Innehållsförteckning för August 2016 från Total Guitar

Blues-rock is going through quite a resurgence at the moment. AC/DC have silenced their doubters by successfully bringing Axl Rose in on vocals, and Axl himself has patched things up with Slash. But it’s not just about the old guard. Bands such as Rival Sons are out there carrying the torch for blues-drenched rock. It’s big in the gear world, too. You can’t move at the moment for fear of tripping over a transparent overdrive, low-watt, single-channel amps are all the rage and spurred on by the unison riffs of bands such as Royal Blood, we’re seeing octavers and pitch effects making a big comeback. Hell, even Joe Bonamassa has decided to forego the one day off he allows himself each year in favour of burying the hatchet with Glen…

“I wandered too far and now I feel like I’m home” THE PAIRING of Chicago instrumental trio Russian Circles with Converge guitarist and producer Kurt Ballou seems perfect… so why has it taken six albums for it to happen? “It was always in the back of our minds,” confirms their guitarist Mike Sullivan. “What he gravitates towards for the sound of drums and guitars is right there and so tangible… But we intentionally kind of away from it for a while because we thought it was too obvious. We like to take the unbeaten path and get there by a different route. But this time we thought, instead of talking about how to get Kurt’s sound in a different studio, let’s go straight to him and go for it.” With…

YAMAHA has been a huge name in electric guitars for decades, but last year’s Revstar saw the Japanese giant deliver a different side of its personality to the utilitarian Pacifica range. The sleek, stripped-back silhouettes blend style and substance to offer a range of electrics that’ll suit any player. This month, we’ve teamed up with Yamaha Music Europe to give away a Revstar RS320, worth £347, equipped with a pair of hot H3 humbuckers. But that’s not all. You see, despite the company having been around for two decades, Line 6 is now also part of the Yamaha family, and so we also have a Line 6 Firehawk FX multi-effects, worth £372, to add to the bundle. The Firehawk you access to over 200 HD amp, cab and effect models,…

The Music Maton Made ANDREW MCUTCHEN, JEFF JENKINS & BARRY DIVOLA MATON IS a real Australian success story and this heavyweight book (£40) celebrates the part the guitar maker has played in rock history, with an appealing modern look and feel. And there’s revelations here – how many people know that the guitar Keef used on Gimme Shelter was a Maton EG240 Supreme? And Ray Davies’ guitar on You Really Got Me? Yep, Maton. Even Elvis played one, and that’s the great thing about this – the company’s tale is told from the perspectives of both the Maton builders and the artists who played them. Rob Laing…

1 1962 FENDER STRATOCASTER “I’m fortunate enough to own a ’62 Strat. The original pickups died years ago and I searched high and low for a replacement. I eventually found this firm in Australia, Slider Pickups, and they are the closest thing I’ve ever heard to the real thing, if not better. “We’ve got a guitar dealer in Johannesburg and anything that comes in of value is normally on a plane to London the next day. My Strat came in there in the early 2000s and I phoned him 10 times a day for an entire week, just telling him, ‘Don’t send it to London!’ He sold it to me to just get me off his back, I think! I paid probably about £1,500 for it. Deals like that only…

“On this record, we basically plugged the guitar into anything” It’s ironic that Biffy Clyro’s most inventive album began with a creative drought. In 2015, Simon Neil was in a tailspin. He hadn’t written a song for 18 months. He hadn’t taken off his dressing gown for eight weeks. “I felt like I had nothing inside to say,” reflects the frontman. “No fuel left in the tank. Writing 40 songs for Opposites [2013] was more work than I anticipated. I basically used up every idea I had.” Drying up was a new experience for Simon. Since Biffy Clyro burst out of Kilmarnock in the post-millennium, the 36-year-old’s muse had rarely misfired, spitting out a stream of alt-rock classics that could be as heavy as Saturday Superhouse, as heartfelt as Many…

GETTING STARTED IF YOU’VE been playing the guitar for more than a few weeks you simply must learn some barre chords. This essential technique multiplies the number of chords at your disposal from just a handful to potentially thousands of new shapes. The idea is simple: a barre is when you press down on more than one string at the same time. It might be two strings, it might be all six – or any number for that matter. Regardless, barres do require more strength than single notes, so expect to see progress in a few days or even weeks, rather than immediately. Start off by trying out the chord shapes shown here, then follow our tab examples on the opposite page to hone your playing skills. Two-note chords (aka…

The range-topping 5150 III 100-watt head (£1,719) has no less than eight 12AX7 preamp valves and four 6L6 power valves, together with dual speaker outlets and a line out. Three channels for clean, crunch and lead, each with independent gain, volume and tone controls, mean you can precisely tailor each channel’s sounds. There’s a 50-watt version at a much more affordable £959, which shares controls for channels one and two, making it more compact, as well as adding a headphones socket. The 5150 III 100S (also £1,719) is a hand-modified and customised version that’ s identical to the ones Eddie tours with, featuring increased gain on crunch and lead channels, and separate resonance controls for each channel on the rear panel. As well as a choice of 1x12, 2x12 and…

This great little guitar wears many hats, not just a Stetson SOLID TUNING THATageless Tele headstock provides a home for a set of modern locking machineheads with vintage-style buttons. Telecasters are famed for holding their tuning, so this one is as stable as you can get PLAYABILITY THE Nashville Tele comes spec’d with 22 narrow tall frets and a 12-inch radius ’board that offers a low action with absolutely no buzzing or choking when you bend the strings HYBRID THE Nashville adds colour to its classic Tele tonal palette with an additional middle Strat pickup. This allows access to those iconic Little Wing tones AT A GLANCE BODY: Alder NECK: Maple, bolt-on SCALE: 25.5” FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, 305mm (12") radius FRETS: 22 narrow tall PICKUPS: 3x Fender Vintage Noiseless single coils…

AT A GLANCE BODY: Alder (w/ quilted maple top on trans finishes) NECK: Two-piece maple ‘Speed Neck’ with graphite reinforcement, bolt-on SCALE: 648mm (25.5”) FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, 304.8mm-406.4mm (12”-16”) compound radius FRETS: 22, jumbo PICKUPS: 1x Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB (bridge), 1x Seymour Duncan SH-1 ’59 (neck) CONTROLS: Master volume with push/pull coil-split, ‘No-Load’ tone, 3-way pickup selector blade switch HARDWARE: Black hardtail bridge and Charvel branded die-cast locking machineheads LEFT-HANDED: No FINISH: Satin Cobalt Blue (shown), Transparent Blue Burst, Satin Orange Blaze, Metallic Black, Snow White LIKE the other two Charvels in this round-up, the Pro Mod San Dimas Style 1 HH HT features an alder body, the two-piece bolt-on maple ‘Speed Neck’ with graphite reinforcement and a pair of Seymour Duncan humbuckers, aka the ‘HH’ in the model name.…

FOUNDED in 2006 by session musicians Chris Van Tassel and Jay Rockett, J Rockett Audio Designs has a fanbase that includes Jeff Beck, country star Keith Urban, Billy Idol cohort Steve Stevens, and Bon Jovi’s stunt Sambora, Phil X. ZZ Top’s tone junkie Billy Gibbons is also a J Rockett man. For this round-up, we’ve opted for four true bypass stompboxes from the company’s new Tour Series. We’re playing host to a trio of gain pedals – in order of filth: the Blue Note, .45 Calibre and The Hooligan – and the Tranquilizer, a phase/ vibe machine with some eccentric controls. The Tour Series imprint is backed up with robust construction that makes these pedals look like they could survive a nuclear holocaust, along with cockroaches and Keith Richards. In…

CHRIS BIRD AFTER filming this month’s Slayer video lesson (which you can read on p66) Chris has decided to take a few days off from playing the guitar to give his picking hand a rest. Clocking in at over 200bpm Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman’s machine-gun intro is a hand-buster. JOSH GARDNER JOSH was awash on a sea of reverb this month, as he sat down over beer and pizza to chat gear with post-rock aristocrats Explosions In The Sky before their magnificent show at Bristol’s Colston Hall. Read all about the unique rigs they use to craft their majestic soundscapes on p27. ROB LAING ROB’S all about the bigness this month; how to get a bigger sound (p56), a band who could be the next big thing in British…

YOU’LL NEED an overdriven tone with enough weight to drive the song and with enough bite to cut through the mix here. Either just use your amp or, if you have one, use an overdrive pedal for treble sizzle and extra sustain. Some single coil-equipped guitars can sound thin and weedy so listen out for this and raise the bass on your amp if you need to. OVERDRIVE PEDAL Gain: 5 Volume: 5 Tone: 6 ALL THE video lessons in this issue of Total Guitar are available to view online at www.bit.ly/tg282video…

The latest reason to be thankful for Josh Homme, Bristol’s Tax The Heat combine the QOTSA man’s thundering desert rock tones with a tasteful range of classic rock influences. “My favourite players are Duane Allman, Muddy Waters, Josh Homme, Prince, Alain Johannes, Elmore James,” lists guitarist JP Jacyshyn. “A lot of what they did hadn’t been done before [them], so they all put their own mark on it.” Now, as an Elmore James fan, JP is putting his own mark on slide guitar – using his Telecaster Deluxe and Vox AC30 to create a beefy modern rock tone and slide riffs that sprawl like an oil slick. “I keep the slide on my ring finger, so I just use my index and little finger for power chords,” says JP. “It…

“I can play three chords, and 12 bars, and back that whole thing up with a bit of machine gun” I got my first real six-string… “One day, I saw an electric guitar at school. I was fascinated. I didn’t know anything about music, I just liked the look of this thing. I’m left-handed, so my first electric – I don’t remember its name – was left-handed. But it was terrible. The action was about an inch above the fretboard, so every time you tried to play a note, you got this kind of Chinese finger torture. I was useless. Everyone at school was better than me. Then I got the opportunity to buy a slightly better right-handed guitar: a Watkins Rapier. It’s such an awkward thing to change over…

LES BE HAVING YOU Dear TG, I picked up my first guitar in January and I’m loving it and your mag. It’s refreshing to find a guitar magazine that doesn’t making owning a guitar come across as some high-end lifestyle accessory, so kudos to you. I wanted to talk about preconceptions, which struck me after I went into my local guitar shop to buy my first instrument. The guy asked what I was into (sleaze and glam rock) and he instantly said, “You’ll be wanting a Les Paul then”. He looked perturbed when I mentioned that I was actually interested in a Gretsch! But why did he automatically think I wanted a Les Paul? My guitar heroes were Brian Setzer, Marco Pironi and Neal X, so Gretsch seemed the logical…

EXCEPTIONAL EXCELLENT GOOD FOR FANS OF POOR Periphery III: SELECT DIFFICULTY COMING JUST a year after sprawling double-album Juggernaut, it’s clear DC sextet Periphery are showing no signs of writer’s block. Though Spencer Sotelo’s vocals might not be for everyone, there are enough complex arrangements, juddering riffs and rhythmic acrobatics to amaze and perplex. From combustible opener The Price Is Wrong to the dramatic strings of Lune, it’s clear this is as ambitious as their previous efforts, with an ear for concise songwriting that produces Marigold and The Way The News Goes – urgent, direct songs that peer out from within the dense musical tapestry. Adam Rees Download: Remain Indoors Nails YOU WILL NEVER BE ONE OF US NAILS GET billed as straight-up hardcore but that’s selling them short.…

“Many a blues-rocker has favoured a fuzz pedal” “ Led Zep’s ‘Immigrant Song’ is a great example of riffing with octaves” Take a listen to the riffier side of blues-rock and you’ll find that the minor pentatonic scale figures highly. However, whereas pentatonic solos are usually played in easy to remember ‘box’ shapes, riffs are often spread out in a linear fashion along the length of the strings. Learn the scale and play the riffs then, right? Well yes, partly, but if you want to start coming up with your own riffs, you’ll benefit from learning how each note sounds within the scale. Listen carefully as we break the scale down. A MINOR PENTATONIC SCALE You may not recognise it, but the red and black dots show the minor…

PERHAPS THE most common chord progression in blues-rock is the I-IV-V (‘one-four-five’), the idea being to use chords found on the first, fourth and fifth notes of the major scale. Hotel Yorba by The White Stripes is a great example, but listen to Rock And Roll by Led Zeppelin however and you’ll hear the same progression (albeit in a different key), but outlined with riffs instead of chords. Here’s how to turn a boogie riff into a I-IV-V sequence. 1 Play the boogie riff as tabbed in E and you’ll be outlining the I chord. 2 Move the riff onto the fourth and fifth strings to outline the IV chord. 3 Move the IV version of the riff two frets higher to play the V chord.…

That moment when you switch from your chunky rhythm part to that climatic lead break and everything just… dips. The vulnerability of being the only guitarist is laid bare and you promise yourself that you’ll never stray from the warm embrace of chords again. Well just hang on, it’s not a case of either/or. Here are some straightforward ways you can really enhance your sound… 1 BOOST Using a boost pedal isn’t just a matter of volume for a guitar player. It’s also about what frequencies you’re boosting when it’s a case of driving the front of your amp in an effective way for riffs and solo breaks. Using a clean boost pedal usually gives you control over treble, bass and mids to really help your solo or chorus part…

Dom: “I was playing an 1982 reissue of a ’52 Telecaster, which I loved, but I was worried about touring with it. I instantly fell in love with this, and I never thought that would happen. You always think a classic guitar is going to sound better than a new guitar but it’s completely changed my opinion on that because this thing has so many cool features; from the noiseless pickups to the compound radius neck. My tech Stu loves them; they’ve got locking tuners, so I can snap a string during a gig and he can run it off and have it restrung for the next song. I’ve actually got two of them now because I love them so much.”…

Congratulations on joining the band officially – how has it been? “Pretty amazing! I was a big fan of Architects before I met or joined them. My previous band had played shows opening for them in Canada and we were also labelmates. So it was cool to get to know them, and even cooler to now be playing in them as a full-time member!” What was it like joining a band with twin brothers at the creative helm? “A lot of my favourite bands have had brothers in them, which is kinda cool! Pantera, Van Halen, I’m a big fan of a band called Misery Signals, too. Those bands seem to have a certain mojo, and the Searle brothers have always been on the same kinda wavelength. I think they…

1. Start with an open E chord. Play an open E chord with your second, third and fourth fingers to leave your first finger free. 2. Slide up. Add your barre. Slide the E up one fret and press down at the 1st fret with your first finger. This is an F chord. 3. Move to a new fret position. With no open strings to play, you can move the shape up the fretboard for more chords. 3. Now try an open A shape. Don’t forget that there should be a one-fret space between the A shape and your barre!…

ORANGE DUAL TERROR £599 Orange’s popular Dual Terror is 30 watts, switchable to 15 and seven watts, and has a second channel called ‘Fat’ with its own EQ VICTORY RD1 ROB CHAPMAN SIGNATURE HEAD £599 The RD1 gets a lot of tone from a deceptively simple front panel. Its 28 watts, with a very useful two-watt low-power mode PEAVEY 6505 MH MINI-HEAD £495 This mini-head packs a dual-mode clean/crunch rhythm channel and speaker-emulated direct out, which is great for recording. It’s a lot of amp for the money…

AT A GLANCE BODY: Alder (w/ quilted maple top on trans finishes) NECK: 2-piece maple ‘Speed Neck’ with graphite reinforcement, bolt-on SCALE: 648mm (25.5”) FINGERBOARD: Maple, 304.8mm- 406.4mm (12”-16”) compound radius FRETS: 22, jumbo PICKUPS: 1x Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB (bridge), 1x Seymour Duncan SH-1 ’59 (neck) CONTROLS: Master volume with push/pull coil split, ‘No-Load’ tone, 3-way pickup selector blade switch HARDWARE: Chrome Floyd Rose FRT-02000 vibrato, locking nut, Charvel die-cast machineheads LEFT-HANDED: No FINISH: Rocket Red (shown), Tobacco Burst, Black Burst, Trans Purple Burst, Trans Red Burst, Slime Green, Snow White, Neon Pink, Neon Yellow, Specific Ocean, Metallic Black THIS San Dimas echoes the spec sheet – Duncan pickups, neck profile and compound radius, switching arrangement – of the hardtail model, right until you get to the bridge bit…

Its down-sized form makes for a perfect at-home guitar NECK CLASSED as a mini Grand Symphony, or a ‘modern day parlour’ the GS-Mini has a reduced scale length of 597mm (23.5”), while the nut width is 43mm – pretty similar to your Strat PREAMP TAYLOR’S new ES-2 system, which has a design bridge transducer, with subtle volume, treble and bass controls on the bass side upper shoulder BODY THE Mini is based on Taylor’s full-size GS model, which is known as ‘the big, bold strummer’ and was designed by company founder Bob Taylor in 2006 AT A GLANCE TOP: Solid mahogany BACK & SIDES: Layered (laminate) sapele NECK: Sapele SCALE LENGTH: 597mm (23.5”) FINGERBOARD: Ebony w/ dot inlays FRETS: 20 ELECTRICS: Taylor ES2 with shoulder-mounted volume, treble and bass controls…

DR DROP-DOWN STRINGS Drop it like it’s hot DROP-TUNING WITH a set of standard-gauge strings tends to lead to unstable tuning and ropey intonation; when you drop low, you need to go heavy, and DR Strings’ Drop-Down Tuning sets are specially designed for the job. Claiming “accurate and clear lower pitch notes”, Drop-Down Tuning strings require minimal adjustment to lock in tunings and intonation – apparently, some players have called them “so stable it is almost eerie”. They’re available in 0.011 to 0.054 gauge Extra Heavy, 0.012 to 0.060 gauge XX Heavy and 0.013 to 0.065 gauge Mega Heavy sets – provided you’re not an arachnophobe, of course. (£9.10, www.drstrings.com) D’ADDARIO SOUNDHOLE TUNER Ace in the ’hole NOW, THIS isn’t the first acoustic soundhole tuner we’ve seen, but D’Addario’s Micro…

ELO ENJOYED a string of hits in the 70s, and as TG goes to print, are soon to play the Sunday teatime slot at Glastonbury 2016. Mr Blue Sky remains one of their most popular and enduring tracks. Multi-instrumentalist/songwriter/vocalist Jeff Lynne is renowned for his songwriting talent, but what about those underrated guitar-playing skills? His short but sweet solo features impeccable phrasing and awesome tone; it’s a masterpiece of melodic understatement. As you can see from the boxes are across needed the page to play , quite this a song few , chords but F, B b and E b aside, they are all easy open shapes. When playing along to the track, keep your rhythm playing relaxed and grooving in the verse; you can contrast this with a simple…

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. Nikki Sixx In Mötley Crüe memoir, The Dirt, the bassist recalls his fatal OD of 1987, and how it felt to look down on his dead body (“I was lying covered with a sheet on a gurney, being pushed by medics into an ambulance”). Two adrenaline shots pulled him back – and Sixx later chronicled the incident in Kickstart My Heart. 9. Kirk Hammett As Metallica’s bus crossed Sweden in 1986, Kirk surrendered his top bunk to Cliff Burton after he beat him at cards. Hours later the bus hit black ice and flipped, killing the bassist. A fortunate escape for Kirk, but Burton’s loss is still felt to this day. 8. Walter Trout It seemed like his booze-fuelled 1980s had caught up with the blueser when he was…

“We’re playing eight straight shows, that’s going to be pretty trying for us 60-year-olds” They’ve been together for the best part of 50 years but this summer the Kentucky Headhunters finally make their European bow. Lead Headhunter Richard Young tells TG that his fear of flying has put the brakes on the band venturing outside of the US until now. But, the persistence of Southern rock titans Black Stone Cherry (a band featuring Richard’s son John Fred on drums) has finally led them to these shores for seven UK shows. “John Fred and the boys were always saying we need to get over there,” Richard says. “They came home from their last arena tour and said, ‘The jig is up. It’s put up or shut up, we’re reaching out to…

“THE REASON I play a Jackson Rhoads V is because my earliest influence was Randy Rhoads, especially the [Ozzy] Tribute album. For practical reasons the V shape just balances right where I want it. So when I sit and play classical style, the angle’s perfect for my hand. Then when I stand up [it’s balanced] so I’m probably not leaving the V ever.” “KEN SUSI [Unearth guitarist] hooked me up with these Fishman [Fluence] pickups. I have an active/passive selector so if I want to play with a bit more definition I go to passive, and active gives me more power.” “THE INLAYS are custom, these are Viking runes – Thor’s rune. So it basically symbolises all things that are ‘man’ – that’s pretty metal!” “IT’S GOT the Adam Reiver…

THE SMOOTH sound of valve overdrive or the super saturated gain of a decent distortion are staple rock sounds, but many a blues-rocker has favoured a fuzz for an edgier mammoth sound. Fuzz comes in two main flavours, produced by the type of diodes used in the circuit: germanium and silicon. Germanium examples include the Jimi-approved red Fuzz Face, Keef’s infamous Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-1 from Satisfaction, and more recently, the ZVEX Fuzz Factory. Germanium- equipped fuzzes generally give a smoother, more vintage sound. Silicon is deemed to be harsher, with more bite and aggression than germanium. Check out Electro-Harmonix’s Big Muff and the blue Dunlop Fuzz Face for some iconic examples of this.…

MASTERING THE shuffle groove can be difficult, but using a metronome will help build the muscle memory and coordination that you’ll need in no time. The important thing is to make sure your notes are swinging tightly, otherwise you’ll land on an in between straight/swung feel that won’t work. Set your metronome to the tempo you’re going to practice at, but select quaver triplets as the subdivision. This will close down the gaps between the notes, and make accurate picking easier. Our final top tip when playing shuffles is to listen to the hi-hat/ride cymbal part. Lock in with this, and you’ll be on the money every time.…

Many guitarists fall into the trap of connecting endless sequences of licks that sound good in isolation, but don’t make a coherent solo. Great players like Slash, Ritchie Blackmore and Rich Robinson (The Black Crowes) are masters of taking a simple phrase and developing it so it becomes an integral part of a song, rather than a directionless solo. Our examples demonstrate how a simple lead line can be tweaked to create variations. Make sure you combine the examples and throw in some of your own. REPEATED LICK WITH CHANGING CHORDS TRACK 56 THIS ONE-BAR lick is repeated as the chords change. The accompaniment creates a feeling of movement even though the lick doesn’t change. It’s easy, so try it out with your own ideas. VARIATION USING THE BLUES SCALE…

YOU’VE PROBABLY got at least one of them already, so the good news is your delay and reverb pedals can become very handy tools if you’re looking to enhance your sound. They’re extremely versatile, too, but you’ll need to stomp carefully as too much of a good thing can leave your sound floating away with the breeze when you’re playing with a band. Digital delay can help by being more prominent in the mix compared to the more organic degradations offered by analogue pedals. Either way, there’s a lot of potential waiting to be unlocked so start to experiment and utilise delay and reverb wisely for these scenarios… RHYTHM DELAY A simple way to thicken your sound for rhythm work is doubling delay – try a very short echo around…

Joe: “I was always a Les Paul guy and I was thinking of a 335. I picked up the Gretsch and it had similar characteristics. I love the new Gretsches because they’ve kind of taken away a lot of the problems from the hollowbodies. They have less feedback problems. They play and sound amazing. I feel like it has the depth that you get from a Les Paul-style guitar but when you dig in it brings out the hollowbody twang. I don’t use clean and distortion, I have distortion on all the time but roll off the [guitar’s] volume. I find it much more unique and you get so much more control; you can roll and get it completely clean depending on how hard you’re playing. The Gretsch is perfect…

MEGADETH PEACE SELLS Megadeth’s second album, Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?, catapulted them to stardom and saw them take their place as one of the Big Four. The main riff from the title track is quite easy to play, provided you have a good, tight picking technique. The riff kicks off with a sequence of palm-muted open sixth string notes and an un-muted G#5 powerchord. Palm-muting is essential, helping to keep the open notes short and punchy in contrast with the powerchord. It’s all very easy – just rest the side of your pick hand on the strings where they meet the bridge, then play with your hand in this position. Move farther onto the string for more muting effect or onto the bridge for less. The first three bars…

It comprehensively blows other lunchbox heads away SWITCHED ON ROUND the back, heavy- duty mains, standby and quarter-power switches work with a satisfying clunk that feels like they’ll last forever. The low-power option is great for recording BIG BOTTOM THE rear panel’s resonance control varies the LBX’s low-end response, crucial to matching the speaker cabinet. This is one of the secrets to getting Eddie’s ‘brown’ sound LESS IS MORE AMAZINGLY, this deceptively simple control layout is all you need to dial in the 5150 LBX’s huge arsenal of rock guitar tone AT A GLANCE TYPE: All-valve preamp and power amp head OUTPUT: 15W, switchable to 4W VALVES: 5x 12AX7, 2x EL84 CONTROLS: Gain, low, mid, high, volume, presence, resonance SOCKETS: Input, footswitch, effects loop send/return, output WEIGHT: 7kg DIMENSIONS: [HxWxD]…

It certainly delivers the goods for classic rock and blues SPEC WITH its mahogany body and dual humbuckers, plus the double-cut outline, vibrato and 25.5” scale, the StingRay walks the line between the best of Gibson and Fender combined BODY THAT’S a solid slab of African mahogany, and it weighs about 3.75kg. You might want to hit the gym if you’re planning on spending a long time stood up playing this! PICKUPS TWO Music Man humbuckers give you some fat blues and rock sounds. The neck is slightly muddy, and picky pluckers might scream for a coil-tap, but we love the bridge pickup AT A GLANCE BODY: Mahogany NECK: Maple SCALE: 648mm (25.5”) FINGERBOARD: Rosewood FRETS: 22 PICKUPS: 2x Music Man Spec humbuckers CONTROLS: 1x volume, 1x tone 3-way pickup…

AT A GLANCE BODY: Alder NECK: Two-piece maple Speed Neck’ with graphite reinforcement, bolt-on SCALE: 648mm (25.5”) FINGERBOARD: Maple, 304.8mm- 406.4mm (12”-16”) compound radius FRETS: 22, jumbo PICKUPS: 1x Seymour Duncan TB-6 Distortion (bridge), 1x Seymour Duncan SH-6N Distortion (neck) CONTROLS: Master volume w/ push/ pull coil-split, ‘No-Load’ master tone, 3-way pickup selector blade switch HARDWARE: Black Floyd Rose FRT-O2000 vibrato, locking top nut, Charvel die-cast machineheads LEFT-HANDED: No FINISH: Neon Yellow (shown), Neon Pink, Rocket Red, Black Metallic, Snow White, Specific Ocean, Slime Green CONTACT: Fender GBI 01342 331700 www.charvel.com THE So-Cal defines the ‘SuperStrat’ concept as originally nailed by Eddie Van Halen in the late 70s. That classic body shape, the Floyd Rose double-locking vibrato, the slim maple bolt-on neck with its compound radius and fat frets… It…

Down-tuned riffs positively fly out of the speakers FRETBOARD HUGE frets and a flat radius – the usual checklist for the modern shredder – are all present and correct BODY THE usual bevelled body shape found on the SE and S2 series features a stunning Black Smoke burst with just a hint of purple PICKUPS MARK’S Seymour Duncans are powerful yet articulate, and great for expansive chord work, as well as high-octane prog-metal riffing AT A GLANCE BODY: Mahogany w/ quilted maple top NECK: Maple, 3-piece SCALE: 648mm (25.5") FINGERBOARD: Ebony, 500mm (20”) radius FRETS: 24 PICKUPS: Seymour Duncan MH Omega (bridge), Seymour Duncan MH Alpha (neck) CONTROLS: 1x volume, 1x tone (w/ push/pull coil-split), 3-way blade pickup selector HARDWARE: Sung-Il BN-101 bridge, PRS tuners – black chrome LEFT-HANDED: No…

The M300 sounds great and offers a lot of tones from a small footprint TYPE: Digital reverb pedal CONTROLS: Decay, tone (press to scroll through reverb types), blend SOCKETS: Input, expression, mono/stereo output, power BYPASS: True bypass, w/ trails option POWER: 9V power supply only CONTACT: Westside Distribution 0844 326 2000 www.jimdunlop.com THE MXR catalogue spans just about every conceivable type of pedal with one noticeable exception: reverb. Until now that is, as we welcome the aptly named Reverb to the party. Pedal-savvy readers will know that the reverb world is well saturated, with some great options from brands such as Electro-Harmonix (Cathedral), Boss (RV-6) and Strymon (Blue/BigSky). So, what does MXR bring to the table? The M300 has the usual reverb types you’d expect – plate, spring, room and…

WITH KURT COBAIN publicly critical of the “slick” production on Nirvana’s breakthrough album, Nevermind, he threatened a record that wasn’t for “the meathead jocks or kids in Skid Row t-shirts” for 1993’s follow-up. Hiring abrasive alt rock producer Steve Albini and designing an album sleeve festooned with foetuses, body parts and winged anatomical models, Kurt was rejecting the trappings of fame and commerciality. As for Heart-Shaped Box, its classic “soft then loud” riffs are heard in far fewer guitar shops than the four-chord intro of Smells Like Teen Spirit, but the song remains one of Nirvana’s finest moments. In the chorus, Kurt’s guitar part creates a clever interplay with the vocal line, weaving in and out, then mirroring the voice with string bends. Sing along as you practise the guitar…

BEING ABLE to jam with other musicians is an essential skill for every guitarist, so from Grade One, RGT’s acoustic guitar exams feature an accompaniment test. The examiner plays an eight-bar melody on the guitar and you’re given a chord chart that matches it. The line is played twice before you join in and jam along. You can play any style, so strumming, arpeggios and fingerpicking are all potential options; you can choose which of these seems musically apt. At this level there will be three chords in the chart, so it isn’t too challenging. In this lesson we’re breaking a melody down into just two bars of music and looking at some ways to jam along. Watch the video for tips on strumming and fingerpicking. MELODY LINE HERE ARE…