…

IN THIS AND the next few lessons, we’ll be digging into the “theme” music for this column’s videos, which is from my song “Winterland,” originally recorded with the Andy Timmons Band for our 2016 album, Theme from a Perfect World. This track very well might be my favorite piece on the record. It encompasses a good study of melody as well as how to support that melody with other tones, and the song also features what may be my favorite solo that I’ve ever crafted. We’ll start with the intro. As I often do, I like to address the underlying harmony of a piece before dissecting the individual notes. In FIGURE 1, I begin with a simple and common chord progression of F#m followed by E6. Each chord is strummed…

“YER BLUES” WORDS AND MUSIC BY JOHN LENNON AND PAUL MCCARTNEY. COPYRIGHT © 1968 SONY MUSIC PUBLISHING (US) LLC. COPYRIGHT RENEWED. ALL RIGHTS ADMINISTERED BY SONY MUSIC PUBLISHING (US) LLC, 424 CHURCH STREET, SUITE 1200, NASHVILLE, TN 37219. INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT SECURED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD LLC.…

The J-200’s modifications didn’t matter much to many of the most popular recording artists of the Sixties and beyond... MANY GUITARISTS ARGUE that behind every great song is a great instrument. To prove their point, they’ll bring up songs recorded with 1958-60 Gibson Les Paul Standard “bursts,” Fifties and early Sixties Strats and Teles, vintage Gibson and Martin acoustics, one-of-a-kind custom guitars (like Jerry Garcia’s Wolf and Tiger) or even modern guitars like EVH, Music Man, PRS and Taylor models. If you were to ask even the most casual vintage acoustic guitar collector if the Sixties Gibson J-200 was a great guitar, most would answer with an emphatic “No!” In its original pre-WWII iteration with rosewood back and sides, the Gibson SJ-200/Super Jumbo (as it was originally named) is one…