Innehållsförteckning för September 2023 från Total Guitar

I think it’s fair to say that if you don’t like the tone coming from your amp, well, you’re probably gonna change it somehow! Of course, how far each of us takes this tonal tweakery comes down to individual preferences. For some, a guitar or maybe two, a carefully chosen amp and perhaps a couple of pedals is all that’s required. Others go down the rabbit hole of large guitar collections, multi-amp set-ups and huge pedalboards to create their sounds. Point is, wherever you find yourself on this spectrum, your tone matters. It’s the key to how you express yourself on your guitar. And so this month we’re taking a look at all things tone. You’ll find lessons on setting up your guitar to get the best sound, creative ways…

Today, it’s harder than ever to describe the sonic characteristics of pickup types – there are so many configurations, both stock and after-market, that blur the lines of each core design. For every classic single coil there’s a stacked noiseless unit; for every vintage-voiced humbucker there’s a high-output facemelter for metal. However, there are a few key categories of pickup to know about. A little knowledge of each one’s origins and uses will help you identify your own tonal requirements should you wish to swap out your axe’s pups. SINGLE COILS Early designs appeared in Rickenbacker lap steels, Gibson and Gretsch semis, and then later in Fender’s Telecaster predecessor, the Esquire, but perhaps the archetypal single-coil pickup is that found in the Fender Stratocaster. The Strat’s later five-way (originally three-way)…

How much does the gear you use inform the music you make? I’ll be backstage playing through this small Blackstar amp in the dressing room. And it sounds so good the sound guy will walk in and say, ‘Can we just mic that fucking thing up?!’ And then Steve Vai might come in and it will instantly turn into his sound. We know amps and guitars are important, but your own DNA is bigger than that. You end up realising that amps and pedals aren’t there to elevate our playing, they’re there to get out of the way of our playing. We all know what we sound like in our heads. That’s what you want to come out of the speakers. So gear can be a hindrance, in certain situations?…

81 START WITH THE SOUND THAT INSPIRES YOU MOST Megan: Tone is really important to me. As a slide player, it’s such a big part in harnessing that vocal quality of the style – which is actually what drew me to it in the first place. I have been searching for the ultimate tone for a very long time! I started out on Dobro and then picked up a 1940s Rickenbacker lap steel in my mid-teens. I was so struck by the tone of the Rickenbacker because it was so beautiful and mellow. I’m really glad I found that guitar early on, because it determined my sound through the years. I’m definitely the kind of person who finds something tried and true, and then likes to stick with it and…

It hardly seems possible that this song could be 20 years old, but Mr. Brightside was The Killers’ debut single back in 2003. One of the first songs to emerge from the fledgling writing partnership of Brandon Flowers (lead vocals, keyboards) and Dave Keuning (lead guitar/vocals), it catapulted the Las Vegas rockers to instant fame, quickly achieving worldwide multi-platinum status and featuring on their debut album Hot Fuss upon its release the following year. Dave Keuning’s distinctive guitar style is due in part to his wide range of influences: from Johnny Marr to Angus Young. The intro/verse riff requires some deft fingering, so if you’re not blessed with long fingers like Keuning then check out the alternative chord shapes we’ve provided. Using our suggested chord shapes you’ll find that it’s…

1 EHX PICO SERIES Small pedals are big news these days, and EHX has just shrunk the blueprint even further with two new Pico series pedals. First up is the Pico Pog, which puts EHX’s legendary Polyphonic Octave Generator inside an enclosure measuring just 92mm x 51mm x 51mm. Similarly, the tiny Pico Platform Compressor/Limiter uses the same size enclosure for a well-stocked compressor pedal; its price is TBA at the time of writing. £219www.ehx.com 2 FENDER ‘TO THE STARS’ COLLECTION This month’s reviews section features the freshly-reissued Fender Tom DeLonge Strat. So, what better accompaniment than straps, picks and cables? The picks and straps proudly wear Tom’s To The Stars branding, and the straps are available in the exact same colour options as his signature model, so you can…

Anyone who attended the 1991 Monsters Of Rock festival at Donington Park, England, or has whiled away a Friday night, supping cold ones and enjoying AC/DC’s heroic headlining set on video, will recognise this SG. It’s a dead ringer for Angus Young’s weapon of choice on the night. Finished in Ebony, with a rosewood fingerboard and acrylic trapezoid inlays, the five-ply teardrop pickguard, the MOP ‘pineapple’ inlay on the headstock – it’s a classic. This you might think should be an evergreen staple of the Gibson USA lineup alongside the Vintage Cherry variants and yet it’s a limited run European exclusive for Peach Guitars. We don’t have the answer why Gibson doesn’t have this available 24/7, 365 days a year, but they should. The SG Standard ’61 is a Les…

You might have heard of Loog before – the brand that puts guitars in the hands of kids with its easy-to-play, three-stringers. Now, the company has partnered with Fender for a pair of three-string guitars based on two iconic designs. The Fender x Loog Stratocaster and Telecaster (£189) pack a lightweight, Paulownia body and 19-fret, 20.6” scale-length maple neck into a compact format, ideal for kids. Each has one single coil pickup and one volume control, plus they come with access to the Loog Guitar app, a set of flashcards, picks and a Leo Fender For Kids booklet to learn about the man himself.…

The drive from Fayston, Vermont, to Topanga Valley, California, spans the breadth of the continental USA and clocks in just shy of 3,000 miles. It’ll take around 44 hours behind the wheel, plenty of time to do some thinking. Ask Grace Potter – she’s been there, done that. It’s where her new solo studio album, Mother Road, first started coming together, not that she knew it at the time as she wrestled a big ol’ fold-out Rand McNally Road Atlas, marking the route with a Sharpie. There were no melody lines hummed into an iPhone. Grace had more pressing things on her mind, such as the car itself, a 2020 VW Atlas, that she swears was trying to kill her. “It was a lemon,” she says. “The electrics on the…

01 EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT STRINGS The material your strings are made of fundamentally affects your guitar tone. Of course, electric guitars require metal strings in order for the magnetic pickups to work, however, string manufacturers offer a range of alloys, each with different tonal properties. Plain steel and nickel-wound steel are most common for unwound/wound strings respectively. Rotosound’s Ultramags are a ‘highly magnetic’ string which they say gives more power and sustain. Ernie Ball’s Cobalt series ‘maximises output and clarity’. You can judge their claims for yourself, but our experience is that materials do matter! 02 GET PLUCKY! Not all picks are equal, and yes, they certainly can affect your tone. Eric Johnson and John Petrucci have each made use of Dunlop Jazz IIIs, both tweaking the shape of the…

64 STICK WITH LOWER WATTAGES IN SMALLER SPACES It’s all too easy to get carried away with volume when buying a new valve amp. More power equals more tone, right? Well, no. That only really comes into effect when you’re driving the valves hard at higher volumes on arena or festival stages. If you’re playing small gigs and using your amp at rehearsal studios or home, a 20-watt combo will probably suit you better than a 100-watt behemoth you can’t quite push to its full potential. If your high-wattage amp has a low-power mode or built-in power soak, try seeing how the tones compare, or consider using an external attenuator. “We’ve found great satisfaction with the Blackstar Artisan when recording in the studio,” ZZ Top legend Billy Gibbons told TG…

Welcome to our Icons of Tone lesson, in which we set sail on an odyssey of exploration, taking in the sounds and techniques of the most legendary guitarists in the history of rock and pop. We’ve created 15 tab examples that take inspiration from each of our chosen guitarists’ work. Learning our riffs and licks will provide you with technical insight into how they play and give you a vehicle to experiment with your own tone creation. As ever, you’ll find full audio mixes so you can hear our creations, plus guitar-free examples to jam along to. Don’t worry too much about your gear, however. Your main goal should be to hone your touch and feel as you emulate the style of each guitarist. It’s a key part of tone…

What is tab? Tab is short for tablature, a notational system used to give detailed information as to where notes should be played on the fretboard. Tab appears underneath conventional music notation as six horizontal lines that represent the strings of the guitar, from the sixth (thick) string at the bottom to the first (thin) string at the top. On these lines, numbers represent which frets you place your fingers. For example, an A note on the 2nd fret, third string, will be shown as a number ‘2’ on the third line down on the tab. Unfretted strings are shown with a ‘0’. The key and time signatures are shown in the notation. TG also includes a timestamp to tell you where in the original track you’ll find each example…

Since the company’s acquisition by Zound Industries earlier this year there are signs that things are really on the move again at Marshall. We recently reviewed four classic reissue pedals and here we’re looking at a new but long overdue addition to the British-made Studio series, the Studio JTM. Inspired by the original JTM45’s built and sold in Marshall’s Hanwell music stores, the Studio JTM shares the same reduced size, weight and output power as the other amps in the Studio range, fitting in with current trends for improved portability and neighbour-friendly volume levels. The cosmetics faithfully recreate Marshall’s early 1960s non-offset look, with black and cream vinyl and a silver control panel, topped with a reproduction of the dark red enamel-filled ‘coffin’ badge, so-called because they were originally sourced…

In celebration of this year’s landmark 140th anniversary, Gretsch has released an all-new Double Platinum Collection of guitars in stunning two-tone finishes. The Chinese-built hollowbody G5420T-140 we’re looking at here comes from the company’s mid-tier Electromatic range and features a laminated maple body, maple neck, 625mm-scale laurel fingerboard, a pair of Filter’Tron humbuckers and a Bigsby B60 tremolo for a dash of classic vintage shimmer. Now, while you pay an extra £50 above the price of a standard G5420T, you do get some premium appointments in the form of the chrome/pearloid pickup covers, anniversary badge and that limited edition finish. Looks may be subjective, but we suspect the styling alone may justify the price for many. Two things strike us upon picking the G5420T-140 up. First, acoustically, it sounds great.…

Picture the scene: two ultra cool young musicians – both named James – are brought together under one roof during a surreal detention of global proportions and spend the next 18 months writing songs in their garage, cranking their amps and waiting not so patiently to be allowed out to play. Then, in a “fairytale kind of moment,” their music gets heard by a rock-star-turned-record-label-owner on the other side of the Atlantic, and they find themselves catapulted directly into their wildest dreams. Nope, it’s not the plot of the feel good musical movie of the summer, it’s the story of James And The Cold Gun – a band of plucky punk ’n’ roll upstarts from Cardiff who are well on their way to big things. “One of our songs ended…

“IF YOU DON’T WANT TO PLAY A PEDAL CALLED ‘TOTAL SONIC ANNIHILATION’ THEN YOU NEED TO PUT DOWN YOUR GUITAR RIGHT NOW!” SIMON NEIL You probably didn’t have Biffy Clyro’s frontman Simon Neil and live guitarist Mike Vennart down as the guys most likely to produce 2023’s scuzziest metal album, but with the heavyweight additions of ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and ex-Bitch Falcon bassist Naomi Macleod, they have produced a serious contender. Empire State Bastard began years ago as a pipe dream that Simon and Mike discussed on tour. “It was always going to be extreme,” says Simon. “We didn’t want to just make a noisy record flippantly. We needed a valid reason to express that rage.” With his frustrations at boiling point following Brexit and the pandemic, and Mike…

When your dad is one of the most influential figures in punk rock history, it’s unlikely that you’re going to grow up aspiring to hold down a normal nine-to-five. But, for Jakob Armstrong – youngest son of Green Day’s Billie Joe – the moment of realisation that he was destined to follow the family trade didn’t arrive until he’d already sampled a more conventional path. “I don’t think I knew that making music was my vocation until, honestly, I was 18 or 19,” says the now 24-year-old Jakob. “I had already graduated high school and I’d been playing with the guys in my band for a long time. I tried going to college, but after about a year I realised that I did not enjoy it. I missed playing music…

Amp channel An amplifier increases a guitar’s electrical signal in order to reproduce the sound through a connected speaker. Many amplifiers are equipped with separate audio signal paths (aka channels), usually voiced differently to produce a clean sound on one and a more distorted sound on the other. British amp sound A catch-all term referring originally to the tones of British amp brands from the 1960s and ’70s such as Marshall and Vox. The former is renowned for the overdriven, saturated tones of the JTM and JCM series. Vox’s AC30 is noted for a cleaner, chimier sound as heard on music by The Beatles and The Shadows. Delay An effect that plays back an audio signal after a period of time. Typically the pause ranges from a few milliseconds to…

GET MORE FROM YOUR DRIVE PEDALS 15 TUBE AMP SATURATION USING A BOOST This is the oldest tone trick in the book. Tube amps sound best when they’re being pushed. Using a gain pedal in front of an amp results in additional breakup and compression. This works best with smaller tube amps, as they run out of headroom quicker, and trip into power tube saturation. For higher-wattage amps, add some preamp gain at the amp, too. 16 DON’T USE TOO MUCH GAIN Most of the time, distortion and overdrive pedals don’t sound great when maxed out. Start at a low setting, and gradually raise the gain until you’re happy with the sound. Even for metal, most bands are using less gain than you think. As discussed above, into a tube…

72 USE YOUR MULTI-EFFECTS’ COMPUTER SOFTWARE Many multi-effects units have USB connectivity and come with software for more intensive tweaking, giving increased control over the parameters of each effect and amp model, as well as the signal chain in general. It’s potentially the key to unlocking the exact sound you hear in your head. Even if your sonic requirements are relatively simple, the ability to experiment by dragging and dropping virtual effects around the signal chain can be a highly creative and fun process. 73 MAKE SURE YOUR PRESET LEVELS ARE SIMILAR One of the most important things when using a multi-effect unit is having a uniform volume across all your presets. Uneven levels means your parts won’t cut through the mix when you switch between presets. A smartphone app…

Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is revered as one of rock’s finest players. When most people think of a player with taste, poise, immense phrasing and silky of tones, few names will crop up as regularly as his. Comfortably Numb features two epic solos that define many of the traits with which Gilmour is associated: three-fret string bends, whammy-bar vibrato, memorable melodies, expressive pentatonic phrasing and more. It’s incredible how much mileage he gets out of solos that will often only use a couple of scale shapes. Notice how many of his ideas are easy to remember and easy to sing, with a definable shape and journey; something worth considering when embarking on your own longer solos. SOUND ADVICE Everything you need to know before playing ‘Comfortably Numb’ For the…

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…