Sommaire pour November 2022 de Guitarist

These days, the term vintage has seemingly come to mean anything more than a decade old, but its original meaning came from the world of winemaking, where it simply referred to the year when the grapes used to make a wine – that’s the ‘vin’ part of vintage – were picked. Over time, the word vintage became shorthand for ‘a classic year’, probably because people just left out a couple of words when they really meant ‘a good vintage’ – and it’s this secondary meaning that we seem to have imported into the world of guitar. When I first got into guitar, in the 90s, vintage largely meant 1950s and 60s Gibsons (or earlier) and pre-CBS Fenders. These days, sellers of secondhand guitars are quietly trying to expand the term…

FIRST PLAY BREEDLOVE ECO PURSUIT EX S CONCERT SWEETGRASS £869 WHAT IS IT? Electro-acoustic cutaway featuring a figured myrtlewood top and a supporting cast of other very ecologically sound timbers In recent years we’ve witnessed guitar builders, both large and small, begin to seek out more sustainable and less controversial materials for use in their products. Alternatives to the more established timbers such as rosewood, spruce and certain strains of mahogany are being actively sought in the quest to find new champions with which to fuel our acoustic meanderings. As such, we have come across woods with strange-sounding names that put our traditionalist tendencies to the test. But a healthy dose of open-mindedness is essential on everyone’s part if we’re really serious about putting the planet’s interests first. We’ve certainly…

CONFESSIONS OF A LUTHIER In my workshop I have a wooden rail screwed just behind where I stand at my workbench. Upon this rail I hang fronts and backs of unfinished guitars. Given that I teach guitar-making on top of my own commissions, it’s helpful to have multiple guitar parts at various stages of completion to help inspire (or confound) my students. Indeed, the daily collisions between my forehead and the plethora of delicate soundboards (normally every time the doorbell rings) proves that it’s been a busy month for soundboard bracing and carving spruce. “I’m a fan of asymmetrical bracing as irregular shapes discourage the reinforcement of specific frequencies, resulting in a more favourable tone” Earlier in the year, in issue 487, I wrote about the effect that acoustic guitar…

STAR LETTER RHYME & REASON As I work towards my Grade 7 guitar exams, I started thinking about all of the difficulties to overcome in order to truly master this magnificent instrument. So I decided to write this silly poem about some of the questions I’ve asked myself as I progress. I thought I’d share it with other readers to see if they can relate to any of it. Perhaps I’ll Be A Star One of these days, I’m gonna learn to play this guitar One day in the future, hopefully not too far. Should I play an arpeggio, or strum it real sweet I hesitate, lose my cool, and now I’ve missed the beat Is it Bm, or is that a C? I just can’t play a riff…

Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell are rightly thought of as poet laureates of rock for the 60s and 70s. One could argue, with justice, that Suzanne Vega was cut from the same brilliant cloth when she emerged onto the 1980s folk scene. Her songs had a poise and honesty that cut through the day-glo bombast of the 80s charts and pierced people’s hearts, most notably with her tragic ballad of child abuse, Luka, but also with introspective songs such as Marlene On The Wall and Tom’s Diner. Though she found fame as a modern folk artist, becoming the first female headliner at Glastonbury Festival in 1989, she resisted typecasting, exploring electronica in songs such as 1992’s Blood Makes Noise and carving her own unique path onwards. But she has always…

AMERICAN VINTAGE II ’57 STRATOCASTER £1,999 Reflecting the original pre-rosewood fingerboard Stratocaster style, this is the earliest-spec Strat in the new range. That said, both alder and ash bodies are listed and we’re presuming the 2-Color Sunburst will be ash, and the Seafoam Green and Vintage Blonde will be alder. All the new guitars use the original 184mm (7.25-inch) fingerboard radius with 21 vintage tall frets, while this specific Strat comes with Pure Vintage ’57 Strat single coils on a single-ply pickguard and has a vibrato with cold-rolled steel block and bent steel saddles. AMERICAN VINTAGE II ’63 TELECASTER £2,049 Over a decade after the basis for our reviewed ’51 Telecaster, things had changed on Fender’s original solidbody with a new ‘round-lam’ rosewood fingerboard with ‘clay’ dots, alder body and…

TRINITY BY RELISH £599 Easily one of the most radical and innovative guitar makers out there, Switzerland-based Relish Guitars took a very different path with its Jane and Mary designs. Among the company’s innovations is its instant pickup-swapping system, which is retained on this very affordable 24-fret bolt-on Indonesian-made version, whose outline shape is based on that of the original models. With Cream T taking up the pickup-swapping concept here in the UK, there are plenty of pickups now available to swap. Get onboard! www.relishguitars.ch YAMAHA REVSTAR RSS02T £649 The second wave of Revstars was launched earlier this year, with both Indonesian-made models and the Japanese-made RSP02T. Instead of copying ideas from other makers, Yamaha delved into its own history and Revstar definitely draws on the original SG2000 style mixed…

Writer JAMIE DICKSONGuitarist, Editor-in-chief This month, Jamie gets the soldering iron out to make a kit overdrive, from US guitar tools and supplies company StewMac, based on a pedalboard legend Many readers write in every year to share their pleasure in building kit guitars at home – which is a fine hobby to take up. But you really need a bit of space, ideally a well-equipped workbench in a garage, to do homebuild guitars. That’s doable for many people, but as a dad with weekends filled with trips to shops and parks, sometimes the only chunks of downtime I get are in the evenings after the little ’un’s gone to bed. Past about 10, however, and the clamour of routers and drills from the garage tends to be frowned upon…

Exactly what has fuelled the offset trend I’m really not sure. What’s for certain, though, is that seemingly every guitar maker is having a go at creating its own spin on the classic Jazzmaster/ Jaguar-inspired style. But we’re not talking copies here. No, the fun stuff invariably mixes up the references: an offset body but with a Telecaster bridge and pickups, or simply go the grunge route with dual humbuckers with or without a vibrato. There are loads of variations out there and some of my favourites come from the inspired imagination of Frank Deimel, a German maker who Nik Huber put me onto. Head over to his website (https://deimelguitarworks.com) and I guarantee he’ll get your creative juices flowing. Fantastic stuff! “The thing about a kit is you’re not going…

Fender’s practice of branding products in an effort to appeal to aspiring students goes back to the very early days of the 1940s with the Princeton lap steel and amp. And in the mid-50s, following the groundbreaking success of the pro-level Telecaster and Stratocaster models, the firm turned its attention towards producing solidbody electric guitars for students. Appearing in the 1956 catalogue alongside the Harvard amp, the single-pickup Musicmaster was partnered with the dual-pickup Duo-Sonic. Advertised “for adults and young musicians with small hands”, both were touted as “¾ size” and featured a short 22.5-inch scale length (Strats, Teles and Jazzmasters have a full 25.5-inch scale). By the mid-60s, Leo Fender’s business partner, Don Randall, was pushing to extend their range of student solidbodies with a vibrato-equipped model. Thus, in…

Open G Slide Tutor Richard Barrett | Gear used Fender Telecaster, Boss Keeley SD-1 & Vox AC15 C1 Difficulty | 10 mins per example OPEN TUNINGS ARE GREAT for playing slide and hark back to the early days of the blues – as well as Hawaiian guitar, which originally popularised both slide and open tuning. In fact, Son House used to refer to slide playing as ‘Hawaiian style’. The example licks here are played in open G (low to high: DGDGBD), with a more modern distorted tone that’s inspired by Joe Walsh’s approach on the classic tune Rocky Mountain Way. These ideas can be tackled separately or as a complete solo, you choose. They’re designed to help expand the vocabulary of players who want to get into slide and/or open…

FIRST PLAY PRS HDRX 20 HEAD £799 WHAT IS IT? An Indonesianmade 20-watt addition to PRS’s HDRX amp range Following the so-called ‘British Invasion’ that swept the USA in the mid-60s, many British bands and guitarists who followed the first wave were powered to stardom by the electric blues genre, including Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Faces, Humble Pie and Fleetwood Mac – to name just a few from this remarkable epoch of creative change. Ironically, one of the UK’s most influential exports was an American guitar slinger brought to England in 1966 by Animals bassist Chas Chandler, who rapidly soared to stratospheric fame after teaming up with Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding. Jimi Hendrix’s guitars – and those of many other players – were…

FIRST PLAY BEETRONICS ZZOMBEE FILTREMULATOR £399 WHAT IS IT? A stompbox featuring a bunch of interacting analogue effects for some sonic mayhem The latest from Beetronix, the Zzombee, is described as a ‘Filtremulator’. This is a one-of-a-kind analogue multi-effect pedal featuring Filter, Wah, LFO, Randomized Filter, Tremolo, Swells, Overdrive, Fuzz and Low-Octave, plus a unique effect called Cross Tremolo where the tremolo pulse alternates between root note and low octave. The pedal has a set of controls that combines the effects for some very unusual sounds, but it may take some time to get your head around the four three-way toggle switches, three knobs and two multi-function footswitches. They offer a range of options so wide that you get a 29-page user manual to navigate your way through them! Fortunately,…

Gibson Standard Faded series FROM £1,899 IN THE PIPELINE Fade To J It’s not just electrics that are getting the Faded treatment. Gibson has also confirmed the release of three Faded acoustics: the flat-top J-35 30s model (£1,899), a J-45 (£2,169) and a Hummingbird (£3,039), all equipped with LR Baggs electronics Even more expensive American guitars? Not exactly! In these times nothing gets our GAS-detectors chiming more than classic designs made more affordable. Yes, these are American-made, but they’re not the wallet-emptying variety you might expect – they come in at around 10 per cent cheaper than the Standard models. What we have here are two Les Pauls (50s and 60s, both £2,169) and an SG (£1,899) with vintage-style faded finishes, marking a return to the catalogue after the last…

Artist: The Proclaimers Album: Dentures Out (Cooking Vinyl) The new Proclaimers album, Dentures Out, features 13 songs in only 34 minutes with not a single word or guitar chord wasted. It also has a surprise guest in the shape of Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield. It’s very cathartic to hear really good songwriting addressing the maladies that post-Brexit Britain suffers from at the moment, so we begin our conversation by asking Charlie Reid if it was cathartic for them to write, too? “The writing of the songs started before lockdown and then was affected, as everybody was, by the fact that it’s the longest period probably that Craig and I couldn’t actually stand with everyone and sing together, and that did slow things down a bit. It was a…

RAISING THE TONE Opinion Most readers will be familiar with the term ‘player’s grade vintage’, but for those who aren’t, it describes vintage guitars that have been modded or messed about with over the years, losing some of their originality in the process and usually commanding lower price tags as a result. Vintage collectors generally don’t want such ‘corrupted’ instruments, but for everyday guitarists who appreciate the vibe of a nice old electric and don’t mind the odd non-original part, they can prove a bargain. “Should you try to keep as much as possible original on these vintage guitars – or grant yourself a free hand to make further mods?” A guitar I bought a few years ago was a pretty typical example of a ‘player’s grade’ vintage guitar.…

Off to one side of the star, somewhat anonymous to the fans – such is the role of a sideman. Some so-called sidemen are impossible to ignore, however, as their touch and style on the guitar shines out of every recording they play on. Greg Leisz is such a one: rightly regarded as one of the world’s finest pedal steel players, he’s just as at home tearing it up on lap steel, Dobro, Weissenborn, mandolin and regular guitar. When we caught up with him via Zoom at his Californian home he had recently returned from London after recording with Mark Knopfler for the latter’s next album, which has yet to be announced but which may see the light of day next year. How did the sessions with Mark Knopfler go?…

ORANGE DISTORTION, SUSTAIN & PHASER £199 EACH CONTACT Orange PHONE +44 208 905 2828 WEB www.orangeamps.com What You Need To Know 1 Blimey! These look a bit different… You’re right if you mean the enclousures look rather chunky. Orange wanted to revive a range of pedals that it produced back in the 1970s (and are now extremely rare) and decided to keep the large aluminium chassis associated with the now-vintage pedals. 2 Have any concessions to modernity been made here? Yes, these pedals have been rebuilt from the ground up with new circuitry, they can get their power from a standard nine-volt supply rather than solely from a battery, and they feature modern status LEDs. 3 They could have thought up some cooler names, though… Why? That’s…

Nitty Gritty In previous decades, transistors offered guitarists cheaper and lighter amplifiers, and today digital amplifier modelling technology can achieve astonishing sound quality. But huge numbers of guitarists remain addicted to the bottle – or thermionic valve if you prefer. Thermionic valves come in many forms and their names tell us how many working parts are contained within that glass or metal enclosure, not including the heater. The simplest form of valve is the diode, which only contains an anode and a cathode. A heated cathode releases negatively charged electrons into the vacuum, hence the terms ‘thermionic emission’ and ‘thermionic valve’. With AC voltage from the power transformer connected between the anode (aka plate) and cathode, current flows through the valve when the AC is in its positive phase at…

FIRST PLAY EPIPHONE JOE BONAMASSA 1962 ES-335 £1,149 WHAT IS IT? A tribute to JB’s lost-but-found vibrato-equipped Gibson ’62 ES-335 According to Epiphone, the story goes that in 1996 Joe Bonamassa bought a ’62 Gibson ES-335 that he used on his debut album, A New Day Yesterday. In 2001, he sold the guitar to help finance his move from New York to Los Angeles, and then, nearly 20 years after that first record, an unexpected phone call led to a reunion with his ol’ thinline. This new 2022 Epiphone limited tribute shows no signs of 60 years of use; its vibrant red finish is brand-new shiny just like the hardware, not least the long Maestro Vibrola and the pickup covers. You can clearly see the plain maple facings of the…

FIRST PLAY ELECTRO-HARMONIX STRING9 STRING ENSEMBLE £199 WHAT IS IT? A string synth for your guitar from the New York City effects boffins With its ‘9 Series’ Electro-Harmonix has created a minor genre in pedals that recreate the sounds of other (mainly keyboard) instruments from any electric guitar – no additional synth pickups required. The latest, String9, has been designed to emulate orchestral and synthesiser string sounds and, to that end, offers the well-established array of nine different sounds selected by a rotary knob. There are volume knobs for your guitar and the emulated string sound to mix at the Effects output. There’s also a Dry output, which delivers the input signal at unity gain, leaving plenty of options for your signal chain. As with the other ‘9 Series’ pedals…

Artist: Brad Barr Album: The Winter Mission (Secret City Records) As a solo musician and singer-songwriter, the work of Brad Barr differs significantly to his work with his sibling Andrew in The Barr Brothers, which specialises in folk and blues-rock. Brad’s second album, The Winter Mission, displays diverse tunes for solo guitar, all recorded live with no overdubs – surprisingly so when you hear the complex music. “My solo style is rooted in improvisation,” Brad tells us, “but I’m also always looking for a physical feeling from the guitar. The way that the hammer-ons and pull-offs line up has to be visceral. It’s not enough for it to sound nice, it also has to feel nice.” Rocky Beginnings Originally from Rhode Island, Brad’s musical journey began around the time he…

NEVILLE’S ADVOCATE “Now here’s a thing,” is how Mitch Dalton, columnist for our sister mag Guitar Techniques, might begin his monthly article. Mitch has been one of the country’s top studio and live session guitarists for decades, and is called to back artists such as Lionel Richie and Glen Campbell, does the Strictly Come Dancing live shows, The Proms and so on. But if you want to hear a particular ditty that bears his touch, then check out the fast acoustic flurries at the beginning of Monty Python’s Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life. That’s your man! “There is something scary about the reliance on one type of esoteric pick. Suppose it gets lost? So now I’m happy with everyday plectra…” Mitch’s latest article for Guitar Techniques is…

SUBSTITUTE Eric Johnson is renowned for his immaculate tones and phrasing, ranging between roaring Marshall/Fuzzface lead sounds and super-clean ambient chords. The latter is what we’ll be looking at here. Before we get into the voicings themselves, it’s worth pointing out that, like Eric, I’ve used an (approx. 400ms) echo with a touch of modulation – it’s an integral part of the sound, rather than just an enhancement. You can also get a bit of movement in the echo with some subtle whammy bar, for a light chorusing and a bigger sense of space. Some of these chords are what might be described as a ‘shell’ voicing, meaning that the chord is stripped to the bare minimum amount of notes to get the harmony across. Counterintuitively, this can make for…

Fender’s American Vintage reissues (often abbreviated to AVRI) have long enjoyed a great reputation as high-quality instruments that are as near as you can get to genuine vintage Fenders south of the Custom Shop. And with Custom Fenders now routinely costing over three grand, the idea of a really accurate reissue costing a fair chunk less is very tempting. Over the past few years, fans of vintage Fenders have had to content themselves with the American Original range, which aimed to provide a general flavour of 60s Strats and 50s Teles, for example, while offering flatter fingerboards and other modern conveniences. While those were very decent guitars, the launch of the American Vintage II range marks a return to stringent period-correct details and guitars based on those made in specific…

BLUEPRINT: Seth Baccus Argonaut There’s quite a resurgence in British electric guitar design at the moment, with companies ranging from Gordon Smith to PJD to Patrick James Eggle all producing topnotch instruments with a flair and character all their own. Many of the hand-crafted, high-end guitars being produced in Britain today owe little to the past but boast elegant, original lines. Seth Baccus is one of the best in the business in that regard and his Cornish workshop is home to some of the most svelte, distinctive and yet timeless new electrics you’ll find. Recently, he unveiled an all-new offset, the Argonaut, and like his other designs it’s a mark of their quality that they can be styled and spec’d in radically different ways yet still retain a classic essence.…

What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money? “My father bought me my first guitar, actually. It was an Aria Pro II, you know, a kind of a Les Paul model. But the first guitar I bought myself was a red American Standard Stratocaster. So there was quite a difference between those two guitars, I think that changed my guitar playing back then. This was a really long time ago! “I started to learn guitar with the Aria. It was quite a heavy guitar, but I liked it. It was beautiful and the tone was quite sweet and warm as those humbucker guitars usually are. I was around 14 or 15 years old and I had a background as a violin player, so I knew a…

Recently in issue 489, we talked about how to change speakers in a 1x12 cab or combo. Now we’re going to take a look at changing more than one speaker in a cab. The basics are the same, so this time we’ll look at some of the finer details. When we’re getting set to change speakers in a cab or combo, it makes sense to start with a 1x12: the wiring is much simpler, there are fewer issues regarding impedance, and it’s just less daunting for a first timer. With a bigger cab, even though there are still the same two main reasons for wanting to change a speaker – a fault or to add a different tonal characteristic to your amp/cab – multiple-speaker cabinets offer more situations in which…

“This guitar probably left the factory around 1975, but it was put together earlier on by Philip Kubicki in Fender’s R&D department. It was likely made around 1971, and finally completed around ’75 as the original pots date to then. Philip Kubicki was an apprentice to renowned guitar-builder Roger Rossmeisl, and they both worked on the George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster [made in 1968] and the Hendrix Rosewood Stratocaster prototypes. Kubicki also worked on the Thinline Telecaster, LTD and Montego projects. He ended up becoming a production manager at Fender and was ‘the guy’ when Rossmeisl left [in the early 70s]. There are some very experimental guitars that Kubicki made, and this is one of them. When I met him in the 80s, he was already out of Fender and was…