Innehållsförteckning för March 2016 från Total Guitar

What a month. Since our last issue, we’ve said goodbye to three very different legends of our world, and we hate it. You might be a big fan of Lemmy, David Bowie and Glenn Frey, or you might be a fan of just one of them. Of course, you may be unfamiliar with all three, or simply not a fan of any. Whatever it is, I’d urge you as a fan of the guitar to read our tributes this month, and spend a bit of time immersing yourself in the different – but equally great – music and guitar playing left behind. As I write, I’ve just returned from another whirlwind NAMM show. The absolute highlight for me was seeing how the guitar industry has reacted to the budget-conscious player,…

This month we look at the main riff in Megadeth’s recent single, The Threat Is Real, to see how a repeating open string can be the foundation of an aggressive thrash line. The guitars are in D standard tuning so tune to DGCFAD to play along. The track begins with atmospheric noises and then hits the stratosphere as the guitar riff kicks in. The whole phrase is played on the fifth string and not having to move from string to string makes the rapid alternate picking much easier. You’ll need to pay close attention to the timing of your fretting fingers though, to make sure both hands are in sync. Start by practising slowly and focus on hitting each note with both fretting finger and pick at exactly the same…

Most acts want to record ‘live in the room’ at some point, but few realise the challenges it presents. Canadian songwriter Aidan Knight and his band learned this on acclaimed third album Each Other. “We set up and recorded for two days in the room and we got sort of lost in a storm,” Aidan recalls. “We almost walked away and even our producer Marcus Paquin (Arcade Fire, The National) was calling home like, ‘I don’t know if this is going to happen!’” One of the main issues was the sound of the room’s high-end monitors, a phenomenon Knight compares to watching a favourite old movie on a hi-def TV. “There was almost too much fidelity,” he explains. “Marcus left on the second day and we weren’t sure if he…

Frey was, “the sparkplug, the man with the plan” In what has been a dark season for rock ’n’ roll, we said goodbye to another icon with the passing of Glenn Frey. The Eagles guitarist, vocalist and driving force died on 18 January, aged 67, in New York due to complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia. He leaves behind a legacy of being the driving force behind the most successful rock band of all time, penning and singing several of their most loved songs. Alongside Don Henley, the duo became known as the leaders of the band who would so successfully fuse country and rock in their sound, the constants through the changes the band would go through in musical style and membership. Initially recruited as members…

BLAKE MILLS HEIGH HO “He’s the first young guitar player – or producer for that matter, because he produced the Alabama Shakes album and did a brilliant job with it – he’s the first one who has got me super excited in a long time. I listened to that record again last night. and the most recent Ben Howard record also – he’s a good guitar player, too. I think they’re both examples of people who write really interesting songs that have a lot of really cool guitar playing on them.”…

While 50s Gretsch models had simple control layouts with the usual volume, tone and three-way pickup selector, later editions were a little more complex. Taking George Harrison’s ’62 Country Gentleman as an example, the guitar had a dedicated volume control for each pickup, in addition to a master volume. Yep, three volume knobs. Pickup switching was handled via a standard three-way toggle but there was a second switch in the loop. This was a three-way tone with a couple of frequency roll off options and an out-of-phase setting. Add to this a Bigsby and mechanical string mute, and the Country Gentleman was just about the bestequpped guitar a Beatle could buy.…

“The amp I used for the album is my new signature Mesa/ Boogie called the JP2C,” reveals John. “It’s my very first signature amp and other than a limited run of Mark I amps Mesa did for Carlos Santana a few years ago, it’s the firm’s first signature amp as well. As I’ve been using Mesa amps forever and they are on every DT album recorded, it’s something that I am unbelievably excited about. “The Astonishing was recorded with the JP2C exclusively. It’s a three-channel amp that is an exact re-issue of an authentic Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ – the same circuit board and transformer etc – but with a bunch of modern twists or improvements.” “The amp has three independent channels: one clean and two lead. There are two graphic…

1 Reverend Billy Corgan Signature £TBC The ol’ Smashing Pumpkin himself was on hand to promote his new signature model, and it looks a little bit bonkers. Four scratchplates cover cavities in the body, making it super-resonant, while BC’s custom humbuckers sound P-90ish. 2 ESP/LTD James Hetfield Vulture£TBC An all-new V design from the Metallica man, Papa Het’s latest packs the EMG Het Set, set-neck construction and a custom 12th-fret inlay on the ebony fingerboard – best of all, it’s available in ESP and LTD versions from the off! 3 Wylde Audio War Hammer FR £TBC Zakk Wylde’s new guitars will finally be available in the USA, hovering around the $1,000 mark, and we’re hoping they’ll hit the UK soon. As you’d expect they’re pointy, but with the likes of…

It has that Fender blend of solid reliability and good looks FRONT-END THE 18/30’s simple control panel drives two different preamps into 18 or 30 watts of EL84 power, for a British take on some classic Fender sounds CHANNEL SWITCHING A single-button footswitch can be used to toggle the 18/30’s two channels – there’s also a handy push button switch on the control panel SPEAKERS THE 18/30’s powerful tone comes from a pair of Celestion V-Type loudspeakers – great combo drivers with a detailed treble and classic British midrange AT A GLANCE TYPE: All-valve preamp and power amp with solid-state rectification OUTPUT: 18W or 30W dependent on channel selection SPEAKER: 2x12” Celestion V-Type VALVES: 2x 12AX7, 4x EL84 CONTROLS: Channel 1: volume, bass, mid and treble; Channel 2: volume and…

CHRIS BIRD LIKE most of TG’s staff, Chris has been seduced by those Gretsch Streamliner beauties, spending a day with the G2420T model to put the Bigsby system through its paces for our wang bar lesson. Head over to p44 and try out TG’s old-school vibrato exercises for yourself. JOSH GARDNER AFTER spending the first half of the issue swanning around chilly Paris, serial Gretsch-fancier Josh returned from the city of love only to be smitten all over again by the Streamliners. The question is, does Torino Green suit him, and does he even care if it doesn’t? ROB LAING ROB chaired a round table (actually it was square) with Tremonti and Wearing Scars this issue, and he returned giddy with inspiration from players who are not interested in resting…

“I’ve had some encounters with people who I idolised as a kid, and it turns out they’re bonkers!” I got my first real six-string… “Well, I should come clean and say I was a bass player, initially. My first bass was a Hohner B2A, bright red cricket bat. It was horrendous, but it played really well and it sounded ace. The first guitar I bought for playing shows was an SG Gothic. It’s a really nice guitar, I still use it at home for recording and I fitted a (Seymour Duncan) Invader. I just figured that if it’s good enough for Angus and for Ian McCabe, if you can be somewhere between AC/DC and Fugazi, you’re alright!” Sweet dreams are made of these… “I was obsessed with Warwick basses when…

BLOCK Featured on all but the entry-level models (see below) before 1957, block inlays were simply there to help guitarists find the right frets and add a bit of decoration. COWS AND CACTUS In 1955, Gretsch fitted some Chet Atkins models, including the G6120 and 6130 Roundup, with these wild Western-themed inlays featuring cacti and steer heads! HUMP-TOP On the spec-list from 1957 to early 1958, these block inlays with a little hump on top became vintage gold when they appeared on Beatle George Harrison’s Hamburg-era black Duo Jet. THUMBPRINT Introduced in mid-’58, these cool semicircular inlays are also known as ‘Neoclassic’ or half-moons. See them on Brian Setzer’s legendary ‘59 Gretsch G6120 that he played with the Stray Cats. DOTS From the start, Gretsch fitted its budget models with…

1 If your guitar has a floating bridge, and is not pinned in place, mark its position with some tape before you remove the strings. If the bridge goes back in the wrong position, the guitar’s intonation will be out. 2 Take a close look at how the Bigsby works. You secure the new strings via the little pins on the Bigsby’s roller, the part that rotates when you wiggle the vibrato arm. The hole in the string’s ball end slips over the pin. 3 Put a little kink in the string as described over on the opposite page to keep it in place. You should also maintain tension on the string at all times to stop the ball end slipping off the pin. It gets easier…

1 Tim Armstrong 1971 COUNTRY CLUB The Californian punk was honoured with his own G5191BK signature hollowbody model in 2010 but it’s a battered 1971 Country Club that it was based on; a right-handed model flipped for southpaw Tim. “To me, it sounds like a piano,” Tim told Gretsch. “Like, it’s full-bodied and thick. I hear the chords as if I’m playing a piano. That’s just a simple way for me to explain it.” HEAR Life Won’t Wait (1998) 2 George Harrison 1957 DUO JET G6128 The Beatle dubbed his 1957 Duo Jet G6128 his ‘first real decent guitar’ and it was indeed a massive step up from his Futurama when he saw a newspaper advert for what was an extremely rare find in 1961…

If you want to hear how melody and technical progression can flow in heavy harmony, look no further than Tremonti and upcoming Brits, Wearing Scars. TG sat down with Mark Tremonti and Eric Friedman of the former, with touring buddies Andy James and Dan Woodyer to get their insight and advice on tone, technique, signature styles and why your mids matter… Musically there’s a lot of crossover here, but have you guys met before?  Mark: “This is the first time we’ve toured together but I’ve met Andy before…” Andy: “The first time we met I was drunk. I bumped into him at Disneyland.” Mark: “It was a Steel Panther concert at the House Of Blues.” Andy: “I’d lost my money, that’s why I was walking backwards trying to find it…

Inspired partly by some of the classic 1960s British amps that themselves took their inspiration from vintage 1950s Fender designs, the new Bassbreaker range includes four different amps. First up is the single-ended 007 (head £210, combo £280), which is powered by an EL84 and delivers around seven watts of pure class A with a built-in treble booster. The Bassbreaker 15 (head £385, combo £470) has a pair of EL84s and features a three-position gain switch together with a balanced XLR recording output that offers switchable speaker emulation and a power amp mute. The Bassbreaker 45 (head £589, combo £819), meanwhile, uses a pair of EL34s and has a clever dual-linked preamp together with a continuous power attenuator that lets you select any output volume from 45 watts down to…

OPERATING out of Portland, Oregon, Catalinbread produce a range of boutique effects pedals that are a step above the norm. Where other manufacturers would develop and build a vibrato unit, Catalinbread’s builders make their lives a little more complicated by trying to replicate the distinctive sound of the circuitry in early 60s ‘Brownface’ Fender amplifiers. The result is the brilliantly named Pareidolia Harmonic Mesmerizer. Joining that pedal in our round-up are the Topanga Spring Reverb, the Dirty Little Secret Brit valve head simulator and the incredible sounding Echorec, which repeats the sound of a cherished 60s echo machine. Each unit’s gubbins are squeezed into the same-sized regular stompbox casing, and can run on nine-volt to 18-volt mains adaptors. The higher the voltage, the greater the headroom, says Catalinbread. The Dirty…

MONO DUAL ACOUSTIC/ ELECTRIC M80-2A CASE Challenged to a Dual MONO IS behind some of the world’s most resilient gigbags, and its Dual Acoustic/Electric M80-2A case sets out to answer one of its most requested transportation challenges: carrying an acoustic and electric guitar in one case. Like other Mono cases, the M80-2A claims to be totally drop-proof, with Headlock headstock suspension, high-density foam strap pin protection and impact deflection courtesy of ABS panels, while you can use the acoustic side to stash any full-bodied guitar, from dreadnoughts to archtops. The Dual may be pricey, but you’ll struggle to find a more practical dual-guitar transport solution. (£235, www.monocreators.com ) IK MULTIMEDIA IRIG PRO DUO Dynamic Duo THE IRIG range may be vast, but the new iOS, Android, PC…

PLYMOUTH-BORN singer-songwriter Jamie Lawson originally released this song as the title track of his 2011 album, but successfully re-released it to much greater fanfare in 2015, after he became the first signing to Ed Sheeran’s Gingerbread Man record label. The chords are based on quite common shapes such as open C, Am and G, but are cleverly dressed up by using open strings and additional fingers to add more colourful intervals. There are six variations on the open G shape, which are all easy changes, but add a lot of character. The groove is based around a continuous 16th note strumming style with a ‘backbeat-snare’-like accent on beats two and four. Jamie’s approach is to gently strum with the side of his thumb, adding the accents with a swift strike…

WHAT IS TAB? TAB is short for tablature, a notational system used to give detailed information as to where notes should be played on the fretboard. Tab appears underneath conventional music notation as six horizontal lines that represent the strings of the guitar, from the sixth (thick) string at the bottom to the first (thin) string at the top. On these lines, numbers represent the frets where you should place your fingers. For example, an A note on the 2nd fret, third string, will be shown as a number ‘2’ on the third line down on the tab. Unfretted strings are shown with a ‘0’. The key and time signatures are shown in the traditional notation. TG also includes a timestamp to tell you where in the original track you’ll…

24 DECEMBER 1945 Ian Kilmister born in Stoke-on-Trent. “My earliest memory is shouting. I was always an early starter…” AUGUST 1971 Joins space-rockers Hawkwind. “The bassist didn’t show up. But like an idiot, he left his bass in the van…” JUNE 1972 Sings lead vocals on Hawkwind’s UK No 3 hit, Silver Machine . “That was really my only time singing lead…” MAY 1975 Fired from Hawkwind after his arrest for drug possession in Canada. “When I left Hawkwind, the cojones came with me…” 20 JULY 1975 Motörhead debuts at the London Roundhouse. “We’re the kind of band that if we moved in next to you, your lawn would die…” 8 NOVEMBER 1980 Classic album Ace Of Spades – featuring the tooth-rattling title…

“I HAVE three Standards out here on the road. Sometimes we have certain fly dates and some guitars stay behind for another show. Basically, we always have a spare just in case, if we don’t get to bring everything with us. But I pretty much play the majority of the show with one guitar.” “I DON’T think I had strap locks before. I probably had something simpler like a giant washer and a huge bolt going into the guitar. But with these [guitars], I didn’t feel like losing them on the stage and having the headstock break so I put them on. I haven’t thought about it since so I guess they’re working. We’ll know when they finally don’t!” “I SWAPPED out the bridge humbucker for a ceramic magnet humbucker…

EXCEPTIONAL EXCELLENT GOOD FOR FANS OF POOR Brian Fallon PAINKILLERS For 2014’s Get Hurt, The Gaslight Anthem began exploring new territory, taking admirable steps away from their brand of Americana rock and into sonic areas with deeper, darker dynamics. But as is often the case with a band in transition, it proved to be a double-edged sword, as some fans pined for the past. Was songwriter Brian Fallon consciously distancing himself from his Springsteen and Petty influences? Well, for his solo debut, he certainly sounds at peace with them, and the overall sense is an artist unconcerned by how he’ll be perceived by critics; an honesty that reaps great rewards here. He’s certainly getting very good at writing songs that are euphoric in sound but conversely melancholic in meaning –…

THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD This is a simple lick, but it is worth taking a look at your technique to make sure you’re playing it as well as you can. First of all, you’ll need solid timing on the opening four notes (A-A-A-G) and this comes down to a steady picking motion. We recommend repeating the phrase with a metronome or drum loop bend at a slightly from A slower to B b is tempo crucial . The – hit string the wrong pitch and you’ll sound out of tune. This happens when your finger isn’t strong enough, so use two fingers to bend the string. For the pull-off the challenge lies in sounding the open string without colliding with another string. Practise slowly and adjust the angle…

CLASSIC GRETSCH TONE The Broad’Tron humbuckers fitted to the Streamliner range are designed to nail the classic 60s tone loved by Brian Setzer, AC/DC’s Malcolm Young and countless others, albeit with a bit more grunt. For a more vintage tone try the TV Jones TV Classic, which is modelled on a ‘59 Filter’Tron and available to order in a standard humbucker size. CLASSIC ROCK The original Filter’Tron was a favourite of rockers such as Malcolm Young and The Who’s Pete Townshend, who used a 1959 Gretsch G6120 on Who’s Next? and Quadrophenia. A TV Jones Classic Plus provides the vintage vibe with some added beef but also consider the Seymour Duncan JB [Jazz Blues]. Forever immortalised by Jeff Beck, it’s probably the biggest selling rock humbucker ever. PUNK If you’re…

TRACKS 26-34 GENERALLY, rockabilly makes heavy use of the well-known I-IV-V blues progression. In the key of E the chords are E-A-B; in the key of A it’s A-D-E, and 6th, 7th and 9th versions of these major chords (such as E6, B9 and so on) give a more authentic sound. Try improvising around A6, D9 and E7, for a typical rockabilly I-IV-V in the key of A. Notice that we’ve marked two shapes as ‘for lead’ because they are great for country and rockabilly style soloing, particularly if you use the trick of pulling off to the open second string. That said, you can treat them as standard chords if you prefer. It’s up to you.…

A 34-track double-concept album based on a guitarist’s vision of a futuristic battle between rebels and an oppressive empire? Not many bands would be up for even attempting such a gargantuan task, much less pulling it off as if its success was a foregone conclusion all along. To be honest we can only think of one candidate who would be up to it. And here he is sitting in front of us. Dream Theater’s John Petrucci keeps proving why his status as a hero to other players is deserved, but surely his own band must have needed a little time to get their head around his very ambitious plan for the next step of their progressive journey? “When I present things, I do my homework first and I’m very thorough,”…

1 Seymour Duncan Catalina £219 Seymour Duncan wantsto makechorus coolagain. The Catalina is a stereo analogue chorus offering anything from the classic (cheesy?) 80s sounds, to modern swirlsand rotary speaker effects. The Catalina’sdynamiccircuitry also gives youcontrol over your ‘depth’by simply playing harderor softer. 2 Electro-Harmonix Lester G/Lester K £139-£174 A pairof newrotary speaker emulators, the Lester G includes a compressor for maximising the effect, while Lester K offers a stripped-back format –both are stereo, and a speed/brake footswitch allows you to switch betweenfastand slow modes. 3 Boss VB-2W Vibrato £159 Graham Coxon’sfave VB-2 Vibrato returns! A new Custom mode offers more depth than the original, while Boss has also integrated an expression pedal jack. The pedal’s standard mode promises the same sweet BBD-driven analogue sound as the original.…

1 “First I’ll sit down and get in my zone, I’ll have like hour blocks where I’ll focus and be driven and inspired. So if I write a part that I really like, I’ll try and chase down a similar part. If I run into a wall I’ll just start from scratch, maybe tune the guitar different and come up with another idea. Go through that process until I feel bored, do something else, maybe go and eat dinner and then come back.” 2 “Once I come back to these ideas I’ll listen to them and say intuitively whether it’s a verse, bridge, pre-chorus or just a riff with no vocal. I’ll then listen to the melody I sang, and I’ll spit out words just like rapper would, just improvising…

While it’s far from cheap, it really is two guitars in one TUNERS A perfect match for the vibrato are these rear-locking tuners. For the new Elite series, they no longer have staggered height posts – all are the same lower heights, which maximises the behind the nut string angle on all strings NECK THERE’S a new neck shape here, what Fender is calling a Modern ‘C to D’ profile. We also have a compound fingerboard radius and big jumbo frets – plays like butter PICKUPS THEY look like single coils, but are actually stacked humbuckers – the latest (4th generation) versions of Fender’s Noiseless designs. Single coil sound, no hum AT A GLANCE BODY: Alder NECK: Maple SCALE: 648mm (25.5”) FINGERBOARD: Rosewood FRETS: 22 jumbo PICKUPS: 3x Fender Deluxe…

IR 1982, at the height of his creative powers, michael Jackson released what would go on to become the biggest-selling album ever; Thriller. Jackson and producer Quincy Jones were looking to include a rock song on the album, so La session guitarist Steve Lukather and pioneer of pyrotechnic techniques Eddie Van halen were called in to play on Beat It. Lukather laid down the main riff and the rhythm work, while Eddie played the fiery solo (surely the song’s defining moment!), employing fast legato, tapping, harmonics and plenty of whammy bar antics. his arsenal of wang bar divebombs and pitch-wheel bends require both subtlety and forearm strength. Practise keeping your second, third and fourth fingers straight, on top of the bar (leaving your thumb and first finger free for picking)…

10. Oasis Noel Gallagher’s walkout in 2009 felt like a full stop – he later recalled that gobshite brother Liam “nearly took my face off” with a guitar – but still the rumours persist. Damp-squib final album Dig Out Your Soul suggests the Gallagher ying/yang is out of creative juice, but a shameless cash-in hits tour would be a red hot ticket for the balding children of Britpop. 9. The White Stripes Jack White was always at his best when backed by a drummer with slightly dodgy timing. We’d love to see the Detroit duo slip into their colour-coded garb one last time – but with Meg off the radar, don’t hold your breath. “I don’t think anyone talks to her,” says Jack. “She’s always been a hermit.” 8. Rage…