Innehållsförteckning för September 2017 från Total Guitar

Have you ever watched other players play the blues and wondered how they get their chord voicings just right? Maybe you’re lacking inspiration when it comes to lead playing, or perhaps you’ve never really dabbled with blues guitar playing in earnest. Well, this month is for you. We’ve compiled 10 pages of blues lessons for you to sink your teeth into covering everything you need to know to sound more authentic and confident whether you’re sitting in soloing at a jam night, or playing along to your favourite 12-bars at home. Elsewhere, we’ve once again packed the issue full of great tabs (Metallica, Simon and Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell) complete with backing tracks to play along with. In our features section we catch up with Troy and Dean from…

ALBUM darkness reTurns The last third of 2017 is all go for the Hawkins brothers with a new Darkness album in October and then a tour. The band will get to air Pinewood Smile’s meaty riffs on the road in Nov/ Dec and Dan Hawkins tells us that their fifth album showcases an even freer spirit: “It’s almost like the last [two] albums we’ve been looking back at what we liked about what we’ve done in the past and trying to take elements of that and re-do it. But this album is so not like that. Let’s do whatever, let’s have a laugh and not worry about whether we’re going to have any hits or anything. And I think you can hear that. The album doesn’t really care!” When 6…

1 “This is a complete dream come true, as I’m sure all the other folks who get their own signature models of guitars made will say. The reality when you pull it out of the case for the first time, it’s a breathtaking moment. I was a kid at school playing guitar and reading guitar magazines, and looking at all these people putting out signature models and following guitarists who were doing the same thing, and suddenly, for the first time, I’ve got my own one. It’s a total honour to call this my own signature Epiphone Century ‘1966’ guitar.” 2 “This is a simple guitar – the ’66 model I first got, I was drawn to it and I loved it, and I still love it because of its…

As the guitarist in an instrumental three-piece, Mike Sullivan’s tone has to deliver a huge but nuanced sound to be his voice in Russian Circles. His quest to refine his heavy tones while retaining the cleaner chime and layers of looping required to produce the band’s intricate and emotive compositions has meant a rig always up for revision with three amps and a meaty pedalboard platter in play. But his ongoing recovery from a car accident last year also brought about some necessary changes in terms of guitar choices too… GUITARS 2007 GIBSON SG STANDARD SILVERBURST 1 “I’m kind of inbetween guitars at the moment. A car accident caused an upper-back injury and put me in search of lighter-weight guitars. I tried several different SG Customs and some just didn’t…

Each note of the major scale can also be played as a chord; the most important of these are the first, fourth and fifth steps. Songs based on these three chords are referred to as a ‘one-four-five’ (aka I-IV-V) progression, regardless of the order they are played in – and this chord sequence can be heard extensively in blues. Learning the I-IV-V chords in as many keys as possible will help you to identify these chords by ear and plot them out on your guitar. Start by jamming around the essential chords in the keys of A and E. We’ve recorded a basic I-IV-V progression: hear it on your TG CD. 12-BAR BLUES GENERATOR… Use this table to quickly learn the most important I-IV-V chords and you’ll be able to…

THE SHUFFLE RIFF TRACK 37 A classic Chicago blues-style shuffle. Use your first finger on the 2nd fret and add your third or fourth finger on the higher notes. THE ONE-CHORD JAM TRACK 38 Muddy Waters’ riffs were often played around the open E shape but we’ve got a line that can be shifted to other chords. Move to the 8th for C7 or the 10th for D7. DELTA STYLE FINGERSTYLE GROOVE TRACK 39 Play this riff fingerstyle, using your thumb (p) to keep a steady bassline on the open sixth string as your first (i) and second (m) outline the melody on the treble strings. SLIDE GROOVE TRACK 40 Retune to open E (E B E G# B E) and use a slide positioned directly above the frets and…

Blues Flavours Bust out of standard pentatonic shapes and add different moods to your blues solos with these scale shapes. MINOR PENTATONIC SCALE OVER DOMINANT 7TH CHORDS TRACK 49 The mixture of minor scale notes with the notes of dominant 7 chords will give you an edgy, bluesy bite to your solos. Nearly every player from Buddy Guy and Albert King to John Mayer and Joe Bonamassa uses this trick at times. ‘ BLUES BOX’ SHAPE OVER DOMINANT CHORDS TRACK 51 This BB King trick mixes the best bits of the major and minor pentatonic scales in a simple run. There’s no 3rd interval, so add a minor 3rd by bending the 2nd up a semitone, or add a major 3rd by bending up a tone. MAJOR PENTATONIC SCALE OVER…

METALLICA: THE BLACK ALBUM (Guitar Tab with chord symbols, 96pp, £16.95 ref. AM91363) A fantastic matching folio to the album, this guitar tab edition provides something for all guitarists and Metallica fans. All the tracks from the album, accurately transcribed, are presented here using standard notation, guitar tablature, chord symbols and chord boxes along with complete lyrics. The book includes iconic songs such as Nothing Else Matters, Sad But True and Enter Sandman. Available from: www.musicroom.com SAD BUT TRUE Words and Music by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich © 1991 Creeping Death Music UK/EU reproduced by kind permission of Music Sales Ltd US/Can reproduced by kind permission of Hal Leonard LLC All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured. METALLICA SAD BUT TRUE Intro The powerchords in bars 1, 2…

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…

“I’ve been on the road with my signature guitar by Andreas Cuntz from Germany. It’s a sitka/rosewood combo with a tight body and narrow string spacing loaded with Dimarzio pickups. The Black Angel magnetic Nick Benjamin and I co-designed (Mike plays guitars built by Benjamin too) with Larry Dimarzio. It features on all but one track on Era. “The Tonewood Amp is just a joy to play with too, it’s a little device that sticks magnetically to the back of your acoustic and projects reverb, delay and a host of other effects through the soundhole of your guitar. There is no speaker on it, it allows the resonance of the guitar to become the speaker. It’s an inspiration box.”…

1 RADIAL CAB-LINK The Cab-Link allows guitarists to connect multiple cabinets from a single amp – useful for heads and combos with only one speaker output. Cabs can be linked in series or parallel configuration to allow the total impedance to match the output impedance of the amp. A level control-equipped line out is also onboard, which can be used to feed another amp. Like other Radial gear, the Cab-Link promises zero signal colouration and rock-solid build quality, while it can handle amp outputs of up to 400 watts. (£80.36, www.radialeng.com ) 2 FISHMAN FLUENCE SIGNATURE PICKUPS Fishman has collaborated with Willie Adler, Killswitch Engage and Tosin Abasi on new dual-voice humbucker sets. Willie Alder’s (£469) offers ceramic bridge and alnico neck ’buckers. Killswitch Engage’s model (£429)…

1 LOOPS!  There are three of ’em, for integrating your fave stompboxes. Using one for your amp’s effects loop allows you to run effects before or after your amp’s front-end too 2 SCREEN  It may be small, but this diddy screen is mighty bright and shows your signal chain in little pixel blocks for re-ordering, as well as your current patch 3 FOOTSWITCHES  These four switches can be assigned to pretty much anything you can imagine in manual mode, or function as patch recall switches in memory mode Pro pedalboards are increasingly based around almighty switching systems, designed to swap stompboxes in and out with ease. Yet for those of us looking to minimise on real estate (and outlay), Boss has come up with an ingenious solution that gives you…

CHRIS BIRD Chris and contributor Phil Capone have been channelling their inner blues to bring you this month’s huge cover feature. Together, they’ve covered chords, progressions, rhythm grooves and a whole host of soloing tricks guaranteed to help you develop some authentic blues chops MICHAEL ASTLEY-BROWN This month, Mike donned his widest-brimmed hat and set out to track down UK singer-songwriter and all-round talented guitar bloke James Bay to get the lowdown on his cracking signature model with Epiphone, before hearing it in action at an exclusive gig from the man himself. Join in the Bay watch (chortle) on p14 ROB LAING When Rob isn’t talking himself out of buying boutique reverb pedals, he’s trying to coax artists into sharing their knowledge on tone, writing and technique. This month he’s…

“WE WENT DOWN LIKE A TON OF BRICKS, MAN.NO ONE GAVE A SHIT THAT WE WERE THERE” I got my first real six-string “It’s pretty difficult to find… it was called a Marlin. It had a Floyd Rose bridge, it came in black with this luminous green cracked paint job. I believe it was made by Hofner… Why not start with a Floyd Rose guitar, they’re so easy to tune ha ha! I’ve loved music my whole life. When I heard Nevermind, I would listen to it over and over again by myself. It’s like I felt understood – on some angsty teenage level, there was this guy out there who knew how I felt. Because of that, I saved up some pocket money and bought this guitar for 500…

GET THE TONE #1 WYLDE ABOUT DISTORTION Wylde is known for using the 2203 JCM800 head, often with a Boss SD-1 distortion pedal. Humbuckers are also required. To get the sound of this solo, with the chord stabs in the verse, you need gain with a large dose of bass. The chorus is subtle, with a medium room reverb and a delay kicked in on the final note of the solo. GET THE TONE Reverb approx. 250ms Delay 400ms GET THE TONE #2 USE YOUR MODULATION Estranged was recorded with various amps but it’s fairly certain the main one was a modified 2203 JCM800 from S.I.R. (Studio Instrument Rentals), used on the distorted parts. Effects, if there are any, are well back in the mix for the memorable solo. There’s…

JOE “I can remember when the idea of regrouping came to me – it was early last year. I was horribly jetlagged in Dusseldorf and sent Glenn a message congratulating him about the induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and figured I might as well revisit the BCC catalogue. Listening to it, I thought we were really good when we were not being idiots, present company included. So I composed an email to everyone, saying a lot of people spend two lifetimes searching for a great band and never find it while we threw it away like spare change. I said I’d be the first to sign up for anything new… I didn’t even know if I had the current email addresses for everyone. And they all…

Try out the sizzling Southern style of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, Blackberry Smoke and more In keeping with the greats, our hot and spicy Southern rock-style backing track blends popular genres like American country, blues and classic rock. The verse and chorus sections are based around chords I, IV and V in the key of A major (A, D and E). This is a standard blues progression (turn to p48 for more information in this month’s blues cover feature), but it’s been used in countless styles of music – so it’s essential fare for every guitarist. The bridge includes some chords from outside the key (G5 and C5) and these provide some contrast. When soloing over the track, try the Mixolydian mode and the A major pentatonic…

Simon & Garfunkel’s tempestuous career spanned 13 years from 1957-1970. During this time they created some of the most beautiful and emotive pop songs ever recorded. Although Paul Simon wrote the songs, Art Garfunkel would frequently sing lead vocal, as he did on this track. Our tab and backing is based on the original 1964 single (although other versions were recorded, such as Paul Simon’s arrangement on his debut solo release The Paul Simon Songbook); you can clearly hear the acoustic guitar parts on the original. To play along with our backing track you’ll need to use a capo on the 6th fret. The first verse is fingerpicked; the remaining five verses are all strummed. Because there are no ‘pinches’ in the fingerpicking part (ie two notes picked simultaneously) you…

UNSIGNED COMPETITION Fender launch search for singer/songwriting talent Undiscovered acoustic singer-songwriters are being offered the chance to play at the prestigious Shepherd’s Bush Empire with Fender’s search for unsigned talent. The Fender Unplugged Artist Of The Year competition will be hosted and compered by Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens and is now accepting entries from solo singer/ songwriting guitarists aged 18 plus, via www.Fender.com. “We’re really excited to launch the Fender Unplugged Artist Of The Year competition,” says Fender EMEA’s Head Of Artist Relations Neil Whitcher, who will be one of the judging panel. “Fender has always been a supporter of new music, and we’re looking forward to giving a platform to UK singer-songwriter talent.” The winner who makes it through the semi and final stages will get the chance…

Joni uses a variety of tunings throughout her original compositions. In a recent transcription series, there were over 40 different tunings listed. Indeed, Big Yellow Taxi was originally recorded in open D (D A D F# A D), but Rockschool’s arrangement is in standard tuning. Note the use of added notes to the basic chords. In bars 1 and 2, the added note is the 4th fret F# (a major 6th interval), which adds a tuneful sound and changes the A chord to an A6. The same idea is repeated two frets higher in bars 3 and 4, so it’s a B6 chord this time. To play bars 5 to 8, adapt the position of your fretting fingers to mute out the idle fourth string. Played over an open sixth…

“A CURIO OF AMERICANA... WITH AN OFF-BEAT AESTHETIC” 1 HEADSTOCK The ‘4+2’ arrangement of tuning pegs dispenses the need for a string tree, helping the string resonate from the machinehead to the bridge. 2 BODY The body shape might be too weird for some, but we say weird is cool, and it makes for a well-balanced and comfortable instrument. 3 PICKUPS Designed by Music Man, these minihumbuckers have got plenty of personality, and help the SVT60 deal in all manner of styles. When you’re going to spec an electric guitar in your name, it’s best to go all in and fix yourself something totally different, something unique. Why stop at a specially designed headstock decal, and maybe an exotic tonewood and custom pickup set, when you can all but reinvent…

1 TUNERS  The enclosed tuners impress with a smooth and precise action but they’re quite large and seem to add to a surprisingly heavy weight 2 ELECTRONICS  The Fishman Sonitone’s volume and tone (a treble roll-off) controls are tucked inside the soundhole and the piezo delivers a solid performance. The battery compartment is better-placed than the Dreadnought Junior’s too (by the lower strap button) 3 SIDES  The top and back HPL’s greatest advantage is that it provides more durability, both physically to knocks and the humidity changes that can affect an acoustic guitar’s tuning What’s in a name? Quite a lot in the guitar world. Established brands carry expectation because they’ve spent years proving themselves worthy of icon status. We’ve seen with Martin that also applies to its recent entry-level…

For many players, the fact that you can even consider eliminating an amp from your setup to have just a pedalboard is astonishing. That the sounds on offer from these pedalboard amps are so good is equally as impressive: there now simply isn’t a reason to have a full-fat ‘real’ amp other than for the aesthetic and headroom. For the home studio, the combination of a Two Notes Le Preamp and the Torpedo CAB is the way to go. Most players will probably gravitate towards the Fender-like clean tones of the Le Clean or the beefier Marshall heft of the Le Crunch, but the Le Lead is a great sounding unit, too, albeit trickier to dial in. By mixing in the parallel channel ‘A’ set to a clean tone, the…

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN How minor chords relate to major scales How to construct a minor 7th chord Play a progression using three minor 7th chords Last month we looked at constructing major 7th chords using notes from the major scale. This month, it’s the turn of minor 7th chords. You’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d use the minor scale to construct them, but that’s not quite how it works. All scales and chords are compared to the major scale, so it’s easy to see how they relate to each other. The scale is given the formula: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. A scale with the formula 1 2 b 3 4 5 6 b 7 8 would be the same as the major scale except…

Stained in a deep oxblood red, Troy Van Leeuwen’s signature Fender Jazzmaster has a suitably high-gloss finish and features 60s-style block inlays, all of which were crucial to a man who dresses and plays sharp. Troy didn’t want to reinvent the instrument: “You don’t want to mess with it, y’know” – but it had to look good. “The colour and the mid-60s block inlay and bound neck, and the matching headstock, those were all just aesthetic things that I loved about Jazzmasters in the mid-60s,” the guitarist says. One practical modification is found in the Jazzmaster’s tone circuit switching, where a toggle switch replaces the black plastic slider. It’s a little tweak but it really does make all the difference. “Live, I need to switch between instruments really quickly, and…

Turnarounds are often used in the last two bars of a 12-bar sequence. Their purpose is, as the name describes, to turn the chord progression around and provide a musical signpost back to the start. The main melody of a blues often concludes at the start of the 11th bar, so the turnaround has to develop the main tune and give a sense of movement to restart the progression. It’s also a great place to squeeze in a nice guitar lick before the singer comes back in, so make sure to take a moment to step into the spotlight! BASIC CHORD METHOD TRACK 34 The most common turnaround: I-IV-I-V. The tab shows a simple approach whereby you simply play chords, either in full or broken up into individual notes. SLIDING…

The minor and major pentatonic scales are well known and generally quite easy to remember. Shown here, they can form the heart of any blues solo. Sure, you can spend a lifetime learning new scales and shapes, but a ‘think pentatonic’ method is generally much easier; just add extra notes to the easy pentatonic scales to evoke the sound and mood that you’re after. MINOR PENTATONIC: ADDING THE 5TH TRACK 43 The b 5th can be freely added to the minor pentatonic scale to give an edgier sound. Here, this crucial note is on the 8th fret, third string. MAJOR PENTATONIC: ADDING THE MINOR 3RD TRACK 46 Guaranteed to get you sounding like BB King, this lick sounds best when bending up from the second step of the major pentatonic…

This classic metal track from Metallica’s Black Album features down-tuning: all the strings are tuned down by two semitones, to DGCFAD, aka ‘D standard’. The many benefits of down-tuning include a fatter tone, reduced string tension and it can make the guitar-friendly keys of E, A and D easier to sing over. Make sure to tune down when you’re ready to jam along to TG’s backing track. The song contains some classic riffs that it is impossible not to nod your head to – just make sure to keep all the idle strings muted out as you switch between powerchords and single notes during the main riff. There are also two Kirk Hammett solos, both based in classic blues-rock territory. Break them down into individual licks and practise them slowly.…

The late BB King, also known as the King Of The Blues, was one of the hardest working bluesmen in history, performing an average of 300 shows a year well into his 70s. These days we’re used to hearing certain stylistic devices on the electric guitar; licks and phrases played and repeated by many, or maybe even most, blues players. But not so in BB’s younger days. His fluent string bending style and pentatonic phrasing paved the way for much of the next generation. Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and many more blues and rock players would not sound the way they do without the crucial influence of records like BB’s seminal 1965 release Live At The Regal. Though it’s less about what you play and more about how, there are…

It’s one thing to play guitar in a group, using the rhythmic and melodic infrastructure laid down by others as a foundation for your own voice, and something else entirely to be the band. Hailing from Somerset, 28-year-old Mike Dawes plays instrumental acoustic pieces that see him covering all corners of the sonic spectrum alone – with intelligent chords and percussion embellishing gorgeous melodies. And the 10 fresh compositions and two live cuts on new album Era will amaze. “I grew up in a small town with few other players to jam with, but given that I’m a massive control freak, covering all the elements came very naturally,” begins Mike. “The real motivation in refining this style was discovering Eric Roche and his percussive work, along with all the Stanley…

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…

It should come as no surprise that an Annie Clark signature model would be super-cool, a little weird and a trove of great old-school tone. She has been sketching guitars since she grew obsessed from watching La Bamba on TV as a kid. She has used Fender Jazzmasters and Jaguars, Guild Aristocrats and a variety of Gibson SGs. Then there are the likes of the Silvertone 1488, a 1980 Hagström Swede and the Harmony Bobkat – a 60s model favoured by Clark for its lightweight construction and tone. For her signature model, Clark wanted a more stable vibrato, better upper-fret access, and the sort of playability that she got from her Music Man Albert Lee. Having seen Clark play the Albert Lee, Ernie Ball invited her to the factory, let…

Echo units are one of the most important categories of effect. As significant as overdrive and distortion in the broadening of the electric guitar’s sonic palette, delay and its cousin reverb are essential to players in genres as diverse as post-rock, rockabilly and shoegaze. Analogue delays are the missing link between fault-prone magnetic tape delays like the Roland Space Echo and modern digital delays. Instead of a digital sample, a capacitor chain passes the delayed signal, hence the name bucket-brigade device, or BBD, a reference to a chain of firemen passing a water bucket down a line. Modern advancements have led to feature-rich BBD pedals that compete with reissued classics, but is it still the case that less is more? Let’s find out... BOSS DM-2 DELAY £165 ALL HAIL THE…

The first song I learned to play... Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes “This was the first song I learned to play on bass because it was easy. Me and Jamie used to sit around and just learn songs by My Chemical Romance, and then Minor Threat. It was a real collection of stuff that was all over the map. I met Jamie in middle school and he was into punk, his parents were into punk and he showed me some stuff. I thought it was sick and we ended up being in a band. I started off on bass and then moved over to guitar. It was punk music that got me into guitar – Minor Threat and Black Flag. I’d just listen to them and try to…