Tabla de contenidos para June 2019 en Guitarist

Putting together this month’s cover feature on the spellbinding guitar-playing of the late, much-missed Rory Gallagher (see page 58) got me thinking about what it takes to be really great on the instrument. One of the most striking things about Rory’s playing was how many styles he was a master of: slide, folk, acoustic blues, rootsy rock… and so on. That kind of fluency comes, in large part, from abundant natural talent – but also from immersing yourself in guitar. Rory was not only a student of the guitar from boyhood, but he was also one of the hardest-gigging musicians around. When you play guitar with that passion, intensity and frequency it almost becomes your first language. And therein lies a problem for those of us – perhaps the majority…

PRICE: £2,250 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Double-cutaway, semi-hollow solidbody electric BODY: Mahogany back, carved maple top with single f-hole NECK: Maple, Pattern Thin profile, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 635mm (25”) NUT/WIDTH: Friction reducing/43.12mm FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, old-style bird inlays, 254mm (10”) radius FRETS: 24, medium HARDWARE: PRS ‘moulded’ (steel) vibrato with push-in tension adjustable arm, PRS Low Mass locking tuners – nickel-plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm ELECTRICS: 2x uncovered PRS 85/15 humbuckers, 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, master volume and tone (with pull/push coil-split) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.14/6.9 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: The solidbody CE 24 costs £2,179; the Silver Sky is £2,395. The S2 line offers the Custom 22 Semi-Hollow and the Singlecut Semi-Hollow (both £1,849). SE Semi-Hollow models include the Custom 22, the 7-string 277 and the single-cut SE Zach…

PRICE: £575 ORIGIN: China TYPE: Valve preamp and power amp OUTPUT: 10W RMS VALVES: 1x 12AX7, 1x EL34 DIMENSIONS: 473 (w) x 421 (h) x 251mm (d) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 15/32 CABINET: Ply LOUDSPEAKER: 1x12” Celestion Seventy 80 CHANNELS: 1 CONTROLS: Gain, tone, reverb level, master volume, boost switch FOOTSWITCH: Single-button footswitch activates boost function ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Series effects loop with switchable levels, fixed level speaker-emulated recording/ headphones output OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: The Studio 10 range also includes the 6L6 and KT88 at the same price PROS Serious boutique-grade tone and dynamic response; the lower gain makes this model slightly more versatile CONS The effects loop would be more useful if it were footswitchable…

PRICE: £3,499 (inc Mono gigbag) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Offset single-cutaway solidbody electric BODY: Spanish cedar NECK: Spanish cedar, standard C profile, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 629mm (24.75”) NUT/WIDTH: Bone/44.13mm FINGERBOARD: Bound wenge, keystone inlays, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium (Jescar 47095NS) HARDWARE: TonePros locking Nashville-style tune-o-matic and stud tailpiece, Sperzel (open housing) Trim-Lok tuners – gold-plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 51mm ELECTRICS: TV Jones Power’Tron Plus (bridge) and Power’Tron (neck) humbuckers, 3-way toggle pickup selector master volume and tone WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.1/6.85 OPTIONS: Available with a single bridge pickup as the Starliner Jr. Numerous options to order from bridge type, pickups, pickguard, neck shape and finish RANGE OPTIONS: Kauer’s current range includes the reverse Firebirdstyle Banshee and the Super Chief, a 15.5”-wide semi-solid based on the Starliner’s outline (£POA) LEFT-HANDERS: Yes…

KEELEY DDR £179 Launched at NAMM this year, the DDR – or Drive Delay Reverb effect – from Keeley is being billed as “one pedal, any gig” as it combines three of the most commonly useful effects guitarists lean on. As usual with Keeley, you can unlock still further variations on the theme via the pedal’s adaptable controls. On the drive side, you can choose between Crunch or Lead styles of overdrive. Crunch aims for Brit-voiced classic-rock raunch, while Lead offers a darker, fatter voicing suitable for chunky solos. The Wet side of the pedal covers reverb and delay. A vintage/modern switch on the front pedal lets you select between Spring and Plate reverbs respectively, or analogue/digital delay. You can even insert your own effects between the drive and the…

What? Fender Custom Shop ’60 Relic Jazz Bass Where seen? Peach Guitars, Colchester Price? £2,999 Description? Like many guitarists I love to play bass, and when this one, in gorgeous Aged Ocean Turquoise, popped up on Peach’s Facebook page I almost swooned. My own Jazz is a MIJ ’74 style to which I fitted CS pickups. It’s lovely, but this one with unbound dotted neck, both pickup and bridge plates in place, and dual concentric pots (so each pickup has its own tone and volume control), is so appealing.That offset lightweight alder body,AAA rosewood board and brown tortoiseshell pickguard completes the picture. Fabulous! Could this be my 2019 tour present to myself?…

In this instalment, we’ll look at some of the alternatives should you wish to replace ‘standard’ open chords with something a little more exotic, or perhaps to use in conjunction with the standard voicings in a two-guitar arrangement, or even as an overdub. The most reliable way to manage this consistently is to know which notes make up each chord and where else these can be found on the fretboard. Sometimes it’s fun to turn this approach on its head and try familiar shapes in unfamiliar places, working out what notes are happening where afterwards. Though using this approach can be a hit-and-miss affair, it does often lead to ideas that might remain undiscovered with a more structured approach. To demonstrate, we’ve taken four ‘standard’ chords: G, E minor, C…

What was your first gig and how did it go? “My first ever gig I think was when I was about 15 or 16, in Southend. I think it was myself, Chris Copping on a guitar that was tuned down as a bass and my brother [Mick Trower] singing rock ’n’ roll of the late 50s or something like that. I can’t really remember. I think there were about six people in the audience, so it wasn’t that spectacular!” Describe your current stage rig… “I always use Marshalls. At the moment – and I’m in the experimental stage with it – I’m putting a 30-watt Bluesbreaker through a 4x12 with Greenbacks in and I’m linking two amps together. The other one is the new JCM800 through two open-back 2x12s. That’s…

Along with a varied collection of guitars, Rory kept a number of amps and effects, the latter mainly for use in the studio. The first item to catch our eye was his beautiful 1960 Fender Concert combo [1]. “When Rory added Lou Martin to his band, on keyboards, he moved away from the Vox AC30 and found that Fender amps suited the sound of the band more,” Rory’s nephew, producer Daniel Gallagher, explains. “His three favourites were a 1954 Bassman, a 1956 Twin and this 1960 Concert. Sometimes he’d pair two of these together such as the Bassman and the Concert and other times he’d pair one with an AC30.” Daniel adds, “He was constantly switching his amp setup, later turning to Marshall 50-watt combos with an AC30 and even…

Rory’s collection of guitars was eclectic and unsnobbish. Evidence of that all-embracing interest in different designs of guitar can be found in his adoption of a late-70s example of Fender’s ‘student’ model of the era, the Musicmaster. The model came into being in mid-1956, as a ¾-size electric of the same body size as the Duo-Sonic. By 1975, it had changed to a Mustang-like form (first introduced on the Musicmaster model of 1964) and featured a short 24-inch scale, a 22-fret rosewood-’board neck and a single slanted pickup at the neck. It was available in a stark choice of black or white finishes only and disappeared from Fender’s catalogue altogether in 1980. Rory, however, had other ideas. “This came into use around the period of Jinx in 1982,” Daniel Gallagher…

Even oddities such as this 1965 Teisco TRG-1 with an in-built loudspeaker were taken seriously and used as valid musical tools by Rory. If they had a sound or a vibe he liked, they got used – and such was the case with this Japanese electric, which was used on some of Rory’s final studio recordings. “I’ve seen photographs of him playing this on one of the last albums he recorded, a tribute album called Rattlesnake Guitar: The Music Of Peter Green [1995],” Daniel Gallagher says. “We have two songs on that, two Peter Green covers, which are Leaving Town Blues and Showbiz Blues. We had the multi-track for Leaving Town Blues, so we mixed that track again and highlighted the guitar work he did on that a bit more.…

Since her formative years as a music-obsessed Waldorf school kid, Cecilia Della Peruti’s imagination has remained the centre of her universe. “I mean, I’m just like a kid now – it’s all funny and it’s all fun. After all, we are, literally, playing,” she says, underscoring her creative approach as a guitarist. It’s a refreshing truism that’s all too often taken for granted. It also happens to be a very fortunate perspective for a person for whom playing guitar is as much their livelihood as a way of life. Not only is Cecilia the creative force behind Gothic Tropic, but in addition to performing duties as Beck’s guitarist, she is also currently immersed in a myriad of collaborative projects and session work on the LA music scene. How did you…

1. If you need reading glasses, don’t do as I did and forget them. Luckily, ThorpyFX has the unit across from Rift and Adrian Thorpe (an ex-major in the British Army) kindly loaned me a pair of his genuine bomb disposal magnifying goggles (I kid you not!). 2. The three-second soldering rule: three seconds applying heat to components and joint; three seconds feeding solder into joint; three seconds holding in place (then release, but don’t blow to cool down!). 3. To lacquer a tweed cabinet, you first spray or brush a thin clear coat onto the raw tweed, let it cure and then lightly sand back (600-grit is fine). Next, spray or brush on a choice of tint (a 50/50 mix of methylated spirit and French polish works well, but…

PRICE: £3,999 (inc case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: 000-size acoustic TOP: Sitka spruce BACK/SIDES: Sinker mahogany MAX RIM DEPTH: 101.6mm MAX BODY WIDTH: 381mm NECK: Sinker mahogany SCALE LENGTH: 644mm (25.34”) TUNERS: Gotoh nickel open gear NUT/WIDTH: Bone/44.45mm FINGERBOARD: Ebony FRETS: 20 BRIDGE/SPACING: Ebony/55.56mm WEIGHT (kg/lb): 1.79/3.9 OPTIONS: Mahogany top RANGE OPTIONS: OM (Sitka top) £3,999, 0 (Sitka top) £4,199, 0 (sinker top) £4,599, D (Sitka top) £3,999, Size 5 Terz (Sitka top) £4,499 LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISH: Gloss body/satin neck finish PROS Tons of sparkle-enhanced tone and bags of punch from the sinker mahogany CONS It would be really hard to think of anything…

Like any Strat-inspired design, it faces intense competition, obviously initially from Fender USA. The workhorse American Professional HSS Shawbucker costs £1,499; the American Elite Stratocaster HSS Shawbucker, with its versatile passive switching, is £1,799. PRS upset the apple cart with its own take, the John Mayer Silver Sky (£2,395), a heavily ‘retooled’ version of the early 60s-spec Strat. In LA in the 1980s, James Tyler was on a similar path to Gary Levinson. His Studio Elite is still available today, with its great neck and variable mid-boost circuit. The Japanese-made models cost £2k upwards. Godin’s new 2019 Passion RG-3 Indigo Burst (approx. £1,800) is one of the few that utilises an active circuit, in this case the High Definition Revoicer on a Stratinspired chambered swamp ash body with rosewood or…

ELECTRO-HARMONIX Q-Tron Plus £133 The classic vintage 1970s envelope filter is the Mu-Tron III, designed by Mike Beigel, who many years later designed the Q-Tron for EHX. This latest version adds an effects loop between the preamp and filter section for more versatility. EARTHQUAKER DEVICES Spatial Delivery V2 £205 This envelope filter has a ‘Sample and Hold’ mode alongside the standard up and down sweep modes. It also features a knob that morphs between high-pass and low-pass filters (with band-pass in the middle) instead of a switch. WMD Protostar $349 WMD claims that this is the most powerful and versatile envelope filter on the planet. It certainly has plenty of control over the effect and includes an end-of-chain compressor and dry/wet mix for parallel filtering/compression effects.…

The Fat General has the usual distinctive ThorpyFX design elements and bulletproof build quality, but is the result of a collaboration between Adrian Thorpe and Dan Coggins, co-founder and co-designer of Lovetone pedals. After Lovetone, Dan was responsible for the Dinosaural OTC-201 compressor, which is extremely rare now that it’s no longer in production. It’s considered a bit special and unlikely to be given up by those who have one. Fortunately, if you missed out on an OTC-201, you can be assured that there’s plenty of that pedal’s DNA in The Fat General, which is based on optical circuitry and offers two modes of parallel compression where some of the dry signal is mixed in proportion with the compressed signal. Juicy mode features a fixed blend of 90 per cent…

THE BACKGROUND HARRY HAYNES, GUITARIST READER VIA EMAIL I gig in a number of bands, but I play bass guitar for one band and electric in the other. Having just put together my first guitar pedalboard, I’ve been using it in our recent gigs and I’ve loved its versatility. Because of this, I thought I’d try it in rehearsal with my bass guitar. However, it just didn’t work as I thought it would. Drives were indistinct, my delays had this sort of fuzz to the repeats, and my bass sound seemed to disappear from the band’s mix. I’ve just invested in my guitar pedalboard, so I don’t really want to have a bass-specific ’board. Why don’t my guitar pedals work well on bass guitar? Do I…

HEAVY SET Thank you for a great magazine. I have a question that concerns string gauges. I like to play with heavy-gauge strings, usually 0.011s with a wound third on my Fender Telecasters and Strats. I sometimes go up to 0.012s on my Mustang. I do little string-bending and mainly play early 60s instrumental stuff by the likes of The Shadows, Ventures, etc. Although I like heavy strings, I find the lower strings a bit too chunky on a set of 11s. Some guitars don’t appear to like them, either. You end up sanding out the nut slots on the low E and A, which I don’t enjoy doing, especially on newish guitars. Older models seem to have wider (or worn) slots, so they’re not so much of a problem.…

Difficulty 30 mins plus Tutor Phil Hilborne | Gear used: 1977 ash-body Fender Stratocaster with a scalloped maple neck; PRS HFS humbucker (bridge) and DiMarzio SDS-1s (neck and middle). Marshall original 100/50-watt 2555 Jubilee head (set pretty much on ‘10’) into Two Notes Torpedo Studio. Phil Hilborne ‘FTB1’ Signature Fat Treble Booster used for extra input gain. Some stereo delay was added in the mix via Logic (Triplet and Quarter note) panned YNGWIE MALMSTEEN is a player who really seems to polarise people’s opinions. It’s a ‘Marmite thing’ – folk either love him or hate him. I guess this is mostly to do with his larger than life persona coupled with his image and the many ‘quotes’ and ‘tales’ that have been spread around over the years? But all of…

Electrics Fender 2015 American Elite Stratocaster, swamp ash body, Trans Cherry Sunburst, rosewood ’board, mint green plate, case candy, immaculate. £1,295. Call 01386 861873 Fender 2015 Classic Player Jaguar Special, Olympic White, tortoise pickguard, rosewood ’board, all original, mint condition, Fender gigbag. £695. Call 01386 861873 Fender Classic Player Strat, ’60s model in Sonic Blue with gigbag. Never gigged, excellent condition. £400, no offers.Call 01296 435520 or email paulcurtis1@btinternet.com. Aylesbury Fender Jimi Hendrix Strat. Black with gigbag and tags. Upgraded switch and pots. £525. Email tf.mcvitte@outlook.com. Cumbria Fender Squier Japan 1987, Fujigen made, Surf Green with rosewood fingerboard, vgc. £330 ono. Call Richard on 07902 198340 or email r.lomas925@btinternet.com Gibson Les Paul Studio 2016T Faded Worn Cherry, Burstbucker Pro humbuckers, upgraded locking strap buttons, Gibson strap and padded gigbag. £545.…

Try any signature model guitar today and you’ll notice almost all of them have a few (what we might politely call) idiosyncratic features. Of course, these are precisely what the signature player has requested. To the rest of us, however, that fretless fingerboard, five-pickup layout, or speckled vermilion crossbones finish might seem, at best, odd and, at worst, completely mad. Bear that in mind, and the story of the original Gibson Les Paul begins to make more sense. Les was just like any of us: he wanted his guitar to be personal, to work for him. He just happened to be a bit handier with the toolkit than most. We spoke to Les, in 2008: “I had in mind a guitar that sustained and reproduced the sound of the string…

When the first version of the Les Paul was launched in 1952, its bullion-gold finish, arched top and glued-in neck signalled to the upstarts at Fender that while they might be content to bolt Telecaster necks to slab bodies, Gibson did things with a little more sophistication. But by 1958, the game had moved on: the Stratocaster had rocketed into the heavens of guitar design in ’54. Four years on, Fender’s new Jazzmaster was fully in tune with a jet age dominated by chrome, switches and slender, contoured design. By contrast, the Les Paul seemed closer to the bulky, traditional archtops of the 40s – and sales were flagging. In an effort to freshen things up, Gibson replaced the goldtop finish with a Fender-like sunburst, dubbing it the Les Paul…

For a guitarist who has performed in one of the biggest-selling bands of all time, Don Felder has maintained a pretty low-key presence in the world of rock. Born and raised in Gainesville, Florida, he spent teenage years jamming with Stephen Stills and later played guitar in Crosby & Nash’s touring band – he even taught a young Tom Petty how to play. But a personal introduction to the Eagles, set up by hometown friend Bernie Leadon – then a member of the group – led to the biggest break of Felder’s career, when he was invited to join the band in 1974. As Felder admits in his frank autobiography, Heaven And Hell: My Life In The Eagles, being in the band was sometimes a rough ride, as the pressures…

1. MAGNET & WINDINGS Despite the original patent stipulating the use of an Alnico 5 bar magnet, Alnico 2, 3 and 4 are the most commonly found, with the latter being common to ‘Holy Grail’ variants. The ‘magic formula’ for a PAF was (approx!) 5,000 turns of 42 AWG plain enamel on each of the two coils; it was generally either more or less 2. POLARITY The screw coil is south polarity (ie, at the top of the pickup) and the slug coil, north – something that subsequently became a build standard for humbuckers 3. FILLISTER NO 5 POLE SCREWS These are either nickel- or gold-plated, depending on which guitar the pickup was headed for. The gold-plated covers therefore meant gold-plated screws 4. BASEPLATE Made from 21 AWG nickel silver…

Yngwie Unleashed The pioneer of neo-classical shred doesn’t pull any punches when discussing guitar. Join Ed Mitchell as he gets in the ring over on p50 Black Beauties We enjoyed Blackstar’s small-but-potent range of Studio amps that come in three flavours of classic power valve tone, from EL34 and KT88 to 6L6 p16 Beck And Call Indie pioneer Cecilia Della Peruti is also the guitarist for alt-pop innovator Beck – we find out how she crafts her immersive guitar sound on p80…

PRICE: £575 ORIGIN: China TYPE: Valve preamp and power amp OUTPUT: 10W RMS VALVES: 1x 12AX7, 1x KT88 DIMENSIONS: 473 (w) x 421 (h) x 251mm (d) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 16/34 CABINET: Ply LOUDSPEAKER: 1x12” Celestion Seventy 80 CHANNELS: 1 CONTROLS: Gain, ISF, reverb level, master volume, overdrive switch FOOTSWITCH: Single-button footswitch activates overdrive function. 2-button footswitch can toggle drive and reverb ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Series effects loop with switchable levels, fixed level speaker-emulated recording/ headphones output OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: The Studio 10 range also includes the 6L6 and EL34 at the same price PROS Great tonal range and dynamic response; ideal for modern rock and metal CONS The effects loop would be more useful if it were footswitchable…

Fender is furthering its commitment to up and coming players with the Fender Next program, aiming to “elevate global artists representing the new face of guitar in music”. There are 50 rising artists worldwide taking part, including Phoebe Bridgers, Tash Sultana, Larkin Poe, plus the UK’s own appropriately named rising star Sam Fender. Fender Next offers a number of benefits, including select guitar, amp, effect pedals and other gear; promotion through Fender’s marketing including social media, documentaries and ads; mini-documentaries on select participating artists distributed via Fender social media, the artist’s channels and by Fender partners; and inclusion on Fender Next playlists on streaming services like Spotify. “New music is at the heart of what we do at Fender,” says Helen Varley, marketing director, EMEA, Fender, “so we’re thrilled to…

After receiving an email from the BBC Symphony Orchestra this morning, I knew a good topic for this month’s column would be knowing when to say no… The BBC orchestra I work for the most often is the BBC Concert Orchestra. Their repertoire is usually on the lighter end of the musical spectrum where a rhythm section is involved – commercial TV projects, West End show-type music and backing the occasional pop artist here and there. Both they and the BBC Symphony Orchestra are fabulous organisations, full of brilliant musicians and staff; however, the BBC Symphony will usually play the more experimental and modern classical music. I originally did my degree in classical music (which I somehow managed to pass), but in no way would I describe myself as a…

We’re all familiar with the idea that your guitar’s hardware influences its tone, but it’s easy to overlook hardware that is built into the fabric of the instrument itself. Frets are a good example of this. The condition of your frets, the material they are made of and their size all have a powerful effect on the playability and tonal character of your guitar. We joined Scott Shiraki of Dunlop Manufacturing – one of the world’s biggest suppliers of high-quality frets – and British luthier Patrick James Eggle, to hear their expert views on how frets factor into the tone equation. “The height and width of frets can obviously change the way a guitar feels and plays,” Scott explains, introducing the basics. “Players who favour vintage Fender guitars and basses…

BUILDER’S YARN I’ve just bought Guitarist magazine, as I have been doing since the 1980s, and this issue (445) coincides with me completing a home-build Barncaster, which is a Telecaster made from floorboards. However, mine has not been built from barn floorboards but was a cheap kit (which weighed a ton). Out came the planer, which removed a good inch from the back and then, with the addition of chamfers matching those of a Stratocaster, the weight problem was remedied. A quick trawl of Amazon soon got me upgraded control panels and new machine heads. Watching Crimson Guitars on You Tube presented me with some really great ideas, and I also I watched quite a few videos about finishing techniques. I actually did some electroplating of the neck plate, which…

When the guitar world learned of Rory Gallagher’s death in 1995, he was mourned almost as one might a friend, even by those who only knew him through his music. At 47 years of age, he was too young to leave the stage with such finality. Witnesses to Rory’s electrifying live shows knew what a formidable performer he was – coming back for encore after full-tilt encore, letting fly with his battered ’61 Strat as long as the crowd cheered and stamped their feet for more. It was all the more saddening, then, that there could be no more curtain calls for a man who was humble by nature but whose guitar playing was loved by millions for its ecstatic energy and unaffected eloquence. Rory was also a prolific recording…

One curious feature of Rory’s collection is that it contains many single-pickup Gibsons but no classic maple-top LP Standards. Daniel Gallagher attributes this to Rory’s tonal preferences for slide work. “Rory was a big, big fan of Melody Makers and he eventually had four of them. With Gibsons, he liked having just one pickup, especially for slide. With the Strat, when he was playing runs of single notes, it was important for him to be able to work tone, volume and pickup controls with his right hand. But with slide, his tone came more from the slide itself.” However, this example was beefed up with a humbucker squeezed into the oval extension of the pickguard, which would’ve mounted a slender 7/8 inch-wide pickup with a plastic cover. This was mounted…

Rift is a one-man show with Chris Fantana as the brains, hands and ears behind the operation. Originally a session guitarist, Chris caught the amp bug after being given a self-build kit for Christmas, having already learned the basics of valve amp maintenance. As so often happens, once the kit was assembled, he learned how to mod it, and soon went on to build some more. Before too long, friends and local musicians were asking him to make amps for them. “It was never a plan to turn it into a business, but that’s just how it worked out,” he says. Quizzing him further on his ethos, his model range and his views on amps and tone, elicited some fascinating insights… Are your amps built strictly to vintage designs? Or…

PRICE: £4,599 (inc case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: 000-size acoustic TOP: Sinker mahogany BACK/SIDES: Sinker mahogany MAX RIM DEPTH: 101.6mm MAX BODY WIDTH: 381mm NECK: Sinker mahogany SCALE LENGTH: 644mm (25.34”) TUNERS: Gotoh nickel open gear NUT/WIDTH: Bone/44.45mm FINGERBOARD: Ebony FRETS: 20 BRIDGE/SPACING: Ebony/55.56mm WEIGHT (kg/lb): 1.81/3.9 OPTIONS: Mahogany top RANGE OPTIONS: OM (Sitka top) £3,999, 0 (Sitka top) £4,199, 0 (sinker top) £4,599, D (Sitka top) £3,999, Size 5 Terz (Sitka top) £4,499 LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISH: Gloss body/satin neck finish PROS Bluesmen will rejoice in the power, punch and pluck from this all-mahogany beastie CONS Perhaps not the all-rounder that its stablemate most certainly is…

1 We haven’t seen one of these for years. What’s going on? Nor have we. But Gary Levinson’s Blade Guitars has new UK distribution that’s keen to push an extensive range of guitars (and basses). 2 Didn’t the original Blade have a neat active circuit? It did and it still does. The Variable Spectrum Control (VSC) provides either a mid-boost or a combined treble and bass boost: fat leads to funktastic rhythms at the flick of a switch. The R series guitars (the ‘R’ stands for razor), however, brought plenty more innovation, including a redesign of Fender’s vibrato. 3 It still looks like a Strat, though… Things ain’t what they used to be. When the Blade appeared in 1987, Fender wasn’t best pleased. Today, everyone’s doing a ‘Strat’, aren’t they?…

PRICE: £2,299 (inc soft case) ORIGIN: Czech Republic TYPE: Double-cut solidbody electric BODY: Centre-joined swamp ash NECK: Maple, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT/WIDTH: Friction reducing/42.5mm FINGERBOARD: Maple (neck face), abalone dot inlays (30th Anniversary inlay at 12th), 241mm (9.5”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: Blade dual-block Falcon vibrato, Schaller rear-lock with staggered height posts – gold-plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 54.5mm ELECTRICS: Blade LH-55 Vintage humbucker (bridge), 2x Blade V-3 single-coil sized stacked coil humbuckers (neck/middle), 5-way toggle pickup selector switch, master volume, master tone (with push-push switch to split bridge humbucker). Active VSC-3 with 3-way mini-toggle and rear-adjust trim-pots WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.5/7.7 OPTIONS: Ebony ’board. RH-4 Classic (£1,999); 30th Anniversary versions (£2,099) in 4 colours. The RH-4 Standard (approx. £1,799) swaps the Falcon vibrato for the FT-3 RANGE…

ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Delay pedal FEATURES: True Bypass (electromechanical relay switching) or selectable Analog Buffered Bypass, tap tempo, sound-on-sound (looper) mode, 300 onboard presets accessible via MIDI (8 accessible physically), MIDI control of parameters, MIDI sync, mono and stereo operation DELAY RANGE: (At head 4) half: 400ms-4 sec/normal: 200ms-2sec/double: 100ms-1sec CONTROLS: Record Level, Mechanics, Low Cut, Wear, Time, Repeats, Echo Level, Spacing, Spring, Type switch (drum/tape/ studio), Speed switch (half/normal/double), Instrument/ Line switch, Bypass footswitch, Favourite footswitch, Tap footswitch CONNECTIONS: Standard input (L&R), standard output (L&R), Expression pedal, MIDI In, MIDI Out, USB POWER: 9V adaptor (supplied) 300mA DIMENSIONS: 177 (w) x 114 (d) x 44mm (h)…

It’s fair to say that the first generation of wah pedals to hit the market in the late 60s – the Vox Clyde McCoy, Vox V846 and the Cry Baby – got the operational methodology and the sound spot on. However, in their original forms they were lacking certain refinements that modern users might deem essential, prompting various manufacturers to introduce upgraded designs. The latest is US amp designer Dave Friedman, who has brought in a set of enhancements to create a wah pedal that’s perfectly suited for modern pedalboard operation while still retaining vintage sound. Intended to eliminate any players’ frustrations engendered by basic wah designs, Dave has named it the ‘No More Tears’ wah. The first obvious drawback to an original wah pedal is knowing whether it is…

ORIGIN EFFECTS Cali 76 Compact Deluxe (£279) The Cali 76 and its sibling the SlideRIG Compact Deluxe (£269) are based on the 1176 compressor. Both have a Dry Blend control for parallel compression, but the SlideRIG has two stages of compression that can be blended with the dry. PIGTRONIX Philosopher’s Tone Germanium Gold Micro £139 A pedalboard-friendly compressor that has a Blend control for parallel compression but also has a Grit knob coupled to some germanium diode circuitry to add distortion, offering loads of flexibility. WAMPLER Ego £189 Based on the classic guitar compressor circuitry of the MXR Dyna Comp and Ross compressor, the Ego has a tonal familiarity, but it goes beyond that two-knob configuration with a Blend knob for parallel compression plus controls for Tone…

Writer DAVE BURRLUCK Guitarist, Gear Reviews Editor An invitation to take Shergold’s latest model on an extended test gets our gear reviews editor considering the true value of the ‘import’ guitar Those of you who caught our last issue will know all about Shergold’s latest solidbody. If you didn’t, I’ll give you a brief recap. The Provocateur is the second model in the revitalised Shergold range, designed (like the first, the Masquerader) by Brit legend Patrick James Eggle and built to a very competent standard in Indonesia, fast becoming the manufacturing base for the affordable ‘import’ guitar. Last year we took on the Masquerader and, with the help of Richard Legg at Indra Guitars, turned it into a nod to the late, great Brit luthier Tony Zemaitis. “The Provocateur is…

Jamie Dickson Guitaristeditor Jamie is as happy with steel wool in his hand as he is with Steely Dan in his headphones, and loves vintage-gear restoration and ambitious signal chains. Dave Burrluck Guitarist’s assiduous reviews editor is also the author of numerous guitar books.Very handy with a fret file and indeed any aspect of a finely fettled six-string. Ed Mitchell After 18 years in guitar retail Ed turned to journalism as reviews editor of Total Guitar,then as a contributor to Guitarist.He’s also edited the mags The Bluesand Country Music. Neville Marten Edited Guitaristfor 13 years, after working for both Fender and Gibson as a repairer. From desirable Les Pauls to dream Strats, he’s owned and worked on the lot. Nick Guppy Guitarist’s amplifier specialist has built up a wealth of…

1. CODES Chassis code ‘A12113’ impressed into rear (normally between A05500 to A14500 during 1966); valve chart ink stamped ‘PF’ denoting 1966 (P) and June (F); six-digit speaker code ‘220617’ denotes Jensen (220), 17th week (17) of 1966 (6) 2. CABINET Solid pine; 19 /8 inches wide, 16 tall, 9 /2 deep (at base); ‘vented’ two-piece wooden back; angled control panel cutaway (tapering to around 7½ inches top depth); four metal base corners and glide feet; black plastic handle with two metal end caps; two metal chassis straps 3. ORNAMENTATION Blackface control panel, white border and font; ‘Princeton Reverb-Amp’ script model logo; black Tolex covering; silver grille cloth; silver/black plastic Fender script motif 4. CIRCUIT Valve chart reads ‘Princeton Reverb-Amp AA764’; valves: GZ34, two 6V6GT, two 12AX7, 12AT7, 7025; 12…

Difficulty 10 mins Tutor: Richard Barrett | Gear used: Gear used Knaggs SSC, Keeley Boss SD1, Vox AC15 C1 Straight Outta Chicago DURING THE 80S, a number of decades after the arrival of the Chicago-style major blues shuffle, a young Joe Bonamassa was taking it all in, along with the more British sounds of Beck, Clapton, Page and Kossoff. Jamming with the likes of BB King and being taught by Danny Gatton, Joe assimilated so many elements of the electric blues that he’s the obvious choice to spotlight on here. There is an undeniable rock edge to this solo, but it’s not super high-gain. Bear in mind that many users of the non-master-volume amps found that running the midrange at higher settings helped add a little bit more drive and…

This is the guitar we all wanted to own. Poring over the pages of Guitarist magazine as a teenager it was the images of Les Pauls that I lingered the longest over. Something about this particular model of electric guitar still conjures magic of a unique kind, no matter how many you come into contact with over the years. Why? As always, the music made with this guitar provides the most compelling answer. When you listen to Eric Clapton play Hideaway on the celebrated ‘Beano’ album with the Bluesbreakers, the sound of his Sunburst Les Paul Standard through an absolutely cranked Marshall combo is the very essence of all that is viscerally exciting about guitar. Likewise you only have to picture Leslie West playing a Les Paul Junior at Woodstock…

LES BEGAN EXPERIMENTING WITH recording in his early teens. “My father happened to own a garage,” he recalled, “and he had equipment and a lot of parts. It was up to me figure out how to make some kind of device to record on, so down at the garage I put together my first recording machine.” Les worked out how to make a Cadillac flywheel into a turntable and used a nail to cut grooves into celluloid. “The next thing was to make a pickup, which I made out of the telephone receiver. I played it through my mother’s speaker in the radio. They weren’t the best quality in the world, but it was the beginning.”…

The Tools • Small paint or make-up brush or soft/medium toothbrush • Various small/medium cross-head or flat-blade screwdriver • Light oil (3-in-1) • Nut lubricant, Vaseline or lip balm • 1200-grit wet-and-dry paper • Truss rod Allen key or wrench • Metal ruler to measure string and pickup heights • Fingerboard oil • Cloth/kitchen paper • 0000-grade wire wool • Masking tape • Digital guitar tuner or app • Box or ring spanner (approx. 13mm) • Good-quality guitar cleaner/polish PICKUPS Keep them clean and gunge-free. Using a very soft brush, clean all the dust and gunk from pickup tops and around adjustment and mounting screws – a clean guitar means a clean tone! Adjusting the height of your pickups can have a profound effect on what you hear through your…

“The top was generally made from eastern American maple: either red maple or silver maple. There’s a lot of variation in the carve of the top. They started off using the top-carve machines that Gibson still has in the Custom Shop. These were used for L-5s, Super 400s and so on. But the Les Paul caught on, and they needed a dedicated machine to keep up. “So they made a machine that was a copy-router resembling a record player – there were several tiers on this ‘record player’, each with routers on, and at the bottom was a sample, over which a stylus ran [tracing the contours of the sample to guide the routers above]. The shape of the carve changed over time – because the sample was only made…

THE SEARING TONE OF DON FELDER’S ’59 LES PAUL is part of the magic of Hotel California – its thick voice was the perfect foil for Joe Walsh’s Telecaster lines during what is, arguably, the most famous extended solo in rock music. Felder says he bought it from a travelling dealer famous for his superb stable of vintage guitars. “His name was Tony Dukes,” he recalls, “and every time we’d go through Texas, Tony would show up. He was a horse trader and he always had something in his truck you wanted. He would show up in a station wagon or a truck that was full of Les Pauls, Teles and Strats, and I bought probably 20 pieces from him over the years. It must have been about 1974 or…

To the window-shoppers of London’s Tin Pan Alley, it was a new arrival to quicken the pulse. The jet-black lustre of the hourglass body. The shimmer of 24-karat hardware. The twinkle of the diamond headstock inlay. It was 1959, and with the lifting of restrictions on US imports, the mythologised Gibson Les Paul Custom was suddenly a tangible reality. “When I was a kid,” Steve Hackett tells us, “I used to walk down Shaftesbury Avenue and Denmark Street, staring in the windows, looking at instruments I couldn’t afford. And I used to think anyone who’s got a Les Paul Custom has already made it.” And that, of course, was what the Gibson boardroom wanted players to conclude when faced with the Custom. The firm had already planted its flag deep…

Even though PRS introduced its first bolt-on back in 1988, the CE (originally classed the Classic Electric) has always remained in the shadow of the brand’s premier glued-in neck guitars, from the Custom to the 594. It had dropped out of production by 2009, and when it reappeared in 2016 it was slightly re-engineered to fill a gap between the newer USA S2 guitars and the start of the upmarket USA Core models. If we’re honest, we expected the revitalised CE to drop out of production after PRS introduced the Silver Sky in 2018, but instead of additions to that John Mayer model (new colours aside), we were pleasantly surprised to see a new CE 24 introduced at the start of this year. If you’re a fan of PRS’s original…

PRICE: £575 ORIGIN: China TYPE: Valve preamp and power amp OUTPUT: 10W RMS VALVES: 1x 12AX7, 1x 6L6 DIMENSIONS: 473 (w) x 421 (h) x 251mm (d) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 15/32 CABINET: Ply LOUDSPEAKER: 1x12” Celestion Seventy 80 CHANNELS: 1 CONTROLS: Gain, tone, reverb level, master volume, drive switch FOOTSWITCH: Single-button footswitch activates drive function. 2-button footswitch can toggle drive and reverb ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Series effects loop with switchable levels, fixed level speaker-emulated recording/ headphones output OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: Studio 10 range also includes the EL34 and KT88 at the same price Blackstar Amplification 01604 817817 www.blackstaramps.com PROS Boasts top-drawer boutique-grade tone and dynamic response CONS The effects loop would be more useful if it were footswitchable…

As the person who has to fill every issue of Guitarist with gear, this writer is constantly getting it in the neck for displaying expensive guitars. Well, here’s another one, this time from the Sacramento-based Kauer Guitars, headed up by Doug Kauer who shipped his first guitar in 2008: “11 years now! Kind of amazing that I haven’t gotten a real job yet,” he laughs. Generally, it’s a four-man team that creates the instruments, as Doug explains: “I’m primarily responsible for design and programming, the business, some machining and mainly paint. One guy handles the necks start to finish, most of the woodworking, machining and sanding. I have a full-time assembly person; he takes over after paint and does final fretwork and final assembly – wiring, making the pickguards and…

Gary Clark Jr 17 & 18 June The Roundhouse, London & Albert Hall, Manchester If the blues world wanted to claim him as their own, Gary Clark Jr had other ideas. Latest album, This Land, again finds a fearless artist exploring sonics far beyond his roots at Antone’s. But if his SG loaded with a trio of P-90s is a constant, then so is his fuzz. “I got up on stage to do some shows with Jimmie Vaughan,” says Gary, “and he looked down at my pedalboard and said, ‘What the fuck you going to do with all that?’ I said, ‘I don’t know man, I guess nothing’ [laughs]… I mean, it really is kind of telling when someone who is basically just using their fingers can make a guitar…

Every couple of years the artist whose band I’ve been a part of for 36 years, undertakes a nationwide tour. Unbelievably, Marty Wilde celebrates his 80th year in 2019, so we’re off again in a few weeks. These days the tours aren’t as long and arduous, but they still require a certain amount of preparation. I tend to get precise about stuff – for instance, I can’t really concentrate if the mic stand is not perfectly in line with my amp, or if my setlists aren’t symmetrically either side of it. I also hate untidy cables, so I use a wireless system, etc. I’m sure there are plenty of others out there who are the same. But getting back to preparations, I always like to buy new stage clothes. I…

Fender ’60s Stratocaster £1,449 Fender’s American Original series moves away from the slavishly period-correct spec of the American Vintage, offering more usable reissues to the modern player. Our pick is the 60s Strat, with Vintage Tall frets on a flatter-than-vintage 9.5-inch radius ’board – a guitar that plays sweetly for contemporary styles while keeping the tones classic. Suhr Classic Antique £2,599 /If it’s out-and-out feel and finesse you want, you’ll struggle to do better than a Suhr.The phrase‘butter-like’playability might have been coined for the Strat-like, aged Classic Antique we reviewed back in issue 434. It still stands out in our minds as one of the most swift-playing and comfortable guitars we’ve encountered. Strandberg Sälen Classic £1,699 Tried fan frets yet? They’re more natural feeling than you might think.The idea is…

ETHERIDGE TO THE RESCUE I’m in the process of dealing with a mallet finger injury on my left hand, compounded by additional soft tissue injuries around the knuckle joint. The injury occured earlier in the year while tucking a thick bed throw into the back of my sofa, so the dog’s muddy paws didn’t ruin the furniture… Mallet finger involves the fine extensor tendons on the back of the finger suddenly splitting from the fingertip, and the finger bendingforwards at the end, all by itself. Hence ‘mallet’. It’s an innocuous injury, unless you’re a right-handed string-instrument player, as it removes any capability of articulation from the tip of the most left-hand finger. And it also hurts like hell. After a visit to the hospital, I am now in recovery. So…

Keywest Ordinary Superhero Marshall Records From humble beginnings… Keywest are a four-piece Irish band that come with a fascinating back story. The ensemble began busking on the streets of Ireland, playing songs to pay their rent, and the foursome soon began building up crowds wherever they played, selling 150,000 of their homegrown CDs in the process. Realising they were on to something, the band began touring their wares, winning new fans to the extent that their current tour has sold out venues such as Liverpool’s O2 Academy in just a matter of days. Their music comprises an enthusiastic romp through alt-rock and neo-folk territories with some seriously infectious songwriting and strong guitar work from Jimi Locke and Andy Glover. The band’s recent signing to Marshall’s record label is bound to…

The Crusaders Southern Comfort Blue Thumb 1974 The Jazz Crusaders came out of Houston, Texas, at the turn of the 1960s playing swinging hard-bop. Relocating to Los Angeles in the mid-60s, they enjoyed some success, but keyboard player Joe Sample hated the fact the he was always coming up against unplayable pianos at gigs. His discovery of the Fender Rhodes electric piano banished that problem and led to a new sound, and in 1971 they dropped the ‘Jazz’ from their name and graduated to a funkier, heavier sound. The addition of Larry Carlton as a full-time member in 1972 completed the picture. Carlton’s deft and understated guitar playing added another dimension to their sound and a capable, exciting soloist to widen their appeal. With Southern Comfort,they really hit a sweet…

Sitting in London’s historic 100 Club, with Rory’s gig-worn guitars in cases behind us, Daniel Gallagher talks us through the foundations of the new Rory Gallagher record: “We signed a deal for Rory’s catalogue with Universal/UMC and I wanted the first release that they got to be something special, rather than a ‘best of’ kind of thing.” A resident of New York, Daniel is a seasoned producer who has overseen many acclaimed, posthumous Rory Gallagher releases, including remasters, that have brought the guitarist’s rich and varied musical legacy to new audiences. “One of the brilliant things about signing with Universal/UMC is that they have this huge archive space and a great archive team,” Daniel explains. “We moved over a thousand multi-tracks and master tapes from our lockup to their huge,…

The workhorse simplicity of this two-pickup Esquire belies its heavily modded history as one of Rory’s main guitars for slide work. “This guitar’s had so many changes,” Daniel Gallagher observes. “Originally, it was natural finish with a black scratchplate – which you can see on the Beat Club Sessions DVD – with white etchings on it from when he bought it. “He put in the second [neck] pickup and made it a Telecaster, effectively. Then an incident happened at an airport where it fell off a loading trolley, then a van behind it with the next load of luggage drove over it. When he got it back, the body and finish were damaged. I think it was given to Chris Eccleshall to refinish and Rory said, ‘I need it back…

This Supro is yet another homage to the American blues guitarists who first captured Rory’s imagination, redolent of juke joints and laid-back shuffles. “There’s a lovely Art Deco look to this guitar,” Daniel Gallagher says. “He would have got it on tour in America. Again, it would have been picked up with the idea of playing slide on it; the action on it is high enough to suggest that. He had another Supro Dual-Tone from ’63, but I think this is the sexier one.” A consultation of Mark Makin’s comprehensive reference book on Nationals, Supros and related guitar brands, Palmtrees, Señoritas...And Rocket Ships!, reveals that Rory’s Dual Tone appears to be the second version of this model, which first appeared in 1954. This updated second version, which went on sale…

Rory was wide-ranging in his tastes in guitars and was often drawn to instruments by budget American guitar brands that were found in the hands of bluesmen in the 50s and 60s. Such is the case with this Kay K1962 Value Leader electric, an affordable model that was available in single-, double- and triple-pickup variants and featured a single cutaway and semi-hollow body, accounting for its light weight. The wooden bridge is made of maple and the controls, handily marked with ‘V’ and ‘T’ letters for volume and tone, are mounted on an angular metal plate that Kay sometimes mirrored on the top half of the Two-Tone Sunburst body as well. Daniel Gallagher says that the fine condition of this example is due to its status as Rory’s ‘at home’…

Once you reach this kind of price range, the field opens up considerably, both in terms of factory made and hand-built acoustics. Martin’s own 000 range starts off with the 000-15M at around £1,350 and moves upstream to its standard triple-0 that will set you back about £2,199. You can move even more upmarket than that and reach for the OM-28 Modern Deluxe at around £4,400. Makers such as Yamaha, Takamine and Taylor all supply smaller-bodied instruments. Collings shows its triple-0 hand with the 0001 at £4,595, but don’t forget that UK-based luthiers like Atkin, Fylde, Kinkade and Turnstone will all build you the triple-0 of your dreams, too…

Contemporary guitar designers seem to fall into a couple of camps: those who create guitars for themselves with the hope that players will latch onto them; and those who create guitars as a result of what players actually want. There’s little doubt Gary Levinson falls into the latter camp. Yes, the dress of the original Blade might suggest it was created for a mid-80s video shoot, but the genesis of the Blade was all about the needs of the player. Like so many, Gary learned his trade from fixing and repairing guitars, firstly as a hobby, then more seriously in 1968 while he studied at the University Of Illinois, and subsequently in Switzerland when he’d finished further studies. “I’d started a repair shop [Guitars by Levinson] in 1977 in Basel…

An envelope filter isn’t an immediate shoo-in for everybody’s pedalboard, but since they first appeared in the 1970s, plenty of players have embraced their auto-wah capabilities or their ability to mimic certain analogue synth tones, notably squelchy filter sweeps. The traditional envelope filter pedal is based around dynamics: basically, the harder you play, the stronger the effect. This new all-analogue pedal is designed on the one hand to provide those traditional sounds with both up and down envelope modes, but also introduces the concept of a pitch-following filter with the effect based purely on the actual notes you play rather than how hard you play them. The Resotron’s 24dB/oct filter circuitry is based on the SSM2040 chip as found on some vintage synths. It can be set to work as…

DUNLOP Clyde McCoy Cry Baby CM95 £179 If it has to be a traditional wah without the bells and whistles, this is the latest version of the first wah pedal and it sets a vintage standard that others can be measured by. DUNLOP Cry Baby Mini 535Q £157 Don’t have space for a standard wah? Check out the Cry Baby Mini: it’s tiny, but it does the job with four selectable frequency ranges, a Q knob that sets the width of the bandpass, and a boost switch. XOTIC EFFECTS XW-1 £261 For customisable sounds, this wah has four external controls that alter Bias, Wah Q, Treble and Bass. It’s also got a smaller footprint than most so is more pedalboard-friendly.…

1 What was the first pedal you built and how did the design come about? “The first Origin Effects units were the Cali76 and the SlideRIG [compressors] and they were designed simultaneously. Prior to that, I was doing a lot of repair work for various London studios and I’d come across the [UREI] 1176 [LN Peak Limiter]. When I was repairing them, I thought it would be great to have a pedal that does what they do, so our compressors are based on those. At the same time, I developed an overdrive pedal and that’s now become the RevivalDRIVE.” 2 What’s your best-selling pedal and why do you think that is? “The best-selling pedal is the Cali76 Compact Deluxe, probably because it’s the most mainstream pedal we do. Initially, when…

Q I love the surf vibe of the Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars. I’m not so keen on the complex vibrato design and the single-coil pickups. What suggestions do you have for an offset body guitar with modern performance and humbucking sounds? Budget isn’t that much of a concern. I’ll starve for the right guitar! J Edgar, via email A Not everyone is onboard with the Jazzmaster and Jaguar vibrato unit. The thing is over-engineered, especially when compared with the joyous simplicity of the Stratocaster unit. They can rattle a bit, too. Fortunately, there are plenty of quality guitars that cast the same shadow as a Jazzmaster/Jaguar. Let’s shine a light on them. 1. Fender Jim Root Jazzmaster £1,649 The Slipknot guitarist’s signature Jazzmaster transforms a 60s surf…

Mid-1946 Princeton ‘Woodie’ lap steel amp released; 4 /2 watts (min); 8" speaker; no controls 1948 Tweed cover; 2 knobs (volume & tone) 1961 Brownface panel; brown Tolex cover; 12 watts (min); 10" Jensen speaker; 4 knobs; tremolo 1963 Blackface panel; black Tolex cover 1964 Princeton Reverb released; Blackface panel; black Tolex cover; 6 knobs; tremolo & reverb 1968 Silverface panel; black Tolex cover 1970 Rectifier valve changes from GZ34 to a 5U4GB 1977 ‘Boost’ push/pull pot (volume knob) 1981 Blackface panel; black Tolex cover; Princeton Reverb discontinued 1982-1985 Princeton Reverb II: blackface panel; black Tolex cover; 20 watts (min); 12" speaker; 8 knobs…

BB KING Live At The Regal As one of those ‘here’s where it all came from’ albums, Live At The Regal is very hard to beat. BB’s reading of classics such as Every  Day I Have The Blues, Sweet Little Angel and It’s My Own Fault were a huge inspiration to those who followed – and there have been many. Recorded at the end of 1964, this is up there with The Bluebreakers’‘Beano’ album from a couple of years later in the must-have stakes. FREE Fire And Water For a definitive demonstration of the midrange-heavy driven early Marshall tone, check out this whole album, but especially the title track with Kossoff managing to hold on to some practically infinite sustain in the overdubbed solo section. Oh I Wept shows Kossoff…

Try to imagine, if you can, going to see the world’s most respected telephone company, around 20 years ago. You hand them a crude piece of plastic with an aerial sticking out of the top and say, ‘Hey, I’ve designed this thing called a mobile telephone, and everyone is going to come to rely on one before you know it’. After they stop laughing under their breath, they thank you for your interest in their company and send you on your way. So it was for Les Paul and the solidbody guitar in the mid-1940s. GOING ELECTRIC Gibson wasn’t averse to the electric guitar per se – the company introduced its first electric way back in 1935 with the metal-bodied E-150 Hawaiian guitar – but the solidbody was a totally…

1 ERIC CLAPTON HIDEAWAY John Mayall’s Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton, 1969 1960 LES PAUL STANDARD A WATERSHED MOMENT FOR blues-rock, Clapton’s playing on his first post-Yardbirds record (aka the ‘Beano album’) is a landmark for tone, too. The guitarist bought what’s generally believed to be a 1960 Les Paul Standard from a shop in London; later stolen during his early Cream days. Clapton’s quest for sustain also led him to a Series II 1962 Marshall JTM 45 ‘Bluesbreaker’ combo, rolling back the guitar’s volume to effectively control the overdrive on this stunning version of the Freddie King classic. 2 PETER GREEN | FLEETWOOD MAC OH WELL Single, 1969 1959 GIBSON LES PAUL THE LES PAUL STANDARD has remained in production since the mid-1970s and has also undergone…

It’s a misty and damp day at Bare Knuckle Pickups HQ in Cornwall and we’re talking about that most cherished artefact: the PAF pickup. Sound is a very subjective thing, but most players will agree that there is a certain undefinable magic connected to Seth Lover’s mid-50s invention. Originally designed as a means to battle troublesome mains hum, with the PAF, Seth heralded in a golden era of tone and something that manufacturers everywhere have been battling to reproduce ever since. Few people know more about the goings-on inside a PAF than Bare Knuckle’s Tim Mills and our first question concerns the nuts and bolts of a PAF… Just what are the physical components that constitute that sought-after sound? “It’s down to the gauge of nickel silver in the baseplate,…

From his days in Humble Pie to the height of his fame during the …Comes Alive-era, Peter Frampton’s Gibson Les Paul Custom was his constant sonic companion. It was famously lost in a plane crash in 1980, but miraculously reappeared some years later and the two were reunited. The tale of how the ‘Phoenix’ found its way back to its owner is a mix of coincidence and blind luck with twists and turns aplenty. We’ll let Peter himself tell the story, so sit back and listen to a slice of guitar history, as well as some remarkable detective work… “The very first time I played the guitar was in 1970. Humble Pie was performing at the Fillmore West and the gentleman whose guitar it was at the time, Marc Mariana,…