Innehållsförteckning för February 2022 från Total Guitar

There’s never a bad time to focus on guitar but new year seems to offer a fresh opportunity to double down with renewed focus on our playing. And that’s where TG comes in with this month’s huge 2022 Guitar Workout. Whether you’re seeking creative inspiration for a song you’re writing, or if you want to get serious with some technical drills there’s plenty here to help you take your playing to the next level. To keep you on track and provide you with extra inspiration, we’ve enlisted the help of a slew of star guitarists. Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil, presents his guide to the art of rock guitar, telling us how he makes his Strats sound heavy, breaking down his approach to writing mathy odd-time riffs and prepping for live…

Guitarists Joshua Moore and Lou Cotton are best known for playing Ibanez and ESP guitars into Orange and EVH amps. Theirs is a high-gain sound, so use a bridge position humbucker and a saturated 5150 style distortion, and add more drive with a distortion pedal if your rig doesn’t deliver enough. The drop-B b tuning is very low, so consider using strings that are two or three gauges heavier than your usual standard tuning set to keep your guitar’s setup stable.…

Most people know the scale’s root note is a good place to finish a phrase, but wouldn’t it be great if you could play something that effortlessly fits against whatever chord is playing? This is called playing through the [chord] changes. Getting started can be an intimidating task, especially if you’ve ever witnessed a jazz virtuoso ripping it seamlessly over fast, complex chords. Like every skill it can be built over time from simple concepts that anyone can understand and use. We’re going to take you step-by-step through the basics so you can think on your feet and create intelligent, considered solos. 13 PLAY THE ROOT NOTE AS THE CHORD CHANGES BIT.LY/TG354AUDIO This first step is really quite simple. Simply change note as the chords change. This gives you…

DON’T OVERTHINK IT You’d be surprised, out of all the progressive and technical moments in our music, the favourites for the audience are usually the big, simpler riffs that grab your attention. You have to show restraint and not overwrite or overthink your parts. You’ll come up with something good and then that voice will start running in your head – ‘how many times have I done this, is this too typical, am I repeating myself?’ And you have to shut off that voice and carry on. Sometimes you will stumble on something that just has that special thing… if it feels good, keep going! EMBRACE THE AMBIGUITY OF NINTHS I’ve used ninth chords in old songs like Pull Me Under as well as more recent stuff like Invisible Monster.…

The origin of this song dates back to Queen’s 1972 debut album, which closes with a shorter, instrumental version of the track. After some contributions from guitarist Brian May, the song’s final form appeared on Queen II and was released as the band’s third single, garnering them their first top 10 hit. This track features multi-tracked and layered guitar parts, with two slightly different rhythm parts following the piano chords held down by frontman Freddie Mercury, as well as extra lead guitars with panned harmonies, licks and fills all overlapping and interlocking perfectly to form a guitar orchestration. Our tab represents an amalgamation of elements from all the guitars to create one single playable part, with the additional harmony parts on the backing track. Brian’s expressive and vocal sounding vibrato…

30 years and 15 albums into their esteemed career, Weezer remain the darlings of their own self-styled genre, part alternative, part geek-rock and part pop-punk. The track we’re looking at this month takes us back to the band’s third studio release, 2001’s Weezer, aka The Green Album, and Island In The Sun is one of the band’s biggest hits. We’ve tabbed the main riff, chorus, and solo, all played by frontman/lead guitarist Rivers Cuomo. There’s also a basic strum pattern throughout and some fat powerchords in the bridge to add into the mix – the chord shapes are below. The parts gel together nicely with some interesting ‘pushing and pulling’ on the original recording between the basic strum pattern and the syncopated main riff, making it a fun song to…

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…

When it launched at NAMM in 2019, Fender’s Acoustasonic Telecaster was a real talking point for looks and sounds. But after we played one we had something else to say; when were going to see a more affordable Mexican-made version? And of course Fender plans this kind of thing waaay in advance because here it is. So what’s changed and what are the compromises here compared to the California version that launched for £700 more? First, a quick rewind because there’s now a US Acoustasonic Strat and Jazzmaster too; Fender is committed to this concept and we can understand why. You can view these guitars as electrics for acoustic players or vice versa; our experiences so far veer on the side of an electro-acoustic with magnetic flexibility. But the Acoustasonic…

FENDER AMERICAN ACOUSTASONIC JAZZMASTER If money is no object, this is our pick because we just love the bespoke Acoustasonic Shawbucker and the larger body pays dividends with unplugged tone. FENDER AMERICAN ACOUSTASONIC STRATOCASTER Arriving a year after the American Acoustasonic Tele, this is another guitar that makes sense in your hands as a new approach to how to deliver amplified acoustic tones. MARTIN SC-13E A bold design for the acoustic giant in 2020, this couples an offset shape with enhanced fret access and low action that will please electric players.…

Guitarists are generally not so good at reading music. It’s not entirely our fault, though. As you’ll remember from the fretboard knowledge section every note can be played in lots of locations, so it’s not as straightforward as it is on, say, a piano – where every note appears only once. What we definitely can be better at is understanding and reading rhythms. This will enable you to read chord charts like the one below and communicate better with other musicians – especially drummers. This section introduces you to basic rhythm notation and gives you a chance to test your knowledge. 18 RHYTHM TREE BIT.LY/TG354AUDIO This is the rhythm tree. It shows the most commonly used notes found in music notation and how each of the rhythms relate to…

The key to improving at all these different guitar playing skills is regular practice. Each area will improve with a small amount of regular practice. How much emphasis you put in each section depends on your goals as a player and your existing strengths and weaknesses. We’ve prepared three example scenarios based on different players’ goals. Feel free to follow the one that suits you or – better yet – create your own plan. PLAYER 1 THE ALL-ROUND IMPROVER For the guitarist who plays a bit of everything, including various styles of music and the odd solo or two... 5 minutes: Notes on the fingerboard – Find all the F notes, then all the G notes, and so on. 5 minutes: Warm-up – Play two of the easiest tab examples…

THINK LIKE A CAVEMAN! I remember when I was diving deep into theory, I was asking [Alter Bridge frontman] Myles Kennedy a lot of stuff. He’s a very studied guitar player with a very theoretical approach. And he told me he wasn’t sure if I really needed to learn much more, because I’d already found ways to create on my own - thinking outside of the box because I didn’t know what I was doing. He basically told me that coming up with my own rules had given me my own sound. Looking back now, that was great advice. I didn’t need to become a jazz guy and learn about every chord voicing and mode in every scale. Of course, everyone should know some theory. It can only help you…

We’re big fans of Yvette Young here at TG, and now the Covet guitar virtuoso has unveiled the continuation of her Ibanez YY10 signature model with the introduction of the Ibanez YY20. As with the Slime Green Sparkle YY10, the YY20 takes the iconic Ibanez outline, and while it’s offered in Orange Cream Sparkle, there’s a lot more going on than just a colour change. First up is the electronics, offering a Tele-style two-pickup configuration rather than the YY10’s triple-pronged Strat-style approach. In this case the magnets are Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro single coils, offering standard three-way switching of neck/both/bridge, and they’re controlled with one volume and one tone control. The theme continues with a Gotoh GTC202 hardtail bridge, fitted with six individual saddles, with through-body stringing. At the…

With a new Ed Sheeran album comes a new mathematical sign, and this time Suffolk’s favourite son has gone with Equals. What better opportunity to launch a guitar via your own Lowden sub-brand too, then? The Sheeran by Lowden Equals (or rather =) Edition is built around the Sheeran W (based on Ed’s Wee Lowden) body size, and is limited to 3000 guitars worldwide. As well as packing an LR Baggs EAS VTC pickup system, it comes with a number of special edition features including a maple ‘=’ inlay, butterfly-engraved truss rod cover and neck heel, plus an Equals Edition label in the soundhole.…

By the time The Police hit big with their 1978 debut LP Outlandos D’Amour, Andy Summers was already in his thirties, and a seasoned guitar player. He’d got his break as a teenager in the 60s, playing with Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band on the circuit, rubbing shoulders with Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. He was once mooted as Mick Taylor’s replacement in The Rolling Stones, but instead rose to worldwide fame as a third of one of the all-time great rock bands. The Police’s best-known songs bear the hallmarks of his guitar style – sophisticated chord voicings, clever lead salvos, percussive rhythm work and inventive use of tone. His much-imitated echo/chorus combo became an era-defining guitar flavour. Outside of that band, Summers has had a long and fruitful solo…

Welcome to Total Guitar’s 2022 Guitar Workout, where this month we’ve made it our mission to help you become a better guitarist. We kick off with a huge 11-page technique workout, covering everything from funk rhythms and fretboard knowledge to picking accuracy and playing the changes. Hopefully there’s something for everyone. And if it’s inspiration you seek, then let the words of our star interviewees be your guide. Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil talks tone and tells all about making his Strats sound heavy, writing in odd time signatures, and prepping for live shows. Plus, Mark Tremonti, John Petrucci, Eric Gales, Nilüfer Yanya and Tom Dowse of art rockers Dry Cleaning offer musical wisdom and practical tips for you. Turn on, tune up, plug in and let’s rock the hell out…

11. KILL THIS! The verse and bridge are both based in G, but approach each section differently to add variety. For example, you could try playing rhythmically in the verse, before exploring some melodic licks or short hooks as you reach the next section. As ever, make sure to experiment and just enjoy playing. 12. LIZZY’S TWIN SISTER Once you've listened to the track, try mapping out how to play over it from start to finish. The intro and verse rely on the A minor pentatonic scale. Switch to the A Dorian mode in the chorus, but be ready for a brief move to the A natural minor scale as you reach the Fmaj7 chord. AUDIO bit.ly/tg354audio…

No guitar workout would be complete without at least some attention paid to your strumming technique, and we’re looking at a staple rhythm in funk and disco, the 16th-note. Let us oblige you with an explanation... 16th notes are so called because that’s how many of ’em are in a bar of music in 4/4 time – 16! Listen to the intro riff in Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water. The guitar part uses quarter notes but the hi-hat is playing 16ths. You can probably tell from this classic rocker then that 16th notes are usually fairly quick, and if you’re going to recreate the rhythm with your strumming arm you need a steady, well-timed strumming technique. Our examples will help you develop your skills. 23 ON-BEAT CHORDS BIT.LY/TG354AUDIO…

Modelled after Gibson’s small-body parlour acoustics from the 1930s and made in the USA at the company’s Bozeman, Montana factory, the G-00 is a top choice for blues and fingerstyle guitar performances. The compact guitar comes well-appointed, featuring a solid sitka spruce top, solid walnut back and sides, traditional scalloped X-bracing, a striped ebony fingerboard, plus third-party appointments including Grover tuners and a TUSQ nut. Then there’s the small matter of that Player Port. Originally conceived as a downward-firing design by Ted McCarty nearly six decades ago, now the port is positioned above the waist of the guitar, piping the sound unobstructed towards the player’s head to give what Gibson describes as a “unique and immersive sonic experience”. Our competition gives you the chance to own one of these fantastic…

“I’m a man that lives and dies by the drop D! If it’s good enough for Helmet it’s good enough for Biffy Clyro! DADGAD is a beautiful tuning. That’s one of the first ones where I started to come up with some more folk-type songs. With some open tunings you just you start to voice your chords in a different way. One of my favourite tunings is CFGDCF. You never find a chord that sounds like anything you’ve ever played before. Every place you put your fingers is new. If you have gone through lessons and you learned a certain way of playing, as soon as you detune the guitar you’re in a brand new, naive landscape and that’s where you discover new things. For me it’s very important. Sometimes…

The blues has been appropriated by every style of popular music but maybe it’s time for pop culture to repay the favour. Maybe it’s time for the blues to consume those styles and put them in a different context. If so, Eric Gales is the man to do it. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, he is a player of catholic tastes and an uncanny ear for incorporating alien styles back into the realm of electric blues. With each passing release, it’s like he is redesigning the future of the art form, augmenting it with licks and phrases gleaned from funk, jazz, rock, Eric Johnson, Andrés Segovia – from whomever catches his attention. Gales’ new studio LP, Crown - produced by blues-rock’s premier production duo Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith - is…

HAIL THE GIBSON SG I just gravitated towards SGs when I was a kid, just the shape of them looked the most metal. I’m a huge fan of Greg Sage from The Wipers. He played an SG with a Bigsby, and when he was strumming he was always bending the Bigsby as well, so it had this really warped sound. That’s something I do with the SG a lot. I like to bend the neck. I treat it quite badly to be honest. I switched from a Silvertone 1478 back to my SG again and it was so much more indistinct, almost like an ocean. There’s more space for the texture and weirdness I was going for. TWELVE STRING GUITARS ARE UNDERRATED I’ve got a Burns Double Six which I…

Recorded numerous times through Django Reinhardt’s career, this co-write with fellow performer/violinist Stéphane Grappelli was first captured by The Quintet of the Hot Club of France in 1937. Gypsy jazz can often be characterised by fast tempos, but don’t let this daunt you. As always, play select bars and smaller phrases slowly before practising with the backing track. As you build up speed, avoid tensing up. The first seven bars contain the main riff punctuated with an E7 chord, followed by the same riff but played as a harmony part in bars 9–16. This is the ‘hook’ of the piece, so aim for a lively feel and strong attack. The melodic improvisation from bar 17 features passages requiring careful attention to picking and fingering. A mixture of legato and staccato…

HARLEY BENTON DNAFX GIT PRO 1 Harley Benton are doubling down with their multi-effects game here with 51 amp models, 31 cabs and 64 digital and analogue effects. Further potential as a streamlined solution is provided by an onboard expression pedal and the ability to integrate switching for your guitar amp via its AMP CTRL output. An effects loop offers further connectivity, plus specific effects can be placed before or after the amp’s preamp circuit. £244 www.harleybenton.com ELECTRO-HARMONIX Q-TRON NANO We love the U-HX Nano series; all the goodness in a compact chassis. And we all need an excuse for one more pedal on the ‘board, right? Here’s your gateway to funky goodness with the Envelope Controlled Filter with added depth from its three modes that control lo, band and…

Each position here has A and B voicings you can mix with the Blend Knob. 3A and 3B are a small body mahogany short scale and a boomier rosewood dreadnought. We’d absolutely concur with those descriptions and it covers the main types of tone most acoustic players will want. From there the lines begin to blur and dirt is added to the undersaddle pickup for 2A and 2B’s Lo-Fi Clean and Lo-Fi Crunch voices. They’re more eclectic and acoustic, respectively, and actually sound like a mix of the two pickup sources even though they’re technically not. We found a blend of the two receptive to light Klon-style drive that is useful in a band mix. Voices 1A and 1B are all on the Tim Shaw-designed Noiseless single-coil pickup. A clean…

From acoustics that sound like electrics, to pedals that can emulate any amp under the sun, there’s no limit to the options at our fingertips in 2022. But sometimes choice can be overwhelming, and there’s a lot to be said for the what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach. What you see here conforms to that concept - the D-Series Diablo Supreme from German guitar wizards, Framus. The D-Series takes the design ethos of the brand’s guitars, played by the likes of Devin Townshend and William DuVall, and places them at a more affordable price point. There are a number of Diablos in the D-Series range: the Diablo Pro, Progressive and the best-spec’d Supreme that we have here. As we were saying earlier, simplicity is at the heart of this guitar’s design, offering a classic…

Signature models are usually recreations of an artist’s most famous instrument, but Guild and the Marley estate here pay tribute to Bob Marley’s favourite bedroom strummer. Marley wrote many hits on his Madeira A-20 which he kept to hand around the house. Madeira was Guild’s 70s budget brand. Guild based this model on surviving originals, slightly tweaked for modern tastes. The signature accoutrements are subtle: a neatly-installed 12th fret ‘Marley’ inlay and a pickguard signature. Marley’s original was adorned with a picture of the Rastafari Messiah, Haile Selassie, and a map of Africa beside the words “Africa must be free by “INVITING AND FUN TO PLAY; A GREAT ACOUSTIC WORKHORSE” 1983.” Marley diehards will have to supply their own decals though, since Guild omitted them. The included gig bag contains…