Innehållsförteckning för December 2018 från Total Guitar

Us guitarists can disagree on many things – from digital modelling to the merits of Muse… the fact that we’re passionate about this instrument and the music it makes will inevitably lead to some strong opinions. But certain players, especially in their golden eras, seem to unite us all because there is a timeless quality to their music that we can all learn something from. David Gilmour is top of that class, the player who is name-checked most by the players we speak to because of the musical language of taste, tone and touch he embodies with his playing. But he’s not alone, and these are the qualities that have driven our other choices of melodic masters to study this issue; those capable of vocal-level emotion and expression in their…

1 “This is a Scale Model guitar that my friend Dave Johnson built me in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s the second one he’s built for me, I have another just like this that’s all mahogany and it’s Les Paul-heavy – a shoulder-breaker. Which kind of, in a weird way, sounds slightly better. This one is the same design, it’s like a Gibson frankenstein SG / Les Paul Custom neck with a Flying V headstock, but this one has Fender-style woods [based] off maybe a standard-style Strat where you have an ash body, maple neck and then a rosewood fretboard. It’s a lot lighter… Over the years I’ve got a little disenfranchised with bigger companies and I just want to know the guy who’s gonna build it.” 2 This thing has been…

As Roland developed more digital effects in the early 1980s, one of their best-sellers was the SDE-3000 digital rack delay. A high-ticket item, it was only really within reach of studios or pro users like Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen; however, engineers worked out that the bespoke delay IC could just fit into the same form factor enclosure as their DM-2 analogue delay, and after extensive testing the DD-2 delay was born. The legend goes that in 1986 the price of this component dropped substantially, allowing Roland to reduce the price of the pedal. To avoid a perceived reduction in quality, they rebranded the DD-2 as the DD-3, a fate shared by the DSD-2, which became the DSD-3. THERE ARE THREE VERSIONS OF THE DD-3, PLUS A FEW MINOR…

The 6/8 time signature sounds especially good in ballads thanks to its trademark gentle swaying feel. Get a feel for the groove and you’ll soon be using this essential rhythm in your own music. Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters, Oh! Darling by The Beatles, REM’sEverybody Hurts and Ed Sheeran’sPerfect are all great 6/8 time examples. As we get into this month’s lesson we’ll also take a brief look at 3/4 time and how it differs from 6/8. It’s easy to get confused between them but it really comes down to feel and identifying which notes to emphasise. 1 6/8 TIME TRACKS 14-15 Here we’re notating the core 6/8 groove. In this time signature there are six eighth notes played one after the other so that’s why the time signature is called…

GUITARS “I always play in D standard, it was just how I started when I was young. The first guitar I had when I was younger was a classical from when my mom was in high school and I found it in the garage. It had a broken tuning peg and I tuned it to that string, and it ended up being really close to D standard. So when I got a proper guitar I realised it was a lot better suited for my voice; standard E wasn’t great for my vocal range. Then a lot of drop C too. Twin Fawn, one of the newer songs is in CGCGGC, that one is really fun to play in.” 1 GRETSCH BROADCASTER “I’ve been playing 335s for a few years and…

Down the steps of Oxford Street music venue The 100 Club and through the corridor, two musicians are delivering a clinic on behalf of British audio gurus Focusrite. Ola Englund – guitarist in Swedish metal bands The Haunted and Feared, and king of high-gain amp shoot-outs – is joined by rising Scottish instrumental player and producer Sithu Aye. Musically, they are distinctly different, yet in their methods to success lie some striking similarities – from the years spent writing, recording and learning as lone wolves into the dead of night to embracing the outreach of social media and using their wits and personality to boost their profiles. Which is exactly why they’re the kind of people who get headhunted to inform and inspire at events of this kind. TG sits…

Perhaps more than any other player, David Gilmour is the epitome of the lead guitarist who plays melodically and ‘for the song’. Though primarily a player with blues sensibilities, Pink Floyd’s progressive nature would see the younger Gilmour become an experimenter both sonically and melodically. Listen to Floyd’s recorded output, particularly from 1973’s Dark Side Of The Moon, nary a note is misplaced, every note counts and every phrase has a purpose. And, though none of us has Gilmour’s musical ear, we can all learn from the way he approaches playing the guitar and writing songs. From his signature double bends to his note choice and phrasing there’s plenty in our lesson for you to try out. 1 BLUES PHRASING AND DOUBLE BENDS TRACK 28 This E minor pentatonic (E…

“I THINK I’VE STAYED TRUE TO WHAT MY SOUND SHOULD BE. I STILL AGGRAVATE THE HELL OUT OF PEOPLE BY NOT COMMITTING TO BEING A BLUES GUITAR PLAYER OR A POP MUSICIAN, BUT I LIKE ’EM BOTH AND I THINK I’VE PROVEN WITH CONTINUUM [ACCLAIMED 2006 STUDIO ALBUM] THAT IT’S AT LEAST POSSIBLE TO GET PEOPLE TO BOP THEIR HEADS ALONG TO SOMETHING THAT CONTAINS GUITAR PLAYING AND POP MELODIES”JOHN MAYER If you’re going to talk about 21st century guitar megastars then you’re going to be in somewhat rarefied air. Sure, you can argue a case for Dave Grohl, Matt Bellamy – even Ed Sheeran – yet none of these players can be held up as an exemplar of feel, melody and technique quite like the stadium-filling genre blending guitarist…

SUPERSONIC Copyright © 1994 Oasis Music.SM Publishing (UK) Limited. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of Hal Leonard Europe. OASIS SUPERSONIC Intro The track starts with four bars of drums followed by that famous guitar riff. Aim for a steady, even feel on the F#m11 arpeggio and let the notes ring out together. The two chords of A5 and B are played with downstrokes. Note that the open first string is occasionally heard, turning the A5 into an Asus2. OASIS SUPERSONIC Verse 1 This rhythm part is fun to play and sounds good with a pattern of down- and upstrokes. This gives the riff a much more laid-back feel than the more urgent sound of an all-downstrokes approach. Keep that in mind and try not to rush…

Many rock songs are based on riffs or chord progressions that change frequently and follow intro-verse-chorus type song structures. Post-rock, however, steers clear of these predictable forms, using layered guitar, bass and keyboard parts to create luscious textures that build gradually. Mogwai and Sigur Rós are well-known exponents of the genre. This month’s jam track features three main sections (which we’ve labelled ‘intro’, ‘verse’ and ‘chorus’), each consisting of a short repeating phrase. Notice how the track builds around these unchanging elements, adding bass, keys, drums and, eventually, more guitar parts for a hypnotic but driving feel. Post-rock requires a different approach from regular blues, rock and indie soloing. Rather than play traditional lead licks, look to create a part that adds something melodically or adds to the textures that…

David Crosby is living evidence that there is no justice in the world. Despite all his past near-death scrapes, incarceration and general fulfilment of the rock ’n’ roll fantasy, he has a rich family life, money in the bank and a career that has recently enjoyed a rejuvenation. It’s the sort of forward momentum that his 60s peers must regard enviously. At 77, his voice sounds remarkable, not just ‘for his age’ – but by any measure. “I know! It doesn’t make any sense at all, man,” he tells TG, when we comment on the unjustifiably good shape of his vocal pipes. “I don’t know why it is like it is, but I figure this: if it’s going to be this good – and it’s really good, right now. I’m…

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…

TYPE: Analog solid-state/digital hybrid head w/ built-in effects OUTPUT:200 watts RMS, switchable to 20 watts and 2 watts CONTROLS: Gain, volume, bass, mid, treble, presence, resonance, sag, master, channel select, loop on/off, FX access, boost, Red Box mic/ line, on/off, output power select, guitar/ FR cabinet select SOCKETS: Guitar in, headphones/line out, MIDI in, MIDI out/thru, speaker out, Red Box DI out, aux in, loop send/return WEIGHT:3.6kg DIMENSIONS: [HxWxD] 155x410x150mm 410mm CONTACT: John Hornby Skewes 0113 286 5381 www.hughes-andkettner.com…

Amp modelling has truly come of age, but the problem for many is the price. It was a breath of fresh air, then, when Chinese effects underdog Mooer launched its Micro Preamps last year, serving up a variety of individual modelled preamps for £99 apiece. Now, it’s packaged the whole lot together in one gig-friendly unit that might just revolutionise your rig: meet the Preamp Live. “A GIG-FRIENDLY UNIT TO REVOLUTIONISE YOUR RIG” It’s certainly got the specs. Up to 12 preamps can be stored onboard Mooer’s flagship preamp, from a choice of 50 from the company’s computer and mobile apps, with four accessible at any time via the footswitches – those 12 are organised into three banks of four (ABC), switched by pressing the two footswitches either side of…

At the age of 64, the Fender Stratocaster is almost as old as The Rolling Stones, and in much better shape. Each one of the guitars in this group test owes a huge debt to Leo Fender’s second oldest solidbody, yet they also have attributes of their own. Even if it didn’t show its vibrato off to the best effect on this occasion, the G&L Legacy scores big points for its vintage-voiced pickups. The tonal tweaks available are also pretty impressive. Likewise, the Sterling Cutlass. The pickups have that crystal-clear delivery we expect from classic single coils. We also loved this guitar’s V-profile neck. It might sound weird to the uninitiated but this old-school 50s shape is something you have to try. The Chapman ML-1 defines that old saying ‘bang…

CHRIS BIRD With our huge cover feature at the forefront of his mind, Chris has been flexing his own melodic muscles, writing and recording this month’s major scale tutorial for TG’s Getting Started With... Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned player, you can always learn something from paying attention to some essential basics. Turn to p22 for Chris’ lesson. MICHAEL ASTLEY-BROWN Ask MAB to name his fave albums of all time, and Frames by British prog geniuses Oceansize will invariably find its way into the Top 5. It was with unadulterated glee, then, that TG’s resident gear nerd sat down with former Oceansize leader Mike Vennart to discuss the rig that fuels his latest live wigouts. Read all about it on p28. AMIT SHARMA Speaking with clinic experts Ola…

I got my first real six-string . . . “WHEN I LOOKED AT PEOPLE ON THE TV PLAYING GUITAR, I THOUGHT IT WAS PURE SORCERY” “I was 11 or 12. The happiest accident came when a neighbour of ours rapped the window one day and said, ‘Your son likes all that punky music that’s about. I’m going to throw this out but would he want this semi-acoustic guitar?’ I didn’t know how to play guitar. I was a trombonist in the school orchestra, so I could actually read music. But whenever I looked at people on the TV playing guitars I just thought what they did was pure sorcery.” A word for my idols “I’ve always had guitar heroes. When I was a kid, I could listen to and watch…

DD-5 AROUND £70 USED The DD-5, introduced in 1995, was significant in that it brought advances in chip technology to the DD-series. The RV-3 reverb and PS-3 pitch shifter delay had delay times of up to two seconds that far outstripped the 800ms on offer from the DD-3, and the DD-5 used this new chip to great effect. In addition to a simple sampler function, it also crucially added a reverse mode, a feature that would continue to be popular on later models. DD-7 £115 Adding an analogue and modulation mode based on those on the twin-footswitch DD-20 Giga Delay, the DD-7 built on its predecessor, the DD-6, by increasing its maximum delay time to 6.4 seconds from 5.2. In addition to the true stereo I/O of the DD-6, it…

Mike Vennart is a man of contradictions. His playing with UK prog heroes Oceansize established a keen ear for oddball riffs and off-kilter song structures, yet when it comes to gear, he likes things simple… or so complicated he can’t predict what they’ll do next. “I like things that have got a mind of their own,” he enthuses. “I think that’s what live performance should be.” In between playing mega-venues with Biffy Clyro, Mike reveals the rig that fuels the tour for new solo album, To Cure A Blizzard Upon A Plastic Sea... GUITARS SQUIER STRATOCASTER 1 “The old Squier, amazingly, is still in one piece – it still feels like home, and it still sounds really fat and stupid. I’m just delighted that I can take it out. It’s…

“Throughout the years I’ve been involved in other brands and had signature guitars. I’ve seen a lot of flaws in the industry in general. Just like with how I started with videos or making my own music, I thought I could have a go at doing it myself. My plan was to do it better and be more personal about it. The problem with the industry today is a lot of the old-time dealers and distributors, it’s a big bureaucracy of people involved. Another issue with previous brands was that a lot of people around the world wanted those guitars but couldn’t order them through their dealers. So it was impossible for them… which kinda pissed me off. “That was the initial idea for Solar guitars. I could do it…

One of Britain’s most successful songwriters, Oasis’ Noel Gallagher mixes soaring guitar melodies with musical ‘tips of the hat’ to his favourite influences. A chaotic catalogue of crazy offstage shenanigans helped propel the Gallagher brothers on a meteoric trajectory to the top of the 90s music scene. Supersonic was the lead single from the band’s groundbreaking debut, Definitely Maybe, released in 1994. There are two main guitar parts to learn and we’ve tabbed both. The first is the driving rhythm part played by Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs that mostly uses powerchords. The second is, of course, Noel’s lead part including the solos and lead melodies. Though fairly easy to play, the arpeggios in the main riff will benefit from careful playing and the bluesy bends in the solos also require a…

SURFING WITH THE ALIEN © Copyright 1987 Strange Beautiful Music Sony/ATV Music Publishing All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured Transcriptions from Rockschool’s Classics series can be used as Free Choice Pieces in Guitar Grade exams and in public exams such as GCSEs. For more info, visit: www.rslawards.com Joe Satriani’s breakthrough album Surfing With The Alien (1987) is a landmark instrumental guitar release. Rockschool’s Grade 5 arrangement of the title track gives you all you need to play most of the song, whilst allowing you to improvise parts of the solo. There’s a rock ’n’ roll and blues-rock vibe to the intro riff, with bars 8 and 9 giving a nod to AC/DC. Focus on steady timing and developing your finger stretch as you practise this tricky part. The…

1 MARSHALL BEER The amp manufacturer has managed to find yet another venture to which it can lend its storied branding. Yes, Marshall has partnered with William Bros Brewing Co to produce three craft beers “designed specially to be enjoyed with music”. The three brews are Amped Up Lager (4.6%), Full Stack IPA (6.8%) and Jim’s Treble (8.6% triple blonde), all of which boast Marshall’s “signature attitude”, with the latter packing “as much character and inspiration as the iconic Jim Marshall”. Blimey. (from £1.40, williamsbrosbrew.com) 2 IK MULTIMEDIA AMPLITUBE SLASH UPDATE IK Multimedia has announced a free update to the AmpliTube Slash suite of amps and presets for PC and Mac. Thirteen new Slash-designed presets have been added to the plugin to replicate his new album, Living The Dream. Two…

Unlike a full digital modelling amplifier, Hughes & Kettner says the Black Spirit’s core sounds come from analogue solid-state circuits under digital control. It’s ironic that even the simplest valve circuits can take many lines of code and thousands of transistors to recreate in the digital domain; high voltage means there are all kinds of complex interactions going on in between components, as well as the obvious ones that exist between output valves, transformers and loudspeakers. It’s easy to make some varieties of transistors behave like valves, but controlling them dynamically so they can mimic things like power amp sagging isn’t. H&K is keeping it to itself, but we have an inkling that this may be what’s going on inside the Spirit Tone Generator.…

Inspiration often comes from unlikely sources in rock ’n’ roll. And although the Everly Brothers’ harmonies were sweet, their guitar taste was darker. We can thank Don and Phil for the early showing of the black acoustic with their Gibson J-180 signature in 1962, while Martin made The Man In Black Johnny Cash his first bespoke model using shoe polish. Fast-forward across the Atlantic and Faith has been building its reputation on solid foundations since 2002. Literally. All its acoustics are made with solid tonewoods, and at pricepoints that are certainly cause for celebration in principal, but how about in practice? “THE ACTION IS LOW AND FAST BUT SPRINGY AND RESPONSIVE” With its already established Naked series for its main shapes, Faith offer a more stripped-down aesthetic; now its diversified…

The phaser is one of many modulation effects commonly utilised by rock guitarists. At its core, it’s just a filter that’s modulated by a sine wave to create that signature ‘sweeping’ sound. This is achieved using phase-shift networks; produced with all-pass filters. They are usually known as stages, and can be made more pronounced by feeding back in the input for a more resonant sound. Analogue phasers tended to be limited to 2, 4, or 8 stages at most, but with the advent of digital signal processing, 32 or more stages are now possible in a phaser’s feature set. The classic phaser sounds are timeless, though there’s still a lot of room for innovation. From digital, to OTA and JFET phasers, we’ve rounded up some of the most interesting feature-rich…

Gamechanger Audio, the envelope-pushers responsible for the Plus sustain pedal, has finally released its latest offering, the Plasma Pedal. We’ve never seen a stompbox quite like this: rather than utilising LEDs, transistors or valves like most overdrives, the PP transforms your instrument’s live signal into a series of continuous high-voltage discharges within a xenon-filled tube – incredibly, these discharges are converted back into audio to produce a responsive, heavy distortion that promises to stand apart from the crowd aurally, as well as visually. Cunningly, because the pedal produces no output signal when the chain is broken, it features a natural noise gate when you’re not playing, too. The whole thing blows our mind a little bit, and it could wow you too for £269. Here’s how to ride the lightning……

1 E.LEVEL  This is Effect Level – a mix control. Apart from the digital delay chip in the pedal, the signal path is all-analogue, and part of the sound of the pedal is the way that the two signals are blended together before the output. 2 F.BACK  Feedback on a digital delay is usually a control for the number of times the captured signal buffer is repeated. On the early DD-3 units, however, the buffer was fed back into the chip via an analogue signal path, which had a particularly distinctive sound. On more recent iterations of the pedal, the buffer can be made to repeat endlessly without oscillating. 3 D.TIME  Delay time controls the length of the delay recording buffer, which is analogous to the tape loop in a…

GET THE TONE #1 POST-ROCK TREMOLO PICKING One post-rock trick is the washy sound of tremolo picking into a delay pedal. Choose a long enough delay time that the notes retain some definition and longer feedback so that changing notes results in harmonies from the trails. GET THE TONE E.LEVEL: 2 o’ clock F.BACK: 2 o’ clock D.TIME: 10 o’ clock MODE: medium GET THE TONE #2 RADIOHEAD ARPEGGIOS This can be also accomplished in long mode, depending on the tempo of your playing, or the song you’re working on. If the piece of music is in 4, you’re looking for something that’s near enough the notes that it doesn’t jar, but not exactly precise, so it creates some muddy ambience around picking out chord shapes. GET THE TONE E.LEVEL:…

Alongwith Behold Electric Guitar,Paulhas another new album. Except it’s also old. It’scalled Vernon Solos andit’stheguitarist back in 1998, playing for an hour straight. And playing hard. “Racer X used to rent a rehearsal room at an old building in Vernon, California,” explains Paul. “It was great because we could leave our gear setup and go in and play at any time of day or night. Playing through a cranked-up, fire-breathing Marshall is a whole lot different than playing at a polite level in an apartment. So I used to show up to rehearsal early to build my instincts on how to control feedback and string noise — as well as to just experience the mild terror you get from being loud. I set up a recorder, plugged in a couple…

Gary Moore took up guitar at the age of 10, moving from his native Belfast to Dublin at the age of 16 and becoming a professional player. While living in Dublin in the late 1960s, he caught all the latest bands live; John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Jimi Hendrix and Cream amongst others. However, Gary’s biggest influence was Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green who would become something of a mentor to him, later selling him his famed 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard. This now legendary instrument, which Gary would call ‘Greeny’, features on many early Mac tracks, much of Gary’s blues work and now resides with its latest owner, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett. Gary was one of the fastest, most fiery rock players out there, but he was also versatile, turning his hand to…

O one company that is no stranger to special editions is PRS, but its ‘super-exclusive’ models have got us extra excited; they include koa and weigh in at £799 each with hardcases. The Angelus and Tonare models impressed TG earlier this year in the bang-for-buck stakes, now the SE A270 and SE A265 cutaways join the roster, with highly-figured koa and bookmatched pau ferro back and sides respectively. Tops are solid spruce, with ebony fingerboards on mahogany necks and the Fishman GT1 system installed offering tone and volume controls. Both models are available now and are a limited run of 136 instruments. prsguitarseurope.com…

Undoubtedly the most famous song by folk-rockers The Pogues, this classic Christmas ballad features the vocal talents of the late Kirsty MacColl duetting with lead singer Shane MacGowan. Much loved by millions, it’s well worth getting the song’s chord progressions down, should you find yourself in an impromptu acoustic jam this festive period. Thankfully, as far as guitar playing goes, it’s fairly easy, essentially boiling down to four simple chords: D, G, A and Bm. You’ll notice a handful of other chords but these are simple variations on the basic shapes. If you find them tricky for any reason, just stick to the four main chords instead. Halfway through bridge 1 the tempo ramps up and this means you’ll need to keep your changes quick and tidy. We recommend practising…

While smaller amp manufacturers can afford to specialise in digital, analogue solid-state or valve, the big-volume guys need a stake in all three to be truly successful; now Hughes & Kettner has distilled its considerable all-round experience into a new amp that might replace all of the above. The Black Spirit 200 is a compact, digitally-controlled analog amplifier, producing its sounds from something H&K call the Black Spirit Bionic Tone Generator, and delivering them via a whopping 200-watt power stage that can be tamed to 20 watts or even 2 watts for offstage use. The list of features is impressively long: four channels called Clean, Crunch, Lead and Ultra with fully-programmable gain volume and EQ knobs and a boost, on-board digital effects, programmable effects loop and Red Box cabinet emulation,…

MARSHALL CODE 100 Looking at the price difference it’s easy to see why Marshall’s Code range is so popular; the Code 100 certainly has plenty of power for live gigs. VOX MVX150H Vox’s MVX150 head uses clever Nutube miniature valves to generate its valve tones. A 150-watt power stage and digital reverb makes a very tempting package. BLACKSTAR ID:100 TVP Blackstar’s big ID:100 head boasts True Valve Power, which means it’s as loud as a valve circuit with the advantage of programmability and digital effects.…

TYPE: Baby jumbo electro acoustic TOP: Solid Engelmann spruce BACK AND SIDES: Solid Indonesian mahogany NECK: Mahogany SCALE LENGTH: 650mm (25.6") FINGERBOARD Indonesian ebony FRETS 20  ELECTRICS Fishman HARDWARE Faith Precision chrome machine heads, ebony bridge pins w/ abalone dots, Indonesian ebony bridge, NuBone nut and saddle CASE No LEFT-HANDED No, but a cutaway Naked Venus model is available L-H FINISH Black Stain (also available in natural spruce / mahogany, £519) CONTACT Barnes & Mullins 01691 652449 bandm.co.uk…

The first song I remember… Englishman In New York– Sting “I’m telling you, that song was a big song for me growing up. It was one that my dad played all the time, and I would sing along to it. It always piqued my curiosity. It’s not like it made me want to pick up the guitar or anything like that but it really made me conscious of music. Every time I hear that song it takes me right back to the car and my dad playing it, and I feel like a kid again.” The track that demonstrates the power of the guitar for me... All Along The Watchtower– The Jimi Hendrix Experience “That was the one that drew me into the guitar, to the wah pedal, the way…