Guitarist

Are famous guitars imbued with some of the spirit of the people who played them? Perhaps that’s too much like magical thinking for some, but certainly there’s a relationship between the player and these old planks of wood we love that involves a kind

The Texan rocker has some wise and hard-earned advice on buying guitars to pass on, plus some nice tone insights on p110 One of the prime pioneers of blues and early rock ’n’ roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe deserves more credit for her contribution to mu

Future Publishing Limited, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA Telephone 01225 442244 Email guitarist@futurenet.com Online www.guitarist.co.uk EDITORIAL ART EDITOR Darren Phillips darren.phillips@futurenet.com MANAGING EDITOR Lucy Rice lucy.rice@

We have to admit that we weren’t aware of JWJ Guitars until a few months ago when luthier Rich Jones visited us at Guitarist HQ in order for us to sample his wares. Based in Shropshire, Rich began building guitars as a hobbyist 20 years ago, turning

By the early 1970s, the Telecaster had already been around for more than 20 years. Five decades on and this seems like nothing at all. But back then it made Fender, still under relatively new management, feel that a change of direction was needed in

CONTACT Fidelity Guitars WEB www.fidelity-guitars.co.uk It’s been a while since we caught up with Cambridge-based Matt Oram and his Fidelity guitars. From his original Double Standard and JB models that we looked at back in 2018, he’s been busy – cre

Gear brands traditionally flock to Anaheim for the AGM Of Tone in January, but this year, with the show itself pushed back until April and some big players choosing not to exhibit, there was a risk of this being a quieter year in terms of releases. F

They’re expensive, but these coated strings have excelled in all the studio sessions we’ve used them for. The main benefit is the reduction in squeaks and other handling noise offered by the Nanoweb coating, which also extends string life. Don’t be s

Let’s start with a bit of jargon-busting: a dominant chord is the ‘full’ name for a 7th chord, the type with a b7th rather than a major 7th. When we describe a chord as ‘altered’, this means one (or more) of the notes has been raised or lowered away

The other day I saw a reference to the New Zealand band Split Enz. I recalled being given their Mental Notes debut album at Christmas 1975 and loved it, especially the track Time For A Change and the guitar solo at the end. The solo was, I believe, p

Few guitars come with such a historic and evocative backstory as this one. Pretty much whatever your age or taste in music, at least one if not all of the players involved – Peter Green, Gary Moore and Kirk Hammett, oh, and let’s not forget Les Paul

Under the backplate, just like the 50s Faded model, we see Gibson logo’d 500k pots (by CTS) and 022µF (223J) Orange Drop caps, wired modern style. The components are mounted on a metal grounding plate, but the cavity/cover isn’t otherwise screened. T

Poised and responsive, with a sonic vibe all of their own, Lollar is one of the few pickup brands whose products we could identify almost blindfold. Whether it’s P-90s we’ve played in an Eastman semi on review or Tele pickups fitted to one of our Mod

This modding lark ain’t cheap and I don’t just mean the price of those high-end, hand-wound pickup sets you plan to install. The more jobs you tackle, invariably, the more specialist tools you might need. And rather like those pedals you thought were

As its name implies, the Fender Bassman was designed with the electric bass in mind – specifically, the Precision Bass – though it has been wholeheartedly adopted by guitarists. Indeed, Fender’s current ’59 Bassman LTD amp is aimed at the six-string

Tutor Richard Barrett | Gear used Lewis Pequeño Bastardo, Vox AC15 C1 Difficulty | 15 mins per example ANOTHER TITLE I would like to have used here would be something like ‘Slow Major Gospel Blues With Off-Grid Timing And Lots Of Other Blues Trademar