Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2016 från Total Guitar

Ever spotted a busker in your town playing the most amazing percussive acoustic stuff? How about those lush chords that your mate always plays but you can never seem to work out? We have, so this month we’re taking a look at some of the simple – and wider – areas of acoustic playing. Don’t worry if you’re just starting out, though, because we’ve included lessons on getting started with key techniques, too. Whether you’re new to acoustic, or just looking for inspiration to overcome your creative hurdle, we’ve got you covered. Sticking with the acoustic stuff elsewhere this month, bona fide comedy legend Ricky Gervais sits down to talk us through the musical background to his hugely anticipated new David Brent film, Life on The Road – plus we…

This month we’re looking at the main riff of Tied Up by Rival Sons, taken from their latest album, Hollow Bones. The riff itself is played mainly in the F# minor pentatonic scale (F# A B C# E)and is based on a melodic line that repeats… well, sort of. The kind of repeat used here is known as ‘sequencing’ and the idea is that the repeat follows the same rhythm and melodic structure, but uses different notes from the scale. In Tied Up, the first phrase starts on an F# note; the repeat starts on C#. On the studio version of this track, guitarist Scott Holiday has recorded the riff in two different octaves, to thicken the sound and add weight. Follow TG’s video lesson to get the notes for…

“In Captain Sensible we had punk rock plus Pete Townshend. I identified with that” Got my first real six-string… “When I was eight I saw my first live band and it was teenagers playing covers in a park. To me it was Led Zeppelin! My parents could not pull me away from this bandstand. I was immediately bitten by this bug. I started this campaign for a guitar and, after about six months of tantrums and work, I got a guitar for Christmas in 1973. It was an Epiphone acoustic, a big dreadnought.” Oh Captain, my captain… “When I got [The Damned’s] Machine Gun Etiquette that was the record when I went, ‘Oh my god’, because in Captain Sensible we had punk rock plus Pete Townshend. Captain was just great.…

MIDI FLY (FOR A GUITAR GUY) Lately I’ve been seeing a rise on MIDI ins, and outs on pedals, as well as the use of MIDI on pedalboards, and after looking once more at the neglected MIDI port on my delay, I thought, I’d write in to ask what can I do with MIDI, and guitar gear, and how can I do it? Many thanks for any help you can offer! JOSIAH LUCK, via email Hi Josiah, we could write a whole mag about this subject, but in short, the MIDI sockets on your gear allow two pieces of kit to ‘talk’ to each other. They allow you to switch and control other devices, or be controlled by them (depending on whether you have in, out or both sockets).…

NOEL GALLAGHER CHASING YESTERDAY “I’ve always been a huge Oasis fan and I really like his solo records. It’s the same reason why I liked Oasis – they’re just really good songs. I also like his voice and the sound of the records, the guitar sounds. I think he’s great artist and a great songwriter. There’s some Oasis stuff that didn’t hit it for me, but it seems like he’s writing almost at his best right now. It sounds like he feels comfortable.”…

With its ‘not major or minor’ sound, DADGAD lends itself to jamming Tune to DADGAD by lowering the first, second and sixth strings on your guitar down a tone. The open strings are an open Dsus4 chord – a rich, lush chord in itself. With its ‘neither major nor minor’ sound the tuning lends itself to jamming and you can come up with musical ideas often by moving one finger up and down a string while using the remaining strings as drones. Jimmy Page used DADGAD with Led Zeppelin on songs such as Kashmir, and, perhaps surprisingly, the tuning is also found in the Slipknot tune Circle. We’ve written three examples for you to try out: firstly a strummed chord progression playable with one finger, then a fingerstyle part and…

1. Using the whammy bar. Operating a whammy bar is easy: play a note, grip the bar, then dip it down towards the strings to lower the pitch. Use small movements at first. 2. Vibrato. Vibrato is the effect you get when you wobble a string as a note rings out. You can use your fretting fingers or simply wobble the whammy bar. 3. Holding your pick. Sometimes you’ll need to pick the strings and use the bar in rapid succession. Keep your pick by the strings and use your free fingers to move the bar.…

Rancid’s Tim Armstrong knows his Gretsch tones, and it’s thanks to him we have the Black Top ’buckers that have been standard issue on Electromatics since 2011. The original ‘black top’ Filter’Trons appeared on Gretsch models in the 70s, a pretty turbulent time for many brands, Gretsch included, in terms of quality. But they found a “good one”, remarks Gretsch’s Adam Bowden-Smith, in the form of Tim’s Country Club from this era. In creating Tim’s first 2010 signature model, Gretsch reverse-engineered the pickup, put it in a standard Filter’Tron-like casing with visible pole pieces – the originals had a black top and no visible poles – and created a new pickup with “bit more midrange: punchy but still with clarity.” It’s quite a different pickup to the the Streamliners’ Broad’Tron…

Monthly firmware updates will add new amps and effects AT A GLANCE TYPE: Multi-effects processor CONTROLS: Data entry, menu button, master level, output boost, output tone 16x ‘soft’ knobs, 8x buttons, treadle SOCKETS: Standard guitar input, mini-jack aux input, standard outputs (L/mono, R), mini-jack stereo phones output, USB, control input BYPASS: Buffered POWER: 9V DC adaptor 500mA (included) CONTACT: Zoom UK 08432 080 999 www.zoomcorp.co.uk TOP ROW THESE footswitches offer instant access to four of the effects in the loaded patch in Stomp mode. In Memory mode, they select the four patches of the loaded bank SCROLL THESE allow you to change banks in Memory mode. In Stomp mode, they scroll the effects in a chain so that they coincide with the upper footswitches OUTPUT BOOSTER THIS non-switchable section affects…

10. Lemmy – Cocktail During his career, the late Motörhead man probably necked a swimming pool of Jack and Coke. This year, Food & Beverage Magazine, officially renamed the drink in his honour. To make a ‘Lemmy’, take two ounces of Jack, 10 ounces of Coke, plus a dash of bitters. Shake with ice, strain, garnish with lemon peel, drink – and raise hell. 9. Justin Hawkins – Giraffe In 2004, Suffolk Wildlife Park named one absurd-looking creature after another. “It’s wonderful that the Wildlife Park has stuck its neck out,” said Justin Hawkins, predictably. 8. Jerry Garcia – Ice Cream A request from a Grateful Dead-obsessed customer set the mixers in motion at Ben & Jerry’s, and in 1987, Cherry Garcia debuted. It’s since become one of the firm’s…

CHRIS BIRD TG’S tuition editor has been burning the midnight oil writing tutorials on Scotty Moore, whammy bar techniques and three pop-punk riffs. He’s even had a bash at percussive guitar for this month’s cover feature. Bird’s top percussive tip: go gently and try not to break anything! JOSH GARDNER JOSH has spent most of the month basking in the afterglow of Wales’ improbable run to the Euro 2016 semi-finals. In truth, all he actually seems to have done this issue is watch the replay that that Hal Robson-Kanu goal on constant loop, while shaking his head in amused disbelief. ROB LAING KEEN to make the most of his EU citizenship while he can, Rob spent the bulk of the issue soaking up the sunshine in Barcelona and Brittany. Somehow,…

THIS RIFF needs a medium overdrive classic rock tone. Too much gain and you’ll be in heavy metal territory; too little gain and your sound will lack weight. A humbucker-equipped guitar should give you the required thick ballsy tone. If your guitar has single coils add bass and gain, and roll off a little treble. If you’re using a pitch shifter, set the mix so the lower octave is the same volume as your original guitar tone. PITCH SHIFTER PEDAL Harmony: Octave down Mix: 50% ALL THE video lessons in this issue of Total Guitar are available to view online at www.bit.ly/tg283video…

When Weezer smashed the Beach Boys, KISS and geekdom together to create grunge-pop perfection, people rejoiced. London’s Puppy do a similar trick, but start with The Replacements, blending heavy riffs and 80s-style pinched harmonics into gloriously scrappy, hooky tunes. “The bands I’d been in before, it was always quite DIY and would sound fuzzy and lo-fi,” explains guitarist Jock Norton. “This time we wanted to change it. Instead of saying ‘This doesn’t fit’ we’d try and push the boat out.” New EP Vol II proves just how successful they have been in that endeavour. Take My Tree, which sees Jock channel his down-tuned Fender Bronco and Marshall JCM800 into a song that sounds like early Iron Maiden gone slacker pop, before it gives way to an exuberant guitar hero solo.…

“THERE’S NOTHING too crazy about it. There’s some Seymour Duncans [JBs] in here. Other than that it’s pretty much how it came.” “IT’S A really nice playing guitar but I never thought I’d like this shape guitar. I love the way it looks but I wasn’t sure how it would feel and after watching a few Pantera videos I learned some ways to handle a [shaped guitar]! It’s actually really fun to play around with live.” “I DO like Van Halen but it was actually more for my guitar tech Johnny. He’s like my right hand man as far as guitar work. We get a new one and we start building it together, we build amps together. He’s a friend of mine from back in San Diego where we live…

Backstage at Wembley, everything is as calm as can be. Forget whatever headlines you’ve read about Deftones being at each other’s throats or guitarists Stephen Carpenter and Chino Moreno waging war against each other over the direction of their band’s sound – today it’s smiles all round. The Grammy-winning alt-metal quintet have recently started serving up fresh cuts from Gore, and naturally, as their sound evolves, so does the equipment they use to attain it. TG joins Stephen and frontman Chino – who began incorporating his own layers of shoegazey guitar from 2000’s White Pony onwards – on stage at Wembley, just hours before 10,000 fans arrive, to take a guided tour around the gear behind the latest chapter in the Deftones story. STEPHEN CARPENTER 1 ESP STEF B-8 “This…

Rock has changed. Music has changed, and for any band that formed on the wrong side of 2005 the old tour/record/tour approach to success doesn’t really work anymore to build success or any kind of living, does it? LA’s Rival Sons might beg to differ, but then they are an exceptional proposition that brings old school values to a new era. The Led Zeppelin, Free, The Doors and Deep Purple comparisons aren’t lazy – they stand for a mark of quality that Rival Sons’ have proved worthy of since they formed in 2009. This is the hard-working band that Black Sabbath chose as their support for their final ever tour, and the Birmingham metal legends’ innate ability to go into a studio in their heyday and create dark magic very…

It doesn’t matter whether you’re an absolute beginner or if you’ve played for a little bit longer, strumming, open chords and basic fingerstyle are skills that every acoustic guitarist needs to have. These essential techniques will help you to learn your first songs and jam with other musicians, too. We’re kicking off this month’s cover feature with a look at some of these absolute basics. Start by trying out some of the chord shapes and strumming exercises. You’ll need a plastic pick (aka plectrum) for this. Fingerstyle is a little bit tougher so expect to spend more time on this. Fingerpicking The easiest way to fingerpick is to use your thumb to pick the three bass strings and your index (first), middle (second) and ring (third) fingers for the third,…

Adjusting the action (or string height) on an acoustic guitar is easier than you think, but to do it, you’ll need a file or sandpaper and a pair of pliers. Be aware though, this is for acoustic guitars only! If you have an electro- acoustic, you may damage the pickup if you don’t know how to remove the saddle correctly. Do some research first or leave the job to the experts if you’re unsure. For the rest of you, this easy-to-follow guide will give any tough-to-play acoustic a new lease of life. Before we start, let’s make sure that the guitar’s neck is adjusted correctly… 1 Eyeball the neck from the headstock end. If the neck is dipped or over-bent, locate your truss rod bolt – the bit you stick…

DAVID BOWIE “Amazing. A hero of mine for 25 years before I met him. I have to pinch myself, and at the time, thinking ‘Oh my god, I’m friends with my musical hero’. But it’s almost like two different people. I sort of didn’t know David Bowie – David Bowie doesn’t exist – I just knew David Jones, the nice, normal man, who just happened to be a brilliant songwriter and rock star. I remember when I sent him the lyrics for Pug-nosed Face, [the song Bowie performed on Extras] and I said ‘Can you do something retro, like Life on Mars?’ He went [sarcastically] ‘Oh sure, I’ll just knock off a quick fucking Life On Mars for you...’ I just started laughing. It was just surreal. The first time…

BLINK-182 WHAT’S MY AGE AGAIN? To really nail the riff of this classic slice of pop-punk, focus on skipping across strings with your pick. Although the arpeggio sounds easy, you may run into problems as you skip over the fourth and fifth strings. It will take a while to train yourself to make this jump without belting the idle strings. Thankfully, your fret hand doesn’t have too much to do: the riff consists of a third finger barre at the 11th fret, played constantly as your first and second fingers move around the 9th and 11th fret bass notes. Practise these shapes first so you can focus more of your attention on your pick hand when you come to piece the riff together. Be on the lookout for any excessive…

GRETSCH STREAMLINER G2420T £395 If you can’t stretch to the Electromatic model, the Streamliner version has more generic parts but is still very much a Grestch VINTAGE VSA850OR £749 Available in classic orange or white (£799) this, ahem, copy exudes Gretschstyle while the full humbuckersized pickups make replacement easy GUILD STARFIRE II ST £699 Based on the original Starfire model, this new version is a thinline with pointed cutaway and great sounding Guild ‘Anti-Hum’ LB-1 humbuckers…

ERNIE BALL POLYLOCK STRAP Poly wants a cracker… of a strap GROLSCH WASHERS, gaffa tape, strap locks… we’ve seen all kinds of methods to keep that strap attached to your guitar, but what if the strap itself could lock on? Enter Ernie Ball’s Polylock, which fastens to existing strap buttons on just about any electric guitar or bass and stays secure, thanks to a cunning plastic gripping design. The rest of the strap is just as durable, too, with a two-inch wide polypropylene fabric, adjustable from 38 inches down to a nu-metal-worthy 67 inches. Solid stuff. (£24.95, www.ernieball.com ) DBX CT2 CABLE TESTER Testing, one, two… testing… THERE ARE few things worse than plugging in a spaghetti of cables, only to find your signal MIA. DBX’s Cable…

JAMES BAY burst onto the music scene in 2014 to near instantaneous critical acclaim and commercial success. His breakthrough single Hold Back The River and debut album Chaos And The Calm achieved platinum status; he also won a string of awards at the 2016 Brits and Grammys. But Bay is not just another pop clone – he is also an inspiring guitarist with his own individual style. A refreshing change, perhaps? Bay’s guitar playing on Let It Go has more in common with classical guitar than rock ’n’ roll styles, but don’t let that fact put you off! This is a simple picking pattern that sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is in practice. The hypnotic vibe is created by repeatedly sounding the open third string against moving…

TIME MACHINES Dear TG, I’ve been reading your mag for years and now I’m subscribed to it. Every so often you talk about delay pedals and dialling in ‘X’ milliseconds of repeats – but most pedals I’ve seen do not show this, so how do I know what I’m dialling in? I’m confused! ANDY SMRECZAK, via email The answer is that some pedals do, and some don’t, Andy! Many pedals will have an indication of their maximum delay time, so to dial it in to a division of that you’ll need to figure out where to set the dial. Pedals with digital displays will often have an exact read-out of the delay time, but if you’re really stuck, you can always use tap tempo. IDLE HANDS… Hi TG, Every…

EXCEPTIONAL EXCELLENT GOOD FOR FANS OF POOR Clive Carroll THE FURTHEST TREE British acoustic maestro Clive Carroll has always pushed the boundaries of the instrument, and that’s clearly in evidence on his fourth album – a collection of acoustic fingerstyle pieces written, in the main, over the last five years. A true virtuoso with a stunningly clean technique, Carroll blends his influences seamlessly as The Furthest Tree moves from its hymnal opener through the blues-tinged In The Deep, the Celtic ballad vibe of Lady Of The Valley and the classically-inspired A Renaissance Suite – a five-part duet with classical guitar legend John Williams. One of Clive’s party pieces, A Winter Carol, also makes an appearance – it’s a truly unsettling track, comprising two melodies in different keys and tempos, but…

The acoustic guitar has been a mainstay instrument in folk Acoustic guitar has been a mainstay instrument in folk since the days of greats such as Richard Thompson and Paul Simon in the 60s and 70s. In recent years, musicians such as Ben Howard, Jake Bugg and José González have caused a renaissance in the style. We’ve put together three musical examples to help you get creative with your acoustic guitar and explore some fundamental folk techniques. First up is a percussive strumming riff that incorporates a snare-like backbeat into a simple chord progression. Ed Sheeran often uses this technique as did Nuno Bettencourt on Extreme’s classic 90s ballad, More Than Words. The next two examples are simple fingerstyle patterns which you can jam along with and apply to your…

Every guitarist knows how difficult it can be to make a chord progression come to life. Sometimes those familiar open and barre chord shapes just won’t cut it when you’re looking for a richer sound. One trick you can employ in this scenario is the idea of shared notes; simply play a chord progression and hold down one new note throughout. Although the chord names might turn out to be a bit whacky, you’ll create some inspiring and unusual sounds. Obviously you’ll land on some clashing, dissonant notes too, so there are no hard, fast rules. Experimentation is very much order of the day. Take a look at our tab examples to see how just one note can improve a simple chord progression. BASIC CHORD SEQUENCE TRACK 60 THERE’S NOTHING…

“I want to enjoy music before it disappears. I think this is the end time for musicians” Wes Borland is a man of many guises. Before you even get to his atmospheric industrial indulgences in Black Light Burns or more recent endeavours in alt-rock outfit Queen Kwong, his stage antics in Limp Bizkit have seen the guitarist reinvent himself time and again with all sorts of odd alter-egos. His countless collaborations over the years have been the mark of a musician existing to create and creating to exist. Perhaps, of all his works, this summer’s solo debut, Crystal Machete, feels like our biggest glimpse yet at what the real man behind the mask may be like– its 11 tracks calmly drifting through sleepy trip-hop shuffles into syncopated dance beats and…

Shawn may have started his career as a solely acoustic artist, but these days he includes electric guitars in his stage show, too. The guitars he’s holding in our shoot are some of his favourites; the Tele, us, . “ Series Telecaster was the first electric guitar I ever played on stage and is just an amazing all-around guitar with such a smooth tone. It’s great for some of the fingerpicking songs,” he says. His Strat was a gift from one of his musical heroes. “It’s John Mayer Signature Strat, that John gave me as a gift,” he says. “One day I got to my hotel room, and the guitar was just waiting there for me with a note from him. It’s got such a unique tone that comes across…

The Electromatics are the start of the real Gretsch experience AT A GLANCE  BODY: Laminated maple NECK: Maple, glued-in SCALE: 625mm (24.6") FINGERBOARD: Rosewood FRETS: 22 PICKUPS: 2x Blacktop Filter’Tron humbuckers CONTROLS: 3-position pickup selector toggle switch, master volume, master tone, 2x individual pickup volume controls HARDWARE: Gold-plated Adjusto-Matic bridge, licensed Bigsby B60 vibrato, open-back tuners LEFT-HANDED: Yes, black or orange stain only, without Bigsby (£749) FINISH: Fairlane Blue (as reviewed) Orange Stain & Aspen Green CONTACT: Fender GBI 01342 331700 www.gretschguitars.com DOWNSIZED NOT only is the headstock downsized but it now doesn’t feature that Electromatic logo – you’ll find it on the pickguard CLASSIC ‘NAILS THESE classic ‘thumbnail’ inlays are only used on this year’s chrome-plated Hollow Bodies. It you go for a gold-plated model it’ll have hump-block inlays…

An adventurous guitarist will have lots of fun here AT A GLANCE BODY: Mango, aluminium and plastic NECK: Maple, bolt-on SCALE: 638mm (25.12”) FINGERBOARD: Rosewood FRETS: 22 PICKUPS: 2x VOX XLM humbuckers, piezo pickup in each saddle CONTROLS: Volume, tone, 3-way toggle model switch, Group selector, DRIVE/REVERB knob, POWER button and LED, FX (effect) /CANCEL button and LED, WRITE button and LED HARDWARE: 2-Post vibrato, enclosed tuners SOUNDS: 27 (9 banks x 3); 6 user programs (2 banks x 3) LEFT-HANDED: No FINISH: Red (as reviewed) and Black with black frame; see-thru black with choice of frame colours (£802) CONTACT: Vox 01908 304600 www.voxamps.com NECK THIS bit is pretty conventional: a 638 mm (25.12”) scale, 22 fret bolt-on that plays pretty well. The body core is mango wood while the…

The goal here is to have fun playing the damn guitar AT A GLANCE TYPE: Digital modelling amp w/Bluetooth OUTPUT: 30 watts SPEAKER: 4x 3” speakers CONTROLS: Line 6 AMPLIFi Remote app. Onboard: drive, 3-band EQ, reverb, master vol/blend, tap SOCKETS: Input, headphones, aux, footswitch, USB WEIGHT: 2.43kg DIMENSIONS: [HxWxD] 265 x 200 x 125 CONTACT: Yamaha UK, uk.line6.com 0844 811 1116 MODELS THERE are over 200 amp, cab and effects models inside, ranging from the familiar to boutique. You also get access to thousands of presets hosted in the cloud for free ALL-IN ONE THE AMPLIFi is a modelling amp, effects unit, Bluetooth speaker and recording interface, and the iOS/ Android AMPLIFi Remote app gives you easy control over your settings WIRELESS YOU control the amp over Bluetooth from…

ERIC CLAPTON is one of the few guitarists who can craft solo after solo using nothing more advanced than the minor pentatonic scale. Like the blues legends who influenced him (BB King, Buddy Guy), improvisers such as Clapton often don’t ‘write’ their solos, they just grab the moment and go for it. This method takes years of practice, but you can cheat a little bit by working out some of your favourite players’ licks. But don’t just copy them: analyse why the lick got your attention in the first place. Think about their choice of notes, their rhythm, and – the most important element of improvisation – their phrasing. Listen to the solo in Cocaine and you’ll hear that it’s made up of two- or three- bar phrases, which work…

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…