Innehållsförteckning för March 2024 från Guitar World

HELLO, AND WELCOME to the final issue of Guitar World to be produced in 2023. It’s also the first issue to actually come out in 2024, the first issue to feature Billie Joe Armstrong on the cover since March 2017 and the third Armstrong cover — Louis, Lance, Neil or otherwise — during my 13 years at GW. It’s also the issue that’ll be available at the 2024 NAMM Show in Anaheim, California, in January. Sadly, I won’t be able to make it to the show this year, so please give my regards to halls B, C, D and E! With the end of the year so close that I can reach out and smack it upside the head, I’d like to thank our readers — everyone who subscribes; anyone…

TUNE-UPS NEWS + NOTES Q: What was your first guitar? My mom and dad had guitars in the house, and though they didn’t play them that much, those were the first guitars I grew up playing on. The one I really started to learn how to play on was my mom's nylon-string classical guitar. I played that for years before they bought me my first guitar, which I picked out in a music store down the street from my house. It had a black Gibson Explorer-style body with a maple neck and was made by a company called Lotus. Q: What was the first song you learned to play? “House of the Rising Sun” by the Animals. I figured out the chords and then gave a little concert to my…

YOU CAN THANK the sturdy craftsmanship of the Gibson guitar company for some of the richness on Mary Timony’s new Untame the Tiger project. The U.S. Postal Service? Not so much. When Timony began conceptualizing her latest solo effort — notably her first in 15 years — the D.C. veteran knew she wanted to explore more unplugged textures than the Dio-by-way-of-Seventies-power-pop stylings of her longtime Ex Hex project, or the twitchy bass rumblings she leans into as part of D.C. hardcore quartet Hammered Hulls. As such, she was reminded of a precious, Depression-era Gibson acoustic that had been tucked away in her late grandmother’s South Dakota farmhouse attic for the past 40 years. While an eccentric aunt gladly packed up the vintage piece and sent it on its way, it’s…

THERE’S A TIME when the phone’s ringing and burning up, then there comes a time when the phone doesn’t ring as much. That’s just reality,” Eddie Martinez says. “I think every guitarist experiences that in one way or another, especially when you’re in the studio session scene. You have your period when you’re hot, and then the time comes when you’re not. It is what it is.” For the better part of the 1980s, nobody was hotter than Martinez. Thanks to his arena-quaking rhythms and paint-peeling solos on Run-DMC’s groundbreaking single “Rock Box,” the guitarist’s prodigious skills — everything from walloping crunch to buttery-smooth grooves to whacked-out, explosive leads — was sought out by the likes of Robert Palmer, David Lee Roth, Steve Winwood, Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger and a…

WITH NO musical training and a restless personality, there are a lot of assumptions thrown around when it comes to “Space” Ace Frehley. Some are true, but most, if not all, are unfounded. His detractors would declare Frehley unreliable and rudimentary. But if we look back, he never missed a single Kiss show. And as far as his playing goes, Frehley is considered a pillar of rock and metal, especially within the guitar community. How’s that for rudimentary? Through his patented use of “dinosaur bends” and a torrential fury of frenetic notes, a.k.a. total fretboard domination, Frehley created an individualistic sound that’s impossible to duplicate. But that’s not all; he’s authentic as they come as a personality, making him a lovable character that shredders and slow-burners alike aspire to. But…

Green Day began the 1990s as a trio of snot-nosed Bay Area-punks, but they ended it as one of the biggest rock bands in the world, with three consecutive multi-platinum albums (led by the mega-smash 1994 effort Dookie), a string of hit singles (including the prom-dance staple “Good Riddance [Time of Your Life]”) and numerous sold-out tours. But at the dawn of the new millennium the band was at a crossroads. Their 2000 effort, Warning, which saw them move in a more pop- and folk-influenced direction, was, at least for Green Day, a commercial disappointment — in part due to an unenthusiastic response from fans, and also the fact that its songs leaked onto Napster weeks before its release. Furthermore, personal relationships between Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and…

THE MARSHALL JMP model 1959 Super Lead produced from the late Sixties through the early Seventies is a bucket list amp for many guitarists. This was the amp that defined the sounds of early hard rock, including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton with Cream, Billy Gibbons with early ZZ Top, Van Halen, AC/DC, the Ramones (the latter two during their classic mid- to late-Seventies era) and countless other acts. Unfortunately, obtaining the real deal is an unlikely prospect for all. Still, for the most deep-pocketed collectors/hoarders, prices for an unmodified late-Sixties JMP 1959 Super Lead now exceeds $10,000 — if you can even find one in the first place. Over recent years, several boutique amps, pedals and amp modelers have done a damn good job of duplicating the tones of a…

NOT ALL BOOST pedals are created equal. Of course, they’re great for boosting volume to be heard, but some can do more than just increase your signal. For example, some boosts can start clipping into juiced-up drive if you turn them up enough, while others can be tailored to enhance your overall tone with onboard EQ. What if I told you Revv Amplification’s Tilt Boost can do all that and more? Session guitarist extraordinaire and influencer Shawn Tubbs stumbled into something good when he partnered with Revv Amplification to release his signature Shawn Tubbs Tilt Overdrive pedal, which featured dual footswitchable overdrive and boost. What happened next was seemingly unexpected; Tubbs discovered that many players who had been using the pedal had become enamored with its boost side, with some…

A TRACK I covered on my new album, Blues Deluxe Vol. 2, is “I Want to Shout About It,” originally recorded by one of my favorite guitarists, Ronnie Earl. Ronnie recorded the song with [Ronnie Earl &] the Broadcasters for their 1990 album, Peace of Mind. Ronnie plays in a traditional style that I refer to as “East Coast blues,” as exemplified by Ronnie, Duke Robillard and a few others. To me, it has a very specific vibe that’s predominantly a Fender Stratocaster sound. The guitar I’m using to play this month’s examples is the Howard A. Reed Stratocaster, which was built specifically for Howard in 1955 and is the earliest known black Strat in existence. At the time, Howard was the guitarist for Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps.…

FOR THE LASTcouple of months, we’ve been talking about how I employ repetition as one of the three tools I like to use in order to strengthen my “melodic narrative” in the development of an improvised solo. The other two tools are what I like to call “handcuffs,” where I force myself to play within a specific position, and “call and response,” where I will play a phrase and then “answer” it with the subsequent phrase. This month, let’s apply the “handcuffs” approach. One of the things I really like about these three approaches is that, to me, it’s less about the specific notes and more about how to pull the listener in with a more thematic type of musical development. With the handcuffs approach, I aim to paint myself…

COMPETELY RANDOM PHOTO OF THE MONTH Bad Brains guitarist Dr. Know performs at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, August 5, 2007. “We had started with the fusiony stuff, but when we heard the aggressiveness of punk, that really hit home with us, because we were kids,” Dr. Know (aka Gary Miller) told Guitar Player’s Tom Beaujour in 2021 while discussing about the band’s early days. “And we decided, We’re going to do this. We started to throw little concerts in our basement. And that’s it. The whole D.C. thing, that’s when it all got started, meeting Henry Rollins [of Black Flag] and Ian MacKaye [of Minor Threat] and playing at this place, Madam’s Organ.” He continued: “I was playing all downstrokes, so it had more oomph, and I was muting…

EVEN SET AGAINST 35 years of historically bludgeoning riffage, few Cannibal Corpse moments concave the chest quite like the G#-tuned death march that begins “Blood Blind,” the first single from the act’s 16th fetid full-length, Chaos Horrific. Credit this monstrously chunky moment to guitarist Erik Rutan, who has been producing Cannibal Corpse records since 2006’s Killand was fully integrated into the lineup on 2021’s Violence Unimagined. He’s been a great fit. As a fan and friend of the band since the release of 1990’s Eaten Back to Life, Rutan knows the guiding principles of death metal’s most offal-flinging outfit. “When I think of Cannibal Corpse, it’s extreme heaviness,” Rutan — a former member of Morbid Angel and the longtime leader of Hate Eternal — says of writing for the gore-obsessed…

TUNE-UPS OBITUARY “Go Now,” The Moody Blues (1964):Laine’s version of a Bessie Banks song was the highlight of his time with the Moodies (and made for a great concert staple with Wings). “Mull of Kintyre,” Wings (1977):Without Laine’s input, Wings wouldn’t have scored their biggest U.K. hit. “Weep for Love,” Wings/Denny Laine (1980): One of Laine’s finest vocal and six-string cuts; one wonders why this soaring track from 1980’s Japanese Tears was left off Wings’ Back to the Egg in ’79. “Say You Don’t Mind,” Denny Laine (1967): Laine had weak solo success with this song in ’67 (despite John Paul Jones providing strings), but in ’72, the Zombies’ Colin Blunstone turned it into a top 20 hit. “Man of Constant Sorrow,” Ginger Baker’s Air Force (1970): Laine showed up…

Johnny MARR HAS long been known as “the man who would not solo.” But that’s kinda inaccurate, as Marr has soloed, sometimes in decidedly sing-song fashion, like on the Smiths’ “Shoplifters of the World,” for example. So maybe, Marr should be known as “the man who used crystal-clear arpeggios and interesting chord inversions rather than pulling off dive bobs via big-ass amps” instead. Then again, legends via folklore aren’t born through literalism. Anyway, as per the perpetual positive vibes slung Marr’s way, we can agree that he’s the proverbial king of the antiheroes — regardless of whether he solos. None of that has mattered to Marr, though, as he continues to craft landscape-defining indie music. But beyond that music, Marr’s life has been defined by utter devotion to all things…

AGGRESSIVE METAL ANDteeth-grinding tension go together like energy drinks and vodka — in more ways than one. They’re likely to ramp up the intensity and energy levels of a band, but they also can lead to emotional turmoil, instability and crippling volatility. The six touring members of Code Orange — guitarists Reba Meyers and Dom Landolina, vocalist Jami Morgan, bassist Joe Goldman, multi-instrumentalist Eric “Shade” Balderose and drummer Max Portnoy — don’t need caffeine and booze to feel jumpy. Theirs is an anxiety born from ambition, insecurity and a little chemical imbalance, and working together simultaneously feeds their neurosis and gives them an outlet to purge their poisons. “We’re not five stereotypical rockers trying to put our best ass-kicking shit out there and show you our killer chops,” Meyers says.…

SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD Ted Nugent was on top of the world. In 1965, his band, the Lourds, had won the Michigan Battle of the Bands, beating out 60 other Detroit-area combos. To seal their win, Nugent jumped on the judges’ table to play his guitar solo. As the winning band, the Lourds got to open for the Supremes and the Beau Brummels at Detroit’s Cobo Hall on June 13, 1965. They played a medley of “High Heel Sneakers,” “Walking the Dog” and “Shake Your Tail Feather.” “I was smokin’ in Detroit,” Nugent says today. “The Lourds were just kickin’ ass... We were getting ready to open up some shows for the Stones.” Unbeknownst to Nugent, the Lourds were about to end abruptly. In the fall of 1965, H.K. Porter Co. transferred Nugent’s…

MUSIC MAN RELEASED its first Steve Lukather signature model — the Luke — back in 1994, and over the years the Luke model has evolved with various Luke II and Luke III models. To celebrate the Luke’s 30th anniversary, Music Man has introduced the Luke 4 30th anniversary model with an HSS pickup configuration similar to the original, plus new Luke 4 HH and SSS models. The 30th anniversary version is a hot-rodded super strat, but the SSS model we reviewed is more of a “superb” strat, based on the traditional triple-single-coil Fifties standard solidbody that guitarists all know and love, but packed with a ton of high-performance upgrades, refinements and modifications. The Luke 4 SSS has a figured roasted maple neck that has become a regular feature of Music…

TEMPTATION, THY NAME is Squier. Over the last few decades, Fender’s Squier brand has blossomed from a line of low-budget entry-level models into an affordable series of instruments that serve the need of all walks of players from beginner to pro. Whereas Squier guitars often were a bit drab and ho-hum compared to genuine Fenders, today the brand offers models that are quite impressive, versatile and even sexy, like the new Squier Paranormal Custom Nashville Stratocaster. Squier’s Paranormal series is the brand’s more experimental line of guitars, offering features like custom pickup configurations and hybrid body and neck characteristics. The Paranormal Custom Nashville Stratocaster is a great example of that mix-and-match aesthetic, featuring a Stratocaster-shaped poplar body with Custom Tele-style top and back binding and “slab” construction without contours plus…

LAST MONTH, WE began exploring my tune “Ghost of You.” This month, we’ll look at the heavy chorus, interlude and second verse, presented here in FIGURE 1. When we hit the chorus, there’s an increase in attitude, with the heavy repeating riff that moves from a low G note on the 6th string’s 3rd fret, which I pick with a downstroke and pull-off to the open low E, followed by E on the 4th string’s 2nd fret, which I pick with an upstroke. To give this riff some power, I switch from my guitar’s neck pickup to the bridge pickup and also engage heavier gain via my JHS AT+ boost/distortion pedal, used in conjunction with the Keeley Super AT Mod distortion pedal. To me, this feels like a “Jimmy Page/…

“DON’T BACK DOWN” Mammoth WVH GIFTED AND TALENTED multi-instrumentalist Wolfgang Van Halen shines on this well-conceived and-produced modern rock song that features his myriad talents and sole duties as songwriter, arranger, singer, bassist, drummer and, of course, guitar player. Setto a head-banging hard rock shuffle groove — based on an undercurrent of eighth-note triplets and swinging eighth notes — the song is built around a suite of catchy drop-D-style riffs, with easily fretted and quickly shiftable one-finger power chords and single notes played high up on the neck. Many of the riffs “bounce” off the open 6th string, with notes fretted as high as the 18th fret, such as during sections G and H, which creates interestingly angular wide intervallic jumps between the open low D and the fretted notes.…

TUNE-UPS NEWS + NOTES IN LEFT, PAGE Hamilton may have just turned in Helmet’s most political album yet. Above a patented mix of drop-tuned riffs and hard-edged rhythmic displacement, the alt-metal icon sounds off on anything from cyclical patterns of U.S. gun violence (“Gun Fluf ”) to the unearned, puffed-chest politicking of the modern-day Republican Party (“Big Shot,” “Dislocated”). Though Hamilton tells Guitar World he’s generally avoided standing on a soapbox throughout Helmet’s nearly 35-year career, Left’s treatises still speak to a broader trend within his hefty songbook. “It’s just character assassination,” he explains of a lyrical forte. “My ex-father-in-law said to me, ‘All you do is write ‘fuck you’ songs. They’re really good ‘fuck you’ songs, but they’re still just ‘fuck you’ songs.’ I told him, ‘Well, everybody has…

WHEN multi-faceted iconoclast Chelsea Wolfe describes her new album, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, as a “musical rebirth,” she’s not just talking about a radical development in tone and timbre. She means everything from the creative process to the thematic content. And, as a strong, educated woman tapped into music, literature, film, philosophy and spirituality, she’s well aware that birth never comes without pain. “Pain and struggle on a musical level is never a bad thing because it usually leads to some sort of tension that breaks into something unexpected that maybe no one involved had previously thought of,” she says. “For us, that resulted in a really unique record.” She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She isn’t just a unique release. It seems…

“IF GREEN DAY WERE A NEW BAND IN THIS ERA, I FEEL LIKE WE WOULD FIT RIGHT IN NEXT TO ED SHEERAN AND TAYLOR SWIFT IN A LOT OF WAYS” GREEN DAY BURST ONTO THE SCENE — or, at least, the mainstream scene — 30 years ago with Dookie, the multi-platinum monster of a record that was largely responsible for dragging punk rock out of cramped clubs and dingy DIY venues and into the world of sold-out arenas, glossy magazine covers and near-constant radio and MTV rotation. And while the trio — singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool — remain by far the most commercially successful punk band in history, they’ve also spent the last three decades taking a torch to any conventional…

DURING THE MID 1950s, sales of Gibson archtop models declined dramatically. Players were frustrated by the archtop electric’s bulky dimensions and tendency to feed back, but at the same time many were also displeased with the heavier weight and less-resonant acoustic properties of Gibson’s solidbody models. In response, Gibson introduced its first “Thinline” models in 1955, which offered a sort of “Goldilocks” solution where the traditional archtop’s depth was reduced by about half. Gibson’s first thinline model was the Byrdland, followed shortly afterwards by the somewhat similar ES-350T. The Byrdland’s name combined the surnames of two pro guitarists, Billy Byrd and Hank Garland, who helped conceive the model. Byrd was a prominent country guitarist who played in Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry house band and was a member of Ernest Tubbs’…

IN THE LASTtwo columns, we investigated some ways to emulate the phrasing and articulation of vocal melodies on the guitar, using the Elmore James blues classic “It Hurts Me Too,” as a guide. This month, we’ll continue to explore this single-note soloing tactic, this time with a look at Howlin’ Wolf’s vocal phrasing on his classic track “Commit a Crime.” Singers often utilize seamless pitch glides between notes. Once landing on a specific pitch, vibrato is often applied to it, to add expressiveness. As I pointed out previously, one of the great things about the guitar is that it enables the player to emulate these vocal effects via the use of string bends, slides, and vibratos. Many of the greatest guitarists mastered this technique. Blues giants B.B. King, Albert King,…