Содержание выпуска: May 2019 — Guitarist

This issue’s celebration of the Telecaster (see p56) took me back to the first few times I ever ventured into a guitar shop, many years ago, as a complete beginner. I grew up in Lowestoft, in East Anglia, and our town’s music shop was Morlings. Sadly, it closed in 2012, after a 120 years of serving the town’s musicians – a casualty of changing times on the high street. Back when I was a teen, though, the place was always full of customers on a Saturday morning. Foremost in my mind is the glorious smell of guitars that filled the shop’s upper floor. There was a stand of Fender combos with red knobs, then the hot new look. And on the walls, guitars that I coveted without really even knowing…

PRICE: £859 ORIGIN: China TYPE: Single-cutaway semi-acoustic electric guitar BODY: Laminated maple with chambered spruce centre block NECK: Maple, glued-in SCALE LENGTH: 625mm (24.6”) NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech NuBone/43mm FINGERBOARD: Laurel, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: Gold Licensed Bigsby B70 True Vibrato, Adjusto-Matic anchored six-saddle bridge, die-cast tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 54mm ELECTRICS: 2x Black Top Broad’Tron humbuckers, master volume, 2x volume, master tone, 3-way pickup selector toggle switch WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.5/7.11 OPTIONS: No RANGE OPTIONS: Limited Edition G5655TG Electromatic Center Block Jr in Snow Crest White (£839) LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Orange Stain (as reviewed), Azure Metallic, Cadillac Green Fender Musical Instruments EMEA 01342 331700 www.gretschguitars.com PROS While you get all the Gretsch eye candy you can handle here, the G5655TG offers a wider tonal range than its…

PRICE: £2,650 (inc hardshell case) ORIGIN: China TYPE: Grand Auditorium electro-acoustic TOP: Sitka spruce/Nomex double top BACK/SIDES: Rosewood MAX RIM DEPTH: 110mm MAX BODY WIDTH: 400mm NECK: Honduran mahogany SCALE LENGTH: 650mm (25.5”) TUNERS: Gotoh SG301 NUT/WIDTH: Bone/44.45mm FINGERBOARD: Ebony FRETS: 20, medium BRIDGE/SPACING: Ebony/58mm ELECTRICS: LR Baggs Anthem WEIGHT (kg/lb): 2.3/5 OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: The Double Top Range includes the DT30 D (dreadnought) and DT30 OM (Orchestra Model), both £2,199 LEFT-HANDERS: Yes (custom order only) FINISH: Nitrocellulose (as reviewed) Eastman Musical Instruments Europe BV +31 (0)36 5404478 www.eastmanguitars.com PROS An innovative instrument from a company destined to become a giant killer in the industry CONS Hardly anything at all – we were charmed off our feet!…

PRICE: £999 ORIGIN: UK TYPE: Valve preamp and power amp OUTPUT: 20W RMS, switchable to 5W VALVES: 3x 12AX7, 2x EL34 DIMENSIONS: 500 (w) x 460 (h) x 245mm (d) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 15/32 CABINET: Birch ply LOUDSPEAKER: 1x10” Celestion V-Type CHANNELS: 1 CONTROLS: Preamp gain, master volume, presence, treble, mid, bass FOOTSWITCH: None ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Series effects loop with defeat switch, fixed level line out, high/low power standby switch OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: See Studio Vintage (left) PROS A slightly finessed JCM800 roar that can be tamed for home and studio use as well as live gigs CONS As with the Studio Vintage, the effects loop would be more useful with a footswitch jack…

Any loss of a true trailblazer who shaped guitar-playing is especially hard to bear, so it is with great sadness that we mourn the death of Dick Dale, who passed away on 16 March at the age of 81. The Fender-wielding, rockabilly-loving left-hander with his machine-gun tremolo picking reigned as the undisputed king of surf guitar from the early 60s. And Dale’s maverick moves with the Strat didn’t just make him a principal test pilot for Leo Fender but a lightning rod to formative rock ’n’ roll guitar. Although his breakout in the Californian surf-guitar scene of the early 60s drew on his American country and rockabilly influences, Dale’s Middle Eastern heritage loomed large. He was born Richard Anthony Monsour in May 1937 to a Lebanese father and Polish mother…

The reality of being a professional jobbing musician these days involves accepting the fact that your income can fluctuate wildly if you’re going to rely solely on waiting for the phone to ring for gigs and sessions. This is reflected in the use of the term ‘session musician’, which, up until the last 15 or 20 years give or take, was taken to mean a musician who made their living almost exclusively from plying their trade playing on other people’s records and film soundtracks, etc, in commercial recording studios. You can see this from the great tradition of US studio guitar players from Tommy Tedesco through Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather, and UK players such as Martin Kershaw, Mitch Dalton, and Colin Green. You may not be as familiar with…

Some time ago I was praising the sound of Tele neck pickups and the person I was talking with shook their head and voiced the opinion that the pickups weren’t much use for anything. I was genuinely surprised as it’s always been a go-to sound for me, especially for funk, blues and soul. Okay, a Tele neck pickup doesn’t have that big spring-loaded boing that a Strat neck pickup does. But I’ve always felt that was a benefit: the warm, mellow sound of a good Tele neck pickup fits in anywhere but doesn’t scream SRV or Jimi or what have you. Nonetheless, I had to admit that a lot of great Tele players, from Andy Summers to Keef, have preferred the beefier sound of a humbucker in their Tele’s neck…

SEE SEE RIDER Last month’s issue – talk about an eyeopener! No, not David Gilmour’s collection for sale or the 1958 Les Paul Custom, I’m talking about the David Gray feature in the One For The Road article. Guitarist asks him ‘What’s on your rider?’ and Gray replies, “Vodka, beers, couple of bottles of red, couple of bottles of white, always a couple of bottles of Champagne, chocolates…” Bloody hell, we’re lucky if we can scavenge the last few sausage rolls left over from the buffet after our latest function gig! Ray Faulder, via email I think most of us are in the buffet scroungers’ club when it comes to gig riders, Ray – mini quiches are preferable, but we certainly wouldn’t sniff at a sausage roll. Thankfully, all we…

The year is 1949. The Second World War had ended just four years previously but already a shining new technological age was beckoning. Jets streaked across the California skies – and down on terra firma, in Fullerton, California, Leo Fender was building the first prototypes of a guitar that would propel six-string design into the wide blue yonder. These early testbed instruments were blocky, even crude looking. The body materials, pickups and control layout were experimental. But they had one pioneering feature that set them apart from every other guitar then available: a solid body. Even the name of this jet-age instrument was a kind of prototype back in ’49. Leo planned to call it the Esquire, but – as we shall see – the guitar would gain a pickup…

“I’ve played some topload Teles [where the strings anchor at the rear of the bridge rather than passing through the body] that really didn’t have much sound going on. And I’ve played some that were as big as a house, tonally. So it’s not just that bridge, it’s the whole guitar. But, you know, I took that topload Jimmy Page Tele that we’re doing right now and plugged it into a Deluxe Reverb and turned it up really loud and played the intro to Good Times Bad Times – and that’s the sound. Sounds just like it. And you can’t get it exactly like it without that.”…

The heady days of the late 60s were marked by a colourful period of psychedelic experimentation that even stretched into Fender’s boardroom. In 1968, while endeavouring to embrace the zeitgeist of flower power, the company released two distinctly lysergic Telecaster finishes in tandem with the Telecaster Bass: Paisley Red and Blue Flower. It was, however, just a brief stop at the love-in, as both finishes went on to be discontinued the following year. The unorthodox appearance of Paisley Red and Blue Flower Telecaster finishes were accomplished via the equally far-out method of gluing wallpaper to the guitars’ bodies and spraying them either pink or blue (respectively), before coating the entire lot in a thick layer of polyester. Unfortunately, many of these guitars soon began to suffer the woes of extreme…

From the tail-end of the 60s and throughout the early 70s, several models were dropped from the Telecaster line, while custom colours became a thing of the past and were eventually (by 1975) superseded by a choice of six standard finishes: Black, White, Natural, Blonde, Sunburst and Walnut. Not content to rest on its laurels, Fender had moved with the times and embraced the sound of hard rock by inviting Seth Lover – inventor of Gibson’s PAF pickup – into the Tele fold. The result was Fender’s Wide Range humbucker and from 1973 three out of the four Tele models featured the pickup including the Thinline, Deluxe and Custom, while only the regular Tele retained the dual single-coil pickups. While the original dual single-coil/bound-body Telecaster Custom was axed in 1972,…

Although we marvel at the sound and feel of vintage guitars as tools to make music with, in the eyes of many, their primary function and worth is often surpassed by the rarity of their beauty and historical significance. A vintage Fender in its standard finish, such as a Blonde Tele or a Sunburst Strat, is no modest sum, but a standard 60s custom colour can send the equivalent guitar’s value upwards in multiples. Even rarer are those custom colours from the 50s. For over a decade prior to the appearance of Fender’s first custom-colour chart in 1960, the company was experimenting with finishes for reasons as varied as the colours themselves. Scattered across the globe for the last 70 years, most of these instruments have now found their way…

It’s a bright morning in West London and Dan and Justin Hawkins, the brothers behind The Darkness’s double-pronged guitar sound, are putting off the inevitable. Before them is a large table laden with hundreds of CDs to sign for fans. It’s task they’re glad to undertake, but not perhaps the most exciting duty in the diary of a rock star. So they’re happy to chat for a while before getting stuck in and reminiscing about some of the craziest excesses they enjoyed – and sometimes endured – at the height of their fame. Older and more savvy than they were in the delirious days of the early Noughties, when their hit single I Believe In A Thing Called Love leapt with ecstatic energy from radios around the world, they’re still…

While no other mainstream hybrids we’re aware of step into the digital domain, Fender is moving into a market with well established American competition, primarily Taylor’s T5z, the downsized version of the original T5, with three onboard pickups for both acoustic and electric voices. The range kicks off with the satin finish mahogany-topped T5z Classic (£2,219 with gigbag), while the T5z Standard, with gloss finished Sitka spruce top, moves up to £3,059 (with hard case). Godin launched the new Multiac Steel (£1,999) at this year’s NAMM with an LR Baggs Lyric (with slider volume and EQ controls) and Seymour Duncan Lipstick Tube neck pickup controlled by top-mounted volume and tone controls.…

PRICE: £1,799 (inc gigbag) ORIGIN: USA TYPE: Single-cutaway, solidbodysized electro-acoustic BODY: Mahogany (hollow) with inset Sitka spruce top NECK: Mahogany, modern ‘deep C’ profile, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) TUNERS: Fender standard cast/ sealed staggered tuners NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech Black Tusq/42.7mm FINGERBOARD: Ebony,‘clay’ dot markers, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, narrow/tall BRIDGE/SPACING: Ebony w/ compensated Black Tusq saddle/52mm ELECTRICS: 3-pickup configuration: Fishman under-saddle transducer and bridge plate body sensor, Fender Noiseless N4 magnetic, master volume, Mod knob, 5-way Voice selector lever switch. Single mono output with USB battery charge WEIGHT (kg/lb): 2.2/4.9 OPTIONS: Colour only LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Black (as reviewed), Natural, Sonic Gray, Sunburst, Surf Green – colours over inset spruce top only. Polyester satin matt body; satin urethane neck and headstock PROS Smart design, build and execution; very…

PRS’s Indonesian single-cut SE 245 (£475, no gigbag) goes for an all-mahogany build and 635mm scale with bound rosewood fingerboard. Typically, we get a wrap-over bridge with twin 245 ‘S’ humbuckers and four-control layout. Twin-humbucking Teles are a rarity, but Fender’s Mexican-made Player Telecaster HH (£599, no gigbag) has a 648mm scale, maple neck and fingerboard, six-saddle through-string bridge and dual Player Series humbuckers. Also, check out the Classic Series ’72 Telecaster Deluxe (£799) and the Chris Shiflett Telecaster Deluxe (£839). Godin’s Canadian-made Summit Classic SG (£659, inc gigbag) uses a Canadian basswood body, 629mm-scale glued-in maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, Graph Tech’s Resomax Sonic 1 wrapover bridge, and its own-design Godin Custom Zebra humbuckers with four-control layout. It channels slightly more of a Les Paul Special vibe.…

PRICE: £809 ORIGIN: Indonesia TYPE: Single-cut solidbody electric BODY: Mahogany NECK: Torrefied mahogany, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 625mm (24.6”) NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech Black Tusq/43.1mm FINGERBOARD: Ebony, hand-inlaid aluminium line markers, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: PJE-designed Shergold Custom hardtail bridge w/ 3 compensated brass saddles, staggered height locking tuners – chrome-plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 54mm ELECTRICS: Seymour Duncan ’59 (bridge & neck), 3-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume and tone (with pull/push coil-split) WEIGHT (kg/lb): See copy OPTIONS: A Shergold gigbag costs £59 RANGE OPTIONS: The double-cut Masquerader SM04 with twin Seymour Duncan humbuckers and mahogany neck costs £799 LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Black, Dirty Blonde (as reviewed), Battleship Grey (as pictured) – high-gloss body, hand-burnished satin neck PROS Quality build, hardware and pickups with wide range of…

The most obvious rival to HeadRush’s products is Line 6 and, more specifically in terms of facilities, price and size (although it is smaller), the three-footswitch HX Stomp (£558), which offers over 300 models and 126 presets each made up of a chain of 6 blocks. For an alternative small amp modeller with effects in a similar price range, there’s the sixfootswitch Atomic AmpliFire 6 (£529), and for a lot less outlay (£297), you can get the threefootswitch plus treadle Mooer GE-200, which has 55 amps, 26 cabs, 70 effects and a looper, plus a drum machine for good measure.…

BOSS CE-2W £202 If you’re looking for the more traditional Roland/ Boss chorus sound with adjustable rate and depth, you’ll find it here in a pedal with modes recreating the vintage CE-1 and CE-2 pedals. TC ELECTRONIC 3rd Dimension £51 Behringer is now in the driving seat at TC Electronic, facilitating less expensive pedals such as the 3rd Dimension, which features that familiar four-button interface and BBD technology. HOTONE Xtomp & Xtomp Mini (£175 & £99) The Xtomp (and its Mini sibling) is a chameleon-like pedal into which you load an effect from a library via an iOS or Android app. The Liquid C effect is Hotone’s take on the Dimension C sound.…

When guitarists as diverse as Joe Walsh, Josh Smith, Ed O’Brien and David Gilmour start clearing space on their pedalboards for the effects output of a particular company, it’s time to sit up and take notice. Such is the case with Origin Effects. Its compressors – the Cali76 and SlideRIG – and the RevivalDRIVE have quite literally been getting under the feet of a whole host of players, the common denominator between them being superlative tone. So, what exactly is the lure? We thought the best way to find out was to pay the company a visit and talk to its designer-in-chief, Simon Keats. Simon began his fascination with effects pedals in his teens, the intention being to attend music college and turn professional. “I decided I was probably never…

1. SERIAL NUMBER Five digits on headstock rear correspond with five digits ink-stamped onto orange soundhole label 2. HEADSTOCK Large Super 400-style profile; holly veneer; single binding; m-o-p logo/inlays 3. BODY Hollowbody archtop; double Florentine cutaway; f-holes; 17-inch width, three-inch depth; laminated spruce top, maple back/sides; three-ply (w/b/w) top/ back binding; Cherry Sunburst top, back, sides 4. PICKUPS Dual-humbuckers with independent volume and tone controls; Switchcraft three-way selector switch 5. HARDWARE Single-line Kluson Deluxe tuners; nickel-plated pickup covers and trapeze tailpiece, raised diamond and wooden shield insert; adjustable rosewood bridge; side-mounted jack 6. PLASTICS Two-ply (b/w) tailpiece plaque – ‘Barney Kessel’ ‘crossword’ logo and motif; two-ply (b/w) laminated ‘bell’ truss rod cover; four-ply (b/w/b/w) laminated bevelled pickguard; rubber selector switch grommet; four ‘bonnet’ knobs; white selector switch tip 7. NECK…

John Renbourn Fingerstyle virtuoso Clive Carroll remembers his friend and mentor, the late, great John Renbourn, and reflects on his musical legacy p48 Marshall Magic If you love the sound of a Plexi but the full-size original is too much of a monster, you should check out Marshall’s new small- but-potent Studio amps p20 Custom Colours Ever wondered what causes lacquer checking or what the rarest Fender Custom finishes are? Join Rod Brakes for a colourful history lesson... p78…

Taking a quick poll around the Guitarist office confirms that we’ve liked – loved, even – virtually every Eastman guitar we’ve seen. The China-based company has been making waves throughout the industry with its solidbody single-cut models, with the SB59/v in particular causing some heart palpitations in this vicinity. But making electric instruments using classic old-school technique to breathtaking effect isn’t the only trick up its sleeves – this acoustic Grand Auditorium looks set to win the guitar world’s hearts and minds as well. The first thing to look at is the whole ‘double top’ concept. Explained in more detail elsewhere in this review (see Double Top Theory, p17), in layman’s terms this means that the top of the guitar is basically a Sitka spruce sandwich with some very clever…

Sheeran By Lowden £595 to £965 Q&A What is it? In a move that took everyone by surprise, high-end Northern Irish guitar maker Lowden announced at NAMM this January that it was launching a new brand of guitars created in partnership with chart-dominating songsmith Ed Sheeran. The new guitars, made under the ‘Sheeran By Lowden’ moniker, are priced far more accessibly than any of Lowden’s core-line acoustics but are based on two existing Lowden small-body acoustic designs: the ‘S’ and the Wee Lowden. The latter was first built in 2013, when it was commissioned as a gift for Sheeran by Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody. Though Sheeran has put his name to a dinky Martin signature model for many years, he was an early adopter of Lowden’s GL-10 electric…

Once again, this column owes itself to office banter. Out of the blue, senior music editor Jason Sidwell said, “If you could be any guitarist other than you, who would you be?” I mulled it over for a moment and decided there were several options. He didn’t mean actually ‘become’ them – personality, financially, stardom-wise or whatever – but remain myself with their abilities as a player. I could choose my original guitar-playing heroes George Harrison, Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix. Imagine playing Something to John and Paul with slight trepidation, given the short shrift many of his songs had received, and then have them say it was one of the best The Beatles ever recorded. Or showcasing his awesome slide playing that evolved fully formed between The Beatles’ break-up…

Bare Knuckle Flat ’50 set from £167 True to the early Broadcaster spec of 43-gauge wire and flat-profile magnets, Bare Knuckle’s fierce Flat ’50 set yields a snarling, mid-rich tone that’s hugely evocative of the raw Blackguard Tele sound. It’s the hottest of the four sets that form BKP’s vintage-style Tele range. Custom versions are available on request. Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Tele set £61 (bridge); £54 (neck) Think your Tele tone is too weedy? Try Seymour Duncan’s Quarter Pounders, its highest-output Tele single-coil design. With oversize Alnico 5 rod magnets and a high-output coil, these will deliver an almost P-90-like performance.While pickup output readings can be deceptive, the bridge unit in the set has DCR of 17k, giving you an idea of what to expect. Creamery Pickups Extra Width…

JOIN THE DOTS As a self-taught guitarist, I never saw the need to read music. Instead, I became fluent at sight-reading tab, which served me well for years. However, I have steadily become disheartened with playing, rehashing old stuff and learning (but not engaging with) new stuff I thought I should learn. Then I was asked to participate in a theatre production, playing music I was unaccustomed to, and the score was in music notation not tab. So I learned to read music and worked out the most efficient way of playing to make my life easier, while constantly trying to decipher the funny symbols on the pages in front of me… I had to learn different ways of playing uncommon chords to make the performance easier, and fit in…

Steve Gunn The Unseen In Between Matador Retro-infused outing from the US underground Celebrating a very individual marriage between the genres psych and folk-rock, this is singer-songwriter Steve Gunn’s fourth album. He’s been on the underground scene in the US for the past 10 years, but hasn’t registered on the radar much here in the UK. Alternating between acoustic and electric guitars, The Unseen In Between’s nine songs have more than a dash of 1960s psychedelic pop to them – in fact, vocally, you can sense the ghost of Floyd’s Syd Barrett somewhere in the mix. New Familiar, for instance, could easily be an early Floyd B-side and Morning Is Mended wouldn’t sound out of place on the studio disc from Ummagumma. But there’s enough individuality and character here to…

Defunkt Defunkt Hannibal/Island Records 1980 The first album from New York funk collective Defunkt, led by trombone manipulator and vocalist Joe Bowie, appeared in 1980. Joe – brother of Lester Bowie of Art Ensemble Of Chicago fame – had been part of the NYC scene since the early 70s and had played alongside the likes of Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers and Ornette Coleman before joining in the punk/funk scene in New York and playing with James Chance & The Contortions. Out of all this comes Defunkt, with this, their ferocious debut album. Playing an exuberant high-energy blend of funk, rock, jazz and everything in between, this album grooves along in a ‘tight but not too tight’ way. It’s led by Joe’s cooler-than-cool vocals and dynamic trombone playing, with razor-sharp interjections…

1949 Leo Fender and George Fullerton complete the ‘Snake Head’ prototype solidbody electric guitar SPRING 1950 Single-pickup Esquire model first appears; dual-pickup Esquire built AUTUMN 1950 Dual-pickup Broadcaster with black ’guard, ‘butterscotch’ blonde finish and brass saddles released 1951 Broadcaster name dropped; Telecaster born 1954 White plastic pickguard; off-white blonde finish; steel bridge saddles 1955 Staggered bridge pickup polepieces; neck profile changes to ‘V’ 1958 ‘Top loading’ bridge replaces ‘string-through body’ type; shallower neck 1959 ‘String-through body’ bridge reintroduced; slab rosewood fretboards introduced 1969 Optional maple-cap ’board discontinued; fretted maple necks reintroduced…

This, the godfather of all Telecasters, was fiercer and fatter in tonal terms than nearly any other that followed. The model here belongs to the Seven Decades show, which tells the story of rock in live performances with period-correct instruments. The Broadcaster appears to be identical to the later 1952 Blackguard Telecaster. So what are the unique features of the earliest models? David Davidson, curator of the Songbirds Guitar Museum and a veteran vintage guitar dealer, walks us through some of the main points. “The fact there was no truss rod in some of the early guitars is a big point of difference. I’ve had five guitars that were made without truss rods and each one played perfectly. A truss rod added a tremendous amount of steps to the build,…

For many, it’s the quintessential Tele. A touch more refined than the Broadcaster, yet still snarling and girthy, this variant was, from mid-’51 on, the first of the breed to wear the definitive Telecaster name on the headstock. The example pictured comes from the Seven Decades collection. It plays beautifully and is considerably lighter than their Broadcaster (see Tech Spec, opposite). But the difference two years made to the design itself was subtle says David Davidson of the Songbirds Guitar Museum – although there was at least one landmark innovation: “In August of 1951, when they started with the first Telecaster, there were no big changes,” David explains. “The only significant update that year is the first Bigsby-equipped Tele, which was a collaboration between Leo and Paul Bigsby, who were…

Sharp yet sweet, the voice of the Telecaster gave rock ’n’ roll its bite and snap in the hands of guitarists such as James Burton, who joined Ricky Nelson’s band and played one of the finest solos of all time on Nelson’s Susie Q in 1957, later going on to be a pillar of Elvis’s Taking Care Of Business band from 1969. This duo of beautiful ‘Whiteguard’ Teles dates from around the time of Burton’s seminal tenure with Nelson, which was also a golden period for Leo Fender’s firstborn. The white plastic pickguard fitted to both guitars was introduced in late ’54, while staggered-height polepieces on the bridge pickup came in shortly afterwards, along with the distinctive ‘top hat’ pickup-selector switch, which both these beauties sport. From mid-’56, the Fender…

Fender came late to the Beatlemania party in 1968 while presenting George Harrison with his custom-built Rosewood Telecaster for the recording of Let It Be in January 1969. Taking heed from the likes of Rickenbacker and Gibson/ Epiphone, it was a move that undoubtedly raised the Fender Telecaster’s profile, because George also famously used this guitar later that same month during The Beatles’ final public performance, which took place on the rooftop of their Apple firm in London. However, priced at $375 upon its release later in 1969, it was the most expensive Telecaster to date and was soon discontinued in 1972 after being produced in relatively limited numbers. The regular production Rosewood Telecasters were initially constructed using a 50s-style one-piece fretted rosewood neck and a one-piece rosewood body. However,…

1. SQUIER CLASSIC VIBE TELE CUSTOM £479 Traditionally styled, this double-bound, 60s-style Tele from the well-liked Classic Vibe range is essentially an affordable vintage reissue. The asking price buys you a vintage-tint maple neck with laurel fingerboard, Alnico 5 pickups, a traditional Tele bridge with three saddles, as it should be, and a mint ’guard. 2. FENDER PLAYER TELECASTER £559 Drawn from the new ‘standard’ Mexican-built Player Series, we like the vibey finish options and spec of this Tele, especially the Tidepool blue, maple-neck variant. Standout features include Tim Shaw-designed Alnico 5 pickups, gloss-front/ satin-back neck, plus some nice vintage touches such as the ‘spaghetti’ logo. 3. FENDER CLASSIC PLAYER BAJA ’60s TELE £859 So many players have turned on to Fender’s Baja Teles because they punch…

Joe Dobson: “CBS took over Fender in 1965 and because they cut corners and rushed the finishes, they had a lot of guitars returned within months due to checking [a pattern of small cracks]. If it’s a really good finish, they tend to check after a number of years, but people were complaining that the nitrocellulose was checking and wearing too soon. By ’68, CBS were focusing on poly[ester] finishes, and most people loved how they looked at the time. Poly is pretty tough, and that was their motive to move away from nitro; it was about having finishes that were harder wearing. It took much longer for checking to appear, if at all. Plus, they could get their guitars out of the door within a week. “With a poly…

“This was originally made for Jimmy Page, but it was too heavy for him, so basically I phoned Gibson in 2003 and said, ‘I want one of these, can you get me one?’ And Pat Foley, who was the head there at the time, he said, ‘Well, you’re in luck, because I’ve just had one come back in.’ So Jimmy Page had his ’57 stolen in 197-whatever. So he had one made to the exact same spec, because he wanted one of those again for when they reunited for that show. So they did it, sent this to him – but it was too heavy because it wasn’t chambered because they did it to the original spec. And it’s a monster, because it’s got so much hardware on it, it’s…

What’s inside the Acoustasonic Tele will alienate the diehards even more than the look of the guitar. Firstly, along with the Fender fourth-generation Noiseless pickup (with the B string magnetic pole removed to improve string-to-string balance), there’s a Fishman under-saddle and a soundboard transducer under the bridge plate. Even if just those three were applied, we’d have some interesting potential, but the guitar’s own acoustic response via that under-saddle goes through some significant digital processing to create its sounds. If you remove the control cavity, there’s a large PCB crammed with surface-mount components. Fender isn’t forthcoming about what is going on here, but, of course, we suspect Fishman’s Aura Imaging Technology, fundamentally different from modelling, is the starting point and plays a big part in what we hear when it…

You might think that once you’ve created a new guitar design, the work is done. You hit the send button to your factory of choice and a few months later a shipment of shiny guitars arrives ready for sale. If only. Shergold’s new Provocateur is a typical example of the often convoluted process involved. “I think we started about 18 months ago,” remembers Patrick James Eggle, one of the UK’s most celebrated guitars makers and also the brains behind both the Shergold and Faith acoustic guitar designs (both brands are owned by Barnes & Mullins here in the UK). “I put the design down on paper and one of the guys I work with put it into a CAD drawing programme. Then we made basic prototypes and sent them to…

PRICE: £599 ORIGIN: Taiwan TYPE: Amp modeller/multi-effects pedalboard processor FEATURES: Tap tempo, tuner, looper, 4-in/4-out USB audio interface, LED backlit display with touch interface, IR loading, external amp switching, global 4-band parametric EQ at the output PRESETS: 270 MODELS: 34 amps, 15 cabs, 10 mics, 48 effects (6 distortion, 7 dynamic/ EQ, 13 modulation, 7 reverb/delay, 8 rotary, 7 expression) CONTROLS: Master Volume, Push To Enter,‘soft’ knob, 4x footswitches CONNECTIONS: Standard guitar input, minijack stereo aux input, standard main outputs (L/Mono, R), standard stereo phones output, standard external amp output, standard Send, standard Return, MIDI in, MIDI out/thru, USB, expression pedal, Toe (expression pedal toe switch) POWER: Supplied 19V adaptor 3.42 amps DIMENSIONS: 330 (w) x 220 (d) x 65mm (h) PROS The HeadRush Pedalboard sound in a smaller footprint;…

SOURCE AUDIO Kingmaker Fuzz £159 Source Audio’s offering features three different fuzz voicings (Normal, Heavy and Octave), plus Bass and Treble knobs. More versatility can be accessed via the Neuro Editor and app. EARTHQUAKER DEVICES Hoof Reaper £319 With two separate or stackable fuzzes in one box, EarthQuaker’s Hoof Reaper pedal puts Big Muff and Tone Bender-style fuzzes together with a switchable octave up. DOD Carcosa Fuzz £85 There’s no octave on DOD’s Carcosa pedal, but it’s a less expensive yet versatile option that has two different fuzz voices with plenty of tweaking via the After knob, which controls bias.…

1 What was the first pedal you built and how did the design come about? “Before I started making amplifiers, I experimented with some valve-based pedals that were one-off things I made for myself and a few local musicians in the Vancouver area. But the first pedal I made under the Kingsley brand was the Jester [valve overdrive and boost]. That was loosely based on the preamps from a couple of amps I was making called the ToneBaron and the Deluxe 32.” 2 What do you think makes Kingsley products unique? “I’ve not tried to be different consciously in any way, but I was a gigging guitar player and just wanted stuff I liked the sound of. I was making amps and I ended up making a few different valve…

Writer DAVE BURRLUCK Guitarist, Gear Reviews Editor With the Acoustasonic Telecaster taking the headlines at this year’s NAMM show, our reviews editor gets reacquainted with one of the first altered Telecasters Strolling around the stands at this year’s NAMM show, more than ever I was struck by just how many makers seem to be, ahem, borrowing other brands’ classic designs. I’m not referring to lazy low-end lookalikes, either. It just seems that ‘new’ design is more likely to be a rerun or mash-up of fewer and fewer elements and styles. Sign of the times or ever the way? A bit of both. Someone at Fender in the early 70s clearly decided they needed to offer a more Gibson-style guitar and the Tele Deluxe was a relatively early example – originally…

1960 Double Florentine-cutaway electric archtop prototype developed 1961 First released ($395 list price); laminated spruce tops; 1 11/16” nut width; PAF humbuckers 1962 Patent number sticker (‘Patent No 2,737,842’) humbuckers introduced 1964 Short/non-elongated neck heel introduced 1965 Laminated maple tops; chrome hardware; 1 9/16” nut width Mid-60s Some with solid spruce top and solid maple back 1967 Black/opaque ‘witch hat’ knobs introduced 1970 Last appeared in Gibson Catalogue 1972 Last models manufactured in Kalamazoo 1973 Last models shipped…

Out Of The Box Pentatonics Part 2 Difficulty  10 mins Tutor: Richard Barrett | Gear used: Knaggs Choptank, JHS AT, Vox AC15 C1  IN THE SECOND part of this series, I’ll be concentrating on the minor pentatonic scale – or perhaps I should say, exploring alternatives to using the minor pentatonic in an obvious way. Though it would be fair to say most classic blues (and rock) repertoire is based primarily around this pattern, it’s also correct to point out the art of creating a great solo or riff is in adding a little twist here and there, to make music from what might otherwise be deemed just a scale. However, it can be challenging to pull ourselves away from ‘practice style’ patterns that have served their purpose and…

Whenever we’re presented with a new Gretsch guitar to review, we always remind the reader that these things aren’t just for rockabillies. This is closely followed by the obligatory wheeling out of non-rockabilly Gretsch icons such as Small Faces and Humble Pie genius Steve Marriott, Quadrophenia-era Pete Townshend and, of course, the late AC/DC rhythm king, Malcolm Young. It’s a weird caveat for any brand, but then, like Rickenbacker, Gretsch still appears sealed inside certain genres like a fly in amber. While Gretsch has embraced its 50s rock ’n’ roll and 60s Beatlemania heritage, it has produced many models that distil classic features into more modern packages. Stuff like the Power Jets, and the recent hardtail BT variants, look like something Beatle George might have picked up in early 60s…

We asked Pepijn ’t Hart from Eastman Europe to give us the lowdown on the double top concept: “The Double Top project started two years ago after a visit from renowned US classical guitar builder Kenny Hill,” he tells us. “He has done many double tops on his classical signature series. What is a double top? Two very thin layers of Sitka spruce and in the middle a honeycomb core of Nomex, vacuum-pressed to one top. Nomex is a paper-thin material that comes from NASA technology. The top is 30 per cent lighter than a regular guitar top and when we started this project I still remember sitting in the workshop playing two visually identical guitars and the difference in sound just blew my mind. One had an Adirondack top,…

PRICE: £999 ORIGIN: UK TYPE: Valve preamp and power amp OUTPUT: 20W RMS, switchable to 5W VALVES: 3x 12AX7, 2x EL34 DIMENSIONS: 500 (w) x 460 (h) x 245mm (d) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 16/35 CABINET: Birch ply LOUDSPEAKER: 1x10” Celestion V-Type CHANNELS: 2, non-switchable CONTROLS: Normal volume, High Treble volume, presence, treble, mid, bass FOOTSWITCH: None ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Series effects loop with defeat switch; fixed level line out, high/low power standby switch OPTIONS: None RANGE OPTIONS: Along with the Studio Classic, there’s the renamed Mini Jubilee 1x12 combos at £999 and £799. All three designs are also available as heads (£875 for the Classic and Vintage; £689 for the Jubilee), with matching 1x12 and 2x12 cabinets at £429 and £599 respectively Marshall Amplification 01908 375411 www.marshall.com PROS A great take on…

Debashish Bhattacharya 30 May & 2 June Subscription Rooms, Stroud & Kings Place, London This Indian musician is one of the greatest acoustic slide players in the world, with fans and collaborators including John McLaughlin, John Butler and Jerry Douglas. Even though Butler is a celebrated slide player in his own right, he travelled to India to study with Bhattacharya in 2016. “It’s extremely rigorous,” says Butler of the Calcutta musician’s pioneering slide technique. “You watch Debashish play and you realise what 10 hours of practice for 10 years looks like. It’s like watching Michael Jordan… it’s superhuman.” Debashish will be joined by his daughter, vocalist Anandi Bhattacharya, and tabla player Tanmoy Bose for these performances. He will perform again in London at Kings Place, as part of the Songlines…

SUBPRO PICKUP £149 Now, here’s an interesting idea – a pickup that fits acoustic guitar soundholes (and also surface-mounts on electric guitars) and allows you to route the signal from individual strings to two separate outputs, opening up new tonal possibilities. For instance, maybe you want an octaver and fuzz effect on the bottom three strings and clean delay and reverb on the top three strings? No problem. Just assign the strings to two separate outputs and send the signal from those outputs to separate effects chains. The secret to the pickup’s flexibility is that it contains six micro pickups – each of which is controlled by its own three-way switch that selects between outputs 1 and 2 or switches the pickup off. The height-adjustable pickup is passive, so requires…

Though this isn’t a term you hear used every day, ‘drop 2’ chords are a simple but extremely effective way to add more variety into both your chordal accompaniment and to spice up your lead playing. If it’s good enough for Eric Johnson, it’s good enough for us! In the never-ending quest to find a new twist on some of the more common guitar chord voicings (or even some more outlandish ones, come to think of it), we’ve already covered how swapping the bass note with one of the higher notes in the chord can dramatically change its character, especially in context. In this feature, we’ll take the second to highest note of some chord triads and drop it to the bottom. In this case, we’re creating a wide-voiced chord…

Based in the West Yorkshire market town of Hebden Bridge, Pinegrove Leather (www.pinegroveleather.com)sprang into existence when guitarist Rod Boyes made himself a harmonica case on his kitchen table a few years ago, using an old Zephyr sewing machine. The case drew attention from his gigging pals and pretty soon Pinegrove Leather was formed, named after his favourite song, the Cajun classic Pine Grove Blues. Rod has since been designing guitar straps, harmonica cases and just about everything else a roaming musician could desire. Rod hand-picks every hide he uses and each design is a bespoke, hand-crafted realisation of an individual customer’s needs. For a chance to win your very own Pinegrove strap, fathom out an answer to the cunning question that follows, carefully enter the web address below in the…

What was your first gig and how did it go? “I think the first ever performance was as a cub in the scout hall at the church near where I was living when I was seven or eight. I came out from underneath a box in the middle of a scout jamboree on stage and sang a Herman’s Hermits song. They called me ‘Dyna-mite’, as in ‘tiny’, so it was obviously set in stone that I was going to have some sort of nickname that was connected with a diminutive stature! It did go down well – I think all the ‘yummy mummies’ at the time screamed and clapped just like it was The Beatles, so I think it quite possibly gave me the taste for following this through.” Describe…

The Telecaster has seen many updates and changes over its 70-year design evolution. But like many great designs, the Tele retains a striking simplicity at its heart, which, ironically, has made it more evergreen and versatile than feature-packed 50s and 60s guitars, overladen with superfluous gadgets, that have dated less gracefully. However, the simple tonal elements that make a Tele can nonetheless be endlessly tweaked and adjusted to yield new sounds, as Mike Lewis – who heads up Fender’s Custom Shop – has discovered over the years. We joined him to examine the building blocks of Tele tone, reminisce about some outstanding Teles he’s played from Fender’s past – and learn where the Custom Shop is heading next with this ageless platform. “Everything works together… The form followed the function.…

SCALE LENGTH 25.5” NUT WIDTH 41.6 STRING SPACING (NUT) 34.2 STRING SPACING (BRIDGE) 54 12TH WIDTH 51 1ST DEPTH 21.65 12TH DEPTH 25.2 WEIGHT 4.4kg/9.68lb FRETBOARD RADIUS 184 (7.25”) BODY DEPTH 45 FRET SIZE (W X H) 1.88 x 0.7 PICKUP DC (POSITION 1) 8.55 kohms (blend fully clockwise) 6.83 kohms (blend fully anti-clockwise) PICKUP DC (POSITION 2) 7.75kohms PICKUP DC (POSITION 3) No reading PICKUP SCREW POLE FROM NUT (NECK) 489.5 PICKUP SCREW POLE FROM NUT (BRIDGE) 614-597 (treble to bass) NB: This pre-’52 wiring gives the following control functions and pickup selections from the three-way switch: Position 1 – volume/lower control acts as a pickup blend. With the lower blend control fully clockwise, the bridge pickup is voiced; by turning the blend control anti-clockwise, the neck pickup is…

SCALE LENGTH 25.5” NUT WIDTH 41.5 STRING SPACING (NUT) 34.5 STRING SPACING (BRIDGE) 54.5 12TH WIDTH 50.69 1ST DEPTH 21.6 12TH DEPTH 24.7 WEIGHT 3.185kg/7lb FRETBOARD RADIUS 184 (7.25”) BODY DEPTH 45 FRET SIZE (w x h) 2 x 0.99 PICKUP DC (POSITION 1) 6.64 kohms PICKUP DC (POSITION 2) 3.28 kohms PICKUP DC (POSITION 3) 5.96 kohms PICKUP SCREW POLE FROM NUT (NECK) 488 PICKUP SCREW POLE FROM NUT (BRIDGE) 614-597 (treble to bass) NB: This Tele has been rewired to modern (post-1967) wiring and gives the following control functions and pickup selections from the three-way switch: Position 1 – volume/tone, bridge pickup; Position 2 – volume/tone, both pickups; Position 3 – volume/tone, neck pickup…

Debuting at the June 1959 NAMM Show, the Telecaster Custom was, to all intents and purposes, a fancier looking version of the humble Telecaster. As Fender’s 1959 catalogue states: “The new Telecaster Custom dual pickup and Esquire Custom single pickup guitars offer all the fine playing and design features of the regular Telecaster and Esquire models plus custom treatment of the body and neck.” ‘Custom treatment’ included a rosewood fretboard, a three-layer (white/black/white) pickguard, single top and back binding, and a Three-Tone Sunburst finish. Tending to reserve its heavier grained ash stock for transparent blonde finishes, Fender opted for alder as the standard tonewood for Custom Telecaster bodies, although exceptions can be found occasionally. The guitar pictured is one such rare example featuring an ash body and is the same…

During 1967, Fender began investigating the idea of a semi-acoustic model and it soon turned to the faithful Telecaster as an ideal testbed. In addition to producing a hollow prototype Telecaster – featuring a spruce top with no f-holes – Fender was, for a short while, also experimenting with weight-relieved Telecasters in the form of the so-called ‘smuggler’s Telecaster’, although the cavities in these guitars are hidden underneath the scratchplate. The classic form of the single f-hole Telecaster Thinline eventually took shape early the following year when ex-Rickenbacker wood-shop maverick Roger Rossmeisl and his assistant Virgilio Simoni developed a unique method whereby the bodies were routed via the rear and the back glued on later. Released in 1968, the Telecaster Thinline came with a two-piece maple neck and was offered…

Every now and then the staff of Guitarist get into one of those ‘what if?’ conversations about what guitar you’d choose if you could only play one model for your entire life. It’s not clear what kind of strange dictatorship would have to be in place for that to be a legal requirement, but never mind. On aggregate, we’d probably have to declare the Telecaster the winner of those speculative shootouts. If pressed, it’d probably be a Blackguard, too. Such is the strange nature of electric-guitar design that pretty much the first solidbody six-string electric to be invented is still, arguably, the world’s most tireless all-rounder. It’s pretty much the only Fender single-coil electric that commonly gets used by jazz guitarists, such as John Scofield and Julian Lage, for example.…

“Certain guitars started checking virtually as they left the factory – they certainly did while they were on the dealers’ walls, but I don’t think it’s just a matter of temperature change. I think checking’s got a lot to do with the amount of castor oil or plasticiser in the lacquers and paints. It also depends on how much moisture there is in the wood and how much the wood moves. It’s not any one specific thing. Checking is down to a combination of things that keep moving all the time and I don’t think you can pin it down. “As to whether the checking goes across or along the body, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of set pattern. I’ve even had it go both ways on the…

PRICE: £829 ORIGIN: Indonesia TYPE: Single-cut solidbody electric BODY: Mahogany NECK: Torrefied mahogany, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 625mm (24.6”) NUT/WIDTH: Graph Tech Black Tusq/43.2mm FINGERBOARD: Ebony, hand-inlaid aluminium line markers, 305mm (12”) radius FRETS: 22, medium jumbo HARDWARE: PJE-designed Shergold Custom hardtail bridge w/ 3 compensated brass saddles, staggered height locking tuners – chrome-plated STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 54mm ELECTRICS: Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates (bridge), P-90 (neck), 3-way lever pickup selector switch, master volume and tone (with pull/push coil-split) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.2/7 OPTIONS: A Shergold gigbag costs £59 RANGE OPTIONS: The double-cut Masquerader range offers the humbucker/P-90 SM01 (£765), the H/S/S SM02 (£835) and the S/S/S SM03 (£809). All have Seymour Duncan pickups and solid rosewood necks LEFT-HANDERS: No FINISHES: Black (as reviewed), Dirty Blonde, Battleship Grey – high-gloss body, hand-burnished satin…

HEADRUSH GIGBOARD £599 CONTACT HeadRush PHONE 01252 896040 WEB www.headrushfx.com What You Need To Know 1 HeadRush: I’ve heard that name somewhere before… Yes, we reviewed its Pedalboard back in issue 422. The company is one of inMusic’s brands, which also includes Akai and Alesis. 2 So, how does this one relate to the previous Pedalboard? It’s pretty much the same thing but in a more streamlined package for those who don’t need masses of footswitches or a built-in treadle. 3 There aren’t many knobs on it… That’s because you don’t need them: there’s a really good touchscreen that, when combined with a single data encoder knob, does everything you need swiftly and efficiently. The only HeadRush product we’ve reviewed to date has been the Pedalboard, a large floor-based processor…

VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra From 1979 onwards, it wouldn’t have been uncommon to hear, “Can we have a bit of grey button on that?” in high-end recording studios. That grey button was setting number 4 (the strongest) on the rackmount Roland SDD-320 Dimension D (settings 1, 2 and 3 had white buttons). What you’d be getting was a spatial effect adding a dimension to the sound – chorus-like but somewhat different from the more obviously mobile chorus effect. Stevie Ray Vaughan apparently favoured a Dimension D to thicken up guitar sounds on his album mixes. That Dimension D was a large and expensive studio box, but in 1985 Roland put some of its essence into a compact pedal, the Boss DC-2 Dimension C, which it produced for four years. That Dimension…

THE BACKGROUND NEIL CLARK, GUITARIST READER I’m trying to put together a really small and versatile ’board for a set of small gigs I have coming up. Ordinarily, I would use my amp’s overdrive, but I’m looking to maximise the different types of sounds I can achieve. I have space for two overdrives, but I’m confused by some of the terminology used to describe them. So far I’ve come across terms such as: transparent overdrive, low-gain overdrive, natural overdrive, dynamic overdrive, high-gain overdrive, ‘amp in a box’, organic overdrive, mid-boost overdrive… I want to play blues, jazz and rock. My amp is a Hamstead 20+RT Combo and I play a mix of guitars using humbuckers and single coils as the mood takes me. Can you help…

Writer JAMIE DICKSON, Guitarist, Editor-In-Chief The 330 is Jamie’s new main-squeeze guitar – but that means ringing the changes with the rest of his rig, too As readers who have followed previous instalments of this Longterm Test will know, I sold an ES-335 that I was using for a Hendrix/ Cream tribute gig, plus used a bit of extra savings, to get a reissue ES-330. As I use a fair amount of effects, the change of voice from Strat-and-335 to 330 has prompted a rethink of what drive pedals I use. For the Jimi/Cream gig, my main drive pedal was the excellent .45 Caliber by J Rockett Audio Designs. The .45 Caliber is designed to sound like a JTM45 and, in terms of my earlier gig, it worked a treat.…

Although Gibson has accumulated a rich history of artist signature models to date, when the Barney Kessel Regular and Barney Kessel Custom electric archtops were released in 1961, such guitars were few and far between. The very first Gibson signature model guitar, the Nick Lucas Model flat-top, appeared in 1927, followed by the Roy Smeck Radio Grande and Roy Smeck Stage Deluxe flat-tops in 1934. Both Nick Lucas and Roy Smeck were big-name stars of radio at the time, as was Les Paul prior to the release of Gibson’s now iconic range of signature solidbodies (beginning in 1952 with the Les Paul Model/Goldtop). Household-name status appeared to be a rare prerequisite for would-be Gibson co-branded models, but as guitars became an ever more prominent part of popular culture throughout the…

Difficulty  10 mins Tutor Phil Hilborne | Gear used: Private Stock PRS ‘Hollowbody II’, Fender Blues Deluxe (mic’d with Royer 121 and Beyer M201 N (C)). Small amount of reverb added in the mix via Logic X KENNY BURRELL was born in 1931 in Detroit, Michigan, into a very musical family. Like many others of his generation, he originally wanted to play the saxophone, but there weren’t any to be found in the local music shops because all the available brass had been used up by the military to make weapons for the war. So, luckily for us, his second choice, the guitar, became the instrument he ended up playing. Stylistically, Kenny embraced the blues, classical guitar and bebop jazz pretty much in equal measure and quickly developed a very…

DEEP PURPLE Machine Head Though the Machine Head album may not be in every blues aficionado’s record collection, Blackmore cites Eric Clapton as a big influence. He certainly uses many blues-based patterns in both his riffs and solos. Space Truckin’, Maybe I’m A Leo and Lazy from this record all showcase a mastery of blues inflections (such as the quarter-tone bend) mixed with genuinely original and inventive lines that stretch the repertoire without losing that classic feel. DEEP PURPLE Made In Japan Blackmore’s solo on Child In Time is another example of how it’s possible to stretch pentatonic ideas to create imaginative lines while still tracking a clear line back to the blues. It’s interesting to compare the live and studio versions of Lazy, for example, while Strange Kind Of…