Blogging » Guitars, blues, rock, jazz and the music biz
Ah, May. Oh, Jeez, this post is late; June is here in two days. Ah, June!
Last few Summers, I convinced myself to buy new guitars. Trying to abstain this summer. LOL. Regardless, we can dream, and in that vein, let’s look at the world of May guitar mags here and across the pond. You’ve heard it here before, “we read ‘em so you don’t have to.”
Digitech iStomp
Guitar & Bass
Feature story this month is an informative and visually appealing jaunt through the history of the single-coil pickup and how it is maintained its place in the pantheon of iconic guitar tones even though being passed by technologically by humbuckers and other innovations.
Other features include reviews of two new Gretsch electrics and a Gretsch junior Jet Bass; interviews with Steve Morse and Walter Trout; and a review of new Digitech iStomp pedal released at NAMM 2012. This looks like a smart and interesting play for pedal lovers: buy this pedal, which is housed and built like your other stomp boxes, but load in digital pedal effects so you can try out many different stompbox tones. You get two effects free and the rest you have to purchase for $7-8 apiece on iTunes, letting you experiment with different sounds before buying a new $100+ pedal. It goes on your pedal board, part of the signal chain like the rest. Innovative idea.
The single-coil feature has the main theme of noting that the pickup made popular and eventually iconic by Fender, is old tech, but still maintains a place in modern guitar tones. The history and the basics of single-coil pickups is covered thoroughly, starting with the technical explanations and diagrams showing the six Alnico polepieces and how the wires wound around each.
Great images and overview from the 1932 Rickenbacker Frying Pan lap steel guitar – ‘world’s first usable production electric,’ including the 1936 Charlie Christian single-coil pup part of his revolutionary electric sound, the pups designed in the 40s such as Leo Fender’s first, Walter Fuller-designed Gibson P90 and others, leading up to the early 50s and the pickups in the Fender Broadcaster, Telecaster, and Stratocaster. A goodly amount of info in a strong article.
Rickenbacker Frying Pan • Charlie Christian pups • Vintage single-coils
Guitarist
Rory’s Glories is the cover story, a long feature on Irish blues-rocker Rory Gallagher, celebrating the 40th anniversary of his solo career. Interesting feature, good detail and great shots of his iconic strat and also of his other gear used over the years. Focuses on key years from his short career, 1971 – 1974.
Nice historical article on the talents and collaboration of an incredible pair of guitarists, Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang, star musicians from the 1920s:
They challenged racial prejudice to work together as a team, fusing Lonnie’s bluesy licks with Lang’s jazz virtuosity, [and] they made guitar into an instrument that would dominate music for the next 90 years.
This in-depth feature happens to be written by Denny Illet, a great blues jazz guitarist in his own right, and it covers the ground smoothly. From Lonnie Johnson’s roots to his becoming a big recording star for Okeh records in 1920s. Eddie Lang, ‘godfather of jazz guitar,’ was busy recording and touring, eventually joining Paul Whiteman Orchestra and later as Bing Crosby’s main accompanist in the early 1930s.
The author notes that on 15 November 1928, Johnson found himself backing blues singer Texas Alexander, and the guitarist found himself sitting next to Eddie Lang. A few days after this the two guitar legends recorded sessions together, including the nuggets Two Tone Stomp and How To Change Keys To Play These Blues.
The course guitar music took from that point on is largely to do with what Johnson and Lang played that day in the Texas Alexander session.
Mound City Blue Blowers
Who waxed the first guitar solo, Lonnie or Lang? Illet lays down the accepted wisdom. At once widely believed to be the first record to feature a single-string guitar solo, Lonnie’s Mr. Johnson Blues, recorded November of 1925. This was preceded by Lang’s Deep Second Street Blues, cut in December of 1924 with the Mound City Blue Blowers. Turns out they were both trumped by ‘now-forgotten’ Nick Lucas who recorded tracks in July of 1922, Pickin’ The Guitar and Teasing The Frets.
Guitar Player
Hendrix at 70 is the theme of the cover feature this month. GP gathered remembrances and commentary from luminaries such as: pickup maker Seymour Duncan, amp master Jim Marshall, pedal inventor Roger Mayer, engineer Andy Johns, Electro-Harmonix founder Mike Mathews, and 20+ notable guitarists. Good reading.
My guitar teacher, Jake Hertzog, has his Hey Jazz Guy column this month on transcribing solos. And his Hey Jazz Guy blog relaunched and looks snazzy, check it out.
Other notable features:
Suhr Shiba LE Overdrive
Surfed the web this morning, boy, remember that term, guess that dates me! So does my recent high school reunion. Hah!
Here’s what’s going on in the gear and guitar blogosphere today, from my faves and, in part II, a few newcomers.
Guitar Noize
Consistently a strong guitar, gear and music blog, Guitar Noize reviews a new Suhr overdrive pedal;
…very transparent and adds a nice level of sustain to an already overdriven tone or creates a very natural overdrive tone on the clean channel… works well in series with other drive pedals to create your own cascading gain… [this is] a limited edition version in Black called the Suhr Shiba Drive LE.
Fernandes Ravelle Deluxe Bass (top), Music Man Bongo Bass
I’d like to own a Suhr Guthrie Govan Modern, would be cool to try out this stomp box as well. Read more about this pedal at Guitar Noize…
I Heart Guitar
This guy is my new hero. A prodigious blogger and columnist, Peter Hodgson writes for guitar and music mags down under and for Gibson, and has a way popular blog noted here and on our blogroll. This week he reviews two fine and eclectic electric basses, the Fernandes Ravelle Bass Deluxe, and the Ernie Ball Music Man Bongo Bass.
Also reviewed is a new Epiphone Les Paul Standard Ultra II, and this review shows his attention to detail and solid copywriting prowess:
Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II
The mahogany body (chambered for resonance and lightness) supports a quilted maple cap, while a mahogany slim-taper glued-in neck sports a satin finish, a rosewood fretboard and 22 medium jumbo frets on a flattish 12” radius. The scale length is your classic 24.75”. Hardware includes a LockTone Tune-o-Matic bridge and LockTone Stopbar…Electronics consist of two Alnico Classic pickups with individual volume pots for each; a master tone…; a volume control for the NanoMag sitting where the bridge pickup tone control would be. There’s a 3-way pickup selector switch in the usual place and, ‘round back, treble, bass and gain controls for the NanoMag pickup. But wait, I don’t see any wires poking out of the bridge. So where is this mysterious NanoMag pickup? Oh wait, there it is, set into the neck between the 22nd fret and the rhythm position humbucker. Crafty! This little wonder seeks to do away with the quackiness inherent in conventional piezo pickup designs, and instead it uses good old-fashioned magnetic means to capture the sound, strategically placed at a sweet spot where you’ll get the maximum fullness and tone.
These features offer you the added tonal variety of getting acoustic sounds out of your electric. I’d like to try that and compare it to the James Tyler Variax or the Roland Strat G-5.
We read ‘em, so you don’t have to, that’s our monthly motto. It’s mid-April, again I’m buying May mags so here’s what happened in print publishing land this current month. Some interesting features for your reading pleasure.
Guitarist
Great cover story, “Son of a Burst.’ This feature compares a 1959 Gibson goldtop Les Paul original owned by rocker Bernie Marsden and worth $475,000 with the new Gibson Les Paul Classic Custom ($2,225, American-made) and the new PRS SE Bernie Marsden ($460, Korean-made). Check out the great A/B video above, showing Bernie playing the Beast and its Korean signature copy.
Peter Eggle Guitars - Berlin Evo '50
It’s fascinating in that it takes apart all three (to some degree), shows you the inside of the ’59, named the “Beast,” and gives you a rundown on the Classic Custom and the PRS SE BM. Hands down, no surprise, the original surpasses. And the Classic Custom is a nice guitar, tried one yesterday, very sweet appointments and tones. The review of the PRS SE in this article has it sounding more like the ’59 beast than the more expensive new Les Paul. That said the new Les Paul, at more than 5X the cost of the PRS, is likely the better overall guitar of the two new ones. But tone-wise, according to Bernie and the editors, nice job Paul Reed Smith and the PRS team. Glad they overturned that 2001 lawsuit Gibson filed in 2005.
Also on tap, review of Flying Colors release and interview with Steve Morse; review of the PRS Stripped 58, review of beautiful Patrick Eggle Guitars Berlin Evo Legend ’50, only $5,000! – a Brit luthier who came up with his own version of the PRS Custom 24 20 years ago. Boy, I crave a quilted and figured top like this one.
Premier Guitar
This mag is consistently thorough with long-form articles and eye-candy intermingled in a balanced manner. My fave U.S. guitar magazine I find. This month has a unique feature, part of their Studio Legends series on Iconic Engineers, on Alan Parsons and his recording of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. If you don’t know him from his hits in the ’70s from the Alan Parsons Project (Eye in the Sky, anybody?), his first work as a 19-year-old assistant engineer at Abbey Road was to track Let It Be and Abbey Road, the last two from The Beatles. Wow, that’s the way to learn the ropes.
Alan Parsons at Abbey Road Studios
He was promoted to full engineer and recorded the Pink Floyd magnum opus, Dark Side of the Moon. It took nearly a year of recording, hit the charts in March 1973, made the top of the charts within a week and grew to one of the best-selling albums of all time. Interesting series from PG, Insights from Iconic Engineers, and Parsons sure qualifies. Noteworthy tidbits from an engineer who has recorded the guitar tones of David Gilmour and George Harrison, to name just a few (ok, The Hollies, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, and on and on):
Vox AC4C1-BL
Strong issue with great roundup of NAMM 2012, including mention of over 100 new models promoted at the winter 2011-2012 show this year. Included mention of an amp I pre-ordered from Sweetwater.com. It’s called the Vox AC4C1-BL and it came and sings beautifully to my ears, especially for $299. It’s a new version of my current AC4 with gain and mains knobs, bass and treble EQ, without the wattage attenuation of the AC4. Great tones.
Richard Thompson & his Danelectro
This issue has a solid three-page piece on Richard Thompson and the release of a new live Blu-Ray recording. Nice photo of RT and a cool baby blue Danelectro! Inset box memorable for this quote:
I think there is a time that as a songwriter you say: things are so bad I’m going to write a song that names names. You don’t hold back…you just say: things are shit, it’s time for the revolution, let’s kick out the despots…There is a time for that kind of song./ I think otherwise you’re better served by writing under a few veils with political songs, so you write political allegory, you write a political song as a love song, or as a kind of satire, where it’s a little softer and not so in your face. I think if you do that the songs have a longer shelf life.”
Gibson Novoselic RD Bass
And because, I have neglected to cover any magazine’s work covering the world of electric basses, for an online friend of mine in Georgia, there’s a review of a sweet looking new Gibson bass in this issue. It’s a reissue of the maple RD Artists model that Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic used on Nevermind, called the Gibson Novaselic RD Bass. Here’s the build specs: “Maple body, set maple neck with 20 medium nickel frets on an obeche fingerboard, Grover shamrock tuners and Gibson three-point string-through bridge with chrome hardware; passive pickups with one Seymour Duncan Basslines STK-Jn and one STK-Jb pickup; comes in black ebony only and weighs about 12 pounds with a 34″ scale. According to reviewer, its 12.2 lbs make it “one of the heaviest four-strings we’ve ever played.”
