Innehållsförteckning för April 2021 från Total Guitar

Technically, I’ve never actually owned a Telecaster. I did have a Squier Tele on loan from the mag a few years back, I once built a T-style guitar from a kit (though not 100 per cent successfully!), and I did pick up a used G&L ASAT Classic early last year. Still, I do love Fender’s original solid-body electric. The Tele might just be the ultimate rock rhythm machine. A guitar for hard riffing and punk-rock, whose workhorse simplicity means you can beat all hell out of it without worries of knocking a tremolo arm out of tune. Of course that’s just my own assessment – the Tele is a versatile beast, and countless players have made it their main squeeze since Fender’s original solidbody hit the streets over seven decades…

Status Quo’s Francis Rossi reveals the secrets of his famous green Telecaster – endlessly modified to create its “unique tone” For much of Quo’s career, you and Rick Parfitt had the two-Tele setup. Whose idea was that? I started with a Gibson and Rick had an ES-335. Then I got the Tele. Rick being who he was wanted to get a Tele but early on he had an SG. A lot of the stuff that we recorded on Piledriver and Hello was an SG, not a Telecaster. Later on he got carried away that people were going, ‘Oh! The Telecasters!’ Where did you get your Tele? I swapped my Gibson Stereo 335 for a Les Paul copy with a guy from Badfinger. Within a few months the bridge collapsed into…

Slipknot’s Jim Root explains why the Telecaster is his weapon of choice, and how its clean tones fit into the band’s super-heavy sound What made you gravitate towards Telecasters? Growing up in the 80s I was really enamored by the imagery of Fender style guitars. On the cover of Long After Dark, Tom Petty is holding a Tele, and it’s just such an iconic image to me. In the early days of Slipknot, everything was like ‘molten metal god’ and big pointy guitars – BC Rich Warlocks and Ironbirds. I wanted to do the absolute opposite. Maybe it’s a bit of an indignant punk rock attitude, like, ‘Screw you and your metal guitars – I’m going to play this Tele!’ If you stick with the classics they’re never going to…

Jason Isbell on classic Teles and his new signature model If the Telecaster has made its name as the quintessential country and rock ’n’ roll guitar, who better to receive a signature model than modern Americana’s premier songwriter and tonesmith, Jason Isbell? An avid collector, Jason took features from two of his favourite Teles to create the template for his new signature Telecaster Custom. “I've got a Custom Shop Tele that’s probably ten years old,” he says. “It’s got a Twisted Tele neck pickup, and I really like that pickup. I put a black pickguard on it, it’s a double-bound body, rosewood ’board and I’ve used it for hundreds of shows. I very rarely need to tune it! Then I have a 1965 Tele that has the best bridge pickup…

Country music star Brad Paisley reveals the secrets of his new signature Esquire – and explains why two pickups are better than one With over 11 million albums sold and countless awards, including three Grammys, Brad Paisley has become one of the modern megastars of country. He’s set the record for most consecutive number one singles in the Billboard country chart, been a guest judge on America’s Got Talent, collaborated with the likes of Demi Lovato, LL Cool J and The Doobie Brothers, ended up in a South Park episode and even had an episode of Robin Williams sitcom The Crazy Ones named after him [Danny Chase Hates Brad Paisley]. His first signature, a Road Worn Telecaster, arrived in 2017 and at the end of last year Fender announced details…

All kinds of rare and special ingredients go into The Rolling Stones’ sound. The rhythm is the backbone, Charlie Watts’ touch and feel on the drum set binding it all together, tumbling between the sinewy and the edgy, the relaxed and the funky. On top there is Mick Jagger on the mic, that ageless supernova of charisma. Somewhere in the middle you’ve got the strings, where the mojo is cooked up live. In 2021, that’s Ronnie Wood and the ever-present survivor, Keith Richards, whose judicial taste in vintage guitars and amplification is augmented by an ear for alternate tunings and a playing style that summons ghosts from the Delta to shuttle around louche rhythms, layering melody on top, probing then retreating. In the studio, an ever more byzantine recipe is…

Leonard Cohen penned Hallelujah for his 1984 album Various Positions, reportedly labouring over some 80 draft verses in the process. Jeff Buckley’s acclaimed cover was inspired by a John Cale version, and features Buckley’s astonishing vocal along with the lush, reverberated Fender Telecaster tone that appears throughout his 1994 album, Grace. Rockschool’s Grade One arrangement for acoustic guitar gives a nod to Buckley’s arpeggiated intro, and also showcases the vocal melody from the verse and chorus. Whether playing fingerstyle or with a pick, the main challenge is sounding the chords clearly at the beginning of bars 1 to 4, before switching to separate notes at the end of each bar. The chord change is easy – but the change of picking technique may take practice, so make sure to take…

This classic tune was a huge hit for Fleetwood Mac back in 1977, featuring on their mega-selling album Rumours of the same year. Lindsey Buckingham played all of the guitars here, but the part we’re focusing on here is the bright, chimey 12-string acoustic that kicks in at bar 3. If you’ve not listened to Buckingham before, he’s well worth further investigation – a classy player, equally adept at lead or rhythm. You’ll need to use a capo at the 8th fret to play the part exactly like the original. The pitches of the capo’d chords are F, C and B b , but these are easy to play because the shapes are the same as open A, E and D; only a brief Dm chord requires you to play…

“IT HAS A FLEXIBILITY THAT MAKES IT A PRACTICAL ASSET” They seem like they’ve been around for ever, but Boss ensures that their GT series of floorboard processors stays bang up to date, refreshed every so often with a new flagship model - currently the GT-1000. Now the GT-1000 certainly has a loads of sonic power under the hood but large all-in-one floorboard processors don’t suit everyone, so Boss has put the business end of the GT-1000 into a 3-footswitch stompbox, similar in format to their 500 series. The GT-1000 Core has all the processing power, models and patches of the flagship but has lost some connections, several footswitches and a treadle in the process. The GT-1000 Core’s 250 preset and 250 user patches are each constructed from 24 simultaneous…

ORIGIN: Mexico BODY: Alder NECK: Maple (bolt-on) SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) FRETBOARD: Rosewood, 184.1mm (7.25”) radius FRETS: 21, Vintage Tall NUT: 42mm, synthetic bone PICKUPS: 2x Vintage-Style ’50s Single-Coil Tele CONTROLS: 1 x volume and 1 x tone, 3-way blade selector switch HARDWARE: 6-saddle strings-through-body Tele with stainless steel saddles, deluxe cast/sealed locking tuners with vintage-style button FINISH: Faded Ice Blue Metallic Road Worn Nitrocellulose Lacquer CONTACT: Fender, www.fender.com…

Tokyo Jukebox 3 is part of an ongoing series. How did you go about choosing the covers for this one? It was a long process! I try to demo the songs I like before I even ask for permission to release them. That way I can see whether I can make it cool. Just because you like a song doesn’t mean you can definitely take it somewhere good. Some songs should be left the way they are. After making the demos, I would know if I could really make the melody sing. The way you bend into the right notes has always been a big part of your identity, almost similar to Jeff Beck in ways... I don’t what to say, to be compared with someone as fantastic as that…

Last month, we looked at how to play lead guitar using the E minor pentatonic scale. Here, we extend the idea, add the octave below and introduce a new note. This variant of the scale might just be the basis for more classic rock, blues and funk riffs than all other scales combined! Single-note blues-scale riffs are especially popular with funk-influenced rock bands from Wild Cherry to Extreme, who take funk basslines and convert them into hard grooving guitar parts. By adding one vital note to the E minor pentatonic scale (a B b note: 1st fret, fifth string) you get the E blues scale, a nastier, dirtier beast. It’s remarkable how much difference adding one note to a scale makes. This note is dissonant, so don’t land on it…

Just as Eddie Van Halen was the American pioneer of shred guitar in the late 70s, so Michael Schenker was his counterpart in Europe. The German guitarist started out early – he was just 16 when he played alongside his elder brother Rudolf on the Scorpions’ debut album Lonesome Crow, released in 1972, six years before the first Van Halen album. It was with British band UFO that Michael made his reputation as a guitar hero. But in his quest for what he calls “pure artistic expression”, he formed The Michael Schenker Group in the 80s, and has remained his own master ever since. It was Schenker’s sense of timing, vibrato and feel that set him apart early on, and made him an inspiration for metal players such as Metallica’s…

The Fender Telecaster was the Big Bang moment for electric guitar. The world’s first mass-produced solidbody electric, it has had an immeasurable impact on popular culture. What is the secret to its success? Simplicity is one factor. The best designs have simplicity baked-in. The 21st-century Telecaster assumes many forms, and yet, whether you are talking about the vintage-inspired instrument from the American Original or Vintera series, or a flagship US build from the American Professional II lineup, the design principles behind Fender’s workhorse electric have remained largely unchanged. Occasionally, you might find one with a surreptitious body contour, such as the belly cuts on the Deluxe, the modernistic American Ultra Tele and 2010s American Standard. But ultimately, with a Telecaster you’ve got a slab-bodied singlecut, a bolt-on neck, and you…

The long and varied history of country music makes it a goldmine for any guitarist looking to level-up their chops whilst discovering some new techniques and approaches. There is a long lineage to the genre from the traditional ‘twang’ of James Burton to the edgier 1970s riffing of Joe Walsh, all the way to today’s more commercial radio-friendly pop-oriented country of players like Keith Urban and Brad Paisley. Factor in virtuosos like studio ace Brent Mason and all-round Tele genius Danny Gatton and you’ll find a whole new stream of inspiration no matter what genre you already focus on. Country and bluegrass have even crossed over into modern metal thanks to players such as John 5. Let’s dive in and take a look at the signature styles of these country…

In 1973, Tres Hombres, ZZ top’s third album, would give the Texan trio their first sniff of success, reaching the US top 10, where its predecessors had barely broken the top 100. Lead single La Grange was largely responsible for the surge in the band’s popularity, receiving substantial radio-play at the time. At the heart of the song is guitarist Billy Gibbons’ blues shuffle riff – a key part of blues vocabulary and well worth a little of your practice time. Gibbons and co took inspiration from John Lee Hooker’s Boogie Chillen (they were even sued by the publisher, albeit unsuccessfully) and the history of rock is awash with variations on this theme. Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit In The Sky has a broadly similar riff, and you could say AC/DC’s Whole…

ORIGIN: Malaysia TYPE: Amp and Effects modelling floor/ desktop unit FEATURES: 250 user and 250 preset patches, 38 second phrase looper (19 in stereo), 6 in / 6 out USB audio interface, software editor with USB connection, mono or polyphonic tuner, metronome, IR loading capability CONTROLS: Output Level, Select, footswitches x 3, soft knobs x 5 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Select knob, buttons x 6 CONNECTIONS: Standard inputs (R/ Mono, L), Standard outputs (R/Mono, L/ Phones), Standard Sends 1 and 2, Standard Returns 1 and 2, CTL 2, 3/EXP1, CTL 4, 5/EXP2, MIDI In, MIDI Out, USB POWER: Supplied PSB-1U power adapter (9V 2A) DIMENSIONS: 173 (w) x 135 (d) x 65 mm (h) CONTACT www.boss.com…

“THE SOLID TONEWOOD WILL ONLY GET BETTER WITH AGE” The Gibson Hummingbird is one of the iconic acoustics; it’s been found in the hands of everyone from Keef to Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz and Radiohead and Dylan. With its ornate pickguard depicting flowers and, yes, a hummingbird, there’s no mistaking this for any other square-shouldered flight of fancy either. But the Gibson versions have always priced most of us out. So the news last year of a new Epiphone model with the same solid wood back and sides as the Gibson sibling was a welcome feathered friend. Now it’s here, does it sing? First impressions are a little mixed; don’t get us wrong, this is a stunner. The dark mahogany grain of the neck, back and sides screams premium; bound…

Remember a couple of years ago when MXR reverted middle-aged guitar players back to teenagers with the release of the Dookie Overdrive, then simultaneously broke their hearts by revealing that it cost more than the next instalment on their Audi? Well! That pedal’s appearance was based not only on one of the most recognisable album covers of the 90s, but it also aped Billie Joe Armstrong’s tone from the record. This was achieved by blending two modded Marshall Super Lead heads: one scooped with saturated gain, the other set to crunch with a punchier mid range. The Dookie Overdrive offered both of these sounds in one pedal, with a blend control to balance the two sounds. Now, we’re not detectives, but a quick glance at the FOD confirms a few…

Johnny Marr on the making of The Smiths’ classic, and the dark “clang” of his beloved ’64 Tele My most famous one is my green sunburst Roger Giffin. My wife, who was then my girlfriend, very kindly wanted to get me a gift and the great Alan Rogan [Pete Townshend’s guitar tech] tipped her off to this one-off that Roger Giffin had made. A lot of people remember it because it is very distinctive looking, but Alan recommended it to me because it sounded very unusual. It’s maple, so it weighs an absolute ton, and it has a lot of brass on it. It has a very distinctive sound. I was only a little slip of a thing when I got it [laughs], so I could only play two songs…

Steve Cropper’s twangy leads made him a pivotal figure in 60s soul music – the Tele being a key ingredient in The Colonel’s secret recipe With his trusty Tele in hand, the man they call The Colonel remains a towering (six foot one, in fact) figure in the history of popular music. Steve Cropper’s soulful, spare and deeply musical guitar style was a cornerstone of the gritty ‘Memphis Soul’ sound of the 60s. As a member of the Stax label’s de facto house band, Booker T. & The MG’s, he appeared on countless 45s, playing on – and regularly co-writing – hits by soul giants. Later he’d find fame with a new generation, as a Tele-brandishing member of the band in cult 1980 movie The Blues Brothers. Back in ’62…

At the heart of that trademark plucky, clucky ‘chicken pickin’ country sound is ‘hybrid’ picking – a technique employing both pick and fingers to pluck the strings. Here’s how it works, starting with the basics... 1. STANDARD FLATPICKING For most standard picking situations you’ll hold your pick between your thumb and first finger. Easy! 2. BASIC FINGERSTYLE Use your thumb for the three bass strings, and your first, second and third fingers for the top three strings. 3. HYBRID PICKING: PICK Hold your pick with a standard flatpicking grip. With hybrid picking, you’ll pick the low notes... 4. HYBRID PICKING: FINGERS ...while your second and third fingers pluck two higher strings, fingerstyle.…

Traditionally, Fender’s Esquire, which pre-dates the Telecaster (essentially it was the Telecaster prototype), has just a bridge pickup, but it’s a surprisingly complex beast – and very much more than just a single-pickup Tele. Exhibit A: the selector switch. How can a one-pickup guitar have a three-way selector switch? The answer lies with a few under-the-hood tonal options. Typically, the bridge position sends the signal through the volume knob, with the tone control bypassed; the middle position goes through both volume and tone pots; and the neck position goes through the volume knob plus a fixed treble roll-off capacitor. Quite unlike the Telecaster then, but still surprisingly versatile. Fans of the Esquire often describe it as harmonically richer and even brighter than a standard Tele. Routed for two pickups, it’s…

“A FUN 60S TELECASTER WITH BLUE COLLAR PIZZAZZ” The Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster is a Mexican made replica of the 1965 model that The Pretenders vocalist/ guitarist picked up in New York City at the turn of the 1980s. To match Hynde’s number one electric guitar, the 2021 model arrives in a Faded Ice Blue Metallic Road Worn lacquer finish. It looks the part, showing subtle checking and lived-in grime on the Road Worn hardware – most notably on the ferrules on the rear of the guitar, and the chrome mirror pickguard has some city miles on it. With the tuners and the knurled control knobs looking brand new, the effect doesn’t quite come off, but mismatched hardware on a gently aged guitar is a little like a bad haircut;…