Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2025 i Guitarist

The only constant in life is the inevitability of change. But even so it was sad and sobering to hear that one of the pillars of British musical instrument retail, GAK of Brighton, closed its doors on 25 March and (at the time of writing) has yet to re-open. The only thing now viewable on its website is a message saying it is ‘currently unavailable’. At almost the same time, another big guitar and instrument store Bax Music, in the Netherlands, was declared bankrupt, though it is reported that its owner is considering a relaunch at some point in the future. Our first thoughts are, of course, for any staff and suppliers affected by these events. And though these are but two examples, it’s hard to avoid feeling like the…

There are countless companies producing highly usable amplifiers spanning the gamut of features and price points. Then there are a select bunch of designers who – through their uncompromising dedication to reach beyond established frontiers – have become legends. Mark Sampson, who we sadly lost only weeks ago, was one such pioneer. He leaves in his wake a dazzling legacy of sonic excellence. With his formative beginnings repairing radios alongside his father, Mark progressed into guitar amplifier repairs and sales, gaining a particular notoriety for his deep knowledge of the Vox company’s designs. Armed with a desire to manufacture reliable and tonally flexible AC30-style amps, he co-founded Matchless in 1989 with Rick Perotta, eventually helping launch the Bad Cat company in the late 90s. His ethos was simple: leave no…

Chat with any guitar maker about their processes and you will inevitably find yourself chatting about jigs. These are the shop-built fixtures to assist in the construction of the guitar, and might range from fingerboard-slotting fixtures to saddle-slotting guides and lots, lots more. As a lutherie teacher, however, one of my biggest responsibilities is time management. Building jigs takes up a lot of headspace and takes time away from actually building guitars, which – let’s face it – is the fun bit. For my students I have to weigh up the benefits of going down the rabbit hole when it comes to rigging up a new tool. That said, when one of my students, Usman, recently expressed a desire to take his fretwork up a level, we decided that a…

Nowhere is the world of musical jargon more confusing than when dealing with guitar chords. Unlike a piano keyboard, we have to find the notes within a limited selection of strings, frets and fingers – forced to take liberties by omitting notes and jumping octaves. It’s actually incredible what can be done within these limitations, and many would argue that this can lead to greater creativity. There is no doubt that expanding our harmonic knowledge is a good thing. And so, here, we’re looking at a couple of chords many shy away from. In the title you’ll see two options, but what’s the difference? There is one different note between diminished and half diminished: ‘half’ diminished consists of Root-b3-b5-b7. Many call this a m7b5, which makes sense as it describes…

1 CHASE BLISS MOOD MKII TYPE: AMBIENT MULTI-EFFECTS “Okay, so the first one is the Chase Bliss Mood MKII – and if the original Chase Bliss Mood had been made in 2020 I would have said that. But, thankfully, the Mood MKII came out in 2023! What I love about this pedal is that it puts you in a very different place as a guitar player, right? So many of us work so hard at trying to play a certain way and we all need to do that and find our own voice. But you plug into this thing and it just starts creating sounds that puts you in a very creative space. “You can absolutely master it and find out exactly how it’s doing that, or you can just…

TAYLOR GOLD LABEL 814e SB £5,735 CONTACT Taylor Guitars PHONE 00800 23750011 WEB www.taylorguitars.com “ The harder you play, the louder the guitar gets, but it naturally starts to compress the sound into a more controlled, focused tone rather than becoming mushy,” Taylor’s master designer and CEO, Andy Powers, says of the company’s new Gold Label acoustics. “Yet these guitars also respond to delicate articulation with a broadly rich voice. When you play a simple note softly, the guitar naturally amplifies it with surprising warmth and volume.” Taylor’s Gold Label guitars were fanfared at this year’s NAMM Show in Anaheim and generated a great deal of interest from the industry and players alike. Why? Because this is something genuinely different from a brand that sits at the head of the…

A New Man The Newman Honeycomb Senior reminds this editor of the Chandler Austin he lusted after in 90s issues of Guitarist – with updates p10 Lita Ford It was a pleasure to join the American rocker to hear about the ups and downs of guitar ownership over the years over on p114 Good Cat It was poignant to see Matchless co-founder Mark Sampson’s last amp design, the Era 30, get a faultless score in our review p16…

The first of Walrus Audio’s Mako Series pedals, the D1 High-Fidelity Delay, launched in 2020, followed by the R1 Reverb, M1 Modulation and ACS1 Amp + Cab Simulator. And now the company has decided it’s time for a comprehensive update, releasing MKII versions of this quartet of stompboxes. All of the series’ multi-algorithm pedals can be run in mono or stereo and each has a small number of easily accessible onboard presets out of a full 128 – if you use MIDI, which also offers full control over all parameters. Here, we’re focusing on the updated M1 and ACS1. Walrus says the MKII offerings have increased headroom and lowered noise floor, but the main visible difference is that there’s now an OLED navigation menu screen with three encoders in place…

Fender Player II Modified From £899 CONTACT Fender EMEA PHONE 0333 200 8765 WEB www.fender.co.uk Another month, another new Fender range… Sort of, but spare a thought for the Fender design team. Should they dare stray too far from the blueprint, they’ll risk being cursed by die-hard fans who insist a Strat should only have three positions on the selector. Keep things too similar, however, and they’ll suffer equal wrath for not innovating. It’s a truss rod for Fender’s own back, you could say. But here we have the all-new Player II Modified models – less of a series and more of a subgenre to Fender’s workhorse range. Right, so where are these made? These five new Player II models are coming out of Fender’s tried-and-tested Ensenada, Mexico, factory. The…

Artist: Samantha Fish Album: Paper Doll (Rounder Records) This month sees the release of Samantha Fish’s latest studio album, Paper Doll. A ferocious, riff-laden powerhouse, it’s energised still further by the fact that it was recorded while her band was on tour and so the vibe throughout is stage fresh and positively electrifying. Later this year Samantha brings her celebrated live show to the UK, complete with her cigar-box sidekick, her faithful Gibson SG and possibly a new companion in the form of a very special Christmas present she awarded herself last year… You recorded this album when you were out on the road with your band. How did that work out for you? “It required quite a bit of flexibility. I know a lot of musicians have done it…

How do flamenco and classical guitars differ from each other – and why? Samuel Moore: “Although the basic construct of flamenco and classical guitars is similar, it is subtle structural differences that make each instrument type unique. For example, flamenco guitars tend to be more lightly built than their classical counterparts, with shallower bodies, thinner tops and lighter internal bracing. Additionally, the types of wood used to construct flamenco guitars tend to be different from classical instruments. Although both commonly have a solid spruce top – cedar is sometimes used as well – the materials used to construct the guitar’s back and sides are different. When constructing a classical guitar, luthiers tend to favour heavier woods such as mahogany or rosewood. “By contrast, when making a flamenco guitar, luthiers tend…

STAR LETTER HOME MARKET Our world is changing at some pace and there is much rhetoric about the potential impact of price tariffs coming from over the water. This is likely to have a negative impact upon some highly respected guitar-producing countries including Canada, Mexico and China, and with possibly more to follow, it is likely that guitar buyers will see price hikes. It is not for me to comment on the politics, but one notable point emanating from that same place is the notion to manufacture locally, and I think that is more relevant for us here in Britain than ever. In the hallowed pages of Guitarist, you all do an amazing job of keeping us updated on what’s what, as well as who’s who. You have detailed some…

Since its birth in New York in the early 1950s, Guild had established itself as a serious player in the US guitar-manufacture scene. Jazz was still the dominant serious musical force and, indeed, was where most makers made their reputations. Gibson, Epiphone and Gretsch were all competing with fine archtops, but things were changing fast. Rock ’n’ roll was usurping the easier listening of the early 50s, though early rock ’n’ roll players of ten played f ull-bodied archtops – think Scotty Moore with Elvis, Bill Haley’s Franny Beecher or Eddie Cochran. Just as the volume of dance-band horn sections drove the addition of electric pickups to archtops, so modern tastes and bigger venues demanded louder tones – and Fender, Gibson and others swept in with solidbodies that suppressed the…

What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money? “When I was 14, I lied about my age and got a job working at a medical facility in Long Beach, California. I went in and told them, ‘I need a job and I’m 16,’ and they hired me. So I worked for them for a few months and was able to save up $350. I then went to the local music store and bought myself a chocolate Gibson SG, which I played in The Runaways.” What was the last guitar you bought and why? “Right now, I’m in the process of getting this guitar made by Neal Moser. He’s been with BC Rich for the long haul, and he’s made all the biggest and the baddest guitars,…

In 1988 this writer blundered into his first job as a recording studio ‘tape op’ and continued working in pro audio until 2003. This period spanned the end of the analogue era and the transition to hard-disk recording. The typical morning routine involved demagnetising tape heads, cleaning the transport with isopropyl alcohol and distilled water, aligning playback and recording levels, and setting bias. 15 years later we were simply booting up the computer and hard drives and cracking on. Analogue versus digital has been debated to death and we’re not rehashing that here. The move to digital was first driven by a desire to eliminate tape noise, and top studios began using 32-track digital tape machines. They were hugely expensive, and as Steve Hillage once put it, “Digital recording on…

In The Style Of Steve Lukather Tutor Richard Barrett | Gear used Haynes Inflection & Marshall JCM900 Studio 20 Difficulty | 20 mins per example STEVE LUKATHER IS RENOWNED for his virtuosic yet melodic playing with Toto. And then there are his numerous solo albums and prolific session work for Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Lionel Ritchie, and an unfeasible amount of the other albums and artists that emerged from LA during the late 70s and 80s. Much of his skill was put to use creating memorable hooky parts on tunes such as Michael Jackson’s Human Nature, but Steve’s first love was blues-based rock, with him citing Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour and Joe Walsh (among others) as primary influences. Though Steve is able to rein in his…

It’s pretty rare that we get to document a guitar from blueprint to production, but that’s been the case with Newman Guitars, a US company founded by Jeff Smith and dedicated to continuing the work of roadie-turned-luthier Ted Newman Jones III after his adventures with The Rolling Stones during the 70s. Latterly, Jeff befriended Ted and digitised his design, which Ted signed off before he passed away in 2016. The USA Newman models are, and always have been, built by various independent makers, but the tie-up with Cream T here in the UK has slowly created a more production-led line-up, which started with the 5 String (the original Newman design intended for Keith Richards) followed by a single-pickup Honeycomb Junior GT-40 six-string. Now, we have this dual-pickup Senior. As we’ve…

Combining fuzz and tremolo in one pedal might seem like a wacky idea, but not so much if you consider it a homage to the early to mid-60s when – besides echo and reverb – the only effects in town were fuzz and tremolo. This new Six Zero was originally designed in collaboration with music retailer Andertons to celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2024, the basic premise being to design a modern pedal with a fundamentally vintage sound at its core. That run of 200 limited-edition pedals has long sold out, but ThorpyFX has brought the pedal back in a new colour scheme to make it available for all. The fuzz circuit here is based on an original MKI Tone Bender, albeit equipped with silicon transistors, rather than germanium, while…

Artist: Red Sky July Album: Misty Morning (Shadowbirds Records) With their fourth album, Misty Morning, Red Sky July continue to blur the sounds of British folk and vintage Americana in ways that will hook in just about any listener. The music pairs warm acoustics with enchanting harmonies, yielding some jaw-dropping results on tracks such as Kings Of Better Things and Cut Me Down. The band was formed by husband-and-wife duo Ally McErlaine (Texas) and Shelly Poole (Alisha’s Attic), and features Haley Glennie-Smith making her recording debut on the latest release. Ally explains why they decided to venture beyond the Top 10. Going To California As a founding member of Scottish chart-toppers Texas, Ally started Red Sky July in 2009 as a vehicle for his more folky endeavours. “When Texas started…

When I caught up with Sir Brian May recently to chat about his fabulous Gibson SJ-200 12-string (see page 24), he said to me, “We go back a long way, don’t we?” I reminded him that it was, in fact, 40 years since we first met. I had gone to interview him at Queen’s offices in London all those years ago and, needless to say, I was terribly nervous. At the time he was the biggest star I’d ever met, and he’d stipulated to my boss – who’d arranged the interview when they’d met at some event or other – that “the interviewer mustn’t be late, as I have another appointment that day”. “To my utter horror I heard myself widdling all the way through our chat. On Brian’s own…

Córdoba Stage £599 Want a nylon-string guitar that integrates with your gigging setup easily and handles like an electric? Try the Cordoba Stage, which has a fully chambered, thinline mahogany body with a spruce top (faced with a figured maple veneer) for a lively, resonant, natural acoustic response. The amplified side of things is served by a capable Fishman Stage pickup system with volume, EQ and Body Blend controls for tone tweaking. Yamaha NTX 3 £771 Designed specifically to cater to guitarists crossing over from conventional steel-string acoustics and electric guitars, the NTX series offers less dauntingly wide necks than traditional classical guitars for easier playability. The range starts with the sub-£500 NTX 1, but we really liked the 3 model, with its slim neck, solid walnut back and sides,…

It takes only a split-second to figure out that Swedish quintet H.E.A.T are completely and utterly obsessed with all things 80s. It’s not just how they dress, it’s everything from the key changes and vocal hooks to the scorching guitars and celestial keyboards – the kind of musical references that can only come from a keen interest in the works of vintage greats such as Europe, Scorpions and Whitesnake. Their latest full-length, Welcome To The Future, however, sounds anything but dated, with a modern sheen that gives their ideas a contemporary edge regardless of how far back the influences may date. For founding guitarist Dave Dalone, who briefly left the group in 2013 before returning three years later, it’s a love-letter to a time when driving riffs, soaring melodies and…

1 DON’T OVERLOOK MAINSTREAM PEDALS There’s been such an explosion of interest in boutique pedals that it’s easy to forget the big names in the effects industry got big for a reason. A great example of top-notch sonics in a mainstream package is the TR-2 Tremolo by Boss. This unassuming, three-knob trem can be bought for under £100, but it’s still one of the best-sounding examples of the breed we’ve found. As always, buy with your ears and feeling of connection with the gear – try plenty and rule nothing out. 2 FIND YOUR TRIBE Effects makers, if they’re worth their salt, will make sure their design philosophy flows consistently through all their products. So if you really like one pedal by a particular brand, there’s a good chance you’ll…

MARSHALL PEDALS £139 EACH CONTACT Marshall PHONE 01908 375411 WEB www.marshall.com Over the years, many companies have been making drive pedals that aim to be a ‘Marshall In A Box’ (MIAB), designed to add the flavour of that classic British sound to your signal chain. Perhaps it was the thought that everyone else was doing it – apart from them – that kicked the Marshall R&D department into action because we’ve now got the real thing. And not just one but five bona fide Marshall MIAB pedals, each one representing a different stage in the development of the highly respected, historic British amp line. The new range starts with the 1959 Super Lead pedal representing the classic rock amps of the 1960s and 70s. It then moves on to pedals…

Paul Reed Smith was one of the first contemporary guitar makers who, from an early stage in his career, put forward the proposition that the good ol’ electric guitar could be viewed as a two-part construct: the acoustic instrument, the ‘singer’; and the electric circuit, the ‘microphone’. While the internet endlessly debates such observations, I don’t know of many guitar makers who’d disagree. However, not every maker – large or small – looks at the electric side of the instrument as a two-part signal chain: the pickups and then the control circuit (or three-part if we include your guitar lead). That means your pickups might simply not be matched as well as they could be to your volume and tone control circuit, not least when we get into things like…

“The Goldtop Les Paul and the Les Paul Custom were a significant new direction for a traditional archtop guitar manufacturer like Gibson. The winds of change would soon blow through the company’s hollowbody range, and Gibson asked Nashville studio players Billy Byrd and Hank Garland to collaborate on some new ideas. “The idea was to provide archtop players with models that felt more compact and comfortable to play, and the resulting ‘thinline’ model was given a name that honoured their contributions. The Byrdland made its debut at the 1955 NAMM Show alongside two other thinline archtops – the ES-350T and the ES-225. In essence, the Byrdland is a thinner bodied L-5 with a shorter scale length for easy chord stretches and an ABR-1 bridge on a floating wooden base. “Appointments,…

History shows that a love of cars and guitars has gone hand in hand through the 20th century, from auto-inspired finishes to the futuristic curves of Ray Dietrich’s original Firebird design. Perhaps that’s because both guitars and cars – at their best – represent a perfect union of function and graceful form. True, some evolutionary branches of the guitar tree grew in a wilder direction, such as the near folkloric Gibson Moderne that may or may not (depending on who you listen to) have been made into working prototypes by Gibson. But mostly, it’s timeless, deftly proportioned design that stands the test of passing years, and it is this quality that this 20-page collector’s edition photo-magazine celebrates. Sourced from private collections, specialist retailers and high-end guitar auctions, the guitars that…