Innehållsförteckning för January 2019 från Total Guitar

Testing the new Boss Katana-Air amp this issue (p96) has really got me thinking about my relationship with the guitar these days. It’s a desktop combo that allows you to connect your guitar wirelessly via a Bluetooth transmitter - the idea is to make playing at home simpler. But even aside from that, the five amp channels and over 50 effects it offers brings a wealth of tone to your desk. We’ve never had it better as guitar players in terms of access to sounds, so what’s the problem? Time. Finding the time to play has become an issue for me lately. Ironic, isn’t it? I work on a guitar magazine but with two young children and the multitude of non-playing tasks involved in managing and contributing to the mag,…

POLL Winners The results for our 2018 artist of the year polls are in on MusicRadar.com and here are the artists that you voted as winners: • Rock Guitarist/s Mark Tremonti & Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge) • Blues Guitarist Joe Bonamassa • Metal Guitarist/s Adam Christianson & Josh Middleton (Architects) • Alternative Guitarist Timothy Henson, Scott LePage (Polyphia) • Acoustic Guitarist Mike Dawes • Prog Guitarist/s Claudio Sanchez & Travis Stever (Coheed And Cambria) RIP Dan Wild-Beesley TG would like to pay a belated tribute to Cleft guitarist Dan Wild-Beesley, who passed away on 10 October, age 33, following years of battling brain cancer. A talented player who had a wicked way with a riff, Dan’s enthusiasm for the guitar was infectious. He fulfilled live commitments with math-rock faves Cleft in the face of huge…

GET THE TONE #1 THE BONAMASSA For a mid-level drive without overly-pronounced treble try out these settings that were based on those that we spotted on Joe’s own gold Klon Centaur. And he now owns a silver version as well, so obviously there was something about this thick gain tone that really appealed to the blues-rock maestro. GET THE TONE GAIN 1 o’clock TREBLE 11 o’clock OUTPUT 11 o’clock GET THE TONE #2 THE ULTIMATE BUFFER The Klon is famously not true bypass. When the distortion circuit is disengaged, the guitar signal still goes through a buffer and has some bass frequencies attenuated. Such is the hype around the pedal that the buffer alone is available from some manufacturers. Why not try it for yourself by buying a Klon and…

In 2016 John Butler did something very few established artists would consider; he took a break from his intense touring schedule and travelled to Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India in a quest to begin learning a discipline of guitar only a handful of players master in their lifetime. And his teacher was one of the greatest players in the world, Debashish Bhattacharya… “I went over there and it was summertime,” John explains, picking up the story of his travels. “No one goes there in the summer because it’s too hot. So instead of being at his school I was just upstairs at his house. He lives in this flat and in the top flat there’s no one. There was a mattress in there and an empty room that I practised in.…

Born in 1966, Jeff Healey began playing the guitar at the extraordinarily young age of three, appearing on children’s television aged nine and playing in a covers band by 15. Having lost his sight as a child, Jeff developed his preferred method of playing the guitar flat on his lap, fretting from above. This enabled him to fret with both thumb and fingers, which would in turn offer him a near superhuman bending and vibrato technique – as well as numerous phrasing options that can’t really be played any other way. Despite his unusual technique, Jeff’s vocabulary was heavily influenced by classic blues players, such as Albert Collins, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Yet, as a passionate collector of jazz 78s (Jeff hosted his own radio show featuring these…

Andrew Marlin, one half of North Carolinian bluegrass/old-time duo Mandolin Orange, has had a diverse journey as a musician. His start came on drums, before he delved into hard rock, metal and the guitar. The musical making of him, though, came from a more unusual – though perhaps in this context, obvious – place: the mandolin. “I’m glad that I’ve gone through all the avenues that I have,” he tells TG. “Because I think it makes me approach folk and old-time music differently than some other folks. Not better, but it gives me my own little corner in this world.” His duo with partner Emily Frantz – who shares acoustic duties with Marlin and plays a mean bluegrass fiddle – has expanded with the band’s popularity, encompassing a live rhythm…

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…

For players of a certain age, if you say ‘Zoom 505’, they’ll be transported back to their first band, playing in a friend’s garage. Somebody would have a 505, or 505 II, and would be using it to create an absolute crime of a guitar sound. Where bigger digital modellers have for many years had enough processing power to produce useful effects (if not amp simulations) the smaller multi-effects of the late-90s and early 2000s were pushing the envelope for ‘useful’. The HX Stomp suffers from none of these drawbacks with fantastic effects and, crucially, in something of a first for a pedal of this size, decent amp models as well.…

One person’s innovation can be another’s solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, but we should always be looking for new ways to make access to guitar playing easier for us, especially in our homes. Boss has an advantage here, the Katana-Air is an extension of an already impressive range of modelling amps. Now it’s gone wireless with this new 30-watt head – offering us the chance to finally leave the old cable far behind. In fact, it’s being touted as the world’s first full wireless amp because there’s the option for the amp itself to go battery powered too. So just how useful and effective is this package from Boss? “THE CONNECTIVITY WITH OUR GUITAR IS SEAMLESS” The innovation here would mean little if it was attached to an…

The promise of the metal distortion pedal has always been to transform any amp into a high-gain beast. Now, if you’re sticking an Amptweaker in front of a Marshall stack, you might be able to squint and feel like it’s actually a Mesa or 5150, but more often than not these pedals have been bought by teenagers to run into cheap practice amps, and the effect is, frankly, underwhelming. That’s the tip of the iceberg, however, and the options for fantastic high-gain pedals have never been better. Even Boss’s much-maligned Metal Zone, every guitarist’s first high-gain stompbox, has had a minor reassessment, and it remains popular enough that Boss have even issued a high-spec Waza Craft version. That’ll show the haters – as will the rest of these high-octane stompboxes……

CHRIS BIRD TG’s tuition editor has been playing along with this month’s grunge-inspired Jam Track on bass guitar, doing his best impressions of Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament and Soundgarden’s Ben Shepherd. As the bassist in a grunge covers band you’d think he’d have this all down but, as Chris insists, there’s always room for improvement. Try it out on p80. MICHAEL ASTLEY-BROWN Mike is an electric man first and foremost, but he unleashed his inner acoustic troubadour to test Ibanez’s Thermo Aged AVD11 (p94). “It’s nice to have a break from loud amps and deep reverbs,” he says. He’ll be back testing Fender’s American Performer series and talking pedals with Emma Ruth Rundle next issue. JOSH MIDDLETON Josh and Architects bandmate Adam Christianson haven’t just help make one of the…

1. Poundshop Kardashians Sam Fender Anthemic and urgent - this jangles and powers forward in all the right places. Mr Fender will go far in 2019. 2. Untethered Angel Dream Theater DT are coming back strong with new album Distance Over Time - prepare to be dazzled. 3. Fade Ariel Posen Tasty slide and sublime songwriting from the Bros Landreth guitarist’s forthcoming solo debut – John Mayer fans need to check this out! 4. The Good Doctor Haken In 10 years this six-piece have become a UK prog treasure and new album Vector proves why. 5. It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You) The 1975 Further proof that unashamed 80s chorus-drenched clean tones are back in vogue. 6. Marchin’ On Smashing Pumpkins Still the highlight of an underwhelming reunion…

1 “It was the first electric guitar type I wanted after seeing Chuck Berry on TV with a red guitar that was pretty similar. And my first guitar was a cheap bolt-on copy of one of these. They look cool and they do work for me. I’ve got used to them and even though I’m a little guy I find them really easy to play.” 2 “I first saw this guitar around Christmas time 2004 in Chandlers in Kew, which is a shop that’s now sadly gone. I was out going around guitar shops with one of my best friends and we were talking about guitars, maybe talking about trying to downscale the amount of guitars I had and not buying any more. Then I saw this and I just…

When Bill Finnegan started work on the Klon Centaur, the goal was to create an overdrive that improved on the full, midrange response of the Tube Screamer while adding some of the additional ‘open’ character found in a high-headroom tube amp driven to clipping. The design process, in partnership with two MIT engineers, took from 1990 to 1994, and resulted in a $329 initial price. Despite all the unusual values and out-of-the box ideas in the Klon, the op-amp is surprisingly just a standard TL072. This core design would be produced for 15 years, with minor tweaks and cosmetic changes – such as a move from gold to silver enclosures. ‘KINDLY REMEMBER THAT THE RIDICULOUS HYPE THAT OFFENDS SO MANY IS NOT OF MY MAKING’ Perhaps the most significant innovation…

The basics of 12/8 time are fairly simple: every bar of music contains 12 quavers (aka eighth notes). These can be musical notes or pauses (aka rests) of any length as long as they add up to the required number of quavers. Simple enough, but it’s more important to get to grips with 12/8’s trademark feel. Begin by listening to Toto’s Hold The Line, Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground or Toothpaste Kisses by The Maccabees. These three songs all share the 12/8 triplet feel, identifiable by counting ‘1 & a 2 & a 3 & a 4 & a’ in time with the music. Read on as we explain all. 1 12/8 TIME TRACKS 14 Here you can see how the 12 eighth notes are typically arranged in music notation. Count…

Josh: “There’s C# standard with the sixth string down to G#, kinda like what Mastodon do but in a slightly different tuning. I think they tend to be the same in D, so we’re only a half step down. Then there’s the same one with the low string dropped even further to F# so you have two in unison, one with an eight-string sound and the other higher. Then we have some new stuff in drop B. But none of the other strings change, it’s always the lowest string changing depending on the key of the song. It’s all stuff that Tom came up with. I’m used to playing in standard E, so it’s definitely different. You can’t play powerchords. In G# though, there’s an open chug chord that’s a…

PEDALBOARD RJM MASTERMIND GT/22 MIDI CONTROLLER Pat: “When I joined he had the One Control Crocodile Tail just to put everything on a loop because he stamps on things… and breaks them. Then that got outdated because he just kept building on it. I went to the RJM stuff because he wanted something with a lot of instant access and some presets, but it all still had to be flyable. The Maxon 808 is on all the time, except for one song when he plays his Weissenborn. The Akai Headrush is used in the intro for Betterman when he goes on the nut side with the slide to get that real chimey kind of vibrato. It gives him something to play over. “He’s got a two pickup setup on the…

Often unfairly disparaged as the style that killed off the guitar solo, grunge is a diverse genre with no shortage of six-string greats. Though a fan of 70s hard rock, Aerosmith, AC/ DC, Queen and so on, Kurt Cobain would channel his punk and alt-rock influences in Nirvana. Pearl Jam’s unabashed love of classic rock has always been evident, the band regularly covering songs by Neil Young and The Who in live shows, and you can hear the influence of Jimi Hendrix in guitarist Mike McCready’s solos. There’s a strong heavy metal contingent among grunge’s big hitters too, with Soundgarden fusing Sabbath-esque riffs with punk sensibilities, and Alice In Chains arguably as much a metal band as they are grunge purists. With so many influences to draw on, it’s open…

LINE 6 HX EFFECTS The HX effects doesn’t have the screen or the amp models, but it’s an intuitive and fantastic effects processor that’s small enough to grab-and-go for jamming or gigs. BOSS GT-1000 It may not be as intuitive to use as the Line 6 units, but the effects and amps on the GT-1000 are fantastic, with sounds from the DD-500, RV-500 and MD-500. LINE 6 HELIX LT A slimmed-down version of the larger Helix, the LT boasts all the effects and cabs you could ever need, as well as a best-in-class user interface.…

TYPE: Desktop modelling combo with built-in effects, bluetooth guitar and app connectivity OUTPUT: 30 watts of power when connected to AC, 20 watts when running on AA batteries; 2 x 3-watt speakers CONTROLS: Power, Bluetooth, master, volume, gain, amp types (Acoustic, Clean, Crunch, Lead, Brown), bass, mid, treble, depth and model selection for BST (distortion)/ MOD, delay / fx, reverb; tap button, Channel A and B buttons, panel SOCKETS: Input jack: 1/ 4-inch phone type, aux in jack, phones / rec out jack, transmitter in jack, USB B port, DC IN jack WEIGHT:2.2kg DIMENSIONS:[HxWxD] 181x350x144mm CONTACT: Roland UK roland.com/uk…

Gamechanger Audio made its name with the Plus Pedal, a sustain pedal that promised to redefine the guitar. Its next creation, the Plasma, comes riding on an even greater wave of excitement. It legitimately boasts a distortion sound never before available to guitarists, namely clipping caused by high-voltage discharges as the guitar signal is fed through a tube of xenon gas. Frankly, it looks spectacular, and we found ourselves giggling with joy on first plugging it in. But, more importantly, does it actually sound good? STARTLINGLY UNIQUE BOTH AESTHETICALLY AND SONICALLY Well, it’s certainly different. The core distortion sound is spiky, and has a static-like timbre to it, which makes sense, given the provenance of the clipping. The distortion is controlled via changing the input voltage and clean blend, but…

The song that got me into music… If I Ever Lose My Faith In You– Sting “Gosh! This was when I was like nine or something, but I really liked Sting. The first album that I bought with my own money was Sting’s Ten Summoner’s Tales, and I just loved If I Ever Lose My Faith In You. Sting is a phenomenal artist; in songwriting, theory, everything. He always stands out and he has just grown and grown every single year, every single album he puts out.” The first solo I learned... Fade To Black– Metallica “I remember that being the first guitar solo I ever learned so therefore it was like, ‘Oh, man! This song is amazing. I can’t believe I can play this. I’m so proud of myself…

JOY AS AN ACT OF RESISTANCE IDLES On Joy… these Brits prove the power of honesty and urgency. “A really important thing in our music is the naivety,” Mark Bowen told us. “Most of what you hear on that album is the first or the second take.” The faith in the messages here and taking influence from worlds as wide as the Wu Tang Clan and Dick Dale meant that’s all they needed. Download Danny Nedelko HOME JOHN BUTLER All John Butler’s albums find him questioning himself and the world around him to some extent, but the results here have a potency that places this amongst his very best work. Working mostly alone in the studio and introducing more electronic elements hasn’t lessed the impact of his…

EHX SOUL FOOD £79 While comparing settings side-by-side on the Klon and Soul Food will result in a big sonic difference, it’s possible to get them in the same ballpark. The Soul Food uses silicon diodes, which result in a different character to the clipping, and the Klon has more apparent gain on tap. A bit thinner overall but into a good amp it’s hard to fault. WAMPLER TUMNUS £139 Perhaps the premier boutique ‘Klone’, as Klon clones are called, the Tumnus was for many years your best avenue to getting the Klon sound on a reasonable budget. There’s a lot of debate as to whether this or the J Rockett Archer is the more faithful reproduction, but there’s no denying that the harmonically rich, high-headroom Tumnus has a bit…

Before his soundcheck and rig tour at Islington Assembly Hall, Marcus King is giving TG his guide to the one thing every guitarist feels like they need to work on: feel. It’s something that, despite his years, the 22 year-old American knows an awful lot about and the advice he prescribes is telling indeed. “When it comes to note choices, it all comes down to the attitude of how you play them,” he explains. “That’s exactly what Miles Davis said: ‘Twenty per cent is the note… and the other 80 per cent is the motherfucker playing it!’ That’s something I agree with wholeheartedly. Put your heart and soul in there through vibrato, scratches, attack, whatever you feel! “I guess I do play fast sometimes,” he adds. “But mainly I love…

Electric Guitar Versatility and value were kings this year – and in a strong field we had to make some tough choices IBANEZ AZ224F The most affordable of Ibanez’s new series is no compromise £1,069 Ibanez’s reputation amongst some of the greatest innovators of the instrument is already assured in the hands of Vai, Satch and Paul Gilbert. But brands need to pass the torch into new hands to thrive, and that involves innovation on their part too. Ibanez understand that and in response it has created a players’ guitar with the AZ Series; an attention to detail that encapsulates the brand’s strengths alongside cutting-edge features to enhance the versatility these guitars offer for the investment. So for the £890 we’re now seeing this model going for on the street,…

Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well was originally released as a two-part single in 1969, with Part 1 as the A-side and Part 2 as the B-side. Part 2 is an unaccompanied instrumental featuring guitarist Peter Green’s deeply emotive nylon string guitar work, though the first minute is also heard at the end of Part 1 – and it’s this A-side release that we’re looking at in this month’s Classic Track. There are multiple parts to learn in this lesson: two electric parts, including a solo courtesy of Danny Kirwan plus the nylon string part in the outro. We’ve left the steel-string acoustic on the backing track so you can play along or just play the electric parts. The electric parts (guitar 1 and guitar 2) have been panned hard left and…

This much-loved Queen strummer topped the charts around the world in 1979 and 1980 – which is really not bad considering Freddie Mercury allegedly wrote it in about five minutes! The original recording is quite bare by Queen’s standards; there are no pianos or keyboards and those trademark multi-layered vocals make only brief appearances in verses 2 and 4. The song opens with an acoustic riff that avoids the usual rock ’n’ roll clichéd chugging, and is based instead on an open D chord with your fourth finger changing to a sus4 on beat 2 of each bar. Without getting too bogged down in theory, sus4 chords are neither major nor minor, having their all-important 3rd intervals replaced (or to use the technical term, ‘suspended’) with the fourth note from…

Recognising that some players just want the effects from the Helix, Line 6 brought out the HX Effects – a slimmed-down Helix with most of the effects, and none of the amps. The HX Stomp is the counterpart to that unit, in that it contains 300 effects, including the Helix, M Series and legacy Line 6 patches, as well as the amp, cab and mic options of the full-fat Helix. It even supports loading impulse responses, so if you have modelled your own amps, or purchased commercial IRs, they can be loaded as well. Cramming not only the sounds of those units, but also a full-colour screen into a unit the size of the HX Stomp is certainly impressive and no mean feat. This leads to what seems to be…

Old acoustic guitars are often said to have a magic that an off-the-shelf acoustic can’t match; while that may be partially down to indefinable vintage mojo, there is some truth to the tone: older woods tend to possess a stronger projection, courtesy of a top that has dried and stiffened over the decades. “THE SWEET HONEYED COLOUR GIVES IT A WELL-WORN VIBE” In recent years, guitar manufacturers have aimed to replicate this process with torrefaction, which has become the hottest buzzword in acoustics – quite literally: it involves heating tonewoods to artificially age the wood, remove moisture and stabilise its molecular structure. The process started appearing on instruments from small builders and high-end models from the likes of Martin, but has trickled down to mid-priced acoustics, with this Thermo Aged…

With the EVH 5150 and LTD Black Metal designed for a very particular player, this feels like a shoot-out between the Godin’s tastefully appointed and quite beautiful Summit Classic and Gordon Smith’s tastefully appointed and quietly awesome GS-1 60. The latter will definitely take the Les Paul Junior fans. That you can spec your own online is a big plus, but this review model was a lovely piece of mahogany, and while that P-90/brass nut combo will expose any sloppy playing it also facilitates some truly soulful tone in the sweet spot between its mids and highs. The Godin is more forgiving, more fun. It can similarly do scratchy blues, bright classic rock tones, and maybe even has more of an identity than the GS-1, a little more vintage chic.…