Innehållsförteckning för May 2021 från Total Guitar

I’m sure you’ll have noticed our bold claim of a ‘new’ generation of acoustic guitarists on this month’s cover. Truth be told, I’m always a little nervous of using the word ‘new’ when it relates to music. Even the greatest musical visionaries are products of their influences, so what does new even mean for us guitarists? Well, to put it in perspective, this month we’ve interviewed Ben Howard and John Smith – two new-school folk artists and leading exponents of contemporary progressive acoustic guitar. We’ve brought them together to talk about their latest albums and how they’ve both come full circle, seeking simpler approaches in their playing and experimenting sonically to find new, interesting sounds. It’s the songs that matter for Ben and John, and the gear they’re both using…

s a member of Booker T & The MG’s, the man they A call The Colonel helped define the classic 60s ‘Memphis Soul’ sound. His oft-imitated Telecaster sound powers countless hits on the legendary Stax label, he co-wrote classic tunes including Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay with Otis Redding and In The Midnight Hour with Wilson Pickett, and as a producer and player went on to work with greats such as John Lennon, Jeff Beck, John Prine and Rod Stewart. Now 79, Cropper’s back with new album Fire It Up, and offers TG a few pearls of wisdom gleaned from nearly six decades at the top... Keep it simple, and play what you feel. When I do a project, I try to keep everything as simple as possible,…

In recent years, Blackpool-born singer-songwriter Jon Gomm has taken his dazzling acoustic techniques to new creative peaks. His no-holds-barred approach is one that borrows from a smorgasbord of tapped harmonics, tuning peg bends and two-handed percussive ideas, and combinations thereof – fuelling a rare gift that can transform one instrument into what feels like an orchestra. 2020 saw the release of Jon’s signature Ibanez JGM10, designed to enhance all the nuances of modern fingerstyle techniques and meet the demands of those who swear by them. He is the man once described by Stephen Fry as an “all-round genius” for “playing the guitar in a way I’d never seen before”. If anyone knows how to get the most out of an acoustic guitar, it’s Jon Gomm... “If you want to play…

Clive Carroll The Guthrie Govan of acoustic guitar Clive Carroll is arguably themost accomplished fingerstylist in the world today – not a statement we make lightly. Our pals on Guitar Techniquesmagazine even call him the ‘acoustic Guthrie Govan’, which gives you some idea of the Essex-born virtuoso’s incredible skills. Where countless acoustic players adopt a percussive approach, by eschewing tippy-tappy body-beating antics, Clive is able to focus more on complex melodic lines throughout the bass, midrange and treble. Traditional Irish pieces, John Dowland compositions and the occasional blues tune all get the Carroll treatment, but the majority of his music is self-penned. With such virtuosity on display, it ought to be impossible to distill Clive’s genius into practical, bite-sized advice, but there is a key fact you should know. Clive…

There are several types of shanty; directly related to the job at hand: 1 SHORT-DRAG (OR SHORT-HAUL) SHANTIES Tasks which required short bursts of energy and a quick pull (like shortening a sail), e.g. Paddy Doyle’s Boots. 2 LONG-HAUL SHANTIES These were sung during heavy labour over longer periods of time, like lowering or raising a sail, e.g. Blow The Man Down. 3 CAPSTAN (OR WINDLASS) SHANTIES Employed for a group working in strict rhythmic coordination (e.g. Drunken Sailor). 4 PUMPING SHANTIES FOR CLEARING LEAKS, E.G. SANTIANA. 5 WHALING SHANTIES Sung to inspire strength and courage on whaling ships, e.g. Bonnie Ship The Diamondand probably Wellerman.…

Gary Moore’s era-defining 1990 album Still Got The Blues sends ripples through the guitar world to this day, as a new generation of guitarists continue to deliver the fire and passion of blues to a modern audience. Joe Bonamassa is the de facto heir to Moore’s virtuoso blues throne, and Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram, Kris Barras and Laurence Jones all cite his influence, but we’d argue that any guitarist playing uptempo blues today owes a debt to Gary Moore. Period. Here, in our lesson, we’ll take you through some essential elements of Gary’s lead style post-1990 – his blues period. We’ll take a look at key techniques and the typical phrasing traits you need to know. If there’s a secret (and it’s not much of a secret if we’re honest), it’s…

Songbird was originally written by Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, who described the song as being “like a gift from the angels”, having materialised in around half an hour in the middle of the night. With truly universal appeal, the song drew more attention following Eva Cassidy’s astonishing cover on her posthumous album of the same name, released in 1998. Rockschool’s Grade Five arrangement condenses the vocal melody and chord progression into one part for solo acoustic guitar. It can be challenging to achieve a clear tone when playing chords and melody together, so try to focus on short phrases, planning your fretting hand fingering and positions, and practising the motions with your picking hand before joining the two. For example, it may take some preparation to grasp the pull-off in…

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…

BODY: Mahogany with figured maple veneer over maple top NECK: Maple, wide thin profile, glued-in SCALE: 25” (635mm) FINGERBOARD: Rosewood/10” radius FRETS: 24, medium PICKUPS: PRS 85/15 ‘S’ Treble and Bass humbuckers CONTROLS: Master volume and tone, 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, master volume and tone, two mini-toggle coil split switches HARDWARE: PRS patented vibrato (cast), PRS designed non-locking tuners – nickel-plated FINISH: Eriza Verde (as reviewed), Vintage Sunburst CONTACT: PRS Europe, www.prsguitars.com…

If you’ve been following the Ed Sheeran/Lowden Guitars story so far you may be wondering why we’re reviewing a launch model from 2019 now – yes the W03 was part of the impressive eight-guitar line-up that debuted at NAMM that year, but this is the 2021 version. So what’s new? It’s no secret that woods matter for guitars, especially acoustics, and at the start of this year, Sheeran and George Lowden talked through the updates. Sheeran must be taken with them as he used this model in the video for his most recent single, Afterglow. Pretty strong endorsement... But his name is on the headstock, after all. That fact may still prove a sticking point for some who would prefer Lowden to be the top billing on there, but there…

There was once a time when an electro-acoustic with solid back and sides for £500 would seem the stuff of guitar dreams, an ambition never to be spoken out loud. But here we are. Nevertheless, the price range this China-made Cort finds itself in is hotly contested with strong showings from a number of key brands, and solid woods don’t guarantee a winning formula for an acoustic. Ok, spoiler ahead: Cort has gone and delivered it here. “A QUALITY STAGE GUITAR; THE COMFORT OF ITS SATIN NECK WILL PAY DIVIDENDS OVER A SET...” Our test model is the closest thing to a wildcard in this new three-model series; all solid blackwood isn’t a tonewood we see a lot of. Cort’s selling it as a best of all-world’s scenario; a combination…

The last couple of years have arguably been the most prolific of John Petrucci’s career to date – with Dream Theater’s 14th album Distance Over Time followed by his first solo album in 15 years and now the long-awaited return of instrumental project Liquid Tension Experiment (featuring ex-DT drummer Mike Portnoy). By John’s own admission, the studio he works from – which also serves as Dream Theater’s HQ – has started to feel like a second home... On this new album, Liquid Tension Experiment 3, we’re guessing you stuck with your signature guitars and amp… “Yes. After all these years of developing the guitars, amps and pickups with Ernie Ball Music Man, Mesa/Boogie and DiMarzio, I’ve gotten to this perfect place. Starting with my solo album and then moving onto…

TEN OF THE BEST These classic riffs show you what powerchords are about 1 The Kinks – You Really Got Me F5 and G5 make up the intro riff in this breakthrough hit from the Davies brothers. 2 Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit Tricky position shifts make Cobain’s era-defining mega-hit a good ‘next step’ for beginners. 3 Black Sabbath – Iron Man Of course the inventors of heavy metal used powerchords. In this case, exclusively... 4 Green Day – American Idiot Like Teen Spirit, the speed and position shifts make this a challenger. Just practise slowly! 5 The Cars – Just What I Needed After the intro, you’ll hear dry palm-muted powerchords backing up the vocal in the verse. 6 U2 – Vertigo He may be better known for…

1 16TH-NOTE STRUMMING Instead of a stream of fast ‘down-up-down-up’ 16th-note phrases, try using shorter fragments, Hold On, I’m Comin’ style. It’s still 16ths, but the space is as important as the strumming! 2 TWO-NOTE ARPEGGIOS Take a look at the A/C# and G/D chords in our Chord Cropping boxout. Steve maps these shapes out across the fretboard for a melodic approach. Soul Manis a great example. 3 STACCATO STABS Listen to Wilson Pickett’s In The Midnight Hour and you’ll hear Steve’s staccato chops. Strum firm downstrokes then immediately release pressure in your fret hand to each chord short.…

For all the aesthetic distance between their new albums, there is undeniably a sense of creative kinship between Ben Howard and John Smith. They are at the vanguard of a new generation of singer-songwriters who have helped shatter the open-chords-and-capo paradigm that had hitherto been the dominant folk style on acoustic guitar. Smith’s percussive style and use of alternate tunings – a feature of his debut album from 2006, The Fox And The Monk – might not have been as controversial as Bob Dylan going electric back in the 60s, but it similarly upended the art form. And just as Smith was influenced by the great John Martyn – with whom he also toured – so Howard was inspired by what he heard in Winter, the key song from The…

Gabriella Quevedo The YouTube crowd-pleaser With an undeniable ear for a hit and unfailing rhythmic accuracy, Gabriella delivers some of the most crowd-pleasing repertoire of any acoustic YouTuber. Unsurprisingly for a Swede, she’s done a number of reworked ABBA tunes, but her arrangements of Nothing Else Matters, Another Brick In The Wall, and Here Comes The Sunhave all done big numbers. She got chosen to play on stage with Tommy Emmanuel when she was just 15, and was not upstaged. Like Emmanuel, she has a gift for sounding like several guitarists playing at once. Although she’s famous for covers, her gift for interpretation makes her an artist in her own right, and she nails dynamics and nuances. Her timing is killer – metronomic without being robotic – but it’s the…

Using a looper to layer guitar tracks can be a fantastic way of getting more out of your guitar playing. Use it as a learning tool and stack tracks with a harmonically ‘correct’ approach or free your ears from all constraints and just see what happens! Here, we’ve written an acoustic guitar piece that’s almost like a mini-orchestra, but we’re really only scratching the surface of what’s possible and hopefully showing you how a looper can make a piece greater than the sum of some easy-to-play parts. It’ll also introduce you to the most important elements of looping, namely: perfecting your timing and using dynamics and space so your parts flow. And the next step? Well, you’re limited only by your creativity! Try incorporating percussive strikes as a groove to…

Now, admittedly, we can’t imagine that guitar, amp and pedalboard featured too highly in most 19th century sailors’ luggage – we’ll concede that. Still, we’re not going to let that stop us from plugging in and rocking out with our own version of Wellerman, the 150+ year-old sea shanty which recently became Nathan Evans’ sensational viral TikTok hit and number one single in the UK chart. An unlikely and unfathomable new trend it may be, but this traditional tune has endured thanks to its strong, instantly memorable melody line. As with What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor or a trad. folk tune like The Wild Rover, one listen to Wellerman and it’s in your head for good! So, here we present our own version of this traditional tune.…

By 1982, Stevie Ray Vaughan was already making a name for himself with Double Trouble, playing at the Montreux Jazz Festival, when his career got a further boost from none other than Jackson Browne, who offered the band free studio time – and David Bowie, who asked him to play on the sessions for his Let’s Dance album. Stevie and Double Trouble also recorded their debut album Texas Flood – in just three days! The band apparently set up in a circle so they could look at and listen to each other as in a live performance. The result is a document of the instinctive musical interaction which had so impressed David Bowie and Jackson Browne. We’re looking at album track Mary Had A Little Lamb here, a cover of…

Landing in December 2020, Afterglow is Ed Sheeran’s most recent single, and was an immediate hit. 2019’s No.6 Collaborations Project was a predominantly electronic hip hop and R ’n’ B affair, but Ed’s back on steel-string acoustic here, performing the kind of folky pop that first made him famous a decade ago. You need but four easy open shapes to play along. Just remember to pop a capo on the 4th fret so you’re in the original key. Never used a capo? We’d urge you to pick one up! It’s on the 4th fret here, so you can move it up or down the fretboard to suit the pitch of your singing voice. Finally, take note of Ed’s solid rhythm technique. Afterglow is a bare bones song that relies on…

P RS use many different ways of switching their pickups from full humbucking mode to single coil. Typically, the split wire from the junction of the two coils is grounded leaving just one coil active. That’s the way most people do it. PRS usually places a small resistor between that split wire and ground which means some of the coil that’s usually fully dumped is retained for a slightly bigger sounding single coil. On this Custom 24-08, the two coils are treated like separate single coils and the unused screw coil is completely removed from the circuit when we switch to single coil. Finally, the 500k ohm volume pot’s value is ‘tuned’ by a parallel resistor, bringing it closer to 300k and sweetening the high end.…

TYPE: Wee Lowdensize 24-inch scale electro acoustic TOP: Solid cedar BACK AND SIDES: Five-piece layered Indian rosewood SCALE LENGTH: 24” / 610mm NECK: Mahogany FINGERBOARD: Ebony HARDWARE: Ebony saddle, Tusq nut and saddle, chrome tuners ELECTRONICS: LR Baggs Element VTC (volume and tone controls) OPTIONS: Non-electro W01 with cedar top / walnut b&s, electro W02 with Sitka spruce top / rosewood b&s, electro W04 with Sitka spruce top / figured mahogany b&s CASE: Gig bag CONTACT: Sheeran, sheeranguitars.com…

TYPE: Orchestral Model electro acoustic TOP: Solid blackwood BACK AND SIDES: Solid blackwood SCALE LENGTH: 25.3” / 643mm NECK: Mahogany FINGERBOARD: Ovangkol HARDWARE: Water buffalo bone nut and saddle, die-cast tuners with black knobs ELECTRONICS: Undersaddle Fishman Sonicore piezo with Fishman Sonitone soundhole (volume and tone controls) FINISH: Open Pore Light Burst OPTIONS: Core-OC Spruce with solid Sitka spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides with Open Pore Trans Black finish; Core-OC Mahogany with solid mahogany top, back and sides with Open Pore Black Burst finish (both £499). CONTACT: Cort, www.cortguitars.com…

On the debut album by Scottish four-piece The Snuts, lead guitarist Joe McGillveray is adding new pages to the indie guitar rulebook. Influenced first by his father’s record collection and then by plenty of indie rock from the early 2000s, this largely self-taught guitarist has a knack for catchy lead lines and layered riffs. In describing his style, Joe says: “I call it modern pop blues”. As he recalls “The natural thing to do when I was younger was to put blues licks in every single space”. Nowadays his relationship with the genre has matured into an ability to interact with Snuts frontman Jack Cochrane’s vocals in a way that evokes classic call and response, but with added pop catchiness and a very modern feel. Sensitive to compositional dynamics, he…

A/C# Get Steve’s clarity and groove with doublestops, ie, using just two notes of chord. These are the 3rd (C#) and root (A) of a standard E-shape A chord. G/D As on Soul Man, Steve uses these two notes of a standard open D shape. Try sliding in to it at the 7th, then 12th and 14th frets for a G-C-D progression. A6 From Knock On Wood, this simple embellishment to an A chord adds a funky edge to your E-shaped major chords. B/D# Played in Dock Of The Bay, this handy shape is a first inversion (it starts on the 3rd of the chord, D# here). Hendrix loved this one, too...…

Ahoy there! In this feature, we’re exploring the centuries-old musical style that has enjoyed an unlikely resurgence in 2021: the sea shanty. Both Bristol folk group The Longest Johns and Scottish postie Nathan Evans recently experienced viral success on TikTok with their performances of 19th-century whaling song Wellerman, sparking the ‘ShantyTok’ craze and a number one single for Evans. The sea shanty itself is a traditional but broad and controversially-defined folk genre. Pentatonic scales, call and responses structures and work-song principles of Caribbean and Afro-American styles can be heard alongside the melodies, seven-note scales and song structures of English, American and European folk songs. A vocal-led style it may be, but we’ll show you the key musical characteristics and hopefully inspire you to write and play your own shanties on…

If you play high-gain, uptempo blues these days, chances are the late, great Gary Moore is one of your go-to guys. That’s certainly true of Kris Barras, a leading name among the modern generation of blues rock guitarists. “Gary loved traditional blues,” Kris tells Total Guitar, “but his blues style was very much rock-influenced, and that’s what drew me to him. The blues police are always there – to them if you weren’t around in the 1960s, don’t just play 12-bar stuff and turn your gain up above four, then you’re not real blues! But for me blues is about passion and emotion, and Gary Moore had that in spades. It was the power and passion in his notes. His style was aggressive – with his hammer-ons and pull-offs, his…

It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since we saw the first PRS SE guitar. Where have those decades gone? It took PRS some time before they created their ‘import’ line - their Squier or Epiphone, if you like - and from a slow start with a single Santana guitar, the SE range now outsells the exclusive USA models by quite margin. Do the maths: a USA Core PRS Custom 24-08 will cost you around £3,799; the SE version we have here is nearly three grand less. “PERFECT FOR THE PLAYER THAT WANTS TO CROSS GENRES” Originally made in Korea, the SE line is now built in Indonesia in a special tie-up with Cor-tek who also make for numerous other brands as well as manufacturing their own Cort range.…

PRS SE CUSTOM 24 Very similar to the reviewed 24-08, the flagship PRS guitar has two less sounds but uses a three-way lever pickup selector and pull switch on the tone control to voice the simple single coil splits. PRS SE CUSTOM 22 SEMI HOLLOW Arguably a more traditional style semi-solid version of the Custom 24, but with 22 frets like a good ol’ Gibson. As on the Custom 24 it uses 85/15 ‘S’ ’buckers with the same circuit. CORT G300 PRO A different flavour but Cor-Tek’s own brand have great specs for the money. Here you get a roasted maple neck with a great vibrato and Seymour Duncan pickups.…