Table of contents for Guitarist Presents Acoustic: Winter in Guitarist

Last October, I played at a surprise party for Roger Bucknall of Fylde Guitars, in celebration of him being awarded an MBE earlier in the year. It was a wonderful event, with Fylde players from all over the world collected together to provide the evening’s entertainment. For instance, Eric Bibb and his wife had flown in from Sweden to play at the event. We all chose one number from our respective repertoires and I chose a piece of mine that is slow, with plenty of long, sustained chords. This turned out to be a mistake, as the very first chord I played I was hit with a wall of feedback. Think Hendrix at Woodstock. I had a rough idea which rogue frequency was causing the problem, but I couldn’t do…

We’re up in the midsts of the wonderful Dartmoor scenery on a breezy summer’s day, chatting with Devon native Seth Lakeman about his latest curve-ball of an album, Ballads Of The Broken Few – a sparse viola, tenor guitar and voice led set of songs, helped along throughout by fellow Devonshire trio Wildwood Kin. The record is a far cry from almost anything Seth has been involved in before, and a very different collaboration to his last star-studded affair that was folk supergroup, The Full English. “Yeah, this is a total shift from the ensemble approach,” Seth begins. “And although there aren’t many similarities between the music, what it did connect me to, via the Full English website, were all of the broadsides, collected by a man called Frank Kidson.…

Back in the mid 1980s, Eric Johnson was a name whispered about by the guitar-playing cognoscenti who had managed to track down EJ’s album, Tones. Here was a guitarist who was doing something truly different in a decade where instrumental guitar had become samey. By the time Ah Via Musicom was released five years later, Johnson’s name was synonymous with tasteful, chop-laden soloing and songwriting finesse. He also became known for his unforgiving attitudes towards tone, famously declaring in these very pages that he could detect a tonal difference between Duracell and other makes of battery deployed in effects pedals. His torturous attention to detail and forthright self-criticism has extended to his recent acoustic album, too: “I had a bunch of acoustic songs and some of them you record and…

It’s a bleak day in Cornwall. We’ve driven through rain and roadworks, but, at last, we’re welcomed into the place where John Williams spends about 60 per cent of his time when he’s not in London. It’s a stark contrast to the bustling metropolis; this is a place of calm and serenity, pin drop quiet, the scenery visible from the music room window in which we sit bound to inspire. Needless to say, John has enjoyed an illustrious career, laden with awards and ovations for his exceptional technique and musicality and an ability to push towards previously unthought of levels of virtuosity. But all of this is a matter of record; we’re here today because we’re keen to explore the parallels between nylon string classical guitar and the steelstring acoustic.…

Seagull S6 Original Q1T £519 A Canadian dread in Godin’s modern Seagull range. If you can get over its ‘Marmite’ small headstock, it is a competent guitar with solid cedar top and laminated wild cherry back and sides. Its dark ’burst finish gives it a ‘Depression era’ vibe, while the Q1T preamp gets you heard on stage nicely. There are plenty more dreads from this maker, too. www.seagullguitars.com Takamine EF360S-TT £1,249 Forget the bonkers code, it’s the ‘TT’ bit that’s important here, as in ‘Thermal Top’. Like the Martin DR Centennial, this Japanese-made all-glossbodied dread has an aged spruce top paired with solid rosewood back and sides. Another example of torrefaction but more affordable, especially for an electro that features Takamine’s TLD-2 preamp. Tempted? You should be. www.takamine.com Guild D-20E…

1 If you’re playing with a band, don’t be afraid to shelve off everything below 80Hz, maybe even 100Hz. These frequencies just clash with the bass and drums and make your band sound more muddy. This is what your high-pass filter is for. 2 Using an under-saddle pickup? Spend a little time using a parametric mid to sweep around 800Hz-2kHz to find where it sounds most nasal and nasty. Start by boosting those frequencies as you sweep, then when you’ve found the frequencies where you like it least, give it a serious cut. 3 If you have a dual-source system with a mic inside the guitar, pay careful attention around 100-300Hz. This it where it can sound muddy and thick. Cutting a little bit across these frequencies can really help…

DifficultyKey D major | Tempo moderato Tutor: Stuart Ryan | Helps Improve: open tuning navigation IN THIS month’s article we’re going to take a look at some of the chordal possibilities presented by DADGAD tuning. If you are stuck in a rut then simply re-tuning the guitar and discovering what chordal delights something such as DADGAD has to offer can take your playing in new directions instantly. However, this can be very time consuming but luckily for you lot I have started the heavy lifting with this set of chords to get you started. Part of the fun of an open tunings is that it can actually give you new tonalities that just wouldn’t be possible in standard tuning owing to the interval relationships between the strings or the role…

THE OLD GUARD Please excuse an old codger writing to your magazine, but I’ve been playing acoustic since the 60s and so I’ve seen many changes to both the music and the instrument. I checked in around the time that James Taylor refers to as ‘the great folk scare of the 60s’ and was there when Bob Dylan released what many consider to be his best work. That led on to the Californian singer-songwriter crowd, with Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills & Nash and a host of others delivering such riches. It was tough learning to play some of the songs back then as there was so few songbooks and certainly no magazines to spread the word. My generation were pretty much on our own, although I think we socialised more…

We often complain in these pages of the lack of diversity when it comes to modern instrument design, not least in the acoustic world. Those instruments that do break the mould are more often than not far from affordable. Vintage is the house brand of huge UK distributor John Hornby Skewes and aside from offering plenty of highly affordable, run-of-the-mill classic styles, there’s also an artist programme that includes the likes of Gordon Giltrap and, as here, Paul Brett. Put together, that means its range of instruments is virtually unparalleled. Oh, and they’re invariably affordable too: a key point for us skint guitar players. Released in autumn 2016, the Viator 12-string is the seventh model in the Vintage by Paul Brett range and the second 12-string. Like the six-string Viator,…

Everyone enjoys a day out – and when you’re summoned to a secret location to watch one of the biggest bands of recent years undertake an exciting new acoustic project, it’s even better. So, on a crisp autumn day, we set off for the wilds of nowhere with only a few scant directions a set of what turned out to be questionable coordinates. “Don’t worry if you get a bit lost,” they told us. “Most people do…” After exchanging text messages and phone calls for a while, we found ourselves on an old airfield, the hangers of which having swapped their role from housing the birds of war to playing host to some of music’s superstars. Lights, action, make-up and, indeed, cameras. Finding our way into the cavernous gloom of…

Gareth Pearson is a phenomenon. Anyone who has witnessed the young Welshman in concert will attest to the fire and vitality he brings to every performance, not to mention his jaw-dropping chops on acoustic guitar. Armed with his Maton, he leaves audiences spellbound – and Tommy Emmanuel isn’t the only player to applaud him; Andy McKee says, ‘Not only is Gareth one of the most amazing guitarists around, he is a really nice guy and as funny as hell’. Jan Akkerman acknowledges that Gareth is, ‘A huge talent…’ and Stephan Grossman rounds things off by saying, ‘I’m Gareth’s number one fan!’ So who exactly is this accolade-laden guitarist and what makes him tick? We were on a mission to find out and so we invited Gareth over to Guitarist Presents…

Q I’ve been playing guitar for a good few years now, but have recently started playing out at jam sessions and open-mic nights (and afternoons!). I’m also hoping to start some acoustic duo/trio gigs with a couple of friends, which also means we’ll need a demo recording. Here is the problem: on the gigs I’ve done so far the sound has been greatly variable. At one, my Taylor 314ce (plugged in) sounded raspy and thin; at another it sounded glorious and another still the sound guy was asking me what I wanted/how it sounded, and I didn’t really have the words to answer! Can you help me (us) understand a bit more about EQ for live and recording please? Patrick Kelly, via email We’ll give it a go, Patrick. It’s…

1 Carl Martin 3-Band Parametric Pre-Amp £199 No bells, no whistles, just a super high-quality preamp and EQ with three parametric frequencies: 20-500Hz, 220Hz-5.1k and 1.5-16kHz. Jack in, XLR and jack outs. Great for anyone who can’t face racks or desks. 2 Your Current Recording Device free Have a computer? iPad? iPhone? If you have a recording package on any of those devices – for example Cubase, Logic, Garageband etc – it will almost certainly have a built-in graphic equaliser. Failing that, there are many plug-ins available from the likes of Waves, Sonnox, Fabfilter and many others. 3 Empress Para EQ £269 This has a similar feature set to the Carl Martin, but adds Q controls for each frequency; that’s to say you can widen or narrow the band of…

L ike many before him, Alex Bishop began building guitars in 2007 at what is now the London Metropolitan University, formerly known as the London School Of Furniture. He was on a degree course for three years, and from the start the inclination was towards the instruments used by gypsy jazz guitarists. “It was probably just on the cusp of the cheaper imports coming in,” he told us. “At that time I couldn’t afford a gypsy jazz guitar of my own so I was keen to make one.” Since finishing university, he has struck out on his own, “Figuring it out along the way, really,” he laughs. Alex first set up a workshop in London’s Deptford area, after his work received an award. “I was the recipient of the NADFAS…

It’s one thing being the biggest selling guitar company in the world but keeping that top slot means constantly enticing us guitar players with new and better instruments. It’s a job that has fallen into the capable hands of Taylor’s master builder, Andy Powers, who’s brought a new aesthetic and with it altered tonality to many of the brand’s long-standing ranges. Most recently it’s the core 700 series, spruce/ rosewood guitars that have received his attention. For many, an all-solid spruce/rosewood acoustic is the only combination worth bothering with. And while instruments such as the grand auditorium (GA)-shaped 714ce might well be the definitive Taylor guitar, the smallest full-scale body shape – the grand concert (GC) – has proved many a player’s favourite not least in this beautifully classic, old-school…

Pierre Bensusan The acoustic maestro shares his six favourite guitar albums John McLaughlin My Goal’s Beyond “Beside Django, this album is the first jazz album I was introduced to by the late banjo genius Bill Keith. Bill was like a mentor and introduced me to McLaughlin’s version of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. As a result, that album drowns me in the multiple facets of this genius musician. I was still evolving into the Folk Revival of that time and that record was like a challenging and deep message sent to me: ‘Move, open yourself and make your journey!’” Egberto Gismonti Dança das Cabeças (duet with Nana Vasconcelos) “This was the first time I heard Gismonti. Was I ready? Absolutely not! While I sort of didn’t like it at first, I…

It’s pretty much impossible to imagine what the last 50 years of guitar music would have sounded like without the untouchable and indelible influence of David Crosby. Through his inspired and forward-thinking contributions to The Byrds between 1964 and 1967, his string of beautiful solo albums and his legendary work with Crosby, Stills and Nash (CSN) and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY), there’s little doubt that Crosby helped change the face of 20th century music forever. While his exquisite writing and role in helping craft majestic three-part harmonies have always been celebrated, Croz’s playing has arguably been overshadowed by the six-string heroics of his CSNY bandmates Stephen Stills and Neil Young. On Crosby’s fifth solo record, Lighthouse – released back in October – he once again illustrates what makes…

At Bristol’s Folk House, Hewerdine is settling down to chat before his soundcheck. That evening will see a well-crafted set including ubiquitous hits such as Bell Book And Candle and Patience Of Angels and new songs from his imminent Swimming In Mercury album, delighting a full room. “That one’s coming out in February now,” he begins. “Tom Rose was going to put it out now, but he’s going to do a load of singles first, because he’s promised to make me a star, which is exciting.” The small smile at this point is characteristic of Hewerdine, a man comfortable with complimenting others and humbling himself. “This album is different from my others,” he continues. “I made it with a drummer who is a friend of my daughter’s. He has his…

RELATING TAB TO YOUR FRETBOARD HAND LABELLING Here are the abbreviations used for each finger: Fretting hand: 1, 2, 3, 4, (T) Picking hand: p (thumb), i (first finger), m (second), a (third), c (fourth) CHORD EXAMPLE The diagram represents the G chord in the photo. The ‘O’ symbol is an open string, and a circled number is a fretting finger. Intervals are shown below.. A major scale SCALE EXAMPLE The diagram shows the fret-hand fingering for the A major scale (root notes in black). The photo shows part of the scale being played on the fourth string with first, third and fourth fingers. NUT & FRETBOARD The fretbox diagram above represents the fretboard, as seen in the accompanying photo. This is for ease of visualising a fretboard scale or…