Innehållsförteckning för March 2022 från Total Guitar

Way back in November 2014, upon the release of his second album with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, World On Fire, Total Guitar proclaimed Slash to be “in the form of his life”. Well, as it turns out, he still is! His latest outing with the Kennedy/Conspirators outfit sees them in fine creative fettle, with Slash himself thrilled about the energy created from having the whole group playing together in the studio. In this month’s exclusive eight-page interview he talks about the writing and recording process, how he used less gain in his tone, and he expresses his enthusiasm for the Gibson Flying V. And on the subject of the big G, it’s probably fair to say that when you think of Slash, you’re probably envisioning him with a Gibson…

The world may still feel like it’s in a state of pause, but that’s not enough to stop Zakk Wylde from doing what he does best. He ended 2021 out on the road with Black Label Society, while teasing singles from the band’s 11th studio album Doom Crew Inc. – another masterclass in blues-based metal and pentatonic shred. And continuing his long association with Ozzy Osbourne, he features on the singer’s forthcoming album alongside three legends in Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Tony Iommi. In one of the new BLS tracks, End Of Days, your solo climaxes with a pentatonic run in six – it’s like hearing Eric Johnson or Joe Bonamassa with more distortion! I learned all of that from players like John McLaughlin and Frank Marino. When I…

There are numerous reasons why the Cory Wong Stratocaster definitely feels more like a signature instrument than other artist models. First of all there’s its size – with a body slightly smaller than typical modern Strats, which Cory feels provides exactly the kind of sustain and attack he’s looking for. Then there’s the fourth position ‘panic button’ to ensure the pickup selector can be overridden. “Whenever I’m playing I knock my selector out, so I needed that panic button to make sure my tone doesn’t change!” Cory laughs. “I actually have it taped on my Highway One, so I literally can’t go to positions one, two and three without removing the tape.” That’s not the only Fender first, either. The signature Strat also includes a hair tie within its case…

The strongest harmonic pull in any progression is from the V to the I chord, and this solid sense of resolution means you can get creative with the V chord itself and add jazzy ‘altered’ notes, without jeopardising the music’s flow. In jazz you can treat any dominant 7th chord (ie chords with a major 3rd and flat 7th) as the V chord of its corresponding I. So, as C is the fifth note in the scale of F, so C7 can be treated as the fifth chord of F. “So if you're playing a blues in the key of C,” Ford explains, “the C can become the five chord for your next chord, the F, so you just treat the C as an altered five chord, and then treat…

I’ve learned to be really flexible with a guitar: neck, weight, to some extent hardware—I’m a little fussy over pickups but basically a good, functional Gibson, whatever model, is something I can probably be comfortable with. The biggest issue for me is how each one of them sounds. I really admire people that can pick up any guitar no matter what it sounds like and feel comfortable with it. I can have 10 of the same model, same year – I’ll pick out a string of guitars and they all sound different. I can pick one up and go “no, that doesn’t work”. I can do that for five guitars and then find one and go “oh, this one!” A good example of that was when Gibson did the Joe…

SLASH’S SNAKEPIT – BEEN THERE LATELY Appears at: 0:08-0:20 The lead single for sophomore Snakepit album Ain’t Life Grand kicks off with this hard rocking four-bar riff. Fretting position is key. Play the first two bars in 3rd position, but by bar 3 be ready to shift between the 7th and 1st frets. VELVET REVOLVER – SLITHER Appears at: 0:27-0:41 Probably Slash’s best known non-GN’R song, Slither features a rare venture into drop D tuning. This makes for easy one-finger powerchord shapes, but practise slowly – it’s easy to lose your way during those position shifts. SLASH FEAT. MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS – FILL MY WORLD Appears at: 0:00-0:32 After the opening bend from 4th to 5th fret on the second string, Slash targets the open first and second…

EPIPHONE SLASH LES PAUL STANDARD (£799) There are countless Les Paul models available to buy, so why not opt for the one specced by Slash himself? BOSS GE-7 (£89) Slash used this reliable EQ for years to boost his solos. Push the upper mids and pull back the bass slightly for that cutting, almost nasal tone. DUNLOP SLASH WAH (£174) Slash’s signature wah has an integrated distortion circuit. It’s unclear how much he actually uses the distortion though, so you could economise with a regular Crybaby. MARSHALL 2555X (£1100) Slash has used many Marshalls but the Silver Jubilee has spent the most time in his touring rig. The 2525H version is more bedroom and wallet-friendly. MXR CAE BOOST/ LINE DRIVER (£99) Slash’s current favourite boost…

Use Me was a US hit for Bill Withers in 1972, dealing with earnest lyrical themes and underpinned by an infectious guitar groove. To practise this catchy acoustic part, hold down the three notes of the Em7 with your fretting hand and strum the chord, ensuring that the idle strings are muted with your first finger. Then, strum 16th notes with a light attack from the picking hand (you may find a medium or lighter plectrum is best here), counting ‘1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a’ to keep time. Do this at a slow tempo so you can easily count the clean fretted strums (shown with standard black notes in the notation) and the muted strokes (shown with Xs). Your…

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: Poplar NECK: Maple, bolt-on SCALE: 25.5” (648mm) FINGERBOARD: Rosewood/8.5” radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo PICKUPS: Three PRS 635JM ‘S’ single coils CONTROLS: Master volume, tone 1 (neck & middle), tone 2 (bridge), 5-way lever pickup selector switch HARDWARE: PRS-designed two-point steel vibrato, PRS-designed vintage-style tuners – nickel-plated FINISH: Moon White (as reviewed), Ever Green, Stone Blue, Dragon Fruit CONTACT: PRS Europe, www.prsguitars.com 1 NECK, FRETS & FINGERBOARD The neck here is very similar to the USA Silver Sky but has a satin polyurethane finish, not gloss nitro, and an 8.5” fingerboard radius as opposed to the USA’s 7.25”. Frets are slightly wider than the USA model. 2 PICKUPS  The SE’s 635JM ‘S’ pickups are made by Cor-Tek’s pickup division, PSE. The design was conceived in the USA…

“A TIDY BUILD WITH A GLOSS FINISH THAT OOZES QUALITY” We sometimes find ourselves pondering how much a headstock matters. Specifically, the name on a headstock. And we’re musing on that theme again because Epiphone has been gleefully blurring the lines between its brand and Gibson more than ever recently; the Lazarus and Standard ’59 Les Paul moderns being very impressive cases in point. Gibson USA BurstBucker humbuckers, one-piece mahogany neck, two-piece body, Mallory capacitors and a vintage-style hard case are the order of the day here on a ‘partnership with Gibson Custom’ that really just equates to those aforementioned Gibson features on an Epiphone. With a higher asking price accordingly. But still not a ballpark we can get a new US Gibson SG for. So what’s the deal with…

BODY: Alder NECK: Maple SCALE: 24” FINGERBOARD: Rosewood FRETS: 22 CONTROLS: Master volume, master tone 2x 3-position pickup switches HARDWARE: Nickel/ Chrome LEFT-HANDED: Yes (same price) FINISH: Fiesta Red [pictured], Sonic Blue CONTACT: Fender, www.fender.com 1 DESIGN  Kurt Cobain created the Jag-Stang by merging two of his favourite Fender models – the Jaguar and Mustang. This reissue is available in the same Sonic Blue and Fiesta Red finishes as the original was. 2 NECK  The Jag-Stang follows the Fender short-scale blueprint at 24”, but has a vintage-style 7.5” fingerboard radius. 3 ELECTRONICS  Two three-position toggle switches give you on/off/out of phase switching for the Jag-Stang single coil and humbucker.…

“Throughout the duration of us writing records,” Joe says, “all of the guitars have gone through one particular amp which is a Vox AC30 from the 60s. It was famous, I believe, for being used by David Gilmour, and then it was purchased by Clive Langer.” The amp’s custodian is now Charlie Andrew, alt-J’s long-time producer. “We’ve always used it,” says Joe, “and the tremolo is kind of the voice of the guitar work on all of our albums to date. I can’t imagine a world without tremolo. It’s kind of like Stockholm Syndrome: at first I wasn’t sure, and it’s all I know now and I love it to bits!” Such is the importance of the AC30 that on this album, other instruments, vocals and even percussion were re-amped…

Hailed the best band “in the entire world” by one journalist, Black Country, New Road entered 2021 as a buzz band with their debut album For The First Time. Unusually for critics’ darlings, they then found themselves selling more records than expected. As the UK’s experimental indie scene gatecrashed the mainstream, BC,NR joined Squid and Black Midi at its forefront. “It’s crazy to chart with an album like that and to get any kind of nod from outside indie circles,” admits guitarist Luke Mark. “The response was amazing. You go see Black Midi a few years ago and there’d be fifty people who loved it. After they put an album out, you go see them and there’s like a thousand people who all love it just as much. You don’t…

“Everyone knows I’m a Strat guy, they just work perfectly for what I do,” Cory says, when we point out it’s rare to find a picture of him holding any other kind of instrument. But what are the modern funk hero’s thoughts on the other Fender favourite? “I recently had them make me a Tele with my signature Strat design spec, just for fun!” he grins. “I was playing this Nash Tele for a little while, but wanted a good Fender one. So I got an American Ultra series Tele and I liked it so much I asked Fender to make me a one-off with the same nitro finish, colour and parts as my Strat. So that’s the guitar I’ve been really excited about playing recently. It looks, sounds and…

“Iuse the double-diminished scale all the time,” says Ford, “and it's something I still work at. It's become a big part of my thing, but you don't hear much about it with anybody else.” Also known as the half/whole diminished scale, this tasty run contains eight notes in half-step/whole-step intervals, so in C it’s: C D b D# E F# G A B b . Notice it contains the notes of the C7 triad (C E B b ), the C’s fifth (G) and sixth (A), but along with these it gives you ‘altered’ notes: D b (the b 9 of C), D# (the #9), F# (the #11). Try adding a few licks from this scale into your blues, particularly when moving from the I to the IV chord (in…

“I’d be lying if I said I don’t feel the pressure in this age of technical expression and fluidity...” He was just 21 when Guns N’ Roses’ debut album Appetite For Destruction was released - the record that made him famous as a guitar hero. And all these years later, as Slash speaks to TG via a Zoom call from his home in LA, it’s evident that his love of rock ’n’ roll is as strong as it’s ever been. When he talks about 4, the new album from Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, he’s thrilled about how it turned out, with an energy created from having the whole group playing together in the studio. “Recording live is something I’ve always wanted to do,” he says. And when…

By 1970, the virtuosic musicianship of San Francisco Latin-rock fusion pioneers Santana had already garnered the kind of mainstream success most kids in their early 20s can only dream of. A genre-breaking set at the Woodstock Festival in ’69 was followed by a Top 10 Billboard single, Evil Ways, and Top Five eponymous debut album. The second album, Abraxas, recorded at San Francisco’s Wally Heider Studio the following year, arguably trumped its predecessor with even more heady experimentation and refined blasts of the band’s ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ influences. Just take a listen to Oye Como Va, Incident At Neshabur and this month’s track, Samba Pa Ti and you’ll be blown away by the vibrant results of the band’s musical melting pot. Broadly speaking, Samba Pa Ti is a…

Taylor Swift has never been afraid to try out different styles and 2020’s Willow is a case in point, showcasing a folk-meets-contemporary pop style. The acoustic guitar at the beginning of the song was originally made up of five separate parts, so we’ve created a composite part for you to play. They sound like a nylon-string guitar, but are actually an old Silvertone acoustic guitar that guitarist Aaron Dessner fitted with a rubber bridge. This gives a dryer percussive sound that you could try recreating with some foam under the strings near the bridge, or even a little palm-muting. Though the open position chords aren’t too challenging, using fingerstyle technique and adding the pull-offs and melodic ideas can be tough. You could try strumming along if the fingerstyle part is…

As one of, if not the largest electric guitar making factories in the world, you’ll have probably played an electric guitar made by Cor-Tek in Indonesia even if you didn’t know it. PRS proudly states, on the back of the headstock, that this SE Silver Sky and their other SE electrics are made there. Cor-Tek’s house brand is Cort, although obviously they sub-contract for numerous major brands, though few of them care to admit it. Those that do, like PRS and Manson, are hugely positive about their manufacturing skills and having reviewed many Cor-Tek guitars in these pages, we’d have to agree.…

BODY: Mahogany (two-piece) NECK: Mahogany (one-piece), SlimTaper C-shape SCALE: 628mm [24.75”] FINGERBOARD: Indian laurel FRETS: 22, medium jumbo PICKUPS: Gibson BurstBucker 3 (bridge), Gibson BurstBucker 2 (neck) CONTROLS: 2x Volume, 2x Tone, CTS potentiometers, Mallory Capacitors HARDWARE: Epiphone LockTone Tune-O-Matic, Epiphone Deluxe double ring tuners LEFT-HANDED: No CASE: Gibson vintage-style hard case FINISH: Aged Cherry (reviewed), Aged Classic White CONTACT: Epiphone, www.epiphone.com 1 WIRING  No upgrades required here – CTS pots, Mallory capacitors (an upgrade over Orange Drop) and Switchcraft jacks are the quality combo we like to see. 2 NECK  Most Epiphones use a two-piece neck with a scarf joint, but this has a historically-accurate one-piece. 3 VALUE  The BurstBucker 2 and 3 humbuckers sell on Gibson.com for $175.99 each, add in that plush hardcase and the…

Fuzz fans will be well aware of Gibson’s Maestro brand, largely thanks to Keith Richards’ use of the FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone – widely recognised as the world’s first fuzz pedal upon its arrival in 1962 – on The Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. But despite its inclusion on the song, it almost didn’t make it to the final version at all. The story goes that Keef recorded a scratch track of the iconic main riff using the FZ-1, but, hearing it as brass section in his head, his guitar part was originally intended as a demo for a horn section to follow later. That didn’t happen, the track was released – apparently without his knowledge – with Keef’s fuzz guitar line still present, and pedal history was made. Here’s…

Intricate picking patterns are a trademark of Joe Newman’s playing – a feat made all the more complex by the fact he’ll usually be singing a divergent vocal part at the same time. “I remember the days where I couldn’t sing and play guitar at the same time,” Joe Newman says, “and it’s probably the greatest endeavour of my life! As I got better at it, I started becoming more and more curious about almost mathematical fingerpicking patterns. Mathematics is the defining feature of creating structure – both in society and in how we write and understand music. So, I would say that it’s key to creating a strong foundation. Fingerpicking creates a pattern that is stable - it’s the stability of the song. The concept or the dreamlike ways…

Cory Wong gets time. As the poster boy for modern funk, the American guitarist knows all about how playing in the pocket and feeling the groove gets bodies moving – it’s his area of expertise. He’s the kind of guitarist who can make one static chord sound interesting for longer because he’ll never run out of interesting ways to deliver it. 2021 was a big year for Wong, with the launch of his first signature Strat and even his own YouTube variety show, brilliantly titled Cory And The Wong Notes. This year, he’s teaming up again with funk supergroup Vulfpeck, the band that gained him worldwide recognition, for Vulf Vault 005: Wong’s Cafe... “We decided to do this series called the Vulf Vaults,” explains Wong, talking to TG from his…

Guitarist, singer, songwriter and occasional saxophonist, Robben Ford got his break in 1969 when, aged 18, he and his band were recruited to back blues harmonica maestro Charlie Musselwhite. Ford went on to play guitar for Joni Mitchell with elite jazz fusion collective, The L.A. Express, to play sideman for Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and to grace records by legendary figures such as Michael McDonald, Bonnie Raitt and Larry Carlton. But it’s through his solo career that Ford’s own legend has truly grown. With the heart and soul of a bluesman and the brain and fingers of a jazzer, he has a back catalogue packed with high-grade blues/rock records such as The Inside Story, Talk To Your Daughter and – featuring his must-hear 90s group The Blue Line…

Ford notes that the good old minor pentatonic scale (in C: C E b F G B b ) also conceals altered notes, i.e. tones that aren’t in the standard chords played in a I-IV-V blues: “If you're playing the C pentatonic scale over the G7 chord, and you play the minor third of C [E b ] and then the flat seven [B b ], you've just played the altered fifth and the raised nine of the G chord. So if you’re playing the pentatonic scale in the key of C against a G, before you even know it you’re playing altered tones.”…

On Appetite For Destruction was it planned that you an Izzy played variations on the same riffs? No, it never was. I think playing with Izzy is what started the trend to have one guy playing his main part and the other one playing something off of that. That loose thing was just the way that I play with other guitar players. The other guy does his thing and I do my thing and hopefully the twain meet on the same ground somehow. Izzy was such a unique guitar player unto himself. Everything he did was so simplified that if he had a riff I would take it into another place. My approach to it, inspired by whatever he was doing, would make it a bit more complex or more…

“A THIRD OF THE PRICE BUT FAR FROM A THIRD OF THE GUITAR” PRS has tried many times to crack the bolt-on market. Yes, there’s the CE but that’s really a bolt-on version of the Custom 24, and despite well-received attempts like the 305 and DC3 they’ve never managed to get close to a Fender-style electric that stuck around. Then along came the John Mayer Silver Sky. When it was launched four years ago, it ‘broke’ the internet – everyone had an opinion – and it is now up there with PRS’s best-selling designs alongside the original Custom 24 and the 594. Four years on, PRS still can’t keep up with the demand. The problem is that at £2,620 it is out of reach for many of us. Well, now…

FENDER VINTERA 60S STRATOCASTER Very well regarded vintage-style Strat made at Fender’s huge Mexican factory. It features an alder body, pau ferro fingerboard, old-style 7.25” fingerboard radius and 21 vintage-style frets in three colours. FENDER PLAYER STRATOCASTER Another Mexican-made Strat, the Player is more modern in style, with 22 frets on a 9.5” radius pau ferro fingerboard again with an alder body and maple fingerboard options. FENDER PLAYER PLUS STRATOCASTER Part of a new mini-range, the Player Plus is more forward-looking than the Player, with a flatter 12” radius fingerboard, noiseless pickups and locking tuners.…

Nirvana and Kurt Cobain fans probably associate the late frontman closest with his sunburst Jaguar or the Mustangs he used throughout his career, but there are others – the pawn shop Mosrites, the ‘Vandalism’ Strat, and the Jag-Stang. Cobain worked with the Fender Custom Shop to develop the Jag-Stang concept, famously sending an annotated collage of a Jaguar and Mustang in order to direct the builders to the shape he had imagined. In essence, it’s a Jaguar shape on the bass side and a Mustang on the treble side. The Jag-Stang is often a slightly forgotten weapon in the Cobain arsenal, largely due to the fact that the guitar was still in the unreleased prototype stages at the time of his death. But Kurt did receive one, and used it…