With a strong focus on the Australian music scene, Australian Guitar is a rich source of information on playing techniques, styles, the wide range of instruments available and all the technology that guitarists have to consider in the 21st Century.
NEWS Jackson has unveiled a host of new models for the new year, including two eye-catching additions to its affordable X-Series, in the shape of these Dinky DK1s. The Dinky is, of course, a Jackson classic - its name owing to its slightly smaller body (being 7/8ths the size of the firm’s other double-cutaway electric guitar, the Soloist). It also has a bolt on neck, rather than the neck-thru body build of its bigger brother. The new models - the X-Series DK1A and DK1 H - follow that form factor but offer an appealing combination of dazzling finishes and the strippedback spec of a shred workhorse. Both guitars feature nyatoh bodies, graphite reinforced maple necks and a laurel fretboard with a 12-16” compound radius - making for a nice low-action…
Montreal’s Ground Control is setting the worlds of guitar pedals and video games on a collision course with its latest pedal, the UwU. It’s tremendously ridiculous and was the firm’s centrepiece at NAMM 2024. The pedal itself is a signal chain booster and Tamagotchi-inspired game all in one. A cat-like creature lives inside the pedal and responds to your playing. Suffice to say, it’s blown our minds. Stepping momentarily aside from the gimmicks, the UwU is a robust op-amp guitar buffer pedal, giving it actual live rig value. It guards even the longest chains from signal loss thanks to its 18v of signal headroom and it also sports high input impedance (1MΩ) and low output impedance (25Ω). Naturally, though, it’s the other side of the pedal that’s grabbing the headlines,…
As the world eased itself into 2024, the Smashing Pumpkins broke the internet when they announced they were looking for a new guitarist… and anyone could apply. Now, the alt-rock icons are facing up to the reality of their generous offer, revealing that over 10,000 guitar players have applied for the position. In a social media post simply captioned, “Update”, SP writes, “The band has received over 10,000 submissions for the position of additional guitarist. Currently, there are 8 people working full-time to review each and every one.” There’s no word or the credentials of the eight-strong team reviewing applications, but we’d assume they are pretty guitar- and Pumpkins-sawy. Although we imagine their primary job will be weeding out anyone who just emailed in to say, “I can play Today…
INTERVIEW The Mark Of Cain emerged from a relatively isolated city whose music scene, in the mid ‘80s, had already birthed punk acts like The Exploding White Mice and Perdition. A decade prior Adelaide had experienced the glory days of their most popular musical exports, Cold Chisel and The Angels, with lingering memories of the ‘60s and The Masters Apprentices. Formed by the brothers John and Kim Scott in 1984, The Mark Of Cain released their debut album Battlesick in 1989. Originally a four-piece, the brothers Scott were first joined by vocalist Rod Archer and the first of their 15 subsequent drummers, Gavin Atkinson, who both remained until mid-1985. Inspired by the acridity of Big Black, early Swans, and the darkness of Joy Division, whose singer Ian Curtis was a…
INTERVIEW The group’s name comes from a buzzword promoted by fitness trainers and doctors. Now, Gut Health is causing a buzz of their own beyond Melbourne’s music community, releasing two EPs and three singles in the last 15 months. After playing industry expos such as SXSW and Bigsound, Gut Health has now shared lineups with the likes of Kraftwerk, Mudhoney and Alex G. As one might expect from such an eclectic purveyor of disorienting, bouncy post-punk, Gut Health’s origin is quite surprising. The concept for the band was first conceived in Melbourne around 2020-2021, partiallyinspired by the boredom of eight months of COVIDinduced lockdown in the most locked-down city on earth. Gut Health’s founding figures are their exuberant singer and front person, Athina Uh Oh, and bassist Adam Markmann. As…
INTERVIEW As one of the few remaining pop-punk bands from the genre’s early-2000s resurgence, Simple Plan maintain their reputation as a stadium-filling musical force in their 25th year of existence. The group first assembled in the FrenchCanadian suburbia of Montreal in 1999, comprised of young members of two defunct teenage punk bands, Roach and Reset. Roach’s former members Pierre Bouvier, Chuck Comeau and Jeff Stinco have remained members of Simple Plan ever since, alongside Sebastien Lefebvre. The group released their debut album No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls in 2002, promoted via their breakthrough first single ‘I’m Just A Kid’. The album’s title started a tradition of sly genitalia and sex jokes, most recently continued with 2022’s Harder Than It Looks. in the decades between, Simple Plan became Warped Tour mainstays,…
