Innehållsförteckning för July 2022 från Total Guitar

Heavyweight tones require a heavyweight amp, right? Wrong. So says Blackstar, whose new St James line of amps - which it says are the lightest valve amps in their class on the planet – sets out to deliver two things: true valve tone in a back-friendly format coupled with versatile modern features suited to today’s ‘play anywhere’ requirements. The line-up comprises two flavours of amps, named after their power amp valves – the St James EL34 (Fawn/black basketweave) and the St James 6L6 (Black/silver birch). There’s a pair of ECC83s in the preamps, plus two EL34s or 6L6s in the respective power stages giving us either 50-watt head/2x12”cab or 50-watt, 1x12” combo configurations across the range. Incredibly, Blackstar has managed to get the weight of the heads down to 6.7KG,…

BIT.LY/TG359AUDIO 1 ARPEGGIATED CHORD Pluck the strings one at a time, making sure they sound clear. Repeat three times, then stop. 2 PALM MUTED CHUG This is easy, and sounds huge. Focus on getting just the right amount of muting. 3 PULL-OFF RIFF This riff takes eight seconds. See how many times you can play it in a minute. No excuses! 4 TREMOLO PICKING Pick each note with alternating up- and downstrokes. Try to make the upstrokes feel easy.…

Grace Cummings hails from Melbourne, and her sophomore record, Storm Queen, was conceived and recorded during the longest lockdown to happen anywhere in the world. The self-produced album has a raw, live feel with little in the way of accompanying instrumentation beyond Grace’s own acoustic guitar - and it’s all the richer for its simplicity and self-restraint. She explains, “I’ve got an album here that is quite sparse and has a lot of space, which was something that was kind of probably just forced on me a little bit because of the pandemic,” before ultimately concluding: “I think that maybe less is more.” At the very beginning of our interview, Grace makes an interesting distinction: “I do play guitar, but I’m not a guitarist, if you know what I mean?…

Notable for David Gilmour’s slick outro solo, Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) is one of Pink Floyd’s best-loved songs. And, though Gilmour’s style and tone are silky smooth, listen closely at 2:13 and 2:31 and you’ll hear a couple of physics-defying string-bend licks. Spanning four- and five-fret intervals, you can expect to snap an occasional string playing these huge bends; even Gilmour himself tends to improvise in live performances rather than risk his strings with a straight copy of these troublesome licks. Read on as we break down David’s string-bend technique. FOUR-SEMITONE BEND Starting with your third finger at the 13th fret, the first bend is an easy two-semitone articulation from the 13th fret C note to D. Starting from the two-semitone bend (D note), bend two more…

Clapton used a 1964 Gibson SG into 100-watt Marshall JTM45 amps with 4x12 cabs. Typically, he’d wind down his guitar’s tone knob close to zero, but crank the amp controls (volume and tone) to ear-splitting maximum levels – the secret of his renowned late-60s “woman tone”. Shown here are the settings we used on our recorded version, but you could try maxing the tone controls on your amp provided you have separate master and gain controls to balance overall volume and drive levels.…

If you buy pedals for instant inspiration, Walrus Audio’s Slö Multi Texture Reverb was a real treat: one of the most – and we know this word is overused, but it is appropriate here – cinematic effects pedals we’ve ever tried. And the Slötvå is the Slö with three programmable onboard presets. A welcome addition because this pedal has bags of potential, and you’ll likely never settle on just one sound. “YOU’LL NEVER SETTLE ON JUST ONE SOUND” You can run it as a subtle, aways-on hall reverb by dialling the mix back, but this is an expensive way to have that alone. Where the Slötvå excels is its huge, otherworldly reverb via three algorithms (Dark, Rise and Dream) with three modulation wave shapes you can apply to them (Sine,…

Hailing from San Francisco’s East Bay, Spice are a rock ’n’ roll unit cut from the DIY tradition. Their second full-length record Viv follows hot on the heels of their self-titled debut, and expands their visceral catalogue of weathered anthems to create what guitarist and founding member Ian Simpson describes as “‘90s rock-grunge with a pop polish.” Taking inspiration from the “big noise experience” of post-rock, Ian brings an appreciation of texture and a plethora of abstract guitar sounds to the party. “It’s not very typical in rock ’n’ roll, or hardcore, or punk to have a very robust pedalboard,” he says. “But I do.” Built with multiple delays, reverbs and loopers, the star of Ian’s board, he says, is the Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail - although, due to relentless stomping,…

Back in December 2021, TG tipped Wet Leg – the duo of guitarist/ vocalist Hester Chambers and vocalist/guitarist Rhian Teasdale – as one of the hottest new acts around. Five months later, their self-titled debut album hit number one in the UK and in Australia. This photo captures them on their recent UK tour, on stage at the Electric Ballroom in London’s Camden Town on April 26. An appearance at Glastonbury follows this month.…

Squier has unleashed a flurry of new finishes for some of its Affinity, Classic Vibe and Paranormal models. First up is the Paranormal Baritone Cabronita Telecaster (£399) which with its 27-inch scale length and dual soapbar pickups gets an Olive Green facelift. Meanwhile, the Affinity HSS Stratocaster (£249) and Telecaster Deluxe (not shown, £269) come decked in a sleek Silverburst. It’s the year of the Jazzmaster, and surf fans/shoegazers are going to love the Classic Vibe 70s Jazzmaster in Lake Placid Blue (£449) with matching headstock, block inlays parchment pickguard. The final word is left to the Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI (£449), which boosts its crown as one of Fender’s coolest and most curious guitars ever with Purple Metallic and Shell Pink finishes. Contact your nearest Squier dealer for…

In 1974 Roland launched the RE-201 Space Echo, with its self-oscillating, multi-head tape loop delay and spring reverb which went on to find favour with everyone from Pink Floyd to Radiohead. Now, the Space Echo is back with two of Boss’ most faithful digital recreations to date: the RE-202 and RE-2. First up is the vintage Boss-looking RE-202: a double-sized Boss pedal which seeks to give you every control featured on the original RE-201 and more! Crucially, there’s the 12-position mode switch, and while the original featured three playback heads, the RE-202 includes four virtual playheads, resulting in longer (double) delay times. There’s multiple reverb modes, plus a saturation control which emulates the RE-201’s preamp, giving you lo-fi drive which can be used without the reverb. Next up is the…

Paul has hit the biggest obstacle every guitarist faces – finding time to practise! Together, he and Jenna are making a plan to fit guitar into his life... A weird thing happens when you taking up a new hobby. You’ve enjoyed your lessons, and you promise you’re going to practise every day. And then that just… doesn’t happen. Despite your best intentions, you’ve gone backwards. A big problem is feeling like you ought to practise a lot, but you can actually make yourself a better guitarist just by picking up the instrument for a brief moment. In 10 seconds you can try a new chord. In 30 seconds you can improve a riff. In 60 seconds you can drill a chord change. Better yet, when you finish you’ll want to…

“I’LL LISTEN TO A PIECE OF CLASSICAL MUSIC AND PRETEND EVERY INSTRUMENT IS THE ELECTRIC GUITAR” As lead guitarist of one of the biggest-selling bands in history, Kirk Hammett needs little in the way of an introduction. While Metallica have been teasing fans with the promise of a new album since last summer, Kirk has emerged as the first band member to step from the mothership and fly solo with his new four-track, horror movie-influenced EP Portals. Originally conceived as “background music” to accompany his It’s Alive! exhibition of horror flick posters and memorabilia, Portals, explains Kirk, evolved to become a collection of “soundtracks to the movies in your mind”. Produced by Kirk, the EP is comprised of four high-concept instrumental tracks: Maiden And The Monster, The Jinn, High Plains…

In 2020 the art of eight-string guitar is in rude health. This was once an incredibly obscure instrument, with roots going as far back as 19th century classical music. But since 2007, when Ibanez launched the RG2228, the first mass-produced eight-string, its popularity has grown and grown. You can easily find an eight-string in most first-hand guitar shops. This popularity is mainly thanks to metal bands who called for lower and thicker tunings to take their imaginations to the extreme - foremost among them Meshuggah, math-metal pioneers from Sweden, and Animals As Leaders, masters of instrumental tech-metal from Washington D.C. In both bands’ new albums, the extended range of the eight-string is explored by two guitarists: Mårten Hagström and Fredrik Thordendal on Meshuggah’s Immutable; Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes on…

It was in 1968 that David Gilmour joined the band in which he would become famous as one of the greatest guitar players of his generation. 54 years later, the last act of Pink Floyd is played out with Hey Hey Rise Up, a powerful protest song in support of the people of Ukraine. In this 30-page TG special, we trace Gilmour’s evolution as a guitarist via 20 classic Pink Floyd tracks – from 1969’s The Nile Song all the way through to Hey Hey Rise Up. Along the way, Gilmour’s genius in landmark songs such as Echoes, Breathe, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb and Another Brick In The Wall is celebrated by a host of guitarists – Kirk Hammett, Matt Bellamy, Sophie Lloyd,…

“It’s how strongly he holds the strings, so that the notes ring a long, long time” When Pink Floyd recorded their classic double album The Wall, producer Bob Ezrin watched as David Gilmour played what is arguably his greatest solo in Comfortably Numb. It was, as he now recalls, a magical moment that still gives him chills. Ezrin made his name as a producer with a string of albums that made Alice Cooper a superstar in the early 70s. In that decade he also worked with Lou Reed and Kiss, before taking on the monumental task of co-producing The Wall in 1979. Five years later he reunited with David Gilmour for the guitarist’s second solo album About Face, and their understanding led to Ezrin co-producing all three studio albums from…

SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE WWords and Music by Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Pete Brown Copyright © 1967, 1973 E.C. Music Ltd and Dratleaf Ltd (66.67%) Warner Chappell Music Ltd, London, W8 5DA Copyright Renewed International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard Europe and Faber Music Limited CREAM SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE Intro  BIT.LY/TG359AUDIO Fret the initial 12th fret D note with your third finger and the 10th fret C with your first finger. Move down two frets on beat 2 of bar 2 so your third finger plays the 10th fret D. Lift your fingers off the fretboard to mute the strings for the staccato hits in bar 5 and for all the rests. CREAM SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE Verse  BIT.LY/TG359AUDIO Bars 1 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…

Singer-songwriter James Bay couldn’t be happier with his new guitar. Four years in the making, the Fender Pink Lemonade Mustang is a genuine one-of-a-kind. He talks about the guitar’s design and about this forthcoming third album, Leap. How did the project come about, James? I’d finished writing my song Pink Lemonade, which I remember really nailing the sound for through a Fender Princeton and a guitar with P90s. I thought - in my indie rock, early-Kings Of Leon-inspired state - that the Mustang is one of the Fender guitars that really personified that sonic and aesthetic. I’d found a Fender Cyclone years before that I didn’t buy - it was the only Mustang I’d seen at the time with P-90s. So I said, ‘What I’d love to do, Mr. Fender,…

Seymour Duncan has unleashed a trio of humbuckers aimed at delivering the basis for three iconic classic rock tones. Now, it’s not explicit about the sounds the pickups are based on, but it does give some clues - the ’78 apes a hot-wound P.A.F. for “hard rockin’ crunch”, “articulate picked harmonics and tapped solos”. While the High Voltage is pictured in a red SG, while the Green Magic features a neck pickup with a reversed magnet. And it says Green in its name. The pickups are all available individually, as sets, and with covered (nickel or gold)/uncovered (black, white, zebra or reverse zebra) as well as wider-spaced Trembucker models. Prices start at £197.95 individually or from £395.95 for a pair.…

When We Were Young is the first single since Architects’ acclaimed 2021 album For Those That Wish To Exist. The song begins with a powerchord with simultaneous semitone bends on each string. Use your first and third fingers to fret the notes and keep your hand locked in position as you turn your wrist slightly to bend both strings together. Try to keep the two notes in tune with each other. The second part of the riff uses drop-tuned powerchords on the lowest two strings with the root note at the 4th fret. The D# to E move gives the song a dark, ominous quality – a typical quality of the Phrygian mode. Play the harmonics on the middle two strings by lightly touching them over the fretwire, lifting your…

1 Maiden And The Monster The opening track on Portals certainly sets the scene well – its otherworldly discordance notably more soundtrack in feel than your typical instrumental guitar album. The opening movement starts with a C# and G#, presumably played on the fourth frets of the A and high E strings in standard tuning, against the pedal tone of the open B string. The fretted notes then descend chromatically from the fourth position to the third (the bass note moving from C# to C) and second (from C to B) before coming back up, while the open B string continues to ring throughout. When the lead guitars come in, Hammett sticks with C# minor pentatonic pattern – occasionally incorporating a flat five ‘blue note’, in this case a G.…

One of the greatest gifts an artist can give their audience is a world to get lost in for a while. It can offer pure escape, or a different perspective, just so long as this painting, book, movie, song, whatever, takes you some place else to see the world or yourself anew. The 21st-century is forever framed as 360-degree assault on our attention, and isn’t it just. But, more importantly, what is that doing to our imagination? When you come across a record like Endless Rooms, the third album from the Melbourne-based indie-rock quintet Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, it’s like a spa day for the grey matter. Even the cover, a photo of the lakeside cottage where they demoed the album, bright gold of the illuminated interiors framed by obsidian…

From the late 60s all the way through to 2022, the music of Pink Floyd has been lit up by the brilliance of David Gilmour’s guitar playing. Here, TG profiles the 20 Floyd songs in which Gilmour’s genius is defined – from 1969’s The Nile Song to this year’s surprise comeback Hey Hey Rise Up - with in-depth analysis from guitarists influenced by Gilmour’s work: Matt Bellamy of Muse, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Stu Mackenzie of King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard, Steve Rothery of Marillion, Geordie Greep of Black Midi, Sophie Lloyd, Jon Gomm and Derek Trucks. The Nile Song By Derek Trucks From the album: More (1969) “It’s hard to find just one specific track to key in on with a player as talented as David Gilmour. When…

David Gilmour’s lead style is a fusion of electric blues phrasing and rock guitar techniques, with an emphasis on string bending, whammy bar vibrato and a soulful touch, all delivered with unmatched taste and feel. To help you get inside his style, here we take a look at his playing techniques. Small details such as fret- and pick-hand position all contribute to his signature style. We’ve tabbed some Gilmour-style licks for you on p67, so treat this initial section as a primer for the music that follows. If you can mimic Gilmour’s technique, you’ll get closer to his trademark feel. 1 PICK GRIP David uses a traditional pick grip between his thumb and first finger. He veers between a ‘flat on’ position and a 45 degree angle, the latter…

RITTER 2022 GIGBAGS 1 Gigbag giant, Ritter has revamped its range for 2022 with no fewer than six new product lines. Starting at £17.95 for the Flims series, featuring 5mm padding to the front, back and top, with 10mm on the sides, the collection peaks with the Arosa line (starting at £107.95), equipped with 33mm padding all round, four pockets, aircraft hangar, reflective stripping and more. There’s a raft of bags across the range for everything from classical guitars to V and X-shaped models, plus dual electric guitar bags. www.ritter-bags.com LEHLE MONO VOLUME S 2 This volume pedal’s mechanism design will not wear down, and is now a smaller, lighter footprint for your ‘board. Lehle say it’s also louder. Like the company’s other volume pedals, it features magnet sensor VCA…

The trimmed down range starts with the RSE20 Element at £399. These feature the same chambered body but without the maple cap, and there’s no stainless steel frets or graphite reinforcement in the neck. Both use new VH3 covered humbuckers but with three-way lever switching and the original Dry Switch, a single coil emulation. Our Standard model also comes as the RSS20 with a stud tailpiece and twin VH5 humbuckers, but otherwise features the same specs. The Professional models include further graphite reinforcement in the body plus Yamaha’s Initial Response Acceleration (I.R.A.) treatment: the twin humbucking RSP20 and RSP20X plus the dual soapbar RSP02T. All cost £1,599 including a case.…