Innehållsförteckning för October 2015 från Total Guitar

Have you ever listened to your favourite band and wondered, what exactly is it that makes them sound the way they do? I’m talking about those instantly recognisable traits that form the DNA of a band’s music. It could be a chord change, a particular lick or harmony, even just a tone. This month, we’re delving into the make-up of some of the biggest bands in rock to find out what exactly makes their tunes tick, and revealing the tricks that you can utilise to invigorate your own songwriting. On top of that, this month’s mag is bursting with interviews, lessons and gear reviews that we’ve had a blast putting together. And as if that wasn’t enough, in the middle of the mag you’ll find 32 additional pages, dedicated to…

Nathan Merli, frontman with Charleston garage-rock grungers Heyrocco, is a wistful type. You might even say philosophical, in a stoner sort of fashion. “I’m headed to a garage to jam with the boys,” he says with some contentment when TG calls. “I can tell that, in this business, things go astray very easily, so to be in a position where you’re at the beginning of something, that’s cool. I’m happy to be there and not on the phone with the label hearing, ‘Nobody’s buying this album, you guy’s might be dropped…’ So, yeah, I think it’s fine to be happy right now!” We’d be happy, too. In six years, Heyrocco have gone from local open-mic nights through to international touring. Another reason to be cheerful is this year’s debut album,…

LETTER DIGITAL DOMINATION? TG what is your obsession with Axe-Fx, Kemper and all this digital modelling lark? Every single issue it’s getting mentioned countless times. There is more to life than digital you know, especially when it costs two grand! I’m frankly disappointed by the amount of players who seem to be abandoning real amps for these things, especially in metal. It’s so clinical and boring… soon there won’t be any point in rig tours with amps in because there won’t be any. All the greats like Stevie Ray and Clapton played through tube amps, and you can’t fake that kind of tone, I don’t care what anyone says. DAVID BAKER, via e-mail To be fair, David, this level of technology wasn’t around for Stevie Ray Vaughan to utilise,…

Before Clapton was Slowhand, before Keef was The Human Riff and before Jimi took over, there was Buddy Guy. The guitarist is one of the last great bluesmen. A man raised on a plantation without water and power, who started off playing rubber bands and wound-up honoured by a president and who, in the 1960s – still unknown to mainstream US audiences – was surprised to discover a fanbase of rabid young UK rock stars worshiping his work from across the Atlantic. If Clapton is god then Buddy Guy’s the holy spirit. The embodiment of the original grit-laden Chicago blues boom, Guy’s instrument-hurling stage theatrics, sublime touch and anarchic, scything Strat tone shaped the playing of everyone from Jimmy Page to Jeff Beck. Here TG talks to the all-round nice…

G MAJOR SCALE TRACKS 14-15 You can ape the Young brothers’ signature style by mixing up simple open chord shapes and single notes from the parent major scale – G major in this case (G A B C D E F#). Get used to the note placement and sound of the scale by starting on the root note, then playing up the scale to the highest note on the first string. Play down through the scale all the way down to the open sixth string to get a feel for riffs that ‘descend’, and finish on the G root note. Once you are comfortable, try playing along with TG’s backing track. YOUNG MAN’S GAME TRACKS 16-17 THIS RIFF contains G, C and D chords, connected together with single notes. All…

EM7 CHORD Thanks to Noel Gallagher’s knack for writing simple but effective guitar parts Oasis have become a staple band for novice guitarists to learn from. Noel’s easiest guitar trick comes in Wonderwall, where he anchors his third and fourth fingers to the top two strings at the 3rd fret and uses only his first and second fingers to change chords. It’s a simple, neat idea and there are plenty of other chords that sound great with this approach. Of course, musical talk about Oasis always serves up the hot potato that is the influence of The Beatles. Both bands borrowed from classical composers such as Johann Pachelbel, whose famous Canon was written in around 1700, but whose progression has been rewritten in Don’t Look Back In Anger, among many…

IN THE 1970s, Led Zeppelin blazed a trail, fusing blues, heavy riffs, folk and more to become one of rock’s greatest ever acts. Arguably Page’s greatest contribution is his ability to write a cracking riff, and the minor pentatonic and blues scales form the basis of tracks such as Heartbreaker and Moby Dick. Page’s magic lies in how he adapts the scale so that the well-known pattern of notes doesn’t sound over-familiar in the context of the riffs. Of course, there is a huge amount for any guitar-toting songwriter to learn from Led Zeppelin’s back catalogue. Open tunings in particular can open up new avenues of creativity for you. Jimmy was a fan of DADGAD and open C tuning (CGCGCE) among many others. PAGE-TURNER TRACKS 34-35 THIS LED Zep-style E…

Most writers say songs can come from anywhere. Frank’s no exception – his track Broken Piano started life as a kitchen appliance. “The melody is loosely based on [13th century folk song] Sumer Is Icumen In,” explains Frank. “But the instrumentation is based on my ex-girlfriend’s broken microwave, which used to hum a perfect A6 chord! A 6 chord is really interesting because you can dump a whole bunch of notes in the middle of it and turn it into a minor chord or a major 6 chord. So, yeah, I spent some sad afternoons humming along with the microwave!”…

AT A GLANCE  TYPE: Digital preamp, digital power amp OUTPUT: 50 x 50W CABINET: 2x12 dual mono cabinet CONTROLS: Voice select, booster level, gain, bass, mid, treble, presence, reverb level, master volume, 2x channel volume SOCKETS: 2x input, 2x speaker out, 2x line out, effects loop (dual loops on TRS jacks), headphones out, USB WEIGHT: 4.5kg DIMENSIONS: [HxWxD] 125x405x215mm CONTACT Yamaha Europe 01908 366700 www.yamaha.com DOING THE DOUBLE TWO five-position voice switches provide access to a huge range of clean and distorted tones BOOST! THE booster control works on any voice, with three boost types in the editor app, and footswitchable convenience, too CONTROL PANEL THE simple, easy to use, totally analogue control panel makes playing the THR100D as easy as falling off a digital log WHEN Yamaha came up…

AT A GLANCE  BODY: Mahogany w/ maple top NECK: Maple SCALE: 635mm (25”) FINGERBOARD: Rosewood w/ bird inlays FRETS: 22 PICKUPS: 2x PRS-designed Original SE uncovered humbuckers CONTROLS: 1x volume, 1x tone, 3-way toggle pickup selector switch HARDWARE: PRS-designed Stoptail bridge, enclosed tuners LEFT-HANDED: No FINISH: Orange (as reviewed), Gray Black, CONTACT: PRS Europe, 01223 874301, www.prsguitars.com PICKUPS THESE ‘ORIGINAL’ SE humbuckers are medium-output, ‘traditional’ units: both have Alnico V magnets and 42-gauge wire; the bridge pickup has a few more turns for slightly increased power BRIDGE THE STOPTAIL bridge first appeared in 1991 on the first Dragon guitar. There is no specific intonation adjustment for each string, but the bridge’s pre-intonated ridge means its very in-tune for 0.009 and 0.010 string sets. BODY WHILE WE’VE seen semi-hollow guitars before…

AT A GLANCE  TOP: Solid spruce BACK & SIDES: Solid mahogany NECK: Maple SCALE: 643mm (25.3”) FINGERBOARD: Bound rosewood, pearloid block inlays FRETS: 20 ELECTRICS: Fishman pickup system with Presys preamp w/ 3-band EQ, phase switch and onboard tuner LEFT-HANDED: Not this model, but try the Feder Sonoran FINISH: 3-color Sunburst – gloss urethene CONTACT: Fender GBI, 01342 331700, www.fender.com HEADSTOCK THE Fender Strat-style headstock with its six-in-a-line tuner layout is not only very Fender, but also extremely practical to re-string and tune. PREAMP THIS Fishman preamp is very common at this price point, but features all you need for your open-mic slot: three-band EQ, onboard tuner and a feedback-busting phase switch. BODY IT’S certainly a generic dreadnought shape but the all-solid wood construction is attractive at this price point.…

‘CALIFORNICATION’, the Chilis’ 1999 album that features Scar Tissue, is often seen as the natural follow-up to 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik, as it saw the return of guitar genius John Frusciante. Most of the time the instrumentation is only drums, bass and one rhythm guitar fronted by Kiedis’ vocals. The main addition to this is Frusciante’s slide guitar solos. Accurate pitching is the biggest challenge, so make sure to place your slide directly over the target fret; move away from the fret and the note will sound out of tune. It’s also worth noting that a higher action is preferable for playing slide. It may be worth digging out an old guitar to use just for slide. The other difficulty with Scar Tissue relates to a loose swing feel…

FOR THE rhythm guitar playing section of the Registry of Guitar Tutors (RGT) electric guitar Performance Awards, you’ll need to choose two chord progressions to play from the RGT Grade Five handbook. One of these is included below, and you’ll see that it includes a variety of distinctive sounding chords. A typical example of rhythm playing has also been included here to get you started, although you won’t find this notation in the handbook itself – you’ll need to make up your own part instead. The chord chart is in 6/8 time, which means there are six eighth notes in every bar. You’ll hear that the rhythm pattern being played in the video has each chord being generally played twice only per bar. Hold down the chord shape and switch…

CHRIS BIRD TG’S tuition Editor has been mastering the signature bending technique of David Gilmour – one of Chris’s heroes. Those five-fret bends are quite the challenge but somehow Chris coaxed the notes from his Strat with all strings left intact. Try out Chris’s Gilmourish bends for yourself on p64. ROB LAING THIS month, our knight of the content realm has been through rain, shine and a press area in a barn to speak to some of the metal and alt-rock players appearing at this year’s ArcTangent festival. But before that, he picked Jason Wade’s songwriting brain on p28 for melodic rock wisdom. JOSH GARDNER SOMEONE had to mind the shop while everyone was having fun at ArcTangent, but Josh still found time to review The Dead Weather and The…

Aichard Hawley and Sheffield go together like Henderson’s Relish and, well, just about any food consumed in Yorkshire. It’s with some excitement then that he lines up his biggest hometown show yet, as part of a 13-date UK and Ireland tour. “Home shows are always good,” Hawley tells TG. “People want to see you do well. I remember when we used to play the Leadmill and there was always that ‘Sheffield Semi-circle’, we used to call it. All of the musicians in the bar would stand there with their arms crossed going, ‘Go on then. Impress me!’ [Now we’re playing the arena], it would have to be pretty big fucking semi-circle!” The tour is in support of the songwriter’s eighth album, Hollow Meadows, which in typical Hawley-style is filled with…

“I GOT rid of practically everything between the input jack to the saddles. I have an EMG 81 pickup, and a lot of people complement the tone because they think I’m using some crazy pickup. EMGs are solid, the sound is key to my tone.” “THIS IS from where I smashed it on a TV in our Badge & A Bullet music video.” “MYSELF AND Andy Williams from Everytime I Die call ourselves Team Williams. We thought it would be funny to put a number one sticker on our number one guitars. So if you see Andy rocking one you know it’s his main one.” “IT’S BEEN my go-to guitar for probably eight years now, and it looks like it. It’s a 2001 Mexican Fender that I bought from a…

Buddy Guy toured the UK in the 60s as a guest of the Yardbirds and has frequently spent time with ex-’Birds Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. However, one of the flock still eludes him… “I know them all,” he tells TG. “But I never did get the chance to know Jimmy Page as well as I did Clapton and Beck. I finally got the chance to be face-to-face with Page when we were introduced at the Kennedy Centre awards.” However, Guy’s kicking himself as being slightly sidetracked by the presidential award ceremony, he forgot to ask Page a key question. “I own the largest blues club in Chicago and I’ve got everybody to sign a guitar [for the wall] but him,” says Guy. “Now I can’t track him down!” What…

THE SUMMERS SIGNATURE SUS CHORD Andy Summers gets a lot of mileage from his signature shape, which you can hear in the likes of Every Breath You Take and Message In A Bottle. These chords are a bit like powerchords, but with the second note of the major scale added on top. To find the 2nd interval just think ‘up a tone from the root note’ like C to D or A to B. You can either call this the 2nd or the 9th (the 9th is the same note an octave higher), so, depending on the other notes you’re playing the resulting chord is either an ‘add9’ or a ‘sus2’. Don’t worry too much about the theory, though. Just play the chord. A WARM SUMMERS PLAY TRACKS 18-19 PLAY…

THE BEATLES were masters of the unexpected chord change, which they’d achieve by introducing a chord or two from outside of the key signature. You just need to know the ‘right’ notes for your key and then choose the all-important ‘wrong’ notes. Just remember: if it sounds good, it is good, regardless of how far out of the key signature it is. Play through our examples, listening out for the sound of those vital ‘outside the key’ chords. THE MAJOR III CHORD TRACKS 30-31 THE EM7 The C, G7 and Am chords all belong to the key of C major (C D E F G A B). The E7 chord isn’t from the key though (the notes are: E G# B D), hinting instead at another key. Changing the III…

VERY OFTEN in music, simple is best. And, with that in mind, we’d argue that the Arctic Monkeys’ angular but easy to play indie chops are surely some of the most memorable guitar moments of the last decade. Alex Turner is simply one of the best in the business at writing earworm guitar lines and it’s made the Arctic Monkeys one of the biggest bands in the world today. If there’s a trick, it’s taking a simple chord or scale line and messing with the timing. Offbeat notes and syncopation are the key to recreating the Arctic Monkeys’ sound. BAH, SYNCOPATION! TRACKS 38-39 ALEX TURNER often employs simple but creative ideas to make memorable catchy riffs such as Teddy Picker and Mardy Bum. This riff is based on just two…

Could an Audioslave reunion be on the cards? Although Cornell/Rage Against The Machine venture Audioslave ended back in 2007, Chris says he would be keen to reboot the supergroup, having recently played with Tom Morello in Seattle and at the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. “I think it would be great,” says the frontman. “We did a lot of songs, and with the benefit of not having done anything with those guys for so long, I can’t imagine what it would be. It would be a really amazing experience just to get back and work with the same guys again. “We were certainly a prolific group; we wrote three whole albums in around five years. And these were albums that were raw, and we had extra material, and we…

Keith Richards is one of the best-known exponents of open G tuning, which he discovered in 1968 after experimenting with different open tunings and jamming with the likes of blues legend Ry Cooder. The best examples can be heard in tracks such as Honky Tonk Women, Brown Sugar, Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’, Beast Of Burden, Gimme Shelter and Start Me Up. Although similar-sounding chords can be played in standard tuning, it’s the closer intervals between some strings that create the unique ‘close harmony’ that is immediately identifiable as Keith’s sound. With the use of slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs he has developed a fluid rhythm style that includes lead elements from one his major influences, Chuck Berry. With country and rock ’n’ roll-inspired doublestops, he never really goes into traditional…

1 ’67 GIBSON TRINI LOPEZ “I bought this in LA when we were doing an Oasis record. I think it was Don’t Believe The Truth. Noel [Gallagher] used it quite a lot on that record and a lot on tour… Eventually, I saw another ’67 Trini Lopez and snapped that up and just got it set up the same, so now I’ve got two and I can’t tell the difference.” 2 ’90 RICKENBACKER 360/12 “I’m also playing the two original Rickenbacker 12-strings that I was using back in the early days of Ride; the Vapour Trail ones [also used on Hurricane #1’s Step Into My World].” 3 EVENTIDE SPACE “Eventide came out with the Space and TimeFactor pedals a year or two ago. These pedals are based on the H3000,…

Virtual Circuit Modelling, or VCM for short, is Yamaha’s proprietary way of digitally emulating analogue circuits. A valve amplifier is made using quite simple components – resistors, capacitors, transformers, loudspeakers, and of course, valves. However, the interaction between these components is far from simple. In a high-impedance, high-voltage valve circuit, components placed too close begin to affect each other through inductive coupling, while the complex relationship between an output valve, transformer and loudspeaker is very difficult to model, changing all the time with frequency and amplitude. With VCM, Yamaha basically recreates each component in the digital domain, complete with all the characteristics of the real thing. These digital components are then connected to each other digitally. When Yamaha’s engineers are happy with the results, the digital source is ported into…

AT A GLANCE  BODY: Alder NECK: Maple, bolt-on SCALE: 25.5” FINGERBOARD: Rosewood FRETS: 21 PICKUPS: 2x Seymour Duncan Hot Rails for Strat (neck and bridge), 1x Seymour Duncan JB Jr (middle) CONTROLS: 1x master volume, 2x tone (neck and middle pickups), five-way pickup selector HARDWARE: Floyd Rose Original Double Locking 2-point Tremolo, Fender Deluxe staggered tuners – all chrome LEFT-HANDED: No FINISH: 2-Colour Sunburst CONTACT: Fender GBI 01342 331700 www.fender.com NECK MAYBEit’s just us, but we find the gloss polyurethane-finish neck gums up a bit with sweaty hands. We’d prefer a satin finish, which burnishes to a lower-sheen gloss with lots of playing FINGERBOARD THE FINGERBOARD uses a compound or ‘conical’ radius. In lowest position it has a 241mm (9.5”) camber like any modern, non-vintage-style Fender, which gradually flattens out…

TYPE: Digital reverb pedal CONTROLS: Effect level, tone, time, reverb type SOCKETS: 2x input, 2x output, power, expression BYPASS: Buffered POWER: 9V battery, 9V power supply (not included) CONTACT: Roland UK 01792 702701 www.roland.co.uk IN the 13 years since the RV-5 was launched, the compact reverb market has become a crowded field, but the RV-6 hopes to entice guitar players back to Boss, updating it with all-new algorithms and overhauled DSP. For starters, there are some new types alongside the usual suspects: shimmer and dynamic expand the feature set, while a reverb/delay returns from the RV-3. The RV-6 can also control the effect level via an expression pedal – handy for altering ambience on the fly. Each of the eight modes delivers pristine, artefact-free reverbs, with a huge amount of…

GO YOUR OWN WAY was a huge hit for Fleetwood Mac back in 1977. It also featured on their mega-selling album, Rumours, released the same year. Lindsey Buckingham played all of the guitar parts on this track, but the part we’re focusing on here is the bright, chimey 12-string acoustic that enters in bar 3. If you’ve not listened to Mr Buckingham before he’s well worth further investigation, a classy player equally adept at lead or rhythm. You’ll need to place a capo at the 8th fret in order to play the part exactly like the original. The pitches of the capo’d chords are F, C and B , but these are easy to play because the shapes are the same as open A, E and D; only a brief…

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…

10. Les Paul The guitar world’s ultimate overachiever, Les Paul’s inventor chops even outstripped his jaw-dropping jazz guitar technique. If Dragon’s Den had existed back in the post-war era, they’d have flung wads of cash at his volley of brainwaves, which included multi-tracking, echo chambers and flange – not to mention the eponymous solidbody Gibson that ensures his immortality. 9. Orville Gibson Forget the duck in the nappy – the only Orville you need to know is the founder of Gibson. He took the contoured construction of violins and fused it into his archtop guitars – the ancestors of loads of classic axes, including the ES-335… 8. Lloyd Loar Loar arrived at Gibson’s Kalamazoo factory in 1919 and promptly sprayed maverick genius over the drawing-board, from the iconic L-5 model…

GRAVEYARD LIGHTS OUT “I was really into their second album but I finally got into this and it’s absolutely amazing. They were the opening band on the Clutch/ Mastodon tour and getting to see those guys every night reaffirmed that they might be my favourite current band. They have more of a garage-rock influence live, but I just enjoy the songwriting, I’m more about songs than virtuoso playing. I can listen to the Misfits at 45 years old and enjoy that.”…

Jason’s music has featured in everything from Shrek to Smallville and The Time Traveller’s Wife, but it’s the song You And Me that’s become a favourite at weddings. And that’s very apt… “There’s actually an extended wedding version of that,” Jason reveals. “We had no idea that song was going to have that kind of impact. But it kind of makes sense because I wrote it and proposed to my wife with that song when I was 18 or 19. It floated around for four or five years before it surfaced. We tried to record it for [2002 album] Stanley Climbfall and we just didn’t have the right magic on it, it didn’t really feel like it was doing the song justice so we scrapped it and recorded it for…

E PHRYGIAN MODE The Phrygian mode is responsible for the dark, xxxxx ominous mood in Metallica songs such as Harvester Of Sorrow and Wherever I May Roam. Get familiar with the E Phrygian mode (E F G A B C D) and you’ll quickly be able to recreate James and Kirk’s signature sound. Play the notes with a one-finger-per-fret approach by assigning your first, second and third fretting fingers to the corresponding frets. The notes of the scale are quite easy to remember as there are no sharps or flats. Just start on E. RE-PHRYG-ERATED TRACKS 10-11 THIS RIFF is based in the open position of the E Phrygian mode, so you can play the whole thing with your first, second and third fingers. Hetfield adds contrast and groove by…

THERE IS a certain ‘Nirvana flavour’ to the likes of Come As You Are and In Bloom. Discovering the secret to this sound lies in a nugget of music theory. In pure theory terms the root chord in a major key is major and the second chord is minor, so, in the key of C major (C D E F G A B) you’d get a C major chord (C E G), then D minor (D F A). The Nirvana trick is making that second chord a major (D F# A), introducing an unexpected note from outside the key. Of course, Nirvana were known for their ‘soft then loud’ approach to songwriting, too, in songs such as Smells Like Teen Spirit and Come As You Are. Simply kicking on a…

The subject of key signatures could fill many books; but we’ll keep the theory brief. Remember, if you understand the key signature you’re using you’ll find it easier to create the right mood and the right chord progressions for your songs. WHAT IS A KEY SIGNATURE? A key signature outlines a set of seven notes that act as a framework for your music. You don’t have to stick to them, but it is useful because it sketches out notes that will -in the main- sound good together. A typical key is C major; the notes are: C D E F G A B. MAJOR OR MINOR? Major and minor are the important kinds of key signature. Major keys usually sound bright and happy; minor keys tend to sound dark and…

WITH HIS major influence coming from 70s rock giants such as Jimmy Page and Joe Perry, there’s a strong blues streak running through Slash’s riffing style. Chordally, he keeps things simple, rarely stepping away from the basic open and barre shapes that every guitarist knows; but he delivers with a punky swagger and a tight, funky sense of groove that has stayed with him from early GN’R days right up to his current solo material. If you want to riff like the great man you’ll need a steady pick hand – syncopation and 16th note rhythms are a key part of his style. Fret-hand muting gives those powerchords their percussive, funky vibe. SWEET CHOPS OF MINE TRACKS 42-43 THIS HEAVY Slash-style riff uses powerchords played on adjacent frets with percussive…

ALTHOUGH KEITH isn’t known for playing much slide guitar (Mick Taylor used to take the slide duties), open tunings provide the perfect opportunity to dig out the bottleneck. Like several other open tunings, open G is a complete major chord without fretting any notes. This means you can easily move the slide to any fret and produce a major chord in every position. Since the sixth and fourth strings share the same tuning as the fifth and third (an octave higher) exactly the same licks can easily be transferred across the strings.…

Notable for David Gilmour’s slick outro solo, Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) is one of Pink Floyd’s best-loved songs. And, although Gilmour’s style and tone are silky smooth, listen closely at 2:22 and 2:38 and you’ll hear a couple of physics-defying string-bend licks. Spanning four- and five-fret intervals, you can expect to snap an occasional string playing these huge bends; even Gilmour himself tends to improvise around the original licks in live performances rather than risk his strings. Read on as we break down David’s string-bend technique, complete with two of our own licks for you to try out. NOTES ON THE NECK THESE ARE the notes you’ll be playing in our Gilmour-style phrases. The 13th fret C is the only note you actually fret; all the other…

BLUGUITAR AMP1 £589 This is probably the THR100D’s closest competitor, but it doesn’t do the two-amp rig thing. Nevertheless, it’s a brilliant, highly portable product with great tone and flexibility. HUGHES & KETTNER SWITCHBLADE 100 TSC £1,299 It isn’t strictly a digital modelling amp, but the Switchblade combines analogue solid-state and digital effects with a very slick digital control interface and typically great H&K tone. KEMPER PROFILING AMP £1,199 It has similar tonal finesse and can mimic any amp rig, but the Profiling Amp doesn’t have the touch-sensitive realism of the THR, which we think puts the THR100 in a class of its own.…

IK MULTIMEDIA IRIG MIC STUDIO For the love of mic THE FIRST large-diaphragm condenser to join IK’s well-stocked mic stable is designed to be ultra-portable for recording on the move, yet still deliver quality results via a studio-quality design, ideal for those impromptu acoustic sessions. The mic is compatible with iOS and certain Android devices, as well as Mac and PC (using a whole host of included cables), while the mic itself features a gain control knob, multi-coloured LED level indicator and handy headphone output with level control for monitoring. The whole package includes a tripod tabletop stand and an IK app or two, as well. (€179.99, www.ikmultimedia.com ) THE ‘JAM’ JAR Lifting the lid on jam sessions GUITARISTS ARE always banging on about how much they…

in his final lesson Andy kicks things off by playing a one-bar rock lick. It’s a simple line, even though Andy plays at a ferocious speed (you can play at any tempo you like). once you have the sequence of notes under your fingers the next two licks should make sense because they follow essentially the same pattern, just using different scales. It’s a great way to get more mileage out of just one lead idea. Andy rounds things off with two awesome shred lines. the first is a classically-tinged harmonic minor lick with the notes played along the length of the strings, rather than in scale positions. It is the easier of the two licks but it is still a challenge for both your visual perception and your hands,…