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GUITAR & BASS

TR A N SCRIPTIONS

TOM PETT Y AND THE

HEARTBREAKERS
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RUSH
“La Villa Strangiato"

E D SHEERAN
“Castle on the Hill”

BILLY CORGAN
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TOM
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PILOTS
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FAREWELL TO AN
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 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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 CON T EN TS
VOL. 38 | NO. 13 | HOLIDAY 2017

FEATURES Billy Corgan with his

signature Yamaha LJ16BC
30 AUGUST BURNS RED
Guitarists JB Brubaker and Brent Rambler give us the
lowdown on August Burns Red’s ferocious new release.

36 ALTER BRIDGE
Mark Tremonti provides a private, behind-the-scenes look
at the band’s triumphant 2016 show at London’s O2 Arena.

40 STONE TEMPLE PILOTS

Twenty-five years after Core, guitarist Dean DeLeo looks
back on the album that put STP on the grunge map.

46 TOM PETTY: A TRIBUTE

Guitar World bids farewell to an American icon who made
the rock world a better place for four solid decades.

58 FAMOUS GUITAR SOUNDS DEMYSTIFIED

Let us reveal the secrets to recreating the iconic tones
74
of Tony Iommi, Billy Duffy, SRV, David Gilmour and more.

74 BILLY CORGAN
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman unplugs his axes and
ventures into new sonic territory on his new album, Ogilala.

TRANSCRIBED DEPARTMENTS
“American Girl”
by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 12 WOODSHED / MASTHEAD 90 COLUMNS
90. String Theory
PAGE 14 SOUNDING BOARD by Jimmy Brown
98 Letters, reader art and Defenders of the Faith 92. In Deep
by Andy Aledort

17 TUNE-UPS 94. Mob Rules

by Mike Orlando
“Castle on the Hill” Richie Sambora & Orianthi,
by Ed Sheeran 96. Wood Vibrations
Angel Vivaldi, Glenn Proudfoot,
by Mike Dawes
PAGE Tetrarch, Glenn Hughes, Richie Kotzen

104 79 SOUNDCHECK
79. Fender Mustang GT 40 & GT 200 amps 122 SHOP TALK
82. EarthQuaker Devices Data Corrupter Willcutt Guitars in Lexington, Kentucky
“La Villa Strangiato”
by Rush 84. Jackson Guitars Pro Series Dinky DK2
85. MXR Booster Mini
PAGE 86. Bare Knuckle Pickups The Ragnarok
108 86. Fender EOB Sustainer Stratocaster
88. Boss JB-2 Angry Driver
A L P H A PA N

COV E R P HOT OG R A P H BY C H R I S WA LT E R / W I R E I M AG E / G E T T Y IMAGE S

10 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
FULL-GLOSS, STAGE READY GUITARS FOR THE ROAD
 WOODSHED
VOL. 38 | NO. 13 | HOLIDAY 2017

EDITORIAL
EXECUTIVE CONTENT DIRECTOR Jeff Kitts
MANAGING EDITOR Damian Fanelli
TECH EDITOR Paul Riario
ASSOCIATE EDITORS Andy Aledort, Richard Bienstock,

A SOUND IDEA
Alan di Perna, Chris Gill
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Gregor y Adams, Joe Bosso,
Mike Dawes, Eric Feldman, Randy Har ward, Joe Lalaina,
Mike Orlando, Jon Wiederhorn
SENIOR VIDEO PRODUCER Mark Nuñez
IT CAME TO ME as I was driving home one
MUSIC
night a few weeks ago. I was listening to Sirius SENIOR MUSIC EDITOR Jimmy Brown
on my stereo, more than likely Ozzy’s Boneyard MUSIC TRANSCRIPTIONIST Jeff Perrin
MUSIC ENGRAVER Patricia Corcoran
channel, and Metallica’s “Sad But True” was
blaring. Now, I’ve been doing the slow-headbang thing to that monolithic ART
ART DIRECTOR Mixie von Bormann
riff regularly for 26 years, same as many of you—but on this particular ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Tamara Lee
drive, it was the sound of the guitars that had my attention. Such glori- CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER Alexis Cook
ous depth of tone, such a gut-rumbling sound emanating from James ONLINE
MANAGING EDITOR Jackson Maxwell
Hetfield’s hands wrapped tight around his ESP MX-220—and it got me EDITOR Damian Fanelli
wondering not only just how that instantly identifiable, unparalleled gui-
PRODUCTION
tar sound came to be, but also what it would take for the average Guitar PRODUCTION MANAGER Nicole Schilling
World reader to dial in such a sound in their own bedroom, garage or BUSINESS
basement. But that’s just one song, one sound—and there are plenty of VICE PRESIDENT, GENERAL MANAGER Bill Amstutz
Bamstutz@nbmedia.com
other songs out there with equally unique and defining guitar sounds.
GROUP PUBLISHER Bob Ziltz
Once I was set on doing a feature in the magazine that focused on great 212-378-0471, Bziltz@nbmedia.com
guitar sounds and how to get them, I turned to our resident gear expert ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Jon Brudner
Chris Gill—truthfully, no one speaks that language better than Chris, and 917-281-4721, Jbrudner@nbmedia.com
you can clearly see the extent of his knowledge and passion for guitar ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Mari Deetz
650-238-0344, Mdeetz@nbmedia.com
sounds in this month’s “Tonal Recall” extravaganza that begins on page 58. ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Jeff Donnenwerth
Not only did he do a fantastic job explaining the “Sad But True” rhythm 212-378-0466, Jdonnenwerth@nbmedia.com
sound and offer some suggestions on how you might be able to produce ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Jason Perl
646-723-5419, Jperl@nbmedia.com
such a tone on your own, he did the same for a variety of songs, from
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Scott Sciacca
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy” to Muse’s “Hysteria” to Rush’s “Red 646-723-5478, Ssciacca@nbmedia.com
Barchetta,” Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” and others. ADVERTISING DIRECTOR - NON-ENDEMIC Anne Triece
I couldn’t be happier with how this feature turned out because I genu- 646-723-5419, Atriece@nbmedia.com
inely see it as high-value content, and I’m seriously considering making it CONSUMER MARKETING
a regular department in every issue of Guitar World. If you like that idea, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Sheri Taubes
FULFILLMENT COORDINATOR Ulises Cabrera
shoot me a note and tell me.
I wish I could say I was as excited about the cover story this month— NEWBAY MEDIA CORPORATE
truth is, I was extremely excited about what we had originally planned (an PRESIDENT & CEO Steve Palm
interview with one of my personal heroes), but a week or so before this CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Paul Mastronardi
CONTROLLER Rick Ng
issue was scheduled to go to the printer, we were faced with the loss of VICE PRESIDENT OF PRODUCTION & MANUFACTURING Bill Amstutz
yet another legend, in this case Tom Petty, and had to bump the original VICE PRESIDENT OF DIGITAL STRATEGY & OPERATIONS Robert Ames
VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT & MARKETING Anthony Savona
cover story into the January issue. Alan di Perna had interviewed Tom in CORPORATE DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Meg Estevez
the past for us, so it was only natural that he write the tribute story—and
SUBSCRIBER CUSTOMER SERVICE: Guitar World Magazine
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12 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

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 SOUNDI NG BOARD
Got something you want to say? EMAIL US AT: Soundingboard@GuitarWorld.com
Golden Age
Thank you for the Queens of
the Stone Age cover story in the
November issue. They are a very
unique and original band. Don’t
ever be afraid to cover artists
that don’t shred the guitar—it’s
all about being creative with
the instrument and just playing
what’s needed.
—Kevin Keeton
Fool’s Gold
First off, I’ve been reading your
mag on and off since the Ste-
vie Ray Vaughan tribute issue
in 1990, and I appreciate all
that I’ve learned from your les-
sons and tabs. My gripe is with
the recent David Bowie tran-
scription in the November issue.
He is my all-time favorite art-
ist and Station to Station is prob-
ably my favorite album of his—
but couldn’t you have picked a
better song to transcribe than
“Golden Years”? The song itself
isn’t bad, but it’s just a weak
choice for a transcription. Earl
Slick is phenomenal on the
album’s title track and “Stay,”
and you pick a song that I don’t
think he even played on. It’s cool
that you strayed from the usual
Mick Ronson classics, but maybe
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.
14 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
go with something a little more
“guitar-centric” next time.
—Joe
We Salute You
I am beyond stoked that Marc
Ford and Rich Robinson are play-
ing together again in Magpie Sa-
lute [November 2017 issue], and I
can’t wait to see them live. Their
guitars on the Black Crowes’
Southern Harmony and Musical
Companion weave together like
Keith Richards and Mick Taylor;
it’s just stellar blues-rock guitar
playing at its absolute finest. Too
bad you went with Queens of the
Stone Age on the cover. Anyway,
I tore the issue open and read
the Magpie piece twice. Great
interview; now, how about fea-
turing some more classic Crowes
transcriptions?
—Jon Melsness
United Front
I recently received the Novem-
ber 2017 issue of Guitar World
and I’m throwing out words of
encouragement and comfort
in the wake of seeing Rosa
Daleno’s shocking and sickening
Sounding Board rant regarding
the gender of a musician. Please
don’t take into consideration
the lewd suggestion by this Rosa
individual and allow all musi-
cians of any sexual or gender
identification to be featured in
your magazine. They deserve
to be viewed as a musician and
be heard everywhere—please
don’t be another barrier to these
talented people.
—Nicholas Jetty
Black Hole
I’m a 10-year-plus subscriber
and loyal reader for more than
20 years, and I think you guys
have held the torch high for
all things important to the gui-
tar. However, I feel that you are
mildly out of touch with your
audience, as you have com-
pletely disregarded quite pos-
sibly the most relevant active
metal band today: the Black
Dahlia Murder. This band has
put out some of the most highly
anticipated guitar albums of the
past decade, and they’ve never
been on your cover or had a tran-
scription in the magazine. I’m
not saying what you are doing
isn’t relevant, and I’m not say-
ing all of your readers are pre-
dominantly metalheads, but you
are really missing out on a mar-
ket that has pushed the enve-
lope for guitar for years. Aside
from TBDM, how about some
Between the Buried and Me,
Angel Vivaldi, Thy Art Is Mur-
der or Veil of Maya? All of them
have put out some great material
and have large, loyal followings.
It’s great that you sometimes
have Dave Davidson from Revo-
cation as a columnist and that
you feature Animals As Leaders
in the mag, but I feel like much is
being missed.
—Seth Norton
Flying High
It would be great to see Matt
Pike in Guitar World again.
There are many guitarists
doing great things right now,
and he is one who I feel has
been overlooked. The mix of
punk-inspired speed, heartfelt
blues-based solos and drop-
tuned metal that he brings to
the table with High on Fire is
truly one of a kind, often quite
moving and very inspiring. (Not
to mention the energy he brings
forth during live shows. I have
rarely seen someone get as deep
into what they’re playing, night
after night.) There is a lot of good
music out there, and I don’t want
your readers to miss out on what
Matt is doing.
—Brian “Mac” MacDonald
Winning
Horse
Thank you so much for turning
me onto Polyphia [September
2017 issue]! Amazing band! Now,
I want to suggest that you cover
another amazing shreddy-prog-
gy band that I got into about a
year and a half ago: Caligula’s
Horse. They have a new CD
coming out in the fall, and you
should show them some love.
And no, I am not affiliated with
the band in any way—I just
think they deserve a shot at be-
ing the next Rush.
—Bill McKeown
Ink Spot
I got this Pearl Jam “Future
Days” tattoo because it was the
first dance song at my wedding.
The best part is my wife picked
it because she knows Pearl Jam
is my favorite.
—Jerry Schroyer III
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!
 STAY CONNECTED WITH GUITAR WORLD ON

AND GET THE LATEST GUITAR NEWS, INSIDER UPDATES, STAFF REPORTS AND MORE!

READER
ART
OF THE MONTH

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!

JASO N HO OK B Y TRYSTAN ANTHONY FRANK ZAP PA B Y U P TO N O ’ G O O D

DEFENDERS of the Faith

Zach Krammen
AGE 16
HOMETOWN Greenville, MI
GUITARS Schecter Demon 6, Ibanez S
series, Ibanez Gio, ESP LTD WA-200,
B.C. Rich Virgo
SONGS I HAVE BEEN PLAYING
Megadeth “Symphony of Destruction,”
songs by Lamb of God and Drowning
Pool
GEAR I MOST WANT A Mesa/Boogie
amp, Jackson Mark Morton Dominion DX2
Robert Moore
AGE 22
HOMETOWN Laredo, TX
GUITAR Kramer Focus 6000,
Kramer Focus 3000, Gibson SG
SONGS I HAVE BEEN PLAYING
Impellitteri “17th Century Chicken
Pickin’,” the entire No Parole from Rock
’n’ Roll album by Alcatrazz, Yngwie J.
Malmsteen “Krakatau,” “I Am a Viking”
and “Evil Eye”
GEAR I MOST WANT Kramer Pacer,
Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Custom
Stratocaster
Amin Raja
AGE 44
HOMETOWN Jacksonville, FL
GUITARS Fender Strat Plus,
Fender Modern Player Tele Thinline,
Seventies reissue Gibson SG,
Yamaha Guitalele, Fender acoustic
SONGS I HAVE BEEN PLAYING
Bob Dylan “One More Cup of
Coffee,” The Beatles “For You Blue,”
Sting “Fragile”
GEAR I MOST WANT Gibson ES-335

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 15
rite of passage

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 TUNE-UPS
UPS
ANGEL VIVALDI GLENN
PROUDFOOT
18
20
Shot Through the Heart
RICHIE SAMBORA AND ORIANTHI JOIN FORCES TO MAKE THE ULTIMATE
GUITAR TEAM AND ROMANTIC COUPLE IN ROCK.
By Joe Bosso
FOUR YEARS AGO, Richie Sam-
bora was vacationing in Hawaii and
was asked by his old pal Alice Cooper to
join him onstage at his annual charity
concert for the Maui Food Bank. The
JOSEPH LLANES
former Bon Jovi guitarist had no idea
his life was about to change. “Before the
show, I’m sitting in the audience with
Alice while the main band is sound-
TETRARCH DEAR GUITAR HERO:
GLENN HUGHES
“I’ve been in some
dangerous situa-
tions with gigs in
the past,
RICHIE
KOTZEN
22
24 28
but I think that’s all
part of paying your
dues..”
he heard her play. “I was blown away, and
so I was even more intrigued,” he says.
“I was like, ‘All right, that’s somebody I
wanna jam with!’ ”
For her part, the 32-year-old Orianthi
knew full well who Sambora was. As a
budding guitarist growing up in Austra-
lia, she had seen him hundreds of times
checking, and I see this beautiful girl in Bon Jovi videos. “ ‘Livin’ on a Prayer,’
onstage with a guitar,” says Sambora.
Tkk “I ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’—those are iconic
said to Alice, ‘Wow, who’s that?’ He said, songs,” she says. “I knew Richie was an
‘Oh, that’s Orianthi. She’s in my band. amazing player, but I wasn’t expecting us
She’s played with Michael Jackson—she’s to connect so quickly during the char-
really great.’ ” ity concert. We did ‘Voodoo Child’ and
While Sambora might have been first then with Sammy Hagar we played ‘Rock
attracted to Orianthi’s obvious good Candy.’ Our styles mixed so well—I was
looks, it was love at first shred the second really pleasantly surprised.”
guitarworld.com 3
guitarworld.com 17
 NEWS + NOTES
A month later, Sambora invited Orian-
thi to join him for a tour of Europe and
her native Australia, and sparks started
flying both onstage and off. “There was no
hesitation with anything,” Sambora says.
“We dove right in and became a couple
right away. We didn’t really think, ‘Oh,
we should keep the musical and personal
things separate.’ ” Adds Orianthi, “I think
what really helped is the fact that we’re
both guitarists. We share a language, and
we have so much respect for each other.
That makes everything easier.”
Once Orianthi fulfilled her touring
commitments to Alice Cooper, she moved
in with the 58-year-old Sambora in Los
Angeles, where the two made firm plans
for their musical collaboration. For a time,
they struggled to find a suitable band
name before finally deciding on their
initials, RSO. “It’s better than Samborian-
thi,” Sambora jokes. “And Ori-Bora, that
definitely wasn’t happening.”
They set up a musical compound in
their home—recording gear in the kitchen,
amps in the dining room, and a drum
room in the home theater area. “It seems
crazy, but it works,” Sambora stresses.
“My good friend Bob Rock [producer of
Bon Jovi and Metallica, among others]
helped us put it all together, and he did a
great job. We get some killer sounds right
in the kitchen.”
With Rock in tow as producer and occa-
sional bassist, the happy couple recorded
a healthy batch of the nearly 70 songs they
had written over a two-year period. While
Sambora and Orianthi handled vocal, gui-
18 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
tar and some bass duties, they welcomed a
host of guest players, such as keyboardist
John Webster and Paul McCartney drum-
mer Abe Laboriel Jr. “We had a blast the
entire time,” Orianthi says. “Richie and
Bob have a great chemistry from all their
years together. I’d met Bob at some of the
Maui jams Alice has thrown, so it was cool
for me to finally work with him.”
RSO’s first release comes in the form of
a five-song EP called Rise, which features
a compelling snapshot of both guitarists’
musical strengths. “Masterpiece” is a poi-
gnant piece of mainstream pop capped by
Orianthi’s fiery soloing, while “Truth” is
a gorgeous piano-driven ballad complete
with backward acoustic guitar flourishes.
Their two voices mesh beautifully on the
country-laced “Good Times,” and they
lock axes forcefully on the anthemic, Hen-
drixy title cut.
“We love to play guitar together, but
we didn’t want it to be a ‘guitar noodlefest
record’ per se,” Sambora points out. “But
trust me—that stuff is coming. This EP is
just the tip of the iceberg.”
As for how the two have influenced each
other, Orianthi says she’s sharpened her
compositional skills from Sambora. “He
writes ‘songs within songs’ when he solos,”
she notes. “But what he does is really raw
and pure.” Sambora, on the other hand,
credits Orianthi with awakening his love
of music in general. “I don’t want to come
off like some old dude,” he says, “but when
you play with someone like her, the reasons
why you do this come flooding back. She’s
got a lot of soul for someone so young.”
WHAT'S ON MY
PLAYLIST
ANGEL VIVALDI
1
“Meat Is Murder”
The Smiths
“This is, hands down, my favorite Smiths
record. I found myself rediscovering their
catalog over the past few months and
was reminded of how great the songs are
on this record. While not overly technical,
Johnny Marr’s guitar work influenced an
entire generation of guitarists.”
2
“Recreation Day”
Evergrey
“This album has it all: soaring melodies,
captivating riffs and guitar solos that
will make any guitarist want to play. The
amount of melodic content on this record
is through the roof!”
3
“Transcendence”
Devin Townsend
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each instrument do its thing.”
SAMBORA AND ORIANTHI: JOSEPH LLANES
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 NEWS + NOTES

Glenn The Contortionist’s

Cameron Maynard
Glenn Proudfoot with

Proudfoot
his Fender Strat Plus

THE AUSTRALIAN NATIVE

SUMMONS THE RIFF GODS ON
HIS LATEST ALBUM, FIRE & RAIN.
By Gregory Adams

GLENN PROUDFOOT IS nothing if not

prolific. The Australian guitarist/vocalist
has played in several bands over the past few
years, most notably the European prog-rock
outfit Pražský Výběr. At the same time, he’s
also established an impressive track record as a
solo artist as he releases his fourth album, Fire
& Rain.
Proudfoot, who grew up an AC/DC and
Metallica fanatic, remains a resolute advocate
for the fundamental importance of the killer
riff, even though Fire & Rain’s melodicism
sounds tailor-made for active rock radio. He
explains, “I always want to introduce a heavy,
tough riff that listeners can sink their teeth into
and then take them on the journey of the song
with its melody. That was my ambition with
this album.”
This marriage is perhaps best captured on
“Broken,” Fire & Rain’s opener and first single.
“It’s a really good introduction into the album,”
Proudfoot says. “It encapsulates what it’s all
about. It’s heavy, with some tricky guitar parts
in it, with a big chorus.” The same can be said
about “Fire & Rain,” an accessible tune that
features a gorgeous, lyrical solo embedded
within a propulsive groove. “Riffs that feature
syncopation between drums and guitar really
affect me. They move me.”
Despite the album’s modern sound, Proud-
foot’s gear choices and recording techniques
are steeped in tradition. For this record, he
leaned heavily on his main ax, an Eighties-
vintage Strat Plus, plugged into a Victory VX
The Kraken 50-watt amp. “I record in a really
old-school way, with real amps and pedals. I
always try to get the most clean signal that I
possibly can, whether I’m using gain or not,”
he notes. And while he appreciates the utility
of amp modeling, he believes his listeners can
detect the tonal differences between a cabinet
and a computer. “People can feel it when there
are real amps used on an album,” he declares.
“They know the difference.”
As 2018 approaches, Proudfoot is excited
to play his new material for live audiences in
Europe and possibly America. “Making this
album was an incredibly rewarding process for
me,” he says. “It involved a lot of really hard
work, but as a result I was able to take myself
out of my comfort zones and push myself into
new creative areas.”

20 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

DON’T MISS AN ISSUE – SUBSCRIBE TODAY
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 NEWS + NOTES
Tetrarch
ON THEIR GROUND-SHAKING FULL-LENGTH DEBUT, THE MEMBERS
OF THIS L.A.-BASED HEAVY METAL BEHEMOTH EMBRACE THEIR
FREAKISHNESS.
By Gregory Adams
THE SONGS ON Freak—the first
full-length outing from Atlanta-bred,
L.A.-based metal quartet Tetrarch—are
built to bludgeon. Between its mix of
concrete-heavy, post–nu metal beats and
lead guitarist Diamond Rowe’s armor-
piercing thrash leads, none of us are
safe—not even Tetrarch’s own band
members. For instance, during the group’s
recent cross-country run with DevilDriver,
a particularly ruthless run-through of the
new album’s title cut nearly annihilated
rhythm guitarist Josh Fore.
“I was headbanging on our new song
‘Freak’ in the middle section, and as I went
down, Diamond’s headstock was coming
up and caught me right on the side of the
face,” says Fore. “I played the rest of the
show with blood going all over.”
Unsurprisingly, Tetrarch’s latest knows
22 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
how to bring the pain. The speed present
on the outfit’s earlier trio of EPs has come
down a bit, but Rowe and Fore double-
down on the intensity of their playing. De-
tuned discordance and whammy-infused
flourishes seethe on “Spit.” Elsewhere,
“Pull the Trigger” finds the duo locking
into a mathematical, palm-muted break-
down before the lead guitarist powers
through a flashbang of fiery bends and
hammer-ons. The compact micro-solo on
“Freak” is less flashy, but Rowe purpose-
fully pulled back to focus on experimenting
with a series of watery reverbs and delays.
“Even though all these songs have
solos, we didn’t want to over-saturate,” she
says. “Do I miss it a little bit? I wish there
might’ve been a couple that were a little
longer, but I think we did a pretty good job
overall.”
(from left) Tetrarch’s
Diamond Rowe,
Ruben Limas and Josh Fore
“Freak” ties into the record’s overarch-
ing theme of self-discovery, Fore screaming
on the song of the importance of “letting
your psycho loose.” It’s a potent message,
and 10 years into their career, the members
of Tetrarch are more confident slinging
their outsider anthems than ever before.
“I’ve always been kind of weird,” says
Rowe. “Weird in the sense that I’ve never
been your stereotypical African-American
girl—I’m into metal, I love motocross. I’ve
met a lot of people through being differ-
ent, and I found myself. Freak is actually a
perfect title.”
AXOLOGY
• GUITARS (Rowe) ESP LTD EC-1000
CTM, ESP LTD SCT-607B, ESP LTD EC-
1000 EverTune, Gibson Les Paul Standard;
(Fore) LTD EC-1000 S, ESP LTD SCT-607B,
ESP LTD AA-600
• AMPS (Rowe) Mesa/Boogie Triple
Rectifier, Marshall 1960s cab; (Fore) EVH
JENN CURTIS
5150III 100-watt 4x12 with Celestion v30s
• EFFECTS (Rowe) Ibanez TS9 Tube
Screamer, Boss NS2, POD HD Pro X;
(Fore) Ibanez Tube Screamer, Boss NS2
 DEAR GUITAR HERO

Glenn Hughes with his

Nash Guitars JB63 bass
N E I L Z LO Z O W E R

24 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

GLENN HUGHES
He played bass in Deep Purple in the mid-Seventies and is currently providing the
low end in Black Country Communion with Joe Bonamassa, but what Guitar World
readers really want to know is… Interview by Joe Lalaina
WHY DID YOU SWITCH FROM
PLAYING GUITAR TO BASS
WHEN YOU WERE FIRST START-
ING OUT, AND WHO WERE YOUR
BASS INFLUENCES DURING
YOUR EARLY DAYS? —BERNIE ESSER
I switched to bass because I got to play with Mel Galley in a band called Finders
Keepers in 1966. I was 15 and he was 19, and he needed a bass player. A few
years later we formed Trapeze in 1969. I looked up to Mel because I was very
young. To me, he was in the same league as George Harrison and Eric Clapton.
My early bass influences were Paul McCartney, Jack Bruce and James
Jamerson, who has probably played on more Motown hits than anyone else
in history.
What qualities do you chatted about music, my playing
require from your and what my role would be in the
co-musicians? band, among other things. That
—Kalevi Heino was a beautiful experience for me.
I like to work with people who are When I joined Purple, they were
super-talented, grounded, loving one of the biggest bands in the
and nurturing. I’ve got to have an world and Blackmore was one of
eye-to-eye relationship with them. rock’s biggest guitarists. I was just
I’m in a different place now, spiritu- 21 years old, and he gave me the
ally, than I was 30 years ago. time to develop a relationship with
him and the band.
Do you think your talent Ritchie and I always got along
as a bassist gets well, even though everyone knows
overlooked since you are such he can be difficult to work with.
a great vocalist? My first year in Purple was easier
—Eddie Simon than the second year, because
Many people are not aware that then Ritchie went into his own
I’m a bassist because my voice world and shortly thereafter quit
overshadows everything else. the band and formed Rainbow. He
What I really am is a singing became distant and stopped talk-
bassist. I became a bass player by ing to the members of the band.
happenstance in the Sixties. I was Blackmore’s playing was extraor-
originally a guitarist. dinary on the second album I did
with Purple, Stormbringer, but he
What are your fondest didn’t come up with a lot of music,
memories of playing with so David [Coverdale], Jon [Lord]
Ritchie Blackmore in Deep and I had the beautiful burden to
Purple? write the majority of that album.
—Chuck Brady
When I joined Purple in June 1973, Is there anything
Ritchie and I went to Hamburg, distinctive about Joe
Germany, one weekend and sat Bonamassa’s guitar work in
on a barstool for two days and Black Country Communion
compared to the other
guitarists you’ve played with
over the years?
—Ben Gilbert
Joe will tell you himself that
you’ve probably heard aspects of
his playing in the styles of other
guitarists, and that he’s not an
originator of any particular style.
Joe is a massive guitar fan. He
started playing at age four. He was
already meeting and playing with
his heroes by the time he was a
teenager. He’s been playing non-
stop for the past 36 years and has
not taken a day off. Joe is a huge
admirer of Paul Kossoff. On Black
Country Communion’s new album,
BBCIV, he channels Kossoff bril-
liantly. Joe and I wrote the album
from scratch. We got together in a
room, facing each other toe to toe,
holding our guitars, and started
jamming; that’s how all the songs
came together. His playing is at
the peak of his game now; he has
one of the greatest vibratos of any
guitarist.
Your autobiography,
From Deep Purple to
Black Country Communion, is a
cautionary tale of the thrills
and perils of the rock-and-roll
lifestyle. The amount of drugs
that you ingested would’ve
killed most people. What
advice would you give those
struggling with substance-
abuse issues?
—Kevin Miller
When you’re young and find
yourself in situations when you go
out drinking where people want
to give you things, just be careful
because there’s no good side to
substance abuse—it’s a silent killer.
Your disease tells you you don’t
have anything wrong and to con-
tinue using. But once you become
addicted, it’s difficult to quit.
Never did I think I would be-
come a full-blown cocaine addict
in the Seventies. I was playing with
Deep Purple at the Houston Astro-
dome in 1974. This guy cavorting
around backstage put a packet of
coke in my pocket. He told me to
check it out later, but I told him I
didn’t want any. Nobody in Purple
did drugs. One faithful night a
week or so later I was alone in my
hotel room in San Antonio, so I
decided to give it a go, and I liked
it. Before long, I became hooked
and it chased me all over the
world. Thank God, it’s a long-gone
thing for me. That drug is demonic.
Whatever energy you gain from it,
you’ll lose even more, and possibly
even your life. My dear friend Kevin
DuBrow [of Quiet Riot] fatally
overdosed from it in 2007, and
other friends of mine died from it
as well.
Of your studio albums
with Deep Purple—Burn,
Stormbringer and Come Taste
the Band—which do you like
most?
—Bob Florsheim
Burn was a hugely successful
album, but Stormbringer is my fa-
vorite; it had more groove and a lot
more melodies. We couldn’t make
Burn “part two” because Black-
more was pretty much absent on
guitarworld.com
guitarworld.com 25
1
 DEAR GUITAR HERO

Stormbringer, so the rest of the

band had to pick up the slack.
After capturing such an
incredibly awesome
sound with a Rickenbacker
bass on Burn, why did you
switch to Fender Precision and
Fender Jazz basses on your
many subsequent albums?
—Carl Fragnito
When I joined Purple, I replaced
Roger Glover, who played a Rick-
enbacker. So I decided to get one
for myself because it represented
the band’s sound. But when I start-
ed to play onstage with Purple,
the Rickenbacker didn’t fulfill the
groove-oriented sound I wanted,
so I switched to the Fender
basses. My playing comes from a
James Jamerson place, and the
Rickenbacker wasn’t the right bass
to achieve that sound. I wound up
foolishly giving the Rickenbacker
to Geezer Butler. When I saw him
at Ronnie James Dio’s funeral in
2010, I asked him if I could have
it back. He told me flat out, “No,”
but that he would let me look at
it. I should have never given it to
him in the first place, but everyone
makes mistakes.
bed, a video library, a shower and
a long bar with an organ built into
WHAT
it. When you have your own jet, MENTORING
you can do pretty much what you
want, but we kept things pretty
MESSAGE DO
controlled, for the most part. I’m YOU HAVE
not saying we didn’t do anything
stupid, because we did. I mean, it
IN REGARDS
was the Seventies! TO BEING A
You have a knack for MUSICIAN AND DEVELOPING
combining technical YOUR CHOPS? —SID ROSENTHAL
proficiency and rock-solid
musicianship with impassioned A lot of people don’t recognize that they’ve
vocals. What do you strive to been blessed with the ability to play an instru-
achieve as a songwriter?
ment. I didn’t realize that I’ve been given a gift
—Joseph Luigi
I strive for emotional groove and to play guitar, then learned how to play bass.
lyrical content. I’m quite passion- Then one day I started singing, and I thought
ate about playing, and my music
it was pretty cool. The next thing I know I’m
provides suggestions for mes-
sages. My message is very simple: singing in Trapeze, and a few years later I’m
be good and kind to one another. singing with David Coverdale in Deep Purple.
We’re living in a dark period of
I was never really thinking about how good
time. Yeah, I’m an old hippie, but
so what. The fact of the matter my voice was—I just enjoyed being in the
is that I’ve survived so many hor- moment. You have to be able to dream and
rible, adverse conditions that I’ve
tell yourself that you can do whatever you
become a humble, caring person. I
have a wonderful life now, and I’m want. Whatever you put in your mind, you can
grateful to still be alive. achieve, as long as you stay positive.

Black Country Communion in Los Angeles

You were born and raised (from left): Jason Bonham, Glenn Hughes,
in Britain but have lived Derek Sherinian and Joe Bonamassa
the majority of your life in Los
Angeles. Do you love L.A.?
—Sean Duff
I do. When I first came to Cali-
fornia in 1970, Trapeze was the
opening act for the Moody Blues.
It was my first time in the U.S., and
I landed in L.A. I fell in love with it
and I’ve been living in Los Angeles
since 1973. Like any city, L.A. can
be a dangerous place if you’re an
alcoholic/drug addict, because
every street corner can trigger
your addiction, as it did to me in
the Seventies.

Most bands that toured

in the Seventies did so on
a tour bus. Deep Purple
chartered its own jet. What
was that like?
N E I L Z LO Z O W E R

—Steve Flannery
It was simply amazing—everything
that you can imagine, and more.
We were flying high. There were
no seatbelts, no rules and no
baggage claim. The plane had a

26 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

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 NEWS + NOTES
INQUIRER
RICHIE KOTZEN
What initially inspired you
to pick up a guitar?
I was one of those kids that
loved to sing and dance and
try and entertain my family. I
have a picture of me from when
I was four or five, dressed in
some kind of crazy costume
with a plastic guitar and
mic stand and singing—lip-
synching—for my family. And
then someone suggested that
I should take piano lessons. So
I had a few lessons and then I
just didn’t really take to it very
well. And then a few years
later, I was at a garage sale and
there was a guitar there, and I
realized that’s what I wanted
to play. Around the same time, I
became a fan of the band Kiss.
So I kinda put it all together
that those guys dressed up
really cool, played really loud
music and they were holding
guitars. So I figured that must
be the instrument I should be
playing.
What was the first guitar
28 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
that you owned?  I can remember being booked
My first real guitar was a
Gibson Marauder. I was a
seven-year-old kid and I wasn’t
working, so my parents bought
it for me. Maybe five years later,
once they realized I was really
serious about the guitar, they
bought me, for Christmas, a
Yamaha SBG2000. That became
my main guitar for a long time.
What was the first song
you learned?
“Jingle Bell Rock,” because I
had to perform it at a school
function. I think I was in sixth
grade. Then shortly around the
same time, I learned “Purple
Haze.”
What do you recall about
your first time playing live?
It was at that school recital. I
remember being very upset be-
cause I couldn’t tune the guitar.
And finally there was another
kid there that was much older
who was in the school jazz
band. He tuned it for me and I
went out and played.
Have you ever had an em-
barrassing moment onstage,
or a nightmare gig?
in some really awkward places.
Most of them have been on Eu-
ropean tours. One in particular,
I remember playing in what felt
like somebody’s basement. It
was always crowded and it felt
like a fire trap. Those kinds of
gigs can be really nerve-wrack-
ing, ’cause you can’t really see
anything, it’s hard to hear and
there’s a lot of people. I’ve been
in some dangerous situations
with gigs in the past, but I think
that’s all part of paying your
dues.
Is there a particular
moment on your most
recent album, Salting Earth
(Headroom-Inc), that you’re
particularly proud of?
I think my favorite track on the
record is “This Is Life.” I really
love the way that turned out.
The song was initially written
and recorded on the drums. I
know that sounds insane, but
I heard something in my head.
So I went into the studio, sat
Richie Kotzen with his
signature Fender Telecaster
behind the drums with no click
track, and played as if I was
playing with a band. Then I
put down a guitar track, and
then I added the bass. And
that’s what you’re hearing: the
original tracks. Later on, I came
up with lyrics. And then I added
the piano and, of course, the
guitar solo at the end. So any
song can be written in any way,
but that one in particular, just
because of the way I recorded
it, I just think it’s so unique.
What is your favorite
guitar or piece of gear?
My favorite piece of gear is the
RK5 Fly Rig. This was a pedal I
put together where I took my
favorite overdrive and my favor-
ite delay and the controls from
my Fender amp, and I mounted
it into one little pedal. Because,
before the Winery Dogs, I was
doing a lot of fly dates, where
I would fly down to South
America for three weeks, do a
bunch of shows, come home.
Then I’d fly to Europe for a
month, do a bunch of shows,
come home. So I needed a small
rig. So I showed it to the fellows
over at Tech 21 and we found
a way to improve it and put it
into a more professional enclo-
sure. And now it’s available to
everyone.
Along with that, my favorite
guitar is a Fender Telecaster; I
have a signature model that’s
been sold since 1996. It’s a
Fender Tele that’s based off of a
Custom Shop model they gave
me back in 1991.
Do you have any advice for
young players?
Follow your heart and learn the
music you love. And once you
have a handle on the instru-
ment, the ultimate thing is
to create and write your own
music. That’s a fantastic thing,
to have an idea and bring it to
fruition. And the great thing
about playing any instrument,
and the thing that I love, right
up there equal to writing, is
just improvising. Just follow the
JULIA LAGE
creative flow.
—RANDY HARWARD
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 HOLIDAY
2017

PHANTOM
THE

MENACE
The goofballs in August Burns Red grow up
just a little bit on their new album, Phantom
Anthem. Guitarists JB Brubaker and Brent
Rambler give Guitar World the lowdown
on their ferocious new release.

BY JON WIEDERHORN
PHOTOGRAPHED BY RAY DUKER

30
GUITAR WORLD
 August Burns Red’s JB Brubaker (left) with his
Ibanez RGA121 (now available as a signature
model, the JBBM20) and Brent Rambler with his
Ibanez Custom Shop FR model

guitarworld.com
IT WAS A HUMID SUMMER NIGHT IN PARIS and August Burns
Red were playing the last show of their European
tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their second
album, Messengers. The band was inside the belly of
a boat of a club/restaurant affixed to a pier, and there
were enough people in the crowd to, well, sink a ship.
For the first two songs, the crowd headbanged to the frantic riffs
and moshed during the breakdowns. Then, as August Burns Red
entered the final passage of “Back Burner,” the power in the venue
went out, killing the amps, mics and primary stage lights. If this had
happened in 2007, back when Messengers first came out and August
Burns Red were still building a following, the audience might have
heckled the band or shouted, “Slayer, Slayer, Slayer!” But August
Burns Red have become substantially more popular since then. The
band’s video for “Invisible Enemy,” which was posted on July 27,
has garnered more than 1.5 million views.
“It was quiet for few seconds, then almost everyone started
chanting, ‘ABR! ABR! ABR!’ ” recalls lead guitarist and main song-
writer JB Brubaker from the basement studio at his house in Man-
heim, Pennsylvania, about 11 miles from where August Burns Red
formed. “The power was out for a good three or four minutes and
the crowd was patient the whole time.”
“Some of the people shouted for us to play a drum solo, of course,
because you can hear the drums inside most venues just fine without
electricity,” adds rhythm guitarist Brent Rambler, who, in addition
to playing tight, crunching riffs, is the more theatrical of the two gui-
tarists. “They were shouting pretty loud, but we were like, ‘Well, you
guys are gonna hear a drum solo at the end of the set anyway, so we’re
not gonna play one now.’ Then the power went back on, everyone
cheered and we went right into the next song. It was pretty cool and
the rest of the show was hot, sweaty and a lot of fun.”
Energetic, entertaining and fun are words frequently used to
describe August Burns Red’s progressive, mosh-friendly metal-
core from the time their debut album Thrill Seeker came out 12 years
ago. Back then, Brubaker and Rambler played breakdown after
breakdown, and a small but loyal legion of fans frantically stomped,
kicked, spun and punched the air, while curious but uninitiated
audience members watched the show from further back to avoid
suffering a broken nose or a split lip. As the band progressed, their
music became more complicated, and many of the breakdowns
were replaced by multifaceted rhythms and quirky multicultural
melodies that gave their music a more lighthearted sound.
“We’ve always been kind of a goofball band,” Rambler says. “I
mean, come on. We play crazy metal for a living and our singer liter-
ally screams at people every song. When you think about it like that,
you can’t help but see the humor in what we do.”
Still, August Burns Red have developed a reputation for offer-
32 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
ing fans new musical twists with every
record. 2015’s Found in Faraway Places was
filled with off-the-wall time signatures and
sweeping cello and violin interludes. The
band’s new album, Phantom Anthem, is sur-
prising in a different way. In addition to fea-
turing offbeat rhythms and trademark lyrics
about striving for independence and struggling against authority,
the album includes the band’s first blatantly political song, “Hero
of the Half Truth,” which takes aim at the current administration.
“That’s the sort of a subject that we have shied away from for-
ever,” says Brubaker. “We’ve never been the least bit political. But
as we’ve gotten older it’s something we’ve become more interested
in because it has a direct effect on our lives.”
Not only did August Burns Red color Phantom Anthem with
“Hero of the Half Truth,” they imbued the entire record with new
shades of darkness and tension, reflecting the duality and division
in today’s society in songs like “Invisible Enemy” and “Lifeline,”
which contain far fewer of the musical quirks and flourishes on
which they’ve previously thrived. Even when Brubaker includes
throbbing keyboards and Latin guitar hooks in the middle of “Dan-
gerous” or augments “The Frost” with reverb-saturated acoustic
guitar over a flanged rhythm, the musical segments are more about
diversity than diversion.
“I guess it’s a more serious-sounding album in part because this
whole last election cycle was really stressful,” Rambler agrees.
“We’re the young people. We’re the ones who are going to have to
live with the repercussions of what happens over the next how-
ever many years.”
“Like a lot of people, I think we are frustrated because it seems
like no one in this country can agree on anything,” Brubaker adds.
“And if you don’t agree with someone’s political views right now,
you can’t even have a discussion. People immediately become very
defensive and accusatory and there’s not a lot of civil conversations
you can have when people are disagreeing like that.”
Some August Burns Red fans might miss some of the levity that
the band has integrated more on past records. That doesn’t mean
ABR have gone all agitcore. Phantom Anthem is rife with abrupt
rhythm and tempo changes, off-kilter leads, undistorted (and dis-
torted) tapping and guitar lines strong enough to carry the mel-
ody of the songs while vocalist Jake Luhrs shouts like he’s in D.R.I.
At times, the juxtaposition of hooks and howls is jarring, but they
often strike a creative yin-yang duality.
“I write the songs as instrumentals before everyone goes in and
turns them into what they eventually become,” Brubaker says. “We
want the music to stand alone as instrumentals with strong hooks
and then have the vocals come in and take them over the top. I like
that approach because it lets us do our own thing without having
to write traditional rock songs.”
As with past August Burns Red albums,
Brubaker did the lion’s share of the work on
Phantom Anthem; he wrote and recorded all
but two songs, rhythms, fills, leads and all.
Brubaker started working on the music in
the winter of 2015, less than six months after
Found in Far Away Places came out and fin-
ished all but one of his tracks before New
Year’s. He recorded most of the heavy parts
on his custom green Ibanez RGA121 (the
company recently announced a signature
model of the guitar, the JBBM20).
In the studio, Brubaker ran the instru-
ment through a Peavey 6505 Plus into a
Mesa/Boogie 4X12 Rectifier. He tracked his
leads with a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx on vari-
ous settings, including a Bogner Uberschall
and a Fender Twin. Brubaker variously
tuned to drop C, drop B and drop As. As pro-
ductive is he was, it was an arduous and
stressful eight weeks.
“This was my least favorite studio session
in a long time,” Brubaker says. “I don’t know why I was so anx-
ious. We had two full months, which is more time than we’ve ever
had. I thought it was going to be easy-breezy, but I still felt like
we were under the pressure of the clock. A lot of days, I was there
from 9 A.M. to midnight and we worked right until the very end.
Maybe that’s just how it goes with making a record. No matter
how much time you have, you’re going to use it all.”
Maybe it would have been less stressful for Brubaker if he
didn’t have to record all of the rhythm and lead guitar parts.
That’s just how the band has worked since they started record-
ing. Rambler only plays guitar onstage. He uses an Ibanez Custom
FR model through a Kemper profiling amplifier on a Peavey 6505
Plus setting for the distorted parts. For the clean and tapping sec-
tions, he uses a Fender or Soldano preset.
“I hate playing in the studio,” Rambler explains. “I don’t like
playing one-on-one with someone in any aspect at all. I don’t
know why, but I get nervous. I clam up. There was one time I had
to go into the studio and track a set front to back for the live album
[2010’s Home]. They wanted to be able to have reference points to
come back to when they were editing, so we went in and tracked
everything one take through, like it was live. I didn’t look at our
mixer Carson [Slovak] the whole time I just played and then he
said to me afterward, ‘Wow, that was really great. Why do you
hate tracking?’ I was practically shaking. I was like, “Oh, man, that
was so stressful for me. Can I leave now? I gotta go!’ ”
It probably had little effect on the final sound of the record,
but there was one major difference between the way August
Burns Red tracked Phantom Anthem and all six of their other stu-
dio albums. Instead of having drummer Matt Greiner record
first before they tracked anything else, Brubaker and Davidson
recorded all the main rhythm parts before Greiner even entered
the studio. They planned to work as they had in the past, but the
drummer was unable to make the first two weeks of the session.
“He was all ready to go in and track, and then two days before
we started working on the session he got a really bad case of food
poisoning,” Brubaker says. “So he was totally out of commission
for a while. He was sick and weak and then when he got better he
needed some time to get his strength back so he could drum again.
Phil Demmel
We had to start on guitars right away and we recorded them to a
click track. But it worked out fine. I was perfectly happy to do that
since that’s how I work when I’m writing.”
The greatest challenge Brubaker faces going forward is one
he’s never had to navigate. On September 21, just under two weeks
before Phantom Anthem came out, the guitarist’s wife Kate gave
birth to their first child, Beckett. The weight of becoming a dad
didn’t impact Brubaker when he recorded Phantom Anthem since
he didn’t find out his wife was expecting until the album was done
and he was on the North American leg of the Messengers tour.
“We had been trying for, like a year, unsuccessfully,” reveals
Brubaker. “Then my wife came to Sacramento to meet me for a
couple of days on tour. I had just finished playing a show at Ace of
Spades and knew she was coming in from the airport. I walk out
onto the sidewalk, all sweaty from the concert, and there she is
pulling her bag behind her. I give her a hug and kiss and she goes,
‘Guess what?’ And I’m like, ‘You’re pregnant!’ It was crazy. I don’t
know how I knew. I just did.”
After October 7, when August Burns Red plays the Rock Alle-
giance Festival in Camden, New Jersey, the band has a two-week
break before they rock the Aftershock festival in Sacramento.
Then they’ll take a four-month break, which should give Brubaker
plenty of experience with parenting a newborn before the band
starts touring Europe in early March. After that, though, August
Burns Red are scheduled to remain on the road for most of 2018.
“It would be wishful thinking to be able to shorten the sched-
ule,” Brubaker says. “There are a lot of people who want to see us
play and hopefully that doesn’t change anytime soon.”
Brubaker pauses and audibly sighs. “I have the feeling it’s going
to be much harder on me [emotionally] being a new dad and tour-
ing, but my wife’s going to be at home with our son not working.
So I’ve got to go win the bread, you know? It’s my responsibil-
ity and I need to do my best to provide. Brent has a three-year-old
[son] and he’s made it work. Plus, we like being on tour and play-
ing shows, so it’s not like I’ll be doing something I hate.”

34 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2014

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 LONDON
To celebrate the release of ALTER BRIDGE’S LIVE AT THE O2 ARENA + RARITIES CD, guitarist Mark Tremonti

BRIDGE
gives Guitar World a private, behind-the-scenes look at the band’s triumphant 2016 concert at London’s famed O2 Arena.

BY RICHARD BIENSTOCK
PHOTOS BY RICHARD BOOTH
GUITAR WORLD
HOLIDAY 2017 ISSUE
“UP TO THAT POINT, IT WAS
the biggest headlining show we’d ever
done,” Mark Tremonti says about Alter
Bridge’s performance at London’s O2
Arena on November 24, 2016. That gig,
which the guitarist estimates to have
taken place in front of roughly 15,000
fans, can now be heard in full on the
recently released Live at the O2 Arena +
Rarities. The three-CD package features
the evening’s set list spread across two
discs, as well as a third disc of rare cuts
that includes two previously unreleased
tracks—“Solace” and “Cruel Sun”—from
the sessions for Alter Bridge’s 2004
debut, One Day Remains. “I’ve always
loved those two songs,” Tremonti says,
“and I’ve been saying for years we
should put them out. It just never came
to fruition until now.”
But while the Rarities disc unearths
some interesting deep cuts, the meat
of the new release is the spectacu-
lar live set, which encompasses every-
thing from defining Alter Bridge hits
like “Open Your Eyes” and “Isola-
tion,” to fan favorites like “Metalingus”
and “Blackbird,” to recent tracks like
“Show Me a Leader” and “The Writ-
ing on the Wall.” As for why the band
decided to release the entire show on
CD? “We always want to capture those
key moments, when we hit those new
benchmarks,” Tremonti says.
But, he also admits, playing those
benchmark shows can be stressful.
“We were hyper-focused, because
we knew we were recording and that it
was going to live on for a lifetime and
become part of our legacy,” he says. “So
you want to make sure you don’t play
too stiff, you know? You want to have
a good time.” Tremonti laughs. “Then
again, you don’t want to play too loose
and have too good of a time, either.”
Here, Tremonti walks Guitar World
through 12 snapshots from his band’s
momentous day at the O2.
 1 2

“This is Myles’ [singer Myles Kennedy]

pedalboard. He really loves that MXR
1 [GT-OD] pedal for overdrive. He always
uses that. And he’s used those Line 6 ped-
“This is one of my favorite sounding and playing guitars. Paul Reed Smith and I designed it als for years and years for all his delays and
on his dry-erase board. There’s two of them—this brown one, and then there’s also a black effects. He’s totally the effects guy in the
one. The black one was the actual one-piece mahogany guitar that was kind of the guinea band. I’m the meat-and-potatoes tone guy.
pig, and this was the more perfected version. I think it’s too radical a shape for some of the If you hear crazy delays or flangers or cho-
traditional guys there to wrap their heads around, but maybe one day PRS will put it out. ruses or octaves or whatnot, that’s usually
It’s funny, all the younger guys in the factory love the guitar, but then all the guys who are him. As you can see in the later photo, my
kinda like the business people are on the fence about it. But it’s killer. That’s Frosty, my gui- board is much more simple. I don’t have a
tar tech, holding it.” switching system or anything.”

3 4

“The big triangle picks you see here are Brian’s [bass-
ist Brian Marshall]. The little ones with the signa-
ture on them are Myles’. And then the yellow and red
ones are the picks Myles actually uses. None of these
are mine!”
LONDON’S O2 ARENA
NOVEMBER 24, 2016
4
“Soundcheck on the day of the show. We’re just talking things through. You
can kind of see the seriousness on our faces. [laughs] We know the weight of the
show. We usually play ‘Cry of Achilles’ first, because it has clean tones, dirty
tones and lead tones, so it’s a good one to do in order to check the sound. And
then we’ll just work out the set list for that night and take songs that aren’t as
common and rehearse them. After that, we’ll usually let in all the meet-and-greet
folks for the soundcheck party, and then we’ll play some other songs that we
need to rehearse for the night.”

guitarworld.com
guitarworld.com 37 3
 5 6

“The most important pedal to me is the wah

[the Morley Mark Tremonti Wah]. Ever since
I was a kid it’s just something I’ve loved. And
it has a built-in overdrive as well. My signal
5 chain goes right through the pedals—there’s
no switching system. I don’t want it to get too
“My guitars. The Cs tuning is probably the most common tuning. Everything is mostly complicated. So the wah goes right into the
half-steps down to begin with, and then we have about four songs that are maybe hand-wired [Ibanez] Tube Screamer, which
down a whole step. And then open D5 shows itself two or three times during the night is my favorite overdrive, then the Dunlop
as well. To make things easier live, we just take all the open-D5 stuff and put it down a Uni-Vibe and then the T-Rex Octavius. But
half step. Then we have the oddball tunings, like a drop-C tuning. Each guitar in each the wah is my main thing. I could get away
tuning also needs to have a backup guitar in that tuning. So I have about eight or nine with doing the whole show with just that one
guitars out on the road with me.” pedal.”

8 9

“That’s the crew day

sheet. My day sheet, I
do a guitar clinic every
day and then I do a
meet and greet. I usu-
ally go from about two
o’clock in the after-
noon until maybe 6:30.
Then we have a couple
hours to have dinner
and whatnot. And then
show time is around
nine. This one also 9
says ‘Happy Thanks-
giving.’ Sometimes it “The set list for the night, with the tunings
sucks when you’re not that correspond to each song. Usually I try to
in the States for some have it so I don’t have to switch guitars every
of these holidays. It’s song. But this particular set list, it looks like
just weird. There’s no I’m switching almost every single song. That
Thanksgiving in Eng- was tough on Frosty! And the guitar laying
land, you know?” there is the same one from the first photo.”

38 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

7 ALTER BRIDGE

“A shot of the crowd that night.

The general-admission area is
where all the action’s at. It’s just
intense when you look out at it.
Especially when those house
lights kick on and you see every-
body. A lot of times you’re stand-
ing up there and the light’s in
your eyes and you get put in your
own little world. But when those
lights turn on it’s always amaz-
ing.”

10 11 12

12

11 “After the show. The crews are

taking down the P.A.s and clean-
“That’s Mr. Ian Keith. He’s Myles’ ing up the mess that the folks
guitar tech. He’s probably the lon- have made. But it looks pretty
gest-standing Alter Bridge crew mem- clean already. You know, folks
ber right now. He’s been with us for in England, they clean up after
a lot of years. He’s excellent at what themselves! As for the band, on
he does.” a night like this there’s probably
a lot of talking with guests after-
ward, having a few drinks and
10 relaxing. Because leading up to
the show there was a lot of stress
“The guitar in this photo is my favorite PRS of all time, which is my charcoal burst. This was, I think, the third and a lot of focus. And then you
or fourth guitar PRS built for me, and it just feels right. And below the bridge, that’s a sticker of Dimebag. We can kind of let loose afterward,
were doing a show in Orlando, and it was right after his passing. And a fan was going through the line and and see your friends and fam-
just handing out these memorial stickers. I got my hands on one and just put it on my favorite guitar. You can ily. Then you get to bed around
see how faded the sticker is now. It’s been on there for a lot of years. And a lot of people see it. I’ll be playing a three in the morning and you do
show and people will point at it and give me the horns and show their appreciation.” it all again.”

guitarworld.com
guitarworld.com 39 3
 Stone Temple Pilots
E I LO N PA Z

guitarist Dean DeLeo

GUITAR WORLD HOLIDAY 2017

STEPPING
STONE Twenty-five years after Core, the debut album from STONE TEMPLE PILOTS , put the San Diego foursome
on the grunge map, guitarist Dean DeLeo looks back on the making of the hit-packed release that
is now available in a deluxe reissue package.

By
RICHARD BIENSTOCK

41

YOU KNOW THAT THING YOUR MOM USED TO SAY TO
Clapton with Cale; (right)
the cover of The Breeze,
YOU WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE?” DEAN DELEO ASKS
An Appreciation of J.J. Cale
GUITAR WORLD WITH A LAUGH. “IT’S TRUE—TIME
REALLY DOES FLY.”
In this case, the amount of time that the
guitarist is referring to having flown by is
exactly 25 years, which is how long ago his
band, Stone Temple Pilots, released their
smash debut, Core. In celebration of the
milestone anniversary, the album is now
being reissued in a 4CD/DVD/LP Super
Deluxe Edition that features a remastered
version of the original 12-track effort along
with rarities, unreleased demos and B-sides,
live recordings, music videos and other
goodies.
First released on September 29, 1992,
Core arrived in the days just after hard
rock had transitioned from the big-hair,
shred-crazed approach that character-
ized the music in the Eighties to the grunge
and alternative sound that dominated its
early Nineties iteration. And Stone Tem-
ple Pilots—which also included DeLeo’s
younger brother, Robert, on bass, drum-
mer Eric Kretz and frontman Scott Wei-
land (known at the time by his surname
only)—quickly became one of the biggest
rock bands of that moment. Throughout
1993 the band racked up hit song after hit
song, from the darkly aggressive and exces-
sively grungy “Sex Type Thing,” to the
swirling technicolor alt-rock of “Plush,” the
downcast acoustic balladry of “Creep” to
the throbbing grooves of “Wicked Garden.”
42 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
Core, meanwhile, to date has sold more than
eight million copies.
On the heels of that breakout success,
Stone Temple Pilots went on to dominate
the rock scene for much of the remain-
der of the decade; their follow-up to Core,
1994’s Purple, debuted at the top of the Bill-
board charts. The 2000s, however, have
been marked by fits and starts, as well as
touched by tragedy on more than one occa-
sion. Weiland, in the throes of a severe and
ongoing drug addiction, was in and out of
the band, and in December 2015, he died of
an overdose while on tour in support of a
solo album. In the years following his ouster
from Stone Temple Pilots, the singer’s shoes
had been filled by Chester Bennington, who,
after a successful run, parted ways amicably
with STP in 2015 in order to focus his atten-
tion on Linkin Park. Then, on July 20 of this
year, Bennington took his own life while
at home in Los Angeles. When Benning-
ton’s name is brought up during this inter-
view, DeLeo, clearly still deeply shaken by
the very recent tragedy, is practically at a
loss for words. “We lost an angel,” he says
simply.
When it comes to looking back at Core,
however, DeLeo is excited to talk and
exudes nothing but happiness and appre-
ciation for everything he and his band-
(from left) Stone Temple Pilots’ Eric Kretz,
Robert DeLeo, Dean DeLeo and Scott Weiland
mates experienced and achieved in those
early days. “I’m gonna say this with great
humility,” he says. “When we were put-
ting that record together, Robert, Scott, Eric
and myself, we knew we had something
very special.” On a recent August morning,
DeLeo took some time to discuss the writ-
ing, recording and aftermath of that special
album.
Putting together this 25th-anniversary
package must have been a little bit like
jumping back in time for you. What was
that experience like?
You know, from time to time I hear the
songs from the album on the radio and it
takes me back. Especially with Scott’s pass-
ing. It would seem like he was just haunt-
ing me. Because every time I got in the car
he was singing to me. And that’s really,
really sad. But what was really interest-
ing in putting this collection together was
when we dug into the demos. Those demos
were prior to us being in the studio, prior
to meeting Brendan [O’Brien, producer of
Core]. They’re from when we were in a lit-
tle rehearsal room in North Hollywood with
Robert’s eight-track Fostex. You could hear
us talking to one another when the mics
were on. You could hear the excitement in
our voices. You could hear the vision we had
for the songs. And there’s stuff on this col-
lection that no one has ever heard. We kept
it very close to our chests. But hearing that
stuff is what really brought me back. Right
back to that room, man. I can recall all these
really, really wonderful moments. Meeting
Brendan, and then off to Rumbo Recorders
in Canoga Park to do the record, all of it.
What was it like being in the studio with
Brendan?
That was just pure fun. A lot of laughs, a lot
of great food, a lot of building lifelong rela-
tionships. And we managed to play some
music. [laughs] Look, man, I’ve had the lux-
ury of doing some pretty wonderful things
in my career. I’ve been very, very fortunate.
One of the greatest things about embarking
upon a recording career was establishing a
relationship and a friendship with Brendan
O’Brien. Robert and I learned so much from
him. And that is one part of my life…there
are a lot of ifs and buts, but that is one part I
wouldn’t change at all. That relationship we
forged with Brendan was really special. On a
personal level as well as a professional level.
K AT R I N A D I C K S O N
Let’s talk about some of the album’s most
well-known songs. Core kicks off with
“Dead and Bloated,” which opens with
Scott singing alone through what sounds
like a megaphone. But it’s actually your “Wicked Garden,” in contrast, is one Yes. Robert had all the parts for that one
guitar, correct? that sounds pretty similar in the demo ready to roll.
Yes. We had my Les Paul plugged in, and and Core versions.
Scott is basically singing right into the treble Yeah, not too far off. That was a song When you were working on that one
pickup of the guitar. where Robert had the intro, the G to the could you tell it might be something spe-
D to the A sections. And he had the cho- cial?
Was that something you had discussed rus and then I had the verses. We just I didn’t really think in those terms. And,
doing? kind of introduced them to one another I mean, we put the song way back on the
Well, we all kind of knew that pickups are and they seemed to dig each other. record, too. So I don’t think we were really
microphonic, so we said, “Let’s try this.” So he thinking like that. I think I kinda saw it
sang into the guitar and it’s just one of those “Plush” was something that Robert when the label started stopping in and lis-
moments. You never know when you’re in the brought in on his own, correct? tening to stuff as we were approaching
studio. You can go in and have this wonder-
ful day where everything you pick up or touch
and go to play works. And then there are days
where it doesn’t. You’re wrestling with it.
But that was just one of those moments that
worked. We had the guitar plugged in the way
we normally had it plugged in and Scott just
laid into it. And that’s what you hear on the
record.

The next song is “Sex Type Thing.” How did

that one come together?
I came up with that descending riff, the B to
Bf to A and then to E. And then I immediately
went to the pre-chorus section where it goes
to B to A to D. That came very quickly. And
the verse was something I wrote for another
song when I was 15 or 16. And you know the
part that’s kind of syncopated? Eric [Kretz]
thought we should have something just a lit-
tle syncopated so he said, “Let’s do some-
thing here with this beat.” And that’s when I
came up with the chords for that. But it was
the main riff that came to me in my head first.
And I ran right in and grabbed a guitar and
transposed it from my medulla oblongata.
[laughs] And that started the whole thing.

In the “Sex Type Thing” demo on this col-

lection, the structure is basically the same,
though the overdubbed guitar that plays
that higher, arpeggiated part alongside the
main riff is more prominent in the mix.
Yeah, it’s that overdubbed guitar where I’m
doing the riff kinda on the G, B and E strings.
That was probably something we came up
with at the last minute. The last overdub is
always the loudest, isn’t it? [laughs]

“Creep” is one that went through some

changes from the demo version to the take
we hear on Core.
It went through a lot of changes. We took
out that whole middle section, and lyrically
it changed pretty drastically, too. You know,
that’s a perfect example of “less is more.”
That’s something we’ve always tried to
adhere to. It was, “You know what? We don’t
need that section. Pull it out. Lose it.” Obvi-
ously the song didn’t suffer.
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guitarworld.com 43
the end of making the record. Because I
saw how those guys were reacting to the
track. But I tell ya man, Atlantic, they were
very cooperative as far as how we wanted
to build not only our record but also our
career. Because you get one shot, man. You
get one shot. And Atlantic was a great place
to be. They really let us do our thing, and
then they did their thing. So we released
“Sex Type Thing” first and then “Plush”
was the second single.
“Sex Type Thing” was a hit, but in some
ways it’s also uncharacteristic of the
Stone Temple Pilots sound and style.
Musically, it’s pretty grungy, and the lyr-
ics, which Scott sings in the first per-
son, were seen by some as being overly
aggressive toward women, rather than
a critique on that sort of thinking, which
seemed to have been Scott’s intention.
Were you bothered at all by people’s
interpretation?
Oh, I didn’t give a shit. It never crossed my
mind. It’s like, “This is us. Take it or leave
it. There’s plenty of other music out there
if you leave it!” So I never thought on those
terms. It was basically a song that wanted
to bring some awareness to some really bad
stuff that goes down, and still goes down to
this day. It’s probably worse now than ever.
It was something Scott felt strongly about.
We all did. So I don’t even know how it was
construed. I just know where we were com-
ing from with it. How anyone else wants to
interpret it, that’s up to them.
What gear did you use in the studio?
At the time I didn’t have much of a collec-
tion of amplifiers or guitars. And here’s a
story: When we moved into Rumbo, we met
at the studio at five o’clock the night before
we were scheduled to start. Brendan met us
there, with his car loaded with guitars and
amps, and he and the four of us carried in
all of our gear. I don’t know that Brendan
O’Brien meets clients at the front door of
the studio anymore to load in gear! [laughs]
So we met at Rumbo with all our gear and
fortunately at the time Brendan had a few
amps and a few guitars. So he brought
down, oh gosh, of his we used a beautiful
Pelham Blue Gibson ES-335. We had a Gib-
son Les Paul Special he brought down. He
brought a Strat with him. And you know, I
was limited in those days. I had three gui-
tars that I brought in: my ’78 sunburst Gib-
son Les Paul, which was the main guitar
on the record—that’s the one where Scott
sang into the pickup—and I also had a Tele,
a newer one, and I had a Yamaha FG-160
acoustic I had since I was a kid. That’s what
we used acoustically on the record. That
44 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
doesn’t sound like a heck of a lot of stuff,
but if you think about it, we had single coils
in the Strat and the Tele, we had PAFs in
the 335 and the Les Paul, and we had a
P-90 there, too. So we had every choice of
pickup. Then for amps, it was pretty much
my live rig that I still use to this day—my
VHT with my Demeter preamp. We ran
that stereo through two 4x12s. And then we
had a lot of small stuff—Vox stuff, Fender
stuff. Things like that that come in pretty
handy for overdubs.
Do you recall a moment where you could
tell Core was getting big and the whole
thing was really taking off?
Yeah, absolutely. We were on tour with
Megadeth. It was our first introduction to
playing arenas. All of us had been playing
clubs from a very young age. In our teens.
So we had had our fill of that. And then
when STP hit the road we played our fair
share of clubs globally. And when we came
back we got all these offers to go out with
other bands. Megadeth asked us to go out
with them, and I’ll tell ya, Mr. Mustaine was
very, very kind to us, man. Very supportive.
That was an interesting gig because nobody
knew who we were. We were simply the
opening band. We would come out to an
arena that was only a third full. And then
we’re trying to do our thing, and you’ve got
little pimple-faced boys with Iron Maiden
shirts just giving you the finger all night.
Like, “Man, this sucks!” They just wanted
to see Megadeth. But I’ll tell you what, Dave
Mustaine would sometimes come out, and
he’d grab the mic and go, “Listen, you fuck-
ers. I personally picked this band to be here.
Fucking listen!” It was like, “Holy shit!”
Mustaine was amazing to us.
But back to your question—we were on
that tour when “Plush” came out. “Sex Type
Thing” had definitely set a tone, and it was
doing its thing for us. But when “Plush”
came out, we looked around and realized,
“Hey, you know what? The arenas aren’t
empty anymore!” The places were full
when we went on. That’s when we saw it
happen.
Going back to this time period and listen-
ing to all this music again, listening to the
demos, thinking about being on the road,
did it bring up any feelings about Scott
and your relationship back then, and also
how everything progressed with him over
the years?
Yeah, it did. It was very sad digging into
those demos. It took me right back to the
rehearsal room, and to all the memories.
You know, Scott and I were roommates
back then. We rented a house out in High-
land Park. And we lived together while
writing and recording and touring that
first record. And…yeah, man, it was such a
different scenario from Chester because,
Chester, that was very, very sudden. And
unexpected. Whereas it was the complete
opposite with Scott. It was, you know, a 12-,
14-year suicide.
But I’ll tell you what, man, Scott was just
an incredible human being. An incredibly
gifted and talented human being. I mean,
you saw the guy’s body, right? He was like a
genetic masterpiece. So strong. And what-
ever he did, it was like, “You wanna go hit
golf balls?” And he’s hitting them 200 yards,
straight. “Let’s go waterskiing.” He’s just
shredding it. He was just that guy. What-
ever he did he was really, really good at.
And I’ll fucking say this loud and proud:
Scott Weiland was one of the best lyricists
of our time. His lyrics and his melodies and
his delivery…he was the fucking best, man.
It was an honor to be onstage with that cat.
And it was an amazing place to be there
with him while writing a song. I miss that
guy. I miss the guy he was. I’ve missed him
for about 15 years.
You mentioned Chester. I can only imag-
ine how shocking his death must have
been for you, not just on its own but also
given what you had experienced not too
long before with losing Scott.
You know, we lost an angel, man. We lost an
angel. [pauses] I loved Chester dearly, man.
He was just an exquisite guy. I really, really
loved him. And I’m really, really going to
miss him for the rest of my days.
For the past year or so, you and Rob-
ert and Eric have been on the hunt for a
new lead singer for Stone Temple Pilots.
There have been some reports out there
about possible candidates, though noth-
ing has been confirmed. Anything you can
tell us about the current status of Stone
Temple Pilots?
I can’t…but I think we’ll be able to sometime
soon. We won’t let you down, man!
Looking back over the past 25 years,
what do you think is the legacy of Core?
For me, it’s a reminder. It’s a reminder of a
time when there were four young men aspir-
ing to want to make records. And to be able
to travel the world to play music. It reminds
me of a time when four guys were very, very,
very close, and very, very loving. Very much
in harmony. And we got to share that. And
you know, when you get to share love and
respect and harmony and friendship, and
then you add into that the intimacy of music?
I feel very fortunate, man.
 Tom
Petty
1 9 5 0 – 2 0 1 7

Guitar World bids farewell to Tom Petty, an

American icon who made the rock world a better
place with such FM staples as “American Girl,”
“Refugee” and “Free Fallin’,” and who never backed
down, no matter what he was up against.

BY AL AN DI PERNA

46
MUSICAL ARTISTS WHO ARE HUGE IN THE HEARTLANDS
tend not to do well with the critics. And vice versa. Critical faves
rarely get their names and logos plastered on the bumpers and
back windows of pickup trucks. Tom Petty was the rare excep-
tion to that rule. When he left this life on October 2, felled by a
heart attack at age 66, he left behind a body of work that distilled
the raunchy, realist essence of rock itself—the urgent jangle and
crackle of cranked-up guitars, the rebellious outsider attitude,
G U I TA R W O R L D
 Tom Petty hoists an
Ibanez Rocket Roll in the
late Seventies
M I C H A E L O C H S A R C H I V E S/ G E T T Y I M A G E S

guitarworld.com 3
guitarworld.com 47
the terse, laconic songcraft that
encapsulated our dreams, despair,
rage and moments of transcen-
dent love. The music he made
with his longtime band the Heart-
breakers, with the rock superstar
aggregate the Traveling Wilburys,
on his own and with his recon-
stituted teenage bar band Mud-
crutch, was universal in its appeal.
Everyone felt a kinship with Petty—alt
rockers, metalheads, pop divas, rock icons,
country artists, countless rank-and-file fans
and, yes, rock critics. We all somehow felt
like Petty was our guy—the one who spoke
for us. That’s what it’s like when rock music
is genuine.
“We were lucky,” Petty told me in 2002,
referring to himself and the Heartbreak-
ers. “We came up at a time where I always
felt like I had some kind of relationship with
the audience and the fans. They watched me
grow up, and we have all been through dif-
ferent things together. And there was that
third dimension of, ‘Well, I’m kinda inter-
ested in what’s on this guy’s mind right now.
’Cause I see him as my friend or someone
that I know.’ I mean I felt like that about the
Beatles and the Who. I was curious, ‘What’s
Pete Townshend going to think about this?’ ”
While Petty’s music was rooted in the
classic Sixties rock of the Beatles, Stones,
Byrds, Who and Dylan, his fan base spanned
every generation, from baby boomers to mil-
lennials. And he looked out for his fans, bat-
tling record companies to keep the price of
his albums down in the Eighties, and for-
bidding concert promoters to offer elitist-
priced “V.I.P. seating packages” at his con-
certs. At one venue, he personally carted
away white-clothed V.I.P. tables from the
area in front of the stage. He was more inter-
ested in donating money to charities and
causes like Greenpeace, No Nukes, Fender
Music Foundation and MusicCares than he
was in overcharging his fans.
“We’re not Robin Hood,” he told me in
’02. “But so far we’ve been able to keep our
ticket prices fairly reasonable.”
48 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
While Petty is gone, we’ll always have
timeless songs like “Free Fallin’,” “Ameri-
can Girl,” “Refugee,” “I Won’t Back Down,”
“Breakdown,” “Don’t Come Around Here
No More,” “The Waiting,” “Don’t Do Me
Like That,” “Runnin’ Down a Dream” and
countless deep album cuts. There are plenty
of the latter. It can truly be said of Tom Petty
that he never put out a bad record.
On one of those deep album cuts,
“Dreamville” from 2002’s The Last DJ, Petty
reminisced about his real-life home town,
Gainesville, Florida, where he was born
on October 20, 1950, and given the name
Thomas Earl Petty. The song recounts the
artist’s first life-changing encounter with
rock and roll at age eight, at Glen Springs
Pool in Gainesville. “That was the city pool,”
he recalled. “They had one of the first out-
door jukeboxes I’d seen, with extension
speakers. And it just rocked the place, and
the music was really good. It’s one of the
first times I really remember hearing rock
and realizing I liked it.”
His next fateful encounter with rock took 12-string guitar, something that would
place in 1962, when Elvis Presley came to become a lifelong sonic signature for him.
Gainesville to shoot scenes for his movie He was inspired by the Rickenbacker elec-
Follow That Dream. Twelve-year-old Tom tric 12s played by the Beatles’ George Har-
was one of the onlookers. “Elvis really did rison and the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn,
mean a lot to me as a child,” Petty told me although it would take time for Petty to
in 1999. “The whole idea that this person obtain one of his very own.
came from poverty like me, and he got out “My first Rickenbacker was a six-string,”
and made something of himself. And he did he recalled. “The music store didn’t have
it by doing something pretty cool, rather a 12. That was around 1966 or 1967. And I
than something that was devious, or being got a Vox 12-string acoustic with a pickup,
a crooked politician, or any of the normal and that was actually a pretty good guitar.
Southern ways out of things.” That’s where I kind of fell in love with the
But it was the arrival of the Beatles and 12-string. The Byrds had a way of really fea-
other British Invaders shortly thereaf- turing it, but the Beatles used it all the time
ter that really lit the young Petty’s fuse. He too. I just thought it was a cool sound that
started playing guitar and had joined his it made along with a six-string. Then I got a
first band, the Sundowners, in the mid-Six- Vox Phantom 12, because I couldn’t really
ties. Around that time, he acquired his first afford a Rickenbacker at the time. So when

I got a Rickenbacker 12 for the first time, it
was probably in the Seventies somewhere.
The Vox was pretty good, but not as sweet-
sounding as the Rick.”
Petty switched over to bass guitar in
another one of his early bands, Mudcrutch,
formed in 1970. The lineup included two
musicians who would become lifelong
Petty collaborators—guitarist Mike Camp-
bell and keyboard player Benmont Tench.
Mudcrutch built up a substantial follow-
ing in Florida, then relocated to L.A. in the
early Seventies, after scoring a contract with
Shelter Records. Their one and only sin-
gle, “Depot Street,” flopped. But Petty found
a niche for himself in the L.A. music com-
munity as an apprentice songwriter work-
ing under producer Denny Cordell and art-
ist/producer/tunesmith Leon Russell.
While honing his own songcraft, Petty also
received an education in the pitfalls of the
music business.
“We really saw the bullshit firsthand,”
he recalled. “Groups that show up and ride
around in limos on their first album, and
have huge industry parties. And they’re ter-
rible, and everybody knows it’s not gonna
happen. Everybody but them. And we saw
people that got sold on a gimmick: ‘If y’all
dress up this way and do that…’ We knew
not to do it. Like, ‘I’m not getting in any suit
of clothes. I’m not joining anybody’s club.
We’re just gonna do our thing.’ ”
Shelter tried packaging Petty as a solo
artist, pairing him with backing musicians.
With his blond good looks, it might have
worked. But Petty was determined to make
music with his own band, like so many of his
The Traveling
Wilburys with a
gaggle of vintage
Gretsch guitars in
1988: (from left)
Bob Dylan, Jeff
Lynne, Tom Petty,
George Harrison
and Roy Orbison
heroes. So he got Campbell and Tench back
in the picture and formed the Heartbreak-
ers in 1975, recruiting two other Gaines-
ville musicians—drummer Stan Lynch and
bassist Ron Blair—to complete the lineup.
Blair had played in a Gainesville group
called RGF, which Petty described as “Mud-
crutch’s biggest competition.”
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ self-
titled 1976 debut LP was everything a rock
and roll album should be—10 punchy, well-
built tunes delivered by a band that was
super tight from playing countless bars
and clubs, yet still fired up with the hun-
ger and energy of youth. The 12-string clan-
gor of the disc’s second single, “American
Girl,” caused the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn
to remark, “Now when did I record that?”
when the record was first released.
guitarworld.com 3
guitarworld.com 49
 (from left) Mudcrutch's
Mike Campbell, Tom Petty,
Tom Leadon and Randall
Marsh in Los Angeles in
December 1974
But the song is pure Petty. Throughout
his career, he forged a unique way of writing
about female characters. The typical Petty
heroine is a young woman itching to break
free of the confines of her small town. The
theme is reflective of Petty’s own ambitions
to bust out of Gainesville, but the feminine
angle added a new dimension.
“I always just thought that was really
romantic when I was younger,” he told me
in ’99. “I’ve always loved girls, and I found
they were interesting characters to write
about—maybe more so than men. It comes
easier for me to write about female charac-
ters. And when we were starting out, you
didn’t hear many positive songs about girls.
There were a lot of songs about girls, but
50 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
a lot of times they kind of put them down.
They didn’t come off too strong. And some-
where along the line, around the first or sec-
ond album, I started to write songs that kind
of gave them a positive image.”
The album’s first single, “Breakdown,”
made it to the bottom of the Top 40 in the
U.S. But the release of Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers coincided with the outbreak
of punk and new wave in the latter half of
the Seventies. Like many new wavers, Petty
and his band were drawing inspiration from
rock and roll’s mid-Sixties golden era. Their
concise songcraft and no-frills, two-guitar
aesthetic also seemed to be coming from the
same place as punk and new wave’s rebel-
lion against the bloated, self-indulgent
excesses of Seventies corporate rock. So at
first, Petty and his band were often lumped
in with the new wave, which actually gave
the fledgling Heartbreakers’ career a lift.
This is where they found many of their early
listeners.
“It was unusual being lumped in,” Petty
later said. “But it felt better than being
lumped in with the other side! We agreed
J I M M C C R A RY/ R E D F E R N S/ G E T T Y
with [the new wave bands] in spirit. Music
had gotten really bad in our view, and we
hated seeing stuff we believed in watered
down and crassly commercialized. But we
never thought we were [new wave]. And we
never tried to embrace it. But it felt pretty
cool to be alternative, you know? And it kind
of hurt when we got really popular and it felt

like, ‘They see us as rich people now.’ But
really, we hadn’t changed.”
It took a little while longer for them to
get really popular, however. Petty was bat-
tling with Shelter Records for a better finan-
cial deal around the time of the Heartbreak-
ers’ second album, You’re Gonna Get It! This
wouldn’t be the last time he went head-
to-head with the music-biz money men.
Beneath his laid-back exterior, there was a
tough inner-core—an unwavering dedica-
tion to fair play and basic human decency.
Further contractual hassles delayed the
release of the album that became Tom Petty
and the Heartbreakers’ commercial break-
through in 1979, Damn the Torpedoes. Two
singles, “Don’t Do Me Like That” and “Refu-
gee,” climbed to the top of the charts.
Petty was no longer just an artist for new
52 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
Mike Campbell (left) and Tom Petty
perform May 14, 1977, at London's
Hammersmith Odeon
wave sophisticates. He now belonged to
everyone. “Refugee,” in particular, is a dis-
tillation of everything great in rock history
up to that point. Dylan-esque verses tum-
ble out with declamatory urgency, leading
to a defiant, yowling, chorus redolent of out-
sider anthems like the Kinks’ “I’m Not Like
Everybody Else” or the Animals’ “It’s My
Life.”
By posing with a solidbody Rickenbacker
625 12-string guitar on the Torpedoes cover,
Petty—along with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and
the Jam’s Paul Weller—sparked renewed
interest in Rickenbackers and the electric
12-string sound in general. He’d become
that influential. But success brought more
battles. Petty’s record company wanted to
jack up the price of his next album, Hard
Promises, from $8.98 to the label’s “super-
star price” of $9.98. He dug in his heels and
told them “hell no,” threatening to title
the disc The $8.98 Album. In the end, MCA
Records (Shelter’s parent label) relented.
They were one of several corporate enti-
ties who discovered that, for Petty, “I Won’t
Back Down” wasn’t just a song. It was a way
of life.
Throughout the Eighties Tom Petty and
the Heartbreakers continued to evolve
without losing their edge. 1985 found them
working for the first time with producer
Dave Stewart, who’d risen to fame as one
half of Eurythmics. The result was Southern
Accents, originally conceived as a concept
album ruminating on Petty’s Southern roots.
But the way forward wasn’t always clear, as
is often the case when an artist casts about
for a new direction. At one point during the
tortuous creative process, Petty famously
punched a recording studio wall in frustra-
tion, fracturing his left hand.
“At that time, the Heartbreakers were
looking for something new,” he later said.
“We felt like we’d taken the Big Jangle as far
as we could. I liked Dave [Stewart] because
he just had no reverence for anything,
which helped shake me out of what I was
doing and go somewhere else.”
Stewart was Petty’s neighbor at the time
in the L.A. suburb of Encino in the San Fer-
nando Valley. The two men co-wrote South-
ern Accents’ biggest hit and one of Petty’s
most iconic songs, “Don’t Come Around
Here No More.” The track’s trippy, som-
nambulant electric sitar, played by Stewart,
contrasted effectively with the lyric’s “Pos-
itively 4th Street” vitriol. It was something
new, but still unmistakably Petty.
High-powered collaborations would
loom large in Petty’s career from this point
onward. He had known Bob Dylan since the
late Seventies. But in 1986, Petty and the
Heartbreakers began touring with Dylan as
his backing band.
“I think I really understood what Bob
wanted to do at the time,” Petty later said,
“and I got off on it a lot. Like, ‘Hey, we’re
Bob Dylan’s band and we’re gonna lay it
down tonight.’ ”
George Harrison was another musical
legend that Petty had known since the Sev-
enties. His longstanding friendships with
I A N D I C K S O N / R E D F E R N S/ G E T T Y
Harrison and Dylan led to his inclusion in
the Traveling Wilburys, the supergroup that
also included mid-Sixties icon Roy Orbi-
son and producer/Electric Light Orches-
tra (ELO) mastermind Jeff Lynne. The bil-
lion-dollar quintet recorded its self-titled
debut album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, in
1988. Orbison died shortly thereafter. But
the four remaining icons released a second
LP, whimsically titled Traveling Wilburys
Vol. 3, in 1990.
Petty’s membership in the Wilburys con-
firmed his role as keeper of the flame—the
younger artist carrying on the great rock
tradition that giants like the Beatles and Bob
Dylan had forged in the Sixties. The torch
had officially been passed.
“They treated me equally, which was
nice,” Petty said of his time as a Wilbury.
“But I always felt like I was the kid in the
band. I was the one who was lucky to be
54 GU I TA R WOR L D
54 GU I TA R WOR L D • SEP T EM BER 2017
We all somehow felt like Petty was our guy—
the one who spoke for us.
there. But they never treated me that way.”
Harrison would remain a close friend
and occasional Petty collaborator for the
remainder of his life. “Me and George have
something somewhere where we’re con-
nected,” Petty said. “Some past life or some-
thing.”
Petty selected Jeff Lynne to co-pro-
duce his debut solo album, 1989’s Full Moon
Fever. While nominally a solo album, it also
includes input from several Heartbreak-
ers, including Benmont Tench and bassist
Howie Epstein, who had replaced Ron Blair
in 1982. But the Heartbreaker who played
the most prominent role on the disc was
Mike Campbell, who served as co-producer,
lead guitarist and multi-instrumentalist.
“Mike’s so much better than me on lead
guitar,” Petty said of his longtime collabora-
tor. “I kind of specialize in rhythm. And over
the years, I’ve kind of gotten used to singing
and playing rhythm. If I have to play a spe-
cific line, it’s better that I’m not singing, so I
can actually put my mind on what I’m going
to play. But most of the time, I play rhythm,
although they let me play more and more
solos as time goes on.”
Full Moon Fever yielded two more of
Petty’s landmark tracks, “Runnin’ Down a
Dream” and “Free Fallin.’ ” The latter song,
wistful and acoustic guitar-driven, is quint-
essential Petty—another female protago-
nist, this time an Eighties L.A. “valley girl,”
and a narrative that name checks locations
around Petty’s home in the San Fernando
Valley. Like a number of Petty songs, “Free
Fallin’ ” employs essentially the same chord
progression for the verses as the choruses.
He doesn’t need different or extra chords to
drive home the song’s anthemic chorus. All
he has to do is shift his voice into its spine-
chilling upper register.
Petty’s genius as a songwriter resided in
his ability to pack a wealth of both ambiv-
alence and resonant meaning into a simple
four-word, three-chord chorus: “And I’m
free, free-fallin’.” Is it a declaration of free-
dom, or a cry of outsider despair? Maybe
both. Like all great songs, it leaves space for
you to find your own way inside.
Petty went through a rough patch in
the Nineties. Following his 1996 divorce
from Jane Benyo, to whom he’d been mar-
ried since 1974, he fell into a deep depres-
sion and heroin addiction. He’d eventually
recover from both, but the despair of this
dark period is eloquently captured on his
1999 album Echo. It marked his return to the
Heartbreakers after a pair of solo discs and a
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film soundtrack disc that he later regretted,
Songs and Music from “She’s the One.”
By the dawn of the 21st century, Petty
was back in fighting form, having kicked For Petty, “I Won’t Back Down” wasn’t just a song.
heroin and married Dana York—a union
that would last until the end of his life. And It was a way of life.
“fighting form” is an apt term for the mood
of his and the Heartbreakers’ masterful
2002 album The Last DJ. The record takes
on the predatory greed that had decimated Lines from the title track such as “they album’s protagonist, an independent-
both the music businesses and American can’t turn him into a company man, they minded radio disc jockey who gets fired
society at large in the early years of the new can’t turn him into a whore,” are as appli- because he “says what he wants to say” and
century. cable to Petty himself as they are to the “plays what he wants to play.” In the wake
of Petty’s passing, the song’s chorus tag line
seems particularly poignant: “there goes the
last human voice.”
His final decade was productive. In
2007 he re-convened his old band from the
Gainesville days, Mudcrutch. Original mem-
bers Tom Leadon and Randall Marsh were
THIS brought out of retirement to join forces with
Petty, Campbell and Tench for two albums,
HOLIDAY Mudcrutch 1 and Mudcrutch 2, in 2008 and
2016 respectively. In this period, Petty also
SEASON hosted his own Sirius radio programming—
another way of connecting his fans with
GIVE SOMETHING the classic rock music he loved. There was
one more solo album, Highway Companion
(2006) and two more Heartbreakers discs,
MAGICAL Mojo (2010) and Hypnotic Eye (2014), not to
mention a full touring schedule, which gen-
erated a substantial body of live albums.
Anyone fortunate enough to have seen
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in concert
knows that they never failed to deliver—per-
forming with the precision that comes from
decades of playing together, yet infusing
each note with a lifetime’s worth of passion
and dedication. Just a week before his pass-
ing, Petty completed the last date of what
he said would be his final major tour. It was
a triumphant hometown gig at the Holly-
wood Bowl. The night ended with “Ameri-
can Girl.”
For a rock performer to obtain Petty’s
level of success yet still manage to keep it
real for four decades is a signal achieve-
ment. In 1999, Petty told me his secret for
doing so:
“I never have surrounded myself with
very much posse,” he said. “I’ve seen art-
“A truly
revolutionary ists go really wrong by having a lot of peo-
product ”
ple around that keep the myth inflated. I’ve
tried to stay with people who treat me fairly
normally. It’s a drag not to be treated nor-
mally. I guess there’s people who love that,
and really come to life in those kinds of situ-
“Coolest acoustic ations. I don’t. I shrink from it. It makes me
guitar gizmo.”
uncomfortable. I mean, I’m really glad for
the success I’ve had. I think I would have
been very disappointed if it didn’t happen,
and thought, Shit, I shoulda been famous.
“Cutting-edge
product” But it really is a double-edged sword.”

56 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

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 EVER WONDER HOW SOME OF THE MOST FAMOUS GUITAR SOUNDS IN ROCK
HISTORY CAME TO BE? OR THOUGHT ABOUT HOW YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO REPLICATE

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B Y C H R I S G I L L

inding out what gear guitar-
ists use isn’t a problem. Most
players will gladly recite a list of
their favorite guitars and equip-
ment when asked, especially
if they have signature model
products. If they won’t, there’s
usually a good chance that somebody some-
where has at least snapped a photo or two
of their guitars and live rigs.
The bigger challenge is finding out how
most guitarists use their gear. It’s not the
fault of guitar journalists or the artists
themselves—cataloging every single guitar
played and amp or effect setting used can
be a tedious, laborious, time-intensive affair,
and many guitarists can’t remember all of
the details (that’s why they pay their guitar
techs big bucks). I personally can’t remem-
ber every knob on certain amps I own, let
alone what my exact favorite settings are.
To help you figure out how to create the
guitar tones of several iconic songs, we’ve
dug deep into research mode, combing old
interviews and meticulously examining
stage and studio photos from the appropri-
ate eras. I then dug into my personal gear
collection of over 100 guitars, 75 amps and
400 pedals and rack processors to replicate
those sounds. If I didn’t have particular piec-
es of gear, I used items like Fractal Audio’s
Axe-Fx II XL+ and AX8 (extremely helpful),
a Line 6 POD HD500X and various iPad
apps, including Positive Grid’s Bias Series
and IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube Series.
Much of the original gear used to record
these songs is well known, and as a result
many of these items are very expensive, if
you can even find them. For those of you
with limited funds, we’ve also put together
more affordable alternative rigs that should
provide most of the core elements of these
tones. If you want it all, the most affordable
alternative may actually be Fractal’s AX8
and a great guitar or two of your personal
preference.
Because control markings and layout
styles are inconsistent, I’ve listed all set-
tings from 0–10 where 0 is completely off,
10 is all the way up and 5 is exactly in the
middle. Keep in mind that the sound of
even the same guitars and amp models can
often vary dramatically, especially with
vintage gear more than 30 years old. If the
recommended settings don’t sound quite
right, tweak them as you see fit. These set-
tings worked best with my rigs and should
get you very close, but variables such as a
guitar’s tone woods and pickups can make
a difference. Pedals are listed in the order
that they should be chained together in
series from the guitar to the amp.
Also keep in mind that all of the ex-
amples are studio recordings, so the sounds
may not be ideal for live performance.
Other important elements like the mics,
outboard gear and mixing console settings
used in the studio while tracking, mixing
and mastering can affect the overall tone, so
these sounds may not completely match the
final product you hear on a record. How-
ever, we hope you’ll find that our settings
get you most of the way there and inspire
you to come up with your own signature
sounds to influence new generations.

58 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017


“SAD BUT TRUE”
METALLICA ● BLACK ALBUM, 1991
GUITARIST: JAMES HETFIELD (RHYTHM PART ONLY)
What’s genuinely sad but
true is that you’ll need to
spend a fortune if you want
to duplicate James Het-
field’s monstrous rhythm
guitar tone on this track
with a rig identical to what
he originally used. And
that doesn’t even include
the studio, its equipment
and the prodigious talents
of producer Bob Rock and
engineers Randy Staub and
Mike Tacci. Here we can
cover only about 60 percent
of what went into crafting
Hetfield’s sound, and even
then we need to speculate,
as the details still remain
closely guarded secrets.
Hetfield’s rhythm
guitar part is composed of
numerous layers of tracks
recorded through differ-
ent amps and cabinets
(including overdubs of
individual amps dialed to
different tones), various
mics in different positions
and outboard equaliza-
tion and compression. The
core of Hetfield’s sound
is a mid-Eighties Mesa/
Boogie Mark IIC++ (the
extra plus denotes a Mesa
modification), most likely
with a pair of Aphex EQF-2
EQs and an Aphex CX-1
Compressor/Expander in
the effects loop. The Mesa’s
five-band graphic EQ—in a
scooped mid “V” configu-
ration—plays a key role,
but the Aphex EQs further
sculpt the tone, particularly
by cutting 1.2kHz (this
frequency cut was also the
secret to Dimebag Darrell’s
rhythm tone). Marshall
amps strategically restored
some of the midrange
sculpted out of the Mesas.
Further depth and tex-
ture was added by overdub-
bing a Jerry Jones baritone
tuned an octave lower than
the guitar, while additional
overdubs consisted solely
of muted string “chuks” to
enhance the percussiveness
of the attack. These tracks
were all meticulously
blended with Jason New-
sted’s tight unison bass line
to create a massive riff.
FAMOUS
GUITAR
SOUNDS
DEMYSTIFIED
ORIGINAL GEAR
GUITARS: ESP MX-220 (black
finish) with EMG 81 (bridge)
and 60 (neck) pickups (bridge
pickup), Jerry Jones Danelectro
Longhorn baritone copy (bridge
pickup)
AMPS: Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC++
(Volume 1: 9.5, Treble: 5/pull
shift, Bass: 2, Middle: 0, Master
1: 4/pull deep, Lead Drive: 6/pull
lead, Lead Master: 4, Presence: 3,
Graphic EQ: 80: +2, 240: 0, 750:
-12, 2200: 0, 6600: +3), modi-
fied Marshall JCM800 (settings
unknown), Mesa/Boogie Mark IV
(settings unknown), ADA MP-1
preamp, Mesa/Boogie Strategy
400 power amp
CABINETS: various Marshall
1960B 4x12s with Celestion Vin-
tage 30 speakers
EFFECTS/PROCESSORS: (con-
nected to amp effects loop) Two
Aphex EQF-2 EQs (EQ1: 4.2kHz
shelving/+6, 1.2kHz/-6, 120Hz
shelving/+4, high-pass filter
100Hz; EQ2: 6kHz shelving/+6,
900Hz/-6, 240Hz peaking/-4),
Aphex CX-1 Compressor/Ex-
pander (settings unknown)
STRINGS/TUNING: Ernie Ball
Power Slinky .011–.048/ D stan-
dard (DGCFAD)
PICK: Dunlop Tortex .88mm
T I M M O S E N F E L D E R / I M A G E D I R E C T/ G E T T Y I M A G E S
GET THE SOUND,
CHEAP(ER)!
• ESP LTD EX-401
• Mesa/Boogie Recto-Verb
25 combo
• Mesa/Boogie Boogie
Five-Band Graphic EQ pedal
T O N E T I P : Place the Graphic
EQ pedal in the amp’s effects
loop for the best-sounding and
most dramatic EQ sweep.
guitarworld.com 3
guitarworld.com 59

“IRON MAN”
BLACK SABBATH ● PARANOID, 1970 ● GUITARIST: TONY IOMMI
Tony Iommi previ-
ously laid the founda-
tion for heavy metal
E L L E N P O P P I N G A - K & K / R E D F E R N S/ G E T T Y I M A G E S
guitar tone on songs
like “Black Sabbath”
and “N.I.B.” on Black
Sabbath’s eponymous
debut album, but on
the band’s follow-up, Paranoid, he perfected
a sound that has inspired every aspiring
metal guitarist ever since. On “Iron Man” all
of the essential elements of metal guitar are
in place—wicked distortion, evil riffing and
fleet-fingered soloing, all wrapped up with
aggressive attitude and swagger.
Iommi’s “Iron Man” rig was simple—a
1965 Gibson SG Special, modified Dallas-
Arbiter Rangemaster treble booster and
60 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
ORIGINAL GEAR
GUITAR: 1965 Gibson SG
Special with P90 pickups
(bridge pickup)
AMP: 100-watt Laney
Supergroup MK 1 (Pres-
ence: 10, Bass: 0, Middle:
10, Treble: 10, Gain One: 10;
guitar plugged into Bass
input)
CABINET: Laney Super-
group 4x12 with Celestion
G12-25M Speakers
PEDAL: Dallas-Arbiter
Rangemaster (modified)
STRINGS/TUNING: .009–
.042 light-gauge/Standard
(EADGBE)
PICK: Medium
GET THE
SOUND, CHEAP!
• Laney Tony Iommi
Signature 15-watt combo
• AXL Guitars USA Bulldog
• Catalinbread
Sabbra Cadabra
T O N E T I P : The Sabbra
Cadabra pedal has four
controls, while the original
Rangemaster effect has
only a Set (gain) control. To
duplicate the sound of the
original Rangemaster, set
the Sabbra Cadabra’s con-
trols as follows: Presence: 6,
100-watt Laney Supergroup MK 1 head with Gain: 4, Vol 4: 3.5, Range: 6.
a Laney 4x12 cabinet, most likely loaded with
Celestion G12-25M speakers (some Laney
cabs from this era had Goodman Audiom 61
speakers). Iommi plugged into one of the Su-
pergroup’s bass inputs, turned the presence,
middle and treble to 10 while the bass was at
0 and cranked the Gain 1 control all the way
up to produce crunchy, natural power tube
overdrive. In addition to pushing the amp’s
input even further into distortion, the Range-
master cut bass frequencies while working in
tandem with the SG’s single-coil P90 bridge
pickup to produce thick midrange with a
hollow, boxy honk. The guitar was tuned to
standard pitch (EADGBE), and Iommi used
light-gauge strings (probably .009—.042) and
a medium pick.
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 “SHE SELLS
SANCTUARY” THE CULT ● LOVE, 1985
GUITARIST: BILLY DUFFY

In 1985 while the Cult was

recording at Olympic Studios
in London, guitarist Billy Duffy
decided to pay an impromptu
tribute to Led Zeppelin, who
had also recorded at that studio.
Spying a violin bow and picking
it up, he did his best Jimmy Page
impression by scraping away at the strings and turning
on several effects on his pedalboard. When an engineer
interrupted him and asked him to play “She Sells Sanctu-
ary,” Duffy complied, forgetting he had left all of the ped-
als on. However, it turned out to be a fortunate oversight
as everyone agreed that the heavily processed sound fit
the intro riff perfectly.
The key to Duffy’s sound is two delay pedals (one
set to a short delay and the other to a longer delay time,
both with several repeats) and stereo chorus, the latter
courtesy of a Roland Jazz Chorus JC-120 amp. A flanger
and phase shifter provide extra-swirly modulation for
the intro and bridge, but they’re bypassed in favor of an
overdrive pedal at 0:18 to provide a fat but focused guitar
tone that still drives the song rhythmically courtesy of
the dueling delays. A 1975 single-cutaway Gretsch White
Falcon set to the bridge Filter’tron pickup provides the
perfect balance of clean sparkle and midrange honk.

ORIGINAL GEAR
GUITAR: 1975 Gretsch White Falcon single
cutaway with ceramic Filter’tron humbuckers
(bridge pickup)

AMP: Roland JC-120 combo amp (Channel 2,

Low input, Brilliance: On, Volume: 8, Treble: 3,
Middle: 7, Bass: 6, Distortion: Off, Reverb: 0,
Speed: 4, Depth: 5, Chorus setting) GET THE
PEDALS: Boss OD-1 Super Overdrive (Level: SOUND,
5, Overdrive: 7), Boss BF-2 Flanger (Manual: 4,
Depth: 5, Rate: 6.5, Res: 6.5), MXR Phase 100
CHEAP!
(Mode: 2, Speed 5), Boss DM-2 Delay (Repeat • Gretsch G2420
Rate: 4, Echo: 4—about 250ms, Intensity: 4), Streamliner
L A R RY M A R A N O/ G E T T Y I M A G E S

Boss DD-2 Digital Delay (E. Level: 3.5, F. Back:
4, D. Time: 4—about 340ms, Mode: 800ms)
STRINGS/TUNING: Ernie Ball Slinky .010 -
.046/Standard
PICK: Dunlop Herco Flex 50 medium, held
sideways
Single Cutaway
• Roland Jazz Chorus JC-22
• Boss GP-10 Multi-effects
TONE TIP: Use the Jazz Chorus amp for chorus at the end of
the signal chain. The GP-10 is ideal mainly for its series dual-
delay effect. Since the GP-10’s phaser and flanger can’t be
used together at once, use just the flanger.

62 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

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 FAMOUS
GUITAR
SOUNDS
DEMYSTIFIED

ORIGINAL GEAR
GUITAR: 1962 Gibson SG with PAF
humbuckers (bridge pickup)

AMP: Diezel VH4 (Channel 1 Bright: On,

Gain: 5, Volume: 3, Treble: 7, Middle: 9,
Bass: 10; Channel 4 Gain: 8, Volume: 8,
Treble: 7, Middle: 4, Bass: 10; Master sec-
tion Volume: 3, Presence: 7, Deep: 8)

CABINET: Soldano 4x12 with Eminence

Legend V1216 speakers

EFFECTS: ZVex Fuzz Factory (Volume:

6, Gate: 7, Comp: 0, Drive: 7, Stab: 10),
Boss OC-2 (Oct 2: 3, Direct Level: 10, Oct
1: 5), DigiTech Whammy 4 (Whammy +2
octave setting during solo), Line 6 Mod
Pro (MXR Phase 90 and MXR Flanger
models, both at slow sweep), Line 6 Echo
Pro (Delay: 480ms intro/360ms solo
delay, Repeats: 4, Mix: 30% wet/70% dry)

STRINGS/TUNING: Ernie Ball Slinky .010

.013 .017 .026 .036 .060/Standard

PICK: Dunlop Tortex .73mm

“HYSTERIA”
MUSE ● ABSOLUTION, 2003
GUITARIST: MATT BELLAMY
One of the greatest guitar heroes of the new millennium,
Muse’s Matt Bellamy combines the aural adventurous-
ness of Jimi Hendrix with the heaviness of Metallica
along with his own modern synth-like sonic stamp.
Many of Bellamy’s tones sound outrageously complex,
but actually the means of creating them are often simple
and sometimes even primitive, employing creative
blends of stomp boxes instead of complex multieffects
patch programming.
Such is the case with “Hysteria,” where Bellamy uses fuzz and octave pedals
to generate the bulk of his tone, with body and texture added by subtle use of
GET THE SOUND, CHEAP!
• Epiphone Vintage G-400
• Randall RD20 Diavlo combo
• Line 6 M13
T O N E T I P : Since the Line 6 M13
doesn’t have the ZVex Fuzz Factory
or OC-2 Octaver, use the Octave Fuzz
model instead (which combines both
fuzz and subtle octave up effects)
along with the Pitch Glide set an
octave down. If you have extra bucks,
get the ZVex Vexter Fuzz Factory as
it provides the bulk of the guitar’s
distinctive distortion character.
P E T E R S T I L L / R E D F E R N S/ G E T T Y I M A G E S

phasing, flanging, delay and reverb. The song starts with a slow pick scrape
processed with 480ms delay, fuzz and an MXR Phase 90 at a slow sweep speed.
Then he bypasses the delay and engages octave up/down effects with an OC-2
for the main riff, all played through a slightly overdriven Diezel VH4 on channel
1. For the chorus, he relies exclusively on the VH4’s fourth channel for heavily
distorted and compressed but defined power chords. A 360ms delay and studio
reverb give ambient depth to the fuzzed-out solo (same Fuzz Factory/OC-2 ped-
als as the intro), embellished further in the solo’s second section with an added
underlying layer of a Whammy shifting the pitch up two octaves. For the bridge
preceding the solo and the outro, a subtle flanging effect is employed along with
the fuzz and OC-2 octaves from the main riff.

64 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

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 “WALKING ON
THE MOON”
POLICE ● REGATTA DE BLANC, 1979
GUITARIST: ANDY SUMMERS

Andy Summers’ playing on this early hit

by the Police is a perfect example of how
a player doesn’t need to blast or fill every
space to make an impression. Instead,
Summers impresses with his shimmer-
ing textures, inventive suspended chords
and restraint, leaving plenty of room for
the rhythm section to drive the groove.
This approach also was effective in the
increasingly larger venues the Police were playing in the late
Seventies as their popularity began to grow, creating a sound that
resonated throughout the hall.
The key to Summers’ especially sparkling treble comes cour-
tesy of two classic stomp boxes: an MXR Dyna Comp and an
Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress. The compressor gives con-
sistent body to each note in the chords while the Electric Mistress
is dialed to a chorus-like effect instead of the usual flanging sweep.
An Echoplex set to a single repeat, with the echo volume the same
as the dry volume, creates a simple rhythmic effect with a charac-
teristic feel courtesy of overlapping resonant sustain that can’t be
duplicated simply by playing two strokes in quick succession.

ORIGINAL GEAR
GUITAR: 1961 Telecaster Custom with maple neck and
Gibson neck humbucker (bridge pickup)

AMP: Early Seventies Marshall JMP 1959 Super Lead

(Input: I lower, Presence: 3, Bass: 4, Middle: 3, Treble:
6, Volume I: 5)

CABINET: Marshall 4x12 (speakers unknown)

PEDALS: MXR Dyna Comp (Output: 6, Sensitivity: 6),

Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress (Rate: 6.5, Range:
8, Color: 3, Filter Matrix switch: flanger setting) ,
Echoplex EP-3 (Mode: Echo, Delay: 330ms, Sustain:
single repeat, Volume: 50/50 dry/echo)

STRINGS/TUNING: D’Addario EXL115 .011 .014 .018

E B E T R O B E R T S/ R E D F E R N S/ G E T T Y I M A G E S

GET THE SOUND, CHEAP! .028 .038 .049/Standard

• Fender Standard Telecaster PICK: Dunlop Jazz II 1.18mm nylon

• Marshall DSL 15C combo
• Line 6 M9 Stompbox Modeler

TONE TIP: Use the Marshall’s Classic Gain chan-

nel with the gain very low and the volume as high
as it will go while still remaining clean. The Line
6 M9 has great models of each effect except the
EHX Electric Mistress—use the Tri Chorus instead.

66 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

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 FAMOUS
GUITAR
SOUNDS
DEMYSTIFIED

ORIGINAL GEAR
GUITAR: 1969 Fender
Stratocaster (black finish)
with 1963 rosewood neck
and 1971 Fender Stratocast-
er pickups

AMPS: circa 1973-74 Hiwatt

DR103 modified with linked
channel input (Linked input,
Normal Volume: 6, Brilliant
Volume: 4, Bass: 7, Treble:
7, Middle: 4, Presence: 6,
Master Volume: 5–7), Leslie
147 (slow rotation rate)

CABINET: WEM Super

Starfinder 200 4x12 with
Fane Crescendo 12-inch
speakers

PEDALS/EFFECTS: Color-
sound Power Boost (Treble:
2, Bass: 5, Volume: 5–8),
MXR Phase 90 (Speed: 6 for
drone notes, 4 for solos and
outro)

STRINGS/TUNING: .009–
.042 Gibson Sonomatic/
Standard

“SHINE ON YOU
PICK: Fender Medium

CRAZY DIAMOND
(PARTS I–V)”
GET THE SOUND,
CHEAP(ER)!
• Fender Standard
Stratocaster with
PINK FLOYD ● WISH YOU WERE HERE, 1975 ● GUITARIST: DAVID GILMOUR rosewood fretboard
• Fender Super Champ X2
• Vintage FX Colordrive
Over the years, David a psychedelic swirl about two minutes later, • MXR Phase 90
Gilmour has crafted where Gilmour plays a droning four-note T O N E T I P : The Super
some of the sweetest figure through an MXR Phase 90, likely with Champ X2’s effects section
a Leslie rotating speaker adding additional features a Vibratone slow
Strat tones known
setting that can be used to
to mankind. On texture and depth. This leads to another clean
replicate the Leslie rotating
“Shine On You Crazy neck pickup solo, but this time the tone con-
speaker effect. Use Channel
M I C H A E L O C H S A R C H I V E S/ G E T T Y I M A G E S

Diamond (Parts I–V),”
the epic 13-minute
opening track to Wish You Were Here, he lays
down more awesome tones than most guitar-
ists achieve in a lifetime, though the changes
of textures are so smooth and the buildup is
so subtle that most listeners don’t notice how
many different sounds he actually employs.
Gilmour makes his entrance just past the
two-minute mark with a bluesy, clean tone
played on the Strat’s neck pickup with its
tone control backed off slightly. That shifts to
trol is all the way up, then he shifts around
1 and crank up the volume
6:06 to the bridge pickup and kicks on a Col- control just to the edge of
orsound Power Boost overdrive at the peak breakup for a fat, dynami-
of the crescendo. His next solo is even more cally expressive clean tone.
aggressively distorted, played on the bridge
pickup with the Power Boost and Phase 90
providing hollow midrange and modulated
motion. His brief melodic passage at 9:46 is
doubled and distorted, then he ends the song
by playing crisp, shimmering arpeggio figures
on the bridge pickup with the Phase 90 add-
ing texture and movement.

68 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

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“RED BARCHETTA”
Alex Lifeson’s sound constantly
evolved during the Seventies
and Eighties, but his tone on
Rush’s Moving Pictures com-
bines the best of his late Seven-
ties progressive hard rock tones
with his emerging brighter,
cleaner new wave–inspired
sound. The core of his sound
on this album was a blend of
clean and overdrive textures,
but not from the sources one
might expect. Lifeson’s clean
sound came courtesy of a
Marshall combo—a 4140 Club
and Country model—which was
Marshall’s version of a Fender
Twin. His distortion came most-
ly from his late-Seventies Hi-
70 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
RUSH ● MOVING PICTURES, 1981
● GUITARIST: ALEX LIFESON
watts—the two-input versions
with higher gain than the early
Seventies four-input models.
Lifeson bought his first Hi-
watts sometime in late 1977 or
early 1978, and since Rush was
based in Canada it’s likely that
Lifeson bought his Hiwatts in
Canada as well. Starting in 1977,
Hiwatt’s Canadian distributor
modified the amps so the Nor-
mal and Bright channels were
linked when plugging into the
Bright input. As a result, the
100-watt model (called the
DR105 instead of the standard
DR103) was capable of deliver-
ing a much more aggressive
distorted tone. Close inspec-
GET THE SOUND, CHEAP!
•Fender Standard Stratocaster
HSS with rosewood neck
•VHT Special 6 Ultra
•Boss CE-2W
tion of late-Seventies photos of
Lifeson’s Hiwatts reveals that
the heads were modified with
a third input in the lower left
corner covering the “Bright”
lettering, perhaps to restore the
Bright-only input.
In previous interviews,
Lifeson said that a modified
white Strat was his main guitar
on “Red Barchetta,” but the
guitar tone on the solo has
the distinctive fat midrange
and acoustic-like honk of his
Gibson ES-355. The Boss CE-1
Chorus Ensemble—an essential
element of Lifeson’s tone
starting with Hemispheres—is
engaged throughout the song.
T O N E T I P : The VHT combo has a great Clean
channel with a Boost function that can generate
Hiwatt-like grind. Use an ABY pedal to access the
Ultra channel for the solo, and no Distortion + pedal is
necessary. The Boss CE-2W may be expensive, but its
CE-1 mode nails the original lush Boss chorus effect.
ORIGINAL GEAR
GUITARS: Modified Fend-
er Stratocaster (white)
with rosewood neck
(large Fender headstock),
vintage-style tremolo,
master volume/tone
controls, Gibson-style
three-way pickup selector
and Gibson humbucker
in bridge position (bridge
pickup), Gibson ES-355
(bridge pickup, solo only)
AMPS: Two Marshall 4140
Club and Country 2x12
combos with redframe
McKenzie speakers
(Channel 2 High input,
Master Volume: 7-8, Bass:
3, Middle: 6.5, Treble: 6,
Volume: 5), Two Hiwatt
DR105 heads with Hiwatt
4x12 speaker cabs loaded
with Fane or Celestion
speakers (Linked “Bright”
input, Normal Vol: 6,
Bright Vol: 5, Bass: 6,
Treble: 5, Middle: 5, Pres-
ence: 5, Master Vol: 10)
*Four amps total were in-
dividually miked in stereo:
one Marshall/Hiwatt rig
for the left and an identi-
cal Marshall/Hiwatt rig
for the right.
PEDALS/EFFECTS: MXR
Distortion + (Volume:
9-10, Distortion: 4, solo
only), Boss CE-1 Chorus
Ensemble (Input: Low,
Level: 8, Chorus Intensity:
5, Chorus/Vibrato switch:
Chorus, left and right
outputs each to individual
Marshall/Hiwatt rigs)
M I C H A E L S T U PA RY K / TO R O N TO S TA R / G E T T Y I M A G E S
STRINGS/TUNING: .009
.011 .014 .028 .038 .048
Dean Markley/Standard
PICK: Kay #2 Medium
nylon
 FAMOUS
GUITAR
SOUNDS
DEMYSTIFIED

GET THE

“PRIDE AND JOY”

STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN AND DOUBLE TROUBLE ● TEXAS FLOOD, 1983
GUITARIST: STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN
When Stevie Ray Vaughan and
his band Double Trouble went to
Los Angeles to record at Jackson
Browne’s Down Town Studio, the
intention was to record a demo
to shop around to various labels.
However, producer John Ham-
mond and Epic A&R man Greg
Geller were so impressed with the
sound and vibe that they decided
to release those recordings as
SOUND,
CHEAP!
• Fender
Standard
Stratocaster
• Fender Hot
Rod Series
Blues Junior III
• Ibanez TS9
Vaughan’s first album, Texas Flood. incorporated into his rig because
TONE TIP:
These recordings were per- Vaughan loved its tight, big clean
A lot of Stevie
formed live over two days with no tones. This amp’s 4x12 cabinet
Ray’s sound can
overdubs, providing a good repre- was miked as well. Vaughan’s only be attributed to
sentation of Vaughan’s live sound effects were his Ibanez TS9 Tube his heavy strings
at the time. While Vaughan played Screamer used as a boost for solos and extremely
through two Fender Vibroverb and a Roland SDD-320 Dimen- aggressive at-
amps like he did onstage, only one sion D that was added to his solos tack. No soft
of the Vibroverbs was miked. A during mixing, which fattened his touch here—hit
Dumble Dumbleland Special amp tone thanks to its subtle chorus- the strings hard
that belonged to Browne was also like doubling effect. to get them to
sing and sting.

ORIGINAL GEAR 15-inch speaker (Vibrato Roland SDD-320 Dimension

C L AY TO N C A L L / R E D F E R N S/ G E T T Y I M A G E S

channel, Input 1, Volume: 6, D (Mode: 2, used only during

GUITAR: 1962/63 Fender
Stratocaster “Number One”
with rosewood neck, 1959
pickups and left-hand trem-
olo (middle pickup: intro,
verse, chorus, first solo; neck
pickup: second solo/outro)
AMPS: 1964 Fender Vibrov-
erb with single JBL D130F
Treble: 5.5, Middle: 3 Bass:
4, Reverb: off, Vibrato: off),
Dumble Dumbleland Special
(settings unknown) with
Dumble 4x12 with Electro-
Voice EVM12L speakers
PEDALS/EFFECTS: Ibanez
TS9 Tube Screamer (Drive:
2-3, Tone: 4, Level: 9-10) ,
mixing)
STRINGS/TUNING: .013 .015
.019p .028 .038 .058. GHS
Nickel Rockers/Ef standard
(i.e. tuned down half step to
Ef Af Df Gf Bf Ef)
PICK: Fender Heavy, held
sideways

72 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

 C

CM

MY

CY

CMY

It’s time to fly...

INTRODUCING THE INSPIRE TRI-CHORUS PLUS

www.neunaber.net
 Billy Corgan with his
signature Yamaha
LJ16BC

Guitar World presents

20 of the best new
DELAY AND REVERB
PEDALS—and a
few tried-and-true
standbys no guitarist
should be without.

GUITAR WORLD

SEPTEMBER 2015 ISSUE

 P
A

75
G
E

POWER
OUTAGE
FOR HIS SECOND SOLO ALBUM, OGILALA,
FORMER SMASHING PUMPKINS FRONTMAN
B I L LY C O R G A N U N P L U G S H I S A X E S A N D
BREAKS OUT THE ACOUSTICS AS HE VENTURES
I N T O N E W S O N I C T E R R I T O R Y.

B Y J O E B O S S O P H O T O G R A P H B Y A L P H A P A N

IN 2005, BILLY CORGAN CELEBRATED
the release of his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, with
a bold and unique self-promotion move that no doubt con-
founded—and possibly delighted—the marketing staff at his
record label by taking out full-page ads in his two hometown
papers, the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, and stat-
ing his intention to not be a solo artist.
“For a year now I have walked around with a secret, a secret
I chose to keep,” he wrote. “But now I want you to be among
the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the
Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and
my dreams. In this desire I feel I have come home again.”
While Corgan did make good on those plans, the result-
ing Smashing Pumpkins reunion wasn’t the full-scale refor-
mation many, and perhaps Corgan himself, hoped it would
be: Only drummer Jimmy Chamberlin from the original
group took part, with guitarist James Iha and bassist D’arcy
Wretzky opting out.
Throughout the next decade, Corgan recorded and toured
with a number of Smashing Pumpkins lineups, with Cham-
berlin and guitarist Jeff Schroeder serving as the most sta-
ble band members (Chamberlin stayed from 2006 to 2009,
rejoining in 2015, and Schroeder has been with the fold since
2007).

2
0

GW
HOLIDAY
1
guitarworld.com 75
7
guitarworld.com 3
 Twelve years after TheFutureEmbrace,
Corgan, billing himself as William Patrick
Corgan, is issuing his second solo album,
Ogilala, and once again he’s hinting—halt-
ingly so—that a possible original band
reunion could be in the works. “I think the
best news is that there’s peace in the king-
dom, which wasn’t the case for a long time,”
he says. “I’m very, very personally pleased
that we’ve worked out our ‘differences’—I
put that in light quotations—so there’s com-
munication, which again, there wasn’t for
a very long time. If anything musical comes
out of it, that would be the best-case sce-
nario. Personally, I would like to see us go
back to working and making music.”
Until then, there is Ogilala. Musically,
it’s as far and away from the electronica-
laden TheFutureEmbrace—and much of the
Pumpkins’ overdriven rock guitar tumult—
as one could imagine. Working with uber-
producer Rick Rubin, Corgan has crafted
a collection of stirring and stately songs
in which his distinctive nasal rasp is set
against minimalist acoustic guitar and piano
backings, with tasteful string and sym-
phonic flourishes occasionally mixing with
the main colors. Tracks like “Aeronaut” and
“Archer” find the guitarist in a somber, con-
templative mood, but on numbers like “Pro-
cessional” and “Half-Life of an Autodidact”
he sounds both wistful and hopeful. One
might speculate that recent personal devel-
opments—Corgan turned 50 back in March,
and in 2015 he and his girlfriend, Chloe
Mandel, welcomed their first child, Augus-
tus Juppiter Corgan—had something to do
with the album’s light touch.
At first he dismisses such a notion, say-
ing, “I didn’t notice any discernible differ-
ence in my attitude when I was writing the
music.” But then he pauses, perhaps think-
ing better of it, and elaborates: “Looking
back at the record, I guess there might be
some influence, with my son being around.
However, turning 50 did cause me to make
a promise to myself, sort of like a New
Year’s resolution. I decided that I wouldn’t
allow myself to repeat things that I knew
wouldn’t work. I had enough comparable
information to know now that certain pat-
terns of behavior weren’t going to work
post 50.”
As we all know, the album format isn’t the
cultural force as it once was. How does
that affect your drive to make new full-
length records?
I’ve had to divorce myself from the mach-
inations of the business, because overall,
they’re not artist-positive. I’ve complained
vociferously about it in the past, and nobody
76 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
listened to me. Nothing’s changed, so the
complaining is done. What I did do, how-
ever, was make an internal decision: “Are
you still interested in music, and if you are,
how are you interested in how people per-
ceive that?”
I appreciate the album as an organizing
factor. It pulls together certain songs at a
specific period of time, and it allows an art-
ist to pick a lane. It’s like editing a motion
picture: You could probably edit it seven
different ways, and you’d wind up with
seven slightly different movies. That’s how
it feels when you’re doing an album. You
have to kind of pick a lane.
Still, there’s sometimes a resistance from
audiences to new music from established
artists. You go to a show, and you hear
those dreaded words: “We’re going to
play a new song…”
Yeah, that’s a tricky thing. I can appreci-
ate why a certain batch of songs has gotten
an artist the opportunity, and the honor, to
perform for people. That said, no amount
of me playing my most famous songs, or not
playing them, has changed anything about
where I sit in the business.
At the end of the day, the only thing
that’s really going to change anything for
me is to write new material that would
engender the same response as the old stuff.
And I still have the motivational hold to
want to write new stuff that goes over like
the old material. That said, I’m not some-
body who likes to live in sort of a delusional
half-dream—you know, the resemblance to
the movie Sunset Boulevard.
TheFutureEmbrace was bathed in elec-
tronics. This album is radically different—
mostly piano and acoustic guitar. What
led to the decision to unplug?
Well, I was making a Smashing Pump-
kins album that was sort of futuristic, but
I got bored and uninspired, so I ditched it.
Then I found myself with nothing to do,
and I thought, Okay, if you wanted to do
something, what would you do? And I was
attracted to playing acoustic music. So I
wrote a batch of songs and I thought, Right.
I need to find somebody to record these.
I called Rick Rubin and asked him to rec-
ommend a producer—I thought he would
appreciate the vibe of what I was doing—
and he said, “Well, I’d actually be interested
in doing this.” And I was totally shocked. I
wasn’t calling upon him to impose. He’s a
super-busy guy and he’s probably the most
sought-after producer in the world. He’s
just a friend of mine, and I was trying to get
some advice. The whole thing grew from
there. I sent him more songs, and eventually
he said, “Do you want to record?”
Because Ogilala doesn’t have the blazing
rock gestalt of your other records, do you
feel like you’re asking more from listen-
ers? They really have to give themselves
up to it.
It’s hard for me to respond to that. You
know, during my twenties I was very
focused on the audience, and then came a
time in my life when I was very focused on
myself. Obviously, when I focused more on
the audience I had better results. But I had
to go through that soul searching and focus
on myself—I just needed to. Having come
full circle, all I can say is that I feel like I can
only do my best, and I can’t assume any-
thing about the audience.
Truth is, when you make an assumption
about the audience, you really cheat peo-
ple of their own experience. In that sense,
you become sort of overly calculating. Even
going back to the question about what songs
you play live, as a listener myself some-
times my favorite song on an album isn’t the
one on the radio. So at this point in my life,
it’s not up to me to decide what’s worth-
while. I don’t wag my finger and say, “You
must give me 40 minutes of your time, or
else.” I would be happy with three minutes!
[laughs]
Playing-wise, is your relation to the
acoustic guitar different from the elec-
tric?
It is. I don’t really put the time into the
acoustic. To be a really proficient acous-
tic player, you have to have a good finger-
picking game, and I just don’t have that. I’m
much better at getting what I want out of
the instrument on the electric side of things.
It’s frustrating at times, because there are
times I wish I could break into a solo on an
acoustic like a jazz guitar player could. It’s
just a different level of proficiency.
I did notice there are no real solos on the
record. Do you feel as if you’re an awk-
ward acoustic soloist?
No, not at all. It just didn’t feel right. This is
where people might want to throw toma-
toes at me, but soloing on a guitar just feels
slightly out of time at the point in the world
we’re in. Don’t get me wrong—there’s peo-
ple who solo really beautifully—but right
now there’s something about the solo sound
of the guitar that isn’t as inspiring as it was
maybe a generation ago. I just don’t feel as
attracted to soloing as I did in those times
when I was standing in the shadow of Eddie
Van Halen.

OVER THE LAST 10 YEARS,
I S E T M Y S E L F A D R I F T.
I R E F U S E D TO D O W H AT
PEOPLE WANTED ME TO DO,
AND I CHARTED MY
OWN COURSE.
I do like listening to certain people. I
was listening to Zakk Wylde recently, and
he’s just incredible. I went to one of those
“night of guitars” concerts—there was Steve
Vai and Nuno Bettencourt, and I think it
was Yngwie, too. All these great guitar-
ists. And you know, as a guitar player, it was
incredible watching these masters play.
At the same time, it just doesn’t strike me,
the voice of the guitar right now in our cul-
ture—it doesn’t feel as distinctive as it once
was. Maybe I’m not enough of a guitar
player to know how to fix it.
Do you write differently on an acoustic
than on an electric?
No, and in fact, most of my famous rock
songs—“Today,” “Tonight, Tonight,” “Bul-
let with Butterfly Wings”—almost all them
were either written on an acoustic or at a
piano. It’s funny: The best songs didn’t tend
to come from playing electric; they came
from figuring them out in an acoustic form
and then translating them to electric.
There is some electric guitar on the
record, like those Fifties-sounding licks
on “Shiloh.”
And there’s an E-bow solo on “Spaniards,”
but you just can’t tell. The bit on “Shi-
loh” was actually a tribute to Glen Camp-
bell. The song reminded me of one of those
Glen Campbell songs that Jimmy Webb
wrote—it was my tip of my hat to them. I
love the music that they made together—
“Galveston” and stuff like that. At first I
looked at Rick and said, “Is this too obvi-
ous?” And he was like, “But I like it.” So
we left it in. We got out the Fender VI and
made that sound. We tried some electric
guitar on a few things, but it just didn’t feel
right.
What were your main acoustics for the
record?
I have an early Sixties Guild Texan that
records unbelievably. It’s probably the
loudest acoustic I have. That was probably
my primary recording guitar. I used a Six-
ties Gibson Tortoise on one song, I think,
but it was mostly the Texan. I brought a
number of guitars to California, and then
we did kind of blind taste tests. Whatever
sounded best is what we used.
You’re going to do an acoustic tour for
Ogilala. Are you thinking that you might
plug back in soon after?
I don’t know. There’s obviously been a
lot of chatter about the band, but noth-
ing’s been worked out. Everything’s up in
the air. One day I think, Yeah, okay, and
another day I think, I’m not so sure. The
vibe is very good with everybody, but as far
as the possibility of something happening,
I don’t know. I sort of don’t know what to
think of anything anymore.
Over the last 10 years, I sort of set
myself adrift. I obviously refused to do
what people wanted me to do, and I
charted my own course. There’s been
some great things, and there’s been a lot
of not-so-great things. The thing I would
say is, once you set yourself adrift, there
really is no going back. You can look very
soberly at the idea of playing rock and
roll again, but it doesn’t fire the same
sequence it used to, which was like, “We’ll
get together, we’ll write some songs, we’ll
make a record, and we’ll tour.” Or “We’ll
get together and then we’ll tour.” It doesn’t
work that way anymore.
So now I sort of say, “I’m open to the
muse of the universe, and wherever it
takes me, it takes me.” I would love to play
electric guitar again. I would love to rock
out on the biggest stages in the world. But I
look around in our culture, and I don’t see a
lot of representation of that type of music.
Loud guitars aren’t necessarily rooted in
alternative anymore. They’re more rooted
in hard rock and heavy metal, and whatever
the 10,000 subgenres are—grindcore and all
that type of stuff.
I drive around in my car and I listen to
Ozzy’s Boneyard on Sirius, and I hear all
this great music. It still makes me want
to crank an amp up to where it’s ready to
explode, but I also don’t assume that any-
body would meet my passion with an equal
level of interest. What I figured out is just
do the thing that feels most exciting next,
and hopefully that will be met by some-
body else who’s just as interested. But I can
no longer assume that just because I put on
an electric guitar and plug in a fuzz pedal
that anybody’s going to pay much atten-
tion. The good news is that if I do pick it up,
it’s because I really feel good about doing it
and I’m really motivated, and I feel like it’s
going to take me somewhere and that other
people will enjoy the ride.
Any more you can add on the future of the
band?
Obviously, there’s plenty of healthy inter-
est for us to play shows, but I’m much more
interested in that if it includes us working
again as a creative unit. It’s pretty obvious
that I’ve had my best success as a rock musi-
cian with that lineup in some form, and I
think it has a lot to do with when and how
we came together. Whether we could rec-
reate that magic in any form remains to be
seen, but it would be nice to try.
And to be clear, we are talking about the
original members, right?
Well, you never know, because everybody’s
got their own lives now. It’s not like peo-
ple are sitting at home waiting by the tele-
phone. I mean, Jimmy is super-involved in
tech. James is a successful producer and
does his own soundtracks. D’arcy is liv-
ing a very private life. It’s not as simple to
say, “Oh, let’s all go meet on Main Street on
Tuesday.” I think there’s lots of other fac-
tors that also include children, schedules
and stuff like that.
But again, speaking personally, my inter-
est is just to be creative. It’s great to play
the old songs, but it’s not really a creative
endeavor unless you talk about the staging
and the lights. At the end of the day, you’re
still doing something that’s already been
done, and my heart lies in doing something
that hasn’t been done. So we’ll see.
77
guitarworld.com
guitarworld.com 3
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00690178 Alice in Chains – Acoustic ��������������������$19�99 14042759
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 H O LI DAY 2017

Mustang
the gear GT 40

in review

82
EARTHQUAKER
DEVICES
Dat a Co r r u p te r
GUITAR
WORLD

GOLD
84 AWARD
JACKSON P E
ER
GUITARS FORMANC

Wild Horses
Pro S e r i e s
D i nk y D K 2

85 FENDER MUSTANG GT 40 AND GT 200

By Chris Gill
MXR
B o o s te r M i ni
FENDER TUBE AMPS rightfully have maintained with the new free Fender Tone app, an upgraded full-
a stellar reputation since the Fifties. However, color display and a looper that records up to 60 seconds of
86 many guitarists overlook the fact that Fender also makes
great digital guitar amps that are the product of the com-
audio.
NEW EQ
Fe nde r EO B pany’s decades of tone know-how. Fender’s first Mustang FEATURES We took a look at the smallest and biggest
Su s t a i ne r Series digital amps, introduced in 2010, were designed Mustang GT amps: the GT 40 and GT 200. The smaller
Strato c a s te r a nd primarily for beginners and budget-minded players look- GT 40 is a 40-watt amp with two 6.5-inch speakers, and
Ba re Knu c k l e
ing for a versatile amp for practice and home recording, it has five front-panel control knobs (gain, volume, treble,
Pickups The
Rag na ro k
but with the introduction of their new Mustang GT mod- bass, master). While both models provide one 1/8-inch
els—the GT 40, GT 100 and GT 200—the line now spans headphone out and one 1/8-inch aux-in on the front
everything from small, portable practice/recording amps panel, the GT 200 also includes balanced stereo XLR line
88 to combos big and loud enough to gig with. But there’s
more to the new Mustang amps than just a wider selec-
outputs on the rear panel. In addition to its bigger physi-
cal dimensions, the GT 200 offers more output power
BOSS
J B-2 A ng r y D r i ve r tion of sizes, including an expanded selection of amp and with its 200-watt amp and two 12-inch custom Celestion
effect models, built-in wi-fi capabilities, compatibility G12-FSD speakers. Its front control panel adds midrange

guitarworld.com 79
SOUNDCHECK

Mustang
GT 200

and reverb controls to the GT 40’s lineup, and
the rear panel includes a stereo effects loop.
The amp ships with the MGT-4 footswitch
unit with four footswitches for controlling
preset and effects selection and looper func-
tions (the MGT-4 is an optional purchase for
the GT 40).
Both models have the same digital “en-
gine” that provides 21 amp models and 46
effect models. Multiple effects can be used
simultaneously, including ones from the
Stompbox (distortion/overdrive, compressor,
wah), Modulation (chorus, phaser, flanger,
tremolo, pitch shift, etc.), Delay and Reverb
categories. Accessing presets and program-
ming sounds is easily accomplished via the
large full-color display, function buttons and
large rotary encoder wheel, but most users
will find the Fender Tone app even easier to
use for sound programming tasks. Audio can
be streamed through the Mustang GT using
Bluetooth, and a USB jack enables the amp to
function as an audio interface for computer
digital recording applications. The optional
EXP-1 expression pedal can be connected to
the footswitch jack or chained to the MGT-4
to control master volume or various select-
able amp and effect parameters (such as wah
sweep).
The MGT-4 is a very useful controller
with three different modes that reconfigure
the functions of the four footswitches. In
Presets mode the footswitches make it easy
to select presets and scroll up and down
through preset banks. In Effects mode the
switches allow you to engage effects groups
separately like a pedal board. Looper mode
offers record/overdub, play/stop and undo
functions. The MGT-4 also has a very conve-
nient hands-free tuner mode.
PERFORMANCE Fender has done a great
job of combining essential, classic amp
and effect models with various adventur-
ous, cultish and obscure selections (such as
a three-speaker ’57 Bandmaster, a Sixties
Silvertone, ring modulator and Gibson GA-15
reverb). I particularly loved the ’57 and ’61
Deluxe models—two of my all-time favorite
“real world” amps, and the latter an often-
overlooked beast with an awesome hard rock
tone that’s more “British” than most amps
made across the pond. The included presets
are well-programmed and thought out, but
if you want more, a vast selection of presets
are available from the community of Mustang
GT users via the Fender Tone app.
Some skeptics have called the Mustang
GT’s tones too “hi-fi,” but to my ears the
sounds are more like the finished tracks one
crafts in the studio and listens to through
studio monitors than the “raw goods” one
hears standing directly in front of an amp.
The GT 40’s speakers in particular deliver
crisp and clear tone ideal for practicing solo
or playing along with recordings or backing
tracks, while the GT 200’s Celestions are
more suited toward playing loud with a band
on stage.

STREET PRICE: The Mus- Models of 21 A built-in The MGT-4 THE BOTTOM LINE
CHEAT GT 40, $249.99; tang GT 40 is amps and 46 looper records footswitch con- Whether you’re look-

SHEET GT 200, $599.99

MANUFACTURER:
a 40-watt amp
with two 6.5-
effects provide
a wide range of
up to 60 sec-
onds of audio
troller (included
with the GT
ing for a digital amp
for home practice and
Fender, fender.com inch speakers, classic, modern and allows 200, optional recording use or a ver-
while the GT and even non- users to record with the GT 40) satile amp for gigging,
200 is a 200- traditional gear an unlimited controls pre- Fender’s new Mustang
watt amp with for program- number of sets, effects, GT Series amps offer a
two 12-inch overdubs.
ming presets looper and tun- huge selection of great
custom Celes-
from the front ing functions. sounds and creative
tion G12-FSD
panel or Fender power for incredibly
speakers.
Tone app. affordable prices.

80 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

SOUNDCHECK

GUITAR
WORLD

PLATINUM
AWARD
EX
CELLENCE

Brutal Fury
EARTHQUAKER DATA CORRUPTER
By Chris Gill

LIKE ME, you probably saw the name
“Data Corrupter” and wondered, “What
does a device that hacks credit bureaus,
spreads computer viruses and comman-
deers Twitter feeds to disseminate fake
news have to do with guitar?” Well, grass-
hopper, just think of the notes you play on
guitar as “data.” As for the “corrupter” bit?
Well, it’s fuzz, Jim, but not as we know it.
Simply put, the EarthQuaker Data Cor-
rupter is the wildest fuzz pedal you’ll
likely encounter in this lifetime, capable of
producing psychotic oscillation, mutated
modulation and synth-like octaves that are
dynamically responsive and unusual yet
predictably repeatable.
FEATURES The EarthQuaker Data
Corrupter combines a wicked square-
wave fuzz circuit with various synth-like
controls arranged in four sections: Voice
Mixer, Subharmonic, Frequency Modulator
and Master Oscillator. The Voice Mixer
features individual controls for adjusting
the levels of three different voices: Square
(fuzz), Subharmonic (-1 to -3 octaves with
various interval divisions) and Oscillator.
The Subharmonic section features a rotary
switch with eight different octave/interval
settings and a Unison/Oscillator switch.
The Frequency Modulator section has a
Glide/Vibrato switch and a Rate control.
The Master Oscillator section also has
an eight-position octave/interval rotary
switch, plus a Root switch for selecting
unison, -1 octave or -2 octave settings.
There’s also a master level control, ¼-inch
mono input and output jacks, true bypass
switching and a jack for a standard 9V cen-
ter negative power supply (not included).
PERFORMANCE If the section above was
about as coherent as a drunken sailor dur-
ing Fleet Week, let me just cut to the chase.
This pedal generates some of strangest and
most gruesomely beautiful fuzz tones I’ve
ever heard, with violent, speaker-ripping
intensity and oddly complex overtones
that are bizarre yet musically useful. The
output of this pedal is LOUD (unity with
the dry signal was barely past “1”), and
since it’s monophonic it’s best for playing
solos or melodic lines, as chords can get
pretty mangled and mutated. The Glide
mode produces a portamento effect be-
tween different notes (think ELP’s “Lucky
Man”) while the Vibrato mode delivers
insane laser gun stuns that will make Steve
Stevens pop out of his pleather pants. The
octave effects may be synth-like, but the
fuzz says loud and proud that this is a gui-
tar, and you’d better pay attention or it’ll
mess you up.

STREET PRICE: Separate Voice Mixer, The Frequency THE BOTTOM LINE
CHEAT $225 Subharmonic, Frequency Modulator section offers Whether your taste in music

SHEET MANUFACTURER:
EarthQuaker Devices,
Modulator and Master
Oscillator sections
earthquakerdevices. provide a variety of
com controls for dialing in
synth-like octave fuzz
effects.
Glide and Vibrato modes
with variable rate to create
smooth note-to-note
glides or wickedly warbling
vibrato.
leans toward the outer edges
of experimental or you just
want to get out of a creative
rut, the EarthQuaker Data
Corrupter offers a multitude
of unusual but musically useful
tones and textures that are
violently beautiful.

82 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

 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
SOUNDCHECK
GOLD
GUITAR
WORLD
AWARD
Natural High
JACKSON PRO SERIES DINKY DK2
P
ER
FORMANC
E By Ch ris G ill
I HAVE TO admit I probably own way too
many guitars, and as a reviewer I’m sub-
jected to a constantly rotating selection of
instruments. As a result, I’ve found that a
lot of guitars sound the same after a while,
and sometimes I just know exactly how a
guitar is going to sound the second I plug it
in, particularly if the guitar has two hum-
bucking pickups.
Well, my friends, I now have to admit
I was completely taken by surprise—in a
very good way—by Jackson’s new Pro Series
Dinky DK2. Perhaps it’s because it’s the
first guitar I can recall ever playing with a
body made of a tone wood called okoume.
Traditionally okoume is layered into ply-
wood used to build boats because it’s light,
flexible and rot-resistant, but guitar build-
ers have discovered it has tonal properties
similar to maple with much less weight, plus
an attractive grain and color similar to ma-
hogany. The wood, combined with Seymour
Duncan humbuckers and versatile wiring,
gives the Jackson Pro Series Dinky DK2 a
84 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
distinctive, attractive voice that really stands
out in a crowd.
FEATURES The Pro Series Dinky DK2
with an okoume body is available only with
a natural satin finish; the same model is
also available with a gloss finish in a selec-
tion of three colors, but these versions have
an alder body. Beyond that, the features of
all Jackson Pro Series Dinky DK2 models
are the same. The one-piece maple bolt-on
Speed neck features Jackson’s innovative
three-bolt “wrap around” neck joint, which
provides a deeply sculpted heel for playing
comfort while remaining rock solid. Other
neck features include a 25.5-inch scale
length, 24 jumbo frets, 12-to-16 inch com-
pound radius, hand-rubbed urethane gel
finish, ebony fingerboard, offset dot inlays
placed adjacent to the low E and A strings
and Jackson’s signature pointed six-in-line
angled headstock affixed to the neck with
a scarf joint.
Electronics consist of a Seymour Duncan
JB TB4 bridge humbucker, Seymour
Duncan ’59 SH-1N neck humbucker, five-
position blade pickup selector (humbucking
bridge/bridge inner coil/both inner coils/
neck inner coil/humbucking neck) and
master volume and tone controls. Hardware
includes a recessed Floyd Rose FRT-O2000
double-locking tremolo, sealed die-cast tun-
ers and metal dome-style control knobs, all
with a black gloss finish.
PERFORMANCE What I admire the most
about the Pro Series DK2 is how it com-
bines a very stripped-down, streamlined
aesthetic with a surprisingly versatile
selection of tones, thanks to its Seymour
Duncan pickups and a very well-con-
ceived pickup-wiring scheme. Instead of
employing push-pull pots to engage sin-
gle-coil tones, those settings are instantly
accessible with the blade selector switch.
Perhaps a handful of players will miss
the middle/dual-humbucker setting, but
I very much find the funky, honking dual

single-coil tone a much better alternative
(go ahead, try to resist playing “Free Ride”
after you select the middle setting). The
bridge humbucker is very powerful but
clear, with a bold midrange and focused
bass that rock hard. On my Friedman Pink
Taco, the bridge pickup was already over-
driving the amp at the lowest gain setting,
while the single-coil settings were spank-
ing clean. At performance volume levels,
I found I could get a wide variety of clean
and overdrive tones just with the guitar’s
pickups and controls.
The Pro Series DK2’s playability is every-
thing guitarists have come to know and love
about Jackson guitars. This is a speed guitar
with an extremely fast-playing slim neck
profile, and the neck heel might be the most
“invisible” example I’ve ever encountered
from a bolt-on instrument. The okoume
body’s light weight makes it a pleasure to
play for hours on end, and the guitar re-
mains perfectly balanced when playing in a
standing position.
CHEAT
SHEET
LIST PRICE: $1,224.48
MANUFACTURER: Jackson Gui-
tars, jacksonguitars.com
The body is made of okoume, a
lightweight tone wood that com-
bines an attractive appearance sim-
ilar to mahogany with the bright-
ness and definition of maple.
The Seymour Duncan JB TB4
bridge and ’59 SH-1N humbuckers
are wired to provide a wide variety
of hard-rocking humbucker and
funky single-coil tones.
THE BOTTOM LINE
With a street price under $1,000,
the Jackson Pro Series Dinky DK2
is a hell of a bargain for players who
need a wide variety of awesome
humbucking and single-coil tones
plus the incredible playability that
have make Jackson guitars the
shredder’s choice.
Buzz Bin
GUITAR
WORLD
GOLD
AWARD
P E
ER
FORMANC
MXR Booster Mini
As a reviewer, there are two kinds of
gear you dread writing about: volume
pedals and clean boosts. A, they kind
of do only one thing, and B, um, that’s about
it. So, imagine my anxiety when I heard I was
covering yet another clean boost. However,
all apprehension was put aside when the
MXR Booster Mini showed up on my desk
for review, because A, it’s MXR, and B, it
definitely does more than one thing—and
does it extremely well.
The MXR Booster Mini is actually two
pedals in one, combining the sought-after
boost found in the MXR Micro Amp and
the subtle gritty edge from the Echoplex
Preamp, which also offers a touch of musi-
cal compression. The Booster Mini comes
in a lightweight mini-housing and features
controls for volume and tone. The volume
control offers up to +25dB of boost, and
the tone control is a studio-grade high-cut
knob. What makes the Booster Mini useful
is an internal preamp level trimpot that adds
gutsy gain, which is a great way to fatten up
single-coil guitars and increased drive for
humbuckers.
I tend to put boost pedals after my drive
pedals, and the Booster Mini works well in
this capacity. Setting the internal preamp
control about a quarter of the way, the
Booster Mini is surprisingly loud (even at 9
o’clock on the volume) with a slicing satura-
tion that works great for solos. The musical
tone control removes high-end harshness
and smoothens unwanted frequencies.
Using it as a boost in front of an amp, the
pedal responds with warm sustain and
ballsy overdrive. It’s hard to believe MXR has
packed this much firepower in a mini boost.
And that’s no small wonder.
—Paul Riario
STREET PRICE: $99.99
MANUFACTURER: Jim Dunlop,
jimdunlop.com
guitarworld.com 85
SOUNDCHECK

Bare Knuckle
Pickups
THE RAGNAROK

The Ragnarok is Bare Knuckle Pickups’

second signature humbucker set for
Periphery guitarist Misha Mansoor. The
Ragnarok was designed by Tim Mills, with
Mansoor and Adam “Nolly” Getgood, for-
merly of Periphery and now a respected
sound engineer and music producer. The
Ragnarok blends the best attributes of
contemporary passive and active pickups
in a high-output ceramic pickup with
a more aggressive tone and balanced
response. The overdriven tone is the
pickup’s prime strength; however, the
Ragnarok also has a great range of clean Fender
tones. It’s available as a six-, seven- or EOB SUSTAINER STRATOCASTER
eight-string pickup or as a bridge and
neck pickup set.
Fender recently partnered with Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien to create the EOB
STREET PRICE Sustainer Stratocaster. The guitar offers a wide palette of tones, thanks
$169.73, single six-string pickup; to its Seymour Duncan JB Jr. humbucking bridge pickup, Texas Special
$322.35, six-string set single-coil middle pickup and Fernandes Sustainer unit in the neck posi-
bareknucklepickups.co.uk tion. The Sustainer creates near-infinite sustain on one or more strings,
making it easy to achieve thick, textured sounds. Its controls include an
on/off switch, intensity control and a three-position switch to select the
mode: Fundamental only, Harmonic only or Blend. Other modern and
classic features include a six-saddle vintage-style synchronized tremolo
bridge, vintage-style tuning machines, a “10/56 V” neck profile, 21 narrow-
jumbo frets, a synthetic bone nut and a special neck plate engraved with a
custom “Flower of Life” emblem.

STREET PRICE $1,099.99

fender.com

86 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

What Clients are saying about
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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
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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
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Eric and Keith (who was featured on the
cover of Rolling Stone magazine wearing a
Stauer watch). As you can see, the final
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It’s only rock and roll, but we like it. One
look at the Stauer Guitar Watch’s volup-
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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.
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watch for a full refund of the item price.
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SOUNDCHECK
GOLD
GUITAR
WORLD
In Good Company
AWARD BOSS JB-2 ANGRY DRIVER
P
ER E By Paul Riario
FORMANC
ONE OF MY absolute favorite overdrive ped-
als has been the tried-and-true Boss BD-2
Blues Driver. Its dimensional crunch con-
tains all the warmth of a tube amp bursting
into overdrive but with a top-end clarity that
sets it apart from Boss’s other popular pedals,
such as the DS-1 Distortion and SD-1 Super
Overdrive. Indeed, I’ve always found that
Boss injects a sonic signature for their gain
pedals that falls somewhere between analog
and digital but with all the desired harmonic
overtones that make them sound inherently
unique. Considering there are hundreds of
boutique pedal companies that build Tube
Screamer replicas and Klon clones, very few
have ever emulated a Boss overdrive or dis-
tortion pedal. Not to say this is a good or bad
thing, but Boss has always been fine in their
“gainful” space.
So, in what might seem an unprecedented
move, Boss partnered with the boutique ped-
al company, JHS Pedals, to create the Boss
JB-2 Angry Driver. The result is an extraordi-
nary new pedal that combines the overdrive
circuits of the Boss Blues Driver and the
favored JHS Pedals Angry Charlie, making
it one incredibly versatile dual-mode pedal.
What’s even more remarkable, aside from its
two very distinct crunch circuits, is the added
operation to use each one independently,
or combine and stack them for a plethora of
overdriven colors.
FEATURES The JB-2 is housed in Boss’s
familiar compact pedal chassis, but what’s
instantly striking is the pedal’s red control
knobs, a colorful addition not found on any
other Boss pedal. The pedal features three
STREET PRICE:
CHEAT $199.99
SHEET MANUFACTURER:
Boss, Boss.info
88 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017
dual-concentric controls for level, tone and
drive. The tops of the knobs govern the JHS
circuit, while the bottom halves control
the Boss section, allowing for independent
settings for its separate overdrives. A six-
position mode knob selects the overdrive and
configurations (JHS, Boss, JHS/Boss, J>B,
B>J and Parallel). Here you can run each
pedal separately (JHS or Boss), or toggle
between the two (JHS/Boss), or route the
order of them in series mode (J>B or B>J) or
run the pedal in parallel mode. The JB-2 also
features an LED indicator that shows which
effect is active (blue for Boss, red for JHS
and purple when both circuits are activated).
Apart from the 1/4-inch input and output
jacks, there’s also a remote 1/4-inch input
jack that allows you to connect an optional
footswitch to select between two types of
overdrive, or turn them on/off individually. A
9-volt battery or 9V adapter powers the JB-2.
PERFORMANCE I must be up front and
admit that I own at least eight Boss Blues
Drivers (I have a problem), so as expected, fully cranked lead tones with cutting mids.
the Angry Driver makes me feel right at Because you’re stacking circuits, it’s a beauti-
home with its included circuit. All the tone of fully unbridled tone that also works well for
the Blues Driver is intact here—the low-to- coaxing glorious feedback. Parallel is a great
mid grind of its drive sound, a full bass re- set-and-forget mode where I was able to dial
sponse and a brilliant top-end sheen. On the in an arena rock distortion that sounded big
flip side, the Angry Charlie has a more asser- and ultra-smooth.
tive voice, with a huge midrange bump and However, I found the best way to use the
tube-like touch sensitivity in its medium-gain Angry Driver is to set the mode switch to
drive. It’s definitely a more boutique over- toggle between the JHS/Boss circuits. Setting
drive sound many players gravitate toward. the gain low on the JHS works well for clean
Depending upon how you set the drive on and rhythm tones, and pushing the drive
its individual circuits, both series modes of- around two o’clock on the Boss circuit is ideal
fer plenty of molten distortion sounds and for soloing.
The JB-2’s three dual- The six-position mode THE BOTTOM LINE
concentric knobs provide selector allows each The Boss JB-2 Angry Driver
independent drive, tone
and level control for each
overdrive to operate
independently, or combine
combines two signature
overdrives; the Boss Blues
overdrive type. them together in series and Driver and JHS Pedals Angry
parallel configurations. Charlie, into one versatile pedal
capable of touch-sensitive gain
and smooth distortion.
 NEW
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COLUMNS
For video of this lesson, go to
STRING THEORY GuitarWorld.com/Hol2017

By Jimmy Brown

FIG. 1 1 Gmaj7b5, Em6-9 or A13

DROP DOWN
FIGURE
~~~~
(Play each pattern ascending and descending)
~~~~~~~~~
4 7 9 9 14

4
T
AND STRETCH
7 8 12 14
4 6 11 12
A 4 5 9 11
B 2 3
2 4 9 10
Another useful, lower
~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
1 2 1 3 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 3 3
repurposing of the sus4f9 FIGURE
FIG. 2 2 Gmaj7, Em9 or A13sus4
arpeggio, plus an exotic,
4 7 10 10 14

4
wide-interval variation T 4 7
7 8
11 12
12 15
A 4 5 9 12
CONTINUING OUR EXPLORATION of B 2 3
2 5 9 10
musically intriguing ways to repurpose the
1 2 1 4 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 4 3

~~~ ~~~
four-note sus4f9 arpeggio we looked at in
~~~~ ~~~
FIGURE
FIG. 3 3 G Lydian (alternate pick or slur)
the November and December 2017 issues, I’d ≤ ≤ ≤ ≤
4 7 9 10 7 9 10

4
now like to show you yet another cool way
to apply it and also introduce an exotically
T 46 7 46 7 47
78
46
78
A 45 45 45 45
interesting and enigmatic-sounding variation B 23
25
23
24
that entails the challenging use of a wider
interval and fret-hand stretch.
FIGURE
FIG. 44 G Lydian (alternate pick or slur)
≤ ~~~~~~~~~ ≤ ~~~~~~~~~~~
4
To review, in the previous two lessons, I

4
presented a pair of diagonal fretboard paths T 11 12
12 14 15
11 12
12 14 15
for an Asus4f9 arpeggio, spelled A Bf D E, A 9 12 9 11
or 1 f2 4 5, both based on the same four- B 9 10 9 10
note shape that’s initially played across two
FIG. 5 5 Gmaj7 # 5, Em(maj7) or A13 #11
FIGURE
~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
adjacent strings, two notes per string, then

4
repeats in higher octaves on higher strings. 7 11 11 14

4
We then took both paths, one beginning on T 4 8
7 8
11 12
12 16
the low E string’s fifth fret and the other on A 4 5 9 13
the 12th fret of the A string, and transposed B 2 3
2 6 9 10

all the notes down a half step and one fret,

~~~~
1 2 1 4 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 4 2
using the same shapes. Played over the FIGURE
FIG. 6 6 G Lydian sharp-five
~~~~~~~~~~ U U
4
same A bass note, this harmonic reassign- 7 9 11 11

4
ment transformed our four-note arpeggio to T 4 6 8 4 8
7 8 12
11
Amaj7f5, starting on the seventh: Gs A Cs Ef, A 4 5 4 5 11
or 7 1 3 f5. We then looked at a variation in B 2 3
2 6 10

which we “un-flatted” the fifth, Ef, raising 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 2 4 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 2 4

it to the perfect fifth, E natural, which gave
us the more common and conventional-
sounding Amaj7 arpeggio, again starting on
the seventh—Gs A Cs E, or 7 1 3 5. Finally, we
changed our accompanying bass note to the
relative minor tonal center of Fs (minor),
which instantly yielded two additional and
very cool arpeggio sounds to play with—
Fsm6-9 and Fsm9.
Continuing along these lines, FIGURE 1
shows last month’s two different Amaj7f5
arpeggio paths transposed down a whole
step and two frets to Gmaj7f5, in each case
starting on the seventh—Fs G B Df(Cs). As
indicated, these patterns also can melodi-
cally describe an Em6-9 sound—2 f3 5 6 (or
9 f3 5 6)—and, when played over an A bass
note, A13. In this latter context, Fs becomes
the sixth, or 13th, G is heard as the minor, or
“flatted,” seventh, B as the second/ninth and
Cs as the major third.
FIGURE 2 shows the same transposition
and harmonic reassignments applied to last Ds, one fret higher and fretted with the
month’s Amaj7 arpeggios (with the pinkie pinkie, produces the enigmatic-sounding
brought into play), again shifted down to variation I spoke of earlier, the exotically
Gmaj7. In this case, changing the bass note interesting Gmaj7s5 arpeggios illustrated
to E gives us Em9, starting on the second, in FIGURE 5, which may alternatively be
or ninth, Fs, and changing it to A creates a heard as Em(maj7) or A13s11(no3). And,
fusion-y A13sus4 sound, with D now being similar to what we did in FIGURES 3 and
heard as the perfect fourth. 4, FIGURE 6 demonstrates how you can
As FIGURES 3 and 4 demonstrate, in- add Ds to our original four-note Gmaj7f5
cluding both the Df(Cs) and D notes in any arpeggio to create a rather complex and
octave within any of these patterns gives us spooky G Lydian sharp-five sound.
additional useful phrasing and technique Play all of these patterns both ascending
options for G Lydian modal sounds. and descending, and be sure to check out
Taking our Gmaj7 (or Em9 or A13sus4) the video for more in-depth demonstra-
arpeggio shapes and raising the D note to tions and applications of them.
To purchase instructional lessons by Jimmy Brown—as
downloads or DVDs—visit guitarworldlessons.com or download
the official Guitar World Lessons app in iTunes. LESSONS

90 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

The H9 MAX is a dream pedalboard
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COLUMNS
For video of this lesson, go to
IN DEEP GuitarWorld.com/Hol2017

by Andy Aledort

GAME OF FIGURE
FIG. 1 1 G Mixolydian mode, second position U~~~
4 35 7
Ó
753
Ó
DRONES 4
T 245
356 653
54 2
A 235 532
Utilizing open-string drones B 35
235 532
5 3
for single-note licks,
FIGURE
FIG. 2 2 G Mixolydian w/open G drone string U
4 . .
melodies and solos
4 .
T
0 .
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
INCORPORATING THE USE of an open A
B
J J 3 ~~~
0 2 3 5 7 8 10 12 14 15 17 19 20 20 19 17 15 14 12 10 8 7 5 3 2
string as a “drone” within licks and solo 3
lines is a great, creative way to establish the w/bar
FIGURE
FIG. 3 3
sound of harmony while playing a single-note U
4
N.C. (G )

4
phrase. Drones figure prominently in Indian T
.
0 0 0 0 0
classical music, as heard on instruments such A
B
J ~~~~~~
as the sitar and sarod. The concept is simple: 10 8 10 12 12 14 12 10 8 7 5 3 2 0
3
while a melody is played up and down one w/bar
string, an additional open string (or strings) is FIGURE
FIG. 4 4

4
N.C. (G ) F sus2 C/E
‰
1/2
sounded simultaneously, most often serving

4
to establish a reference to the tonic, or “one” T 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
A
J JJ J J J
chord, which represents the home key of the 14 14 14 12 10 9 03 2 2
piece of music.
B 14 12 10 8 10 12 10 3 3 3 1
3 3 7 0

~~~~~
On electric guitar, the strings used most
N.C. (G ) F sus2 C/E N.C.(G )

‰
often for drone-type licks are the open low
E and A, but I’d like to kick things off with 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

J J
utilizing the open G string as our drone, and 14 14 14 12 10 9 03 02
14 12 10 8 10 12 10 3 3 1
the lines played around it will be in the key 3 3 3
of G, establishing the G note as our tonic.
FIGURE
FIG. 5 5

4
The next choice to make is which scale to N.C. (G )

4
base your melody on, so let’s begin with the T 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
G Mixolydian mode (G A B C D E F), which A 17 15 14 15 14 12 14 12 10 12 10 9 9 10 9 7 9 7 5 7 5 3 5
alludes to the sound of a G7 (dominant) B
U ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
chord. This is an easy mode to remember

. .
because there are no sharps or flats; G w/bar

Mixolydian also comprises the same seven

. .
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
notes as the C major scale (C D E F G A B). 2 3 2 0
3 7 5 23 2 0
FIGURE 1 illustrates G Mixolydian played 3 1 3 3

~~~
in second/third position, ascending and
FIGURE
FIG. 6 6 G Mixolydian U ~~~~ U w/bar
4
descending.

Let’s apply the drone-string concept
by picking each note of the G Mixolydian
mode, as fretted on the A string, simultane-
ously with the open G note, as demonstrated
in FIGURE 2: the constant presence of the
G tonic serves to clearly depict the sound
and quality of each of the intervals in G
Mixolydian, so focus on the sound of A, the
second, against the G tonic, as well as B, the
third, C, the fourth, D, the fifth, etc.
FIGURE 3 offers an example of a simple
melody, played utilizing the drone-string
concept: starting on a fretted G note, the
line moves down to F and then back up
the mode through each scale degree to the
major third, and then back down through
the entire mode, articulating the movement
among the various pitches with slides.
FIGURE 4 offers a more complex melody
played against the open G-string drone, with
4
T 0
A 0 2 3 5 7 9 10 12 14 15 17 19 21
B
the harmony expanded to include reference
to different chords in bars 3 and 4, and in
bars 7 and 8. In these bars, an F note is used
against the open G to reference Fsus2, and
an E note is used to imply C/E (a C chord
over an E bass note, or “C over E”).
Now let’s move the Mixolydian mode
onto another string. As shown in FIGURE
5, G Mixolydian is played in a descending
To purchase instructional lessons by Andy Aledort—as
downloads or DVDs—visit guitarworldlessons.com or
download the official Guitar World Lessons app in iTunes.
Contact Andy at andyaledort.com.
0 0 0 0 0
0 2 3 5 7 9 10 12 14 15 17 19 21
melodic fashion on the D string while the
open G is sounded simultaneously. FIG-
URE 6 shows the mode in its single-note
form, as well as in conjunction with the
open G-string drone.
Next time, I’ll show you more interest-
ing and useful ways to incorporate the
drone-string concept into solos and me-
lodic phrases.
LESSONS

92 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

Rails under the wound strings. Poles under
the plain strings. A revolutionary design from
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Railhammer pickups today at railhammer.com.
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Dealer and guitar builder inquiries welcome.
COLUMNS
MOB RULES For video of this lesson, go to
GuitarWorld.com/Hol2017
by Mike Orlando
of Adrenaline Mob

FREE-RANGE Tune down one whole step (low to high, D G C F A D).

All examples performed with hybrid picking.

CHICKEN
FIGURE
FIG. 1 1
N.C. (B) U U
4 ‰ . 10 10 7 10 7
‰.
10 7 10 7
‰.
10 7 10 7
Œ Ó
4
T
PICKIN’
10 10 10 10 10
A
R R R
B
More on exploring country- 3 3 3
style “chicken pickin’ ” FIGURE
FIG. 2 2 N.C.(B) U~~
techniques in metal 4 ‰. 10 .10 7 7 10 710107 710 7 7 7 7 9 7 9 7 9 7 ≈10.
4 . .
T
A 9 9 7 9 79 7
B
R
LAST MONTH, I introduced the concept 9 7 9 797 7 575
10 7 7 5 5 27
of bringing the country guitar technique 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
known as chicken pickin’ into metal music FIG. 3 3
FIGURE

4 ‰. 10
1
and metal-style solos. To review, the tech- 10 7 10 7 12 10 12 10 14 12 14 12 17 14 17 14

4
T 10 12 12 14 14 17 17 19
nique is performed using hybrid picking, A
as notes are alternately sounded with the
downstroke of the pick followed by an up-
B
R
3 3 3 3
stroke with a fingertip (typically the middle 2
19 17 19 17 22 19 22 19 24 19 24 19 22 19 22 19
finger). The fingerpicked upstroke serves to 19 22 22 24 19 22 22 19

snap the string against the fretboard, and this

aggressive, “cluck”-type sound is the reason
this technique is often referred to as chicken 3 3 3 3
3
pickin’. I presented the technique last month 19 17 19 17 17 14 17 14 14 12 14 12 12 10 12 10
19 17 17 14 14 12 12 7
by playing phrases that moved across pairs
of adjacent strings, from high to low, starting
with a picked downstroke on the lower of the
U ~~~~
3 3 3 3
two strings, followed by a fingerpicked up- 4
stroke on the higher of the two strings. We’ll 10 7 10 7
10 10 7 10 7 9 797
10 10 9 9 9 797
now delve deeper into other neat things you 9 9 9 797
9 9 9 79 7 7 5 75
can do with chicken pickin’. 10 10 7 7 2 7
I am fascinated with the idea of applying 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
syncopated, drum-like figures to the guitar, FIGURE
FIG. 4 4 N.C.(E)

4 ‰ 1215
1
and I have found that using chicken pickin’ 12 15 1215 11 14 1114 10 13 10 13 9 12 9 12

4
is a great way to recreate those sounds in a T 15 15 10 11 14 14 9 10 13 13 8 9 12 12 7 8
A
melodic way. One such syncopation is that B
of two 16th notes followed by a 16th-note
triplet, played repeatedly on the downbeat 3 U~~~~~
Œ Ó
8 11 8 11 7 10 7 10
of each quarter note across multiple bars.
11 11 6 7 10 10 4 9
FIGURE 1 illustrates this pattern per-
formed on the top two strings, starting with
a pick stroke on the B string followed by a
fingerpick on the high E string, after which through the entire pattern. The scale upon pentatonic (B D E Fs A) in that position. This
the two techniques alternate throughout which these phrases are based in the B blues is followed with shifts up to 12th, 14th, 17th
the remainder of the figure. Notice that scale (B D E F Fs A). and 19th positions.
the 16th-note triplet is achieved via a quick Another effective approach is to remain And finally, yet another cool twist is to use
hammer/pull between two notes on the on a single pair of strings but move up and non-adjacent strings, as shown in FIGURE
high E string. down through all of the fretboard positions of 4: here, I remain on the third and first strings
The next step is to move this concept minor pentatonic. In FIGURE 3, I begin with and progressively descend the fretboard in a
across every pair of strings in a descending the same phrase that kicks off FIGURES 1 chromatic, one-fret-at-a-time manner.
manner, as demonstrated in FIGURE 2: at and 2, but I immediately shift from seventh Now that you have the basic idea, try de-
the culmination of executing the initial pat- position up to 10th position on beat two to vising your own chicken-picked phrases and
tern on the top two strings, I begin the next sound the notes associated with B minor solo ideas.
sequence on the third and second strings
DANNY SANCHEZ

with a pickup into beat two, by sounding the

10th fret of the third string on the last 16th Mike Orlando is the lead guitarist and a founding member of
note of the first beat, following each quick heavy metal powerhouse Adrenaline Mob. Their new album,
hammer/pull. I then apply this same “jump We the People, is out now via Century Media. LESSONS
start” to each new string pair as I progress

94 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

TURN OVER
A NEW LEAF.
MAPLE.
Guaranteed for life.

www.kysermusical.com
COLUMNS
WOOD For video of this lesson, go to
VIBRATIONS GuitarWorld.com/Hol2017

by Mike Dawes

HAND OFF D A D G A D tuning (low to high: D A D G A D).

FIG. 1 1
FIGURE
*Capo at 4th fret (all examples)
FIG. 2 2
FIGURE
Intertwining hammer-ons N.C.(Dsus4) N.C.(Dsus4)
and pull-offs with both 


T T T T T
 


2 2 !
0 2 2 0
hands  
 
5 0 5 0


2 0
3 2


3 5 3 0 3 5 5 3 0 2 3 5 5
5
HELLO EVERYONE, AND WELCOME 0 0
to my new series of Guitar World columns. *All music sounds two whole steps higher than written.
I’d like to begin this new round with a look FIG. 3 3
FIGURE FIG. 4 4
FIGURE
N.C.(Dsus4) Cadd2
at the two-hand tapping techniques I use
T T T  T T T 
 

on a track called “Melancholia,” which I 2 2 0 0 2 0 0 5 0 5 0 5





 
5 0 0 3 3 0 3 3 0 3 0 3


recorded as a guest spot with the band John 2 0 2 0
3 2



3 5 5 3 0 2 3 5 5 0 2
Brown’s Flux Conduct for their 2016 album, 0 3
0
Yetzer Hara: The Second Concept Album.
FIG. 5 5
FIGURE FIG. 6 6
FIGURE
Many of you may know John from his work

Cadd2 N.C.(Dsus4)
with the U.K. tech-metal band Monuments. T T T
T T T
  


0 5050 5 2 2 0 020




 
 
To me, fretboard tapping on an acoustic 303 3 0303 50 0 3


0 20 2
3 2 0


guitar is very different from tapping on 2 2 020 3 5 5 30 235 5
3 3 0 0


an electric because when tapping on an 3 0

acoustic I often think vertically—moving Cadd2 Gadd2

T T T N.H. N.H. N.H. *T.H.
across the strings within a fixed group of

0 5 0 5 0 5 0 12



3 0 3 3 0 3 0 3 0 12 12
frets—rather than horizontally, moving up 0 0 12 12 12
and down the length of the fretboard. For
2
3
2 0 2 0
3 0
0 12 12



3 5 0 5 5 0 5 5 0 5 7
this song, my guitar is in DADGAD tuning
(low to high, D A D G A D) with a capo at FIG. 7 7
FIGURE FIG. 8 8
FIGURE *tapped
harmonics

 
the fourth fret. One of the nice advantages Cmaj7 N.C.(Dsus4)

 0 0 
T T T

   

this tuning offers you is the ability to easily 0 2 0 0 2 0




 
0 0 0 5 0 0 3



0 0 2 0 2
sound octaves, fifths and desirable combi- 3 2 0



8 0 3 5 5 3 0 2 3 5 5
8 8 0
nations of harmonics by fretting different 8 0
strings at the same fret, such as with a
Cadd2 Gadd2
barre fingering. T T T N.H. N.H. N.H. T.H.

 
Regarding my use of the capo here, I refer 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 12



3 0 3 3 0 3 0 3 0 12 12
0 0 12 12 12
to all notes and chords as if the capo were 2
3
2 0 2 0
3 0
0 12 12



the nut, or zero fret. So, for example, I’ll re- 3 5 0 5 5 0 5 5 0 5 7

fer to the open sixth string as “D,” although
it actually sounds a concert-pitch Fs due to 
Cmaj7 D5

 
** ***

*
0


the capo transposition.

An essential aspect of two-hand tapping
is for the volume and attack of the notes to
remain even and consistent between the
two hands. In the actual musical piece, this
first bar is in 5/4, but I would like to walk
you through each beat before addressing the
entire 5/4 bar. FIGURE 1 illustrates the ini-
tial tapped pattern, which is initiated with
a slap on the open sixth string, followed by
fret-hand taps on the fourth string’s third
fret and the first string’s second fret, con-
secutively. I then bring my pick hand into
play, tapping my index and middle fingers
onto the fifth fret of the fourth and second
strings, consecutively, followed by a double
pull-off to the open fourth string, as well
 
0 0 0 X
0
8
8
 0 0
8
0
0
0
0
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
8 0 X
3
*Tap muted strings w/consecutive fret-hand fingers
**Slap w/pick-hand
***Hit body of gtr. w/pick-hand palm.
fret-hand taps, hammer-ons, pull-offs and down, let’s play them along with new mate-
finger slides, along with another single pick- rial in bar 3, shown in FIGURE 6, wherein
hand tap. FIGURE 3 brings a raked Dsus4 natural harmonics (N.H.) are added while
chord into the mix, on beat five. FIGURE sustaining a Gadd2 chord. Finally, FIGURE
4 illustrates the subsequent Cadd2 chord, 7 brings in the closing chord and melodic
also raked from low to high, and the pattern pattern. All elements have been combined in
played across the next four beats. FIGURE the complete excerpt presented in FIGURE
5 shows the full bar of 5/4, as I performed it 8. Be sure to work through each bar slowly
on the recording. and carefully as you navigate through this
Now that we have the first two bars challenging example.
L A R RY D I M A R Z I O

as a pull-off to the open first string. Play

this sequence repeatedly until it feels and Mike Dawes is a British guitarist and touring musician, hailed as one of the
sounds smooth, even and in time. world’s most creative fingerstyle performers. His new album, Era (Qten
In FIGURE 2, the phrase is extended Records), is available now. For more information, visit mikedawes.co.uk.
through beats three and four, via more

96 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

 TRANSCRIPTIONS

AMERICAN GIRL
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
As heard on TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS
Words and music by TOM PETTY • Transcribed by PATRICK MABRY • Bass Transcription by MICHAEL DUCLOS

D D5 D oct. D5 E5 G5 A5
7fr 3fr 5fr 8fr 10fr

132 13 1 4 13 13 13 13

E G5 A A Em A5 Bm

231 2 34 234 1114 23 1144 13421

A Intro (0:00)
Moderate Rock q = 120, w/double-time feel
D oct.
Gtr. 1 (elec. w/light dist.)

       
let ring throughout (let open D notes ring)

 7  7
0 0  107
1
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
7 

7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

D5 D D5



Gtr. 2 (clean elec. 12-string)


let ring throughout
 2 2 2 
2

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
0
0 2 2 2 2 2 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 2 2 2 2 2 2
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0

N.H.


Bass 1

 
  7
  7 !
7

 

4     Rhy. Fig.1     
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

7 7
0
7
0
7
0
7 7 7 7 7
0 0
7 7 7 7
 7 7 7
0
7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
0
7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7


D N.C.(D5)
    
 2
Rhy. Fig. 1a

3 3
2
3
2
3  
0
0
2
0
2
0
2
0
2
0 0
2
0
2
0   05 0 0 0

0
5
0 0 0

0 0 0
5 
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 5 5
0 0 

  7 
N.H.


N.H.
7 7 !
7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 X 12

  
“AMERICAN GIRL”
WORDS AND MUSIC BY TOM PETTY
COPYRIGHT © 1976 ALMO MUSIC CORP., COPYRIGHT RENEWED
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED USED BY PERMISSION
98 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017 REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD LLC
 “AMERICAN GIRL”

(0:17)
Gtrs. 1 and 2 repeat Rhy. Figs. 1 and 1a five times (see bar 5) (D) (E/D) (G5/D)
Bass 1
N.H.
  N.H.


7
7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 !
7 !
12
!
7


Bass 2
 
9 !
11 !
9 !
7

(A5/D) (D) (E/D) (G5/D) (A5/D)

grad. slide
 
     
12 N.H.
!
7 !
2 !
12

 ! 
12 10 10 10 10 12 12 12 12
12 12 12 12 12 12 5 7

 G9  
7 9 9 9 !
11 11 11 !
9
 7
5
7
5
7
5
7
5
7
5
9
7 0 9
7
 

B 1st and 2nd Verses (0:34, 1:24)

1. Well she was an American girl raised on
2. Well it was kinda cold that night She stood there alone over the
D5 E5 G5
Gtr. 1
17

5
3

0 0 7
5
0
10
8

D5 N.C.(E) G5
Gtr. 2

 
(play simile on repeat)

3 3

0
3 3
 00  2 2

0 0

G0  
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0

0 0 0 0 2 3

Bass 1
 slight P.M. throughout
    
 5 5 5 X 5 5 5 5 7 7 7

7
7 7
5 7 7
5 5 X 5 5
5 7
5
7

promises She couldn’t help thinkin’ that there was a

balcony Yeah she could hear the cars roll by out on
A5 D5 E5
20

0
12
10 0
5
3 0
7
5

A5 D N.C.(E)

0

0 0 0
5
5
5
5
2 2
0
0 2
0
 3
2
0
3
2
0
2
3
2
0
2
3
2
 G0  
0 0 0 0 2

7 X 7  X 7 7    
 
2 4 5 5 5 5 7 7 7 7 5
5 7

guitarworld.com 99
TRANSCRIPTIONS

little more to life somewhere else After all it was a

Four Forty One like waves crashin’ on the beach And for one desperate
G5 A5

23

0
10
8
012
10
12
10
12 12
10 10
0 10

A
 
 
3 3 0 0 5 5
 
&
3 3 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2
0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
 0 0 2 2 2 2 2


0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
3

5  5  5 5 7  7  7 7
 
 
5 7 4 5

0 2 4 5 5 5 5 7

(0:53, 1:43)
great big world with lots of places to run to Yeah and if she had to die
moment there he crept back in her memory God it’s so painful for


D G5 Em A5

"55 
26
 0
2 2 3 3 0 0 0 5 5
 2 2
3 0 0
0 0  0 0

5 5
0
 4 2

 
0 0 0
0 2 3

D G5 Em
 A

  
0
2 2 3 3 0 5 5
 0 0 0 0
0 0
0
2
 2
2
2
2
5
2
5
2
0 0 0 0
 2 2 2 2 2 2


0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 2 3

  4    
 
5 X 5 5 5 5 5 7 7 7 7 4
 
0 2 3 X 3 3 3 0 2 5 5 5 5 0 2

tryin’ she had one little promise she was gonna keep
somethin’ to be so close but still so far outta reach
N.C.

0
30

5 5

2
 2 2
5 5
2
 2 2
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 !
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2


A5 A

0
 2
0
2
0 0 0 0
2
0
 2
0
2
0
5
2
2
0 0
5
2
2
0
2
2
2
0
 2
2
2
0
2
2
2
0 0
2
2
2
0
2
2
2
0
0 2

  7
 7
 4 7

5 5 X 5 5 5 7 9 5 5 5 X 5 5 5 7 9 5 5 5 5 5 5

100 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

 “AMERICAN GIRL”

C Chorus (1:08, 1:58)

Oh yeah all right Take it easy baby
G5 N.C. A5 D

Gtr. 1 (doubled)

"55 
33
 
3 3 5 2 2 7
0 0
3 3 5
 3
2
3
2
7

 2 0 0 0


0 2 0 0 0 0 2
3

Bass 1
  

2 2 4 5 5 X 5 5 5 4

3 X 3 3 3 3 5 5 5 5 5

Make it last all night She was an American girl

(Make it last all night)
N.C.(Bm) G5 A5
1 1


36

7 7 3 3 5 5
9 9 9 9 9
7
9 7 0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
 2 2
5 5

0 0 0

   

2 2 2 2 2 5 2 4
 
0 1 2 3 X 3 3 3 3 7 5 5 5 5 5

D Interlude (2:15)
(w/half-time feel)
girl (Ah)
D5 N.C.(G7)
Gtr. 1
39 * P.M.
10 10 10 10 10
7 7 7 7 7
10 10 10 10 10 10 10
7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
10 10
7 7
10 10
7 7
10 10 10 10
7 7 7 7 7
10
7 0     
7
0
7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
0
7 0
0  5 5 5 5 5 6

*include F# notes (on B string) first time only

N.C.(D)
Gtr. 2 P.M.

  

0
5
0 0 0 0 0
5
0
5
0

0
5
0 0

0
5
0 0 0 0 0
5
0 0 0
5 5
0
5
0
5
  X X X X X

3 X X 3 X 3 3 4

   
Bass 1
  7 9
7
 3 
 
5 X 5 5 5 2 0 2 5 5 5 5 5

3 3 3 4

guitarworld.com 101
TRANSCRIPTIONS

1., 2., 3. 4.

(A) (D) (A)

42 P.M. P.M.

    
7 7
7   7 7
7 
 


P.M. P.M.

 
X 5
X X 5 6 7
 X X X X X X
X X
5 X 5 5 5 5 X 5

    
  

5

5 5 5 5 5

(2:32)
(end half-time feel)
D oct.

Rhy. Fig. 2
      
 7 
44
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

 0 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7


N.C.(D5)
Rhy. Fig. 2a
  
 
  05 0 0 0 0

0
5
0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0
5
0 0 0 0

0
5
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

!  
N.H.
7
 0 !
0

N.C.(D) (E) (G)
Gtrs. 1 and 2 repeat Rhy. Figs. 2 and 2a five times (see bar 44)
Bass 1

     
N.H.
46
!
7
7
7 7
7 7
7 !
7 7
7 7
7 ( 7) 7 7
7 7
7 !
7 ( 7 )
7 7
7 !
7


 G5 
Bass 2
 5 5!  5X5  5555   7 7 7  4 5 5

  
5 5 5 5 5 5 5 7 7 5 5 7 9

(Asus4) (D) (E) (G) (Asus4)

   
N.H.
51
7
7 7
7 !
7 7
7 7
7 7
7
7
7
77
7 7
7 !
7 7
7 7
7 !
7 7
7 7
7 !
7

7
   74  5 5  5 X5  5 5

7 7 7 7 7 7 7


7 5 5 5 5 5 7 7 5 7 7 5 7 7 9 9
5 0 00 0 7

102 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

 “AMERICAN GIRL”

E Outro Guitar Solo (2:57)

(D) (E) (G) (A)
Gtr. 1

 14 14 15 15 14    14 14 15 15 14 
let ring Gtrs. 1 and 2
56
15 15
 14 14 15 15
14
15 15
 14 14 15 15 14 12  14
12

  
Gtr. 3 (elec. w/dist.)

 14 14 15 15 14 
Riff A

15
 14 14 15 15 14
15
 14 14 15 15
14
15
 14 14 14 14 14
15

  
Bass 1
N.H.
    
7 7
 7 7
7 7 7
7 7 !
7 7
7 7
7 7 7
 7
7 7
7 7
7

  
Bass 2
 7 7
 X 
5 5 5
7 7 5 7
7 7 7 7
7 5 7 3
 3 3
5 5
7 7 5 7
7 7 7 7 7
5 5 7
7

(D) (E) (G) (A)

Gtr. 3 plays Riff A three times (see bar 56)

 
Gtr. 1 Gtrs. 1 and 3
60
15
 14 14
15 15
14
15
 14 14 14 14 14
15
 14 14
15 15
14
15
 14 14
15 15
14
12  14
12

   
Bass 1
Bass Fig. 1
N.H.
    
7 7
 7 7
7 7 7
7 7 !
7 7
7 7
7 7 7
 7
7 7
7 7
7

  
 
Bass 2
Bass Fig. 1a
   5 5 5 5  7 7 7 7 7 7

 
5 X 5 5 5 5 7 7 7 7 7 5 7 5 5 5
7 7 7 7 5 7 7

(D) (E)
Basses 1 and 2 repeat Bass Figs. 1 and 1a until fade (see bar 60)
Gtr. 1
w/pick and finger
64
 10 7 8 7 10 7 8 7 10 7 8 7 10 7 8 7 12 9 10 9 12 9 10 9 12 9 10 9 12 9 10 9
 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

(G) (A) Repeat and Fade

66
15 12 14 12 15 12 14 12 15 12 14 12 15 12 14 12 17 14 15 14 17 14 15 14 17 14 15 14 17 14 15 14 
12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

guitarworld.com 103
 TRANSCRIPTIONS

CASTLE ON THE HILL (ACOUSTIC)

Ed Sheeran
OFFICIAL ACOUSTIC SINGLE VERSION, AVAILABLE AS A DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
Words and music by ED SHEERAN and BENJAMIN LEVIN • Transcribed by JEFF PERRIN

D5 G5 Bm7 G/B A7sus4 D/F# A5 Asus4 D Dsus4 Gadd9/B Dsus2

13 2 34 1 23 1 3 1134 1 23 11 113 132 134 1 234 13

A 1st Verse (0:00)

Moderately q = 142
When I was six years old I broke my leg
tasted the sweet perfume of the mountain grass I rolled down
D5 N.C.(D/F#) G5 Bm7 G/B A7sus4
         3 
Acous. Gtr. P.M.
P.M. P.M.

3
1
   0
  2

3 3
 2
0 0
2
0
2
0 0 0

0
0 0

0
0 0
2
0 0
0
0
0 0
0 0 2
2
2 2
2
2

 
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 3 3 3 3 3

I was running from my brother and his friends

I was younger then Take me back to when I
D5 D/F# G5 Bm7 A7sus4
5 P.M.   
P.M.
  
P.M.
  P.M.  
3 3 3 3 3 3 0 0 
2
0 0
2
0
2
0 0
2
0
2 2
0 0 0 0 0
0
0
0 0
0 0
2
0
2 2 2
2
0
2
2
0
2 2
2
2
0 0
0 0
2
2
0 0 0
2
2
2
2 2
2
2
0 0

2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3

B 1st and 2nd Pre-choruses (0:27, 1:40)

(1.) found my heart and broke it here Made friends and lost
(2.) weekend jobs and when we got paid we’d buy cheap spirits
G5 A5 D5
Rhy. Fill 1
9 P.M.   
P.M.
  
P.M.
 
3 3 3 3
0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 2 2 2 2 2
0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
3 3 3 3 3 3

them through the years And I’ve not seen the roaring fields
and drink them straight Me and my friends have not thrown up
G5 Bm7 A5 Asus4
Substititute Rhy. Fill 1 second time
(see bar 10)
12 
P.M.
  P.M.   
P.M.
 
3 3 3 3 3
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2
2 2 0 0 0 0
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

in so long I know I’ve grown But I can’t wait to go home

in so long Oh how we’ve grown But I can’t wait to go home
D5 G5 Asus4
15 P.M.  P.M.   
P.M.
 
0 
3 3
2
0 0
3
2
0
3
2
0
3
2
0
3
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0 0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
0
0
3
0
0
3
2
2

0
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
“CASTLE ON THE HILL”
WORDS AND MUSIC BY ED SHEERAN AND BENJAMIN LEVIN. COPYRIGHT © 2017 SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING (UK) LIMITED AND PLEASE DON’T
FORGET TO PAY ME MUSIC. ALL RIGHTS ON BEHALF OF SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING (UK) LIMITED ADMINISTERED BY
SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, 424 CHURCH STREET, SUITE 1200, NASHVILLE, TN 37219. ALL RIGHTS ON BEHALF OF PLEASE DON’T FORGET
TO PAY ME MUSIC ADMINISTERED BY SONGS OF UNIVERSAL, INC. INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT SECURED ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY
104 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017 PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD LLC
 “CASTLE ON THE HILL”

C Chorus (0:44, 1:56)

I’m on my way Drivin’ at ninety down those
I miss the way you make me feel And it’s real when


D Dsus4 D G5 Gadd9/B A7sus4
19 let3 ring throughout
3 2 3 3 3  3 3  
 3 3 3 3
3
3
3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
 2
0 0 0
2
0 0 0
0
0
0 0
0 0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0 0
0 0
2
0
2 2
2
0
2
2
0
2 2
0
2
2
2
0
0 0
0 0
2
2
0
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
0
2
0
2
2
0
X 0
X 0
3 3 3 3 3 3

country lanes Singing to “Tiny

we watched the sunset over the castle

23 
D

Dsus4

D/F#

G5
  
Gadd9/B
 
2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

2nd time on Chorus, skip ahead to E (bar 37)

Dancer” And
on the hill

26 3
A7sus4
3 3 
D
2 2 2 0 2
Dsus2 D
0
Dsus2

3 3 3  3
2
3 3 3 3
2
3
2
3 3 3 3 3 3
0
3
0
3
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
0
2
0
2
2
0
X
X 0
0
 2
0 0
2
0
2
0 0
2
0
2
0
2
0
2
0
2
0 0
2
0
2
0 0
0
2
0
2
0
2
0
2
0

D 2nd Verse (1:14)

Fifteen years old and smoking hand - rolled cigarettes
Had my first kiss on a Friday night I don’t reckon
D5 D/F# G5 Bm7
29 P.M.   P.M.
   
P.M.
 
 3 3 3 3
 2
0 0
2
0
2
0
2
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 2
2
0
2
2
0
2
0
2
2
0
2
0
0
0
0
2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

Running from the law through the backfields and

that I did it right But I was younger then
Asus4 A7sus4 D5 D/F# G
32 
P.M.
 3 P.M.   P.M. 
3 3 3 3 3 3
2 2 2 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

2nd time, go back to

B 2nd Pre-chorus (bar 9) E (2:23)
getting drunk with my friends
Take me back to when we found We watched the sunset over

3 2 3 3 3 3
Bm7 Asus4 A7sus4 D Dsus4 G5
35 P.M.   
P.M.
 

37
3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
2
0
2 2 2
2
0
2 2
2
0
2
2
0
2
0 0
0 0
2
2
0 0 0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
0
2
2
0 0 0
 2
0 0
2
0
2
0 0 0
0
0
0 0
0 0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

the castle on the hill

F (2:29)

3 3 3
Bm7 A7sus4 Bm7
   P.M.  

39

0
3 3 3 3 3 3
0
2 2 2 X 0 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 2 2 2 0
0 0 0 X 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

guitarworld.com 105
TRANSCRIPTIONS “CASTLE ON THE HILL”


G5 D Dsus4 Asus4 A
42 
P.M.
  2      P.M.


2 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2
0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 2 2 2 2 2 2
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 0
0 0 0 0 0
3 3 3 3 3

G Bridge (2:36)
One friend left to sell clothes and one works down by the coast
One’s already on his second wife and one’s just barely gettin’ by But
Bm7 G5 D5 A5
45 P.M.   P.M.   
P.M.
  
P.M.
 
 3 3 3 3
 2
0
2 2 2
2
0
2 2 2
2
0
2
0
0
0 0
0
0
0 0
0 0
2
0 0
2
0
2
0 0
2
0 2
0 0
2
0
2
0 0
2
0
0
0
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

(play repeat simile)

One had two kids but lives alone One’s brother overdosed
these people raised me and I can’t wait to go home And
Bm7 G5 D5 A5 Asus4
49 
P.M.
  
P.M.
  P.M.     
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 
0
2 2
2
0
2
2
0
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
0 0
0
0
0
0
2
0 2
2
0
2
0 0
2
0
2
2
0 0 0
2
2
0
2
2
0 0
2
2
0
2 0
2 0
0

3 3 3 3 3 3

H Breakdown (3:02)
I’m on my way I still remember these old
D5 D/F# G5 Bm7 A5
P.M.        

53
3
2 2
3 3
0
2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 0

   
2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

country lanes when we did not know the answers And

D5 D/F# G5 Bm7 A7sus4
57 P.M.       3 3 3 
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 0 0 2 2 2 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0

 
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 2
2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

I Outro (3:16)
I miss the way you make me feel And it’s real when
we watched the sunset over the castle on the hill
We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill


D Dsus4 D/F# G5 Gadd9/B A7sus4
61 2 3  3 3 3 3 3 3 3 (play 3 times)

 3
2
3 3 3 3 3
3
3
3
3
3
3 3
3
3 3 3
3
3
3
3 3 3 3 3
3
3
3
3
3
3 3
3
3
3
3 
 2
0
2
0
2
0
2
0
2
0 0
0
2
0
0 0
0 0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0 0
0 0
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
0 0
0 0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2
2
0
2 0 0 
2 0 0
0
2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill

 
D D/F# G5 Bm7 Asus4 D

0 
0
65

0 0 0 


2 2 2





3 3 3 3 3 3
2 2 0 2 2 2 2
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 2
2 3

106 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

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 TRANSCRIPTIONS

LA VILLA STRANGIATO
Rush
As heard on HEMISPHERES
Words and music by GEDDY LEE, ALEX LIFESON and NEIL PEART • Transcribed by ANDY ALEDORT

E5 F Cadd2 C5 A5 D E A A A G G
7 fr 8 fr 5 fr 7 fr 12 fr 11 fr 10 fr 9 fr

1134 134211 21 34 134 11 1444 1444 1114 1444 1444 1444 1444

F E C C B B G C7 F 7 D E G F
8 fr 6 fr 4 fr
( )

1444 1444 1444 ( 1)1 4 4 4 1444 1444 134211 11314 131211 132 231 2 1342

A Intro (0:00)

Freely
N.C.(B7) E5 N.C.(B7) E5 N.C.(B7sus4) (B7) E5
Nylon-stg. acous. (rake (rake
fingerstyle slowly) slowly)
1
5 2 5 2 5 2 0
7 4 5 4 5 5 4 4 0
4 4 4 4
2 2 2
2 2 2
0

N.C.
7
0 0 1 0 0 3 1 0 0
3 3 3 0 3 1 0 0 1 3 1 0
2 0 2 2 2 1 2 4 1
3 3 0 0 3 3 5 5 2
0 3 3 2 0 2 3 3 5 3 2 2 0
3 3 1 0

3 3 5 6 6 3 3 3 3
accel.

(0:26)
Moderately Fast = 152
F
play 1st time only
8
1 1
1 1
2 2
3 3
3 3
1 1

Cadd2
Rhy. Fig. 1
*Gtr. 1 (elec. w/clean tone and chorus)
let ring (play 5 times)
(repeat previous bar)
8 (8)
8
0
0 0
7
8

*doubled

Gtr. plays Rhy. Fig. 1 until B (see bar 8)

Glockenspiel (arr. for gtr.)

10
22 20 20
15 13 13
7 5 5 5 5
5 3
Synth. 1 (arr. for gtr.)

Bass Fig. 1 end Bass Fig. 1

*Bass (w/light dist. and envelope filter)
5 (5)
3 5
3 3 3 3

*Synth. arr. for bass until bar 35.

“LA VILLA STRANGIATO”
MUSIC BY GEDDY LEE, ALEX LIFESON AND NEIL PEART
© 1978 CORE MUSIC PUBLISHING
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
108 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017 USED BY PERMISSION OF ALFRED PUBLISHING, LLC
 “ LA VILLA STRANGIATO”

Synth. 2 plays Fill 1 (see below)

17 Glockenspiel (drums enter) Synth. 1 (Glockenspiel out)
20 (20)15 17
17 17 17
7 5 5 5 5
3 3 3 5
Synth. 1
Bass repeats Bass Fig. 1 (see bar 13) and holds C note until bar 27

24 Synth. 1 (play 7 times)

7
3 3 3 3 3

Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 (see bar 13) and holds C note until bar 29
(1:22)

29 Synth. 1 hold note until B

5 5 5 5 5 5

Bass
5 5 2 5 5
3 3

35 *Bass (play 3 times)

5 3 4 5 3 4 5
2 3 5 3 5
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 (3) 3 3 3 (3) 3 3 3 (3) 3 3 3 (3)

*Part fades in and approaches full volume by bar 42.

(play 6 times)
40
3 4 5 3 4 5 2 3 5 2 3 5
3 5 3 5
3 3 3 (3) 3 3 3 (3) 3 3 3 (3) 3 3 3 (3)

B (2:00) C (2:12, 2:44, 8:24, 8:55)

C5 A5 A5
44 Gtr. 1 (w/dist.) (play 3 times) (play 4 times)
2 0
2 2 2 2 2 0 2 0 0 0
10 10 10 10 10 X X 10 10 10 10 10 10 2 2 2 2 2 0 2 0 0 0
10 10 10 10 10 X X 10 10 10 10 10 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
8 8 8 8 8 X X 8 8 8 8 8 8 0 0 0

(play 4 times)
(play 3 times) grad. slide Bass Fig. 2
57 5 7 5 7 5
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 (3) 9 0 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 7

D (2:25, 2:57, 8:36, 9:08)

D E D A5 N.C.(C)
48
7 9 9 7 2 0
7 9 9 7 2 2 2 2 2 0
7 9 9 7 2 2 2 2 2 0 5 3 7 (7) 5 9 7
5 7 7 7 0 0 0 0

Substitute Bass Fig. 2 every first time (see bar 46)

5 7 5 7 7 7 7 5 7 5
5 7 (7) 5 0 0 0 (0) 0 7 5 3 3 (3) 2 3
3

Fill 1 (0:53)
(hold note
(Cadd2) 1 2 three more
Synth. 2 (arr. for gtr.) bars)
12 12
1312 13 15 13 (13) 1312 13 15 13 13
12 12 12 12 12

guitarworld.com 109
 TRANSCRIPTIONS

(F )
52
11 11
10 9 12 (12) 10 9 11 11 11
12 9 (9) 9 9 (9)
9

4 4 4 4 4 4 4
3 3 2 3 5 (5) 3 2 4 4 4 4
5 2 2 2

4th time, skip ahead to J

(C) (F )
55

5 3 7 (7) 5 9 7 10 9 12 (12) 10 9
12 9
9 (9) 2

4 4 4
3 3 (3) 2 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 5 (5) 3 2 4 4
3 5 2

E (3:16)

(1st and 3rd times) go back to C Half-Time = 72

A5 F
(w/chorus)
58 (play 3 times)
1
2 0 1
2 2 2 2 2 0 2
2 2 2 2 2 0 3
9 0 0 0 0 3
2 9 9 1

(play 3 times)
4 4 4 4 3 4 3 2 5 7 5 7 5 7 5
4 0 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 (0) 7
2 1 (1) 1 1

1 2
A A
62
1 5 5 5
1 2 2 2
2 2 2 2
3 2 2 2
3 0 0 0
1

5 (5) 5 5 5 5

F 1st Guitar Solo (3:39)

N.C.(F) (Am)
(chorus off) grad. release
1
1 grad. release ¼
67
10 (10) 10
7 (7) 7

*off off
*Swell w/vol. control.

Bass Fig. 3 (synth. arr. for bass until bar 87) end Bass Fig. 3

1 1 5 5

110 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

 “ LA VILLA STRANGIATO”

(F) (Am)
71 Gtr. 1
10 8 7
6 8 5 5 10 8
7 5 7 4 4 (4) 7 5
7 (7)

3
**
**Vol. swell on each note.
Bass plays Bass Fig. 3 three times (see bar 67)

(F)
(turn down volume 1 1
74 knob on gtr.)
8 7
10 10 8 10 (10)
5 7 7 (7) 5 7 5 5 7 7 7 5 9 9
7 7

3 3 3

(Am) (F)
grad. release
½
77
7 (7) 7 5 5 7 7 7 7 7
8 8 5 8 5 8 5 10 10 8 8 10
7 5 7 5 7 5 4 5 4 9 9 9
7 (7)

3 3 3 5 3 3

(Am)
80
13 13 12 15 13 12 12 12 12 12 12
15 15 13 12 15 13 (13) 15 12 13
(9) 12 (12) 14 (14) (14)

5 3 3 3 3

(4:27)
(F) (Am)
(turn up volume knob on gtr.)
Gtr. 1 1 1
1 ¼
83
17 (17) 17 12 13 15 12 13 12
15 (15) (15) 15 (15) 15 13 12 13 12 12 15
14 14

Bass 3

3 7
1 1 5

1
(F)
1 ½ A.H. 1 1 1 ½
86
12
15 (15) 15 (15) 15 121312 12
14 14 12 14 (14) 14 14 (14) 14 (14) (14) 5 7 7 (7) (7)
7

pitch: A 3 3 3 3 3

5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

(Am) pick scrapes 1

89
10 12
7 5 4 5 4 (4) 0 4 5 4 2 4 2 4 2 0 2 (2) X 0 0 X 0 10 12 12 (12)
X X

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3

guitarworld.com 111
 TRANSCRIPTIONS

(F)
1 1 ½ 1
91
10 10
12 12 12 12 12 12 12 (12) 12 10 9 10 9 9 9 9 9 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 9
12 12 (12)

3 3 5
Bass Fig. 4

1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 (1) 1

93 (Am)
10 11 10 12 10 13 13 12 10 13 10 12 12 13 12
12 9 10 9 9 9 10 9 10 9 11 12 12 9 11
12 12 10 10 12
12

5 6 3 6 6

5 5 5 5 5 3 5 5 5 5 5 3

1 1
94
12 12 12 12 13 13 13 12 13 15 15 15 13 15 17 17 17 (17) 17 (17)
12 13 13 15 15 13 15 15

6 5 5 5 3
end Bass Fig. 4

5 5 5 5 5 5 3 5 (5) 5 5 5 3

(F)
1½ 1
95
17 17 (17) 17 12 13 12 12
15 15 13 12 12 5 5 5 5 6 8 6 5 5
14 14 (14) (14) 7 7 5 4 5 (5) 4

3 3 3
Bass repeats Bass Fig. 4 (see bar 91)

97 (Am)
5 7 5 7 8 8 7 5 5
5 6 5 5 7 7 8 8 8 8 5 6 5 5 5 5 6 8 5
6 7 7 7 7 0 7 5

6 3 3

98
4 5 4 7 0
7 7 7 5 3 3 3 3 2 0 3 2 3 0 2 3 2
3 3 2 2 0 2 3 3 3
0 8

5 5 6 3
(5:14)
(C/F)
Gtr. 1
99 P.M.

5 5 5 5
7 7 5 7 7 5
8 8 8 8

Bass

1 1 X X 1 1 0 1 1 X X 1 1 0 1 1 X X 1 1 0 1 1 X X 1 1 1

112 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

 “ LA VILLA STRANGIATO”

G (5:49)

end half-time = 152

(Am) N.C.
101 P.M. 1st and 2nd times only (play 3 times) (play 4 times)

7 7 5 7 7 5 7 6 5 3 3
5 8 5 8 5 8 5 8 5 5

(play 3 times) (play 4 times)

5 5 XX5 5 3 5 5 XX5 5 3 5

¼ 1
104 (play 3 times)

9 8 7 5 5 7
7 7
7 6 5 3 3 2 6 7 6 5 3 3
5 (0) 5 5 5 (5)

3
(play 3 times)

7 6 5 6 7 6 5 3 3 7 6 5
5 5 8 5 7 5 5 (5) 5 5 8 5 7

1 ½ ½
107
9 8 7 5 5 4 9 8 7 5 5 7 8 (8) 7 5 5
7 7 7 7 7 7 (7)

7 6 5 7 6 5 6 7 6 5 3 3
5 5 8 5 7 5 5 8 5 7 5 5 3 3

110 A A G G F E
14 13 13 12 12 11 10 9
14 13 13 12 12 11 10 9
14 13 13 12 12 11 10 9
12 11 11 10 10 9 8 7

7 5 8 5 7 5 5 6 5
7 5 7 7 7 0 7 6 5 5 5 5 (5) 5 6 7 6 (6) 5 (5) 4 3 2
6 5 5 6 7 7
5

E D C C B B A G C
(w/chorus)
113
3 3 3
8 7 7 6 6 5 4 3 2 3 3 3 5 5 5
8 7 7 6 6 5 4 3 2 4 4 4 5 5 5
8 7 7 6 6 5 4 3 2 5 5 5 5 5 5
6 5 5 4 4 3 2 1 0 5 5 5 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3

1 0 (0)
4 (4) 3 2 1 0 3 3 3
3 (3) 0 2 3 0 2 3 0 2 3 0 2 3 0 3 0 3

guitarworld.com 113
 TRANSCRIPTIONS

117 A A G G F E D A G
5 14 13 13 12 12 11 10 9 7
5 14 13 13 12 12 11 10 9 7 4 6 4
5 14 13 13 12 12 11 10 9 7 5 7 5
3 12 11 11 10 10 9 8 7 5 5 7 5
3 3 5 3

5 5 5 5 (5) 5 6 7 6 (6) 5 (5) 4 3 2 0

7 5 7 5 7
7 7 3 5 3

N.C. D5 C
121
5
5 5
5 7 7 5
3 5 7 5 3
3 5 3

5 7 0 3 2 0 7 7
3 5 7 5 7 5 5 0 2 4 3 7
3 5

A G C E A
126
3 3 3 3
2 3 3 3 3 5 5 5 5 5 9 9 9 2
2 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 9 9 9 2
2 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 9 9 9 2
0 5 5 5 5 3 3 3 3 3 7 7 7 0
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 7 7 7

7 5 5 5 5 (5)
7 5 7 5 7 5 7 3 3 3 7 7 7 0
7 7

H 2nd Guitar Solo (6:45)

N.C.(C7) (F 7)
Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 2 (see below)
Gtr. 2 (elec. w/dist. and slap-back echo)
1½
½
-1 -1
131 ½ *
7 (7) (7) (7) 7 7 7 7 7
8 8 8 8 8 6 (6) 6
4 4 4 4 4

3 3 3 3
*Dip w/trem. bar while bending string.
Bass
4 4 4 3 4
3 3 3 2 3 3 3 0 1
3 3 3 2 2 0 1 2 2

grad. bend
(C7) 1½ (F 7) pick
¼ ½ 1 1¾ scrapes
135
X 13 13 13 13 13 13 (13) (13) 13 10
X
X X
9 (9) (9)
2 (2)

3 3 3

4 3 4
2 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 5 3 2 3 5 0 1
3 3 3 2 2

Rhy. Fig. 2 (6:45)

C7 F 7
* (play 6 times)
Gtr. 1 P.M. P.M. P.M. P.M.
2 2 2 2 2
5 5 5 5 5 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
5 5 5 5 5 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

*don’t play 1st time

114 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

 “ LA VILLA STRANGIATO”

(C7) 2 pick
138 N.H. scrapes N.H.
3 8 11 8 8 11 (11) (11) (11) 11 5
X 3 3 3 3 3 3 7 7 8 10 8 8 10 8 10 X
0 X X
X

3 pitch: D 5 B

4 4
4 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 5 3
2 2 3 3 3 4

(F 7) (C7)
1½ 1½ hold bend
141 grad. bend
5 5 (5) X
X 11 (11) (11) X X 11 (11) (11)
4 4 4 4 4 4 4

(4) 4 4 X 4 3 4
00 X 1 2 3 3 3 3
2 2 2 2 3 3

(F 7)
½
144
11 10 8 8 11 (11) 18
8 (8) (8) X 10 10 8 8 11 11 11 11 11 11 11
10 11 11
9 (9) X
X

3 3 3

X 4 4 4 3 4
2 3 3 5 3 2 3 5 0 0 0 2
3 2 2 2 2

(C7) (F 7)
147
11
7 7 7 10 9 9
4 5 3 7 5 9 10 9 X 10 9 7 11 11 11 5
9 9
0

4 4 4 3 4
3 2 5 3 5 7 5 3 2 3 5 2 (0)
5 2 2 2 2

(C7) (F 7)
151
2 (2)
7 3
5 3 7 6 7 5 7 8 9 7 10 9 10 10 9 7 7 9 7 4
9 9 4
X 9 X 2

3 3 3

4 4 4 3 4
3 2 5 3 5 7 5 3 2 3 5 3 0 4
5 2 2 2 2

(7:27)
N.C.(A5) (G) (A)
155 Gtr. 1
6
7 5 7
7 5 7
5 3

Bass
6
7 5 7
7 5 7
5 3

guitarworld.com 115
TRANSCRIPTIONS

I (7:32)

. = 92
N.C.(A5) (A) D E B N.C.(A5) (A) D E G
159 Rhy. Fig. 3 end Rhy. Fig. 3
2 2
3 4 3 0
6 2 1 4 6 2 1 0
7 5 7 0 2 4 7 5 7 0 2 0
7 5 0 7 2 2 7 5 0 7 2 X
5 0 5 0 3

6 6
7 5 7 7 5 7
7 5 7 5 4 5 7 5 4 7 5 7 4 5 7 5 4
5 5 7 6 7 5 5 3 2 3

N.C.(A5) (A) D E B N.C.(A5) (A) D E G

Gtr. 1 repeats Rhy. Fig. 3 (see bar 159)
163 Bass
6 6
7 5 7 7 5 7
7 5 7 X5 5 X7 7 7 5 7 X5 5 X7 7
5 5 X7 7 5 3 X3 3

Gtr. 1
A N.C.
167
0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
X X X 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 6 5 3 0 2
3 3 3 5 5

Bass

7 6 0 5 3 0 2
X3 3 X3 3 X3 3 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

= 152
170

6 7 6 5 3 3
5 5 (5)

0 7 6 0 5 3 0 0 7 6 0 5 3 0 2 6 7 6 5 3 3
0 3 5 5 (5)

173

7 6 5 3 3 2
5 5

7 6 5
5 5 8 5 7

116 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

 “ LA VILLA STRANGIATO”

1
176
9 8 7 5 5 7 9 8 7 5 5 4
7 7 7 7
6 7 6 5 3 3
5 5 (5)

6 7 6 5 3 3 7 6 5 7 6 5
5 5 3 3 5 5 8 5 7 5 5 5 8 7 7

(8:17)

1 ½ ¼
C5
179
5 3
9 8 7 5 5 7 8 (8) (8) 7 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3
7 7 7 7 (7) 5 5 5 5 5 5 0
3 3 3 3 3

7 6 5 6 7 6 5 3 3 3 3 3 3
5 5 8 X 7 5 5

go back to C
182 A5
5 3 2 0
5 5 5 5 5 5 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 0
5 5 5 5 5 5 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 0
3 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0

5 7 5 7
3 3 3 (3) 13 0 0 0 (0)

J (9:17)

F N.C.(A5)
185 (play 3 times)

3 3 3 3 3 4 2
4 4 4 4 4 4 2
4 4 4 4 4 4 0 7 6 5 3 3 7 6 5 3 3 (3)
2 2 2 2 2 5 5 5 5

(play 3 times)

7
2 2 (2) 2 5 5

A A G G F E E D C C B B A C
188
14 13 13 12 12 11 10 9 8 7 7 6 6 5 4 3 2 5
14 13 13 12 12 11 10 9 8 7 7 6 6 5 4 3 2 5
14 13 13 12 12 11 10 9 8 7 7 6 6 5 4 3 2 5
12 11 11 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 5 4 4 3 2 1 0 3
3

w/phase shifter
5 5 5 5 (5)
12 11 (11) 10 (10) 9 9 8 7 6 5 (5) 4 (4) 3 2 1 0 6 5 7 5 7 5 7 3
7 7

guitarworld.com 117
 PRO DUCT PRO FILE

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For more info on advertising in the Product Profile section, contact Jonathan Brudner at jbrudner@nbmedia.com or (917)-281-4721!

118 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

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122 GU I TA R WOR L D • A PR I L 2017
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120 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

 the
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To Someone Who
Stutters, It’s Easier
Done Than Said.
For help, write or call toll-free:
www.stutteringhelp.org
1-800-992-9392
THE STUTTERING FOUNDATION ® Publication: NewBay Media L.L.C., 28
P.O. Box 11749 • Memphis, TN 38111-0749
INSTRUCTION
MUSIC THEORY
COURSE FOR GUITAR
Correspondence Course. Certificate issued on
completion. Beginning courses also available.
Course outline and enrollment order form for
this and other home study courses, write to: Jim
Sutton Institute of Guitar, 23014 Quail Shute,
Spring, TX 77389-3944, USA 1-800-621-7669
E-mail: Jim@JSIGuitar.com
Web Site: www.JSIGuitar.com
Guitar World Magazine
Statement of Ownership 2017
Post Office Notice: Statement of Own-
ership, Management and Circulation for
Periodicals class privileges as required
by 39 USC3685: 1. Title of Publication:
Guitar World. 2. Publication No. 1045-
6295. 3. Date of Filing: 10/01/17. 4. Issue
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following December issue. 5. Number of
Issues Published Annually: 13. 6. Annual
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East 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York,
10016. 8/9. Complete Mailing Address
of Headquarters of General Business Of-
fices of Publisher, Editor and Managing
Editor NewBay Media L.L.C., 28 East
28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, 10016;
Publisher: Bill Amstutz - New Bay Me-
dia, LLC, 28 East 28th Street, 12th Floor,
New York, NY 10016; Editor: Jeff Kitts-
New Bay Media, LLC, 28 East 28th
Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10016;
Managing Editor: Brad Angle – New
Bay Media, LLC, 28 East 28th Street, 9th
Floor, New York, NY 10016. 10. Owner:
The Wicks Group of Companies, LLC,
405 Park Avenue, Suite 702, New York,
NY 10022. 11/12. N/A. 13. Publication
Title: Guitar World. 14. Issue Date for Cir-
culation Data below: November 2017. 15.
Extent and Nature of Circulation Given in
This Order: Number of Average Copies
Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months
Followed by Actual Number of Copies
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Sales through Dealers and Carriers, Street
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(3) Free Mailed at Other Classes Through
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the Mail: 242; 0. e. Total Free or Nomi-
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Distribution: 59,544; 57,454. g. Copies
Not Distributed: 57,009; 52,905. h. To-
tal: 116,553; 110,359. i. Percent Paid:
98.35%; 98.55%. 16. Total Circulation
does not include Electronic copies. 17.
Publication of Statement of Ownership is
required and is printed in this issue of this
publication: Holiday 2017. 18. I certify
that all information furnished on this form
is true and complete: Bill Amstutz, Vice
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guitarworld.com 121
 INSIDE THE COOLEST GUITAR STORES IN THE U.S.

WILLCUTT 406 Rosemont Garden

Lexington, KY 40503

GUITARS Established: 1968

willcuttguitars.com

AS ITS 50TH anni- MOST SOUGHT-AFTER INSTRUMENT BY CUSTOMERS

versary approaches,
Willcutt Guitars is the
epitome of a “guitarist’s
guitar store,” featur-
ing an amazing selec-
tion, a knowledgeable
staff, talented techni-
cians and a passionate
owner. It’s hard to not immediately take note of the extraordi-
nary amount of fine boutique guitars in stock, along with a team
that can answer any questions you might have. It’s no wonder
just about every touring guitar player passing through Kentucky
has, at one time or another, wound up on Willcutt’s doorstep.
NUMBER OF INSTRUMENTS CURRENTLY IN STOCK
Bob Willcutt (Owner): We usually have about 4,000 to 5,000
upscale guitars in stock, although it changes daily.
COOLEST INSTRUMENT CURRENTLY IN THE SHOP
They’re all cool; it would be like trying to pick a favorite child. They
all have their attributes.
FAVORITE INSTRUMENT YOU EVER SOLD
A 1954 Fender Telecaster (final assembly by Fender assembly line
worker Gloria Fuentes). We sent it to the Fender Custom Shop to
have exact copies spec’ed from it.
MOST EXPENSIVE INSTRUMENT YOU’VE EVER SOLD
A Martin D-100 Deluxe, list price $114,999—and we sold four of them!
Fender Custom Shop True 62 Stratocaster and Rickenbacker
4003 CB Orangeglo bass.
BIGGEST PET PEEVE AS A SHOP OWNER
Customers who repeatedly return items and never purchase any.
FAVORITE CELEBRITY ENCOUNTER
Eddie Van Halen, Joe Bonamassa, Howard Leese and Jimmie
Vaughan have all been in the shop, which is nice since we’re in
Kentucky and not L.A.!
ONE FACT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WILLCUTT
I, the owner with 50 years experience, or my other luthier with 35
years experience, set up and check each instrument before it leaves
the shop.
MOST COMMON SONG OR RIFF WHEN TRYING GUITARS
“Sweet Child O’ Mine” or “Crazy Train,” but no songs from current
artists!
ADVICE FOR SOMEONE LOOKING TO BUY A GUITAR
Buy the best guitar you can possibly afford. It costs you less in the
long run and inspires you to play your very best.
THE BEST PART ABOUT OWNING A GUITAR SHOP
Getting to experience the world’s best guitars, finding loving homes
for them and then ordering or commissioning more. (And not hav-
ing to wear a tie doing it!)
by Eric Feldman, guitarshoptees.com

122 GU I TA R WOR L D • HOL I DAY 2017

 Found On
Player Grade Vintage: ‘78 Fender Telecaster Deluxe

BUY | SELL | PLAY

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