Innehållsförteckning för June 2018 från Total Guitar

Ever since we switched to the (then) new-look TG, we’ve made it our mission to try and help guitar players everywhere to overcome their playing hurdles. Chords is one of the biggest, mainly because it’s so easy to get stuck on a few utilitarian chord shapes to get by. However, as with everything else, we want to give you readers the information you need to go further and sound better without having to get bogged down with the boring stuff. So this month, we’re taking a look at how you can learn more chords and, more importantly, how to start using them in your playing and when. We’ve got a killer tab section this month, with classics from Oasis, AC/DC and The Who, plus we show you how to play…

1 “I play seven-string guitars and this is my go-to. It’s a Chapman ML-7T. Absolutely amazing guitars. I’ve been working with the company since January / February of 2017. Initially, I went to these guitars after I had some bad experiences with some other seven-string guitars, mainly in that I play quite aggressively and I had a lot of broken parts that would be road-worn quickly. So I changed to this brand out of interest and everything about it lends itself well to what I play.” 2 “The extended 673mm (26.5") scale I find very useful for low tunings. I play in F typically in both bands, and there are variations on that. With the other guitars I’ve had in the past, they didn’t hold tune that well and I…

Holding court on Camden’s Electric Ballroom’s stage is The Hold Steady guitarist Tad Kubler, who has been Googling milliamp stats for his stomp boxes and stressing over the alarming LED array on his ’board. “This ‘peak’ light is going off, even when it’s not on,” he says. Fellow six stringer Steve Selvidge’s sage advice? “Gaff it.” It’s an indicator of what’s in store for the tour. There’s not an Axe-FX in sight: just three veterans, a tangle of stomp boxes and an array of bruised guitars that ooze both utility and vibe. TAD KUBLER 1 GIBSON ES-345 “When we were working on Teeth Dreams, Gibson brought over a bunch of guitars and this stayed. It’s been my main guitar ever since. This one’s got the gold hardware, which feels a…

“This a Gibson Southern Jumbo 1959 reissue [1] – a limited edition that has mojo by itself but when you add the LR Baggs [Anthem] it’s great. We A/B’d a lot of guitars to get this one. We’ve been longtime Taylor users and still are, because the Expression System is so good but it’s a very pristine sound. And for Myles’s solo recorditsounds too pristine.Youneedthat full-depth, deep country acoustic sound. We have another National NRP 14 [2] being made for us with duel pickups. Because sometimes Myles wishes he had a little more gain so he’s doing that with the volume pedal [4]. Myles uses the Taylor 618e [3] for open G tuning and it’s such a big sound. It’s full body depth so it’s pretty close to the Gibson.…

Born in Houston in 1912, Lightnin’ Hopkins’ career didn’t begin in earnest until he was in his 20s. Going on to record upwards of 800 songs, Hopkins toured extensively over 40 years. Like many of his era, Hopkins received a big boost in the 60s due to artists like Elvis Presley and the British blues ‘invasion’ that made the likes of Eric Clapton household names. Though his earliest recordings were made with Wilson ‘Thunder’ Smith, Hopkins was predominantly a solo acoustic player, though surprisingly inventive at soloing in this context, incorporating pentatonic lines that were to become a big influence on electric blues and rock players – particularly Jimi Hendrix and Jimmie Vaughan. He played with fingers and thumb using a firm, but not too heavy attack. Sometimes, he would…

“[MY FATHER] COULD SING ABOUT HOPELESSNESS AND LOSS AND THERE WOULD STILL BE BEAUTY. ” In August 2003 Johnny Cash was in a reflective place. His legend was secured following a decade’s work on the Rick Rubin-produced American Recordings series, but he had lost his beloved wife June Carter Cash in May and thoughts had turned to his own legacy. A shy man by nature, Cash spent much of his time reading. His office was half study, half library piled high with books, letters tucked in drawers, filled notebooks and folders of his studies on the Book Of Job. At some point during the weeks before his passing on 12 September, the following lines came to rest on a note in that room: ‘You tell me that I must perish,…

ORANGE OR15H Orange’s OR15 is a scaled-down version of the classic OR120, one of Marshall’s biggest competitors in the late-1960s. Vintage looks matched with classic tones. VOX AC15 HEAD Vox’s AC15 was one of the first British guitar amps, with a unique sound that was integral to the swinging 60s and Merseybeat. Pure vintage. PEAVEY CLASSIC 20 MINI HEAD Also inspired by early tweed amps, Peavey’s Classic Mini Head delivers 20 watts from a pair of EL84s and combines modern features with authentic USA sounds.…

You want it fast. You want it cheap. In this day and age, who doesn’t? But how realistic is it to rock up at your local guitar emporium and walk off with a shred-ready electric for around 500 bucks? Well, as this month’s round-up proves, it’s more than feasible. We could have extended this test to models from Schecter, Jackson and LTD, too, and hardly covered all the bases. This month’s affordable speed machines are culled from arguably the most competitive marketplace for guitar design, and that’s great news for everyone – especially when you have the hardy perennial Squier Stratocaster fitted with active pickups and a double-locking Floyd Rose vibrato for guitarists looking to take their lead game to the next level. It’s joined by two fiscally responsible signature…

CHRIS BIRD It’s been non-stop chords and rhythm for TG’s tuition editor. Bleary-eyed after laying out the chord boxes in our cover feature, Chris took a few minutes to jam along to Pete Townshend’s epic strummed chords in our Open-Mic Songbook track, Pinball Wizard (p86), before writing a lesson on funk basics (p24) . “Time for a KitKat”, says the big man. MICHAEL ASTLEY-BROWN Mike’s been busy wheeling and dealing to secure the first reviews of two of the most exciting amps to land this year: Marshall makes its triumphant return with the sparkly clean/ crunch of the Origin 20, while Mark Tremonti’s collaboration with PRS has yielded the ferocious MT 15. ROB LAING Rob’s been hitting writer’s block recently and falling back into the same chordal comfort zones, so…

“JUST ATTEMPTING TO LEARN [STEVE VAI’S] MATERIAL WHEN I WAS YOUNG OPENED MY MIND” Got my first real six string “I was originally a drummer, but I became a guitarist because I struggled to find musicians who wrote songs. My first instrument was this Aria Pro II, I don’t even know if people will have heard of it, but it was a metal-looking guitar with a thunderbolt across it in candy apple red. I don’t have it but I know the guy that does and I recently contacted him to see if I could get it back. I’m not sure if he wants to give it up…” Show me the way “My number one is probably Steve Vai. He opened up a lot of barriers for me, just attempting to…

ARCTIC MONKEYS TRANQUILITY BASE HOTEL & CASINO You never quite know where this band will head next – 2009’s Humbug , for example, caused a little consternation at the time. Prepare for more head scratching as Alex Turner and co head into the night with a clutch of his sharp Sheffield witticisms intact (‘What do you mean you’ve never seen Blade Runner?’) but he’s entered the full croon spotlight, facilitated by music that’s a mix of lounge, kitsch soundtrack and hip-hop backbeat. Nick O’Malley’s melodic basslines are crucial in driving One Point Perspective and the album's title track, but the slow pace and heavy use of keys is going to be a hard pill to swallow for fans longing for the energy. This is not a guitar-driven album, indeed its…

Marshall’s legendary 100-watt head was introduced in early 1965 following requests from several bands including The Who and the Small Faces for an amp with more power. The ‘Plexi’ nickname refers to the control faceplates Marshall used on their earliest amplifiers, which were made from clear plastic with black lettering screen-printed onto the back face and over-sprayed with gold paint. The earliest Super Leads used KT66 valves and had two output transformers; in 1966 the valve layout changed to the familiar EL34. The circuit remained more or less constant until 1973, when printed circuit boards replaced the earlier hand-wired models. The Super Lead’s preamp features two non-switched channels, each with a pair of high and low gain input jacks and a volume control, feeding a shared EQ with bass, mid,…

It’s hard not to believe in the idea of fate when Myles Kennedy explains to us how his new album was named. In a rare break from the stage and studio that occupies so much of his time with Alter Bridge and his band with Slash, he was mowing the lawn when the seed of a song came from nowhere… “The melody came into my head for Year Of The Tiger,” recalls Myles, “and I remembered I recorded it onto my phone and then I put it away for a while. But it kept popping back in my head, and I didn’t even know what Year Of The Tiger meant then – I had no idea. So I looked up and discovered, low and behold, it was the year my…

Open chords are a great way to get started on the guitar and cover some basics of playing. However, these simple shapes can be limiting if you want higher pitched sounds or if you need to play in lots of different keys. Barre chords are movable shapes that let you play anywhere on the neck and in any key. These chords are used in virtually every style of music, so it’s worth getting them nailed. STEP 1: PLAY E, BUT DON’T USE YOUR FIRST FINGER Play an open E chord using this fingering that leaves your first finger free. Notice that three strings are open. STEP 2: SLIDE THE SHAPE UP ONE FRET We want to turn this E into an F chord. F is one note higher than E,…

During the 1960s and 70s guitar amplification became gradually more powerful and players responded in kind, evolving the blues into what would become rock. Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Angus Young and many more were typically plugging humbucker equipped guitars into Marshall amps and cranking up the volume to get their tone. Our 70s riff rock-style backing track is packed full of vibe and swagger. The intro combines an open A5 chord with C and G notes to create an infectious riff. The verse uses a variety of powerchords in the key of A minor. The chorus reprises our main riff and some of the verse chords. When soloing you can use the A minor pentatonic scale to create some rocking lines. Blues and rock-oriented ideas generally work best for this…

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…

“AN IDEAL CHOICE FOR BLUES, CLASSIC AND INDIE ROCK” So, what’s your ideal Marshall? Thanks to renewed interest from many pro players, the sound of those early amps that made Marshall’s reputation in the mid-1960s has made a big comeback, but they aren’t so flexible and typically need help from a handful of effects to tame them. Heads like the JTM45 and Super Lead are unfashionably loud, dating back to an era when PA systems were non-existent. Today, what’s needed is some way of turning the amp up so you can hear those power valves working, without being sued by your audience for hearing loss, or annoying your FOH engineer, right? An effects loop would be nice, better still if you could footswitch it, and a footswitchable gain boost would…

“A SIX-A-SIDE HEADSTOCK? WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!” With fundamental design traits that have proved to be incredibly successful since the 1930s, is it any wonder that the word traditional is so closely associated with acoustic guitars? And if it ain’t broke… but as brands seek to attract new players to their wares, sometimes they need to offer something fresh. Fender are certainly doing that with the look of its new California series. Three new shapes are on offer with three different spec option levels in an array of atypical acoustic colours (and not a natural finish in sight) giving a distinctly different slant on everything that’s gone on before. This Newporter is the mid-size body in the series, an auditorium with a shallower body than a dreadnought. That…

When we speak about amp-like overdrives, we’re generally not talking about a Peavey 5150, but something a bit lower gain and more vintage in tone. Perhaps the most famous drive used to break up a tube amp is the humble Tube Screamer, with the gain rolled off and the level rolled up, used to smash the front end while cutting treble for leads. There’s also the higher gain ‘amp in a box’ family of pedals used for heavier rock and, of course, the infamous ‘transparent overdrives’, of which the Paul Cochrane Tim and Klon Centaur are probably the most famous. So without further ado, here’s a round-up of four fresh amp-smashing, transparent-feeling overdrives to really get your leads cooking. Walrus Audio Warhorn £ 199 MAKE SOME NOISE Somewhere sonically in…

The first song I remember… Sit Down – James “I was born in 1990 so around that time when I first started getting into music I was four or five and the whole Britpop era was exploding. I started playing guitar at four and the first song I remember seeing on the TV and the song that made my aunt give me her old battered acoustic guitar was this. My parents always tell me they had to video tape it from Top Of The Pops and I would just watch it on a loop. So I was given this guitar and made a racket on it until I started getting proper lessons a few months later.” The first song I learned to play… Cast No Shadow– Oasis “This was the…

You’ve probably heard of modes, even if you don’t know what they are. The basics are very simple: play the major scale but don’t start on the root note and you’ll be playing a mode. Simply start on the second note to play the Dorian mode. Each mode has its own name but, more importantly, they have their own character. The Dorian mode has a minor 3rd, so, like any minor chord, it has a dark, moody sound. However, there is another vital note that yields a sweeter sound than the more common natural minor scale. Read on and we’ll explain. 1 C MAJOR AND D DORIAN SCALES TRACK 18 The D Dorian mode is found within the C major scale. Confused? It’s actually very simple. The two scales share…

“I didn’t discover Mississippi John Hurt until much later in life but when I did I kind of fell head-over-heels for what he did. The right-hand technique in his playing was what really drew me in. It sounded like there were two guitarists playing and I remember discovering some of those recordings and thinking, ‘Is there another guy in the room with him? How is he doing this? It was incredible to me. So I tried to sit there and learn the patterns. It was a little frustrating at first but after a while I got a few songs under my belt and as you know with fingerstyle, once you develop a certain technique you can take it and use it in other contexts and, hopefully, you’ll be on autopilot…

So far we’ve looked at a range of fairly standard chords. There are, though, endless possibilities when it comes to creating luscious, colourful chords. With so many choices, it can be hard to know where to start. Don’t worry, we’re here to help! We’ve grouped some of our favourite chords together by mood. We’ll also show you how to use extended chords to make potentially boring progressions more interesting. Although we’ve suggested some places these chords are most commonly used, they can be used in all styles – there are no hard and fast rules. TRACK 52 TENSE, BLUESY SOUND These chords are super-popular in all kinds of blues. The 9th and 13th can be heard in many modern blues players’ repertoires. The dominant 9th is a well-used chord in…

It’s all too easy to be satisfied simply strumming away, but some songs need a bit more contrast and texture. Arpeggios are one of the best ways to make chords more interesting. It’s a simple idea: instead of playing all the notes of a chord at once, you play them one at a time. You can add in new notes to hint at extended chords and you can vary the rhythm and tone to create endless variations of even the most basic chord progressions. ARPEGGIOS AS RIFFS TRACKS64-65 Arpeggios can be used to create catchy riffs as this Andy Summers-inspired example shows. Listen toMessageInABottleandEveryBreathYouTakeby The Police for more complex examples. There’s a staccato feel here – cutting the notes short makes it easier to change chords quickly. HIGH-REGISTER TREMOLO CHORDS…

Although it’s tough to recreate Angus and Malcolm’s twin-guitar ‘crunchy but clean’ Gibson, Gretsch and Marshall tone, much of this classic AC/DC track is quite easy to play. Rockschool’s Grade 4 arrangement gets you started with the rhythm, while leaving you to make up your own solo. The rhythm part in bar 10 is reminiscent of early ZZ Top and can be memorised as a repeating three-note group – first the doublestop, then two open A notes. AC/DC’s chord voicings are always well thought out. The big G5 chord in bar 22 may not seem special but play it as a straight G chord and see how mushy it sounds with the extra B note. In bars 28 and 29 you’ll see a D/F# chord. This kind of chord (known…

COUNTRY ROADS New Americana festival set for September Anew UK Americana and roots event launches in September featuring Billy Bragg, TG fave Brent Cobb and homegrown country duo The Shires (pic above). The Long Road weekender takes place at Stanford Hall between 7 and 9 September and will also feature a BBC Music Introducing stage hosted by Radio 2’s Bob Harris, which aims to showcase the talents of unsigned roots artists. Following on from the rise of the yearly Country To Country festival at the 02 Arena, and Kent’s Black Deer Americana and Country Fest in June, The Long Road is another sign that the genres are making serious inroads in the UK. “The dedication and passion of the UK country community is so amazing,” says Tennessee-born Creative Director Baylen…

Pete Townshend’s rock opera Tommy produced this classic track, which was a huge hit for the band in 1969. From just one strum, the song is instantly recognisable and it showcases Townshend’s formidable rhythm guitar talent. Townshend uses over 20 chords in Pinball Wizard but don’t panic because they boil down to just a handful of shapes. The iconic Bsus4 to B chord shapes repeat across the fretboard in a descending sequence. Learn these two shapes and you’ve got most of the track covered. Once you hit the strumming pattern in bar 10, you’ll need a good deal of stamina to maintain it, making Pinball Wizard a great track for developing your rhythm technique. Practise slowly and make sure to only step the tempo up once you can play confidently…

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…

Ti he first Marshall was the JTM45, which was modelled closely on Fender’s 4x10 5F6 tweed Bassman, an amp that was practically unobtainable in 60s Britain thanks to import restrictions. Jim Marshall always listened to what his customers wanted, and bands like The Who and the Small Faces wanted that classic Bassman tone, but more of it. A slightly modified JTM45 loaded into a 2x12 open-backed combo was used by Eric Clapton on John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers ‘Beano’ album in 1966, introducing many to the sound of an overdriven Marshall for the first time. Meanwhile, The Who guitarist, Pete Townshend, wanted more, prompting Marshall to re-engineer the JTM45 circuit for a 100-watt output stage, which became the 1959 Super Lead head used by Hendrix, Kossoff and Page.…

“HUGE SUSTAIN MATCHED BY A FAST, DYNAMIC RESPONSE” Paul Reed Smith is well-known for some of the most beautiful and expensive guitars on the planet, and the same goes for the company’s amps. Thankfully, for us mortals at least, PRS is also doing a good job of covering the more affordable end of the market, with its SE guitars and Sonzera series of amps. Following on from the mega-expensive John Mayer J-MOD 100 head, PRS’s latest signature amp is the MT 15 Mark Tremonti signature head, which promises to seriously deliver on the high-gain front. Tremonti is a long-time PRS endorser and self-affirmed gear nut, so it’s no surprise the former Creed and Alter Bridge axeman’s amp is a purposeful, no-frills design, although there are some cool details. The red…

Overall, the JEM Junior is hard to beat. Your ocular nerves won’t thank us for such a recommendation – because, seriously, that pink finish could be seen from space – but its combination of authentic Vai touches, like the Tree of Life inlay and sonic versatility, could, and maybe should, give it the edge. But the Squier is a clear winner for anyone who values a high-gain voice over all else. Its reverse headstock is a nice touch, too, marking it as the problem child in the Squier stable. The company has done a bang-up job in reimagining a near-ubiquitous guitar so that it surprises us anew. Its finish is impeccable, too. Some finish issues on the Kramer 84 – frets that are a little sharp on the treble side…