Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2018 i Guitar Player

I WAS INVITED BY BRAD SMITH—AN OLD FRIEND FROM MY ELECTRONIC Musician days in the 1990s (and brother of Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers)—to participate on a Guitar & Accessories Marketing Association panel during the NAMM show with Laura Whitmore (Mad Sun Marketing), Squiggy DiGiacomo (The Music Experience), Menzie Pittman (Contemporary Music Center), and moderator Richard Watson (Music Trades Magazine). Brad is president of GAMA—as well as vice president of MI Products at Hal Leonard—and the breakfast meeting was focused around the subject of “making more guitar players.” I was jazzed to be invited, as GP is actively involved in reporting on industry challenges—our March 2017 cover story was “Who Will Save the Guitar?”—and our recent redesign of the print magazine, and the retooling of the brand as…

RUSSELL KLAUSING Wow. Totally agree with Paul Haggard’s art direction of the February issue. Love, love, love the circles—as well as the departments, the total layout, and the focus. The lessons will be horribly dogeared by the time I’m done. I just received the March Shred issue, as well, and while it’s not my forte, I’ve already seen some tips I can utilize. Yes—you can teach an old dog new tricks. If you can keep this up, I’ll be more than pleasantly rewarded for my subscription. SHERRIE HOYER I want to thank you for making sure female guitar players get covered. Thanks to your interview with Terra Lightfoot (March), I purchased two of her CDs, and she and I have been tweeting back and forth about gear. Because of the…

AS WE WENT TO PRESS FOR THIS issue, we realized it had been a year since Black Sabbath played its final concert in Birmingham, England, on February 4, 2017. In September of that year, that last goodbye was premiered as a theatrical documentary, The End of the End. Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi reflected on his “retirement” during a late 2017 promo run for the DVD release of the film, and now it seems like a good time to share his thoughts on the one-year anniversary of “The End.” First, I’d like to thank you for all the knowledge you’ve shared with GP readers throughout the years. Thanks. Hopefully, I’ll be here a lot longer. What was it like doing such a massive tour in your late 60s? Even though we…

FOR YEARS, ALI HANDAL’S REPUTAtion has centered around her big riffs, burning yet melodic solos, and huge voice. But for her most recent album, That’s What She Said [Red Parlor], the rocker decided to take a little “quiet time.” Blame the Dobro. “That gorgeous red/silver resonator influenced the character of the record, along with my Gibson SJ-200 acoustic,” she says. “As we started producing tracks, the Dobro’s rootsy, bluesy sound inspired us, and we kept using it on more songs.” As a result, the album took a left turn from Handal’s rockier side, and charged down the singer/songwriter path. Electric solos were, for the most part, abandoned in favor of fastidiously crafted acoustic tunes—all of which brought forth the question, “How does a lead guitarist not solo?” So “Rocker Ali”…

IT HAPPENS, BUT IT DOESN’T FEEL good when it does. I was onstage at a summer festival, and the first verse of a song completely exited my memory. I stood there like a frightened deer—frozen, embarrassed, and devoid of any escape plan that decades of gigging should have offered me. I just copped to it, let the bassist whisper the lyrics into my ear, and we started the song again. Not exactly the way to put on a professional show. Sigh. While it’s likely overkill, or too expensive, to cart around a high-tech teleprompter for club gigs, there are simpler ways to provide little memory jogs during live performances. Mobile apps designed for performing musicians can scroll lyrics, arrange set lists, serve up chord charts, and more. Lyric Pad (Android,…

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE happiest times in Steve Howe’s life, but it turned into a nightmare. The guitarist was looking forward to the release of Nexus [Inside Out Music], a collaborative album he had recorded with his multi-instrumentalist son, Virgil. But on September 11, 2017, while on tour in the States with Yes, Howe got the news that Virgil had passed away in London. He was only 41 years old. “It was a complete shock,” says Howe. “The whole thing has been so terribly sad and frightening. You’re never prepared to deal with something like this. Two hours before he died, he was at lunch with my wife, and then he just suddenly passed out. It was a heart attack, and it was fatal. It’s still a…

WHETHER YOU’RE A NEWCOMER beginning your jazz exploration or an old pro seeking new inspiration, I highly recommend you treat your ears to the hard-swinging, blues-infused sounds of legendary jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell. Burrell caught the attention of the jazz world in the early’50s, first as a sideman for Oscar Peterson, Tony Bennett, and Benny Goodman, then later as a leader on dozens of dates for Blue Note records. Equally open to the influence of boppers such as Charlie Christian and bluesmen such as Muddy Waters, Burrell skillfully weaves harmonically complex lines and soul-satisfying blues with uncommon grace and fluidity. Throughout his prolific career Burrell regularly explored modal compositions as a means of infusing cool blues moves into jazzier terrain. At 86, Burrell is still going strong, mentoring a new…

BESIDES BOASTING SOME THE BEST writing, acting, and cinematography on television (or anywhere), AMC’s hit dramatic series Better Call Saul also sports an infectious opening theme featuring a short, almost happy-go-lucky “surf guitar” figure that leaves you with a sense that something menacing is brewing, just like the show. But did you know that the 15-second snippet that underscores the opening credits is an edited excerpt from a full song by England’s Little Barrie? Ex. 1 details what is now ingrained in every Breaking Bad and Saul fan’s psyche for time immemorial. Prerequisites include a humbucker, single-coil, or Filter’Tron-equipped axe set to a middle-position combination of neck and bridge pickups, a clean Fender amp with reverb, and whatever whammy bar you have on hand. We begin with a raked, firstinversion…

SPECIFICATIONS CONTACT mesaboogie.com MODEL Mark Five: 35 PRICE Head $1,749, 1x12 Widebody cab $429 street CHANNELS 2 (three modes each) CONTROLS Gain, Treble, Mid, Bass, Presence and Master for each channel; switches for Clean/Fat/Crunch on Ch1 and MkIIC+/MkIV/Xtreme on Ch2; shared assignable 5-band EQ; individual Solo output controls; individual Reverb controls (back panel) POWER 35 watts, independently switchable to 15 watts and 10 watts for each channel TUBES Six 12AX7 preamp tubes, four EL84 output tubes EXTRAS Four-button footswitch for Channel, EQ, Solo 1, Solo 2; CabClone DI output and switching; outputs for 4Ω and 8Ω speakers SPEAKER 12” Celestion MC-90 WEIGHT Head 27 lbs, cabinet 33 lbs BUILT USA KUDOS Mindboggling versatility from one greatsounding voice to the next, in a well-thought out and robustly constructed package CONCERNS Not…

SPECIFICATIONS CONTACT blackstaramps.com MODEL HT Club 40 MKII Combo PRICE $699 street CHANNELS 2 (with two gain levels in Lead) CONTROLS Clean channel: Volume, Bass, Treble, Mode switch; Overdrive channel: Gain, Volume, Mode switch, Bass, Middle, Treble, ISF; Reverb, Master, 40/4-watt power switch POWER 40 watts, switchable to 4 watts TUBES Two ECC83 (12AX7) preamp tubes, two EL34 output tubes EXTRAS Two-button footswitch (included, 5-button available), outputs for 8Ω and 16Ω cabinets, speaker emulated DI out via both TRS and XLR, effects loop Send and Return with Level switch, digital reverb with Dark/Light switch SPEAKER 12" Celestion Seventy/80 WEIGHT 52 lbs BUILT China KUDOS A versatile and good-sounding tube combo that offers a big performance at an impressively low price. CONCERNS Some volume jump is experienced when switching between voices…

TIM REYNOLDS IS A MULTI-FACETED MAESTRO WITH AN EXTRAORDINARY understanding of what to play when in a given situation. He spends his electric string time ripping in his progressive power trio TR3, and playing lead for the Dave Matthews Band. Reynolds finds balance doing acoustic-duo gigs under the simple moniker Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, and, as an accomplished solo artist with an extensive recording catalogue, including 2017’s stylistically adventurous That Way [Beam On]. GP caught Reynolds doing the duo with Matthews twice in 2017. Once last spring on the main stage at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and again near the end of the year participating in the Band Together Bay Area benefit for Northern California fire victims at San Francisco’s AT&T Park, along with Dead &…

THE DAY BEFORE NAMM OFFICIALLY opened, Chris Martin IV really kicked things off by unveiling Martin Guitar’s reimagined Standard Series—the biggest update to the company’s flagship line in its 185-year history, and one that triggered some extremely “animated” discussions amongst the team. But Martin understands it needs to evolve—even after close to two centuries (that’s a joke, there)—and it also plans to spend 2018 letting players know the company makes more than just dreadnoughts and unamplified acoustics by promoting other styles and their acoustic/electric lines. (Don’t miss the affordable X-Series.) The Taylor Builder’s Edition K14ce and the Fishman Loudbox Mini Charge were also big acoustic stories at NAMM, but we covered the K14ce in the March issue, and the Loudbox gets a full review this month on p. 104. For…

Raid Dana’s Gear Stash! THIS MONTH, ORANGE AMP’S CUSTOM SHOP IS ALLOWING ME TO “GIFT” ITS Bax Bangeetar Guitar Pre-EQ pedal from GP’s collection of reviewed and tested gear. This extremely versatile tone machine offers parametric midrange EQ, a clean-boost switch, speaker-cabinet emulation, and tons of drive. For a chance to get the Bangeetar in your clutches, simply send an email to nbmgearcoordinator@gmail.com with “Orange” in the subject line. One lucky winner will be chosen at random. The deadline for entries is April 20, 2018. Remember to thank Orange—which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year (1968-2018)—for our cool April giveaway. And while giving me props for managing these contests won’t increase your chances of winning, it’s still nice to hear from you all! —DANA PARKER Oops! We mistakenly identified…

IK Multimedia iRig Stomp I/O $299 street iRig Stomp I/O is a USB pedalboard controller with four built-in switches, an expression pedal, and an audio interface that can be used as a standalone MIDI foot controller without a device or computer connected (iPad not included). ikmultimedia.com Schecter E1 Koa $1,149 street A koa-topped mahogany body is paired with Ceramic 8 San Andreas pickups, along with a vintage “C” three-piece mahogany neck, a 14” fret-board radius, and an Ernie Ball compensated nut. schecterguitars.com Orange Amplifiers Brent Hinds Terror $749 street The Brent Hinds Terror features two channels and a new gain structure with higher sensitivity than previous Terrors, which produces a brighter sound at lower levels. orangeamps.com D’Addario Solderless Pedalboard Kit $69 street These new cable kits allow you to easily…

THROUGH HER EARLY DAYS WITH the Iron Maidens, her current tenure in the Alice Cooper band, and her solo projects, Nita Strauss has forged a personal style and sound that has not only thrilled fans and other guitar players, it also cemented her selection as one of GP’s 50 top female guitarists in our May 2017 cover story. The long-time Ibanez artist further refined her sonic weapon of choice when she debuted her JIVA signature model at the 2018 NAMM show. Can you describe your favorite rhythm and lead tones? The perfect rhythm sound has to cut through with enough crunch and definition to be a good building block for a song. The rhythm guitars are the bricks of the house, and the drums and bass are the foundation. The…

WHILE I WAS STRUGGLING THROUGH my early formative years as a guitarist and songwriter, battling writer’s block seemed to be a constant pain in the brain. I’d hit one of those plateaus in my technique and/or musical knowledge, and I’d just sit on my bed, holding a guitar and strumming through little nothings that never evolved into the foundations of songs. Super frustrating. Confidence completely tanked. What saved me back then was a little green box—the BOSS PH-1 Phaser. I didn’t have a lot of experience with effects around 1977-78, so plugging into this green machine unlocked all kinds of creative possibilities. New chord progressions and riffs suddenly started flowing from my imagination, and all because of the simple fact that the PH-1 made my basic creative fumbling sound more…

IT’S 1942, AND AS THE United States is entering World War II, the Gibson guitar company just releases what would become its most popular acoustic model of all time. The J-45 from that year will later be considered a “pre-war guitar” by players and collectors, since it arrived before the Kalamazoo company halted guitar production to support the war effort. The four-year production hiatus that followed makes original first-year J-45s rare birds indeed, and to stumble on one in this condition is truly a hen’steeth type of encounter. Dubbed “the workhorse” for the versatile way it took to country, bluegrass and blues, and later rock and roll, the J-45 was released alongside the Southerner Jumbo (later shortened to Southern Jumbo) of the same year, and was the upgraded sibling of…

SO MANY RECORDS THAT INFLUenced me when I was a pre-teen and teenager were second-generation interpretations. I heard Eric Clapton before I heard Freddie King, I heard John Fahey before I heard Skip James, and I heard the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band before I heard Muddy Waters. The John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album is possibly one of the first punk records ever. Released in 1970, along with its almost visually identical sister record, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, Lennon’s album was influenced by primal-scream therapy, and it became his chance to expose his eruptive underbelly without compromise. To me, it’s also an underrated guitar record. It influenced me as a player, and it’s uncompromising bravery influenced me as an artist. “I Found Out” resembles a Muddy Waters dirge, and the chorus…

AS PART OF THE POOL OF PLAYERS making records for bassist Michael League’s GroundUP Music label, Bob Lanzetti works in League’s funk/fusion band Snarky Puppy, plays African-inspired grooves with Bokanté, and performs unclassifiable “world music” with Banda Magda. Yet, despite being part of Ground-UP’s “house band,” Lanzetti decided to self-release his country-inflected solo record, Whose Feet are These That are Walking? (note the sly Ernest Tubb reference). Although Lanzetti is a diverse and accomplished stylistic, it’s still a bit of a surprise that a consummate funkmeister ended up embracing classic country covers for his own album. So how did this country-flavored album come about? Many of these tunes started about five years ago, when I was listening to early country stuff that has a lot of pedal-steel on it. I…

FOLLOWING A LONG STRING OF SOLO albums, on which he played nearly every instrument, Todd Rundgren’s 2017 release, White Knight, marked the musical wizard’s first truly collaborative efforts since his Utopia days, and features a diverse roster of co-writers and musical partners in a kaleidoscopic array of styles, including spooky industrial electronica with Trent Reznor, biting Steely Dan-tinged political satire with Donald Fagen, Philly soul with Daryl Hall, Utopian power pop with Moe Berg, Beatle-esque psychedelia with Joe Walsh,and Joe Satriani’s Metallica-style shred fest. Satch’s contribution, “This is Not a Drill,” is the album’s closer and was delivered as a fully realized instrumental track, featuring multiple rhythm guitar overdubs and two ripping solos, to which T.R. added synth orchestrations, guitar manipulations, and vocals, plus live bass and drums, courtesy of…

FABRIZIO PAOLETTI BEGAN BUILDING guitars in the Tuscany region of Italy in 2005. He constructed his first instrument—a triple-single-coil solidbody with an alder body and a sunburst finish—at the request of a friend. The finished product, he recalls, was “not so bad.” Today, he continues to build instruments under the name Paoletti Guitars, with results that are not only quite stunning, but also wholly unique. In an innovative twist, his guitars and basses feature bodies constructed from the wood of century-old chestnut wine barrels—a nod to his family history, as the Paolettis have been producing Chianti in the region since the 19th century (Fabrizio’s father still operates a small local vineyard). “My guitars pay reverence to both my passion for the land and my love of all things musical,” says…

“I recorded ‘Funk 49’with a Telecaster straight into a blackface Champ with an 8" speaker and one output tube, and that’s why it sounds like it does,” says Joe Walsh about what he was seeking when he asked Dr. Z founder Mike Zaite to design a new amp for him. “That sound mystifies most guitarists. Single-ended amps can be magic in the studio, but they don’t work at all for live performance. I call up Z sometimes and we talk amps, so I said to him, ‘How do we get a Champ sound at stage volume?’As usual, Z goes, ‘I don’t think you can do that, but let me think about it.’Then, he calls me in the middle of the night and says, ‘I’m in the shop, and I’ve got…

THE REPLACEMENT-PICKUP MARKET continues to provide fertile ground for smallshop winders still seeking to provide that missing link between players’dream tones and the pickups that will get them there. This month we investigate one homegrown set that blends different traditional voices for maximum versatility, and another from across the Atlantic that drills down to nuanced vintage specifications. All were tested in an ash-bodied Fender Stratocaster with a maple neck, through a tweed Deluxe and a Friedman Small Box head and 2x12 cab. STONEWALL PICKUPS SIGNATURE STRAT SET Scott Miller of New Hampshire-based Stonewall Pickups is rapidly earning a reputation for creative designs that are rooted in tradition, while delivering versatile and playable twists.His Signature Strat Set ($305 direct, full set; $450 in loaded pickguard, as shown) mixes complementary vintage-S flavors…

ALTHOUGH THE AMPTWEAKER NAME is probably best known for its pedals, founder and head designer James Brown designed amplifiers for Peavey, Kustom, and Schecter before striking out on his own a few years back, and his company’s new two-channel 50-watter made its debut at NAMM this winter. Given all the hours spent tweaking circuits with soldering iron in hand, Brown has had a lot of time to consider speaker tone, and has even spec’d and designed several models for other makers. Amptweaker’s first speaker, the O12J65 ($120 direct, in either 8Ω or 16Ω) is a US-made, 12” driver that seeks to bridge American-clean and British-overdrive voicings, while delivering a balanced and musical performance out of anything you throw at it. The O12J65 uses a 37-ounce ceramic magnet, and has a…

THE GLORY OF THE ACOUSTIC IS THAT IT’S ALWAYS ready at the moment of inspiration. You don’t need any pedals or a noisy amp to get your tone together. The acoustic is your anytime/all-the-time guitar. Keep it close by. When you wake up in the morning, walk over to it and simply start playing. All those weird dreams are still lingering, waiting to come through your fingertips and become music. Don’t think. Just play. It’s the only time of day not obscured by all the thoughts that start accumulating the moment you become conscious. Always record right into your phone. Don’t waste time hooking stuff up. Get right to playing, and keep the creative flow going for as long as it lasts. Once your conscious mind starts taking over, then…

THE FENDER MONTECITO UKULELE was introduced last fall, during a refresh of its California Coast series. The all-koa Montecito’s gorgeous beach-blonde and tan wood grains glisten through its high-gloss finish, while the snazzy blue-green abalone used for the top purfling and soundhole rosette conjure images of a sea surf lapping away at the playa. Cream-colored edge binding along the top, bottom, and fret-board adds an air of elegance. The four-in-line Tele headstock with vintage-style closedback tuning machines invokes the unmistakable image of a classic Fender dream machine. Even the inside label bears an image of a sailboat on the ocean passing near a palm tree. Ukulele purists may scoff at a Tele-style headstock on a uke, but Fender is honoring its California roots. The tuners actually work well, too, which…

JOIN THE GP COMMUNITY! SOUND OFF! GET EXCLUSIVE NEWS. COMMENT. CRITIQUE. SHARE TIPS AND TECHNIQUES. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR E-NEWSLETTER. FACEBOOK.COM/GUITARPLAYERMAG TWITTER.COM/GUITARPLAYERNOW GUITARPLAYER.COM MICHAEL MOLENDA Editor In Chief mmolenda@nbmedia.com ART THOMPSON Senior Editor athompson@nbmedia.com PATRICK WONG Managing Editor pwong@nbmedia.com JUDE GOLD Los Angeles Editor judegold@gmail.com JIMMY LESLIE Frets Editor jl@jimmyleslie.com DAVE HUNTER Gear Section & Video Contributor dhunterwordsmusic@yahoo.com PAUL HAGGARD Art Director phaggard@nbmedia.com…

IT’S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE THAT SUCH a huge personality could fit into such a small home, but, thanks to savvy design and a “scorched-earth policy” regarding her personal effects, Trans-Siberian Orchestra string director and soloist Asha Mevlana is living large in a house that takes up just 560 square feet. “Being a musician and touring quite a bit, I wanted a place to come home to, but I didn’t need something huge,” says Mevlana. “I love the idea of living with just what is necessary. At one point, I had storage units in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and it was getting hard to keep up with all of it. One day, I simply decided to get rid of all the things I didn’t need, which left my music equipment, instruments,…

AUSTRALIA’S TWELVE FOOT Ninja regularly charts millions of views for its YouTube videos, but I doubt the band’s rabid fans are aware that Steve “Stevic” MacKay’s mercilessly bombastic guitar tone often shifts into several completely different tunings within a single song. “I actually applied for a Guinness World Record for the most tuning changes in a commercially released song,” says MacKay. “This is fair dinkum. I’m serious. I realized one of our songs changes tunings 18 times, and I thought, ‘That has to be some sort of record.’” Obviously, that many tuning changes doesn’t happen without technology in the mix, and MacKay has used Line 6 Variax guitars for every electric-guitar sound you hear on every Twelve Foot Ninja release. He now has his signature model—the Shuriken—which he usually pairs…

THREE YEARS SINCE BROOKLYN quartet Charly Bliss seduced power-pop fans with their EP, Soft Serve, the band’s debut full-length album, Guppy [Barsuk], is finally with us. From the gnarly bubblegum-grunge guitars of “Percolator,” to the infectiously hooky chorus of “Glitter,” to the Weezer-like grind of “Ruby,” singer/guitarist Eva Hendricks and guitarist Spencer Fox apply their Fender offsets to one delectable riff after another. And whatever genre you call home, it’s also a superbly sharp wedge to hammer in between the electronic pabulum and auto-tuned schlock that often dominates the charts today. The scary thing is, Hendricks, Fox, bassist Dan Shure, and drummer Sam Hendricks (Eva’s brother) almost didn’t get the album made for fear of not being cool enough. “For a long time, we got caught up in thinking, ‘What…

IN AN INDUSTRY FILLED with entire platoons of very smart people, Paul Reed Smith’s rapid-fire, ever-so-slightly defiant, and spot-on missives about tone, guitars, and music making are always thought provoking, educational, and inspirational. Here, he shares some astute intel on the state of guitar. What is PRS doing to ensure its guitar business stays strong? How many guitars have you bought in your life? Me? Probably upwards of 50. Okay. Do you pay for something that’s not worth the money? I do not. Right. Now we’re talking. My experience is that this is not a dead market. People are simply being unbelievably careful with their money. They’ll argue over 50 bucks if that makes a difference. But when they think something is worth it, they’ll hand over the money. When…

IT’S ALWAYS A THRILL TO SEE OUR Guitar Player’s Guitar Superstar finalists go on to enjoy successful careers as musicians. Not only does that success validate our gut feelings that these players were “guitarists to watch,” it’s also a tribute to the artists themselves, and the ongoing ambition, development, craft, and technique they’ve applied to win over so many fans. Angel Vivaldi took the stage in our 2010 competition—performing in front of judges George Lynch, Elliot Easton, Reeves Gabrels, and Gary Hoey—and although he didn’t take the crown (acoustic guitarist Don Alder won the honor), he certainly didn’t let that discourage him. Since then, Vivaldi’s YouTube videos have racked up hundreds of thousands—and, occasionally, multi-millions—of views. His latest album, Synapse [Angel Vivaldi], is a heady concept, where each song evokes a…

YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN when jazz musicians get their hands on an iconic—well, let’s say “a culture changing and legendary”—rock album such as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. (Do I even have to mention who made that record?) But there I was at Berkeley’s beautiful Freight and Salvage club late last year, anticipating a performance by the San Francisco String Trio to celebrate the release of May I Introduce to You [Ridgeway Records]—the group’s inspired take on the Beatles’transformative 1967 masterwork. The players were certainly up to the challenge, as bassist/vocalist Jeff Denson, violinist Mads Tolling, and guitarist Mimi Fox are undeniably transcendent players, arrangers, and composers. The instrumental rethinks (along with three vocals by Denson) are gorgeous and artistically sensitive mash-ups of styles and moods—they’re almost…

LAST YEAR I HAD BIG FUN DECONSTRUCTING A HANDFUL of classic rock riffs, by turning them inside out, upside down, and every which way, in order to illustrate the mechanics of power chords. It was a great way to show how great riffs stand on their own, no matter how you slice them up, and it also facilitated a way to hint at music we usually don’t have access to, but the process also became very gamey. So, in the spirit of April Fools’Day, here we go again. The following well-known two-bar riffs have been sliced and diced beyond recognition, and the results are analogous to “word scrambles” and anagrams. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to decode and unscramble each notated riff along with its artist…

WE’VE ATTENDED A LOT OF NAMM SHOWS, BUT, THIS YEAR— frightening. Booth numbers in the five-digit range, a completely new hall, the incorporation of AES (pro-recording products) into the mix, and heightened security (bag checks and metal detectors) made for a harrowing—and time-consuming—journey. But amidst the surging masses of humanity and the noise and bother, there was, as always, the GEAR. Multitudes of awesome products debuted at NAMM 2018, and we’ve previewed many of them on guitarplayer.com, our social-media pages, and on our YouTube channel, and we’ll publish comprehensive reviews on as much of the new gear as we can in future print issues and online. Being blissfully overwhelmed by so much gear is daunting, both for the editors and our readers. So we decided to do a “first cut” for…

SPECIFICATIONS CONTACT reverendguitars.com MODEL Reeves Gabrels Dirtbike PRICE $1,199 street NUT WIDTH 43mm, Boneite NECK Korina (three-piece), set FRET-BOARD Blackwood Tek, 12” radius, 24.75” scale length FRETS 22 jumbo TUNERS Reverend Pin-Lock BODY Korina BRIDGE Wilkinson WVS50 IIK tremolo PICKUP Railhammer Reeves Gabrels Signature Bridge CONTROLS Master Volume, Master Tone, Bass Contour FACTORY STRINGS D’Addario XL Custom .009-.046 WEIGHT 7 lbs BUILT Korea KUDOS Feels good. Plays great. Sounds super tough. CONCERNS None. A TESTAMENT TO BOTH REEVES Gabrels’and Reverend’s ongoing quest for refinement is the fact the team has partnered up for three signature guitars—the Reeves Gabrels Signature, the Spacehawk, and, now, the Dirtbike. In fact, only Pete Anderson—who has outdone all comers with six Reverend signature models—is currently honored with more machines than Gabrels. Okay, it’s not a…

I’VE PROBABLY SAID IT BEFORE, BUT I love how the crazies at EarthQuaker name their pedals. I mean, initiating a “Translucent Drive Manipulator” is just mega cooler than merely stomping on an overdrive pedal—even if that’s essentially what you are doing. It’s all about perception and pleasure, right? But, beyond having fun with tone toys, the Westwood ($179 street) actually is a bit different than your typical overdrive. This is something on the order of a “colored boost,” reminiscent of the excellent Chandler Little Devil I tested back in 2012, albeit with a few less features and a less lofty price tag. With subtle tweaks, the Westwood does that excellent ballet of retaining the inherent tone of your guitar and amp, while simultaneously adding more level and restrained grit. Yet,…

> While she was driving through Oklahoma with Les Paul, their car slid off the road into a creek bed, shattering Paul’s elbow—an injury that almost ended his career. It was 18 months before he could pick up a guitar again. > Her ability to overdub multiple vocal layers at a time when such studio techniques were unheard of—mostly because Les Paul had to invent them—helped bring massive chart success to the Les Paul and Mary Ford duo, and established the recording studio as a true art form. > She was probably the most visible female electric guitarist of her time, wielding early Gibson goldtop Les Pauls, a white Les Paul SG, and other models. > She “won” a guitar duel with Paul on The Colgate Comedy Hour in 1954…