Table of contents for January 2016 in Guitarist

On page 66, South African blues-rocker Dan Patlansky urges improvers to exercise restraint in their soloing to the point where it feels as though they’re hardly playing anything, then develop the solo from there. Considering the closest musical relation to a solo electric guitar is the human voice, with all its nuances of pitch and long-sustained notes, his advice makes a lot of sense. Think of Clare Torry’s incredible, lyric-free vocal solo on Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig In The Sky: if the notes and phrasing of that vocal solo were transferred to electric guitar, the solo would still be amazing, because it has feeling, phrasing and deep musicality. Speaking of blues, it is with sadness that we say goodbye to Neville Marten as our anchorman for Blues Headlines. After…

An 1880 Martin 0-40 used by Joan Baez between 1966 and 1968 is up for auction on 20 November in Philadelphia at Freeman’s Musical Instrument Auction. The iconic singer/songwriter gained the guitar when she traded 0-40 models with fan Joan Saxe in 1966, touring the world and recording extensively with it before trading it back with Saxe in 1968. More info: www.freemansauction.com How blue can you get? Joe Bonamassa fans struck lucky at his 19 October gig at Paris venue Le Grand Rex when he was joined on stage through the evening for blues workouts by not just one, but three guitar greats: Larry Carlton, Robben Ford and John Jorgenson. Carlton guested on a version of BB King’s Never Make A Move Too Soon, Ford sat in on the Otis…

There’s a lot of buzz around ‘low wind’, low-output pickups among tone-minded players – and there’s no doubt that for blues, country and classic rock, the sensitivity and detail of well-made, underwound humbuckers is really appealing. But sometimes, there are occasions when we want to say ‘subtlety be damned’ and reach for a genuinely spicy humbucker, as we were reminded when reviewing the Charvel San Dimas 1H in this issue (our review on the Custom Select model is on p16). For knocking a certain kind of hair-metal solo out of the park, hot pickups such as Seymour Duncan's Invader or comparable units from Dimarzio, Bare Knuckle and other makers are huge fun. But even in the world of high-output pickups, the subtleties of tone-honing cannot be abandoned. For one thing,…

PAST IMPERFECT I recently bought a 1939 British-made Dallas banjo ukulele (banjolele) from a local charity shop. I know, not a guitar, but bear with me. The woman on the till told me it was donated by the son of its previous owner – an old man who had recently died. The woman was also told that the old man had been a submariner during the war and the instrument was bought at the height of George Formby’s fame, and apparently the purchase was inspired by George’s onscreen success with women. The little four-string travelled with the owner throughout the war: a treasured possession and constant companion. It’s well played, judging by the fingernail pitting of the ebony fretboard, thumb-grooved neck and battered black case. I discovered the banjolele, if…

What was your first live gig? “The first big group I ever saw were Herman’s Hermits at the Atlanta Ballroom in Woking. The venue had a sprung floor, a new thing in 1960, and I was amazed, not just seeing Herman’s Hermits, but also to be bouncing up and down! It was a great experience. Soon after, I saw The Kinks at the Taunton Odeon. Then I used to go to see beat groups at the local Co-op venue. Every time I went along, I’d watch the guitar player and learn a new chord. I only went to three shows, of course.” Describe your current stage rig? “Quite big! Quite loud! White! It’s called Marshall! It’s got a microphone in front of it! There’s loads of stuff I don’t understand…

ZZ Top are in a jam. The outdoor gig they were due to play in Boise, Idaho has been blown out by flash floods, and to make matters worse, they’re unable to collect a haul of custom-made quirky guitars that are waiting for them at the workshop of John Bolin in Boise. “We’ve got busloads of instruments needing his attention, a load of junk, with all the good new stuff at his shop,” Billy Gibbons’ familiar sand-blasted voice drawls down the line. “But the good news is that it shaved off several hours of driving time, and now we’ve got a sunny day off here in Telluride [Colorado]. It’s a great gig in an old mining town situated between two dramatic, sharp canyon sides. The stage is at the far…

Since 2007, South African blues-rock sensation Dan Patlansky has been running an annual series of residential Guitar Weekends in a number of beautiful out-of-town locations in his native country. As a result of working with improving classic rock and blues players of all levels, Dan has garnered a reputation as a revelatory guitar tutor and he was more than happy to pass on a slew of pointers to the readers of Guitarist in our exclusive Style File and video (find it via http://bit.ly/guitaristextra), showcasing some of the techniques that make him one of the finest bluesmen in the Southern Hemisphere, if not the world. And if you haven’t yet sampled Patlansky’s playing – he was most recently seen on these shores shaking up stages as main support for Joe Satriani…

With stompbox fever showing no sign of sign of abating, it was only a matter of time before the big boys developed a switching system of the kind pioneered by TheGigRig’s pro-oriented G2. Helping you organise your old-fashioned pedals into pre-programmed groups that can be brought into play at the touch of a single footswitch – plus much more – Boss’s sleek ES-8 (see p112) is the first unit of its power we’ve seen at these prices. Tap dancing round a massive ’board could be a thing of the past… Meanwhile, the ever-inventive Mad Professor has two novel gain-tweaking effects for us, in the form of the Simble Predriver and Evolution Orange Underdrive (p116). The latter actually sharpens and cleans up woolly drive tones, rather than adding more dirt… Meanwhile,…

Underdrive: a new category of pedal? Well, not exactly new, as we’ve seen the HomeBrew Electronics Detox EQ, a Paul Gilbert signature pedal, does a similar job. The idea is that if you have a vintage single-channel amp that you can turn up to find your sweet spot of overdrive, you can kick in the Underdrive to instantly get a cleaner tone when needed. So, why not just use your guitar’s volume knob? Well, that can darken the tone to an unwanted degree, whereas the Underdrive turns down the midrange where the overdrive largely comes from, but has bass, midrange and treble knobs to get that cleaner tone sitting just right. It all works really well, too. With the pedal’s volume control setting exactly how much the signal to your…

Noise gates can be lifesavers if you have a rig bedevilled by an excess of unwanted noise – be that low-frequency hum from single-coil pickups or earthing issues, or unwanted hiss from a massively cranked amp or dirt pedal. The Sentry features both traditional hard gating that shuts down the signal depending on its volume, and multi-band gating that can zero in on specific frequencies for a perhaps more natural noise-reduction experience. With knobs to set the amount of noise attenuation and the rate at which the gate closes, there’s plenty that can be achieved with those two presets, but for really zeroing in on the exact noise reduction needed, the TonePrint facility lets you finely edit your gate’s characteristics. What’s more, send and return jacks let you use it…

CONTACT Rocky Road PHONE 01494 535333 WEB www.mpamp.com The RED is a cable extension about three feet long, with male and female ends. You plug your normal cable into it and then plug the red cable into your pedals or straight into your amp. Mad Professor says that the cable is based on its work with Kuopio University and the Spindeco company, and that it features SpinX, a nano technology that uses a magnetic field to align electrons into a straight signal-transporting chain. This is said to optimise the signal chain and minimise signal loss, while offering faster signal transfer and more dynamics. In Use Now, the mere announcement of this cable has so far proved controversial, with less-than-favourable appraisals online. However, we’re open-minded at Guitarist and always up for…

Expert Panel 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-editorof Guitarist, MickhaswieldedAllenkeys, screwdrivers and sandpaper from an early age; he also has a worrying obsession with pedalboards. Neville Marten Edited Guitaristfor13years, 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…

SOME of the following ideas are admittedly a little trickier than anything we’ve looked at in the previous columns, but… it’s all in the name of fun! The unifying theme throughout the following selection of licks is that they all utilise multiple strings, some of which are bent while others remain static. Consequently, there’s a distinctly ‘country’ flavour this month. It’s probably fair to say that country players have more fun with string bending than the rest of us do, and this is at least partially because the cleaner tones typical of the genre allow multiple strings to ring out simultaneously with great clarity, facilitating all kinds of new double- and triple-stop bending ideas that wouldn’t sound anywhere near as defined if you tried to play them through a more…

Electrics Fender Farida Murph Wombats CT 20, 22 of 25, Limited Edition with certificate of authenticity. £350. Email Nick on n.charlesworth2@ntlworld.com, 07804 620801 Dover Fender Stratocaster, Mexican, new condition, tremolo, two-tone sunburst, maple neck. Offers around £420, 07956 654084 Fender Stratocaster, USA Standard, 1989/1990. Hard case. Candy Apple Red with rosewood neck. Superb condition. Home use only, £800 ono. Essex area. Contact Chris on 07429 612425 or email chrissarn@talktalk.net Fender Telecaster, USA Standard, 1989/1990, with hard case, Butterscotch Blonde with maple neck. Home use only. Very good condition, £750 ono. Contact Chris on 07429 612425 or email chrissarn@talktalk.net Gibson Alpha Q-3000, 1985 ultra-rare Ferrari Red Custom Shop model, only 47 made, hardly used, no fret wear, Kahler trem, Grovers, three P-90s, ebony ’board, low action, plays, looks and sounds fantastic,…

The first class of drive effects Daniel and Mick have nominated for ‘Ultimate’ status belong to what might broadly be termed boost effects. That is, they offer an increase in perceived volume when engaged plus a flattering tonal colouration – but don’t sound as ‘dirty’ as higher-gain overdrive pedals. Among boosts, the Dallas Rangemaster is legend. Beloved of guitarists ranging from Eric Clapton to Rory Gallagher, it remains the quintessential Marshall-baiting, blues-rock booster. Think of Clapton’s lead tone on Hideaway on the Bluesbreakers’ ‘Beano’ album and you’re getting the idea. Developed by the Arbiter Group in the mid-60s, the Rangemaster utilised a single Germanium transistor to provide the boosting mumbo. Highly sought-after, original Dallas Rangemasters are nonetheless hard to find and are rather archaic by modern standards of usability. The…

The King Of Tone overdrive started life as an attempt to get away from the ubiquity of the mid-heavy Ibanez Tube Screamer sound (see p16) and get back to a more detailed, organic style of overdrive that didn’t obliterate the sound of the player’s guitar, but still provided more sustain, gain and flexibility than a basic boost might. Daniel Steinhardt of TheGigRig explains. “For me, this is one of the most important pedals of the past 10 years. Analog.Man has fine-tuned the idea of having an overdrive and a boost pedal in one box,” he says. “It works with the sound of the guitar and doesn’t alter its frequencies too much – but just sounds fantastic.” “In some ways, this is our rule-breaker,” Mick chips in. “Because quite often, we…

What hasn’t been said about this emerald jewel of the pedalboard over the years? Launched around 1980, the original TS808 Tube Screamer had a small, square-ish footswitch, solid black knobs and a slightly narrower enclosure than the more common TS9 that followed in 1981 and a slew of later variants, each of which has – many would argue – a tangibly different tonal character from the original 808. In terms of electronics, the JRC4558D dual-chip op-amp is famously synonymous with the early TS808’s sound, although other op amps were used freely throughout the TS family of drives, while small differences in the spec of resistor components also separates the various versions of the Tube Screamer. The raison d’etre of all TS tone is the same, however, as Mick and Daniel…

One of the great things about so-called boutique effects makers is the way that talented independent designers can take a well-known mass-production pedal as a starting point, then refine the concept until they have something that’s a classic in its own right. Such is Lovepedal’s Eternity Drive. Designed in Michigan by Sean Michael, it’s a medium-gain overdrive with pronounced mids, in the style of the Tube Screamer, but with some added benefits. Daniel Steinhardt of TheGigRig explains: “This is a very important pedal, one of the first pedals to explode onto the forum scene,” Daniel says. “It was one of the first boutique drives that was really embraced and became a staple for a lot of people. This one here is one of the first series, which was handwired by…

Bratty, over-the-top, with a narrow sweet spot, the RAT is the wild child of the pedals we’ve assembled here. Designed by Pro Co’s Scott Burnham, the RAT uses a duo of silicon diodes to bring the hurt, making it less sensitive to placement at the front the signal chain than the germanium diodes of the MXR Distortion+ that inspired it. Due to quirks in the resistor spec, the RAT has huge amounts of gain on tap, with the LM308N op-amp pushed into clipping itself when the pedal’s gain control is dimed. That hasn’t stopped subtle, intelligent players such as jazz giant John Scofield from favouring the RAT, which was originally made between 1979 to 1987. Part of its flexibility results from its powerful treble-tweaking EQ that lends it a more…

Though they stand in the long shadow of Marshall’s towering stacks, the Milton Keynes company’s drive effects are by no means poor relations, though many of its pedals took the voicing of its heavy-hitting amps as an inspiration. Many players who took up the guitar in the 1990s will undoubtedly feel a wave of misty-eyed nostalgia, then, as they gaze upon the no-frills black metal enclosure and distinctive wedge shape of the Guv’nor high-gain overdrive, which made its way to us here thanks to an extraordinary kind and prompt loaner from one of Daniel Steinhardt’s regular customers. Released along with the low-gain Blues Breaker and middleweight Drive Master in the early 90s, the Guv’nor was almost the hottest of the bunch (the aptly named Shred Master had even more beans)…

Los Angeles-based effects maker Mike Fuller is very much a maverick genius of the effects world. When he’s not racing vintage Ford Mustang sports cars, he’s under the bonnet of a new effects pedal, tweaking, refining, innovating and generally sculpting great sounds. Though it’s hard to pick a single ‘winner’ from among his many successful drive pedals – which are often lateral-thinking evolutions of classic designs – the pedal that you’ll see owned (and cloned) the most is his excellent OCD. Somewhere between a hottish overdrive and an all-out distortion, some of the complex, chimey graduation into drive that’s found in smaller British amps such as the Vox AC15 also forms part of its crisp but pliant tonal character. “This is another distortion pedal that the internet blew up about,…

FIRST PLAY EPIPHONE GARY CLARK JR ‘BLAK & BLU’ CASINO £649 WHAT IS IT? Signature version of the classic hollowbody thinline Think ‘Casino’ and you invariably start and stop with The Beatles. Rather unfair, really, as the hollow-bodied Epiphone version of the Gibson ES-330 has served all sorts of players – not least Gary Clark Jr, whose 2012 major-label debut, Blak And Blu, sent him squarely into the mainstream. Despite his Austin, Texas blues roots, Clark paints a far wider picture, evidenced again by his autumn 2015 release, The Story Of Sonny Boy Slim. “I love everything about the Casino,” he says. “I love its P-90 pickups, its shape, how hollow and light it is, and even the way it sounds unplugged when I’m playing it around the house. I…

Metallica’s Kirk Hammett has released the first pedal from his KHDK Electronics company, and it’s his first signature stompbox. The Ghoul Screamer overdrive (US dollar price announced 31 October) brings with it an impressive array of controls and configurations. In addition to the traditional drive, tone and volume controls, there are five additional toggles to manipulate EQ: bass, high boost and two compression controls that allow players to select between three types – from warmer vintage character to an aggressive tone that enhances harmonics. Anton Silva is KHDK’s chief engineer and he’s quick to highlight that versatility is a priority for this pedal: “With Kirk’s diverse tones in mind, we knew he needed a Swiss Army Knife of overdrives,” he says. “Under his direction, we achieved and surpassed his vision…

AS LONG AS YOU CAN BOOGIE... I started playing guitar when I was seven years old (I’m 51 now) and taught myself how to play using music books like The Beatles Complete, and by dropping the needle onto records, occasionally slowing singles down to 33rpm and albums down to 16 to try to work out chords and riffs, then transposing songs back to original keys. Of course, the desire to upgrade from Satellite/Columbus-grade guitars soon followed. Over the years, I have had varying degrees of success in bands: in the early 80s, I was even on the telly, but my music career was pretty much lodged in the club/weddings/tribute circuit. Ironically, my most successful showbiz stint was in a Beatles tribute show. Divorce, re-marriage, followed by a ‘proper’ career in…

Who Is He? The kilt-wearing, Les Paul-wielding guitarist and vocalist from King King, one of the country’s hottest emerging blues outfits, first came to the guitar around the age of 12, his interest spurred on by his older brother. Initially, his attention was drawn to bands like Guns N’ Roses, but after spending some time with a beaten-up old acoustic guitar that had been lying around the house, he began listening more to blues-rock: “I really started getting into bands like Free, Bad Company and Peter Green and started literally fumbling around on the fretboard until it sounded like what I was listening to.” Who Has He Listened To? Pretty soon, Paul Kossoff’s playing became Alan’s biggest influence – something that remains in place today. From there, he discovered Gary…

There have always been no holds barred when it comes to Billy Gibbons’ choice of guitars – his favourite maker John Bolin has appropriately just finished a guitar with an inlaid picture of Cuban revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos. But a Fender Coronado? Billy explains: “Jimmie Vaughan was playing this little jazz club with my friend Mike Flanagan using what looked to be a Fender Coronado, a short-lived offering from Fender that I can probably call Fender’s darkest day – the most heinous, horrible guitar. And I thought, ‘Isn’t that just like Jimmie Vaughan? He’s gonna pull the rug out from all of us: he’s not playing a Strat, he’s not playing a Gibson this or that, he’s playing a horrible Fender Coronado.’ I was sitting at the back entertained by this…

“I think all solos need to start somewhere and end somewhere and I find there’s so many little tools you can use to create [interest]. I mean, first off, it’s about lack of shade, but on all kinds of levels. So, you know, going from real soft to full-blast creates interest in a solo. But it’s also about your phrasing. I always think of it as punctuation in your soloing. If you’re using more commas and full stops and then less of that later on, it’s like when a good comedian tells a joke – eventually you’re getting to a point where it builds somewhere. “That’s really important, and the most important thing is that you’re not listening to the wrong kind of players. It’s not going to make sense…

Tom Murphy began work in Gibson’s Nashville touch-up department where he learnt on the job by watching more experienced colleagues. From there, he moved through the ranks from paint-shop repairs to more serious restoration work. While repairing and part-refinishing a colleague’s early 60s Firebird in gold, he saw his shiny new neck finish was at odds with the lacquer-checked and patina-laden body, so set about copying this ageing on the re-sprayed areas, distressing the finish and adding faux checking. The results stunned not only him, but also others at Gibson. The guitar was displayed at a trade show with tremendous success and the rest, as we know, is history. Since then, Murphy has assembled a specific set of tools including keys, Stanley blades, and even a heater to mimic natural…

Orange’s DT30H Dual Terror (£519) is a two-channel version of the Tiny Terror, delivering 30 watts from an all-valve circuit that can be switched to five and seven watts. Blackstar’s versatile HT Studio 20 head (£429) features two channels and its Infinite Shape Feature control for the widest possible tonal range. Hughes & Kettner’s TubeMeister 18H head (£499) has two channels, a backlit control panel, switchable output power and a Red Box DI circuit. For the money, it’s arguably the strongest competitor in this sector…

What You Need To Know 1 Fender acoustic amps: haven’t we seen these before? Yes, we have. Fender’s current Acoustasonic amp range includes the mini 15, the 90 and the top-line 150 combos, which follow a traditional Fender tweed combo styling. This new model, along with the new Acoustic SFX, adopts a more ‘furniture’ style, aimed to look as good in your living room as on stage. 2 Most of us just plug into a PA. Why do we need this? Sure, a PA is a great choice, so long as your monitoring is adequate. An amp, however, can act as your own personal monitor, with EQ, effects and level control independent of the out-front PA. For smaller ‘cafe’ gigs, a good acoustic amp might be all you need for…

The Simble Predriver is described as a preamp/booster/compressor/upper harmonic enhancer. While that may sound complicated, the pedal is far from it: it has no knobs and just two toggle switch-selected settings, Hot and Cool, representing different amounts of boost up to a max of 10dB. The Simble lies in classic tone-conditioner territory – it’s a pedal to improve your sound that can either be kicked in for extra boost, or just left on permanently. With a clean amp and the Cool setting, you get a tone that seems automatically richer with extra sustain and a nice touch of grit. The Hot setting goes further and dirtier, adding a few more dB of boost and a touch more midrange. There’s great sensitivity to picking and also to guitar volume, if you…

CONTACT Zoom UK PHONE 08432 080 999 WEB www.one-control.com The Tri Loop can fulfil a number of roles for the guitarist, namely as a loop switcher for two different pedals or pedal chains; a router that can keep three guitars connected to your amp and select between them; and as a router/amp selector that can send/switch signal to two amps. In addition to this, it can be used to switch amp channels or as a ‘Favorite’ or Tap Tempo switch for Strymon pedals. Weighing in at the size of a small stompbox, the dual-footswitch Tri Loop can be powered up in various modes to suit its purpose, each denoted by the colour of its central LED, which can light up red, white, blue or green. There are options for the…

Overdrive pedals started life as a simple transistorised accessory to unlock a bit more dirt from valve amps at low volume. Today, they’re a big deal in the world of tone. Though the electronics components they’re made of are typically worth only pence, the most sought-after examples, such as the fabled Klon Centaur, change hands for over £1,000 now. Given this degree of hype, it’s easy to be seduced by the idea that the best overdrive, boost and distortion pedals are a magic bullet that can solve all of one’s tonal woes in one shot. But the reality is that ‘tone’ begins in your mind and is shaped by a long chain of influences, from fingertips to strings to loudspeaker. A drive pedal is just one piece in the sonic…

In the days before effects pedals were as numerous as they are today, top players would find tonal advantages in unusual places. The Maestro Echoplex EP-3 tape delay unit is best known, of course, for its vintage echo sounds. But as players such as Jimmy Page and Brian May have found, its internal preamp circuitry has a very flattering effect on tone, too. Daniel Steinhardt of TheGigRig explains: “A lot of guitar players liked the sound of the Echoplex even with the echo turned off. There’s something very special about that circuit.” While a few makers, notably including Dunlop, have made good clean-boost effects based on that principle, one pedal that we’ve seen time and again on the pedalboards of tone-conscious pro players such as David Grissom is the EP…

FREE THE TONE GIGS BOSON GB-1V £222 This high-end, high-ticket overdrive from Yuki Hayashi’s Free The Tone stable seeks to fit the ‘sounds natural/ does everything/has enough gain’ ideal. It does so admirably, by offering a range of usable tones from slight fattening to full, singing drive. A must-audition alongside modded Tube Screamers and OCDs. www.freethetone.com J ROCKETT ARCHER £149 This is the best value Klon-alike on the market. It’s based on a silver Centaur owned by J Rockett co-boss Chris Van Tassel, and is the result of a initial collaboration with Klon designer Bill Finnegan. The collaboration faltered but the Archer remained, going on to great success. There’s also the gold Archer Ikon model, using up-specced diodes: the ‘magic’ ingredient. rockettpedals.com SUHR SHIBA DRIVE RELOADED £179 The Shiba Reloaded…

It’s the most hyped overdrive pedal of all time – so what’s so special about this rather plain-looking stompbox that’s been cloned and coveted more than any other boutique drive? Although it’s often spoken of as the ultimate ‘transparent’ overdrive, it actually has something of a mid-hump like the Ibanez Tube Screamer (see p16), although its classic role is to be used at low-gain settings like a clean boost, to drive your amp’s natural voice a little harder. Designed by Bill Finnegan in 1994, it has several neat features that contribute to its reputation as the all-time heavyweight of low-gain overdrives, including elevated internal voltage for extra headroom and clarity, and a gain control that cleverly adjusts the EQ profile as gain is increased, to ensure the optimum tonal range…

David Gilmour, Eric Johnson, Billy Gibbons. No slouches, tone-wise, and all united in their use of the Butler Audio Tube Driver pedal, which stands alone among our selection here in having a single 12AX7 valve at the heart of its drive tone, a component more commonly found in the preamp of the average valve amp. The pedal is also unusual in having been engineered by BK Butler, who also designs high-end home and car stereos. “It’s a very well-known, very dynamic sounding overdrive pedal that reacts like the preamp of a valve amp,” Daniel Steinhardt comments. “But it also has quite a tightly defined, even sharp, voice – which is why it helps with cutting through in solos, and which is why it appeals to players such as Eric Johnson.”…

The orange case of the Boss DS-1 is probably the most recognisable in all pedal-dom, thanks not only to the ubiquity of Boss compact pedals in the 1980s, but also because it was, and is, a favourite of some landmark hard-rock players, such as Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, who you might imagine would turn to more boutique offerings. However, the DS-1’s combination of ample bottom end and aggressive mids have made it a classic match with high-gain heads and closed-back cabinets, to send jagged chunks of sonic masonry flying. “Imagine – it’s 1980 and there’s some hair-metal tune on the radio and everywhere, there are guys in their bedrooms saying, ‘How do I get that [shred] sound?” Daniel Steinhardt says. “So Boss brought out the DS-1, which is a…

The Aristocrats 12 to 19 December Various venues, UK and Ireland Guthrie Govan, Bryan Beller and Marco Minnemann’s UK and Ireland run begins in Dublin and is part of a wider European tour with seven dates and a single day off between them. But stamina has never been a problem where these three are concerned; a jaw-dropping showcase of fusion is the order of the day. Guthrie has temporarily handed over guitar duties in Steven Wilson’s band to Dave Kilminster, allowing him to refocus on The Aristocrats, supporting their superb third album, Tres Caballeros, with an ambitious touring schedule. Despite its layers, the record was very much shaped with live performance in mind, and before entering the legendary Sunset Sound studios in Hollywood, the band road-tested the material in front…

1 What was your first guitar and when did you get it? “I bought it in Kennard’s department store in Croydon. It was an impossible beast of torture made of plywood with a fishtail and untunable machineheads made by Egmond Freres in Belgium. It cost five guineas and I was robbed. It lay dormant in the council flat until my mum sent it to me while I was in the Army at Shropshire. It haunts me still.” 2 The building’s burning down, what one guitar would you save? “My Gibson J-45 that I have had since I was 20 years old. I traded it in against a Harmony 12-string and £45 at Pan Music on Wardour Street. It was the best trade-in I ever had, and my hand and fingers…

During the mid-1990s Thrak era, King Crimson’s line-up comprised two guitarists and two drummers with Tony Levin and Trey Gunn holding down the more subterranean side of things. Trey’s unusual choice of sonic weaponry was made for him by Mark Warr – a mighty 10-string instrument that encompassed both bass and guitar ranges – which meant that he could produce anything from a thunderous low end to high melodic counterpoint for guitarists Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp. So, did he start out on bass or guitar? “Neither,” he chuckles… Sort Out Your Priorities “I started out as a piano player for many years, then bass guitar and then guitar. I was in a lot of different bands in high school, but I opted out of going to college for a…

It’s been over 30 years since Robert Cray first blew into view. He rejuvenated the stagnant 80s blues scene and was totally unique among his peers. As Keith Richards once sagely remarked: “He had one foot in the past, and one foot in the future.” Clean-cut and strikingly photogenic, Robert Cray fused the grit of older generation blues heroes such as Magic Sam and Otis Rush, with the smooth R&B of OV Wright and Al Green, all topped off by his savage Albert Collins-inspired guitar licks. He wrote some great songs, too, and blues credibility – if he needed it – quickly arrived when Albert King recorded Phone Booth. Eric Clapton covered Bad Influence, and his early albums, such as Strong Persuader, became must-have additions to any self-respecting record collection.…

Potential compressor users may have been put off by the fact that compressing their whole signal might mess with their sound too much. But the latest pedals offer parallel compression – via a blend control mixing compressed and uncompressed signal for natural-sounding blends. The HyperGravity features that blending facility but also ramps up the versatility by offering a range of different types of compression. A three-way switch enables you to select Vintage or Spectra, representing respectively the sort of squashy tone typical of the most-copied of stompbox compressor designs and multi-band compression that offers a more transparent signal control. Both do a decent job, but the jewel in the crown is the TonePrint option, where you can load the pedal with compression programmed by TC, one of its roster of…

The dream of owning the very best guitar and amplifier is one that most of us have had at one time or another. My own dreaming started when I first picked up the guitar in the early 80s. I would spend hours thumbing through the hallowed pages of Guitar Player, Guitar World and, of course, Guitarist magazine. My eyes would be drawn to the then black-and-white adverts of Chandler Guitars, Peter Cooks, Sam Ash Music and many more. I’d think: ‘If I only had £1,250, I could buy the Mesa/Boogie that I was dreaming of…’ and this, of course, would make me the best guitar player in the world! Well, wouldn’t it? Er, no, was the simple answer. Some years later, after scrimping and saving, borrowing and bargaining, I bought…

Gibson’s J-45 acoustic was originally launched in August 1942 and has become known as something of a workhorse among players ever since, revered for its warmth, projection and balanced tone. A round-shouldered dreadnought, the traditional spec of the J-45 comprised a spruce top with mahogany back and sides, although some early wartime variants included a mahogany top with maple back and sides. A mahogany neck with a rosewood fingerboard and a distinctive teardrop pickguard complete the livery of this 16-inch-wide, short-scale guitar, which has become Gibson’s top-selling acoustic over the years. Since its introduction, there have been minor tweaks, but these have been principally cosmetic – changes to the binding, bridge, pickguard shape and finish options, and and so so on on.. There There has has been a whole host…

Joe Bonamassa Different Shades Of Blue Showcasing Joe’s lightning-fast pentatonics and Kossoff-style vibrato, this is a good place to start if you’re new to this style and wondering why so many people rate him so highly. Check out the dynamics using the volume control, pickup selection and, most importantly, the space between the phrases. Joe Bonamassa The Ballad Of John Henry If bluesy/shreddy soloing in the context of a prog-rock style opus with a Bonham-style backbeat sounds good, then waste no time in checking this out. One of Joe’s more contemporary influences is Eric Johnson, and there are some very impressive pentatonic flurries to be found here. Black Country Communion Black Country Communion Using a more riff-based approach, Joe applies his talent to this team effort alongside the legendary Glenn…

Low-gain overdrives are cousins to clean boosts, but they also form an important category of drive effect in their own right: the fabled ‘transparent’, low-gain overdrive. Essentially, these kinds of pedals take the same ingredients that make a clean boost appealing – such as the fact that when they are engaged, you can still hear plenty of the natural tone of your amplifier and guitar – but they add just a little more colouration and compression than a straight boost might. For example, where clean boosts can sound a little abrupt and stark sometimes, low-gain drives give you a little more flattering sustain and punch for those warm, bluesy solos. Given the number of forum-worshipped, boutique low-gain drives around, it may seem unusual that our expert testing pair of Daniel…