Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2020 i Guitar Player

A SCOTTISH ADAGE states, “The child born on Christmas will have a special fortune.” Steve Wariner is living proof. The Musician’s Hall of Fame in Nashville inducted the four-time Grammy winner on October 22, in recognition of decades of virtuoso guitar playing, singing and songwriting. Although he is a renowned country music legend, Wariner is fundamentally, to turn a phrase, an eclectic electric artist. To borrow the title of his 2011 album, his chart-topping career has been a “guitar laboratory,” with varied styles in the mix. The Hall of Fame accolade comes as Wariner, on his retrospective Back on Life’s Highway tour, approaches his 65th birthday. Although never one to rest on his laurels, he agreed to reflect on his journey thus far. What does the induction mean at this…

FOR 15 YEARS, Jason “Slim” Gambill has enjoyed the kind of career most guitarists only dream about, as a steady sideman with pop-country superstars Lady Antebellum. The Nebraska native, who sports two-foot-long braids, admits that he never envisioned playing with a mainstream country band. “I never even listened to country music before I started playing it,” he explains. But Gambill says his success with the multi-Platinum group stems from a mixture of artistic versatility and a positive attitude. “You have to be a people-pleaser to be a good sideman,” he says. “You’re there to play the gig and bring your chops to the band’s music, so you have to be a well-rounded player and be able to shift from one style to the next. But you also have to be…

THE DILEMMA: I don’t like having batteries in a guitar. The voltage drops as batteries age, sometimes they’re hard to replace, and if they leak… Well, let’s not go there. But I do like some onboard electronics that require batteries, such as Fishman’s Fluence pickups, as well as onboard buffer boards. Fortunately, there’s a pretty easy solution to the batteries and their potential problems: You can build a BBB — a Battery Breakout Box. How it works. Most onboard guitar electronics use a stereo output jack and connect the battery’s ground to the ring connection. Plugging a mono cable into the guitar turns on the battery, because the battery connects to ground through the plug’s ground connection. But if we attach the ring where the battery’s positive (+) terminal connects,…

STEVE VAI BEST NEW ARTIST Jacob Collier “It’s always a thrill to discover a young, connected musician such as Jacob Collier. His show at L.A.’s Fonda Theater in March 2019 was astonishing. To see music flowing from a human so effortlessly, joyfully and inspired is a marvel. “There’s a paradigm shift happening on the planet, and this can be seen in various fields such as technology, art and business. This shift is led by people who come into the world with a fresh and unique creative perspective, and they come together for the co-creative process of raising the bar for all of us. They manifest their intentions without any excuses. Watching Jacob Collier navigate so powerfully through his performance gives me the feeling that he’s a major player in the…

WHEN IT COMES to guitar picking techniques, everything can be boiled down to three distinct approaches. The first and most common is what’s known as flatpicking, which involves using a plectrum, or flat guitar pick, to strike the strings. The second approach is fingerpicking, also known as fingerstyle, which involves using your fingers — primarily your thumb and first three fingers, the index, middle and ring — to pluck each note. Both of these techniques have their own distinct advantages: flatpicking is great for playing linear, single-note melodies and strumming chords, whereas fingerpicking is perfect for rolling arpeggios and sounding two or more strings at the same time. If we combine these two approaches, however, we create a third and highly useful technique known as hybrid picking. Hybrid picking combines…

FEW GUITAR AMPS are as iconic or omnipresent as the blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb. Originally manufactured between 1963 and 1967, and reissued several years ago in a form that still appears on plenty of pro stages around the world, this 22-watt tube combo is often named by vintage enthusiasts as a favorite “desert island amp”. Originals are pricey, though, and even new reissues require an investment of more than $1,000. For that matter, some players consider the combo relatively heavy for its size. And if you’re one of those guitarists who worries about tube failure or the necessity of eventual tube replacement, you’ll have to deal with that too. Enter the Tone Master Deluxe Reverb, a 21st century version that replicates the look and sound of the classic via entirely…

This month’s giveaway is a Crazy Tube Circuits Vyagra Boost overdrive pedal. The Vyagra Boost delivers up to 25db of full-range clean boost to make your guitar sound huge. Use it to overdrive your favorite dirt pedal or tube amp, or hit it anytime you need to boost volume for soloing. The footswitchable parametric EQ lets you alter the frequency response +/- 15db from 150 to 1,200 Hz to mimic the tone of a fixed-position wah. To get this box on your pedalboard, send an email with the word “Vyagra” in the subject line to stash.raid@gmail.com. The deadline is January 10, 2020. Note that all gear is “as is.” Gear Up for 2020 with the Ultimate Gear Guide If you’re still looking for that special piece of gear, the brand-new…

ADRIAN QUESADA WAS curious the first time Prince’s amplifier showed up onstage next to his rig at the Rio in Las Vegas. A few weeks later, when the Purple One came out to perform with Quesada’s band, Grupo Fantasma, it marked the beginning of a whirlwind that set them continent hopping with the late guitarist. Through Prince originally hired Grupo Fantasma to be the Thursday “Latin Night” talent during his 2007 residency at the Rio, he eventually brought them to gigs like his 21-night stint at London’s O2 Arena, where they performed as his opening act and after-party talent. “Me and [Grupo co-guitarist] Beto Martinez would do these three-guitar rhythm jams with Prince,” Quesada says. “On cue, he would stop the band, start playing something on rhythm and point at…

IS THERE ANYTHING more glamorous, exotic and evocative than a vintage National resonator guitar? We would argue there is not, and when it’s a rare, ornate Style 4 National Tricone from 1929 like this one, the swoon factor is right off the charts. Less common than the single-cone resonator guitar, the Tricone is nevertheless the original and true granddaddy of the form, and remains a sweetly toneful music maker today. After being the underdog of the music world in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the guitar starting looking for more respect — and more volume. But in the 1920s, the technology for electronic amplification of guitars was still being developed. Then, in 1927, Los Angeles–based instrument maker John Dopyera, metal fabricator Adolph Rickenbacker, and musician and inventor George Beauchamp…

I SAW LES PAUL in New York City at the Iridium, near Times Square, on September 10, 2001, where I sat a few feet in front of him. Mr. Paul, who was 85 years old at the time, had lost the athleticism of his left hand, but it made no difference to his artistry and personality, which shot out like a lightning bolt. He was witty, sassy, intense and totally entertaining, holding court with the crowd and teasing the intimidated guests who were brave enough to sit in with him. Afterward, I chose to forgo a cab and walk from Times Square to the Lower East Side, where I was staying with guitarist/pal Adam Levy. That night, I decided New York City was where I wanted to live. Aside from…

PAUL REED SMITH McCARTY 594 HOLLOWBODY II REVIEW Introduced at the 2019 Winter NAMM Show, the McCarty 594 Hollowbody II [GP 7/19] married the refinements of the McCarty 594 solidbody’s evolution with hollow construction à la PRS, rendering a new model that is simply stunning. It features mostly hollow construction, a carved and highly figured solid-maple top and back, a supremely comfortable ’50s-inspired Pattern Vintage neck profile, 58/15 humbuckers with resistor-assisted push-pull for fatter split tones, abalone bird inlays and mixed nickel-and-gold hardware. It’s both a looker and a supremely able performer — a showpiece for players fortunate enough to get one.From $4,350, prsguitars.com — DH GIBSON CUSTOM 1959–2016 ’60TH ANNIVERSARY LES PAUL STANDARD This righteous vintage-spec guitar inspired me with its superb playability and killer sound [GP 8/19]. The…

TOM MORELLO IS sitting on a leather sofa in the green room backstage at Bristol’s Ashton Gate Stadium, with a setlist on the table in front of him. As we shake hands, our eyes dart across the room and fix on two familiar sights: his Arm the Homeless Frankenstrat and Sendero Luminoso Tele, the two instruments that have played an integral part in Morello’s greatest music since the early 1990s. But the man who has stood as a member of Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, Street Sweeper Social Club, Prophets of Rage and even the E Street Band over the years has been touring under his own name for the first time. And while his solo performances as The Nightwatchman saw him strumming folk songs on his trusty Ibanez “Whatever…

“I LOVE BLUEGRASS the most,” Billy Strings says, “but I want to jam and play a bit of everything I like, from folk to funk.” On September 28, the day after Rounder Records released his sophomore album, Home, Strings was named the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Guitar Player and New Artist of the Year. The 27-year-old guitarist blazes a singular path by expanding on impeccable traditional sensibilities with a psychedelic flair. He was born William Apostol in Michigan and grew up a self-confessed “grasshole,” obsessed with legend Doc Watson and modern icon Bryan Sutton. Strings’ guitar-playing father was the first to hook him on bluegrass, but his dad also exposed him to rock music. “I’ll never forget the time when I was seven and my dad made me listen to…

REVIEWING THE 12-STRING Taylors this month [see page 104] and doing some recording sessions has put Nashville tuning on my mind. Sometimes referred to as “high strung,” Nashville tuning is primarily a studio trick that harkens back the golden age of Music City session pluckers. It’s been used on oodles of recordings, and not only country tracks: Nashville tuning provides the high chime on the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” Rush’s “Natural Science” and Pink Floyd’s “Hey You,” to name a few songs from the rock pantheon. The tuning has a kind of magic mystique worthy of exploration. GET SET UP Nashville tuning is like standard tuning, except for the higher octaves used for strings four through six. Traditionally this has been accomplished by applying the higher-pitched strings of a 12-string…

AS A RESPECTED touring and recording guitarist for more than three decades, Thomas Blug has experienced the difficulties of traveling with heavy and bulky amps and cabinets. Which is largely why he and Russian engineer Andrey Polishchuk joined forces some years ago to create Amp1, a 100-watt amplifier containing four types of 100-watt tube amps (not models) in a package small enough to fit in a gig bag. The latest version of Amp1 is the Mercury Edition, which is fully analog and uses a microphonic-resistant Nanotube in the power section to improve reliability and provide resistance to vibration from speaker cabinets and stages. Amp1 has one Clean channel, which the first footswitch can exchange for one of three Overdrive channels. The middle boost switch operates on all four channels, as…

IDAHO-BASED MANUFACTURER Cutthroat Audio and its proprietor, Ron Westwood, might be better known in guitar circles for their reproductions of early ’60s brownface F-style combos, such as the Down Brownie reviewed in our January 2019 issue. But for several years before segueing into hand-wired amp manufacturing, Cutthroat Audio specialized in high-end instrument, speaker and patch cables, and the Copper John Power Cable ($109 as reviewed, for a nine-foot cable) is the latest addition to that lineup of elite wire. Never mind that the moniker sounds like it came from the same place where Donald Fagen and Walter Becker found the band name Steely Dan; the premise is simple: replace your guitar amp’s generic, molded AC cable with a Copper John, and you’ll hear better tone! Sure, the assertion “power cable…

GP HAS REVIEWED numerous Teye guitars over the past years, and it’s fair to say that all of them have impressed us, starting with their ornate designs. It’s impossible to not respect Teye’s bold approach, with all the engraved metal and highly figured woods. But far from being six-string showboats, the Teye guitars we’ve tested have all been totally pro instruments that deliver outstanding sounds and playability. And just to get micro for a second about their unique Mood or Mojo controls — highly effective passive tone-shapers that these guitars are typically equipped with — you have to respect the effort that Teye himself has put into giving players ways to express themselves that go far beyond the visual aesthetics of what they’re slinging on the bandstand. And so it…

YAMAHA HAS BEEN very busy revamping its parlor-size line and rolling out progressive TransAcoustic effects technology. The two meet in the form of the CSF-TA. The guitar is essentially built on the recently re-introduced CSF parlor platform [see the CSF3M review in GP January 2019], with the added thrill of onboard resonance-based effects for extra dimensionality. Yamaha first introduced its TransAcoustic processing system in 2016 on its premium LL and LS models, then brought it aboard the more affordable FS concert and FG dreadnought body styles. Now the TA system is available on the classical style CG-TA and on the CSF-TA reviewed here. Until now, I’d had the privilege of hearing resonance-based processing only onboard full-sized guitars, including Yamaha’s aforementioned FG-TA dreadnought [reviewed in April 2019], Lâg’s Tramontane dreadnought (which…

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MOLLY TUTTLE’S SONGWRITING and guitar playing are rooted in the bluegrass she grew up on, which she took to Berklee College of Music and developed into her own style. As much a student of theory as technique, she studied chord structures alongside flatpicking, crosspicking and clawhammer playing. Tuttle dug back to her roots to pull out five compositions that showcase her mastery of the instrument. These are the riffs that inspired her guitar playing. “ANNABELLE” GILLIAN WELCH WITH DAVID RAWLINGS “I’m a huge Gillian Welch fan. I discovered her music when I was a teenager and at the same time fell in love with David Rawlings’ guitar playing. He really takes risks with tensions and notes that aren’t in chord tones, which I love. He uses intervals — like minor…

I WAS BLOWN away by the story of Fanny, the band June Millington and her sister Jean formed in the mid 1960s. The group signed to Reprise and broke out in 1970 as one of the first all-female rock and roll bands to enjoy major-label status, But Fanny wasn’t a gimmick. The group’s members were serious about their playing and worked hard to be competent on their instruments and tight as a group. They came up in the ’60’s California music scene alongside groups like the Grateful Dead, Santana, Jefferson Airplane and Little Feat. Although Fanny never broke out with a million-selling hit record, their place in rock history is undisputed. June has a sage-like wisdom and an extraordinary depth as a player. She spoke with me about being part…

“NOBODY KNOWS MORE about electric guitars than Chet Atkins. And nobody makes better guitars than Gretsch.” So said a 1977 magazine ad for the Gretsch 7680 Atkins Super Axe. As it turns out, this guitar actually is special and considerably different from what had become the Gretsch norm. This was the fabled picker’s last build for the company, coming after the Nashville, Tennessean and Country Gentleman models he helped design. It’s not clear how much of a hand Chet had in the Super Axe. Some suggest the guitar was a collaboration with Duke Kramer, who was Gretsch’s business manager (among other things) at the time. The aforementioned ad quotes Chet as having said, “In all modesty, I think my new Super Axe is the ultimate guitar for the rock guitarist,”…

AMONG THE MANY thoughts that pop into John Petrucci’s head during a lengthy chat with Guitar Player is the fact that 2019 marks a full 30 years since Dream Theater released their debut album, When Dream and Day Unite. Back then, Petrucci recalls, “there wasn’t much of a scene for the kind of music we were doing. The prog-rock scene of the ’70s had kind of passed, and even though some of those bands still were going strong, it wasn’t popular music anymore.” What’s more, he enthusiastically continues, “prog-metal didn’t really exist. It was just a very small group of guys — us, Fates Warning from Connecticut, Watchtower from Texas, and maybe you could even say Queensrÿche, with their early albums — that’s who was doing it. But today it’s…

WALKING INTO JOHNNY Marr’s studio, one is confronted by a sight that is every guitar-lover’s dream. As tools of the trade, his diverse collection of tried-and-trusted guitars — each with its own merits — is positioned within swift reaching distance and ready for action whenever inspiration strikes. While each instrument has its own tale to tell, they are all here for the same reason: to satisfy their owner’s lifelong passion. “My story is the same as everyone else’s,” Marr says. “That whole ‘you and your mates going down to the guitar shop on a Saturday’ thing is part of guitar culture. When I was growing up, guitars were really exotic and hard to get your hands on. Sadly, there aren’t as many guitar shops around now, so it’s even more…

IF YOU EXPLORE the history of funk guitar, you’ll notice distinctive technical elements among artists known for playing this soulful style of music. The godfather of it all was Jimmy Nolen, who recorded and performed in James Brown’s legendary band in the mid ’60s and laid the foundation for an often-imitated guitar style that others have embraced and expanded upon ever since. Nolen’s signature style featured a fairly clean and bright electric tone and a syncopated rhythmic approach that incorporated the use of alternate picking and strumming with fretted notes and chords that were typically interspersed with fret-hand-muted strings and “dead” notes, an approach that came to be referred to as “scratch,” or “chicken scratch.” In addition, he used a handful of dominant-7 and minor-7 chord shapes, or “grips,” that…

THE ORIGINAL STARLA model of 2008 won Paul Reed Smith a lot of new fans. Its retro-inspired looks appealed to many alt-country, garage-rock, roots-rock and indie artists who just couldn’t hang with the traditional PRS body shape. The Starla’s semi-slab, beveled-edge single-cut design had a unique, yet somehow universally approachable look, all in a guitar that exhibited the build quality and consistency for which the Maryland-based maker had long been known. The fact that it was delivered at a pocket-friendly price point only helped to make the model a modern-classic workhorse for weekend warriors and touring artists alike. As a result, the Starla has been a mainstay of the company’s USA-made Core lineup for several years. With the new SE Starla Stoptail, PRS now brings the same style and feature…

PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS AND even semi-pro home studio recordists have long understood the benefits of isolating studio monitors from the structures beneath them, thereby eliminating vibrational transference and resulting in a clearer, more articulate sound. Vibrational isolation is IsoAcoustics’ forte, and this Canadian company has been making award-winning engineers and producers like Eddie Kramer, Cenzo Townshend and Greg Wurth happy for years with products such as the ISO-Stands, ISO-Pucks and Stage 1 isolators. While the ISO-Pucks and Stage 1 isolators have been used beneath traditional guitar amps in the studio, IsoAcoustics has now taken things a step further with the Stage 1 Board, a 25 x 10 x 0.8–inch board made from ABS thermoplastic, with a carrying handle cut into one edge and mounting positions for four Stage 1 Isolators on…

AT NAMM 2018, 3rd Power introduced the Kitchen Sink, a 40-watt, two-channel head that offers Fender- and Vox-style voicings in one channel and two types of Marshall tones in the other, each with a pan knob that allows you to blend the two voices in any proportion. The company has cleverly split this concept into twin 20-watt combos, with the Dirty Sink featuring the crunchy Marshall-style tones, and the Fender/Vox type sounds installed into the Clean Sink, reviewed here. The Clean Sink actually features three voices: American, and, via toggle switch, either AC or AC Top Boost. Blending the American and AC sounds is done with the voice pan control, which offers full American tone when turned full left and maximum AC sounds at hard right. The wide variety of…

V-CLASS BRACING is now a 12-string thing at Taylor. Lead designer Andy Powers has applied his lauded V-Class bracing system to four 12-fret 12-string Grand Concert cutaway acoustic/electrics: the 352ce, 362ce, 552ce and 562ce. On review here are the blackwood-and-mahogany 362ce and the mahogany-and-cedar 552ce. While playing a 12-string can literally be twice as awesome as a six-string, the flip side is that 12-string instruments come with a few minor annoyances, including endless tuning and string-breakage issues, and often have large bodies, which make playing less comfortable. Taylor has addressed those issues by applying V-Class bracing to its smallest body size, the Grand Concert, as well as employing other innovations, such as a double-mounted string-anchoring system. Having one bridge pin anchor each pair of strings is so practical and easy…

> SHE HAS PERFORMED for the Queen of England and became the first African-American woman to play the National Anthem on electric guitar at a professional sporting event. Malina Moye often draws comparisons to Jimi Hendrix and Eric Gales for being a lefty Strat-slinging guitarist, but as a female guitarist who writes songs about personal empowerment and shreds like nobody’s business, she is her own person. And in that way, she’s been breaking new ground for guitarists since having her own breakthrough in 2014. “I think good songs come from the truth and three chords,” she told RockandBluesMuse.com. “I like to tell my truth or someone else’s truth. It’s got to be honest and real.” > The Minneapolis native was born in 1984 to musical parents. Her father is bassist/rhythm…