Innehållsförteckning för February 2021 från Total Guitar

The guitar solo has been pronounced dead or dying many a time. From the 70s punks who deliberately tried to kill it off, to Billie Joe Armstrong last year proclaiming the era of the anti-solo – it’s an argument that just won’t go away. Thing is, this contention has never been true. For every proponent of the anti-solo there have always been just as many shredders, blues players, and so on, flying the flag for the lead guitar break. Since the early days of rock ’n’ roll, guitar solos have always been around, even if their popularity has ebbed and flowed. With solos in mind, this month we’re looking at 50 of the greatest, as voted for by the readers of GuitarWorld.com. It’s an interesting list, if somewhat classic rock…

Widely regarded as one of the greatest metal albums of all time, The Number Of The Beast saw Iron Maiden rewriting the heavy metal rulebook for the 1980s. Sure, TNOTB topped the charts, but, whereas Judas Priest had taken a more commercial turn with 1982’s Screaming For Vengeance, Maiden’s offering was pure metal. At the core of band is the twin axe attack of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith, who trade rapid-fire solos. Both lead breaks are a challenge for most guitarists, but listen out for Smith’s slightly bluesier phrasing in solo 2. It’s a subtle distinction, and, if you’re tackling both solos yourself, a few rocks of a wah pedal will get you closer to Murray’s tone in solo 1 and help contrast between the two. It’s not all…

Better Oblivion Community Center feature the Los Angeles based singer-songwriting partnership of Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst. Dylan Thomas is a single taken from their eponymously titled debut album released in 2019. The song is an intoxicating mix of hook laden melodies and politically charged lyrics. The band are categorised as indie rock, but this song has a protest vibe reminiscent of the 60s bohemian folk scene in Greenwich Village, New York City. On the original track, Phoebe Bridgers’ acoustic is tuned to open D (D A D F# A D), while Conor Oberst’s Danelectro baritone guitar is tuned a 4th below standard tuning (B E A D F# B). We’ve rearranged the baritone intro riff so that it can be played in open D tuning, this way you can…

1 JAMES’S HOME OF TONE SIGNATURE SERIES SOLDERLESS PRE-WIRED HARNESSES Is the thought of soldering putting you off upgrading your pots? Or maybe you want a faster way to try out different pickups on your guitar. James Gascoigne’s superb online store offers the solution – you simply screw your pickup and ground wires into the terminals provided. There’s Strat, Tele, Les Paul, SG and more – all with 50s wiring to give you a great upgrade for your tone. From £44.99, www.homeoftone.co.uk 2 DUNLOP PRIMETONE PICKS For many of us, our pick choice is the last thing we experiment with, let alone pay more than usual for. But finding the right pick for you matters a lot, and we really rate these. Primetone picks are made from Ultex for durability…

The pickups here are the result of some carefully considered R&D. Fender’s Double Tap humbucker is not a traditional coil-split affair and features some unique wiring plus mismatched coils to reduce the difference in output when switching between single-coil and humbucker modes with the push-push tone control. The other two V-Mod II pickups are an enhanced version of Tim Shaw’s original Pro design using mixed magnets to create hum-cancelling single-coils; the neck uses Alnico II on the bass-side magnets and III for the treble while the middle again uses Alnico II for the bass with V for the treble.…

The Danelectro U2 was just the second branded model designed and produced by company founder Nathan Daniel after making his name supplying the American department stores of the fifties with musical instruments. This new ’57 is a faithful reproduction of that landmark instrument, a model that was only produced between 1956 and 1958 and, like the majority of all Danos, it features a semi-acoustic body composed of a solid spruce framework with a front and back of a type of hardboard called masonite. Also within is a spruce centre block that supports a pair of singlecoil lipstick pickups, designs that can also be attributed to Daniel. Back in the day he sourced actual lipstick tubes from cosmetics manufacturer Max Factor and simply inserted a magnet encased in copper wire into…

“The secret behind getting so many gigs as a session player?” ponders American guitarist Ari O’Neal, who – in her years of playing for Beyoncé, Jay Z, Lizzo, Alicia Keys and more – would know a thing or two about finding work as a musician. “Post, post and post,” she continues, stressing the importance of making it as easy as possible for people to find you. “I’m always active on my social media pages, it’s really important... As is being different! I want to play like I’m an old black man, and still look like a Barbie [laughs].” As for her main influences, the young session ace lists George Benson (“the first guitarist I ever studied”), Joe Pass (“because his music always tells a story) and Isaiah Sharkey from John…

CHANNEL DISTORTION Adam Christianson uses an LsL Instruments baritone scale guitar fitted with Bareknuckle Ragnarok pickups, while Josh prefers Fishman Fluence pickups with ESP and LTD guitars. Amp-wise, the Architects tone typically comes from Mesa amps like a Mark V or Dual Rectifier. The key to this riff is to keep the low end tight, so a Tube Screamer in front of the amp is the key to this. Add a noise gate to keep the pauses in the riff as clean as possible. Use a heavier set of strings (such as 0.011s or 0.012s) to counter the slacker strings from down-tuning.…

How does a company evolve a design that they got so right at the start? With the Strat, Fender treads carefully but with its recent Ultra series, it proved that its carefully considered tweaks can amount to quite a lot. But it has to be a sensitive balance, retaining the very things that make the Strat experience so attractive. So where does that leave us with Fender’s new standard; the second iteration of the Professional II. There’s no doubt some of the Ultra’s features have influenced the changes here, but the Pro II also brings its own distinct changes; namely a new tonewood option with roasted pine (the roasting improves its resonance). While the Sienna Sunburst finish also uses this new sustainable replacement for ash, here in clear-coated natural glory.…

FENDER ULTRA STRATOCASTER HSS Rosewood fingerboard only for this higher-priced sibling, but five exclusive finishes with a Double Tap, noiseless single-coils, locking tuners and |10”-14” compound-radius fingerboard. AMERICAN PERFORMER STRAT HSS If you can’t stump for the Pro II or Ultra, this is a great way to enjoy the original Double Tap equipped Strat. Its Yosemite single coils are some of the best examples we’ve heard. CORT G290 FAT An affordable but versatile s-type from 2019, with coil-splits as part of it’s five positions, recessed trem and a roasted maple neck.…

1 HE COMES FROM A LONG LINE OF MUSICIANS As he’s told us in the past, Joe was involved with guitars from a very young age thanks to his guitar shop owner father, Len Bonamassa, who gave Joe his first guitar at four years old. “We got him a Chiquita guitar – which is a shortened, scaled-down solid-body electric actually designed for airplane use,” Len explains in the documentary. “By the time he was five, he was playing chords and he never looked back.” But before that, his great grandfather Buddha was a respected trumpet player as was his grandfather Leonard Sr. – so it would be fair to say music was always in the blood. 2 IN EARLY GROUP BLOODLINE, HE FELT LIKE “AN OLD MAN IN…

GETTING STARTED Before you get stuck in with our lesson, make sure you know these two chords: A and D. Changing between open chords smoothly is a hurdle every guitarist faces early on. It takes perseverance, but once you can do it, you can play a huge number of songs. This month we’ll be helping you to test your changes by playing some arpeggios – which just means picking the strings one at a time. This checks you are fretting accurately, trains your picking-hand precision, and it’s a great musical alternative to strumming. As you pick each string, you’ll hear whether it’s fretted properly. If it isn’t, the note will buzz or choke. If that happens, check the following: • Is your finger in the right place? It should be…

Probably. And, we’d argue, a worthy winner of the TG greatest solos poll. Following Freddie Mercury’s death and after that cameo moment in Wayne’s World in 1992, Bohemian Rhapsody became a trigger point for a worldwide outpouring of affection and respect for Queen. Their renewed popularity would continue into the new millennium as Ben Elton’s We Will Rock You musical and the band’s discovery of a different way to exist behind frontman Adam Lambert would bring their music to a new generation. And Bohemian Rhapsody? Well, unsurprisingly, it’s Queen’s best-known song, and its brief nine-bar solo is a short and sweet musical interlude, bridging the verses to lead into what’s become known as the ‘opera section’. Those two words alone should warn you that this song shouldn’t work. There’s no…

This track exemplifies Beck’s mastery of the instrument, seamlessly blending elements of rock, jazz and blues into his unique melodic style. ’Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers was written by Stevie Wonder, and features musical tension/ release points which Beck takes on with full force. His inventive arsenal of rhythmic and melodic approaches can be a little daunting to learn, so try first to break the piece down into its main sections, then into manageable bars and phrases. As the track has a slow pulse, counting the 16th note subdivisions within the bar (‘1 e & a 2 e & a’ and so on) will make the more complex passages easier to translate. The various string bends are essential to Beck’s melodic phrasing so focus on hitting the ‘target’ pitches accurately,…

BODY Roasted pine NECK Maple, modern ‘deep C’ profile, bolt-on SCALE 25.5” (648mm) FINGERBOARD Maple / 9.5” radius FRETS 22, narrow tall PICKUPS Fender V-Mod II Double Tap humbucker (bridge), V-Mod II single coil Strat (middle & neck) CONTROLS Five-position lever pickup selector switch, master volume (w/ treble bleed), tone 1 (neck & middle), tone 2 (bridge) w/push-push switch coil-split HARDWARE Nickel/ chromed-plated 2-point synchronised vibrato with bent steel saddles and pop-in arm and coldrolled steel block, Fender Standard cast/sealed staggered tuners FINISH Roasted Pine, Sienna Sunburst, 3-Color Sunburst, Olympic White, Mystic Surf Mercury, Miami Blue, Dark Night CONTACT Fender, www.fender.com…

When the original Ditto looper pedal emerged in 2013, it was such a simple and effective proposition – a plug-in-and-play no-brainer for anyone wanting an easy to use, dedicated looper that didn’t take up much space on their pedalboard. Moreover, it was a superb introduction to the benefits of a looper for practice and creativity. But what if you want more than simple with the same mini footprint? TC has managed to cram it in the same mini dimensions here, but is it trying to do too much to stay intuitive with just three controls and a small screen? “A WORTHY FOLLOW-UP TO THE HUGELY POPULAR ORIGINAL” A looper needs to be easy to use on the fly, and a quick start guide that’s a two-sided sheet not much bigger…