Innehållsförteckning för November 2017 från Total Guitar

When we redesigned the magazine a year ago, we promised to bring you more of everything: more bite-sized tuition, more tabs, more gear and more hands-on advice. Judging by the response we’ve had over the last 13 issues, you guys are loving it, so thanks for choosing TG! This month’s cover feature hits that nail firmly on the head as we’ve lined up 25 quick ways of helping you to get better at playing the guitar. There’s a lot of variation in there, and the best bit is that none of the examples will take long for you to try out, and once you do you’ll soon see a real benefit to your technique. We’re also continuing to bring you more song tabs (complete with audio backing tracks) than any…

1 “When I started playing Vs they weren’t as common as they are now. You find something and it feels comfortable and it’s a very unique shape; the way it makes you play, the angle and everything. If you look at when Michael Schenker, Dave Mustaine or myself go into a lead break, we’re kind of crouching over the guitar. That’s just how you dig into it and get in there. It’s different.” 2 “When I started to develop the Tyrant after coming from ESP with the Ninja signature, I wanted a slimmer neck, but still a C-shape. Slightly tapered... I also wanted the cutaway to be different. I’d had my first stab at a signature model with ESP and then I wanted to take it to the next level…

When you use a scale, say, C major, you are playing ‘in the key of C’. The word ‘diatonic’ simply means ‘within a key’, so a diatonic chord progression is a set of chords made up of notes from within a key signature. Here we’re looking at the two most common kinds of chord: major and minor. These two chords are made of 3rd intervals (play a note, skip a note, play a note). There are two types of 3rds: major 3rds (four frets between the notes) and minor 3rds (three frets). The order these two intervals occur in determines the type of chord you’ve constructed. Enough theory, let’s get playing… WHAT YOU WILL LEARN Build a chord progression using the major scale Identify major and minor chords Play a…

The late Glen Campbell began his career as a session guitarist with The Wrecking Crew, a group of LA session musicians who recorded with some of the biggest names in the business during the 1960s. But Campbell was determined to make it as a solo performer and began releasing records under his own name as early as 1961. In 1968 he released Wichita Lineman, a song that many regard as one of the greatest pop songs ever. It also features a six-string bass solo by Campbell. Recording the track before writer Jimmy Webb had finished the lyrics for the third verse, Campbell grabbed the bass player’s six-string Danelectro bass mid-session and improvised a solo to fill the space! Assuming you don’t have a bass to hand, we’ve recorded the part…

BACK FOR AN ENCORE MTV Unplugged returns It hosted seminal performances of the likes of Clapton and Nirvana back in the 90s, and now MTV Unplugged has finally returned… although, so far, perhaps not quite as some guitar fans might have hoped. The first two performances of the show’s new season – part of MTV’s effort to get back to a musical focus – have been aimed at the younger pop market. US act Bleachers performed their Unplugged set with guests Lorde and Carly Rae Jepsen at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey and Shawn Mendes played his unplugged set at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. While that’s not quite Alice In Chains and REM, other more established acts have been playing one-off sets under the MTV…

Rockschool’s arrangement of this Bob Dylan-penned classic is based on Jimi Hendrix’s 1968 cover and features Electric Ladyland musician Mike Finnigan on Hammond organ and vocals. One of the more challenging Grade 2 pieces, the track starts with a strummed part that’s deceptively hard to nail, perhaps because the tricky count in has many a player scratching their head. Try counting ‘1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &’ to keep time – the first three strums are on ‘& 4 &’. The song repeats the same four chords throughout, with the progression based in C minor. In bar 25 the rhythm is based around Hendrix’s own approach of embellishing chords with extra notes. If you plant your hand in the standard Cm7 shape you can use your fourth finger…

“IT’S SPEC’D FOR BIG AND FAT CLASSIC ROCK & BLUES TONES” 1 BINDING The ‘reveal binding’ is a premium touch. To help keep it pristine Chapman include a deluxe gig bag with every guitar 2 HEEL Glued to the body and neatly sculpted for easy upper-fret access, this set neck helps give the ML2 Modern some serious sustain 3 FRETBOARD Featuring Chapman’s new bar inlays, the Macassar ebony fretboard has rolled edges, giving it a played-in feel that is super comfortable Take one quick look at the ML2 Modern Standard and you can see exactly where Chapman found the inspiration. Behold the classic, single-cut body, two chrome-plated humbuckers and a black pennant headstock that’s not a million miles away from Gibson’s ‘Open Book’ style, as immortalised in mahogany on the…

“IT’S PRETTY SENSATIONAL FOR DADGAD CELTIC MELODIES...” 1 BUILD You’re getting a good build spec for your money here; solid back and sides, ebony fretboard, bridge and pins… this kind of spec from the bigger acoustic brands would cost you more than £479 2 STRAP BUTTONS The electro version of the Naked Mars costs £529 but there are two strap buttons if you want to stand up to play, or decide to add a soundhole pickup later for gigs 3 FINISH The satin finish and lack of scratchplate and binding balances basic class with a more utilitarian look – this 2mm abalone rosette excepted It’s been another great year for acoustics, especially if you have around £500 burning a hole in your hand. Fender’s all-mahogany Paramounts, Gretsch’s Roots Collection and…

IT JOINS BLACKSTAR’S FLY3 ON YOUR DESKTOP AS A HIGH-QUALITY AMP As evidenced by this month’s TG Test, there’s no shortage of ways to practise your guitar these days. If the spec’d-up models in our test have too many features for you, the Boss Katana-Mini is sure to grab your attention. It joins the Blackstar Fly3, Orange Micro Crush Pix and others on your desktop as a high-quality mini-amp, and there’s just enough onboard to keep us interested, without becoming a distraction. Starting with the individual gain/volume controls and triple-voiced preamp section (Clean, Crunch and Brown), which take you from some pretty crystalline clean sounds all the way up to saturated distortion. Crucially, Boss has included a three-band EQ section here, giving it the edge (in control-count, at least) over…

CHRIS BIRD TG’s tuition editor has all of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s studio albums in his CD collection as well as a couple of live releases too. So, it’s fair to say that he’s a fan. “I’ve never quite managed to master Pride And Joy though,” says Chris. “Stevie’s feel is just so slick.” Get back to the drawing board with this month’s tab on p60 then, Chris. MICHAEL ASTLEY-BROWN After returning from his grunge pilgrimage to a very rainy Seattle, Mike spent days on end re-assessing the back catalogue of Billy Corgan for this month’s Back Track, before joining fellow Corganites Stu and Rob to watch the man himself perform a host of Pumpkins classics at the launch of his Yamaha LJ16BC. Ace! ROB LAING Rob’s been like a frenzied…

“MY HEART HAS NEVER BEEN INTO SOLOING.MY STRENGTH IS CRAFTING A SONG...” Got my first real six string “My first guitar was a 1951 [Gibson] Kalamazoo. I found it at the back of a friend’s closet. He bought it from a neighbour and tried to learn guitar but never did. I took it off his hands. I didn’t know what it was.” Dream on... “I always wanted an SG. I always thought that was a bad-ass guitar. That would be the second guitar: I had a 1984 SG. Today, I just need a Marshall and a Gibson. I don’t even need a pedal. That combination has worked for me, it’s worked for Ian MacKaye, it’s worked well for Angus Young. I play a no-frills rig. As long as I have…

METALLICA MASTER OF PUPPETS REISSUE BOXSET (album) (extras) There’s a reason Metallica’s third album can still illicit such passion and praise from metal fans 31 years after its release. Despite the flawless albums in their much-vaunted classic run and those from other legends of the genre, there’s an unmatched grandiosity and ingenuity on show that’s as iconic and timeless as those white crosses. Whether it’s the might of James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett’s riffs on Battery and Damage Inc, the menace of The Thing That Should Not Be, Cliff Burton’s majestic orchestration of Orion or the jaw-dropping melodic flourish in the title track, these eight songs are still a benchmark for the metal genre. Like its two predecessors it’s now getting the remastered vinyl treatment, with a mammoth boxset including…

The 5150 brand covers a multitude of products, but centre stage is the backline that Eddie Van Halen endorses and he has a major involvement in design and construction. It was as much Eddie’s tone as his playing, that shocked a generation of would-be pop stars into becoming guitar heroes instead. The track Eruption from Van Halen’s self-titled debut album showcased EVH’s two-handed tapping style and phenomenal phrasing, but it was the tone of his turbo-charged Marshall head that got everyone guessing as to how to capture his sound. No mean tech himself, Eddie has used the services of some of the world’s top amp hot-rodders over the years, including Rheinhold Bogner and the legendary Paul Rivera, who provided the amp EVH used on the iconic solo in Michael Jackson’s…

From the rock ballads of bands like Del Amitri and Bon Jovi to the ‘loud-soft’ trick of grunge-era acts like Nirvana, a key part of the sound of early 90s rock (and many styles of music!) is contrast: between dirty and clean, loud and soft playing, or, often, a shift in mood from bright to dark achieved by a key change from major to minor. This month’s jam track does each of these things. The four sections change dynamics and move between A Mixolydian and F# minor, but it’s possible to take a really simple approach in your solos: use the A major pentatonic and F# minor pentatonic scales and you only need to know one shape because they share the same notes (A B C# E F#) – one…

Born in 1934 and touring heavily from the mid 1950s until his death in 1976, Freddie King developed a distinctive attacking style and sound using a metal finger pick and plastic thumb pick, rather than the more usual flat picks. This was further enhanced by his preference for playing through cranked Fender Quad Reverb amps. If you’ve never tried this, be aware that the volume needed to push one of these amps into natural break up is awe-inspiring. Luckily, we have various overdrive pedals these days that allow us the luxury of taming the volume just a little bit without compromising tone. Freddie’s playing inspired luminaries such as Eric Clapton, who covered King’s classic track Hideaway, and Peter Green, who recorded his own version of The Stumble. Originally a Les…

“I WRITE SOME SONGS THAT ARE COMPLETE FANTASY, OTHER SONGS ARE BALLADS, BUT I STILL TRY AND APPROACH THEM IN A REAL WAY, AN HONEST WAY...” The name of The White Buffalo’s latest album isn’t just a fancy metaphor. Darkest Darks, Lightest Lights is the perfect description of the undulating emotions contained in the album’s songs, and Jake Smith – who has gone by the name of The White Buffalo in a career that’s spanned over 15 years – has always kept the music minimal to allow the power of his lyrics to take centre stage. “Most of my inspiration comes from within. I try to write things that move me. It’s a spectrum of emotions,” Smith says of the new record. Letting the song’s meaning do the talking has…

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…

The ML2 Modern arose out of Chapman Guitars’ desire to revolutionise their whole line with 29 guitars debuting this year – even though Chapman, which was formed in 2009, has always seemed to be in a permanent state of revolution. Visit its website and you’ll be able to vote on body shapes. Rob Chapman encourages feedback on spec wish-lists, effectively crowdsourcing the first stage of R&D. Is it the most accessible company out there? Possibly. It’s hard to think of another company whose founder will answer questions on YouTube – even picking his all-time favourite guitars without coming across as a Chapman partisan. He was even good enough to test the ML2 in comparison with his own Gibson Les Paul, so you can see and hear the difference for yourself.…

“THE DESIRE FOR A CLASSIC SHRED MACHINE WILL NEVER DIE” 1 PICKUPS EMG’s Retro Active humbuckers offer a more vintage sound than more modern actives, while also retaining the hum-cancelling benefits 2 FINISH Sure, you could go for the black or white versions, but this Sea Foam Green finish is eye-poppingly attractive in the flesh 3 NECK The 14" radius all-maple neck is a technical player’s dream. It’s quick, thin, and offers superb access to all 24 frets The 1980s has a lot to answer for, particularly in musical terms. And even more so in the worlds of rock and metal, which gave us mullet haircuts, neon spandex and power ballads. The only redeeming feature of the era is that the guitarists all had serious game. It was, you see,…

The first song I remember… Eruption– Van Halen “I remember my dad playing it in his car. I think he had the Best Of – Vol 1 and I just remember hearing Eruption and being in the car. My dad always played as a hobby and there was a guitar in the house. I decided to pick it up when I was 11 to start trying to play.” The song I played in my first band... Self Esteem – The Offspring “My seventh grade talent show was the first time I’d ever played in front of people and I played this. For my eighth grade talent show I covered No Leaf Clover by Metallica and that’s what got me the try out for Trivium. And the first song Trivium played…

GET THE TONE #1 BEATING BEELZEBUB Van Halen’s Running With The Devil may have been recorded with a hot-rodded Marshall, but it showcases the range of distortion and dynamic control that modern EVH amps provide, from almost clean rhythm double stops to full-on jabs and solo, probably achieved by hitting the strings soft then hard. A big reverb fills out the gaps. This is a great test for any amp modeller’s input response. GET THE TONE Phaser depth 3, speed 3 Reverb plate approx 1500ms GET THE TONE #2 FLY CATCHER While Van Halen sit much more comfortably in the classic rock genre, the 5150 amp was adopted wholesale by many metal bands, including Trivium, who were 5150 users around the time of their breakthrough album Ascendancy. The track Like…

1. WHERE TO RELIC Mitchell: “Think about where your guitar would wear over time. On the top, where your arm is, we would rub that down. The edges would be dented. The back would have buckle rash – dented and scratched. We use pictures of real relics from the 50s as reference.” Brandon: “Also, with relic’ing you need to know when to stop.” 2. START SUBTLE Mitchell: “If I was aiming to relic a polyurethane finish I’d be looking to take the shine off because you wouldn’t get a 50s guitar with a high-gloss finish. If you want a more subtle relic look just take the shine off and leave it at that. Less is more.” Brandon: “Use wet and dry abrasives, a high [grade] grit, dampen it a bit…

Stevie Ray Vaughan played the killer riff in Pride And Joy that kicks in with the bass and drums in the intro with a circular strumming motion. This means he played his downstrokes slightly closer to the neck while his upstrokes were nearer the bridge. By subtly changing the position of each pick stroke he’d generate a cutting tone for the string mutes and a warmer sound 1 for the regular notes. More importantly, he’d create a longer rake across the strings on the mutes. Despite his often-aggressive sound, Stevie had a fluent and relaxed picking style. The circular strumming motion allowed Stevie’s riffin Pride And Joy to groove, so don’t overdo the movement – it should look like you’re tracing a small circle across the strings. The original version…

Despite being nominated for an Emmy (along with co-writers Kurt Sutter and Bob Thiele) for the end sequence of the finale of Sons Of Anarchy , Smith admits he feels “detached” from Come Join The Murder. “It’s not my words, so it’s harder to feel. The lyrics came from Kurt’s mind.” He also admits that before his songs were used in the show he’d never watched it. “They went into my catalogue and found songs to fit. Then I started coming in and I got into it and I watched it religiously ’til the end.”…

1 PERRI’S EMOJI STRAPS Whether you think your playing is cool for cats... or turd-esque these new officially-licensed Emoji guitar straps will let your bandmates know how you’re feeling. Available in 12 styles – with all your favourites: that sunglasses guy, the one with hearts for eyes, the spooked pig and many more – the straps are built to last longer than you can hold their respective expressions, thanks to 2.5" poly webbing construction with real leather end-pieces. They’re adjustable from 31" to 52", too. (£24.99, www.jhs.co.uk) 2 WARWICK ROCKSTAND WALL HANGER Run out of room? Good news! RockStand has developed a new solution that secures your beloved guitar sideways. The stand is available in different versions for electric, acoustic and bass guitars and offers foam padding for protection, as…

EPIPHONE LES PAUL STANDARD PLUSTOP PRO Fitted with Pro-Bucker 2 and Pro-Bucker 3 pickups straight from Epiphone’s top shelf, this has genuine Les Paul kudos and a AAA flame maple veneer. ESP LTD EC-256 FM The lush Lemon Drop flame maple, set neck and 24.75" scale of the ESP LTD EC-256 FM are very Les Paul, but the thin U neck and jumbo frets scream shred machine. HAGSTROM ULTRA SWEDE COSMIC BLACK Prepare to be in awe of the Ultra Swede’s famous Hagstrom playability, courtesy of its über-thin Ultralux neck. It looks classy too.…

The holy grail for many overdrive builders has long been the ‘British sound in a box’ – a classic, dirty-rock tone that can span the gamut from muscular rhythm parts to (with a twist of the gain knob) singing, saturated leads. Nowadays, you’re spoilt for choice in terms of which ‘amp in a box’ to get. Most approaches choose to replicate a classic tube amp preamp, but there’s still the question of whether you can model a tube amp in discrete solid-state circuitry, or if a purpose-designed overdrive circuit combined with your amp would work better. So, with that in mind, how close have these builders gotten to the real deal? Let’s get stuck in and find out! EMMA REEZAFRATZITZ £145 WHY YOU DIRTY ER, FRAT? The first version of…