© 2017 PRS Guitars / photo by Mar
c Quigley
MINUS THE BEAR
“It’s no secret I’m a massive PRS lover. VOIDS was recorded almost entirely on my McCarty Goldtop and Custom 24. The S2 series guitars are great weapons live for me. They’re light but retain all the great tone of the other models, and I especially love the look and shape of the Mira”. - Dave Knudson8
WHEN INDUSTRIES GET DISRUPTED, GO SIDEWAYS, OR disappear into that long good night, there is typically not one easy answer for why the business tanked. Of course, that fact doesn’t often prevent heated barroom debates, social-media kiss-offs, and tabloid journalism from embracing a “single-rea-son theory” and targeting a specific scapegoat. I’m not trying to do any of that here. But I do wonder (and fear and agonize) over our own apparent complicity in creating a cultural envi-ronment where the sweat and artistry of musicians is often considered far less worthy of compensation than the toil of those who bag our groceries at the supermarket. I’ve got noth-ing but respect for grocery baggers, by the way—I just think professional musicians should get paychecks, too.
In the name of brand building and social-networking glory, we have been provid-ing media monopolies with free content for so long that our wares may never fetch a fair price. We have devalued the worth of our own products. We freely work for free, and, therefore live in an insane person’s dream of future revenues being driven by stuff we’ve already established as having no tangible price tag.
We’re all aware that hardly anyone makes bank on music sales anymore, and streaming audio offers relative pennies for airplay. So, as concert tours and their ancillary revenue streams (VIP tickets, merchandise, etc.) drive artist earnings, it may seem appropriate to deploy one’s recorded music solely as essential promotion for upcoming performances. I’ve certainly heard the line many times during inter-views that goes something like, “Well, if I can’t make money on my album, at least I can put it out there for free to hopefully sell tickets to my shows.”
That’s the strategy for many artists who release albums and embark on concert tours. But what if you’re not that kind of artist? How do you view the worth of your music when you just play for fun?
In those instances, uploading your music to YouTube and other social networks garners a nice ego boost, and, possibly, even promotion for your band’s gigs. “Oh, look—a few hundred people liked my music. Cool!” But even if your song goes totally viral, and you’re set up for YouTube adverts, you’re not going to make a decent wage for all the “stolen” views. What’s the end game, then? A temporary yummy feeling of self worth? Perhaps you don’t care about significant revenue, as you have a nice day job, and are only making music because you love to play. But let’s say you want to make a profitable sideline of music at some point in the future. If you are lucky enough to build YouTube subscribers in the millions, can you reliably exploit that audience for album revenue, tour support, fan funding, product endorsement deals, and other paydays? Can you use the medium to transform yourself from “someone who has fun making music” into “someone who makes a living making music”?
Obviously, building an audience is no joke, and whether you’re a professional or a dreamer, the more people who know about the music you make, the better. But is devaluing music by providing free content to media that makes good money from the combined creative sweat of all those unpaid-for tracks really doing the vast commu-nity of musicians a solid? Are we suckers who have given big-business conglomer-ates the power to generate their own revenues without compensating the creators?
I sincerely doubt this missive is going to stop anyone from giving away their won-derful music to YouTube, Google, Facebook, and so on. Somehow, audience expecta-tions of enjoying music without paying for it—well, let’s just say that train has left the station. But if you start thinking about how you want music to be perceived and valued in the future, and what your active role might be in that evolution, then my work here is done.
g u i t a r p l a y e r . c o m
EDITOR IN CHIEF Michael Molenda [email protected]
MANAGING EDITOR Kevin Owens
SENIOR EDITOR Art Thompson
LOS ANGELES EDITOR Jude Gold
FRETS SECTION EDITOR Jimmy Leslie [email protected]
LESSONS EDITOR Jimmy Brown
CONSULTING EDITORS Matt Blackett, Jim Campilongo, Jesse Gress, Dave Hunter, Michael Ross
ART DIRECTOR Paul Haggard
MUSIC COPYIST Elizabeth Ledgerwood
PRODUCTION MANAGER Beatrice Weir
NEWBAY MUSIC GROUP, BUSINESS
VICE PRESIDENT, GENERAL MANAGER: Bill Amstutz, [email protected]
GROUP PUBLISHER: Bob Ziltz [email protected], (212) 378-0471 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: Jonathan Brudner
[email protected], (917) 281-4721 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: Mari Deetz [email protected], (650) 238-0344 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: Jeff Donnenwerth
[email protected], (212) 378-0466 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: Jason Perl
[email protected], (646) 723-5419 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: Scott Sciacca
[email protected], (646) 723-5478 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR - NON ENDEMIC Anne Triece, [email protected], (646) 723-5491 PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT MANAGER: Beatrice Weir
NEWBAY MEDIA CORPORATE PRESIDENT & CEO Steve Palm CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Paul Mastronardi VICE PRESIDENT, DIGITAL STRATEGY & OPERATIONS Robert Ames
VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT & MARKETING Anthony Savona IT DIRECTOR Anthony Verbanic
DIRECTOR OF WEB OPERATIONS & DEVELOPMENT Eric Baumes VP/CORPORATE DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Meg Estevez
FOR CUSTOM REPRINTS & E-PRINTS PLEASE CONTACT Wright’s Media : (877) 652-5295 or [email protected]
LIST RENTAL: (914) 368-1024, [email protected] PLEASE DIRECT ADVERTISING INQUIRIES TO GUITAR PLAYER,
28 East 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Tel. (212) 378-0400; Fax (212) 378-0470; [email protected] EDITORIAL REQUESTS TO [email protected] PLEASE DIRECT SUBSCRIPTION ORDERS, INQUIRIES, AND
ADDRESS CHANGES TO
GUITAR PLAYER, Box 2029, Langhorne, PA 19047-9957, or (800) 289-9839, or send an email to guitarplayermag@ icnfull.com, or click to subscriber sevices at guitarplayer.com.
BACK ISSUES are available for $10 each by calling (800) 289-9839 or by contacting [email protected]. Guitar Player is a registered trademark of Newbay Media. All material published in Guitar Player is copyrighted © 2017 by
Newbay Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in Guitar Player is prohibited without written permission. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited manuscripts, photos, or artwork. All product infor-mation is subject to change; publisher assumes no
respon-sibility for such changes. All listed model numbers and product names are manufacturers’ registered trademarks.
Follow Guitar Player online at: V O L . 5 1 , N O . 8 , A U G U S T 2 0 1 7
PUBLISHED IN THE U.S.A.
NOIZE FROM THE EDITOR
NOIZE FROM THE EDITOR
NOIZE FROM THE EDITOR
ht be in that evolution, then my
BR
Y
SWEETWATER IS YOUR PREMIER
ONE-STOP SHOP FOR GUITARS,
EFFECTS, AMPS, AND MORE.
on purchases of select manufacturers’ products made with your Sweetwater Card between now and August 31, 2017 – 24 equal monthly payments required.
0% INTEREST for 24 MONTHS
*
(800) 222-4700 Sweetwater.com
FREE SHIPPING 55-POINT
EVALUATION FREE TECH SUPPORT FREE 2-YEAR WARRANTY
THE SWEETWATER
DIFFERENCE
Fender American Professional Jazzmaster EarthQuaker Devices Transmisser Resonant Reverb Friedman Fuzz Fiend Electro-Harmonix Canyon Xotic Soul Driven Gibson CustomLes Paul Custom Modern Beauty Sweetwater Exclusive
Vox AC30C Head and
2 x 12" Cabinet White Bronco
10 G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M/A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 | V O L U M E 5 1 , N U M B E R 8
GP COMMUNITY
12
Dana’s GP50 pedal giveaway this month is the Cast Engineering Pulse Drive Tremolo.RIFFS
16
Tom Dumont goes back to the ’80s for his Dreamcar tones, Jim Campilongo celebrates Julian Bream, Dave Baker reveals how to nail a Nashville audition, Steve Hunter talks about tracking “Here Comes the Flood” for Peter Gabriel, a classic Pro’s Reply with Bill Nelson, and reports on guitar festivals from Poland and New Orleans.COVER STORY
42
Tommy Emmanuel
Find out why this astounding fingerpicker is perhaps the most frightening, accomplished, evangelical, and giving acoustic-guitar player in the world today.
54
50 Transcendent
Acoustic Guitarists
Bonus! Two Cover Stories in One Issue! The GP staff unveils its list of the top 50 acoustic players. Well, with Tommy Emmanuel leading the pack, that makes 51. But wait, we also have sidebars on YouTube sensations, acoustic rockers, and singer/songwriters. Whew!
FEATURES
26
Styx
32
Andy Summers
38
Robin Trower
CLASSIC COLUMN
114
David Hicks
defends the Vox Buckingham amp (from November 1985).Cover photo: Alysse Gafkjen
Guitar Player (ISSN 0017-5463) is published monthly with an extra issue in December by Newbay Media, LLC, 28 East 28th Street, 12th floor, New
York, NY 10016. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Guitar Player,
P.O. Box 2029, Langhorne, PA 19047-9957.
AL
Y
S
SE G
A U G U S T 2 0 1 7/ G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M 11
LESSONS
66
Melodic
Journey
David Brewster decodes Neal Schon’s soulful lead playing.72
Classic Riff
“Hey You” by Pink Floyd.74
GP50
Adrian Legg’s “Perverted” Banjo (from July 1994).JOIN THE GP COMMUNITY!
facebook.com/guitarplayermag twitter.com/guitarplayernow instagram.com/guitarplayer
GEAR
24
New Gear
76
New Electric String
Formulations
80
Framus Pro Series
Panthera Supreme II
82
Line 6 Spider V 240HC
84
Dr. Z Surgical Steel
86
API TranZformer GT
88
Classic Gear
1965
Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-1ATHE FIRST FIVE YEARS
As part of Guitar Player’s 50th Anniversary, we are celebrating the advertisers who believed in founder Bud Eastman’s mad idea, and supported the infant magazine through its first five years, 1967-1972. They are: Acoustic Amps, Alfred Publications, AKG, Altec-Lansing, Ampeg, Bigsby, Bill Russell Capo, Black Diamond Strings, Carlsboro Amps, Coral, Danelectro, Darco Strings, Dunlop, Eko, Electro-Harmonix, Electro-Voice, Epiphone, Ernie Ball, Fender, GHS Strings, Gibson, Gretsch, Guild, Hagstrom Guitars, Hallmark, Hammond Organ (Leslie), Harmony Guitars, Heathkit, Hohner, JBL, Kustom, La Bella Strings, Martin, Mel Bay Publications, Messenger Guitars, Mosrite, Ovation, Peavey, Randall, Rickenbacker, Robb Guitars, Rowe/DeArmond, Sigma, Standel, Sunn, TWA, Vox, Yamaha. Thank you all!
FRETS
91
11 Hot
Acoustics
for Summer
98
Review
BOSS Acoustic Singer Pro100
GP50
Stefan Grossman on fingerpicking fiddle tunes (from September 1976).
You recently asked if there are any guitarists or guitar styles that Guitar Player might be missing, and I think it’s possible that disabled gui-tarists are getting the least coverage. I have been an above-knee amputee for 32 years, and have been wheelchair-bound for the last few years. Despite this, I am a performing singer- songwriter, guitarist, and bandleader. I might not be able to do Townshend-style leaps, but people say my stage presence is pretty strong, and I just finished my second release, Flies Through the Dark. Peace. — M AT T F R A Z A
Interact!
JOIN THE GP COMMUNITY!
SOUND OFF! GET EXCLUSIVE NEWS. COMMENT. CRITIQUE.
SHARE TIPS AND TECHNIQUES. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR E-NEWSLETTER.
FACEBOOK.COM/GUITARPLAYERMAG TWITTER.COM/GUITARPLAYERNOW GUITARPLAYER.COM MICHAEL MOLENDA Editor In Chief [email protected] ART THOMPSON Senior Editor [email protected] KEVIN OWENS Managing Editor [email protected] JUDE GOLD Los Angeles Editor [email protected]
JIMMY LESLIE Frets Editor [email protected]
DAVE HUNTER
Gear Section & Video Contributor [email protected]
PAUL HAGGARD Art Director
12 G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M /A U G U S T 2 0 1 7
This month, Cast Engineering is helping us celebrate Guitar Player’s 50th anniversary by offering up their Pulse Drive Tremolo pedal for my gear giveaway. One lucky reader has a chance to add this cool stomp-box to their pedal collection.
The Pulse Drive functions as a tremolo/boost with 30dB of signal level on tap, and it was designed to emulate the sound of ’60s tube-amp tremolos. You can get all swtube-ampy or chopped-up by playing with the Depth and Rate knobs, or turn the Depth control all the way down and crank Level to deploy the Pulse Drive solely as a boost. This pedal was hand built in Atlanta, Georgia. For a chance to win, simply send an email with the sub-ject line “GP50 Pulse Drive” to mmolenda@ nbmedia.com. The deadline for entries is August 20, 2017. I’ll select the winner at random and announce his or her name in an upcoming issue.
Please note that all gear is “as is,” because every pedal was actually used and reviewed by the GP staff. Thank you for participating in my August GP50 gear contest. Good luck!
— D A N A P A R K E R
DANA’S AUGUST GP50 GEAR
GIVEAWAY!
CHARLIE P
ARKER
OOPS!
Unfortunately, this is the second time we’ve made this mistake in recent years. In our April 2017 review of the Rivolta Combinata Standard, we described the guitar’s tuners as “Kluson-style” in the spec box. This is not only incorrect, but also infringes on a registered trademark of WD Music Products. We apologize for any confusion.
In the July issue, we forgot the photo credit for Brian Tarquin’s interview with the late Larry Coryell. Coryell’s portrait was taken by Erol Gurian.
E L E C T R I C G U I T A R B A S S A C O U S T I C C L A S S I C A L M A N D O L I N B A N J O B A J O D U L C I M E R P E D A L S T E E L R E S O N A T O R U K U L E L E A N D M O R E
Mike Orlando
Adrenaline Mob
ghsstrings.com 800.388.4447 P L AY W I T H T H E B E S T™New Album ‘We The People’ Spring 2017
GB91/2 set for Electric and BB20X for Acoustic. Rocktron Mike Orlando Signature Wah and Rocktron Banshee.
Plays With The Best.
©2
01
7 F
ender Musical Instruments Corpor
Dreamcar’s Tom Dumont
ON CHANNELING ’80S NEW-WAVE TONES
BY M I C H A E L M O L E N DA 16 G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M /A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 P A UL HA GG ARDP R O D U C T I O N F I L E
T H E P R O P U L S I V E E N G I N E S O F N O Doubt—guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal, and drummer Adrian Young— definitely do not go into a creative dry dock when vocalist/media star/entrepreneur Gwen Stefani is focused on, well, Gwen Stefani. So in 2014, looking to do a side project, the trio secretly reached out to AFI vocalist Davey Havok, demoed four songs, wrote 28 additional songs—deter-mined they had a band (but no label or manager)—got serious and wrote moresongs, and, ultimately recorded their self-titled debut album, Dreamcar [Columbia], with producer Tim Pagnotta.
“We kept the band a secret because we wanted to write music simply for the sake of writing music,” says Dumont. “It’s a unique group to make an album with. Three quarters of it have been together forever, and then there’s Davey’s fresh-ness in the mix. So we have the excite-ment of a completely new project, but with the comfort of old friends.”
I love the album’s new-wave guitar tones.
The guitar sound was this combina-tion of a Kemper Profiler augmented by some pedals plugged into the front end of the amp, and my Fulltone Tube Tape Echo routed through the effects loop. There are a lot of choruses, flangers, phasers, delays, and echoes—which speaks a lot about my early inspiration from The Edge. Much of the album was also informed by what Alex Lifeson did on Rush’s Grace Under Pressure and Signals, where he was
A U G U S T 2 0 1 7/G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M 17 O N E O F T H E M O S T
important and inspiring records I’ve ever discovered is
Julian Bream Plays Granados and Albéniz: Music of Spain, Vol. 5. Is it the best of the lot?
I can’t say, but it absolutely opened a new universe of guitar and composition for me. This album served as a gateway for an ongoing archeological dig for other Spanish and world music on guitar, and it led me to Span-ish composers Francisco Tárrega, Frederico Mompou, and Fernando Sor; Brazil-ian composer Heitor Villa- Lobos; Paraguayan virtuoso Agustín Barrios; and Cuban composer Leo Brouwer.
On side one, Enrique Granados’ “Dedicatoria” was the first piece to capture me. Transcribed from piano, the guitar piece is as lovely and lilting as it was when it was conceived in the 19th Century. Granados’ “Danza
Española No. 4” is also beau-tifully performed by Bream. It’s a repertoire showpiece that has been performed by Andrés Segovia and other greats. It’s a “must hear,” and it plays like a nursery rhyme from another world.
On the Isaac Albéniz side of the LP, “Suite Espa-ñola Op. 47 ”—written in 1886 to represent different regions of Spain—is played brilliantly, and Bream exhib-its his amazing ability to make the guitar sound like an orchestra by employing right-hand positions and his touch to change the timbre of the guitar in imitation of brass and woodwinds. As Segovia once commented to a student, “It sounds too much like a guitar.” I try to apply this “guitar as orches-tra” philosophy to all of my guitar playing—whether it be on a nylon-string guitar or a Telecaster. g
playing Strats with a heavy use of delays and choruses to make atmospheric sounds.
What Profiler patches did you use as foundations for your tones?
A lot of the sounds started with a Fender Princeton model that had a really clean and chime-y tone. Then, I’d heavily compress the signal with a Kemper compressor, and I’d also plug in an old Ibanez chorus. Another patch we used a lot was called Walking Moon. It had a swirly, saturated lead sound.
And the main guitars? I mostly used my Gretsch Duo Jet with Filter’Trons and a Bigsby. There was something about that guitar—a chiming top end with a little bit of body. My Hamer 12-string electric was used for single-note lines, and it was pro-cessed with a heavy, saturated delay and a chorus. Then, there was a 15-year-old Ovation dou-ble-neck acoustic with a Nash-ville tuning on one neck. This was for ear candy and strum-y things, like what Johnny Marr did on the early Smiths tracks.
What do you feel was pro-ducer Tim Pagnotta’s essential contribution?
A great producer is someone who can coax your best performance out of you, and who can mediate disagreements. For example, if Tony tells me my part sucks, it’s hurtful coming from a friend. But if Tim asks, “Can you do better?” it’s simply a challenge to improve. In the case of Dreamcar, my love of simple rhythmic stuff leads me to play straight eighth-notes, or
eighth-notes with a delay for a sixteenth-note vibe—much like The Edge or Elliot Easton. But Tim kept pushing me to syncopate things—to funk up my lines. It was like, “How would Prince approach this solo?” As a result, my solos on the album are short, melodic, catchy, funky, and rhythmic. This is a perfect example of a producer bringing you out of your comfort zone to go somewhere new. It’s a huge win to have someone help you do that.
That said, being pushed out of comfort zones can some-times make it initially difficult to reboot your creative ener-gy. Were you concerned about freezing up?
Actually, I got stuck on “Kill For Candy”—the first single. The guitar parts on the song demo were not very good, and Tim and I fig-ured we’d just come up with new parts in the studio. But it was one of those days where everybody in the band was there, as well as vid-eographers documenting the record-ing process. And Tim’s challenge was, “You’ve got to come up with a great, all-time guitar riff.” Well, I tried to do that for two hours, riff after riff after riff, and it wasn’t happening. I had a camera in my face, everyone was watching, and I was feeling depressed and dejected. Then, all of a sudden, I started thinking about the riff to Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” Using that as inspiration, I finally found the riff for “Kill For Candy.” I felt so triumphant in that moment, but I obviously had to go on a journey to get there. g
Julian Bream
Music of Spain, Vol. 5
BY J I M CA M P I LO N G O
V I N Y L T R E A S U R E S
Q U I C K T I P
JENNIFER S T ODD ART
TRUTH
“I love the sound of wood, and all the different tones you can get out of an acoustic guitar just by changing your attack, or by playing closer to the bridge or soundhole. I’ve never been a big fan of signal processing or effects. What I do is really honest and kind of gut wrench-ing, so I don’t like it when cleverness takes away from sincerity or emotion.” — J E W E L18
P R O ’ S R E P L Y
Bill Nelson
March 1977One of GP’s fab content innovations was its “Pro’s Reply” columns that brought readers into the worlds of professional sessions and live performances, and offered insights from guitar stars. We’re celebrating that grand idea by republishing some of the most interesting bits from the “Pro’s Reply” archive. — M M
19 A U G U S T 2 0 1 7/ G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M
W H E T H E R YO U ’ R E I N T E R EST E D I N a high-profile artist gig or a casual tribute band, the audition process can be intimidat-ing. During my time in Nashville, I’ve seen the audition format range from video submissions to solo performances (usually to tracks with-out a band) to one-on-ones with the artist to open-to-the-public cattle calls. With every audition, preparation is paramount. Once you are presented with the three or four audition songs, you should master these five essentials.
ABSORB SIGNATURE PARTS It is of the upmost importance to recreate the signature licks of a song. Be ready to trans-pose them on the spot if the artist wants to do the song in a different key. Learn the other key parts—second guitar lines, keyboard riffs, etc.—to show the artist you’ve done some deep research and practice.
MATCH TONES
Getting the right sound is as important as play-ing the correct parts. If there’s a quarter-note delay on the intro lick, or a wah on the solo, emulating the appropriate tones will reinforce your value as a sideman. “Come prepared with your rig dialed in,” says Dan Weller, who suc-cessfully auditioned for Florida Georgia Line. “If there is a big gap between the sound of the act’s records and their live-performance tones, ask if there is a preference.”
AVOID SURPRISES
Take the necessary precautions to ensure your gear is working properly. If a backline is to be
provided (to keep auditions moving along) ask what you’ll be using so that you’re com-pletely familiar with the guitars, amps, and any other gear.
BE PROFESSIONAL
Sadly, a lot of musicians blow this one. Weller stresses, “Respond to emails, texts, and phone calls before the end of the day. Arrive early to auditions, and plan to stay late if the artist has questions or wants to get to know you.” DO HOMEWORK
Listen to the act’s studio and live recordings to better understand the musical presenta-tion, and watch performances on YouTube to study how the band looks on stage, as well as to gauge the energy and attitude of their shows. Even if you don’t get the gig—after all, many things besides musicianship can deter-mine a “good fit” for an artist’s band—putting your best foot forward may impress the artist enough to refer you to other opportunities in the future. g
N A S H V I L L E S C E N E
5 Ways to Nail That Audition
BY DAV E BA K E R THIS BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN SONG FROM 1977’S PETERGabriel is what might be called an “epic power ballad.” It is majestic and powerful, but, at the same time, subtle and sublime. (OMG, I sound like a music reviewer!) I loved the way producer Bob Ezrin orchestrated this piece with all of us musicians as the “orchestra.” While you can find lots of examples of the use of fifths in Wagnerian orchestral and sym-phonic works that can be easily applied to rock music, I still learned a lot from watching Bob sort that out.
I played acoustic guitar all through the basic track. That’s me in the right channel. Robert Fripp played the big power chords in the choruses. I later overdubbed some of those Wagnerian power lines I was talking about, and they certainly made the choruses powerful and helped create the dynamics that are so important in a song like
this. I learned the importance of dynamics early in my career, as well as the fact that they are sometimes difficult to translate in the recording studio. For my ears, if you don’t mind my saying so, a lot of dynamic power is missing in today’s music. In the ’70s, dynamics were very important.
The beautiful guitar solo was played by my old compadre Dick Wagner. He was in the studio for most of the day doing background vocals—another thing Dick was particularly good at. Bob asked him if he wanted to do a solo on this tune, but Dick realized that none of his gear was there. Bob mentioned that I had a good-sounding Tele-caster (the same guitar I had played on Peter’s “Waiting for the Big One”), and, if memory serves, a Marshall half-stack. So, Dick went out into the studio, plugged in my Tele, and, on the first take, played that awesome solo. It was pretty damned cool!
To me, the really interesting thing about this story is how one guitar played by two people can sound so different. Dick and I did a lot of work together, and one of the reasons I think it worked so well was because we played enough alike that we could do lines and parts together. But, when it came to soloing, we were very unique. We used contrasting sounds and distinctive techniques, like our different vibratos and picking styles. Although, at times, we could sound similar, I think anyone could really hear the difference between us after a few listens. g
Peter Gabriel’s
“Here Comes the Flood”
BY ST E V E H U N T E R
S E S S I O N F I L E
20 G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M /A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 ON MAY 1, 2016, THE GUITAR GUINNESS
Record Festival in Wroclaw, Poland — which is casually known as the “Thanks Jimi Fes-tival” due to its celebration of Hendrix’s guitar wizardry and music—smashed the previous Guinness World Record for Largest Guitar Orchestra by logging 7,356 guitarists simultaneously strumming to “Hey Joe.” The 2017 run at the record fell short at 6,299, but that didn’t seem to matter much to the throngs of players crammed into Wro-claw’s Market Square joyously singing and playing along to Hendrix songs/covers such as “Foxy Lady,” “Voodoo Child,” “Little Wing,” “Red House,” “Wild Thing,” and “Hey Joe”(once again, the song tallied for the record attempt).
For the 15th annual event this year—also held on May 1—a second stage was added, a DVD was filmed for future release, and the city of Wroclaw honored festival founder Leszek Cicho´nski with a permanent “guitar gnome” statue in the Market Square. (Wro-claw is known as the “City of Gnomes,” and more than 350 krasnoludki appear through-out the town. The appearance of the gnomes began as a way for surrealists to ridicule authoritarianism during Poland’s martial-law era.) The festival is free and open to all, and while it’s a big deal in Europe—film clips from the guitar party are all over the Euro-pean news during the day—American com-panies are beginning to take notice. Fender recently brought on Cicho´nski as an endorser (he proudly showcased his new, olive-hued Fender American Professional Series Strato-caster, dubbed “Jolivia”), and Epiphone had a big tent filled with guitars on the Square. (In the past, Ibanez has been the main pres-ence at the festivities.)
How it feels to perform at the Guitar Guin-ness Record Festival was brilliantly summed up by Polish guitar hero Grzegorz Bogdan Skawi´nski, who said, “There’s nothing like this energy anywhere. I’ve been lucky enough to play in front of large audiences, but never with the people all playing guitar along with the band. So much spirit!” g
Poland Honors Jimi But Falls Short of Guinness Record
BY M I C H A E L M O L E N DA
C O O L E V E N T
MICHAEL MOLEND A WIE SLA W K A C ZMAREK, O S TR ZE S Z O W P OLANDWhat chords are those? — (front, left to right) Grzegorz Bogdan Skawi´nski, Greg Koch, bassist David Price, and me during the record attempt on “Hey Joe.”
WIE SLA W K A C ZMAREK, O S TR ZE S Z O W P OLAND
Trying to hear my solo above the roar of dozens of amps during “Wild Thing,” as Leszek Cicho´nski (left) and vocalist/ guitarist LeBurn Maddox (right) listen for clams.
The Mitchell MS Series modern single cutaway guitars offer a
cutting-edge take on a revered design by combining a slim-line
body with coil-tapped humbuckers plus a collection of high-end
features typically found on boutique instruments.
MS400 SERIES
• Premium carved mahogany body for killer tone and sustain
• Slim-tapered mahogany set neck and rosewood fretboard for superior playability • Paraffin-dipped alnico V humbuckers with coil-tap provide a variety of sought-after tones • High-ratio locking tuners keep your tuning rock-solid
• Available with AAA maple veneer top for an amazing look
MitchellElectricGuitars.com
22
TIME HAS A FUNNY WAY OF SLOWING DOWN IN NEW ORLEANS, and that was the feeling at the 47th annual Jazz & Heritage Festi-val, where a single date (out of seven) served up a seemingly end-less parade of roots and rock guitar players.
New Orleans Jazz Fest 2017
P H OTOS BY J I M M Y A N D K E R R I L ES L I E
F E S T I V A L
Sonny Landreth opened the day with his striking, metallic-blue aluminum Progreba resonator guitar. “I love that it’s unique, it’s lightweight, it sounds airier than a Dobro, and it has a nice cutaway,” says Landreth.
Nels Cline creating soundscrapes with a coiled metal apparatus in his picking hand on a wild, Danelectro-style 12-string/baritone double-neck.
Anders Osborne (right) with a Yamaha LL26 and Eric McFadden.
Face off!—Dave Matthews (right) on his Rockbridge and Tim Reynolds with a Martin.
Revivalist Zack Feinberg tapped out the chime-y opening figure of “It Was a Sin” on a Guild Starfire IV. “I play Em, C, and G in the first position, and while the chords ring out, I tap on and pull off notes at the 12th fret,” says Feinberg. “That’s one of my two tap-ping tricks [laughs].”
Slick
®, Kwikplug
®,, GFS
®,, XGP
®,and Xaviere
®,are sold exclusively at
www.Guitarfetish.com
Slick SL51Rich Tonewood Series RTS-750SCE
Rich Tonewood Series RTS-550SCE Xaviere XV-555
Xaviere XV-560 Xaviere XV-845 Xaviere XV-550
Real Woods...Real Tone...Real Innovation..Real Pricing!
Only Guitarfetish.com brings you the very coolest new guitars, pickups and parts... sold
warehouse-direct. Our site is positively PACKED with critically acclaimed GFS Pickups, XGP Guitar Parts, Xaviere
Guitars, MODboard effects and Slick brand guitars and parts. Our proprietary Kwikplug Quick Change
Pickup system makes pickup changes a 60 second job!
Not found at any dealer. Sold Direct to YOU at Wholesale pricing...Unmatched for quality, tone and value
worldwide!
G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M /A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 24
G A L A X Y A U D I O
POWERED HOT SPOT PA6BTGoodies Mic-stand-mount-able personal powered monitor with a built-in 70-watt ampli-fier, 6.5" woofer, 1.5" titanium-dome tweeter, two XLR/1/4" inputs with XLR pass-through, compressor, line input and output, 3-band EQ, dedicated Volume control, and Bluetooth capability.
Price $299 street More Info galaxyaudio.com
Q U I LT E R
OVERDRIVE 200
Goodies Weighing in at 4 lbs, Quilter’s new 200-watt Block Series amp head is designed to deliver its namesake tone in a variety of flavors via switch-able drive sections. Features include adjustswitch-able Clean and Drive channels, effects loop, high-impedance 1/4" input jack, dual 1/4" speaker outputs for variable loads (16ȍ to 4ȍ), and a headphone out.
Price $549 retail More Info quilterlabs.com
E P I P H O N E
LTD. ED. JOHNNY A. CUSTOM OUTFIT
Goodies This double-cutaway archtop was custom designed by Johnny A., and features a thinline semi-hollow mahogany body, flame maple top, mahogany neck, 12" radius ebony fretboard with mother-of-pearl inlays, and a sweet Sunset Glow finish. Highlights include Gibson ’57 Classic humbuckers, a Bigsby B70 vibrato, a custom hardshell case, and a signed certificate of authenticity.
Price $999 street More Info epiphone.com
E M M A E L E C T R O N I C
ON-1 OKTO-NØJSGoodies EMMA Electronic’s first new offering in nearly a decade combines a super-accurate, fast-tracking octave down—the Okto—with a dynamically responsive, synth-like octave-fuzz—the Nøjs. Both effects are 100-percent analog and can be used separately, com-bined, or blended with dry signal to cover a wide range of tonal territory.
Price $229 street More Info godlyke.com
POWER.
TONE.
Now you can have them both
Vintage tone or high power handling? It used to be a choice – not any more. The new G12H-150 Redback combines authentic Celestion tone with a 150-watt power rating to create a 12-inch speaker capable of transforming a high power combo or cabinet. So now you can have it all.
celestion.com
150
26 G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M /A U G U S T 2 0 1 7
FOR STYX’S FIRST STUDIO ALBUM IN 14 YEARS, THE BAND decided to boldly go where few acts have dared to travel. At a time when single downloads are typically embraced much more than buying and absorbing a complete album, guitarists Tommy Shaw and James Young, bassist Chuck Panozzo, keyboardist Lawrence Gowan, bassist Ricky Phillips, and drummer Todd Sucherman made a full-on concept record of cinematic proportions.
The Mission [Alpha Dog 2T/UMe] takes listeners through a 43-minute epic tone poem detailing the first manned mission to Mars in 2033. The band absolutely has command of enough tech-nical chops, songwriting smarts, and aural textures to bring the story to life, and it’s truly exciting to experience a work so fearless
and multilayered. Where’s my space suit?
How did this whole operetta start?
Shaw: It started out with a little sound thing I came up with
in the dressing room one time. We’d gotten these miniature prac-tice amps, I put my guitar through one, used this setting that had delay, and started playing this line. It sounded cool, so I recorded it into my phone. Then, I started playing these chords along with it—using a little flange and a bit of chorus—and I thought, “Man, I should record this, too!” So out came my iPad, and I recorded a video of me playing the chords. I got home, started fleshing out the song in my studio, and I sent an mp3 to [songwriting
Styx in Outer Space
TOMMY SHAW AND JAMES YOUNG
TAKE THEIR GUITARS ON A
MISSION TO MARS
27 A U G U S T 2 0 1 7/ G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M
KEN SETTLE
collaborator] Willie Evankovich. Will said, “Let me play you this thing I’m working on,” and he had this song “Locomotive.” The two songs totally worked together, so I changed some words to match my con-cept, and we had a great start on the story line. The ideas kept springing forth from there, like, “What should happen next?” We were writing about people’s experi-ences within the concept—whether they were driving a bus, or on the rocket ship, or leaving someone behind and missing them. Writing about the people on the mis-sion made it a lot easier to tell the stories, and the stories made it easy to determine who would sing each song. For example, James has a degree in Aeronautical Engi-neering from the Illinois Institute of Tech-nology. He’s literally a rocket scientist. So we made him the engineer.
It’s a trip that this huge cinematic concept came from fiddling around on a practice amp. How did you go from there to the mission to Mars concept?
Shaw: Just like this [sings melody]: “Mis-sion to Mars” rolled right off the tongue.
So it simply beamed in from the uni-verse directly to your head?
Shaw: Exactly. Those are the best songs.
Most of the songs I’ve written that have caught on with the fans have been the songs where you literally transcribed this radio signal playing in your head.
James, what was it like for you to craft parts around a predetermined sto-ry line?
Young: Writing a story, and then creat-ing music around it, is difficult on one level, but it makes life easier on another, because you can imagine certain situations that will lead you to a spot you might not have gone to in your personal experience. And there are also surprises. For example, the guitar riff on “Gone Gone Gone” is something I kept noodling over in dressing rooms for months on end. It’s sort of an homage to Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton. Tommy kept saying, “Hey, we’ve got to get a song out of that somehow.” I tried, but I couldn’t do it, so I told Tommy to take it and do whatever he could with it. Ulti-mately, it worked its way into the concept, but it was really me just trying to advance myself as a guitar player with unique things 6-string missionaries—James Young (left) and Tommy Shaw.
FEATURES
FEATURES
FEATURES
28 G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M /A U G U S T 2 0 1 7
>>>
STYX
that are within my skill set, but that also will get people’s attention, and help move the band forward.
I was also very well aware that The Mis-sion was more Tommy’s baby than it was mine, but I was excited to contribute what-ever I could, and do whatwhat-ever was needed. We did butt heads quite a bit when we were in our 20s, but now there is simply a mutual admiration and love for what each of us can do. And, trust me, there’s some-thing very unique in what the two of us have together, and you don’t mess with it.
Can you elaborate on that?
Young: There’s an incredibly broad range of single-string lead playing, as well as this idea of how to utilize the electric guitar in a rock context.
How did you approach manifesting the cinematic aspects of this album with your guitar tones?
Shaw: Well, first off, we recorded this thing twice. We did it once as a pre-production
demo, and then the guys came in and played it for real. Finally, we recorded it again at Blackbird Studios in Nashville. This was our way of writing the songs, learning the songs, and getting familiar enough with the songs so that we owned them. Once we got to that point, deciding which tones were needed to tell the story was pretty obvious.
Just to be clear, that sounds like you did three run-throughs of the entire project.
Shaw: Oh, yeah. It was learning it, doing final arrangements and getting more com-fortable with the material, and going to Blackbird to record it for release.
So what gear ended up making the cast list, then?
Shaw: I was playing around with my amps—a blackface Deluxe Reverb, a couple of Matchless amps for that AC30 sound, a Marshall TSL 60, and a Bogner Shiva— and the Shiva kept winning the shootout. It had the sound of the Marshalls we made
records with in the ’70s, and that’s what we were looking for. Then, with the Shiva as our friendly go-to amp, it was, “Which guitar do you want to play?” We actually went back to basics. I had a couple of Les Pauls and Fenders, and JY had his Strats. I think what we all love about the old Styx records is when you listen to them, you hear five guys. You don’t hear 12 or 15 guys all layered. There are some stacked keyboards, and that sort of thing, but pretty much it’s five guys playing live and singing, and we tried to keep that all throughout this record. I didn’t use a lot of effects—a boost to get a little more crunch, a Digi-Tech Whammy on the “Time May Bend” solo and the middle of “Red Storm,” and a Cry Baby wah.
Also, there are no digital delays. Any delay you hear on this record was done on a tape machine. In fact, everything hit tape at least once. If anything sounded a bit harsh on a Pro Tools file, we would dump
daddario.com
&
ARTIST
TRI-ACTION
CAPO LITE
BANJO/MANDO
UKULELE
NS CAPO
CLASSICAL GUITAR
DROP TUNE
THE NEW ROCKBOARD FLAT PATCH CABLES:
Designed to optimize pedalboard real estate, these new RockBoard® Flat Patch Cablesfeature a slim rectangular body and extra thin angled plugs to keep your setup tidy and neat looking. Available in: 2”, 3 15⁄16”, 7 7⁄8”, 11 13⁄16”, 17 11⁄16”, 23 5⁄8”, 31 ½”, 39 3⁄8”, 47 ¼”, 55 1⁄8” inches
®
FOREVER CHANGING THE
WAY YOU SET UP YOUR
PEDALBOARD
FEATURES
FEATURES
FEATURES
30 G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M /A U G U S T 2 0 1 7
>>>
STYX
it over to half-inch tape, record it, and then bring it back to Pro Tools. The drums were recorded on two Studer 24-track machines, so there’s that nice tape saturation on the cymbals. The vocals all hit tape. All the little soundscapes hit tape. So you get this mass of warm tones, and when you have a record like that, you can keep turning it up, and it’s never going to get harsh and hurt your ears. It’s just going to keep get-ting louder.
Young: I came to the sessions without an amplifier, as those guys had a setup they wanted me to play through. They plugged me in, and I started playing. I have enough adjustment on my guitar, and enough adjustments available during post-produc-tion to make it into what it needed to be. I leave the nuances of which guitar amp to use, the cabinets, and all those things to other people who have more discern-ing ears than I do. I know when an amp sounds really good, but I don’t necessarily
know how to get it there. I just brought my ’65 Strat that’s modified with a Sus-tainiac pickup, and a custom instrument with a locking trem if I wanted to do any dive bombs. I’m not a pedal guy, either. I’ve always been a believer that if you’re going to process something, you want to get the cleanest, strongest signal on to tape, and do all your effects processing during the mixdown.
Shaw: We were always trying to make the guitar sounds as cinematic as the lyrics and the story. You know, for most of my life, I was always on the bridge pickup with everything wide open—as bright as I could stand it through a cranked Marshall as I. But in the last ten years or so, I’ve really started to appreciate the creamy sounds you can get when you audition other pickup positions and turn down your guitar’stTone knob. This came in handy for my solo on “The Greater Good,” where I used the middle pickup position on my Les Paul to
get a rounder tone to match the song’s vibe. I really appreciate and salute the fact that you guys did a concept album— an artistic statement, if you will—be-cause I truly believe that, these days, guitar music requires something more to capture the ears and imagination of the public.
Young: So true! Listen, the whole idea of making a record in many ways is that it’s a pure artistic exercise at this point in time. From a practical business stand-point, where an artist is trying to sur-vive financially in a difficult environment, none of our contemporaries—not even the Stones or McCartney—can make albums that really pay for themselves. Maybe the Katy Perrys and the Taylor Swifts can, but making classic-rock music is not a profit-able exercise. So, creatively, as artists, we have to do this, because this is who we are. We did this record completely for the pure joy of creation. g
Erupter
™Erupter
™( ( ( I N T R O D U C I N G ) ) )
www.earthquakerdevices.com
ULTIMATE FUZZ TONE The Erupter is the result of over two years’ worth of tone-chasing, tweaking, and experimentation in search of the ultimate classic fuzz tone with a big low end, a biting top end without being too harsh, and just enough output to politely send a tube amp over the top.
SuproUSA.com
TM
DISCOVER
THE LEGEND
Mike Keneally
(Zappa, Satriani, Vai)
“It’s not too often that I pick
up a guitar and fall instantly
in love, but that’s basically
what went down with the
Hampton. From the most
delicate textures to complete
over-the-top wailing. I freaking
love this thing.”
Island Series
32 G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M /A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 WILLIAM HAME S/ A TLA SIC ONS .C OM
33 A U G U S T 2 0 1 7/ G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M
T H E R E ’S A N U N S E T T L E D, VO LCA N I C font of creativity that ricochets across Andy Summers’ mind’s eye. Whether he’s gazing through the viewfinder of his favorite Leica camera, searching for those strange and beautiful shadows of everyday life, or guid-ing the music seepguid-ing from his heart and fingers, he always appears to seek mystery, artistry, and the delicious tension of the unknown. Perhaps this is part of the reason Summers’ guitar has exhibited a rainbow of colors throughout his career—blues, rock, anti-rock, jazz, classical, and exper-imental—when most guitarists would be blissfully and forever fulfilled if they were able to forge just one unique guitar sound. And, at 74 years old, he’s not done yet. For his latest solo album, Triboluminescence
[Flickering Shadow/Cargo], Summers once again cleared out his timbral and compo-sitional toolboxes to devise a style he has tagged “New Exotic.”
“It’s a bit of a catch phrase,” says Sum-mers of New Exotic, “but I think it’s fair enough. I’ve traveled extensively—particu-larly in Asia—and I wanted to take listen-ers on a global journey with this album. In essence, Triboluminescence is the result of a life-time of influences and experiences, and I felt the material demanded that I try to search for a new voice, a new genre, and new sounds.” I don’t know how you do it, Andy. You’re always spinning off into different worlds. What drives that resistance to the con-ventional?
Well, I’ve never been interested in play-ing a straight, pentatonic-blues guitar style. A million guys do it very well, but I don’t want to be known for that. I mean, if the Police was about anything, it was not that. It wasn’t punk or new wave, either. The horrible old question persisted for years: “What genre is it? What label can you give your music?” But there was no answer to that question, because Police music was its own genre. In the old days, it was about finding your own voice, and that’s still a great goal to go for today. I’m certainly aware of my relationship with modern music, but I don’t want to be completely immersed in everything that’s going on out there, because I think that’s danger-ous for a creative artist. The space you have in your head—not to sound preten-tious—is sacred. It’s like your own little temple, and you shouldn’t drown it out with everyone else’s stuff.
Now, in my case, I’ve always felt a cer-tain amount of internal pressure to push the envelope and get a sort of “art qual-ity ”—to make something new with the guitar. So I do a lot of experimentation, and I hook up lots of guitar pedals to try and get something that starts my imagi-nation. As a result, most of the tracks on Triboluminescence are styled from a sonic sit-uation, where I’d play around with sounds until I found something. Then, I’d usually record it for approximately 48 bars to see if I could add drums, or coax out another guitar line, or whatever.
Can you give our readers an example of how you go about “making something new”?
In the old days, for example, I’d proba-bly have a keyboard player or another gui-tarist sort of doing the harmony. But, now, I use loops for that, instead of having some-one play all the chord shapes on piano or whatever. Also, while looping, I’ll detune guitars, capo them, and play them using drumsticks. Some of it works, and some of it is terrible [laughs].
So the composition is in flux here, and you’re purely following your instincts as you improvise by plugging in differ-ent pedals, playing parts, and making loops?
Well, yes, but you still must have knowl-edge of composition and structure. I try to build a musical architecture out of it— rather than just have a sonic thing dron-ing on for ten minutes. It’s a combination of aesthetic choice, and what I consider to be hip or cool—not clichéd or corny.
How can guitarists avoid playing clichés?
I come at it like this: The music needs to have neutrality, because I believe the music we’re drawn to doesn’t come at you too strongly. I feel that music has to exist in its own space of its own intrinsic value, and it doesn’t try to reach out to the lis-tener. It’s just there, because it’s a great piece of music. I find that very attractive. There’s also a quality of ambiguity. You think you’ve got it, but you haven’t got it,
Drawing Lines in the Dark
ANDY SUMMERS ON IMPROVISATION, LOOPING, AND CREATING
YOUR OWN GENRE
34 G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M /A U G U S T 2 0 1 7
>>>
ANDY SUMMERS
so you’re always coming back to it. I see all the great music as having a disinter-ested quality. It doesn’t ask you to like it. I can’t stand music that’s trying to impress me. It stops existing as art to me. Listen, maybe only four people might care about what I’m doing, but I have to create music that I feel is very good and artistically inter-esting. It’s the only creed I can live by. I’ll tell any person starting out, only do what you believe in, and if you don’t believe it, do something else.
During the sessions for Tribolumines-cence, when did looping enter the com-positional process?
The loops came in fairly early—they’re the instigators. Sometimes, I loop percus-sion to get something going, or the loops might be melodic and generated from the guitar. If it’s a good loop, I might start play-ing drums to it, or come up with a bass line. The icing on the cake, of course, is the melody.
How did you typically find the melo-dies for the pieces?
A lot of the melodies come from abso-lute instinct—from being in the moment and jamming on the track. You do it a few times, the mists start to go away, and the melody will start to appear. Then, I’d leave it for a couple of days, come back to it with perhaps a different perception, maybe change a note here and there, and get it better.
Did it take a lot of jamming to find something you liked?
No. I didn’t jam extensively on anything. I might do it for ten minutes one day, and ten minutes on another. There’s a certain amount of luck to it, like, “That’s it. It just popped out.” Obviously, you can’t plan, schedule, or force these things.
Earlier, you mentioned the impor-tance of structure. At what point during the improvisations did your “producer’s mind” kick in to arrange all the parts?
After the initial inspiration, it would typically happen pretty fast. I was sort of constantly monitoring mood, melody, and structure as the parts unfolded. For exam-ple, on “Elephant Bird,” the melody was being difficult. Everything I did made it less, or too conventional. So I started to mess around with the guitar signal, and a Z.Vex Lo-Fi Junky gave me this wonderful warped quality that inspired me to play the melody using natural harmonics—no fret-ted notes. Suddenly, I starfret-ted getting into this thing where the natural harmonics and warped signal gave me what sounded like a muted Miles Davis sound from the guitar. The melody came out very positive, which is unusual for me. It was like Miles in a good mood.
Any other stories of creative chal-lenges?
Absolutely. “Adinkra” had an incredible history. I had found this sound—I think it was on the Axe-Fx—that sounded like an
THE KYSER QUICK-CHANGE
TWENTY COLORS. TAKE YOUR PICK.
www.kysermusical.com
KYSER® MUSICAL PRODUCTS 100% MADE IN USA Guaranteed for life
Personalized Fishman-Quality Sound In A Portable,
Powerful and Easy-To–Set-Up Package
(DVLO\SHUVRQDOL]HGIRU\RXUVSHFLƓFDXGLRQHHGVWKH)LVKPDQ6$ 3HUIRUPDQFH$XGLR6\VWHPLVWKHLGHDOVROXWLRQIRUVRORDFRXVWLF SHUIRUPHUVVPDOOFRPERV'-VNH\ERDUGLVWVFRUSRUDWHSUHVHQWHUV DWWUDGHVKRZVRULQFRQIHUHQFHURRPVDQ\DQGDOOZKRQHHGWREH KHDUGLQVPDOOWRPHGLXPVL]HGVLWXDWLRQVZKHUHDSRUWDEOHSUDFWLFDO DQGVRQRURXVSHUIRUPDQFHDPSOLƓFDWLRQVROXWLRQLVUHTXLUHG
Performance Audio Systems
wà >°V ,QVSLUHG3HUIRUPDQFH7HFKQRORJ\70
36 G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M /A U G U S T 2 0 1 7
>>>
ANDY SUMMERS
Indian orchestra, and I loved it. I immedi-ately came up with the melody, and I played one of the best slide-guitar solos I’ve ever done in my life. I let a drummer play on it, and he did this belly dancing-style rhythm. Then, I started to hate the track. I thought had I lost the whole thing, and I hated to give it up, because I had already put so much work into it. So I started stripping it down. I replaced the drums myself, and it started sounding better. I replaced the bass line. Finally, I replaced the sound I loved with a horn patch on the VG-99. So the Indian orchestra went bye-bye, and, suddenly, the track had this African vibe. I played what I felt was a sort of Highlife fingerstyle pattern on the Strat, and I soft-ened the tone. Now, the melody is get-ting soulful. It’s all working. The song went through an enormous change, and it became so much cooler. I like to say that it went from “Please like me” to neutrality. I had thought the original version was the
greatest track I had ever made. It wasn’t. And so you progress…
What was some of the critical gear during the sessions?
I basically started with a Stratocaster through a Roland VG-99, or a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx, or, in some cases, a Carr amp. Once I had the whole architecture in place, I’d kind of detail the guitar sound. Is it good enough? Should I use the ES-336 or the SG, or switch out the amp models? I used a lot of pedals—in addition to the Lo-Fi Junky there were some BOSS pedals and other things. I know I have this all written down somewhere [laughs]. Loopers were the Line 6 JM4, the Roland RC-505, and probably a couple of others. I used Spectrasonics Omni-sphere for all the wild cinematic sounds, and my drum set was a Roland TD-20.
Do you think it’s difficult for a mu-sician to seek high art without having people scream about the music being pretentious? Should we care?
That’s a good thought. I guess that fear is always there—especially if you’re in the U.K. They’ll call you a pretentious wanker just because you tried something new. “Well, you know what, man—you do it then!” [Laughs.] It’s human to be defensive in those cases, but you can’t stop moving forward. And, in a sense, pretension often comes with youth and pomposity. Later on, you cool out a bit. But I think it’s all part of the effort to make something. With any artist who has had a long career, you see the effort to move forward in their early work, and, for some, the early stuff is not that good. Of course, if you don’t get past the pretension, your music is going to sound grandiose, and it won’t be real.
Then, there’s the curse of one’s early work—which, in my case, is the Police. No matter how far you evolve, no matter how complex and sophisticated your stuff becomes, some people will just want “Roxanne.” g
IN STORES EVERYWHERE NOW!
38 G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M /A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 SO M E B O DY FO RG OT TO T E L L RO B I N
Trower that, at the age of 72, he’s supposed to be slowing down. In 2016, the veteran guitar master issued Where You Are Going To, packed with enough fiery blues-rock to satisfy his legion of fans for years, and he recently followed it up with Time and Emo-tion [V-12], a deeper, more expansive and extravagant work on which he raises the bar for brawny, soul-rattling soloing to almost vertiginous heights.
“I don’t see any reason to stop,” he says, adding, somewhat casually, that he’s work-ing on yet another new record. “The fact is that I write a lot, and I enjoy playing, so I keep making records. Now, that said, I’m always trying to improve, and I imagine that will continue. Certainly, in this last couple of years, I feel like I’ve hit some sort of sweet spot. I can’t imagine why I’d just be content, and go, ‘Okay, that’s as good as I can get,’ because the goal should always be to get better.”
Trower cites the amps he’s using as a key element of his creative renaissance. Moving from 50-watt Vintage Modern and 1987X Marshall heads to the compa-ny’s 30-watt 1962 Bluesbreaker reissue combo amps has had a dramatic impact on his playing.
“It’s something I noticed right away with the Bluesbreakers,” he notes. “There’s a
more active response coming through the speakers, and I can hear the attack I’m put-ting into my playing—whether it’s a bend or some vibrato. That sort of leads me on, and it helps the flow of ideas. When your amp gives you a real musical sound, it’s incredibly inspiring.”
The songs on Time and Emotion are a bit more adventurous structurally than on Where You Are Going To.
That’s the big difference between the two records. I didn’t want to get more complicated production-wise, but I wanted the new songs to be more interesting for people who aren’t that interested in the guitar, per se. Some people just want songs. They don’t care so much about all the playing.
For a while now, you’ve been record-ing tracks by playrecord-ing guitar to a click track and adding instruments from there. What do you like about recording that way?
I guess things are easier to control. I start off with a drum-machine part that feels right, and then I lay down a guitar part. After that, I do a guide vocal, and then I try a bass part, or I might do the guitar again. After that, I work more on the guitar, the lead, and I might upgrade the vocal a bit more. That all happens before Chris Tag-gart puts down the real drums. While I’m
doing this, I am aware of how the songs will sound live. Even when I’m writing, I do like to have half an eye on how everything will work in a three-piece band.
Your co-producer, Livingstone Brown, plays bass on some cuts, but most of the bass tracks are your own.
I got Livingstone on a couple of things, because he’s a better player than me. I was quite happy with pretty much everything I did, but there were just a few things that needed a more accomplished feel. I like play-ing the bass. When I write, I try to come up with a bass part that fits hand in glove with the guitar. That kind of puts a little jet fuel in my performances.
By making records in a piecemeal fashion, are you more inclined to change your guitar parts around as the arrange-ments evolve?
Oh, yeah. I quite often change guitar parts. As you’re building the piece, certain things become apparent where it needs to be more this or more that, or less. But, mostly, the original guitar part will go all the way to the end, because the song is written around that guitar part.
Your phrasing on the extended solos for “Returned In Kind” and “If You Be-lieve In Me” sounds so deliberate, but I have a hunch that it isn’t.
Those long solos could be made up of
It’s Getting Better All the Time
HOW THE WILL TO IMPROVE—AND A MARSHALL BLUESBREAKER—
ARE DRIVING ROBIN TROWER’S CONSTANT CREATIVE EVOLUTION
39 A U G U S T 2 0 1 7/ G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M
>>>
ROBIN TROWER
different takes. What I do is, I play it all the way through, and then maybe there will be licks here and there that I think can be better. Those are long solos, so I probably did go back and replace a phrase or two. You try to have a sense of what you’re doing as you’re doing it, but you don’t want it to get in the way of the moment.
You’ve often cited B.B. King as the player who got you into bending when you play a vibrato. Can you speak a little about that?
Well, you see, I did have a natural vibrato early on—when I was about 18 or so. Then, I heard B.B. King, who did that bend in the vibrato. It was just so emo-tionally potent. He’s one of the daddies of it all. When I heard him, I really felt it, and I knew I could do something with that. B.B., Albert King, and Jimi Hendrix were my mentors in terms of lead work. Their vibrato was so emotive. That was part of their magic.
At this point in your career, do you ever practice to work on something spe-cific, like a new part or a technique?
My practice is wailing. I just pick up the guitar and go for at least 20 minutes a day. I even do that on days off while on the road. I don’t like to miss a day of playing. I don’t call it “practice,” though. I just play and try to come up with things I haven’t done before, like little bends or groups of notes.
Let’s talk about your gear. You men-tioned the amps you’re currently using, but what about effects?
I’m using all Fulltone stuff from Mike Fuller in California. At the moment, I’m using the original Full-Drive from 1992, a Deja ’Vibe, and his WahFull. I quite like that you can set the wah to one fixed sound. He makes great stuff.
Have you ever thought about check-ing out digital amp modelcheck-ing?
Oh, no. I don’t like the sound of those things. I’ve tried them, but they’re not for me.
I assume you’re still using your signa-ture Fender Strats?
Very much so. I have two that are really my favorites, but I have about six all together. I’ve had these for eight or nine years now, and I don’t do any updates to them. They’re exactly the same as when Fender first came out with them.
Do you ever get the itch to pick up something other than a Strat?
No, not really. I did go through periods during the ’70s and ’80s, when I messed about with other things, but I always came back to the Strats. If the guitars weren’t turning me on, I’d look around, but that isn’t the case. There’s the play-ability aspect of a Strat, but I mainly love the guitar because it has such a musical sound. Especially when you’re playing leads, the Strat has a very human-voice quality to it. That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning. I still get inspired and turned on by that sound. g
T-SHIRTS HOODIES JACKETS JERSEYS TANK TOPS SWEATERS LONG SLEEVES SHORTS BABYWEAR HATS BEANIES JEWELRY BACKPACKS BAGS POSTERS COLLECTIBLES TOYS FLAGS PATCHES PINS BUTTONS STICKERS WALLETS KEY CHAINS DVDS VINYL AND MORE
9VJRHIPSPHJVTVMMLYZ[OLSHYNLZ[ZLSLJ[PVUVMT\ZPJTLYJOHUKPZL`V\^PSSÄUKVU[OL>LIWLYPVK
For a
free catalog
, visit
rockabilia.com
, call
or write:
76)V_ +LW[ *OHUOHZZLU45 <:(
OVER 250,000 ITEMS
FROM YOUR
43 A U G U S T 2 0 1 7/ G U I TA R P L AY E R . C O M
BY JIMMY LESLIE
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALYSSE GAFKJEN
“ I ’ M S O E XC I T E D ! ”E XC L A I M S TO M M Y E M M A N U E L . “I’ve only been waiting for 35 years to get on the cover of this magazine [laughs].”
One of only a handful of guitarists dubbed a “Certified Guitar Player” by the legendary Chet Atkins, Emmanuel was the clear choice for the featured spot among this issue’s Top Acoustic Players. The über-talented fingerpicker has earned a pair of of Grammy nominations, as well as a pair of the Australian equivalent ARIA Awards. He even represented his homeland by performing at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympics. Emmanuel’s melodic mastery extends his appeal far beyond guitar geekdom, but those zealots—which include many of the readers of this magazine—are at the core of his huge fan base.
“I remember when GP had a poll about a dozen years back for the readers’ favorite acoustic albums of all time,” recalls Emmanuel. “Of course, Leo Kottke’s 6- and 12-String Guitar came in at number one. Doc Watson got the second spot,
