Total Guitar - October 2024 UK

KING GIZZARD BLACK SABBATH - WAR PIGS
EPIC ROCK! NASTY TONES! LEARN! THE HEAVY METAL CLASSIC TABBED IN FULL
PLUS!
JACK WHITE
OLD SCRATCH
BLUES
SAM FENDER
GETTING
STARTED
“IT’S GUITAR BEYOND

POST-PUNK!
MUSIC FOR A NEW FONTAINES
GENERATION!” D.C.
IN S IDE THE IR
NE W GU ITA R
SOUND
HIS VISION
FOR THE FUTURE
HIS FIRST
SIGNATURE HENDRIX
GUITAR THE UNHEARD JIMI
RECORDINGS
GILMOUR
NEW ALBUM
TRACK BY TRACK
SOLO POWER!
Review
ROCK LICKS LESSON
JHS HARD DRIVE
HEAVY TONES FROM
FOO FIGHTERS TO
GREEN DAY & MORE!
EDITOR’S LETTER
Welcome…
Future Publishing
QUAY HOUSE, THE AMBURY, BATH, BA1 1UA
Tel: 01225 442244 Fax: 01225 822763
Email: totalguitar@futurenet.com
Website: www.totalguitar.co.uk
EDITORIAL
Editor: Chris Bird
Group Art Director: Graham Dalzell
Senior Music Editor: Jason Sidwell
Content Editor: Paul Elliott
Production Editor: Stan Bull
“Your individuality is the best thing
Art Editor: Jamie Schildhauer
Music Co-ordinators: Zoe Maughan, Natalie Beilby
you’ve got.” So says this month’s
CONTRIBUTORS
cover star Yungblud (real name
Stuart Williams, Amit Sharma, Charlie Griffiths, Jenna Scaramanga, Andrew Daly, Dominic Harrison), who, as the
Jonathan Horsley, Phil Weller, Phil Capone, Tim Tucker, Mitch Wilson, Trevor Curwen,
Matt Owen, Neville Marten, Michael Astley-Brown, Catherine Hood quintessential voice of Gen Z, has
Music Engraver: Simon Troup and Jennie Troup
Photography: Neil Godwin, Olly Curtis, Phil Barker built a loyal following, a community
ADVERTISING known as the Yungblud Army, that
Phone: 01225 442244 Fax: 01225 732285
Chief Revenue Officer: Zach Sullivan, zach.sullivan@futurenet.com prides itself on accepting
UK Commercial Sales Director: Clare Dove, clare.dove@futurenet.com
Advertising Sales Director: Lara Jaggon, lara.jaggon@futurenet.com
individuals of every kind,
Account Sales Director: Tanya Ely, tanya.ely@futurenet.com
regardless of gender, race or
MARKETING
Head Of Marketing: Sharon Todd
sexual orientation.
PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION You might say this spirit of openness extends to his first
Production Controller: Frances Twentyman
Head of Production UK & US: Mark Constance signature guitar, the new Epiphone SG Jr he’s sporting in
Printed in the UK by: Buxton Press Limited on behalf of Future
Distributed by: Marketforce UK, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6QA our cover photo (and which you’ll find reviewed on p82)
mfcommunications@futurenet.com
Overseas distribution by: Seymour International which is a replica of his own ’64 Gibson. For Yungblud, the
Head of Newstrade: Emma Bone
guitar had to be affordable – it’s a hair over £500. It had to
CIRCULATION
Trade Marketing Manager: Michelle Brock 0207 429 3683
be accessible to all – and he’s been giving them away at
SUBSCRIPTIONS
live shows!
New orders & renewals: www.magazinesdirect.com,
phone orders: 0330 333 1113, email: help@magazinesdirect.com Dominic is an interesting character. In our exclusive 03
INTERNATIONAL LICENSING interview he reveals that he’s a guitar nerd and a collector
Total Guitar is available for licensing and syndication.
Contact the Licensing team to discuss partnership opportunities. with a love of vintage Gibsons. Perhaps not what you’d
Head of Print Licensing: Rachel Shaw, licensing@futurenet.com
expect of a major pop act. He also reveals himself to be
MANAGEMENT
Brand Director, Music: Stuart Williams
something of a purist when it comes to amplification. I
Head Of Design (Music): Brad Merrett
Content Director: Scott Rowley
don’t want to overhype him as a “saviour of pop”-type
Group Art Director: Graham Dalzell figure, but I do think he’s a refreshingly guitar-focused
presence. A true individual, you might say.
Elsewhere this issue, we discuss Fontaines D.C.’s most
ambitious and experimental album to date with guitarist
Conor Curley. King Gizzard multi-instrumentalist Stu
Mackenzie talks us through the “classic 70s” vibe of the
band’s latest release. You’ll find lessons on songs from
Black Sabbath, Sam Fender and Jack White, plus reviews
of gear from Line 6, Squier, LTD and more.
Enjoy the issue and I’ll see you next month.
All contents copyright © 2024 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence.
All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, stored, transmitted
or used in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England
and Wales. Registered office: Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1
1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as
far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept
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Chris Bird Editor
Future nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage.
We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from

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OCTOBER 2024 TOTAL GUITAR

04
Cover image © Lisa OConnor/AFF-USA.com Credit: AFF/Alamy Live News
TOTAL GUITAR OCTOBER 2024

YUNGBLUD
46
CONTENTS
MONITOR
06 First Look
08 Scene
Q&A
12 Talking Guitars: Michael Schenker
HOW TO…
16 Pickup Music: 10 funk rhythm riffs
20 Riff of the Month:
Jack White – Old Scratch Blues
22 Guitar Tricks: Intro to Rock
24 FEATURES
ARCTANGENT’S RISING STARS 24 ArcTanGent’s Rising Guitar Stars
28 Fontaines D.C.
34 King Gizzard
40 Jimi Hendrix
44 David Gilmour
COVER FEATURE 05
46 Yungblud
LEARN TO PLAY
68 Classic Track:
Black Sabbath – War Pigs
78 Open-Mic Songbook:
28 34 Sam Fender – Getting Started
FONTAINES D.C. KING GIZZARD THE GAS STATION

80 Contents / Start Me Up!
Audio & Video 82 Epiphone Yungblud SG Junior

86 LTD EC-201FT
Find your audio and video 88 Chapman Law Maker Legacy Baritone
content online at: 90 Squier Limited Edition Classic Vibe
’60s Telecaster SH
bit.ly/tg389audio 92 Line 6 HX One
94 JHS Hard Drive
Type this link into a web browser on any
computer, smartphone or tablet to be
directed to guitarworld.com. Here you’ll
SUBSCRIPTIONS
96 Subscribe to TG!
find the issue’s A/V content, available
to download or stream. Alternatively,
scan the QR code to the right. SPOTLIGHT
98 Torus

MONITOR
PEOPLE ✪ NEWS ✪ NOISE
Words Stuart Williams

Photography Phil Barker
BRIGHT SPARK
The world’s best-loved practice amp
returns for its second generation
ositive Grid’s Spark series though, Spark 2 includes a pair of FRFR
P
amplifiers have been huge speakers equipped to reproduce your guitar,
game-changers when it acoustic or bass tone as well as give
comes to all-round crystal-clear music playback.
solutions for practising One of the most intriguing features,
and recording at home. though, is the new Spark AI tone creation.
Now, the tech-loaded amp has made a Simply tell it the type of sound you’re
return with Spark 2, which Positive Grid imagining, and Positive Grid reckons that
promises, “doesn’t just push boundaries - it Spark 2 can create a patch to match.
shatters them”. What’s more, the removable, rechargeable
All the previous Spark features we know Spark battery (£79) and carry bag (£60)
and love are here (Auto Chords, Smart Jam mean you can take Spark 2 anywhere.
06 and more), but PG has overhauled Spark 2 Spark 2 costs £279, and is currently
with a host of upgrades. It’s got twice the available for preorder - if you act fast,
processing power, all-new HD amp models, Positive Grid is offering Priority Access
an improved looper with “hyper-realistic” pricing for shipping in October but the
drum patterns, and, at 25 watts, it’s 25 per numbers are limited. Head to Positive Grid
cent more powerful. It’s not just louder, for more details.
UP CLOSE
More power Spark AI Loops & drums

Double the processing and a 25 per cent power With Spark 2’s AI , you can tell it the song, band or The upgraded looper section features hundreds
boost are on offer with the 50-watt Spark 2. type of tone you’re after and it’ll generate of great-sounding drum patterns for you to jam
patches for you to try. along with.

FIRST LOOK
07

MONITOR
ALBUM
“I’M GETTING CLEANER 09
WITH MY TONES”
HOW RICHIE KOTZEN IS STILL GROWING AS A “MORE EXPRESSIVE” PLAYER
rom Shrapnel shredder and Another song, These Doors, has some What made you switch to Marshall for your
F
fusion master to soul singer cleaner chromatic runs that owe more to most recent recordings and tours?
and acoustic balladeer, jazz influences like George Benson… The 1959 Super Lead is almost like a wine glass.
Richie Kotzen is There are a lot of clean solos on this record. You hit a chord and there’s a certain resonance
undoubtedly one of the As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been getting cleaner and thump, much like when you swirl a wine
most multifaceted guitar with my tones. I feel more expressive that way. glass. When you roll the volume down it
talents on earth. On latest album Nomad, You have less to worry about in terms of doesn’t go flat. Some hotter amps are more
he’s embracing the cleanest tones of his controlling the distortion, because that stuff compressed and forgiving but you end up losing
career to date... can get in the way. In the hard rock world, a lot of the tone. That’s why I ended up using
some people depend on overdrive to mask Marshall again. I’ve got three 1959s in orange
One of the new songs, Cheap Shots, has things they’re trying to hide. It’s like a false and then a few more in black.
a rootsy vibe that comes from the Keith confidence. Take it away and you can really
Richards school of guitar, and you once hear the guitar. Your preferred string gauge is 11-49, which
opened for The Rolling Stones… is on the heavy side for someone dealing
I half-jokingly asked my old agent to get me You used a lot of hybrid picking early on, out fast runs and big bends…
an opening slot for the Stones and I ended up but for the last 17 years you’ve been My action is somewhere in the middle, but
doing a whole Japanese tour. It was surreal! performing without a plectrum… yeah, the strings are heavy. It’s funny, as a
On Cheap Shots, I’m definitely leaning in on Yeah, it’s been a long time. It came out of teenager I read that Paul Gilbert used 11-49
that influence. Keith would often tune his feeling uninspired and wanting to go in gauge on his albums. But he was only talking
fifth string lower and lose his sixth string a different direction. I had to think, ‘Can I play about his rhythm parts! I misconstrued that
altogether, but because I have big hands the whole set like this?’ and then needed to and thought he was using them for everything.
Photos Juergen Spachmann
I don’t need to drop my A-string down to develop some new techniques. I use my thumb I bought a set, put them on my guitar and got
a G. Instead, I use my pinky on the sixth to strike chords, or the top of my nails which used to it. It was accidental! Now, if I pick up
string for the root and don’t play the I fan over the strings. For the records, I do a guitar with 9s, I get all twisted and can’t play!
fifth string at all. sometimes use a pick. It’s probably 50-50. Amit Sharma

MARCH 2024
MONITOR
GUITAR
EPIPHONE JIMI HENDRIX

“LOVE DROPS” FLYING V
E
piphone has been working one-piece mahogany neck, laurel
hard on its “Inspired By fingerboard and 22 frets. Being an
Gibson Custom” line, and “Inspired By…” model, it comes
the latest model is the Jimi fitted with a pair of Gibson USA
Hendrix “Love Drops” Flying V. Custombuckers with upgraded
Based on the V that Jimi played electronics including CTS pots,
between 1967-1969, and selling for Mallory capacitors and Switchcraft
£1,499, the Love Drops recreates pickup selector and output jack.
Jimi’s customised paint job, applied Hardware includes a Maestro
to the originally-Sunburst guitar by Vibrola and Epiphone Deluxe
the man himself. Underneath the tuners, and it’s bundled in a
psychedelic design, it’s a hardcase. Of course, it’s available
10 mahogany body equipped with a as a leftie too.
PEDAL GUITAR
UNIVERSAL FENDER FINNEAS
AUDIO ACOUSTASONIC
ANTI 1992 PLAYER
TELECASTER
A I
mp modelling pedals
f the name Finneas
have been changing the
escapes you, you may be
way we think about our
more familiar with his
rigs, and some of the
sister, Billie Eilish. Finneas
best standalone examples we’ve
is the brother, co-writer,
tried have come from Universal
co-producer and guitarist for
Audio’s UAFX series. So far, that’s
one of the biggest names in
very much been geared towards
pop, and Fender has just
the more vintage/classic end of
honoured him with the first
the amp world, but that’s set to
ever signature Acoustasonic
change with the introduction of
model. There are actually two
the company’s ANTI 1992. For
channels and six cab emulations (with a US Acoustasonic also Finneas spec’d a chorus circuit,
£380, this bright red pedal aims to
geared towards premium available), and the Player series which is selectable in two
ape the sound of the classic Peavey
high-gain tone. There’s hands-on version includes Fender’s positions, and, as usual, the
5150 amp, known for its Eddie Van
control from the six knobs (which Shawbucker magnetic pickup, magnetic/acoustic sounds can
Halen connections, but also for
serve double-duty), and UA has while it’s also equipped with a be blended together. It comes
delivering some of the heaviest
also included a TS-style overdrive Fishman under-saddle in a Cappuccino Fade finish,
tones in metal since. UA’s
circuit and noise gate. transducer. For his guitar, and is available now for £1,199.
approximation offers three

MONITOR
TALKING GUITARS
MICHAEL SCHENKER
HARD ROCK LEGEND. HERO TO SLASH,
KIRK HAMMETT AND MORE
Interview Jonathan Horsley Photo Tallee
12
rilliant, eccentric German birthday instead of a motorbike. It must have How much did you practise in those early
B
guitar hero Michael been that one that I secretly played against his days and how often do you practise now?
Schenker debuted with the will! The first song I played was something to It is more like play and discover. That’s
Scorpions before joining do with San Francisco. It was a hit in those days. different. It is less technical. It is more like
UFO in 1974, then breaking [Hums San Francisco by The Mamas And The looking for gold, and once in a while I find
out on his own with The Papas] Yeah! And there was a solo in there, a piece of gold. This will automatically
Michael Schenker Group. He favours a black and I learnt that. I was nine years old and I was become part of my developed style.
and white Flying V and helped popularise very happy.
cocked-wah guitar tone. His new album is an What is the one song or performance that
all-star celebration of his UFO days, featuring Was was there a moment when you felt you’re most proud of?
Slash, Axl Rose and other heavy friends. you had arrived as a player? I’m happy with everything. For me, it is never
No, it has always been the same for me. Right about a song. I am a lead guitarist! Ha! Lead
What guitar did you learn on? from the moment when I was nine years old guitarists think differently. My whole life has
It was a guitar that was lying around. It must and picked up a guitar, I was always amazed always been about development, so every
have been an acoustic. My brother Rudolf with what I could discover, and it never moment is special, and every moment is
[Scorpions guitarist] got a Gibson for his stopped. I am in the same place! different. We can never compare any of them.

“THERE IS NO TECHNIQUE FOR ME. Q&A
I DIDN’T CARE IF I DID IT THE What was your biggest motivation as
RIGHT OR WRONG WAY” a player?

I wanted to express myself. That was my
devotion. It still is and I have done it for fifty
years, without listening to music so I don’t get
influenced, and that’s where the uniqueness
comes from. Focus on opening up what’s
unique about yourself. Anybody who makes
that decision can do it. I am a musical monk or
something. That’s my mission. Self-expression
is my mission. That’s what I want, in every
sense, not just music. I just love to self-express
and really do what I like to do. I am just in
a place where I choose to do it this way instead
of copying anyone else. What you do with the
guitar expresses your personality.
What technique did you have to work

hardest to master?
There is no technique for me. Technique is very,
very much in the background. The important
thing was to find the note. I felt like I knew it
was there, somewhere, and I have to find it!
And the last thing on my mind was if I do it the
right way or the wrong way, as long as I found
that note. And of course, that’s what I did.
Day after day after day, I basically developed
– technically – the wrong way of playing
compared to today where you have the guitar
schools, where you learn the perfect position 13
of the hand, how to hold your fingers and play
with all five fingers. But I couldn’t have found
my notes. I couldn’t have written the songs
I wrote if I would have followed that first. I just
didn’t care if I did it the right or wrong way.
As a player, do you have any bad habits?

There are no bad habits! There is only one
thing: to make good music however you do it.
Hey, there is no right or wrong for me. I can get
better technically because I have plenty of time
to get my fingers into easier positions, but the
thing is, there are certain ways of playing, like
my style, that you cannot necessarily get across
if I play it perfectly positioned with my fingers
based on what’s taught at guitar schools. It’s
like fishing. How you find the note, how you
strike or sweep over the strings, how you hit
them, that is how the sound comes together.
It’s not technical. Technicality makes
everything clinical. But fishing for notes as
a priority makes everything three dimensional,
analogue. It gives it warmth. It’s not perfect
– it’s feeling. It’s more feeling than having the
right position of your fingers playing guitar.
In your early days, what guitar was the

game changer for you?
A triangle guitar! Yeah, very strange. I had
never seen a Flying V, but when I was at school,
doing this project, building something out of
Photo Getty
wood, I wanted to make a guitar and ended up

building a triangle guitar, which is similar to

Q&A
“I PLAY TO
A METRONOME
TO MAKE SURE I’M
NOT SLOWING DOWN”
14
a Flying V, but it’s not the Flying V. You put Again, I don’t think. I just pick up the guitar and sounds like a saxophone on his guitar. He’s
a Flying V next to a Les Paul, next to a Strat, play. But one thing I do in order to keep shape really, really unique. It was fun. It still is fun
on the floor, it won’t do anything. It becomes is I play to a metronome to make sure I am not listening to the different approaches. I didn’t
something with the person who picks up the slowing down in any way, because when you get expect anything, but when I heard it I was
guitar. That’s what that guitar becomes. I found older the way we perceive time is different from extremely happy with it.
the Flying V by coincidence. Like many things when we are younger, so sometimes you think
in my life, it happened by itself. So maybe I was you are playing as fast as you did the day before And Axl Rose?
meant to have that guitar. I discovered that but it is do with the biological rhythm. I always Axl originally sang three songs, but he didn’t
guitar by accident. I liked the combination of measure by a metronome, at a certain speed. I like his versions of Only You Can Rock Me and
my amplifier with that guitar. It was closer to have to make sure that I can play my old songs. Too Hot To Handle, so he decided to stick with
the sound I imagined, and I found that I was Love To Love, which is a fantastic version.
able to do a really good vibrato by putting the Do you have any favourite tracks from
V between my legs, so that the neck would not revisiting your UFO years? Can you recall a moment when you felt like
wobble around. I was able to lock it in and so I love This Kid’s with Biff [Byford, Saxon you’d failed as a player or felt embarrassed
that was one of the main reasons why I felt frontman]. I was amazed. I always wanted to by a performance?
good about that guitar. do something with Biff. Every song is different That’s a big question. Of course you can feel
but everybody did a great version. I don’t like embarrassed when you play a bum note. But
With your new album of classic UFO comparing things. I just like to listen to it and I don’t really focus on that. I’d rather focus on
material, was there anything you learned not compare it like the Olympics! There are so the good moments. You know, I played bum
about your playing when revisiting songs many different qualities, different feelings, notes on Strangers In The Night [UFO’s
you wrote 50 years ago? but all of them are unique in their own way, so legendary 1979 live album], and today those
I don’t analyse things. I just do it. I don’t I don’t give them points for their performances. bum notes are the right notes! Because
analyse what I have done, or why I did it, I just It is all great stuff, what they did. When I heard everybody got used to it. And people ask me,
do it because that is the moment of being an Dee Snider [ex-Twisted Sister singer] I went, ‘Michael, how do you make this work, playing
artist. You just do it. Less thought! ‘Wow!’ I didn’t know he had a great voice like a major over a minor?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know
this. Kai Hansen [Helloween guitarist/vocalist] what you’re talking about!’ But they might
Photo Getty
What do you play when you’re just relaxing was another one. He did a fantastic job on Rock have been asking about those bum notes!
and playing for fun? Bottom. And when I heard Joel Hoekstra, he My Years With UFO is out now

HOW TO JAMEY ARENT
Jamey Arent is an LA-based
guitarist and educator who has
worked with artists like Frankie
Valli and the Four Seasons,
Matthew Morrison, B. Slade, and
many others. His session work
can be heard in Netflix, TBS, and
Comedy Central shows.
10 SPANKY RHYTHM RIFFS

16
Learn from the masters of funk with Pickup Music’s 10 practice riffs inspired by legends
including James Brown, Prince and Vulfpeck
hings are about to get Vulfpeck, you’ll find plenty of find what’s missing and fill that
T funky! We’ve got a

brand new bag of riffs
for you to learn,
courtesy of Pickup
inspiration here.
If you’re new to funk guitar
playing, here’s a handful of helpful
ideas to get you into the groove. First
gap. Finally, you want solid staccato
– get good muting with both hands
for complete string control.
If you really want to be a great
Get access to the world’s best
online guitar courses and reach
your guitar goals with structured
lessons and personalised feedback
Music. These 10 rhythm riffs up, aim to stay in the pocket – funk guitarist, practise 16th notes to from pro instructors. Pickup Music
showcase funk guitar styles from nothing is more important than a metronome… practise them a lot! even offer a 14-day free trial so you
can take a look before you buy.
across the ages. Whether you’re into keeping your timing tight. Second, Okay, let’s get into the good stuff.
the classics like James Brown and serve the music – funk isn’t about And remember to see how it’s done pickupmusic.com
Michael Jackson or the more showcasing your shred skills. Next, you can follow the link to Pickup’s
contemporary funksters like find your space in the groove – try to video lesson. facebook.com/pickupjazz
instagram.com/pickupmusic/
tiktok.com/@pickupguitar

FIND YOUR VIDEO AT
bit.ly/tg389audio PICKUP MUSIC
CHORDS
X X X X
1 1 1 1 1 1
These are the most important shapes 6 6 12 12
we’ll be looking at, but with one key 2 3 3 3 2 3 3 2 2
difference. These are the full shapes.
It’s rare in funk to play all the strings, 3 3 4
but it is still helpful to know which
shape the ‘partial chords’ are taken 4 4
from. Play these shapes first, then see
if you can spot them in the tab
examples that follow. E9 E13 Am7 Am6
X X X X X
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
6 12 10 10
2 3 2 2
4 3 4 2 3 4 3
E7#9 D7 G D7
X X X X
1 1 1 1 1
12 7 7
2
2 3 3 2 3
4 4 4
Em11 Em7 A 17
INSPIRED BY JAMES BROWN bit.ly/tg389audio
This riff is the first of a few in the key of E. Play the top four strings of the E9 voicing. For added funk, slide up from a semitone below. Then, take your pinky and hit the 9th fret
– this briefly turns it into an E13 chord. Keep the strings muted where you see X’s in the tab, then press the chord down when you want to activate it.
INSPIRED BY PRINCE bit.ly/tg389audio
This is a great funk loop. Feel free to experiment with different rhythm patterns to make it your own. Start with an Am7 chord shape at the 12th fret. Use your fourth finger
to hit the b7 G note on the 15th fret. Play that shape twice, followed by two muted chops. Next, play an Am6 by simply moving the fourth finger down one fret, then repeat the
same strumming pattern. Lift your fourth finger again for the very last strum to finish on the Am7.

HOW TO
FUNKY SINGLE-NOTES bit.ly/tg389audio
Time to go low! Start with your first finger on the 3rd fret of the A string. Pick those 16th notes really close to the bridge to get a spanky sound. The lick is based around the
D minor pentatonic scale with that funky trill moving between the major and minor 3rd. The only time you stop the stream of tight 16th notes is during those hammer-ons
and pull-offs.
“BUBBLE” LINE bit.ly/tg389audio
This is a common sound in many Michael Jackson songs. The guitarist’s job here is to add another percussive layer while creating a short, hooky melody. The ‘bubble’ term
18 comes from that bright popping sound. You can generate this by switching to a middle-position pickup, using the edge of your pick, and plucking sharp staccato notes.
INSPIRED BY EARTH WIND AND FIRE bit.ly/tg389audio
Grab that E7#9 chord – for the non-jazz players, it’s better known as the “Hendrix chord”. Similar to the first riff, we’ll slide up from a half-step below to give that laid-back
feel. It’s very rare to strum all six strings in funk guitar – and this riff is no different. Use some overhang from your second finger to mute the low E and the same with your
fourth to mute the high string.
DOMINANT 7TH RIFF bit.ly/tg389audio
This riff is based around a D7 chord up at the 12th fret. Again, start with the half-step slide into the D7. For the next chord shape, barre your third finger along the D, G, and B
strings on the 12th fret – this is like a mini G chord. Now move that shape down two frets and play it with your first finger. The final flourish is almost like a little blues run.

PICKUP MUSIC
UNISON BEND bit.ly/tg389audio
We’re starting on on an Em11 chord on the 14th fret here. Can you guess what your strumming hand has to do? That’s right! 16th notes – just like most of these riffs. The
pattern is four strums of the chord, then two muted. Play that two times round, but on the second time, follow the two muted strums with a unison bend. For the unison
bend, put your first finger on the 12th fret of the E string, then bend the 15th fret of the B string up until the two pitches match.
COMBINING SINGLE-NOTES AND CHORDS bit.ly/tg389audio
Time to mix things up. Quite often, funk players move between chords and single-note lines in the same riff. This riff is based around an E7 shape and the pentatonic box that
surrounds it. After the initial lick, you land on the 5th fret of the A string and hit a few muted strums. The final finesse is that big E9 chord chank at the end. It’s a great way to
lead back to beat 1. 19
DOUBLESTOP RIFF bit.ly/tg389audio
Don’t have another guitarist to harmonise with? No worries! This riff incorporates doublestops to double the fun. You can think of these like chord fragments. For example,
play the G and B strings on the 5th fret, and it’s almost like a tiny C chord. Move down to the 4th fret on the G string and the 3rd fret on the B string for a ‘rootless’ G chord.
Often the bass player will cover the root note, so you don’t always need it in your chords.
MOVING SHAPES bit.ly/tg389audio
Speaking of mini chords, you can play an Em7 using the open D chord shape – just move it to the 7th fret and play the top three strings. The next part of the riff is just moving
the shape up two frets, but… there’s a funky bit in between – the “CHIKAPITA!” triplet. Loosen up your wrist and try to emulate the sound of that word with your picking hand.
The “CHI-KA-PI” is played on the first shape and the “TA!” lands on the chord two frets up.

HOW TO WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
E minor pentatonic scale
Single-note riffing
Octave shapes
FIND YOUR VIDEO AT
bit.ly/tg389audio
Get the tone CHANNEL OVERDRIVE

6 4 5
7
GAIN BASS MID TREBLE REVERB
Jack White has been spied playing

OSB on his heavily modded Low
Rider Telecaster set to its bridge
position Filter’Tron pickup. He’s
most likely using modified/
custom Fender amps for what is a
bluesy, but straight-ahead
overdrive tone – and that means
you don’t really need specific gear
to dial in a ballpark sound. Select a
bridge humbucker and set your
amp with just enough drive to help
the notes sustain.
Bridge humbucker
riff of the month
JACK WHITE
Old Scratch Blues
20 ack White has stormed back into the fretboard – so be ready to for some big shape without the open strings ringing. The riff
J the limelight with his unexpected

– and initially secret – new
album, No Name. Some are
calling it a return to the punky
position shifts. Start with four palm-muted
open E notes picked with downstrokes, then
play the notes on the 3rd and 5th frets with your
first and second fingers. Repeat the palm-
ends at the 5th and 7th frets, and a slide up to
the final E root note. Watch our slowed down
video to learn the exact notes and phrasing.
blues sound of The White Stripes, though it’s a muted open E notes then shift up to 7th fret for CHEAT SHEET…
little less deliberately retro to our ears. the octaves. You can play the octaves with your Appears at: 0:15-0:29
We’re looking at the album opener here, first and third or first and fourth fingers. In Tempo: 70bpm
which uses single notes and octave shapes either case use your first finger to mute the idle Key/scale: E minor pentatonic
within the E minor pentatonic scale right across strings; this allows you to strum the octave Main techniques: Picking, slides, palm-mutes
E G A B
D E G A B
E G A B
The riff is based entirely in E minor pentatonic scale (E G notes are found an octave higher starting on the 7th fret
Photo Getty
A B D). You can find the first four notes of the scale along of the fifth string and again an octave higher from the
the sixth string starting on the open E. Those same 9th fret of the third string.

HOW TO DAVE CELENTANO
Dave Celentano is one of the
industry’s hottest and most
sought-after guitar instructors,
and has been teaching for over
30 years. He has written
numerous tutorial books and
DVDs for guitar, and released
several CDs throughout his
career. Dave is proficient in many
styles of music including rock,
blues, heavy metal, jazz, and
classical. His technique
specialties include multi-finger
tapping, sweep picking, music
theory, and reading music.
22
INTRO TO ROCK
How to start playing rock guitar for beginners Guitar Tricks’ step-by-step lessons
will be your guide to learning how to
play guitar. With our Core Learning
ock music is usually step-by-step rock guitar lessons. almost sounds like Van Halen-style System, video feedback, practice
R
reminders and Custom Lesson
the main reason The licks we are sharing here tapping. It can get a bit tricky since Plans you will save tons of time on
people get into guitar will utilise the D minor pentatonic you’ll be jumping from the E to B your guitar learning journey. Guitar
lessons in the first scale, which we’ve shown across the strings so take it easy. Finally, we Tricks has a 14-day free trial plus a
place. Shredding a page, along with a couple of other add more notes in our third lick, 60-day money-back guarantee so
you can purchase with confidence.
mega solo under big stage lights is related shapes. including the “blues” note.
any guitarist’s dream! This first lick is a shred-style line, There’s plenty to learn here in just guitartricks.com/rockmag
Don’t worry if you’re still new to so, although it’s best to practise three licks. We recommend
guitar, though. In this lesson we’ll slowly, be prepared to speed up and practising slowly, and, if you’re youtube.com/@GuitarTricks
go over three easy rock guitar licks get shreddy! The pull-offs help with struggling, try to home in on short,
facebook.com/guitartricks
for your solos. You can also head to that classic shred sound. bite-sized phrases. Just three or
guitartricks.com/rockmag where The second lick introduces more four notes can be all you need to instagram.com/guitartricksinc
you’ll find more in-depth and notes on the high E string, and make progress.
Words Mitch Wilson

FIND YOUR VIDEO AT
bit.ly/tg389audio GUITAR TRICKS
SCALES
These are the three shapes we’ll be
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
using in this month’s licks. First, the 2

good old minor pentatonic scale. It’s 3 3 3 2
probably the most commonly used 3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 3
scale in lead guitar so make sure you
know it. The other two are variations on 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
the pentatonic theme – so take note of
4
where there are new or different notes
in the tab examples. D minor pentatonic D minor pentatonic D blues scale
scale scale (w/extra notes)
1 SHRED STYLE bit.ly/tg389audio
Start at the 10th fret position, then pull off from the 13th fret to the 10th. See that the lick is a mixture of these pull-offs on the first and second strings. Your goal is to
identify the pattern that the pull-offs repeat in.
23
2 TAPPING STYLE bit.ly/tg389audio
We’re in the 10th position again here, but keep an eye out for the extra notes on the high E string. You’ll need a good stretch to reach the 15th fret. Notice that adding more
pull-offs at a faster speed gives the sound like you’re tapping.
3 TRIPLET LICK bit.ly/tg389audio
Utilising some tremolo picking and pull-off sequences, this next-level lick will make you sound like the pros. Take care with the rhythm though. Break the lick down and you’ll
see how it’s phrased around three-note ‘triplets’.

FEATURE
ArcTanGent is one of the world’s biggest festivals for

boundary-pushing guitar music. We bring you the lowdown on
the players setting fretboards and imaginations ablaze
n 2013, in the heart of rural music fans; with headliners like Leaders and Plini. But perhaps more than any
Somerset, a new kind of music 65daysofstatic, Public Service Broadcasting other festival, ArcTanGent is a breeding ground
festival was born – one that played and Maybeshewill, it was laser-targeted at for fresh guitar talent, and 2024’s bill was
host to some of the boldest, most post-rock, math-rock and prog obsessives. bursting at the seams with inventive playing.
adventurous and downright noisiest Now into its 10th year, 2024’s festival played This year, guitarworld.com Editor-in-Chief and
alternative guitar music the world host to ATG’s most sprawling lineup yet, TG contributor Michael Astley-Brown was there
had to offer. Named after an album headlined by post-rock gods Mogwai and to perform (his band’s called Maebe – look ‘em
by cult Nottingham alt-metallers Explosions in the Sky, and bolstered by metal up, wink wink!) and as a punter. These are the
24 earthtone9, ArcTanGent wasn’t for casual guitar juggernauts Meshuggah, Animals as players who blew his mind…
Words Michael Astley-Brown

Photo Jonathan Dadds

ARCTANGENT HIGHLIGHTS
NIGHT VERSES ight Verses are already chops. Fortunately, anyone who couldn’t get a harmonics, and chords. I can do some weird
tipped as prog-metal’s look-in could still hear his dizzying effects stuff with the Whammy.”
Next Big Thing – the LA prowess, which makes highly inventive use of DePirro is always looking to get more out of
trio’s larger-than-life the DigiTech Whammy and lights the fuse on the instrument, which he regularly
sonics even saw them explosive riffs like the opening of standout demonstrates on Instagram. One of his secret
land a blockbuster single Arrival. weapons is alternate tunings, which he
support slot with Tool on “In the beginning, I would pretty much just tweaks on his Music Man six-strings and
their recent European rip Tom Morello, as far as going up and down. Abasi Concepts eights to maximise glittering
tour. Which might go some way to explain I didn’t fully understand how much control harmonics. “I always try to think about which
why the crowd for their late-afternoon ATG you can actually have over shaping each keys lend themselves best… I try to use them
set was overflowing with fans eager to get a note,” DePirro says of his approach. “Then I as often as I can,” he says. “I feel like
glimpse of Nick DePirro’s awe-inspiring started realising I could manoeuvre notes, harmonics always sound cool.”
25
Photos Carl Battams

FEATURE
BICURIOUS f you think you’ve heard everything write riffs that often jump between the low E Quad Cortex *cough*”!
a guitar/drums duo can do, Dublin/ string, where I keep the low-end/root of
Leipzig-based rockers Bicurious will each chord going, and the higher strings,
run those preconceptions through which provide the melody on top,” he
an industrial shredder, then explains. “Those riffs can be a bitch
steamroller over the remains. sometimes, though…”
Guitarist Taran Plouzané drops riffs Infectious hooks are bolstered by a
that are technical, heavy and bouncy rehearsal room’s worth of gear, which gives
in equal measure, and it’s won the band an them gut-punching rumble and the kind of
extremely loyal fanbase – so much so that clarity that can get a festival singing along
they crowdfunded over €9,000 to help make with even the most finger-twistingly
new record Your Life is Over Now… complex runs.
This was the band’s third time playing ATG, Plouzané says the secret to his sound is “the
and as Plouzané proudly says, “every year right combination of pedals, the right
more and more people are singing the riffs signal-splitting, and the right amps”.
back to us”. His new material has taken those “It’s mainly distortion, octaves, two guitar
singalongs to their logical conclusion, amps and a bass amp,” he reveals. “I went
employing – gasp – vocals. Yet whether his through a lot of different combinations… I do
larynx is muscling in or not, his playing is built currently have my eye on a new piece of gear
around making his two-piece sound as big as which is way too expensive for me, and would
possible. “I have to cover all melodic be a big change in the way I do things. But it
frequencies myself, so I’ve developed a way to would save me a lot of hassle, too... *cough*”
26
SQUID PISSER s you might expect to keep things interesting.”
from a band called Interesting is an understatement.
Squid Pisser, their Performing in creepy alien masks, Squid
guitarist serves up Pisser don’t so much play their
some of the most instruments as assault them. Their debut
unspeakably album, Dreams of Puke, doesn’t have a
disgusting guitar tones single song over three minutes. Some are
in hardcore or any as short as 40 seconds. It’s a breathless,
other genre. “I try to create textures that I brutal assault on the senses.
haven’t heard before,” says deviant All the while, Meehan is conjuring as
six-stringer Tommy Meehan. “I love many festering tones as he can from his
using tons of effects and atypical melodies pedalboard, including Bananana Effects’
glitchy Mandala, Death by Audio’s
Apocalypse fuzz and a number of early-
noughties nu-metal faves from the Ibanez
Tone-Lok series. All that’s paired with an
all-aluminium Jazzmaster-style electric
from Electrical Guitar Company that’s
probably suffering from PTSD. “It’s
covered in fake blood and sweat and it’s all
dinged up,” Meehan says. “It’s supposed
to look shiny and beautiful.”
The guitarist will soon be pulling double
duty as Squid Pisser are lined up to support
shock-rock mainstays Gwar, who he also
joined this year. “I’m excited to infuse
some nasty, dirty, effects-laden stuff,” he
Photos Jonathan Dadds
says. “I like the potential of bringing that

stuff to Gwar and making it sound
disgusting sonically.” Brace yourselves…

ARCTANGENT HIGHLIGHTS
VOWER he band may be new, but

Vower unites two of UK
alt-rock’s brightest guitar
talents in Rabea Massaad
(he of Toska, Dorje and Music
Man signature model fame)
and Black Peaks’ Joe Gosney.
But don’t expect it to sound
like their past projects.
“Technique and technical playing I feel is
more for my other material,” says Massaad. “In
this band, we want to focus on songs and vibes
over anything technical.”
Vower’s music is crammed with the kind of
choruses that make you want to close your eyes
and scream at the sky, before a crushing riff
forces you to adopt the most unholy of stank
faces. It’s a welcome mashup of heavy alt-rock,
textural post-rock and djent riffery – or
“melodic, heavy and sometimes hopeful,” as
Gosney puts it.
To deliver the wealth of moods on display, the
guitarists switch between D-standard tuned
guitars and baritones (Music Man Sabre and Axis
for Massaad, Tele Deluxe and Gretsch G5260 for
Gosney), and lean on the Quad Cortex – at least 27
for now. “We’ve just needed to work fast and
get something that gets us the tones for the
different songs quickly that we can travel with
easily,” says Massaad. “When we’re doing
bigger productions, I think we’ll be moving to a
hybrid rig of amps, pedals and QC.”
The band already have plans to that end.
“That’s always been a goal for me: to write
songs that connect with people on a deep level,
and I’m so thankful to finally be in a band where
I feel that’s possible on a bigger scale than I’ve
Photos Derek Bremner
ever been in before,” says Massaad. “That’s not

a slight on previous bands I’ve been in, but more
that I feel Vower has the potential to reach more
people and connect that way.”
ASYMMETRIC UNIVERSE
n terms of pure technicality, Italian not creating compositions that have a ‘jazzy’ Comodous, giving the pair an awful lot of
prog-metal fusion brothers Federico section then a ‘metal’ section… but rather octaves to play around with.
Vese & Nicolò Vese – aka mixing them at the same time,” explains Recently signed to powerhouse prog label
Asymmetric Universe – were this bassist Nicolò. InsideOutMusic, the band are knuckling down
year’s guitar standout. But this ain’t Deploying that diversity within a single song on their next opus, but taking time out to play
your dad’s Pat Metheny set at the means both brothers ask a lot of their ATG was well worth it. “It was our first big
Jazz Café; the Super Vese Bros instruments. Federico plays a custom-built festival and we felt great to be surrounded by
deliver a sense of groove and eight-string from SIC Instruments fitted with such amazing bands like Animals As Leaders,
otherworldly licks that nod to Polyphia and Bare Knuckle Trilogy pickups and cunning Meshuggah, Plini, Night Verses,” says Federico.
Chon, coupled with djent beatdowns inspired custom wiring that delivers a fake humbucker “The welcome we received from the crowd was
by Periphery and Meshuggah. “Our sound sound in the bridge position. Slap-happy so warm… and they were able to clap in time
aims to incorporate many genres together, Nicolò, meanwhile, plays a six-string Mayones over a 7/8 time signature, too!”

FEATURE
Words Stan Bull Photo Jamie MacMillan
“I’VE BEEN TRYING TO

WRITE RIFFS THAT ARE
LIKE WHEN YOU START
PLAYING THE GUITAR”
A self-confessed “guitar-culture nerd” and
TG reader, Fontaines D.C. guitarist Conor
Curley has overhauled his band’s sound
on Romance, their most ambitious and
28 experimental album to date, inspired
by a “massive sounding” fuzz pedal,
a beefy new Jazzmaster and… Korn?
t’s very nice to be in Total Guitar – I’ve
always been a fan.” Conor Curley is
sitting in a café near his London home.
“In my mum’s attic, there’s a big stack of
Total Guitar from when I was a teenager
– I’ve held on to them.”
In the four years since TG last spoke to
them, few – if any – guitar bands have
had the same meteoric rise as Fontaines D.C. In that time, the
Irish quintet – vocalist Grian Chatten, guitarists Conor Curley and
Carlos O’Connell, bassist Conor Deegan III and drummer Tom
Coll – have played hundreds of shows (including a US tour with
Arctic Monkeys), scored a UK number one album with 2022’s
Skinty Fia and even picked up a BRIT Award for Best International
Act, inching them ever-closer to becoming household names.
This year? The now-London-based group headlined
Glastonbury’s Park Stage, performed on the main stage at
Reading and Leeds, and released their inspired fourth album
Romance – a bold reimagining of the Fontaines’ core sound. Later
this year, two sold-out headline shows at London’s Alexandra
Palace beckon, before they return to the city for a huge outdoor
concert at Finsbury Park next summer. It’s quite the feat for
a post-punk band whose debut album was released in 2019.
“I’ve been trying to write riffs that are like when you started
playing guitar,” explains Curley. “It’s such an interesting thing
to me, because you hear bands’ first records and they’ll have
these riffs that sound so intuitive. They don’t sound laboured

FONTAINES D.C.
“IT WAS EXCITING

TO HAVE A MORE EL”
MODERN, DIGITAL FE
29

FEATURE
30
over from music knowledge or colourful art direction, and outfits that guitar-driven ideas is guitar. All the songs come from
anything, it just sounds like they’re wouldn’t look out of place in a cult Above left: Curley my voice notes of us playing acoustics
and his American
writing their feelings.” anime film, it’s clear that the band have together and jamming backstage,
Vintage II 1966
Romance finds Fontaines D.C. evolved since Skinty Fia. To achieve Jazzmaster although, on this album, it would be us
embracing a number of new influences this new sonic identity, the guitarists Right: Tom Coll, Conor writing a chord progression and then
both contemporary and from years gone reached for instruments outside of Deegan III, Grian being like, ‘Let’s take the guitar out, and
by. From the scuzzy alt-rock snarl of their comfort zone. “For this album, Chatten, Conor move it onto Mellotron, or use the guitar
Curley and Carlos
Death Kink to the Britpop hat-tip of Bug me, Carlos and Grian all bought
O’Connell
in a different way’. But I still feel like the
and the gorgeous ballad Horseness Is Mellotrons,” Curley says, “which basis of the band is guitar-driven.”
The Whatness, the band appear became really prominent on a lot of the Curley, a self-confessed “guitar-
unafraid to tear apart their existing demos. When it came to trying to do culture nerd”, craved new tones for
sound, writing as confidently as if they that in the room, Carlos – because he’s Romance that would contrast the band’s
were composing a debut album. an amazing keys player – took the reins earlier work, though his exploration led
These days, Curley admits that he on being the Mellotron player. So it him back to a familiar influence: “One
hopes to “not be nailed down by trying ended up being one guitar and him on of the ideas for this record was to not
to intellectualise the stuff that you’re keys for the first time ever, which was rely on such a reverb-y guitar sound.
playing,” but rather “trying to write very interesting.” That changes how you play, and I was
feelings that end up being the sound.” Despite fellow six-stringer Carlos a lot more inspired by early 2000s,
This approach is clearly one that the moving to keys, Curley rebuffs the idea heavier rock music like Deftones. When
guitarist found liberating: “That’s what that the band are moving away from we were teenagers, that was the big
I want to do for the rest of my career.” being a guitar group. “We are a guitar guitar sound, and it was exciting to have
So far, he’s on the right path. From band,” he reasons. “Trying to think of a more modern, digital feel, rather than
the cinematic hip-hop-meets-Western us as being anything else, I don’t think the ‘in the room’-type sound that we’d
sound of Starburster to the album’s it makes any sense. The key to all the been trying in the past.” Explaining his
Photos Abigail Jessup, Jon Wilkinson
love for the Sacramento alt-rock group,
“I TRIED TO MAKE IT SOUND MORE

Curley adds: “I think that Steph
Carpenter’s guitar playing is incredible.
His mix of a hard rock sound with
CHOPPED-UP, LO-FI AND DARKER”

a shoegaze quality is perfect.”
Recent interviews from the Romance
press rollout has seen the band

FONTAINES D.C.
31
name-drop another seemingly unlikely to do. He didn’t come in with a plan for live at leeds it sounded to me was as if he was
influence on their new material – that our sound. I think he saw what we were Carlos on the main sampling one of those old cowboy riffs.
stage at this year’s
of nu-metal pioneers Korn. Would doing, and then did what any good When it came down to me recording it,
Leeds festival
Curley consider playing a seven-string producer would do and helped enhance I felt like that guitar tone is like
in Fontaines? “Oh, man,” he laughs, the direction that we were going for.” something I’ve gone for in the past, but
“I’d love to give it a go, but I don’t know Pre-production for the album took it was more of a ‘live’ sound. For this
if my style would suit that.” Elaborating place in London, where the band song, I tried to make it sound more
on the band’s own, perhaps misquoted “worked on the writing for four weeks, chopped up, lo-fi and darker.”
claims of influence, Curley suggests: pretty much every day,” states Curley. The guitars were layered, he says,
“I think the Korn thing came from us “Then we had two days off, and we went “with an acoustic and a really
listening to music before going on stage over to Paris and then spent three weeks overdriven electric”. Here’s some of the
and getting hyped up. The sound of recording there.” The band decamped mouth-watering vintage gear the
their records and their big songs is so to the none-more-picturesque La Frette French studio had to offer: “I played
alien. People listening to our music – a chateau-based studio on the Parisian through a Fender Princeton that they
might think, ‘Oh, I don’t hear it’, but it’s outskirts. “It’s an amazing, vibey had at La Frette, which looked like it
more the idea of trying to push things place,” says Curley. “With it being would fall over if someone breathed on
into a new realm that inspired us.” a residential studio, you never really it, but it sounded absolutely incredible.
An eagerness to mix-up their sound leave. Once you’re in the world of it, The engineer said that’s the go-to for
required a new approach to writing and you’re just working on the record everyone who records there. It’s an
recording. Having recorded their first every day.” amazing amplifier, and I think it was
three albums with popular post-punk First single Starburster was creative nice to move away from just using
producer Dan Carey, the band opted to ground-zero for the band. Mellotron Fender Twins. There’s something about
bring in renowned Arctic Monkeys string sounds loop over Britpop-style those smaller amps where, if you can
producer James Ford for the Romance big-beat drums while Chatten spouts record them right, they sound
sessions. But despite the new personnel quick-fire, spoken-word rapping and absolutely massive.”
behind the desk, Curley is hesitant to Curley adds a single-note, quick-delay Second single Favourite gave a further
solely credit Ford with the band’s new riff that wouldn’t sound out of place on glimpse of the album’s scope. Its jangly
direction. “We kind of changed it up an Ennio Morricone soundtrack. “Grian indie sound was earnest and
ourselves before we even worked with wrote the music on the original demo melancholic – a world away from the
him,” admits Curley. “When we met and he played the guitar part on the confrontational swagger of Starburster.
James, he was open to what we wanted Mellotron,” says Curley. “The way that Propelled forward by one of the band’s

FEATURE
32
best riffs yet, a serendipitous moment Favourite has been compared to the new colours a little bit’. So I grabbed the bass and
of jamming led to the song’s creation: likes of The Smiths and ’80s jangle-pop A new-look Fontaines started playing that riff. There was
D.C. for 2024
“Carlos and Grian had written the bands; an observation that Curley finds a late-night air of lunacy going around.
chords and the beginning of the vocal flattering. “It’s really nice that people I wanted to write a panto.
melody, and they had shown the chord are comparing it to Johnny Marr and “‘Maybe romance is a place’,” he says
progressions to Deego [bassist Conor that kind of guitar playing, cus that’s quoting Chatten’s lyrics. “It had this
Deegan],” says Curley. “We were doing something that I’ve always wanted to intro-to-a-musical feel to it. I just
a live rehearsal for Skinty Fia, and Deego try and go into,” he admits. “People started playing that melody on bass,
started playing the chords. Sometimes who have really slick ears for melody and then we built the rest of the song
you just hear a melody… As Deego was – it’s such an incredible thing. around that.”
playing the root notes, I heard this Shredding is obviously such an amazing Long-time fans of the band may have
descending riff and had to grab it thing to be able to do on a guitar, but been surprised to see Curley stood in
immediately. I picked up the guitar when you can really write a feeling with Deego’s place as the group opened
and started playing it. a melody, like Johnny Marr did so well a number of their summer festival sets
“Carlos and Grian realised that was – that’s the goal.” with the song. “When it came to doing
the song they had been working on, In the spirit of reinvention, Romance it live, I was just like, ‘Yeah, I’ll just keep
so everyone jumped on stage, and we finds Curley taking on lead vocals on the playing it on bass’. But to be honest,
played it for about 30 minutes with, like, dreamy Sundowner, and trying his hand I didn’t realise how scary it would be to
12 different verses. It was just one of at the guitar’s four-stringed cousin on be playing bass on stage. I thought I’d
those songs that was written in a very the album’s gothic, Danny Elfman-like just pick it up, but it’s actually such an
short period of time. Sometimes it’s title track. Of the latter’s genesis, Curley unnatural thing for me that it took
Photo Jon Wilkinson
labour, and sometimes it just comes says: “Grian had the idea of this chord more practice than I thought it would.
out of thin air. And luckily enough, progression, but not much else. Deego But I enjoy playing the bass so much.
that was one of those times where wasn’t there [in the studio]. We were It was nice to be over in that world for
I just heard it.” like, ‘Oh, let’s just start working on this one song.”

FONTAINES D.C.
“WRITING A FEELING WITH A MELODY IS THE GOAL”

Detailing the crunchier sound he had for the Romance era thus far has been After layering so many guitar and
alluded to, Curley tells TG about a new an American Vintage II 1966 Jazzmaster keys tracks on Romance, ex-Palma
purchase used to achieve the overdriven in Lake Placid Blue – an acquisition that Violets bassist and friend of the band
sound of third single Here’s The Thing : came from more of a practical need than Chili Jesson was enlisted to fill out their
“The fuzz is a Keeley Loomer pedal an aesthetic one. “I realised that the sound live – prompting a new foray into
– just the fuzz side of it, which I think is Johnny Marr Jag is so crystal clear,” three-guitar territory. “Sometimes with
based on an outbound fuzz. I think that Curley says pensively. “That’s the the Mellotron or the keyboard or the
is an incredible pedal. I incorporate it Johnny Jag on Favourite. I feel like that’s piano stuff, Carlos wasn’t playing
now into some of the older tunes as the kind of sound that it’s best for. But guitar, so it just got to the point where
well, and it sounds incredibly massive.” for the bigger-sounding songs, like we were really stretching ourselves
To round off the tone, the Loomer was Desire and Here’s The Thing, it needed trying to do what we did in the studio
run through a Boss chorus, with the that Kevin Shields, shoegaze rhythm live,” explains Curley. “Then again,
guitar boasting no reverb whatsoever. sound. Even on Sundowner, which has there’s also acoustic guitar on songs
“That’s the early 2000s rock sound to a mental open tuning, the Johnny Jag like Televised Mind, which we hadn’t
me,” says Curley. “And when I hear didn’t take up enough audio space. been able to do live for years, so I think
that lead line, it’s like what Keith So it’s mainly the Jazzmaster on most it really adds something that we’ve
Richards did on Satisfaction – where songs for this album. I asked Fender for been missing out on.”
when you have fuzz on it, it kind of one, and they sent it out to me when we For a group that’s released four
sounds like a horn section.” were touring Skinty Fia, which I ended albums in five years, Fontaines D.C.
Though the band are branching out up using on Nabokov and Big Shot for are showing no signs of slowing down,
from post-punk – a genre where big the rhythm sound. When it came to though Curley can only speculate as
pedalboards are commonplace – Curley doing this record, it seemed using that to where their new direction will lead
has no intention of cutting back. “I just guitar was a natural progression.” them. “There have been some jams,”
continue to build it up!” he says. “But Has Fontaines’ ascension to festival he says, “but it remains to be seen.
I realised that I have all these effects main-stage had any impact on their I could see us stripping things back 33
pedals that are only used for very songwriting? “When I’m writing, I’m again and kind of becoming an ‘in the
specific things, and not even for whole writing for the feeling of what I’m trying room’ live band once more, just to
songs. I own a lot of effects, but the to put across,” he says, “and I don’t prove that we’re still the best at that
main part of my tone, over my career, think how many people are going to be to each other. After doing an album
is just a really good amp sound with watching can really affect that. It’s not that’s massively layered and building
reverb, and anything else is just for really a positive thing to think about in these walls of sound, to go back to just
a bridge or a pre-chorus. We’re not terms of your decisions when you’re writing really good parts, and maybe
actually that big on effects in terms of writing music.” Though the venus have having just two guitars might be the
whole-song arrangements, it’s just gotten larger, Curley’s idea of Fontaines way forward.
to add flavour to a basic guitar sound. remains the same – at least, for now. “I “But it’s too early to make a guess on
But for this album, I was trying to push always think of us as a 1,200-capacity- that yet. We’ll see what happens…”
the boat out in terms of the amount room kind of band,” he says, “and then Romance is out now.
of overdrive that I’d use and the everything that’s bigger is just us
gnarliness of the sounds.” dipping into something new. But I’ll
Despite a focus on distorted tones, probably have to come to terms with
Romance features a surprising number being a bigger band at some stage…”
of acoustics, too. “I think that kind of In June 2023, Chatten released Chaos
acoustic-rhythm-with-drums thing For The Fly, his debut album as a solo
has always been a part of our songs, artist, and one that came with another
especially on Skinty Fia, with 12-string revelation for casual fans: that Chatten
acoustics being so prominent,” says is something of an accomplished
Curley, who believes that “there should guitarist himself. When asked whether
be some sort of call-and-response Chatten’s six-string capabilities added
between drums and acoustic guitar.” to the writing of Romance, Curley
Whilst Carlos used his Martin J 12-15 beams with enthusiasm for his
parlour 12-string on Romance, Curley bandmate’s ability: “Oh, 100 per cent,
borrowed a beautiful Gibson ES-150 yeah. The solo on Death Kink was Grian.
from Ford: “It’s a hollowbody with one And I think that’s one of the big guitar
P-90 in the neck, and I played it through parts that he brought forward. The
the Princeton to give it a bit of fuzz.” solo needed to be done and no one
Though often spotted playing had written it, so he took it and
a Johnny Marr signature Jaguar or a rare absolutely nailed it. He’s an amazing
Coronado, Fender-loving Curley’s MVP guitar player.”

FEATURE
34

KING GIZZARD
Words Jonathan Horsley Photos Maclay Heriot
“This is the music

that we make when
we just throw our
guitars on and
noodle around!”
No rock band on Earth is as prolific as King Gizzard & warming up. This is the music that we
make when we just throw our guitars on
The Lizard Wizard. On their 26th album in 15 years, and noodle around. It is the music that 35
we are probably jamming on when we
they’ve captured the sound and the vibe of classic ’70s are doing a soundcheck.”
rock – but with cheap amps and zero pedals. As leader If anything, Flight b741 is an
anti-concept record, six guys in the
Stu Mackenzie says: “We were just going for the take studio, arranging on the spot. What they
had in the beginning was “napkin
that had the boogie!” sketches, a couple of thoughts” and the
requisite 10,000 hours or whatever of
ust where should the recording boils the Gizzard down to its playing together. Once they had a part,
uninitiated start with a quintessence, a full-flavoured mother they’d do a take and move on. Stu takes
band like King Gizzard sauce offering a taste of exactly where production and mixing credits, while
& The Lizard Wizard, they’re coming from. This is the sound regular front-of-house engineer Sam
who since forming in of the Australian sextet returning to the ‘Sammy’ Joseph engineered it and
2010 have already musical womb, a band’s spirit restored played pedal steel. There was no reason
spawned 26 studio to factory settings, playing the sort of to overwork this. “All of the guitars on
albums, and whose ’70s rock and sun-kissed Americana the thing is just the live take,” Stu says.
omnivorous stylistic that comes so naturally that it could “That’s just in the room. We could have
appetites have led well be something the central nervous done these takes a lot better, probably,
them by the nose through garage rock, system could take care of. perfected the performance better.
psych-rock, synth-driven krautrock, “We’ve made a lot of records where But we were just going for the take
microtonal avant-gardism, heavy we’ve challenged ourselves to push that had the boogie! That was what
metal and prog? This is the band with outside of what we are comfortable was important.”
the creative audacity to conceive of with,” says Stu Mackenzie, the band’s Everyone in the band is a multi-
a seven-suite concept album tied to leader, guitarist, vocalist and multi- instrumentalist and there’s a musical
Greek scalar modalities, and went into instrumentalist. “I think we have made agility that comes with that. Stu says
the studio to record it with little more some of our most interesting music their musical understanding is like
than that idea in that Lizard Wizard – the stuff I’m most proud of – in that the ability to finish one another’s
brain of theirs and the determination mode, and that is sometimes the right sentences. Their approach to vocals on
to jam it out and make it happen. thing to do. But sometimes the right Flight b741, which saw everyone taking
Well, there’s always a strong case for thing to do is just shoot from the hip a turn on the mic before passing it on,
starting at the beginning. But if you and do the gut instinct thing, and that is gave everyone a voice – including
were to pick up their latest, Flight b741, what this was. On a stylistic level, this is Michael ‘Cavs’ Cavanagh , whom you’d
you’d be all right, too, because this the music that we make when we are typically find on the drums – and left

sextuple threat
KING GIZZARD From left: Lucas Harwood, Joey Walker,

Michael Cavanagh, Cook Craig, Ambrose
Kenny-Smith and Stu Mackenzie
them with a rotating cast of lead

vocalists throughout the record.
“We’d pass the mic on and get
everyone to share their perspective on
whatever the song was about,” Stu says.
“We did all the vocal recordings,
all six of us standing around, two
microphones, one person who is doing
the lead and the other five standing
around the other mic, and we were
facing each other in a little semicircle.
I think we did it for over a week. We just
stood in front of each other with two
mics and pieced together all the vocals.
As we went, the people who would be
doing backing vocals would be spurring
the lead singer on. We had a lot of fun
doing it and it gave the record a sound.”
What they came up with was huge,
insistent melodies and pop hooks to
present what is essentially elemental
rock ’n’ roll on a higher plane. Flight
b741 harkens back to the creatively
fertile 1970s, when rock would abut
blues, country, funk, R&B, and dipping
in and out was de rigueur.
With another treatment, or, that live, in real time, with
let’s get real, in lesser hands,
some of these riffs might have “WE HAD NO PEDALS ON THE each other, and in an entirely
improvised way, and that is
RECORD, JUST AMPS LOUD

36 sounded like reheats from something that we have all got
a James Gang rehearsal session a bit better at getting onto the
ENOUGH TO SOUND NASTY!”

in ’73, from boogie blues 101, record. That is what’s going on
and yet trampled under the in Mirage City. That intro was
Gizz’s unique rhythmic not really part of the song. It
footprint, and with those vocals
foregrounding a melody – and STU MACKENZIE was just kind of like… played!
‘Is that wrong? Where’s that
the sentiment behind it – they gone!?’ Then we started the
make you feel like you are song and that intro turned into
hearing this art form for the very first “‘Let’s make music like all the great the outro, which is also not part of the
time. Some lead parts, like the reedy albums that we love!’ That’s actually not song… The song was originally just
quasi-horn tones on Antarctica, sound what I want to do. That’s not really the that middle part.”
as though they walked off a record by goal. I’d rather create something that An out-of-tune piano and an old
The Guess Who. You could hear all kinds I wish existed but doesn’t exist yet. But battered National KX-88 keyboard
of references – Steve Miller Band, The sometimes you’ve just got to do what became essential, adding honky-tonk
Band, The Byrds – and you would not be is right, and we have injected enough wonk and retro organ mojo to fill out
hallucinating. It’s just that, if they are things into it to feel creatively jazzed.” the mix. The KX-88 occupies all the
there pop-cultural touchstones, then Press play and the first stop is Mirage frequencies that the squirrelly, wiry
they are there by osmosis, because City; an elemental melody takes flight, guitars miss, and it became this tonal
making music like this is intimidating extending its wings across the stereo emulsifier bringing everything together,
enough without thinking of the names spread. This is exactly what Stu is appearing on every song. The Gizz have
and faces and history behind the sound. talking about. It could be a nursery access to plenty of keys, but Stu doesn’t
“You are right about this type of rhyme, an old folk Americana tune, think they’ve ever had anything like
music being intimidating,” Stu smiles. but it sounds like something you could this. “It just had the hugest vibe,” he
“And that is why it has taken us this soundtrack a New Hollywood movie says. “It’s, like, out of tune! And it’s
long, to album 26 or whatever it is, to do with. It starts, stops and starts again. just got this janky preset sounds on it,
this – even though we love this kind of It is hopeful but bittersweet, its ebb and almost like every combination of the
music. If you ask people what are the flow, tension and release, establishes sounds on it sounded amazing.”
greatest songs ever written, a lot of the emotional cadence of the record. The sounds and the combinations
them are in this style, and there is just As Stu sees it: “All music is tension thereof are crucial in making this
a lot of great music out there in the and release. It’s on the micro and the recording work. Every detail matters,
world already that is kind of like this, macro. I’ve learned to be a bit better even if said details were thrown down
Photos Getty
and that has never been what we have with all that just from the shows being in the heat of the moment. Guitars
intended do to. a little more improvised. We’re doing are at the forefront but their mission

FEATURE
Lizard brain
King Gizz
mastermind
Stu Mackenzie
37

38

KINGREVIEW
GIZZARD
12-string. Joey That’s how the hitherto unloved Peavey
“SOME OF THE TONES ARE Walker and Cook

Craig shared the
Decade become a must-have when it
was revealed to be Josh Homme’s secret
PRETTY CRISPY, LIKE THE latter’s Novo (Stu

forgets the exact
weapon on Queens Of The Stone Age’s
2002 classic Songs For The Deaf.
FIRST FEW BLACK SABBATH

model). There were “I bought about six or eight, maybe,” 39
no vintage tube Stu says. “I didn’t spend more than 20
amps, no state-of- or 30 bucks on any of them. They were
RECORDS” STU MACKENZIE the-art modellers in

the studio, just the
just tiny, tiny little speakers. Sometimes
they would have a little gain channel
cheapest practice that was absolutely nasty, but usually
amps Stu could find. we would have them on the clean
objectives on Flight b741 were to “I used to teach guitar. I used to teach channel and just crank them. We had
support those vocal melodies and add kids and teenagers when I was a no pedals on the record, just guitars,
some wild electric heat to the sound. “It teenager myself,” he says. “ People straight into the amp, turned up loud
needed to be dirty and fun and silly, and would always come in with these tiny enough so that it sounds nasty.
just feral,” Stu says. “But also it needed amps, just the classic thirty-dollar amps “Some of the tones are pretty crispy,
to be melodic and beautiful, too. That you can buy at the pawnshop. It’s just and pretty hot, pretty spicy, but in my
was the line to walk. I’m not sure that the cheapest way to get started with mind it was like the-first-couple-of-
we ever spoke about that, but that was electric guitar, and sometimes these Black-Sabbath-records distortion. They
just known.” The guitars often sound things would sound amazing if you weren’t using tiny amps but that was
toasted, broken, pushed to the point cranked them up loud enough. You the sound. It’s different from stepping
where it’s hard to tell at times if it’s crank them up to a place where they on a fuzz pedal. When you roll back the
a real guitar. are not supposed to go, and they are volume on your guitar you can really,
On the track Sad Pilot, which distorting when they are on the clean really clean up in a way you can’t do
manages to be both a relaxed-tempo channel… That is awesome to me. with pedals.”
boogie number and a mental health A lot of the time it’s the speaker that’s Hitting these little solid-state amps
epiphany, single notes issue forth like distorting, and there’s something with an extra 6dB of clean boost pushed
a skronky organ, chords a warm, muted rattling that is not supposed to be them over the edge. When rolling back
scratch. Raw Feel has a riff that sounds rattling, but it’s all harmonics and the volume and tone controls on his
like it was processed by a prototype fuzz everything. I am hugely into that.” guitar, Stu found a sound that’s like
from the early ’60s, but there were no Stu needed lots of them, and would Clapton’s ‘woman tone’ through the
pedals on this record besides a boost hit Cash Converters in downtown looking glass, all “creamy bottom but
pedal. And for a record that sounds Melbourne in search of them. When you with a nasty top-end that’s just dying”
expensive – a testimony to Mackenzie’s think about the architecture of these – just throw a mic in front of it, press
skills in mixing this down to a Tascam small solid-state combos, they are record, and you’re good to go. There’s
eight-track cassette – the guitar tones transistorised just like drive pedals, so your tone. 30 bucks, a little reverb
Photos Getty
couldn’t have come much cheaper. Stu it makes sense that something magic in post. Done. Ready for takeoff…
used his Yamaha SG-2A and Hagstrom will happen when you make them clip. Flight b741 is out now

FEATURE
40
“JIMI COULD JUST STRETCH OUT, JAM

WITH MUSICIANS THAT INSPIRED HIM”
- JEFF SLATE
JIMI HENDRIX
Near the end of his life, Jimi Hendrix founded Electric Lady Studios
as a place where he could express his creativity to the full.
A new boxset full of previously unreleased recordings reveals
how the guitar genius was pursuing a bold new vision 41
Words Tim Tucker Photo Steve Braker
he Generation blues club own. The result gave Jimi his first number one Electric Lady Studios became the
in Greenwich Village, album in the US, and he was able to command environment Jimi had been dreaming of all
New York, was a favourite enormous fees as one of the hottest acts on the along: a workshop and laboratory for
hangout of Jimi Hendrix, touring circuit. developing his music. “There were little
a place where he could However, recording tracks for his next album rooms in there where he could find a nook or
enjoy the music he loved in studios like The Record Plant and Hit Factory cranny to hide away in, with a guitar or
and jam with musicians proved expensive and draining. With his own microphone, and noodle until he found what
he respected. He liked it studio, Jimi felt in full creative control for the he was looking for,” says Jeff. “It was
so much he bought the property in November first time in his career. He brought all the invaluable creatively.”
1968, with the idea of installing some recording existing tapes from previous sessions to Electric The newly released boxset includes 39 tracks
equipment to capture live recordings by himself Lady Studios, in readiness for his next project, (38 of which were previously unreleased),
and others. He was soon persuaded by his provisionally titled Straight Ahead. He envisioned offering incredible insights into Jimi’s
producer, Eddie Kramer, to turn the space into a this to be another double album with high creative process. We’ve heard other versions of
fully fledged recording facility, and the concept ambitions for the quantity and quality of the some of these tracks on posthumous albums
of Electric Lady Studios was born. music. Gone were the time and budget like The Cry Of Love (1971), Rainbow Bridge (1971),
Work started on converting the space into a restrictions that came with working in Voodoo Soup (1995) and First Rays Of The New
recording studio in January 1969, but due to commercial studios. Now he had the luxury Rising Sun (1997). But here we get a treasure
unforeseen setbacks and logistical to explore his ideas in a relaxed and trove of unreleased demos and outtakes
complications, Hendrix wouldn’t start recording inspirational environment. that reveal his working practices in
there until June 1970. When he did, it became extraordinary detail.
the perfect place for him to develop the tracks A GENIUS AT WORK Hendrix fans now get to hear snippets of Jimi
for his next project. TG spoke to Jeff Slate, recording artist, guitarist discussing the tone of his guitar and the
At this time, Jimi was still riding high on the and writer, who worked with the Hendrix estate musical arrangements of songs he was writing.
success of his double album Electric Ladyland, his on the new six-disc release, Electric Lady Studios: The alternate takes let us hear his different
third with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released A Jimi Hendrix Vision. “At that time, Jimi was approaches to improvised solos, and provide
in October 1968. This sprawling self-produced constantly on the road,” says Jeff. “He was invaluable insights into how he developed his
set showcased Hendrix’s extraordinary vision having to be creative in his off hours, which musical vision. We learn how tracks like Dolly
for the future of rock, incorporating blues, was minimal. Now he had his own studio, he Dagger, Freedom, and Night Bird Flying were
psychedelic pop, funk and soul, and blending could just stretch out, jam with musicians that formed from scratch and developed, take-by-
them all into a sound and style uniquely his inspired him, and work out his ideas.” take, into (almost) finished articles.

FEATURE
UNIQUE SOUNDSCAPES approach in more detail than we’ve create the atmosphere he needed to relax
Hendrix had to feel inspired to create his heard before. Jimi’s mastery of the and make music.
best work, and many of the outtakes on wah-wah is on full display on the Jeff Slate has worked at the studio and
the new release show how he would take alternate mix of Bleeding Heart, while the felt the vibe for himself: “There are long
his fellow musicians into new territories first instrumental take of Belly Button winding passages, it’s almost womb-
to fire them up. Listen to the mix of Window is a beautiful jazz-inflected like,” he says. “And I think that’s
Bolero/Hey Baby (New Rising Sun) and shuffle, showcasing his inspired something that would have really
hear how Hendrix launches into rhythmic chops. spoken to a guy like Jimi.” Hendrix
vigorous improvisations on the spur Takes 6 and 8 of Tune X/Just Came In himself said that he always found
of the moment – to drive the band to provide evidence of Jimi’s superb sense studios blank and impersonal, and this
new heights. for song development. With Cox and drained him of drive and inspiration.
One of the most stunning discoveries Mitchell, Hendrix’s rock-solid riffs lead “Electric Lady Studios is different,” said
here is a 26-minute medley improvised to improvised lyrics that spur his Hendrix at the time. “It has been built
by Hendrix, along with bassist Billy Cox bandmates on. with great atmosphere, lighting, seating
and drummer Mitch Mitchell. Weeks later we hear the track more and every comfort that makes people
Transitioning from a take of Astro Man, fully developed as In From The Storm, think they are recording at home.”
tempos vary from the chugging showing how Jimi would layer In fact, the studio did become his
Beginnings, picking up the pace for Hey alternative guitar parts to create creative home for those few months in
Baby (Land of the New Rising Sun), unique soundscapes. 1970. His apartment was just a few
downshifting again for Midnight blocks away, and he could walk down
Lightning (Keep on Groovin’) before A HOME FROM HOME Sixth Avenue to the studio whenever
wrapping up with a thrilling It was the flexibility of his working inspiration struck. Engineer Dave
instrumental rendition of Freedom. The practices, along with the ambience that Palmer, who lived across the street from
almost telepathic interaction between he was able to create in the Electric Lady the studio, recalls more than once being
the musicians is astonishing, with Jimi Studios, that gave Jimi the ultimate woken in the middle of the night to
providing blistering lead runs and inspiration, with no barriers to his attend sessions Jimi wanted to record.
inspired double-stopped licks in this creative process. The architectural
marathon session. structure, interior design and even the A NEW VISION
Other revelations include fresh new lighting were important, as they allowed The tracks documented on the new
42 takes that reveal Hendrix’s creative Hendrix to control the environment and album show a work in progress. From
genius jams
The newly released
recordings offer
incredible insights into
Jimi’s creative process

JIMI HENDRIX
what we hear, Hendrix was poised to

take a new direction yet again,
“ELECTRIC LADY STUDIOS foreshadowing imminent shifts by other
black artists of the time. “It’s pointing
IS DIFFERENT. IT MAKES toward a less rock, more soulful

direction, a sound that became so
PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE prevalent shortly afterwards,” says Jeff

Slate. “Curtis Mayfield, Sly Stone, the
RECORDING AT HOME” Isley Brothers, Miles Davis, what all

those people were on the cusp of and
- JIMI HENDRIX heading towards, Jimi was hearing in his

head. Would he have put strings and
horns on there? We don’t know. In these
recordings we’re just hearing the way
they went down.”
In late August 1970, a party at the
studio launched Electric Lady Studios as
a commercial venture for other artists to
use. The next day, Hendrix left New York
to play the Isle of Wight festival and
other concerts in the UK and Europe.
He never returned. The day before his
death on September 18, he planned to
travel back to America to finish the
album he’d been working on at Electric
Lady Studios, convinced he was on a roll.
It was never to be.
After his death, Electric Lady Studios
went on to host legendary musicians like
Carly Simon, Led Zeppelin, John 43
Lennon, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie,
U2, The Clash, AC/DC and many
more. Artists who have recorded there
talk of feeling the aura of Jimi, and
some even claim his spirit still resides in
the studio.
“There are mosaics on the wall from
Jimi’s time,” says Jeff Slate. “The design
has so much of Jimi’s sensibility to it,
even now that it’s been upgraded,
they’ve maintained that feel. It’s just a
beautiful space. And when you’re in that
space, whether it’s your mind playing
tricks, or you want it to be the case, you
do feel a sense of him. I know Questlove
has his own room there, which he uses
to workshop, make audio books,
recordings and demos. People just love
Jimi, and they want to be associated
with him.”
The Electric Lady Studios boxset and
accompanying film finally give to the
world some of the most important
recordings Jimi made as he was poised to
take music in a new direction once more.
Photo Jorgen Angel Getty Torben Dragsby
Included in the box is a newly created 5.1

surround sound mix of the First Rays Of
The New Rising Sun, and it’s surely the
closest we’ll get to the album he never
lived to see released.
Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision

is out now.

FEATURE
44

DAVID GILMOUR
“LUCK AND STRANGE ?

IT’S ABOUT THE ‘LUCK’
OF THE VERY STRANGE
MOMENT THAT US 45
BABY BOOMERS HAVE

LIVED THROUGH…”
Words Neville Marten Pictures Anton Corbijn
As the ex-Floyd guitarist presents his first

solo album since 2015’s Rattle That Lock,
we look at the songs and music behind
David Gilmour’s best offering to date

FEATURE
f his first studio solo “I’ve changed my whole thinking

release for nine years, about guitar,” says Toto’s Steve
and his fourth since Lukather. “I’d rather be more like David
Pink Floyd split, David Gilmour than anybody else.”
Gilmour says: “The Gilmour joined Pink Floyd as the
album’s called Luck group’s founder and guitarist Syd
And Strange. It’s the Barrett drifted from the band due to
‘luck’ of the very mental health issues. Since then, he has
strange moment that me, and baby enjoyed a stellar career and his
boomers in general, have lived compositions, vocals, and huge soaring
through,” he says. “To have had such solos have featured on several of the
a fortunate moment, so many world’s greatest-selling albums. The
positive ideas that one thought were Dark Side Of The Moon became the fourth
moving us forward.” best-selling album of all time. Wish You
For guitar lovers, the album is a Were Here is another monster, full of
showcase for fabulous instruments of all epic tracks including Shine On You Crazy
stripes, from Fender Stratocasters (of Diamond, while The Wall features the
course) to vintage Gibson Les Paul Gilmour and Roger Waters composition
Goldtop and ES-335 dot neck, Gretsch Comfortably Numb – in 2022 Total Guitar
Duo-Jet, classic Martin acoustics and readers voted it the third-best solo of all
ukuleles, and of course David’s ancient time, after Van Halen’s Eruption and
Rickenbacker lap steel ‘frying pan’ that Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
features throughout. When Pink Floyd finally imploded,
Produced by Mercury Music Prize Gilmour released solo albums like the
winner Charlie Andrew, best known for eponymous debut, plus On An Island and
his work with Alt-J, Gilmour admires Rattle That Lock, where he enlisted the
Andrew’s lack of reverence for both him help of fellow legends David Crosby,
and his musical history. “He’s quite Graham Nash, Phil Manzanera, Jools
bossy and doesn’t have any great Holland, Roger Eno, Floyd’s Rick Wright
46 preconceptions about what I do, or what and others, to create finely-sculpted
Pink Floyd has done,” laughs David. and highly-regarded works.
“He just tells us what he wants us to get Gilmour’s playing is ever-tasteful,
on with, and we get on with it. The always in service of the song, and offers
“THE BEST I’VE MADE SINCE THE

DARK SIDE OF THE MOON”
result is extremely pleasing to me.” a range of techniques including string
“David’s been very receptive to my bends (with the infamous compound
bossiness,” says Charlie. bend) and vibrato, both finger and
With few budget restraints, the album whammy style. His compositions are
brims with instruments, players and thoughtful and musical, with
voices, including orchestrations by Will arrangements that blend rock, pop,
Gardner, and boasting the choir of Ely prog and blues to create dreamy
Cathedral (the ‘ship of the fens’ featured musical soundscapes.
on the cover of Floyd’s Division Bell All of this is in evidence on Luck And
album). The orchestrations are Strange. But there’s a sense within the
“break-your-heart beautiful,” says Gilmour camp that this one is
David’s wife and lyricist Polly Samson. something special. “I started off in a
Gilmour agrees: “He’s a real genius.” pop group,” says Gilmour, “and I found
David Gilmour is one of those myself eventually leading that group,
musicians held in almost universal never a position I wanted. Same with
reverence by players and music fans being a solo artist – not something I
alike. “David Gilmour is an outstanding really asked for. This album feels much
Strat player,” says arch-melodist closer to that than I’ve had all these
Hank Marvin. “He always gets a variety years, with a group of people very
of great tones, uses finger vibrato and collaborative, very positive, and
the bar, has super feel, creates pushing in everything they can to what
beautifully constructed bluesy solos and we’re doing. It’s the best album I’ve
is not afraid to let a phrase really made since The Dark Side Of The Moon
speak. Wonderful!” in 1973.”

DAVID GILMOUR
Track by track
A brief rundown of the album’s new songs
BLACK CAT album on which Gilmour didn’t play
At just a minute and a half, the but which he performed live after
album’s instrumental opener Barrett left the band), or perhaps
features just Gilmour on guitar the Pied Piper of Hamelin?
and piano, plus ambient genius Whatever its meaning, the track’s
Roger Eno on synthesiser. Black simple beauty belies the insidious
Cat features a replacement for darkness behind it.
the infamous black Strat that
David sold at auction in 2019 for BETWEEN TWO POINTS
over £3,000,000. A typically “Polly always asks who my
simple piece in C minor, the playing favourite drummer is,” states
could be no one else. It’s beautiful, David. “Steve Gadd of course!”
tasteful and although mainly This song from The Montgolfier
minor pentatonic-based, is laced Brothers, a 90s dream-pop duo
with colour tones, glorious bends, featuring Mark Tranmer and
and subtle vibrato, not to mention Roger Quigley, had been on
that echo-laden ‘fingerprint’ Gilmour’s personal playlist for
Stratocaster tone. years. “I made a backing track
and realised the lyrics weren’t
LUCK AND STRANGE naturally a thing I’d sing,”
“Luck And Strange comes from a expresses David. So he asked
jam that we did in 2007 while Rick daughter Romany to provide
Wright was still alive,” Gilmour vocals. Gilmour says the guitar
explains. “I wrote choruses and solo is a rare moment. “I was so sprang out of me one day,” darkly diminished piano
bridges for it and Polly wrote into that moment, it was like exclaims David, although the lyrics breakdown from Eno and Rob
these great words. From the first being stoned but I wasn’t – not were pure happenstance. “Polly Gentry. Light relief comes with
second you hear Rick playing his separated from the guitar and had given me a poem for our Gilmour’s acoustic guitar solo. But
electric piano, you just know what I was playing at that wedding anniversary and it it’s the calm before the storm as
there’s something about it that no particular moment, which is rare. happened to be sitting on my his distortion-laden guitar takes
desk next to me. I just picked up off like a rocket to the pentatonic 47
one else could do.” Introduced by It was joyful.”
Gilmour’s black Gretsch Duo-Jet, the paper and sang these words.” Strat-osphere. If there’s a
it’s as close as he ever gets to a A SINGLE SPARK Gilmour played it to Polly, she ‘Comfortably Numb’ moment on
foot-tapper. The changes are very Featuring Romany, Daniel and loved it, added some further the album, then this is it!
Floyd-y, too, especially the Em-C in David Gilmour on ethereal backing lyrics… “and there it was.
the bridge, followed by the very vocals, with the man himself Serendipitous, really.” With BONUS TRACKS:
Dark Side-ish G-Gdim5-C move. singing raspy lead, this cool possibly the most soaring,
Packed with gorgeous bluesy fills track’s Cmaj7-Dm7-G7 verse is anthemic solo on the album - YES, I HAVE GHOSTS
and another monster solo, propelled by Adam Betts’ lovely played on David’s recently Another short and sparsely
Gilmour’s vocals are relaxed and loping drums. As for the solo, it’s acquired dot-neck Gibson ES-335 instrumented number, …Ghosts
confident. A great track that about as melodic as a player can (“I don’t know why I didn’t discover boasts only Gilmour on acoustic
harks back across the decades, get, following the chords and one of these a long time ago”) it’s guitar, with daughter Romany on
both lyrically and musically. targeting notes like major 7th, 9th a joyous yet melancholy piece. backing vocals, string
and 5th so musically. programming and harp. The
THE PIPER’S CALL SINGS instruments and vocals weave
The album’s first single was VITA BREVIS Again, there’s no mistaking the elegantly around one another,
written on David’s old Martin If Black Cat represents the tasty writing and playing here. Featuring before David’s acoustic outro solo
ukulele and begins with uke and pre-dinner nibbles then this David’s two-year-old son Joe dances around Polly’s
acoustic guitar licks. “It’s a song 46-second snippet is the sorbet imploring him to “sing daddy, sing”, programmed violin before the
about the Faustian pact – that break in our 9-course feast. the track’s chorus was originally song fades out. Somewhat
deal with the devil,” David Featuring daughter Romany on written 25 years ago. Perhaps Elizabethan in nature it’s an
explains. “It could be with using delicate harp, and David playing more of a grower than an interesting left turn from the
up the planet,” says Polly Samson, swooping slide guitar it’s a pretty instantaneous album ‘hit’ it does album’s more symphonic tracks.
“it could be with hedonism.” The and easy-to-digest respite from finish with a tasty, dare we say
powerful fills and huge solo are the weightier pieces here. Played Roger Waters-ish repeating bass LUCK AND STRANGE
played on possibly the same 1955 as an entire album rather than run (from possibly Gilmour himself). (ORIGINAL BARN JAM)
Les Paul Goldtop used on Another cherry-picking tracks, Vita Brevis A spontaneous jam in Gilmour’s
Brick In The Wall Part 2. Lyrically (life is short) works perfectly in SCATTERED freezing barn with the late Rick
the song is almost Roger the context of the overall offering. Lyrically credited to Samson, and Wright playing unmistakable
Waters-like in its social both David and son Charlie electric piano (with Guy Pratt on
commentary: the dismissal of DARK AND VELVET NIGHTS Gilmour, Scattered is a classic E bass and Steve DiStanislao on
materialism (“ the spoils of fame”) Featuring A-list session drummer minor ballad, but with a few drums), there are nevertheless
and treachery (“but you reap what Steve Gadd and long-time surprises. It starts in epic Gilmour moments here. He’s
you sow, as I found long ago”). But collaborator on bass, Guy Pratt, atmospheric style with a as cool (sic) as ever, never drops a
is the ‘piper’ The Piper At The Dark And Velvet Nights is one of synth-borne descending Em-D- note, and this could well be the
Gates Of Dawn (Floyd’s debut the album’s highlights.“The music Cmaj7 sequence that builds to a original black Strat.

COVER
FEATURE
a Ripamonti/Alamy
Interview Amit Sharma Photo Andre
48
PUNK ROCK HERO AND GEN Z SUPERSTAR YUNGBLUD IS NOW LAUNCHING HIS FIRST
SIGNATURE GUITAR. “I SPENT COUNTLESS HOURS READING TOTAL GUITAR, LEARNING
ABOUT THIS STUFF,” HE SAYS. AND HE’S ALREADY PLOTTING HIS NEXT MOVE:
“A CLASSIC ROCK ALBUM FOR 2025!”
ungblud is momentarily lost for words. It doesn’t happen often. The punk
rock superstar is known for speaking up about everything that excites or
motivates him. But when he joins a Zoom call with TG, he is at the Gibson
Garage in Nashville, holding his first-ever signature model, the Epiphone
Yungblud SG Junior in Classic White, and at first, all he can bring himself
to say is: “Just, wow…”
Seated on a turquoise sofa, and wearing leather-look dungarees, he
shakes his head and takes a long pause for thought before finally saying
with a smile: “It’s so cool, man. This day in particular, releasing it officially
from the Gibson Garage, has been wild. Honestly, it’s been mental. When
you’re a kid, you always dream of having a signature guitar made by Gibson
and Epiphone, so now it’s happened, I’m like, ‘What the actual f*ck ?’”
The new release is inspired by what he calls his “dream guitar” – an
original 1964 Gibson SG Junior. A slice of history from the very tail-end of
Gibson’s golden age, it’s certainly one of the more striking guitars of its
kind, given how the black scratchplate contrasts with its creamy aged
Polaris White finish and the inclusion of a single P-90 pickup by the bridge
– a defining quality of the Junior models when compared to the dual
humbucker-loaded standard SG designs.

49

COVER
FEATURE
It was a choice inspired by two of his Yungblud is one of the great success
greatest influences – Angus Young of stories of recent years, and it’s a story
AC/DC, one of the most famous which begins, as they so often do for us
exponents of the SG, and Billie Joe guitar players, in a music shop.
Armstrong of Green Day, a fan of He was born Dominic Harrison on
single-pickup Les Pauls… August 5, 1997 in Doncaster, where his
“When I was younger, two massive father Justin Harrison and grandfather
characters who were very important to Rick Harrison owned and ran a guitar
me were Angus and Billie Joe,” he says. store named Music Ground. “That shop
“I was obsessed with them from was where I was brought up,” Yungblud
a young age. Even before I picked up the says. “There’s a picture of me on the
t’s so iconic,” he says, “a guitar, I looked at those guys as heroes. counter only six hours old with a Beatles
rare ’64 SG Junior in white. They were like cartoon characters to me, ukulele on me.”
It has just the one pickup, people who made me think, ‘I wanna An Aladdin’s Cave of curious wonders
which suits me because be like that!’ and rare vintage specimens, as well as
“When I found this guitar, it was entry-level instruments for the
I’m a f*cking scrappy exactly in the middle of what Billie Joe or uninitiated, Music Ground would serve
player, man! I wanted Angus might use, and yet it hadn’t really as a significant landmark within the
an instrument that had been used by anyone. It felt like it would city’s thriving music scene. The
character, something be completely my own. I was buzzing
when I found it. I still am whenever
Harrisons’ customers would include
top-draw legends Noel Gallagher,
which could replicate my I pick it up. It’s been around the world Johnny Marr and Bryan Adams.
energy. I can also hit this with me. It’s survived headstock breaks, In 2012, the family business was
guitar really hard and she getting smashed up and dropped embroiled in controversy. Rick and
about… everything! It’s a legendary Justin Harrison were charged with
can f*cking take it, you guitar with its own identity, but I still handling stolen goods and given
know what I mean? It’s can’t believe we’ve recreated it as suspended sentences following a police
such a sick instrument!” a signature.” investigation into the theft of 157
vintage guitars – including Fender
50 Telecasters and Stratocasters, Gibsons
and Rickenbackers – from the Guitar
Ranch museum in the Italian city of
Verona in 2006.
But as Yungblud says now, Music
Ground was a huge part of his early life.
“I worked there from as early as three
years old,” he recalls. “Just tuning or
dusting or whatever to help out.” And
this was pivotal to the life he leads now,
as a bona fide rock star.
His music has been embraced by fans
across the world, leading to sold-out
arenas, labyrinthine meet-and-greet
queues, and collaborations with some
of the biggest names in the music
business. With the right combination of
hooks, powerchords and overdrive, he’s
become the quintessential voice of Gen
Z – an artist who has built and nurtured
a community around his music to give
fans a place to feel welcome. It’s
a close-knit family that prides itself
on accepting individuals of every kind,
regardless of gender, race or sexual
orientation. It doesn’t matter how weird
“I’M NOT SLASH OR JIMI HENDRIX. I WRITE SONGS AND

PLAY WITH ENERGY AS A FRONTMAN”
Photos Alamy

YUNGBLUD
or different you might think you are,

this is a musical movement where
everyone can belong and feel accepted.
After the series of singles that ended
up on his self-titled EP, his 2018 major
label-released debut 21st Century
Liability came loaded with anthems for
the modern age, capturing the zeitgeist
for a misunderstood youth struggling to
fit into the broken world around them.
Two years later, his second full-length
Weird! ended up topping the UK album
charts thanks to his growing talents as
a songwriter, with Machine Gun Kelly,
Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and
Imagine Dragons singer Dan Reynolds
lending a helping hand on the album’s
standout tracks.
The following album, self-titled and
released in 2022, reached pole position
in seven countries, the rising star
teaming up with Willow for second
single Memories and getting Robert
Smith’s permission to sample The
Cure’s 80s classic Close To Me on the
song Tissues. On top of all this,
Yungblud has also collaborated twice
with UK metalcore heavyweights Bring
Me The Horizon and recorded with Avril
Lavigne, Halsey and Demi Lovato. And 51
throughout it all, he’s had lead guitarist
Adam Warrington at his side.
“I met Adam when I was 15,” he says.
“If you can capture that relationship
through music, it’s real and human.
People can’t argue with that.” Their
on-stage roles are simply described:
“I’m playing for the people and I leave
all the licks to Adam!” he laughs. But as
he talks of this partnership, it leads him
to a broader point.
“Your individuality is the best thing
you’ve got,” he says. “It will be the
biggest thing you question, because, in
music, people like to make all the rules
about how you should sound or play. My
advice is play with your f*cking spirit. It
might not always be perfect, but that’s
always how you stand out. If they don’t
like it, f*ck them! Get in the room with
your mates and your friends. That’s how
we ended up being so lucky. We love
each other and we’re all mates.”
He cites AC/DC and Green Day as
a reference points for his own music
because they’re arguably the biggest
and best of their kind, purveyors of
hard-hitting rock music served in its
purest and rawest form. There’s no
mistaking things with either one – you
know what they’re gunning for. Simple
cowboy chords and 5th diads can take
you a long way.

Given his history, it’s no surprise that
Yungblud knows what to look for in
a guitar. Beyond the obvious connection
to one of his biggest idols, there’s
something about the demonic cut of an
SG that works like a magnetic pull and
draws him in every time. The early ’60s
design is particularly mischievous and
playful, perhaps even a little bit bratty
and juvenile, but these are all things
Yungblud chooses to run with and
embrace, the same very words he often
uses to describe his personality…
“I found the 1964 online,” he
continues. “I knew a lot about guitars
by the time I found it. I had a good idea
about what I wanted and what would
be right for me. And I always loved SGs.
The horns remind me of a f*cking devil
child! They used to call me ‘Damian’
in the shop when I was a kid, because
I’d be running around throwing the
horns at everyone with my tongue
out, wearing goth pants and New
Rock boots.
“I had a good idea of what to look for
because I spent countless hours reading
Total Guitar, learning about this stuff!
I knew my guitar had to be iconic. I’ve
52 always loved white guitars, especially as
I always wear black. I need a guitar that
can contrast with that. To find a ’60s
model just felt f*cking cool.”
If there was one thing he asked of
Gibson when the topic of a signature
model was originally floated, it was that
“AC/DC MAKE it had to be affordable. Much like the

network of music lovers he’s built
“Both of those bands
represent simplicity,” ANIMALISTIC can sing it with them and
they can have a good
around the world, a community also
known as the Yungblud Army, it had to
MUSIC. THE
he says. “They write time on stage, playing be inclusive – which is precisely where
stuff anyone can play really f*cking loud.” Epiphone came into the picture.
GUITAR PLAYING
or sing back. They can He continues: “With “I also had to make sure this replica
write a riff and 70 Billie Joe, it’s all about the was affordable,” he says, looking more
IS THE SOUND
thousand people will downstrokes. I had to serious all of a sudden. “I’m an
sing it back, no matter strengthen my wrists approachable guitar player, that’s what
OF THUNDER!”
what language they and build stamina, I am, that’s what I do. I’m not Slash or
speak. That’s what I’ve because that’s what real Jimi Hendrix. I write songs and play
realised. With Angus, rhythm guitar is about. with energy as a frontman. This guitar
it’s all very chord-based I’m a rhythm player and had to be accessible to everyone.
until he gets to the solo singer, that’s what That’s why I’m so happy it’s come
sections. I love songs like excites me. Musicians like Billie Joe and out through Epiphone.”
Thunderstruck and For Those About To Dave Grohl are the masters of that. They This is especially important given
Rock (We Salute You). AC/DC make play hard and simple, and it’s always the core demographic of his fanbase:
animalistic human music. It’s very stuff the audience can sing back. That’s younger individuals typically of the age
simple – just listen to the drums. what I learned most from them. where they’re starting their first bands.
But the guitar playing is the sound of Longview by Green Day is incredible. In Yungblud’s eyes, it’s all in service to
thunder. You can just tell just from I love that opening bassline, it’s almost a greater cause, the rock ’n’ roll
the name of the song! Highway To Hell like a guitar riff. And Jesus Of Suburbia movement that changed his life
sounds like hell. The same goes for Back was huge for me. It was like the infinitely for the better, ultimately
In Black or Shoot To Thrill. They’re so Bohemian Rhapsody for my generation, helping him find his place in this world.
Photos Getty
badass and radical. They purposefully with all these twists and turns that It’s not been an easy ride, either
make it simple so thousands of people go everywhere.” – plenty of hours and miles have been

YUNGBLUD
Anarchy
In The
EU!
YUNGBLUD ON THE GUITAR
THAT DEFINED THE SOUND
OF PUNK ROCK
t a recent gig in Paris,
Yungblud played Steve
Jones’ 1974 Les Paul
Custom, the guitar
which made history
on Never Mind The
Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols. As he
recalls: “I was literally sat backstage
playing it through a Twin Reverb and it
sounded exactly like [Sex Pistols
classic] Pretty Vacant. My favourite
old-school punk bands are the Pistols,
The Clash and The Damned. Hearing
Johnny Rotten with Steve Jones, Joe
Strummer and Captain Sensible was 53
mind-blowing for me. I remember being
hit in the face by their music around the
age of seven. So being able to shut my
eyes and play Pistols riffs, and have it
sound exactly like the record without
three hours of fine-tuning on pedals or
a laptop was f*cking mental! Straight in,
boom, go! And that guitar is heavy as
f*ck, too heavy for me to play, to be
honest. It’s a proper ’70s Les Paul in
that sense.
“The guy who lent it to me, Matthieu
[Lucas] from Matt’s Guitar Shop in Paris,
is the guy who sold me the 330! He’s
a guitar collector in France and he’ll
hook you in with things like Chuck
Berry’s Firebird or Steve Jones’ Les Paul
Custom. And then he’ll say, ‘Oh, by the
way, this other thing has come in and
it’s only 20 grand if you want it!’ And by
that point you’re hooked in, so you say
‘Okay, I’ll have it!’
“And it had originally belonged to
Sylvain Sylvain from the New York Dolls,
that’s who gave it to Steve Jones. I was
off my f*cking tits playing it, to be
honest. I used it for one song but was
sh*tting myself the entire time. I didn’t
want to break it, but on the other hand,
if I did, that would have ended up being
part of its story!

COVER
FEATURE
“It’s a
dream!”
WHY YUNGBLUD INVITES
FANS TO JAM ON STAGE AND
KEEP THE EPIPHONE GUITAR
THEY PLAY
’ve handed out about nine
guitars so far,” he says.
“The first time happened
by accident. We’d been
sent some cool
prototypes to tour with.
I wanted to try them out and switch
between my main ’60s Gibson and the
Epiphones. I started to mix and match on
stage. We were headlining a festival in
Prague and I asked the crowd, ‘Does
anyone want to come up and play this next
song with us? Does anyone actually know
how to play it?’ Everyone went a bit mad
and it was crazy looking at 60,000 people
screaming, ‘Yeah!’ I remember looking out
and a moshpit opened up. There was one
54 kid in the middle screaming, ‘Me!’ I got him
up, his name was Simon, and it was like we’d
been playing with him our entire lives.
“I handed him the guitar at the end
saying, ‘You can keep that!’ And the next
day it had millions of views. It was really
organic. So I called the factory and said,
‘You need to send us a load more because
we’re planning on giving them out.’ After the
gigs, I would go to the barrier when the
house lights come on to hang out with
the kids – that’s what I’ve done since we
started – and people will tell me they’re
starting a band. That will lead to me calling
my tech over to bring them a guitar. If I can
play a tiny part in someone’s story, just like
Angus or Billie Joe did for me, then what
a f*cking honour!
“That’s what rock ’n’ roll’s about; passing
on the baton and hoping the person who
takes it respects what came before, but
also runs as fast as they can in another
direction. The difference between our
genre and everyone else’s is that rock is
sacred. You can’t fake it. With pop and
hip-hop, stuff like that, they give the crown
to whatever is big in that moment. Rock is
about a 30- or 40-year career. Taking heavy
sounds to new people, to new waters. If you
manage to do that, you get remembered.
“We are right in the middle of that voyage
right now. It’s lit and we’re having fun with
it. That symbol of me passing a guitar to
someone in the same way my grandfather
did to my dad and my dad did to me is
a f*cking dream.”

55
new blud
“Right now it’s exciting
because rock ’n’ roll feels
different, it feels new”
dedicated to the mission so far, and that “I’M AFTER A CERTAIN “We’ve really gone classic rock on
SOUND – YOUNG,
doesn’t look like it will be changing this new record we’ve been making,”
anytime soon. And there, perhaps, lies he grins. “Or at least how we believed
BRATTY AND NAIVE”

the big secret behind all the success. classic rock should be played. It’s like
He’s a lifer and everything he creates new old stock, all guitar-based with
comes with a palpable sense of sweat four-minute breakdowns. The first
and authenticity. Playing his part in the song is nine minutes long with two
resurgence of rock music in wider guitar solos in it. We’re just gonna
popular culture is, in his own words, It’s been a crazy five years for us. We f*cking do it, just because we can do it.
literally why he exists. started in small venues and now we’re Why not? We were asking ourselves
“I have a deep love for rock music,” playing stadiums, but we’re all under how we can twist the genre. How do we
he shrugs, almost as if to say it 30. So rock is definitely coming back. make it sound new and how do we make
shouldn’t be too hard to figure what Young people are loving it.” rock guitar more interesting? We’ve got
he’s all about. “That’s what I grew up So far he’s been mainly operating out to this point where it’s like ‘Alright,
on. It’s what I listen to in the shower, of the punk and indie circles within the sick, we’ve done all that, now let’s make
it’s what I listen to at parties and it’s rock universe, though there are some a classic rock album!’ It will still feel
what I listen to backstage. My goal is to big changes afoot with the next fresh, though. It will be a classic rock
bring guitar music to a new generation full-length, currently a work in album for 2025.”
but re-skin it to make it different. Right progress. After all this talk about his Beyond his prized SG Junior, there are
now it’s exciting because rock ’n’ roll love for AC/DC, it very much sounds like some other rare Gibsons to be found in
feels different, it feels new. Whether his love for Angus and Malcolm will be his private collection. His latest edition
Photos Getty
people like it or not, it’s happening brought to the forefront on album four, is a ’60s ES-330 – a dream machine for
again! We want to be a part of that. slated for release next year. just about any kind of guitar player,

COVER
FEATURE
whether they’re into rock, metal, blues a f*cking beating. Adam occasionally it to be young, bratty and naive. Adam
or jazz. And though he chooses to ditch plays a Fender, but we’re Gibson lovers. can do all the clever sh*t. I want my
the six-string during certain points of It’s like the company kidnapped us, parts to be accessible, so any kid can
his live show – a fundamental aspect of locked us in their basement with all the learn them quickly. I’m more of
his larger-than-life stage presence and goody bags and now we’re fully down!” a songwriter, that’s just how I play. I’ll
primary role as a frontman – he’s It should come as little surprise that do something simple, then Adam will
a guitar addict just like the rest of us. Yungblud’s approach to tone is one that shred some mental sh*t all over it.”
“I just love guitars,” he echoes his attitude And while there are plenty of great
smiles. “Especially my towards songwriting. digital rig options striking that perfect
“I GREW UP IN A
Gibson B-25 acoustics… He places his trust in balance between consistency and
I’ve got seven of them! Hiwatt and Marshall portability, there’s nothing quite like
GUITAR SHOP”
I will literally buy any one amps for a hard-hitting plugging a guitar straight into a cranked
of those ’60s models. crunch that can ring amp. Technology has come on in leaps
Every time I see one, it true and move air at and bounds over the last two decades,
comes home with me. high volume. You won’t but for players like Yungblud, the more
Because those guitars are find anything in things change, the more things stay
real songwriter’s instruments. I write between because – at least to his ears the same…
with them, so they come all over the – less really is more. All the clever “I don’t even use pedals, I stick with
world with me. I’m just obsessed with effects and pedalboard headaches are the gain from the amp. We might use
those things. I just bought a ’60s ES-330 left to fellow six-stringer Adam, who a couple of Boxes Of Doom [isolated
which came from Florida and it’s an brings more eclectic influences into cabinets] backstage, but it all comes
unbelievable guitar. Some guy drew their collective sonic palette. from plugging straight in. That’s just
a ghost on the scratchplate; we call it “My approach is very simple,” he what I like. People have been trying to
‘The Demon’, and apparently it’s admits. “Adam’s rig is way more get us to switch to Kemper for years and
cursed. If I’m dead next year, it’s intricate, running two amps in stereo. we keep telling them to f*ck off. All of
because of that guitar! His pedalboard is pretty mind-blowing, our mates come on the side of the stage
“Really it just comes down to which because he’s really inspired by people and I want that area to be a party.
ones have survived me and my like The Edge from U2 and Ed O’Brien Sometimes I take my in-ears out and
playing,” he laughs. “Some are in bits, from Radiohead. I like a one-pickup it’s blaring at me. I just want my amp
56 lying around somewhere. I had a couple guitar going into an amp with a basic all the way up and I’m ready to go… the
Photos Alamy
of Fenders a few years ago, but, for me, distortion or overdrive that kicks. I’m only thing I need is for it to be f*cking
Gibsons sound heavier and can take after a certain sound. I want loud up there!”
“I KNEW MY GUITAR
HAD TO BE ICONIC ”
YUNGBLUD
57

COVER
FEATURE
58

ADAM WARRINGTON
“I NEEDED SOMEONE
TO BE THE SID VICIOUS
TO MY JOHNNY ROTTEN”
MEET ADAM WARRINGTON – THE MAN HANDLING MOST OF THE
GUITARS YOU HEAR AT A YUNGBLUD SHOW…
Words Amit Sharma Pictures Dave Simpson, Roberto Ricciuti /Getty
ook up any footage from Dom Harrison Music to the

of Yungblud pseudonym he’d go on to take over the
playing live on world with – the relationship and
YouTube and chemistry fuelled by their shared love
there’s a strong for Joy Division, gin and port.
chance you will see The effervescent frontman praised
Adam Warrington Warrington’s well-roundedness and
on stage right. The passion for the guitar but also
Scottish-born 28-year-old guitarist has championed his ability to not overthink 59
been on almost every tour with the it all. “He’s great at scales but he’s not
band, including landmark performances going to be like, ‘Hey man, B minor
at the Reading And Leeds Festivals, diminished blah blah blah!’” grinned
various awards ceremony events and Yungblud. “He’ll just have a couple of
television appearances, including The beers and play you something amazing.”
Graham Norton Show. You’ll also spot his Before working in his current role, play time series, in which Warrington explained
face in a lot of the music videos and see Warrington was performing alongside “He’ll just have a how it was the John Mayall’s Blues
couple of beers
his name credited on a handful of tracks chart-topping Scottish singer- Breakers With Eric Clapton connection that
and play you
from the last two studio albums. songwriter Lewis Capaldi, who remains something amazing” led him to the amp, citing it as his main
Back in November 2020, Yungblud one of his oldest friends and biggest workhorse. “It’s called a Bluesbreaker
decided to introduce Warrington to fans supporters. “Adam is one of my oldest for a reason,” he smiled, highlighting its
on his BBC Sounds podcast “because of pals from back home,” Capaldi once ability to sing and cut through with a
how important he is in my life and in revealed. “We started off together “really amazing middle presence”.
my career,” going on to describe him as playing shows out and about in tiny As for pedals, there’s an entire
a guitar player who always makes venues in Scotland. He’s an incredible universe of tonal options coming from
people turn their heads wherever he guitar player and is usually off playing the high-performance Boss 500 series
goes. High praise, indeed… around the world with Yungblud now! – namely the RV-500 reverb, the
“I met Adam on Phil Taggart’s Slacker It’s nice to have someone you grew up DD-500 delay and MD-500 modulation.
night in Old Street in East London,” with going on to do amazing things.” For standalone stomp boxes, he favours
Yungblud recalled. “I was like, I needed a For live shows, Warrington tends to the Ibanez WH10V3 wah, the Electro-
guitar player. I kind of needed someone rely on his Gibson six-strings – with Harmonix Micro POG, the DigiTech
who would be the Sid Vicious to my models like his 2018 SG Standard, 2001 Whammy, the ZVEX Super Hard On
Johnny Rotten, or the Carl Barât to my Les Paul Standard and Custom Shop boost and the Dunlop Echoplex delay.
Pete Doherty or whatever. I remember ES-335 covering most of the set. On the And there’s no shortage of fuzz options
we were both wearing Harringtons and rack, you’re also likely to find a Gretsch coming from a JHS Crayon which
you came up to me and passed me a G6128T-89VS Vintage Select ’89 Duo Jet recreates the sound of plugging direct
beer. It was that doppelgänger thing and with Bigsby and Fender Classic Player into a preamp, a JHS Muffuletta which
I was like, ‘Ah, hello!’.” Jazzmaster Special, with whichever he packs five classic Big Muffs into one
Within two weeks of meeting, the pair picks up running in stereo via a Hiwatt unit, and a Fulltone ’70 BC-108C –
were living together and playing in the Custom 20 and Marshall 1962 famously reverse engineered from Eric
same band. In the same podcast, Bluesbreaker reissue. The latter was Johnson’s original blue Fuzz Face, which
Yungblud revealed how these early years demonstrated on Marshall’s YouTube made history on the Strat virtuoso’s
playing together helped him transition channel as part of its Artist Spotlight early studio albums.

COVER
FEATURE
THE GEAR THAT POWERED THE GENRE

Here we take a look at the guitars, amps and effects as used by
punk’s greats. Back in the 70s these players embraced a DIY
‘make do and mend’ ethic... Words Jenna Scaramanga
1. WAYNE KRAMER’S way of reclaiming the US flag from hit the pickup selector, cutting out the
STRATOCASTER right wingers. sound. Thinking his guitar was broken,
In the 1970s, poverty-stricken early Buying now? Thunders smashed it and incited a riot.
punk innovator Wayne Kramer Fender did a run of Wayne Kramer Strats On returning to New York, he purchased
repainted his Strat metallic purple and in 2011. Failing that, you’ll need to find a his TV yellow doublecut Junior which
sold it. The guitar has never been Strat with a middle pickup rout to install a had no confusion-causing switches. He
recovered, so hard info is scarce today. PAF ’bucker. referred to it as an ‘automatic guitar’
60 The big headstock puts it no earlier because it was easy to use, like an
than December 1965, and Kramer had it 2. JOHNNY THUNDERS’ automatic car.
for the recording of the MC5’s Kick Out 1960 LES PAUL JUNIOR Buying now?
The Jams in October 1968. In a bid to The New York Dolls were forerunners of The Harley Benton DC-Junior has all the
make his solos cut through, Kramer punk and glam metal, and you can thank right features, and even comes in TV yellow.
installed a humbucker (most likely a Thunders for the Junior’s subsequent
Gibson, given the era) in the middle, appearances on records by The Clash 3. JOHNNY RAMONE’S
retaining the single coil Strat bridge and Green Day. Thunders started out money maker 1965 MOSRITE VENTURE
Johnny Ramone’s
pickup for his preferred rhythm tone. In playing a 1957 Les Paul Special with the 1965 Mosrite sold for
MODEL II
the Vietnam era, the stars and stripes neck pickup disconnected. At a show a whopping $937,000 Johnny Ramone wanted something
motif was Kramer’s own patriotic with the Stooges in Memphis, Thunders at auction in 2021 cheap and individual, and the Mosrite
3
Photos Max Redfern, Michael Ochs Archives / Getty
POWERING PUNK
Amps
Classic punk amp brands
FENDER
Steve Jones recorded Never Mind The Bollocks with a
Fender Twin Reverb using his ‘magic settings’ –
everything on 10. It was also Joe Strummer’s amp of
choice for London Calling. The Dead Kennedys’ East
Bay Ray recorded his parts for their seminal debut
Fresh Fruits For Rotting Vegetables using a Fender
Super Reverb he’d modded himself.
MARSHALL
Historically, this is probably the punk amp brand.
Johnny Ramone bought three in 1976, along with six
4x12 cabinets, all of which he ran simultaneously.
Steve Jones toured with a 100-watt Super Lead during
the Pistols’ original run. Minor Threat and their early
80s contemporaries leaned hard on the JCM800, and
Green Day’s Dookie was recorded with a 1959SLP.
5
VOX
Vox amps, widely available in the UK, were
was perfect. They’re now highly whereabouts until May 2024, when it unsurprisingly grabbed by many young punks. Most
collectible as less than 150 of Ramone’s sold for a not-very-punk $390,000 notably, The Clash’s debut album tone is defined by
preferred slab-bodied variant were at auction. the AC30. The Stranglers’ Hugh Cornwell has used
originally built, but at the time it was a Buying now? them for his entire career, only recently resorting to
junk shop special. According to the The Epiphone Les Paul Custom looks the the Fender Blues DeVille as an emergency backup.
auction catalogue when it sold in 2021, part, but the Inspired by Gibson Custom
“The fretboard shows an incredible version has Gibson specs, including an
MESA/BOOGIE
The Clash’s Mick Jones was an early adopter of Mesa/
amount of wear to the bass side of the ebony fingerboard. 61
Boogie, using MkI and MkII models paired with
higher register frets” from Ramone’s Marshall cabs from London Calling onwards. Pop-punk
savage pick attack, and “extreme wear 5. JOAN JETT’S 1972 loved Boogie too. The Offspring and NOFX used the Mk
on the back of the neck from the first to GIBSON LES PAUL DELUXE IV. Tom DeLonge ran his Triple Rectifier alongside a
5th fret” from his constant The 17-year-old Joan Jett picked up a Marshall JCM900, with the 900 on the clean channel,
powerchording. It sold for $937,000 to natural finish Deluxe on joining the gain on 10.
an anonymous buyer who, we would Runaways, and wouldn’t get her better
assume, does not play punk guitar known Gibson Melody Maker until her SOLID STATE AMPS
for a living. solo career. The Deluxe’s mini- Solid State goes right to the roots of punk. The
Buying now? humbuckers are clearer and brighter
Stooges’ Ron Asheton used the transistor-powered
Vox Super Beatle. Wilko Johnson was an early HH
The Harley Benton MR-Classic gives much of than PAFs, and live footage frequently
IC100-S user, as were The Clash, Bauhaus, The
the look and vibe of the original Mosrite. shows Jett using the neck pickup. Buzzcocks, and The Skids too. Early on, Johnny
Although manager Kim Fowley called Ramone used an Electro-Harmonix Mike Matthews
4. STEVE JONES’ 1974 the Runaways “an all-girl answer to Freedom Solid State amp until his budget permitted
LES PAUL CUSTOM Grand Funk”, the group quickly that wall of Marshalls. Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould gigged
By his own account, the Sex Pistols’ became friends with the Ramones, Yamaha G100 and Roland JC-120 heads. The brittle
Steve Jones, er, “borrowed” some of the the Damned, and the Sex Pistols, and cutting tones of post-punk were an ideal home for
gear he used in his early career, but this cementing their punk credibility. Being a solid-state gear. In Siouxsie and the Banshees, John
guitar was not misappropriated. It had ’72, the Deluxe had a ‘pancake’ body, McGeoch used one with the chorus on all the time,
belonged to the New York Dolls’ Sylvain with a layer of maple sandwiched
alongside two 50-watt Marshall JMP combos, one
clean and one dirty. Gang Of Four’s Andy Gill proudly
Sylvain, and some say that Malcolm between two mahogany slabs in
used an early 80s Carlsbro 2x12.
McLaren took the guitar as payment for addition to the maple top, for
managing the Dolls, eventually passing greater rigidity.
it on to Steve. Regardless, it wound up in Buying now?
Jones’ hands for the duration of the Sex Mini humbuckers are rare but will fit in P-90
Pistols’ career, before being stolen from routs, so something like the Harley Benton
him in 1978. Rumours flew about its SC450 is ripe for modification.
“THINKING HIS GUITAR WAS

BROKEN, THUNDERS SMASHED IT
AND INCITED A RIOT”
COVER
FEATURE
62
6. JOE STRUMMER’S and they were much more akin to Clash classic deeper tone than a Strat. Smith refers to
1966 TELECASTER playing a ’90s Les Paul today. The Jones’ 1958 Les Paul the Duo-Sonic in various lyrics and is
Standard featured on
Strummer had this Sunburst model classic combination of Les Paul and Tele The Clash’s most
credited on some of her albums
sprayed black and the bridge swapped to fuelled The Clash from London Calling important recordings specifically for Duo-Sonic guitar.
a six-saddle model for better intonation. onwards, although Jones played the Buying now?
The tuners were replaced with majority of guitars on the band’s studio Tough! Only the Fender Player Duo-
contemporary 70s models too, but this albums. And, though Jones is more Sonic comes close, and it’s based on
was otherwise a stock 1966 Tele. The associated with the Les Paul Custom the later 24” scale spec.
tradition of adorning guitars with because of its appearance in hit videos
anti-establishment messages goes back like Should I Stay Or Should I Go, it was the 9. GREG GINN’S DAN
at least to Woodie Guthrie’s “This Standard on The Clash’s most ARMSTRONG PLEXI GUITAR
Machine Kills Fascists”, probably important recordings. As Black Flag pushed punk’s evolution
earlier, but Strummer popularised Buying now? into hardcore, guitarist Greg Ginn
stickers in punk. The ‘Ignore Alien Almost every budget brand has a singlecut looked for something unusual and came
Orders’ and ‘Trash City’ decals sat option. The Vintage V100NB has no frills but up with the Dan Armstrong Plexi guitar.
alongside ‘NOISE’ stencilled in white. solid quality. He’s the reason Dave Grohl plays one
There were raised eyebrows when – Grohl’s even touts a Black Flag
Fender released a roadworn Joe 8. PATTI SMITH’S FENDER sticker. Ginn replaced the pickup with
Strummer Tele for £1,599, and a run of DUO-SONIC assorted humbuckers, frequently having
75 masterbuilt replicas of his original for Patti Smith’s 1962 Sunburst Duo-Sonic trouble with them shorting out. Greg
– gulp – $20,000. was a gift to her from Television’s Tom reputedly sweats like a beast, and the
Buying now? Verlaine who played it on Little Johnny pickup was later sealed in a bid to
Photos Corbis, Tim Mosenfelder, Jim Steinfeldt / Getty
The Squier Sonic Telecaster has the Jewel. The Duo-Sonic was rumoured to prevent damage. There were two Black
six-saddle bridge and comes in black. have belonged to Jimi Hendrix during Flag Plexis. One had the Black Flag
Job done. his stint playing for the Isley Brothers logo taped on and was eventually
“GROHL’S PLEXI GUITAR

after his original one was stolen –
7. MICK JONES’ 1958 though its authenticity can’t be proven.
LES PAUL STANDARD
EVEN TOUTS A BLACK
Smith is more frequently photographed
It might not seem very punk to play the with her other, black, Duo-Sonic,
FLAG STICKER”
world’s most collectible guitar, but which has a pre-1959 maple
when Jones picked up his ’58 the fingerboard. The short 22.5” scale
vintage market had not yet exploded, length gives it a spongier attack and

POWERING PUNK
11 12
sprayed black, while the other remained humbucker, but this died in an epic
clear. Both were eventually stolen and mudfight at Woodstock ’94. The guitar Pedal power
remain missing. has housed a Seymour Duncan JB SH-4
Buying now? since then. The body is probably made
Essential effects for punk
Budget acrylic-bodied guitars appear from reclaimed bowling alley wood—
frequently on eBay; we cannot attest to Fernandes built many of its 80s guitars 63
their quality! this way, pancaking silver heart planks
together to get the required thickness.
10. DOYLE WOLFGANG VON Blue has probably been seen by more
FRANKENSTEIN’S people than any guitar in the history
ANNIHILATOR of punk.
Misfits guitarist Von Frankenstein Buying now?
drew this body design in high school, If you’re beset by brand loyalty, you could
inspired by Batman, and then built it track down a new Fernandes RT model. An
himself while working in a machine HSS Fender Strat will be easier to locate on
shop. He bought mahogany body wood these shores though.
from Paul Reed Smith and used a MODULATION
graphite neck-through design. Rather 12. TOM DELONGE’S 1994 Punk is not about brand loyalty, but you may spot a
than side dot markers, the frets are FENDER STRATOCASTER pattern here... Mick Jones originally employed an MXR
Phase 90 before moving on to the Phase 100 for London
labelled with the names of the E-string DeLonge’s original Strat is an Olympic
Calling. Steve Jones similarly employed MXR phasers on
notes. Although there’s a Floyd Rose White USA 40th Anniversary model, Anarchy.... Dr. Know/Gary Miller was an MXR devotee for
bridge, it’s modified to be a hardtail, covered – of course – in stickers. Tom reggae parts, and, in Magazine, John McGeoch used
and Doyle even wound the pickup has always used the hottest pickups he MXR M117R flangers.
himself to his own spec. After a brief can find. He originally fitted this with a
partnership with Oktober Guitars, Dean Duncan Hot Rails and JB Jr in the neck DELAY
now makes a replica for an eye- and middle, and an angled DiMarzio After modulation, a good tape or analogue delay is the
watering $9,999. X2N. In 1997, the JB Jr was swapped for a next most common punk accessory. Mick Jones used a
Buying now? Lil Screamin’ Demon and the X2N Roland RE-201 Space Echo on Train In Vain and its
Nope! Your best bet may be the Ibanez became a Duncan Invader. The guitar
successor the RE-301 Chorus Echo on Lost In The
Supermarket. The Echoplex, meanwhile, was part of the
Iceman as played by Doyle before he built stayed in this form for Dude Ranch and
Dead Kennedys’ sound, heard most prominently on The
the Annihilator. the band’s breakthrough Enema Of The Man With The Dogs and Holiday In Cambodia.
State. As Blink-182 exploded, Fender
11. BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG’S custom built DeLonge five single- COMPRESSION
FERNANDES BLUE pickup Strats in various colours, each These crop up more frequently than you might expect,
Billie Joe got his 1980s Fernandes Strat with a single Invader pickup. particularly in the spiky cleans of post-punk. David
copy for his 10th birthday and it has Buying now? Byrne and John McGeoch favoured the MXR Dyna Comp,
been his favourite ever since. Only the The Squier Sonic Stratocaster HT H has a while the Boss CS-3 is used by East Bay Ray and
bridge pickup is connected. On Dookie it single humbucker, fixed bridge, and bright Blondie’s Chris Stein.
featured a Bill Lawrence dual blade colours and is ripe for stickering.

COVER
FEATURE
64
Think punk is just powerchords and rubbish technique?

Think again as we take you through all you need to know...
Words, guitars and backing Charlie Griffiths
unk is traditionally ensconced in a pop-punk, post-punk and more of those but, more importantly, with a focus on the
DIY ethic, from its “use what ya sub-genres are now all on their second or techniques you need to know to cover 50+
got” approach with gear to third revivals, with acts like Idles, Fontaines years of punk.
self-taught playing and D.C. and Yungblud at the forefront today. As ever, your aim is to improve your
musicianship. This was probably For us guitarists, there’s now greater playing, so don’t worry if you don’t master
Getty
truer in the 70s heyday – and punk musical history to draw on, and a lot more each example in full. It’s all about identifying
Yildiz
Knaeps
has come a long way since, techniques to learn too. Our lesson here the bite-sized ideas that you’re not so familiar
GieEbru
spawning a raft of sub-genres. We could list takes you through 10 examples which are with, then adding them to your own arsenal
Photos
Photo
these, but perhaps the most telling fact is that loosely based around one or two artists apiece, of techniques.

PUNK LESSON
1 OFFBEAT CHORD CHANGES bit.ly/tg389audio
We’re kicking off in the style of US shock-punk rockers, Misfits, with a riff using barre chords from the key of B major and delivered in continuous eighth-note
downstrokes. Take careful note of where the chord changes appear. They’re played on the offbeat on several occasions, so, if you’re counting to four to keep time with the
quarter-note pulse, the changes will appear in between the numbers.
2 SLIDING APPROACH CHORDS bit.ly/tg389audio
65
Played with E and A major barre chords at the 12th fret, this riff is spiced up with a slide from a semitone below each chord, Johnny Ramone style. It’s a technique that
you’ll also hear on God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols, amongst tracks by countless other acts. Keep your hand and fingers fixed in the barre chord shape and focus on
sliding each finger across the fret-wires at the same time.
3 CHROMATIC RIFFING bit.ly/tg389audio
This riff is something Black Flag’s Dez Cadena might play to create a spooky sound – an effect that comes from the chromatic arrangement of notes, instead of staying
within the key signature. Use your wrist and thumb to control the pick in an even alternate picking motion and use your four fretting fingers to span from the 5th fret down
to the 1st. Stub your fretting fingers up against the idle strings to keep ’em quiet.

COVER
FEATURE
4 MUTED STRUMMING bit.ly/tg389audio
Add interesting rhythms to your strummed barre chords here by mixing full chords with muted strings in the style of Fall Out Boy’s Joe Trohman. For these mutes, hold the
chord shapes with your fretting fingers and relax them so they are touching the strings but not pressing into the frets. Note that the mutes don’t appear on the same
beats in every bar – and you can experiment further with this idea.
5 GREEN DAY-STYLE OPEN STRING CHANGES bit.ly/tg389audio

66
Play rapid-fire Green Day-style chord changes by adding open string strums as you make the position shift. Moving between two chords can be tricky at high tempos and
quickly strumming the open strings in between chords is a good way of giving your fretting hand time to find the shape, as well as being a subtle but important nuance of
punk rhythm playing.
6 POP-PUNK MAJOR MELODIES bit.ly/tg389audio
This technique is a great way of creating an energetic, positive vibe like Tom DeLonge’s upbeat pop-punk style in Blink-182. Here, we’re using the notes of E major (E F# G# A
B C# D#) along the length of the first string, and using that repeating open E note (known as a pedal tone) to really root the lick in its intended key. Use alternate picking or
try hammer-ons and pull-offs. It’s up to you.

PUNK LESSON
7 SKA FEEL bit.ly/tg389audio
Focusing the rhythm guitar on beats 2 and 4 gives this riff a ska feel akin to Mick Jones on The Clash’s London Calling. Ska would overlap elsewhere in the genre with The
Police’s post-punk style then later in the 90s with the ska-punk scene. Our riff has a swung eighth-note feel which means longer downstrokes and shorter upstrokes.
8 DISSONANT BENDS bit.ly/tg389audio
Mark Bowen of Idles creates striking guitar parts by employing dissonant string bends, sometimes on a single string and other times using unison bends. The idea here is
to bend the lower string to match the pitch of the fretted higher string. The slower you do it, the more dissonant and sour it will sound. You might say it’s a “classic rock”
technique but it’s used extensively in punk and its sub-genres too. 67
9 OCTAVE LICK bit.ly/tg389audio
We’re taking inspiration from East Bay Ray of Dead Kennedys and Dave Baksh of Sum 41 here. You’ll hear countless bands use octave shapes though, filling out the sound
of melody lines. Play the lower note with your first finger and the higher note with your third or fourth, ensuring you keep the idle strings silent by resting your fretting
fingers against them. Ideally, you should be able to strum without string noise.
10 YUNGBLUD STYLE SINGLE-NOTE RIFF bit.ly/tg389audio
This single-note Yungblud style riff uses the A natural minor scale (A B C D E F G) starting with the open fifth string. After the root note, keep your hand steady and in
position as you play the scale notes with your first, second and fourth fingers. Pick each note with a downstroke for an even, consistent attack making sure you strike the
string exactly when your fretting fingers land.

CL ASSIC
T R AC K
68
BLACK
SABBATH
WAR PIGS
Photo Getty Guitars and backing Phil Capone Transcription Simon Young & Phil Capone
Sabbath’s classic anti-war

protest song tabbed in full

CL ASSIC
T R AC K
SOUND ADVICE
he opening track on
Black Sabbath’s iconic
second album
Paranoid, War Pigs is
chocked full of Tony Everything you need to know before playing War Pigs
Iommi’s masterful
I
ommi played a Gibson SG through a Laney
riffing. The song has an unusual 100BL amp on War Pigs, so you’ll need
structure, kicking off with a slow,
spacey intro in 6/8 time before
Get the tone CHANNEL DISTORTION a guitar equipped with a bridge-position
humbucker and a British-style valve amp to
5 get an authentic tone. Keep the midrange low
breaking down for a sparse-
7 3 and the treble reasonably high to get close to
sounding verse and then 8 2
Tony’s sound. If you’re playing a Stratocaster
eventually reaching its chorus riff. or a similar single-coil-equipped guitar, dial in
We’ve tabbed the song in full more bass and less treble on your amp and
GAIN BASS MID TREBLE REVERB
here, but be aware that the solos experiment with more gain.
are a composite of double-tracked
parts which, in the main, are in
unison, but elsewhere deviate
briefly away from each other.
Based mainly in common
minor pentatonic shapes,
Select a bridge-
there’s certainly room for
position humbucker
experimentation if you want to as a starting point
try jamming your own ideas. for your Sabbath-
style tone.
CHORDS SCALES
T T
hese are all simple two-note powerchords with their root notes on the sixth he majority of Iommi’s solos in this track
string. They’re easy to play and easy to change between, too – all you have to do are based on the E minor pentatonic scale 69
is remember where each shape is played on the fretboard. Other chord names (E G A B D). As you can see here, he uses
shown above certain parts of the tab are ‘implied’ by the music and are not played on three main scale shapes. These follow the same
guitar as actual chords. set of scale notes but in different areas of the
X X X X X X X X X X X X fretboard. Your aim should be to learn these
shapes and see how Tony moves through them,
1 1 1
12 10 15 linking long lead licks together as he goes. The
parts leading in and out of the main body of the
3 3 3
solos hint briefly at the E major (E F# G# A B C#
D#) and E Mixolydian (E F# G# A B C# D) scales,
thanks to the mixture of G#, D# and D notes.
E5 D5 G5
X X X X X X X X X X X X
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 12 9
14 13 7
2 2 2 2
3 3 3
3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
E minor pentatonic E minor pentatonic

scale (shape 1) scale (shape 5)
F#5 F5 B5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
7 9 9
X X X X
2 2 2 2
1 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3
8
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
4
3
E minor pentatonic E major scale E Mixolydian mode
scale (shape 4)
C5

CL ASSIC
T R AC K
BLACK SABBATH FULL WAR PIGS

John Osbourne, Terence Butler, William Ward, Anthony Frank Iommi
TAB Westminster Music, Ltd. of Suite 2.07, Plaza 535 Kings Road, London SW10 0SZ
International Copyright Secured.
WAR PIGS
All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.
BLACK SABBATH WAR PIGS Intro bit.ly/tg389audio
e =110
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& 68 ˙ .
N.C.
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let ring ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ let ring
T
A
B
≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥
7 5 7 7 5 9 11 11 12
0 0 0 0
1
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& #˙. œ. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ. œ #œ
œ. œ œ
˙. œ. œ œ œ œ
let ring ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ let ring
T
70 A
B 11
0
5
0
7 7 5 11
0
11
0
12
5
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& ˙. œ. œ #œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ. œ. œ
˙. œ. œ œ œ œ œ œ
let ring ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
T
A
B 14
0
5
0
7 7 5 11
0
7
0 0 0
9
#
E5 D5 E5 D5
& œœ .. œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œœ .
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T
A
B
≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥
14 14 14 14 12 12 12 12 14 14 14 14 12
12 12 12 12 10 10 10 10 12 12 12 12 10
13
This intro is slow, spacey and in a different time signature from the rest of the track, so groove and feel are the name of the game. Each brief flurry of notes is played against
a drum fill, so try to groove with the percussion rather than playing dead straight and metronomic.

FIND YOUR AUDIO TRACK AT
bit.ly/tg389audio BLACK SABBATH / WAR PIGS
BLACK SABBATH WAR PIGS Verses 1 & 4 bit.ly/tg389audio
œœ
q = 91 1. 2. 3. 4.
Ÿ~~~~~
D5 E5 D5 E5
œ .
AD
# # œ œœ .. Ó
& 44 .. œœ œœ ‰ Œ Ó .. .. œ œ ‰ Œ Ó Œ œ œ œ .. Ó
3
∑ Ó Œ . ∑
Play 6 times †
œ œ œ œ . ( œ œ ) œœ œ
2
3
Ÿ~~~~~
1 1 3
0:51 1
. . . . . 12
.
. . . 12 14 2 . . .
T 4 2 0 6 11
12
12
A
B 5 ( ) 7 12
≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ † slides on rpt. only
12 14 75
≥ ≥
10 12 10 12 5 10
These powerchords are very simple and shouldn’t challenge you. Iommi down-picks each pair of chords. Use the side of your pick hand to silence the strings after the
second chord. There are four different endings, as well as some long pauses, so stay focused and take care not to lose your place.
BLACK SABBATH WAR PIGS Chorus riff bit.ly/tg389audio
F#5
1. 3. 2.
Ÿ~~~~ F
4.
œ~~~~~~
D5 E5 G5 F5 E5 F5 E5 5 E5
#
& 44 .. œœ œœ ‰ Œ œœ # œ œ ( œ œ ) .. ˙
Œ
. œ. n ˙˙ œœ .. n ˙˙ œœ n˙ œœ œœ
1:46
~~~~~~ Ÿ~~~~~
. . .
. 12 . ) .
T 12
A 12 ( 14 12
B 14
10 12
17
15
16
14
15
13
14
12
15
13
14
12
15
13
14
12
14
12
71
The 12th fret G note at the end of bar 2 has some fairly vigorous vibrato. Fret the note with your first finger and move your hand from the wrist to generate the vibrato effect.
The trill at the end of bar 3 is a set of fast hammer-ons and pull-offs at the 12th and 14th frets.
BLACK SABBATH WAR PIGS Pre-verse riff bit.ly/tg389audio BLACK SABBATH WAR PIGS Verses 2 & 3 bit.ly/tg389audio
œœ ~~~~~~~~
#4 œ #
& 44 ..
Play 4 times
& 4 .. .. ..
Em E
≈ ≈
Play 8 times
œ œ ≈ œ œ
2:06 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ~~~~~~~~ 2:17 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
j œ œ
. . . .
PM PM PM PM
12
. . . .
T 12
12
T
A A 2 0 2 0 BU BD
B B
≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≤ ≥ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≤ ≤≥ ≥
0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 (3) (2)
If you follow the picking directions it’s easier to nail the timing. In particular, the Like the pre-verse, this riff is based on a four-notes-per-beat idea, so use
two open-string E notes before the 3rd fret G must be played with upstrokes. down-up style alternate picking to help with the timing.
BLACK SABBATH WAR PIGS Solo 1 bit.ly/tg389audio
#4 ~~~~~~
œ œ œ œ
E
& 4 #œ œ œœ œ œ œœ œ œœ œ œ œœ œœ œ #œ œœ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ
3:30 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ~~~~~~
let ring
T
A 12 14
B 11 12
0
12 11
0
11 7
0
7 5
0
5 7 7 7 7 5
0
5 7
0
7 11
0
11 12
0
12 11
0
11 12
0
12 14 14 12 14
1

CL ASSIC
T R AC K
BLACK SABBATH WAR PIGS Solo 1 (cont’d) bit.ly/tg389audio
~~~~
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ b œ n œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ œ
# œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœ œ œ œœ œ œ
j j j
j j
œ
& œ œ
~~~~
3 6
BU BU BU
BU 12 12 BU 12 BU 12 12 12 BU 12 15 (17) 15 12
T 12 12 14 (16)
12
(
14 16 )
12
(
14 16 )
12 15 (17 ) 15 (17 ) 15 12
15
12 15 12
14
12 15 12
14
12 15 12
14
12
(
14 14 16 )
A 14 12 14 12 14
B 12 14 12 14
4
√j
# œ œ œ
j œ œ
j œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ bœ nœ œ œœœ œœ œ œ
œ œœœ œ œ œ œ œ
&
œ
BU BU BU BD
15 (17) 15 (17) 15 (17) (15) 12 12 12 12
T 15 15 15 12
15
12 15 12
14 14 12 12 12
A 14 14 12 12 12 14 12
B 14 14
3
7
~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~
# œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ. œ œ~~~~~~ œ œ œ œ
3
œ œ œ . œ œ œ
j j j j
œ
72
&
œ œ œ œ
w
~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~
BU BU BU BU BD
T 9 (12) 9 (12) 9 (12) 9 (12) (9) 7 7 9 7 9 7 9
A 9 7 9 7 9 7 9 0
B 0
9
# œj œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ
&
BU BD BU BD BU BD BU BD BU BD BU BD
T 9 (11) ( 9 ) 7 9 7 9 9 (11) ( 9 ) 7 9 7 9 9 (11) ( 9 ) 7 9 7 9 9 (11) ( 9 ) 7 9 7 9 9 (11) ( 9 ) 7 9 7 9 9 (11) ( 9 )
A
B
12

BLACK SABBATH / WAR PIGS
73
Iommi double-tracked this solo. The two parts he recorded (panned roughly centre and right) are not identical, so where they differ we’ve presented a selection of the licks
to form a single part. Practise bars 12 and 13 slowly – it’s a six-note melody line played with an eight-notes-per-beat (32nd notes) feel, which can make it hard to feel where
the melody recycles itself.
BLACK SABBATH WAR PIGS Breakdown bit.ly/tg389audio
# œ ≈ œ ‰ œj œ œ œ œ
Em7 E5 B5 D5
& 44 œ œ œ
œ
œ œ œ œ
œ œ œ .. œ
œ œ
œ
œ œ œ œ
œ œ œ
œ. œ œ œ œ œ
œ
5:43 let ring let ring
.
.
T
A 12 12 12 12 12 12
B
≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥
14 14 14 14 14 14 14 9 12 12 12 12
12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 7 10 10 10 10
1

CL ASSIC
T R AC K
BLACK SABBATH WAR PIGS Breakdown (cont’d) bit.ly/tg389audio
j
Em7 E5 G5 E5 Em7
# œ œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ ≈ œœ ‰ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ .. .. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ..
Play 4 times
&
.
let ring let ring
. . .
. . .
T
A 12 12 12 12 12 12
B 12
14
12 12
14
12
14 14
12
17
15
14
12
14
12
14
12
14
12 12
14
12 12
14
12
14
4
D7 C7 B5 C5 B5
# j
& .. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ .. ..
œ œ œ
bœ
œ œ œ œ
œ œ œ .. ˙ œ œœ ‰ œœ w
˙ œ w
let ring let ring
. . . .
. . . .
T
A 10 10 10 8 8 8
B
≥ ≥ ≥ ≥
12 12 12 10 10 10 9 10 10 9
10 10 10 10 8 8 8 8 7 8 8 7
7
This section follows a repeat of the verse 1 and interlude guitar parts. Focus your attention on bar 1, which, thanks to being repeated and transposed, forms most of the
section. Iommi lets notes ring over each other during the first half of the bar, but sticks to single notes at the end.
74
BLACK SABBATH WAR PIGS Solo 2 bit.ly/tg389audio
#4
E5
~~~~~~~~~
D5 E5
j
& 4 .. œ œ . œ œ œ œ œ œ. œ œ œ œ œ. œ œ œ. œ
œ œ œ œ œ
6:34
~~~~~~~~~
.
. 5 7
T
A 4 5 4 5 4 4 4 5 7
B 0 0
5
7
5 5
0
7
0
1
~~~~~~ j œ
1.
~~~~~~~~~
2.
#
D5
j ~~~~~~~~
D5
~~~~~~~~~ œ œ œ
œ œ.
N.C.
.. œ œ œ. œ œ œ œœ œ
j j
& œ. œ œ œ. œ œ
œ œ
~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
.
.
BU BU BU BD
T 4 4 4 7 7 9 9 7 9 (12) 9 (12) 9 (12)
(9) 7
A 7 7 4 7
B 5
7
4
# œ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ œ œ œ œ j œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ
&
œ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BU BD BU BD BU BD
T 9 7 7 9 9 (11) (9) 7 9 7 9 9 (11)
(9) 7 9 7 9 9 (11) (9) 7 9
A 9
B
7

BLACK SABBATH / WAR PIGS
# œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ œ
&
BU BD BU BD BU BD BU BD BU BD
T 7 9 9 (11 ) ( 9 ) 7 9 7 9 9 (11 ) ( 9 ) 7 9 7 9 9 (11 ) ( 9 ) 7 9 7 9 9 (11 ) ( 9 ) 7 9 7 9 9 (11 ) ( 9 ) 7 9 7 9
A
B
8
œ œj œ œj œ œj œ œ œ œ œ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~

# . œ œ œ~~~~~ œ œ œ~~~~~ œ œ œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ . œ œ œ œ œ œ . œ œ œ
j
& œ
œ
~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~~~

BU BU BU BU BD
T 9 (12 ) 9 (12 ) 9 (12 ) 9 (12 ) (9 ) 7 7 9 7 9 7 9 7 9 7 9 7 9
A 9 7 9 7 9 7 9 7 9 7 9 9 7
B
9
# ..
E5
& ≈ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œœœ œ œœœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ

œ œ. œ
œ œ
.
. 5 7
T
A 7 5 5 4 4 5 4 4 5 4 4 5 4 4 5 7 4 5 4 4 5 4 4 5 4 5
B 7 7 7 7 7 7 5 7 5 5
0 0
12 75
1. 2.
~~~~~~~~ j ~~~~~~~~~
# ~~~~~~~ j
D5 E5 D5 D5
œ œ. œ œ .
& œ. œ œ
œ œ œ œ. œ œ œ. œ œ . ˙ œ œ
~~~~~~~~ œ œ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
.
. 7
T
A 4 4 4 5 7 7 7 4 4
B 5
7
5 5
0
7
0
5
7
5
15
Iommi repeats a lot of the ideas from his first solo here. Work on short sections (tow or four bars or so is ideal) to get the licks down, but feel free to improvise around Tony’s
minor pentatonic ideas. Once again, double-tracked parts are presented as a single playable part in our tab.
BLACK SABBATH WAR PIGS Outro bit.ly/tg389audio
#
Em7 D5 E5
& 44 .. œ œ
œ œ œ .. œ œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ Œ Ó
Play 4 times
œ œ
7:39 let ring let ring
. .
. .
T
A 12 12 12 12 12
B
≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤ ≥ ≤
14 14 14 14 14 14 12 14
12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 10 12
This outro is a repeat of bar 1 of the breakdown section. Hold down all three strings where you see the ‘let ring’ instruction in the tab. Where there is no ‘let ring’, play each
string one after the other instead of holding them all down together.

CL ASSIC
T R AC K
OPEN-MIC SONGBOOK
SAM FENDER
GETTING STARTED
Discover Sam’s capo hack for creating
supersized guitar parts
S
am Fender’s second album, an acoustic rhythm part running
Seventeen Going Under, was not throughout the track, most likely played
only a huge success critically and in C# standard tuning (C# F# B E G# C#).
commercially, it also spawned We’ve provided shapes in E standard with
several single releases. Getting Started a capo on the 4th fret to save you the
is the sixth of these and highlights Sam hassle of retuning.
Fender’s American AOR influences, The rhythm parts use slightly different
featuring a driving Springsteen-style chords, for example Eadd9 instead of
groove underpinning the Tom Petty- Emaj7 and F# instead of F#sus4. This
esque ‘wall of sound’ guitar riffs. keeps the rhythm part simple, leaving
Sam plays the main riffs with a capo space for the capo’d electric riffs to give
on the 9th fret, enabling him to play additional harmonic textures on top; a
open chords higher up the neck and great technique for spreading guitar parts
create his trademark jangle. There’s also to create a bigger sound.
SAM FENDER GETTING STARTED Intro / Chorus bit.ly/tg389audio
76
Rake across the strings with a single downstroke and allow each chord to ring for its full duration. Reference the chords boxout for our tips on playing the shapes cleanly.
Dialling in just the lightest of crunch to your clean sound adds presence and depth. You’ll see two lots of chord names thanks to the capo: the ‘true’ pitch of the chords is on
top, and the shape names as you know them from standard ‘un-capo’d’ tuning in brackets below.
SAM FENDER GETTING STARTED Verse bit.ly/tg389audio Guitars and backing Phil Capone Photography Gems/Redferns/Getty Images
In bar 1, the G#m is played on the first and third times, then substituted for Emaj7 on all other repeats. Use the same picking pattern for Emaj7 except for the root which is on
the sixth string. Use the alternate picking as shown for best results.

FIND YOUR AUDIO TRACK AT
bit.ly/tg389audio SAM FENDER / GETTING STARTED
SONG SHEET
Getting Started
Intro Chorus Repeat Chorus
Emaj7 / / / / / B / F#sus4 / / / / / B / Eadd9 B F#
Emaj7 / / / / / B / F#sus4 / / / / / / / I’m only getting started Sax Solo
Verse 1 B
Don’t mean to be disheartened
Eadd9 / / / / / / / F# / / / / / / /
G#m7 / / / / / / / B/A# / / / B / B/A# /
G#m7 B Eadd9 B F#
Eighteen, failed dream Felt like giving up so many times before Chorus 3
F# B Eadd9
Attracted to a bad scene But I’m still here grinding I’m only getting started
Eadd9 B F# F#
Think I’ll make a couple errands
I’m only getting started Don’t mean to be disheartened
Eadd9 B
B G#m7 B/A#
Cataclysmic age to be
Don’t mean to be disheartened Felt like giving up so many times before
F#
Eadd9 B F# B B/A#
When you’re out of luck
Felt like giving up so many times before
I’m still here grinding
And your mother’s in need Eadd9
But I’m still here grinding I’m only getting started
G#m7 B
I made my money for the crooks and pushers
F#
Verse 2 F#
Don’t mean to be disheartened
77
G#m7 B # G#m7
In the hopes that I claw something B/A#
I came home and you were on the floor Felt like giving up so many times before
Eadd9 B
Eadd9 B F# B B/A#
Together for toni - ii - ight
Floored by the letters and the council rigmarole I’m still here grinding
F#
G#m7 B F#
I’m going out
Eadd9 B
What I wouldn’t do to get you out this hole Outro
F# Eadd9 B Eadd9 / / / / / B / F# / / / / / B / x2
Oh toni - ii - ight I’m going out F#
But toni - ii - ight I gotta let go
Eadd9 B F#
But toni - ii - ight you gotta let me let go
GETTING STARTED
Words and Music by Sam Fender
Copyright © 2021 Kobalt Songs Music Publishing
All Rights Reserved Used by Permission
Reproduced by permission of Hal Leonard Europe
CHORDS
X O O X X O X O O X X
CAPO – 9th fret CAPO – 9th fret CAPO – 9th fret CAPO – 9th fret
Damp the idle fifth string in the

1 1 2 1 2 1 2 3
Emaj7 chord by angling your
2 3 3 3 4
second finger so that it just
touches the string to prevent it
sounding. When you change Emaj7 B F#sus4 G#m7
(Gmaj7) (D) (Asus4) (Bm7)
from the G#m7 to B in the verse,
move your fingers after picking X O O O O X X O O O X O O
the open fourth string in bar 2 – CAPO – 4th fret CAPO – 4th fret CAPO – 2nd fret CAPO – 2nd fret CAPO – 4th fret
the pros’ technique for creating
seamless chord changes. Use
the chords shown to play a 1 1 1 2 1 2 1
strum-along rhythm part but 2 3 2 3 4 3 3 4 3 4

remember to move your capo
down to the 4th fret first! Eadd9 B F# G#m7 B/A#
(Cadd9) (G) (D) (Em7) (G/F#)

TAB GUIDE
Get more from TG by understanding our easy-to-follow musical terms and signs
What is tab?
Tab is short for tablature, a guitar, from the sixth (thick) down on the tab. Unfretted
notational system used to give string at the bottom to the first strings are shown with a ‘0’. The
detailed information as to where (thin) string at the top. On these key and time signatures are
notes should be played on the lines, numbers represent which shown in the notation. TG also
fretboard. Tab appears frets you place your fingers. For includes a timestamp to tell you
underneath conventional music example, an A note on the 2nd where in the original track you’ll
notation as six horizontal lines fret, third string, will be shown find each example and tempo
that represent the strings of the as a number ‘2’ on the third line expressed in beats per minute.
FRET BOXES: CHORDS, SCALES AND CAPO NOTATION
HAND LABELLING NUT AND FRETBOARD CHORD EXAMPLE
2 m o o o o o o o o o
3 1 i a
4 c
1
T p
2 3
78
Here are the abbreviations used for each finger. Fretting hand: 1, 2, 3, 4, (T) This fretbox diagram represents the guitar’s fretboard exactly, as seen in the This diagram represents a G chord. The ‘o’s are open strings, and a circled number
Picking hand: p (thumb), i (index), m (middle), a (annular), c (little finger) photo. This design is used for ease of visualising a fretboard scale or chord quickly. is a fretting hand finger. A black ‘o’ or circled number is the root note (here, G).
CAPO EXAMPLE CAPO NOTATION SCALE EXAMPLE

o o o x o o
CAPO 2ND
FRET >
CAPO 2ND
FRET > 4 1 1 1 1
1
2 2 2 2
1 2
3 3
2 3 3
4 4 4 4 4
A major scale
A (G) D (C)
The blue line in the diagram represents a capo – for this A chord, place it at the Here the chord looks like a C in the tab, but the capo on the 2nd fret raises the The fret box diagram illustrates the fret hand fingering for the A major scale using
2nd fret. Capos change the fret number ordering. Here, the original 5th fret pitch to make it a D. The 2nd fret capo’d notes are shown with a ‘0’ in the tab black dots for root notes and red dots for other scale tones. The photo shows part
now becomes the 3rd fret, 7th fret now 5th fret, etc. as if they were open strings. of the scale being played on the fourth string with the first, third and fourth fingers.
GUITAR TECHNIQUES: PICKING
DOWN AND UP-PICKING TREMOLO PICKING PALM MUTING PICK RAKE APPREGGIATED CHORD
The symbols under the tab tell you the Each of the four notes are to be Palm-mute by resting the edge of your Drag the pick across the strings shown Play the notes of the chord by
first note is to be down-picked and the alternate-picked (down and up-picked) picking hand palm on the strings near with a single sweep. This is often used strumming across the relevant strings
second note is to be up-picked. very rapidly and continuously. the bridge saddles. to augment a rake’s last note. in the direction of the arrow head.

TAB GUIDE
FRETTING HAND
HAMMER-ON & NOTE TRILLS SLIDES (GLISSANDO) FRET-HAND TAPPING FRET-HAND MUTING
PULL-OFF
Pick the first note then hammer down on After picking the first note, rapidly Pick the first note and then slide to the Sound the notes marked with a square by X markings represent notes and strings
the string for the second note. Pick the alternate between the two notes shown in next. For the last two notes pick the first, hammering-on/tapping with your fret hand that are muted by your fret hand when
third note and pull-off for the fourth note. brackets using hammer-ons and pull-offs. slide to the next and then re-pick it (RP). fingers, instead of picking. struck by your picking hand.
BENDING AND VIBRATO
BEND AND RELEASE RE-PICKED BEND PRE-BEND QUARTER-TONE BEND VIBRATO
Fret the first note (here, the 5th fret) and Bend up to the pitch shown in the Silently bend the string up from the 5th Pick the note then bend up a quarter- Your fretting hand vibrates the string by
bend up to the pitch of the bracketed brackets, then re-pick the note while fret (PB5) to the pitch of the 7th fret note, tone (a very small amount). This is small bend-ups and releases. Exaggerate
note, before releasing again. holding the bent note at the pitch shown. pick it and release to the 5th fret note. sometimes referred to as a ‘blues curl’. this effect to create a ‘wide’ vibrato.
HARMONICS
NATURAL HARMONICS ARTIFICIAL PINCHED HARMONICS TAPPED HARMONICS TOUCHED HARMONICS

HARMONICS
79
Pick the note while lightly touching the Fret the note as shown, then lightly place After fretting the note in the triangle, Place your finger on the note as shown, A previously sounded note is touched
string directly over the fret indicated. your index finger directly over ‘x’ fret dig into the string with the side of your but sound it with a quick pick hand tap at above the fret marked TCH (eg, TCH 9)
A chiming harmonic results. (AH‘x’) and pick (with a pick, p or a). thumb as you sound it with the pick. the fret shown (TH17) for a harmonic. for it to sound a harmonic.
VIBRATO BAR / WHAMMY BAR
WHAMMY BAR BENDS SCOOP AND DOOP SUSTAINED NOTE GARGLE WHAMMY BAR VIBRATO
AND DIVEBOMB
The note is picked as shown, then the Scoop: depress the bar just before A Note is sustained then the vibrato Sound the note and ‘flick’ the vibrato bar Gently rock the whammy bar to
vibrato bar is raised and lowered to the striking the note and release. Doop: bar is depressed to slack. The square with your picking hand so it ‘quivers’. This repeatedly bend the pitch up and down.
pitches shown in brackets. lower the bar slightly after picking note. bracket indicates a further articulation. results in a ‘gargling’ sound! This sounds similar to fret hand vibrato.
OTHERS
PICK SCRAPE VIOLINING FINGER NUMBERING PIMA DIRECTIONS PICK HAND TAPPING
The edge of the pick is dragged either Turn the volume control down, sound The numbers in the traditional notation Any kind of fingerpicking requirements Tap (hammer-on) with a finger of your
down or up along the lower strings to the note(s) and then turn the volume up refer to the fingers required to play are shown at the bottom of the picking hand onto the fret marked with
produce a scraped sound. for a smooth fade in. each note. tab notation. a circle. Usually with ‘i’ or ‘m’.

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every category. CLASSIC VIBE ’60S
Gear Acquisition Syndrome
is the guitar-player’s We test every product under TELECASTER SH
never-ending urge to acquire the conditions that they were A stealth contender for the nicest-looking (and
new gear, irrespective of designed for. For example, best-performing) Squier of the year
whether they actually need it. if an amp is designed to be
Don’t pretend you don’t played loud, rest assured
have it – we all do!
that we’ll have tested it at 92 LINE 6 HX ONE
rehearsal/gig volumes! The HX One is a hugely versatile multi-FX unit
SUPERB, A BEST BUY EXCELLENT ABOVE AVERAGE KIT SOME ISSUES POOR
94 JHS HARD DRIVE
High-gain distortion pedal for 90s’ tones

GAS STATION
2 81
START ME UP!
Five awesome new products to get your gear engine revving this month…
GRAPH TECH XVIVE A58 WIRELESS POSITIVE GRID VAI DIMEBAG BLACKSTAR POLAR 4
UN-LOCK NUT SYSTEM
3 WARHEAD MINI
5
PG’s Spark 2 might be Hot on the heels of the Polar
1 2 4
Everyone loves a Floyd Rose, XVIVE’s been offering stealing the spotlight, but Designed in conjunction 2 comes the Blackstar
don’t they? But not impressive yet affordable they’re not resting. The with Dimebag’s partner Polar 4 interface. This
everyone enjoys clamping/ wireless systems and practice amp hero has just Rita Haney and his expanded, 4-in/4-out audio
unclamping their strings. Graph accessories for a while now, and issued a new version of the Spark longtime guitar tech, Grady interface gives twice as many
Tech’s Un-Lock Nut does away its latest looks set to keep this Mini, in association with none Champion and David Karon channels, each of which are
with the Allen key, for speedy up. The A58 set contains a other than shred legend, Steve (formerly of Randall amps), the equipped with mic preamps and
string changes, while claiming to transmitter and receiver, and Vai. As well as all the regular Warhead Mini packs the essence line/instrument inputs, as well as
offer all the stability and operates at 5.8GHz to stop Spark features, it comes in a of the late Pantera man’s tone Blackstar’s Enhance circuit. The
performance of a traditional potential interference. Each special edition burgundy tolex into a small-format, 40-watt extra channel count is a great
locking-nut setup. What’s more, system can work on one of six with an exclusive Mandala grille solid-state head. It includes a solution if you want to capture
you can use your traditional channels, so you can equip your and custom burgundy weave pre-EQ circuit alongside bass, your guitar tracks with multiple
tuners as well as the bridge-end whole band, and thanks to the tolex. Vai has created four middle, treble, and presence microphone positions, and once
fine tuners to get your guitar up built-in rechargeable (USB-C) custom presets, and it’s controls to help you nail Dime’s again it’s bundled with a suite of
to pitch! battery, you’ll get five hours of available to pre-order now. tone. The Black edition is software including Ableton Live
£29.99 playing time without needing to £210 available to order now, for Lite, Blackstar St. James Plugin,
graphtech.com splurge on AAs. uk.positivegrid.com shipping in November. Melodyne Essential and more.
£159 $529 £329
xvive.com warheadamps.com blackstaramps.com

T H E GA S
STATION
82

REVIEW
1 HEADSTOCK
There’s no reference to
Yungblud on the front or
AT A GLANCE
back of the headstock, nor BODY: Mahogany
anywhere else on this guitar, NECK: Mahogany
which definitely helps SCALE: 24.75” / 628mm
broaden its appeal amongst
signature-phobes. FINGERBOARD: Laurel
FRETS: 22
2 BODY
EPIPHONE
PICKUPS: Epiphone
£549 The new signature
comes with a die-cut
Dogear P-90 Pro
Yungblud bumper sticker, CONTROLS: Master

Volume, Master Tone,
YUNGBLUD SG JUNIOR
for anyone hoping to pay
tribute to the Gen Z CTS Potentiometers
trailblazer on the body. HARDWARE: Lightning
Bar Wraparound
This ‘anonymous’ signature model 3 KNOBS

Vintage-style
appointments like the
Compensating bridge,
Deluxe Vintage tuners,
Black Top Hat with
is a garage-rock workhorse top hat tone knobs with

nickel reflectors ooze
Nickel Reflector knobs
FINISH: Classic White
elegance and class, making
A
CONTACT: Epiphone,
s discussed in this Clash, while also being capable of a this guitar more of a blast
www.epiphone.com
from the past.
month’s exclusive whole lot more. You can dial in
interview with shimmering cleans, screaming
Yungblud, his new blues tones or even go all the way
Epiphone SG Junior to classic heavy metal thunder if
signature is based on the 1964 you have an amp or pedal with
Gibson original he’s taken with enough gain on tap. Lacking a
him across the globe, and was neck pickup, of course, you might 83
created to give younger players struggle to dial in convincing jazz
access to classic looks and sounds. sounds, but then again, that’s a
It’s the kind of double-cut that million miles away from what
makes a statement before you’ve Yungblud is known for. There is,
even had the chance to strum a however, a tone control for taming
chord thanks to its single Dogear the brightness and a volume
P-90 Pro bridge pickup, cream control to back down the output –
IT’S BUILT FOR POWERCHORDS

THAT SNARL AND GROWL
oval tuners and wraparound very practical if you’re the kind of 2
bridge. The only other signature player who likes to set and forget,
SG currently in production by using one amp channel and then
Epiphone is the Tony Iommi the guitar itself to vary the amount
model, which retails for nearly of gain and treble coming through.
twice as much, so this latest Speaking of practicality, it’s an
addition to the range is definitely incredibly inviting instrument to
well priced for beginners working play, arriving with low action and
with smaller budgets. 10 gauge strings that feel more like
It should come as no surprise Super Slinkys thanks to the
Yungblud’s weapon of war is wraparound bridge, which
purpose-built for powerchords decreases string tension while also
that snarl and growl – the P-90 promoting sustain. As for other
pickup spanning the heft of a features, it’s nice to see touches of 3
humbucker and the crispy bite class coming via the off-white
Photography Olly Curtis, Phil Baker
typically associated with button tuners and vintage-style

single-coils. It’s perfect for punk top hat knobs, giving this guitar a
rock in that regard, covering decent amount of character
anything from Green Day and despite it being more minimalist
Paramore to Fugazi and The in spirit. Another big talking point

T H E GA S
STATION
A different kind
of single-coil
A quick look into why
P-90s have their own
unique sound
T
he first P-90 officially
arrived in 1946 when the
Gibson Head Of Electronics
at the time, Walt Fuller, went
back to work after WWII and
started tweaking the so-called
Charlie Christian pickups found
84 on the ES-150s from the decade
prior. As a result of the wider
and shorter bobbin design, the ALSO TRY...
sound produced is warmer and
less bright than that of a typical
EPIPHONE 1961 LES £879
single-coil, though still sits in
PAUL SG STANDARD
This model from Epiphone’s
that family of pickups and, as ‘Inspired By Gibson’ range
such, is subject to AC hum pays tribute to the very
unless there’s some form of first SGs ever made and
cancellation involved. The term comes with a pair of
real Gibson
‘dog ear’ refers to the Burstbuckers.
protruding ends of the base
plate and cover, with screw
holes on each side to secure the GUILD POLARA
pickup to the body – as opposed KIM THAYIL
to ‘soapbars’ which slot straight Announced last year, this £799
in. Famous P-90 users over the long-awaited signature
years have included Tony model for the
Soundgarden legend is
Iommi, Pete Townshend and
easily one of the best
John Lennon, though in recent double-cut electrics
times players like Chris Buck out there.
and Jared James Nichols have
been at the forefront of dialling
in mesmerising tones that
showcase just how versatile ESP LTD
these pickups can be. VIPER-256 £499
LTD’s Viper range offer a
lot of tone for very little
FEATURES money, this particular
is the hardshell case – rare for an well here, but if you’re a fan of
SOUND QUALITY model coming with two
Epiphone guitar at this price point Yungblud’s music, loud punk-rock
SUMMARY
VALUE FOR MONEY ESP LH-150 humbuckers

– and even more so when you or simply SG Juniors in general, that can be split.
factor in the hot pink interior. this latest signature will almost BUILD QUALITY
Players who can’t live without a certainly renew your lust for life. USABILITY
neck pickup might not get on too Amit Sharma OVERALL RATING

Find Your
Perfect Tone
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T H E GA S
STATION
86

REVIEW
LTD EC-201FT 1 SINGLES’ NIGHT

The bridge AT A GLANCE
The single-pickup resurgence humbucker is joined by a
single volume pot:
there’s no tone control,
BODY: Mahogany,
flat-top
continues as we ask: is one and obviously no need

for pickup-switching .
NECK: Mahogany,
three-piece
£479 SCALE: 24.75”
really all you need? 2 ODD COUPLE
The body finish and
FINGERBOARD:
Roasted jatoba
7
visuals scream ‘old FRETS: 22 XJ
0 years ago, Gibson’s Les additional electronics sort of school’, while the black PICKUP: LTD LH-150B
Paul Junior set the bar for makes sense for some people. hardware, stealthy (bridge position)
controls and heavy CONTROLS: Volume, w/
single-pickup guitars: Our Black review model comes push-pull coil split
connotations
packing a lone P-90, yet shining out of the box bathed in a say ‘modern’. HARDWARE: Black LTD
somehow managing to solid gloss finish. The setup is tuners and T-o-M-style
wring seven decades of stellar,
tonal versatility out of the most
comfortable, with the potential to
go lower, but ultimately buzz-free 3 SPLIT ’EM UP
The sparse control
set is enhanced by a
bridge (through-body-
stringing)
LEFT-HANDED: Yes
basic of formats. More recently, and where we’d expect for a CASE: No
push-pull pot. Give it a
this month’s cover star, Yungblud middle-ground action. The jatoba yank and you’ll turn FINISH: Black, See
is pushing a one-and-done ethos fingerboard has a reddish-brown the ’bucker into a Thru Cherry
with his signature Epiphone SG, mahogany-like hue while the decent-sounding bridge CONTACT: Sound
single coil. Service www.
and we’ve seen the single-pickup frets look like they could have sound-service.eu
idea pointed in a different done with more time under the
direction from the likes of buffing wheel. But the thin U-
Manson, EVH and others. shaped neck offers a comfortable
Similarly far from the dusty, ride for open and powerchords as
vintage fuzz of garage-rock sits well as lead playing.
LTD, the affordable arm of ESP Tonally, the LTD LH-150B 87
traditionally (although not pickup is solid, and excels under
exclusively) tailored towards the higher gain. It cleans up nicely
heavier end of the spectrum. with the volume rolled back, but,
Earlier this year, LTD released a to our ears, it’s lacking some of
pair of flat-topped single-pickup that bite we were hoping for.
Eclipse models (the EC-01FT and There’s a slight woolly-ness to it
more affordable EC-201FT here) that means punky, overdriven
that puts its spin on the format, open chords lose some note
promising instruments “for separation - nothing a quick EQ
players seeking the most hardcore change can’t fix. The coil-split is
performances imaginable”. engaged from the volume control,
The unbound mahogany body and yields a decent single-coil
design and slightly retro bridge sound. There’s a roundness
scratchplate are met by all-black to the attack and a midrange honk
hardware (LTD tuners and that lends itself to Clash-style
T-o-M-style bridge with through- jabs and greasy vintage funk and
body stringing), the angular LTD soul rhythm playing.
headstock and apparently So, it seems we’ve got a model
fire-breathing single pickup. with a potential identity crisis on
Elsewhere, we get a three-piece, our hands. But what we do get is a 1
glued mahogany neck, which is very playable, quality guitar for
fitted with a roasted jatoba bridge-heavy rock sub-genre
fingerboard, block inlays and 22 playing. It’s fuss-free and fairly
3
extra-jumbo frets. affordable, just don’t expect it to
But, we can see where LTD is do everything.
coming from. Considering that a Stuart Williams 2
high percentage of LTD fans are
FEATURES
likely to spend a lot of their time
SOUND QUALITY
gained-up for rock, punk and
SUMMARY
VALUE FOR MONEY

Photography Olly Curtis
metal with the bridge pickup

engaged, possibly not even BUILD QUALITY
changing the tone control, doing PLAYABILITY
away with the neck pickup and OVERALL RATING

T H E GA S
STATION
88

REVIEW
1 HEADSTOCK
A reverse headstock AT A GLANCE
CHAPMAN LAW MAKER on a T-style body is as
striking as it gets,
especially when
ORIGIN: India
BODY: Alder with a flame
LEGACY BARITONE £1099

you factor in the maple top
contrasting colours. NECK: Rosewood
SCALE: 28” / 711mm
2 PICKUPS FINGERBOARD:
A T-style bruiser to handle all The inclusion of two Rosewood

lesser-known Seymour FRETS: 22
Duncan pickups also PICKUPS: Seymour
your lower range needs helps give the guitar a

certain degree of
originality that adds to
Duncan Little ’59 (neck),
Seymour Duncan ALT8
Trembucker (bridge)
T
its overall charm. CONTROLS: Master
here’s a lot to like about Drop capacitors and treble bleed Volume, Master Tone,
Chapman’s Law Maker
Legacy Baritone. The
for increased clarity at all volumes.
Baritones can feel bulky and 3 BODY
Though arguably
more green in actuality,
Five-way blade switch
HARDWARE: Hipshot
Grip-Lock tuners,
alder body, flame maple challenging to play because of the Chapman Hipshot
the flamed Ocean Moss
top and rosewood neck go longer scale length and higher Blue Satin finish is Style bridge
well together to create a highly string gauges, but the Law Maker modern, elegant and FINISH: Ocean Moss
responsive instrument, with the Legacy is one of the most user- very easy on the eye. Blue Satin
CONTACT: Chapman
balance of snap and warmth friendly instruments of its kind. It Guitars, www.
resulting in a remarkable amount handles more like a regular guitar, chapmanguitars.com
of articulation. It also feels reliable which is a big plus in our eyes –
and robust, holding its tuning no guitar playing shouldn’t be
matter how adventurous you get laborious, after all. In terms of
with your picking and bends. aesthetics, the T-style design is
Much like the tonewoods, the very appealing, complemented by 89
Seymour Duncan pickups are a the darker brown hues of its
perfect match: the ceramic bar rosewood neck and reverse
Little ’59 is a mini-sized headstock. The modern-leaning
humbucker that’s usually found in Ocean Moss Blue finish might not
the bridge, but works well here in be for everyone, though baritone
the neck, while the Alternative 8 is electrics with high output bridge
a high output trembucker that pickups aren’t necessarily aimed
uses an Alnico 8 magnet for extra at vintage players anyway.
warmth. The five-way blade Admittedly, it lives on the more
switch is the trick to unlocking all expensive side of Chapman’s
the options here and, while the Indian-produced guitar price
bridge pickup sounds a little sterile range, but we’re seeing a general
when plugged into a clean amp, uplift in this from brands across
it’s also what provides the the board. Stability becomes more
firepower when fed into overdrive of a concern at these lower depths
channels and distortion pedals. – a perfect 4th down in this case,
If you’re hoping to emulate the with our review model arriving 3
gargantuan tones associated with tuned to B – and it proved to be
down-tuned metal bands like well-engineered and dependable
Slipknot and At The Gates, this is in that regard. The Seymour
the kind of guitar that won’t Duncan pickups and tonewoods
require much tweaking at all. And coalesce in perfect harmony,
2
though that may very well be its providing a wide range of sonic
USP, the Little ’59 packs plenty of options that can easily cater to
dynamic range for less driven and almost any kind of genre.
cleaner exploits, so it’s a well- Amit Sharma
rounded guitar from a tonal
FEATURES
standpoint. Other noteworthy
SOUND QUALITY
inclusions are the Hipshot
SUMMARY
VALUE FOR MONEY

Photography Phil Baker
Grip-Lock tuners and Chapman

Hipshot-style bridge which both BUILD QUALITY
play a part in the reliability of the PLAYABILITY
instrument, as well as Orange OVERALL RATING

T H E GA S
STATION
90

REVIEW
SQUIER LIMITED EDITION 1 NECK

This Tele is a solid AT A GLANCE
CLASSIC VIBE ’60S £399 all-rounder, but the neck
– with its C-shape
profile, tinted urethane
BODY: Poplar
NECK: Maple
TELECASTER SH
finish and top notch fret SCALE: 25.5”
job – is a particular FINGERBOARD: Indian
highlight. Very laurel
comfortable indeed. FRETS: 21, Narrow Tall
A stealth contender for the nicest-looking

PICKUPS: Fender
2 FINISH
Need we say more?
Designed Alnico
Single-Coil (Bridge),
(and best-performing) Squier of the year We can’t remember the

last time a finish got us
Fender Designed Alnico
Humbucker (Neck)
CONTROLS: Master
so worked up over a
S
Squier guitar. Extra Volume, Master Tone,
quier’s Limited Edition that can deliver some juicy points for the matching 3-Position Blade
Classic Vibe models came rhythms and throaty leads. headstock. HARDWARE: 3-Saddle
Strings-Through-Body
out with a bit of a whisper When played through some
this year. That’s a shame,
because the drop included
Neural DSP Captures, it can cover
all the bases, but sounds
3 PICKUPS
The SH
configuration – a nod to
1
Tele Bridge, Vintage
Style tuners, nickel
FINISH: Sherwood
one of the nicest-looking particularly classy when run Tele mods of the Green, Black (with
Telecasters of recent memory – through a regular Blues Junior late–’60s – is a nice matching headstocks)
combo, and the reversal CONTACT: Fender
this Sherwood Green example, with just a touch of reverb and
(bolstered by Fender
which arrives with a colour- overdrive, for that classic pickups) lends itself to
matched headstock, tortoiseshell edge-of-breakup tone. But, yes, if some impressive tones.
pickguard, and an Andy Summers- you wanted to, you could do the
style SH configuration. woolly riff thing on this.
It’s easy to get in a hot flush The only downsides on this
over an aesthetically pleasing example were an ill-sitting tuning 91
guitar only to be disappointed by peg – the washer was weirdly
its performance, but straight out raised (admittedly, something a
of the gates, it’s clear we have an simple DIY fix could cure), and a
impressive player on our hands. slight scuff on the cutaway that
There are no surprises in the blemished the otherwise perfect
components. There’s a poplar finish. Talking of which, in a
(rather than alder) body, maple forest of ’bursts and tradition, we
neck and 9.5”-radius Indian laurel need more Sherwood Green
fingerboard – but they’ve been put guitars, Squier.
together nicely, and that tinted This reviewer’s go-to guitar is
urethane-finished C-shape neck an American Vintage II Thinline
is dreamy (and, dare we say, even Telecaster, putting us in a good
2
reminds us of our AVII). position to see the direction this
This Squier is incredibly Squier is shooting for. Having put
resonant, with some intangible it through its paces, it passed
tuning fork-esque harmonic almost every test with flying
overtones that embellished its colours. First and foremost, it’s a
timbre, especially when playing tidy thing to play with a great-
unplugged. There wasn’t a fret to sounding range of tones on offer.
be found that offered any Will it make you put down a more
nuisance, and the surprisingly expensive Tele? Possibly not, but
well-finished fingerboard offered if Fender’s native models are out 3
no resistance when navigating up of reach then Squier yet again
and down the neck. proves that it’s capable of putting
Tone-wise, it was good. It’s out impressive alternatives.
certainly got some of the cleanest Matthew Owen
tones we’ve heard in a Squier Tele,
FEATURES
and the fact they’re Fender-
SOUND QUALITY
designed pickups is very nice. They
SUMMARY
VALUE FOR MONEY

aren’t ‘thin’ or ‘metallic’, which

some budget single-coils are guilty BUILD QUALITY
of, and the neck humbucker is PLAYABILITY
addictive: big with a lot of warmth OVERALL RATING

T H E GA S
STATION
92

REVIEW
1 TAP/FLUX
FOOTSWITCH
A dual function
footswitch – a press
and hold changes it
from Tap Tempo to
Flux where it can be
used to trigger
parameter
automation.
3
2 FOOTSWITCH
This turns the
effect on and off. Its
glowing LED turns
bright when the effect
is active and is colour
coded to signify the
effect category.
1 3 ROTARY
CONTROLS
Each knob adjusts the
parameter displayed
2 directly above it in the
display. You can use
the cursors to take
you to the next page
of parameters.
LINE 6 HX ONE £236 AT A GLANCE

TYPE: Multi-FX
Line 6 applies its Helix technology to this FEATURES: True or

buffered DSP bypass,
93
Tuner, 128 presets,
problem-solving multi-FX unit over 250 effect

algorithms, tap tempo,
Flux expression
O
kay, you’ve got a pretty For some of those (namely wahs used as a send and return, allowing switch, noise gate,
adjustable input
good pedalboard setup but and pitch-bend), plugging in an you to connect pedal-to-amp via
impedance
there may be one or two expression pedal would be the 4-cable method and assign the CONTROLS: Soft
types of effect missing, extremely useful, as would be effect in each preset to route into knobs (1-3), Effect
perhaps things that you using the extensive MIDI the front of your amp or place it in knob, Page buttons
don’t want to spend good money controller implementation. But your amp’s effects loop, which may (L&R), Home button,
Bypass footswitch,
on as you wouldn’t use them too there may be no need as the HX go some way to solving the dilemma Tap/Flux footswitch
often. So, how do you go about One has built-in expression of where to place the HX One in your CONNECTIONS:
expanding your pedalboard to control, which Line 6 calls ‘Flux’. signal chain. If the editing sounds a Standard inputs (L/
cover all your options? The answer This, set up on a per-preset basis, bit complex don’t worry as the pedal Mono, Right/Return),
standard outputs (L/
to that may be to add an HX One, a is operated by the second comes with a USB-connected
Mono, R/Send), USB,
relatively compact, chameleon- footswitch, which also does librarian application that makes MIDI In, MIDI Out/
like pedal that offers a massive tap-tempo, with a single press easy work of it all. Thru, EXP and
array of Line 6’s Helix-powered adjusting multiple effect The HX One should easily slot footswitch input
effects, albeit one at a time. parameters simultaneously over a onto any ’board and run from your POWER: 9V DC adaptor
(supplied) 500 mA
The pedal contains over 250 predetermined time period. usual power distributor, so could be DIMENSIONS: 98 (w) x
different effect algorithms, Minimum and maximum ranges the perfect complement to your 125 (d) x 60 mm (h)
derived from the Helix family and can be set for each parameter, as existing pedals. It’s a hugely
previous Line 6 units, that you can can values for the ramp up/down versatile pedal, with pro-level
use to fill the 128 preset slots times as well as the curve it takes. effects quality coupled with flexible
which are easily accessed by foot- Changing a rotary speaker speed is signal routing options.
switching or knob-twiddling. Just probably the most obvious use of Trevor Curwen
about any effect is here; there’s this, but you can program in a cool
FEATURES
plenty of fuzz/drive/distortion octave jump for the pitch-bend
SOUND QUALITY
boxes, all the different modulation effects, or have an instant jump
SUMMARY
VALUE FOR MONEY

types, delays and reverbs, but you between two levels of gain for a
also get pitch effects, wahs, distortion. While stereo operation BUILD QUALITY
analogue synth emulations and a is available, you can use the pedal USABILITY
couple of loopers. in mono with the other sockets OVERALL RATING

T H E GA S
STATION
94
JHS HARD DRIVE £155
Josh Scott pays homage to desirable 90s drive tones
I
f someone mentions 90s later, the Hard Drive is here. alternating palm-muted
rock guitar tone, there’s a On the face of it, it’s a fairly powerchord riffs, with every pluck AT A GLANCE
fairly broad church of sounds straightforward pedal – albeit with cutting through. Our first stop is a
TYPE: Distortion
that might spring to mind. two colours to choose from (Black scooped drop D sound, and we can
CONTROLS: Volume, Drive, Bass, Mid
The tail end of hair metal, or White), with gain and output confirm it nails the Dimebag thing Freq, Mid Level, Treble
the fuzzed edges of grunge, thick level, plus a three-band EQ. Now, perfectly (you’ll probably want a BYPASS: Buffered
saturation of pop-punk and even any fan of Dimebag will tell you noise gate for full authenticity
POWER: 9v PSU (not included)
the retro-tinged wall-of-sound that the key to a great 90s metal though). With the treble up high,
CONTACT: www.jhspedals.info
brought to us by Noel Gallagher. tone is to scoop your mids. The there’s a Rat-like grind to the
So, when JHS says its new Hard Hard Drive makes this possible sound that remains present across
Drive pedal is based on 90s tones, with a sweepable mid frequency, the upper gain settings, perfect for
we’re listening! The Hard Drive is allowing you to dial in the exact emulating the near-fuzz tones of
the brand’s first pedal not to be part of your midrange that you grunge. Meanwhile, with our
based on, inspired by, or otherwise want to then boost or cut using the guitar in standard tuning, we’re
adapted from any other pedal. It mid level control. able to get classic Marshall JCM
also happens to be the final output We’ll start by saying that and Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier
of JHS Head Designer, Cliff Scott. however you set your controls, this sounds with ease – think classic
Born out of jamming at the JHS thing is punchy. If you’re sick of Green Day and early Foo Fighters.
HQ, founder Josh Scott says that your picking attack being It’s thick, full and bursting with
the idea came to him while rocking squashed by the compression that clarity. A must for fans of the era.
some riffs through an Ibanez comes with hard clipping, you Stuart Williams
Smash Box distortion in 2016. won’t have a problem here. This in
FEATURES
Eight years on and many revisions turn lends itself beautifully to fast,
PERFORMANCE
PERFECT FOR EMULATING THE

SUMMARY
VALUE FOR MONEY

BUILD QUALITY
Photo Olly Curtis
NEAR-FUZZ TONES OF GRUNGE

USABILITY
OVERALL

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ȒȸɀƬƏȇɎǝƺª«ƬȒƳƺɎȒˡȇƳȒɖɎȅȒȸƺ
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
TORUS
G
etting to jam with Tony Iommi
would be a mind-blowing
experience at any age, let alone at
13, but that was Alfie Glass’
introduction into the world of
rock ’n’ roll. With an Epiphone ES-339 in
hand, he was a standout on Sky Arts’ Guitar
Star, which saw him championed by the
godfather of heavy metal and record at
Abbey Road.
“It was nuts,” he reflects. Yet he isn’t the
type to revel in the moment. “It made me
realise that I needed a band, and that being a
flashy guitar player isn’t everything. People
are more interested in a show and you don’t
need to be the best guitar player in the world
to do that.”
Torus, his resultant band, channels his
love for Kyuss and early QOTSA, with Josh
Homme’s “weird guitar playing” and
groove-orientated songwriting proving a
major influence.
“I got really obsessed with fuzz when I got
98 into stoner rock,” Glass admits, “I’d never
heard a sound like it before.”
Despite that, though, he says “everything
in my life seems to go back to AC/DC. I grew
up worshipping Let There Be Rock. I saved up
for an Epiphone SG, I think subconsciously
because of Angus Young, and the band
definitely has the AC/DC formula –
everything’s in the right place, and that’s
why it feels good. We go for a bold, no
bullshit rock sound.”
Glass tunes his SG to C standard and plugs
into a Vox AC30: “It’s valve amps all the way
for me.” A Fulltone OCD, stolen from his dad
– Solstice guitarist, Andy Glass – and Green
Russian Big Muff fuzz add some grit.
Glass favours a Vox wah as a lowpass filter
for intros, while an EHX Freeze, Belcat
Chorus and T-Rex Quint octaver round out a
Words Phil Weller Photo Casey Lockett
simple setup that embodies the no-nonsense

spirit of the band.
“We want to write songs with proper
grooves that stay in your brain,” he
concludes, “and I think we’ve achieved
that.” They have. Torus’ self-titled debut LP
is a meaty stew of hairy stoner riffs and
“EVERYTHING IN MY
beats so solid you could build skyscrapers on
them. It comes after a fractious few years
– but going through some hardship made
Torus even tighter.
“We’re a lot stronger because of it,” says LIFE SEEMS TO GO
BACK TO AC/DC”
Alfie. “Now the band is everything I’ve
always wanted it to be. We’re only just
getting started.”

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