Innehållsförteckning för May 2017 från Total Guitar

Welcome to another issue of Total Guitar! This month we’re turning our attention to a subject that every guitar player can benefit from: chords. Different chord extensions can really take your progressions to the next level, and if you’ve ever been put off because it all sounds a bit theory-heavy, let us be your guide. We didn’t want to just put together a list of chords – there are hundreds of books out there for that – we want to show your where and when to fit them into a musical context. By the end of this month’s cover feature lesson, you’ll quickly and easily have a better understanding of how to go beyond basic chords, without the confusion! Elsewhere this issue, we have another stellar list of tunes for…

SHOW In The Pink The Victoria And Albert Meseum will host the first international restrospective of Pink Floyd between 13 May and 1 October and it’s set to be a spectular multi-sensory feast through the band’s history. The exhibition has been put together with the involvement of surviving members David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Nick Mason and will feature over 350 artefacts covering five decades of the legendary band. When From 13 May GEAR Capital Gains Radial has versatility in its sights with new combination North Star and Texas Pro overdrives. The North Star promises note articulation in gain that could be good for alt country territory, while the Texas Pro is capable of going from warm vintage to gnarlier saturation. The separate boost circuits provide up to 24dB of…

1 “Initially Doug [Campbell], who is the sole entity of Black Machine, turned up at a show we were doing in London. He pretty much appeared with two Ritter soft cases and two [guitars] in there. He rocked up and said, ‘You’ve got to try these out’. More than anything just getting hold of one just felt right for me. I came from that SuperStrat kind of thing but I think I tired of dealing with Floyd Roses. To have the hardtail just felt comfortable.” 2 “It’s ebony [top], ebony fretboard, a swamp ash body, ivoroid binding, rosewood neck with ebony fillets… I went a bit different with my other B2 – that’s mahogany bodied with a sapele top and the same rosewood neck but with snakewood fingerboard. That one…

FLANGER The jet-plane effect that gave flight to many a classic guitar tone Like its signal-doubling brothers chorus and phaser, a flanger manipulates your guitar sound by duplicating it, and tweaking the copied signal within its circuitry before playing them back alongside one another. The development of the effect is largely credited to Ken Townsend, a studio engineer at London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios who worked with The Beatles. Ken simultaneously played two versions of the same sound back on separate tape machines, while applying pressure to the ‘flange’ of the reel on one deck in order to speed up and slow down the playback. In the case of a flanger pedal, things work in a very similar way to a chorus effect. Your guitar signal goes into the pedal,…

Do you find it strange being on the other side as the interviewer instead of the interviewee? “I did, and it’s given me a healthy new respect for people doing it, because it can be kind of difficult. But I also figured out that I really enjoy it. I like it when you get to talk to somebody that you’re a huge fan of. But the flip side is that I get turned onto loads of new music that I might not have discovered. So it’s cool on both fronts.” Have you found that doing the podcast has helped you in your own creative process? “Not exactly directly, but in the sense that most people when I ask them about their process give me the same answer, that they don’t…

ON YOUR DISC   Find mp3 backing mixes for every example on your Guitar Skills CD SUS CHORDS Introduce an airy floating quality to your progressions with this special ‘neither major nor minor’ type of chord You know it from… The Who – Pinball Wizard Bryan Adams – Summer Of ’69 Stereophonics – Have A Nice Day How it works… There are two main types of sus (or ‘suspended’) chord: the sus2 and the sus4. Each of these is a variation on a basic major chord – so, where a major chord uses the first, third and fifth notes of the major scale, a sus chord replaces the third with either the second (sus2) or fourth (sus4) notes. When to use it… 1 Add movement to a major or minor…

Originally composed on Mark Knopfler’s trusty open-tuned National steel guitar, Sultans Of Swing came together when he plugged in his 1961 Strat and played those now trademark chord fills. The song - re-written in standard tuning - politely rocks up Knopfler’s country and folk influences, with a Dylan-esque vocal line – but it’s the guitar that really shines, as those chords and lead lines weave around the voice. The famous fingerpicked outro is played at a fearsome 148bpm, but it boils down to a simple four-note picking pattern: thumb-pick the first note, pull-off to the second note, thumb-pick the third note and use your first finger to pick the last note. It’s a clever way of playing because none of your picking fingers has to move too quickly. Take it…

Paul Weller is a British institution, and here we’re looking at an arrangement of the title track from The Jam and Style Council man’s second solo release, Wild Wood. The first challenge you’ll face is the ‘broken’ Am chord in bar 1 – where you pick the fifth string before strumming the remaining strings. Aim for accurate, controlled pick strokes here . This groove is a big part of the arrangement and may take a fair bit of practice. Starting in bar 25 is a melodic solo. You’ll be playing one note at a time so aim for accurate fretting and picking to keep the idle strings silent. Finally, note that Weller’s original is in the key of B minor but we’re in A minor here. The Rockschool Acoustic Guitar…

“THERE ARE SOME TRULY JAW-DROPPING CLEAN TONES” 1 HEADSTOCK With the headstock rounded and curvy, rather than sharp and pointy, the Corona Fluence is a hot-rodded S-type without actually looking like one 2 FLUENCE The Fishman Fluence Strat set retails at £239, which works out as a third of this guitar’s overall price. It’s money well spent once you hear what these pickups are capable of 3 BRIDGE It’s parts such as this bridge that Wilkinson built his name on, so you know you’re in safe hands when it comes to tuning stability From Leo Fender to Paul Reed Smith, there have been many names that stood for innovation in the history of the electric guitar – but none quite like British designer Trevor Wilkinson, who built his reputation specifically…

“THE AV30 CAN CONJURE UP SOME TRULY EXCELLENT TONES” 1 VALVES The AV30 uses two 12AX7 valves for authentic preamp and power amp tones that respond like only a valve can 2 VOICES The amp voice selector offers eight very usable amp sounds on each channel, from clean to very, very mean 3 EFFECTS The AV30’s basic amp simulations can be spiced up with three very good effects. A single knob controls level and delay time/ modulation rate 2017 is a significant year for Vox, marking 60 years of amp production and 25 years of since Korg became its current custodian. Today, Vox makes amps to cover practically every need, from sophisticated modelling amps to hand-wired replicas of its most famous valve models from the early 1960s. Sitting roughly in…

CHRIS BIRD This month Chris has been tearing out his hair (don’t laugh!) trying to figure out how to fit all the audio for this month’s tutorials onto TG’s Guitar Skills CD. In the end, to fit it all in we put some of the Learn More Chords audio examples into the mp3 section of the disc, so pop it in your computer to find them! JOSH GARDNER After 63 issues making sure that TG’s spelling and grammar is (mostly) flawless, Josh is moving on to pastures new this issue. To celebrate, he did his first TG gear review since 2012 – see whether that long absence was a good thing or not by reading it for yourself on p104… ROB LAING Rob’s love of chords is well known but,…

INCUBUS 8 For those who have delved into the Incubus back catalogue, the Cali five-piece remain one of the most intriguing acts of the nu-metal era. A group of musos that drew from a deeper pool of influences than their peers, they’ve been oft-misunderstood over a career that’s seen them transition from funk-metal upstarts to alt-progateers and, more recently, mature soft-rockers. Guitarist Mike Einziger has been touting 8 , the band’s first full-length in six years, as “not mellow” and, at least initially, he has a point. Opener No Fun recalls their Morning View-era Mesa/Boogie bombast, while Nimble Bastard is full-throttle if generic. But all too quickly, 8 descends into the…

BOSS BF-3 £109 As well as all of the standard flanger wooshes you’d expect, the BF-3 also comes loaded with a bunch of extra features built into its compact pedal enclosure. It can work in stereo with its Ultra and Pan/Gate modes to create spacey 3D effects and chopped rhythmic sounds, plus there’s tap tempo for setting your rate. Pick one up for just over £100. ELECTRO-HARMONIX ELECTRIC MISTRESS £69 From Andy Summers to Kurt Cobain, the EM has been trampled under legendary feet for decades, making it one of the all-time classic flangers. This version will take up less space on your board, but still includes the manual ‘fixed filter’ feature for static flanger effects. MOOG MF FLANGE £185 This Minifooger pedal uses old-school style bucket brigade delay chips…

Whether you believe in a higher power or not, seeing Clutch in full flight in a live setting is an almost religious experience for those lucky enough to be in the audience. Theirs is a sonic purity unlike any other, a monolithic blues groove that resonates deep within the soul like a lost language that laid dormant in our minds over centuries of evolution. Singer/guitarist Neil Fallon and main axeman Tim Sult offer TG a rare glimpse of the guitars, amps and pedalboards that help them recognise their musical truth… “ORANGE HEADS SOUND BETTER THROUGH UK OR EUROPEAN POWER… IT TOOK ME 15 YEARS TO FIGURE THAT OUT” NEIL FALLON GIBSON ES-335 1 “This is on loan from Gibson, straight off the shelf. I have one at home, but I…

1 Learn the key signature We’re going to play some chord progressions in the key of C major. The notes of C major are easy to remember because there are no sharps (#) or flats ( b ). Try and memorise the notes: 2 Seven chords in C major You can build a chord on each note of the major scale by jumping over every other note. The C chord uses C, E and G notes, ie, you jump over D and F. Dm uses D, F and A notes, jumping the E and G notes. Hopefully you already know the first six chords, but don’t worry too much about the rarely used Bdim chord: 3 Play an easy chord progression TRACK 36 C, F and G7 chords form a…

Released in January 2017, Castle On The Hill was the lead single from Ed Sheeran’s number one third studio album, ÷ (aka Divide). Showcasing Ed’s mass appeal and Midas touch, the official videos have amassed over 200 million YouTube views and almost as many streams on Spotify in barely two months. The single features a full band and a U2-style riff that’s great fun to play – provided you’re armed with a delay pedal, of course. Dial in a ‘dotted eighth note’ delay (which works out as roughly 333 ms) so that the repeats are timed to fall in just the right spot. There is no acoustic guitar on the studio recording but you can follow some of the chords Ed plays in his acoustic performances if you find yourself…

“Dave and I didn’t grow up together but we work just the same in the studio” They say there’s no such thing as an overnight success, but you’d be forgiven for thinking Brent Cobb is a new face on the country scene with a brilliantly assured debut in Shine On Rainy Day . Except this is actually his second album, and his first was 11 years ago… “I was writing and touring but I didn’t take a break from the road until the birth of my first child in 2014,” explains Georgia-raised Brent on his decade between records. “Then I took a break and just focussed on writing and being around the house. That was when Dave called about Southern Family. And once we got back in…

Welcome to the GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome*) Station! Every issue, the TG scours the market for the hottest new gear and brings you transparent reviews that you can trust. From the smallest of accessories that make your life easier, to big investments such as brand new guitars, amps and effects pedals – if it’s worth your attention, you’ll find it here! HOW WE TEST CURATION Our product selection is driven by our love of gear. We select the most exciting products on the market every month to bring you opinions you can trust. FACE-VALUE REVIEWS We’re not gear snobs here at Total Guitar. We judge on it on whether it looks good, sounds good and plays well – not by the name on the headstock. NO SNAKE OIL You won’t…

Fishman says the Fluence is the biggest change in the history of guitar pickups, and it has a point. The Fluence Core is made of two 48-layer boards, each packing printed mini-coils and spacers – its technology based on the notion that coils can be applied rather than wound, which usually involves one long strip of copper wire going around a bobbin thousands of times. The old methods are prone to fluctuation, which is what gives certain pickups extra hum, more noise or perhaps even something beneficial – the happy accidents if you will. Fishman’s new technology removes that romance or margin for error, depending on how you see things, and while it all feels a little Skynet to begin with, the benefits are quite breathtaking indeed.…

“IT’S GENUINELY INSPIRING TO PLAY AND CHORDS CHIME” 1 STRAPLOCK  Fender provides two strap buttons for using a strap, so you could add a soundhole pickup and plug in live if you wish 2 FRETBOARD  The company claims that one of the ‘Easy-to-Play’ shape upgrades it’s made to the model include rolled fretboard edges, but they seem pretty standard to us 3 ROSETTE  The CD Series Pearloid rosette adds a little bling and works well with the glossy finish Whether us guitarists know it or not, we are addicted to the mysteries of wood. What makes a guitar sound good? It’s a combination of things, but tonewoods are a big part of the spell. And yet there are no hard and fast wood rules – only likely characteristics – and…

You might have already guessed from our head to head that of the four guitars we have on test today, the Ibanez and Gretsch models come out on top without breaking much of a sweat. It’s hard to find a guitar that truly feels expensive under the £500 mark, but in all fairness, these two semi-hollows do great justice to their long-established brands. The Streamliner benefits from a wider tonal scoop into the higher mids, while the Ibanez has more to offer lead guitarists in terms of playability at the dusty end of the fretboard. Both instruments make you feel like you’ve got something old in your hands – which, let’s be honest, is an important aspect when you’re buying a guitar of this nature. For smaller, younger or less…

The first song I learnt to play… Simon & Garfunkel – Scarborough Fair “I had my first guitar lessons when I was around 13 at this centre for teenagers. I had a few lessons but then the teacher quit so I just taught myself for the next year or so. But, that teacher taught me a couple of songs, the first of which was Scarborough Fair by Simon and Garfunkel. That’s not the easiest song but it is a beautiful song. I was using my first open position chords, the fire camp chords as we call them in Finland. I visited Scarborough on my first UK tour and thought that the song describes the place really well.” The song I covered with my first band… Samba Pa Ti - Santana…

FLIGHT OF THE FLANGE Add some distortion in front of your flanger to create a classic ‘jet plane’ effect. It works best with the rate set slower, but you’ll also want to link it to the tempo of your song in some way. Push your depth and feedback up to introduce some proper resonance. Sit tight, buckle up and prepare for takeoff! CLEAN FLANGIN’ Adding a flanger to give body and depth to a glassy clean sound was a staple of metal back in the 1990s. To emulate that effect yourself, set your depth high, and keep the rate low to avoid it getting too swirly. Up your resonance to the point where you get a sharp edge to the tone, without becoming too sci-fi. FLANGER IN A BOTTLE You’ll…

“I didn’t want it to be a wall of guitar, but at the same time, I’m a guitar player, it’s my favourite thing” This is your third album, do you feel more comfortable as a frontman? “Well, it definitely gets more comfortable every time. This one wasn’t really done with a band exactly, because I used Dave Cobb’s go-to session guys out there – who were absolutely fantastic. I really tried to just defer to Dave on a lot of the shaping of the record, and he had a huge impact. I tried to soak up what him and his guys did, and just to be totally open to whatever direction he guided me down. It was really fun, I honestly felt like a lot of the time I was…

Being mainly a singer, how much guitar do you end up playing? “I must play guitar every day at home because I’m constantly writing, but I don’t really see myself as much of a guitar player. For me, it’s a tool to get to the song… I’ve never practiced scales or whatever. I find it more exciting to play along to a rhythm, so I always try to find a nice beat to play to and then my mind starts working. I’ve played guitar on a lot of our albums, but I’ve never really needed any credit for it. Our new guitarist [Roger Öjersson] came in after our new album was recorded, so I played guitar on the songs I wrote and Anders did the same with his ones. It’s…

This month we’ve recorded a traditional blues track for you to jam over inspired by the legendary Muddy Waters, in particular the classic 50s era with Jimmy Rogers on guitar. Our track uses a handful of blues tricks which will help keep your ear locked in as you jam along. First up is the verse, which is in B minor. The chart shows a Bm7, but, in fact, this chord is never played. Instead we’re playing a riff that uses the notes of the chord to imply Bm7. It’s a neat trick used by nearly every blues rocker since the 50s. The chorus changes to a ‘dominant’ chord progression (E7, B7 and so on are known as ‘dominant’ chords, hence the name). These chords have an edgy, bluesy sound that…

Apocryphal legend has it that Jimi Hendrix was once asked what it felt like to be the greatest guitarist in the world. His reply was “I don’t know, go ask Rory Gallagher”. Whether or not this is true, Gallagher surely was a force to be reckoned with – bringing his versatile mix of folk, blues and heavy rock to packed houses internationally for nearly 30 years, while avoiding the more cliched trappings of fame. Gallagher stayed loyal to a small selection of guitars, none more so than his iconic ’61 Stratocaster – reputedly the first in Ireland. Though the original electronics, tuners (and most of it’s Sunburst finish) perished along the way, it remained his main guitar until his death in 1995. Amp-wise, he plugged into Vox or Fender combos…

Brent may be an acoustic troubadour but he’s not averse to taking a different approach to find original angles with his writing. And that’s where his acoustic bass comes into play… “I’m not a bass player, but I like to come up with little bass rhythmic things that inspire a whole chord progression,” says Brent. “For some reason an acoustic bass inspires lyrical phrasing that I wouldn’t normally come up with on an acoustic guitar. A lot of times if I go down the writing with the bass road, I just pick up the bass without really having an idea. Not knowing how to play a bass properly I come up with something that is not normal! And that in turn puts my mind in a different headspace.”…

FENDER DELUXE ROADHOUSE STRAT Mexican-made Fenders are an obvious rival here, and this Roadhouse Strat comes with noiseless pickups that can be fine-tuned using a V6 switch and S-1 push-button LTD SN-1000W FLUENCE This LTD comes in a similar ’burst finish and is fitted with the exact same Fishman Fluence pickup set, but at nowhere near the competitive price tag SCHECTER TRADITIONAL STANDARD From Schecter’s California Vintage line, this South Korean-made S-type might be a cheaper alternative, but that £200 difference won’t go unnoticed when you plug it in……