Innehållsförteckning för January 2021 från Guitarist

While I was demo’ing this month’s crop of review instruments, I was struck by how great-sounding a couple in particular were: the Taylor GTe and the Godin Radiator 2020. Good work, guys – but so what, you might ask? Well, both are distinguished not only by their tone, but by the fact they’re built with non-traditional woods, or at least woods used in non-traditional roles. The Godin (see review, page 10) has a silver leaf maple body and neck, but confounds stereotypes by being neither overly bright nor overly heavy. The use of sustainable Northern Hemisphere wood also keeps costs well below a grand (some Black Friday deals had them down to around £500 street price), which is brilliant for a sorted, North American-built electric such as the Radiator. The…

PRICE: £829 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: Canada TYPE: Single-cutaway, solidbody electric BODY: Silver leaf maple, chambered NECK: Silver leaf maple, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 629mm (24.75”) NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech Tusq/42.79mm FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, pearloid dot inlays, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium HARDWARE: Wraparound bridge, ‘High-Ratio’ tuners (18:1 bass side, 26:1 treble) – nickel/chrome-plated STRING SPACING/BRIDGE: 52mm ELECTRICS: Nickel-covered Custom Godin humbuckers (GHB1 bridge & GHN1 neck), 3-way toggle pickup selector, individual pickup volume and tone controls WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.5/7.7 OPTIONS: Colour/scratchplate only RANGE OPTIONS: The similar-style Summit Classic SG in Matte Green, with Canadian Laurentian basswood body, is next up at £935. Godin’s solidbody range starts with the bolt-on Session HT and Stadium HT, both at £735 LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Trans Cream (as reviewed), Matte Black, Bourbon Burst 440 Distribution 0113 2589599…

PASSING OF KEN HENSLEY Guitarist was saddened to hear of the death of Uriah Heep guitarist Ken Hensley on 4 November at the age of 75. He was the principal songwriter for the band throughout the 1970s and sang lead vocals on fan-favourite Lady In Black, from 1971’s Salisbury. Before his work with the band he formed The Gods, featuring a young Mick Taylor, Greg Lake and future Uriah Heep bandmate, drummer Lee Kerslake, in the ranks. SIMON NEIL GOES BOOOOOM Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil has released his first signature pedal; the Booooom/Blast distortion (£299). Built by his longtime tech, Richard ‘Churd’ Pratt, with an initial limited run of 200, the dual-circuit pedal features Booooom (“big, brash overdrive”) and Blast (“a blistering, out-of-control fuzz”). Control names, including Syrup, Stink and…

Album: Quatermass Seven Artist: Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto Barrie Cadogan has written and performed some of the most charismatic garage-rock and freak-beat inspired music of recent times with his outfit Little Barrie. Following the tragically young passing of the band’s drummer, Virgil Howe (son of Steve Howe), in 2017, Barrie and bassist Lewis Wharton took time out before recording a brilliant new collaborative album with London producer and drummer Malcolm Catto, which blends elements of Krautrock, psychedelia and 60s film-score music into a minimal, mesmerising album. “When we lost Virgil it just threw everything out the window,” Barrie reflects today. “But then, when me and Lewis thought it might be time to start trying to do some music again, we thought about asking Malcolm if he’d be up for…

SUSTAINED APPLAUSE I’ve always taken a strong interest in the development of the guitar and love to listen to all genres right back to the early part of the 20th century. Until the guitar was electrified, apart from classical music, it was purely an accompaniment instrument. Of course, Lonnie Johnson and Django Reinhardt found great acclaim in the pre-war years, but it was the advent of the electric guitar that changed everything. From those first versions, we have seen so many developments, from the early Les Pauls through to the Fender Broadcaster, Telecaster, Stratocaster, the Gibson 335 and so on. But what I feel has been the biggest innovation of all for our instrument has been the ability to sustain notes. Throughout the 1940s and 50s, even the early 60s,…

By taking part, you agree to be bound by these terms and the Competition Rules: https://www.futureplc.com/competition-rules/. Entries must be submitted via http://bit.ly/AmateurGuitarBuilder by 23:59 (GMT) on 5 March 2021. Late or incomplete entries, or acoustic or kit-built guitar entries, will be disqualified. Entries are limited to one per individual. Images that form part of your entry must not exceed 16MB. Open to all UK residents aged 18 and over, except employees of Future Publishing Limited (“Future”) and any party involved in the competition. The winner will be selected by a representative(s) in his/her/their sole discretion from a shortlist of 10 entries selected by a panel of judges from the Guitarist team. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. The winner will be notified by email…

“I’m sure many of us have used this year’s lockdown to give our guitars a simple once-over. I’m always surprised by the state of the guitars I get in for setup, which are easily brought back to shape with minimal work. But when it was time to lend one of my guitars to a mate earlier in lockdown, I couldn’t believe the state it was in. “He needed a Strat for a project and my Fender Road Worn was going spare. I hadn’t used it for a while and I suspect I’d just bunged it in its gigbag after its last gig and forgot it. Its strings were well past their sell-by date, the neck seemed to have developed a fit-for-slide type action and, clearly, the gigbag fairies had been…

“Some readers may remember my Joseph Kaye Guitars ‘Epicaster’ custom build from the cover of last summer’s Hot Mods issue – the black T-type with white binding, matching headstock, white DeArmond Model 2000 pickups and Jaguar vibrato. The majority of wood used to build this guitar is recycled, the body carved from 150-year-old pine reclaimed from the roof joists of a London building renovation, while the Brazilian rosewood fretboard was rescued from the irreparably damaged neck of an early 60s Epiphone Crestwood Custom. It was something of an unknown quantity, and after several months’ playing I decided to try a few tone tweaks. “Following a conversation with a fellow guitarist about the joys of using flat-wound strings on Teles, I was inspired to try a set of D’Addario ECG24 XL…

“While I had resisted GAS during my Lockdown Lethargy due to all the obvious uncertainties, I’ve recently capitulated. I’m a total noob when it comes to recording technology, but two similarly-minded mates convinced me that even I could crack the laptop-sized Zoom R16 digital studio. So a quick call to Anderton’s and there it was. I’ve already written, recorded and mixed a track, and it really is easy-peasy. I’ve not yet fathomed how to get finished tracks into Cubase or Audacity, but that will come. “My second splash was much more serious: I needed a bass to record at home. At first, I was going to nip down and pick up a Squier Mustang from my local shop. But, of course, the devil on the other shoulder whispered ‘buy cheap,…

SOURCE AUDIO COLLIDER DELAY + REVERB The Collider brings Source’s well-liked Nemesis and Ventris pedals together in one box with a common control interface, so you get five evocative delay voices and seven atmospheric reverbs. There are separate footswitches for delay and reverb that you can use individually or simultaneously, and the pedal has dual inputs and outputs, allowing for a range of mono and stereo routing options. Its standard mode is to run delay into reverb, but you can reverse this order, and you can also run the effects in parallel. The pedal can also be configured as two delays or two reverbs if you wish. The nice thing about the Collider is that all this is brought together in a relatively affordable package. Price: £279 Website: www.sourceaudio.net WAMPLER…

“Since we began working from home back in March, I decided it would be an opportune time to sort out some of the niggly things on various guitars that have been semi-permanent residents on my to-do list for way too long. I handled some restringing, neck oiling and minor adjustments myself, but there were a couple of jobs I thought best left to a full-time tech. The first of those was lowering the action on my Admira Elena-E nylon-string by replacing the saddle. I’ve owned the guitar for 15 years and it’s always troubled me that the action is slightly on the high side, despite recording two albums using it. I placed it in the hands of luthier Alex Bishop who did a splendid job. “Next in line was my…

You’re just rehashing old reviews 1 now, right? Not quite. We last looked at the ‘latest’ version of Yamaha’s groundbreaking SG design – which first appeared in the mid-70s – back in 2010. It hasn’t changed since. 2 And the SA2200? Technically, this is the longest-running Yamaha electric, which was first manufactured in October 1991 and is the only survivor of the SA semis. We thought it was about time we revisited this 29-year-old guitar! 3 But why? Yamaha established the level for Japanese craft with guitars like these and, while once commonplace, you have to look pretty hard in today’s market for a new Japanese-made guitar. These Yamahas are made as they have been for many years, in very limited numbers at Yamaha Music Manufacturing Japan Corporation (YMMJ), formerly…

What exactly is Yamaha doing to its high-end guitars? We find out… We first came across Yamaha’s Initial Response Acceleration (IRA) back in 2007 when the company released some more vintage-specific SG2000 and 1000 models, again made by YMMJ, and both featuring this technology. IRA was “initially developed to help the company’s high-end acoustic violins mimic the sound and maturity that decades of playing and the ageing process ingrain in a quality vintage instrument”, we explained back then. “The team at Yamaha identified vibration as a fundamental part of the process, believing that the day-to-day vibrations to which instruments are subjected physically change them, and therefore their sound, over a 10- or 20-year period. “Following the success of this process when applied to its £5,000-plus violins, the Yamaha Music Craft…

If the smaller-bodied acoustic is your idea of a strummer’s bliss, the marketplace is positively awash with models that will suit your needs. For starters, how about checking out Vintage’s Viator range? Although designated as travel guitars, they fit the brief of smaller body with a lively sound. The VTR800PB-USB (£349) has antiqued good looks plus a Fishman Sonitone preamp for those plugged-in moments, and even a USB output to help out with all those recording projects you’ve been putting off for ages. Then there’s the Baby Taylor (circa £350 depending on model), which is available in various guises and body wood combos, and you should check out Martin’s Dreadnought Junior, for example, the DJR-10E (£637) – loads of toneful heft for a little ’un. Moving upscale, Lowden’s Wee range…

Hamstead Soundworks first put the tremolo circuitry from its Artist +RT series amps into a pedal in 2016 with the Signature Analogue Tremolo, and now the company is back with a MKII version. This time it loses the extra footswitch for the boost circuit but offers a smaller footprint, a control input, a third waveform for the tremolo and a Shape control delivering the ability to tilt any of the waveforms to the left or right. As an all-analogue design, the pedal eschews the common use of digital waveform circuitry for an analogue circuit, resulting in three subtly different but great-sounding waveforms. The Classic setting delivers the authentic sound of output bias tremolo as found in some vintage amps, while Hamstead’s signature sinewave tremolo is buttery smooth, melding naturally with…

What was the first serious guitar that you bought with your own money? “I believe I was in the fourth grade – I suppose I was 10 or 11 – and I saved up my gig money, because I was already playing quite a bit, and I bought a Mexican Stratocaster. I actually still have it. It really was special because, up to that point, I had two other guitars that my parents had gotten me. One was a really inexpensive travel guitar – it was an electric guitar, but it was like a shortened scale thing – and after that I got a really off-brand S-type that was maybe $100 or something. So to have one that actually said ‘Fender’ on it was really exciting. I ordered it through…

For many, the Deluxe amp defines the Fender tweed sound. Its rock ’n’ roll growl and sweet singing saturation has long been associated with countless guitar luminaries over the years including Larry Carlton, Mike Campbell, Neil Young, Scotty Moore and Don Felder. Several permutations of the Deluxe were designed, although it’s the sixth version – the 5E3, released in 1955 and manufactured until 1961 – that is the most widely acclaimed and serves as the basis for Fender’s hand-wired ’57 Custom Deluxe reissue. The story of the Deluxe begins in 1946, when the first Fender-branded amps were released. Referred to as ‘woodie’ amps because of their natural hardwood finish, they are easily identified by their distinctive red, blue or gold-coloured grille cloths and chrome-plated vertical front strips. These original woodie…

1. CODES Tube chart: ‘Serial No.’ scribed ‘D00491’ matches code impressed into chassis (normally D00001-D01400 during 1955); ink-stamped date code ‘EH’ denotes August (H), 1955 (E) 2. CABINET Solid pine; 18-inch width by 16½-inch height by 8¾-inch depth; birch ply vented two-piece wooden back; birch ply speaker baffle; top/rear control panel cutaway; four metal feet; one brown leather handle with two metal brackets 3. ORNAMENTATION Chrome control-panel with white font (no model name); tweed cover; brown and yellow striped grille cloth; metal nameplate with Fender script logo 4. CIRCUIT Tube chart reads ‘Deluxe Amplifier… Model 5E3’; 1x12 Jensen P12R speaker; advertised as 15 watts; valves: one 5Y3GT, two 6V6GT, one 12AX7, one 12AY7 5. POWER & CONNECTIONS From left to right: ground switch; fuse; power on/off switch; red pilot light…

Godin’s original Radiator launched back in 1999 as a very retro-styled entry-level model – the antithesis of the more complex dual- and three-voice (including synth access) electrics that the Canadian company was becoming known for. It used the elongated single-cut SD shape, pretty similar to today’s LGXT, with a bolt-on 24-fret maple neck, while the fairly heavily chambered body was covered with pearloid, including a full-face scratchplate, creating that retro vibe and probably inspired by certain Magnatone electrics from the 50s. Along with a string-through bridge with six L-shaped saddles, it featured a pair of retro-y Rickenbacker-style single coils with dual volumes and a master tone all mounted on its plastic front. That original model also came in a range of natty colours, too. Today’s version certainly has some of…

HAMSTEAD SOUNDWORKS ZENITH AMPLITUDE CONTROLLER £279 EQ, compression and boost: the three amigos you least want to get cornered by at a party. That’s because although you know you’ll need these guys later, they’re also going to tell you to drink plenty of water and that “five a day is actually the minimum”. They’re the crushingly sensible antidote to your tonehound whimsy. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Hamstead Soundworks has combined this trio of functional swats into the Zenith, a tonal Swiss Army knife to help you sound better. It incorporates 20dB of clean, transparent boost, an easy-to-use compressor circuit with dry blend, plus an EQ section with a three-position mid frequency shift, complete with three ‘Q’ width options. But the Zenith has a couple of twist…

Much of what is involved in being a freelance session guitarist is musically relatively simple but involves a lot of pressure. For the purposes of this column, obviously I’m generalising somewhat – and this doesn’t include things like being hired to be second guitar in John Scofield’s band or similar. But I have found this to be true for the majority of my career in commercial music (for want of a better description). “There’s no soundcheck immediately before the performance, and there’s the small matter of several million people watching…” Mid-November I was lucky enough to be asked to accompany the fabulous singer Beverley Knight for a performance of Pink Floyd’s classic Wish You Were Here at the climax of BBC’s Children In Need TV show. It very much brought…

This month the repair ‘department’ at Alex Bishop Guitars has seen the satisfying completion of a number of restoration jobs. As anyone who has dabbled in this field will know, guitar repair work is often riddled with unforeseen niggles. Manufacturers use a differing variety of designs, materials and methods to construct their instruments, so you can rarely predict with certainty how a job will unravel each time. “I’d love to take the credit for some extraordinary setup work, but the guitar took on this new lease of life because of its newly discovered heritage” Included in my roster of recent repairs are a substantial rebuild of a 1970s Yamaha, an overhaul of a 1980s Japanese dreadnought, and the resetting of a neck from a 1960s Martin Coletti archtop. All the…

The conventions for creating and naming a minor chord are similar to those for major chords – but not the same, as we shall see. Nevertheless, the origin and point of reference remains the major scale, however counter-intuitive that may seem! Minor chords are commonly described as having a ‘b3rd’; this means the 3rd is lowered by a semitone, rather than necessarily being a ‘flat’ note. For example, in E minor, the 3rd is Gn rather than G#. Extending the chords, adding further notes than the root, (b)3rd and 5th, follows the same numerical system as major chords – though gives a darker, more complex sound. 7ths are also dealt with in the same way. Simply adding the 7th from the scale gives us a major 7th chord (which would…

For years, the exact gear that Jimmy Page used during Led Zeppelin’s heyday was shrouded in mystery, particularly with regards to what went on behind the closed doors of the recording studio. Always shy of letting the cat out of the bag, Jimmy is on record as joking that he was unwilling to share the details of his studio amp setup because every time he did so the prices rocketed on eBay and that one day he might want to buy a spare. Theories were exchanged between fans and musicians alike, but confirmation was never forthcoming… until now. In his new book, Jimmy Page: The Anthology, Jimmy bares all – and it doesn’t just centre on the Zep years, either. The lavishly illustrated 400-page book begins with JP’s early life…

“My curious year in gear has been shaped by the pandemic in an odd way. After getting cabin fever during lockdown I made a snap decision to sell my ES-330 (which was actually a great guitar), and then ignore my own advice to buy an AVRI ’52 Telecaster sight unseen from an online seller who turned out to be a teensy bit economical with the truth when describing its rather worn-out condition. However, these two impulsive lapses of judgment actually led me along a really interesting path in the months that followed. The Tele was so beaten up and lacking in documents, case etc, that I decided it was fair game for fairly radical modding – Guitarist writer Rod Brakes put me on to his friend Pace Frith, who duly…

This year, the novel coronavirus created the biggest global upheaval since World War II, so it’s hardly surprising that our musical lives have been seriously affected, too. The virus left a trail of shattered livelihoods in its wake, not least in the music industry, which depends on people getting together in venues for much of its income. The effect has been as if a hurricane swept through a normally vibrant town: a grim report issued by UK Music, an organisation representing Britain’s commercial music industry, said the industry was set to halve in size and drop £3 billion from its contribution to the economy. Worse still, a survey undertaken by the Musicians’ Union found that a third of British professional musicians are considering leaving the profession. This is all too…

“Thinking back, I’ve only really bought a couple of notable items this year on top of the usual strings and other sundries. The first was out of necessity because a clip-on tuner I’ve been using for 10 years or so literally fell apart in my hands, so I had to seek out a replacement. I’d previously been so impressed with the Peterson StroboStomp HD the company lent me that I decided to opt for the clip-on equivalent. Needless to say, I was pleased I did as these things leave your guitars more in tune than ever before. “The other thing I bought was a ’62 reissue Telecaster from Fender Japan. I was lucky enough to track down a dealer in Kent (whitstableguitars.co.uk) that specialises in limited-run, Japan home market instruments…

“For me, tweaking and tinkering with guitars and amplifiers has been part of the journey, something that’s gone hand in hand with fathoming the half-diminished scale or learning Steely Dan parts. For years I’ve used stereo jack sockets on my guitars, with the ring contact strapped to earth, giving me spring contacts for both the signal wire and screen. Some jack sockets aren’t particularly well made and over time the barrel part corrodes, resulting in a less than perfect screen connection. The screen is important: its continuity through your guitar, effects and amp, all the way to the ground pin on your mains plug, needs to be as perfect as possible to reduce noise pickup and other gremlins. “Earlier this year I found the pro equivalent of my stereo jack…

ELECTRO-HARMONIX RAM'S HEAD BIG MUFF PI There have been so many iterations and variations on the Muff theme over the years that it’s glorious to play one that feels definitive: redolent of the best of the vintage Muffs but at a fraction of the price and in a more stable, reliable form. That’s what we loved about the Ram’s Head Big Muff Pi, a reissue of the sought-after ‘Ram’s Head’ V2 1973 Muff, which is the model most closely associated with David Gilmour. Reviewer Trevor Curwen wrote of it that “the midrange scoop is there, but the pedal’s overall balance of frequencies seems just right, yielding a lovely degree of string articulation…” At this price, every ’board should have one. Price: £92 Website: www.ehx.com THORPYFX THE FIELD MARSHAL Adrian Thorpe…

“I’ve been chopping and changing a lot on my ’board this year, partly thanks to new guitars joining the family, so I decided to have a drive pedal shootout to see which suited my new rig best. The defending champions were Free The Tone’s Red Jasper low-gain overdrive, a nice, mid-rich boost effectively, and the excellent Caliber 45 ‘Plexi’-style overdrive by J Rockett, which provides singing drive tones with plenty of focus and clarity. Both are gig-proven favourites but were under pressure from the Ariel Posen version of the Hudson Electronics Broadcast, which excels at clean boost tones with a flattering fuzzy edge. Also in the running were various nice ODs from Providence, ThorpyFX, Brantone and others. “I matched them up in pairs then A/B’d each pair carefully, removing the…

You should be able to pick up a new Gibson Les Paul Standard ’50s for £2k, so the Yamaha SG1820 has some serious competition. PRS’s Core 594 Singlecut is considerably higher priced: you’re looking at around £3.5k, although the S2 version should cost you around £1.8k. There’s no shortage of classy single-cuts on the market, not least Heritage’s H150 (around £2.5k) or the Chinese-made Eastman SB59/v, which seems to start around £1.7k in various stores. It’s the same story with the Gibson ES-335 style of the SA2200. Gibsons seem to start with stock of the Satin model (around £2k), moving up to around £2.5k for the gloss models, or nearly double that for a Custom Shop Historic reissue. Heritage’s H-535 (around £2.7k) has similar under-the-radar appeal but at a price,…

PRICE: £1,999 (inc case) ORIGIN: Japan TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric BODY: 3-piece African mahogany with maple top NECK: 3-piece mahogany, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 629mm (24.75”) NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech Tusq/43.8mm FINGERBOARD: Rosewood arrow pearloid inlays, 350mm (13.75”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: Nickel-plated TonePros AVRII tune-o-matic-style bridge and T1Z stud tailpiece, locking Grover tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 50.5mm ELECTRICS: Nickel-covered Seymour Duncan ’59 humbuckers, 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, individual volume and tone controls, 3-way toggle pickup selector switch WEIGHT (kg/lb): 4.14/9.1 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: The SG1802 features Seymour Duncan P-90 soapbars; the 1820A comes with an active EMG 81/85 pickup set LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Brown Sunburst (as reviewed) Black, Vintage White – gloss polyurethane PROS Big weighty ‘single-cut’ guitar with the sounds to match; impeccable construction, feel and…

PRICE: £499 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: China TYPE: Tonare parlour-sized electro-acoustic TOP: Mahogany BACK/SIDES: Mahogany MAX RIM DEPTH: 98.4mm MAX BODY WIDTH: 355mm NECK: Mahogany SCALE LENGTH: 628mm (24.75”) TUNERS: Vintage-style with butterbean buttons NUT/WIDTH: Bone/43mm FINGERBOARD: Ebony FRETS: 20 BRIDGE/SPACING: Ebony/51mm ELECTRICS: Fishman GT1 WEIGHT (kg/lb): 1.76/3.9 OPTIONS: The SE P20 without pickup costs £399 and both models are available in three colours: Black Top (as reviewed), Charcoal and Vintage Mahogany RANGE OPTIONS: PRS SE acoustic models have 3 basic body shapes: the Tonare Parlour (2 models), Tonare Grand (4 models) and Angelus Cutaway (5 models). See website for details LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISH: Black Top (as reviewed), Charcoal,Vintage Mahogany – satin PROS A well-made, good-looking and great-sounding guitar at a bargain basement price CONS Practically nothing for this very modest…

Following on in the tradition of naming its loopers after the number of seconds of looping time they provide, Electro-Harmonix’s latest offers 1440 seconds (24 minutes) of uncompressed 24-bit/44.1kHz stereo audio with an unlimited number of overdubs. This pedal has the ability to store 20 different loops and can connect via USB to a computer running the associated free EHX 1440 Loop Manager app for download and upload of loop audio flies. It can also be synchronised to the external MIDI Clock. Operation of the looper is pretty straightforward: once you’ve selected a loop number with the Mode knob you use the Loop footswitch to carry out recording, overdubbing and playback. A two-second press will do the job if you need to undo or redo a layer, while a double…

WALRUS AUDIO Monument V2 £179 Pretty much a do-everything trem, this features an extra tap tempo footswitch, five tremolo waveform shapes, and the choice of standard trem or the Harmonic type with a whisper of pitch shift. SUPRO 1310 Tremolo £229 A straightforward design with standard or harmonic tremolo. Extra tonal mojo comes via a Gain knob, which sets the level of preamp gain, adding various degrees of overdriven texture to the tremolo. EFFECTRODE Delta-Trem £369 This is the UK-based valve pedal specialist’s take on tremolo. The vacuum valve design combined with with Raysistor photocell circuitry offers vintage tremolo sounds in mono or stereo with tap tempo.…

“My main 335 is a ’62. I put the Bigsby back on it and the nylon saddles back in the bridge, so it’s back to stock, pretty much. The other guitars I use are a 1952 ES-5 and the Silvertone, which is an alternative to my 335. I use them both for the same stuff, even though they’re wildly different. Then I have an early – I think it’s a ’62 – Custom Kraft Red Fury. Custom Kraft was a rebranding of a Kay and it’s really rare. It’s funky and cheap and out of phase in the middle. The last guitar I use is a sort of a partscaster Jazzmaster that a buddy of mine put together from old parts. It’s Sherwood Green – he refinished it with spray…

1946 Model 26 ‘woodie’; natural finish; 10” speaker; 3 inputs 1948 Model 5A3; tweed cover; top/rear chrome control panel; 12” speaker 1953 Model 5B3 & 5C3; 5C3 with negative feedback circuit added 1954 Model 5D3; ‘wide panel’ design; negative feedback circuit removed 1955 Model 5E3; ‘narrow panel’ design; 4 inputs; cathodyne phase splitter 1961 Model 6G3; brown front panel and Tolex cover; tremolo circuit 1963 Model/circuit AA/AB763; Deluxe Reverb released 1967 Discontinued; Deluxe Reverb with silver panel 1982 Deluxe Reverb discontinued (superseded by Deluxe Reverb II) 2007 Custom Series ‘57 Deluxe released (5E3 reissue)…

The Bends Tutor: Richard Barrett | Gear used: Knaggs Choptank, Vox AC15C1 Difficulty KKKKK | 10 mins MANIPULATING THE PITCH of a note beyond its strict ‘quantised’ value has always been an essential part of the blues. We often see this notated as a quarter-tone bend, but this is rather a ‘catch-all’ term. In reality, various degrees of bending slightly sharp can give a variety of effects. A common use of the quarter-tone or ‘blues’ bend is to exploit the territory between major and minor, which is so characteristic of the blues. Piano players do this by trilling between the major and minor 3rd, giving this feeling of a place in-between. On a guitar we can go directly to that in-between note, and that is exactly what players such as…

BB KING ANTHOLOGY BB King defined so much of what has become the vocabulary of solo blues guitar, including a keen ear for altering pitch with string bends and vibrato. Listen to Sweet Sixteen Pts 1 & 2, recorded live in 1966 – it’s lost none of its power over the decades. Better Not Look Down demonstrates lots of variations on a similar idea, showing that you don’t always need lots of notes. Let The Good Times Roll (with Bobby Bland) live in ’67 is another good frame of reference. ERIC CLAPTON Crossroads 2: Live In The Seventies Much is made of how the 70s may not be remembered clearly in the same way that is claimed about the 60s. However, Eric Clapton’s playing does not seem to have suffered…

Demystifying The Modes Part 1: The Ionian Mode Tutor: Robbie Calvo | Gear used: Yamaha Revstar 502TFM, Line 6 Helix & Powercab 212 Plus Difficulty KKKKK | 15 mins per example SECRET SOCIETIES HAVE kept deep within their vaults a sacred manuscript said to impart musical eloquence to the reader… the major scale modes, a guitar system so complex that only immortal rock gods with an intelligence quotient of 180 can apply and comprehend. Unfortunately, this is the kind of rhetoric that’s been spun and proliferated among the guitar community for way too long. The major scale modes are super easy to understand and I’m going to show you just how easy it is to apply the major scale to each of its seven modalities. If you think you don’t…

Bai Kamara Jr Salone Mig Music Sizzling solo blues that draws from many influences With a 20-year career in music so far and a Blues Blast award nomination, Bai Kamara Jr deserves to be on your radar. Born in Bo Town, Sierra Leone he later moved first to the UK and then on to Belgium, where he now lives. His music embraces jazz, blues, soul, folk and rock, and on Salone is performed mainly solo on a variety of guitars, electric and acoustic, swirling between the aforementioned styles with effortless ease. Listen with chills to tracks like Black Widow Spider and Cry Baby, or the distortion-drenched Fortune, to hear an artist comfortable with his music. If we had to sum him up we’d say that he sounds very much like…

Back in the 90s I did sessions in a couple of London studios. It was a part-lovely and part-terrifying experience. Often you didn’t hear the song until you got there, or you’d receive a lo-fi cassette of it in basic form, so it was a mix of luck and judgement as to whether you came up with the goods. Now, I did this at an extremely basic level, certainly not in the realms of the great sessionistas such as Glen Campbell, Tommy Tedesco, Reggie Young, and so on. Or the amazing session ‘crews’ like Motown’s Funk Brothers, Stax’s Booker T & The MG’s, ‘the Section’ which included Waddy Wachtel, Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, and of course The Wrecking Crew, which embodied Campbell, Tedesco, Carol Kaye, and a guy I hadn’t…

This year effects maker ZVEX celebrates its 25th anniversary. The company is the creation of Zachary Vex, a Minneapolis sound engineer who got the bug for making effects during the grunge era – becoming a godfather of the indie stompbox scene in the process. Many of Zachary’s designs are rightly regarded as classics, from the brutal Super Hard On booster to the Plexi-style Box Of Rock distortion. His masterpiece, however, is the Fuzz Factory. Intuitive to use but near-infinite in its tone-sculpting potential, the five-knob design of this iconic fuzz pedal still cuts plenty of ice today. In fact, rising maker Chase Bliss Audio and ZVEX have just collaborated on an evolved, digitally controlled version called the Bliss Factory, offering yet another spin on Zachary Vex’s apparently ageless design. “These…

CLEAR ADVANTAGE I’m loving the magazine as always and just wanted to express my agreement with Gary Mclaren’s letter in issue 465. I enjoy my guitars both aesthetically as well as sonically, and while I’m a huge Fender fan, I’ve often pondered upon some of the wood choices for their clear-finish guitars. Assuming it has no effect on tone or build quality, I have no issue with bodies constructed from multiple pieces, but when the guitar is destined to receive a clear coat, surely you want the wood to be attractive? I’m extremely fortunate to own a 2016 Fender USA Elite Strat in Tobacco Burst that is, quite remarkably, constructed from a single piece of timber. I can still remember the collective gasp on the shop floor of Andertons when…

Attention home guitar builders! We’ve teamed up with renowned lutherie tool and parts supplier StewMac to launch our first ever competition to find Britain’s best amateur guitar builder. To make it worth your while, StewMac has put up a fantastic prize of £370* worth of professional lutherie supplies for the overall winner and one runner-up prize worth £185*. So, as well as the glory of winning, you’ll take home pro-grade tools and materials to help you build your next creation. For this inaugural competition we’ll be inviting entries for original electric guitar designs, either solidbody or semi-acoustic. So, what do you have to do? Simply go to the web address below to enter. You’ll be asked to submit a single, good-quality image of your creation, as well as a short…

“This year has shown us once again that we really are spoilt for choice when it comes to well-made, great-sounding effects. Now that most of us have got our heads around what true bypass means, the number-one gripe I hear about stompboxes is that there are far too many to choose from. Although picking the right one can sometimes feel like trying to find the proverbial needle, stiff competition within the industry has meant pedal builders have continually raised the bar and taken our expectations to new heights. As far as effects pedals go, I think we’ve never had it so good. And that’s a good problem to have. “While yesteryear’s cutting-edge DSP technology continues to devalue into the realms of affordable music gear, our digital teething problems have now…

STRYMON IRIDIUM The Californian effects supremo has pulled it off again with this deceptively simple-looking pedal that’s totally crammed with tone. Three highly accurate models of the Fender blackpanelera Deluxe, Vox AC30 and Marshall 1959 ‘Plexi’ head combine with nine 24-bit 96kHz cabinet IR responses and the ability to add more as required. Mind-boggling real-time processing goes on under the hood, with a 32-bit SHARC processor and ARM co-processor working to provide stunning fidelity and realism. Strymon has condensed the audio experience of playing a great amp in a room into a small box, and at a relatively affordable price. Price: £399 Website: www.strymon.net FRACTAL AUDIO SYSTEMS FM3 AMP MODELER/FX PROCESSOR Fractal Audio’s FM3 shoehorns most of the award-winning Axe-Fx III into a highly usable floorboard that can be expanded…

“2020 has largely been a non-starter for me. Plans to upgrade or replace guitars, amps and pedals have been shelved as an empty gig calendar makes big purchases difficult to justify. Instead, I’ve been consolidating and maintaining. My workhorse Rivera Quiana has recently been treated to a service with liberal doses of contact cleaner on every jack plug, potentiometer, switch and valve socket, and a long overdue new set of decent valves, all of which thankfully restored its sonic magic. “I shouldn’t be surprised; background crackles that were inaudible at stage volume and scratchy pots have crept up on me and, I confess, were largely ignored. After thinking for some time that I should leave valve-amp inconsistency and maintenance costs behind and go solid-state, my rejuvenated Rivera has made me…

YAMAHA SG1820 & SA2200 £1,999 & £1,699 CONTACT Yamaha PHONE 01908 366700 WEB http://uk.yamaha.com The giant Yamaha Corporation was once likened to a vast ocean tanker to this writer: it moves slowly and in a very considered fashion, at least as far as its guitars are concerned. Yet some 54 years after Yamaha entered the electric guitar market its reputation for consummate quality and consistency remains – across price points, from beginner to professional. It’s hard to remember playing a ‘bad’ Yamaha guitar, if indeed we ever have. Most recently, of course, it’s been the Revstar range that has revived interest. This mainly Indonesian-made range didn’t change the guitar world, but it’s probably one of the best examples of a ‘sleeper’ range we can think of. Only recently, our editor-in-chief…

PRICE: £1,699 (inc case) ORIGIN: Japan TYPE: Double-cutaway thinline electric BODY: Laminated 5-ply figured sycamore with soft maple centre block NECK: Mahogany, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 629mm (24.75”) NUT/WIDTH: Bone/43.3mm FINGERBOARD: Ebony, split rectangle mother-of-pearl inlays, 350mm (13.75”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: Gold-plated Gotoh GE103B Nashville-style bridge and GE101Z stud tailpiece, Gotoh SG30 tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52mm ELECTRICS: Gold-plated covered Yamaha Alnico V humbuckers, individual pickup volume and tone controls (with pull-push Bi-Sound coil-split) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.79/8.34 OPTIONS: No RANGE OPTIONS: None LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Violin Sunburst (as reviewed), Brown Sunburst – gloss polyurethane PROS Beautifully made semi-hollow that makes up for its lack of originality in style, playability and sounds CONS Might be too posh for some and, again, limited colours and no left-handers. But what a…

The price differential here means 1 that this isn’t a fair fight, surely? Absolutely correct, and that’s why we’re not pitting this pair against one another, we’re merely taking two smaller-bodied acoustics at two very different price points to illustrate that there’s something to suit everyone’s pocket in the compact acoustic range. 2 So, parlour is the new dreadnought? It would appear that smaller acoustics are enjoying something of a heyday, yes. But while a more diminutive guitar might pack quite a surprisingly hefty punch, if you’re after the majesty of the sound of a dreadnought then you know where you can start looking. 3 Home-use only or are these guitars crowd-pleasingly performance fit? We’re going to stick our necks out and generalise a bit. If you put a good…

PRICE: £1,835 (inc AeroCase) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Grand Theater sized electro-acoustic TOP: Sitka spruce BACK/SIDES: Urban Ash MAX RIM DEPTH: 108mm MAX BODY WIDTH: 380mm NECK: Tropical mahogany SCALE LENGTH: 638mm (25.1”) TUNERS: Taylor nickel mini NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech Tusq/44mm FINGERBOARD: Eucalyptus FRETS: 20 BRIDGE/SPACING: Eucalyptus/51mm ELECTRICS: Expression System 2 WEIGHT (kg/lb): 1.71/3.7 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: The GT model without pickup costs £1,619 LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISH: Natural Matte PROS Sophisticated sounds from an ecological thoroughbred CONS The price might put off those who want a smaller-bodied guitar for home-use only…

BOSS RC-3 Loop Station £169 With three hours of stereo recording capacity and 99 memory locations in a standard compact pedal chassis, the RC-3 also features onboard rhythm patterns and USB file transfer. PIGTRONIX Infinity 2 £229 A stereo looping pedal with two independent loops, the Infinity 2 may be ideal for anyone who wants to have separate verse and chorus loops. It also features an octave effect. TC ELECTRONIC Ditto Stereo £83 If you’re looking for stereo looping with a very small pedalboard footprint, then give this simple no-frills design a go: it offers five minutes of looping time and unlimited overdubs.…

It’s become almost a cliché of modern guitar lore – and an unfair one, I might add – to declare that Taylors are nice guitars but lack ‘character’. I think that’s partly because Taylors often don’t sound instantly familiar to our mind’s ear – namely, they don’t closely resemble the tones of the pre-war Martin and Gibson designs that form our archetypes of modern acoustic tone. That doesn’t mean they lack a vibe, however. And which Taylors are we talking about, anyway? The Taylor range is unusually diverse, including several highly progressive designs such as the maple-bodied 600 Series instruments and the guitar we’re looking at here, which is built partly of Shamel ash – dubbed ‘Urban Ash’ by Taylor – a new tonewood sourced from the streets of California.…