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RICH ROBINSON’S MAGPIE SALUTE BRAD PAISLEY’S NEW FENDER TELE CELTIC FROST

GUITAR & BASS TRANSCRIPTIONS QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

“THE WAY YOU USED TO DO”

SCORPIONS

OPPER

DAVID BOWIE

“GOLDEN YEARS”

HOW TO BU- OY R

U LT I

“BIG CITY NIGHTS”

A SEVEN ING EIGHT- STR! GUITAR

QUEENS OF THE

STONE AGE

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CON T EN TS VOL. 38 |

NO. 11 |

NOVEMBER 2017

FEATURES

32 THE MAGPIE SALUTE

As the Magpie Salute emerge as the new darlings of the blues-rock scene, former Black Crowes guitarists Rich Robinson and Marc Ford discuss the importance of honoring their musical past as they look to the future.

Ernie Ball Music Man Monarchy Series Majesty 7 John Petrucci

40 CELTIC FROST

Jackson X Series Soloist SLAT 8 MS

As a handful of their classic albums get the deluxe reissue treatment, frontman Thomas Gabriel Fischer looks back on the pioneering death metal band’s musical triumphs and tragedies.

48 QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE On their seventh album, Villains, Josh Homme and Queens of the Stone Age put on their boogie shoes, shake up their sound and shout at the devil.

62 7- AND 8-STRING SHOPPER’S GUIDE Considering making the leap to a seven- or eight-string electric guitar? Be sure to read this comprehensive shopper’s guide before you hit the stores.

TRANSCRIBED “The Way You Used to Do” by Queens of the Stone Age

PAGE

“Big City Nights” by Scorpions

PAGE

102 “Golden Years” by David Bowie

PAGE

110

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

Ibanez UV71P Steve Vai Signature Universe Premium Series

DEPARTMENTS

12 WOODSHED / MASTHEAD 14 SOUNDING BOARD

84 COLUMNS

Letters, reader art and Defenders of the Faith

17 TUNE-UPS

Brad Paisley, Chris LeMasters, The Contortionist, Chris Hillman, Mike Dawes, Marty Stuart and Lukas Nelson

73 SOUNDCHECK

73. D’Angelico Deluxe Series EXL-1 and SS 76. Electro-Harmonix Canyon Delay & Looper pedal 78. Ibanez RGD3127 Prestige seven-string 79. Fulltone OCD V2 pedal 80. New EQ 82. Xotic California Classic XSC-2 electric

84. String Theory by Jimmy Brown 86. In Deep by Andy Aledort 88. Mob Rules by Mike Orlando

122 SHOP TALK

All Music Inc. in Plainview, NY

COV E R P HOT OG R A P H BY A N D R E AS N E UMANN

WOODSHED VOL. 38 |

NO. 11 |

NOVEMBER 2017 EDITORIAL

WE NEED TO TALK I BLAME THE internet for this. For giving people the means to pull up a blank email, write “you suck” or something to that effect, and hitting send. While it never feels good to receive hate mail of any kind, the truth is that it’s not because it hurts my feelings—after all these years, my skin is pretty thick—but because so many of you fail to offer suggestions or anything constructive along with your negative rantings. That, my friends, is just a colossal waste of time—and this dude cannot abide by that. I remember when I first started working here in the early Nineties. Back then, our readers had no other means of communication other than to put pen to paper, write out their thoughts, find a stamp and mail a letter to our offices. And, more often than not, they took the time to tell us what they wanted to read in Guitar World. Songs they wanted us to transcribe, young guitarists and bands to watch out for, guitar lessons they wanted us to teach. These days, believe it or not, the only letters we get like that come from prisoners, which are actually some of my favorite letters because they take the time to write out their thoughts carefully and suggest things they want to see in Guitar World that might help their time behind bars go just a little faster. We need your suggestions, people! Regardless of whatever type of letter you’re sending our way—whether it’s one telling us we’re doing a good job or that you enjoyed a particular issue, or even a quick “you suck” jab—take a minute to tell us what you want to see in this magazine. The techniques you want to learn, ideas for song transcriptions, new bands and guitarists you’ve discovered that you think should be in our pages, maybe a recommendation for a new celebrity columnist. Remember, we make this magazine every month, year after year, for you—and we value your opinions and suggestions. Sure, we’ve been doing this long enough to be able to make solid, educated guesses when it comes to the content you all come to us for—but there’s a limit to just how omniscient we can be. Don’t just assume we know all there is to know. Interaction with all of you is something I’ve relied on for many, many years, and I still do to this day. Email me at soundingboard@guitarworld.com and we’ll strike up a conversation, as I have with many of you, maybe trade some different perspectives or viewpoints about a few things. Tell me how you think we can make this magazine even better and I’ll listen. Our suggestion box is open to you 24 hours a day—don’t be afraid to use it!

EXECUTIVE CONTENT DIRECTOR Jeff Kitts MANAGING EDITOR Damian Fanelli TECH EDITOR Paul Riario ASSOCIATE EDITORS Andy Aledort, Richard Bienstock, Alan di Perna, Chris Gill CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Gregor y Adams, Dan Epstein, Eric Feldman, Mike Orlando, Alan Paul, Adam Perlmutter, Brad Tolinski SENIOR VIDEO PRODUCER Mark Nuñez

MUSIC

SENIOR MUSIC EDITOR Jimmy Brown MUSIC TRANSCRIPTIONIST Jeff Perrin MUSIC ENGRAVER Patricia Corcoran

ART

ART DIRECTOR Mixie von Bormann ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Tamara Lee CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER Alexis Cook

ONLINE

MANAGING EDITOR Jackson Maxwell EDITOR Damian Fanelli

PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION MANAGER Nicole Schilling

BUSINESS

VICE PRESIDENT, GENERAL MANAGER Bill Amstutz Bamstutz@nbmedia.com GROUP PUBLISHER Bob Ziltz 212-378-0471, Bziltz@nbmedia.com ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Jon Brudner 917-281-4721, Jbrudner@nbmedia.com ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Mari Deetz 650-238-0344, Mdeetz@nbmedia.com ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Jeff Donnenwerth 212-378-0466, Jdonnenwerth@nbmedia.com ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Jason Perl 646-723-5419, Jperl@nbmedia.com ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Scott Sciacca 646-723-5478, Ssciacca@nbmedia.com ADVERTISING DIRECTOR - NON-ENDEMIC Anne Triece 646-723-5419, Atriece@nbmedia.com

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Executive Content Director GUITAR WORLD (ISSN 1045-6295) is published 13 times a year, monthly plus Holiday issue following December issue, by NewBay Media, LLC, 28 East 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Phone: 212.378.0400. Fax: 917.281.4704. Web Site: www.nbmedia.com. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Newsstand distribution is handled by Curtis Circulation Company. Subscriptions: One-year basic rate (12 issues) US: $14.95. Canada: US$29.95. Foreign: US$49.95. Canadian and foreign orders must be prepaid. Canadian price includes postage and GST #R128220688. PMA #40612608. Subscriptions do not include newsstand specials. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to Guitar World, P.O. Box 2029, Langhorne, PA 19047-9957. Ride-along enclosure in the following edition(s): None, Standard enclosure: None. Returns: Pitney Bowes, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2, Canada. Entire contents copyright 2018, NewBay Media L.L.C. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. NewBay Media L.L.C. is not affiliated with the companies or products covered in Guitar World. Reproduction on the Internet of the articles and pictures in this magazine is illegal without the prior written consent of Guitar World. Products named in the pages of Guitar World are trademarks of their respective companies. PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. SUBSCRIBER CUSTOMER SERVICE: Guitar World Magazine Customer Care, P.O. Box 2029, Langhorne, PA 19047-9957. Online: www.guitarworld.com/customerservice. Phone: 1-800-456-6441. Email guitarworldmag@icnfull.com. BACK ISSUES: www.guitarworld.com/store REPRINTS: NewBay Media, LLC, 28 East 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Phone: 212.378.0414

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I L L U S T R AT I O N BY J O E L K I M M E L

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SOUNDI NG BOARD Got something you want to say? EMAIL US AT: Soundingboard@GuitarWorld.com

Brotherly Love Thank you for the “25 Greatest Allman Brothers Songs” feature in the September issue. The legacy of that great band was tarnished repeatedly (often by Gregg), and that feature serves as a solid reminder that we should all go back and listen to what was achieved by those young lads. They were, as a friend reminds me, like the Count Basie Band of American rock. And that is hard to argue when tunes like “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” “Jessica” and “Mountain Jam” combine such mature music sensibility in a jazzy blues-rock setting. —Wayne Blanchard I’ve always enjoyed your “best of” lists and, except perhaps for particular rankings, they’ve generally been fairly complete. However, the omission of “Back Where It All Begins,” one of Dickey Betts’ best songs on their best post-reunion album, is glaring. —Mark Geurkink I know best-of/greatest-songs lists of anything are like beauty— they are subjected to the eyes and ears of each individual. That

being said, I have no problem with any of the songs listed in your 25 greatest Allman Brothers songs feature. However, for the band’s interpretation of T-Bone Walker’s “(Call It) Stormy Monday,” from At Fillmore East, to be ranked at number 25 is a travesty. I have opined many times over the years to anyone who would listen that this track just might be the greatest song ever recorded. Not greatest rock song, not greatest blues song, not greatest live song, but the greatest song ever recorded by any musician or band. —Steven H. Spring

Keepin’ It Reel Guitar World is definitely my favorite guitar magazine. It makes my day when one comes in the mailbox, and I eagerly read it cover to cover. However, as a 15-year-old female guitarist who has been a subscriber for about a year and a half, I have a complaint: you all need more women in the magazine! Yes, there were women in the September issue, all of whom I thoroughly enjoyed reading about: Nita Strauss, Laura Jane Grace, Cindy Blackman Santana. There was also Annie Clark on the cover of the February issue, which made my month. However, most of the time, there are more men in Guitar World than there are women. I would love if Guitar World started equally featuring men and women, and not just occasionally; I think female guitarists should be featured in every issue. I realize that you don’t see as many women in the professional guitar playing community. So I challenge you—find those women rockers! We’re out there! —Greta Reel

Driving Force Hi, it’s Big Sid of the band Blunt Force Drama! I just love your mag. I started playing seriously 15 years ago; I’m 62 now. I play for the love of music and guitars. My music crosses many musical genres, from Wilson Picket to Slipknot. It’s been your magazine that has inspired me, taught me and motivated me to keep playing. So much info, lessons, gear, news and of course the coverage of all the great guitarists and upand-comers. Thank you for all your tireless work and passion. I will be a lifetime subscriber. —Sidney W. Robinson

Saving Grace Thank you so very much for featuring Laura Jane Grace in your September 2017 issue! As a trans woman who plays guitar myself, it is wonderful to see another who is making a positive difference in the music world. It isn’t easy to be out and a musician in today’s polarized society. Kudos to your editorial staff for being willing to interview her and shining a light on a true person with courage! —Rachael Buchanan

Laura Jane Grace, who cannot seem to be able to determine what gender they are, or Tom Morello’s political rantings in previous issues. This is a guitar magazine for guitarists, not a political rag mag or transgender (whatever the hell that means) empowerment publication. So by all means include a variety of musical talent but please keep the interviews guitar oriented. Who they voted for, their religious stance and sexual preference and/or gender issues have no relevance or place in GW. Thank you. —Rosa Daleno

Ink Spot I love the album artwork for Metallica’s St. Anger album, and I like the album a lot even though many dislike this particular phase of the band. I identify with some of the raw emotion put into many of these songs. The fist reminds me of restraining anger, but also letting loose—catharsis. The tattoo was done by Andrew Moore at Shogun Tattoo in Pasadena, California. —Richard Johnson

Truly Graceless I have been a subscriber to Guitar World for 30 years, and even though my musical tastes lie solely in the hard rock and metal category, I still appreciate other artists’ perspectives on guitar. However, I do not feel the need nor do I want any advice from an artist such as

GOT A TATTOO of your favorite band or guitarist you want to share with us? Send a photo of your ink to soundingboard@guitarworld. com and maybe we’ll print it or post it on our Facebook page!

SEND LETTERS TO: The Sounding Board, Guitar World, 28 East 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016, or email us at Soundingboard@guitarworld.com. All subscription queries must be emailed to guitarworld@pcspublink.com. Please do not email the Sounding Board with subscription matters.

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

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If you created a drawing, painting or sketch of your favorite guitarist and would like to see it in an upcoming issue of Guitar World, email soundingboard@ guitarworld.com with a scan of the image! SL ASH B Y VANDON TRICAMO

DEFENDERS

JOE SATRIANI, E DDIE VAN HA LEN AND STEVE VAI B Y M AT T N O R M A N D

of the Faith

Raymond Raye

Lizbeth Chavez AGE 13 HOMETOWN Austin, TX GUITAR Jackson JS34Q Dinky DKA-M Transparent Red, Epiphone Les Paul Special Vintage SONGS I HAVE BEEN PLAYING Metallica “Enter Sandman,” Iron Maiden “The Trooper,” Alien Ant Farm “Smooth Criminal,” Guns N’ Roses “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” Black Sabbath “Paranoid” GEAR I MOST WANT Dunlop KH95 Kirk Hammett Signature Cry Baby Wah, Schecter Damien Platinum

Steve Schad AGE 45 HOMETOWN Memphis, TN GUITARS Taylor acoustic 12-string SONGS I HAVE BEEN PLAYING Pearl Jam “Yellow Ledbetter,” Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody,” The Beatles “If I Needed Someone” GEAR I MOST WANT Gibson 6 & 12 string doubleneck

AGE 45 HOMETOWN Phoenix, AZ GUITARS Epiphone Les Paul Custom, Fender Prodigy Strat, Gretsch Billy Bo Custom SONGS I HAVE BEEN PLAYING Social Distortion “Ball and Chain,” ZZ Top “La Grange,” Queens of the Stone Age “Little Sister,” Reverend Horton Heat “Loaded Gun,” Stray Cats “Stray Cat Strut” GEAR I MOST WANT Gretsch White Falcon, Satellite Omega amp head and cabinet

Are you a Defender of the Faith? Send a photo, along with your answers to the questions above, to defendersofthefaith@guitarworld.com. And pray! guitarworld.com

TUNE-UPS CHRIS LEMASTERS

THE CONTORTIONIST

CHRIS HILLMAN

MIKE DAWES

Country Road BRAD PAISLEY MAKES HIS FENDER SIGNATURE MODEL DEBUT WITH THE SURPRISINGLY AFFORDABLE BRAD PAISLEY ROAD WORN TELECASTER By Chris Gill

AS A CO-HOST of the CMA Awards since 2008, regular performer on dozens of other televised country music award shows and specials, top-grossing touring and chart-topping country radio artist and several-time performer at the White House, Brad Paisley is probably the most visible “ambassador of the Telecaster” to come along over the last

decade or so. But while he’s almost always seen with a Tele-style guitar—either Tkk a sweet vintage model or a custom ax built for him by Bill Crook—in his hands, Paisley was never recognized with a signature model electric guitar until Fender announced the Brad Paisley Road Worn Telecaster at this year’s Summer NAMM Show in Nashville.

DEAR GUITAR HERO: MARTY STUART

LUKAS NELSON

Brad Paisley with his new signature Fender Road Worn Telecaster

For devotees of Paisley’s blazing fretwork as well as dedicated fans of Tele twang, the Brad Paisley Road Worn Telecaster was worth the wait. The model, which is based on a 1963 Telecaster that is one of Paisley’s main stage instruments, faithfully adheres to the classic vintage Tele template with its dual single-coil pickups, 21-fret maple neck and “ashtray” bridge with three brass saddles, but it also delivers custom flair with its Silver Sparkle nitrocellulose lacquer finish, black-and-silver paisley pickguard, distinctive enhanced V neck profile and guitarworld.com

NEWS + NOTES

WHAT'S ON MY

PLAYLIST

CHRISOF HUNDRED LEMASTERS SUNS 1

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

2 “Heart Out” The 1975 “This band is a damn hit factory! They write the catchiest songs I’ve ever heard. Everything they release is rad.”

3 “Bleeding in the Blur” Code Orange “Man, Code Orange is sick—and this song rules. I think it’s so cool that they can go from being the heaviest, most pissed-off band ever to catchy Nineties grunge/altrock type stuff at the flip of a switch.”

4 “Headup” Deftones “I remember hearing this song when I was a kid and thinking it was the heaviest, most badass thing in the universe. I still think that. The end.”

5 “Breathing Underwater” Hiatus Kaiyote “This band manages to balance musicianship and technical proficiency with incredible songwriting to create beautiful pieces of music that almost make you feel like you’re in a totally different environment. Oh, and the synched vocal/bass run at 3:51 will blow your mind.” THE DEBUT ALBUM FROM HUNDRED SUNS, PRESTALIIS, IS AVAILABLE NOW VIA NEW DAMAGE RECORDS.

C H R I S L E M A S T E R S : J AY P E R RY

wasn’t quite there. I gave him some feedunique bridge pickup wound to Paisley’s back and he told me that he knew exactly specs. Paisley opted for light relic aging what the pickups needed. He didn’t tell me on the guitar as he wanted it to have a what he planned on doing, but he wound broken-in feel while still being new enough me another one and the guitar just came for players to add their own character and to life. The pickup sounded so good that I battle scars. asked him to wind several more for me so I The Brad Paisley Road Worn Telecaster’s could put them in other guitars that I have. most unusual feature may be its body The neck pickup is great, too. It matches up construction, consisting of a lightweight really well with the bridge pickup.” Paulownia core sandwiched between thin While Paisley couldn’t be happier with layers of spruce on the body’s top and the guitar’s cool custom looks, well-crafted back. “Bill Crook made a custom guitar design and electronics and its incredibly out of Paulownia for me,” says Paisley, “so comfortable playability I thought it would be (partly thanks to its discool if Fender could get tinctive, vintage-inspired enough of that wood “I didn’t want to make V-shaped neck profile), to make my signature he is proudest of the model. They looked into something my fans guitar’s affordable price it and said they could do can’t afford. I want to see ($1,199.99). “I think this that, but they also had is the value of a lifetime some ideas on how they it in the hands of some for a Tele player,” he could enhance it with a kid going to a says. “These days you spruce top and back. The can easily spend five great resonance of this guitar lesson.” grand on a Custom Shop Tele is mainly due to that — B R A D PA I S L E Y Telecaster, but all along idea, because the spruce I’ve viewed the Tele as a top is very responsive workingman’s instruand vibrates like it does ment. Leo Fender’s original vision was to on an acoustic guitar. I wanted my Telecastmake something economical that’s a good ers to all have light bodies as the most magic value, can be beaten up and that any bar Teles I’ve ever played were really light. This player can plug into an amp and play. The was a great way to guarantee that.” Tele wasn’t designed to be precious. It’s a Paisley says the other truly magical comcutting board with a neck—a thick slab of ponent of this guitar is the custom-wound wood that you can cut vegetables on and bridge pickup. “Fender has a guy who is a then play. I didn’t want to make something genius pickup winder,” he says. “We worked my fans can’t afford. I want to see it in the really hard to come up with something that hands of some kid going to a guitar lesson perfectly complemented the body, because and to see an aspiring, struggling musician it’s crucial to have pickups that match the playing this guitar in a bar on Broadway in guitar. The first pickup he sent me sounded Nashville.” very close to what I had in mind, but it

“Heartbreak Warfare” John Mayer “Anyone who knows me knows how much I love John Mayer. He just gets it. He’s such an incredible player and the trem/ delay verse lick in this song is super cool. The solo is awesome too.”

NEWS + NOTES Cameron Maynard

Robby Baca The Contortionist’s Cameron Maynard

The Contortionist

Juan “Juan of the Dead” Garcia (left) and Ernie C

ON THEIR FOURTH ALBUM, CLAIRVOYANT, THE INDIANAPOLIS-BASED SIX-PIECE FOCUS ON THEIR FUTURE AS A PROG-METAL GROUP WHILE TAKING A FEW STEPS BACK TO BASICS. By Gregory Adams

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

Mostly pieced together while the sextet was living together in a remote cabin deep within a Belgrade, Maine, forest-scape, the writing sessions began with the act revisiting riffs leftover from the recording of 2014’s Language. But with new bassist Jordan Eberhardt on-board to record with the band for the first time, and fleet-fingered synth-player Eric Guenther becoming more involved in the songwriting process, the Contortionist abandoned the scraps to focus on their future. To be certain, the crew can still deliver a menacing metal attack, as with the jackhammer-chugging and 5/4 crush groove of the album’s title track, but much of Baca and Maynard’s atmospherics are deceptively complex. On “The Center,” the pair lock into lusciously prismatic, polyrhythmic arpeggios, while Maynard’s lead work during the finale of “Absolve” involves a series of tastefully spacious, soaring bends. “I think we’ve scaled back on the technique,” Baca explains, adding that the Contortionist even looked to the pop world while structuring some of Clairvoyant’s hooky cho-

ruses. “Obviously there are still technical moments, but we wanted to be technical with some grace.”

AXOLOGY • GUITARS (Baca) Ibanez RG, RGD, S with Seymour Duncan Pegasus and Sentient pickups; (Maynard) Ibanez RG and S six- and seven-string guitars with Seymour Duncan JB bridge pickups and ’59 neck pickups • AMPS (Baca) Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier; (Maynard) Mesa/Boogie two-channel Dual Rectifier with matching cabinets • EFFECTS (Baca) Seymour Duncan Vice Grip compressor, Mesa/Boogie Grid Slammer, TC Electronic Sub n Up Octave, Hall of Fame reverb, Strymon Timeline, Line 6 Helix; (Maynard) RJM audio buffers, Barber Tone Press Parallel Compressor, Maxon PAC9 Pure Analog Chorus, MXR Univibe, Emma Electronic Okto Nøjs Octave Fuzz, Keeley-modded Ibanez Tube Screamers, ISP Decimator Noise Reduction, Moog MF Analog Delay, TC Electronic G-Major 2

G O B I N D E R J H I T TA

THE FUTURE IS uncertain for many, but progressive metal vets the Contortionist knew exactly how best to move forward with their fourth full-length, the suitably titled Clairvoyant. As outlined on the first single, “Reimagined,” for instance, vocalist Mike Lessard croons powerfully about establishing “a different kind of speech.” For guitarists Robby Baca and Cameron Maynard, that meant dialing down the tech-heavy djent theatrics that marked earlier material in favor of more textural playing, as well as experimenting with different tunings. Considering the band had long been accustomed to the elastic snap of alternate drop-tunings, Clairvoyant’s unorthodox pitch-shift is actually a return to the regular. “I think we have, over the years, developed a slight dissatisfaction with downtuning a seven-string,” says Baca. “I like the way a standard-tuned guitar feels with a standard set of strings on it. It just felt better than a down-tuned seven-string with some floppy strings.”

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PRESTIGE: THE MOST DEVASTATING HIGH-PERFORMANCE GUITARS

Chris Hillman WITH HELP FROM TOM PETTY, ROGER MCGUINN, DAVID CROSBY AND OTHERS, THE FORMER BYRDS BASSIST IS FLYING HIGH AGAIN ON BIDIN’ MY TIME. By Damian Fanelli

WHEN TOM PETTY and the Heartbreakers were working their way up the food chain in the late Seventies, astute listeners couldn’t help but notice that “American Girl” and “Listen to Her Heart” sounded like thinly veiled, high-energy homages to the Byrds. Sure enough, Petty & Co. were infusing the earlier band’s “jangly” electric folk-rock sound with a hefty dose of New Wave attitude. So it’s fitting that 40 years later, Petty has produced what can best be described as Byrds co-founder Chris Hillman’s comeback album, Bidin’ My Time. Hillman, who also founded or co-founded

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

the Flying Burrito Brothers (with Gram Parsons), Manassas (with Stephen Stills) and the Desert Rose Band (with Herb Pedersen), hasn’t released a studio album since 2005’s The Other Side or a live album since 2010’s At Edwards Barn (with Pedersen). So why the shot in the arm? It started when Pedersen was singing backup for Petty’s other band, Mudcrutch, last year. “Somewhere on the road, Tom and Herb conjured the idea of producing a record for me,” Hillman says. “Herb got the deal with Rounder Records with the agreement that Tom and Herb would co-produce. Last year I didn’t have plans to ever

record again, but things just fall your way when you least expect them.” Bidin’ My Time features guest appearances by fellow ex-Byrds Roger McGuinn and David Crosby, Desert Rose Band alumni (banjoist/guitarist/vocalist Pedersen, guitarist John Jorgenson and pedal steeler JayDee Maness, who also played on the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968), plus Petty and a horde of Heartbreakers, including guitarist Mike Campbell. Hillman sticks to vocals, mandolin and his signature Guild Byrds Bass. In terms of material, a shimmering mix of new and old, Bidin’ My Time touches upon several stages of Hillman’s career; there’s bluegrass, country, acoustic folk and new versions of three Byrds tunes. There’s also the extra-catchy “Here She Comes Again.” “It’s a song Roger and I wrote in 1979 that was never recorded,” Hillman says. “The only version I had was from a live show. I always wanted to record it—it’s so reminiscent of the ’65/’66 Byrds.”

LO R I S TO L L

NEWS + NOTES

NEWS + NOTES Mike Dawes with his signature Andreas Cuntz CWG23s guitar

THE BRITISH ACOUSTIC GUITAR ACE TAKES A FINGERSTYLE JOURNEY, LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY. By Adam Perlmutter

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, U.K.-based fingerstyle virtuoso Mike Dawes was visiting a lavatory at New York’s Blue Note, the venerable jazz club, when inspiration struck. “I was there playing with the International Guitar Night tour and we had a tiny backstage area with a small tiled bathroom,” he says. “The reverb was so good in the bathroom that the initial groove just came out. The funny thing is that because it was so narrow, I couldn’t really move around the fretboard.” The physical constraints imposed by playing guitar in that restroom would result in the single-note groove on “Overload,” from Dawes’ new solo album, Era. This sophomore effort is also informed by other places the globetrotting guitarist has known, such as Northern Ireland (“Fortress”), where he lived for several years, and the American Southwest (“Purr & Sway”),

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where he toured with the Moody Blues. “The tunes are almost entirely inspired by travel,” Dawes says. “There are some obvious cultural influences present in the pieces, but largely the music is inspired by moments, be it a crowded city, a sleepless night in a hotel, welcoming friends in exotic countries, or a landscape. This record would not exist without my tours.” Era has an uncannily natural sound to it, owing to the sophisticated ways in which Dawes’ guitar—a signature Andreas Cuntz CWG23s with Indian rosewood back and sides—was recorded. The instrument was captured with a pair of stereo microphones in the room, a large diaphragm condenser over the nut, a pair of condensers near the guitar’s body, and four onboard pickups. “I can’t speak highly enough of the engineer, Josh Clark, who really gets acoustic music,” Dawes said, adding that cheese-and-

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JUKKA BACKLUND

Mike Dawes

chutney sandwiches and tea between takes helped make for a relaxed vibe in the studio. Though the sound of Dawes’ instrument on the record is predominantly acoustic— the guitarist uses extended techniques to call forth a wide range of timbral and percussive elements—it’s enhanced by a judicious use of effects. “I use lots of effects very moderately, enhancing the music whilst still letting the guitar breathe,” he says. “But who knows? Maybe my next album will be an Icelandic epic with gallons of reverb and delay.”

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DEAR GUITAR HERO

GU I TA R WOR L D â&#x20AC;¢ NOV EM BER 2017

MARTY STUART

The ace guitarist and longtime Grand Ole Opry member is one of country music history’s biggest heroes, but what Guitar World readers really want to know is… Interview by Damian Fanelli

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON YOU LEARNED FROM JOHNNY CASH? —MICHEL NEY What I really took away from him more than anything else—and Way Out West, our new album, is another example of that—is that he was the most fiercely creative human being I’ve ever worked with. If he believed in something—a song or a concept—if nobody came to applaud him or to buy it or see it, that didn’t diminish his interest in it whatsoever. If he believed in something, he did it and he stood by it. That’s the way to live, creatively. I’ve drawn from that experience a lot. There were times and moments me and my band [the Fabulous Superlatives] were in uncharted territory where nobody cared, and I knew we were the lone rangers out there. But I knew it was the thing to do, and I was convinced of that. It got lonesome sometimes, but I stood by it.

Your new album, Way Out West, was recorded in California and has a definite “desert” feel. Were the songs already written when you started recording, or were you inspired by your surroundings? —Kurt Balmer It was recorded at [Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist] Mike Campbell’s studio and Capitol Studios in Hollywood, and it was absolutely inspired by that part of the world. I consider Way Out West my love letter to the American West; so many of the things that inspired me came from there. The first two records I bought were a Flatt & Scruggs record and a Johnny Cash record. The Johnny Cash record had a song called “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town,” and it transported me from my little bedroom in Mississippi to the West, and my imagination ran wild. That’s what started my love for the West. Growing up in the Sixties, whether it was the Batmobile or the costumes Porter Wagoner wore or the music that came from there, California was

the home of what a friend of mine calls “custom culture.” It seemed like the promised land. The first time I went there was 1974, and I fell in love with it. I wanted to write songs that spoke to that place and everything out there that had inspired me. It all begins with a song—that’s the old saying. [Way Out West] began with a song called “Old Mexico.” You were in Johnny Cash’s band in the early Eighties, when the charts and critics had turned their backs on the “old-timers.” Was it a struggle in any way? —Doug Sandrine In a sense. Right after I went to work for him, within about two shows, I realized I wasn’t working with the same mindset that gave us At Folsom Prison, At San Quentin or Bitter Tears. I thought, man, I’m involved with a family show; it’s almost like a Lawrence Welk atmosphere. He was a pop star, a blazing pop star, and I knew he wasn’t satisfied being a has-been on the Middle American fairground

circuit. But he was always leaning forward. He was making records with Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and Rodney Crowell. He was trying, but nobody cared. Nobody cared! That was the struggle. It didn’t matter what he did; it was just thrown to the side. But when the Rick Rubin thing came around [Rubin produced American Recordings, Cash’s comeback album, in 1994], it was one of those “I told you so” moments. I knew it was gonna happen again. There’s a song that says, “Nashville is rough on the living, but she really speaks well of the dead.” Now that he’s a saint, I think what everybody understands is that at any point in his career, there’s something to study upon, something to be entertained by. How did you discover Clarence White and his music? After all, you own his vintage Fender Telecaster. —Claude Aubert His brother, Roland, is responsible for my whole career, basically. I befriended Roland on the bluegrass festival circuit when I was 12. He

was very kind to me; he gave me his autograph and his mandolin pick, and he showed me some stuff on the mandolin and gave me one of the scarves from one of the costumes he wore with Lester Flatt’s band. He simply made a comment one day: “Give me a call someday and I’ll see if Lester will let you ride along on the bus with us if your mom and dad agree.” I put his number in my billfold and I kept it there. When the time came, I used it, and Roland was true to his word. He invited me to Nashville, and Lester Flatt heard me play, and he offered me a job when I was 13. Until my mom and dad could get to Nashville, I lived at Roland’s house. The White family was my family. I found out about Clarence from Roland’s record collection. He had an incredible record collection, and I knew [Clarence and Roland] had had a band called the Kentucky Colonels, but there was this big stack of Byrds records. I said, “Are you really into the Byrds?” He said, “Well, my brother plays guitar with them.” And that’s how I found Clarence. You grew up in the world of bluegrass, gospel and country, but you also dug the Byrds and own Clarence’s Tele. In 1968, despite releasing a country album, the Byrds were seen as outsiders by the Nashville establishment. Do you think they’ve since come to be accepted as a legitimate part of country music history? —Butch Wyatt I think it’s undeniable. When you listen to contemporary country on the radio, you can almost trace it all back to Sweetheart of the Rodeo. In 1973, when I was in Lester Flatt’s band, we played this college showcase in Cincinnati. That was when universities all over America came to watch bands play; it was almost like you auditioned. When we played, it was Lester Flatt, Chick Corea and guitarworld.com

DEAR GUITAR HERO

YOU AND MIKE CAMPBELL ARE BIG-TIME GUITAR COLLECTORS. DID ANY OF HIS FAMOUS AXES WIND UP ON WAY —BRIAN CANCEMI OUT WEST? Mike’s home studio is like guitar heaven. When guitars die, they don’t go to heaven or hell. They go to Mike Campbell’s house. There were guitars, guitars, guitars, guitars. I think we went in there with an incredible array of guitars—there was a sitar and a 12-string that Mike had played on a lot of Tom Petty’s hits. The 12-string is on a song called “Time Don’t Wait.” So there were a couple of guest guitars courtesy of Mr. Mike Campbell.

Kool & the Gang. I thought, God, they’re gonna laugh us off the stage. But they didn’t. We encored nine times that night. The next day, our booking agent booked Lester on 74 college campuses—all from that one 45-minute set. One of the first shows we played was at Michigan State University, and the opening act was Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, then Lester Flatt played, then the Eagles played, because they were out touring Desperado. I had just been listening to Sweetheart of the Rodeo at Roland’s house, and that night [in 1973], it all came to life for me. I saw honky-tonk and folk and bluegrass and gospel and rock and roll collide very successfully. I thought, Man, that’s the way to live a musical life, right there. The Clarence White Tele is equipped with Gene Parsons’ original StringBender. Does that make it extra heavy? —Marta Maciel

It’s about like playing a banjo. These days, when I pick up a regular Telecaster, it feels too light. What pure rock and roll bands, if any, did you listen to when you were growing up? —Sylvester Marcus I loved the Rolling Stones. I heard a little bit of country music creeping around the edges of some of their songs. Being a Mississippi kid, I could feel they had done their homework, even when I was a little boy. I could feel the Delta blues influence in a lot of their work. I just thought the Stones were the most rag-tag wonderful rock and roll band ever. What advice do you have for unsolicited songwriters? —Sarah Mayall Follow your heart. Whatever frightens you the most, or whatever you think is the worst idea, go for it and deal with it. We don’t need anything else out there that’s

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already been said or sung, and we don’t need sound-alikes. We need fresh perspectives. We need a new Hank Williams, a new Jimmy Webb. We need new writers, a new Tom Petty. We need people that write what they feel and what they see—things that are relevant. Follow your heart at any cost. You own an impressive collection of historic musical instruments and artifacts. Which of your guitars has the most mojo and why? —Lennie Pike I’d say Pops Staples’ rosewood Telecaster, the one he played in The Last Waltz. Mavis and Yvonne Staples, Pops’ daughters, gave me that guitar. I’m telling you, that is a gospel instrument of light. It’s an Excalibur guitar. It has probably the best mojo you could ever ask for. Do you still buy guitars all the time? —Mack Rice When people start telling me about guitars, I stick my fingers in my ears and go, “La, la, la, la, la.” [laughs] I try really hard to not buy guitars. I sold a lot of them last year just to thin it down, and I got

it down to the collectible pile and the working pile. But as you know, every now and then one comes along that grabs your heart. I think the last guitar I bought was a collectible Martin for the archives. I had to have it. What do you hope your legacy will be when you’re gone—beyond the music? —Sharon Celani I don’t know; it’s a work in progress. There’s a museum trail in Mississippi. The spiritual home, in my opinion, is in Tupelo, with the birthplace of Elvis Presley. And there’s the wonderful B.B. King Museum [in Indianola] and the Grammy Museum in Cleveland, Mississippi. But in my hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi, there’s gonna be a place called Marty Stuart’s Congress of Country Music. It’s where my collection and archives will live. It’ll be a center for young people to come and study upon, and there’ll be a live performance space. Perhaps that’ll be a good place to rest the legacy. Also, I guess I was a musical warrior who fought for what he believed in and then passed it on to everybody else when he was done.

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Marty Stuart with the Fabulous Superlatives (from left), Kenny Vaughan, Harry Stinson and Chris Scruggs

NEWS + NOTES

Lukas Nelson THE SON OF WILLIE NELSON AND OCCASIONAL BANDMATE OF NEIL YOUNG SHOWS HIS SOLO STUFF ON THE NEW LUKAS NELSON & PROMISE OF THE REAL. By Alan Paul

LUKAS NELSON IS one of the most exciting voices to emerge in recent years, a true triple threat as a singer, songwriter and guitarist, as captured on the new self-titled album by his band Promise of the Real. At 28, he’s been on the road with his father Willie Nelson for half his life. But Lukas and his POTR fully came into their own onstage with another icon—recording and touring with Neil Young off and on over the last two years. “Playing with Neil is like being in a

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master class with one of your favorite musicians,” says Nelson. “It’s a transcendent feeling that’s almost indescribable.” Words don’t usually fail Nelson, who is a thoughtful, deep songwriter. He’s softspoken and chill, as you would expect of a Nelson offspring raised on the beach in Hawaii. Onstage, though, Nelson is a magnetic, athletic presence, with a physicality that transfers into his lead guitar work, playing with a slashing abandon that echoes surf, blues and country rock.

With Young, Nelson plays a Strat, but in Promise of the Real, he favors a 1956 Les Paul Junior, wrangling great, varied tones out of the single-pickup instrument. “I just love the sound and the way it takes some finesse to change tones,” he says. “If you play lighter it sounds like a neck pickup and if you play harder it sounds like a bridge. It’s all in your hands.” Vocally, Nelson bears a strong resemblance to his father, especially on mellower numbers. Willie pops up for a solo on “Just Outside of Austin,” along with Lukas’ aunt Bobbie, who has been her brother’s piano player for decades. Lukas is clearly not running from the family connection, and why should he? “Being Willie Nelson’s son has been nothing but a blessing in my life,” he says. “I wouldn’t trade him for any other dad in the world—whether he was famous or not.”

JOEY MARTINEZ

Lukas Nelson with his 1956 Gibson Les Paul Junior

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r o n o H y t e i c So From left, the Magpie Saluteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Marc Ford, Rich Robinson and John Hogg

STORY BY ALAN PAUL GUITAR WORLD PAGE 33

r o n Ho y t e i c o S R AS

THE MAGPIE SALUTE

EMERGE AS THE NEW DARLINGS OF THE BLUES-ROCK SCENE, FORMER BLACK CROWES GUITARISTS

RICH ROBINSON AND MARC FORD

DISCUSS THE IMPORTANCE OF HONORING THEIR MUSICAL PASTS AS MUCH AS LOOKING TO THE FUTURE.

ich Robinson wanted to do something special for the three studio sessions he performed last summer in front of live audiences in Woodstock, New York, to promote his solo album, Flux. Something that would reward fans of the Black Crowes who had stuck with him while also scratching a decade-long itch of his own: he wanted to play for the first time in a decade with two longtime Crowes members, guitarist Marc Ford and keyboardist Ed Harsch. With bassist Sven Pipien already in his band, the sessions represented a four-man Black Crowes reunion. “I knew it would be a treat for the fans, but also for me because I’ve always loved just listening to Ed and Marc play off of anything I played,” says Robinson. “As expected, it was an absolute pleasure. We all felt something lift, something special happening,

and the audience felt it, too. Afterward, Eddie said, ‘We really have to make this happen.’ I went back on tour and started thinking about how to keep it going—and how to take it further.” The result was the formation of a new band, the Magpie Salute,

THE MAGPIE SALUTE

which debuted last January with four shows in New York, followed by four more in London in April. The Magpie Salute picked up the mantle of the Black Crowes, who have not performed together since 2013 and who failed to reunite for a discussed 25th anniversary tour in 2015 after more feuding between Rich and his brother, singer Chris Robinson. The Magpie Salute have now released a self-titled debut, consisting of seven covers, including songs by Bob Marley, Delaney & Bonnie, Pink Floyd, the Faces, and the Band, and two Black Crowes tunes, “Wiser Time” and “What Is Home.” There is one new song, “Omission,” co-written by Robinson and John Hogg, which was the only track not from the Woodstock sessions. Hogg, a British singer who fronted Robinson’s band Hookah Brown in 2003, also overdubbed vocal tracks on several songs. The group is currently in the midst of a full tour, with shows planned into October. “There was excitement from the first note, but there was a piece missing; we needed John, who I always felt a kinship with, both personal and creative,” says Robinson. “When he came in and we decided to start really touring, I thought it would be nice to have a record out to represent us, and I realized we had it!” Sadly, Harsch never performed with the Magpie Salute, though he was at the heart of the idea. He died in November, two months before the group’s debut. “Ed was so excited and we were talking twice a day,” says Robinson. “Then I got a call that he was in a coma, and it was hard to process.” For many Black Crowes fans, the real news is the reunion of Robinson and Ford, who played together from 1992–97 and again briefly in 2005-06. Most fans consider the Robinson/Ford team to have been not only the band’s peak but one of the top modern blues-rock guitar duos, up there with the Allman Brothers Band’s Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks. It is thrilling to hear Robinson and Ford once again trading riffs and playing off one each other, now supplemented by Argentinian guitarist Nico Bereciartua. The rest of the band includes Pipien, drummer Joe Magistro, new keyboardist Michael Bellar and three other singers, including Charity White, who performed with the Crowes for years. Struggles with addiction forced Ford out of the band in 1997, and he seems genuinely thrilled to have another opportunity to play with Robinson and return to the indelible music they created together. “The whole experience is incredible,” says Ford. “When Rich called me, I had no

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ambition other than playing music with him. Getting back together and making up was the most important part. The music is easy. We can always do that. I just went to jam and it was an amazing time and it’s led to so much more than I ever anticipated.” A lot of people seem to think you all made a very calculated decision to plunge back into the Black Crowes catalog, but that really doesn’t seem to be the case. RICH ROBINSON This band came about in a

very organic way. The more I play, the more I realize what an amazing gift it is to have such an easy relationship and deep connection to musicians where I play something and just anticipate loving what I hear coming back at me. We all just wanted to explore that more. MARC FORD When I heard Rich wanted me to come to some type of jam, I said, “Whatever it is, yes!” I just never thought we were finished. It seems like the music created when we’re together is really powerful. It’s like we have a job to do. This music wants us involved. So this record is amazing to me. I got a copy and put it in my car and I had to pull over and sit and listen because I was weeping so hard: “Holy shit, this is a real band.” To have a chance to do it again— and to have it not be a jive trip about money, but an organic outgrowth—well, it’s really intense. It all grew out of an incredible weekend of jamming with no agenda. John Hogg wasn’t part of that weekend. Was having him overdub vocals for the album a hard decision? ROBINSON No. It wouldn’t have repre-

sented Magpie without John singing. We didn’t think we were going to make a record, but this was there, and it sounded great and it included Ed’s final performances and was an opportunity to let people know what we sound like. Then I realized that I had this song “Omission” that I really like, that John and I wrote for Hookah Brown. I had recorded a demo for Paper and just thought we should try to finish it while we were all together in the studio. I thought it was a great stepping stone for this band to record some original music. FORD Adding John only adds. Rich had already done an amazing job of editing really long jams into the songs you hear. That’s how it goes with live albums and it’s fine. This was simply: Let’s make a record that shows people where we are coming from and keep us moving until we have more original material. It was very practical and the album happens to tell a beautiful, powerful story about the formation of a band.

Will you guys be producing more original music?

ROBINSON Definitely. I want to make a

double album at the beginning of next year of original music written by me, Marc and John. I already sent them 15–20 ideas to get started but we’re also learning about 150 songs for the tour and everyone’s doing their homework. I know them all, so I have the easy part! Once we get on tour things will settle down. Our whole goal is to be a band and move forward, to honor the past, honor the Crowes and our solo material, honor the bands we loved growing up and explore where we are going from here.

Is that a challenge when the fan base wants to hear the Crowes catalog and you play it so well?

ROBINSON No, because we’re never going

to ignore the catalog even as we move forward—and I love the possibilities of what this band can do. When I got in a band it was because of how music made me feel and what it taught me: how to look at the world and humanity in a different way. Music has given me tremendous gifts: to travel, see the world, play with the Stones, Page, Neil Young, Bob Dylan… I always only wanted to try and make people feel the way those heroes made me feel. If people felt the way I felt about Exile

on Main St. when they listen to Southern Harmony, that’s an amazing thing. People loved the Crowes and those songs and I’ll always honor that, and I’m also really proud of the music, which is a huge swath of my life’s work. I’m proud of what we accomplished, not from a success standpoint, but that we were a great band, who made great records that people were moved by. When we played “Wiser Time” in Woodstock I could feel that the audience thought they might never hear this song again live, and when Eddie played his solo they all thought, I’ve been waiting to hear this since 2006! FORD “Wiser Time” has become the epitome of us playing together. That was

The full ranks of

the high point, the Magpie Salute photographed the “there it is” in early 2017 at moment. I didn’t Cooper Lake near get into this gig or Woodstock, New York this life to put on a show. I’m a musician. I love making music and I love when the audience is involved in its creation, which sure is a lot more fun and it sustains your ability to keep doing it. I want it to be interesting for me every night. If I’m bored, I’m not going to make anything that interests you. We always keep ourselves on our toes. There’s no fun in trying to be perfect. You can hear it all on this song, along with an incredible solo by Ed.

guitarworld.com

THE MAGPIE SALUTE

“THE ALBUM HAPPENS TO TELL A BEAUTIFUL, POWERFUL STORY ABOUT THE FORMATION OF A BAND.”

—MARC FORD

ROBINSON John came in and had a month

to learn 85 songs because we played a different set every night in New York. A guitar player learns a part; a singer has to learn melody, pitch, lyrics and think about how he’s phrasing and developing a lyric. And John has to figure out how to tackle Chris’ vocals, which could be a lot of pressure. ROBINSON Yes, but the guy is incredibly

talented and he’s bringing himself to the material while also honoring the songs. It’s actually very similar to what Chris did when we played Led Zeppelin music with Jimmy Page; he honored the songs but didn’t try to sound like Robert Plant. John is not mimicking Chris, and as he gets more and more comfortable with the catalog he will stake out his own approach even more. How quickly did your playing together fall back into place? ROBINSON Immediately. There wasn’t any

It’s so sad that Ed died before Magpie properly started, but it’s also beautiful that you guys got to play together again.

ROBINSON Yes! Ed played so well, and I’ve

never seen anyone more excited or happier. It was almost like he was waiting to get all that out so he could leave. FORD Eddie’s last recordings rightfully were with us. His solo on “Wiser Time” is just outstanding. We’re all going to go and it doesn’t surprise me that Ed is gone now. And damn, what if we didn’t have that? I got a weekend in a cabin, just me and him, and it was amazing. Do you guys work out parts or just play?

ROBINSON We just play! I’ve never written

in any kind of conventional way. I taught myself to play and I write by the measure not the count. Since the first time I met Ed, Sven and Marc, I just feel like they got it. I

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Marc Ford with his Asher Guitars Electro Sonic

love what they would bring to my songs. Marc is such a deep and talented guitar player. Some guys can play a million notes and I can give a shit about them. Now think about Marc’s solo in “Sometimes Salvation,” where he hits a note and holds it and wrings so much emotion out of it. It was just fantastic to hear that coming from him again. FORD Our playing together is instinctual. That relationship was just there as soon as we played again and now we’re developing it as a band beyond the two of us. We’re 13 days old at this point—that’s how many shows and rehearsals we’ve played—and I’m just starting to find where we can all sit, because every time we play together it gets better and more natural. I don’t think we’ve had enough time to gel to the point where no one has to worry about it.

adjustment. Marc arrived late because of plane problems, so we had zero time to even sit and talk or go over parts. He walked up and it was just there. People come and go, and the Crowes lost way too many members for no reason. You spend a lot of time on the bus and backstage with these people and develop very intense and unique relationships and it’s just weird to cut that off and never go back. FORD There was no planning or getting ready. It was going to work or it wasn’t and that took a lot of courage for Rich. He had no idea how I was going to show up or what was going to happen. It’s interesting to realize how much we defined each other. For years I didn’t hear or play a Black Crowes song or think about a Robinson brother, but my style was built in the furnace of that insanity, and Rich’s was, too. So when we come together, we’re just better. At the time, we were scared to death trying to survive and were forced into figuring things out, and that’s the way we’ll always play. What we play makes sense apart but it makes so much more sense together. It’s like, “I’m finally home.” That’s a powerful feeling; it’s what makes you you. Rich and I play together so well because we

THE MAGPIE SALUTE

can’t play with anyone else! Sven, Joe and Ed all have the same relationship with Rich, so we all fell into it with one another immediately. This isn’t the Black Crowes. We do a bunch of the songs because Rich wrote them and they’re great songs, which we want people to hear, but we are a different entity and that will be more and more clear as we progress. ROBINSON The difference now is we can develop a relationship without a big filter between us in the form of my brother. He’s hilarious and talented and brilliant, but when people would come around the Crowes they would come in with a preconceived notion of me from what Chris had told them and it probably wasn’t flattering— and Chris brought Marc into the band. FORD Chris is a big personality. He’s incredibly talented and gifted and has charisma for days. So we were all in his orbit. He was the driving force and the reason that we all knew each other. Chris was the one who went out and made the relationships with people. I had a relationship with him before Rich. Musically, Rich and I developed this incredible relationship but now we get to actually see what all that’s made of, without that in-between person there. Brothers are brothers. If two guys are at odds, you have to choose. I interviewed Chris recently and he seems very happy and in a good place, and so do you, Rich. Is it just better for everyone this way, with each of you following your own musical visions and paths? ROBINSO N Yes. I absolutely think it’s bet-

ter this way. All of us can feel the difference and it’s amazing. It’s imperative that we maintain positivity. There’s no more time for the negative horseshit and drama that surrounded the Black Crowes, and Chris

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The Magpie Salute’s John Hogg, Joe Magistro, Rich Robinson and Matt Slocum

was often the cause of it, but it was just how everything operated. FORD There was a lot of conflict, which I believe Chris thrives on—so it always had to be there. Now it’s gone and everyone gets to have a minute. ROBINSON To be in this band and play this music with these amazing musicians without all that drama is unbelievable—and the music is still just as good. Some people think great music comes from strife; well, we’ve all been through enough strife to draw on. We don’t need it in our daily lives. Rich, you have sons. They are brothers. Has your relationship with Chris impacted your parenting at all?

ROBINSON I have five boys. Three of them

are under the age of seven and my older two are grown up. We try to teach our kids to get along, that family is important and to support their brothers, but I realize they come to the earth the way they are and ultimately they’re their own people. When I look at whatever Chris and my relationship became, I don’t see anything that I could have done differently to help it, other than to give up who I am and go along with everything he wanted. I remember times where we were close and it sucks to not have that, but there were way more times we were at odds and fighting over petty bullshit that didn’t need to happen. Why do you have a third guitar player with Nico? Does it change the way you two play together? ROBINSON It was more just inclusion

instead of exclusion. Nico was the guitar player in my solo band and I didn’t want to say, “Marc’s here. Fuck off.” And it’s

worked out very well. He’s going to start playing some lap steel and mandolin, to be more of a utility player. He plays great slide and is very smart in his approach. He never overplays and he’s always there to support. FORD He’s an amazing musician with great ears and he knows all of our parts better than we do, so he floats in between us, finishes the things we forget. He allows me to go where I’m instinctually going and make it all sound better. It was humbling to learn that Nico’s dream was to play with me and Rich, and here he is. ROBINSON The way we met is pretty amazing. He sent me a video of himself playing one of my solo songs really well and I sent him a note thanking him. He was going to be at the Peach Festival when we played and wanted to meet. He seemed like a nice, cool, positive person so I invited him backstage and it felt like he was one of us already. Why is Steve Gorman not in this band?

ROBINSON I called Steve and wanted him

and Joe to play together. He said he was into it but he had to make sure of some scheduling issues; his radio show was getting re-upped and he said he couldn’t commit. Ultimately he couldn’t do it. Marc, walking away from the Crowes must have been a very hard decision and it seems you felt you had to do it to survive and stay sober. That must make this opportunity all the more special.

FORD Absolutely! It’s part of the reason I pulled the car over and cried. I made decisions for the right reasons and put in a hell of a lot of work. For me and Rich to go, “Let’s forget it all and just play together” and instantaneously find ourselves right back to where it was, where it was supposed to be, playing music with an unfearful attitude and complete collaboration, it’s just incredible. We’ve all experienced life making music together and not doing so, and we prefer to have it. It’s not about us; the music we make is bigger than us. ROBINSON When I would do a Crowes song with my solo band I could see the relief on people’s faces. They were there to support me and I understood it was because of the Crowes, who have always had incredibly supportive fans. There’s something incredible about that, now more than ever with so much of music falling by the wayside, going the way of movie theaters and major network television. The world’s changing, there’s a lot more to choose from and people tune out a lot, so I have reverence for the people who show up for my shows. To honor them, I’m going to play this music they want to hear. It’s all an honor.

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ROBERT HOULD

Warrior onstage at the World War III concert in Montreal on November 30, 1985

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FROM THE

AS A HANDFUL OF CLASSIC C E LT I C FROST FROST CELTIC A L B U M S , I N C L U D I N G MORBID TALES A N D TO MEGA THERION , G E T T H E DE L U X E R E I S S U E T R EAT M E N T, F R O N T M A N T H O M A S G A B R I E L F I S C H E R L O O K S B AC K O N T H E P I O N E E R I N G D E AT H M E TA L B A N D â&#x20AC;&#x2122;S M U S I C A L T R I U M P H S A N D T R AG E D I E S .

by Dan Epstein

guitarworld.com

Celtic Frost in the Eighties (from left): Tom G. Warrior, Reed St. Mark and Martin Eric Ain

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were too young and too involved to see the greater context of anything,” reflects Triptykon frontman Thomas Gabriel Fischer, looking back on his days with Swiss metal legends Celtic Frost. “We didn’t really think of creating anything pioneering or modern.” And yet, pioneering they were. Under the name Tom G. Warrior, the guitarist and singer left a lasting scar on the metal landscape, leading Celtic Frost through five albums between 1984 and 1990 before the band finally crashed and burned. (A reunion album, Monotheist, would be released in 2006.) Despite the indifference—or in some cases, outright antipathy—of the mainstream music biz, Celtic Frost won a devoted worldwide following with their dark, experimental and extremely personal aesthetic. Their music continues to influence extreme metal practitioners to this day, even though Fischer happily admits that he’s not a shredder in the classic sense. “My entire career is based on expressing my personality through my guitar, but certainly not on being a technically proficient guitar player,” he says. “It is a completely different approach to guitar playing. I stood there as the young Tom Warrior, with these raging feelings inside of me, of having been an outcast, having experienced violence, having experienced a difficult youth, being completely ignored by the Swiss scene at the time, all of these things—I stood there in our stinky rehearsal room in front of my Marshall, trying to express these feelings. I was standing there on my own, trying to figure it out, learning step by step how to do this feedback, how to do this tone, how to express what was inside of me. So that’s a completely different approach than if I’d paid somebody 50 bucks to teach me for two hours where to find these notes, you know?”

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Now in the midst of working on the follow-up to 2014’s Melana Chasmata, Triptykon’s acclaimed second album. Fischer graciously took some time out to talk with Guitar World about four of Celtic Frost’s original albums—1984’s Morbid Tales, 1985’s To Mega Therion, 1987’s Into the Pandemonium and 1990’s Vanity/Nemesis—which have recently been reissued in deluxe CD and vinyl editions by BMG/Noise. (1988’s Cold Lake, the band’s notorious glam-metal misstep, was pointedly excluded from the reissue campaign.) “These albums are all deeply flawed,” says Fischer. “But looking back at them now, I think that’s exactly what makes them so unique. They’re not perfect, run-of-the-mill products…they are experimental albums, and in many aspects they fail; but in a way, that’s a part of it. We were exploring things, and if you explore things, you sometimes have to take the risk of failing. And of course, Celtic Frost failed many times, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I think I learned as much from the failures as I learned from the successes, and it would be way too simplistic and too pretentious for me to just look at the good sides.”

Morbid Tales (1984)

Though it’s now hailed as one of the most important and groundbreaking extreme metal albums of the Eighties, Fischer says that Morbid Tales was primarily driven by a desire to survive the failure of Hellhammer, he and bassist Martin Ain’s previous band. While you can hear the influence of Motörhead, Discharge and Venom on thrashy tracks like “Into the Crypts of Rays” and “Procreation (Of the Wicked),” the female vocals of “Return to the Eve” and the eerie noise collage “Danse Macabre” pointed to broader musical aspirations.

“Our only official record at the time, the Hellhammer EP, was criticized heavily by the record company and by the press of the day as being a muddy production, limited technical capabilities, and so on,” Fischer recalls. “With the ears of the time, at a time when bands strove to have vocalists like Ronnie James Dio, we agreed with these criticisms—we could see where they were coming from. So we abandoned Hellhammer, and we created a new band and recorded Morbid Tales in an attempt to not be dropped by the record company. The album was deeply, deeply personal, and actually a very desperate undertaking, where we put every ounce of our energy into something, because we could only see up to that album; we didn’t have a horizon beyond that. Because we really didn’t know whether we could pull it off… “We had spent years in a mildewed, wet, stinky, underground rehearsal room—an old bunker—dreaming of attaining a record deal, being fanatical metal fans, literally playing every single day, much more than any other Swiss band that we knew. And then we had attained a record deal, which was the fulfillment of our teenage dreams, and of course we wanted to keep that. We knew our first record with Hellhammer was flawed, and we wanted to show that we were not blind, and that we could actually progress as musicians. And we were desperate not to end back up in that rehearsal room without a record deal. And I think you can hear that fervent energy, that desperation, that determination, that energy in Morbid Tales.”

To Mega Therion (1985)

Recorded less than a year after Morbid Tales, To Mega Therion was a tremendously ambitious leap forward for Celtic Frost. The intense dynamics of tracks like “Innocence and Wrath,” “Dawn of Megiddo” and “Necromantical Screams” not only benefitted from the addition of American drummer Reed St. Mark, but they also took the thenunusual (and controversial) step of adding orchestral instruments— in this case, French horn—to the mix. “We refused to limit ourselves, to be censored,” says Fischer. “We left the ordinary society, grew our hair, dressed differently and played music that everybody hated exactly because we didn’t want to be limited. We hated these mechanisms in society where idiots tell you what to do—and then, as soon as you are in a metal band, you are being told what to do? No, not Celtic Frost. I had listened to Emerson, Lake and Palmer or Deep Purple in concert, or early Roxy Music, and I loved the combination of classical instruments with rock music. And I was wondering if we could combine that with extreme metal, and that’s why we did this—even though some people said, ‘You cannot do that, you should not do that, it’s wimpy, blah blah blah.’ Even back then, we simply refused to be contained… “When you look at it nowadays, I myself am shocked about the timeline—the brief intervals between these individual releases.

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Warrior during the To Mega Therion photo shoot in Zurich, Switzerland, in September 1985

When we were really young, time seemed to pass much more slowly, and we thought there was an eternity between these recording sessions and albums. But in reality, this all happened incredibly quickly, considering that the very first Hellhammer demo was recorded in June ’83, and a little more than two years later we did To Mega Therion. It’s incomprehensible to me now. But the only explanation that I have is that we were truly extreme; we didn’t just talk about being extreme, or try to appear extreme in photos—we really were extreme. We were absolutely fantatical, and we lived and breathed this music and lifestyle. There was nothing fake about it.”

Into the Pandemonium (1987)

On their first self-produced album, Celtic Frost pushed further into symphonic metal territory, while also cementing their avant-garde reputation by adding industrial and gothic elements to the mix—and making the ballsy and completely unexpected move of opening the album with a cover of Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio.” “Martin and I were fanatical metalheads” Fischer explains. “But at the same time, we loved music. Martin came as a huge fan of what was then called new wave—bands such as Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, what have you. I loved that music, too, and in addition I loved jazz music, I loved classical

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music, I loved experimental rock music, and so on. And when the two of us combined all this, and then we found a drummer like Reed St. Mark, who also came from a jazz background, a Latino background, and so on—the creativity in the band was limitless. And we wanted to use that! “But when it came to the Into the Pandemonium album, the record company actively tried to prevent us from doing this. They threatened to shut down the production, and they told us literally to record an album like Slayer or Exodus. They said,

‘That’s what’s selling. What you’re doing will not sell a single copy!’ Nowadays, every metal band has worked with classical instruments, with female singers; there’s tons of gothic metal bands, it’s a household thing. Back then, it was completely unheard of, and everybody tried to stop us. Nobody could see the merit in it. And also, we didn’t only have to fight objections; we also had to fight inexperience. The engineers had only recorded thrash metal, bands like Sodom or Destruction; they didn’t have any experience in how to

record a horn or cello. So it was experimentation every step of the way, and it was the overcoming of all kinds of obstacles every step of the way. It wasn’t very easy to create these albums, but I think that, too, adds to the reality, the desperation, and the emotions you hear on the albums.”

Vanity/Nemesis (1990) Celtic Frost’s final album before their breakup, Vanity/Nemesis was an attempt to pick up the creative thread that they’d dropped following Into the Pandemonium. Produced by electronic/industrial whiz Roli Mosimann, the album contains some deeply affecting moments, like “Wings of Solitude” and a cover of Bryan Ferry’s “This Island Earth,” though it lacks the overall sense of vision and drive that had powered the first three Celtic Frost LPs. “It was too little, too late,” Fischer reflects. “To be honest, in my opinion nowadays, I think the band was shot. Vanity/Nemesis, it’s just a generic metal album. I guess after Cold Lake, we were scared of doing any more experiments. We had done four albums of sometimes radical experiments; three times it had worked, and one time we fell flat on our faces—and rightly so, of course. But that left us basically impotent; the essence of Celtic Frost—namely, being daring—was completely gone, and the band chemistry was gone. We still tried to record an album, and at the end we thought we had done a commendable job. Now I think it’s a failure of an album. It’s better than Cold Lake, but then so is a toilet at a music festival! [laughs] “The first three Celtic Frost albums sound according to their time—they’re mid-Eighties extreme metal albums—but you don’t listen to them and think, Oh, they sound old. For some reason, they’ve aged very well. But you listen to Vanity/Nemesis, and you can hear that it is also a product of its time, but to me it sounds outdated and tired. To me, that’s the huge difference. And that, to me, shows that the band had completely lost the plot, as it had on the album before it, of course. If I had been the person that I am now, I would have ended things one and a half years earlier. But live and learn, I guess.” Kyle Shutt of The Sword knows you can’t be an original if you’re playing what everyone else is. Visit reverendguitars.com to start your journey.

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STONE ON THEIR SEVENTH ALBUM, VILLAINS, JOSH HOMME AND QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE PUT ON THEIR BOOGIE SHOES, SHAKE UP THEIR SOUND AND SHOUT AT THE DEVIL.

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From left, Troy Van Leeuwen, Josh Homme and Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age

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WHEN IT WAS announced that Villains, the new album by Queens of the Stone Age, was going to be produced by pop renaissance man Mark Ronson (Adele, Bruno Mars), logic dictated that he would chisel away at the band’s quirky edges. Queens guitarist and chief conceptualist, Josh Homme, dismisses the notion with a wave of his hand. “There’s this perception that there’s no musical overlap between us and Mark, but, in reality, there’s a stunning amount. We wanted this album to be tight like an early ZZ Top record, and he is so beat-centric, we knew he would help us keep the rhythm section tight and dense.” Homme’s instincts proved to be correct. Far from being a soulless slice of modern pop product, Villains is infused with an almost old fashioned sense of rock and roll exuberance and devilish mischief. The fierce robot boogie of the album’s inescapable first single, “The Way You Used to Do,” captures the overall spirit of the album, which manages to reference oldies but goodies like Chuck Berry and Little Richard while still sounding fresh, funky and futuristic. “I was watching this wild footage of Jerry Lee Lewis from one of his first performances on television during the early Fifties, and he was really putting on a show,” says Homme. “He was going into fits and the shakes while he was singing and playing the piano, and basically encouraging the audience to do the

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same. The kids were totally losing it. Early rockers like Jerry, Elvis and Little Richard were so radical for their time, I could just imagine parents saying, ‘These guys are villains—this has to stop!’ “That is the punk rock infiltration that I’ve always desired. I have no interest in fitting in or playing nice. My interest is in when you’re revolting against your parents—or if you’re just plain revolting and a sick individual—you come to me.” Rock and roll subversion is rarely accomplished alone, and Homme has amassed a pretty impressive team of henchmen to help him on his mission. It’s not an overstatement to say Queens of the Stone Age features three of the most creative guitarists in rock music. In addition to the innovative frontman, the current lineup includes Troy Van Leeuwen, a respected session musician who also moonlights with Tool’s Maynard Keenan in A Perfect Circle, and Dean Fertita who plays with Jack White in the Dead Weather (see sidebar). So, how do the three make room for all the side projects and still stay focused on the mothership? “I think the way you live your life has such a massive impact on how long you do your art,” says Homme. “I’ve really staked everything on the fact that music is my religion and my philosophy. It’s how I explain myself when it’s difficult, it’s how I teach my kids, and how I live. I want the guys that are in Queens to unequivocally understand we’re here because we want to be, not because we need to be. So, everyone is encouraged to go do other things, and pick up as much knowledge as they can, so they can bring it home so we can pick through it and get inspired.” As you will see, there is plenty in Villains to get inspired about. The trio brings a whole new bag of guitar licks and sonic strategies to the band’s already super distinctive sound. In the past, Homme has been reluctant to talk specifics about his sound. But clearly a new spirit of openness pervades his music, and during our conversation, he decided to share a few of his most interesting and provocative ideas. I really enjoyed the almost uplifting rock and roll attitude on Villains. It’s “let’s have some fun and break some rules,” as opposed to “fuck you, I’m gonna go and shoot some smack.” JOSH HOMME I like the idea of putting an

accelerant on somebody who is thinking, This is who I really wish I was, and this is what I really want to do. Saying “fuck you” is lame and boring. That’s uniting over what you don’t like. It’s too easy, and I have no interest in that.

things. On a very fundamental level, whatever bothers a lot of people is a really great place to start, especially if you do it with a nod and a wink. I think for me, that devil is about cutting loose. Life is too short to let fear drive. Now is all you’re ever going to get. Are you a realist or an optimist?

Both. The realist has a bit of disdain for humanity. The optimistic side, however, believes in truth, to strive for something, to have a faith, and my faith is in rock and roll. My religion is in rock and roll. That’s how I question rules, and that’s how I say: you should think for yourself. That’s how I say: if you don’t make your own plans, you’re part of somebody else’s, and I simply refuse to do that. Defiance looks beautiful no matter who wears it. Speaking of defiance, you recently recorded an album with Iggy Pop, one of the ultimate rock rebels. What was that like?

Doing Iggy’s record, Post Pop Depression, was the single coolest thing I’ve ever been allowed to be part of. It was a total recharge. It left me feeling like, “Let’s go get ’em, boys!” I love Iggy so much because I really try my best to live in the third truth—you know, yours, mine and what actually happened. I think Iggy has been living in the third truth his entire life. He wrote this thing for me about what happened during the recording of his solo albums with David Bowie, The Idiot and Lust for Life, and it was so beautifully written because it was completely honest. You just read it and you go, “He never tries to take credit for anything that isn’t his. Nor is he trying to doll up what he did do.” It was just very matter of fact.

“I HAVE NO INTEREST IN FITTING IN OR PLAYING NICE.” —JOSH HOMME For me, playing music is an escapism worth its weight in gold, and trying to do it in an artful manner is totally everything, man. My grandpa used to always say, if you can’t outsmart them, out-dumb them, and I feel like my calling is to out-stupid everybody. That’s a good calling! On the cover of the album I noticed the devil is sitting next to you. He’s covering your eyes, but you’re seeing right through him.

Yeah, man. Everyone feels like they’ve got the devil on their back, or everyone is worried about the devil. But what if that’s your good buddy? One of the roles of the devil is to go against the grain, which is essential to good rock and roll.

Totally. I think I’ve always felt like if everyone is doing it, how good could it be? There’s only a few instances of things that we all agree on, like Coca-Cola, and maybe like, two other

Let’s talk some guitar. You regularly express your admiration for loose punk rock bands like Black Flag, the Cramps or the Stooges, but your signature sound is often this super tight, sort of buttoned-down thing. Is there a dichotomy there?

No, I don’t think so, because the lesson of punk rock is to do your own thing. If I’m influenced by Black Flag’s Greg Ginn, it’s not to be Greg Ginn. It’s to find who I am in this grand experiment of life. I’ve always had this un-supply, unguitarworld.com

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Josh Homme with his custom-made nine-string Echopark Esperanto Z

demand theory. If I see a repetition of something out there, I just presuppose we don’t need more of that, so I think I’ve always tried to shoot the gap. I’ve always tried to play what I don’t hear. When did you decide that you were going to try to make a unique statement on the guitar?

I must have been around 13. When I started Sons of Kyuss, my band before Kyuss, we wore our influences on our sleeves and we kind of sounded like other bands, as you do when you’re young. There was a little blowback from that. I think the sting of being embarrassed about imitating somebody at that early age was so powerful, I remember saying, “Never again will somebody say that we sound like somebody else.” That’s interesting. Usually, when you’re that young, people ask you to cover other bands.

Well, I was fortunate that my little community demanded something unique. It had nothing to do with me. It already existed when I showed up. We lived in Palm Desert, California, and played these outdoor shows powered by a generator that was owned by a guy named Mario Lalli. It was a real DIY environment. And Mario, who we called “Boomer,” in a nice way would just encourage all the bands to find their own voice. Just like any recipe, that little sprinkle really germinated this attitude of: you must sound like yourself or who do you sound like? Who are you? There were no clubs to play and, in a way, it was incredibly fortunate, because there was no pressure to play Top 40 music and no money to be made. Honestly, there wasn’t even a way to get out. There were about a thousand windmills at the entrance to the valley I lived in, and it always seemed like we were trapped behind an iron curtain. No way in, no way out—just these spinning blades. So, I never thought I was going to get out. The fact that I’m still doing this is kind of a mystery, but I do attribute the reason I’m still here is that drive to try to find yourself over and over and over. I never wanted anyone to ever say I sounded like someone else ever again, and that was that. It was as if it was the simplest thing in the world. I struggled to find my voice, but I believed I would accomplish that goal. I never questioned it, and I’m thankful. However, I would not have gotten there on my own without the encouragement of the locals. Before you were in Queens of the Stone Age, you were in Kyuss, who were very influential in the early Nineties. Can you tell me about some of your early guitar experiments in Kyuss?

When Kyuss first formed, there were very few people experimenting with detuning. Back in 1988 or 1989, there was nobody tuning down to B and C like I was—I challenge you to find someone else. I thought it was a good first step toward creating a unique sound. I saw an

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“ROCK AND ROLL SHOULD DANCE. DANCING IS LIKE SAYING, ‘I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU THINK, I’M DOING THIS.’ ” absence—an un-supply un-demand. Part of it was that I didn’t have a tuner, so I started asking myself, how low can you go? There are times when I’m drunk, I wonder how much of this detuning business I’m responsible for. I think it’s more than I realize, but a lot of it is not that great, so maybe it’s not the kind of credit I should be looking for. [laughs] I also used the neck pickup exclusively in Kyuss. I never used the treble pickup, because I thought in the singularity of doing the same thing over and over I would find myself. What’s funny is, I’m using my Kyuss heads on tour with Queens right now, just to change up my shit. It’s funny to go full circle after so many years. The same Ampeg heads that I used when I was 15 still work and sound great! I mean, I guess there’s no reason they shouldn’t. Playing through Ampeg heads was another interesting choice.

The first amp I ever bought was an Ampeg VT40. They don’t make ’em like that anymore. All that Ampeg stuff is very special. But when it was time not to be in Kyuss, I pretty much left that sound behind. So we’ve established that you’re a pretty conceptual guy when it comes to your gear. When you started recording Villains, was there something new that you wanted to do or accomplish with your sound?

For years I kept most of my recording techniques a secret, and for some reason, I feel like all of that doesn’t matter now. I didn’t want to take somebody’s journey away by telling them what I did. But everyone has their own secrets in their world, and it’s also cool to share some of them. I’m just going to kind of unload what I did on this record. This is our seventh record, and I decided it was time to burn some of the ideas that became so closely associated with our sound. On past albums, I really explored using dirty reverbs and mid-range sounds almost to a point of obsession. Looking for ways to get width, and using the darker side of the guitar’s mid-range was not an area people were paying much attention to, so it really appealed to me. I also secretly used solid-state amps in the studio, because I liked the sound of that fast electricity. To my ears, solid state amps just sound like they are charged with electricity. On this album, I changed my entire approach and decided to experiment extensively with recording many of our guitar parts

directly into the board. I wanted the sound of the guitars to be completely vacuous, so that you could hear exactly where the note stopped. Not just where it started, but where it stopped. I think one of the cues I took was from listening to the old Stooges albums. You can turn them up to 10 on your stereo, and they’ll still sound great because the guitars are not so big that they eat up all the real estate in your stereo and your speakers. I wanted to make something that you could crank the piss out of and it would still sound fantastic. Now, I’d be willing to bet in that first song, “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now,” that you turned it up in the beginning when all those ambient guitar sounds come in. I kept them quiet on purpose. It’s a dirty trick, because I wanted to lure the listener to turn up their stereo, so when the rhythm guitars finally kick in, it’s so tight and dense it will knock you back, but still sound amazing. It’s interesting that more players don’t explore the joys of DI (direct input) recording. Some of the greatest—and largest—recorded guitar sounds of all-time were DI. Neil Young’s guitar on “Cinnamon Girl” and Jimmy Page’s guitars on Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” are great examples.

Yes. It really gets interesting, especially when you pair that DI tonality with a room amp. The combination is like having the tip of a spear almost poking you in the eye, while the back end is on the other side of the room. I’ll add that I love a good room sound as opposed to reverb, because reverb goes and goes and goes until it dissipates, but room sound is like saying: the box we play in is this size. It’s finite. When I listen back to our tracks, I always have this picture of what the room size was. You blow smoke in the air and you see the clear walls of this box that things were put in. Does that make sense? Yeah, most of my favorite albums, like the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. and Led Zeppelin IV, were recorded in interesting spaces. I think part of the reason I like them is because the sound describes the complexity of the rooms they were recorded in.

I know that the most important thing to me over the last 10 years has been depth of field. I mean, I certainly use left and right, of course, and this record is extremely hard-panned much of the time. But depth of field is way more important, because I like that you can hear something that clearly sounds like it’s in the back of the room. And I love that occurring at the same time as that DI needle hovers close

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Your playing has to be pretty tight to withstand the microscope of DI recording.

The most difficult song that we’ve ever had to play is our single, “The Way You Used to Do.” It’s a fuckin’ nightmare. I don’t know what it is. To sing and play with that sort of tightness is really demanding. Why put yourself through it?

I wish I had more choice in what music we played. I do feel like I’m being dragged behind a boat a lot of times, because you play what comes out of your mind. I love that Johnny

Does your distortion come from the amp, or are you a pedal guy?

I feel like driving the pre- and driving the head is the way to go. I just presuppose that the people that made these heads know what they’re doing and gave a shit. If anything, I might add one of my all-time favorite pedals, the Maestro Parametric Filter, because they add or subtract up to 20db with a wide or tight cue of a wide spectrum of frequencies, all in one go. There’s an infinite universe in that.

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Yeah, that’s why I don’t mind talking about it, because even if you like what we do, and decide to buy one, you still need to find who you are within that universe. The sweep is so wide and variable that it doesn’t really help to know I use it. You still need to discover what you like when you use it. I think it’s the greatest pedal ever. I understand you’re a fan of big band music, and it shows. Between the fuzz tones and the harmonies, many of the guitar parts on Villains sound like they could be arranged for horns.

I’ve been experimenting with arranging guitar parts to emulate the sound of horns since our first album, Rated R. As I mentioned earlier, I’m really interested in the edge of the sound, and how it stops, and horns do that well. I wanted to see if I could create the same effect with guitars, so I kept pursuing that idea in the Eagles of Death Metal. I wanted the guitars to simulate the baritone trombone and saxophone parts heard in sleazy burlesque clubs. I always kind of thought of Eagles of Death Metal in those terms. It’s an idea that is also a constant on Villains. How do I make a DI and a little bit of room seem like horns? And how do I do it over and over? And how am I able to layer it? Because when you have three guitars it’s difficult. Everyone needs to be able to be heard, and I think the important thing in Queens of the Stone Age is that it’s about the details. So how do I have three guitars of varying mid-range frequencies all be heard properly? Combining DI parts, using some depth of field and thinking of the guitars like they were horns helped. Those were the three main questions. Who’s playing saxophone-style guitar? Who’s going DI, and who’s set back but heard clearly? That was our approach to get all three guitars to play nice together. Additionally, we ended up using a lot of keyboards to add to the effect that we were creating a horn section. And, of course it all had to live in that weird 400 to 1k world Queens lives in. You mentioned that one of your goals for Villians is to make it a dance album. Why was that important to you?

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54 GU I TA R WOR L D GU I TA R WOR L D • M AY 2012

Rock and roll should dance. It always did before, so I don’t see what the fucking problem is. You know, there’s something beautiful about headbanging because it’s like telling everyone else around you, “I don’t care what you think. I like this.” It’s the same thing with dancing, and that’s why I love it so much. Dancing is like saying, “I don’t care what you think, I’m doing this.” In other forms of music, dance is so acceptable, it’s at the forefront of what it is. I always think of that as being at the forefront of rock and roll, and I’m always surprised when people’s inhibitions and fears, which translates into them thinking they’re cooler than something, gets in the way of something joyous and vulnerable and emotional.

GU I TA R WO R L D

Cash quote, “I’m not the creator of the music, I’m a deliverer.”

to your eardrum.

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PAGE FIFTY SIX

GO WITH THE FLOW GUITARISTS TROY VAN LEEUWEN AND DEAN FERTITA PLAY IN SOME OF ROCK’S BIGGEST BANDS, BUT THEY FEEL MOST AT HOME IN THEIR MODERN STONE AGE FAMILY.

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few bands in rock music whose individual members have résumés as long and as impressive as those in Queens of the Stone Age. Guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen has graced albums by A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, Eagles of Death Metal and Gone Is Gone, a new alt-metal supergroup featuring Mastodon’s Troy Sanders. Guitarist/ keyboardist Dean Fertita has moonlighted with the Raconteurs, the Dead Weather and, most recently, Iggy Pop with QOTSA frontman Josh Homme. While few bands would tolerate such infidelities, these Queens seem to thrive on it. “I’ve been in this band for almost a decade and it just feels like home,” says Fertita. “It’s been a luxury to be in such a great group and still have the freedom to play with so many different people over the years. The idea is we’ll all grow as musicians and bring it back to the band.” Van Leeuwen concurs. “It’s a very healthy creative environment. When we circle back to making a Queens record, we’re all recharged and psyched to play together again.” Playing in a band with three guitarists no doubt demands an ability to work well with others, but it’s almost shocking to hear the enthusiasm the trio has for adding their piece of the puzzle.

GU I TA R WOR L D • AUGUS T 2014

NOVEMBER 2017

From left, Michael Shuman, Dean Fertita, Josh Homme, Jon Theodore and Troy Van Leeuwen

GUITAR WO RLD

GUITAR WORLD

“THERE’S NO ROOM FOR REDUNDANCY, AND WE WON’T PLAY SOMETHING IF IT DOESN’T FIT.” —DEAN FERTITA Troy Van Leeuwen (left) and Dean Fertita at the Rock in Rio music festival in Brazil on September 24, 2015

Was there a guitar game plan going into this album? DEAN FERTITA Conceptually, we knew we

wanted this record to be very upfront. That immediately suggested looking for smaller, layered sounds that wouldn’t take up a ton of space. It was fun. We had to get creative on how we were going to do that, and not just go to some default settings that we’ve used over the years.

get into a room and react to each other. Having three guitar players can be challenging. There’s no room for redundancy, and we won’t play something if it doesn’t fit. We arranged these songs with the intention of tracking them as live as possible, and keeping overdubs to a minimum. We figured if we can’t play a part in the live scenario, it probably doesn’t need to be there. That saved us from getting carried away in the studio. TROY VAN LEEUWEN Another rule of thumb was, the cleaner the tone, the better. When Jimmy Page overdubs multiple guitars, like on “In the Light” by Led Zeppelin, you’ll notice each guitar is very clean. If there’s fuzz, like on “The Way You Used to Do,” you need to work a little harder to find just the right frequencies, but that can also be fun. It’s very subtle, but I’m actually playing a 12-string on that song, which helped make the blend. FERTITA I really wasn’t sure how “The Way You Used to Do” was going to shake out for me personally. It felt like a two-part guitar song, and it didn’t really feel like it needed keys. I thought I was going to sit that one out. But then as we got into it a little bit more, we realized, Oh, there are a couple moments here where three guitars could be really effective. That main riff, for instance. All three guys are playing different voicings in that, to make up the sum-total of how that riff sounds. Our tones are all just different enough that they find their own space. Did you guys have a basic guitar setup for the album?

58 GU I TA R WOR L D GU I TA R WOR L D • M AY 2012

TA S S O M A R C E LO/A F P/ G E T T Y I M A G E S

There are a lot of guitar cooks in the kitchen in the Queens of the Stone Age. How do the arrangements get sorted out? FERTITA Like any other band, we basically

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“IF THERE’S ANY CHANCE TO IMPROVISE, DEAN AND I ARE ALL OVER IT.” —TROY VAN LEEUWEN

REIMAGINING THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR ANYTIME.ANYWHERE

VAN LEEUWEN I used a Jazzmaster on many of the tracks. Not a lot of rock guitarists use it, but the Jazzmaster has a huge range. It can go from shrill and wiry to super warm with a flick of a switch, and the floating tremolo comes in handy for a lot of what I do. It’s also got a longer scale, so it takes lower tunings well for us. I tune it to C for all the older stuff, because we lived in C tuning for a long time. Josh, Dean and I also used a variety of custom Echopark guitars. We have this amazing relationship with the owner, Gabe Currie, who worked with Leo Fender when Leo was at G&L. Gabe is the real deal American handmade guitar maker. So much so, he says that each guitar he makes, even though he sells it, is still partly his. He’ll make something and just show up at the studio and go, “I thought about you and this is what I came up with.” And he’s usually right on. How about pedals? VAN LEEUWEN One pedal that keeps com-

ing back into our fold is the Eventide H9. It’s outstanding for lush and clean reverbs. The last couple albums we used tons of spring reverbs and dirty effects, but we wanted to keep that to a minimum on Villains. I also used the Way Huge Saffron Squeeze Compressor when I wanted sustain without the dirt. For fuzz, I collaborated with a company called Dr. No on something called the TVL Octavia. It’s got a great voice, and direct, it is pretty un-fuck-with-able. FERTITA I used this Son of Kong EQ/Gain pedal by Spontaneous Audio for my direct out, and for amps I used small Gibsons and things like that. I don’t think I went larger than a 2x12 at any point. I tried a few bigger amps, but it just didn’t seem to fit. Do you see yourself as having a specific guitar role in the band? VAN LEEUWEN A lot of what we do stems

from Josh and what he brings in. He created the band and gives it his signature. The way I see it, I’ll either support his part harmonically or juxtapose with the rhythm. But when it comes to live performance, there’s a bit more wiggle room. If there’s any chance to improvise, Dean and I are all over it. FERTITA I always just think, if I was writing the song, what would I think would be an important element to add to it. I try to approach my parts from a songwriting point of view.

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60 GU I TA R WOR L D GU I TA R WOR L D • M AY 2012

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Do you have a personal favorite moment on the album? VAN LEEUWEN I think the one that sticks out

in my head is the whole intro to “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now.” The way the record starts. That whole exchange was all done live, and none of us really appreciated how great it was sounding while we were tracking it. It wasn’t until playback that we had our “a-ha” moment. We’re always thinking about the mix when it comes to guitars, because it’s the most complicated part of what we do. —Brad Tolinski

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EVERYTHING YO U N E E D T O KNOW BEFORE YO U S H O P !

T H E O WA R G O/ W I R E I M A G E

CONSIDERING MAKING THE LEAP TO A SEVEN- OR EIGHT-STRING GUITAR? THEN BE SURE TO READ THIS COMPREHENSIVE SHOPPER’S GUIDE BEFORE YOU HIT THE STORES! BY CHRIS GILL

BANEZ INTRODUCED THE

industry’s first mass-produced seven-string solidbody electric guitar—the Universe UV7, designed in collaboration with Steve Vai—in 1990. Although guitarists overwhelmingly applauded this new innovation that expanded the instrument’s range, Ibanez surprisingly discontinued their Universe model seven-string guitars in 1994 after an unusually short period of production. This caused a few music industry observers to prematurely conclude that the seven-

string guitar was just a passing fad with little more than novelty appeal. The timing of the discontinuation was unfortunate, however, as seven-string guitars were just starting to catch on with an increasing amount of players around the same time. During the mid-Nineties an impressively diverse variety of bands and guitarists embraced and popularized the heavier sound of the seven-string guitar, including Cannibal Corpse, Deftones, Dream Theater, Fear Factory, Korn, Meshuggah, Morbid Angel, Nevermore,

Uli Jon Roth, Voivod and many others. Guitarists who favored the extended range of a seven-string guitar grew to significant ranks over the next few years, and Ibanez soon reversed course and started building seven-string models again in 1997. Other major manufacturers also introduced seven-string models during this time, although it took almost another decade before several companies started to offer more than just a handful of seven-string models in their product lineups. The market for seven-string guitars has

guitarworld.com

changed radically over the last 10 years, as have the designs of many of the instruments. Today guitarists can choose from several hundred different models, and a handful of manufacturers each even offer a larger variety of models than what the entire industry provided at the dawn of the new millennium. About the same time as the seven-string surge took place around 10 years ago, a handful of companies started to offer the first mass-produced eight-string models, providing yet another tempting alternative instrument for guitarists interested in exploring a wider sonic range than that of a standard six-string guitar. Over time, the design of the seven-string guitar has expanded to include instruments with extended scale lengths and alternate tunings, which has made the decision process more confusing for newcomers as well as experienced guitarists shopping for their first seven- or eight-string guitar. While the basic features on a standard six-string and seven- or eight-string guitar are essentially the same, many of these attributes on seven- and eight-string guitars require more careful consideration based on how one plans on playing the instrument (such as riffs, solos, chords and rhythm or all of the above), the tuning one prefers to use (standard, drop tuning or alternate tunings) and other playing and performance details. Fortunately, price is no longer as much of an issue as it once was (the high cost of the first Ibanez Universe guitars accounted probably more than anything for their initial failure to catch on), and a wide variety

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

of budget-priced instruments are available to choose from as well as expensive boutique models that can be customized to a player’s preferences. To help demystify today’s seven- and eight-string guitars, we’ve put together the following shopper’s guide that discusses several of the most important features to consider before making a choice. In some respects, the seven- and eight-string guitar are almost like entirely new instruments, but the differences between them and standard six-string guitars is not as vast as the gap between a six-string guitar and a bass. Once a guitarist knows what to look for, buying one’s first seven- or eight-string is as easy as choosing another guitar to add to one’s growing collection.

SCALE LENGTH P R O B A B LY 9 9 P E R C E N T of all six-

string solidbody electric guitars made today have scale lengths that fall somewhere between 24.5 and 25.5 inches, but the scale lengths found on seven-string guitars span a much wider range, generally between 25.5 inches to 27 inches or above. Eight-string guitars typically have scale lengths that are at least 27 inches, while a handful of examples (like the Ibanez M80M Meshuggah signature) measure almost 29.5 inches long. For a guitarist who is used to playing a Gib-

NUT WIDTH T H E R U L E O F T H U M B for seven- and

eight-string guitars is basically the same as it is for a six-string guitar: narrower nut

P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F I B A N E Z G U I TA R S

Steve Vai with the Ibanez Universe UV7, the sevenstring guitar he helped design in 1990

son Les Paul with a 24.75-inch scale, playing a guitar with a scale that is 1.5 inches longer or more than they’re used to can literally prove to be quite a stretch. A seven-string guitar with a 25.5-inch scale is the best choice for a six-string guitarist looking to make a quick, easy and comfortable transition. However, instruments with longer scales offer certain sonic advantages, particularly for players who want to tune down the lowest string a whole step or the entire guitar a whole step or more. On a shorter scale guitar, tuning down reduces string tension to a point where the lowest strings can feel too slinky and loose, which also makes those strings difficult to play in tune as even the slightest amount of excess pressure while fretting notes can bend the pitch. Some players use heavier string gauges to compensate, but intonation can become problematic for heavier gauge strings on shorter scale instruments and heavier gauge strings may not fit into the tuning pegs. Longer scale lengths require greater string tension when tuning to the same pitch as a shorter scale instrument, which allows players to use lighter string gauges that they are more comfortable with (especially on the high E string) instead of the heavier gauge strings required to maintain adequate tension on instruments with shorter scales. Conversely, longer scales allow players to use heavier strings at lower tensions, which can make heavy strings easier to play, especially when bending notes. Several companies now offer sevenand eight-string guitars with fanned frets (also known as multiple-scale fretboards), where the nut, bridge and frets are installed at varying angles instead of perpendicular to the strings. These instruments provide the best of both worlds—shorter scale lengths for the treble strings and longer scale lengths for the bass strings— delivering the comfortable “slinky” playability guitarists prefer for the treble strings along with bright tone and reliable intonation afforded by adequate tension on the bass strings. Fanned scale lengths generally range from 25.5 inches for the high E string to 26.5 or 27 inches for the low B string, or even as much as 25.5 to 28 inches for an eight-string instrument.

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widths are generally more comfortable for players with smaller hands while wider nut widths are better for players with bigger hands or who want more space in between each string to facilitate fretting notes more cleanly. Depending on the nut width of a seven- or eight-string guitar, the addition of an extra string or two can result in strings that may feel too close to each other or a neck that feels uncomfortably wide and unwieldy. This is one instance where guitarists need to try out instruments before they buy to see how comfortable the neck width feels in their hands. Some seven-string necks are as narrow as 42 or 43 millimeters (certain ESP and Caparison models, for example), which is about the same nut width as a standard six-string Stratocaster, so with the addition of an extra string the strings are now much more closely spaced together. Players who prefer the same average string spacing as a six-string guitar should look for sevenstring guitars with nut widths around 47 to 48mm. However, if you’re using lower tunings you may prefer to opt for even wider nuts that measure 49 to 51mm to provide the lowest bass strings more room to vibrate freely and make it easier to finger chords when using heavier gauge strings. It’s particularly essential to try out an eight-string guitar as some players may find instruments with wide string spacing very difficult to play, particularly when fretting chords on the lower strings. Some players may find that eight-string guitars with the same string spacing that they’re normally accustomed to on six-string instruments are impossible to play, so a narrower nut may be the better option. Try playing riffs and chords all over the neck, while paying attention to the fretboard’s width up and down the neck to evaluate the instrument’s overall comfort and playability. Having to adjust your playing style is normal at first, but if your fretting hand feels stiff or sore after a few minutes you’ll probably want to try instruments with wider or narrower string spacing until you find your personal comfort zone.

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

SEVEN-STRING 48.7MM GRAPH TECH NUT

NECK PROFILE/ RADIUS

EIGHT-STRING 55.35MM GRAPH TECH NUT

radius that becomes flatter further up the neck, which can make it easier to play chords in the lower registers while facilitating string bending further up the neck.

B E C AU S E T H E N E C K S on most seven-

STRING GAUGES

and eight-string guitars are wider than those on six-string guitars, the shape of the neck profile and curvature of the radius can seem more exaggerated. Generally, most seven-string and particularly eightstring guitars have thin and relatively flat profiles as even an average C-shaped profile can seem overly thick and unwieldy. The trade-off for the easier, faster playability of a flat, thin neck profile is that the tone may not be as full and rich or the neck may not always feel solid, so you have to determine your priorities here. Be particularly careful when considering cheaper instruments with flat, thin neck profiles as the materials, construction and truss rod support may not be solid enough to handle the excess string tension, causing the neck to bend easily (and tuning stability to go out the window) when playing. Try strumming the open strings while applying steadily increasing pressure to the back of the headstock as if you’re pushing the headstock forward. If the pitch dives with only slight pressure, you might want to consider an instrument with a more solid and sturdy feeling neck that doesn’t budge as easily. Most seven- and eight-string guitars also have a larger, flatter radius than a standard six-string guitar. While a vintage Tele’s 7.25-inch radius may seem perfectly fine (especially if you just play open cowboy chords on the lower frets), on a wider seven- or eight-string neck it will seem absurdly rounded. On a wider neck, even a 12-inch radius will have noticeable curvature. Fretboards with a radius of 15 inches or larger more closely replicate the “flat” feel of a modern six-string shred guitar neck. Many models feature a compound

O N E C O M M O N OV E R L O O K E D consideration is the gauges of the strings that the instrument was designed to use. Never assume that any seven- or eight-string guitar can accommodate whatever gauges of strings the player plans on using. For example, players who find the lowest string on a 25.5-inch scale guitar too loose and floppy may want to use heavier gauges on the lowest strings, but on some guitars the hardware may have difficulty accommodating strings that are wider than .060 inches. The hole or slot in the tuning peg may not be wide enough, or the string may be too wide to fit into a locking nut or the holes for a stop, through-body and tremolo tailpiece where the ball end (or string end) is anchored. Also, on a shorter scale guitar the bridge saddles may not provide enough travel to properly intonate heavier low-end strings, so the bridge will need to be either replaced or moved. On some instruments the action may be too low to accommodate heavier strings, which can cause fret buzz and other problems that one may not be able to fix by adjusting the bridge and/or truss rod. Hardware can be modified or replaced, but in the long run it’s better to get an instrument that can accommodate the strings you plan on using right out of the box, as modifications can cause strings to break easily if not performed properly and replacement parts may not always fit properly. It’s better to get an instrument that’s right from the beginning. There are so many different models available today that one should be able to find an instrument that can handle a player’s preferred string gauges without modification.

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TUNING T H E M O S T C O M M O N tuning for a seven-string guitar is (low to high) B-E-AD-G-B-E, and for an eight-string it’s usually the same but with the addition of the lowest string tuned to Fs. Some players prefer to tune the lowest string down a whole step to A on a seven-string or to E on an eight-string. However, don’t assume that all seven- or eight-string guitars are designed to accommodate these tunings. Some instruments, particularly those with longer scales and/ or heavier strings, may be designed to be tuned down a whole step or more, or they may be designed as baritone instruments with heavier string gauges better suited to playing chords and riffs instead of solos and bent notes. Before you go into the guitar store or place an order online, do a little research to verify what tuning the instrument was designed to best accommodate. Also, bring a tuner or smart phone with a tuning app with you (unless you have perfect pitch) to make sure that the instrument you’re trying is properly tuned so you can better evaluate how it is supposed to play and feel as shipped from the factory.

ERGONOMICS B E C AU S E M A N Y seven- and eightstring guitars have wider and longer necks, the neck may also be heavier and not well balanced with the body. It’s important to try the instrument with a strap in a standing position to make sure that the headstock doesn’t dive to the ground unless you’re okay with supporting the neck an entire gig with your fretting hand. Ideally the guitar should constantly remain in a balanced, comfortable playing position whether you’re standing up or sitting down. Many seven- and eight-string guitars also have wider and longer bodies, so make sure you’re comfortable with the larger size. Body contours can increase playing comfort, but make sure that they conform or fit to your body and arm positions. Instruments with neck-through-body or set-thru designs usually have a seamless transition where the neck meets the body compared to the bulky heels on most set neck and bolt-on neck designs. As a result, a neck-through-body or set-thru instrument

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

is usually more comfortable for guitarists who often play above the 15th fret, although plenty of guitarists aren’t really bothered by neck heels. It’s all a matter of what’s really important and comfortable to you. Most seven- and eight-string guitars weigh about the same or a little more than a standard six-string solidbody, but don’t be discouraged should you find a model that you particularly like that’s a little heavier than you’re used to. Using a wide strap and wearing the instrument a little higher and closer to your body can compensate for the added weight to the point that you won’t notice the difference.

ELECTRONICS/ PICKUPS W H E N T RY I N G O U T a seven- or eightstring guitar, you should play it through an amplification rig similar to one you already own or plan on buying. You’ll want to pay particularly close attention to the lowest bass frequencies while playing clean and distorted tones to determine if the clarity and definition meets your needs and preferences. If the bass notes sound muffled or flabby or if they distort too quickly while other notes remain clean, you may want to try a different rig and/or an instrument with different style pickups. This also is a good time to listen for fret buzzing (which may or may not be easy to fix) and rattles coming from inside the instrument (in which case you should probably select another guitar). Passive pickups work great with guitar and bass alike, but design features that work great for standard six-string guitars (windings, shape and strength of the magnetic field, etc.) don’t always work well for lower frequencies. Active pickups tend to deliver greater overall clarity across a wider frequency range, and the attack can be faster and more pronounced (which can

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be very desirable). It mainly depends on which tonal characteristics matter more to you personally. If you prefer warm, fat tones with midrange emphasis and greater dynamic responsiveness, passive pickups may be better, but if you are more into precise clarity and brighter overall tone with a wider frequency range, active pickups can be a better choice. Note that the selection of pickup configurations for most seven- and eightstring guitars is less varied than that for six-string electrics. In fact, the majority of these instruments have dual-humbucker designs, while only a handful have a pair of single-coil pickups, a single-coil in the neck or bridge position along with a humbucker, or, in very rare instances, three pickups (usually a single-coil in between neck and bridge humbuckers). Many dualhumbucker models also have coil-split/ tap features that provide single-coil tones. Most instruments also have only master volume and master tone controls, and many have only master volume controls, so if you prefer having separate volume and tone controls for each pickup or more sophisticated tonal shaping capabilities for active pickups, you may have to consider buying a custom-made instrument.

AMPLIFICATION/ EFFECTS M O S T M O D E R N H I G H - G A I N amplifi-

ers can handle the extended bass frequency ranges of seven- and eight-string guitars pretty well, especially if you are primarily using distorted tones. However, excess distortion tends to emphasize the upper harmonics of bass notes over the fundamental frequencies, so the overall tone may not be as deep, booming and punchy as you’d expect or want it to be. If you want more low-end boom and rumble, you really don’t need as much gain as most players would

use for a standard six-string guitar, and you actually may prefer the tones of an amp with greater clean headroom that provides better clarity, attack and punch. Speakers are a more important consideration as most 10- and 12-inch speakers designed for guitar have prominent midrange frequencies and significantly roll off bass frequencies starting around 100 to 70 Hz. Because the low B on a seven-string guitar has a fundamental frequency of about 62 Hz, that means the low B’s fundamental frequency could potentially be -10 to -20dB quieter than the fundamental frequency of the low E string. Subjecting standard guitar speakers to lower bass frequencies also can cause them to distort earlier than they do when subjected to normal guitar frequencies, and in some cases the speakers may be more likely to blow out. Using speakers with a wider, flatter frequency response is one alternative, although these speakers can make regular guitar midrange frequencies sound cold and sterile. Instead, it’s better to use a subwoofer with a built-in crossover to boost the lowest of low-end fundamental frequencies while still using a standard guitar cabinet for more satisfying guitar tones. Many seven- and eight-string players prefer to use digital modeling amps like the Fractal Audio Axe-Fx II XL and AX8 or Line 6 Spider series heads in conjunction with a full-range P.A. system. This type of system is capable of handling a wider range of bass and treble frequencies while providing the rich midrange tones that guitarists prefer and are accustomed to.

ALTERNATIVES D E P E N D I N G O N H OW a guitarist

plans on playing, a seven- or eight-string guitar might not be necessary and it may be better to use a six-string downtuned standard guitar, long-scale guitar or baritone instead. A seven-string guitar with the seventh string tuned to B provides only an additional five notes, yet it can present a somewhat dramatic conceptual shift (such as when playing chords on the bottom four strings) for certain players who are accustomed to six-string guitars in addition to the physical adjustments some guitarists will need to make to get used to playing instruments with wider necks and potentially longer scales. If your band has two guitarists, it may make better sense for the rhythm guitarist to play a baritone and the lead guitarist

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

to play a standard guitar if they mostly adhere to chord/riff (rhythm player) and full-range solo (lead player) roles but want heavier bottom-end punch to fill out the band’s sound. If you tend to dwell in the upper or lower strings almost exclusively you probably won’t need the extra string(s) or the challenge of learning the fingerings for a new set of chords. And in some bands with lots of different instruments occupying similar frequency ranges (such as six-string piccolo bass, keyboards, horns and so on) the expanded frequency range of a seven- or eight-string guitar may just add to the sonic clutter and serve little useful purpose. However, if you consistently use the guitar’s entire range and want more, then by all means a seven- or eight-string guitar is a worthy choice over the various six-string alternatives. A seven- or eight-string guitar may also help players get out of a stagnant creative rut by encouraging them to think about their instruments slightly differently, whereas a six-string baritone or downtuned guitar wouldn’t necessarily light that spark. The additional strings do provide certain advantages (such as making it possible to simultaneously play bass lines and treble chord voicings) that a six-string guitar can’t always replicate, so for some applications a seven- or eight-string guitar really is the only viable choice.

Jackson X Series Dinky Arch Top DKAF8 MS

RETAIL RECOMMENDATIONS We asked a few guitar shops which seven- and eight-string guitars they sell most frequently, and here’s what they said: MOORE MUSIC, EVANSVILLE, IN • Ibanez RGIM7BC seven-string • Ibanez FRIX7FEAH seven-string • Ibanez RGDIX7MPB seven-string • Ibanez RGIM8MH eight-string REPLAY GUITAR EXCHANGE, TAMPA, FL • Schecter Keith Merrow KM-7 seven-string • Schecter Demon-7 seven-string • Schecter Hellraiser C-8 eight-string • Schecter Omen-8 eight-string TWIN TOWN GUITARS, MINNEAPOLIS, MN • Ibanez GIO Series

BRANDS T H E VA R I E T Y O F seven- and eightstring model guitars available today is truly staggering, and it can be difficult to know where to start. Companies that produce the largest selection of seven- and eight-string models include big names like ESP/LTD, Ibanez, Jackson and Schecter as well as up-and-coming specialists like Jericho, Legator, Strandberg and Strictly 7. Other popular manufacturers of affordable seven-string guitars include Agile, B.C. Rich, Caparison, Carvin/Kiesel, Charvel, Dean, Ernie Ball Music Man/Sterling by Music Man, Epiphone, Michael Kelly, PRS and Washburn. Several of these companies (but not all) also offer eight-string models. With so many companies producing seven- and eight-string guitars today, it’s safe to say that the instruments are here to stay and the selection of models will continue to evolve and expand in the years to come.

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s a kid, I stood hypnotized in front of the guitar shop window. I stared at the Gibsons, Fenders, Rickenbackers and Les Pauls, lined up like lacquered mahogany and maple trophies. With their smooth curves, each one could produce hot licks, reverb and a wailing solo. The six string guitar is the heart of rock and roll. I’m proud to say that today I feel the same way about the new Stauer Guitar Watch. We wanted to give our favorite vintage electric guitars their due with an impressive timepiece that captures the excitement of the golden years of rock and roll. The Stauer Guitar Watch is a legendary timepiece with bold, head-turning design and attitude to spare. It’s rebellious enough to feel like you’re getting away with something. Meet your new favorite rock star. My only advice to the designers was to make a watch that looks exactly like rock and roll sounds. Big, bold and loud enough to wake the neighbors. It should evoke images of Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, The King and The Boss

strumming crowds into a frenzy. But it should also reverberate with the spirit of the world’s greatest rock guitar gods like Jimi, Eric and Keith (who was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine wearing a Stauer watch). As you can see, the final product is worthy of a standing ovation. It’s only rock and roll, but we like it. One look at the Stauer Guitar Watch’s voluptuous stainless steel body will bring you right back to the glory days of 45 and 33 rpm records. The eye-catching shape of the case recalls the round-bottomed bodies of the greatest vintage electric guitars. The unique, ivory-colored face features blue Roman numerals on the left of the dial and bold Arabic numbers on the right. Blued, Breguet-style hands keep time while additional complications mark the day, date and month. A date window sits at the 3 o’clock position. Inside, the 27-ruby-jewel movement utilizes an automatic self-winding mechanism that never needs batteries. The watch secures

with a genuine black leather band and is water-resistant to 3 ATM. Guaranteed to rock your world. If you aren’t fully impressed by the performance and stage presence of the Stauer Guitar Watch within 30 days, simply return the watch for a full refund of the item price. Presently, we have only less than 200 pieces in stock, so don’t hesitate to order! Sorry, no Wah Wah pedal included! Stauer Stainless Steel Guitar Watch— $499* only $99 +S&P Save $400

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• Stainless steel case • 27-jewel automatic movement • Date, day and 24-hour complications • Croc-embossed leather strap fits 6 3/4"–8 3/4" wrist

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N OVE M B E R 2017

the gear in review GUITAR WORLD

ELECTROHARMONIX Ca nyon Del ay & Loope r Pe da l

IBANEZ RG D 3127 Prestige 7-String G uit a r

FULLTONE O CD V2 Peda l

NEW EQ D’Adda rio Ch romatic Peda l Tuner Tayl or G uit a rs Gran d Co ncert 362ce 1 2-String G uit a r

XOTIC Ca l ifornia Cl a ssic XSC-2 G uit a r

GOLD AWARD Deluxe SS

FORMANC

Luxury Liners D’ANGELICO DELUXE SERIES EXL-1 AND SS By Chris Gill A FEW GUITAR companies have used

the term “deluxe” rather haphazardly in the past for instruments that didn’t quite live up to the definition of that word, but by naming their penultimate product line the Deluxe Series (surpassed only by the Master Builder series), D’Angelico has boldly taken that term back to its intended meaning. D’Angelico Deluxe Series guitars boast the design, construction, materials, hardware and fancy visual appointments one would expect from a guitar that truly deserves the deluxe moniker. We’re talking the true luxury goods here—things like multi-ply binding, gold-plated hardware, limited-edition matte finishes and a certain je ne sais quoi that inspires lust instead of mere desire. Introduced this year, the Deluxe Series comprises eight different hollow and semi-hollow body models. We took a look at two models that could be considered representations of the opposite ends of the Deluxe Series spectrum: the thinline semi-hollow Deluxe SS and the full-depth archtop hollowbody EXL-1.

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FEATURES The Deluxe SS is a great choice for players looking for an instrument that’s a little more distinctive and versatile than the bulk of thinline semi-hollow guitars available on the market today. The SS body has a single cutaway, arched top and arched back made of laminated maple, and measures 1.75 inches deep, 18.75 inches long and 15 inches across the widest part of the lower bout, making it slightly smaller than the common 335-style body dimensions. A few different options are available. Choices include an entirely closed top and stop tailpiece or an open f-hole body with a choice of D’Angelico stairstep trapeze or stop tailpiece. Our test example was the open f-hole configuration with stairstep tailpiece. Other notable upgrades include a pair of custom Seymour Duncan DA-59 fullsize humbucking pickups with gold-plated covers, a versatile six-way toggle switch that provides instant access to neck/bridge/ both and humbucking/single-coil settings and Jescar medium jumbo frets. The neck features three-piece maple/walnut/maple construction, a rosewood fingerboard with 22 frets and mother of pearl block inlays, slim C-shape profile and 25-inch scale. Hardware and other appointments include Grover Super Rotomatic Locking tuners with D’Angelico’s signature stairstep buttons, a gold-plated tune-o-matic bridge, elevated tortoiseshell Scalini pickguard with multilayer binding, aluminum “skyscraper” truss rod cover, ebony control knobs, individual volume and tone controls for each pickup, Graph Tech Tusq nut (1 11/16-inches wide) and mother of pearl “deluxe” shield logo inlaid in the ebony headstock overlay. The Deluxe EXL-1 is more of a traditional single-cutaway jazz archtop model, featuring a full-size body measuring 17 inches across the lower bout and 2-7/8 inches deep, carved rosewood bridge and floating Seymour Duncan mini-humbucking pickup with master volume and tone

EXL-1

CHEAT SHEET

STREET PRICE: $1,699.99 (EXL-1), $1,999.99 (SS) MANUFACTURER: D’Angelico Guitars, dangelicoguitars.com

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

Both models are available with a selection of limited edition matte Cherry, Emerald, Plum or Powder Blue finishes.

The SS is D’Angelico’s smallest thinline semi-hollow model, featuring a body measuring only 15 inches across the lower bout.

The SS features a pair of custom Seymour Duncan DA-59 full-size humbucking pickups that deliver vintage-style medium output tones.

controls mounted above the top on the elevated pickguard. The EXL-1’s top is laminated spruce while the back and sides are laminated maple. Like the SS, its neck has three-piece maple/walnut/maple construction, a slim C-shaped profile and rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo Jescar frets and mother of pearl block inlays, but its scale length is slightly longer at 25.5 inches. Most of the hardware features and other appointments are also identical to those of the SS, with the exception of no closed top/ stop tailpiece option (stairstep tailpiece only) and the aforementioned rosewood bridge and pickguard-mounted mini hexagon control knobs. PEFORMANCE The EXL-1 is a bona fide

jazz archtop beast that sounds as good unplugged as it does amplified. Acoustically it delivers a desirable percussive cut when strumming rhythms and produces singlenote lines with fast attack and punch. Plugged in, the notes exhibit enhanced warmth and sustain but without mud. D’Angelico ships the EXL-1 with .012-.052 roundwound strings, but for authentic vintage jazz tones a set of flatwounds is highly recommended. Our example had the stunning limited edition matte Plum finish (standard finish is matte Midnight and other limited edition finishes are Powder Blue, Emerald and Cherry) that made me want to put together an acoustic jazz set of Prince covers. The SS is a much more versatile monster that’s great for almost any style except perhaps metal. The Duncan DA-59 pickups pump out sweet midrange and medium output that delivers fat, singing tones through a distorted amp and crisp, articulate tones through a clean amp. Both guitars have comfortably light weights and delightfully playable necks that live up to the “deluxe” designation.

The EXL-1 is a full-size jazz archtop with a floating Seymour Duncan mini humbucker, carved rosewood bridge and pickguard-mounted controls.

THE BOTTOM LINE D’Angelico Deluxe Series guitars might be some of the fanciest production instruments on the market today, but they’re impressively versatile and sensibly priced to allow almost anyone to enjoy the lap of luxury.

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Deep Space ELECTRO-HARMONIX CANYON DELAY & LOOPER By Chris Gill

WITH ITS COMPACT SIZE, four control knobs and humble price, the ElectroHarmonix Canyon appears on the surface to be a basic version of what the name on the box suggests: a delay/reverb pedal with a looper function. However, closer examination reveals that this is no basic delay/reverb effect but rather a versatile multi-function processor that delivers sophisticated, professional-quality effects that previously were the exclusive domain of expensive pedals and rack units. Canyon really is the perfect name for this pedal as it is impressively deep and incredibly fun and rewarding to explore. FEATURES The window to Canyon’s versatility is an 11-position rotary mode switch, which provides access to a looper function (62 seconds maximum) and 10 distinctly different delay modes: echo, modulated delay, multi-tap delay, reverse, Deluxe Memory Man, tape, reverb plus delay, octave delay, shimmer and sample/ hold. There also are standard control knobs for FX level (mix/balance), delay time (five milliseconds to three seconds) and feedback (single to infinite repeats), although the latter two also can provide secondary functions that are engaged by holding down the tap/divide switch (which normally is used for selecting quarter, eighth or dotted-eighth tap tempo divisions). A

CHEAT SHEET

LIST PRICE: $185.40 MANUFACTURER: Electro-Harmonix, ehx.com

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

secondary knob mode is available for every effect mode except echo and looper, and three modes (multi-tap, reverse and sample/hold) provide a secondary function for the delay knob only. Tap tempo can be set with the footswitch or an optional footswitch connected to the ¼-inch Tap In jack. The pedal also provides an internal Tails switch to either cut off or maintain delay tails when the effect is bypassed. PERFORMANCE The sound quality and variety of effects that come out of this little box are simply staggering. Most delay pedals in a comparable price range offer the capabilities of only one or two of Canyon’s modes, and the 11 modes are so ver-

The mode switch provides instant access to 10 different delay modes and a Looper that records up to 62 seconds of audio plus overdubs.

satile and sophisticated that each is like a standalone stomp box effect unto itself. The Deluxe Memory Man and Tape modes ooze lush analog warmth, while the Shimmer mode models four separate effects (compressor, pitch shifter and two delays) to deliver dazzling atmospheric digital textures that once were the exclusive realm of expensive studio processors. Recordings and overdubs made using the Looper mode are incredibly detailed and noisefree, and best of all the pedal permanently saves the last loop you recorded, even after the 9-volt power supply is disconnected. Similarly, the pedal also can save secondary mode knob settings so you don’t need to reprogram your favorite effects.

A secondary mode allows the Delay and Feedback knobs to control up to two additional parameters depending on which mode is selected.

THE BOTTOM LINE With 10 outstanding delay/ reverb effects, a 62-second looper, sophisticated professional sound quality, compact size and affordable price, the Electro-Harmonix Canyon offers incredible value for delay junkies and looping lunatics.

THE BEST AMPS IN THE WORLD

THE PROFILER “With profiling, Kemper changed the world for all guitar players, making it a better place indeed. Because all the best guitar amps in the world – with their tones meticulously designed, thourougly mic‘ed and recorded in the best studios – are available with the Profiler. Ready to be taken to the studio, the stages around town .... and around the globe!” The Profiler comes loaded with the finest Rigs created by artists, producers and performers who are famous for their tone.

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White Hot

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IBANEZ RGD3127 PRESTIGE E

By Ch ris G ill

ALTHOUGH A FEW dozen companies collectively produce the several hundred different seven-string solidbody electric guitar models that fill the market today, Ibanez has had a head-start on all of them, thanks to being the first manufacturer to mass produce this type of instrument 27 years ago. As a result, Ibanez is a good place to start when looking for a seven-string guitar, as they not only offer an impressively wide variety of choices but they’ve also refined their designs over the years, thanks to feedback from customers and their impressive artist roster. The RGD3127, which is part of Ibanez’s made-in-Japan Prestige line, is a perfect example of a seven-string that combines familiar, classic features with new enhancements and details preferred by today’s seven-string specialists. According to the company’s literature and website, Ibanez RGD series guitars are designed to be “the heaviest sounding metal axes ever built.” Add that to the Prestige line’s principles of “precision, performance and playability” and “combination of high-

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

tech manufacturing techniques with oldworld Japanese craftsmanship,” and the RGD3127 promises to be a serious instrument for players with the most exacting needs and preferences. FEATURES With its single master volume control knob, pair of DiMarzio Fusion Edge ceramic magnet passive humbucking pickups and three-way pickup selector switch, the RGD3127 may seem stripped-down and minimalist, but make no mistake—this is an upscale instrument built with exacting attention to detail, particularly when it comes to performance, playability and sound. The guitar equivalent of a Porsche Boxster Spyder, it trims unnecessary fat to maximize speed without sacrificing luxury appeal. The bolt-on neck has a long 26.5-inch scale and is designed to be tuned down a whole step from standard tuning to (low to high) A-D-G-C-F-A-D using .059-.010 gauge strings. The neck features Ibanez’s Wizard-7 design with a slim but noticeably

rounded profile, five-piece maple/wenge construction and KTS titanium reinforcements for rock-solid stability, birdseye maple fretboard, 24 jumbo frets with silky smooth Prestige fret edge treatment, 48mm nut width and 430mm radius. The smooth, rounded neck heel and deeply scooped and contoured cutaways provide unimpeded playability all the way up the neck. The RGD3127’s body is a lightweight slab of resonant basswood with a Pearl White Flat finish. Both sides of the bass bout are generously contoured for enhanced playing comfort. Hardware includes a precision-machined chromeplated Lo-Pro Edge 7 tremolo bridge with locking studs and recessed fine tuners, locking nut, standard post Gotoh mini tuners and an angled, recessed output jack just below the lower-bout strap button. PERFORMANCE From the neck profile’s comfortably rounded curvature to the body’s sleek contours and silky matte finish, the RGD3127 feels very sexy in the

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PLATINUM AWARD EX

CELLENCE

Fulltone OCD V2

CHEAT SHEET

hands, enticing guitarists to play as soon as they pick it up. The larger dimensions of the wider fretboard—due to the sevenstring design and the longer scale—should be very easy for experienced six-string players to adapt to while also satisfying the preferences of seven-string specialists. The low A string sounds brilliant and percussive, with ample tension to allow tuning it down an additional step without sacrificing tone, attack or punch. The DiMarzio Fusion Edge pickups are a revelation, delivering crisp, clean tones and outstanding note-to-note detail when pushed with high-gain distortion. The midrange is deliciously full-bodied; the bass offers ample twang and thump; and the treble is bell-like and shimmering. Overall the tone is big and ballsy, but with a hi-filike sheen and resonant, acoustic-like projection. The RGD3127 may be designed for metal players and provides the aggressive tones to fit that bill, but jazz and progressive players also will find its tones equally impressive for any variety of applications.

LIST PRICE: $2,399.99 MANUFACTURER: Ibanez Guitars, Ibanez.com The 26.5-inch scale is designed for .059-.010 strings and tuning one whole step below standard at (low to high) A-D-G-C-F-A-D. A pair of DiMarzio Fusion Edge ceramic magnet humbucking pickups provide the ideal balance of body, punch and clarity.

THE BOTTOM LINE With its extended 26.5-inch scale length, streamlined, stripped-down features and incredible playability, the Ibanez RGD3127 Prestige is the guitar equivalent of a highperformance rally racer built for speed and comfort while delivering a hell of a mighty roar.

The Fulltone OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Drive), has been kicking around for more than a decade. Every so often its creator, Mike Fuller, introduces a newer version, and despite all the tweaking, many guitarists still consider the OCD one of the finest overdrive/distortion stompboxes. And for good reason; it’s one of the few drive pedals that nails the sound and response of an overdriven tube amp convincingly. Fuller has once again tinkered with his classic circuit and released a V2 version, and it’s the best one to date. The OCD V2 has controls for volume, drive and tone, a HP/LP (high peak/low peak) toggle switch and 3PDT footswitch. New features begin with a selectable true bypass and “Enhanced Bypass” switch, which returns dynamics and tone loss from multiple cables and effects, along with popfree switching. A new output buffer allows your sound to remain consistent no matter where you put the OCD in the signal chain and also reduces loading in its hard-clipping stage for more sustain. A new Class A configured 2N5457 JFET input section raises the previous input impedance from 330K to one mega ohms, which results in smoother response when switching between single coils and humbuckers. The OCD V2 sounds like finding the “sweet spot” on your favorite amp. It produces overdriven tones that sound warm and full, with genuine tube-like response. There’s no shortage of usable drive, meaning it dynamically ramps up overdriven grit from dirty overtones to saturated distortion in the smooth range of its drive control. Depending upon your pick attack, the tone control works best between noon and fully clockwise, allowing for more edge or clarity. The HP/LP switch is useful in sculpting your tone. In HP, the guitar has more distortion and presence, with pointed midrange that cuts like a knife. LP is subtler, where it retains a lot of your amp’s character, and it’s my favorite setting if I’m using it as a boost. If you’re obsessive over your tone, look no further. —Paul Riario

STREET PRICE: $118.15 MANUFACTURER: Fulltone, fulltone.com

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D’Addario

CHROMATIC PEDAL TUNER The D’Addario Chromatic Pedal Tuner features a sleek, reduce-sized (1.75-inch x 4.75-inch), lightweight design to preserve valuable space on a player’s pedal board and a vertical-sweeping LED pitch display for a clearer, more intuitive read. Its 32-bit chip has four times the processing power of a standard headstock tuner for a fast and accurate readout, and it makes the display visually smoother for precise tuning. Additionally, the chromatic pedal tuner features true-bypass, so when the pedal tuner is activated, it automatically cuts its output signal to eliminate noise during tuning and instrument changes.

STREET PRICE $69.99. daddario.com

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

Taylor Guitars

GRAND CONCERT 362CE 12-STRING GUITAR The Taylor Guitars Grand Concert 362ce is a new small-body 12-string guitar that’s extremely player-friendly. The 362ce’s compact cutaway Grand Concert shape features solid Tasmanian Blackwood back and sides and a mahogany top. The lap-friendly Grand Concert is a pleasant departure from the traditionally beefier size of bigger-bodied 12-strings, making it easier for players to set the strings in motion. The combination of the 12-fret neck and the 24-7/8-inch scale length also gives players a comfortable hand feel that makes fretting easier. Other features include Italian acrylic small diamond fretboard inlays, black binding with crisp white top trim, a three-ring rosette, a black pickguard and Taylor ES2 electronics. The 362ce comes in a Taylor deluxe hardshell case.

LIST PRICE $2,099 taylorguitars.com

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Hot Rod Time Machine XOTIC CALIFORNIA CLASSIC XSC-2 By Paul Riario FOR A LONG TIME I only knew Xotic to be an effects company that specializes in wickedly great preamp and boost pedals. I have seen many players whom I respect use Xotic’s revered AC and RC Booster pedals and the very popular BB Preamp in their pedalboards because of their incredible transparency in tone. But surprisingly, I didn’t know Xotic also makes vintage-inspired guitars and basses, all of which are hand built in Los Angeles, California. I recently had the opportunity to check out the Xotic California Classic XSC-2, which combines Xotic’s proprietary Raw Vintage pickups and hand-selected tonewoods for a completely modded S-style guitar with classic looks.

FEATURES For players who love Superstrat guitars with modern vintage appointments, the XSC-2 will feel instantly familiar. This particular guitar arrived in a desirably retro sea foam green with aged checking and a fair amount of heavy distressing on its very thin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. The guitar features a premium ash body and an outstanding roasted flame maple neck that has a beautiful caramel patina. What’s important is that the roasted maple process on the neck allows for a natural wood feel and adds enhanced stability. The guitar also features a 9.5-inch fretboard radius, 22-Jescar jumbo frets, mint green three-ply pickguard, Gotoh vintage-style tremolo and vintage-style locking tuners. Xotic’s proprietary Raw Vintage pickups are hand wound, and this XSC-2 comes with a humbucker (RV-PAF)

CHEAT SHEET

STREET PRICE: $2,550 MANUFACTURER: Xotic, xotic.us

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

The roasted flamemaple neck of the XSC-2 feels buttery smooth and provides rock hard stability.

and dual single coil (RV-50) configuration. Keep in mind, the California Classic Series can be ordered online with a select variety of options. PERFORMANCE Out of the box, the XSC2 possesses a flawless setup. Everything about the guitar, from its perfectly cut nut, flat fretboard radius, fret and string height, contribute to its fluid playability, intonation and tendency to stay in tune. The pickup height is also properly compensated so that as you select between humbucker and single coil settings on its five-way switch, there is no inconsistency in output, making each setting nicely even in volume. In addition, the medium-size “C” profile neck shape feels instantly comfortable in hand while the back of the neck feels so smooth it’s like sliding on glass. Using a variety of Vox and Fender amps, the XSC-2’s Raw Vintage pickups deliver big time in tone. There is little doubt the pickups are voiced toward vintage specs; however, there is certainly more detail and fullness. The RV-PAF is a low-output humbucker that exhibits a warm midrange and fullbodied roundness when overdriven. It’s great for rock and blues licks that need just the right amount of rich sustain when playing loudly. But I must say, the RV-50 single coils charmed me the most. Playing in the neck position or the “Strat Quack” fourth position (neck and middle running in parallel), the guitar sounds incredibly open, with a juicy fatness that has plenty of bite. For a guitar that has all the right custom appointments, the XSC-2 is a hard one to put down.

The RV-50 single coil pickups and the RV-PAF humbucker are sonically matched to provide stellar classic tones with great definition and clarity.

THE BOTTOM LINE The Xotic California Classic XSC-2 is one of the finest hand-built S-style guitars with modern refinements, wide-open tones and total vintage mojo.

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

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7 8

≤

The key to applying any scale or arpeggio musically is to make the notes fit rhythmically into the context of the meter and tempo of the song or groove over which you’re playing. You need to explore and discover ways in which to “sculpt” and “quantize” note groupings so that they conform to your desired phrasing scheme. Oftentimes, this involves playing a shorter, “bite-size” segment of a longer pattern across a narrower pitch range, so that you can play a figure ascending and descending repeatedly, within one or two octaves, and have all the notes and accents fall neatly into groups of 16th notes, triplets or sextuplets—what I like to call “shred cells.”

. .

>~~~~~

5 7

7 8

7 9

. .

4 3 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 3

5 7 1

7 8

3 3 1

etc.

8 7 8

3 1

5 7

11 10

etc.

6 5 6

3 1

1224

1 2 1 3 1 2 1 3 4 3 1 2 1 3 1 2

4 3 1 2 1 2 1 3 4 3 1 2 1 2 1 3

A su s4 b 2

12 10

1 2 1 3 3 3 1 2 1 2 1 3 3 3 1 2

14fr.

1244

7 5

A su s4 b 2

8fr.

3 2

7 9

17 15

10 11

3 1

15 14

8 7

3 1 2

11 10

3 2

14 12 3

7 5

3 3 1

3 1

13 2

9 7

. .

~~~~~

. .

~~~~~~~

May through September 2017), I presented a handful of unusual, intriguing four-note arpeggios in the key of A—Aadd2, Am(add2), Aaddf2, A6f2 and A7s9—and demonstrated some interesting ways to employ them melodically and repurpose two of them harmonically, using Caddf2 (C Df E G) or C6f2 (C Df A C) to get an A7s9 sound (A Cs E G Bs). Continuing our exploration of cool and unusual four-note shapes, I now present Asus4f2 (A Bf D E) and some neat things you can do with it on the guitar. Like the Aaddf2 arpeggio (A Bf Cs E) that we covered in the August 2017 installment of String Theory, Asus4f2 gives you your A root note, flatted second (or ninth), Bf, and perfect fifth, E. But instead of the bright-sounding major third, Cs, we get the suspended fourth, D, which imparts a feeling of suspense (a convenient coincidence, with the term “suspended”), as the arpeggio’s or chord’s basic quality is neither major nor minor, being noncommittal in that regard. This, combined with the eeriness of the f2 (or f9), Bf, yields a rather mysterious, haunting sound that’s great for scaring children and adults alike. As a chord reference, FIGURE 1 illustrates some finger-friendly Asus4f2 grips on the top four stings, with the open A string included and the first shape additionally shown 12 frets higher. It’s an intriguing chord sound, eh? FIGURE 2 demonstrates an effective way to convey this same sound melodically, by playing an Asus4f2 arpeggio as a compact, four-note cell (A Bf D E), using two notes per string, with the shape initially played on the bottom two strings then transposed up an octave on the middle two strings, then up another octave on the top two strings, forming a continuous pattern that moves diagonally up and across the neck and back, via position shifts, spanning a two-and-a-half-octave range. I’m employing legato phrasing here, using every available hammer-on and pull-off in order to achieve a smooth, rolling sound, but feel free to try and alternate pick all the notes, starting on either a downstroke or an upstroke, or to just increase your “picking percentage” slightly.

T A B

A su s4 b 2

5fr.

~~~~~

IN OUR LAST six lessons (see Guitar World

FIGURE FIG. 2 2 A su s4 b 2

A su s4 b 2

~~~~~

The spooky sus4f2 sound

A su s4 b 2

FIGURE FIG. 1 1

~~~

COLUMNS

By Jimmy Brown

EERIE ARPEGGIOS, PART 4

For video of this lesson, go to GuitarWorld.com/Nov2017

STRING THEORY

12 1

FIGURES 3–6 offer some examples of this approach, using our diagonal Asus4f2 arpeggio pattern as a template. FIGURE 7 introduces a new and equally useful fretboard pattern, or “path,” for Asus4f2, this one beginning on the A string’s 12th fret and ascending two octaves. Transpose this and all previous examples in this lesson to the other important guitar keys, namely E, D and G, and also B, C and F. Next time, I’ll show you an interesting variation on this four-note shape and some cool and highly useful ways to repurpose it harmonically to achieve other equally compelling chord and arpeggio sounds.

To download instructional guitar DVDs by Jimmy Brown— as individual chapters or complete discs—visit guitarworldlessons.com or download the official Guitar World Lessons app in iTunes.

LESSONS

The Data Corrupter is a monophonic analog PLL harmonizer with modulation. It takes your input signal and brutally amplifies it into a crushing square wave fuzz tone that is then multiplied, divided and modulated to create a wild, yet repeatable, three-voice guitar synthesizer.

MODULATED MONOPHONIC PLL HARMONIZER

www.earthquakerdevices.com

The H9 MAX is a dream pedalboard that fits in your glovebox. Packed with Eventide’s iconic reverb, delay, modulation, pitch-shifting and distortion effects, it’s “the only guitar pedal you’ll ever need.” — Guitar Tricks. Now featuring:

by Andy Aledort

MOVING UP

Adding the major third to blues licks in ninth position

FIG. 11 FIGURE 1

IN THIS THIRD installment of our explora-

tion of utilizing the major third of E, Gs, as an additional tone within licks based on the E minor pentatonic scale (E G A B D) and E blues scale (E G A Bf B D), we will focus on ninth position. The reason the major third is such a welcome sound is that, when playing over the tonic, or “one” chord in a blues progression in E, E7, it represents an important, defining chord tone. Of the four notes that make up an E7 chord—E, Gs, B and D—only E, B and D are present in the aforementioned scales, so the addition of the Gs note strengthens the connection between the melody and the underlying E7 chord. If we add Gs to the E blues scale, we get a hybrid scale that includes a chromatic row between the minor third, G, and the fifth, B; the notes of this hybrid scale are: E G Gs A Bf B D, spelled, intervallically: 1 f3 3 4 f5 5 f7. As I demonstrated in the previous two columns, the placement of the major third in a melodic line should ideally come after the minor third, as a means to highlight the chord tone. This is the case whether the line is ascending or descending. Remember that you can incorporate the sound of the major third by either fretting the note normally or bending the minor third up a half step. String bends always sound expressive when playing blues or blues-rock, and the technique lends a vocal quality to an improvised line. FIGURE 1 is a 12-bar solo played over a slow blues in E, with all licks restricted to ninth position. As I’ve pointed out in previous columns, restricting oneself to a specific scale position across an entire 12-bar solo is not the way most soloists will play, but the benefit of this exercise is that it forces you to think more melodically while also breaking the habit of allowing muscle memory to make melodic decisions for you. The benefits are two-fold: the player should simply listen to the melodies as they take form in the given area of the fretboard, while the common danger of unconsciously playing tired licks and patterns is broken. Throughout the majority of the solo, I use the E root note, third string, ninth fret, as an “anchor,” or “home base,” for the melodic phrases. It’s both fun and challenging to designate this note as a target within the scope of melodic improvisation.

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

12 8

T A B

E7 11 12

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12 12 9

1110

12 9

12 9 3

9 12 9

9 9 9

12 9 3

12 9

12 9 3

1/2

10 12

1/2

10 12

12 9

1/2

10 12

12 9

912 9

9 12 9

12 9

9 12 9 12

9 12 9

1/2

12 9

3 1/2

1/2

11 10

9 11

~~~~~~~~~

11 10

A7 10

~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~

12 9

12 10 12 12 10 12

13 12 10

1/2

12 9

12 10 12

~~~~~

12 9 12 9

‰

10 10 8 8

12 13

1/2

8 8 8

12 12

~~~~~~~~~ . 8

0 3

10 11 12 13

1/2

10 1110 10 1110 1110 1110 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 9 12 9 9 11 12 12

9 12 9 12 9

10 12 12 10 12

~~~~

11 E 7

10 12 10

B7 1110

12 9

1/2

12 9

3 1/2

1/2

9 12

1/2

3 ~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~

1/2

COLUMNS

For video of this lesson, go to GuitarWorld.com/Nov2017

IN DEEP

To download instructional guitar DVDs by Andy Aledort— as individual chapters or complete discs—visit guitarworldlessons.com or download the official Guitar World Lessons app in iTunes. Contact Andy at andyaledort.com.

Œ.

LESSONS

DON’T MISS AN ISSUE – SUBSCRIBE TODAY RECEIVE YOUR PRINT OR DIGITAL COPY EVERY MONTH

SUBSCRIBE ONLINE AT

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by Mike Orlando of Adrenaline Mob

THEME AND DEVELOPMENT Two-hand percussive tapping variations

AS I DEMONSTRATED in my debut Guitar

World column last month, a favorite technique of mine is percussive tapping, wherein notes and specific rhythmic patterns are sounded by tapping onto the fretboard with the fingers of both hands. To me, this technique is akin to a drummer performing specific syncopations with two sticks, except I’m using my fingertips to simultaneously create rhythmic and melodic patterns while also outlining chords. I love the way drummers will move freely between rhythmic patterns like triplets and “quads” (four-note patterns) in the formulation of shifting syncopations. The difference between hitting a drum and fretboard tapping on the guitar is that the guitar allows one to sound an endless variety of melodies and chord patterns while “drumming.” Last month, I applied percussive tapping to a 12-bar blues progression. This month, I’d like to present a more complex example played over a standard rock-type chord progression. As I had done last month, two fret-hand fingers, this time the index and ring, tap out an ostinato (repeating) figure on the top two strings that serves to lay down the reference to the chord progression, while the pick-hand index finger taps out syncopated melodic lines, primarily on the high E string. Throughout FIGURE 1, a “T” represents a note sounded with an index-finger tap, and a circled “T” represents a note tapped with the fret-hand index or ring finger. Starting with a rhythm of 16th notes, the lick begins with a pick-hand tap, followed by two consecutive fret-hand taps, then another pick-hand tap. Across the first four bars, I tap an Fs5 chord with my fret hand while my pick hand taps an ascending Fs natural minor scale (Fs Gs A B Cs D E). At bar 5, the fret-hand taps move up three frets to sound A5, and this reference to A major, the relative major chord and key of Fs minor, changes the reference of the notes to the A major scale (A B Cs D E Fs Gs). In bars 9-12, the fret-hand taps shift to E5 while the pick-hand melody moves to notes based on the E major scale (E Fs Gs A B Cs Ds). At the end of bar 12, a new figure commences, in straight 32nd notes,

For video of this lesson, go to GuitarWorld.com/Nov2017

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

Tune down one whole step (low to high, D G C F A D). All music sounds one whole step lower than written.

FIGURE FIG. 1 1

 1.

   

F#m

*T T T T T T 14 9 14 14 9 7 7 7

T T

Esus2 9

T T

T T T

12 21

T T T

7 12

1714 1210

T T

16 14 1210

17 14 12 10  5  10

T T

T T T

7 14

17 14 12 10

12 19

17 141210

T T T T

9 16

T T

Dsus2

T T

T T T T

9 17

12 17

12 19

T T

12 17

T T

7 17

T T

12 19

T T

2. A T T

T T T

12 21

T T

12 16

3 T T

7 14

17 3

15 3

T T

14 3

T T

Esus2



12 *

Dsus2 7

T T

and serves to initiate the fast, repeating tapped/descending figures in bar 13 that are stationed on the top two strings. Though played over a Dsus2 chord, this melodic line is based on the A major scale, with the pick-hand tap falling on each eighth-note “downbeat.” In bar 15, the figure then moves across all the strings in 10th position. I repeat bars 1-4, then after

7 14

17 10 12 14

T T

12 21

3 T T

16 14 1211

T T

12 19

3 T T

7 16

3 T T

7 17

*repeat prev. beat T T

5 14

T T

3 16

16 1412 11

12 22

T T

12 16

T T

1714 1210

5 17

T T T T

9 19

T T

3 T T

17 14 1210



T T T

7 16

T T

(repeat prev. bar) T

1714 12 10

 

T T

T = fret-hand tap

*T = pick-hand tap

T T

3 14



T T

5 14



F#m

T T

5 16

16 !

 16 !

skipping to the second ending (bar 17), I shift to fast 16th-note triplets in a thematic development of the melodic ideas (bars 18-20), before “downshifting” back to 16th notes in bar 21. Be sure to play through all of the different elements of each phrase slowly before attempting to play the entire example from beginning to end at a fast tempo.

Mike Orlando is the lead guitarist and a founding member of heavy metal powerhouse Adrenaline Mob. Their new album, We the People, is out now via Century Media.

LESSONS

DANNY SANCHEZ

COLUMNS

MOB RULES

T H I S C A N R E B U I L D A C O M M U N I T Y.

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TRANSCRIPTIONS

NOTATION GUIDE notation guide “tablature clef” time signature whole note (held for four beats) N.C.(E) *string 1 2 3 4 5 6

half notes (held for two beats each) D A 2 3 2 0

quarter notes (held for one beat each) E let ring

2 2 2 0

0 0 1

* String 1 is the thinnest string; 6 is the thickest. Numbers on the lines indicate frets (0 = open string). eighth notes C

and

ee and uh

2 2 0

ee and uh 4

3 3 0 0 2 3

and

2 2 2 0

and

.. ..

4”

and

half rest

.. .

2 2 0

1 and

hammer-on

3 3 0 0 2 3

and

quarter rest

dotted quarter note

*tied rhythms

.. .. ..

16th rest

dotted quarter note G 3 3 0 0 2 3

eighth eighth 16th rest note notes

dotted half note (held for three beats) A

G/B

2 2 0

and

2 2 0

and

legato slide

2 0

and

2 2 2 0

2 2 0

and uh

pull-off

4”

tie

and

4”

* Don’t rearticulate notes in parentheses.

bend and release in time (whole-step bend) full 7

(7)

and

(7)

and

N.H.

grace-note slide

*pre-bend and release (“reverse bend”) full

full

and

full 8

7 7

4”

“1

and

*pinch harmonic (note fretted)

palm muting (picking hand) E5

P.H.

P.M.

4”

trill (quick succession of hammer-ons and pull-offs)

2 0

5 5 3

2 0

X X X

* X X X

X X X

tremolo picking

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

X X X

sweep picking (“raking”)

5 5 3

* Loosen grip on strings so that they no longer touch the fretboard.

7 (9) 7

*Bend string before picking.

*Harmonic sounded by picking hand.

staccato (short) notes

fret-hand muting G5

5 2 0

*Lightly touch string directly over fret, then pick.

(8)

*natural harmonics

grace-note bend full

vibrato

= downstroke,

3 = upstroke

guitarworld.com

141

TRANSCRIPTIONS

THE WAY YOU USED TO DO Queens of the Stone Age

As heard on VILLAINS Words and music by TROY VAN LEEUWEN, DEAN FERTITA, JOSHUA HOMME and MICHAEL SHUMAN • Transcribed by JEFF PERRIN

All guitars are tuned down one whole step (low to high, D G C F A D). Bass tuning (low to high: D G C F). All music sounds in the key of G minor, one whole step lower than written. Dm Gm6 E/G#

4fr

  =   

231

213

Intro (0:00) Moderately Fast q = 178 N.C.(A5) Gtr. 1 (elec. w/dist.) Rhy. Fig. 1

 





Gtr. 2 (elec. w/dist.)







312

 3









 



311





 

Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 twice (see bar 1) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 2 twice (see bar 3) Gtr. 3 Rhy. Fig. 3 5 0





 















seventeen perfect match



GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017





Rhy. Fig. 2

213 4

 

(repeat previous two bars)



13 (repeat previous four bars)

6fr

3421

(repeat previous bar)

1st Verse (0:14) When I first met her she was Jump like an arsonist to a Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 four times (see bar 1) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 2 four times (see bar 3)

5fr

Hey

Gtr. 3 (12-string elec. w/dist.)



5fr

seventeen Burned









 

alive

  



(Gtrs. 1 and 2) 0

“THE WAY YOU USED TO DO” WORDS AND MUSIC BY TROY VAN LEEUWEN, DEAN FERTITA, JOSHUA HOMME AND MICHAEL SHUMAN COPYRIGHT © 2017 MAGIC BULLET MUSIC, SLEEPING DISORDER MUSIC, BOARD STIFF MUSIC INC. AND DR. SHOES INC. ALL RIGHTS FOR MAGIC BULLET MUSIC ADMINISTERED WORLDWIDE BY KOBALT SONGS MUSIC PUBLISHING ALL RIGHTS FOR SLEEPING DISORDER MUSIC, BOARD STIFF MUSIC INC. AND DR. SHOES INC. ADMINISTERED WORLDWIDE BY SONGS OF KOBALT MUSIC PUBLISHING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED USED BY PERMISSION. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD LLC

“THE WAY YOU USED TO DO”

1st Pre-chorus (0:34) where no run Dm

one

could find

Gtr. 1 Rhy. Fig. 4



Rhy. Fig. 4a Gtr. 2 let ring throughout 1 2

D 22

 3





1st Chorus (0:38) Girl we Am

outrun



5 5 7

5 0

doesn’t matter

 5



5 5 7



5 5 7

Gtr. 2



Bass

5 6 7 7

6 7 7

5 6 7 7

5 4

4 6

5 5 7



5 6 7 7





5 4

5 4 6

But it



5 6 7 7



5 6 7 7

come and love E7



7 6

how

5 6 7 7



6 0



7 6 7

! 0

7 0





7 6 7



5 6 7 7

like the way you

7 6

5 4

  5 5 5 ! !

Just



11 !

how

6 7 7

 5 ! 7 6 7

11 !

1/2

Gtr. 1 Riff B 26 5 !



11 !

everyone

      7 5 7 5 7 5   

Rhy. Fig. 5

E/G#

  10 !

5 !

Gm6



! 10

 

 end Rhy. Fig. 5







(0:48)

used to do N.C.(A5) Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 twice (see bar 1) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 3 (see bar 5) Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 2 four times (see bar 3)

Bass Bass Fig. 1 30 12







Yeah















guitarworld.com

TRANSCRIPTIONS Gtr. 1 34







(Gtrs. 1 and 3)

Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 simile (see bar 30)

2nd Verse (0:58) Is Gave N.C.(Am)

love birth

Gtrs. 1 and 3 38

 



mental disease or to monsters who will



lucky terrorize

fever



(2.) Yeah

Bass



0 0 0

Bass Fig. 2 3 2 3 0



 

10 10 10



Bass plays Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 42)

Bass Fill 1 (1:08) N.C.(Am)



0 0 0



3 2 3 0



0 0 0 0













5 7 5

 0 0 0 0

0X



GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017



7 0



7 0

0 0 0



7 0



7 0

 

terrorize

(Gtrs. 1 and 3)

0 0

2 0

0 0 0



     

 

0 0

7 7 7

0 0 0

7 0

 

0 0 0

7 7 7 0 0 0



If the

 

7 0

 

7 0

 

0 0

7 7 7

7 7 7 0 0 0

Gtr. 2

0  



7 0

yeah



4th time, Bass substitutes Bass Fill 3 (see below)



Gtr. 3







4th time, Gtr. 1 substitutes Rhy. Fill 1(see next page)



 



4th time, skip ahead to H 3rd Pre-chorus (bar 52) 4th time: If the



Gtr. 2



(1:18, 2:48)

Gtr. 1 47

 



7 0

They’ll

Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 3 (see bar 5) Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 2 twice (see bar 3)



Gtr. 3

either

Gtr. 1

Bass plays first three bars of Bass Fig. 1 (see bar 30) Bass substitutes Bass Fill 1 on repeat (see below)

Gtr. 1 42

Fine with normalcy

dream



     

7 0

 

Gtrs. 1 and 2 0 0 0 7 6

7 7 0 0 7 7 6

Bass substitutes Bass Fill 2 (see below)

Bass Fill 2 (1:25) (Am)

    0 0

Bass Fill 3 (2:54) (Am) 0 0 7 6

 

3 2 3 0

0

7 6

“THE WAY YOU USED TO DO”

2nd and 3rd Pre-choruses (1:27, 2:55) world exploded behind Dm Gm6 Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 4 (see bar 18) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 4a (see bar 18) Bass Gtr. 3 plays Fill 1 (see below)

 





(play repeats simile)

2nd Chorus (1:32) I never noticed if Am Gtr. 2 plays first four bars of Rhy. Fig. 5 simile (see bar 22)

Gtr. 1

Bass

      7 5 7 5 7 5   





nobody

Bass 60





dare











5 !







Fill 1 (1:27)







Let

5 !





who does

















But it





come and E7



love

7 5

how





like the way you



Gtr. 1 Gtr. 2

(Dm) 5 !





Rhy. Fill 1 (2:54)

Gtr. 3



Just

doesn’t matter how

5 

(bar 109)

E/G#



Gtr. 1 plays Riff B (see bar 26)

confine

anyone I’ll bury Am Gtr. 1 plays Riff A (see bar 56) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 5 (see bar 22) 7

done





Gm6 Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 4 (see bar 18) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 4a (see bar 18)

5 

Riff A

Bass Fig. 3

E/G#

 



2nd time, skip ahead to

5 !







(Am) 10



Gtrs. 1 and 2

guitarworld.com

TRANSCRIPTIONS

(1:52)

used to do N.C.(A5) Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 3 twice (see bar 5)

Gtr. 1 72

5



Gtr. 2 Rhy. Fig. 6 9

Whew

 2  5

Bass plays Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 42) Gtr. 1 76

5 9

Gtr. 2

Bass 3

2 0









Gtr. 2









Gtr. 3













2 0



Bass plays Bass Fig. 4 (see bar 80)

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017



2 0





used to do Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 7 (see bar 80) Gtrs. 1 and 3 84





Bass Bass Fig. 4

 





Gtr. 2 Rhy. Fig. 7

 



Now







Interlude (2:02)

Gtrs. 1 and 3 80

 









 0

you

 



(2.) The way



2 0



0 3

   

“THE WAY YOU USED TO DO”



Gtr. 1 88 0 2

0 0 3

12 14



Gtr. 2

Bass

12 15



12 14 14





12 12 15







2 0

2 2

0 0 0 0

3 0



12 14

9 0 0

3 0 0

9 0

3rd Verse (2:23) Yeah Hmm My heart’s a ding - a - ling Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 2 twice (see bar 3)

  

0 3

0 2



14 12

3

3 0

puppet

9 0



10 10 10 10

7 7 10 7



0 0 0

3 0

0 0

12 12 12 12

string

C’est

 

2 2 2 2 3



vie





(repeat previous two bars)



2 2 2 2



2 2

Gtr. 1 93

0 0



0 0



Gtr. 3

0 12 15

0 3

0 2



 

Yeah Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 6 (see bar 72) Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 3 (see bar 5)

5





Bass plays Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 42)

lay

101

your



hands across my



beating

heart



Gtr. 1 11





0 0

 Bass



Gtr. 2 10

5

Gtr. 3 ( iq = iq) *

*w/echo effect





(repeat previous bar)



6 3



N.H. pitch: C#



7



(string noise)



guitarworld.com

TRANSCRIPTIONS

love Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 6 (see bar 72) Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 3 (see bar 5)

Gtr. 1 105

5



Love



Go back to

(bar 47)

Bass plays Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 42)

3rd Chorus (3:00) I never noticed if Am Gtr. 2 plays first four bars of Rhy. Fig. 5 (see bar 22)

    7 5 7 5  

109

Bass plays Bass Fig. 3 (see bar 56)

nobody

done



Gtr. 2 0

Bass 5



3 !







Let

  5

 

5 !

5 4

us E/G#





2 !

0 !

1/2

 



confine



done Dm

Gm6

Gtr. 1 113

5 !

  7 5 











5 4



14 14 14 12

I’ll bury anyone Am Gtr. 2 plays first four bars of Rhy. Fig. 5 (see bar 22)

   3 2 3 3 



14 14 14 12 12

9 9 9 10 10 10

who does

But it Dm

Gtr. 1 117

Bass



X X

 

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017



 



0 0



0 !











“THE WAY YOU USED TO DO”

doesn’t matter

how

 5 ! Gtr. 2



7 6



5 



7 7 0

Bass



 



7 6





5 5

0 !

0 0 0

6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7



0 !

7 6 7

used to do

 



7 6 7 0

7 6 7

 



 



0 0 0

7 7 7 0 0 0

 

0 0 0

 

0 !

Wee -

Gtr. 3

134

11 !



(3:24)

Gtr. 1 128





 

5 5 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

like the way you



8 !

Bass

Just come and love me how E7



Gtr. 1 121



7 0



  0

  7 0

7 7 7

0 0

10 10 10 7 7 0

7



7 7

ooh

         10 10 10 10 5 7 5 7  10 13 13 13  10  70 70 70 70

7 0

13 7 7 7 7 5 7 5 0 0 0 0

 7   



7 0



0 0 0

used to do used to do Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 3 (see bar 5)

0 0 0

7 7 7 0 0 0



7 0



  0



0 0

10 10 10 0 0

7

The way

7 7 7

7 7

Gtr. 3











   

you

Gtr. 1



 

   

Bass plays Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 42)

guitarworld.com

TRANSCRIPTIONS

“THE WAY YOU USED TO DO”

(3:43)



Gtr. 1 Rhy. Fig. 8



138

0 !

Gtrs. 2 and 3 Rhy. Fig. 8a let ring throughout 0

Bass Bass Fig. 5





2 !





 

Come and love

Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 8 six times (see bar 138) Gtrs. 2 and 3 142 0



 14



2 !



2 !

me now



Bass plays Bass Fig. 5 twice (see bar 138) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 8a four times (see bar 138) Gtr. 3 146

 7 7 7

Bass

 



14 14 14 7 7 7

14 7







17 17 17 10 10 10



17 10



12 12 12 5 5 5

12 14

used

to do

Gtr. 3 150 14 7

12 14

12 5





14 7



14 7





14 7



12 10

17 10

12 5

way

you



12 12 14 12 5 5 7 5

 

Gtr. 4 (overdub)

Bass Fig. 6 0



The





17 10



12 5

The

way

12 5



12 5

  

777

12 5



you

12 5

14 7

12 5

Gtr. 4 Bass plays Bass Fig. 6 twice (see bar 146)

Outro (4:03) used to do

Gtr. 3 154

14 7 12 5

(Gtr. 3)

 







  7

777

   7

777



  7

777

   7

777

   7

777

 

Gtr. 4 Gtr. 1

0 0

100



000

   0

000





GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

000

   0

5575



000

   0

000





000

   0

000

 

T H I S C A N R E B U I L D A C O M M U N I T Y.

TRANSCRIPTIONS

BIG CITY NIGHTS Scorpions

As heard on LOVE AT FIRST STING Words and music by RUDOLF SCHENKER and KLAUS MEINE • Transcribed by JEFF PERRIN

F/A

5fr

8fr

D5 7fr

A Intro (0:00) Moderately q = 136 A5 F/A A5

Gtr. 1 (elec., w/dist.) 1









7 5



   Bass

F/A



P.M.

8 5

7 5

0 0

10 8

10 10 8 8

Bass 5 !

8 5

7 5

10 8

10 10 8 8

5 !

F/A A5 F5 Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 twice (see bar 5) Gtr. 4 Riff A



Gtr. 3 Riff A1



102





 5



5 3

132

5 3

Esus4

X X

7 3

1334

Gsus4 8 8 7

8 8 7

7 8 7

5 3

X X

 G5

F/A

7fr



5 3





Gsus4



7 5

Gtr. 4 (elec. w/dist.)





10 12 3 5

12 5





Rhy. Fill 1

9 7

(0:14)

Bass



7 !

134

D5 C5

F5 7fr

Gtr. 3 (elec. w/dist.)



14 !

7 5

G 7fr





7 5

Gsus4



Rhy. Fig. 1

7 5

9 7





3fr



Gtr. 1

C5 5fr

7 5

5 3



5 3

7 3



D5 C5



  15 15 !



  7 7 !

 

7 !



GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

 



 7





8 8 7

 3



  1 15  14 ! 14 14  1

8 8 7

7 8 7

5 3

7 3

5 3

X X



Gsus4

13 12

5 4



X X

7 5

 

10 12



“BIG CITY NIGHTS” WORDS AND MUSIC BY RUDOLF SCHENKER AND KLAUS MEINE COPYRIGHT © 1989 BY EDITION ARABELLA MUSIC MUENCH ALL RIGHTS FOR THE U.S. ADMINISTERED BY UNIVERSAL MUSIC - MGB SONGS INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT SECURED ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD LLC

“ BIG CITY NIGHTS”

F/A 13



14 !



 !7 

 

E5 D5 C5





When the daylight G A5

Gsus4 end Riff A

15 15 13 15 13

  7 7 !

(Gtr. 3)

15 15 13 15 13



 



13 15 15





Gtr. 2 (elec. w/dist.)

13 15 15





 7

  15 15 !

  1 15  14 ! 14 14  



Bass Fill 1



1st Verse (0:28) is



Gtrs. 3 and 4 17

 14 !

14 !

Gtr. 1

into

the night D5

And



the sharks A5



Rhy. Fig. 2 P.M.

7 5

Gtr. 2

 Bass

down C5

falling

7 5

P.M.

9 7





3 1



3 1

9 7



P.M.

Bass Fig. 1



7 5



P.M.

9 7



 

5 3



P.M.

5 3

5 5







5 3

7 5

6 5

5 5



8 7



8 7

P.M.

7 5

8 7

7 7

7 5







7 5

7 7 7



7 5

9 7 0

guitarworld.com

103

TRANSCRIPTIONS try



Gtr. 2

 Bass



P.M.

7 5

cut a

big C5



7 5



7 7

7 5



7 7



9 7



7 5

7 7

5 5



3 1



7 5



7 7



3 1

7 5

7 7

7 5

5 5



3 1

7 7



3 1

9 7





3 1



7 7

3 1



7 7 7 7



0 1

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017



5 3







7 5 7 5



5 3

5 5

0 2 3

5 3



6 5

5 5 3









P.M.



9 7

5 3

7 5

6 5

5 5



10 9

10 10 9 9 9 9





5 3

6 5

5 5

 

9 7



7 5

7 7



7 5

7 7

7 5







5 3



6 5

5 5







5 3

6 5

5 3

5 5



 

9 7

7 7



7 5

9 7

9 9 X 7 7

9 X 7

7 7



7 5

7 7

9 7 0

9 9 9

9 9 9 9 9 9 7 7 7 7 7 7 X 7 X 5

slight 1 P.H.

7 7 7 7



11 11 11 11 11

 2

1/2



A5 end Rhy. Fig. 2



9 7 0

7 5

But it’s more A5



7 5



9 7

10 9 9 9

outrageous thrill D5



It feels alright A5

which never stand still E5

3 3 1 1

5 3

5 5 3

fortune

5 5



5 5



5 3

P.M.



3 1

7 7



3 1

5 3

 0

P.M.

catch an

3 1

7 7

piece out of life D5



5 3

3 1



7 7



3 1



7 7

3 1

P.M.

like spinning wheels F5

 3

3 1





3 1

to go out F5

7 5

7 7

9 7

 3

7 5

P.M.



P.M.



7 7

7 5

P.M.

104

to F5

Gtr. 1 21

0 3 0

end Bass Fig. 1 0

7 7 7 7



3 5

“ BIG CITY NIGHTS”

1st Chorus (0:57) Big city big city F/A A5 F5 E5 D5 C5 Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 twice (see bar 5)



Gtr. 2 34

2 0

Bass

2 0

3 0

2 0

10 X 8

10 10 9 8 8 7





Bass Fig. 2





2 0



Big F/A

city A5

3 0

2 0



2 0



X 10 X 8

10 10 8 8





city D5 C5

9 7

7 5

Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 2 (see bar 17) Gtr. 2 42 2 0

3 0



2 0

5 3

* F5

2 0

5 3





3 1

5 3



3 1

5 3

5 5

5 3

 

5 3



5 0

3 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 0 5 0



5 3





5 5

1/2



pitch: F

5 5



8 7

2 0

end Bass Fig. 2



my eyes D5

6 5

When the sunlight A5

slight P.H.

5 3







0 0 3

5 3

3 0 2 0



P.H.

up C5



slight P.H.



5 3

rising



P.M.

nights G5



burning A5



2nd Verse (1:11)





big E5



5 3

You keep me



 3

7 5

nights G5

And the long A5

8 7

7 7 8

7 7



2 0

Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 simile (see bar 17)

*Chord symbols reflect overall harmony of Rhy. Fig. 2.



P.M.

5 5



7 7 7 7

7 5 7 5

for



55 7 7



7 7

has

7 7



7 7

something

7 7

5 5



F5 3 3





3 3



for a long F5



50 7 7



night

left me

sweet minute

7 7



7 7

C5 5 5

5 5

7 7



6 5



3 3

5 5





5 5



6 5

can’t find anymore E5 6 5

6 5

5 5 5

like hours

C5 5 5

back C5



9 9

6 6 5 5

 9 9

somebody’s side E5 6 5

5 5



before D5



9 9

7 7



9 9

10 9

It feels alright A5



10 10 9 9

9 9

10 9

But it’s more A5 7 7

8 9

7 7



7 7

7 7 7

P.H.



7 7

9 9



7 7

looking out F5 7 5 7 5



11 11 11 9

7 7

2 0

pitch: F#

Bass substitutes Bass Fill 2 (see bar 107) guitarworld.com

105

TRANSCRIPTIONS

2nd Chorus (1:41) Big city big city F/A A5 F5 E5 D5 C5 Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 twice (see bar 5)



Gtr. 2 59

2 0

nights G5



3 0

2 0

0 0

10 8

10 10 9 8 8 7

7 5



5 3

0 0 0 0

3 3

5 3

You keep me burning G

Gsus4

slight 1/2 P.H. 5 5 5 5

5 3

1/2

3 3

5 5

5 0

 /055  3

2 0

Bass plays Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 34)

Big city F/A A5



63 2 0

2 0

3 0

big E5

2 0



10 X 8

10 10 9 8 8 7

city D5 C5



7 X 5



17 17

2 0

7 5

2 0

3 0

2 0

10 8

9 7

Always Gsus4

1/2

17 15 17 17 17 15 17 17 17 15 17 17 17 15 17

city D5 C5



1/2

Big city big F5 F/A A5 E5 Gtr. 1 plays first six bars of Rhy. Fig. 1 (see bar 5)



5 3

nights G5

yearning 1/2

17 17 15

17 15

17 16 15 13 15 13

keep me



5 3

G6 G5 Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fill 1 (see bar 7) Gtr. 2 73



5 3

Bass



5 3

7 3

5 3



Gsus4

Bridge (2:11) (w/half time feel) There is no dream But there’s no E5

*Gtrs. 1 and 2 76

 

0 !

9 7





*Gtr. 1 w/phaser effect.

Bass  ! 0

106

  8 8 8 !

city D5

9 7

7 5

5 3



10 8

big E5

10 8

Gsus4

8 7 7



8 7 7

7 8 7



8 7 7

 3

nights G5



5 3

N.C.(G5) (F#5) (E5)

(Gtrs. 1 and 2)



city A5

Gsus4



 1

Big F/A



burning 1

2 0

Bass plays first six bars of Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 34)

You

8 7 7

 



that you can’t make true girl who’s burning the ice G5 C5



 5 3

0 3 !

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017



5 3

 

if you’re looking for love N.C.(G5) (F#5) (E5)





0 5 3

3 !



4 2

2 !





   

“ BIG CITY NIGHTS”

away from my

heart D5



(end half-time feel) Maybe tonight A5

Gtr. 3





Gtr. 4 Gtr. 1





0 5 3

Gtr. 2



5 3

Bass 3 !

7 5



7 5

7 7

0 0

(phaser off)



7 5

7 7

5 5

12 5



7 5

P.M.

0 5 3

7 5

10 3

12 5



7 5



5 5

2 0

Guitar Solo (2:27)

F/A A5 F5 E5 D5 *Gtrs. 1 and 2 play Rhy. Fig. 1 twice simile (see bar 5) Gtr. 4 plays Riff A (see bar 9) Gtr. 3 (Rudolph Schenker) 83



 !7



 7 !



Gsus4

  7 7 !

 7

5 4

*Gtr. 2 plays first-position, open A5 chords throughout Rhy. Fig. 1

Bass Bass Fig. 3







F/A



 7





Gtr. 3 87

 !7







7 !



Bass plays Bass Fig. 3 (see bar 83)







G6 G5

   7 !









Gsus4

(Gtrs. 3 and 4) 1



A5 Gtr. 3

13 15 13

20 14





Gtr. 4

Bass plays Bass Fill 1 (see bar 16)

(2:41)

Gtr. 3



  91 20  ( 20 ) 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 !! 14 14 14 ! !  Gtr. 4  *Gtrs. 1 and 2     2 2 2 5 X 0 0 0 3 3 3 3 3 0 1 X 1 1 1   1

*Composite arrangement: Two gtrs. arr. for one part.

(Gtr. 3)

   

20 20 18 17 18 17



 

5 3



7 5



 16   

7 5



  16

7 5



 2 0

Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 simile (see bar 17)

guitarworld.com

107

TRANSCRIPTIONS



22 20 19



2 0

Gtr. 1



2 0

Gtr. 2

 

2 0

Gtr. 2

Bass

108







2 0

3 1



3 1

7 6 53

2 0

3 1

 



 5 3  5G 5 5   15

22 00

 2 X0



2 0

 



3 1



3 1

530 1

3 1

 

3 1

3 3 1 1

 

3 X 1



GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

 

3 1



0 1

3 1

 

C5 17 16



5 3



3 1

 

 

5 3

7 7



5 3



5 3

 5 3

5 3

 

5 3

 5 X3

 





5 3

E5 15 13 12 13 12

17 15



9 7

 



8 !

7 5

7 7



9 7





9 7



9 7



7 5

5 5

7 7



9 7



5 5



7 7

7 5

7 7

5 5



2 0



2 0

A5 1

15 15 13 15 13

13 15 15

9 7

9 9 7 7

9 9 9 7 7 7

10 9 9 7

10 10 9 9 9 9 7 7

10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 7 7 7

10 9 9 2 7 0

7 5

Esus4 9 9 X 7

5 3



9 9 99 9 9 99 7 7 77

10 10 9 99 9 9 99 9 7 77 7

2 0





9 7





  15 15 ( 15)



9 7

8 5



19 18 17 15 17

 5 3



5 3

    

3 1





slight P.H.

17 16

2 0









3 1





20 17

Gtr. 1 2 0



Gtr. 13 103 5 5



Gtr. 3 99 8



 

Bass Fill 2 0

7 77

 03

4 5 0

6 6 0

“ BIG CITY NIGHTS”

Outro (3:10) Big city big E5 F/A A5 F5 Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 twice (see bar 5)

city D5 C5

You keep me burning

nights G5

 14 14 ! !

Gtr. 3 108



Gtr. 2 2 0

2 0



3 0

2 0

10 8

10 10 8 8

9 7

7 5



5 3

 P.M.



5 3



5 3

Bass plays Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 34)

Big F/A



Gtr. 2 112 2 0

3 0

Gtr. 4

city A5

2 0

big E5

10 8

city D5 C5



10 10 8 8

7 5



Gtr. 3 (w/sub-octave effect)



5 3



 14 !



X X

  ! 7  



Gtr. 2 2 0

6 5

2 0

3 0

2 0



7 !

10 8

6 5





7 5

2 0

yearning



P.H.

2 0



13 2

 

nights C5 G5

You keep me

10 12

burning A5

 15 15 ! ! 12





7 !

5 3





5 3

pitch: A





10 10 9 8 8 7

6 5



 7



6 5



A5 1





5 3



1    15 14 ! 14 14 



5 3

1/2

Always

6 5

*Gtr. 2 plays “open position” A5 chords throughout.

Gtr. 3

1/2



city big city Big A5 F5 F/A E5 Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 twice (see bar 5) *Gtr. 2 substitutes Rhy. Fig. 1 on repeats (see bar 5)

Gtr. 4 116



nights G5 1

9 7



7 !

P.M.



5 3

5 5

5 3

0 0

3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 5 0



3 0 2 0

Bass plays Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 34)

Big city F5 E5 D5 C5 F/A A5 Gtr. 3 plays Riff A1 (see bar 9) Gtr. 4 plays first four bars of Riff A (see bar 9)



Gtr. 2 120

2 0

3 0

2 0





10 8

10 10 9 8 8 7

big

5 3

nights Always yearning A5

7 5

city

5 5

3 5 3



5 3 5 7 5 3 7 14 3 5 7 14 3 5 3 5 7 5

(play 3 times and fade)

5 !

2 0

 

3 3 *approx. slide distance

guitarworld.com

109

TRANSCRIPTIONS

GOLDEN YEARS David Bowie

As heard on STATION TO STATION Words and music by DAVID BOWIE • Transcribed by JEFF PERRIN

F#/E

E7#9

B/F#

134211

231

13421

134211

11333

N.C.(F#)

(E)





4 4 4

0 2

  

Bass

0 2 2

0 2



4 6

whop

N.C.(F#)

2 4

F#/A#

9fr

111



(E)

9fr

E/G# 6fr

1111

4 4

0 2

 0

0 2 2

0 0 2



4 4

Bass Bass Fig. 1



Gtr. 1

23 

Gtr. 2



4 4

2 2



2 2 3

2 0 1



4fr

312



312



2 3 4 4 4

4 6 6 2 4



X 0

0 0 1

2 3



0 0 1

0 1

0 0 1



 

2 0 1

0 1

0 0

 23

4 4

4 2

X X

2 2 3



2 3

whop whop

whop



0 1



whop

2 0 1

0 0 1

whop

whop end Rhy. Fig. 1

3 4 4

4 2 3

0 1

years

4 0

 4

Golden gold (F#)

years (E)

0 0 1

gold (F#)



Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 (see bar 5)

GU I TA R WOR L D •

whop



Golden

whop





 

110

312



Gtr. 2 (elec. w/clean tone and phaser effect) Rhy. Fig. 1a let ring throughout 2 0 2 2 0 0 0 3 3 1 1 1

11fr

(0:09)

Gtr. 1 Rhy. Fig. 1 5

 

2134



2 2 3 4 4



(Increase tempo to q = 108) years Golden gold N.C.(F#) (E)

 

1211

11fr

Intro (0:00) Moderately q = 102

Gtr. 1 (elec. w/light overdrive) 1



111

6fr

2 3

3 2

0 1

X 4

0 0 1

2 0 1

 

 6

end Rhy. Fig. 1a 0

0 0 1

 

“GOLDEN YEARS” WORDS AND MUSIC BY DAVID BOWIE. COPYRIGHT © 1976 EMI MUSIC PUBLISHING LTD., TINTORETTO MUSIC AND CHRYSALIS MUSIC LTD. COPYRIGHT RENEWED ALL RIGHTS ON BEHALF OF EMI MUSIC PUBLISHING LTD. ADMINISTERED BY SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, 424 CHURCH STREET, SUITE 1200, NASHVILLE, TN 37219 ALL RIGHTS ON BEHALF OF TINTORETTO MUSIC ADMINISTERED BY RZO MUSIC. ALL RIGHTS ON BEHALF OF CHRYSALIS MUSIC LTD. ADMINISTERED BY BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (US) LLC INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT SECURED ALL RIGHTS RESERVED REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD LLC NOV EM BER 2017

“GOLDEN YEARS”

1st, 2nd and 4th Verses (0:27, 0:58, 2:17) let me hear you say life’s 1. Don’t night they loved you 2. Last 3. Don’t let me hear you say life’s N.C.(F#) (E) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 1a four times (see bar 5)

taking opening taking F#



Gtr. 1 9

4 4 4 4

0 2

2 2 0

0 2 2

0 2

3 4 4

angel

N.C.(E)



angel

you nowhere doors and pulling some strings you nowhere

4 X

4 6

4 6 6





3 4 4 4

0 2

0 2 2



Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 four times (see bar 5) (1.) Come (2.) Come (3.) Come

get up my baby get up my baby get up my baby N.C.



3 4 4 4

0 2

X X



4 X

4 6

Nights are warm and the days are Never look back walk tall act Run the shadows for (F#)

Look at that life’s begun sky In walked luck and you looked in time Run shadows for the (F#) (E)



4 6 6

4 4

2 2

0 X

0 2 2



0 2

3 4 4

4 6

4 X



4 6 6

Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 four times (see bar 5) 2nd and 4th Verses, skip ahead to E 2nd and 4th Choruses (bar 23)

young fine Run

for the shadows F# N.C.(E)



3 4 4

these

Come Come golden (F#)



get get



F# 4

3 4 4

up my baby up my baby years N.C. X

I’ll

X 4



Bass substitutes Bass Fill 1 on 1st and 4th Verses (see below) Bass substitutes Bass Fill 2 simile on 2nd Verse (see bar 22)

1st Chorus (0:45) There’s my D5

Gtr. 1 Rhy. Fig. 2 17 3 2 0

0 0

Gtr. 2 Rhy. Fig. 2a 3 2 0

Bass



2 3



baby lost Bm

that’s

all

2 3 4 4 0



3 2



2 3 4 4 0

Once I’m D5

 

(F#) 4



   

 3

3 2 0

Gtr. 2

2 4 2 4







 3 0 0

2 3 4 4 2



   G 3 3 4 5

3 4 3





2 3

C 5 5 5 3



3 5 5 5 5 5 3



5 5



A 2 2 2 0

her

little

2 3 4 4 2

3 2



Rhy. Fill 1 (2:39) Bass Fill 1 (0:43, 2:32)

beggin’ you save Bm



3 2

X X



Asus4 F#/E 2 2 2 0

3 2 2 0

3 2

3 2 3

3 2 X 3 X



guitarworld.com

111

TRANSCRIPTIONS

Bass 19

Go back to C 2nd Verse (bar 9)

soul (Golden years gold N.C.(F#) (E) F# Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 (see bar 5) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 1a (see bar 5)





 



whop whop whop)









2nd and 4th Choruses (1:16, 2:35) Stick with your baby Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 2 (see bar 17) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 2a (see bar 17) D5 Bm 0

(Come get up my baby) F#

N.C.(E)



for

Bm 2

years

thousand



Bass Fill 2



2nd time, skip ahead to H Outro (bar 47)

Nothing’s gonna touch you in those golden years G C A F#/E 2nd time, Gtr. 2 substitutes Rhy. Fill 1 (see previous page)

Gtr. 1 25 3 4 5 5 3

3 X X



Gtr. 2 5 7

3 3

5 7

4 4

Bass 5

5 5 5 3 3



5 5 5 3 3



X X



2 2 2 0

5 7

Gtr. 2 Rhy. Fig. 3

  



12 11 11 11 13 11



9 9 9

9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 11 11 11



Bass

112



 

  

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

5 7

12 11 11 11 13 11

years (Golden years gold B/F# F# E B/F# F# Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 (see bar 5)

X X



9 9 9 9



0

2 2 3 2

8 9

2 2 3 2

9 8 9

Golden Bm



 4 4 2

2 2 3 2

9 9 8 8 9 9

 

2 3 4 4 2

9 9 9 9





 

0 0

  

2 3 4 4 2

whop whop whop) B/F# F#

2 3 0



2 3 4 4 2

   

8 7 6 7



8 7 6 7

7

















7 7 7



(Come get up my baby) B/F# F# E

9 9 9



8 7 6 7



12 11 11 11 13 11

8 7 6 7

X 15 15 15 15 X 15 15 15 15

 &

E7#9





9 9 9 9 9 9 9 11 11 11



  

12 11 11 11 13 11



9 9 9



0

9 9 9

9 7 9 9 9 11 11



“GOLDEN YEARS”

3rd Verse (1:37) Some of these days and it won’t be long Doing all right but you gotta get smart N.C.(F#) (E) Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 (see bar 5) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 1a (see bar 5)



Bass 33 4

 

back of a dream oh



Lord

twenty foot long

don’t





sweet don’t get up my the way get up my



where you upon

cry my (Come all (Come F#

believe



drive back down Wish upon wish F#

N.C.(E)



car

gonna

belonged upon day

break baby)

in the I believe

heart

baby)



once day

 

4 2

*Substitute notes in parentheses on repeat.

Run for the shadows Run N.C.(F#) (E) Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 (see bar 5) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 1a (see bar 5)

for the shadows F#





Run

for the shadows in these golden N.C.(E) F#



 



years

3rd Chorus (2:04) There’s my baby lost D5 Bm Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 2 (see bar 17) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 2a (see bar 17)





soul (Golden years E F# Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 (see bar 5)

Gtr. 2 43

2 2 3

 

2 2 3



0 0 1



0 0 1

2 0 1

that’s all

2 0 0 0 0 0 1

Outro (2:47) Golden

 

2 2 3

 

2 2 3



 

0 0 1



0 0 1

2 0 1

2 0 0 0 1

gold Golden

years

Bass

2 2 3 4 4



X 2



0 1 2 2



X X

 

2 4

11 11 11

F#/A# E

 

7 6 8

9 9 9

2 3 4 4 4



X X X



9 9 9

whop whop whop

years

gold whop whop whop F# F# E Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 3 twice simile (see bar 29)



whop whop whop) F#

2nd time: (whistling)

Gtr. 1 47



beggin’ you Bm

save

her

little



Go back to C 4th Verse (bar 9)

gold F#

Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 twice (see bar 5)

Once I’m D5



0 1 2 2 0



E/G#

5 4 6

9 9 9

5 4 6

gold Golden F#

(Come get up my baby) F# F#/A# E

 

11 11 11

4 2 4

4 2



7 6 8

9 9 9



3 4 4



4 0 0 2

 9  5 99 A  

whop whopwhop

years



X X

 

4 X 4 X 4









4 4



(play repeats w/ad lib variation) guitarworld.com

113

TRANSCRIPTIONS

Golden

“GOLDEN YEARS”

gold Golden whop whop whop)

years

gold

4 2

2 3 4 4 2

X X X X



0 1 2 2 0

2 0

Golden

4 2



Golden

Gtr. 2

 

12 11 13

Bass4 

whop



   



4 4

11 11 11

 

9 9 9





X 2 X 2



2 2



gold Golden

4 2

gold Golden

2 2 3 4 4 2

4 2

X X

 9 9

12 11 13

4 2

 

11 11 11







 

9 9 9 9





GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

(F#) 4





X 2

2 2

9 9 9 9



0 X

9 9 9 9 11



(E) X X X 2

4 2 0

4 X X 4 X X

(play 3 times)



Substitute Bass Fill 3 on repeats (see below) 4

4 4

whop whop whop

2 0

0 1 2 2 0



N.C.(E)

4 2

4 4

whop whop whop

years

2 3 4 4

years

4 2



Bass Fill 3 (3:46, 3:50)

114

2 2 3 4 X 4 4 X 4

(play 3 times)

0 1 2 2

9 9 11 11

4 2



0 1 2 2 0

whop whop whop

2 2 3 4

2 0

whop whop



gold

 

0 0 1 2 2 0

years

4 2



whop whop whop

years



2 2 3 4 4

0 2 3 4 4 2

years

Gtr. 1 55

4 2

 4 2



gold

 



whop whop whop gold Golden

years

 



0 2 3 4 4

11 11 11 13

  !  4





 13 !



 

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INSIDE THE COOLEST GUITAR STORES IN THE U.S.

ALL MUSIC INC.

397 S. Oyster Bay Road, Plainview, NY 11803 Established: November 1984 allmusicinc.com

ALL MUSIC MAY very well be one of New York’s best-kept secrets, while also being popular and revered with Long Island guitar players. A single door decorated with a guitar silhouette leads to an underground collection of guitars, amps and effects that are a sight to be seen. Located 30 miles east of New York City, this shop (affectionately nicknamed the “Music Dungeon”) is owned by former Scatterbrain/Ludichrist bassist Guy Brogna and hosts world-class workshops, clinics and performances that are not to be missed.

about. The next one would be the one that the customer asks for but you don’t have!

NUMBER OF INSTRUMENTS CURRENTLY IN STOCK Guy Brogna (Owner): As far as stringed instruments, we usually have between 500 and 700.

FAVORITE CELEBRITY ENCOUNTER I recently was asked by Steve Vai to help him out at his induction into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. I got his guitar and rig set up for him and helped him out onstage. We got to talk for a while backstage when I was going over his guitar. He also played and signed the new 25th Anniversary Passion and Warfare guitar I had with me.

COOLEST INSTRUMENT CURRENTLY IN THE SHOP I think we have a few that fall into that category. The first is a 1952 Fender Tele owned by Roy Buchanan. It’s just such a piece of history and beyond cool. The second is the solid brass Ibanez Artist built in 1979 for the NAMM Show. This is a one-of-a-kind and such an original and quirky idea. There’s also a Thirties-era Wilkanowski Airway. This is serial No. 2 from the famous violin and cello maker. FAVORITE INSTRUMENT YOU EVER SOLD A friend of the store brought in one of Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstein guitars from the 1984 tour. We had it for a day, and we all just hung out in the shop looking, examining and playing it. MOST EXPENSIVE INSTRUMENT YOU EVER SOLD We just recently sold a 1958 D’Angelico Excel for $35,000 to Pete Townshend of the Who. MOST SOUGHT-AFTER INSTRUMENT BY CUSTOMERS The Sixties Strats are always something you hear people asking

122

GU I TA R WOR L D • NOV EM BER 2017

BIGGEST PET PEEVE AS A SHOP OWNER When you spend the time with a customer that is so interested in that guitar you have been showing him for the past hour and when you are all ready to wrap up the sale, he says, “Okay, I just have to check with the boss.” Are you kidding me?!? Did she call you when she bought that pocket book or 17th pair of shoes lying in the bottom of her closet? I’d rather them punch me in the face and walk out.

ONE FACT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ALL MUSIC INC. We give every customer the same attention and time whether they are buying a $5 piece of sheet music or a $5,000 guitar. We care about the customer and we want them to feel that they are more than just a sale. We like to get to know the person by name; when they come here it’s not like they just walked into a place for the first time. There are times a customer comes in and says, “I bought a guitar from you eight years ago,” and I can name the guitar they bought. I usually don’t remember their name but I can remember the guitar. STRANGEST REQUEST FROM A CUSTOMER After not getting financing approval, the customer asks me on a $1,600 guitar, “How about I take the guitar home and leave you 50 bucks and I come in every few weeks and leave you another 50 until it’s paid off?”

by Eric Feldman, guitarshoptees.com

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Jext Telez - Handbuilt in Detroit, Michigan

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