Innehållsförteckning för August 2023 från Total Guitar

Squid are one of the UK’s most forward-thinking guitar groups, but when their guitar-playing multi-instrumentalist Louis Borlase talks about his earliest influences, a surprising name comes up. “I was obsessed with Bryan Adams for a while,” Louis says. “In school I performed Run To You in front of the year group, which is probably my musical highlight to date.” TG’s self-depreciation detector is sounding, but Louis’ modesty is welcome nevertheless. In the last couple of years, he and his bandmates – fellow guitarist Anton Pearson, singer/drummer Ollie Judge, keyboardist Arthur Leadbetter and bassist Laurie Nankivell – have made the ascension from niche club venues like Brixton’s Windmill to outdoor festival stages such as Glastonbury. As Anton describes the band’s early days: “Our first show was at The Verdict, a jazz…

In Times New Roman… is the final instalment of the trilogy started by 2013’s …Like Clockwork and 2017’s Villains. Those albums saw Queens Of The Stone Age achieving their biggest ever success, with the former giving them their first US number one album and the latter achieving the same in the UK. While Villains was helmed by super-producer Mark Ronson, the band handled those duties themselves for Times…, giving us rawer and more aggressive Queens than we’ve heard in some time. There’s never been just one QOTSA guitar sound, the band instead playing with various shades of their signature mid-boosted fuzz, and fans will find new and nastier variations here. 1 OBSCENERY The power of the fuzz tones is matched only by the funky grind of this opening riff. It’ll…

Formed in 1982, the LA funk-rock foursome have sold over 120 million records, making them one of the biggest-selling bands of all time. Anthony Kiedis (vocals) and Flea (bass) are founding members, with drummer Chad Smith joining in 1988 and guitarist John Frusciante now in his third stint with the band since his return to the fold in 2019. This month’s track Black Summer sees Frusciante on top form, delivering Hendrix-esque rhythm parts from a Strat neck pickup (usually his Fiesta Red ’61 model in live shows) with some delicious modulation, likely from his trusty Boss CE-1 chorus pedal. The song works on various levels, with John taking a Jimi-style diad and funk-lite barre-chord approach but with a progression that could easily be reimagined with folky open chords on a…

REVIEW Easily one of the most famous guitars ever, the 1959 Gibson Les Paul played by Peter Green, then for much longer by Gary Moore and now owned by Kirk Hammett, is the stuff of legend. Inspired by Eric Clapton’s famous use of the Les Paul with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Peter Green – who briefly replaced Clapton in Mayall’s lineup – bought his Les Paul in London in, it’s believed, 1965, ’66 or ’67 depending on whose account you read. It’s believed to be the guitar Peter used on his only album with John Mayall, Hard Road, released in 1967. Leaving Mayall that same year and forming Fleetwood Mac, it was on their eponymous first album, released in 1968, that the nasally ‘Peter Green sound’ emerged on tracks like Merry…

REVIEW Eddie Van Halen wasn’t just one of the greatest guitarists of all time; his quest for the perfect tone drove him to become an expert tweaker of amps, pedals and guitars, all of which were brought together under the EVH brand, currently curated by Fender. EVH’s popular and affordable Iconic series of 5150 amplifiers evolved from the mighty 5150 III head, a go-to powerhouse of tones used by many top metal and rock professionals, and the range has recently been expanded to include this new 1x10 combo. IT DELIVERS THE 5150 SOUND IN A PORTABLE PACKAGE Designed with assistance from amp guru James Brown, the Iconic 1x10 is a smartly-presented combo available in black or ivory vinyl, with a brushed aluminium control panel that’s easy to read in low…

IN THE SPOTLIGHT Led by guitarist/vocalist Tallulah Sim-Savage, HotWax are tipped as one of the UK’s most exciting new bands. After a string of self-released singles and incendiary live shows, the trio recently landed a deal with Marathon Artists to unleash their debut EP, A Thousand Times. The earliest compositions on the angsty five-track were penned when Tallulah was just 15 years old, yet they effervesce with the immediacy of a freshly-caught brainwave. “We tried not to overthink things or be ridiculously perfect with everything we recorded,” explains the now-18-year-old musician. Born and raised in the small but vibrant artistic community of Hastings, Tallulah’s journey towards becoming a swaggering punk rock frontwoman with fierce fretboard skills to match has a touch of destiny about it. Her musical life began at…

FOO FIGHTERS The first Foo Fighters album since Taylor Hawkins’ tragic death is one marked by grief. In addition to Hawkins, Dave Grohl’s mother Virginia passed away in August 2022. But if you were expecting an album that was either mellow or depressing, you’d be mistaken. Musically, at least, But Here We Are has plenty of joyful moments, and the band rocks as hard as ever. Grohl and his fellow axemen Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett have crafted layers of clever guitar parts that demonstrate their mastery of songwriting. Clean, jangly layers rub against crunching fuzz to produce some of the most epic sounds the Foos have ever given us. 1 RESCUED The opening jangly, almost-clean chords have Grohl’s signature combination of high fretted notes and open strings. When a…

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 getting hung up on hokey mythology or nonsense marketing speak: we aim to bring you bullsh*t-free opinions on the gear you’re interested in. WE CAN’T BE BOUGHT TG review scores are a true reflection of our experts’ opinion on the product they’ve been testing. You’ll never find a rating in our mag that has been bought and paid for. REAL…

REVIEW Faithfully capturing a snapshot digital reproduction of any real amp has for several years been the province of Kemper with their Profiler and, in more recent years, Neural DSP with the Quad Cortex – hardware units both and not cheap. IK Multimedia, however, has chosen the more cost-effective software route for amp capture with TONEX, an application utilising AI machine modelling to create ‘Tone Models’ which could be various combinations of amp, cab and drive pedal. Up until recently, you could only utilise the Tone Models via a standalone or DAW plug-in instance of TONEX or integrate them into Amplitube, but now the company is offering a hardware option with the TONEX Pedal, a triple-footswitch stompbox that can hold Tone Models in 150 presets for use onstage without a…

We all know Eddie Van Halen’s legacy as one of the greatest guitarists of all time. You’re probably aware too of the EVH brand he set up with Fender in 2007, now under the watchful eye of Eddie’s son and this month’s cover star, Wolfgang Van Halen. The latest offering from the brand is this Signature Wolfgang electric guitar, the company’s newest addition to the MIJ series. Crafted in Japan, the model’s basswood body features a big leaf maple arched top and five-ply binding, and is paired with a graphite-reinforced bolt-on quartersawn maple neck and 12”-16” compound radius ebony fingerboard with rolled edges and 22 stainless-steel frets. It’s stacked with Eddie’s preferred touring specs, too. Tone comes via a custom-wound EVH Wolfgang Alnico 2 humbucker in the bridge and an…

With a new Blur album imminent and the ‘will they, won’t they?’ chatter about an Oasis reunion seemingly never-ending, what better time to take a look at the songwriting secrets of 90s Britpop and Brit-rock? It was a movement chock-full of great guitar players, and here we analyse the techniques and tricks of some the best. It turns out 90s British guitar music is a real mix of styles. Check out the shoegaze of Ride’s Andy Bell, the G n’ R-style influences of the Manic Street Preachers, the grungey loud/soft sensibilities of Ash, the angular, experimental sounds of Blur and Radiohead – and that’s before we’ve even mentioned Oasis, Suede, The Charlatans, The Stone Roses, or any others… Perhaps it goes without saying that it’s near impossible to make gear…

The Wolfgang WG Standard QM features a basswood body with special “comfort cut” forearm contour for maximum playing ease, along with attractive masked-off natural body binding and an elegant quilt maple top. Its bolt-on baked maple neck with graphite-reinforcement rods holds strong against the ravages of temperature and humidity, while a conveniently located spoke wheel at the base of the neck makes for quick and painless truss rod adjustments. Designed for comfortable playability and speed, the Wolfgang WG Standard QM features a smooth oiled finish on the back of the neck and a 12”-16” compound radius baked maple fingerboard with rolled edges, 22 jumbo frets and black dot inlays. Dual EVH Wolfgang humbucking pickups mounted directly to the body increase vibration transfer, resulting in sustain for days on end. The…

Californian heavy metal stars Avenged Sevenfold introduced a progressive edge to their sound on the 2016 album The Stage, but that was a drop in the ocean compared to the mind-melting sonic evolution of Life Is But A Dream… – the band’s most creatively ambitious record to date. In between their seemingly impossible transitions into jazz, classical and electronica, guitarists Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance prove yet again that they are one of the finest guitar duos working in modern metal, pairing razor-sharp riffing with the kind of arpeggios typified by shred masters like John Petrucci and Paul Gilbert. 1 GAME OVER The album kicks off with a mellifluous flamenco style lullaby before erupting into a hellish symphony of distorted guitars and pounding drums. A minute later arrives the first…

CLASSIC TRACK Detroit Rock City co-writer Paul Stanley recently told TG: “It started with the riff and that became the incessant part of the song. With the riff you get that sense of release with the big powerchords.” He’s dead right, of course. Listen to DRC’s intro and you’ll hear a guitar part gradually growing as single-note riffs give way to those huge A5 and B5 powerchords. The track is played with a shuffle feel throughout and has an unusual structure, comprising four verses, an interlude riff, an extended twin-guitar solo, and a combined tag and chorus section. When you’re playing the harmony lines, it’s important to be absolutely tight with the other guitar, matching subtler nuances such as string bends and vibrato. SOUND ADVICE Everything you need to know…

1 POSITIVE GRID BIAS FX 2 Good news if you already own PG’s modelling plugin and standalone software: its huge new update is free. For the rest of us it’s a great excuse to invest in its overhauled DSP sound engine for ten of the key amp models. The Cabs 3.0 element also includes 10 new custom IRs, alongside an improved UI for building signal chains via drag-and-drop. Guitar Match II also allows you to now model classic acoustic guitars and basses as well as electrics. From $69 (update free for existing users) www.positivegrid.com 2 MUSICNOMAD L-BEAM FRET LEVELLER AND TRI-BEAM 3 N’ 1 STRAIGHT EDGE Experiencing choking or buzz from your frets? You could have high spots on them. These two new tools from US guitar tools brand MusicNomad…

REVIEW The amp market right now is more diverse than ever. From traditional combos and heads to profiling and modelling, we’ve now entered the ‘pedalboard era’ when it comes to plugging in: floor-based preamp and amp solutions that negate the need to carry a head altogether. However, that’s where things become less clear. Some pedal-amps are equipped with power stages and can serve as the backbone to your entire rig. Others offer a choice of regular outputs for sending to a power amp or active cabinet, emulated outputs for going direct to a PA or audio interface for recording. And some have the job lot. So, what’s Two Notes’ ReVolt Guitar? Well, the brand calls it an ‘Analog Amp Sim’. That’s nothing new – ask your uncle about his SansAmp…