Innehållsförteckning för May 2019 från Total Guitar

If you’d been asked to draw an electric guitar back in your school days, what would it have looked like? Chances are, something that resembles a Fender Strat. But Leo Fender’s 1954 design isn’t just burned into our consciousness because of its iconic form alone; it’s the players that used it to make history. That’s been our starting point with this issue – four masters whose music is as timeless as the guitar they used, each offering their own expressive voice and lessons to be learned to benefit all us players, whatever guitar we play. But aside from the towering figures of Hendrix, Gilmour, SRV and Clapton, we needed to go further to make this the ultimate experience. The Strat’s versatility beyond the blues can take you on a journey…

GIG The Fab Five Though the Beatles retired from the live stage in 1966 before recording some of their greatest works, a number of elite Fab Four tribute acts make a serious trade delivering authentic takes on the likes of Sgt. Peppers to fans who appreciate the dedication to sonic detail. Dutch five-piece The Analogues don’t do the outfits, but are painstaking in their delivery of latter period Beatles sounds. They’re finally returning to the UK for a London Palladium show on a European run where they’ll play The White Album in full. WHEN4 May RIP Bernie Tormé TG is sad to report the passing of Bernie Tormé, who died in London on 17 March, aged 66, following treatment for double pneumonia. Between 1979 and 1981 the Dublin-born guitarist toured…

DISTORTION: The distortion pot controls voltage gain, and thus the amount of clipping. On paper, it can deliver a whopping 67dB of gain, but in practice due to the slew characteristics of the LM308 op-amp, this number will not be reached. Despite the RAT shining at higher gain settings, it’s also a surprisingly solid low-gain drive, particularly for boosting dirty amps, and has a fantastic mid-bump. FILTER: The filter, or tone control, is a simple low-pass filter. With the bass pulled back, the signal will be closer to a square-wave, while with it fully open, the response will look almost triangle-wave shaped. Obviously, the EQ settings on your amp will also have a significant effect on the overall timbre and EQ profile of the distortion. VOLUME: Unlike some other pedals,…

GET THE TONE #1 CHUNKY QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE DRIVE This beefy tone will heat up the tubes on any decent amp while delivering a harmonically rich drive tone. Switch to the bridge humbucker on an LP-style guitar for aggressive rhythm and lead, or try a neck single coil for muddy heft. GET THE TONE DISTORTION9 o’clock FILTER12 o’clock VOLUME3 o’ clock GET THE TONE #2 A PERFECT DISTORTION Use this setting to get into tones like the end of A Perfect Circle’s The Outsider. This will depend on how your amp is set up - we have a Marshall with a Les Paul on the bridge pickup, bass rolled off at the amp. This lets us thicken up the bass at the pedal and bring down…

“Flow started out as a moulded pick with a precision grip that I developed over the last three years. But it’s evolved into a Tortex pick. We do it in the Ultem which is moulded, but Tortex is just such a winning material. It’s iconic, and for a reason. With the edges the way they are and the way it reacts and releases from the string, it has a certain feel and tone. If you’re a Tortex user you want to feel and hear that. The Flow shape has wider shoulders and comes into a precise tip. The name Flow pretty much sums it up; it seems to propel you through the string and make everything easier. It just flows! It makes playing guitar more pleasurable.”…

There may come a time where logistics or necessity mean you have to borrow an amp to play a set. Immediately you might feel that you’re outside your comfort zone and your tone will be compromised. Fear not; even with the unfamiliar there are universal truths when it comes to tone. Matt Schofield is a tonehound but also a blues guitarist who has gigging experience all over the world. He says these three simple points to remember enable you to make any amp as good as it can get… 1 “You’ll find that every pot has an obvious cusp point in its rotation – every single one – where it goes from not doing much, to where it really kicks in. So I sweep through the pots one by one…

As Pink Floyd’s guitarist/frontman David Gilmour prepares to auction off a number of guitars for charity (including his 1969 ‘The Black Strat’), what better time to look at his playing style? You’ll need a few tricks to play like David. First, the minor pentatonic scale. David phrases many solos around this essential scale, especially if he’s playing freely or improvising. Second, you need to think melodically. David often breaks free from the confines of ‘guitaristic’ pentatonic shapes and plays more tunefully. Try playing along the length of a string or using a slide; pentatonics aren’t off the table, but you’ll sound more Gilmour-ish if you can play inside and out. Finally, David’s lyrical style is augmented by smooth, accurate string bends and favouring hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides over too much…

GUITARS 1 FENDER HIGHWAY ONE STRATOCASTER “My main Strat is just a simple Highway One Stratocaster – the guitar that I’ve had since high school. I have a Seymour Duncan Classic Stack pickup in the neck, a Duckbucker in the middle, which I don’t love – it’s just fine. I had some guy at a store recommend it. He put it in. Whatever… It’s fine! And in the bridge it’s a JB Junior. It sounds cool. It’s a mini-humbucker. It’s a little bit thicker than your average Strat bridge pickup.” 2 KITHARA GUITARS CUSTOM “The other [guitar] I have is one that somebody built for me. There’s a builder in Ireland –Kithara Guitars. This guy just hit me up and was like, ‘Hey, I want to show you this guitar…

In the early 80s, hardcore punk bands like Agnostic Front, Black Flag and Dead Kennedys brought a harder, more rhythmically intense edge to the sounds of early punk pioneers like the Ramones and Sex Pistols, whose sound was more rooted in traditional rock ’n’ roll. While they draw from the aggressive roots of their predecessors, post-hardcore bands include memorable guitar hooks, experimental elements and melodic choruses: you can hear this in tracks from bands like Thrice, Alexisonfire, Thursday, Glassjaw and Fugazi. Our jam track is an excellent opportunity to play some aggressive, precise rhythm chops and improvise with catchy melodic lead lines. Contemporary acts use a range of tunings from standard to drop B, but we’ve gone for the middle ground and tuned to drop D. Dial in a high…

For an artist whose repertoire includes songs rooted in Britain’s pre-industrial past, 26-year old Sam Kelly is a decidedly modern musician. Whether performing with his rowdy ensemble The Lost Boys or reviving Cornish folk songs with south-west collective The Changing Room, the Bristol-based guitarist brings all the sensibilities of a contemporary singer-songwriter to bear on these traditional sounds, accompanied by his robust acoustic playing and a voice that could shame a nightingale. While the rousing live performances of his group The Lost Boys were instrumental in confirming Sam’s reputation as a rising star (see their rock-infused take on trad sea shanty Greenland Whale), new album Changeable Heart, a collaboration with Nottingham multi-instrumentalist Ruth Notman, takes a softer approach. “I knew it would be a totally different thing, there were going…

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…

TAYLOR 314CE If you’d prefer a V-Class electro in Taylor’s smaller-bodied Grand Auditorium cutaway shape, this model also offers solid sapele back and sides with Sitka spruce top. MARTIN DSS-17 The Nazareth crew’s new slope-shoulder dreadnought has a striking Whisky Sunset finish and mahogany back and sides, but it’s not currently available as an electro, so you’d need to get a system fitted. GIBSON MONTANA J-45 STANDARD Gibson’s Standard version of its iconic round-shoulder dread’ with mahogany back and sides is only available in the classic vintage sunburst. It comes with LR Baggs VTC pickup.…

1 PICKUPS  An pickup update for this series, the Broad’Tron BT-2S is a more contemporary, higher-output take on classic Gretsch tone 2 FINGERBOARD  Since the original Streamliners landed, CITES restrictions have come into force, so the rosewood fingerboard is replaced by similarly playable laurel 3 CONTROLS  Gretsch’s familiar layout returns with no fewer than three volume controls for neck, bridge and the overall level “THE BROAD’TRON PICKUPS ONLY ENHANCE THE FORMULA” Gretsch’s 2016 Streamliner series changed the budget guitar game. Here was a line of hollowbody guitars that not only possessed the look and feel of the company’s higher-priced offerings, but also offered no signifier of their affordable pedigree. The series’ 2019 relaunch builds on that success with a number of tweaks, namely new finishes, a switch…

What did we learn? For a start, a well set-up double-locking Floyd Rose is still the best way to keep a guitar in tune, at least for serious vibrato (ab)users. Second, a vibrato is only as good as the guitar it’s bolted to. In the case of these four contenders, the build quality is consistently outstanding. It doesn’t half put a smile on our faces to encounter four new instruments that are this well-presented. Despite all the aesthetic attributes of the Ibanez, Schecter and Jackson, it’s the Charvel that took most of our attention. The first Floyd-loaded metal machines were like hot rods: you take a lovely 50s motor, strip it of all unnecessary clutter and weight, bolt on high performance parts, then paint the thing a cool colour. That’s…

CHRIS BIRD This month, TG’s tuition editor hotfooted it to The Fleece in Bristol for a chat and a pre-gig bite to eat with Strat-toting US funk sensation Cory Wong. Opting for Vietnamese, Messrs Wong and Bird chewed the fat, discussing practice plans and the benefits of that unsung pedalboard hero, the compressor. Turn to p56 for the interview. MIKE ASTLEY-BROWN Another month, another superlative sub-£500 guitar as Mike got down with the latest incarnation of Gretsch’s game-changing Streamliners. “It’s impossible to emphasise just how much you can get for your money these days,” he muses. “But that makes it all the more tempting to expand your collection…” AMIT SHARMA As well as talking to Jason Becker and Marty Friedman this issue (p38), our writer’s been reflecting on his own…

1. Havin’ It Paul Gilbert Following its Pledge Music release last year, Behold Electric Guitar gets a full release in May – some surprising Jeff Beck and Robben Ford-esque blues moves going on here. 2. Misirlou Dick Dale & The Del Tones Its inclusion in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction brought a new wave of interest in DD, but this 1963 take on the Greek folk tune was always a masterclass in Dale’s tremolo picking power. 3. Genesis Devin Townsend Now existing in his own genre, Empath could be the most Townsendian thing he’s ever done. Orchestral chunk metal prog operatic? 4. Borderlines Baroness A welcome return, this time with guitarist Gina Gleason adding an interesting new dimension vocally on her recording debut with the band. 5. Death Church Machine Head The…

1 “It’s actually a baritone guitar, but it doesn’t have the full traditional baritone scale length [this has 26-3/4-inch instead of the usual 27 inches or more]. So it plays and feels half way between a standard guitar and a true baritone. I’ve had it for about two years now and I’ve got a couple of other Reverend guitars – I’ve got a Double Agent and Sensei. When I first discovered them as guitars, I was looking for something in the mold of a Telecaster with a slightly different feel. I tend to play a lot on the neck pickup because, for me, it’s got a slightly bluesier sound, especially with the other guitarist, Sam [Jarvis], in the band. He tends to be traditionally more high-end, so I’ve always found…

The RAT was conceived by Scott Burnham and Steve Kiraly in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1978. The first pedal was a custom order, but after some tweaks, the ProCo company started producing the units commercially in 1979. It was quickly adopted by artists seeking a punchy, heavy distortion tone, although it was also capable of delivering everything from dirt to violin-like sustain. Unlike overdrives which used soft-clipping diodes, like the Tube Screamer, the RAT employed two symmetrical diodes to ground after the gain stage, resulting in a hard, square-wave clip. However, that’s not the end of the RAT’s tone story; it’s actually a little weirder than that. THE RAT HAS MADE A HOME ON THE PEDALBOARDS OF SHREDDERS TO GRUNGE AND SHOEGAZE LUMINARIES In the original units, a LM308 op-amp was…

Corrosion Of Conformity guitarists Woody Weatherman and Pepper Keenan think similarly when touring overseas. Afraid of damaging their favourite instruments,they bring along what they call “the weekenders” - doublecut electrics from LTD and the ESP custom shop that have seen more than their fair share of aggressive playing. While Keenan uses a lot more effects than Weatherman’s rusticly simple board, both lean hard on their amps for tone. For Weatherman, that means Mesa Boogie’s Rectifier series, minus a few cables ripped out, while Keenan is now and forever a devotee of Orange Amplifiers’ discontinued Thunderverb 50. But it’s their guitars that take the beating. Keenan strings his with a wound G for extra purchase and uses a bass pick. As Weatherman says as somewhat of an understatement: they attack their…

Predominantly an American style of music, surf-rock takes its main influence from early rock ’n’ roll. 60s surf guitarists such as the late Dick Dale and The Beach Boys’ Carl Wilson quickly adopted Fender’s Stratocaster and Jaguar models for their versatility, and, in particular, their clean, twangy tonal qualities; perfect for the nasal, cutting single-note riffs of Dale’s Misirlou or the chiming cleans of pre-surf instrumental greats like The Shadows or Buddy Holly. For inspiration, make sure to listen to Jim Fuller’s work on Wipe Out by The Surfaris and check out Walk, Don’t Run by The Ventures too. All these songs have one thing in common: you could sing along with the guitar melodies like they’re vocal lines – so make sure to ditch the widdle and think tunefully.…

The Strat has made a major mark in alt-rock, particularly in the 90s when some of the biggest bands on the planet were playing Fenders. Proving the instrument’s versatility, Strats were heard dishing out fiery blues-rock licks in the hands of Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, funk-metal from RHCP’s John Frusciante, psychedelia-tinged grunge from Blind Melon’s Rogers Stevens and gnarly fuzz tones from Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan. Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil continues to fly the alt-rock Strat flag today. Though McCready and Stevens are more traditionally blues and rock influenced, these other players all take a more angular approach to their playing, so you’re best off ditching your favourite pentatonic scales and thinking outside the box. Octave shapes sound great for melodic lines, and, for a real alt vibe, look for…

At a time when the Strat was heading out of fashion and Gibson ruled supreme, Jimi changed the course of rock history with his inventive exploitation of the Stratocaster’s controls and features. Did you know that early Strats came equipped with three-way switches? No? Well Jimi cared little for this minor fact, himself – he’d remove the springs from the switch to create the five-way selector that’s become intrinsic to Fender’s design, offering new sounds in the process. Jimi’s reputation as a player is legendary and he’s known for his showmanship and fiery psychedelic lead style. Literally on fire – he burned a number of his guitars! Still, you can put the matches back in the box for now as we look at some safe, affordable ways to learn his…

Stevie was primarily a Strat man throughout his career; from the battered 50s / 60s partscaster ‘Number One’ Strat to his ‘62 ‘Red’ (pic left). High frets, hot overwound pickups b , heavy gauge strings and downtuning to E all helped supercharge the tone he produced from Fender, Marshall and Dumble amps – with the help of an Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer. And, though he’d typically flip to the neck/middle position pickup for glassy cleans, the quintessential SRV tone can be heard on Pride And Joy – a medium gain tone delivered with his Strat’s neck position single coil. This song sums up much of Stevie’s fluid playing style too. The riff is pure SRV magic. It’s part chord, part blues boogie, yet also showcases his effortless switching between rhythm…

“One of the exercises that I love to do is shifting accents on the 16th notes. I do an entire measure of 16th notes with accents on the downbeat. Then I’ll do a measure where the accent’s on the ‘e’, then on the ‘&’, then on the ‘a’. And if I go back and forth between the downbeat, the ‘e’, the ‘&’ and the ‘a’, what it does is: downstroke accents, then it’s upstroke accents, then downstroke accents, then upstroke accents. “Then I’ll practise two beats of 16ths with the accents on the downbeat, two beats where it’s on the ‘e’, two beats where it’s on the ‘&’, two beats where it’s on the ‘a’. And then I’ll do it where it’s one beat of each. So it’s just shifting…

Appearing on Steve Vai’s fourth studio album Fire Garden, The Crying Machine is a melodic piece played over a funky groove. The first thing to note is the unison bends in bar 1 where you bend a string while fretting the same note on an adjacent string. It’s a gnarly sound that’s accentuated by the distorted tone. Practise getting your bends in tune by playing the target note then making your bend hit the exact pitch. There are several grace notes using slides (such as the first and last notes in bar 11) as well as bends. Take care with these and remember that the note you land on is the important one – the grace note is a momentary decoration. Tone-wise, aim for a smooth, high gain distortion. Vai…

The most common type of internal bracing for acoustic is X-bracing, named because of the shape it makes inside the top of the guitar. But Andy Powers’ design uses two longitudinal braces in an inverted V-shape. With the braces either side of the soundhole, it adds the necessary stiffness to the length of the guitar top, but also enhances balance. “I end up with a guitar that has good volume,” says Andy, “with notes that last longer than they should. [The guitar] gets to be loud everywhere, it gets to have a nice dynamic range; and it gets to have a voice that flat-top guitars don’t usually get because it’s just working in a whole different way.” Taylor’s faith in it is clear; it has begun to replace X-bracing across…

1 PREAMP DRIVE  The preamp can be dialled out of the equation if you’re using external pedals, or added in for some extra warmth 2 VALVE  One 12AX7 full voltage valve supplies the Sono’s preamp juice – an LED meter indicates how hard you’re pushing it 3 MIC PREAMPS  Those console mic preamps with 48V phantom power mean singers can also enjoy some valve goodness here too if they want “A FULL VOLTAGE 12AX7 VALVE IS WAITING TO BE FIRED UP” The idea of recording our guitars in an easier, better-sounding and therefore more enjoyable way is not a new challenge, and companies have been keen to take it on, with varying degrees of success. UK mixing console and interface experts Audient have teamed with cab emulation…

Whether it’s providing subtle dirt, boosting and thickening a guitar, or smashing the front end of an amp with a clipped, boosted signal, overdrives are the cornerstone of most rock guitar tones. While the essentials of the circuits haven’t changed much in 40 years, that doesn’t mean there isn’t innovation in the space. We’ve brought together a few of our favourite modern drives that not only try to do something new by mixing up the overdrive formula, but also offer tons of options for tone-shaping and personalisation. Whether it’s operating voltage, EQ profile, gain level, or even the ability to dial in ghost notes, these pedals think outside of the box, delivering the tools you need to find your perfect drive tone. Hamstead Odyssey £219 TONE QUEST Every once in…

1 STANDARD TUNING NOTES In standard tuning the names of the open strings are: EADGBE 2 OPEN G NOTES These are the names of the strings in open G tuning: DGDGBD 3 ADJUST THE SIXTH, FIFTH AND FIRST STRINGS Three of the notes are the same in both tunings, so there are three other strings to retune. All three strings go down by two semitones – the same as two frets. DGDGBD 4 SLACKING OFF Remember you’ll be down tuning these three strings so you should feel a bit of slack creeping in as you lower the string tension with your guitar’s machine head.…

1. Listen back to your playing “There are so many fantastic guitar players out there and I just love seeing anyone with passion for guitar. I guess the most common thing is that some of them haven’t put enough time into developing their vibrato and bends. It is good to record yourself so you can see where you need to improve. Listen closely to your favorite players and try to see how far off you are – that’s exactly what I did. It is so much fun when you start to see yourself getting better and better.” 2. Think about note choices “I have to admit that I haven’t cared or thought about this stuff in so many years. If I kept it in my mind, I would probably always…

Say ‘shred guitar’ and the Strat may not be the first instrument that comes to mind, yet a number of virtuoso players have chosen the humble Fender. Blues-rock legend Ritchie Blackmore is a Strattoting early shred pioneer who influenced many; including neoclassical virtuoso Yngwie J Malmsteen. Rock/blues/jazz fusioneer Eric Johnson also favours Fender’s guitar; and, in more recent years Aussie whiz Glenn Proudfoot has opted for a humbuckerloaded Stratocaster – so there’s no reason not to get shredding, whatever guitar you play. Technique-wise, it’s open season. You’ll need to hone your picking and legato skills, and a learn a good mix of scales and arpeggios. If you want to be a virtuoso player then you’re in it for the long haul! Still, there’s enough info here to get you started……

Eric Clapton was playing Gibsons in the late 60s – famously a Les Paul with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, then ES-335 and Firebird models with rock supergroup Cream. By 1970 Eric had gone solo, and, with the change of creative direction, came a switch to Stratocasters. He’s hardly looked back ever since. Eric’s early Strats (affectionately known as ‘Brownie’ and ‘Blackie’) featured on his recordings throughout the 70s – Brownie came first on the 1970 album Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs, with Blackie becoming Eric’s guitar of choice for stage and studio from the mid 70s. Come the late 80s, Eric would play Fender’s first signature Stratocaster, a model equipped to Clapton’s spec with a V-shaped neck profile and a mid boost circuit to give a more humbuckerlike sound. Eric…

The story of how Boston became ‘overnight’ sensations is surely one of the greatest examples of dedication and dogged determination in the history of rock. For around five years prior to the band making it big, guitarist Tom Scholz would record in his basement, layering up sounds, writing riffs and perfecting the songs that would form Boston’s eponymous debut. We’re looking at the album’s lead single and the band’s best-known song – and it’s a real treat if you can jam with another guitarist. This gives you the opportunity to try out Scholz’s harmonised twin-lead solos. It’s simple in principle: two near-identical solos are played at the same time. The rhythm, string bends, legato and vibrato of both guitars are played in time, but the notes are harmonised to create…

Originally a drummer, Jack White took up the guitar as a teenager, inspired by early blues pioneers Son House, Blind Willie McTell and dialling into bands that these greats had themselves influenced – The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and so on. Although his breakthrough came with garage rock revival act The White Stripes, Jack has seen success as a solo artist and as a member of both The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs. And, with new material from The Raconteurs in 2019, what better time to look at this element of Jack’s playing style? The four-piece Raconteurs lineup gives a fuller sound than The White Stripes duo; with Brendan Benson accompanying, Jack’s parts are carefully composed to complement the two-guitar arrangements. There’s a heavy blues influence throughout, so the…

Until 1993 the longest song ever to top the British charts and with a fade out that lasts longer than many full songs, Hey Jude was always going to be a special Fab Four number. Our focus here is John Lennon’s strummed acoustic part. There’s no shame if it takes you some time to build up to playing the whole, epic seven-minuter featuring several barre chords. So, if necessary, ease strain on your fretting hand by using the ‘easy’ F chord played on only four strings. Be sure to mute the bass strings carefully if you do. The strummed chords are rhythmically quite similar to Paul McCartney’s piano intro, alternating between full chords and a root note – don’t be too strict with the pattern, though, or it may sound…

1 TUNERS  Taylor’s 18:1 ratio nickel-plated tuners offer smooth precision and complement the sense of stability from the superb intonation of this guitar 2 FINGERBOARD  The West African Ebony found on the Grand Pacific is processed at a Cameroon sawmill, co-owned by Taylor, to ensure a sustainable future for the wood 3 EXPRESSION SYSTEM 2 The Expression System’s three knobs offer control over volume, bass and treble There is no single ultimate guitar: that be-all-and-end-all instrument that will end our search for perfection. And yet we chase the idea, an idea that will change as our tastes as players change. The quest is all part of the fun, of course, but sometimes innovative guitars come along that change our perception of what we want and need, and…

The first song I remember… All The Young Dudes – Mott The Hoople “I bet everyone answers Smoke On The Water for this! My sister married an idiot, but I went round to his place to kill time. He had this younger brother who was playing me cool music like this Mott The Hoople track, which David Bowie wrote, as well as other Bowie stuff like Panic In Detroit. I heard Johnny Winter that day too, all really cool stuff to cut your teeth on!” Thesongthatmademewantto play… Let There Be Rock–AC/DC “I think it must have been Acca Dacca! That said, one of the first solos I’ve learned was Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry – which is a lot like the rock boogie style Angus became famous for. Honestly,…