Innehållsförteckning för August 2019 från Guitarist

This month, I embarked on building my first acoustic guitar – a factory kit issue by Martin (see feature, p76). And it was an education in more ways than one. Aside from learning many useful and practical skills (such as how to sharpen a plane properly), the process threw fresh light on issues that guitarists have to weigh up when they’re considering what guitar to buy. First, many people wonder what the premium price tag of a handmade guitar actually buys. As consumers, it’s arguable that guitarists have become a bit blasé about pearl inlays, fancy binding and the like, taking it for granted. But each of these processes takes time and care to get right and all of that has a cost attached to it – especially if you…

PRICE: £939 ORIGIN: Mexico TYPE: Offset solidbody electric BODY: Alder NECK: 2-piece caramelised maple with hand rubbed urethane finish and graphite reinforcement, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech TUSQ XL/42.86mm FINGERBOARD: Caramelised maple with small dot inlays, 305-406mm (12-16”) radius FRETS: 24, jumbo HARDWARE: Chrome Gotoh Custom 510 6-saddle floating bridge with screw-in arm, Charvel die-cast locking tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 53mm ELECTRICS: Direct-mount Seymour Duncan SH-10B Custom Full Shred humbucker (bridge), SSL-6 Custom Flat Strat single coil (middle), APH-1N Alnico II Pro ’bucker (neck), 500k EVH Bourns Low-Friction master volume, No-Load master tone, 5-way pickup selector lever switch WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.5/7.12 OPTIONS: Hard case (£108.99); padded gigbag (£43.99) RANGE OPTIONS: Pro Mods with Floyd Rose vibratos: DK24 HH FR twin-humbucker with alder body and quilted maple top…

PRICE: £3,378 (inc hard case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Grand Concert acoustic TOP: Western red cedar BACK/SIDES: Tropical mahogany MAX RIM DEPTH: 111mm MAX BODY WIDTH: 381mm NECK: Tropical mahogany SCALE LENGTH: 632mm (24.8”) TUNERS: Taylor slot head with ebony buttons NUT/WIDTH: Black Graphite/44.45mm FINGERBOARD: West African ebony FRETS: 18 medium BRIDGE/SPACING: Ebony/57mm ELECTRICS: Taylor Expression System 2 WEIGHT (kg/lb): 1.7/3.7 OPTIONS: Sitka spruce top, sunburst finish, short scale neck – all at additional cost RANGE OPTIONS: The V-Class Grand Concerts kick off with the 312ce in both 14 and 12-fret version (£2,217 & £2,428) Other 500 series models include the 14-fret 512ce (£3,167) and the mahogany-topped 522ce in both 14 and 12-fret versions (£3,273 & £3,484) LEFT-HANDERS: Yes, no additional cost FINISH: Natural gloss body with satin neck Taylor Guitars…

IGF Bath Summer School 6 to 11 August Bath Spa University, Newton St Loe The return of the IGF’s Summer School to its spiritual home of Bath is being very much welcomed. “Returning to Bath for 2019 is a big thing as that’s where it started back in the mid 90s,” says tutor and Guitar Techniques magazine’s tuition editor, Jason Sidwell. “Over the week, students get a real insight into their chosen specialism, learning from the UK’s most experienced performers and tutors. Every day is about guitar playing, covering everything from technique and theory topics to repertoire.” With funk, jazz, rock, acoustic and blues courses on offer and tutors including jump-blues maestro Chris Corcoran and GT editor, Neville Marten, this is going to be a special opportunity for players. www.igf.org.uk…

Six Pedals To Try In 2019 £Various The explosion in interesting effects is showing no signs of cooling down and our trip to the Winter NAMM Show in January brought us into contact with some of the coolest, most original and just plain great-sounding effects pedals we’ve heard in a while. We covered some in our report from the show, but we thought that a few of the others we couldn’t quite squeeze in deserved to be brought to your attention. So here’s our pick of six pedals to Velcro to your ‘must try’ list if you’re in the market for some top-notch new sounds. Beetronics FX Swarm Analog Fuzz Harmonizer £TBC We’ve given this a mention once or twice before, but it appears again here because it was…

Getting thrown in at the deep end always keeps playing music for a living interesting. I’ve been working in studios (mostly TV and film) for around 20 years now, and this has pretty much exclusively involved reading music, or at least having chord charts present. There’s something comforting about having a music stand in front of me, so, if all else fails, at least I have the information to hand and I don’t have to rely on my memory when someone points a TV camera at me broadcasting live to three million people. I get quite a few students asking about the sight-reading aspect of playing and, to be honest, sometimes I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to teach it. I’ve been reading music since I…

A few issues ago we looked at the basics of fret size and its influence on the tone and playability of your guitar. If you do a lot of playing or your gigs are all from the ‘hard knocks’ school of live performance, you’ll likely encounter some problems with fretwear or damage sooner or later. “As frets wear, the playing experience suffers,” comments Scott Shiraki of Dunlop, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of fretwire.“Though many players can’t feel the minute changes over time, worn, uneven frets will make a notable difference in feel, playing mechanics and intonation. Chords will be out of tune and strings will start to buzz. It’s important to keep frets in good shape for the best playing experience.” So, if your frets do start getting…

PREHISTORY: RORY’S STRAT I read with great interest your feature on Rory Gallagher, particularly a comment by his nephew Daniel: “The Strat was originally ordered for another guitarist who passed on it because he wanted a Fiesta Red, like Hank Marvin’s.”Well, I can fill you in on the background to that story… I wrote a series a few years back on the Irish Showband era and became friendly with Jim Conlon, the guitarist mentioned by Daniel. First of all, he didn’t pass on the guitar at all, he kept it for three to four months until the one he wanted, a Fiesta Red, came in from the US. The shop was Crowley’s Music Shop in Cork. Jim played guitar with a successful Irish band named The Royal Showband and they…

Rosalie Cunningham Rosalie Cunningham Cherry Red Records Lysergic glam-rock from a haunted ballroom Formerly of the critically acclaimed “vaudeville carny psyche” band, Purson, Rosalie Cunningham arrives with a debut solo outing that is a heady brew of psychedelia, hard-driving riffs and glam-rock, all in thrall to Cunningham’s bewitching vocal presence. This isn’t a by-the-numbers homage to the early 70s, though: Cunningham’s too original for that. There’s a baroque eccentricity to tracks such as House Of The Glass Red and Fuck Love that draws the listener into her hall-of-mirrors musical world, while the guitar work is from the Queen school of supremely melodic hooks, slathered in vintage fuzz. These add a 60s horror-flick vibe to proceedings, but are never mere musical gimmicks. It adds up to a decadently gothic treat. [JD]…

IN THE VIDEO LESSON, Chris explores the idea of discovering more about the fretboard both from the point of view of melody – using a mix of major and minor scales – and harmonically, using a chord style inspired by Jimi Hendrix. Alas, we only had enough room to tab out some of the many ideas on the video, but these are the key moments that will give you a few ideas to work on when you practise. As usual, the advice here is to take things slowly – especially Example 5, which might contain ideas that are unfamiliar to you. But patient, persistent practice will soon unlock new levels of creativity! Example 1 Fretboard Orienteering IN THIS FIRST EXAMPLE, Chris looks at a simple way of mapping out…

In our earlier report of Gibson’s then-2019 Les Pauls in issue 443, a reader complained that we had treated our ’Pauls to a quick bit of TLC. He expected the guitars to be perfect out of the case, especially for price. Our writer, Dave Burrluck, goes commando… “It’s pretty alien to me to take out a brand-new never-been-played guitar without making sure it’s as I want it. New strings, a little fingerboard and fret buff, then a tweak of the action and pickup heights – these are all things that ‘soften’ and personalise a box-fresh instrument. But this time around, with that reader’s letter in mind, I took out the Les Paul Classic untouched: all I’d done were the weights and measures for our spec lists and dimensions panels for…

PRICE: £1,999 (inc case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Single-cut, solidbody electric BODY: 2-piece mahogany with carved maple top NECK: 1-piece mahogany, Vintage ’50s profile, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 624mm (24.6”) NUT: Graph Tech FINGERBOARD: Single-bound rosewood, Acrylic Trapezoid inlays, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: ABR-1 tune-o-matic bridge, aluminium stopbar tailpiece, vintage deluxe tuners w/ keystone buttons – nickel plated ELECTRICS: Gibson Burstbucker 1 (neck) and Burstbucker 2 (bridge), 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, volume and tone for each pickup WEIGHT (kg/lb): 4.02/8.84 OPTIONS: Also available with dual-P-90 single coil in Gold Top only RANGE OPTIONS: Other Les Pauls in the Original Collection include the Special (£1,199) and Junior (£1,299) LEFT-HANDERS: Not listed FINISHES: Tobacco Burst (as reviewed), Gold Top, Heritage Cherry Sunburst – gloss nitro-cellulose PROS A return to…

PRICE: £999 (inc case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Single-cut, solidbody electric BODY: 2-piece mahogany with carved maple top w/ Ultra Modern weight relief NECK: 1-piece maple, rounded neck profile, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 624mm (24.6”) NUT: Graph Tech FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, Acrylic Trapezoid inlays, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: Aluminium Nashville tune-o-matic bridge, aluminium stopbar tailpiece, Vintage Deluxe w/ keystone buttons – nickel plated ELECTRICS: Gibson 490R (neck) and 490T (bridge), 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, volume and tone for each pickup WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.27/7.2 OPTIONS: No RANGE OPTIONS: See Les Paul Classic (left) LEFT-HANDERS: Not listed FINISHES: Satin Iced Tea, Satin Honeyburst (as reviewed), Satin Tobacco Burst, Satin Cherry Sunburst – satin nitrocellulose PROS Pared back but competent build; light weight; energetic voicing; its price CONS The bare-bones finish…

1 Another new boutique brand? Not at all. Patrice Vigier and his small team have been making guitars and basses since 1980. Initially, their designs included features such as carbon graphite necks and complex active electronics. While Vigier’s current range centres around the more mainstream Excalibur and Expert double-cuts, the G.V. Wood was the brand’s first single-cut guitar named after Patrice’s late father, Georges Vigier, who’d worked with him from day one of the company. 2 Do they still use graphite necks? No, but the 10/90 neck system (first used in 1988) uses a central carbon graphite spine flanked by two pieces of maple. There’s no truss rod, either. As you’ll read, the G.V. Hollow employs plenty of innovation. 3 Who’s gonna play one? Anyone who’s serious about their craft…

IK MULTIMEDIA AXE I/O £369 CONTACT IK Multimedia WEB www.ikmultimedia.com Those of you who embark on any home recording these days will likely be using a computer to take advantage of the absolute wealth of facilities provided by modern DAW software such as Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase or Reaper, just to name a few, and perhaps also using amp sim plug-ins including AmpliTube, BIAS, Guitar Rig and so on. The thing is, although there’s plenty you can do to your guitar tone once it’s recorded as digital data on the hard drive, it makes absolute sense to record the signal as well as possible in the first place. As that ancient recording engineer’s saying goes, you can’t polish a turd. What you need, then, is a decent audio interface that…

PRICE: £369 ORIGIN: Italy TYPE: USB audio/MIDI interface FEATURES: Variable impedance guitar input, dedicated amp output, tuner CONTROLS: Gain x2, Z-Tone, Passive/Active switch, JFET/Pure switch, Preset selector, 48V phantom power switch, Tuner switch, Monitor Mix, Headphones volume, Master volume CONNECTIONS: Standard guitar input x2, mic/line combi input x2, standard stereo phones output, standard external amp output, standard line outputs (1/L, 2/R, 3, 4), external control jacks x2, MIDI IN, MIDI out, USB 2.0 POWER: Supplied adaptor DIMENSIONS: 238 (w) x 211 (d) x 53mm (h) PROS Good basic set of audio interface features; dedicated guitar input and reamping output; facility to connect external control pedals/ switches; two line outputs to send sound to different destinations CONS The tuner could be better…

Aficionados of quirky vintage guitars will already know the Teisco brand. The Japanese company was responsible for one of the most distinctive-looking guitar designs of the 60s with its Spectrum 5, which luxuriated in Austin Powers space-age grooviness. Now Teisco is back as part of the Singaporean BandLab Technologies group (also behind Harmony and Heritage guitars), and a certain cool design ethic lives on in its first releases of these three curvy, immaculately finished low-profile pedals. Officially launched at 2019’s Winter NAMM Show and named after their functions (Boost, Delay and Fuzz), these are all-analogue designs powered by a nine-volt battery or adaptor. They sit on little rubber feet that can be pulled out of their mounting holes (which reveal the baseplate screws for battery changes) if you like a…

Today’s effects market does not appear to offer a great deal of variety when it comes to analogue multi-modulation pedals. Given the ever more affordable and practically dimensionless nature of DSP technology, most pedal builders looking to squeeze multiple modulation effects into a single stompbox unit have opted to go down the digital route. And yet despite designers cramming a virtual rack’s worth of effects into a box often no bigger than its own power supply, many guitarists continue to be inspired by the inherent limitations and simplicity of analogue gear as much as the sounds themselves. As Mad Professor’s founder, Harri Koski, recently told Guitarist: “There aren’t many multi-modulation pedals this size on the market. DSP effects are popular, but this is a real analogue circuit,” and alongside the…

THE BACKGROUND TODD CARTER, GUITARIST READER VIA EMAIL I’ve been building a pedalboard with all the staple pedals, but I just don’t get why I would need some types of effects pedals. For instance, bit crushers and octave-up pedals make me sound bad enough to want to give up guitar. At a tamer level, my friends have told me a compressor is a “must-have” and that an EQ pedal will help me tighten up my sound. Before I yield to their whining, can you give me a definitive answer as to why I should get any of these pedals? I use a variety of guitars including an SG and a Telecaster, among others. My main amp is a Marshall JCM800 and my practice amp is a…

Writer DAVID MEAD, Guitarist, Deputy Editor Our intrepid tunings explorer plays a game of ‘how low can I go?’ with the Ibanez AE255BT baritone acoustic, aiming for an increased range that offers the perfect spread of pitches Now, where were we? I’ve been busily indulging my wont for low-slung acoustic tonalities with the Ibanez AE255BT for a while now. In the last instalment, I tried a simple restring and fell at the first post – quite literally. I found that the holes in the tuning capstans were too small to accommodate the bass strings of a set of baritone Elixirs and instead opted to install a hybrid alternative set that comprised 0.056, 0.045, 0.035, 0.030, 0.022, 0.016, bass to treble. I’ve since asked around and it seems that many baritone…

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. Ed Mitchell After 18 years in guitar retail Ed turned to journalism as reviews editor ofTotal Guitar, then as a contributor toGuitarist. He’s also edited the mags The Blues and Country Music. 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…

1. SERIAL NUMBER Five-digit number (typically between 34000-43000) stamped into neck plate 2. HEADSTOCK Flared Stratocaster-style profile; gold ‘spaghetti’ Fender logo; nitrocellulose clearcoat finish 3. BODY Two-piece solid alder; offset profile; rib and forearm contours; Three-Tone Sunburst nitrocellulose finish 4. PICKUPS Two wide/flat single-coil pickups; two-position lead/ rhythm circuit slide switch; 1meg-ohms volume and 50kohms tone roller pots (rhythm circuit); three-way pickup selector toggle switch, volume, tone 1megohms pots (lead circuit); brass tray cavity shielding 5. HARDWARE Gold-coloured aluminium pickguard; front-loading jack socket; single-line Kluson Deluxe tuners; butterfly string tree and spacer; chrome-plated top-loading spring-loaded tailpiece with lock switch and floating bridge ‘Tremolo’; chrome-plated bridge cover; chrome-plated ‘Tremolo’ arm 6. PLASTICS ABS pickup covers; ABS volume and tone knobs (lead circuit); rhythm/ lead circuit switch grip; three-way pickup selector switch…

LED ZEPPELIN In Through The Out Door Returning to the Telecaster on quite a few tracks here, Jimmy Page appears to have been going through a country/ rockabilly phase on Hot Dog, though there is also a country influence hiding in All My Love, in the form of the unusual string bends (via a device called the Parsons/White B-Bender) on Jimmy’s Tele. Though arguably not the highest rated Zep tune in guitar circles, there is nevertheless some interesting doublestop work on South Bound Saurez. PETE ANDERSON Working Class A long-time guitarist of country star Dwight Yoakam among others, Pete Anderson is the real deal. And his playing on Tomorrow Night, Fire and the title-track opener demonstrate this clearly. It’s always interesting to hear how an artist approaches reproducing their material…

Brian Setzer The Stray Cats’ recent return to recording yielded an absolute firecracker of an album. Setzer shares his rockabilly secrets on p62 Falcon’s Flight The fabled White Falcon was Gretsch’s attempt to out-do Gibson’s opulent Super 400 and this rare bird still impresses today. We join the flock on p68 Audacious Auden We journey over to Northamptonshire to find out how Auden is turning out fantastic acoustic guitars with an independent spirit p122…

PRICE: £939 ORIGIN: Mexico TYPE: Offset solidbody electric BODY: Alder NECK: 2-piece caramelised maple with hand rubbed urethane finish and graphite reinforcement, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech TUSQ XL/42.86mm FINGERBOARD: Caramelised maple with small dot inlays, 305-406mm (12-16”) radius FRETS: 24, jumbo HARDWARE: Chrome Gotoh Custom 510 6-saddle floating bridge with screw-in arm, Charvel die-cast locking tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 53mm ELECTRICS: Direct-mount Seymour Duncan SH-10B Custom Full Shred humbucker (bridge), SSL-6 Custom Flat Strat single coil (middle), SSL-6 Custom Flat Strat RWRP single coil (neck), 500k EVH Bourns Low-Friction master volume, No-Load master tone, 5-way pickup selector lever switch WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.4/7.9 OPTIONS: As Pro-Mod DK24 HSH RANGE OPTIONS: See HSH. There are two Pro-Mod DK24 hardtails: HH HT twin-humbucker with alder body and quilted maple…

PRICE: £4,751 (inc hard case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Grand Concert TOP: Sitka spruce BACK/SIDES: Indian rosewood MAX RIM DEPTH: 111mm MAX BODY WIDTH: 381mm NECK: Tropical mahogany SCALE LENGTH: 631.8mm (24.8”) TUNERS: Gotoh with antique chrome buttons NUT/WIDTH: Black graphite/44.45mm FINGERBOARD: West African ebony FRETS: 20 BRIDGE/SPACING: Ebony/57mm ELECTRICS: Taylor Expression System 2 WEIGHT(kg/lb): 2/4.4 OPTIONS: Adirondack spruce top, Brazilian rosewood back/sides, tobacco sunburst finish, Gotoh gold tuners, Florentine cutaway, at additional cost RANGE OPTIONS: The 812ce DLX is also available in 12-fret version (£4,962). The standard 812ce, in 12- and 14-fret versions costs £4,434 & £4,223. The V-Class GC range is topped by the 912ce, in both 12- and 14-fret versions (£6,441 & £6,229) LEFT-HANDERS: Yes, no additional cost FINISH: Natural gloss body with satin neck PROS Great build…

Guitarist was saddened to hear of the passing of The 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roky Erickson, who died on 31 May, aged 71. Erickson was a key figure in the rise of psychedelic rock during the mid 60s. “As a long-standing friend and follower of Roky’s amazing performing abilities and as a guitarist and singer,” said Billy Gibbons in tribute, “I can only relate the far-reaching impact he and his mates in The 13th Floor Elevators brought to the fore with their eerily magnetic psychedelic sounds. It’s almost unfathomable to contemplate a world without Roky Erickson. He created his own musical galaxy and early on was a true inspiration.” D’Angelico has released its second Bob Weir signature guitar, a Deluxe Bedford model it previewed at the Winter NAMM show at…

BAREFACED AUDIO GX GUITAR CAB £429 Best known for its innovative bass cabinets, British maker Barefaced has branched out into guitar cabs. The company is claiming that, pound-for-pound, the 75-watt GX cab is the loudest for its size and weight on the market thanks to an interesting, patent-pending innovation it’s dubbed Augmented Vent Diffractor technology, which does away with the traditional choice of open- or closed-back cab design and replaces it with a unique geometry to the cab’s internals and a single narrow slot on the reverse that “improves efficiency, power handling and output”. Barefaced is claiming reduced muddiness to the resulting tone, so it cuts through mixes more effectively than conventional cabs, and a bigger, tangibly more expansive sound than you would typically expect from the single 1x12 driver…

Without wanting to bore you with more ‘tales from the road’, I thought I’d quickly mention that, after 17 gigs in just four weeks, I’ve had to kick my strings up a gauge. Believe it or not, this surprised me. God knows why, because it happens every time! Over the Christmas period last year my Martin OM-28 Reimagined stage acoustic was in storage because we had no shows for a couple of months. When I got it back, the action had gone stupidly high and so emergency pre-gig remedial action was taken with a hastily procured Bastard file. Of course this sorted it, but after being out and about and being played a lot, it had now gone the other way and was buzzing badly. I’d started out using 11s,…

Dunlop System 6503 Guitar Tech Care Kit £23.90 A complete solution for fettling your fretboard and the rest of the guitar, Dunlop’s System 65 kit includes Formula 65 polish to keep the body spanking clean, Fretboard 65 ultimate lemon oil for rosewood ’boards, Ultraglide 65 string cleaner, two polishing cloths and a Dunlop string winder. GHS Fast Fret Original String Cleaner £ 7. 49 An old favourite for making your guitar feel slinkier to play, Fast Fret lasts for years and is inexpensive. Don’t go too crazy with it and it will add a nice, silky feel to your fretboard. Ernie Ball Wonder Wipes £3 For a quick freshen up, this is a good gigbag standby.These sachet-based wipe kits contain one fretboard conditioner wipe, two instrument polish wipes and three…

A CHILD IS BORN I have obsessed over all things guitar since the age of 15, and have read your magazine religiously. From sitting on the bus to school to sitting on the Tube to work, your magazine has always been a part of my routine and a regular highlight of my month. Anyway, lately routine has gone out the window as last week I became a proud dad. Over the past few months, my wife and I have gone back and forth over baby names, and we decided that when our son was born, we would know there and then what to call him… and we did; my son is called Rory. Unfortunately, the day before Rory was born, my father-in-law passed away following a long illness. As you…

What was the first gig you played and how did it go? “My first ever gig was when I was about 15 on the Isle Of Wight where I used to live. My father was a member of a film club and they used to have an annual dinner, so he managed to get me and my band – a bass player, a drummer, another guitar player and singer – playing at this annual do. We did a few songs that were probably fairly dire – I think we were all going through one amp – then this woman got up on stage and said,‘Can you play Tequila?’ and, funnily enough, we could. We started playing it and she proceeded to strip all her clothes off… she was the stripper.…

During the 40 years since he first formed the Stray Cats with bassist Lee Rocker and drummer Slim Jim Phantom, Brian Setzer has become a guitar icon. Setzer not only kept roots guitar alive in an era of shred and synth pop, he reinvented big-band swing and helped reboot Gretsch. Earlier this year, Brian and the Cats returned with 40, a Nashville-recorded anniversary marking studio album with all the piss and vinegar of their Dave Edmunds-produced self-titled 1981 debut. The Runaway Boys might be all grown up these days, but they still have that unmistakable Cat class and Cat style… You couldn’t have picked a better moment to record a new Stray Cats album… “Well, we couldn’t let 40 years go by. You don’t want to call an album ‘41’!…

For a plane to do its job effectively and precisely, its blade must be kept in razor-sharp condition. The tools for achieving this are centuries-old, though we will employ one modern tool to aid in the consistency of our sharpened edge. First, we remove the blade from the plane, so we can sharpen it by hand. “There are lots of methods, but doing it by hand is the most inexpensive way of doing it,” Alex explains. “You generally use either an oil stone, a water stone or a diamond stone. The first two require some kind of lubrication and the type of lubrication required is in the name,” he adds. “We’re going to use a water stone, which lives in a bath of water and is made of a very…

One of the many myths that surround the Les Paul is that somehow its classic sound is directly affected by its weight. Some believe heavier is better, that it’s crucial to the design’s notoriously thick sound and legendary sustain. But weight alone doesn’t paint the whole picture. Of the 28 original ’Bursts weighed in Beauty Of The ’Burst (by Yasuhiko Iwanade, 1999), the weight range is between 3.7kg and 4.3kg (8.14lb and 9.46lb). These, of course, are all non-weight-relieved. By the late 50s, Gibson had considerable experience of guitar making on a large scale, and most makers and repairers who’ve studied a few or many of these instruments will agree on the quality of the mahogany used. That ‘pattern grade’ mahogany contributes to the mythical status of the Les Paul,…

PRICE: £1,999 (inc case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Single-cut, solidbody electric BODY: 2-piece mahogany with AA carved maple top NECK: 1-piece mahogany, slim taper neck profile, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 624mm (24.6”) NUT: Graph Tech FINGERBOARD: Single-bound rosewood, Acrylic Trapezoid inlays, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: ABR-1 tune-o-matic bridge, aluminium stopbar tailpiece, Grover Rotomatics w/ kidney buttons – nickel plated ELECTRICS: Gibson Burstbucker 61R (neck) and Burstbucker 61T (bridge), 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, individual volume and tone controls WEIGHT (kg/lb): 4.37/9.61 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: See Standard ’50s (left) LEFT-HANDERS: Not listed FINISHES: Bourbon Burst (as reviewed), Ice Tea, Unburst – gloss nitro-cellulose PROS Slim neck option to the Standard ’60s specs; good detailed build; slightly hotter voicing CONS Again, some might prefer vintage-style wiring; not everyone will…

GIBSON USA SG SPECIAL £1,199 This Pelham Blue incarnation of the SG Special really caught our eye at NAMM. There’s also a version in Sparkling Burgundy that looks stunning, but, for us, it’s got to be Gibson’s answer to Lake Placid Blue. Specs include a rosewood ’board, mahogany body and neck, the latter with an early 60s Slim Taper profile – and best of all, it costs not far north of a grand. Very tempting… GIBSON USA LES PAUL SPECIAL TV YELLOW £1,299 This TV Yellow Special conjures up the punkish allure of the slab-bodied single-cuts nicely. There’s that nitro finish for starters, plus nickel wraparound bridge, rosewood ’board with medium jumbo frets and all that you’d expect. But it’s what Gibson hasn’t put on this guitar – like robot…

Vigier occupies a particular niche in the electric guitar world in terms of its designs and constructions; the new semi-hollow G.V. Hollow is even more unique. That said, more and more electric makers are adding ‘air’ to their solidbodies. We’ve seen PRS’s double-cut CE 24 Semi-Hollow (£2,250) already this year and it has just advertised a semi-hollow version of the S2 Vela (£TBA). Its only unlimited USA production single-cut semi is the S2 Singlecut Semi-Hollow (£1,849), and on a trimmer budget is the SE Zach Myers (£799). A more hollow solidwood ‘semi’ is the Knaggs Chena (from around £3k upwards). Coincidentally, Knaggs is also celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Thinline semis are key to Gibson past and present. Unlike the solid wood construction of the other guitars mentioned here,…

1 That’s a tiny amp head… Well, actually, it’s a new USB audio interface by IK Multimedia for recording to a computer. 2 An audio interface review in a guitar magazine? Any guitar players who are serious about their music will want to record it at some time, and this particular audio interface is specifically designed for guitarists. 3 How’s that, then? The main guitar input is not just a bog-standard hi-Z input as you’ll find on many interfaces: this one lets you set up for active or passive pickups, has optional JFET circuitry in the preamp, and lets you set the impedance to suit your pickups.…

Danelectro has introduced a new ‘vintage’ pedal range that not only revives the sounds of certain ‘lost’ pedals from way back, but also presents them in distressed enclosures in the same vein as relic’d guitars. The initial launch sees two pedals. The Eisenhower Fuzz is based on a 50-year-old fuzzbox with an octave effect and features two selectable voices. The other pedal, The Breakdown, which we’re looking at here, is perhaps the more intriguing of the two in that it has just an output volume knob and an unusual six-way rotary switch that offers increasing amounts of ‘break up’. Dano is not saying exactly which pedal it’s based on, but our suspicions are that it reimagines the Univox UD-50 Uni-Drive, one of the first ever drive pedals, well documented as…

Writer DAVE BURRLUCK Guitarist, Gear Reviews Editor Having given the Provocateur’s neck a boutique sheen, our reviews editor turns his attention to its electrics… Even if we have perfectly good gear, a recurring thought many of us suffer from is ‘could it be better?’This Shergold Provocateur is a typical example. It’s an enjoyable piece to play with a superb feel to the neck, not least after its oil ’n’ wax makeover of last issue. Its Tele-style bridge contributes to a lively, zingy response, even though we have an all-mahogany construction and twin humbuckers. And whether or not its ebony fingerboard is helping to retain or enhance those highs, or perhaps the relatively crisp edge of those Seymour Duncan ’59s, certainly in the split-coil mode – all things considered, it’s got…

By the late 50s Fender had established itself as a force to be reckoned with. Often seen in the hands of guitarists across a range of genres from blues and country to rock ’n’ roll, the company’s Telecaster (introduced as the Broadcaster in 1950) and Stratocaster (released in 1954) were proving popular, although they were seldom adopted among jazz players. The booming electric jazz guitar scene of the 1950s was dominated by Gibson’s ES (Electric Spanish) series, with its flagship Super 400CES and L-5CES electric archtops setting formidably high standards. It was an area of the market Fender was keen to tap into, but rather than trying to beat Gibson at its own game by building electric semi/hollowbody instruments, it decided to take the equally ambitious tack of developing an…

1958 Fender Jazzmaster released; gold-coloured aluminium pickguard 1959 4-layer (w/b/w/tortoiseshell) or 3-layer (w/b/w) celluloid pickguard 1962 ‘Curved’ Brazilian rosewood fingerboards replace ‘slab’ type 1963 Thinner ‘veneer’ Brazilian rosewood fingerboards 1964 Headstock decal changes from ‘spaghetti’ to ‘transition’ Fender logo 1965 Bound fretboard; enlarged headstock; metal cap skirt knobs replace Stratocaster-style knobs 1966 Pearloid block fretboard markers replace dot inlays 1967 Maple fingerboard with black block fretboard markers optional; black CBS Fender logo 1968 Polyester finish introduced 1979 Last appeared in Fender price list at $740 (omitted in 1980 price list)…

Difficulty 15 mins per example Tutor: Richard Barrett | Gear used: Haynes Fidelity, Vox AC15 C1 Modern Country Blues THIS MONTHS’ HEADLINES leans toward a modern country style, but also takes inspiration from a 70s/Little Feat funky feel in terms of its backing track. There is, of course, a clear blues influence – particularly obvious in the harmonica-style b 5 bend in the opening moments of the solo. But the concept for this issue was to mix blues and country with rock ’n’ roll, showing a few techniques that characterise each. The solo is split into four examples, but as you’ll see, everything I played is transcribed here. It’s based heavily on pentatonic scales, but thanks to the ambiguous nature of the backing track (which can be taken as major…

Electrics Fender Telecaster USA standard, 2008. 3 Colour Sunburst, maple neck, Fender hard case. Supurb condition. £800. Call Marc on 07866 952592.Stoke on Trent Gibson Les Paul SG Std., 1962, pat-number pickups. Unbroken but has had numerous types tuners. New case. £8,000. 07773 276815. Cumbria Gibson Les Paul Special 1976 Limited Edition single-cut, P-90s, wrap-over tailpiece, in Protector case. £2,250. 07773 276815. Cumbria Gibson SG Special, circa 1963, white, P-90s, ’58 Les Paul type neck. £4,500. 07773 276815. Cumbria Gibson Les Paul Special double-cut 2006, Cherry Red. Two P-90s, great sound/ tone. Well loved, soft case. £550. Pick-up only. Contact 01277 626595. Essex PRS Sunburst 22 Nitro 2009. Original case, tags, case items. Cherry Sunburst, striped maple top. Pickups P 57/08, trem. Immaculate condition. £1,450. Contact Rob on 07539 298880.…

Everyone knows that old expression, ‘we buy with our eyes’. To that end, some of you have probably already dismissed these new Charvel Pro-Mod DK24 guitars as 80s throwbacks or ‘shred machines’. Just look at that one guitar’s finish. It couldn’t be any more orange. They might as well have called it ‘Presidential Tan’. Well, before you write these guitars off as ‘not for me’ and turn the page, let’s pick them apart like Quincy ME. Aside from their respective finishes, not to mention the front pickups, our Mexico-born DK24 HSH and HSS are identical. Skipping down the spec sheets you’ll find an offset ‘Dinky’ alder body at the nucleus of each guitar. Ribs and beer bellies alike are catered for with your classic Strat-style rear contouring. The front of…

After last year’s success, we’re delighted to confirm the UK Guitar Show 2019 will take place on 21 and 22 September at its new home in the Business Design Centre in London. We’re building on our winning formula of performances, lessons and great gear in a big way and will be unveiling more next issue. As well as hosting the live finals of the Guitarist Of The Year, the weekend will also include the Bass Guitar Show, making it double the value for your ticket price. Brands already confirmed for this year’s gear hall include Fender, ESP LTD, Martin, PRS, Blackstar, Warwick, Marshall, Music Man, Dunlop, Charvel, EVH, Jackson, Ibanez and Gretsch, and we’ll be expanding the stunning showcases of classic gear seen at last year’s Vintage Zone. With electric,…

Phasing: Phasers such as MXR’s famous Phase 90 generate their distinctive sound by splitting the incoming signal from your guitar into two, leaving one side dry but running the other half of the signal through an all-pass filter that alters its phase. When the two halves, dry and filtered, are blended back together, in- and out-of-phase frequencies cancel one another out, leaving characteristic peaks and troughs in the overall frequency spectrum. Effects designers can place several phase-altering filters, commonly called ‘stages’, in the effected side of the signal path, leading to more peaks and troughs and thus complexity in the resulting tone. The position of these peaks and troughs is typically cycled across a given range using an LFO or low-frequency oscillator, which lends phasers their classic swirling tone.…

Just as we might view major chords as having a ‘happy’ sound and minor chords as bringing a ‘sad’ feeling to a song, there are many other atmospheres or moods that we can create by manipulating or altering the voices in a chord. This can include adding or taking away, with a great example being sus chords, where the suspended note (either a 2nd or 4th) replaces the 3rd, rather than adding it (you guessed right: this would make add2 or add4). The examples here are geared more towards the dramatic – the kind of chords that might feature in a film soundtrack to underline the gravitas or terror of the events on screen. Having said that, these chords are also a lot of fun! Example 1 This Em6 chord…

“[With pedals], it’s the different shades, different colours, different textures that draw different facets out of my playing” When Radioshop Pickups in Caerphilly was developing the Chris Buck signature Strat set, Chris realised that he didn’t have a guitar in which to test the various prototypes. So he trawled through online auction sites until he found this 2004 Fender Highway One Strat for the princely sum of £400. By the time the spec for the production pickups sets was finalised, Chris had bonded with the guitar to the extent that it has now become his main instrument on the road. For more details on the signature sets, check out www.radioshoppickups.com…

PRICE: £1,649 (inc case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Single-cut, solidbody electric BODY: 2-piece mahogany with carved maple top w/ 9-hole weight relief NECK: 1-piece mahogany, Slim Taper neck profile, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 624mm (24.6”) NUT: Graph Tech FINGERBOARD: Single-bound rosewood, Acrylic Trapezoid inlays, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: ABR-1 tune-o-matic bridge, aluminium stopbar tailpiece, Grover Rotomatics with kidney buttons – nickel plated ELECTRICS: Gibson Burstbucker 61R ‘Zebra’ (neck) and Burstbucker 61T ‘Zebra’ (bridge), 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, 2 pull-push volumes (coil-tap), 2 pull-push tones (pure bypass/phase) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 4.1/9.02 OPTIONS: No RANGE OPTIONS: Other Les Pauls in the Modern Collection include the Tribute (on review), the Modern (£2,299), the Studio (£1,199), and the double-cut Special (£869) and Junior Tribute DC (£799) LEFT-HANDERS: Not listed FINISHES: Trans Cherry,…

PRICE: £3,459 (inc case) ORIGIN: France TYPE: Single-cut, semi-hollow electric BODY: Alder back with flamed maple carved top NECK: Maple/carbon 10/90 System (10% carbon, 90% wood), bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 630mm (24.8”) NUT/WIDTH: Teflon with zero fret/ 42.62mm FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, 300mm (11.81”) radius FRETS: 22 (plus zero fret), medium stainless steel HARDWARE: Vigier hardtail bridge, Schaller custom M6-2000 locking tuners – all chrome plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52mm ELECTRICS: 2x Amber Custom humbuckers, 5-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume and tone WEIGHT (kg/lb): 2.9/6.38 OPTIONS: No, finish only RANGE OPTIONS: The G.V. range includes the solidbody Wood (£3,389, also with dual-P-90 at the same price), the Rock (£2,859) and the Metal (£2,189) LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Ebony Fade (matt as reviewed), Amber, Anti-Tobacco, Burgundy Fade, Stonewash Blue and Purple Fade, and…

New to the market is the Audient Sono (£419), which the company describes as “the ultimate audio interface for guitarists and musicians”. It combines Audient’s analogue recording technology with speaker-cab simulation from Two Notes and features a built-in 12AX7 valve and three-band tone control. Elsewhere, the Line 6 HX Stomp (£429) is an amp and effects processor that’ll sit on your tabletop offering a two-in/two-out USB audio connection for recording. If you’re looking for something less expensive, however, maybe as an easy entry into computer-based recording, the Focusrite Scarlett Solo (£85) features a mic input, an input for guitars, plus monitoring via line outputs and headphones.…

ORIGIN: China TYPE: Delay pedal FEATURES: Selectable Bypass (Buffer, Relay or Input Kill), tap tempo, 5 onboard presets with A/B variations, MIDI control of parameters DELAY RANGE: Up to 50s CONTROLS: Delay, Mix, Filter, Feedback, Depth, Preset button, Phi button (Phase Flip/Reverse), Delta button (Delay Multiplier), Shape button, Guitar/Line switch, Bypass footswitch, Hotswitch footswitch CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output, expression pedal, USB POWER: 9V adaptor (supplied) DIMENSIONS: 118 (w) x 124 (d) x 57mm (h)…

Uni-Drive £179 Having found some original Univox Uni-Drive pedals – as used by the likes of Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix – Jext Telez decided it must remake them with the provision that the new ones sound exactly the same. This overdrive pedal is the result and is said to have 35dB of gain. Angry Troll £95 Way Huge’s Angry Troll is the only other stepped boost pedal that we’re aware of and it is described as a linear boost amplifier that has 50dB of gain on tap. The pedal sports a volume knob and an Anger rotary switch with ‘fists of fury’ that deliver increasing amounts of gain. EP Booster £123 Another pedal based on vintage equipment, the EP Booster reproduces the sound of the preamp…

1 What was the first pedal you built and how did the design come about? “My brother and I owned a recording studio in Brazil before we moved to the US. We moved here about 10 years ago after my band signed to a label, and the studio we recorded in had a repair tech. I said, ‘We really need to start learning this stuff, because it’s hard to find these guys back home.’ A good entry point was making pedals and the very first pedal I built was a Colorsound Overdriver [clone]. I went on to design my own circuits and the first two Beetronics pedals were the OctaHive [high octave fuzz] and the WhoctaHell [low octave overdrive/fuzz].” 2 What do you think makes Beetronics unique? “I’ve been a…

Rewind to last year’s Gear Of The Year results and you’ll remember that the winner of the acoustic section was the Auden Austin 12-string, a guitar that knocked our collective socks off. From that moment, we were determined to tell the Auden story in these pages and so we hit the high road and sat down with the director, Doug Sparkes. With a range of guitars that are part-built in a dedicated China-based facility and finished here in the UK, the tale of how the company came to be sounds rather like the beginning of a Graham Greene novel… “I was in Shanghai for a weekend and I was just in the process of selling a business and wasn’t sure what I was going to do next,” Doug says. “I’d…

THAT’S A WRAP I’ve owned an old Gibson Les Paul Junior for donkey’s years. I really like it, but it’s always suffered from poor intonation. I don’t think it helps that I use 0.009 gauge strings. Anyway, the guitar is fitted with an old-school wrap-around bar bridge with no provision for intonation adjustment. This combined bridge/tailpiece is looking a bit tired now as well, so I’d like to replace it with something fresher. Here’s the thing. I want to improve the guitar’s intonation and tone without compromising its character. I’ve seen a bunch of wrap-around bridge/tailpiece units for sale, but I don’t know where to start. Do you have any experience of these things? I’d be interested in your recommendations. W Harvey, via email Your classic Gibson wraparound combined bridge/…

When it comes to modding a new guitar, there’s every chance it’ll be a straightforward job. Older instruments can be trickier and might need a little more thought and respect. I’m not talking ‘vintage’ old (although the cut-off point for ‘vintage’ continually moves, it seems) but maybe something a few decades old that’s been played a lot. “There’s plenty to learn and evaluate, so don’t rush, but make a mental (or physical) note of any ‘concerns’ you have” As an example, some while ago I inherited a Japanese-made Ibanez AS-50 semi from a mate who’s quite partial to these slightly downsized models, and according to the serial number stamped into the back of the headstock, it was made in June 1981. I’m no Ibanez history buff, but it seems the…