Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2017 i Guitar Player

THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY O F recorded music, many guitarists have created magic from the dimly lit booths of the studio, from legends like Tommy Tedesco, Jimmy Page, Larry Carlton, and Michael Landau to session master Steve Lukather, whose slick licks and smooth riffs have graced many recordings over the past several decades. Luke has hundreds of sessions and recording credits on his résumé, which also includes being a founding member of the Grammy awardwinning rock supergroup Toto. He has also released numerous inspired solo albums, each met with mass acclaim and celebration from his loyal fans all over the world. There are many things you can learn from a player as talented and creative as Steve Lukather, and this lesson will focus on an area of his playing that has…

GuitarPlayers EDITORS’ PICK APTLY DESCRIBED BY THE MANUFACturer as an “all-in-one Amp Modeler + Multi-FX Pedalboard Processor,” the AX8 ($1,249 direct) packs a considerable amount of the firepower of Fractal Audio’s flagship Axe-Fx II processor and companion MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller into a compact, floor-based unit that sells for less than half the price of those two units bundled together. That firepower includes Fractal’s proprietary Quantum amplifier and UltraRes cabinet modeling engines, as well as the same 256 amplifier and 179 “factory” cabinet models employed by the Axe-Fx II. The AX8 can also load “user” cabinet IRs from Fractal Audio’s Cab-Packs or third-party collections, or “custom” IRs created on the Axe-Fx II or using Fractal Audio’s CabLab software. And although there are fewer effects offered in the AX8, all the…

“VINTAGE, TO ME, IS NOT ANOTHER copy of an old Fender amp, the world has quite enough of those. It’s all the non-Fender amps circa-1947,” says David Barnes, who founded Vintage 47 with the idea of building high quality hand-wired amplifiers that were inspired by the guitar tones he heard on ’40s and early-’50s blues records—many of which spouted from Valco-made amplifiers. Hence, this review of four Vintage 47 combos features three V47 models derived from classic Valco designs, and one—the VA-185G—which traces its origin to the famed Gibson EH-185 of the late ’30s and early ’40s; a.k.a. the “Charlie Christian” amp. Now a partnership between Barnes and Steve Woolley (who owns and operates the factory in San Pedro, California), Vintage 47’s primary focus is low-wattage amps that are optimized…

SCOTT “HOMER T” GERBER SAYS HE’S not trying to reinvent the wheel, just trying to make a great wheel at a great price. We gotwhere he’s coming from right off the bat when we lifted these guitars from their cases and started sussing them out. Both guitars show adeep reverence for all things loveable about early ’60s Strats and Teles, and while neither has been overly dolled up to look like they’ve been trottedaround to every roadhouse in America (i.e., no cigarette burns, deep gashes, etc.) there’s a definite worn-in coolness to their nitro-lacquer finishes and, notably, the absence of finish on the backs of their necks. Other details common to both are high quality pots, switches, and clothcovered wire. Neither has a string tree either, which Homer says reduces…

“I TAUGHT GUITAR TO GREEN DAY’S BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG for ten years, and I also taught bassist Mike Dirnt a little bit,” says Berkeley, California, resident George Cole. “I’m super proud of them, and I love their music. I was an electric guitarist until I saw Biréli Lagrène at Yoshi’s about 13 years ago. I was overwhelmed, weeping, and wondering. The guy was so great that the next day I sold all my electric gear, and bought a 1933 Selmer guitar with serial number 103—which was very likely played in Django Reinhardt’s original Quintette du Hot Club de France. “I embarked on the journey of becoming an acoustic musician, and I eventually opened a show at the Freight & Salvagefor the David Grisman Sextet. His label folks offered me a…

UNLIKE A CONCERT DATE, THE EXPERIENCE of a music festival is often much more than the presentation of the performances onstage. For attendees and musicians alike, there are layers of activity surrounding the moments of downbeats and final crescendos. Glimpses of these can often pass into the ether of memory unless preserved under the watchful eye of a curatorial documentarian. Jim Marshall [1936-2010] was one such photographer, and during the heady 1960s, his presence at the jazz festivals in Monterey, California, and Newport, Rhode Island, allowed the capture of images from scenes unfolding both onstage and off with careful clarity. This book is a vital record of a transitional period of both jazz and American culture from the ending of the bebop era towards one of more modern styles. Images…

EARLIER THIS YEAR, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL’S NEIL Shah reported “heavy metal has become the unlikely soundtrack of globalization.” Under the headline “The World Goes Head-Banging,” the article told of metal’s popular dominium from Scandinavia to Russia to Latin America, Japan, Indonesia, and beyond. Depending on when you check the stats, Spotify will claim the most loyal streaming audience is for either metal or rap. Of course, the cool aspect of metal’s continuing cultural upsurge—even if you don’t dig the enraged cookie monster vocals favored by some bands—is that the guitars are loud, proud, and front and center. Not only that, both the old guard and the newbies typically embrace technique that’s frighteningly precise and fast, alternate tunings that expand the instrument’s range, and technology—given the number of metal players…

Since forming in Riverside, California, in 2002, Suicide Silence has followed its own path to metal eminence. The band members— guitarists Chris Garza and Mark Heylmun, bassist Dan Kenny, drummer Alex Lopez, and vocalist Eddie Hermida— inhabit the deathcore cosmos, but while they share the screamed vocals, complex time signatures, chunky and stuttered rhythms, and choreographed head banging of their peers, they’ve also channeled tragedy, hard work, and their musical heroes to carve out a singular identity. COVER STORY SUICIDE SILENCE In addition, Suicide Silence has managed to find success in the old-school record industry and the new media. Several of their YouTube videos have hit tens of millions of views, and they currently have 4.1 million Facebook fans, as well as 614,000 Twitter followers and 394,000 Instagram followers. But,…

CREAM’S PSYC H E D E L I C- B LUES cover of Blind Joe Reynolds’ “Outside Woman Blues”—along with “Sunshine of Your Love,” “S.W.L.A.B.R.,” “We’re Going Wrong,” and “World of Pain,” all from 1967’s Disraeli Gears—marked the major debut of Eric Clapton’s legendary “woman tone,” a term likely coined from the song’s title for a sound achieved by rolling the tone knobs on a humbuckerequipped Gibson back to “0” while blasting through a cranked Marshall stack. (Tip: You can see and hear E.C. demo the tone on his “Fool” SG in Cream’s Farewell Concert video, recorded in November, 1968 at the Royal Albert Hall.) But Clapton didn’t use that sound to play the song’s main four-bar rhythm figure, notated in Ex. 1a. Instead, trebly bridge-pickup tones characterize the riff,…

GuitarPlayer EDITORS’ PICK RECENTLY INTRODUCED IN 50- AND 100-watt combos and heads, the new Katana series amps from Boss are highly affordable and loaded with features. The models on review here are the 100-watt Head and 1x12 combo, and while they share most of the same features, the Head differs by having a MIDI jack (allowing it to be controlled by a MIDI foot-controller or multieffects unit), a speaker output (8Ω minimum), as well as a 5” internal speaker for practicing or rehearsals—all handy features that bump up the price by only $20! We were able to audition the Head through a variety of speaker cabinets, including a Mesa 1x12 recto cab and a Bad Cat 4x12. The combo version does not allow for an extension speaker, and its stock…

GuitarPlayer EDITORS’ PICK APTLY DESCRIBED BY ITS MAKERS AS “an American amp with a British accent,” the Super Fifty-Nine MK II has as much to do with classic English amplifiers as it does with the legendary “Mags” built in America during the ’50s and ’60s. Whatever its ancestry, however, this is one stunning combo. Aesthetically, the Super Fifty-Nine is quite dapper with its elegant Black Levant covering, made of 100-percent cotton book-binding material, and silver grille with white piping—while the illuminated lettering on the front panel (using nine incandescent bulbs) provides additional pizzazz. (A limited-edition cream “Perfectamundo” version is also available.) Inside this hand-wired beauty are topnotch components and a pair of TAD EL34s serving up 45 watts via a Class AB push/pull configuration. The overall workmanship is solid, tidy,…

BEFORE VOX, MARSHALL, AND HIWATT; before Laney, WEM, and Sound City; and before there was anything remotely like rock & roll in the British Isles, or anything we could call “the British sound”, there was Selmer. Unless you’re a horn player, or a fan of Gypsy jazz guitar, or a collector of lesser-known vintage British amplifiers, the name likely means little to you—but this brand was huge, and it has a long and compelling history in the music industry. That, and once rock did come to the UK, the Selmer badge appeared on some of the coolest guitar amplifiers ever made. Two-tone faux-croc-skin covering and a green “magic eye” tube that pulses in time with the tremolo? Oui s’il vous plaît, matron! Selmer was founded by Henri Selmer in France…

TUSQ Picks Graph Tech Guitar Labs Available Now TUSQ Picks are a totally new class of pick. Each model comes in three different tones, (bright, warm, deep), three shapes, and three gauges. Drop TUSQ picks onto a hard surface to hear each tone. TUSQ Picks feel alive, transmitting the feel of the string and your picking attack instantly to your fingertips. MSRP: $5.95 (4 or 6 pack), $56.95 (48 or 72 pack) www.graphtech.com 1-800-388-7011 sales@graphtech.com Raising The Bar Forrest Lee Jr. Available Now Forrest Lee Jr’s new album. Insane B-bending, ear twisting speed twang, metal, country, blues and rocking tones on 10 songs. Forrest Custom Guitars B-benders used throughout. Ripping guitar work, fueled by Four Roses Bourbon. Special guest Mark Slaughter on Beer Drinkers. Listen at your own risk! Available…

JON HERINGTON HAS PERFORMED with Steely Dan since 1999, and founders Walter Brecker and Donald Fagen are far from slouches when it comes to evaluating guitar solos. (To quote Bill Murray from Stripes: “That’s the fact, Jack!”) But as delightfully terrifying as that gig can be for a guitarist, Herington is definitely up for the challenge, and in addition to Steely Dan, his exquisitely crafted solos have graced projects for Boz Skaggs, Bette Midler, Madeleine Peyroux, and others. He has also released five albums as a solo artist. His latest, Adult Entertainment, is what he calls “pop music for grownups,” and many of his solos pay tribute to the players who inspired him as a youngster. Your last album, Time On My Hands, presented a singular guitar sound, but Adult…

“I FOUND AN INVESTOR” ARE FOUR words that often change careers and relationships. When accepting money from the range of a well-meaning friend or family member who supports your artistry all the way to a sophisticated investor trying to buy their way into the entertainment business, here are a few things to think about before taking the dough for your show. Evaluateyour relationship. Is this a person you have a longstanding relationship with, or is it a total stranger? Is this person familiar with your artistry and the music business? If this person was introduced to you, what is your relationship with the “middle man?” Do you have clear enough boundaries to balance a personal relationship by introducing money into the equation? Characterize the cash. Have a clear understanding of…

“NOTHING LASTS FOREVER BUT THE EARTH and sky,” proclaim the lyrics to Kansas’ iconic anthem “Dust in the Wind.” That assertion may be debatable from a geological standpoint, but there’s no question that Kansas itself is trying to last as long as mortally possible. Since the release of its debut album on Don Kirshner’s label in 1974, the band has continued—with one break from 1984-1985—to deliver its eclectic and fastidiously crafted patchwork of hard rock, prog, bluegrass, folk, classical, and boogie-woogie. Onstage, this melting pot of musical influences was often brought to life by multi-instrumentalists who covered electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, piano, organ, lead vocals, violin, viola, drums, bass, percussion, and xylophone—sometimes all in the same song! And yet, despite its eclecticism and penchant for long-form, multi-part songs, Kansas…

BEHIND EVERY GREAT HEAVY METAL song there’s a great guitar riff or rhythm figure. Whether you’re cranking old-school Cream-Zep-Purple-Sabbath tones through vintage plexi Marshalls, or pumping out ultra-hi-gain, rectified, scooped-mid Metallica-style mayhem, it’s usually the riff that is memorable, not the solo. With that in mind, this metal rhythm guitar primer was designed to provide some cool tools, tips, and tricks you can use to forge your own fiery riffs. As with any stylistic analysis, we begin by examining recurring patterns, motifs, techniques, etc., and then organize them into a method of sorts. The elemental table of metal music includes power chords built from perfect fourth and fifth intervals, muscular single-note and partial chord riffs, galloping and stuttering rhythms, and yes, even tender moments framed by gently arpeggiated chordal figures.…

THE MAJORITY OF SPEAKERS IN PROduction today generally aim toward golden age ’50s, ’60s, and early-’70s tones—the perfect Greenback, G12 Alnico, or Chicago-made Jensen, for example. For this roundup, we check out six speakers that pivot from these cornerstones to do their own thing. Some seek to capture classic tones, but with updated performance and broader versatility, while others are just their makers’ best efforts at nailing a great-sounding guitar speaker by any definition. All were tested in an oversized open-back, birch-ply Fargen 1x12 cabinet (by J. Design Cabs), and pummeled with a tweed Deluxe, a Friedman Runt 50, and a custom-built AC15-inspired head (each of which have both 8Ω and 16Ω outputs) using a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson Les Paul. CELESTION NEO CREAMBACK NEODYMIUM HAS COME A LONG…

TRAVELER GUITAR’S LATEST OFFER ing is a 3/4-sized dreadnought loaded with features not commonly found on “travel” instruments: a beveled upper top, a handsome rosette, nice binding, gold-plated tuners with black buttons, advancedonboard electronics, and, most interestingly, a cool partial cutaway indented from about the 15th to 18th frets that allows for better access to the high frets without eating up as much of the body’s airspace as a full cutaway. It would be a wasted effort on many travel guitars, but since this CL-3EQ was designed and set up well enough to be actually playablein the 12th position, I appreciated each iota of extra access. I noticed some fretting-out during aggressive play in certain spots, but, overall, the CL-3EQ handled more like a full-scale guitar than most mobile-minded instruments.…