Innehållsförteckning för March 2021 från Total Guitar

I remember the first time I heard the Foo Fighters. Or saw them on TV, more to the point. In 1996, the band’s early single Big Me was receiving what seemed like constant airplay on MTV. No surprise there. Even post-Nirvana, Grohl was still big news and the song’s waggish TV ad parody video was a big win. I loved it, but I don’t think Big Me (which Grohl himself described as a “candy-coated pop song”) gave much away about the band’s style. You had to take a listen to the album for that! Fast forward a quarter of a century and the Foo Fighters are set to release their 10th studio album Medicine At Midnight – and this month we’re talking to all three guitarists. Pat Smear and Chris…

Playing a guitar solo can seem bewildering for the less experienced guitarist. With 22 frets and six strings, how do you know where to start? Guitarists make this manageable by using scales, sets of notes that sound good together. By far the most useful scale in blues, rock, indie, and metal guitar is the minor pentatonic. It contains only five different notes. In a blues or rock context, you’ll find it’s hard to go wrong if you stick to them. For authentic lead guitar, you’ll also need to hammer on and pull off. To hammer on, you place your fretting finger onto the string with enough force to sound the note without picking the string. Pull-offs are similar, but in reverse: as you remove your finger from the string, pull…

“When I looked at my schedule and saw Total Guitar, I thought, ‘Oh god, what are we going to talk about?!’” laughs Steven Wilson as he notes that his latest album, The Future Bites, is one of the least guitar-driven records he’s put his name to. “There are guitars on there,” he says, “but they’re being used in more of a sound design kind of way. And that goes for even the solos! They’re not conventional muso leads, they’re quite abstract and dissonant in places... More about the way the guitar sound integrates within the overall texture of the song and the rest of the musical palette.” Though he clearly distances himself from being seen as any kind of guitar hero, the ever-evolving English singer-songwriter has become one of the…

Get a groove first. I never start writing with the actual riffs or harmonies or lyrics. For me, the start to a song is the groove itself. If I can make myself nod my head in time and make my foot tap I know I’m onto something. You need that base right off the bat so everybody can cling onto it and start adding their parts. I don’t have drum machines or anything in my office, so it’s all in my head. You don’t need to work face to face anymore. For the latest Black Star Riders album, Another State of Grace, we couldn’t get together to write because we live so far apart. Christian (Martucci, guitarist) was on tour with Stone Sour, and he always carries around a recording…

I’ll Stick Around (Foo Fighters, 1995) Dave Grohl used a variety of Gibson electrics, most notably his mid-60s Gibson Trini Lopez, which has featured on all Foos albums, but also Les Paul Customs, too. Indeed, at the 1996 Phoenix Festival, I’ll Stick Around was performed on a black Custom LP. Either way, the recipe is to throttle the amplifier – a Marshall JCM900 preferably – don’t scoop the mids, and use heavy strings so you can hit those chords as hard as you can. Generator (There Is Nothing Left To Lose, 2000) There Is Nothing Left To Lose saw the Foos going back to basics in the studio, with producer Adam Kaspar setting up mics, turning up amps and songs captured in as few takes as possible. But this time…

Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls died at home in Nashville on 13th January, 2021. He was 69. The Dolls were one of those most influential bands of all time, credited with creating the New York punk scene that spawned the Ramones. They gained admirers as diverse as The Smiths, Guns N’ Roses and Blondie, and the musical style Sylvain helped develop came to be known as punk. The band that would become the New York Dolls was formed in 1971; Sylvain joined later that year and gave the band its name. They combined the gender-defying looks of English glam rock with a dirty, basic take on early US rock ’n’ roll. While the Dolls had little initial success, Kiss struck gold by copying their glam plus hard rock…

This diagram shows you where to place your second and third fingers to play the E minor pentatonic scale. The idea is to play one note after the other – not all at once. You can hear this exact scale in these riffs: 1 AC/DC – Back In Black Listen for a run down through the scale at 0:10. 2 Link Wray – Rumble The scale kicks in at 0:28, after the main chords. 3 The Black Keys – Howlin’ For You Short phrases here, but still minor pentatonic. 4 Johnny Kidd And The Pirates – Shakin’ All Over A great example of a run down through our scale. 5 Stevie Ray Vaughan – Scuttle Buttin’ So fast you might not realise it, but SRV’s fiery lick is pure minor…

“WE ARE ALL THE SUMMATION OF OUR INFLUENCES. IT IS BOUND TO SHOW UP SOMEWHERE”Chris Shiflett How a record sounds is a product of the time, the place and the people who made it. And few appreciate this symbiotic relationship between place and sound as much as Dave Grohl. The Foo Fighters frontman and guitarist directed the 2013 documentary Sound City about the LA studio of the same name. A year later, he created the HBO series Sonic Highways, which explored the cities, venues and stories behind America’s music culture. And this sense of place has played a key role in Foo Fighters’ career. In 1995, for the Foos’ self-titled debut – a solo project in all but name – the location was Seattle’s Robert Lang Studios, a home venue…

Musically speaking, you could say Foo Fighters are underrated. Yeah, we know the band is a world-famous rock behemoth, and no one’s going to make a case for great virtuosity, but we’d argue that the band’s trademark layered chords, arpeggios and hard riffing style are greater than the sum of its parts. There’s certainly plenty to learn from the way those multiple parts lock together. It’s clever stuff, and interesting for anyone thinking about arranging parts for two or three guitarists – which is what we’re looking at in this lesson. If there’s a general principle, it’s to complement and contrast. So, if one guitar plays, say, an arpeggio, the other guitar could add powerchords, or target another pitch/area of the fretboard. Hopefully our lessons will inspire you to explore…

1 DROP D: DADGBE AS HEARD ON: LAMB OF GOD – MEMENTO MORI Tune your sixth string down a tone (the same as two frets) to D. Job done! 2 DADGAD AS HEARD ON: LED ZEPPELIN – KASHMIR A staple in acoustic folk and great for experimentation thanks to its ‘neither major nor minor’ open-string voicing. 3 SEVEN-STRING STANDARD: BEADGBE AS HEARD ON: DREAM THEATER – JUST LET ME BREATHE Think of this as standard six-string tuning (EADGBE) with a low B on the seventh string. 4 DROP C: CGCFAD AS HEARD ON: BIFFY CLYRO – NORTH OF NO SOUTH Identical to drop D, but with every string tuned two semitones lower. Go down another semitone for drop B (B F# B E G# D#). 5…

Produced by Bob Rock, Metallica’s self-titled ‘Black Album’ materialised from notoriously tense sessions and was both emotionally and financially costly in its creation. The band were perfectionist in their approach and had the record mixed three times before they were satisfied. Holier Than Thou features aggressive powerchords with a low, menacing riff that requires efficient picking, particularly when alternating between palm-muting and ‘natural’ techniques. Kirk Hammett recently gave TG a tip on the subject of effective fret-hand positioning in the song’s riffs: “The best way to play [Holier Than Thou] is in position at the 1st fret, and you want to hammer on the A# [B b in our tab] from the A, on the fifth string, and then play the G on the sixth string on the 3rd position,…

1 ERNIE BALL LIMITED-EDITION SLASH SIGNATURE STRINGS After decades as a loyal Ernie Ball user, this signature Slash set sees his favoured 11-48 gauge strings Power Slinky preference (Slash often tunes down a semitone in Guns) receiving some additional tweaks. The Slash sets feature a Paradigm core wire with plasma-enhanced nickel-plated steel wrap wire for strength. Additional tuning stability is provided by heavier brass wire reinforcement at each of the ball ends. £44.95 set of three in a collectable box, ernieball.com 2 JACKSON AUDIO FUZZ The only fuzz pedal you’ll ever need? This modular fuzz with octave brings can deliver recreations of the most desirable fuzz units on the planet with Fuzz Classic/Modern (blue Fuzz Face), Fuzz Page Mark II (Tone Bender MK II) and Goat Head (Big Muff) and…

POSITIVE GRID SPARK Positive Grid has shifted over 100,000 of its Spark amp in the year or so since it launched. Smart Chords, a ton of sounds and similar connectivity to the GT means that this is the smartest practice amps on the planet. IK MULTIMEDIA AMPLITUBE iOS The latest version of IK’s amp modelling plugin is ridiculously spec’d. You’ll need to add in an iRig interface to connect, but it does give you the mobile modelling side of what the Pocket GT does. YAMAHA THR II If wireless, home-friendly jamming is what you’re after, the THR II is another winner. You can Bluetooth your phone into its great-sounding speakers, and the guitar tones are great.…

“ONE OF THE BEST METAL SIGNATURES IN RECENT YEARS” Not many people can say they auditioned for Megadeth at the tender age of 16, but then again Jeff Loomis is far from your average guitar player. Deemed too young at the time, he later went on to form Seattle-based progressive metallers Nevermore before eventually joining Swedish metal giants Arch Enemy in 2014. He switched from Schecter to Jackson four years later, resulting in the arrival of two signature Kelly models – this more affordable Korean-produced version costing roughly one quarter of its American-made counterpart with very little in terms of difference. Before it’s even plugged in, the sandblasted Ash top is the kind of finish that will stop people dead in their tracks – looking more like an IKEA shelf…

First seen by many shredding, sliding and tapping her way through an electrified version of Walking Blues in a viral video, Joanna Connor is a powerhouse. Her recently released 14th album, 4801 South Indiana Avenue, produced by and featuring Joe Bonamassa, features ten tracks that Connor describes as “obscure covers from various blues greats”. Fiery slide is the trademark of this Chicago-based virtuosa, and there’s plenty of it on the record. Rapid runs lead to languid sequences and there are some astonishing, spontaneous-sounding leaps that halt right at the squealing edges of the final frets. While recording, Joanna was invited where many guitarists can only dream of going: Bonamassa’s museum-like collection of vintage gear. She recalls feeling like a “kid in a candy store”, but employed more self-restraint than any…

ZOOM G6 Not to be confused with the nickname of the Gulfstream G650 often used as private jets by the extremely wealthy, this is nevertheless a multi-effects pedal that looks rich in features for a £442.80 retail price. The G6 has the usual range of models based on classic amps and effects that are now expected but Zoom is bringing an interesting spin on expectations; the company’s engineers looked at the tonal qualities of the classic guitar amps from history and combined those signature sounds to create new amp models. Zoom have claimed the G6 also features “entirely new distortion and never-heard-before modulation effects”, too. We’ll hear the results this Spring. WALRUS AUDIO R1 Not a week goes by without a high-end reverb pedal trying to turn our heads with…

Early last year, when the world stopped, so did Dave Grohl’s plans for celebrating 25 years of Foo Fighters. “We had finished all of our work with our album,” he says. “We had mixed it and mastered it and we had the artwork and everything was ready to go. And then it got taken away.” But now, at last, that album, Medicine At Midnight, is released, and as Grohl speaks to Total Guitar from his home in Los Angeles, he’s in typically ebullient mood as he hails it as a radical departure for the band, inspired by 80s classics by Bowie and the Stones. He also promises: “There’s still a few things that will be coming in the next few months that kind of celebrate that 25th anniversary.” And he…

By the time Toto had formed in 1977, the band members were already seasoned regulars on albums by Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Sonny & Cher and several other popular artists of the time. Having played many sessions together, drummer Jeff Porcaro and keyboardist David Paich brought in bassist David Hungate and guitarist Steve Lukather, who had played in Scaggs’ band. Soon after, Paich began composing their eponymous debut album, which features this month’s track, Hold The Line. According to Paich, the writing process was fairly straightforward: “It started out with the piano riff that is in the intro. I started playing this riff and I just couldn’t stop playing it. I played it for days, and I started singing, ‘Hold the line, love isn’t always on time’. It was a…

In 1974, punk forerunners The Stooges called it a day after revolutionising the rock ’n’ roll landscape, cutting three killer albums and producing some of the most exhilarating and crazed live shows the world had ever seen. Come 1977, explosive frontman Iggy Pop was recording his sophomore solo album Lust For Life, aided and abetted by close friend David Bowie on production duties, and Edinburgh-born guitarist Ricky Gardiner, who would pen the song’s cyclic four-chord progression, complete with alternating endings on G and E. Those chords are easy to play, but, as Gardiner related to TG in issue 230, “It becomes a kind of torture because there’s no variation and there’s no middle eight. It just goes on doing that, and that alternating has to keep going... I’m not sure…

“A LOT TO GET YOUR HEAD AROUND; IT DOES SO MUCH” If smart-home tech is the Internet of Things, then we reckon we’re currently witnessing the Internet of Strings unfold. From interfaces and mobile devices to amps that figure out chords for you to computer-based plug-ins that all overlap with multiple duties and communicate with the outside world in some way, we’ve never had so many options when it comes to sounding like AC/DC, playing along with songs and recording ourselves at the tap of a screen. With this in mind, the new Pocket GT from Boss is a practice tool designed for now. At its core, it’s a compact effects processor/ amp modeller offering over 100 models derived from the Boss GT-1, but the Pocket GT is also equipped…

In this strange kind of lockdown normality it’s easy to forget what a valve amp sounds like; no practice rooms or stages but families hunkered down at home often means headphones, software and digital modelling for us guitarists. Boy, does the arrival of this Cub feel welcome right now. “PRACTICE FRIENDLY AND MORE THAN CAPABLE FOR GIGS” But first, a quick recap. Laney are a British amp institution – the Black Country brand that won a young Birmingham lad called Anthony Iommi over from his 50-watt Marshall half a century ago. Much has changed since then, but Iommi still writes righteous riffs and Laney still builds superb amplifiers. The Cubs are its mini valve combos and head line and this single-channel 1x12 model is the largest combo of two. The…

The Pitch Fork from Electro-Harmonix wowed us back in 2015 with its polyphonic pitch-shifting, dual-harmonies, Whammy-style bends and more. Now, EHX has added to the Pitch Fork line-up with the Pitch Fork +. The big difference here is that the Pitch Fork + offers two independent, but identical pitch shifting engines, but the price isn’t doubled – with the + only costing around £30-40 more. This means that rather than EHX’s preset dual-shift options on the original, you can now set the two pitches to any of the available intervals across the +/-3-octave range simultaneously. Other new features include an aux out (assignable between the engines/ dry signals), user and factory presets, an external footswitch socket as well as the expression pedal input and the new X-Mod mode for giving…