Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2025 i Guitarist

Future Publishing Limited, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA Telephone 01225 442244 Email guitarist@futurenet.com Online www.guitarist.co.uk This month’s cover feature on Mirador, Jake Kiszka’s new band with Chris Turpin of Ida Mae, brings to mind some really big issues that cut to the heart of why we play guitar. The band’s philosophy on their debut album was very much centred on capturing the essence of a raw, near-live performance. The quality of the musicianship is superb, but there were no click tracks and the band themselves were thrown into down-to-the-wire recording sessions under heavy time pressure. Why do things that way, you may ask, when you could simply layer up the tracks at leisure, sync’d to a lockstep tempo, safe in the knowledge that you could easily ‘correct’ any…

Blackstar has had digital modelling amps in its roster for a while, the most recent being the ID:Core, but the brand has now released a new pair of high-powered digital combos that are said to go above and beyond previous releases: the 50-watt ID:X 50 and, the subject of this review, the 100-watt ID:X 100. The amp features six selectable amp voices with hands-on control over all of the necessary gain and tonal parameters, as well as an effects section that can place up to four effects in series. All this feeds into a power amp that drives a 12-inch speaker and can be set for 100-, 10- or one-watt operation. There’s also an effects loop that lets you place pedals between the preamp and power amp, or feed the…

You may have heard the Dirt Transmitter Fuzz Driver name before as there have been various iterations of the pedal in the EarthQuaker roster over the years. It debuted in 2008 as a three-knob fuzz pedal, taking its inspiration from the Fuzz Face. Not too long after that release, a variable Bias knob was added – and it’s that four-knob configuration that we find in this new ‘Rancho de la Luna’ version of the pedal with artwork from Mike Egan. Rancho de la Luna is a recording studio in Joshua Tree, California, run by Dave Catching, a touring member of numerous bands, including Eagles Of Death Metal and Queens Of The Stone Age, and this special edition of the pedal was conceived by him and EQD’s Jamie Stillman to celebrate…

It must be very strange being exceptionally famous and instantly recognisable. But even the biggest names have to do mundane things like shopping, eating out or simply getting around. So encountering average people in these situations must be weird, too. Some famous stars will often sit in a restaurant with their back to the room so as not to be recognised. And then others, musicians like Rihanna, Jay Z, Ed Sheeran and Chris Martin, actors like Benedict Cumberbatch and Hugh Grant, politicians like Tony Blair and Boris Johnson, happily use the London tube and don’t even mind the odd fan pic. But occasionally a star will give you, as I’ve mentioned, a special and deliberate ‘moment’. “McCartney squatted down on his haunches and played and sang Beatles classics Blackbird and…

AUDIO ▶ http://bit.ly/guitaristextra Way back when decent folk could be relied on to keep the notes in their chords in scale order (Root on the bottom, then 3rd then 5th ascending), it was deemed necessary to find a name for the different permutations that occur when this order was intentionally changed. In this case, we’ll take a look at what happens when the 3rd is shifted to the bottom, replacing the Root as the lowest note. Though still theoretically the same chord, the sound is different enough to warrant acknowledgment in the name. In classical circles, this would be known as a first inversion, but in most other styles that are played these days, we’d refer to it as a slash chord: for example, a G major with the 3rd at…

Read the tributes to Ozzy Osbourne since his death in July at the age of 76, and you’ll hear salutes to every side of his considerable skill set. The flesh-creeping feline yowl. The underrated ear for a melody. The knack for turning a macabre lyric. The madhouse stage presence. But whatever else he was in life – heavy-metal icon, reality TV pioneer, berserker, survivor – Osbourne was no guitarist. As the Black Sabbath and solo star readily admitted, to cast him as a ‘musician’ in the traditional sense – or as an ‘instrumentalist’ in any sense – was off the mark. Osbourne’s passing marks the exit of metal’s most captivating frontman and a lightning rod for the genre’s towering guitar players “I don’t play an instrument, I don’t understand music,…

What was your first serious guitar? “My very first guitar was a Mexican Strat from my dad and then I got a 50th or 60th anniversary Stratocaster with a sunburst finish. That was probably my first serious guitar. Then, I’m trying to think, I got a Gibson Les Paul. That’s the one I use today. I got it when I was 18 years old, and then I got a Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul with all this gold hardware on it. But I actually traded that guitar for a non-reverse Firebird from 1965. “When I got my first guitar, I wanted to accompany my singing just for fun, you know? And just to see if I could play songs I liked at the time, and then it kind of snowballed…

Ally Venable The American blues-rocker shares her memories of guitars loved and lost –and the fiery charisma of Gibson’s Firebird p114 Epiphone Unplugged The brand is on a roll with heritage-rich reissues and this trio of classics may be among its most popular yet. We review them on p88 Leo Lyons What a pleasure it was to welcome the bassist who played Woodstock with Ten Years After to the studio with that very guitar on p82…

The Broadkaster name has been a constant in the Gretsch instrument family since the 50s, but before it grew a neck and had strings attached to it, the Gretsch Broadkaster was (and remains) gulp… a drum kit. Not only that, but it was the drum kit whose trademark changed the trajectory of rock ’n’ roll forever when it rock-blocked Leo Fender’s use of the name Broadcaster, resulting in the now-infamous wilderness-era ‘Nocasters’, before ‘Telecaster’ was settled on. All’s well that ends well, because otherwise we’d all be abbreviating Leo’s lightning-in-a-bottle design to something ridiculous, like, ‘Broady’… But that was then, and this is now, and ironically, since 2002, the Fender stable has handled production and distribution of Gretsch guitars worldwide. Which brings us to the latest iteration of the Broadkaster…

Gibson Marcus King ES-345 £3,499 CONTACT Gibson PHONE 00800 44427661 WEB www.gibson.com Gibson’s semi-hollow middle-child has long lived in the shadow of its more popular siblings. Not as universally loved as the simpler ES-335 and not as flashy as the top-of-the-line ES-355, the ES-345 can often be overlooked or forgotten. But one look at Marcus King’s latest take on this Gibson classic, and you certainly won’t forget it in a hurry. King has been fortunate to receive not one but two signature models based on his somewhat quirky Sideways Vibrola-equipped 1962 ES-345. The original guitar is a cherished family heirloom, passed down from his grandfather to his father, before landing in the hands of this South Carolinian virtuoso. The original run of King models was unveiled in 2021, with the…

With targeted ads and AI-driven algorithms driving every digital interaction we have online, a budding guitar maker could easily be led to believe that getting into lutherie is all about loading up a credit card with the latest tools and fancy jigs. I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to ‘Tool Acquisition Syndrome’, but all that gear is going to need a home, and my advice would be to start planning the workspace before ploughing into your overdraft. My own workshop has developed organically over time, and the trauma of moving address every few years compelled me to update the space periodically. My current workshop is generously spread across two rooms in a studio complex in Bristol, but the last workshop was installed in the gents of a tiny…

STAR LETTER FLYING THE FLAG Endless column inches have been written in Guitarist over the last 40 years about Leo Fender, Ernie Ball and Paul Reed Smith, yet what about the British innovators? I’m talking about John Birch, Jim Burns and Charlie Watkins. They stirred up a right old storm from the 50s to the 70s with guitars, amps and effects that were offered by them for professional guitarists. Who could imagine Hank Marvin without his Copicat? Come on, Guitarist, educate your readers on our rich homegrown luthier history. Leo Blottib Thanks, Leo. You’re right, of course – we have, in this country in general (we blush to admit) been remiss not to fully recognise the quality of sounds created on all-British kit in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Your…

OZZY Osbourne always had a ripping guitarist by his side, from Tony Iommi and Randy Rhoads to Brad Gillis, Jake E Lee and Gus G, among others. But Zakk Wylde, who is probably best known for his playing on Ozzy’s solo albums (including 1988’s No Rest For The Wicked, 1991’s No More Tears and 1995’s Ozzmosis) was more than just Ozzy’s guitarist. “It was definitely beyond us just playing in a band together and making music. I was always like, ‘I worship Sabbath’ [laughs], so anything I’m gonna be writing is going to have Iommi as the base of the soup. If I’m writing the riffs, that’s just in there. It’s in my DNA.” Growing up in Bayonne, New Jersey, Zakk was deeply impacted by Ozzy’s work with Rhoads and…

Leo Lyons achieved success as the bass player for blues-rock band Ten Years After before moving into record production and professional songwriting in Nashville. Through most of his career, Leo has mainly been a one-bass guy, but his hands aren’t the only ones to have played his road-worn 1962 Jazz Bass. Leo takes us back to the beginning. “I went for guitar lessons when I was 11 and my teacher introduced me to a couple of his other pupils. They had one of those bands that rehearsed twice a week and gigged twice a year. There were four guitar players and a drummer and they needed someone to play the bass, so I started playing the bass lines on the low strings on my guitar. “I really took to it,…

It’s a common misconception that building guitars in East Asia is dead simple. While some may think you just send your chosen factory a few CAD files and a few weeks later a container or two of perfect instruments arrive on your doorstep, the reality is very different – as the designer behind the Vintage REVO and Rapier brands, Alan Entwistle, well knows, having been living and working in China for well over a decade. Recently back in the UK after virtually a year away, Alan admitted, “It’s been fairly intense. It’s not just the guitars, it’s the pickups and stuff and looking after the production,” which includes nearly 20 REVO models since 2024 and another 12 or so Rapier models that were first released in 2022. With little background…

We don’t always get a lot of time to evaluate an instrument for our review pages. There are deadlines to be met, photography to be done, maybe a video to create, before we’re on to the next one. Quite often there are minor issues with the instrument, the sort of thing us modders can easily fix but can’t always address during a review. Even simple things such as a different string brand and gauge can noticeably change our engagement with the guitar, not to mention a tweak to pickup heights or a slight setup adjustment. While the guitar itself doesn’t change, what we feel about it after some minor modding certainly can. “Reshaping the nut to look a little more like a Gibson from the 50s is too tempting not…

Any guitarist who has played live is pretty much guaranteed to have been asked to turn down by the front of house (FOH) sound engineer, with the inevitable tonal compromises that ensued. Equally, most sound engineers have felt obliged to ask guitarists to turn down at one time or another because they can’t deal with the volume. As well as being a guitarist, I worked for many years as a ‘live sound guy’ in venues all over Europe, so I can relate to both sides of the argument. That said, I made a point of principle never to ask a guitarist to turn down. The volume wars drag on, but a little mutual understanding and knowing some simple tricks might smooth the path to peace and great sounds, both on…

“The reason I wanted to feature a Gibson flat-top is that people are very excited about them now. Of course, they’ve always been popular, but I’m now hearing that sound on virtually every record. I’m just not hearing people banging on Martins any more, especially in the Nashville scene. “With that in mind, I have this extraordinary Gibson Southern Jumbo that’s a real sweetheart. Not only does it sound good and play superbly, it’s also pretty much pristine and has the banner headstock logo. The ‘H’ suffix with the FON stamp denotes ‘1942’, which is the first year Southern Jumbos were made – although the model wasn’t officially released until the following year. “The guitars Gibson was making during wartime often reflect a number of shortages they had to deal…

Think of Manson guitars and you’ll probably visualise a complex, slightly bonkers music-making machine as wielded by Matt Bellamy (a majority shareholder in the company). But last year we took a look at the complete opposite: the single-pickup Verona and MA Juniors, which were about as simple as it gets but glorious rock ’n’ roll pieces nonetheless. Another plus for those Junior models was that they were entirely made in the UK, including the in-house Manson Dirty Rascal humbucker, listed at £1,399. To be honest, we couldn’t wait for a two-pickup ‘Special’, and that’s not far from what we have here wrapped up as a signature model for long-time Manson flag-waver Mikey Demus. One significant difference is that, while Mikey’s previous signatures – the MD-1 and MD-2 from 2018 –…

Double-tracking has long been a studio technique to fatten up and widen your guitar sound, but an instant version of it has also been available in a select few dedicated pedals. The latest of these is the KMA Machines Geminus, which uses a tweaked iteration of the double-tracking facility found in the company’s more complex Endgame, a pedal with IR cab and power amp simulation that’s designed to sit at the end of your signal chain. Double-tracking in the studio means recording the same part twice so you have two performances that can be panned apart in stereo to create a bigger sound, aided by the inevitable slight differences between the two performances. What this pedal does is Automatic Double Tracking (ADT), giving the sense of two guitars playing by…

Artist: Robin Trower Albums: For Earth Below 50th Anniversary Edition (Chrysalis) Come And Find Me (Provogue) There have been two album releases from Robin Trower this year: one is a 50th anniversary reissue of the 1975 album For Earth Below, while the other is a brand-new studio album, Come And Find Me. With the former – originally the follow-up to 1974’s hugely successful Bridge Of Sighs – some might think there would have been added pressure to satisfy fan expectations. “I don’t think any of us were thinking about that particularly,” Robin tells us. “The full concentration was on trying to make as good an album as possible with the material that we had.” Fast-forward half a century and the new album was conceived and recorded under somewhat different circumstances.…

It’s hard to describe the rush you get from playing a cranked, high-powered valve amp wide open, but once you feel it, you’ll never forget it. There’s a certain magic that stirs up something deep inside your soul. I found that out for myself in the late 80s with my first serious rig: a Carvin X100B half-stack. I soon realised that low volume settings were dull and lifeless, but with the volume cranked wide open, it was an absolute tone beast! The compression, the bloom and the authority of every note was just glorious. But it didn’t take long for the noise complaints to roll in. First from the neighbours and then eventually from club sound guys who couldn’t fully appreciate my grandiose ‘wall of sound’. “Attenuators are like fine-tuned…

TC ELECTRONIC PLETHORA X1 £130 CONTACT TC Electronic WEB www.tcelectronic.com What You Need To Know 1 This isn’t the first Plethora from TC, is it? Correct. It was always likely that TC Electronic would bring out a singlefootswitch model to sit alongside the X3 and X5 model, and here it is. 2 So it’s a multi-effects unit like those others? Not exactly. While the others can chain multiple effects together, this offers one effect at a time, but it does have a huge range to choose from. 3 How’s that? The clue is in the name: it’s a TonePrint Loader so it can house any of the sounds that you’ll find in TC’s TonePrint pedals, including the Hall Of Fame reverb, Flashback delay and many more. TC Electronic’s TonePrint concept…

Sliding In Open E Tuning Tutor Richard Barrett | Gear used Lewis Pequeno Bastardo & Vox AC15 Difficulty | 10 mins per example OPEN E TUNING (low to high: E B E G# B E) gives on the open strings what would normally be heard by playing the three-fingered open position E major chord. It’s a very popular tuning, particularly with slide players – Derek Trucks, Johnny Winter and Joe Walsh have all used it to great effect. This tutorial leans more towards Joe Walsh, with a 12-bar shuffle feel. The aim is to provide some helpful vocabulary for those new to bottleneck playing, plus hopefully some useful ideas for the more experienced. It involves techniques to get the best out of slide in any tuning, plus some key ways…