Sommaire pour July 2017 de Guitarist

This month at Guitarist has been all about covering the miles. Nev Marten of Guitar Techniques, Mick Taylor of That Pedal Show and myself trooped up to Hull for an anniversary performance of Jimi’s first album, Are You Experienced, which was brilliant fun but has left my car full of the unlovely debris of a band on the road – fragments of custard creams, crumpled setlists and bits of Bombay mix litter the footwells. I can still see, as in the rear view mirror, our drummer Matt squeezed into an inhumanly small space between amps, rucksacks and gigbags in the back. We had a blast, though – and it made all the prep and cramped hours on the motorway worthwhile. That’s why this month’s cover feature (see p56) resonates particularly…

FENDER AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL TELECASTER DELUXE SHAWBUCKER £1,469 WHAT IS IT? Twin Shawbuckerequipped Tele Deluxe within Fender’s new American Professional range It’s easy to think that mixing up the recipes of classic designs, a hybrid approach, is a relatively new trend usually reserved for boutique brands. But that’s not true, as is proved by Fender’s Telecaster Deluxe, which first appeared in January 1973 showing off a pair of Seth Lover-designed humbuckers that had already appeared on the revamped Telecaster Thinline and Custom (neck position only). Back in the day, of course, the Deluxe, which also sported four controls and a shoulder-placed three-way toggle switch, clearly intended to do battle with Gibson’s thicker-sounding Les Paul. In truth, like many hybrid designs, it became very much its own thing. 44 years on, the…

The Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival 25 to 27 August Colne, Lancashire Guitar fans are spoilt for choice this summer when it comes to festival options, but this weekender’s approach is different from the usual one-ticket affair – it allows blues fans to pick and choose. Over the three days at 12 venues, more than 100 acts will play, but tickets can be purchased for events individually, with three-act line-ups including Joanne Shaw Taylor, The Steve Nimmo Trio and The Revelator Band; King King, John Fairhurst and Gwyn Ashton; Aynsley Lister (pictured), Rob Tognoni and TJ & The Suitcase; and Lucky Peterson, Clay Shelburn and Michael Messer’s Mitra. In addition, there will be showcases of unsigned talent, and a dedicated acoustic blues stage on the Saturday and Sunday, to…

Sandwiched in between last month’s stint in the house band on ITV’s The Nightly Show and next month’s couple of weeks filming in another house band for a new BBC series Pitch Battle, I’ve been playing the early set at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Soho. I know this column is entitled ‘Session Diary’, but I hope you’ll forgive me if I talk about this experience, the gear I’ve been using and some of the major differences between this kind of work and the two TV house band gigs bookending it. My band at Ronnie’s consisted of Sam Burgess on bass, who’s the house bass player at Ronnie’s and a good friend, Simon Allen on sax, Tom Cawley on piano (we’ve been playing together on and off since our days…

NATURE’S DISAPPEARING So, our beloved rosewood trees are to be placed on the CITES endangered list. 47 years ago John Mayall sangNature’s Disappearing– well, now a lot of it has actually disappeared and a certain amount is residing in my living room and small studio. It is the wide-scale destruction of habitat that is causing the greatest depreciation of species because tropical forest has evolved over time as a community, where different species and life forms live in symbiosis. No Sumatran jungle, no Sumatran tigers… PRS is likely going down the right track with its Reclaimed Series, but I’m not sure about paying the best part of £2k for an instrument with nail holes in the soundboard! The trouble is, to make a bookmatched front or back for a guitar…

 What was your fi rst gig and how did it go? “The internet… they say I wear a wig. I offer a million bucks to anyone that can get this off my head. And who would buy a wig like my hair?” “In sixth grade I had a band called The Blueberry Waterfall. I had borrowed a guy’s Fender Jaguar and Boss Tone Fuzz, which you plugged straight into a Blackface Twin. It was a little power trio – we were actually pretty good for our age. I sang, pre-voice-change, and we played Back In The USSR, Foxy Lady, Gloria by Them and House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals, etc, in the school auditorium. The girls screamed, it was loud and the teachers were mortified! I was hooked.…

On 25 November 1976, Robbie Robertson and The Band performed a gig at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco that closed – but also crowned – an era. The gig marked the end of a touring career that had covered untold thousands of miles. He’d played guitar at Bob Dylan’s side in ’65 when irate fans stormed the stage in protest to their folk hero going electric. As a core member of The Band, he cut a legendary debut album at The Big Pink, a house in New York, and then carried The Weight all the way to Woodstock in ’69. A terse but soulful player, Robbie favoured Teles throughout his early career, but later found his ideal match in a ’54 Strat and a Tweed Twin. We…

The guitar world is still in shock from the death of Allan Holdsworth. Following on from fellow Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge’s touching obituary in last month’s issue, we talked to four guitarists who knew Holdsworth. They share their memories of his stunning playing and try to quantify his legacy – and we also present a classic interview with Allan himself. Finally, Richard Barrett takes a look at Holdsworth’s formidable chops and shows how some of his soloing techniques can be woven into your own style. NEVILLE MARTEN “I was out at Summer NAMM in Chicago with Allan in June 1986. I was working for SynthAxe at the time and Allan was out there playing on our stand during the day. One evening, we all went out for a meal…

Difficulty 30-60 mins per example Gear used: Knaggs Choptank, Friedman BE OD, Boss SD-1 (modded by pedalmods.com), MXR Carbon Copy Bright, Vox AC15C1 The recent unexpected loss of Allan Holdsworth has left a very big hole in the world of jazz/rock/fusion guitar. Actually, it’s hard to know which category to write first, because Allan’s influence spread so far and wide. Players as diverse as Eddie Van Halen, John McLaughlin, Alex Lifeson and Frank Zappa (to name but a few) all regarded him as one of the greats, though Allan himself saw the guitar as a vehicle for musical expression, rather than an end in itself. His unique phrasing and harmonic sensibility would certainly suggest this, as did his use of unconventional instruments, from headless Steinberger guitars to the futuristic SynthAxe…

“D’Angelico was building relatively few guitars, so he could afford to be more picky with the materials” PAUL TUCKER John D’Angelico was born in New York in 1905 and was something of a child prodigy. Instrument building was in his blood, and at the tender age of nine he became apprentice to his grand-uncle, Raphael Ciani, assisting in the running of Ciani’s flat-top guitar, violin and mandolin workshop. While cutting his teeth in the production of these popular traditional folk instruments, a new wave of youth culture and music had been spreading across New York. Following the end of World War I, the ‘Roaring Twenties’ – a rejection of the old values that had dragged America down into war – stimulated the jazz music scene that was bubbling under New…

1 What was the first pedal you built and how did the design come about? “The Fat Bastard boost. The design came about from a boost I have that was cobbled together by a guitar tech at a shop I used to frequent. It broke and then he dropped off the radar, so I set out to fix it myself and ended up duplicating it. I took it to a local shop and they agreed to consign it. Two days later they called to say it had sold and that they wanted another one! When the second one sold, they asked for two more and it just snowballed from there.” 2 What’s your best-selling pedal and why do you think that is? “It depends on how you look at it.…

1952 Introduced as the Les Paul Model with two single-coil P-90 pickups 1953 ‘Wrapover’ stud bridge/tailpiece replaces trapeze bridge/tailpiece; serial number appears on headstock 1954 Shallow neck angle deepened for improved action and sustain 1955 Tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece added 1957 PAF humbuckers added 1958 Renamed ‘Les Paul Standard’; two-piece bookmatched maple top with Cherry Red Sunburst finish 1959 Larger frets introduced; neck profile less chunky than previous year 1960 Slim neck profile; changes to SG body shape at end of year 1968 Single-cut Les Paul Standard body shape reintroduced and production continues up to present…

It’s all about the relationship between melody notes and chords, especially when you emphasise or sustain a note Rockabilly Lead Dif ficulty 20 mins Tutor: Darrel Higham | Gear used: Gretsch Custom Shop G6120EC Eddie Cochran Tribute, Peavey Delta Blues Combo FOR THIS SECOND LESSON, Darrel turns his attention to rockabilly lead styles. As you’ll see, it’s crucial that you don’t separate the two disciplines of ‘rhythm’ and ‘lead’ too much; as in many styles, there’s quite a bit of overlap in rockabilly. On the video, Darrel stresses the importance of building solos around the chord changes. Apart from a few specialised styles, this is a good approach for most music, certainly in the fields of rock, pop, blues and jazz. This doesn’t mean that you have to slavishly build…

RIVOLTA COMBINATA DELUXE TREM £1,259 Sealed body semi-solid originally inspired by Rickenbacker’s Combo from the 1950s There aren’t too many brands that capture the retro-modern zeitgeist quite like Fano’s Alt De Facto artful relics. While Dennis Fano is no longer involved in his eponymous brand, and has subsequently created Novo Guitars, a further twist comes with this new joint venture that utilises his design with Eastwood Guitars’ Asian manufacturing to create a temptingly affordable slice of retro. Currently, there are two Rivoltas that differ in just their offered bridge: the Combinata Standard has a compensated wrapover bridge, while our Combinata Deluxe Trem swaps that for a roller saddle tune-o-matic-style bridge and Duesenberg’s Les Trem II – a rather nifty design that’s a reversible replacement for a Gibson-style stud tailpiece. The…

A rare opportunity to own a guitar played by Django Reinhardt is part of a host of rock memorabilia at a New York auction. At the time of going to press, bidding was set to take place at the Music Icons auction held by Julien’s at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square on 20 May. Elvis’s first piano and John Lennon’s sketch for the cover of SgtPepper’s will be the headline lots with an estimate of $100,000 to $200,000 and $40,000 to $60,000, respectively. But there’s a couple of intriguing guitars to be found, too. The Django archtop is a sunburst Levin Deluxe that was owned by Fred Guy of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Reinhardt was photographed with the guitar at a 1946 gig at The Aquarium in New…

Rounding out last month’s column on alternatives to conventional guitar amplification (read ‘old-school’), let’s look at a few more options. First up, the Red Box output, a speaker cab alternative. I have several devices that offer ‘Red Box ambience emulation’. In plain English, what that means is that, thanks to some very clever engineering, the final output stage of the given device sounds as though it is being run through a warm cabinet and mic’d with an SM57 (or two, in the case of stereo)… and it’s really convincing. I have Red Box Out on my Hughes & Kettner amplifiers and also on my TC Nova System multi-effects pedal. It’s a great solution for recording direct into your DAW’s AD/DA converters, and keeping that ‘amp’ sound real. I recently got…

“You start to panic and sweat and think, ‘Oh God, I’ve forgotten this!’ I still remember it so clearly and it was probably one of the worst moments ever” 1 What was your first guitar and when did you get it? “My first guitar was a Fender Telecaster, around 1990 or ’91, maybe. Before that, it was an array of various borrowed guitars, and I had a very dodgy acoustic that didn’t even have a name on it – that’s what I learned on. I started playing when I was 18, and I remember the first song I ever learned was House Of The Rising Sun, because it was only about three chords. I think a lot of guitarists probably learned that as their first song!” 2 Suppose the building’s…

After graduating from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in 2000, Matt Chandler relocated to London and formed a band called PEST with some old friends. Together they released some white labels and were signed by Ninja Tune Records, going on to release two albums and a handful of EPs with tours around Europe. “I got working for a singer-songwriter called Helen Boulding,” he tells us. “Her management secured a support slot for Ronan Keating’s arena tour, so the first tour that I ever did properly was playing in all the arenas around the UK, which was really nice. When we recorded her album, we used the producer Youth and he really liked my playing, so he then went on to book me for quite a few international artists. The…

At its heart, this is a ’54-spec Strat: two-piece ash body, one-piece maple neck/ fingerboard with a diagonal grain (rift sawn), halfway between slab sawn and quarter sawn. Obviously, its main modification is the antiqued bronze finish. It’s not ‘dipped in bronze’ but is an electro-plated finish (usually employed to coat your kids’ first pairs of shoes, for example) that is antiqued to offer a vivid, aged copper appearance. The coating is thin – you can clearly see the ash’s grain and numerous bashes and dings, all replicated from Robbie’s original – but adds weight. The last Custom Shop Strat we looked at, the El Diablo, for example, weighed in at 3.38kg (7.44lb); this one is 4.09kg (9lb). The second major modification concerns the pickups. Robertson, back then…

JAMIE DICKSON: LOOKING GLASS “Fusion should transport you to other realms. Allan’s playing lights up this track with arcs of dazzling invention, expressed with complete freedom.” DAVID MEAD: THE TITLE TRACK FROM ‘METAL FATIGUE’ “Back in the days when I used to teach guitar, I would play this track to my metal students who openly despised jazz fusion and enjoy the look of amazement on their faces as the music unravelled!” NEVILLE MARTEN: ‘4.15 BRADFORD EXECUTIVE’ FROM ‘SAND’ “Allan’s solo glides gloriously through changing landscapes, past imaginary fields, houses, trees and bridges, before slowing to a perfect halt at Bradford’s buffers. Genius.” JASON SIDWELL: ‘PRELUDE’ FROM ‘HARD HAT AREA’ “This is a short piece, but the emotional chord changes and the warm guitar tone are heavenly.” RICHARD BARRETT: ‘BEELZEBUB’ FROM…

Bill Bruford Master Strokes 1978-1985 Featuring some absolutely stellar playing from Allan, the original Feels Good To Me and One Of A Kind albums seem to be out of print, but fortunately many of the tracks are gathered here. Check out Beelzebub, If You Can’t Stand The Heat… and One Of A Kind Pt 1. Though Allan grew tired of being almost exclusively a soloist during this period, it’s easy to see why he was requested to do so much of it! Allan Holdsworth Road Games With much more of a textural approach here, using chorus, harmoniser, compression and the whammy bar, Allan almost sounds like he is playing pedal steel at times! There is plenty of beautiful soloing, but with no keyboards at all featuring on this album, Allan…

When Line 6 brought out the original Helix in 2015, we applauded it as the most advanced floor processor we’d yet seen and a definite step up, sound-wise, from the company’s HD series. Of course, at its asking price of over a grand, the Helix was never going to be something that every guitarist could own. Now, Line 6 is seeking a wider audience for its HX modelling by introducing a more affordable version, the Helix LT, which comes in at around three quarters of the price. Obviously, certain facilities have had to be sacrificed to make the necessary cost savings in this iteration, but the designers seem to be right on the ball in focusing on and retaining the essentials. The LT is certainly lighter than its older sibling…

THE BACKGROUND JOHN GREEN, GUITARIST READER: “I’m new to the whole idea of pedals and pedalboards, having long believed it to be a ‘fake’ way of getting good tone. ‘What’s the matter with a guitar and amp?’ I always asked, but then I started to realise that almost everyone uses a pedal of some sort! Therefore having always struggled to get a really enjoyable overdrive sound from my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and Strat, I decided it was finally time to give in and purchased a Boss BD-2 Waza Craft Blues Driver (after much deliberation)…” THE QUESTIONS 1 CAN I HARM THE AMP WITH THE PEDAL IN ANY WAY? 2 WHERE IS A GOOD PLACE TO START WITH SETTINGS? 3 IF I WAS TO ADD AN ECHO PEDAL, HOW WOULD…

01 Valve Tester This home-made valve tester was made in England by a friend of Andrew Lazdins’ and is based on the vintage Universal AVOmeter model 8 MKIV 02 Tube Amp Doctor Valves These TAD valves go in to all Stone Deaf amplifiers: the high-grade ECC83 preamp valves are used in the first stage of all models; EL84 power valves go in to the SD8 (x1) and SD30 (x4) amps; and 6L6GC (x2) power valves beef up the SD50 amplifiers (customisable to EL34s) 03 Cleaning Products A variety of everyday cleaning products are never far from hand: Brasso, Mr Sheen and car interior polishes are just a few trade secrets! De-flux, switch cleaner and freeze spray are also on standby as part of the amplifier test-bench’s essentials 04 Oscilloscope An…

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. Mick Taylor Ex-editorofGuitarist,Mick haswieldedAllenkeys, screwdrivers and sandpaper from an early age; he also has a worrying obsession with pedalboards. Neville Marten EditedGuitaristfor 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 experience gained from collecting, repairing and restoring all kinds of guitar-related audio. Emailus…

MARC RIBOT Tom Waits’ sideman and sonic pioneer interviewed HISTORIC GEAR We go back to the crossroads with a vintage National MIKE RUTHERFORD The Genesis giant on his approach to prog guitar Next issue on sale: 30 June 2017 Save up to 56% on an overseas subscription to Guitarist Subscribe to the digital edition available on your iOS and Android device, the glossy print edition, or the complete print and digital package • Never miss an issue • Get your copy delivered direct to your door each month as well as instant access to our digital edition • Save up to 56% off the store price • From only $/€36 every month ORDERING IS EASY Go online at: www.myfavm.ag/GUIoverseas Terms & Conditions: Details of the Direct Debit guarantee are available…

Electrics Cunetto Nocaster Feb ’96, original frets, good condition with original case, cert and candy. High 300s serial no. Open to offers, possible p/x for Martin D-35 with cash my way. Call 01423 563397 or email sj.walsh5@virgin media.com Epiphone Popa Chubby Flying V, as new with fitted hardcase. Rare guitar. £375 ono. Contact John on 07973 187375 Fender50th Anniversary Stratocaster, USA, sunburst, gold hardware, S1 switching, as bought condition. Tweed hard case. Offers over £650. Email ifhawkes@aol.com South Cheshire FenderBlacktop Jaguar HH 2011. Superb condition, playability and sound, c/w Fender gigbag. Home use only. Offers over £350 (cost £480). Call John 07703 399160. Carlisle FenderCustom Shop 57 Strat heavy relic sunset metallic. Little home use, as new, with case, etc. £1,795. For pics and details contact nickwilliams4@hotmail.com Devon Fender Custom…

Guide example to formatting your adverts CATEGORY: Electrics ADVERT: Fender Stratocaster, USA Standard, 2001, black, white scratchplate, three Lace Sensor pickups, vgc, never gigged, Fender hard case, £435 ono. Call Joe on 01234 567890 Email joebloggs@youremail.co.uk Runcorn Send your ads to: guitarist.readerads@futurenet.com PLEASE NOTE: Due to the section’s popularity there can sometimes be a period of around a month before your advert will appear. We are unable to send a notice of receipt for your advert. Guitarist magazine reserves the right to omit or change any reader ads which fail to meet the above guidelines or infringe any company’s registered trademarks, ie Strat copy, Gibson copy, and so on. Please write concisely and double check phone number and e-mail address! You get 21 words max, and they’re all free!…

PATRICK JAMES EGGLE MACON SINGLE CUT £4,200 WHAT IS IT? Customer-led single-cut version of PJE’s double-cut solidbody electric “Iwouldn’t presume to improve upon a Les Paul,” exclaims Patrick Eggle when asked about his latest creation, the Macon Single Cut. This single-horned version of his Macon Double Cut simply seeks to offer a more ergonomic take on many people’s favourite guitar style. And it was partly Pat’s customers that pushed him into taking the plunge. “It was a natural progression anyway, but lots of people were asking us to build this guitar.” No prizes for guessing the inspiration, but as a hand-maker Patrick has the advantage of adaptability, making various build options available. “We can offer the guitar fully chambered, semi chambered or completely solidbody,” he says. “The instrument you have…

1 Fender CD-60S All Mahogany £160 If you’re heading out to the beach or a campsite this summer and passing an acoustic around, then you may want to leave your high-end pride and joy at home. But there’s a lot of both pride and joy to be found here, too. With a solid ’hog top, laminated back and sides, plus a very playable low action on the example that we tried out, this is a superb beginner’s guitar for the money – but there’s no reason why they should have all the fun. And there are two strap buttons fitted, if you want to stand and deliver at the next jam session. www.fender.com 2 Taylor 61030 Gigbag £78 We’ve always been impressed by the gigbags that come with Taylor guitars.…

I’ve been fortunate to have a long career, but I can’t begin to imagine how many guitarists I have heard in the years I have been treading the boards. As a budding teenager I saw in my young eyes wonderful players every Friday and Saturday night, sometimes on Sundays at lunchtime pub gigs, but seeing people actually playing their Fender or Gibson was a joy on its own. I thought all of them were the greatest guitarists I had ever heard, and the truth is that some of them were. I played shows as a teenager with Mick Green, Mick Abrahams, Miller Anderson and I was in awe of them all. Turning professional really opened my eyes. I went from being the local hotshot in front of a couple of…

Wes Montgomery Smokin’ In Seattle ( Resonance ) It’s amazing that tapes of Wes Montgomery are still being discovered almost 50 years after his death – but we’re not complaining! The story goes that Resonance, the record label,has been working closely with Wes’s estate, in the form of his son Robert, to bring previously unreleased studio and live recordings to light. This particular outing features the Wynton Kelly Trio playing at The Penthouse in Seattle in April 1966. Taken from a radio broadcast, the recording quality here is superb and features Wynton Kelly opening the set with Wes joining the band for six of the 10 tracks. The CD also comes with a comprehensive 40-page booklet, written in part by long-standing Wes fan Pat Metheny. [ DM ] Standout track:…

Back in the mid-1960s, Ray and Dave Davies made history with what many refer to as the first ‘heavy’ riff. The distorted guitar on You Really Got Me was the result of Dave taking a razor blade to the speaker of his Elpico amplifier and, in this somewhat desperate act, a sound was born. Now Davies has embarked on another project with a family member, teaming up with his record producer son Russ to make Open Road. “I wanted to do something a bit different with Russ because I didn’t want to make a hard rock album again,” he tells us. “We wanted to base it on songs and nice melodies, and I’m very pleased with it.” Here, he reflects on both past and present. 1 Family Ties Are Sometimes…

It’s fair to say this project kicked off well over a decade ago. “I’d say somewhere around 2002 to ’03,” suggests Todd. “I’d done some updated versions of Robbie’s ‘Moonburst’ Strat, two or three of them, then he went through his collection and sent me a lot of guitars for repairs and reworking. That led to the copper Strat, which I guess was in a museum [Hard Rock Cafe] for some years; he sent that to me to piece back together.” How did it go from being a repair to becoming a limited-edition model? “Good question. At some point, I think he’d talked to Eric [Clapton]; I’d done the recreation of Blackie. At one stage, I had [Robbie’s guitar] here and showed it to a couple of the managers and…

The terms ‘guitarist’s guitarist’ or ‘unsung hero’ are often bandied about in the music industry, but both pale into insignificance when it comes to the influence Allan Holdsworth had on the music of the last 45 years. Always working in the rarified area of jazz fusion, he never found commercial success: “We can never get anybody – even in the States – to be interested in the music,” he told Neville Marten back in ’87. “I know people at various record companies and they’ll actually say to my manager, ‘Let me know when Allan decides to do something we can sell…’” Unjustly, that uphill battle continued throughout his career. Here, via a Guitarist article from November 1987, we revisit his thoughts on music, the guitar and his renowned self-critical take…

Conceived on Valentine’s Day 2004, Warpaint as a band is now in its teenage years. For the most part, the first four years were spent carefully defining and redefining their sound through persistent hours of boundless jamming – a practice that naturally allowed them the collective freedom to originate and articulate an expansive yet distinctive song-scape. Radiantly dark, graceful and broodingly intense, their debut EP, Exquisite Corpse, initially surfaced from the LA underground in 2008 with additional teamwork from Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarists John Frusciante and Josh Klinghoffer, and the band rapidly gained attention over the pond from UK-based label Rough Trade, releasing their first studio album, The Fool, in autumn 2010. Since then Warpaint have steadily evolved and distilled their aesthetic of ethereal guitar-driven, beat-laden art-rock and have…

1 FENDER BASSBREAKER 007 £325 Fender’s Bassbreaker 007 is a good-looking head, finished in grey tweed. This is a proper small amp, producing seven watts of real valve power from a single EL84 pentode, with a single 12AX7 in the preamp. Traditional controls for gain, volume, bass, mid and treble are augmented with a built-in treble booster that can be foot-switched. It’s tonally versatile with a great clean sound, as well as a lot of gain for creating big, crushing overdrive effects. www.fender.com 2 PEAVEY 6505 PIRANHA £185 Peavey’s 6505 is one of the go-to amp names for metallists, and the 20-watt Piranha’s reduced size doesn’t get in the way of great tone. A tough steel chassis encloses a typically robust Peavey circuit, with controls for gain, EQ and volume…

“The St Vincent should really be called the ‘What’s That?’ model… every time I take it out of the case, someone blurts out those words” Ernie Ball Music Man St Vincent with Jamie Dickson Writer JAMIE DICKSON Editor, Guitarist With a Brian Eno gig coming up, Jamie gets to grips with a guitar designed for another sonic innovator – art-pop icon St Vincent. Can it handle everything Fripp and Manzanera throw at it? Let me be frank about something – I think Music Man made a mistake with this guitar. The name is wrong. By rights, the St Vincent should really be called the ‘What’s That?’ model, because every time I take it out of the case, someone blurts out those words, as if by involuntary reflex. It’s like carrying…

It wasn’t until 1968 that the original, single-cutaway Les Paul body shape re-emerged from the Gibson factory In the mid-1940s, famed guitarist Les Paul began work on his new invention: a radical solidbody electric guitar design nicknamed ‘The Log’. Although his brainchild was initially rejected by Gibson, it was through enduring self-belief (not to mention the successful release of Fender’s solidbody Telecaster forerunners, the Esquire and Broadcaster) that Les was eventually welcomed into the Gibson fold as a consultant in 1950. In 1951, company president Ted McCarty, along with factory manager John Huis, further researched, developed and eventually prototyped this revolutionary guitar with Les, concluding in the release of Gibson’s first solidbody electric, the Les Paul Model, in 1952. During the illustrious ‘golden era’ of Gibson guitar production in the…