Innehållsförteckning för June 2022 från Guitarist

Reading through this month’s cover feature on the 60th anniversary of Marshall amps, I was struck by something that sometimes gets overlooked when we think about how guitar gear evolves. Jim Marshall’s shop on Uxbridge Road – and his later premises a few doors down – may have been modest at the start, but think about who came through its doors to talk about amps: Pete Townshend, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimi Hendrix… the list goes on. Jim Marshall gave them the tools to create some of the greatest music ever committed to vinyl. But Jim’s amps wouldn’t have sounded so good without the input of those players, either, especially Pete Townshend. The little scene that sprung up around Jim’s early stores was a hothouse of musical progress. And that buzz, that…

Originally conceived by Fender designer Josh Hurst, the Meteora model first appeared in the initial Parallel Universe range and was released late in 2018. That release featured the body we see here but with more Tele-style pickups and appointments. According to Fender, Josh “wanted to make something that was revolutionary while also recalling Fender’s rich history”. “To introduce something so unique to Fender,” Josh commented at the time, “you have to introduce it in a familiar package.” The following year things had changed and the Meteora HH made a return in the lower-cost Alternate Reality Series. This time around it featured a less heritage-style design with twin (Player Series) humbuckers, a tune-o-matic bridge and through-body stringing. Now, for 2022, it’s back as a regular model in the upmarket Player Plus…

Based in Denmark, analogue specialist East Sound Research has been turning out clever products for guitar and bass under the Carl Martin brand for nearly 30 years and has an enviable artist roster that includes Joe Bonamassa, Pete Thorn and Kid Andersen. Added to an already diverse range that includes pedals, amps and switching solutions, the Ampster is a valve-based DI box that’s poised to be popular for anyone who uses pedals. The Ampster is intended to sit at the end of a pedal chain and adds direct-out flexibility, with a quality balanced output on XLR for connection to audio interfaces, and studio or live consoles. There’s a familiar set of amp-like controls including Gain and Master volume, together with Bass, Middle, Treble and Presence. Two footswitches sit either side…

Artist: Kris Barras Album: Death Valley Paradise (Mascot) If I could take anything positive out of the lockdown experience, it was the fact it actually gave me time to spend time on songwriting,” Kris Barras tell us. “The thing is, I’ve toured so much over the past few years I would always have to squeeze the songwriting in. But lockdown meant it was literally the only thing I had to do. So it meant I could really hone in on the songs and hone in on the sound. There are some tunes on the album that we rewrote five or six times. And while sometimes that can be detrimental because you can overthink things, actually, in this instance, it was always making the songs better. I’m pleased it’s over, but…

STRESS FACTORING Due to clients’ optimistic programme deadlines, my job as a structural engineer, managing construction projects, is very stressful, and routinely involves working long hours, often with little in the way of a break. Pre-Covid, I had a performance review where the topic of stress was raised. Our HR director, who knows I enjoy playing guitar, suggested I try to have a stress-relieving strum each lunchtime. The next day I went into my local guitar store and purchased an Ibanez G10 for £130, a great practice guitar for the money. Following which, whenever possible, I would have a lunchtime play in a spare office, playing along to backing tracks using a Boss Micro BR and a set of headphones. I found this break a great de-stress and I believe…

“The first time I ever heard a Marshall amp, I was a teenager and a friend brought me over to watch this older guitar player in Queens. So we’re in this guy’s basement, and he’s got a Les Paul and Marshall stack. He turns it all the way up and I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ I just remember that sound. “Later, I remember going to see Chicago at a small theatre, playing in the round, with Terry Kath on guitar. They were squished on this little circular stage and Terry was standing right up against his Marshall stack. It sounded so good. I started to go to concerts more and more, and I’d see all these players go through Marshall stacks. Steve Miller, Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden – that…

1 These look like the old models! Well, for starters, the body has been slightly enlarged. The range has also been simplified into the start-up Element and mid-range Standard levels (made in Indonesia), and the made-in-Japan Professional models. 2 What else is new? The bodies are also now chambered: “Yamaha’s Acoustic Design process sculpt[s] tone and increase[s] resonance while reducing weight and optimising balance”. Standard and Professional models feature carbon-reinforced necks, while Professional models add carbon reinforcement to the body for “weight relief, vibration transfer, and tone shaping”. 3 We hear there’s a new switch… The original Revstars’ Dry Switch is retained on Element models, while the upper tiers feature a Focus Switch, “a passive boost that darkens highs while increasing bass and mids for an effect like overwound pickups”,…

There’s a plentiful supply of slope-shouldered dreads on the market, but if we’re keeping within the price range of the CRNTS1, then Eastman’s E20SSv-SB (£1,769) seems a good place to start. Martin’s DSS-15M (£1,450) is an all-mahogany slope dread if you want to mix your body woods up a little. It’s worth looking at Yamaha’s catalogue, too, as its A3M (£1,949) offers a round-shouldered dread with a cutaway. Other than that, prowling around Furch’s and Auden’s backyards will yield results. Nylon-string hybrid crossovers? Yamaha’s NCX electro models were introduced in 2009 and revamped last year; the NCX5 (£1,786) features a narrower 48mm nut and 14-fret camber fingerboard. Furch’s GNC 2 (£1,099) delivers on that score, as does Taylor’s 214ce-N (around £1,000), or if you hunt about a little, a used…

MANUFACTURER GURUS MODEL DOUBLE-DECKER MKII & SEXYDRIVE MKII PRICE £319 & £179 CONTACT JHS +44 (0) 113 286 5381 WWW.FOXGEARDISTRIBUTION.COM Gurus is an Italian brand, founded in 2012 and headed by Chicco Bellini, that counts the likes of Steve Lukather, Joe Walsh and Adrian Belew among its users. The main thrust of the company has been to make new pedals inspired by classic gear such as its Echosex pedals, which replicate the vintage Italian Binson Echorec echoes. This ethos is seen here with the Double-Decker MkII, based on vintage Marshall amp sounds with the ‘Jose Mod’. Supplied with their own 12-volt power adaptors, the pedals are robustly built and have a distinctive black glass surface that is backlit when powered up. GURUS Double-Decker MkII £319 Based on a larger,…

WALRUS AUDIO EB-10 £199 A preamp, EQ and boost with three onboard presets. The optional boost is fixed at 10dB, but there’s tone sculpting with up to 12dB of boost or cut of low, mid, and high frequencies. HAMSTEAD SOUNDWORKS Zenith £299 The Zenith has an all-analogue signal path offering EQ, boost and compression with selectable routing options and digital switching technology to give you a range of options for using them. ORANGE Two Stroke £129 Orange’s offering provides up to 12dB of output boost combined with an active dual-parametric EQ. There’s up to 18dB of cut or boost at a selected frequency from each of the high and low EQs.…

“Look at the size of that!” wasn’t quite the response I was expecting as I strapped on the Gretsch Streamliner. I’ll spare you the other comments, but there’s nothing quite like the first time you uncase a new guitar in front of a band. “Mine’s bigger,” mutters the drummer, loudly thwacking his bass drum. Our proposed gig was cancelled so we’re racked up in a rehearsal room with a dep bass player. “Thank goodness we didn’t unleash this loose rabble on an audience,” I’m thinking as we kick off a number (that we’ve played countless times) in seemingly three different keys. It’s going to be a long night… “I keep throwing this Streamliner in at the deep end and it’s consistently steps up” Back to the guitar in question and,…

“At the moment, I’ve got an Analog Man King Of Tone, a [Voodoo Lab] Micro Vibe and I’ve been using a Slash wah pedal. I’ve been using Vox cabs for a while, and I’ve got an old Selmer head, which is really great. I’ve got a small one-speaker Marshall Anniversary Series 6101, which sounds wicked. I’ve also just been lent some Hiwatt amps, but they came right at the end of rehearsals, so I’ve missed being able to try them out. I’m going to try them today, right before our tour starts. “As for guitars, I have a 2009 Epiphone Wilshire P90 reissue, an Epiphone Casino mini-humbucker 335-shape, the double-cutaway P-90 Les Paul. I’ve just had the scratchplate fixed on my old 70s Japanese Epi Wilshire, which I’ve put some…

Nobody disputes the ‘Holy Grail’ status of PAFs, but their relative scarcity means very few of us will ever get the chance to try the real thing. The danger with ‘Holy Grails’ is the way we project our hopes and dreams onto them. This partly explains why those lucky few who do experience vintage PAFs don’t always get what they expected. Classic recordings are of limited value because any guitar tone that has been processed through random microphones, preamps, equalisers and so forth can only tell us so much. Let’s begin by describing what vintage PAF pickups actually sound like so you can judge whether the PAF replicas in your guitar are as accurate as the manufacturer claims. Bloom & Bust Apparently, some vintage PAFs sound terrible, but the ones…

1. SERIAL NUMBER Six-digit number stamped onto steel neck plate marked with ‘F’ logo (normally between 252000 and 291999 in 1969) 2. HEADSTOCK Single ‘butterfly’ string tree, Fender transition logo decal; maple plug 3. PLASTICS Three-layer black/white/black laminated pickguard; black selector switch tip 4. HARDWARE Metal bridge plate; six metal ferrules; two metal strap buttons; three adjustable steel saddles. Chrome-plated: ‘ashtray’ cover; single ‘F’ logo tuners; two knurled knobs (volume and tone); control panel; recessed side jack 5. PICKUPS Single-coil bridge pickup with staggered polepieces; single-coil neck pickup with chrome-plated cover; three-way selector switch; two 1meg-ohm pots (volume and tone) 6. BODY Rosewood top and back; maple veneer centre; chambered; poly finish 7. NECK Single-piece fretted rosewood; maple ‘skunk stripe’ and headstock plug; 21 frets; pearloid dot markers…

LAST ISSUE I PLAYED FOUR ‘SHAPE 1’ C MINOR PENTATONIC PHRASES, as regular Blues Headlines readers will recall from Part 1, making a point of keeping within that one shape and not adding any fast runs or embellishments (as much as possible!). This time, I’m deliberately pushing in the opposite direction – not by playing anything ridiculously fast but certainly allowing a bit more flamboyance here and there. Rather than constraining myself to one pattern, I’m employing various pentatonic shapes, with frequent additions in the form of chord tones, chromatic passing tones and arpeggios. The four examples are played as separate phrases, but could be ‘comped’ together to make a full solo, with Example 4 giving an alternative take on the final phrase. As there are only three chords (I-IV-V)…

During our last issue’s Essential Electrics cover feature on workhorses, we asked the question: How low can you go to find a fit-for-purpose guitar? The answer is pretty low indeed if the popularity of Jet Guitars is anything to go by. Who, you ask? “Jet Guitars launched in 2020,” explains Peter Shepperson from its distributor, Hal Leonard Europe. “The guitars are made in China, under Jet team supervision. QC is also performed by the Jet team. The brand was founded by Primoz Virant – all the design and specs are made by him. He has had a deep interest in electric guitars for 25 years.” The Jet range centres on S- and T-styles, starting with the JS-300 series at an in-store price of around £159. Fancying something a little different…

Artist: Katie Spencer Album: The Edge Of The Land (Lightship Records) The beautiful and stark flatlands of East Yorkshire inform the precise and spacious approach to Katie Spencer’s guitar playing, as she demonstrates on this year’s The Edge Of The Land album, the follow-up to her 2019 debut, Weather Beaten. Her articulate picking, with suggestions of folk and jazz, frames intelligently written songs and is the backbone to her music. Looking To The Greats “I think my playing style is quite intuitive because I’m largely self-taught,” Katie begins. “Initially, I took inspiration from the late 60s and early 70s folk revival scene. I found it an incredibly immersive world and loved people like Jackson C Frank and Bert Jansch, who had that intricate playing style. I suppose there’s often not…

Recently, a very special (and unusual) event occurred in the form of the Concert For Ukraine, recorded in Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena. This was broadcast on ITV, and the money raised went towards the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. The line-up of artists, interspersed with clips and interviews, included Ed Sheeran, Camila Cabello, Gregory Porter, Nile Rodgers and Chic, Becky Hill, Paloma Faith and Emeli Sandé, among others. I was lucky enough to be asked to play in the house band, which, in addition to a large string and brass section, featured Ian Thomas on drums, Jerry Meehan on bass, Pete Murray on keys and Phil Palmer on the other guitar chair. The whole event was MD’d by my friend Steve Sidwell, who I’ve been working with forever (or,…

Shimmering Pelham Blue lacquer layered over carved mahogany body contours. The sleek mercury-like undulations of a polished Bigsby vibrato. The gloss-black reflections of a pickguard hiding a nest of snaking electronics and alien gadgetry. I am in the domain of electric guitar building, and it feels a universe away from my usual world of acoustic lutherie. I could have been forgiven for thinking that building an electric guitar would be a relatively easy affair. After all, how hard could it be to screw together two planks of wood and add six strings? Not so straightforward at all, as it turns out. Over the past few months I’ve once again learned that it is easy to get overconfident as a guitar maker… “I could be forgiven for thinking building an electric…

Chordal harmony is the bedrock of songwriting in all but the most ‘niche’ musical situations. But while a good song should work with a simple accompaniment, it’s also nice to expand our horizons beyond the regular open-position chord shapes. This feature isn’t about stringing together complex chords; it’s about knowing what your options are when a ‘straight’ open-position or barre chord doesn’t satisfy. A nice example of this, which is actually integral to the song, is Don’t Dream It’s Over by Crowded House. The unaccompanied guitar intro functions like a hook using variations on a sus2 chord (see below). I’ve taken C major as our baseline here using different voicings, some of which technically don’t require a different name – I’ve just juggled the notes into different positions for an…

FLOYD REFORMS FOR UKRAINE A Floyd reunion wasn’t previously on the cards, but the terrible and continuing war that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February has moved the band to release Hey Hey Rise Up in protest.The track, which features vocals by Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk who returned from touring in the US to fight in defence of Ukraine, was performed by David Gilmour, Nick Mason and bassist Guy Pratt, with Nitin Sawhney on keyboards. The band said Hey Hey Rise Up was released in “anger at a superpower invading a peaceful nation… a crazy, unjust attack”. The vocal refrain at the heart of the song is a version of Oh, The Red Viburnum In The Meadow, a song written during World War I, which has become…

1 A DO-IT-ALL VALVE PREAMP FOR THE 90S The JMP-1 valve preamp, launched in 1992, was a child of the rackmount era. It featured four channels, two clean and two dirty, and was (natch) MIDI programmable. A pair of 12AX7 valves provided the tonal authority, but the JMP-1 also featured OD1 and OD2 modes – which offered vintage and tight, modern drive voices respectively – plus a stereo effects loop, speaker emulation and a Bass Shift function that altered the low-end voicing. It was a bestseller, and stadium giants Def Leppard and Billy Gibbons, who routed one or more JMP-1s into a Marshall 120/120 Valvestate power amp, were among the well-known players who racked up hits with the JMP-1, which could be combined with Marshall’s EL84-based 20/20 single-rack unit power…

There’s a case that Def Leppard function best with their backs to the wall. Consider the hellish sessions for 1987’s Hysteria, when the Sheffield band reeled from creative strife, plunging debt and the nightmare car crash that cost drummer Rick Allen his left arm. Then revisit the resultant multi-platinum album, whose joyous anthems punched their ticket to the stadium league. Now, 35 years later, some of that same blitz spirit runs through Diamond Star Halos, the 12th album, forged when Covid turned out the lights, nixed Leppard’s Stadium Tour with Mötley Crüe and scattered each band member to the gleaming ghost ship of his own guitar room. From stasis and isolation grew ambition, a fierce remote work ethic and, finally, 15 shout-it-back songs so big they should bring the world…

Plenty of big names are in competition here, not least Epiphone with its Les Paul Studio (in-store at £399), all mahogany with a maple veneer top and Alnico Classic covered humbuckers. Another guitar in strong competition to the RSS20 is Epiphone’s 1961 Les Paul SG Standard (£649, inc case). PRS’s new SE 24-08 Standard (£620) shares an all-mahogany set-neck construction and very neat pickup switching of the humbuckers to true single coil via two mini-toggle switches. We also get a vibrato. Sitting between the Standard and Professional levels is Reverend’s Sensei (£949), which looks like an offset Revstar with plenty of features, including all korina construction and dual Railhammer humbuckers. Let’s not forget Gordon Smith in the UK. Its GS2 can be custom-ordered to similar specs as the RSP02T, excluding…

Gibson electrics form a revered canon of designs about which it was thought nearly everything was known. But Mat Koehler, a self-confessed obsessive about old Gibsons, made an extraordinary discovery while thumbing through blueprints in the company’s technical archives. What he found was a design drawing for a previously unseen Gibson double-cut electric dating from 1957 and signed by none other than Ted McCarty – Gibson’s visionary president during the celebrated years of the late 50s and early 60s. Excited by his discovery, Mat presented the drawing to the luthiers of Gibson’s Custom Shop, who made McCarty’s design concept into a living, breathing instrument. Here Mat, Gibson’s senior director of product development, talks us through the process behind bringing the Theodore electric to life at last. What was the backdrop…

At the end of my previous report on the Da Capo acoustic amplifier I was still pondering on which gear to take with me to my gig at Bath’s Chapel Arts Centre in early March. Accepted wisdom was telling me that using new gear at a reasonably important, nowhere-to-hide solo concert was risky, and right up to the event itself I was unsure about what to do. I kept glancing at my trusty Yamaha AG-Stomp preamp, which has been my companion on many engagements before this one, thinking that perhaps I should walk the safe route and revert to a formula that I know worked. But I had been so impressed with the Da Capo 75 when I reviewed it that I didn’t want to back out now. I experimented…

We’re going to start with a reader’s letter this time around. Over to you, Alex: “Reading issue 484 got me thinking – why don’t you do reviews on the modding potential of guitars? I suspect some guitars are a lot easier to modify than others. The reason I ask is because I doubt I’ll be able to afford a real boutique or custom shop guitar anytime soon so I thought I’d slowly upgrade a new guitar. Is that sensible and, basically, what’s the easiest guitar style out there to mod?” Thanks Alex, and to answer your first question, I think that’s a great idea. But let’s be serious, the majority of guitar players are more interested in playing their instruments than getting their hands dirty. But that’s what The Mod…

Rosewood Telecasters have been in and out of regular Fender production several times since 1969. A reworking of Fender’s seminal solidbody electric design by craftsmen Roger Rossmeisl and Philip Kubicki, the prototype guitar was custom-built for George Harrison in 1968 alongside an equivalent-style rosewood Stratocaster intended for Jimi Hendrix. While Hendrix sadly never received this Strat, Harrison famously used his Rosewood Tele for The Beatles’ historic rooftop concert on 30 January 1969. Harrison’s instrument was unique. It sported a pre-CBS ‘spaghetti’ logo, a satin finish and a rosewood ‘cap’ fingerboard atop a solid rosewood neck. When regular production of the Rosewood Telecaster commenced in 1969, Fender built its new model using a bolder mid-60s ‘transition’ logo, rather than a contemporary black CBS-era decal that would be tricky to see against…

“I’ve never seen one before this – or even knew it existed. But there it was in the Gibson ledger from 1969. It’s got the original tags, too. The tags say it’s an all-gold finish, with gold Bigsby, which is pretty cool. It may have been some kind of presentation piece or a trade show guitar. It’s an unbelievable piece and is in virtually brand-new condition. It plays well, too, and the T-top pickups sound great. “It’s an all-gold finish meaning everything, including the back of the neck, is gold; Goldtop finishes are also self-explanatory. It has various original paperwork and tags with it, including some that state ‘all-gold, special order, gold Bigsby.’ Somebody had it down previously as a ’68, but there’s no dot in the ‘i’ [of the…

BB KING ONE KIND FAVOR On this, his final studio album, BB embellishes between his soulful vocals in a way that can be related back to our featured examples. Check out I Get So Weary, How Many More Years and Backwater Blues to hear how he manages to negotiate through major I-IV-V progressions with all the attitude the minor pentatonic can deliver, plus lots of chromatic linking notes, slides, well-placed 6ths and bluesy quarter-tone bends – a technique BB was using way before most. BB KING & ERIC CLAPTON RIDING WITH THE KING Yes, BB King gets a double mention here because his style of ‘major’ blues playing really pioneered what we are looking at this time around. However, Eric Clapton is hardly an afterthought as a listen to the…

PRICE: €469 (c. £409 in store) ORIGIN: China TYPE: Double-cutaway solidbody electric BODY: Basswood NECK: Canadian roasted maple, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT/WIDTH: Bone/41.89mm FINGERBOARD: Roasted maple, abalone-like dot markers, 241mm (9.5”) radius FRETS: 22, jumbo HARDWARE: Walled 6-saddle bridge with through-body stringing, Kluson-style vintage tuners – aged chrome/nickel-plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm ELECTRICS: Double-cream open coiled humbucker (bridge), vintage stagger single coil (neck), 3-position toggle pickup selector switch, master volume WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.01/6.62 RANGE OPTIONS: Plenty of choice that starts with the JS-300 (€169). Other reliced models include the JS -350 T-style (€449) and the HSS S-style JS-400 (€359) LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Black Relic Hal Leonard Europe Ltd +44 1284 702600 www.jetguitars.com PROS Competent build; good neck shape; refretted hot-rod feel; contrasting pickup voices; rock-solid tuning stability CONS…

PRICE: £999 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: Mexico TYPE: Original offset solidbody electric BODY: Alder NECK: Maple, Modern ‘C’ profile, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT/WIDTH: Synthetic bone/42.78mm FINGERBOARD: Maple, black dot markers, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: Fender 2-Point Synchronized vibrato with Brushed Steel Block Saddles,‘F’ logo rear lock tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm ELECTRICS: 2x Fender Fireball covered humbuckers, 3-position lever pickup selector switch, master volume (with S-1 switch for coil splits), tone 1 (neck), tone 2 (bridge) with knurled knobs WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.86/8.49 OPTIONS: Bass version at £1,149 RANGE OPTIONS: Player Plus Strat and Tele (£939), Strat HSS and Telecaster Nashville (both £979) LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Cosmic Jade (as reviewed), 3-Color Sunburst, Belair Blue and Silverburst – gloss polyester body with satin neck back Fender Musical…

I know I’ve touched on the subject in a previous article, but this issue details the fruition of my pedalboard. I’ve never been a pedal fiend; I’ve either used my amp’s in-built gain and reverb, and so on, or slung together a basic ’board to suit my needs. For years my favourite drive pedal has been the Fulltone OCD, and I’ve had a Keeley-modded Boss DD-3 delay as my main source of echo. A couple of years ago I acquired an Analog Man King Of Tone in a trade, and grabbed a Providence Anadime chorus from a mate. “After several hours of AB testing we narrowed it down to my King Of Tone and OCD, plus an Ibanez Tube Screamer. Three very different drives…” When I mistakenly believed my Line…

Buzzwords come and go in the world of guitar gear. A few years ago it was ‘true bypass’ circuitry in pedals and, around the same time, the term ‘lowcapacitance’ became a selling point for instrument cables. But, as with all things, it’s important to understand why those terms came to be thought of as ‘tone enhancing’. Because the reality behind them is a little more complex… Here’s the basics: the longer your cable, the more capacitance it generates – and the quality of the signal-conducting core of the cable also contributes. Why is this important? Crudely put, the more capacitance a cable has, the more treble frequencies you lose. That’s why players have embraced low-capacitance cables as a way to retain detail and sparkle in their sound. For reference, an…

BUILD, BUILD, BUILD… Greetings from Finland. When I turned 50, I bought my first guitar. The plan was to learn to play it, but that didn’t work out. What next? I love guitars and those who can play them; Gary Moore is the greatest of all. And then I found your magazine at a local grocery store and fell in love with it. All those guitars and players and interesting stories about guitar makers. Guitarist magazine is the Holy Grail for guitar lovers. So, if my fingers don’t learn to play, should I try to build a guitar? The answer was ‘yes’. I think a Les Paul is a great guitar, so that was the starting point. Peter Green’s – and later Gary Moore’s – ‘Greeny’ inspired me. I work…

“There were things in there I didn’t even know about, myself,” Frisell jokes when we say how much we enjoyed reading our advance copy of Beautiful Dreamer. Despite his work with artists as diverse as Ginger Baker, Suzanne Vega, Brian Eno and Loudon Wainwright III, many would describe Bill as a jazz guitarist. But, as the new book reveals, this would be a mere thumbnail sketch of a man whose work as a composer and performer spans a far wider musical terrain. In fact, he has been described in some quarters as ‘the Clark Kent of the guitar’. We decided it was time to talk to the man himself and our conversation began with the recent tome… How much of a peculiar experience was it to have your life and…

1 Is there a certain theme we’re missing here? Not at all, no. Seeing as Takamine is celebrating its 60th anniversary we thought it would be a good idea to select two very different models from the range. 2 Are hybrid nylon-string guitars a new thing? In a way, yes. When electric or steel-string players first encounter the grandaddy of all acoustics, they baulk at the width of the neck and various other features. Hybrid or ‘crossover’ guitars seek to amend that. 3 Why the 12 frets to the body on the dread? Why not? After all, there was a time when practically every acoustic guitar was a 12-fretter. This is just a peek back at a different time and playing experience.…

MANUFACTURER SOURCE AUDIO MODEL ZIO ANALOG FRONT END + BOOST PRICE £199 CONTACT FIRST LINE DISTRIBUTION 01626 832410 WWW.SOURCEAUDIO.NET Designed by Source Audio to “make everything sound better”, the ZIO, the company’s first all-analogue pedal, is a preamp/boost pedal that’s capable of up to 20dB of boost via a choice of four different preamp circuits to colour the sound. On top of that, it acts as a buffer and has a Tone switch that offers three different levels of capacitance to simulate cable length, allowing you to make your tone brighter or darker. The pedal has two outputs, the second one being available as a line output or to keep a tuner permanently connected on your pedalboard without being in the main signal chain. The footswitch can be used as…

What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money? “I was living with my mum and she had spotted a black Les Paul – I think it was a 1971 or ’72 – with an Alnico pickup [in the neck] and a P-90 pickup at the bridge. The previous owner had painted over everything, like he was an old rocker or something. I chipped in, but my mum paid a chunk of it and I used some of the money that I had from working in cafes. I had to get rid of it. It’s one of my regrets, but hey, someone else has got it. I used it on many gigs; I did my first gig at school, so I must have been 15. We played…

We recycled as much as we could from previous projects and our bitsbox. If buying new, here’s the sort of outlay you’d be looking at for the main parts… Wilkinson by Sung-il WTB 3-saddle guitar bridge, chrome: £22 to £49, depending on source WD Music strap button screws (used to attach the new bridge), chrome (bag of 6): £1.95 WD Music #4 screws for Fender scratchplates, nickel (bag of 20): £3.95 Gotoh Tele control plate: £16.95 Gotoh SD91-05M 6 In Line Vintage Style Tuners For Vintage Fender Guitars (ordered but not yet installed): £45 The Mod Squad would like to thank WD Music UK for supplying all we needed (with the exception of the bridge) and superb next day delivery…

1968 Prototype built by Roger Rossmeisl & Philip Kubicki January 1969 George Harrison plays prototype during rooftop concert; pre-CBS logo; satin finish; no skunk stripe May 1969 Appears on price lists; transition logo; gloss finish; skunk stripe; omitted from price list April 1970 February 1972 Reappears on price lists; omitted from price list again January 1973 1986 Limited Edition Series; production specs; made in Japan 1990s Reissue Series Rosewood Telecaster; production specs; made in Japan 2007 Custom Shop Rosewood Telecaster; prototype specs 2017 George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster; limited edition run of 1,000; prototype specs 2022 George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster re-released; prototype specs…