Innehållsförteckning för May 2017 från Guitarist

While we were making this month’s big feature on recording, it was interesting to watch respected studio engineer Dom Monks walking round the room listening for the best-sounding zones. One of the most telling observations he made while doing this was that people often think rushing out and buying an expensive mic is the answer to their problems. Whereas, he observed, if your recording space doesn’t sound very good, something like a Neumann U-47 is only going to reveal its unlovely acoustic in greater detail. While that’s a useful bit of studio advice in its own right, it also has a wider implication – a guitarist playing in a flattering audio environment will be at their ease and, spurred on by a good sound, put in a better performance. And…

Adrian Legg 2 June Mycenae House, London Last year, the intimate surroundings of Mycenae House in Blackheath played host to Clive Carroll, and this summer they will follow it up in style. Acclaimed fingerstyle player Adrian Legg rarely plays in his home country now, so this represents a very special opportunity to see a brilliant and influential virtuoso for what, as even Adrian himself says, is a “rare as hen’s teeth event”. A wonderful combination of technical wizardry, tunefulness and quick wit, the wisdom he can share as a player is surely something all players can learn from. “We should practise slowly and privately,” he told Riffjournal.com this year. “We shouldn’t show off until we have a whole story to tell, then we should tell it courteously and accurately, with…

Two columns ago in issue 417, I began a piece based on ‘student questions’. Let’s resume where I left off. The same fellow whose questions I used last time gave me plenty more. In fact, there were 54 bullet-pointed ‘free flow brainstorming’ issues, and I’ll address a few of these today. The first concerns choosing songs to learn. I love this one, both as a teacher and as a musician. Teacher’s cap on first; here goes. Learn any piece of music that turns you on. If it’s something that has attracted your attention, then there must be something to it, right? The most important part of a student’s journey is the attainment of joy, so it makes sense to follow ‘joyous noises’! Then, there will be pieces of music that…

YOU DO THE MATHS How many guitars does one player need? It’s the eternal question. My brother, who is a maths teacher, says that the answer can be expressed by the formula n+1, where n is the number of guitars you have at present. His wife, also a maths teacher, offers the alternative formula d-1, where d is divorce. Ouch. But applying logic to a subject usually noted for its absence, this must mean that d-1 = n+1, and it follows that d = n+2. So we won’t arrive at d for divorce if we buy our guitars one at a time! Which is just as well, as I now have my eyes on a lovely Telecaster Thinline, to be followed, perhaps, by something in Fiesta Red… Michael Bruce, via…

 What was your fi rst gig? “Back in the 70s, we used to let people into the dressing room. This kid came in, got his picture taken, and walked right out with my guitar case” SCOTT GORHAM Scott: “When I was 17, we got ourselves a gig at this old, crumbling Hollywood relic called The Knickerbocker Hotel. There were about eight people in the place. And those were the residents who stayed in this hotel on a permanent basis, like the old lady in the hat, sipping her Manhattan. It was pretty dismal. It was pretty much a shithole. Terrible pay.” Damon: “I think everyone’s first gig is in someone’s basement, so I’m not going to count that. My first real gig was in 1978, at an ice cream parlour…

ASkype video call with Mike Oldfield is liable to cause pangs of jealousy. It’s 10am in the Bahamas, and as the songwriter activates his webcam, the backdrop evokes a Bounty advert. Palm trees rustle in the balmy breeze. A carefree speedboat zips past on the bay. Oldfield tinkers with the media command centre on the decking of his no-doubt-palatial home and considers his lot. “I am quite spoilt. There’s even a very well-stocked guitar shop just a mile from here. So if I ever need a lead or a new set of strings, it’s just down the road.” Peer into his world and Oldfield seems every inch the serendipitous rock legend living in royalty-financed utopia. Don’t be fooled. The 63 year old is rightly proud of latest album, Return To…

“I use a metal slide. It’s a piece of pipe that I got at a plumbing supply place; I bought a 12-foot piece of pipe and had it cut into pieces a little over an inch long. Even today, I still can’t find one in a music store that fits my finger. I use it on my little finger. When I first started playing, there wasn’t anything like that in the stores. I tried a lot of things, like test tubes and lipstick holders and medicine bottles; I used the crystal in my wristwatch – all kinds of things. Then a guy in Denver called up and told me that I should go to a plumbing supply place and try a piece of pipe, because that way you can find…

When the Chess record label released Chuck Berry’s Maybellene in 1955 a new sound was born. Chuck Berry had cleverly melded an old country tune with some up-tempo rhythm and blues, introduced some lyrics involving a car chase and the deal was done. But it was 1958’s Johnny B Goode that changed the face of popular music forever, with a guitar intro that would echo down the decades, influencing generations of guitar players. Chuck had the pick of the guitar hardware from the 1950s, quickly showing a preference for Gibson’s thinline instruments… 1956 GIBSONES -350TN & (CIRCA) 1957 GIBSONES -350T Of all the guitars that Chuck Berry used in his lifetime, two are predominant: the Gibson ES-350T and ES-335. The evolution of the ES-350 really began back in 1940 with…

“A neutral wide bandwidth response gives us the flexibility to steer [the sound] in different directions” At this year’s NAMM show, Fishman took the wraps off three new Fluence signature pickup sets for Tosin Abasi, Killswitch Engage and Will Adler, adding to those already released for Stephen Carpenter, Devin Townsend and Greg Koch. It’s more than indication that, since its launch in 2014, Fishman’s Fluence pickup technology is being taken very seriously. The Fluence concept is based around a solid core instead of a coil of wire, although the magnet structures are pretty conventional. Then there is a preamp (onboard, with the exception of the Greg Koch ‘Gristle-Tone’ set) that shapes what we hear and offers multi ‘voicings’. The active pickups can be powered by a standard nine-volt block battery,…

LOOP MOD? I’ve recently bought a secondhand Fender Excelsior, part of Fender’s Pawn Shop Series. Those who are familiar with the amp will know that it has neither reverb nor an effects loop. Being on a modest budget with all things guitar orientated, how attainable do you think an effects loop mod would be on this amp? Leo Sharp, via email Everything is possible, Leo. Well, everything in terms of modifying amps with extra bits anyway. There’s plenty of room inside the Excelsior as it’s a very simple circuit, albeit split over two separate sections. The preamp is in the top, underneath the controls, while the power section is in a box in the base of the amp. You can buy aftermarket effects loop kits, but be aware that they’re…

1954 Fender Stratocaster launched; official production began in October 1956 Alder becomes main body wood 1957 Gold hardware and blonde body Strat option (the ‘Mary Kaye’) offered 1958 Sunburst changes from two-tone to three-tone, adding red to the black and yellow 1959 ‘Slab’ rosewood fretboards; three-ply pickguards 1962 Thinner rosewood ‘veneer’ fretboards 1964 New headstock logo, pearloid inlays 1965 Larger headstock introduced 1968 Logo changes from gold to black and thicker polyurethane finish added…

The Green God Dif ficulty 10 mins per example Tutor: Richard Barrett | Gear used: Knaggs SSC, Vox AC15 C1 Peter Green is a name from that classic late 60s/early 70s period that brought us so much beautiful playing – though he didn’t become as well known as his contemporaries Eric Clapton, Paul Kossoff, Jimmy Page, to name a few, possibly because of his well publicised breakdown in the early 70s. That aside, his playing and songwriting during this period inspired all who heard it as he toured with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, replacing Eric Clapton, then the original incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, giving us classics such as Albatross, Need Your Love So Bad and Black Magic Woman – later covered by Carlos Santana, of course. His immaculate phrasing is very…

Guide example to formatting your adverts CATEGORY: Electrics ADVERT: Fender Stratocaster, USA Standard, 2001, black, white scratchplate, three Lace Sensor pickups, vgc, never gigged, Fender hard case, £435 ono. Call Joe on 01234 567890 Email joebloggs@youremail.co.uk Runcorn Send your ads to: guitarist.readerads@futurenet.com PLEASE NOTE: Due to the section’s popularity there can sometimes be a period of around a month before your advert will appear. We are unable to send a notice of receipt for your advert. Guitarist magazine reserves the right to omit or change any reader ads which fail to meet the above guidelines or infringe any company’s registered trademarks, ie Strat copy, Gibson copy, and so on. Please write concisely and double check phone number and e-mail address! You get 21 words max, and they’re all free!…

Studio Savvy Learn to get great tones down on tape with our eight-page special on recording featuring John Mayer sideman Robbie McIntosh and Simon Law p78 Winter’s ’Bird We take a close look at the late, great Johnny Winter’s stunning ’65 Firebird V. Just check out that aged nitro over Inverness Green… p72 True Brit We hail the return of a classic slice of British guitar making in the form of the stripped-down Gordon Smith GS-1 ‘60’, a no-frills single-cut thriller p8…

LUCEM PARADOX CUSTOM £2,999 WHAT IS IT? UK-made custom build, originally created for Nick McCabe, that aims for retro sounds with modern reliability Walking around this year’s NAMM show, this writer was dismayed to see an awful number of great guitars all based on four or so classic designs. Everywhere we looked we saw ‘Strats’, ‘Teles’, ‘Les Pauls’, ‘ES-335s’ or ‘330s’ and many, many ‘new’ designs were more often than not based on old ones. Whatever happened to innovation when it comes to our instrument? It’s a timely refresher, then, that Cumbria-based maker Graham Skimming got in touch and shipped us his Paradox model – originally offered as a limited-run ‘Old Nick’ model conceived for, and with, ex-Verve guitarist, Nick McCabe. “A shared interest turned out to be the ‘why’…

Jefferson Starship guitarist Craig Chaquico is back with his 1959 Les Paul after it went AWOL in a riot ahead of a planned 1978 show in Germany with the band’s original line-up. Three years after he was tipped off that the guitar might still be in existence, Craig’s mission to get it back has ended after a settlement agreement was reached, aided by a meeting between the guitarist and the instrument’s owner following a year of legal discussion. “Seeing the guitar for the first time after so many years brought back so many memories," says Chaquico about the affectionately named ‘Lorelei’, after the place where it went missing. “One of my dreams from the outset was simply to perform or record with it again… and it looks like that dream…

“You need the highest-quality recording signal chain you can lay your hands on” The past week or so I’ve been recording tracks for pop artist Gabrielle. Those of you over the age of 25 or so may well remember her string of hits in the 90s and into the early Noughties, including the No 1s Dreams and Rise, hits with boy band East 17 and the soundtrack to Bridget Jones’s Diary, Out Of Reach. I’m imagining that most of these were recorded in plush multimillion pound studios with extensive record company bar and catering budgets. This week was a touch different, and this is no reflection on her in any way, more of a result of a small bit of tech you may be familiar with: the internet. More specifically,…

“In school we had a project to build something out of wood, and so I decided to build a guitar. And guess what shape it was? A triangle” 1 What was your first guitar and when did you get it? “My first guitar was one that I built myself. I was 14 years old and in school we had a project to build something out of wood, and so I decided to build a guitar. And guess what shape it was? It was a triangle – I was 14 years old and I built a triangular guitar. It wasn’t a V, but it was as close to one as you could get!” 2 Suppose the building’s burning down. What one guitar from your collection would you save? “To be honest,…

Blues guitarist and vocalist Ash Wilson’s first exposure to music was via his parents’ record collection, although his actual introduction to playing was on piano. “I think it was more my mum’s thing than mine,” he says. “Once I’d stopped doing that, I really got into Dire Straits.” This was the 80s when it was impossible to avoid seeing the Money For Nothing video on MTV. After “dancing around with a tennis racket”, mesmerised by Mark Knopfler’s epic intro riff, Ash began badgering his parents for a guitar. On his 14th birthday his wish was granted. “I really wanted a Strat,” he continues. “By this point, I’d started going through my dad’s videos and found Pink Floyd’s Pulse with David Gilmour and a red Strat with a maple neck and…

Charles Edward Anderson Berry was born into a large middle-class family in St Louis, Missouri on 18 October 1926, the fourth of six children to Martha and Henry Berry. Henry was deacon of the Baptist church in the area of St Louis called The Ville, where the family lived. Martha was a school headmistress, which meant that Chuck and his siblings enjoyed a relatively prosperous upbringing contrary to that of so many black (and white) families in the 1920s and 1930s. Chuck displayed an interest in music and poetry from a very young age and, encouraged by his parents, progressed quickly, making his first public appearance in 1941 at the age of 15, while still at high school. The song he chose, Confessin’ The Blues by Jay McShann, was a…

Some musicians can be neatly summarised by posterity when they die. Chuck Berry was never going to be one of them. He made the attempt himself, in an autobiography, and in some ways you have to go far to beat his own description of who he was as a guitarist, in the context of the great players who had gone before him. “Charlie Christian played amplified guitar with Benny Goodman’s quartet. He was the greatest guitar player that ever was,” Berry opined. “But he never looked up from the guitar. But I put a little dance to it. They appreciate seein’ something along with hearin’ something.” They certainly did. A million people bought Maybellene – his glib reworking of the old Bob Wills country song Ida Red (Maybellene was the…

01 Brass Ruler “Two years ago I carried out some family research and learned that my great-great-great-great-grandfather was a Victorian manufacturer of brass rulers,” Alex tell us. “Last year I was fortunate enough to track down a rare example of his work, a two-foot folding brass ruler. It’s beautifully engraved and a wonderful object to have hanging among some of my more modern tools” 02 & 03 Knife & Purfling Marker “When I was learning to become a guitar maker, we were given some basic machining lessons. This knife and brass purfling marker were my first projects, and I still use them both regularly. The purfling marker has a small blade (also handmade) that runs around the perimeter of the guitar to mark the borders of the purfling and binding…

Jamie Dickson Guitarist editor Jamie is as happy with steel wool in his hand as he is with Steely Dan in his headphones, and loves vintage-gear restoration and ambitious signal chains. Dave Burrluck Guitarist’s assiduous reviews editor is also the author of numerous guitar books. Very handy with a fret file and indeed any aspect of a finely fettled six-string. Mick Taylor Ex-editor of Guitarist, Mick has wielded Allen keys, screwdrivers and sandpaper from an early age; he also has a worrying obsession with pedalboards. Neville Marten Edited Guitarist for 13 years, after working for both Fender and Gibson as a repairer. From desirable Les Pauls to dream Strats, he’s owned and worked on the lot. Nick Guppy Guitarist’s amplifier specialist has built up a wealth of experience gained from…

F-HOLE The f-hole on the export 1997s was the more classical type, as opposed to the more familiar curved variety – this particular one is a ‘one o’clock’ type VIBRATO Rickenbacker’s vibrato system was fairly rudimentary, the arm itself being little more than a piece of bent metal – but it worked! HEADSTOCK The Rickenbacker logo here would normally reflect the shape of the f-hole. Not so on the export versions, which sport the more classical variety PICKUPS Rickenbacker’s ‘toaster’ pickups were responsible for the guitar’s familiar jangle on many pop hits during the early 1960s, and were the choice of many players from the Britpop era NECK A 21-fret neck with a rosewood fingerboard and pearl inlays completes the 1997’s livery BODY The 1997’s body is semi-solid maple with…

Peter Green/Fleetwood Mac The Best Of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac This is the best way to get an overview of Peter’s playing during this period. Singles often didn’t feature on the albums, so this really does save a lot of work. I’ve already mentioned Need Your Love So Bad, Black Magic Woman and Albatross, but check out Oh Well for some surprisingly aggressive playing. This also features Peter’s guitar partner in crime Danny Kirwan. Albert King Born Under a Bad Sign Released in 1967, it’s highly likely that this album had some influence on Peter. Albert’s piercing tone and phrasing bears occasional similarities to Peter’s more extroverted moments – and classics such as the title track, Crosscut Saw and Oh, Pretty Woman were massively influential in the late 60s, when…

GORDON SMITH GS-1 ‘60’ £895 WHAT IS IT? Les Paul Junior-inspired solidbody made in the UK Few long-time Guitarist readers will be unaware of Gordon-Smith Guitars: founded in the mid-70s, it is the UK’s longest-running production guitar company. Made primarily by the husband/wife team of John and Linda Smith – with the considerable help of Chris Smith (no relation) – it never advertised its instruments, never had a bank loan and just kept at it. After 40 years and around 13,000 instruments later, John and Linda retired and GSG was sold, in 2015, to the Auden Musical Instrument Company, which now makes the guitars in its workshop in Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire. So what’s changed? Well, not an awful lot, if we’re honest. We’ve lost the hyphen in the name (which…

1 JHS Pedals The VCR £259 Ryan Adams’ first ever piece of signature gear is an unusual one, but designed very much with his sound at the heart of it. The VCR pedal is a three-in-one volume, chorus and reverb that captures the decidedly 80s tones the singer-songwriter has been capturing on recent albums, especially his latest, Prisoner. The reverb here is hall (Adams’ beloved Fender Princeton Chorus amps provide the spring variety) and when you roll the chorus forward, the speed increases and the depth decreases. The boost is a more standard case of driving your amp the more you push it. www.jhspedals.com 2 Keeley Electronics Hooke Spring Reverb £179 Every pedal needs its own calling card to stand out in the pack, and the Hooke has Fugue among…

I am very happy to join the team here at Guitarist to pass on a few anecdotes and tales of guitar-related stories from my lengthy career. When I turned professional in 1972 with a band called UFO, there was no such thing as a ‘vintage guitar’. They were then referred to as ‘secondhand’, or worse still, ‘used instruments’. I started collecting guitar catalogues around 1963. Then, a brand-new Gibson ES-335 listed at around £170, a Stratocaster a little less. I bought my first Fender Strat for £75, selling it some time later in 1970 for £100 – a £25 profit! With that cash, I went to Orange Music in London to purchase a Gibson SG Special. I had arranged to be there at 1pm, but arrived a little late at…

DON’T GIVE UP I feel passionately about Matthew’s question about what to do when you worry your passion for guitar is waning [Feedback, issue 417]. Matthew: I know pro and semi-pro players who get fed up, too. The good news is you can fix it and, if I may, I would like to put forward some practical suggestions. You say you find it a bit of a chore and you don’t play in a band. I also get the impression that you no longer listen to music so much. Well, that’s exactly where I was a few years ago, too. So how did I fix it? First, play music with like-minded people and try to do as many gigs as you can – the more you gig, the better it…

The Doors The Doors – 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Rhino) Half a century on, this debut continues to fascinate. Presented here in remastered stereo and mono mixes and a rediscovered raw San Francisco Matrix show captured just after the album’s release, it’s still hard to believe Robby Krieger had only been playing guitar for two years, with Light My Fire his first writing credit. He could already hear the bigger picture of this bass-less ensemble, fusing genres with an innate chemistry led by Morrison’s assured charisma. In Willie Dixon’s Back Door Man, Krieger proved himself a player with his own blues voice, while the psychedelic trip of The End showcases his sublime playing on its snaking twin solos . [DH] Standout track: The End For fans of: Love, Cream, Jefferson…

It began with a buzz among the muso community. The word on the street was that Snarky Puppy were the band to seek out and, as a result, became quickly elevated to the same sort of status as groups such as Tower Of Power – dynamic and groove-laden, the individual members fusing together and making the most demanding music seem like a gentle afternoon’s stroll in the park. There’s been a roll call of great musicians pass through the Puppies during their 13- year existence, with Mark Lettieri currently holding down guitar duties. Renowned for an ability to turn his hand to virtually any style, we were fascinated to explore his full range of endeavours, from the band, to session work and his own solo projects. 1 When The Pupil…

 ohn Dawson Winter III was born in Beaumont, Texas on 23 February 1944. He began playing guitar via the unusual route of turning first to the clarinet and then ukulele, settling on the instrument that was to lead him to worldwide renown around the age of 11. His first experience of performing was with his brother Edgar, initially as an Everly Brothers-inspired duo and then, at the age of 14, in his first band, Johnny And The Jammers. During his formative years, he was exposed to a vast style of music. “You had to be able to play a lot of different things in the clubs or you’d get killed” JOHNNY WINTER “I think that’s what I liked about growing up there; you could just hear so much stuff,” he…

SHURE SM57 This microphone has gained legendary status as the one that can literally do anything. Its great on vocals, guitars, drums, brass instruments, and so on. For under a hundred quid, you can own a microphone that has recorded a million hit albums! AKG C414 A more serious mic and investment at just under a grand. This condenser mic has been around since the early 70s and can switch from a standard cardioid pickup pattern to an experimental figure of eight pattern. A hugely versatile option. NEUMANN TLM 102 Another heavyweight name in mic design. Most Neumann mics are out of reach financially for the home recordist, but this little mic – a fixed cardioid pattern condenser – is wonderful for recording all instruments and comes in at under…

Writer DARRAN CHARLES Guitarist, Godsticks Despite a cast iron vow never to use a digital amp live, Godsticks guitarist Darran Charles rethinks his principles prior to a tour of Europe and is tempted by Fractal Audio’s AX8… “I began asking myself: what are the advantages of not going completely digital?” My first exposure to the possibilities of using a digital modeller live occurred back when I took a Kemper profiler on a Longterm Test in 2014. At the end of my time with it, I decided that, ‘For now, the Kemper remains a studio tool only, and in truth, part of me is relieved that my ears won’t yet accept anything less than a tube amp on stage…’ Like every fickle vow I make in relation to guitars and…

The Strat is the only guitar that can claim to be one of the most iconic creations of the 20th century When it was launched in 1954, the Fender Stratocaster looked so far ahead of its time it could have fallen from a flying saucer. That futuristic design was thanks in part to Western swing guitarist Bill Carson. Frustrated by what he regarded as shortcomings on the earlier Telecaster, Bill pestered Leo Fender to improve the guitar with body contouring, more pickups and a vibrato unit. Instead, Leo and his team went back to the drawing board. Like the Tele, Leo’s new guitar had an ash body (alder was introduced in 1956) and a bolt-on maple neck. There the similarity ends. The double-cutaway body, lifted from the ’51 Precision Bass,…

The Final Countdown Dif ficulty 30 mins per example Tutor: Martin Taylor | Gear used: Martin Taylor Vanden Caprice archtop THIS IS the final column of our series of six. There’s no more left to learn, no more intervals to insert into the pentatonic scale – we’ve covered them all. What’s left for you to do now is to consolidate everything we’ve looked at so far. I realise that it’s bewildering to try to take all of this information in at once, but if you find yourself floundering or suddenly out of your depth, go right back to where we started and revise the work we’ve covered thus far. The chances are that your fingers know the basic pentatonic shape really well and so they’ll struggle and resist a bit…

Electrics Burns Shadows 2004 guitar. Fitted Burns case with accessories, full documentation including Bruce & Hank signed certificate. Unplayed condition. £875. Contact hildaallen1@hotmail.co.uk. N Ireland Gibson Custom L-5, 1990 sunburst, vgc, never gigged. Gibson hardcase. £4,900 ono. Call Bryan on 01244 401737 or email bryankenworthy@btinternet.com. Chester Epiphone Les Paul Standard 2012 Honeyburst. Great condition. Coil-splitting/chubby neck. Ungigged, with Gibson USA hard case. £250. Call Dan on 07902 461569. Cornwall Epiphone Les Paul Standard 2013 Sunburst. Great condition. Coil-splitting. Ungigged, with Epiphone hard case. £250. Call Dan on 07902 461569. Cornwall Epiphone Sheraton II 2014 Ebony. Excellent condition. Ungigged/ hardly played, with hard case. £280. Call Dan on 07902 461569. Cornwall 2009 Fender American Standard Stratocaster. Three-tone sunburst, maple neck, single-coil pickups. With hard case and strap. Mint condition. £695. Call…