Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i Guitar Player

IT WAS A guitar concert to outshine all others. On February 25, David Gilmour, Kirk Hammett, Pete Townshend and Billy Gibbons gathered with other musicians at the London Palladium to perform a tribute to Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green. Arranged by drummer Mick Fleetwood, the show raised funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust. The other big names onstage included former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, and venerable British bluesman John Mayall, whose Bluesbreakers group formed the nesting ground from which Fleetwood and bassist John McVie emerged with Green in 1967 to form Fleetwood Mac, along with guitarist Jeremy Spencer. Happily, Spencer was on hand for the show, as was Fleetwood Mac keyboardist, singer and songwriter Christine McVie. Mick Fleetwood’s core band for…

LILLY HIATT ISN’T one to take advantage of her musical pedigree, although she certainly could. But while growing up outside of Nashville, she was more interested in the alt-rock of Weezer, Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chili Peppers than the brand of Americana her father, John Hiatt, helped pioneer. “What made me want to pick up a guitar was listening to Weezer’s [self-titled] Blue album,” Hiatt says over coffee on a rainy East Nashville morning. “That did it for me, to where I was like, ‘I’ve got to learn how to play so I can write songs like this.’” On her new, and fourth, solo album, Walking Proof (New West), Hiatt still sounds more like a child of the ’90s than the daughter of a troubadour. Aside from some…

FOR A TIME in the 1970s, guitarists were using phase shifters like they were going out of style. Remarkably, while the effect lost some of its popularity in the decades that followed, it has remained a staple of the guitarist’s arsenal. After all, why hack out static-sounding guitar tracks when a phaser can give them a stunningly three-dimensional swirling sound? Maestro and Electro-Harmonix were among those that popularized the devices, but undoubtedly the most-loved phaser of its time was the MXR Phase 90. More dramatic sounding than MXR’s Phase 45, more affordable and less obtrusive than the larger two-knob Phase 100, the Phase 90 hit the sweet spot, and it landed on a bucketload of classic recordings and touring pedalboards as a result. Edward Van Halen smeared its tones all…

ELEKTRA HAD REASONS to be concerned about releasing Kick Out the Jams. Between its offensive language (which included an infamous call to “kick out the jams, mother—s!”) and suggestive lyrical content, the 1969 debut album from Detroit’s MC5 (short for Motor City Five) was a minefield. Some stores banned the LP from its bins, so the label, over the group’s objections, released a censored version. In either version, Kick Out the Jams is undeniably heavy. Recorded live at Detroit’s famed Grande Ballroom over October 30 and 31, 1969, it stands as a precursor to punk and defines, for me, timeless rock music. The album opens with lead singer Rob Tyner declaring in preacher-like tones, “You’re either part of the problem, or you’re the solution! You must choose!” upon which the…

IF HE EVER TIRED of his day job as a guitarist, songwriter and producer, Mike Campbell could always go into team counseling. During his nearly 50-year career in music, the veteran picker has become something of an authority on interpersonal relationships. “You learn a lot about how people tick by being in bands,” he notes. “Keeping a group together requires a lot of care and management. A band is like a marriage, but one with four or five brains in it, and each one has a different idea of how things should go.” He pauses, then adds, “It can be a struggle at times, because things flare up. Band members can be like brothers — they get into tangles. But I’ll tell you something: When the chips are down, your…

THINK OF JOE Satriani’s guitars and the first image that comes to mind is undoubtedly his signature Ibanez JS, a model that, with its aerodynamic rounded-edge shape, built-for-speed neck, high-powered pickups and eye-popping finishes, is about as modern a design as any. In fact, his primary guitar on Shapeshifting was a JS1CR, a futuristi-clooking example of his signature model, with a reflective, chrome-finished body. But that doesn’t mean Joe doesn’t appreciate or have plenty of use for a solid vintage instrument. In fact, he has a whole collection of them at his beck and call, and he was only too happy to open his vintage vault for Guitar Player and give us a little peek inside. And it’s a good thing he did, because some of these drool-worthy models might…

IF THERE’S ONE thing that rock, blues, jazz, country and funk guitarists have in common, it’s that most of us enjoy playing in minor keys and tonalities. There’s just something about the inherently darker feel of a minor harmonic environment that speaks and resonates so well on our instrument. Couple that with the fact that all guitarists, lead and rhythm players alike, love a good riff, and we arrive at the point of this lesson: how to craft your own minor-key riffs. Whether you’re a rookie, intermediate player or seasoned veteran, check out this sampling of 21 darkly enticing musical ideas. There’s bound to be something that will stoke your creativity. E MINOR SCALE PATTERNS ALONG THE FRETBOARD For the sake of continuity and comparison, all the examples in this…

IF ANY EXPERIENCE can make an old rocker feel 17 again, it’s the excitement of unsheathing a weapon like the new B.C. Rich Mockingbird Extreme with EverTune Bridge, fresh upon its arrival in the big brown truck. And if anything can send you right back to reality it’s finding a guitar like this still perfectly in tune after shedding its box. That certainly wasn’t the norm when I was 17, and it’s a minor miracle even today, thanks to EverTune. The fact that we’re even able to review such a guitar is down to B.C. Rich’s new ownership. After slipping from the hands of founder Bernardo Chaves Rico, the company bounced between different owners, descending into increasingly cheaper offshore production. But since acquiring the brand a year and a half…

SINCE ITS RELEASE a few years back, the Suhr Reactive Load has won fans for its ability to provide a realistic speaker cabinet–like load to your amp while translating the signal to a line-level DI for live or studio use. High-quality impulse responses (IRs) have become a popular way to provide cab simulations in everything from digital amp modelers to in-the-box recording solutions to stand-alone cab-sim units, so it was a natural next step to load a bevy of these WAV files into the hardware that Suhr had already created. The result is the Reactive Load/IR. The load is itself the same as that in the previous unit and the brainchild of John Suhr. He created it with engineering input from legendary amp designer Jim Kelley, who modeled the impedance…

The Electro-Harmonix Mono Synth can transform your guitar into 11 classic-sounding synthesizers — from vintage Moog-style emulations to fat unison voices and soaring leads. Best of all, no MIDI pickup is required. Just plug in and use the Mono Synth’s intuitive controls to quickly dial in sounds and adjust the pedal’s sensitivity to your playing dynamics and style. There’s even an EXP input to control various parameters with an expression pedal. To get this pedal on your board, send an email with the words “Mono Synth” in the subject line to stash.raid@gmail.com, and you just might win! The deadline is May 4, 2020. All gear is “as is.” Johnson & Johnson I’ve always had respect for Eric Johnson as a guitarist who is a true player and a finely attuned…

THROUGH MORE THAN two decades, Nik Huber has been recognized for his marriage of precision and artistry, as well as for the fine woods and top-shelf components crafted into his original, yet familiar designs. At this year’s winter NAMM show, the German luthier debuted “Prototype #2,” which was hustled along to Guitar Player afterward for an exclusive test drive. Officially dubbed Piet, the new model is named after Huber’s youngest son. It’s simultaneously something a little different for Nik Huber Guitars, yet redolent of the maker’s signature touches and the quality that results from them. Huber founded Nik Huber Guitars in Rodgau, Germany, in 1996, and quickly developed a reputation for the quality of his wood stash, and the exotic beauty of the alternative timbers he brought into the process,…

“THE FIRST SOLO WAS PLAYED THROUGH A YAMAHA FIVE-WATT SOLID-STATE AMP ON MY DESK AT HOME. WHY NOT?” THROUGHOUT THEIR 28-YEAR, nine-album career, Nada Surf have often been labeled power pop, but that simple, slightly sugary appellation belies the depths that a close listening to the band’s music can reveal. Just as form follows function, the more layered and evocative the lyrical themes espoused by singer, guitarist and songwriter Matthew Caws, the more atmospheric the arrangements and production. There are depths aplenty on the band’s latest full-length release, Never Not Together (Barsuk/City Slang Records), on which Caws explores themes of humankind’s interconnectedness and the challenge of peering inward to find a path outward. These foundations provide plenty of musical grist for Caws, bassist Daniel Lorca, drummer Ira Elliot and keyboardist…

AFTER WINNING A Grammy Award in 2001 for Best Instrumental Soloist, Sharon Isbin became the first classical guitarist in 43 years to receive the award a second time, in 2010. She now has another major honor to celebrate: Isbin has been named the Musical America Worldwide Instrumentalist of the Year, making her the first guitarist to receive the annual award in its 59-year history. Known internationally as one of the world’s highest-acclaimed classical guitar players, Isbin is notable not only for her talent but also for her highly visible cross-genre collaborations with Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Stanley Jordan and Joan Baez, among others. And she’s done it all while becoming Julliard’s first guitar teacher in the school’s 115 years and founding its guitar department, where she remains chairwoman. I caught…

THE ARRIVAL OF the transistor ushered in a new age of miniaturized electronics in the early 1960s. Everything, from radios to calculators, began to shrink in size, to the point where, today, you can fit a computer that’s also a phone, record player and TV set in your pocket. Teisco wasn’t the first guitar company to take advantage of miniaturization by sticking a battery-powered amp in a guitar (Hofner and Wandré are among those who did it earlier). However, its low price point and major distribution network let the company place this 1964 TRG-1, complete with its own built-in one-watt amp, in the hands of budding rock and roll guitarists. Unfortunately, for me, when I purchased my TRG-1 a few years ago, its amp was dead. Enter my longtime friend…

OVER THE COURSE of his 40-year recording career, Robert Cray has forged a sophisticated blues-soul sound that is timeless, even while it has hewed to the roots of the Memphis soul scene. His recordings have been imbued with the sound of Stax and Hi Records, and he even cut his 2017 Grammy-nominated album, Robert Cray and Hi Rhythm, with members of that label’s rhythm section. For his latest release, That’s What I Heard (Nozzle/Thirty Tigers), the guitarist has taken a different tack by paying tribute to the sound of Sam Cooke’s late-’50s/early ’60s soul, R&B and gospel records, which the late singer cut in Hollywood. The album is Cray’s sixth with producer/drummer Steve Jordan and was recorded at L.A.’s legendary Capitol Studios. “One of the great things about working with…

NEWS OF MARTIN’S revolutionary acoustic-electric spread like wildfire at the Winter NAMM Show, where the company debuted its new SC-13E acoustic-electric to an unsuspecting music community. The storied guitar maker had guarded the clandestine activity happening in its Nazareth, Pennsylvania, headquarters as if it were Area 51. When Guitar Player’s editors visited the facility last spring, the acoustic community was beginning to embrace historic modifications that Martin had made to its iconic Standard Series and a major move toward modernity with the Modern Deluxe Series. At the time, the company offered no indication that instrument design manager Tim Teel and vice president of product management Fred Greene were already hunkered down, conjuring up something way outside the box. The SC-13E features an asymmetrical body shape with a crazy deep cutaway…

USING A CAPO to transpose keys is commonplace in the acoustic world, but have you ever tried using partial capos as a convenient way to transform standard tuning? Partial capos clamp down on some strings while leaving others open. In celebration of its 40th anniversary the capo experts at Kyser sent over a care package with their Short-Cut and Drop-D partial capos. Kyser has been making capos from its Texas facility since 1980, beginning with the Quick-Change capo. Since then, the company’s range has expanded to include capos for acoustic, electric, classical and 12-string guitars, as well as for mandolins, ukes and banjos. Kyser’s Short-Cut partial capo is designed to cover three of the four inner strings and can be used to simulate different open tunings. The Drop-D is primarily…

LAST YEAR, EASTMAN introduced original in-house designs, like the semia-coustic Romeo, to its lineup, which includes near-replicas of classic electric guitars. Now the company has gone back to basics with an appealing new entrant in the guise of the fabled LP Junior: the SB55DC/v, which we’re checking out as a GP exclusive, hot off its release at the 2020 Winter NAMM show. When done right, there’s little not to like about an iconic set-neck, double-cutaway, single-pickup slab of rock-and-roll fury fitted out in this classic guise. Eastman wisely sticks to the program in that regard. Consultation with vintage-guitar authorities during the design phase helped the company get many essential little details right, as well as identify thoughtful upgrades that further enhance the guitar’s value. With its long-loved look and gently…

AFTERNEATH, EARTHQUAKER’S “otherworldly reverberation machine,” has become a favorite ambience tool for guitarists since its release in 2014. It creates its effects using multiple delay lines that can be drawn tightly together to create traditional reverb styles, or scattered to produce a cascade of intriguing delays. The key is the pedal’s drag control, which uncoils the delay machine concealed within. A set of familiar controls govern the pedal. Length sets the reverb’s decay rate, while diffuse adjusts its spread, from a tight focus at full counterclockwise to washy ambience clockwise. Dampen adjusts the tone of the reverb tail. At full counterclockwise, the tail is bright, as if the sound is reflecting off hard surfaces, while winding it clockwise creates a darker top end, as heard in a room with some…

AS A FOUNDING member of the Byrds, Roger McGuinn launched the mid-’60s folk-rock movement and subsequent heartland rock style that brought acts like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to prominence in the 1970s. He was born Jim McGuinn on July 13, 1942, in Chicago, and by his mid teens had become a fan of emerging rockabilly artists, including Johnny Cash, Gene Vincent and Elvis Presley, whose “Heartbreak Hotel” inspired him to take up guitar. When the Old Town School of Folk Music opened in Chicago in 1957, McGuinn signed up to study five-string banjo. “My music teacher was friends with [American folk singer] Bob Gibson,” he told the Chicago Tribune in 1999. “She invited Bob over to play for one of our assemblies… and when I saw…

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“GUITAR IS KIND of a crazy story for me,” says Celisse Henderson, who nowadays performs and records simply as Celisse. “I’ve only been playing for about six years.” It’s what Celisse has done with the guitar in just six years that’s so impressive. In her short career on the fretboard, she has already played lead guitar for Lizzo on Saturday Night Live, toured with Melissa Etheridge, performed with Jon Batiste on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series and, this past January, shared the bill at Gibson’s all-star NAMM concert with such greats as Slash, Billy Gibbons, Jimmy Vivino, Elliot Easton, Lzzy Hale, Don Felder, Rick Nielsen, Richie Faulkner and Jared James Nichols. Then again, Celisse’s accomplishments seem less crazy when you consider she’s been performing almost since she could walk. “My…

CHRISTONE “KINGFISH” INGRAM learned his first guitar licks in an after-school program at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the home of the crossroads that many music fans consider hallowed ground. Ingram may be known for keeping the traditions of his hometown Delta blues alive, but that’s only half of his story. As it happens, influences ranging from psychedelic funk to gospel and hip-hop have their own chapters in it as well. Here are the five riffs that shaped his guitar playing. “I PLAY THE BLUES FOR YOU” ALBERT KING “I learned this at the Delta Blues Museum under my teachers Daddy Rich [Richard Crisman] and Bill ‘Howlin’ Madd’ Perry. We would learn different Albert King songs, such as ‘I Play the Blues for You,’ and one of the…

NASHVILLE TUNING DELIVERS a bright, chimey guitar sound typically heard on country sessions but also on rock recordings. Jimmy Leslie wrote an excellent article about conventional Nashville tuning in our January 2020 issue (see guitarplayer.com/frets). The alternative method described in this column takes a computer-based approach. It isn’t exactly the same as Nashville tuning, but it has a similar musical function in a mix. Traditional Nashville tuning retains a guitar’s 1st and 2nd strings, but uses the 3rd through 6th octave-higher strings from a 12-string set (or a Nashville tuning-specific string set, such as those from D’Addario and GHS). It sounds like this should be a simple conversion, but conventional Nashville tuning takes commitment: You either dedicate a guitar to it or change strings a lot! In addition, changing string…

Mike Campbell is what you might call a “band guy.” Currently, he’s a member of two outfits — Fleetwood Mac, which he joined in 2018, and his own act, the Dirty Knobs, a group he formed as a side project more than a dozen years ago and which is readying its debut album [see page 50]. If he had more time in his schedule, he’d probably join a third band. “It’s just the way I am,” the veteran guitarist says. “Some guys join a band and use it as a springboard to go solo. I never saw the point in that. I like the idea of being in a gang and having your buddies around.” He chuckles, then adds, “It’s less lonely that way.” For more than 40 years, Campbell…

“YOU CAN’T MAKE PEOPLE LIKE YOU. WHEN YOU ACCEPT THAT, THERE’S SOMETHING FREEING ABOUT IT” THERE’S A GREAT piece of advice I once got from Glyn Johns,” Joe Satriani tells Guitar Player, recalling a conversation with the legendary British producer who helmed Satch’s 1995 self-titled album. “He said to me: ‘It’s not your job to decide what people will like or not like — it’s your job to play the guitar. So go play your bloody guitar!’” Satriani laughs at the bluntness of the directive. But, he adds, “It was just a really great, cutting-through-the bullsh*t statement. He was saying, ‘Make yourself happy. Play what you want to play!’” It’s a credo that the 63-year-old Satriani has taken to heart over the course of his long career, during which he’s released…

ON THE MORNING of New Year’s Eve 2019, I and many others bid a sad farewell to the exceptionally talented and creative musical genius Victor E. Jurusz, Jr., better known in the overlapping worlds of jazz and guitar as Vic Juris. Vic’s impact as a player and improviser was felt deeply by all who were fortunate enough to experience and be inspired by his artistry. Legendary jazz guitarists such as Larry Coryell, Jimmy Bruno, Frank Vignola and Bireli Lagrene, all of whom performed and recorded with Vic, sung his praises. Throughout his professional career, Vic collaborated onstage and in the studio with many notable bandleaders, including Phil Woods, Mel Torme, Lee Konitz, Barry Miles and Richie Cole. But he is best known for his 23-year tenure working with legendary saxophonist…

IF YOU’VE EVER dreamed of a guitar that weaves together the best parts of a Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson Les Paul, you’ll surely want to check out the new Ernie Ball Music Man Sabre. Like many a Strat, the Sabre has a 25.5-inch scale-length fretboard, strings that travel in straight lines to their respective tuners (minimizing friction at the nut), a vibrato bridge, bent-steel string saddles, a double-cutaway body (with a backside comfort cut where it hits your ribs) and a diagonally mounted five-position pickup selector. But then, like many a Les Paul, the Sabre offers dual humbuckers, boosted tension on the higher strings (due to their tuners being closer to the nut), a wide-radius fretboard and a ⅜ ths-inch thick contoured and bound flame-maple top. Related only in…

THE BLACKOUT BRITISH arrives on the heels of the BlackOut Tweed amp and was inspired by the 18-watt Marshall 1958, 1973 and 1974 models that were offered (rather confusingly) between 1965 and 1967. And while it’s based on those famed designs, this new Mojotone combo provides greater flexibility via some well-considered modifications by the Mojotone designers. While the BlackOut’s Normal channel has just volume and tone controls as per original spec, the Drive channel dispenses with the tremolo circuit used in the amps of yore and replaces it with a high-gain circuit and three-knob tone stack that Mojotone says it derived from the JCM800 2204 platform. And in place of the usual EL84 output tubes, the BlackOut British carries a pair of 6V6 power tubes for enhanced headroom and low…

THE TROUBADOUR LIFE is tough enough without worrying about the P.A., so when you’ve got to provide your own, it’s always about getting the best sound from the most portable system. That was the design goal of JBL’s Eon One Compact Rechargeable P.A., and the venerable speaker manufacturer hit the bull’s-eye. The diminutive Eon One Compact has four channels and ample connectivity with Bluetooth capability, plus a flexible digital mixer with onboard effects and EQ that’s remotely controllable via an Android or iOS device. GP gives it an Editors’ Pick, and this is why it’s worthy. I’ve been taking the JBL Eon One Compact everywhere for the past couple of months, and it’s simply a joy to employ as a gig and rehearsal partner. Highlights of my time with it…