Guitar Player articles from April 2007

Guitar Player archives from April 2007

I had the honor of presenting.(NOIZE: From the Editor)(Guitar Player Legend award to guitarist Dick Dale)(Editorial)
April 1, 2007... I HAD THE HONOR OF PRESENTING Dick Dale with the Guitar Player LEGEND award at the magazine's 40th Anniversary Concert at Muriel Anderson's All-Star Guitar Night during the NAMM show on January 20. This was only the third time GP has bestowed...

The unforgotten.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... In 1973, when I was 14, I saw Tommy Bolin with the James Gang in a small auditorium in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Since that time I have had the good fortune to see nearly all of my guitar idols from Page to Beck, Clapton, SRV, Dickey Betts,...

The Seagal of that guy.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... I had to double check and make sure this wasn't the April issue, or a Mad magazine parody of Guitar Player. Steven Seagal is to the blues--and to music in general--the same as he has been to acting: a joke. Any of the "101 Forgotten Greats"...

10 things you gotta love.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... I have just finished (for the 10th time) February's "10 Things You Gotta Know" article. What a great inspiration! I have been a Blackmore fan since first hearing Deep Purple in 1968, and have had the opportunity to see him in concert numerous...

Elliott Sharp.(RIFFS: Outsider)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... "MY LA PAVONI ESPRESSO MACHINE is probably the most important piece of equipment in my studio," asserts New York-based composer Elliott Sharp, and he's only partially kidding. The 55-year-old guitarist, saxophonist, clarinetist, and instrument...

James Brown.(RIFFS: Tribute)
April 1, 2007... CHRISTMAS DAY 2006 WAS BITTERSWEET, because James Brown, the seemingly indestructible 73-year-old "Hardest Working Man in Show Business," passed on to a well-deserved vacation. Brown had been admitted to Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta...

Nori Bucci.(RIFFS: Rocker Girl)(rock guitarist)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... IN THE MAGAZINE'S AUGUST 1993 ISSUE, the inquiring minds at Guitar Player wanted to know if "shred was dead?" The cover story ignited a furious debate in a guitar community that was quite sensitive during the '90s transition period of grunge...

Queen.(RIFFS: Oeuvre Easy)(music group)
April 1, 2007... QUEEN COVERED SO MUCH STYLISTIC ground in its history that it's hard to think of them as a guitar band. The huge vocal harmonies, lavish production, and Freddie Mercury's flamboyance could overshadow anyone and anything. But, through it all,...

Tim Brady.(RIFFS: Classical)
April 1, 2007... IT'S A TYPICAL NIGHT AT THE SYMPHONY. The first violinist sounds his tuning-note A, the houselights dim, and the conductor walks onstage and raises his baton. Then, on the initial downbeat, the lead guitarist sends a fuzzed-out, digitally...

Dashboard confessional's Chris Carrabba.(RIFFS: Songwriting)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... REACTING AGAINST THE "MORE BIG AND LOUD" stance of the hardcore bands he was playing with, Chris Carrabba sought a more intimate connection with audiences by showcasing his voice and an acoustic guitar. The result was Dashboard...

Will Ray's eBay prizes.(RIFFS: Vintage Vault)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... MY FASCINATION WITH SG GUITARS GOES back to when I first laid eyes on Eric Clapton and Jerry Garcia playing them early in their careers. I ended up owning around ten SGs before eventually selling them off in favor of Fenders and G&Ls. A few...

Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure.(RIFFS: Afropop)(guitarist, musician)
April 1, 2007... ABDOULAYE ALHASSANE TOURE HAS BROUGHT string-picking wizardry from the desert towns of West Africa to the nightclubs of New York City. Born in 1963, in Niamey, Niger, to a Sonrai family from Gao, Mali, he passed his youth in a multi-ethnic...

The top 40 crap songs with killer solos: as chosen by GP and harmony-central forum members.(GuitarPlayer: 40 YEARS)(Brief article)(List)
April 1, 2007... "And Then She Kissed Me" Kiss "Baker Street" Gerry Rafferty "Beat It" Michael Jackson "Black Cat" Janet Jackson "Dragon Attack" Queen "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" Tears For Fears "Eye of the Tiger" Survivor ...

Danny Kalb.(RIFFS: No Guitarist Left Behind)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... BORN IN BROOKLYN ON SEPTEMBER 9, 1942, Danny Kalb was one of the most innovative guitarists of the '60s. He began playing acoustic guitar at age 13, and, five years later, had enough country-blues cred to tour with John Lee Hooker, as well as...

Rockit guitar.(RIFFS: Exotica)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... "I GOT THE IDEA FOR THE ROCKIT GUITAR AFTER STARING AT MY MOTORCYCLE'S GAS TANK a million times," explains chief Rockit-teer Rod MacKenzie. "The first prototype I built was basically an old Dean neck attached to an actual steel gas tank. It was...

Passing notes.(RIFFS: Exotica)(Pete Kleinow, Michael Brecker, Alice Coltrane)(musicians)(Obituary)
April 1, 2007... "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, the country-rock innovator who turned on countless rock and psychedelic audiences to the steel guitar as an original member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, died January 6 at a nursing facility in Petaluma, California. He...

Jeff Lang.(RIFFS: Blues)(Australian guitarist, singer)
April 1, 2007... JEFF LANG'S EXPANSIVE TAKE ON THE BLUES has made him a mainstay of Australia's music scene. The virtuoso guitarist and singer-songwriter has released more than a dozen CDs in his homeland, the best tracks of which comprise his debut U.S....

Vinnie Moore.(RIFFS: Shred)(guitarist)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... OF ALL THE GUITARISTS WHO CAME TO prominence after appearing in Mike Varney's Spotlight column in GP back in the '80s, it's Vinnie Moore who best embodies the Spotlight zeitgeist. Moore capitalized on his appearance, and quickly landed a...

Editor Boy's big eight.(RIFFS: MySpace Hordes)(guitar music)(Editorial)
April 1, 2007... GP IS EMBRACING D-I-Y MUSICIANS BY spotlighting thrilling (or, at least, interesting) guitar talents in this column and at guitarplayer.com. If you think you've got something going that our readers should hear, go to myspace.com/michaelmolenda...

GP's 40th anniversary concert.(RIFFS: Cool Event)(Guitar Player)
April 1, 2007... Guitar Player celebrated its 40th birthday at the Winter NAMM show by unleashing a ferocious platoon of acoustic and electric guitar greats on January 20, in partnership with Muriel Anderson's All-Star Guitar Night. Anaheim's Hilton Ballroom...

What's spinning in the editors' heads this month?(RANTS & RAVES)(Brief article)(List)
April 1, 2007... JUDE GOLD Chuck Loeb, Presence Grateful Dead, Truckin' Up to Buffalo, July 4, 1989 Justin Timberlake, Sexyback KEVIN OWENS Grinderman, Grinderman Chuck E. Weiss, 23rd & Stout Papa Mali, Do Your Thing MICHAEL...

Neil Young: Live at Massey Hall.(Video recording review)
April 1, 2007... NEIL YOUNG Live at Massey Hall This second release in the Neil Young Archives Performance Series, features 17 songs recorded on January 19, 1971 at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada. At the time, it marked Young's triumphant return to his...

Cougar Law: Cougar Law.(Sound recording review)
April 1, 2007... COUGAR LAW Cougar Law Part of Madison, Wisconsin's Layered Arts Collective, Cougar Law nimbly weaves improvisation, subtle electronic elements, and open-ended compositions into a heady, instrumental post-rock stew. Guitarists Dan Venne and...

Yo La Tengo: I'm Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass.(Sound recording review)
April 1, 2007... YO LA TENGO I'm Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass As if they didn't have me with the title, the first track on Yo La Tengo's 12th album in 20 years is a nearly 11-minute tour-de-force of 6-string sickness, courtesy of Ira Kaplan--a...

The Beatles: Love.(George Martin, Giles Martin remix Beatles' songs)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... THE BEATLES Love When their shared love of car racing brought together Guy Laliberte (founder of Cirque du Soleil) and George Harrison (producer of Shanghai Surprise and occasional guitarist) several years ago, it set in motion the...

Lenny Breau: Master Class.(Video recording review)
April 1, 2007... LENNY BREAU Master Class Randy Bachman was fortunate enough to be neighbors with Lenny Breau when they were kids learning guitar in Canada, and he's never forgotten the debt he owes his old friend. Now Bachman is paying it forward by...

Daniel J. Levitin: This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2007... DANIEL J. LEVITIN This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession Guitarist, producer, psychologist, and musicologist Daniel Levitin takes on the age-old question of what music is and why we love it so much in this...

Ni: pure nickel strings.(GP WHITE PAPER)
April 1, 2007... DURING AN INTERVIEW A FEW MONTHS back, Norwegian guitarist Terje Rypdal enthused about the pure nickel strings manufactured by a small American company called Snake Oil Brand. Curious, I tracked down SOB, and, after trying the company's two...

The 40 greatest guitar albums of 1967.(Cover story)
April 1, 2007... BY THE GUITAR PLAYER STAFF ON JANUARY 14, 1967, 30,000 PEOPLE ASSEMBLED in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park to share in an event billed as "A Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be In" The tribes were treated to a peaceful afternoon of...

'67 gear revolution! The birth of the Octavia.(Gear Revolution)
April 1, 2007... WHILE THE VOX WAH-WAH WAS THE BIG news on the gear front in 1967, another highly significant effect called the Octavia was sneaking onto the scene courtesy of British effects pioneer Roger Mayer. Unlike the wah, the Octavia wouldn't be...

10 things you gotta do to play like Duanne Allman.(LESSONS)
April 1, 2007... AFTER ACQUIRING AND EVENTUALLY WEARING OUT HIS FIRST MOTORCYCLE, young Duane Allman became infatuated with his younger brother Gregg's latest acquisition--a Silvertone acoustic guitar that would soon become a source of incessant squabbling...

Beginner: Kamikaze pull-offs.(LESSONS: Quick Licks)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Here's a quick and dirty way to throw some chromatic mayhem into a solo--just reach your picking hand over the neck and fret the third string well behind your fretting hand (as Zakk Wylde illustrates in this photo from a 2002 Ozzfest...

Intermediate: fingerstyle freebie.(LESSONS: Quick Licks)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... It is said that the best things in life are free. One strong argument in support of this claim is the abundance of public-domain music notation so easily downloadable from the Internet--particularly when it comes to classical scores. People,...

Advanced: wrong notes, right time.(LESSONS: Quick Licks)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... When it comes to generating cool "outside" sounds, guitarists (unlike saxophonists, pianists, and other instrumentalists) have a distinct advantage. Sometimes achieving angular, non-diatonic melodies on guitar is as simple as playing the right...

Intermediate: pulling off Gary Moore.(LESSONS: Quick Licks)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Damn, these pull-offs sound fierce when Gary Moore plays 'em. He uses moves like this in the lead guitar meltdown that opens "End of the World" (from 1982's Corridors of Power). Blazing down the E natural minor scale (and pulling off to each...

Intermediate: Tuck's harmonic minor handles.(LESSONS: Quick Licks)(Tuck Andress)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Depending on your starting pitch, there are at least seven ways to finger a seven-note scale. But that doesn't mean you have to memorize every possible pattern. With scales, it's okay to "play favorites." Burn in the ones that have a nice flow,...

Beginner: major distraction.(LESSONS: Quick Licks)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Ready to kill an afternoon jamming in A malor? All you need are some coo] chords in that key (such as those in the breezy four-bar bossa groove in the first system below) and a comfortable scale fingering (see "A major scale" grid) for solos....

Sonny Landreth: Part two: string guarding.(BEGINNER)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... FROM DELTA BLUES TO MODERN electric slide to his trademark "behind the glass" technique of playing slide notes and fretted pitches simultaneously, Sonny Landreth has a near supernatural ability to infuse his music with the most exciting and...

Martin HD Elliot Easton custom edition.(GEAR: Bench Test)(Product/service evaluation)
April 1, 2007... SOME 30 YEARS AFTER THE CARS' DEBUT single "Just What I Needed" hit the charts, guitarist Elliot Easton has become an unlikely fiber-endorsee, daubing his name and ergonomic desires first on a Gretsch Duo Jet (the G6128EE, now discontinued),...

Parkwood PW-340FM.(GEAR: Bench Test)(Product/service evaluation)
April 1, 2007... ACOUSTIC GUITARS CONSTRUCTED FROM solid woods are always more desirable than those made from laminates, but the higher cost of solid-wood guitars has typically kept them out of reach of players on restricted budgets. Korea's Parkwood has found...

Swing guitar technologies BST.(GEAR: Bench Test)(Product/service evaluation)
April 1, 2007... SWING GUITAR TECHNOLOGIES EMERGED early in the new millennium with the stated aim of dispelling the "okay for the money" image Korean-made guitars had held for many years. Of course, the competition from Asian makers is fierce, but Swing...

Orange Tiny Terror.(GEAR: Field Test)(Product/service evaluation)
April 1, 2007... FROM THE GLITTERY, GLAMMY MAJESTY OF towering over T.Rex's Marc Bolan in the '70s to recent showcase moments as Prince's backline, Orange amps have always cut striking figures. Conspicuous design was paramount to founder--and current CEO--Cliff...

Dan Erlewine's: Mod Squad.
April 1, 2007... IF YOU WERE WITH US LAST MONTH, YOU KNOW that the Mod Squad is trying to break a wild Mustang. Mod Squadder Max had the job of cleaning up the frets and the string nut, and he surprised me several times by coming up with solutions I didn't...

Peterson StroboFlip.(GEAR: Accessory File)(Product/service evaluation)
April 1, 2007... WITH ITS CLASSIC STROBE TUNERS ENJOYING new leases on life via digital technology, Peterson has been able to introduce ever more compact models with features that would have been inconceivable in the pre-digital era. The company's latest...

Vox V848 Clyde McCoy Wah-Wah Reissue vs. Vintage Clyde McCoy.(GEAR: Fight Club)
April 1, 2007... INTRODUCED IN 1967, THE VOX CLYDE MCCOY WAH-WAH pedal was the most significant guitar effect of its time. Invented by a young engineer named Brad Plunkett, who worked for the Thomas Organ company--Vox/JMI's U.S. counterpart--the wah circuit...

Chuck Berry 1971.(BACK 40: GP Archives)(rock singer, guitarist)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... GETTING A CHUCK BERRY INTERVIEW IS NO mean task. He seldom grants them. In fact, almost never. Tall and erect, glistening pompadour hanging cliff-like above his forehead, razor-thin moustache turned up on the ends, bushy sideburns, see-through...