Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2024 i Guitar World

MY FIRST MEMORIES of Phish? Aw, it’s nice of you to ask! Let’s see... College, early Nineties: A bartender pointed to the speakers above the bar and said, “That’s Phish, a cool new jam band from Vermont.” I couldn’t really make out what I was hearing, but I logged it in anyway. My first newspaper job, 1995: Even though I was a copy editor (and not a reviewer), they threw me a bone and let me review CDs. One of the first ones I claimed was A Live One, a double live album by that jam band — you know, from when I was in college in the early Nineties and the bartender pointed to the speakers, etc. Anyway, I liked it. I appreciated the art direction, the excitement of…

TUNE-UPS NEWS + NOTES “MY BOARD IS sort of a hybrid now. I used to run basically no effects on the front end between the guitar and the amp and only a little delay into the second wet amp, leaving the dry amp to stay the same. But now I have a little more on the front end in case the balance isn’t right between the wet and dry. I’m getting closer to a single mono sound, so let’s discuss how I do that. “My guitar goes right into a TC Electronic Polytune [3], which goes into my Keeley Compressor [C2], the silver twoknob. From there, we go to a small board that I keep on top of my amp, and I do that to filter out noise. So, up…

AFTER MORE THAN 50 years of rocking and rolling all night, Kiss have done their damnedest to deliver the smashes, thrashes and hits that the Kiss Army craves. Of course, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing — especially from a lead guitar perspective. After Ace Frehley’s initial mad dash to glory, Kiss, at least for a minute there, had trouble securing the services of a reliable six-stringer. That’s not to say that Vinnie Vincent and Mark St. John weren’t talented. And, of course, Bruce Kulick was nothing short of a champion during his 13-year tenure, while Tommy Thayer is the epitome of reliability. But there’s no denying that turbulence has long been a part of Kiss’s guitar-related process, as evidenced by the need for several session players to save the…

Q When and where did you buy this guitar? Probably around 2018 or 2019. It’s one of those newer models, a Mexican Jaguar. I got it from Reverb; I’ve gotten a lot of stuff off Reverb and Sweetwater. I walk into guitar stores now, and there’s not always a massive selection to choose from. I can’t remember the last time I was able to successfully buy one from a store that felt good. Q You’re known for your Gibson SG, so why did you choose a Jaguar? I had never played a Jaguar before and wanted something that wasn’t overly expensive but that I could try out to see how it felt. I thought it was going to be an aggressive guitar — I was thinking of Kurt Cobain, who…

FONTAINES D.C. HAVE come a long way since meeting at college in Ireland in 2014. A few short years after breaking out of the rehearsal room and into clubs around Ireland and the U.K., rapidly building on the huge buzz around the band, they managed to release three singles in 2018, kicking off with “Liberty Belle.” A deal with Partisan Records soon followed, and Dogrel, their debut album, was released in 2019, peaking at Number 9 in the U.K. That same year they set their sights on America, which involved playing nine sets at SXSW over five days and appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Their efforts Stateside saw them rewarded in 2021, when their second album, 2020’s A Hero’s Death, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock…

THE TITLE TRACK of Savatage’s 1993 album, Edge of Thorns, is a tale of deception. Its lyrics — written by the band’s late producer, Paul O’Neill — see the protagonist reflecting on a past flame and trying to convince himself that he’s moved on (“But I don’t think about you anymore,” the chorus’ final line states in faux defiance), while the truth is anything but. Fittingly, the song’s music video — filmed in the swamps of Florida — is similarly deceptive, at least regarding the instrument used by the band’s late guitarist, Criss Oliva. On the surface, it appears to be a Jackson, the brand that endorsed Savatage for many years; in reality, it’s a custom ESP Mirage featuring an airbrushed headstock that helped keep Oliva in good graces with…

IT’S THE EVENING of July 21, 1993, and Phish is navigating an especially energetic version of “Runaway Jim” at the HORDE Festival in Middletown, New York. Guitarist/vocalist Trey Anastasio’s masterful, extended solo runs the gamut from quiet meditation to blistering groups of cascading notes, delivered in ways both clever and compelling. But what happens next is perhaps an even greater metaphor for the guitarist’s overall approach to music. The band segues into “Big Ball Jam,” an occasional addition to the set where large, colored beach balls are simultaneously batted about by the audience, each color assigned to a different band member. Every time a ball is touched, the corresponding player sounds his instrument. (Luckily, video of this fun spectacle is available on YouTube.) What results is a spontaneous and beautiful…

SOUNDCHECK MOST OF THE nine new Stratocaster models that Fender introduced in commemoration of the Strat’s 70th anniversary provide a familiar “tried and true” experience — two-color sunburst, maple neck, synchronized tremolo, etc. However, the 70th Anniversary Vintera II Antigua Stratocaster stands out for something rather unexpected. It’s the only Vintera II model in the lineup; it’s the only hardtail; and it’s the only model that’s unapologetically based on Fender’s Seventies designs — oversized headstock, three-bolt Micro-Tilt neck plate, bullet truss rod nut and all. Of course, the reason why you’re probably reading this review is because you can’t take your eyes off of this guitar’s Antigua finish. The Antigua finish was a bit polarizing when Fender first introduced it in the late Sixties on the semi-hollow Coronado II model,…

LAST MONTH, I kicked off my new column with a brief synopsis of interval recognition, with a distinct goal of laying the groundwork for a topic that is to me an essential element in learning music and progressing on the guitar. We’ll now increase the difficulty a bit by digging into “Free Range Chicken” from my new album, Charisma. FIGURE 1 presents the opening 16-bar intro section of “Free Range Chicken.” Bars 1-8 are primarily built from straight 16th notes that are articulated mostly with alternate (down-up-down-up) picking combined with some pull offs and played for the most part on the bottom three strings. Recalling our discussion of interval recognition, this song is based around an E7, or E dominant 7, tonality, which means the tonic, or “home chord,” is…

LAST MONTH, WE began looking at “Way Down Deep,” the title track from my 2011 solo album. You can also check out a live version of the tune that’s included as a bonus track on How It Feels to Fly (2014). In breaking down the riffs I play during the intro section, we dissected the pick-hand hybrid picking techniques required to play the riffs, which I find very useful in many situations for which I want precise control of the way I attack the notes. Hybrid picking is a combination of fingerpicking and flatpicking. For most applications, I’ll clasp the pick between my pick-hand index finger and thumb, as I’d normally hold it, and use the pick to strike the low strings with downstrokes while picking the higher strings with…

“KILL THE NOISE” WORDS AND MUSIC BY ANTHONY ESPERANCE, TOBIN ESPERANCE, JACOBY SHADDIX, DREW FULK AND ANDREW GOLDSTEIN. COPYRIGHT © 2022 BEARTRACKSPUBLISHING, MEATLOCKER 2019 PUBLISHING, WIZARDS DANCING UNDERWATER, ARTIST 101 PUBLISHING GROUP AND FRNDZONE MUSIC. ALL RIGHTS FOR BEARTRACKSPUBLISHING AND MEATLOCKER 2019 PUBLISHING ADMINISTERED BY BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (US) LLC. ALL RIGHTS FOR WIZARDS DANCING UNDERWATER, ARTIST 101 PUBLISHING GROUP AND FRNDZONE MUSIC ADMINISTERED WORLDWIDE BY SONGS OF KOBALT MUSIC PUBLISHING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD LLC.…

THE BOUTIQUE AMP market thrives and exists as it does today largely thanks to the pioneering efforts and success of Mike Soldano. Before Soldano introduced the legendary SLO-100 Super Lead Overdrive 100-watt head in 1987, the most viable high-gain amp options for hard rock, metal and shred guitarists were mostly limited to either Mesa Boogie models or a Marshall or Fender amp that was hot-rodded by an amp tech. The immediate success of the SLO-100, which was warmly embraced by an impressive variety of pros, gave dozens of amp techs the encouragement they needed to start their own amp companies, particularly those expanding the range of high-gain designs, and a few years later the boutique amp phenomenon was in full swing. Although Soldano previously had performed numerous amp mods himself,…

READER ART OF THE MONTH If you’ve created a drawing, painting or sketch of your favorite guitarist and would like to see it in an upcoming issue of Guitar World, email GWSoundingBoard@futurenet.com with a JPG or PDF of the image! And obviously, include your name! DEFENDERS of the Faith Mark J. Shapiro AGE: 74 (really!) HOMETOWN: Fountain Valley, CA GUITARS: Fender Baja Telecaster, Gretsch Duo-Jet, Fender USA Strat, G&L Legacy SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: Neil Young “Cinnamon Girl,” Tommy Castro “You Knew the Job Was Dangerous,” Arc Angels “Shape I’m In” GEAR I WANT MOST: A mic stand that won’t fall over! Roger Feagin AGE: 56 HOMETOWN: Independence, KY GUITARS: Gibson Les Paul Standard, Fender American Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster, Taylor 210 SONGS I’VE BEEN PLAYING: Tommy Emmanuel “Song for a…

TUNE-UPSNEWS + NOTES WHILE THE ENDURING cultural idea of Jimi Hendrix is that of a larger-than-life rock god, complete with burning guitars and legendary sexual and drug-fuelled escapades, that perception ignores a key part of the guitarist’s identity: he was a massive sci-fi nerd. It’s that semi-forgotten part of Hendrix’s soul that is at the heart of a new comic book. In Titan Comics’ Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze, the guitarist is reinvented as a space traveler and political figure who is now the biggest rock star in the galaxy, rather than just on Earth. The graphic novel, which was released in July at the San Diego Comic-Con, follows Hendrix as he travels from world to world in a quest to not only further his music, but to free people from…

The GEAR HUNTER WHETHER YOU PREFER the sound of vintage blues, indie crunch, harder rock or progressive metal, you’ll probably have seen a Victory amp on stage at one point or another. Given the bar of quality that stretches across their impressively wide range of products — from stacks and combos to pedal amps and solid-state stomp boxes — it’s no surprise their designs have been popular with all kinds of players, as demonstrated by their growing list of high-profile endorsees. For Chief Designer Martin Kidd, who had already built a solid reputation as one of the finest amp builders in England through his work at Cornford, it’s been a case of listening to what artists want and ensuring that their needs are met at every stage. By his own…

HRNETS’ NEST GUITAR buzz, dark, doomy riffs and rhythms as foreboding as torrential thunderstorms are what make High on Fire heavy. What makes them stand out from their stoner-metal peers, however, is the way they imbue Sabbathian sludge with Eighties metal hooks, thrash attitude, psychedelic swirls and authentic Turkish folk melodies. “I never wanted to be just a doom band,” says frontman Matt Pike, who cut his metal teeth in the Nineties with drone legends Sleep. “When we formed High on Fire, I was thinking we’d be more like Celtic Frost with maybe a little black metal in there. But that was just a starting point.” Since they surfaced from their Lovecraftian netherworld in 1998, Pike and his bandmates have explored multiple styles and subgenres. Their version of metallic doom…

PJD GUITARS WAS founded in 2010 by Leigh Dovey in the historic North Yorkshire city of York in the U.K. Things began to get serious starting in 2017 — and now PJD has a team of six people building around 30 instruments per month. While those numbers aren’t going to bother the big boys, the brand’s quality and affordability might. Last year, PJD re-jigged their range to start with the new Standard models, which come in five body shapes and kick off, price-wise, at $1,689. While many small guitar-makers concentrate on often exotic custom builds, PJD’s Standards are pared back in style — but not in quality. Like an increasing number of U.K.-based makers, PJD uses solid obeche for St. John’s body, a slightly downsized offset; it’s a light and…

THIS PAST APRIL, we received the sad news of the passing of Dickey Betts, founding member of the Allman Brothers Band and one of the greatest and most lyrical and melodic guitarists of all time. Dickey became a primary inspiration for me from a very early age and has remained one of my biggest influences. In 1983, my father was able to talk the owner of Coleman’s Night Club in Rome NY, into letting his six-year-old son (me) sit in the back and watch Dickey perform with his band BHLT, an acronym for Betts, Jimmy Hall, Chuck Leavell and Butch Trucks. They were sharing the bill with the Gregg Allman Band, which included the great Dan Toler on guitar and his brother Frankie Toler on drums. That experience changed my…

TUNE-UPSNEWS + NOTES IN 1972, DEEP Purple earned the distinction as the “globe’s loudest band” by the Guinness Book of World Records when their concert at London’s Rainbow Theatre was clocked at 117 decibels. “They’re still loud — very loud,” says Simon McBride, who took over guitar duties for the veteran hard rock outfit in 2022 after longtime member Steve Morse left to care for his ailing wife. “I have to wear ear protection, because if I didn’t, I’d be deaf. It’s old school. It’s basically ‘turn everything up and let’s play.’” At 45, the Irish guitarist is a generation younger than his Deep Purple bandmates, all of whom are in their mid to late seventies, and fittingly he brings a youthful energy to his first album with the group,…

IN 1992, PAGE Hamilton appeared to have won the music lottery. The jazz-trained guitarist’s alt-metal/post-hardcore band, Helmet, darlings of the New York City downtown music scene, had signed a whopper of a deal with Interscope Records (worth a reported $1.2 million, staggering numbers at the time) and released their major-label debut, Meantime, which went gold in a matter of months. Helmet’s music was easy to digest: the guitar riffs and rhythms were brutal and direct, the grooves were pummeling and unrelenting, and Hamilton’s vocals were perfect if you were into the “Ozzy Osbourne as drill sergeant” thing. It all worked like a charm. MTV played the video of the attack-mode single “Unsung” in regular rotation, and the band’s touring dance card was checked off for the next year. Any other…

BACK IN FEBRUARY, Jimmy Page came out of hiding, emerging at the grand opening of London’s Gibson Garage alongside Brian May and Tony Iommi. Fanfare ensued, as did news of Gibson’s launching of a faithful Collector’s Edition recreation of Page’s 1969 EDS-1275 double-neck. Mind you, this was after Page had popped up with a Les Paul the previous November to perform a rendition of “Rumble” for Link Wray’s long-overdue Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. So he’s been busy of late — at least by 21st-century Page standards — and his re-emergence has got us thinking about some of his most soaring solos outside of Led Zeppelin, aka the stuff that gets overlooked because radio stations and Apple Music playlists are too busy obsessing over “Stairway to Heaven” and…

FORMED BY GUITARIST Robin Davey, formerly of British blues revivalists the Hoax, and singer Greta Valenti, Beaux Gris Gris & the Apocalypse are one of those bands who know how to put their own spin on things. Based in California, it’s the combined experiences of the founding members growing up on each side of the Atlantic that led to an eclectic take on rootsy rock. Their latest album, Hot Nostalgia Radio, is a tantalizing blend of classic soul and vintage blues, with some truly mesmerizing tones from Davey. “Greta grew up in New Orleans and was brought up around a very different kind of blues to what I had in England,” the guitarist says. “Though I was across the pond, I strangely felt more connected to the Austin scene —…

PERSONALITIES //ERIC BAZILIAN ERIC BAZILIAN IS nothing if not patient. The Hooters singer-songwriter and guitarist has waited a long while to be featured in Guitar World — 40 years, to be exact — so he was understandably elated to sit down for an interview. “I don’t think I’ve ever been mentioned in any guitar magazine before,” he says. “Finally — here we go!” While it’s certainly true that the guitar cognoscenti (we include ourselves in that group) has traditionally focused on the tried-and-true legends, there’s still dozens of gifted and notable players — even those who have sold millions of albums — who, for one reason or another, get overlooked. And make no mistake, Bazilian deserves recognition; the man can play. As he points out, “I’ve written and played guitar…

INTHESPRING of 1990, Bay Area thrashers Testament — considered by many metal fans to be the leading contender if the “Big 4” were to ever expand by one — spent seven weeks touring across America in support of their recently released third studio album, Practice What You Preach. The trek also featured another band who were on the rise at the time — the Tampa, Florida-based Savatage, whose lead guitarist, Criss Oliva, turned 27 on the tour’s 12th stop. Oliva’s counterpart in Testament was former Joe Satriani student Alex Skolnick, who joined the group — then called Legacy — in 1984 at the tender age of 16. Despite his youth, Skolnick had achieved international recognition in the metal guitar community for his blistering solos on his band’s first three albums,…

IT USED TO be that in-ear monitors (IEMs) were something reserved only for superstars. But — in case you haven’t caught much live music lately — a rising tide of musicians don’t go onstage without them. The only drawbacks have been their astronomical prices and getting custom ear molds to ensure a proper fit. Ultimate Ears Pro has long established itself for making an impressively wide range of custom IEMs so sophisticated that many pro musicians and weekend warriors have made them their go-to brand. And in case you’re wondering, they’re fully aware of the obstacles that prevent musicians from taking the plunge toward IEMs, which is why their new affordable line of premium in-ear monitors — the UE 150, UE 250 and UE 350 — feature a universal fit…

COLLABORATIONS OR CROSSOVERS can be a very difficult thing to pull off successfully, but the recent pairing of Death By Audio and Earth-Quaker Devices for the development of the Time Shadows pedal is the music industry equivalent of the kung fu-meets-samurai brilliance of Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman. Time Shadows II is described as “Subharmonic Multi-Delay Resonator,” but that just scratches the surface of the incredibly complex effects lurking within this diminutive yet powerful stomp box. In essence, Time Shadows is an advanced multi-effects unit with three very distinctive algorithms or modes. EQD mode (developed by EarthQuaker Devices) is “an envelope-controlled sub-octave filter delay” or “pitch-morphed fuzz delay filter;” DBA mode (contributed by Death By Audio) is a “multi-delay regenerating filter” or “multi-delay filter remorphinator;” and !¡ mode, a new…

THE MOST MEMORABLE guitar solos serve as compositions unto themselves. When listening to one, it’s like you’re hearing a song within a song. Examples include George Harrison’s solo in the Beatles’ “Something” or Eric Clapton’s solo in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” For both of these tracks, you simply can’t imagine the song without the solo being an integral part of it. One of the bands I record with is the Reddcoats, whose second album, The Reddcoats 2, includes the track “All for Me,” which is constructed of an intricate and highly unusual chord progression that’s challenging to solo over. In recording my solo, I initially felt I needed to compose it. I was thinking, “Man, there are so many chord changes, as well as key modulations; I’m going to…

“I’M NOT SURE where it comes from, because we come from two different places,” Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford told Guitar Player in 2019. “[Joe Perry] isn’t schooled at all, so it’s totally a ‘feel’ thing for him, whereas I did a lot more studying of the guitar. So you’re seeing two different approaches, but they work really well together. Ultimately, you want to have both sides.” What Whitford is explaining is the intangible secret of the Aerosmith groove machine. Even if you can play like Perry or Whitford, a big part of the band’s sound is the sum of these two players’ distinct approaches. Joe’s take on this? “I listen to what Brad’s playing, and he listens to what I’m playing, and then we just try and mix it up, right…

“LUNATIC FRINGE” Red Rider ONE OF NORTH America’s biggest rock radio hits from 1981, this cool and hauntingly intriguing song, written by Canadian singer-songwriter Tom Cochrane, features a slick arrangement and production that includes layered guitar parts, along with bass, drums, keyboard synthesizers, lead and background vocals and soaring slide licks that were performed by Ken Greer on an overdriven pedal or lap steel. We’ve adapted the arrangement’s keyboard and steel parts for electric guitars and bass. Ideally, you’d have a keyboard synth player cover the ambient, mysterious intro. Alternatively, to emulate the infinitely sustaining low B synth bass note in bars 1-13 on bass guitar, you could try either gently tremolo picking the note, as indicated, or executing a series of gradual volume swells and use a very wet,…