Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2020 i Guitar Player

WHO KNOWS WHAT guitar music might be today if Stevie Ray Vaughan hadn’t come along in 1983. When SRV and Double Trouble released Texas Flood that year, radio was dominated by synth-pop and hair-metal acts. It seemed unlikely that an electric blues album was going to change anything, let alone make a dent in the charts. But that’s exactly what Stevie and his band did. Despite assurances from record promoters that rock radio would never touch the album or its pair of singles, “Pride and Joy” and “Love Struck Baby,” Texas Flood began climbing the charts shortly after its June 13 release that year, while the video for the latter track became an MTV staple. Touring the U.S. in support of the album, SRV and Double Trouble saw attendance at…

WHEN THE FENDER Custom Shop unveiled the first two guitars in its Relic series at the 1995 winter NAMM convention, it pioneered an aesthetic that thoroughly permeated the high-end electric guitar-building world. Today, you almost have to specify that you would prefer the finish and hardware not to be distressed when you order a boutique axe. Yet, when North Carolina luthiers Wes Lambe and Ben Maschal decided to launch Pre-War Guitars in 2014, nearly 20 years after Fender’s first steps, no one had introduced aging into the acoustic guitar-building space. “We’d never really seen anyone do it,” Maschal says. “So we decided, ‘Let’s do a traditional, vintage-style handmade acoustic guitar with a dovetail neck joint, hot hide glue — all the things that people want — add a few modern…

TOM LIEBER HAS been building fine, handcrafted guitars since 1971, when he began an apprenticeship with Northern California luthier Doug Irwin, who had made several instruments for Jerry Garcia. Those creations included Wolf, the first custom guitar Irwin built for the Grateful Dead guitarist. In 1974, Lieber helped create the most iconic of Garcia’s guitars, Tiger, a no-holds-barred build that became Garcia’s most-played guitar, as well as a custom bass for Pete Sears of Jefferson Starship. Lieber parted ways with Irwin in 1977 and went on to develop the highly innovative Spider Grinder bass, which jazz bassist/composer Stanley Clarke adopted in 1979. Clarke then requested an all-graphite bass, a project that awarded Lieber four patents and led them to form the Spellbinder Corporation in 1980. Fifty copies of the bass…

TERE ESTRADA IS a guitarist, singer/songwriter, author and sociologist from Mexico City who plays a mixture of blues, rock, jazz and Latin. I reached out to her because of her book Sirens on the Attack: A History of Mexican Rock Women (1956–2000), and I was struck by her dedication to uncovering the stories of female musicians in Mexico. In 2018, Tere released her eighth album, Un Blues en la Penumbra (A Blues in the Gloom), which is inspired by her novel of the same name, about a Mexican woman who performs in the male world of rock and roll in the 1960s and ’70s. Visit tere-estrada.com.mx for more information. Why did you call your book Sirens on the Attack? I was making an analogy between the rock women and the…

Eric Johnson “Stevie was one of the rare guitarists who was a complete musician. Great guitar playing, excellent singing and great songs — the whole package. I remember when he was playing in Paul Ray and the Cobras many years ago, there would be the wonderful moment where Stevie took center stage and would start singing, ‘Well, it’s flooding down in Texas, all the telephone lines are down…’ And the rest of his musical journey is beautiful history. I loved it, and he was a very kind human being.” Tommy Shaw (Styx) “SRV was one of those originals who you couldn’t watch for just a minute and then move on to something else. His genuine ‘lost in it’ presence when he played makes you want to go there too. His…

LISTENERS MIGHT APPROACH Cindy Blackman Santana’s new album, Give the Drummer Some (Copperline Music Group), with the expectation that it’s chock full of drum solos and percussion pieces. And they would be very, very wrong. With the exception of one unaccompanied drum spot (a tour de force called “Mother Earth”), the expansive, 17-track disc is a veritable guitar fan’s dream, with each song serving as a playground for heavyweights such as Vernon Reid, John McLaughlin and Kirk Hammett to stretch out and roam freely. And for good measure, Cindy’s husband, Carlos Santana, is more than aptly represented. The guitar icon lends his signature solos to eight dizzying cuts. “The guitar is one of my favorite instruments, so the album reflects that,” Blackman Santana says. “The music that I’m doing just…

JAMES TAYLOR IS one of the most influential acoustic guitar players of all time, period. The iconic tunesmith is the first to admit that his “primitive” fingerstyle may not be fancy, but as he explains in the following interview, he invented his own approach, and it has certainly worked for him. Taylor has sold more than 100 million albums — pause to let that sink in for a moment — and yet, 2015’s Before This World was his first to reach Number One. His easygoing style practically defined the sound of the sensitive singer-songwriter in the ’70s, but his music has always had a timeless quality. Classic compositions like “Fire and Rain” and “Country Road,” and signature covers such as Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” will undoubtedly live in…

WE RECENTLY ADDRESSED how to work with the thumb and fingers on your way to becoming a fully fledged fingerstylist. But this month we’re going to address a hot topic in the year of the coronavirus: fingernails. Fingernail maintenance is absolutely essential once all your digits are incorporated in the plucking-hand attack. Since natural nails break easily and always seem to be there least when needed most — say, for a big gig — many fingerstylists find help in the form of fake nails. This month we’ll explore these useful implements and how to maintain them, as well as look at some alternatives. THE HARD TRUTH Playing steel strings aggressively night after night requires acrylic nails. They’re the most durable kind available and as hard as Plexiglas. Gel nails aren’t…

BASED ON THE PSA-1 rackmount processor introduced in 1993, the new PSA 2.0 is a super-flexible tone machine boasting all-analog circuitry (only the memory and programming sections are digitally controlled) in a sleek brushed-metal enclosure that is slightly under eight inches long and two and a half inches wide. That’s smaller than most foot switches for multichannel amps! Intended to be used as a stompbox or preamp — as well as for direct recording and a variety of other studio applications — the PSA 2.0 is a powerful tone-generator/shaper. Its phalanx of controls include gain (input sensitivity), buzz (boosts/cuts low-end overdrive), punch (boosts/cuts midrange overdrive), crunch (boosts/cuts high-end overdrive), drive (works like the volume control on a non-master tube amp), low and high (active shelving EQs that boost or cut…

ALTHOUGH “SURRENDER” WAS featured on Cheap Trick’s third album, 1978’s Heaven Tonight, the song actually dates back to the band’s pre-record deal club days. As guitarist Rick Nielsen points out, “We almost recorded it for our debut album, but we did something like 26 songs for that one, so ‘Surrender’ never made it. Nor did it make our second album, In Color. It wasn’t until the third album that we gave it a go.” Released as a single, the studio version of “Surrender” stalled at number 62 on the Billboard charts. The track didn’t take on its status as a rock anthem until 1979, when the band delivered its bravura live performance of the song on their breakthrough album, Cheap Trick at Budokan. “The studio version is good, but I’m…

The New Black GP just keeps getting better. I loved the Layla issue [July 2020], and I’ve just finished digging into the making of AC/DC’s Back in Black article [August 2020]. These stories are captivating, and it’s great to get all the details about gear, including the history of the SG. And speaking of gear, the “Raising of Lazarus” story [August] is fantastic! It reads like a good investigative story — suspenseful and satisfying. Please keep these kinds of stories coming. The Aficionado section of the magazine has really been superb, and stories like Lazarus are the icing on the cake. —TOM ALLEN, SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN Awesome AC/DC issue, guys. Such a great read, and while it was a little heavy on Brian Johnson, I guess it makes sense, since that’s…

“MAKE IT NOISY, MAKE IT LOUD, GIVE ME SOME FEEDBACK. BUT STAY FOCUSED ON THE TASK AT HAND, WHICH IS GIVING PEOPLE GOOD MUSIC” “ROCK AND ROLL is a creation of Black America,” Seattle-based guitarist Ayron Jones says. “Even though it may be less talked about and may be forgotten by some of the newer generations, it’s our sound. Not to keep and hold on to, but it runs through our veins.” On “Take Me Away,” the first taste from his forthcoming debut for Big Machine/John Varvatos Records, Jones makes his feelings known in no uncertain terms, from the marching, Rage Against the Machine–inspired opening riff to the feedback-laced trem-bar dive that launches his band into orbit. No chords or notes are safe from Jones’ ferocious delivery. “The same place…

WHEN ASSESSING ALEX Skolnick’s prodigious body of work as one of the world’s most accomplished and respected guitarists, it almost makes sense to consider retitling this article “My Career in Five Styles,” since his résumé is as expansive as it is impressive. The Berkeley native and former student of Joe Satriani was initially hailed for his decade-long stint as lead guitarist with West Coast thrash-metal pioneers Testament. He also logged time with symphonic metal stalwarts Savatage, funk-fusion bass master Stu Hamm and even Ozzy Osbourne before taking a hiatus from rock to study jazz at New York City’s prestigious New School. This musical reinvention led to the formation of the Alex Skolnick Trio, a group that blended the ethos of classic hard rock and metal with the improvisational freedom and…

IN SAN FRANCISCO, back in the 1980s, ultra-hip multi-instrumentalist Robin Sylvester hired me to play a drum session for singer, actress and popular KSAN-FM deejay Mimi Chen. I was a bit of what Robin referred to as a “Quippy,” a British expression for guys who are way too into their gear. At the time, I put great stock in new instruments and thought of older equipment as “outdated.” That session was an eye-opener for me. Robin brought in an array of old funky guitars, keyboards and amps, and everything he played sounded fresh. That’s when I started to see older instruments in a different light. This month’s 1965 Framus New Sound TV 12-string electric fits right into that epiphany. Strikingly beautiful and somewhat rare, it fills a void in the…

“IT’S IMPORTANT THAT EVERYBODY GETS THEIR SAY. I DON’T WANT IT TO BE JUST ALL GUITAR” AS A MEMBER of one of rock’s most influential bands, Robby Krieger not only added unique textures and an innovative slide guitar approach to the Doors’ sound — he also wrote or co-wrote many of their most notable tracks, including “Light My Fire,” “Touch Me,” “Love Her Madly” and the bar-band staple “Roadhouse Blues.” When Krieger joined the Doors, in 1965, he’d been playing electric guitar for only a couple of years, having started out performing flamenco and folk on an acoustic. He was always a keen experimenter, though, and his explorations into Indian music helped him to find ways to broaden the palette of the traditional rock and blues guitar approaches. His slide…

It might surprise people that your wife, a drummer, would create such a weighty guitar record. Perhaps, but I can see it quite clearly because of the core principles of who she is. She’s Tony Williams Lifetime, so that’s John McLaughlin. But there’s also Cream and Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix. She’s all of that. I asked Cindy this, but I’ll also ask you: Any difference in how you two work when she’s playing in Santana or when you’re playing on her music? You know, it’s different for me, because for the last 25 years I’ve been the director or the producer. Playing on Cindy’s album was very relaxing for me, because all I had to do was listen to the music and do my best to complement each song. I…

IT’S NOT UNCOMMON for a hotshot high school guitarist to venture off to music college and quickly discover he’s no longer the only player in the room with chops. Speaking from experience, it’s humbling. Pursuant to my wake-up call, I decided not only to up my musical game but also to redefine it. As an undergrad at William Paterson University who transplanted from the Jersey Shore, I set out on a search that led me back to my hometown area, where I met bassist Gerald Carboy. By then, Gerry was a well-rounded, veteran professional musician who logged time playing with the likes of Tal Farlow, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kevin Eubanks, Barry Miles, David Sancious and Jeanie Bryson. Unbeknownst to me, he’d been living right under my nose all along. It…

NAMED FOR THE Southern California guitar shop where Taylor Guitars was founded back in 1974, the American Dream series was created to provide an affordable solid-wood instrument that springs from the Grand Pacific round-shouldered dreadnought platform that Andy Powers designed in 2016. The Grand Pacific is a very different type of Taylor, with a warmer and more “blended” sound that Powers says was inspired by the guitar tones heard on classic bluegrass and country recordings from the ’50s and ’60s. Essentially, it’s the sound of a steel-string flattop that has been miked, compressed, EQ’d, recorded, mastered and pressed to vinyl. That’s thinking outside the box! The American Dream series follows this same philosophy, while delivering a high level of performance courtesy of V-Class bracing, all at a price that’s very…

DIGITAL AMPLIFIER PLUG-INS have made it possible to get great tube-like guitar tones in home and professional studio environments alike. Given the ease and convenience of IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube offerings and popular software from Universal Audio, Waves, Positive Grid and others, guitarists are discovering the benefits of laying down their tracks via DI and perfecting the tones in the mix. To that end, IK Multimedia has released the new Z-TONE DI, a rugged and well-equipped DI that offers more utility and greater tone-shaping options than first meet the eye. A ¼-inch jack alongside the guitar input allows you to link the untreated guitar signal to a live amp or modeling unit to record parallel tracks, with the option of treating the DI’d signal later. The gain control has a center…

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SONIC EXPLORER DAVID TORN has conferred his exotic tones and textures on recordings by David Bowie, k.d. lang, John Legend, Madonna, Tori Amos, David Sylvian and Meshell Ndegeocello, among many others. His loops and compositional skills have been put to use in movies like Friday Night Lights, Velvet Goldmine, Adaptation, The Big Lebowski, Reversal of Fortune and Three Kings. He’s also recorded music under his own name and in largely free-improvisation ensembles like Prezens and Sun of Goldfinger. But recording Sonar’s Vortex in 2018 was the first time Torn joined an existing group. He was originally hired to produce the Swiss instrumental quartet, but the band members — guitarists Stephan Thelen and Bernhard Wagner, bassist Christian Kuntner, and drummer Manuel Pasquinelli — dragooned him into playing on the whole record.…

SOLID-STATE GUITAR AMPS were touted as “the way forward” when they debuted in the 1960s, but the fad soon fizzled. Still, a few brands earned praise and lasting respect on the basis of either their sounds, appealing looks or both. Kustom Electronics is one of the few companies that sat firmly in the “both” category, and their products rocked the backlines of many noteworthy stars in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Today, most guitarists know Kustom’s early creations as the Tuck ’n’ Roll amps, due to the striking upholstery technique borrowed from the automotive industry that was used to apply their padded Naugahyde coverings. Kustom offered those vinyl wraps in a range of colorful metallic-sparkle options, including the Charcoal Sparkle shown on this 1970 Kustom K200B amp. However, several…

In the summer of 1988, Stevie Ray Vaughan had just completed an intensive tour of Europe when Tom Nolan sat down to talk to him in England for a frank discussion about his roots, overcoming addiction and finding redemption. Nolan was given little time for the interview, but his knowledge of blues showed through. He was surprised to find Stevie so forthright about his music and family life, his substance abuse and his subsequent return to a drug-free life. At the time, the guitarist was preparing to record In Step, his fourth studio album with his band, Double Trouble, and a record whose title reflected his newfound sobriety. Said Stevie, “I’m finally in step with life, in step with myself, in step with my music.” Reading Stevie’s words today, and…

SPECIAL DELIVERY “The SG Special with P-90s that I started out with was basically the cheapest one in the store. It was from a place called Ace Loans, in Santa Monica, which became a pretty well-known place for guitars, but at that point it was just a hockshop. I knew that they had some guitars in there, and pretty good prices. I think it was $190 or something for that SG. Then it got stolen, unfortunately, and I figured I’d try the one with the humbuckers. But I liked them both.” TERRIFIC TWINS “The first amp that I had was a Magnatone. It was a great little amp. I had a 212 that was like a Fender Twin Reverb, but that gave out after a while. We had a deal…

I’VE ALWAYS SEEN the guitar as a tool to make music with, and I was trying to make a tool that worked for everything,” Paul Reed Smith says of the foundational guitars he created decades ago that blazed the trail for PRS Guitars becoming what it is today — a phenomenally successful manufacturer of sleek, beautiful-playing instruments that have consistently delivered exceptional tone and quality. PRS may not have been producing guitars during the birth of rock and roll (or earlier, as some can claim), but in a strange way the company seems almost timeless, as if the entirety of modern guitar history was assimilated into its DNA, spawning concepts that would have been unthinkable, or at least overlooked, prior to its debut in 1985. Only a forward thinker with…

EVEN THOUGH IT took me a minute to recognize the genius of Slipknot, I’m a fan of both their music and production values. Think about it: If you gig in a mask, it not only doesn’t matter how old you are or what you look like, but you can send a substitute to cover for you, and no one will be the wiser. Seriously, though, Slipknot guitarist Jim Root is a tremendous player, and his signature models from Fender are always cool, none more so than the Jazzmaster V4 on review here. I demoed it through a 1x12 Victoria combo as well as with a Kemper Profiler driving a Celestion Greenback-loaded 2x12. Because my first good guitar was a 1966 Fender Jag, I’ve always had a soft spot for offset…

THIS LATEST ITERATION of the venerable TS-808 — originally made for Ibanez by Maxon — is designed by Susumu Tamura, the man who created the original Tubescreamer back in 1979. The Apex 808 bears the name “Tamura” on its black control plate and is built like a tank, with a full-metal enclosure that has a removable hatch on the bottom for access to the included nine-volt battery. The three controls are labeled D, T and L, and there’s an LED indicator and a jack on the front for external power. Reportedly, the Apex 808 is the result of Tamura’s analysis of more than 100 vintage and current-production OD- and TS-808 variants over a three-year period. What he discovered was that the best-sounding units had a certain brand and model of…