Inhoudsopgave van April 2018 - Guitarist

This month, the subject of the quest for the ‘perfect’ guitar has come up a few times. For many of us, getting closer to that Holy Grail means tinkering about with guitars that are ‘just about’ right to try to make them an ideal fit. For example, I bought a Gibson ES-335 recently – partly because myself, Nev Marten of Guitar Techniquesand Mick Taylor of That Pedal Show are playing a Cream tribute soon. The Gibbo is just over a decade old, sounds great and plays pretty well. As a teenager, I would have probably left it at that and just got happy playing it. But the flip side of increased experience is that it’s also harder to be satisfied. Though it makes no major functional difference, I found myself…

Spending four days in a stunning location learning from one of the world’s greatest guitarists, as well as a team of hand-picked talent for the tutors? Sounds like a dream scenario to us… Tommy Emmanuel’s Guitar Camps have already been a success overseas with a relaxed atmosphere for players of all levels. And now he’s hosting a camp in Europe for the first time, in stately surroundings in the heart of Scotland no less. Fellow tutors include Certified Guitar Player John Knowles, British fingerstylist Richard Smith, jazz ace Frank Vignola and rhythm king Vinny Raniolo. We spoke to Tommy to find out more… How would you describe the guitar camp from your perspective? “Everybody gets a chance to be together because we all stay in the same place. We eat…

While Guitarist was over at the NAMM show, we especially enjoyed our visit to the Orange stand, where we were able to see the landmark amps from their 50-year history on display. Plus they had their newly launched Rocker 15 and Brent Hinds Terror heads (reviewed on p16). We also looked back with founder Cliff Cooper on a milestone. It’s one Cliff never imagined his company reaching when he set up shop at 3 New Compton Street in London’s West End in 1968. “I had no idea when we started at the shop,” Cliff reflects, “I didn’t ever think we’d be doing what we do now. It was by accident… no manufacturer or distributor would supply us in our shop… so we had to make our own. I can’t believe…

Some of you may recall that last year Jamie Dickson, Mick Taylor, bassist Eric Ofako and drummer Matt Smith and I honoured the 50th anniversary of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s debut album, Are You Experienced? The event sold out the 400-seater Lantern Room at Bristol’s Colston Hall, so Festival organiser and friend of the mag Denny Ilett suggested this year we might like to mark the half century since Cream’s demise, with a similar show. Matt couldn’t make it, as he’s on the road with blues force-of-nature Kirk Fletcher during most of March, so Mick enlisted Doug Mussard, drummer from That Pedal Show co-host Dan Steinhardt’s old band, Tin Spirits. Gear Dilemmas You might presume that guitars and amps are a foregone conclusion. Eric’s Cream set-up is well documented and…

Spooky Tooth The Last Puff Island Records 1970 This month it’s not so much the album as the opening track, a cover of I Am The Walrus, which I would like to focus on. Featuring the incredibly well-kept secret that is Luther Grosvenor, aka Ariel Bender of Mott The Hoople fame, later in his career. No mean feat to fill Mick Ralphs’ size eights. Blessed with a fluid, exciting technique, he was idiosyncratic in his execution, employing an extraordinary vibrato, a spidery legato-led exploration of the fretboard, marrying the 60s British blues-boom lick library with a heavier, more original approach and creating a combustible maelstrom of mischief. Match this with Mike Harrison’s incredible, gutsy vocals and a stunning, thrilling reimagining of the song and you have this marvellous creation –…

When you meet Josh Smith, it soon becomes apparent, that he’s as big a gearhead as you’re ever likely to meet. Everything in his signal chain is there because it’s survived rigorous comparisons to other units in its class – and his style is a riotous mix of red raw country, searing blues and the slickest jazz that simply stupefies the senses. He’s been playing since he was three years old when his father surprised him with a guitar for his birthday. “I banged it around for a bit, then at six I asked to have lessons,” he laughs when we sit down at the Guitarist studios for a chat. By the time he reached 12, Josh started attending blues jams in his native Florida. “The first time I went…

50S TELECASTER £1,549 60S STRATOCASTER £1,639 60S JAGUAR £1,639 CONTACT Fender Musical Instruments EMEA PHONE 01342 331700 WEB www.fender.com Whichever way you spin it, there are really only three ways to present a new version of a decades-old classic – as a period-correct replica, a modern updated interpretation, or as something that sits somewhere in-between. We’ve seen numerous Fender USA line-ups since the late 80s, but today’s ranges are trimmed down and much more focused. And, in this ongoing rejiggery, 2018 sees another significant change. It’s bye-bye to the American Vintage series, which was launched back in 2012, and hello to the new American Originals. The American Vintage models were year-specific clones – or, as close as is possible with a modern build… These new Originals, however, aim for a…

IT’S Gretsch’s original take on the Les Paul – aka the Jet – that gets some attention this year. First up are the new Players Edition models the G6228 BT ( from £1,979, also in flame top and left-hand versions) in Black, Cadillac Green, and Dark Cherry Metallic, with Tim Shaw designed Broad’Tron BT65 pickups, ‘V’ stop tail, chambered mahogany body with maple top plus no-load master tone pot with Squeezebox paper-in-oil capacitor. The FT version (the G6128T, from £2,049, and left-handed G6128LH version) adds string-thru Bigsby and a pair of High Sensitive Filter’Tron pickups. Other FT colour options include the Silver Sparkle G6129T and Vintage Firebird Red G6131T. Much more affordable is the the G5520 Electromatic Jet BT Single-Cut with ‘V’ Stoptail (£450); it features all-new Black Top Broad’Tron…

1 ART & LUTHERIE ROADHOUSE AND LEGACY DENIM BLUE Q-DISCRETE £499 These new finish additions to the Canadian’s impressive Roadhouse parlour and OM-size Legacy Denim Blue Q-Discrete caught our eye on the Godin stand. The new jeans-inspired finish really is very attractive indeed, showing off the natural grain of the spruce top and cherry back and sides to retro effect. There’s also a new scratchplate design and front-mounted volume and tone controls for new electronics; switching from Godin’s own Q1T to third party Canadian brand EPM’s active Q-Discrete system. 2 COLLINGS OM1 AJL AND WL14 MH £TBA The loss of Bill Collings last year inevitably cast a shadow over his company’s presence at the show, but the team have pulled together and his legacy was clear…

STILL a young brand, Victory is very much on the map in British amplification. The brand’s signature blend of progressive features, compact form factor and classic tones has found favour with a lot of players – so we made a beeline for designer Martin Kidd to ask him about the intriguing looking valve preamps that were debuted at NAMM, which, as the looks and indeed names suggest, are designed to provide the core voicing and gain-forming characteristics of popular amps from the Victory range in a pedalboardmountable box. “They’re all valve,” says Martin, though he adds that they utilise a relatively rare pentode valve not previously used in guitar amps. “I’m not going to tell you which ones because no one’s using them,” he adds with a grin. Connected to…

VIDEO & AUDIO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra Fuzzrocious claims that the lunaReclipse is the first pedal of its kind, and it’s certainly the first we’ve seen that has a 12-position (coinciding with hours on a clock) rotary switch offering various distortions and overdrives. These are provided by combinations of diodes and LEDs. At 12.00 it’s clean boost only (dialled in with the volume knob) but the first four options offer clipping purely from pairs of Silicon diodes, Germanium diodes or the LEDs. Another combination is asymmetrical clipping. In practical terms what you’re getting is boost in 12 different flavours of dirt that really finds its niche in working with another dirt pedal, either driving it or, our preferred option, sitting after it where its re-clipping of the sound works superbly. Stick one…

The story of Gordon Smith guitars is a very British one. Founded in 1974 by John Smith and Gordon Whitham in Partington, near Manchester, the company’s electric guitars became a bit of an institution on the British guitar scene. Known for no-frills styling that belied the instruments’ superb playability and impressive reliability, Gordon Smith guitars found their way into the hands of everyone from punks to jazzers through the 80s and 90s and represented a genuine alternative to US guitars at a time when the likes of Fender and Gibson dominated guitar stores. As longtime Gordon Smith player Pete Shelley of The Buzzcocks puts it: “I’ve been playing Gordon Smith guitars since 1977 and got my first custom model in 1979… You pay for the guitar, not the hype.” But…

Jamie Dickson Guitarist editor 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 Blues and Country Music. Neville Marten Edited Guitarist for 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…

1. SERIAL NUMBER Six digits stamped into neck block in the 152776 – 159061 range underneath model name “0-18” 2. HEADSTOCK “C F Martin & Co” logo and “EST. 1833” gold silkscreens with black border; Brazilian rosewood veneer 3. PLASTICS Tortoiseshell celluloid pickguard; five-ply alternating black/white top binding with tortoiseshell celluloid outer layer; tortoiseshell celluloid back binding and bottom stripe 4. HARDWARE Open-back Grover Sta-tite tuners; Brazilian rosewood belly bridge with long, rectangular saddle slot 5. BODY 4¼ inches deep; Sitka spruce top measuring 13½ inches wide and 18 3/8 inches long; mahogany back and sides; X-bracing; soundhole inlay of nine alternating black/white rings surrounded by two black rings 6. NECK Pronounced v-profile; 24.9-inch scale length glued in mahogany neck with 14th fret body join; 20-fret Brazilian rosewood fingerboard with…

• CRACKS IN SOUNDBOARD As with any acoustic, but especially when considering a vintage purchase, buyers should be wary of any breaks or cracks in the face top or soundboard of the guitar. While it’s not uncommon to find some surface deterioration or fading on old Martins (which can actually add a certain aesthetic desirability), a crack that goes all the way through the wood can degrade resonance and overall tonal quality, and lower the resale value of the instrument. • NECK ANGLE AND ACTION Over time, the neck on a vintage Martin guitar will inevitably need a reset as the geometry of the body changes with age. Neck resets are a common repair, but can be expensive. If a particular guitar requires a neck reset in its near future,…

Exploring a 12/8 Minor Blues Difficulty 15 mins per example Tutor: Richard Barrett Gear used: Knaggs SSC, Vox AC15 C1 A 12/8 MINOR BLUES offers the soloist so many possibilities. The contrast between the slow tempo of the backing track and some slightly excitable phrasing can give explosive results, as Jimmy Page demonstrates on Since I’ve Been Loving You. However, I should point out that this solo is not a ‘soundalike’ or particularly based on his style, though there are one or two moments where it’s impossible not to be influenced by him. This is about exploring the space afforded by having such a slow tempo with relatively few chord changes to consider – though there are a couple of major chords hidden in there, which could be a trap…

JIMMY PAGE LED ZEPPELIN III It would be very disingenuous not to admit the influence Since I’ve Been Loving You was on the backing track for this feature. As well as the more obvious aspect of Jimmy’s superlative playing, check out the overall dynamic between the band, moving from a whisper to a roar, as they react to each other’s performance. This sets the bar high, but is always worth referencing as a benchmark. OTIS RUSH ALL YOUR LOVE Rush’s style of minor blues was a big influence on Eric Clapton and John Mayall, who covered this track on the famed Beano album – though there is a long list of others who have covered it too. The simple, melodic phrasing with a surprising turn of speed here and there…

American Originals Okay, on the face of it not much has changed. But Fender have got it so, so right with these subtly updated reissues. Read the full review on p82 Josh Smith He plays like the devil but makes his guitar sound like a choir of angels – if you haven’t checked out the work of Mr Smith yet, we urge you toward p64 Michael Landau A guitarist’s guitarist who plays with consummate taste but is anything but predictable. We join him to talk Strats, his stunning new album and more on p58…

Myles Kennedy 17 to 27 March Various UK venues The Alter Bridge frontman and Slash collaborator is used to playing arenas on UK visits, but for the beginning of his solo journey he’s going low key with small venues and acoustic performances. While the bluesy roots of new album Year Of The Tiger was shaped by a Duane Eddy Gretsch and a brace of vintage acoustics, including a 1945 J-45, he’ll bring more contemporary Taylors, PRSs and his National resonator to the tour. The latter choice is inspired by one of Kennedy’s blues heros. “I discovered the instrument through Chris Whitley,” he says. “I listened to Dirt Floor over the years so much, I think that approach manifested itself on a handful of tracks on this record. To me it’s…

“The noise at NAMM is incredible – guitars, bass, trumpets, being played at the same time, in addition to chatter” Last Christmas, I had a very nice gift from Mrs M – a signed copy of Mick Fleetwood’s Fleetwood Mac autobiography Play On. My head was stuck into it most of Christmas Day, devouring the Peter Green pictures and stories. Usually, my time after Christmas and at the start of the New Year is a bit quiet, but this year was different. The day after Boxing Day I flew to Italy for a meeting about the new range of foot pedals I’m working on with a company called Baroni Lab. It was good to leave a grey and cold UK for a couple of days and find myself in a…

GONE FISHING I found your ‘100 Ways To Be A Better Guitarist’ feature to be very comprehensive, but alas, I have one or two more points for you to consider… If you look at the picture below, you’ll see my guitar tool box, which was actually meant to be a fishing box! It’s helped me a lot over the years and many of the contents have been a lifesaver when it comes to avoiding potential nightmares during a gig. For all the things that could possibly happen from start to finish at a gig, there won’t always be a fellow bandmate who can help you out. As for the contents of the box, the strings are self-evident, likewise picks, slide bar etc, but then come the screwdrivers, Allen keys, voltage…

 Who have you gigged with? Angus Young had 16 cabinets and eight Super Lead heads, and all of them were going’ “A few years out of high school, I got signed to Island Records and made my first album, Stevie Salas Colorcode [1990]. I became a music director for Terence Trent D’Arby and was Rod Stewart’s lead guitar player. I made records and played with the likes of Justin Timberland, TI, Public Enemy, Parliament Funkadelic and Michael Hutchence. I was a music director for American Idol for four seasons. I was a music director for Chris Daughtry, Adam Lambert, David Cook, Jordan Sparks and Kris Allen. And I was a music director and guitar player for Mick Jagger when he went solo. “I scored the movie Bill & Ted’s Excellent…

On the one hand he’s the consummate, guitar player’s guitar player and solo artist – everybody who’s anybody loves Landau. On the other he’s the unassuming sideman and session cat who’s played on records from artists as diverse as Joni Mitchell and Christina Aguilera, to Pavarotti, Michael Bublé, Sugarland, Tim McGraw and many, many more. His AllMusic.com discography credits make for a simply jaw-dropping read. For 2018 Michael Landau turns his attentions inwards and draws on the key influences and inspirations that first lit his fire as a musician. However, his new album, Rock Bottom, is no exercise in nostalgia. Moreover it’s a characteristically edgy, eclectic and contemporary collection of new songs recorded at his home studio in California, with old mucker Dave Frazee on vocals alongside a stellar bunch…

FENDER AMERICAN ORIGINAL 50S TELECASTER PRICE: £1,549 (inc case) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Single-cutaway solidbody electric BODY: Ash NECK: Maple, ‘1952 U’ profile, bolt-on SCALELENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT: Bone FINGERBOARD: Maple, black dot markers, 241mm (9.5”) radius FRETS: 21, vintage tall HARDWARE: Vintage-style strings-through-body, Tele bridge with brass barrel saddles, Pure Vintage ‘Fender Deluxe’ tuners – nickel/chrome plated ELECTRICS: 2 x Fender Pure Vintage ’52 single coil pickups, three-position lever pickup selector switch, master volume and master tone with knurled dome-top knobs OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: 60s bound Tele with rosewood fingerboard (from £1,549) LEFT-HANDERS: Yes, at £1,549, in Butterscotch Blonde only FINISHES: Butterscotch Blonde only (as reviewed) – gloss nitrocellulose Fender Musical Instruments EMEA 01342 331700 www.fender.com PROS: Has an early Tele vibe but with more modern playability…

THOUGH Gibson’s venerable ’Burst is undeniably a classic, there’s no getting away from the fact it is a 60-year-old design. And during that time, thoughtful luthiers such as John Suhr have given a lot of consideration to what could possibly be improved on this landmark electric. The result is Suhr’s stunning new Aura singlecut, which aims to preserve all that is good about late-50s Lesters but also add a series of Suhr-devised refinements. The top carve that is digitally mapped from an original ’59 Les Paul, likewise the neck, but the heel is a new shape to give better upper fret access and the cutaway is also deeper for the same reason. Suhr has also addressed tuning stability issues caused by high down pressure on the nut by means of…

IT’S fair to say that Martin doesn’t mess with an established formula lightly –after all, its classic dreadnought models such as the D-28 have virtually defined what great acoustic tone is on countless recordings. So why has the company overhauled all of its Standard line in 2018? We caught up with Fred Greene, Director of Product Management, at NAAM to ask what this year’s ‘Reimagined’ guitars are all about. “We wanted to get the guitars to where they had a more modern feel but a vintage [vibe] at the same time,” he said. “It’s a weird tightrope to walk. So we thought, let’s look at what people ordered – what options are they choosing? And everybody wanted forward-shifted, scalloped bracing. They wanted herringbone, they wanted binding that wasn’t bright, snow-white…

The Anomalies delay keeps the knobbage simple with just Delay Time and Repeats (feedback) control. The dry/wet mix is set by an internal trimpot, and we liked it with the dry sound rolled back from its stock position allowing the repeats more prominence. A toggle switch gives you access to two delay ranges – one that runs from tiny up to around one second and another that continues up to two. This isn’t pristine digital delay as the onboard PT2399 delay chip pretty much mimics the sound of analogue delays which get crusty really fast – most noticeably on the longer delays which can get really lo-fi. A second footswitch momentarily speeds the delay up or slows it down by a factor of four – in theory it’s a useful…

In the past 12 months the Les Paul has loomed large in my sights. Like any guitar nerd, yes, I’d love a late-50s ’Burst. Yeah, dream on. But, during this past year, I’ve got to play some pretty cool single-cuts – Gibson, Eastman, Godin, Patrick James Eggle, PRS, Knaggs, Guild… on it goes. But the thing is, back in the early 80s, I owned a 1973 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe. Now history might have attached an ugly duckling tag to those guitars but back then it was my pride and joy. And, after finding an old demo tape of my band at that time, I was more than pleasantly surprised by its sound. It began to hone my single-cut lust – that guitar’s mini-humbuckers gave it a brighter voice, less…

I want an electric guitar that I can permanently set up for slide. I’ve been trawling places like eBay and have noticed a lot of old 60s Japanese guitars with names such as Audition, Jedson and Teisco. I know some people rate these things for slide, but should I look in a different direction? I have £500 to spend. Michael Quinn, via email The eye-catching Vox-flavoured Teisco Del Rey branded instruments, and Kawai-sourced S180 planks associated with bluesman Hound Dog Taylor, are becoming sought after. Second-division fluff branded Audition, Jedson etc, generally belong in the ‘collect, regret and pass-on’ [aka ‘CRAP’] category. You’re throwing money at badly laminated necks, non-adjustable truss rods and weak pickups. Here are some smarter choices. 1. Silvertone 1423, £279 If you developed a yen for…

1898 Introduced with rosewood back and sides; unbound ebony fretboard; rectangular bridge 1902 Dot fingerboard markers introduced 1917 Mahogany replaces Brazilian rosewood back and sides 1923 Steel string bracing 1932 Neck-body join changes from 12th to 14th fret 1935 Brazilian rosewood fretboards begin to replace ebony fretboards 1944 Non-scalloped X-bracing 1946 Sitka spruce replaces Adirondack spruce 1969 Brazilian rosewood replaced by Indian rosewood 1996 Temporarily discontinued…

Electrics Fender1979 Anniversary Stratocaster. Silver with maple fretboard and five- position switch. Great action. Very good condition. Original case. £1,800ono. Call Paul on 01323 831720 or email jackiwill@btinternet.com. Hailsham. FenderStrat, Team Built Custom Shop, 1956 NOS, Fiesta Red with AA maple neck. Vintage tweed case and all candy, in immaculate condition as home use only. Lovely example of this classic guitar. Offered at bargain price of £1,700. Call Paul on 01296 435520 or paulcurtis1@btinternet.com FenderUSA 2007 Standard Stratocaster superb three tone sunburst plays fantastic with rosewood fretboard including Fender case immaculate. £750, Worcestershire 01386 861873 Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul Axcess Standard, owned from new, hard case and tags. Home use only. Very good condition, £2,500 ono. Call Pete on 01706 375454 or email voxac30@btinternet.com, Greater Manchester. Gibson ES-335 cherry…

To continue Neville Marten’s theme of getting close to famous guitar sounds, I’ve been in Abbey Road’s famous Studio Two this month (and yes of course I tried, and failed, to play Lady Madonna on the original piano The Beatles used) to record the soundtrack for a new Disney film. There was a lot of original music to be recorded alongside a few excerpts from famous songs. Our rhythm section for the day consisted of myself, Strictly Come Dancing MD Dave Arch on piano, Steve Pearce on bass and Ralph Salmins on drums. The orchestra was to be recorded in the larger Studio One the following week, and I was to be on my own for a session recording guitar overdubs. As it turned out, the afternoon with just me…

While there is a certain purity to standard chord voicings, there can be times when something a little extra adds some welcome harmonic variety and interest. Our case in point is these three open position chords of E, A and B7. It’s impossible to number the vast amount of songs written using this I-IV-V 7 chord sequence – so it seems particularly ripe for a rethink in how we might structure the chord voicings to create a fresh take on the whole thing. Though these were designed with the acoustic guitar in mind, they are also effective on the electric for jangly ‘almost-clean’ chords. Elvis Costello, James Honeyman Scott, Andy Summers and Tom Petty spring to mind as players who have implemented this kind of thinking with great results. You’ll…

TAKE IT OUT I spotted a neat juxtaposition in last month’s issue that underlined the much-discussed dilemma of what do you do with higher-end guitars – leave them in their cases or get ’em out and play ’em? On page 64 we had Michael Ross talking about playing his original ’58 ’Burst on stage, then on page 112 Mike Patrick was asking which sub-£1,000 guitar you’d advise for gigging, so that he could leave his Custom Shop guitars at home! There’s obviously no right or wrong, as it’s every player for themselves. But I would like to share with Mike Patrick the fact I have a 25-year-old USA Sunburst Strat, which I’ve owned since new and I love it. I play it every day, and, in its 25 years, it’s…

Squirrels This pensive, building opener features a wonderful out-of-phase ’68 335 in the first solo section, giving way to some trademark full-throated Landau-isms, rooted in rock and blues, but adding flavours of jazz with masterful touch and dynamics. Bad Friends Angry and brooding, this grooving rock riffer is laced with layered, modulated textures and punching, off-the-wall lead guitar with plenty of fuzz and wah-wah. Getting Old A mid-tempo groove holds this down as Landau’s delayed and modulated guitar layers mesh with Goldings’ keys beneath a whole lick bag of blues-meets-jazz call-and-answer leads. One Tear Away Simply sublime minor ballad that begins dark and foreboding with distorted bass, becoming redemptive and uplifting via a beautiful pre-chorus/middle-eight chord sequence. Fantastic octave-up section in the solo too.…

Chet Atkins is to Gretsch what Les Paul is to Gibson. Their endorsement of electric guitars, let alone their influence on the development of music technology and recording technique, is legendary. And, as well as being among the leading artists in their field, they also had more than a passing interest in science, engineering and inventing new technology – they were what you might call ‘renaissance men’. Born in 1924, Chester Burton Atkins – better known as Chet Atkins – is widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s most influential guitarists. Sometimes referred to as the ‘Country Gentleman’ or ‘Mr Guitar’ Chet’s direct involvement with recorded sound and the development of guitar technology, not to mention his highly distinctive fingerstyle technique, helped shape the future of the electric guitar.…

1 CHAPMAN BRITISH STANDARD SERIES Approx. £3,500 Chapman announced the new British Standard Series of UK made guitars “beautifully handcrafted boutique instruments of an exceptional standard made by a very small team of highly experienced luthiers in a small British workshop,” they tell us. Four prototype models were unveiled at the show: the ML1 Modern in Vadar, ML2 Modern in Sapphire, ML3 Traditional in Ruby and Ghost Fret in Dragon Skin. “This new line will be made one at a time, by hand, in extremely limited numbers and all will feature premium hardware, woods and electronics and they will also be nitrocellulose-finished,” added Chapman Guitars MD, Matt Hornby. We’ve ordered ours already! 2 DANELECTRO 59XT £TBA The good people at Danelectro must be smirking to themselves…

EVEN a casual inspection of the new six-piece range of effects pedals Fender debuted at NAMM showed it had moved a long way on from the bland, generic designs of the past. The control knobs are illuminated with blue LEDs so they can be seen on a darkened stage, and the battery compartment of each pedal is so easily accessible that a patent is being sought for its magnetic mechanism. So what gives? We spoke to Stan Cotey, who was also behind Fender’s well-liked Bassbreaker amps. “We tried to make them gig-friendly and easy to use. The user interfaces are right on their surface so there’s no shift, push-pull or whatever,” Stan says, pulling out the vibey-looking Santa Ana Overdrive to illustrate some of the player-focused. thinking behind the pedals.…

VIDEO & AUDIO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra The fact that the Cat Tail was originally called the Rat Tail, combined with its Volume, Filter and Distortion knobs, leaves no doubts about what inspired it. Taking things further than the original ProCo model, this has a toggle switch to change the diodes for a subtly different (mainly midrange) flavour but the main innovation is the Clipping 1 and 2 pots that allow fine tuning of how the signal clips on the highs and lows, effectively providing welcome extra EQ options beyond the single Filter knob. The pedal is available with several different options, including a kill-switch or switching between two distortion pots, but this one has the Feedback mod, which has the second (momentary) footswitch connected to a pot that feeds the signal…

1 What was the first pedal you built and how did the design come about? “The first pedal I really got into was the [InterFax HP-1] Harmonic Percolator that [Steve] Albini used; I’ve always loved Shellac – I even have some aluminium neck guitars! The Harmonic Perkolator led to the Fredric Effects Utility Percolator, which is still very popular. The very first pedal I built and sold in any significant number was a clone of the 1970s MXR Distortion +. The original pedal had 1N270 germanium clipping diodes. Later, I combined that circuit with the [Dan Armstrong] Green Ringer ring mod and that went on to become the Fredric Effects Grumbly Wolf.” 2 What is it that makes Fredric Effects unique? “Fredric Effects has a slightly oddball ethos and a…

A SOLID FAVOUR Having been a fan of ES-335 style guitars for years, I’ve worked my way through a succession of budget models. Now, I finally have the funds to get something a bit more serious, with my sights initially set on a Gibson Custom Shop model. After doing some research however I’ve realised that opening my wallet wider isn’t necessarily going to get me the spec that I imagined. So, before I get any deeper into this can you please explain something to me? How come if I buy an entry-level 335 I get a laminated wood body? If I get a Gibson Custom Shop model, I get a laminated body? Even the beautiful Collings I-35 LC, which costs five or six grand, has a laminated body. I thought…

The 0-18 may be thought of as a mid-level instrument, much smaller than the popular dreadnought shape Martin flat-top acoustic guitars are among some of the most highly regarded instruments of their type. Ever since Christian Friedrich Martin set up shop in the 1830s (originally in New York before moving to their current residence of Nazareth, Pennsylvania a few years later) they have spearheaded acoustic instrument design with several revolutionary technical developments along the way. Martin’s model naming system can sometimes cause a bit of confusion, although once armed with a handful of basic facts it soon becomes clear that a certain logic is at play. It comprises letters and/or numbers separated by a hyphen; the first part describes body shape while the second part describes style in terms of…

Read through any history of Martin guitars and you’ll encounter a long list of groundbreaking, genre-defining instruments like the D-28 dreadnought and 000-28 orchestra models of the 1930s. A rung below these all-time classicss is a tier of instruments that match their lofty counterparts for build quality and innovation, just not quite the historical reputation and collector value. The small-bodied, concert-sized 0-18 is one such example. Taking its modern 14-fret form in the mid-1930s, the 0-18 was larger than many Martins of the previous decades, yet smaller in size than the 00 and 000 guitars of the same period. Part of the 18-series, the guitar used mahogany for its back and sides with simpler cosmetic appointments than could be found on a top-shelf model like a 000-45. These factors combine…

Difficulty  10-15 mins per example Tutor: Phil Hilborne Gear used: PRS Signature Custom 24, Marshall JMP-1 WE ARE BACK on conceptual turf again this month with a look at our fretting hand and – more specifically – how we choose and use our unruly digits. Right from the start, I should point out that the development and usage of all the left-hand fingers is vitally important to all guitarists. However, I do think there are quite a few occasions when either limiting or carefully considering which ones you can use yields better results. This point particularly applies to rock and blues soloists, but some of it is valid right across the board. Hopefully some of what follows will at least make you think a little more about your options. Before…