Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2017 från Total Guitar

They say the key to great comedy is timing, and the same is true for guitar! Think of your favourite guitarist – it doesn’t matter who they are, even if they have the most blistering lead licks imaginable, we’d put money on the fact that they have rhythm skills to match. It might not be as glamorous, but rhythm guitar is the foundation of everything, and it’s what we spend 90 per cent of our time playing, too. This issue, we’re showing you how to hone your rhythm skills, regardless of the style of music you play. By the end of our lesson, you should have a better understanding of timing, developed your picking and fretting, and also increased your chord knowledge. We’ve also introduced a new regular this month.…

GEAR Hot Desking Desktop amps are certainly becoming popular for us guitarists who need to fit around the sound and space restrictions of our homes. Boss has heard the call and responded with an addition to its already impressive Katana range. The Katana Mini (£99) is a seven-watt combo that, Boss claims, “far exceeds other amps in its class” in terms of sound quality. It features three channels (brown, crunch and clean) with onboard tape-style delay. There’s a cab sim, too, for recording. WHEN Now GEAR Silver Surfers We’ll level with you: we’re suckers for a Silverburst and we are looking longingly at the three new additions to Fender’s American Professional line. The Stratocaster HSS (£1,479), Telecaster Deluxe (£1,539) and Jazzmaster (£1,619) are a limited run and we also note…

1 “I had it made as a replica of the number one Gibson Les Paul Custom that I’ve been playing for years. I actually played it so much that I had to re-fret it; I was about to re-fret it again but I thought it was time to retire it. Before I did that I had a good friend of mine take all the measurements and examine every little detail with the original one in order to make an exact replica. He was about to build it for me and then I started talking to Epiphone and they wanted to work together to create a signature model, so that was perfect timing.” 2 “All the measurements are from that Gibson Custom, including all the hardware on my original one. I…

It’s been three years since Philadelphian indie-rockers The War On Drugs released their breakthrough album, Lost In The Dream, and its follow-up, A Deeper Understanding delivers on the high expectations that awaited its release. Adam Granduciel’s soaring hook-laden songs and vast-sounding production still manage to absorb the sonic influence of AOR 80s heroes like Springsteen and The Waterboys, as 2014’s opus did before, but this offering ups the ante with a more live feel as well as some intriguingly leftfield tones. While multi-instrumentalist Anthony LaMarca contributes some beautiful six-string lines and voicings across the record, it’s Granduciel who once again takes centre stage on the guitar front in the expanded six-piece outfit. Armed with a bevy of favourite axes, cranked up amps and esoteric pedals, Adam leads us into a…

Work on strumming different subdivisions and feels and expand your rhythmic potential by adding syncopation to your playing EIGHTH NOTE SYNCOPATION A bar of eighth notes is counted ‘1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &’ evenly. Each of these syllables represents an event within the bar. Each eighth note can either be a note, a chord or a rest. This Motown-style part goes: rest, chord, chord, rest, rest, chord, rest, chord. The chords are most often landing on the up beats, which means it is ‘syncopated’. TRACK 45-46 16TH NOTE SYNCOPATION Sixteenth notes are twice as fast as eighth notes. Even though this example is exactly the same tempo as the previous one, there are twice the amount of ‘note events’. You can count 16th notes: ‘1 e &…

Along with Something, While My Guitar Gently Weeps is one of George Harrison’s finest songwriting moments. Recorded in July 1968, the original (and this transcription) features Eric Clapton on the arpeggiated rhythm parts as well as a solo while George takes care of the strummed acoustic guitar. The song is simple with the prominent descending A G F# F bass line forming the repetitive backdrop for most of the verses and solos. The verses should ideally be played with a generic arpeggiated idea similar to the transcription. The verse fills occur in bars 7 to 8 over the C-E and D-E chords, and generally use the trusty Am pentatonic scale and a more chordal idea over the E, utilising moving 6th intervals. CHORDS These 10 chord diagrams will prepare you…

Robert Cray takes a no-frills approach, playing a vintage ‘hardtail’ (non-tremolo) Strat through an almost clean amp with a heavy pick attack and aggressive vibrato. This results in a distinctive style that he partly attributes to having spent many months touring the US in support of Albert King during the mid to late 70s. Though he is known for his distinctive, piercing solo phrases, Robert is also (in the great blues tradition) lead vocalist of his own band and a prolific songwriter. Though he has tried many different amps over the years, he keeps his signal path pretty clear between the guitar and amp. Cranking vintage valve amps isn’t a home-friendly option for most of us, so it’s worth bringing an overdrive pedal into the mix, with a splash of…

“When your raw material is life, you have to live life. Otherwise you start writing songs about writing songs...” Sam Beam, better known by his songwriting moniker Iron & Wine is contemplating the effects of working solo. “When you make your own records for a while, you almost don’t hear yourself,” he says. “When you have something else to compare it to you’re like, ‘Oh, this is what my voice does’ – you’re almost re-introduced to yourself.” The Durham, North Carolina-based indie-folk songwriter and his shape shifting line-up of backing musicians – often described by Beam as “a band with one permanent member” – are preparing for the release of his new full-length, Beast Epic. It’s the sixth with “Iron & Wine on the spine”, the first since 2013’s Ghost…

Welcome to the GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome*) Station! Every issue, 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 it on whether it looks good, sounds good and plays well – not by the name on the headstock. NO SNAKE OIL You won’t find us…

Many guitarists first encounter reverb on their amp, and this means that your taste in amps is likely to have a significant bearing on what kind of reverb clicks for you most naturally. Traditionalists and jangly indie players alike will probably feel most at home with ‘spring’ style reverbs that seek to emulate a spring reverb tank, while space cadets, shoegazers and experimentalists will be looking to the reverbs that create a sense of space out of echoes and reflections. These imagined spaces range from the tight slap of a studio to impossibly large concert halls, caverns and sonic cathedrals. With reverb, the possibilities are, quite literally, endless... MOOER MOD VERB £74 MO MOD, MO PROBLEMS? Many players were initially sniffy about Mooer because of its pedals’ price tags and…

The song that got me into music… Voodoo Child – Jimi Hendrix “There were a few songs that inspired me to play. Voodoo Child was one. To me that is the ultimate guitar anthem. It doesn’t get any more heavy than that. The playing, the groove, the openness of the song and the ability to improvise – it has it all. Whenever I would listen to Hendrix, and also Billy Gibbons, I would wonder how they got their guitar to sound like that. I listened to Voodoo Child and just exploded, my mind opened up to so many different sounds and I realised that I wanted to do that.” The first song I learned to play… Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix “For some reason everybody seems to learn the first…

CHRIS BIRD Chris took an extended break this month and arrived back at TG Towers just in time for deadline. “Having learnt the entire catalogue of grunge’s Big Four circa 1991 to ’94 for a covers project, I feel refreshed and raring to go,” chirps the Big Man. All on bass, too: traitor. MICHAEL ASTLEY-BROWN This month, Mike dropped off his Cort G290 for a setup. The wait was torturous, but upon collection he was relieved to find it playing better than ever, with an obscenely slinky low action. The downside? He’s left with no excuses if he flubs a note up at the dusty end. Not that that has ever happened… ROB LAING As well as falling in love with Fender’s PM-1 acoustic (p94), Rob bought an Epiphone Century…

CLASSIC TONE #1 STARVIN’ FOR MARVIN The Marvin sound (as heard on the likes of Apache) is all about clarity – use your amp modeller’s Top Boost AC30 sound with the gain low and master high. Echo is essential; find a good multi-tap or tape echo model. Combine this with a warm reverb chamber effect and a Strat bridge pickup. To get the twang just right, try picking over the neck pickup while holding the trem arm. GET THE TONE Delay 1 approx 300ms 1 repeat Delay 2 approx 400ms Reverb approx. 2.5 seconds with 120ms predelay CLASSIC TONE #2 TONE OF THE QUEEN AGE Brian May’s lead sound on We Will Rock You is about as extreme as you can get from an AC30. Here, you should use a…

“I got into feedback on this record. I was in this particular room in New York and the feedback sounded really good in there. Basically, I bought a ’66 [Gibson] SG four months before I finished the record and that has the original pick-ups on it, not the PAF ones but just the regular Gibson humbuckers from the 60s. Those things feedback unlike any other guitar I own. A lot of my guitars have single coil or mini humbuckers but nothing feeds back like these Gibson humbuckers. They’re incredible and that guitar is like a whole new beast. I can do things with that guitar that I can’t do with my Jazzmaster and that just starts to inform the music more because you’re getting a big blast of feedback right…

What’s the secret behind your songwriting chemistry? “When it comes to Rick’s songs, I try to be part of it – almost like an actor playing a part in a movie. You read the lyrics and hear the melody, if certain things don’t fit me, then we change them round until they do. We try to stay to the core of that story and confess things the way they should be done. Over the years, I’ve gotten pretty good at doing it! And the same goes for Rick. If there’s a part that doesn’t ring a bell within him, he’ll tweak it until it does. Rick is a prolific songwriter, so for me it’s hard to get a word in edgeways. I have to fight twice as hard!” Working with…

BLUES-ROCK (GUITAR 1) For this Keith Richards-inspired part, keep your first finger barred across the 14th fret for the A/E chord, then add your second and third fingers for the D/F#. Aim to hit the chords with real confidence so that they sound cutting and punchy. This part is played high on the guitar neck and starts on beat 2 so as to stay well out of the way of guitar 2. BLUES-ROCK (GUITAR 2) TRACK 55-57 In contrast to guitar 1, this riff is low in the neck. It starts on beat 1 and fills in the spaces left by guitar 1. This way both parts can be heard and complement each other. Play the open A5 with your first finger and add the hammer-ons with fingers 2 and…

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 which frets you 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 notation. TG also includes a timestamp to tell you where in the original track you’ll find each example…

Beast Epicwas recorded at Wilco’s Loft studio in Chicago, meaning Sam benefitted from the band’s impressive acoustic toolkit. “Jeff [Tweedy] has like a million guitars, so I was just taste testing the whole time,” says the songwriter. “Most of the guitars are these old Martins and there’s this company from Texas, Collins, and I used some of those. For the shows, I always use Taylor guitars, because I love the way they go through the PAs. I also use a lot of open tunings, but on this album I used Open B, for the most part.” As such the tone is appealingly chunky. “I love that sound,” says Sam. “The acoustic stuff, it will always sound warm, but sometimes it’s a little spindly and you don’t want to be just…

“IT’S AN IDEAL GRAB-AND-GO AMP FOR STAGE AND STUDIO” 1 FRONT PANEL Despite slightly fewer controls compared with the 50-watt models, the Sonzera 20 packs plenty of tonal flexibility on both clean and gain channels. 2 EFFECTS LOOP Plug your time-based effects into the Sonzera’s series loop for the best results. Other effects, like compressors or wahs work best in the input jack 3 PR-YES! One of the most coveted badges in guitardom can now be on your backline. Behind it, the Sonzera 20 packs a superb Celestion V-Type loudspeaker PRS’s massively popular Asian-made SE range has been going for nearly 17 years now bringing ultra high-end PRS guitars down to previously unheard-of price points. Now, Mr Smith aims to repeat that offshore success with the company’s all-new Sonzera amplification…

A QUICK AND SIMPLE SOLUTION FOR AMPLIFIED SOLO PERFORMANCE One of IK’s particularly finely-honed talents is spotting a gap in the market and coming up with a guitar product to fill it – and it’s often one that makes recording and performing easier for us players. The iRig Acoustic Stage follows on from 2015’s mic-only model by adding a battery-powered DSP preamp. The idea is that you fit the plectrum-shaped MEMS mic to your guitar’s soundhole and then into the preamp that provides EQ presets for standard acoustic and nylon-string (we liked Bright best). You can then connect to a recording device via a USB, into a PA via jack or even combine signals with your guitars existing piezo by using a separate auxiliary input from your guitar and the…

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN How chords relate to scales How to construct a major 7th chord Play a progression using two major 7th chords There are two basic types of chords: major and minor. In their most simple form they have three notes called a triad. Because we’re lucky enough to have six strings on our guitars these three notes are often repeated in different registers to give us a nice full sound. The thing is, these two chords types are black and white. A major chord sounds happy, while a minor chord sounds sad. So what do you do when you want different shades in your music? Well, you insert extra notes to these basic chords. The major 7th chord is produced by adding a fourth note to a…

Eyeing up an empty Brixton Academy, Lower Than Atlantis guitarists Mike Duce and Ben Sansom are preparing for their biggest headliner in the capital to date. Since forming in 2007, the Essex quartet have managed to break through the glass ceiling that often hinders British artists. Tonight’s show will have the kind of production only bands in the big league can afford. With the wind in their sails from the Top 10 success of Safe In Sound, Mike and Ben invite TG onstage to get a closer look at their weapons of choice… MIKE DUCE FENDER AMERICAN ELITE STRAT 1 “This is my main guitar. It’s brand new from Fender with Noiseless pickups, as well as the in-phase/out-of-phase S-1 system. There’s nice hardware on it, as well! There’s a Hipshot…

The UK has a rich history of indie acts including bands like Oasis, Blur, The Libertines and Arctic Monkeys. This track focuses on the full-on side of this iconic style drawing its inspiration from the Libertines and Arctic Monkeys’ more frenetic moments. The majority of this backing track is made up of barre chords played with an aggressive attack. Don’t worry about 100 per cent precision with these parts, it’s much more important to get stuck in and play with lots of attitude. As the example below demonstrates, indie solos are often melodic and created to complement the song. Indie lead playing is unusual because it often doesn’t feature vibrato in sustained notes. Mardy Bum by the Arctic Monkeys is a particularly good example of this approach. If you’re used…

Released in 2014, Cassy O’ was the third single from George Ezra’s debut album Wanted On Voyage. His bluesy voice, ‘stomp’ style drums and simple, jangly chords are in the classic tradition of songs like Creedance Clearwater’s Bad Moon Rising. It’s therefore a great tune to master if you find yourself in an open-mic or campfire setting, since the chords are easy to play and form an instantly memorable sound. The original 12-string acoustic guitar is tuned down a whole tone, so although you’ll be playing D and Dsus4 etc, you’ll be ‘thinking’ E and Esus4. For all of George’s live performances, he plays down a further tone – probably to make it easier to sing – but the concept is exactly the same. If you want to come down…

THE NASHVILLE SOUND Jason Isbell signature joins Martin’s Summer launches Martin announced a brace of new models ahead of the recent Summer NAMM show, and in addition to the previously announced third Ed Sheerhan model, Americana man Jason Isbell gets his first signature in the shape of a custom D-18. Isbell has been touring with custom Authentic series models with the VTS treatment to their tops for a while now. This is the Vintage Tone System – Martin’s method of torrefaction that ages the top wood to achieve some of the character of a vintage guitar. The Isbell model’s top is Adirondack spruce, known for a richer low end, with mahogany back and sides. Isbell has opted for a thin finish and no pickguard to make this guitar louder. “Growing…

Released in 1986, Wanted Dead Or Alive is from chart-stormer Slippery When Wet. The first thing you’ll notice is the double stop 6ths over a D pedal in the bass. The intro is in D minor with all of the notes being found in the D Dorian scale. When we get into the verse, the key centres in D major. The C is the flattened 7th degree and the G is the 4th degree of D major - adding to the bluesy sound of the piece. In harmonic terms, the C is borrowed from the parallel D minor Dorian or natural minor scales. The original solo is adapted to suit the acoustic guitar (originally played on electric with a meaty distorted sound). Some of the notes have been amended and…

“IT OFFERS MENACE AND A SMOOTH, CLASSIC-ROCK TONE” 1 TONE The Juggernaut automatically bypasses the tone control – running it at full tilt – but via a push/pull feature it works just as any other tone knob. 2 TUNERS A set of Jackson die-cast locking tuners lets you drive the Juggernaut hard without throwing it out of tune. 3 HEEL The Juggernaut’s S-style profile is heavily contoured throughout, and this neatly sculpted heel makes lead playing a cinch. Mansoor calls it a “handshake feel”. Misha Mansoor’s signature guitar is built with heavy in mind. A veritable monster, the Juggernaut boasts a custom-contoured body, painstakingly hewn from basswood and topped with flame maple, a quarter-sawn maple neck, a typically lethal-looking spearhead headstock and two custom-wound Jackson humbuckers. Pick it up off…

“IT’S A VOICE THAT LEANS TOWARDS FOLKY AMERICANA” 1 TUNERS Nickel open-back tuners add to the overall vintage stylings that keep on the right side of understated 2 NUT OR BRIDGE It’s good to see Fender’s commitment to higher end hardware here; a real bone nut, compensated saddle and ebony bridge pins could both play a part in the PM-1’s resonance 3 SOUNDHOLE The scalloped X-bracing inside the PM-1 is said to enhance note definition and sustain – and we can attest that we found both When it launched its Paramount acoustic series last year, Fender sent a message that it was reiterating its commitment to acoustics: solid-wood builds, bespoke preamp systems… we were pleased to see them, and as we open the hardcase to this all mahogany addition, hopes…