Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2025 i Guitarist

While we were chatting with this month’s cover stars, Chrissie Hynde and James Walbourne, the subject of phones at gigs came up –The Pretenders have a strict no‑phones policy, which has caused some fans to grumble. Why shouldn’t people capture a little memento of a great gig, you might ask? The answer lies, I feel, in the fact that we’ve become so used to being passive consumers of entertainment via electronic media (me included) that we’ve forgotten that the audience is an essential part of the show, too. If you doubt that, think back to any times you may have played a gig when hardly anyone was in the audience – and compare that to nights when the place was packed. Performers aren’t robots, and the chemistry of a great…

After the rip-roaring success of the JCM800 in the 80s, Marshall ushered in the 90s with the JCM900 – its then-modern evolution of the JCM series, which sought to bring more gain to the table in response to the trends of rock, metal and a burgeoning grunge scene. To some, it hit the spot. To others, it never faced a fair trial, its main ‘crime’ seemingly being the fact that it wasn’t the JCM800. Despite this, the JCM900 – particularly the 100-watt 4100 and 50-watt 4500 models – became the ‘Marshall of the 90s’, offering hot-rodded Marshall tone in combination with dual-channel, dual-master volume convenience and a spring reverb assignable in different amounts to each channel. This saw the 900 find favour, particularly in the live environment, with everyone from…

The wah pedal was introduced to the market in 1967 as a Vox product. Without getting into the convoluted story of its genesis and later production, we can say that the first incarnation was called the Clyde McCoy pedal (named after a trumpet player) and the second was the V846 model. These pioneering pedals are regarded as classics and Vox has now brought out new versions: the VRM-1 Real McCoy and the V846 Vintage. While there are other Clyde McCoys and V846 versions on the market, the Vox plan this time was to meticulously replicate the exact tonal characteristics of the pedals. The company boffins got busily into reverse engineering, looking into the factors that made a mint-condition 1960s original just right, including the casing and all the electronics, especially…

Artist: Tashi Dorji Album: We Will Be Wherever The Fires Are Lit (Drag City) Bhutan-born experimental guitarist Tashi Dorji resides near Asheville, North Carolina. While he began his musical journey through punk-rock, he now plays spiky, improvised guitar music that can be as beautiful as it is challenging, as his newest album, We Will Be Wherever The Fires Are Lit, attests. A singular player, Tashi doesn’t seem to worry too much about audience reaction: “You can make music for the purpose of soothing people’s ears and to give them comfort, but I make it as a practice that is part of what I do,” he explains. “It’s not that I’m intentionally trying not to please people, it’s just a pretty raw form of art that I record and release. I…

I’ve told you before about my first Fender Relic, a ’51 Fender Nocaster that I bought off the Fender stand at the London Music Show. It was the first year Relics surfaced, so I suppose that makes me an ‘early adopter’. Years ago I let go of the few vintage guitars that I owned, and today have two Custom Shop Strats, a Tom Murphy aged Les Paul and a Hummingbird acoustic. All of these feature ultra-light to medium distressing. To my eyes, it enhances them as it provides the look of decades-old guitars that have been played but loved, the way most vintage instruments have been. “I’ve been involved with guitars for decades, and I can probably count on two hands those I’ve seen with half the finish gone from…

Back in 2015, on hearing that blues legend BB King was unwell, a 10-year-old Toby Lee recorded a video called Get Well Soon Mr King, playing a wailing blues solo on his Les Paul. The video went viral, attracting millions of views in only a short time. After BB’s death, his daughters were so touched by Toby’s tribute that they flew him to Memphis where he played in BB King’s club on the city’s famous Beale Street. A prodigious talent, he’s since appeared on UK TV many times, won an Olivier Award as part of the cast of the West End production of School Of Rock, a nd appea red on US TV’s Ellen DeGeneres Show. This January he won the Bob Harris Emerging Artist gong at the 2025 UK…

This year’s 40th anniversary marks the year, 1985, that the Paul Reed Smith company moved into its first factory in Virginia Avenue, Annapolis. Paul had, in fact, made his first ‘real’ guitar in 1975, and as the decade progressed he went from repairman to a custom builder of some note, creating instruments for the likes of Ted Nugent and Peter Frampton (both in 1976 and the latter was the first with bird inlays), Al Di Meola, Roy Buchanan, Howard Leese (the first curly-maple-topped PRS in 1980) and culminating in Carlos Santana, which involved the beginnings of the PRS vibrato system, also in 1980. It’s already the stuff of legend, although Paul had not yet created the now-classic outline shape that was fully formed by 1984. Later that year, he set…

Mark Sampson is a legend in the world of amplifier design, known for his innovative work with Matchless and Bad Cat amplifiers. With a reputation for crafting some of the most dynamic, tone-rich amps ever made, he’s earned a loyal following among musicians and engineers alike. Recently, Sampson reunited with John Thompson at Bad Cat Amps, bringing together decades of experience, passion and expertise for creating exceptional guitar tone. This collaboration has sparked excitement in the industry, as they combine their talents to push the boundaries of amplifier design once again with the Bad Cat Era 30. You recently came together to create an exciting new Black Cat amplifier. How did this collaboration come about? Mark Sampson: “We’re calling it the Mark Sampson Era 30, which was John’s idea. And…

Writing this in early March, I’m beginning to wonder if guitarists everywhere are waking up from their winter slumber and getting back to guitar playing. “Could you check over my guitar? It’s not quite playing/sounding right,” seems an increasingly common request. To be honest, it’s come from both pro and amateur players, and even my long-suffering partner has noticed the rather-more-than-usual comings and goings of guitar cases and gigbags: “Have you started a new business?” A slightly pressured (if simple) job was to take a look and restring a pro’s pair of ES-335s to make sure they’re ship-shape for an imminent and important gig. These are guitars I’ve seen plenty of times over the years, both on stage and on my maintenance mat. Oddly, both tune-omatics were fitted the wrong…

“This is a wonderful guitar that is very original and virtually unused. It has some great colouration and a really cool backstory because it was made in 1969 for the Musikmesse show in Frankfurt, Germany. This was during the Cold War era and the colours on the guitar were meant to represent different things about the United States. The gold is for the golden beaches, the blue is for the sky and the green is for the ocean. From what I was told, it was intended as a bit of a rub in the face for The Soviet Union. The simple message was, here in the US we have all these beautiful things and you don’t. “It has gold hardware with a medium-profile C-shaped maple cap neck, and the guitar…

Andy Summers It’s hard to imagine a more cerebral art-rock guitar duo than Andy Summers and Robert Fripp – Andy takes us inside their 80s albums p32 A Matchless Master We were deeply saddened by the recent death of Matchless co-founder Mark Sampson. Read our final interview with him on p106 Unplugged Perfection? Feedback-free, thinline stage acoustics have come and gone, but has LR Baggs finally cracked it with the new AEG-1? We test it on p8…

Beetronics has been on a run of releasing dirt pedals recently, but its latest offers modulation (plus a modicum of dirt). The Larva Morphing Phaser is a six-stage analogue phaser with an element of digital control, which has morphing capabilities between two adjustable presets, and also sports a preamp – inspired by Moog’s Moogerfooger pedals – that adds practical tonal variations. There are three toggle-switched options for the sound the Larva delivers: you can have phaser, vibrato (wet signal only) or just the sound of the preamp with no modulation effect. The Preamp has a natural warmth and is controlled by gain and master volume knobs that can be turned up to build in valve-like overdrive. The basic effect architecture of the pedal offers Phaser 1 and Phaser 2, which…

The world of guitar repair is a realm where one can particularly appreciate the erosive power of time. Sure, my eyesight is getting worse and I’ve started making noises when I get up from my workbench, but restoration work has also shown me that guitars are not just static pieces of woodwork but delicate, interactive sculptures that suffer the swells and contractions of seasonal change and the bruises of life on the road. Recently, Villagers’ Conor O’Brien stopped by during his Bristol tour date to have some emergency maintenance work carried out on his stunning Emmanuel Stone acoustic guitar. As Conor’s main guitar, the instrument has travelled extensively round the world, mainlining artistic expression and entertaining fans (myself included) for years. But even modern Titebond glue can only take so…

Lo-fi is to audio what black-and-white or sepia-tinted film is to visual. Often lo-fi tracks will loop a sample from an old vinyl record, complete with scratches and crackles, then drop it over a modern beat. In this case, the idea is to be able to create your own loops or chord progressions, although this knowledge is useful beyond this genre, too, of course. Apologies in advance for Example 1, which is a bit of a stretch, but sometimes we have to make these sacrifices if we’re going to find voicings you don’t hear every day! All of these chords have their highest note (B) in common, with most of them also featuring F# as the second highest. As we play through these, it’s interesting to hear the shifting intervals…

Dating back to the late 80s and led by Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins have polarised and galvanized with records such as Gish (1991), Siamese Dream (1993), Melon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (1995) and Adore (1998) through an outright refusal to adhere to genre confines, regardless of the success those confines afforded them. Because of this, and Corgan’s tendency to speak his mind, critics and fans alike have had a field day. But that hasn’t stopped those same pundits from filling seats in arenas, such is life for the Pumpkins – light and shade, as it were. But things change, as do attitudes, especially when it comes to rock music – and even more so when you’re a Pumpkin. This is never truer than in the case of Aghori Mhori…

Epaminondos ‘Epi’ Stathopoulos – a well‑educated, worldly and dapper young man who went by the nickname of ‘The Duke’ – was 22 years old when his father, Anastasios, died in 1915 and he took charge of the family’s musical instrument business, renaming it The House of Stathopoulo. Soon, the US’s early 20th century craze for mandolins would morph into a new passion for jazz. The business’s early focus was banjos, where it quickly came to rival established makers such as Bacon & Day, Lange/ Paramount and Vega‑Fairbanks, becoming the Epiphone Banjo Company in 1928. However, by then Epi had already seen the future and that same year he launched his first range of acoustic guitars, as Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family and New York’s Nick Lucas spearheaded a new age…

Lloyd Baggs is best known for designing industry standard acoustic pickups such as the Anthem, Session VTC, HiFi and HiFi Duet. But, in fact, Baggs comes from the world of high-end lutherie, creating instruments for Ry Cooder, Jackson Browne, Janis Ian, Graham Nash and other great artists. And it was watching Cooder struggling to amplify his Martin that set Lloyd on his new career path. “I saw Ry’s pain in trying to amplify his acoustic,” Baggs reveals. “It was pretty brutal, so it has become our quest to make amplifying an acoustic as easy, pleasurable and simple as it is with an electric guitar.” Thinline electro-acoustics have been around for years, notables being Gibson’s Chet Atkins SST, the Godin Multiac (which Baggs had a hand in creating), Fender with its…

It’s probably fair to say that J Rockett’s Blue Note pedals haven’t had as high a profile as other drives, but maybe that will change with this third incarnation: the Blue Note Select. Prior to this, there was the larger but similarly equipped Blue Note Pro, and then a smaller Tour Series version without the Hot switch. Now, that Hot switch has been reinstated in another nicely compact offering that’s had a complete makeover, not just in looks with its electric blue colour scheme and silver knobs, but with the circuitry, now in V2 with “an enhanced low-end response”, in the company’s words. What you’re getting here is a low-to-medium gain drive pedal with toggle-switched Standard and Fat modes, the obligatory volume and gain knobs, plus tonal adjustment via Tone…

PRS 40th Anniversary Limited Edition models From £6,999 CONTACT PRS Guitars Europe PHONE 01223 874301 WEB www.prsguitars.com I recognise these as PRS guitars, but they look special. What’s the deal? As you’re no doubt aware, PRS is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and if there’s one thing we know about PRS – both the brand and the man himself – it’s that they know how to mark an occasion in style. Continuing the 40th celebrations are the PRS Charcoal Phoenix Limited Edition (£7,999) and the 40th Anniversary Custom 24-08 Semi-Hollow Limited Edition (£6,999) models, both of which are available in limited numbers worldwide. Charcoal Phoenix, eh? Yes, despite the analogy of conquering adversity, the guitar actually takes its name from the finish on the top and back of the…

Artist: Andy Summers & Robert Fripp Album: The Complete Recordings (Panegyric) Four decades later, it’s a pairing so strange you’re tempted to write it off as a fever dream. Yet the release of a new boxset comprising 1982’s I Advance Masked and 1984’s Bewitched albums – plus 11 unheard tracks from the vaults – confirms that Andy Summers and Robert Fripp really did join forces. As star names from the disparate worlds of stadium rock and prog respectively, The Police and King Crimson guitarists also seemed poles apart as players. But as Summers tells us, their fleeting, never-to-be-revisited collaboration pushed the envelope with its collision of jazz, ambient and world flavours. What made you want to collaborate with Robert Fripp in the early 80s? “Well, I wasn’t into King Crimson…

A dam ‘Nolly’ Getgood is the guitar world’s man for all seasons. He’s been a member of influential contemporary metal outfit Periphery, an in-demand producer of hard-rock and metal records, and an expert adviser and product developer for Bare Knuckle Pickups. He has several highly regarded signature humbucker sets to his name – including the recent the PolyPaf set that delivers vintage humbucker tones with a subtle, contemporary twist. But he is perhaps best known for his ability to craft incredibly chunky, detailed high-gain guitar tones that lack for nothing in definition and edge – yet still have a harmonically rich and full sound. While it’s tempting to think high gain is all about amps and distortion choices, Adam says the process of getting searing-hot tone that sounds chunky and…

STAR LETTER GOLD STANDARDS As guitarists, musicians and music lovers, we often hark back to the ‘golden age’ of whatever genre we’re particularly interested in, imagining how wonderful it would have been to have been there to witness a certain band in its heyday, find vintage Fenders in pawn shops or pick up a late-50s Les Paul for a song when they were out of favour during a certain part of the 60s. But it occurred to me recently that we are actually living in the golden age of guitar ownership, and we ought to take a moment to appreciate it. In a time when everything else seems so expensive due to the cost of living crisis, we have access to guitars starting at such low price points that it’s…

Guitarist would like to thank Dawsons of Denmark Street, London, for the kind use of its premises for our interview and photoshoot www.dawsons.co.uk The Pretenders are the black cat of rock music. They go where they want, without seeking approval, yet are more enduringly loved than many trend-chasing acts that have come and gone during the four decades that they’ve been in business. Bad luck has crossed their path once or twice over the years, too, notably with the tragically early death of guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, whose influence is still felt in the band’s music today, many incarnations on from the original 1978 line-up to which he belonged. To this day, the band’s musical DNA is pure mercury – you could read their music as punk for romantics or pop…

HAMSTEAD X THAT PEDAL SHOW REDWING ANALOGUE STEREO MODULATOR £429 CONTACT Hamstead Soundworks WEB www.hamsteadsoundworks.com What You Need To Know 1 Oh, haven’t I seen the Redwing on That Pedal Show? Quite possibly. This is a collaboration between Hamstead Soundworks and TPS, following a similar venture with Keeley, which produced the D&M Drive, and Jam Pedals for the Harmonious Monk. 2 What’s this pedal’s speciality? The Redwing is an all-analogue stereo modulation pedal. Dan Steinhardt from TPS was looking to Hamstead to design the perfect flanger, but this goes beyond that. 3 It’s got a lot of knobs and switches! That’s true, but they each make a definite contribution to the sound. Between them, the controls can dial up flanging, chorus and vibrato, plus ring modulation and rotary speaker-style sounds.…

What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money? “I had to borrow $150 from my mom and dad in the 70s, and I got a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop Deluxe. It was $300 total – I had saved around $150 and borrowed the other half. I sold a mini-bike to help pay my parents back and I earned back the rest by doing yard work. But the Goldtop was only a couple years old; it was from a friend of my sister. I wish I still had it.” What was the last guitar you bought and why? “The last guitar I bought was a 1953 Les Paul Goldtop. It’s player-grade from my buddies at Chicago Music Exchange. I wanted player-grade because I’m not a collector per…

After weeks of procrastination, during which I was mostly enjoying playing my Strat once again, I finally had to knuckle down and spray the neck. As with vintage Les Paul sunbursts and blonde Telecasters, there is no right or wrong when it comes to Fender neck shades. I’ve seen 50s Strats with ultra-pale necks that looked like they were sprayed a week earlier, and others with a deep orangey amber. They all look different so anybody restoring a vintage Strat – or spraying a newer one to appear vintage – is at liberty to shoot for whatever tint they prefer. With Andrew Raymond’s ’56 on hand to use as a reference, I started tinting some lacquer thinner to achieve a close match. Magic Formula Using ColorTone stains from StewMac in…

John Sykes: A Tribute Tutor Richard Barrett | Gear used Gibson Les Paul Custom, Keeley Boss SD-1 & Marshall JTM45 MkII Reissue Difficulty | 20 mins per example AS WE REPORTED last issue, John Sykes passed away in December at the age of 65, to the shock and dismay of many. He first came to prominence in the early 80s with NWOBHM act Tygers Of Pan Tang, though within a few short years he had replaced Snowy White in Thin Lizzy, before moving on to Whitesnake, most notably co-writing the 1987 self-titled album at the peak of their US success. John’s fluid, skilful playing combined the passion of Gary Moore with riffs inspired by Zeppelin and Deep Purple, plus unexpected melodic twists like Ritchie Blackmore and squealing pinched harmonics that…