Innehållsförteckning för September 2020 från Guitarist

This month, we lost one of the greats of British blues music. Peter Green was such a special player, who, like the American bluesmen he admired, had a voice as expressive as his wonderful playing. He might not have acquired quite the household-name status of some of his peers, such as Eric Clapton, but none will surpass his magical touch on a Les Paul, nor the troubled beauty of his musical world. That’s why, although we paid tribute to Peter’s huge influence on guitar just a couple of issues ago, we decided to publish this issue of Guitarist with a commemorative double cover – one bidding farewell to Green, the other bearing the feature that we originally intended to grace the cover, on the late, great Paul Kossoff, marking the…

How did you first get into the guitar-building business? “It’s not my first job. I’m a screenwriter and guitar building is a passion project. I make about three or four guitars a year.” How does your screenwriting side fit in with the story of Joe Doe guitars? “I’ve always loved the stories behind guitars like BB King’s Lucille or Billy Gibbon’s Pearly Gates. I like artefacts and the stories.You know, it might look like a rock but then it turns out to be some Aztec jewellery and suddenly my mind’s blown. It’s just an object but the story elevates it into something special. It’s the same with guitars.There are lots of Gibson thinlines but BB King’s are special. I’m fooled by that as much as anybody and I really like…

PRICE: £749 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: China TYPE: OM cutaway TOP: Sitka spruce BACK/SIDES: Okoume MAX RIM DEPTH: 103mm MAX BODY WIDTH: 385mm NECK: Palaquium SCALE LENGTH: 643mm (23.3”) TUNERS: Grover deluxe vintage gold NUT/WIDTH: Bone/43mm FINGERBOARD: Macassar ebony FRETS: 20 BRIDGE/SPACING: Ebony/54mm ELECTRICS: Fishman Flex Blend System WEIGHT (kg/lb): 1.6/3.52 OPTIONS: The Gold O6 is the non-cutaway version at £549 RANGE OPTIONS: Cort’s Gold Series comprises 13 instruments including the Gold O8 OM size non-cutaway (£697), the Gold A8 auditorium (£879), and the Gold-Edge LE (£1,299) LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISH: Natural satin (as reviewed) or Natural Glossy – “Sonically enhanced UV” 440 Distribution 0113 2379658 www.cortguitars.com 8/10 PROS Well-thought-out construction and good sounds with great onstage potential CONS That narrow nut might be an annoyance to some fingerstylists…

David MacGregor Looking For A Place Called Home World Jazz Records 8/10 Solo guitar with jazzy, world music overtones Scottish world jazz guitarist and composer David MacGregor currently resides in the Netherlands and has made it his mission to provide the world with an album that will “help listeners rediscover their roots” using “vintage sound and modern production”. Looking For A Place Called Home was inspired by David’s travels around the world and is currently available on vinyl only, such is his dedication to traditional practices. As a solo jazz-guitar album it breaks the mould of plummy tone on show tunes to reveal mainly self-penned compositions with real depth and weight. In places Metheney-esque with the occasional flash of Martin Taylor showing through,“David is a creative and unique voice on…

Where seen? Guitar Village, Farnham Price? £5,699 While this is not a Greeny Les Paul as such, is not wired out of phase and has a degree of colour left in the Sunburst, it’s not a million miles away from the look of that famous instrument as I first saw it. The tight, almost flickering flame top was always among my favourites and this Dirty Lemon finish certainly evokes a bit of that. These latest Les Pauls are pretty stunning, too. And there’s such variety around at the moment that whatever your visual preference you’ll easily find ‘the one’. According to Guitar Village this is a lightweight example (as Greeny’s was), and the twin Custombucker Alnico III pickups will give all the grunt you require. Bare Knuckle does a great…

Bibi McGill is at home in Portland, Oregon. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, gigging is currently not on her schedule. Originally based in Denver, Colorado, she has spent the best part of her working life on the road, first as a guitarist then latterly as a certified yoga instructor. After moving to LA in the 80s, she played the regular club gig circuit for many years before eventually being plucked from the crowd to join Pink on her rise to global stardom. The moment Bibi stepped foot on stage for her live TV debut with Pink’s band she became one of the most in-demand guitarists among her peers… “Before I could even walk off the stage, my phone was blowing up,” she tells us, referring to her 2001 performance with Pink…

“It was at the club Rado, which was a very rough club in Belfast, and at that time Peter had just replaced Eric in The Bluesbreakers. They came on stage and Peter had a rented Selmer amplifier – it was a big 100-watt one, all in one, so it wasn’t like a stack. In those days Selmer amplifiers were not regarded as being very cool at all. He had a lot to live up to obviously because everyone was standing there almost with their arms folded like, ‘Okay let’s see what you can do…’ He plugged straight into this amp and played the first lick of All Your Love and just devastated everybody because he had the most incredible tone. I remember the floor was shaking. I’ve never heard a…

Few guitarists have the power to snatch a show out of the gutter and fling it into the heavens, but Free’s guitarist was one of them: “I saw Kossoff pull a gig up out of the toilet one night,” recalls Whitesnake veteran Bernie Marsden. “They were really not doing very well and Kossoff kind of looked across the stage and gave [drummer] Simon Kirke the nod. He counted into All Right Now and, of course, the place just went nuts. The gig was rescued completely.” Famed yet fated, Kossoff’s star rocketed high, flared bright then tumbled to Earth, spent, in just eight years. He played his first gigs with Free in 1968, at the age of just 17. He cut his first album with the band, Tons Of Sobs, the…

BODY: Mahogany back, maple bookmatched top NECK: Mahogany HEADSTOCK: Low E side 16.26mm; top 14.55mm; width at top edge 78.54mm; thickness at 1st fret 20mm and 12th fret 22.25mm; 16th fret measurement 54.68mm NUT: 42.56mm FINGERBOARD: Brazilian rosewood FRETS: 2.61mm HARDWARE: Grover Rotomatic machineheads; Gibson Tune-o-Matic ABR-1 bridge – 83.9mm long and 10.76mm wide (post-to-post 75mm) ELECTRICS: PAF pickups (bridge 7.99kohms, neck 8.38kohms); Gold bonnet type control knobs –18.72mm at waist, 27.27 on numbered edge CONTROL CAVITY: Centralab volume and tone potentiometers, Sprague Bumblebee capacitors (paper-in-oil type) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.96/8.74 TOGGLE SURROUND: 33.34mm PICKUP SURROUND: 89.31mm long, 45.2mm wide BODY THICKNESS: 49.41mm at toggle area and 47.09mm at back of tailpiece (above strap button) TAILPIECE: 101.72mm long…

Just two years into Gibson’s fledgling solidbody electric programme, in 1954, the original Les Paul was augmented with the very swanky Les Paul Custom, which was priced at $325. It was $100 more expensive than the standard model. Launched at the same time at $99.50, the Les Paul Junior was Gibson’s most affordable electric guitar and became extremely popular, not least when paired with its namesake $49.50 amp. Although not officially listed until 1956, the Les Paul TV appeared at the end of 1954, identical to the Junior save for its limed mahogany finish. The dual P-90 soapbar Les Paul Special followed in 1955, again in that limed mahogany finish. The Junior, TV and Special’s single-cutaway outline was changed in 1958 to the double-cutaway shape that allowed easier access to…

PRICE: £1,239 (inc case) ORIGIN: China TYPE: Single-cutaway, single pickup solidbody BODY: 1-piece okoume NECK: 1-piece okoume, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 629mm (24.75”) NUT/WIDTH: Bone/43.5mm FINGERBOARD: Ebony, pearl dot inlays, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium/jumbo (22 Jescar FW47104-P) HARDWARE: Faber TPWC compensated Wrap Tailpiece w/ steel posts; Faber FKT33SBR-NA Klusonstyle tuners – aged nickel STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 51mm ELECTRICS: Lollar 50s-spec Dog Ear single coil volume and No-Load tone control WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3/6.6 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: The double-cut SB55DC/v is inspired by the late-’58 Les Paul Junior and comes in a red/ brown Antique Varnish finish at the same price LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISH: Sunburst Antique Varnish (as reviewed) PROS Authentic looks and feel; perfect weight, great intonation and playability; wide ranging sounds from just the simple setup; affordable boutique…

There’s plenty to listen to on the Acoustasonic Strat. Starting in ‘neck pickup position’, position 5 of the Voice Selector switch, we have what Fender calls its Core Acoustics: a Sitka spruce-topped dreadnought with mahogany back and sides (A); turn the Mod control clockwise and we voice sound B, a smaller slot-head Sitka spruce-topped concert with rosewood back and sides. Position 4 offers the Alternative Acoustics, a short-scale guitar with Sitka spruce top and walnut back and sides (A) and a Sitka spruce/mahogany Americana dreadnought (B). Position 3 is Percussion & Enhanced Harmonics where a single voice, a Sitka spruce-topped Auditorium size with rosewood back and sides (A), can be blended with the top pickup (B). Position 2 Acoustic & Electric Blend has an Englemann spruce-topped dreadnought with rosewood back…

PRS HOLLOWBODY II FROM £4,749 With the exception of the rarely seen Hollowbody I 12-string, the long-running Hollowbody II and the non-piezo McCarty 594 Hollowbody II are the only remaining USA-made guitars from the numerous models we’ve seen since the late 90s. It’s made from all solid woods (not laminates) and includes Phase III locking tuners, TCI-tuned 58/15 LT humbuckers and, of course, its piezo system on which the SE version is based. www.prsguitars.com TAYLOR T5Z CLASSIC £2,219 Effectively a downsized version of the original T5, the T5z is more solidbody-sized but still a thinline acoustic here with braced mahogany top, a 305mm (12-inch) ’board radius, and jumbo frets. There’s only one visible pickup, the thin bridge humbucker, but there’s also an acoustic body sensor and a concealed neck humbucker.…

Writer DAVE BURRLUCK Guitarist, Gear Reviews Editor What did you do during lockdown? Our gear reviews editor played the heck out of Nik Huber’s latest solidbody.What was it about this guitar that hooked him? We find out… Keep the recipe simple and use the best-quality ingredients money can buy and you’re on the way to producing a great plate of food – or indeed a guitar. Of course, those elements don’t mean a lot on their own. It takes a guitar maker to corral them into a dish that will appeal to the knowledgeable palate of a musician. If there were Michelin stars for guitar makers, Nik Huber would have a few. But without those quality ingredients, even what appears to be a simple recipe, such as the maple/alder bolt-on…

Chet Atkins (1924-2001) is probably the most important guitarist ever to be associated with the Gretsch guitar brand. His original line of signature models, which were launched in the 1950s, were seen in the hands of some of the most influential guitarists known to rock ’n’ roll. Eddie Cochran, Duane Eddy and George Harrison were all famous exponents of Gretsch Chet Atkins signature models in the early days, and in later years these guitars continued to be the go-to instruments for countless professional players across a broad range of styles from country, blues and rockabilly right through to hard-rock and punk. A master of the electric guitar, gifted engineer and producer, popular recording artist and radio/TV star – Chet Atkins was as important to Gretsch as Les Paul was to…

1. SERIAL NUMBER ‘8’ prefixed (denoting 1958) numerical serial number ink-stamped onto upper rear of headstock 2. HEADSTOCK Arrowhead shape; three-piece construction (glued-on wings); three-on-a-side tuners; black front finish 3. HARDWARE Gold-plated: bespoke V-shaped brass tailpiece; adjustable Tune-o-matic bridge with brass saddles; individual Kluson tuners; six string ferrules; two strap buttons 4. NECK Glued-in; one-piece korina; 24¾-inch scale length; Brazilian rosewood fretboard; pearloid dot markers; 22 frets; 21st-fret body join; adjustable truss rod 5. BODY Symmetrical V-shape; two-piece korina; string-through-body; natural finish 6. PLASTICS Three-ply (w/b/w) pickguard and circular jack surround; three black numericised bonnet knobs; white switch tip; two black pickup surrounds; raised silver Gibson headstock logo; white ‘keystone’ tuner buttons; b/w ‘bell’ truss rod cover; black rubber grip strip on treble side 7. PICKUPS & ELECTRONICS Two PAF…

FREE Tons Of Sobs On this first release, Free are on raucous form, with Kossoff’s riffs and solo fills front and centre on Walk In My Shadow. I’m A Mover also allows him to stretch out over Andy Fraser and Simon Kirke’s funky rhythm section. The blues classic The Hunter features quite a few overdubs compared with the frequently sparse nature of the band’s later material, but you can still hear that distinctive vibrato cutting through everything. FREE Free Recorded in the first half of 1969 and released later that year, this album takes a more song-focused approach, which apparently caused some friction with the spontaneous Kossoff – although his signature soloing still leads the way on I’ll Be Creepin’, Woman and Broad Daylight. The latter displayed a more soul-based…

Farewell, Peter Join us in a final salute to a giant of British blues, along with some of the top players who knew him or were influenced by his music p50 Bare Necessities Innovative British cabinet maker Barefaced Audio is getting surprisingly big sounds out of small, featherweight cabs. Find out how on p108 Plugged, Unplugged What guitar can best deliver authentic acoustic sounds while also handling your electric needs? We put PRS and Fender head to head on p88…

PRICE: £599 (inc case) ORIGIN: Vietnam TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric BODY: American alder NECK: Maple, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT/WIDTH: GraphTech/43mm FINGERBOARD: Maple, 254mm (10”) radius FRETS: 22, medium HARDWARE: Aged nickel Wilkinson WVC six-saddle vibrato and Wilkinson WJ55 E-Z-Lok style tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 53mm ELECTRICS: Joe Doe S-style single coils (bridge and middle), Joe Doe T-style single coil (neck), master volume and master tone, angled 5-way pickup selector blade switch WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.8/8.5 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: Salty Dog with maple fingerboard in Albatross White with sailor tattoos; Jailbird with Lignum Rosa ’board in Red; Longboard with maple ’board in Laguna Blue; Lucky Betty with maple or Lignum Rosa ’board in White and Red. All £599 with hard case LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Sunburst/Butterscotch – as reviewed John…

STONED AGAIN A deluxe reissue of The Rolling Stones’ 1973 album Goats Head Soup will include a song the band recorded with Jimmy Page in October 1974. Scarlet is thought to be named after Page’s daughter and features “layered guitar textures” from the Zeppelin man. The reissue is out on 4 September. MAYER GOES DOWN A GEAR John Mayer has revealed he’s not as caught up in the gear side of the creative process as he used to be. “I used to buy a lot of guitars and I moved my sort of fun from the gear to what it is I want to write,” he explained in an online chat with jazz drummer Eric Harland, moderated by New York’s GSI Studios’ producer and engineer Josh Giunta. “I’m trying to…

There’s a question I get asked regularly by students and that’s whether they need to learn classical guitar in order to carve out a career as a session musician. I was lucky enough to ‘accidentally’ get a degree in Classical Music when the university I attended ran out of money for the jazz course at the last minute and offered me a place on its classical stream instead. It was a really rewarding few years academically, although I have to admit I haven’t really used any of the skills I might have developed at the time to any great degree. I think it’s useful to have some right-hand fingerpicking technique, but it doesn’t need to adhere to the relatively strict and standardised approach taken by proper classical guitar players, among…

The easing of lockdown restrictions has stimulated a change of atmosphere in the workshop this month. Customers are resurfacing to get their instruments serviced, live music outdoors is starting to take place, and I sense a flurry of impulsive lockdowninduced online purchases are coming my way. With the doors and windows open inviting the world back in, it feels like the workshop is – both literally and metaphorically – a hive of activity. It’s not just the bees and summertime insects causing a hum, though. Accompanying almost every new instrument repair this week is a complaint of buzzing of one kind or another, and not one customer can identify the source of it. In every instance I am humoured by the fact that no-one is able to reproduce the irritating…

In issue 460 of Guitarist there was a review of the new digital Vox Cambridge50 combo with its 6P1 Nutube in the preamp. This – alongside other developments such as the Kemper profiler and the recent, much-praised Fender Tonemaster Reverb modelling amp – begs a question: could valve amps soon cease to exist? As far back as the 60s, Vox themselves were ahead of the game producing solid-state amps they thought were the way forward, even ceasing valve-amp production – but not for long… There is a fear among the older players (and not so old ones) that something would be lost forever if these amps disappeared. The benchmark of tone and the classic voicings of the past would become blurred. As things are, only a small number of factories…

BERNIE MARSDEN Even Whitesnake and UFO guitarist Bernie Marsden got butterflies whenever he was in the presence of his hero. Here, he shares his memories of his time with Peter – including recent visits In recent years Bernie Marsden visited Peter often. They played together and shared stories of life on the road back in the days when pop was being overtaken by rock and blues in the teenage mindset. Bernie’s memories of Peter reveal a side his fans didn’t see, a man with a wicked sense of humour and an enduring resistance to the rock ’n’ roll limelight. What was your reaction to the news about Peter’s passing? “It hit me hard. Now you get to that reflective part when I think of all the things I could have…

“There’s a guy who basically told John Mayall,‘I can play just as good as Eric Clapton’ and then went home and learned how to do it and recorded AHard Road, which is, to me,‘Beano’ Part II and just as good. I’m not certain why it isn’t a quartet of British guitar royalty – it’s Beck, Page and Clapton and not Green. Maybe because he decided to bow out around 1973/’74. I’m 43 years old and when I was born those guys were already pivotal players in a scene I didn’t even know existed until I was about five years old. But if you look at Peter’s body of work… those songs. I mean, he wrote standards: Albatrossand Oh Well, these are right up there with the greatest songs in the…

“Paul and Peter did know each other vaguely,” David Clayton says.“And I don’t know how exactly that came about, but it certainly did happen. It was for one day I think and it would have been probably where Robin Greatorex used to have his rehearsal studios. “I believe that it was Graham Whyte who went to pick up Peter Green. And he said Peter came in and out through the window with his guitar. He didn’t use the door – he came through the window – and they took him down to play with Paul. Johnny Glover, Free’s manager, confirmed that it occurred and what Johnny said was that, for an afternoon, he had the best band in the world. “So they did play and jam for a bit. But…

“I did an A/B test on the Koss guitar when I inspected it,”Steve recalls.“I had a 1971 conversion Les Paul that was originally a Deluxe. It had humbuckers put in it but the great thing about it was it had the same caps in it as the Koss one and it had been converted so it was fitted with T-buckers. “So there were some contrasts to begin with but when I plugged them both in, you wouldn’t believe how different the two guitars were. The 1971 conversion was brittle in comparison to the ‘Stripped Top’ ’Burst. As soon as you plugged the Kossoff in and you hit the first chords of All Right Now, I can only say you felt like you’d just gone back to 1970. It’s got the…

Love At First Strum “My uncle got me a Gibson L-1, that’s what I learned on. I have a picture of myself holding that guitar at 12 years old. My God, I wish I still had it today. Once I’d learned that first song – Hank Williams’ Honky Tonk Blues – you couldn’t get me away from it. My mother tried to get me out of the house, but I just wanted to learn another Hank Williams or Jimmy Reed song. Then, when I started getting a little better, I saw the J-200 and saved up the $350 for that. Man, that was the guitar. I just had to have one. So I was a pretty weird kid. I was reading Saint Thomas Aquinas, listening to Jimmy Reed. How freakin’…

PRICE: £1,749 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Double-cut solidbody-sized electro-acoustic BODY: Mahogany (hollow) with inset Sitka spruce top NECK: Mahogany, modern ‘deep C’ profile, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) TUNERS: Fender standard cast/sealed staggered tuners NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech Black Tusq/42.8mm FINGERBOARD: Ebony, white dot markers, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, narrow/tall BRIDGE/SPACING: Ebony w/ compensated Black Tusq saddle/53.5mm ELECTRICS: 3-pickup configuration: Fishman under-saddle transducer and bridge plate body sensor, Fender Noiseless N4 magnetic, master volume, Mod knob, 5-way Voice Selector lever switch. Single mono output with USB battery charge WEIGHT (kg/lb): 2.32/5.1 OPTIONS: Colour only RANGE OPTIONS: The American Acoustasonic Telecaster (£1,749) LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: 3-Color Sunburst (as reviewed), Black, Dakota Red, Natural, Transparent Sonic Blue – satin matt polyester to body; satin urethane to neck and headstock Fender Musical…

THE BACKGROUND JOHN FISCHER, Via email I love big amps for my distortion and drive tones, but the amount of venues I can run a 100-watt head in are diminishing on a daily basis. Before lockdown I was gigging regularly running my Friedman BE-100 at a fraction of its maximum volume – and it just didn’t sound as good as it could. So I’ve contemplated moving to pedal-based overdrive and have found that some pedals are ‘solid-state’ and others use valves. I’ve even found something called a Nutube. What are the pros and cons of each type? Can they get close to how my amp sounds? And how many would I need to cover the ground of my amp? THE QUESTIONS 1 WHAT ARE SOLID-STATE, VALVE-BASED AND NUTUBE PEDALS?…

What was the first serious guitar that you bought yourself? “It was a Gibson ES-335 solidbody, which was a limited-edition thing. A very strange guitar, I think they only made it for a year or something. It had 22 frets, rosewood fretboard… it was actually a good instrument. I ended up selling it when I was a teenager and actually found it again maybe 30 years later at a Guitar Center in Northern California and I knew it was mine because I dropped it and it had a chip in the paint and I recognised it immediately. They were selling it for something like $2,800 as a vintage classic instrument – I think I paid $180 for it originally.” What was the most recent guitar you bought? “I’ve actually just…

1964 Gibson J-160E For a majority of guitar players and vintage aficionados, any glance at a vintage Gibson J-160E model will immediately conjure up an image of John Lennon with one in hand. This model first came off the line in 1954 as one of Gibson’s early attempts at what we’d now call an electro-acoustic. While it wasn’t necessarily a huge hit in its original run, the Beatles association has elevated its iconic status, spurring collector interest as well as a set of more recent signature reissues under both the Gibson and Epiphone names. Today’s featured Reverb Rarity is a 1964 edition and comes to us via Guitar Village in Farnham. This guitar has undergone some work to bolster its playability including replacement tuning machines, pickguard and pots, as well…

Every guitarist remembers where they were when we first became aware of Brandon Hicks. That infamous leader of FistMeetsFace. Irritant of the New York punk scene. The troubled genius behind the 35-second classic Riot In My Brain blew our collective mind when he glued together pieces of smashed-up guitars to create his iconic six-string Frankenstein’s monster, the Punkaster. Then there’s country throwback Leslie ‘Lucky Buck’ Coal. He shoulda been bigger than Hank Williams, man. Yet this stalwart of the WHB Giddy Up Y’All radio show laboured in obscurity for decades until a rapper sampled his cult classic Whiskey For Breakfast. That made Coal a star overnight. It also made him rich. And who can forget his distinctive cactus-stamped thinline electric? We’re talking true rock ’n’ roll folklore, baby. You really…

PRICE: £599 (inc case) ORIGIN: Vietnam TYPE: Single cutaway, semi-hollow electric BODY: American alder NECK: Maple, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT/WIDTH: GraphTech/43mm FINGERBOARD: Maple, 254mm (10”) radius FRETS: 22, medium HARDWARE: Nickel Wilkinson WTB 3-saddle bridge and Wilkinson WJ55 E-Z-Lok tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 53mm ELECTRICS: Joe Doe T-style single coil (bridge), P-90-style soapbar (neck), master volume, master tone, 3-way pickup selector blade switch WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3/6.8 OPTIONS: Lucky Buck with Lignum Rosa fingerboard in Black at same price RANGE OPTIONS: See Punkaster LEFT HANDERS: No FINISHES: Honeyburst (as reviewed) 8/10 PROS A great lil’ thinline; light weight; sweet-sounding pickups CONS As with the Punkaster, this model had sharp fret ends; shame about the warped scratchplate…

Once upon a time an acoustic maker who spec’d out its instruments with the ‘all-solid woods’ merit badge to the forefront could be king or queen of the heap. But times have changed and conservation now rules the roost, meaning that now some of the six-string formulae of yore are considered to be all but invalid. We speak to luthiers all the time and many are saying that sometimes laminated sides are actually a very sensible idea, especially when you look at things from the point of view of structural integrity. “Think of the body of an acoustic guitar to be a little like a drum,” one luthier told us. “You need a rigid frame with a resonant, flexible top to make it work.” Okay, we can see that’s a…

Okay, I know I talked about Peter Green and his influence on me and my playing a few issues back, but with the shock of Peter’s passing just two days prior to my writing this, I feel I simply have to revisit the subject. The outpouring of grief from virtually every guitarist on social media, and the obvious love people had for him as a player and an influence, moved me immensely. A bit like Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore, Peter was not a household name in the way Clapton or Hendrix are, and yet he was adored and revered in equal measure. Perhaps (again, a bit like Rory) the fact that he deliberately distanced himself from fame (and the fortune that came with it) lent him musical credibility. And…

One of the most notable characteristics of the guitar is its ability to play the same note in a number of different locations, giving correspondingly different tonal characteristics. There are various ways to explore this, one of the most effective being moving chord shapes that contain open strings freely around the fretboard and making a note of what you find. By doing so, you’ll be following in the footsteps of such luminaries as Steve Hackett, Steve Howe, Alex Lifeson and Andy Summers, to name just a handful. It is mostly one shape that features here, though I have included a rather nice Emaj7 to conclude, giving a set of chords that could work well together in a prog-rock style composition. When taking this approach, you’ll find there are lots of…

One reader got in touch tell us of an unexpected discovery he made when his 335 was inspected – and has an idea for a series of features in Guitarist… My 2001 Gibson ‘Yamano’ 335 is with luthier Jeff Beer for a setup. When I bought it I was told it used to belong to Mark Ronson. We all get these shaggy dog tales from time to time – so I ignored it! Anyway, Jeff wanted to examine the guitar further as he said it felt different to other modern Gibsons... and on removing the scratchplate, this is written [see pic, right]. Obviously not John but it could be Sean? As for the ’03 date, maybe when the Bigsby was fitted? Do Gibson do factory fittings of Bigsbys? Dunno. Maybe…

“I remember going to Eel Pie [Island] one night. I arrived a little bit late and the band were playing The Stumble. I walked in when Peter was doing that doublestop thing, the really difficult bit, and he was smiling away at John Mayall – there was absolute joy on his face – and it sounded brilliant. “It’s a huge loss to music. Peter’s playing on John Mayall’s version of So Many Roads, the Otis Rush song, is absolutely incredible. He really laid into it. It’s angry, it’s fast, it’s got soul, it’s a brilliant sound and many times I’ve tried to recapture that. It was originally the B-side of a single, Looking Back,and his guitar playing on both of those tunes was absolutely bang on. “And Fleetwood Mac was…

FREDDIE KING AND BB KING HEAVILY INFLUENCED GREEN’S STYLE – both players were proficient major key improvisers and this obviously inspired him to experiment with notes from outside the basic minor pentatonic. Peter’s solos frequently included notes from the blues scale, natural minor (Aeolian), BB King ‘blues box’ (see below) and the Mixolydian mode.BB King praised Green when he was asked what he thought of the 60s British blues boom players: “He has the sweetest tone I’ve ever heard. He was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.” Green’s precocious talent certainly seemed at odds with his background and young age (Fleetwood Mac formed when he was just 21). But proposing he might have traded his soul at the junction of the A406 and A40 doesn’t evoke the…

“If you look at any of the old ’59 Les Pauls that have zebra-coil humbuckers on, you’ll find that the black bobbins are almost always positioned on the height-adjustable [screw] side. As I mention in my book, I believe it was probably a cosmetic touch that was built into the production process. Because if you had a black Les Paul Custom, for instance, and you had the screw-poles adjusted so they stood proud of the cover, you would have been able to clearly see a white bobbin underneath, which wouldn’t have looked good cosmetically.” Interestingly, there’s some circumstantial support for Steve’s theory from Gibson’s setup expert Jim DeCola, who we spoke to for issue 461. He told us that, back in the 50s, the adjustable screw-poles on humbuckers were routinely…

EASTMAN SB55/V £1,239 CONTACT Eastman Guitars WEB www.eastmanguitars.eu What You Need To Know 1 That’s a Gibson Les Paul Junior if ever I saw one! We can’t disagree, except it’s made in China by Eastman. It’s so ‘old Gibson’ style that we did a double take when we opened the case (which, incidentally, is included in the price). 2 Why would you buy this when you can get the real thing for about the same money? That’s something we’ll discuss over the next few pages. The SB55/v does, however, go down the vintage-y boutique route with a lightly reliced finish, Lollar 50s-spec P-90 and a Faber pre-intonated wrapover bridge. 3 Copy or not, are guitars like this valid today? Judging by the number of Junior-style electrics out there our answer…

Gibson, of course, has plenty of Junior action. There are Custom Shop ’57 (Sunburst and TV Yellow) and double-cut ’58 (Cherry Red and TV Yellow) versions (£3,299) both “accurate and faithful replicas in every possible way”. In the USA production line’s Original range the single-cut Les Paul Junior (£1,349) comes with a fat 50s-style neck profile in Vintage Tobacco Burst and Ebony. The now-discontinued double-cut Les Paul Junior Tribute DC (£899) may still be available in store in four satin finishes with maple neck and mahogany body, pickguard mounted controls and compensated wrapover bridge. In the UK, Gordon Smith’s single-cut thin-body GS1 60 (from £799) comes with many options including woods, pickups choice and finishes. Highly recommended. Knaggs’ Influence Kenai J (from £2,799) is a newcomer and the most accessible…

PRICE: £1,349 (inc case) ORIGIN: China TYPE: Double-cut hollowbody electric BODY: Double figured maple bound flame maple laminate (top and back) 5-ply w/ mahogany laminate sides NECK: Mahogany,Wide Fat profile, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 635mm (25”) NUT/WIDTH: Bone/43mm FINGERBOARD: Figured maple bound ebony, multi-coloured shell bird inlays, 254mm (10-inch) radius FRETS: 22, medium HARDWARE: PRS Adjustable Stoptail, PRS designed tuners – nickel-plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm ELECTRICS: PRS 58/15 ‘S’Treble and Bass humbuckers, 3-way toggle pickup selector, volume and tone. LR Baggs/ PRS Piezo system with dedicated volume control. Dual Mix/Piezo and Mag outputs WEIGHT (kg/lb): 2.88/6.34 RANGE OPTIONS: The non-piezo SE Hollowbody models are the II (£999) and the Standard (£899). USA Core level models with a similar LR Baggs/PRS piezo system include the Hollowbody II Piezo (from £4,749) and…

“I’ve got a very simple rig. I’ve got the Frankenstein guitar and the Ibanez and then it’s just a tuner pedal and an MXR Phaser, which I sometimes change out for a Dunlop Rotovibe – I don’t even have a pedalboard – and that just goes straight into a Marshall Plexi with a Marshall 4x12 slanted cab. I’m actually looking into sizing down on the amplifier. I really love the Matchless combos, even the Ampeg Reverberocket series that they were making in the 90s I thought were great. I’d have to research more to see if there’s anything new that I would get into, but that’s basically it.”…

1957 Design patent filed; Gibson Gazette announces “modernistic” Flying V model Early 1958 Patent number 181,867 issued; first model logged (“Flying V in Korina”) Spring/summer 1958 First appearance in Gibson catalogue and first instruments shipped in springtime; displayed at Chicago NAMM show in July 1958 to 1959 81 Flying Vs recorded shipped in 1958; discontinued in 1959; 17 Flying Vs recorded shipped Early 60s Leftover Flying Vs assembled; c. 20 shipped; nickel-plated hardware; patent-numbered humbuckers Late 60s Reissued; 175 shipped; mahogany body/neck; chrome-plated hardware; triangular knob formation; vibrato 1971 Limited-edition ‘medallion’ model; c. 350 shipped; numbered medallion on bass leg; no vibrato 1975 Second reissue…

Difficulty 10 mins per example Tutor: Richard Barrett | Gear used: Knaggs SSC, Vox AC15 C1 Paul Kossoff SIX YEARS into his training as a classical guitarist, Paul Kossoff witnessed Eric Clapton with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Soon afterwards, Paul bought his own Gibson Les Paul – which, in the mid 1960s, had already been out of production for five years or so! Stints with Black Cat Bones and Champion Jack Dupree led to Paul joining Free in the spring of 1968. Paul’s style encompassed elements of blues and soul, using unorthodox chord voicings, which filled out Free’s ‘power trio’ format and set him apart from many of his peers – along with his heartfelt solos, featuring an inimitable vibrato (I should know, I tried very hard in the example solo!).…