Guitar Player articles from August 2008

Guitar Player archives from August 2008

Noize from the editor.(Editorial)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MEMORIAL DAY IS ALWAYS A COMBO PLATE of sadness and inspiration for me. During World War II, my dad and grandfather were in the navy, and my infantryman uncle lost a leg in Monte Cassino when a bomb dropped on his...

Letter of the month.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... I am a deployed soldier and longtime reader of your magazine. I just thought I would write you to let you know that you produce a great product that keeps at least this one soldier motivated in an otherwise pointless and terrible war. Please...

Edilio Paredes.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... If you spend any time in New York's Latin neighborhoods, bachata music is everywhere, and I love its dripping-rain guitar sound. But the players are largely unknown, especially to gringos. So thanks for covering Edilio Paredes in your June...

Homogenization realization.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... Thanks for the article on "The Homogenization of Rock Guitar Tone" (June 2008). When I was first learning guitar, I wanted to sound like Page, Clapton, Hendrix, and Beck, because they each had such an individual and unique sound. As I...

State of the union.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... While I can understand your frustration with the lack of originality in tone, I don't share your disdain for the "market-driven socio-political ideals that were established post World War II." I subscribe to Guitar Player because it is...

Bolin 'em over.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... Wow. Two Tommy Bolin features in the same decade! Since the last time I wrote your magazine (after TB was featured in the February 2007 issue), I have seen Jeff Beck again, Warren Haynes, Dickie Betts, Eric Johnson, and John Petrucci--adding to...

Oops!(FEEDBACK)(Correction notice)
August 1, 2008... April's Riffs piece on Yamandu Costa claimed that Brazilian music icon Antonio Carlos Jobim was Argentine. Jobim was, of course, born in the Tijuca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, and was as Brazilian as bossa nova itself. The piece also...

Def Leppard.(RIFFS: Rock)(Interview)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IF ANY BAND CAN LEGITIMATELY LAY CLAIM TO BEING THE Energizer Bunny of hard rock, it has to be Def Leppard. Sure, groups like the Stones and Rush have been kicking it admirably for decades despite significant...

Davy Knowles.(RIFFS: Blues)(Interview)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] DAVY KNOWLES, THE 21-YEAR-OLD fiery guitarist, lead singer, and songwriter for the explosive power trio Back Door Slam, hails from the tiny Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. Besides the blues, Knowles cites the ancient...

Rez Abbasi.(RIFFS: Jazz)(Interview)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] JAZZ-FUSION GUITARIST REZ ABBASI HAS A unique take on the ongoing debate surrounding his genre that hasn't ceased since its inception in the late '60s. "There's nothing wrong with the word 'fusion,'" insists...

Black Tide.(RIFFS: Metal)(Interview)
August 1, 2008... SINCE BEFORE MOZART, THE MUSIC BIZ HAS seen its share of child prodigies. We've grown accustomed to seeing very young classical students play at an amazingly high level. The Collins Kids blew away the rockabilly world in the 1950s. In the '80s,...

James Nash.(RIFFS: Acoustic)(Interview)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I DIDN'T GET SERIOUSLY INTO PLAYING the acoustic guitar until I founded the Waybacks in 1999," says James Nash. "Before that, I thought the acoustic guitar was something you played on a radio station when you...

Eric Dover.(RIFFS: Glam)(Interview)
August 1, 2008... WHEN HE WAS 23 YEARS OLD, ERIC DOVER was tapped to join the geniuses of the pop underground, Jellyfish. In addition to singing superintricate, Queen-inspired harmonies, Dover played the guitar parts that were originally laid down by Lyle...

Yoav.(RIFFS: Pop)(Interview)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] COUNTLESS SINGER-SONGWRITERS HAVE made recordings with nothing but their voices and an acoustic guitar, and a handful have even gone beyond the usual strumming and picking to tap, rap, bang, scrape, and otherwise...

Ecco-Fonic tape echo.(RIFFS: Vintage Vault)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG AFTER THE ADVENT of commercial reel-to-reel tape recorders in the 1940s before Les Paul and other studio engineers figured out a way to make "echo," or tape delay, which sounded magical on the...

Editor boy's Big Eight.(RIFFS: Web Hordes)
August 1, 2008... GUITAR PLAYER INVITES ALL D.I.Y. artists and bands to share their guitar skills with our reader community. This opportunity is open to all MySpace musicians, or to any player/ band with a Web site that has their music posted. All you have to do...

Billy Zoom.(RIFFS: Roots)(Interview)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "WHEN I WAS A KID, A GIBSON WAS AN OLD man's guitar," says X guitarist Billy Zoom. "Nobody my age played them, because Gretsch and Fender were the rock and roll guitars." Early on, Zoom developed a love thing for...

Sean Costello.(Passing Notes)(In memoriam)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Blues guitarist Sean Costello passed away April 15, a day before what would have been his 29th birthday. A Philadelphia native, Costelto moved to Atlanta at the age of 9, started playing the guitar, and enjoyed early...

Chris Gaffney.(Passing Notes)(In memoriam)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Chris Gaffney, a beloved, hard-gigging fixture on the Americana music scene, died of liver cancer April 17 at the age of 57, Gaffney--described by the LA Times as a "roots-music omnivore"--moved to the U.S. from...

Mike Battle.(Passing Notes)(In memoriam)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mike Battle, creator of the legendary Echoplex tape-echo, passed away on April 7, 2008, at age 90. Battle became fascinated with radio and electronics as a child, going on to operate radio-controlled planes while...

Luke Doucet and the White Falcon: Blood's Too Rich.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LUKE DOUCET AND THE WHITE FALCON Blood's Too Rich This guy named his band after his Gretsch, so you just know he's cool. That White Falcon is all over this record and it sounds twangy, rootsy, and just plain...

John McLaughlin: Floating Point.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] JOHN MCLAUGHLIN Floating Point When McLaughlin found himself writing scores of new music while vacationing in India, he decided to record an album with a core group of some of the best young Indian jazz...

What's spinning in the editors' heads this month?(RANTS & RAVES)(sound recordings that are popular among magazine editors)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... MATT BLACKETT The Mother Truckers, Let's All Go to Bed Bourgeois Tagg, Yoyo Queen, Sheer Heart BARRY CLEVELAND Jethro Tull, This was Collectors Edition) Milt Jackson and Wes Montgomery, Bags Meets Wes! Roxy Music,...

Pepper: Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... PEPPER Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This funky-ska-rock trio from the Big Island of Hawaii is as cool as a big bag of da kine pakalolo. Guitarist Kaleo Wassman lays down deep-pocket skanks and...

Danielia Cotton: Rare Child.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... DANIELIA COTTON Rare Child [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Danielia Cotton's powerful, soulful voice might overshadow the fact that she's also a talented guitarist and songwriter. She plays guitar on seven out of ten tunes on this great...

Lefty Williams Band, Snake Oil.(QUICK HITS)(Sound recording review)(Brief review)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Whether performing or teaching, Atlanta riffmeister Lefty Williams is an inspiration to musicians and non-musicians alike. He has built a bigger career with only one hand than most guitarists have with two....

Jennifer Batten, Whatever.(QUICK HITS)(Sound recording review)(Brief review)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] These highly imaginative tracks of "guitaronica"--featuring numerous nods to Geoffrey Arnold Beck--are hip, humorous, intelligent, entertaining, and absolutely chockablock with kickass guitar and guitar-synth...

ZZ Top, Live From Texas.(QUICK HITS)(Video recording review)(Brief review)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Could it be that all that live YouTube footage of ZZ Top prompted the band to release its first-ever official live DVD? It's not the stuff from the '70s that we might have hoped for, but this 2008 performance...

David Sanborn, Here and Gone.(QUICK HITS)(Sound recording review)(Brief review)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The great alto saxophonist takes you to a wonderful place where 'bop, '60s R&B, and blues overlap. Soulful contributions from Eric Clapton, Sam Moore, Derek Trucks, Joss Stone, and Anthony Wilson sweeten the deal....

Lian Ensemble, Pangeya.(QUICK HITS)(Sound recording review)(Brief review)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On this trance-inducing disc, virtuoso musicians Miroslav Tadic (guitar), Djivan Gasparyan (Armenian woodwinds), Pirayeh Pourafar (Iranian lute), Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri (Indian tabla), Houman Pourmehdi (Persian...

Robin Trower, Day of the Eagle: The Best of Robin Trower.(QUICK HITS)(Sound recording review)(Brief review)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Spanning 1973 to 1980, the collection culls from some of the best Trower albums--from his debut Twice Removed from Yesterday to Victims of the Fury--and features absolutely ripping live versions of "Too Rolling...

Gossip, Live in Liverpool.(QUICK HITS)(Sound recording review)(Video recording review)(Brief review)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This live CD/DVD set, featuring Beth Ditto on vocals, Hannah Blilie on drums, and Brace Paine on guitars, is further proof that if the riffs are huge, the pocket fat, and the songs powerful, you don't need a bass...

TalkingTabs.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... TALKING TABS "Brain Stew" as Performed by Green Day [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Unlike many modern guitar instructional offerings, this disc offers no notation or tablature, no interactive graphical fretboard interfaces, no video...

The Early Years of the Les Paul Legacy 1915-1963.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 1, 2008... THE EARLY YEARS OF THE LES PAUL LEGACY 1915-1963 By Robb Lawrence [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This excellent and very enjoyable book follows the life and times of the Wizard of Waukesha from birth until just beyond his hit recording...

Mighty Moe: amp strap.(GEAR: New Gear)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... All-in-one combination of boot-leather strap, cable, and amp * Clean and Overdrive channels * Volume boost * Headset jack cancels speaker * 9-volt battery provides nine hours of use * $69 retail * mightymoe.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Washburn Guitars: Dan Donegan WI91 signature.(GEAR: New Gear)
August 1, 2008... Mahogany body * Ebony fretboard * Sperzel tuners * Seymour Duncan pickups * Tune-O-Matic-style bridge with Tone Pros tailpiece * Hardshell case * $55.399 retail * washburn.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

MJS Music & Entertainment: Guitar DVD #1 beginner basics and beyond.(GEAR: New Gear)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Learn to read guitar music with notation, tab, and charts * Learn individual notes, then build up to partial and full chords * Built-in metronome and guitar tuner * For electric or acoustic players * $14 retail * mjspublications.com ...

Morgan Monroe: Cedar Hill MCH-EC-45 dreadnought.(GEAR: New Gear)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... All solid AA cedar top * Select rosewood back and sides * Grover Sta-Tite keys * Fishman Classic 4T electronics * Deluxe hardshell alligator case with a built-in hygrometer * $739 retail * morganmonroe.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Mighty Bright: Pedal board light.(GEAR: New Gear)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Dual flexible arms * Bends to compact position for storage * Secures to any flat surface * Four different light levels * Sensor switches require just a tap to turn on LEDs * Evenly distributed light with no hot spots * 3 AAA batteries provide...

Carr Amplifiers: Viceroy 1-12 combo amplifier.(GEAR: New Gear)
August 1, 2008... Class A 6L6 based combo * 100 percent handwired * Reverb, variable Drive control, and footswitchable Mid Boost * $2,490 retail * carramps.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Retro rejuvenation: the Black Crowes' Rich Robinson & new wingman Luther Dickinson fashion vintage tones and classic-rock riffs into a fresh roar on Warpaint.(Interview)
August 1, 2008... "A GOOD TONE WILL MAKE YOUR WHOLE BODY TINGLE WITH energy," says Rich Robinson, "and I think the way many guitarists are using digital technology has destroyed that." This is hardly a surprising comment from Robinson, who has epitomized...

VooDoo harmonics: the freaky timbres of Mattias "IA" Eklundh.(LESSONS: Master Class)
August 1, 2008... "IN THE SWEDISH WOODS, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM," SAYS MATTIAS "IA" Eklundh. "They can't hear you cry either." Normally, when a guy utters such creepy statements, he's not the kind of person with whom people are inclined to spend a few...

Coloring outside the lines: how jazz's most iconic soloists find fresh sounds beyond the scales.(LESSONS: Style Council)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] STUDENTS OF JAZZ IMPROVISATION HAVE ALWAYS BEEN KEEN TO study the various scales and modes used in jazz--the Dorian mode, for instance, or the melodic minor scale. Such scales are woven deep into the fabric of the...

Hopscotch pentatonics.(INTERMEDIATE)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] How do you get over one million hits on YouTube? Joe Cefalu surpassed that mark by posting a great video lesson on how to break out of the common pentatonic scale box that confines so many rock and blues players....

The other "Hendrix" chord.(BEGINNER)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's a testament to the monumental influence of "Purple Haze" and other landmark Jimi Hendrix tunes that rock guitarists are more likely to refer to the grip in the grid to the right as the "Hendrix chord" than by...

Howard Roberts' jumping drill.(INTERMEDIATE)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Chances are," wrote the late, great Howard Roberts in the September '79 GP, "you've spent much more time running through scales than practicing interval skips, and, consequently, stepwise lines on adjacent strings...

Minor miracles.(INTERMEDIATE)(Modern Guitar Method Grade 6)(Brief article)(Book review)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Chord dictionaries are helpful, but they're certainly no miracle cure for stale voicings and tired chords. If you want to actually learn how to use new grips, you may need a deeper book, such as Mel Bay's new...

That other "Long Train Runnin'" Riff.(ADVANCED)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... The Internet is full of videos of people demonstrating, with varying degrees of accuracy, the famous Gm7 electric guitar intro to the Doobie Brothers' mega-hit "Long Train Runnin'." To really amaze people, though, dive deeper into the...

Beginner: Joe Satriani's "Always" progression.(LESSONS: Guest Guru)
August 1, 2008... "WILD THING," "TWIST AND SHOUT," and "Louie Louie.'" are among hundreds of famous songs that have employed the workhorse chord progression known as the I-IV-V. In this context, each Roman numeral conveys a chord's relationship with a given key...

Reissue vs. vintage: power tubes.(GEAR: Fight Club)(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] EVEN IF YOU KNOW ZIP ABOUT TUBES, SIMPLY TOSSING AROUND THE names Mullard, Genalex, and Tung-Sol will have most filament heads thinking you're one of their clan. Reason? Those companies were responsible for some of...

Eivind Aarset.(GEAR: Digital Guitarcraft)(Interview)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] EVERY SO OFTEN AN ELECTRIC GUITARIST APPEARS who rethinks the instrument and its possibilities. Often this reinvention is directly related to advances in technology. It began with Les Paul's overdubbing and delay...

Henman-Bevilacqua: S1.(GEAR: Bench Test)(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ACCORDING TO LUTHIER SCOTTY BEVILACQUA and designers Graham and Paris Henman, Henman-Bevilacqua's handcrafted instruments seek to "fuse minimalism, craftsmanship, art, and old-school quality to create the ultimate...

Grosh: ElectraJet.(GEAR: Bench Test)(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... STRAYING TOO FAR FROM THE TEMPLATES OF A mere half a dozen touchstone guitars can give some of us the shakes, but bad. Nevertheless, a few contemporary makers have managed to earn widespread respect by dragging a boatload of players kicking and...

Eventide: ModFactor.(GEAR: Bench Test)(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] EDITORS' GuitarPlayer Pick EVENTIDE STOMPBOXES' TIMEFACTOR (REVIEWED in the December '07 issue of GP) made many of the delay effects found in Eventide's studio processors available in a relatively inexpensive...

Diamond: Nitrox.(GEAR: Bench Test)(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... DIAMOND AMPLIFICATION PRESIDENT JEFF Diamant is what you might call an overachiever. Not content with being a trial lawyer for 15 years (working cases where the amounts in controversy were as high as half a billion dollars--yow!), he's also a...

Mojave AmpWorks: SideWinder.(GEAR: Bench Test)(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] DICK DENNEY HAS A LOT TO ANSWER FOR. By designing such a world-beater in the Vox AC30, he unwittingly opened the floodgates to a riptide of boutique and mass-manufactured emulations of the iconic two generations...

Godin: 5th Avenue.(GEAR: Bench Test)(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... IF YOU'RE OF A CERTAIN, AHEM. VINTAGE, then you may have learned to play on a guitar that looked a lot like Godin's new 5th Avenue. Of course, it would have had Harmony, Kay, or Silvertone on the headstock, sported painted on "binding," and its...

Bugera: 333-212 and 6262-212.(GEAR: Bench Test)(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... BEHRINGER HAS TAKEN A GLORIOUS STEP, UM, backwards. As one of the music industry's big technology companies since 1989, Behringer has historically focused on affordable recording tools, live-performance gear, and DJ systems. Not surprisingly,...

Electro-Harmonix: Holy Stain.(GEAR: Bench Test)(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE ELVES AT ELECTRO-HARMONIX HAVE BEEN popping out new toys like Santa's helpers at Christmas. and one of the company's most recent debuts is the Holy Stain ($130 retail/$98 street)--a multieffect pedal with a...

Seymour Duncan: Blackouts.(GEAR: Bench Test)(guitar pickups)(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... ACTIVE PICKUPS HAVE CERTAIN ADVANTAGES OVER passive designs in that they can deliver more output over an extended frequency range, they're quieter and less susceptible to RF interference, and they have a less compressed dynamic response....

AEA R92 ribbon microphone.(GEAR: Recording)(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... I LOVE RIBBON MICS BECAUSE THEY WATCH MY back. If I'm not getting a compelling tone from a particular setup, and I'm spinning into self-loathing, positioning a ribbon in front of an amp or acoustic guitar captures a sound that either saves my...

SE Electronics GM10.(GEAR: Recording)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... THE GM10 ACOUSTIC GUITAR RECORDING System ($599 retail/$499 street, carrying case included) is an ingenious miking solution for engineers who go bug nut whenever a player scoots away from their carefully positioned microphones. With a GM10 in...

Bores of the rings?(GEAR: Shop Talk)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I OWN A KITTY HAWK AMPLIFIER THAT MAKES A ringing sound, which I think is being caused by the power tubes. I've seen some amps with spring retainers on the power tubes--would those help get rid of the ringing?--Jim...

All about classic tube amp circuits.(GEAR: Sonic Essentials)
August 1, 2008... THIS ISSUES "ALL ABOUT" MAY SEEM LIKE A mountain of a challenge to cover. You might expect the task of covering all the classic amp circuits requires a trawl through an A to Z compendium of every great amp ever made, but the fact is that many...

Bo Diddley.(BACK PAGE: Flasback)(Interview)
August 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Evolution is constant at Guitar Player, and it's our readers that typically forge changes. In this case, Shop Talk (our former back page) has become so popular that, as of this issue, we've moved it to the Gear...