MASTER CLASS SPECIAL!
ISSUE EXPAND YOUR PLAYING 1 OF 3: WITH STEVE VAI!
GUITAR & BASS TRANSCRIPTIONS M E TA L L I C A
“Spit Out the Bone”
ERIC CLAPTON
“Motherless Children”
BILL HALEY & HIS COMETS
“Rock Around the Clock”
Learn from the RS M A SSTUE E
LINDSEY
IS 1 OF 3!
STEVE STEVE
VAI
TAKE A SEAT ... AND LEARN FROM THE GREAT ONE
AC DC’s
MALCOLM YOUNG 1953–2017
ASKING ALEXANDRIA MORBID ANGEL
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SE Custom 24 Zebrawood
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CON T EN TS VOL. 39 |
NO. 2 |
FEATURES
FEBRUARY 2018
Pull up a chair and learn from a true master, Steve Vai
30 THE STEVE VAI GUITAR METHOD In the first of a three-issue series, the legendary guitar wizard stands at the front of the class and takes you on an unprecedented journey through various philosophies, fundamentals and essential techniques. Now listen up!
48 MALCOLM YOUNG: A TRIBUTE
30
Guitar World mourns the passing of Malcolm Young, the solid-as-a-rock rhythm guitarist and songwriter who served as the unshakable foundation of AC/DC from the very beginning.
58 ASKING ALEXANDRIA Older, wiser and more mature, Asking Alexandria—now reunited with singer Danny Worsnop—put the ugliness of the recent past behind them and look ahead to a future full of good vibes, fun times and ferocious metalcore mayhem.
64 MORBID ANGEL On their ninth studio album, Kingdoms Disdained, the Florida death metal pioneers reteam with vocalist/bassist Steve Tucker and return to the furious hellspawn riffage and demonic blast beats that old-school fans expect.
“Spit Out the Bone” by Metallica
PAGE
92
“Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley & His Comets
PAGE
104 “Motherless Children” by Eric Clapton
PAGE
108
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GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
DEPARTMENTS
12 WOODSHED / MASTHEAD 14 SOUNDING BOARD
Letters, reader art and Defenders of the Faith
17 TUNE-UPS
Corrosion of Conformity, Of Mice & Men, Milligan Vaughan Project, Tracii Guns, Eric Johnson, Lidgett Music
71 SOUNDCHECK
71. EVH 5150 III 50-Watt EL34 Head 74. Jackson Pro Series Soloist SL7 HT 76. Yamaha Pacifica PAC611VFMX 77. KHDK Electronics Ghoul Jr Overdrive 78. New EQ Electro-Harmonix Slammi Plus and Ibanez AVN11 Acoustic Guitar
80 COLUMNS
80. String Theory by Jimmy Brown 82. In Deep by Andy Aledort 84. Mob Rules by Mike Orlando 86. Wood Vibrations by Mike Dawes
88 NOTATION GUIDE 90 PERFORMANCE NOTES 122 TONAL RECALL
We reveal the secrets behind Malcolm Young’s “Thunderstruck” guitar tone.
COV E R P HOT OG R A P H BY LA R RY DI M AR ZI O
L A R RY D I M A R Z I O
TRANSCRIBED
Photographed in the original Martin factory, built in 1859.
A LEGEND REIMAGINED
“We have selected the finest features of the D-28 from both my grandfather’s and my father’s eras. We’ve brought forth this guitar’s rich history and married it with modern innovations.” — Chris Martin IV, Chairman and CEO
martinguitar.com
WOODSHED VOL. 39 |
NO. 2 |
FEBRUARY 2018 EDITORIAL
…WE SALUTE YOU IN LAST MONTH’S WOODSHED, which focused on Tony Iommi and the end of Black Sabbath, I made references to grief and loss, specifically with regard to our heroes—which we have all dealt with quite a bit recently—because, for me, Black Sabbath calling it quits earlier this year felt like a death. That editorial had barely gone off to the printer when we heard the news of Malcolm Young’s passing. Malcolm hadn’t been active for the past few years since he fell ill, and it certainly didn’t slow down AC/DC when it came to touring or putting out new music—but really, does AC/DC exist without Malcolm Young? Not to me. Regardless of who is handling rhythm guitar duties for the band, Malcolm was irreplaceable—the unshakable foundation of the group who let his brother Angus soak up the spotlight while he stayed in the shadows. He was the quiet one for sure, the unsung hero—and the very reason you should always appreciate the ones who hold down the fort. Now, before some of you start writing in and chastising us for not putting Malcolm on the cover, you have to understand that the issue you are holding in your hands has been in the works for many months, and it is the first in a special threeissue series—in other words, the cover stories for this month, next month and the month after are already locked in place, and changing this one at the last minute would have thrown a monkey wrench into our plans for this series. The concept of this three-issue series is simple, but exciting if you typically come to us in the hopes that you’ll wind up a better player. Beginning this month, with Steve Vai leading the way, we’re having the world’s greatest players teach you how to play guitar. Next month it’ll be Joe Satriani’s turn, and in the April issue, John Petrucci will be your guide. By the end of the three issues, you’ll have an incredible collection of techniques, tricks and wisdom that you can start using in your playing right away, regardless of your skill level—and with those three legends as your teachers, we think you’ll be in very good hands. On a side note, I want to make sure you are all aware of the return of our Performance Notes section (see page 90)—which was reinstated after a long absence because so many of you wrote in consistently to request it. Now we want your transcription suggestions. Email us at soundingboard@guitarworld.com, and give us five songs you wish to see transcribed in these pages. I look forward to seeing what you all come up with!
—Jeff Kitts Executive Content Director
EXECUTIVE CONTENT DIRECTOR Jeff Kitts MANAGING EDITOR Damian Fanelli TECH EDITOR Paul Riario ASSOCIATE EDITORS Andy Aledort, Richard Bienstock, Alan di Perna, Chris Gill CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Mike Dawes, Eric Feldman, Randy Har ward, Mike Mettler, Damon Orion, Mike Orlando, Jon Wiederhorn SENIOR VIDEO PRODUCER Mark Nuñez
MUSIC SENIOR MUSIC EDITOR Jimmy Brown MUSIC TRANSCRIPTIONIST Jeff Perrin MUSIC ENGRAVER Patricia Corcoran
ART ART DIRECTOR Mixie von Bormann ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Tamara Lee CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER Alexis Cook
ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR Jackson Maxwell EDITOR Damian Fanelli
PRODUCTION PRODUCTION MANAGER Nicole Schilling
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LIST RENTAL: 914-368-1024, jganis@meritdirect.com REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS: For article reprints and or e-prints, please contact our Reprint Coordinator at Wright’s Reprints, 877-652-5295, or NewBay@wrightsmedia.com GUITAR WORLD (ISSN 1045-6295) is published 13 times a year, monthly plus Holiday issue following December issue, by NewBay Media, LLC, 28 East 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Phone: 212.378.0400. Fax: 917.281.4704. Web Site: www.nbmedia.com. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Newsstand distribution is handled by Curtis Circulation Company. Subscriptions: One-year basic rate (12 issues) US: $14.95. Canada: US$29.95. Foreign: US$49.95. Canadian and foreign orders must be prepaid. Canadian price includes postage and GST #R128220688. PMA #40612608. Subscriptions do not include newsstand specials. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to Guitar World, P.O. Box 2029, Langhorne, PA 19047-9957. Ride-along enclosure in the following edition(s): None, Standard enclosure: None. Returns: Pitney Bowes, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2, Canada. Entire contents copyright 2018, NewBay Media L.L.C. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. NewBay Media L.L.C. is not affiliated with the companies or products covered in Guitar World. Reproduction on the Internet of the articles and pictures in this magazine is illegal without the prior written consent of Guitar World. Products named in the pages of Guitar World are trademarks of their respective companies. PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. SUBSCRIBER CUSTOMER SERVICE: Guitar World Magazine Customer Care, P.O. Box 2029, Langhorne, PA 19047-9957. Online: www.guitarworld.com/customerservice. Phone: 1-800-456-6441. Email guitarworldmag@icnfull.com. BACK ISSUES: www.guitarworld.com/store REPRINTS: NewBay Media, LLC, 28 East 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Phone: 212.378.0414
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I L L U S T R AT I O N BY J O E L K I M M E L
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SOUNDI NG BOARD Got something you want to say? EMAIL US AT: Soundingboard@GuitarWorld.com
behind and just focus on the positive side of music rather than all the negative political diatribes. Now, on the subject of bands like Venom, if you dislike their subject matter, take it with a grain of salt and move on. After all, the varied content of the magazine isn’t going to please everyone all of the time. I have read and enjoyed Guitar World for many years, but let’s keep the politics in check and not let it become the focus of attention.
structured two-hour guitar lesson. One of the true highlights of my life, jamming with one of my guitar heroes: priceless.
—Rob Kobrzynski
—John Meikle
Petty Gripe I enjoyed your Tom Petty tribute in the Holiday 2017 issue—it covered some interesting stuff, although I think it overlooked Tom’s early days when he first started taking lessons with Don Felder. Tom grew up in an area relative to where Felder, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers Band and whole host of others lived. I think the story of his childhood and his teenage years is pretty interesting, especially with regard to the Florida music scene that existed between Gainesville and Jacksonville.
—Howard Lovitz
Let the Music Do the Talking As I read the Sounding Board of the December 2017 issue, I had a thought: Can we just stick to the music, please? We are surrounded with all the social media platforms, 24-hour news channels, newspapers, etc., telling us that the end of the world is nigh due to this world leader or that world leader, and that they’re all Nazis or communists. That’s all fine, but I like to open Guitar World each month and leave all that nonsense
To all those people who write in to say that political views they disagree with should not be printed in Guitar World: None of you are even the slightest bit rock and roll! Please stop acting like it; then I won’t have to read your obnoxious idiot views in Guitar World anymore.
—Matthew Goodings
Full Monti Thank you for the behind-thescenes look at Alter Bridge’s performance at London’s O2 Arena. Particularly big thanks to Mark Tremonti for walking us through his snapshots of the band’s preparation, PRS factory prototype talk, game planning during soundchecks, gear breakdowns, various tunings corresponding to each song and so on. These intimate moments provide us fans with what it might feel like tagging along backstage with our favorite bands. Speaking of the Tremonster, I’ve actually had the fortune of meeting and conversing with Mark a few times; I even had a private guitar lesson with him. During my “I’m not worthy moment” guitar lesson, I learned that Mark was a down-toearth super nice guy, passionate about his professional craft while providing me an intuitive and
Unfamiliar Ring I wonder if you might be able to clarify something with respect to your otherwise excellent transcriptions and lessons. In many you will have some chords and/or double stops ringed, while others are not. Could you explain what the difference between them is? I’ve studied some of the lesson videos and audio tracks, but I can’t hear a discernible difference between those that have rings around them and those that don’t. I would therefore really appreciate if you could enlighten me as to what this means! Also, would you consider periodically publishing a tablature glossary in the magazine, or at least making one available online? I’m sure many guitarists of all skill levels would find it extremely useful.
right of a tab number indicates a 50 percent increase in the note’s duration. So, a dotted half note is held for three beats. A diminution dot placed directly above a tab number or stack of tab numbers indicates a 50 percent reduction in that note’s or chord’s duration (what’s known as staccato articulation). A broken (dashed) line arcing, like a rainbow, from one tab number to the same number appearing next to it, indicates a tie. Hold the first note or chord for the combined durations of both rhythmic values. The tied note or chord is additionally enclosed in parentheses, unless there’s a ring. For the complete Notation Guide, see page 88 of this issue.
Ink Spot I’ve been a massive Zeppelin fan since I was 11, and to me, this image of Jimmy Page is the very definition of iconic. It was done by Juan “Papito” López at Underskin Tattoo Corp. in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.
—Noel Dávila
—Mark Bailey Mark, Guitar World’s notation format borrows elements from standard sheet music. A ring around a tab number or stack of tab numbers indicates a whole note (held for four beats). If there’s a stem (vertical line) attached to the bottom of the ring, that indicates a half note (held for only two beats). An augmentation dot appearing to the
GOT A TATTOO of your favorite band or guitarist you want to share with us? Send a photo of your ink to soundingboard@guitarworld. com and maybe we’ll print it or post it on our Facebook page!
SEND LETTERS TO: The Sounding Board, Guitar World, 28 East 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016, or email us at Soundingboard@guitarworld.com. All subscription queries must be emailed to guitarworld@pcspublink.com. Please do not email the Sounding Board with subscription matters.
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GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
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! K A RL SA N D E RS B Y FRANCOIS RUEL
DEFENDERS
MALCO L M YO U N G B Y R E A N N A VA N C E
of the Faith
Joe Ferguson AGE 44 HOMETOWN Martin, TN GUITARS 2003 Gibson Les Paul Custom, 2012 Gibson Les Paul Studio, 1989 Charvel Model 4, Taylor 110ce, EKO vintage 12-string acoustic, Ovation Celebrity acoustic SONGS I HAVE BEEN PLAYING Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz, Diary of a Madman and Tribute, White Lion’s Pride, Eric Johnson “Cliffs of Dover,” Living Colour “Cult of Personality” GEAR I MOST WANT A case for my Ovation Celebrity, a real python guitar strap like Randy Rhoads had on his Les Paul, and a Jackson Randy Rhoads custom Flying V in the original colors
Gustavo López AGE 39 HOMETOWN Mexico City, Mexico GUITARS Fender Custom Shop Nocaster relic, Fender Custom Shop ’64 Strat, Gibson 2015 Les Paul Deluxe, 1968 Gibson SG with Lyre Vibrola SONGS I HAVE BEEN PLAYING Lynyrd Skynyrd “Free Bird,” Pink Floyd “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” King Crimson “21st Century Schizoid Man” GEAR I MOST WANT Gibson EDS-1275, Gibson Les Paul 1959 R9
Matt Brudniewicz AGE 28 HOMETOWN Elmwood Park, IL GUITAR ESP Mirage, Guild D-30, Ibanez Jem 777VBK, PRS Custom 24 SONGS I HAVE BEEN PLAYING Original songs from my band, Saint Tragedy, and the Who “Behind Blue Eyes” GEAR I MOST WANT Bogner Uberschall amp, ESP LTD Kirk Hammett Ouija Natural guitar
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
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TUNE-UPS OF MICE & MEN
18
MILLIGAN VAUGHAN PROJECT
20
DEAR GUITAR HERO: TRACII GUNS
ERIC JOHNSON
22
26
SHOP TALK: LIDGETT MUSIC
28
tktktktktkt (from left) Reed Mullin, Woody Weatherman, Pepper Keenan and Mike Dean with a vintage Dodge Challenger
Corrosion of Conformity STILL A DRIVING, HEAVY METAL POWERHOUSE AFTER 35 YEARS, NORTH CAROLINA GRIME-METAL LEGENDS CORROSION OF CONFORMITY RETURN WITH THE PEPPER KEENAN–LED NO CROSS NO CROWN.
DEAN KARR
By Richard Bienstock
“WE KNEW EVENTUALLY it would happen—it was just a matter of when the time was right,” says Corrosion of Conformity guitarist Woody Weatherman about reuniting with singer and guitarist Pepper Keenan. “And I guess the time was right now.” For fans of the band, that time has been a long time coming. Corrosion of Conformity began life in North Carolina more
than 30 years ago, and spent their first few years building a name for themselves as one of the most ferocious units on the hardcore punk scene. And while members came and went around the core trio of Weatherman, bassist and singer Mike Dean and drummer Reed Mullin, the band had their greatest success in the early and mid Nineties when they were fronted by Keenan and were churning out sludgy,
Sabbathy, southern-tinged anthems like “Albatross” and “Drowning in a Daydream.” Following 2005’s excellent In the Arms of God, however, things went sideways. “We made a slammin’ record, and then our label [Sanctuary] just kind of fell apart and left us hanging,” Keenan says. “I moved back to New Orleans, and then Hurricane Katrina hit and tore a bunch of shit up, and I had to get my life together down there and rebuild.” COC went on a hiatus, and in time, Keenan began focusing primarily on his other project, the New Orleans–based, Phil Anselmo–led sludge-metal supergroup, Down (when asked about the current status of that band, Keenan says guitarworld.com guitarworld.com 17
1
NEWS + NOTES WHAT'S ON MY
PLAYLIST
PHILFROMMANANSALA OF MICE & MEN 1
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GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
In the Arms of God—let’s have that in our minds as our starting point and see where it leads us,” Weatherman adds. “And it worked out good because the new album doesn’t really sound like any of our other albums, but there are elements of all of ’em kinda mixed up in there. There’s some juggernaut, thumpin’ kind of stuff, there’s a couple of rockers, there’s some of the segues we like to do. And there’s a lot of guitar candy on this record. We always have a good time doing that shit.” Indeed, Keenan and Weatherman play plenty of guitar on the record, though they kept their setups fairly stripped down in the studio. “I just used an Orange head and an Orange cabinet, and Woody used his same old Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifiers,” Keenan says. “And we did the entire record with one ESP each. They’re both customs, the same ones we’ve been playing since we toured with Metallica back in the day. They’re just beaten to hell. But it doesn’t really matter, you know?” They’ll be taking those guitars back out on the road for plenty of touring with COC in 2018, first with Black Label Society and then continuing on throughout the year. “I hope the four of us keep on rollin’,” Weatherman says. “We’re having a good time and we’re loving playing all this material.” Keenan concurs. “As long as it still means something and still has legs, we’ll keep doing it. As for how far it goes, who knows? I don’t have a crystal ball. But I think we still have a lot to say and play, so we’re just gonna keep doin’ our thing.”
2 “Through Struggle” As I Lay Dying “Nick Hipa and Phil Sgrosso are two of my favorite guitar players, and their riffs fueled my teenage years. Those riffs will always have a special place in my heart.”
3 “Guerilla Radio” Rage Against the Machine “Tom Morello’s playing style is truly one of a kind; he showed me that there are no limits with any sort of effects and that some of the simplest riffs are some of the grooviest.”
4 “Into the Mirror” Minus the Bear “I’ve always been blown away by how awesome the guitar players in this band are—multiple loop stations going on and so many effects.”
5 “Hos Down” Jason Richardson “He is one of the best up-and-coming guitarists around!” OF MICE & MEN’S NEW ALBUM, DEFY, WILL BE RELEASED JANUARY 19 VIA RISE RECORDS.
P H I L M A N A N S A L A : TO M B A R N E S
that he’s “spoken with the other guys a couple of times, but everyone’s just busy at the moment”). The rest of COC, meanwhile, eventually continued on, returning to their mid-Eighties threepiece configuration. But, Keenan says, when it came to Corrosion of Conformity, “I knew the book wasn’t done yet in the grand scheme of things.” And indeed, in 2015 Keenan got together with the band and they did a short run of live dates in Europe. “We thought maybe we’ll go out and do three or four shows and see what happens,” Weatherman says, then laughs. “And the next thing you know, it’s two years later!” Now, not only is Keenan firmly back in place in Corrosion of Conformity, but the band also has a new label, Nuclear Blast, and a new studio album, No Cross No Crown. From the thundering sludge-doom of “The Luddite,” to the amped-up biker metal of “Cast the First Stone,” to the heavy southern-boogie blues of “Wolf Named Crow,” No Cross No Crown in many ways picks up right where the foursome left off a dozen years ago. But there are also some curveballs scattered throughout the track list, such as a handful of short musical interludes and the title cut itself, a droning, atmospheric composition adorned with a gothic-y choir in the background. “The album goes in so many damn different directions,” Keenan says. “It stretches out there, and that’s kinda the point.” “When we went into the studio, our thought was, The last thing we did was
Woody Weatherman
C O R R O S I O N O F C O N F O M I T Y: D E A N K A R R
Pepper Keenan
“Enter Sandman” Metallica “It’s the first song I learned on guitar. That riff will never leave my head.”
TOSIN ABASI Shreds 8 strings. Every single one is NYXL.
NEWS + NOTES
Tyrone Vaughan in the studio with a 1995 Fender Stratocaster and a Category 5 amp
Milligan Vaughan Project SON OF JIMMIE, NEPHEW OF STEVIE RAY—TYRONE VAUGHAN IS HERE TO CARRY ON THE GREAT AUSTIN BLUES TRADITION SET FORTH BY HIS FAMILY.
FROM A BLUES FAN’S point of view, Tyrone Vaughan’s childhood was incredible. His uncle, Stevie Ray Vaughan, gave him a guitar when he was seven. His dad, Fabulous Thunderbirds co-founder Jimmie Vaughan, gave him lessons. His mom took him to see Albert Collins, Hound Dog Taylor and Freddie King. Oh yeah, and Muddy Waters gave him a harmonica. So it’s no surprise that Vaughan, 44, is committed to the genre that has played a massive role in his family’s history and legacy. The Milligan Vaughan Project, his new band with singer Malford Milligan (Storyville), just unleashed their debut album, MVP. Its 11 tracks were recorded in Austin, Vaughan’s hometown. “Ultimately, we’re a band that plays great blues,” Vaughan says. “If we aren’t playing a I-IV-V, we’re playing rock that’s blues based. I approach my solos from a blues standpoint, and Malford’s vocals are blues natured. Our fan base and circuit is the blues scene, which is alive and well from what I’ve seen.” MVP includes original material by Milligan, Vaughan and producer David Grissom—including album highlights “Soul Satisfaction” and “Little Bit of Heaven”—plus Rev. James Cleveland’s “Two Wings,” “Palace of the King” (Freddie King’s signature tune) and Buddy Guy’s “Leave My Girl Alone,” which Stevie Ray covered on 1989’s In Step. “[Influence wise] I loved Buddy first, then B.B., Freddie and Albert King,” says Vaughan, who caught the guitar bug when he was 19. “Then there was Otis Rush, Albert Collins, Jim Hendrix, T-Bone Walker, Billy Gibbons, Johnny Watson and Eddie Hazel. I loved blues as a kid, I always heard it playing…but the idea that Stevie really wanted me to play was very inspiring.”
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GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
Vaughan’s main ax is a custom 1995 Fender Strat Jimmie gave him around 20 years ago. “It’s to my dad’s specs and has actual car paint, [a finish called] Cream Dream, jumbo frets and a custom bridge by Killer Guitar Components. I get an incredible feel and sound with this guitar.” Besides Strats, Jimmie has supplied Tyrone with priceless playing tips. “He really showed me how to shuffle and to be steady. He also said to have a beginning, middle and end to your solos.”
Despite his last name, Vaughan says MVP’s major challenge is to be recognized as a group. “It’s a matter of covering as much ground and playing for as many people as possible, but it takes time. With our names or not, we have to pay our dues and do our time on the circuit. But it’s an honor to carry on the name and tradition. I feel like it’s in my blood and I have a blast plugging in every night. The comparisons are always there, good and bad, but I have to play for my own well-being and satisfaction.”
S TA N M A R T I N
By Damian Fanelli
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Tracii Guns rocks a Gibson Les Paul
TKTKTKT
H E AT H E R WA R R E N
DEAR GUITAR HERO
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
TRACII GUNS
He was instrumental in the formation of Guns N’ Roses and had plenty of success of his own as the guitarist in L.A. Guns, but what Guitar World readers really want to know is… Interview by Richard Bienstock
WAS IT WEIRD FOR YOU WHEN L.A. GUNS WERE OUT TOURING AND YOU WEREN’T IN IT? THE BAND IS NAMED AFTER YOU! —LIAM HENDRICKSON No weirder than Guns N’ Roses, you know? [laughs] But, I mean, when you create stuff and you walk away from it, you don’t want it to fail. Because then your legacy is a bunch of failures. The thing that bothered me the most in that time, and the reason that I ultimately had to get away from it, was that there was poison running the business and running the perception of the band right into the ground. Out of desperation for cash. I just watched it go down, down, down. But, yeah, I felt weird about it!
It’s so awesome that you and singer Phil Lewis are back together in L.A. Guns. What led to the reunion? —Tim Florian Phil and I, we never had a serious issue—there was other poison in the water that kind of drove a wedge between us. That’s the best way to describe it. And Phil didn’t really recognize what the wedge was until way later. But we started talking again in 2013, and then a few years later, at the end of 2015, we were asked to do a set together for the 25th anniversary of the Hard Rock Café in Las Vegas. And he had come up onstage with me right before that—I had done a Toys for Tots benefit and he came up unexpectedly and we did some stuff. At that point I thought, This sounds like L.A. Guns. This is where it’s at. But I didn’t want to push it, because I really wasn’t interested. But then when we did the Hard Rock thing, it was beyond packed. It was insane. So there was a lot of ego massaging going on, and we got some really good reviews. And then offers started coming in to do real shows. Eventually I had record companies calling me: “Hey, now you and Phil
should do a record!” And it was like, “Hold on, here…” And Phil was in an odd position because he was still in L.A. Guns, the version at the time. But I sent him some music and he called me back and he goes, “Oh, wow. Okay. I see what you’re talking about…” And that was when it happened. We said, “Hey, this is real. Let’s take one of these deals and let’s make a record.” And so Phil let the other guys know, “Hey, I’m outta here. I’m going to go do L.A. Guns the right way.” And I suggested he take [guitarist] Michael Grant, who was filling in for me in that band and who’s just an amazing spirit, with him. And that’s how we did it. It was seamless, painless, and definitely the right thing to do. It’s a very happy family now. The new record, The Missing Peace, is killer. How did it come together? —Mike Holloway Well, the greatest thing about not doing new L.A. Guns music for over 10 years was being able to look at what L.A. Guns really is, musically. And the strongest element of L.A. Guns is that sleaze/ hair metal kind of dark thing that
we did. Taking some elements of punk rock and mixing them with classic rock and speeding all that shit up. Then we also had great success with songs like “Over the Edge,” that are more kind of epic in feel. So songs on the new record like “It’s All the Same to Me” and “Speed,” those are classic L.A. Guns. “Speed” was actually something I had in a folder on my computer called “Bad Eighties Riff.” And I thought, What’s “Bad Eighties Riff”? And I opened it up and I went, “Wow, this is ‘Badass Eighties Riff’!” But, you know, at the time I wrote it I was probably just nauseated by the whole situation and put it away. But I’m glad I listened to it, because “Speed” is a damn fine representation of L.A. Guns. And then Michael [Grant] wrote “Don’t Bring a Knife to a Gunfight” and “The Devil Made Me Do It,” and Johnny [Martin, bass] wrote the music for “Baby Gotta Fever,” which is a perfect representation of that L.A. Guns snotty riff-rock thing. Then “Kill It or Die,” “A Drop of Bleach,” they’re kind of like Hollywood Vampires– era L.A. Guns. And at the end of the record there’s some really big classical-influenced pieces of mu-
sic that I actually originally wrote for Quiet Riot in 2005. So I just put everything together and we took it from there. You helped form Guns N’ Roses in the mid Eighties. How did you first meet Axl Rose? —Jordana Colvan I first met Axl from Izzy [Stradlin]. Izzy always told me, “Yeah, you know, I have this buddy in Indiana. He can really sing. I’m gonna bring him out here.” Izzy was living at my mom’s house. I was about 16 or 17 and he was about 19 or 20. And so eventually Axl came out and they put together, I think it was probably Hollywood Rose. And then L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose and Poison did a show—our first show—together at Madame Wong’s West. Poison played upstairs in the big room and L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose played in the small room downstairs and that was really the first day I heard Axl sing. It was at soundcheck. And I was like, “Holy shit!” He was incredible. We became friends after that, and within the next six months he ended up singing for L.A. Guns. And we eventually changed that into Guns N’ Roses. I was in that version of Guns N’ Roses for about eight months and then I took off to do L.A. Guns again. What was your main guitar setup on the new record? —Anders Roil The new record is pretty specific. The brass tacks in the amplification for the heavy stuff was a Bugera 1960, which is basically a plexi clone, into a Marshall basketweave cab with 30-watt Greenbacks. And the amp was set up basically clean—big and loud and not much distortion. Then, for most of the rhythm tracks, particularly the doubled rhythm tracks, I used Mooer pedals. I had guitarworld.com guitarworld.com 23
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DEAR GUITAR HERO 10 of their preamps, and the one I ended up using for the rhythm was something called a UK Gold, which is basically like a JCM 900 preamp. For lead tracks I used a Mooer that was like a 5150 preamp, and for the clean stuff I had a 1974 Fender Super. And then a final setup was a Bugera BC-30. And the main guitar I used for everything wasn’t even my own guitar—my tech has a really nice Gibson R9 with Bare Knuckle The Mule pickups in it that sounded great. Onstage I also have two Chubtone California Classics, one with a DiMarzio Super Distortion and one with a PAF 59. And I use Apex strings. Recently, I’ve also been working on some signature pieces of gear. I’m doing a guitar with Billy Rowe from Rock N Roll Relics that’s going to be a smaller Les Paul shape, but it’ll have DiMarzio PAFs in it and be relic’d to hell. And then I’m working with Adam at FU-Tone on an Eighties-style hot-rod guitar with a star body and
a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge and a PAF 59 in the neck. Finally, Bobby Smith from RJS Amplification, he and I are doing a 100-watt handwired amp that will have that high-gain Marshall sound but without losing definition. Very similar to that early EVH tone. And with all of this stuff, we’re trying to keep it consumer friendly and affordable. I remember for a brief moment in the Nineties you had Michael Starr of Steel Panther singing for L.A. Guns. What was that like? —Joe Reed That was one of my favorite eras of L.A. Guns. It was like L.A. Halen, you know? [laughs] Because at the time he was doing [Van Halen tribute act] Atomic Punks. He was playing at FM Station a lot, and one night he invited me up. We did “Atomic Punk,” I think. And we hit it off. And that was an interesting time for L.A. Guns. The American
Hardcore era of the band had ended and I was tired of having no women in the audience. So I said, “Hey, what about singing for L.A. Guns?” And he was like, “I’d love to!” So we did an EP together, which is called Wasted, and the live experience was one of the best because the way he connects with an audience is like nothing I’ve ever been involved with. We did it for about a year, a year and a half. And when it ended I was really heartbroken. I was like, ‘Ah, man, I was having such a good time…” And he was like, “Me, too!” And within a year or a year and a half after that he had Metal Shop, and that was the beginning of Steel Panther.
of?
What’s the best tour you’ve ever been a part
on their comeback. And there was a lot of camaraderie. But the absolute best was two tours we did with AC/DC. They were so good to us. We had full lights, full P.A., full stage. We were in New York and we were playing the Meadowlands, and [former L.A. Guns co-guitarist] Mick Cripps had gotten married. And Angus let him use his limousine for a week. And they were so responsible for our record sales on our first album. I think we sold exactly as many records that first year as the amount of people we played to just on that tour alone. That gave us a really positive outlook on playing rock and roll. Of course, it’s never been that great again. But it was awesome!
—Graham Kelly I had a lot of fun on our very first tour, with Cheap Trick. They had just put “The Flame” out and were
L.A. Guns in 1988 (from left): Kelly Nickels, Steve Riley, Mick Cripps, Phil Lewis (on motorcycle) and Tracii Guns
WHAT WAS YOUR WORST ONSTAGE MISHAP? Oh, man. I knocked myself out once at a place called Spit, on Long Island. The monitors were hung from the ceiling, about five feet above the drum riser. And the very last note of “Rip and Tear,” I think it was, I jumped off the drum riser and hit my head on the thing and knocked myself out. I woke up upstairs with everybody standing over me. I thought I was having a nightmare. So that was a crappy night. I had a headache for a long time after that!
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GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
N E I L Z LO Z O W E R / AT L A S I C O N S .C O M
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Eric Johnson ON HIS LATEST TOUR, THE AUSTIN, TEXAS, VIRTUOSO REVISITS HIS BEST-LOVED WORK, AH VIA MUSICOM. By Damon Orion
YOU’D THINK ERIC JOHNSON would look back fondly on the making of his breakthrough album, 1990’s Ah Via Musicom. Melodic, stylistically diverse and filled with stunning displays of instrumental agility, this self-produced rock guitar classic earned Platinum sales and yielded three Top 10 Mainstream Rock chart singles, including Johnson’s signature tune, the Grammy-winning “Cliffs of Dover.” Yet when he describes the year and a half he spent crafting Musicom, the Austin, Texas, guitarist/ vocalist sounds far from nostalgic. “I really was going for broke, and it kind of wore me out making that record,” he recalls. “I would record a song completely, overdub it and get it all finished,
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GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
and then I’d listen to it and go, ‘That’s not it!’ And then I’d just tear it down and start again.” Much of Johnson’s struggle centered on his pursuit of the perfect tone. “I’ve always had a dream of the electric guitar sounding elegant,” he explains. “I tktktktkt thought, Wouldn’t it be cool to get Wes Montgomery’s tone, but through a Marshall on 10? It’s kind of like an antonym: ‘I want a pure distortion.’ That’s kind of like saying, ‘I want dry water.’ But it can be approximated a little bit.” Nearly three decades since Musicom’s release, Johnson is taking to the road to play the album live in its entirety. During the first several months of 2018, he will be joined onstage by the original rhythm
section from the record: drummer Tommy Taylor and bassist Kyle Brock, the latter of whom he hasn’t performed with in about 20 years. As well as coinciding with the release of the new Eric Johnson Signature Thinline Strat, the Ah Via Musicom 2018 Tour promotes Johnson’s new Collage album, which places his latest originals alongside covers of songs by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder and the Beatles. In a willful attempt to break old habits, the guitarist cut a good portion of Collage live, not always going back to correct mistakes. “It’s part of my therapy: I’m forcing myself to leave stuff in that I normally wouldn’t,” he chuckles. “I can listen to some of the records that I’ve made where I just beat ’em to death, and I paid a high price for it: ‘Okay, you finally got it, but there’s not much life force in it anymore; it’s kind of become like a mannequin or something.’ The more I let things go, the more I retain the life force.”
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SHOP TALK
LIDGETT MUSIC
150 W. Broadway, Council Bluffs, Iowa 51503 Established: 1988 lidgettmusic.com
LOCATED IN THE historic 100 block of Council Bluffs, Iowa, Lidgett Music has been serving up great guitars and gear for the past 30 years. The shop’s location has always played a significant role in the area’s musical history dating back to the days when Waylon Jennings and George Jones recorded there for Safari Records. Recently remodeled, Lidgett boasts an amazing collection of curated brands that will truly amaze guitar players of all levels. NUMBER OF INSTRUMENTS CURRENTLY IN STOCK Sean Lidgett (Owner) We have roughly 600 instruments in stock. COOLEST INSTRUMENT CURRENTLY IN THE SHOP The cleanest 1957 Les Paul we’ve ever come across. There was no checking or wear on it at all. It was so clean that it made us second-guess if it was a reissue the next day. FAVORITE INSTRUMENT YOU EVER SOLD A 1965 Fender Jazz Bass (it’s hidden here in the shop). MOST EXPENSIVE INSTRUMENT YOU’VE EVER SOLD A 1957 Fender Stratocaster. MOST SOUGHT-AFTER INSTRUMENT BY CUSTOMERS Anything built by John Suhr right now is in big demand. He is really building incredible guitars, amps and pedals at an unbelievable price point. BIGGEST PET PEEVE AS A SHOP OWNER Big box/retail chains have made the industry less personal and
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GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
more about giving a certain discount or a percentage off. Guitars should be more about the instrument being the right one for the player at their budget. ONE FACT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT LIDGETT MUSIC With just the two of us here for the last almost 30 years, you can have a much more personal experience in the store and online. STRANGEST REQUEST FROM A CUSTOMER We had a customer leave a vintage Martin D28-12 for a setup when she purchased a McPherson from us. Five years later she called and asked if we still had her guitar, to which we replied, “of course!” We told her we would make sure there were fresh strings and the setup was still good after storing it for so long—and seven years later, it’s still here! MOST COMMON SONG OR RIFF WHEN TRYING GUITARS “Blackbird” by the Beatles continues to be very popular, especially when picking up a perfectly setup acoustic. THE ONE PIECE OF GEAR EVERY PLAYER SHOULD HAVE You must take care of your guitar! Invest in a humidifier, especially if you live in the Midwest. ADVICE FOR SOMEONE LOOKING TO BUY A GUITAR If you don’t love a guitar or bass in the first few minutes of playing it, you more than likely won’t keep it. BEST PART ABOUT OWNING A GUITAR SHOP Meeting so many great and interesting people, and getting to see so many great and interesting guitars!
by Eric Feldman, guitarshoptees.com
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IN THE FIRST OF A SPECIAL THREE-ISSUE SERIES, THE LEGENDARY GUITAR WIZARD STANDS AT THE FRONT OF THE CLASS AND TAKES YOU ON AN UNPRECEDENTED JOURNEY THROUGH VARIOUS PHILOSOPHIES, FUNDAMENTALS AND ESSENTIAL TECHNIQUES TO HELP YOU EXPAND YOUR GUITAR PLAYING. NOW LISTEN UP! ST EV E
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onto the guitar in different ways. A lot of it might have to do with who you are hanging out with, or if you have a brother or sister that plays the instrument, or you might have seen someone playing it. There are so many different styles of music to play and to be interested in. First and foremost, I think one’s attraction to the instrument needs to be very organic. Perhaps your goal is to be a worldclass virtuoso, or maybe you just want to play some songs. The guitar has so many dimensions to it. There are two “levels” that you may want to consider looking at, which, to me, need to be in balance—this is true in the life of any musician. One is the technical side, which includes your tone, the way you touch the instrument, your facility, your intonation and your “language,” meaning the way you communicate your connection with the instrument. That takes a certain amount of practice, study and focus. The deeper dimension of playing an instrument involves connecting with the musical voice inside of you and developing a way to let it seamlessly and effortlessly flow out of you. Where the balance sits between these two things is different for different people. Some players need a lot of technique to get their point across—like me, for instance. I was always attracted to the idea of being able to play relatively effortlessly; it was just a feeling that I had before I even started playing. But I was also very interested in EOPLE ARE TURNED
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the academics: technique, music theory and that level of musical study. Two levels: the music that is inside of you and your unique musical voice; and the mechanics of getting it out. Musicians have to find the balance that works best for them. What I often see in young people is some sense of confusion and frustration, often because they are told how much they “need” to know in order to play their instrument. To me, much of this is unnecessary. You don’t really need to know much at all. It should be based on what you are interested in. The most important thing in the career of any musician is the ability to listen. We will get into a few ways in which one can address the ability to listen, and to “hear” music in the most effective ways. I am sometimes reluctant to give direction, because each of us has the potential to have a very unique sound, touch and technique on the instrument. Sometimes, too much
direction will go against the grain of one’s natural inclinations. That said, there are a handful of things that I can point out to players who have just picked up the instrument but do not yet know the function of it or how they are going to learn to be creative with it. If you were to prioritize, the first thing is to decide what kind of music you’d like to play. Anything is fine. There are no rules in that regard: you may want to play like another guitarist, or you may want to find your own unique voice, or you may just want to play simple songs. Whatever your penchant is, it’s fine. The next step is to figure out how to play a song that’s in line with those criteria. One of the first songs I ever learned to play was this (FIGURE 1), which is built around simple open chords. Once I got serious about the guitar, my approach, my method for learning, was really intense. That was the approach I needed to take, but that doesn’t mean it would be the best approach for everyone. I’d play guitar all day and make up lists of what to work on, such as three hours of scales. Picking up the guitar and simply playing a riff is a great way to immediately feel like you’re accomplishing something. For me, it was riffs like Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” or Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker.” Try to get a song going, because it feels good. I remember the first time I played the opening lick to Zeppelin’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” and I thought, I’m playing music! It’s exciting!
guitarworld.com guitarworld.com 31
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F I G U R E 11 FIGURE
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FFIGURE IGURE 3
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FFIGURE I G U R E 44
1 2 3 4
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fingering: 1 2 3 4 2 3 4 1 3 4 1 2 4 1 2 3
F I G U R E5 5 FIGURE
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1 2 3 4 2 3 4 1 3 4 2 1 4 1 2 3
T E CHNI QU E
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let ring 3 3 0 0
FFIGURE IGURE 2
The amount of time you put into playing will be directly reflected in your command of the instrument. The last thing you want to do is to feel like you have to put in more time than you are comfortable with, because you’d be pushing yourself to do something uncomfortable. The truth is, if you want to be a virtuoso player, you won’t have to push yourself to practice; it will come more naturally to you. And you will see results quickly, which provides the inspiration you need to push further and further. Whatever you may be practicing—scales, chords or any element of musical learning—the most important thing is listening. When you listen, you are strengthening your connection to the instrument.
AN ESSENTIAL ASPECT of one’s technique is tone. Tone is something that you have to experiment with. My tone has developed and changed over the years, based on how I listened. It’s in your head; the way you want to “hear” the note will force your fingers to massage the note a particular way. There are a plethora of exercises one can do to get your fingers connected. Something I did often when I was younger was to watch my hands in the mirror as I practiced, because I knew how I wanted my playing to look, which has an impact on how natural it feels. I always wanted everything to look nice and elegant. I’d play something like this (FIGURE 2) to help develop my vibrato, among other things. The goal was to use economy of motion, with smooth execution and no wasted energy. A great exercise for working on economy of motion is to simply move from the index finger to the pinkie on consecutive frets, moving across all of the strings, like this (see FIGURE 3). You need to listen and focus and be sure every note sounds good. Experiment with picking techniques too, because there are so many ways
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FFIGURE IGURE 6
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F I G U R E77 FIGURE
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to “color” a note, depending on how you pick, whether it’s with a sharp attack down by the bridge, or a soft attack closer to the neck, and every variation in between. And if you feel frustrated at all, the thing to do is relax. It’s all too easy to build up tension, so just take a breath and a moment, and then start again. When you do this, you will never get bored with playing. So, try this consecutive fret exercise on every area of the fretboard, striving for consistency in sound.
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
Here’s a great permutation of the previous drill (FIGURE 4): I begin with the fretting fingers 1-2-3-4, and then change the sequence to 2-3-4-1, 3-4-1-2 and 4-1-2-3 as I ascend the board, one fret at a time. It should sound connected, even and legato—smooth—the entire time. I used to try to devise every kind of fingering exercise imaginable. Here’s a similar one that is great for building up your picking accuracy (FIGURE 5). The consecutive movement
F I G U R E8 8 FIGURE
(trem. pick)
7
7
F I G U R E9 9 FIGURE
9 7
9 7 9
7 7 7 7 7 7 9 11 11
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6 7 P.M.
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F I G U R E14 14 FIGURE
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F I G U R E12 12 FIGURE
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FIGURE 15
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1/2
10 13 10 10 10 13 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 11 10 10 as opposed to straight above/fingers parallel to between fretting fingers is now configured one note played per string, using a pattern the frets as classical players do. If I play a lick with 1½
1½
1
in bar 1 that ultimately results in 4-3-2-1 across descending adjacent strings, and then, in bar 2, 4-3-2 -1 across ascending adjacent strings. You have to go slow; if you make a mistake, go back and start again, and make sure you don’t get ahead of yourself. You need to lay down a solid foundation. Here’s the exercise moved up to fifth position (FIGURE 6). Put your attention in the sound of every note. Through listening, you can mold and shape the sound of each note with your intention. Another important aspect is the angle at which your fretting fingers come down onto the board. I like my fingers on a slight diagonal,
1½
1/2 1/2
resting your forearm on the guitar’s body, moving the entire arm, or anchoring one or more pick-hand fingers to the pick-guard. For me, I move the joints of my fingers slightly while I pick. If I tremolo pick (FIGURE 8), I am sure to keep the hand relaxed, and I listen for the tone. Dynamics—contrasts in volume and texture—are very important, in how you articulate a note and move from one type of articulation to another (FIGURE 9). Is it staccato—
9
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FFIGURE I G U R E 13 13
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F I G U R E11 11 FIGURE
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F I G U R E10 10 FIGURE
9
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like this (FIGURE 7), the diagonal attack works better for me. Also, comparing standing up to sitting down when you play, because the way the instrument feels is very different with each of these two different postures. If you only sit when practicing and then do a gig where you have to stand—surprise!—things won’t feel and work the way you think they will. This is all fret-hand elegance. The goal is economy of motion and fluidity. Picking needs to be experimented with, too. Every guitar player picks a little differently. There are different techniques, like moving the wrist back and forth, either “floating” or
PHRASING IS THE HEART OF A MELODY, THE WAY YOU TURN CERTAIN NOTES, THE WAY YOU END A LINE, THE WAY YOU USE VIBRATO.” short and sharp—or sustained and vibrato-ed? Every note in this example has a different velocity in the pick attack, so you should practice the “feeling” of a note while practicing the other elements of playing. In this example (FIGURE 10), the melody of the line dictates the dynamics that best serve the musical feeling. There is a developmental period of time, when you’re getting your technique together, in which you have to focus intently on each element: picking technique, sound, dynamics and what note, until it feels natural and you don’t have to think about it anymore. The tightness with which you grip the pick has a lot to do with the quality of the sound, too; the best thing is to hold the pick as lightly as you can, where it almost is falling out of your fingers (FIGURE 11). Then you can alter the tightness of your grasp on it to shape the sound in different ways. Two things that may seem esoteric are 1) watching your hands in the mirror as you play; 2) recording yourself, and critiquing these things. You have to be careful when you critique, too. What do you want to see, and what do you want to hear? A visualization has been created, and
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there’s no way that it’s not going to come out on the instrument and be realized in your playing. These are the basic elements to developing your tone: first, listen with your “inner ear.” Second, focus on technique, making sure every note is its own entity, and then you experiment with the picking technique and the tones that are produced based on those two variables. Intonation—playing in tune—is essential, too. When you hit a note, it must be true and in tune, whether it’s fretted normally or vibrato-ed. This is especially true with vibratos and bend vibratos—you have to be aware of the intonation of the pitch you’re producing and manipulating (FIGURE 12).
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ST R I NG B E N DI N G CONTROL OF BENDING, or stretching, strings is essential, too. What I used to do, and still do, when practicing is to take one technique and focus intensely on it, for an hour without disruption. It’s so important to put the time in to make sure you’re bending to the right notes. The best way to get power behind a bend is to line up two or three fretting fingers on the string and push with all of them. This will ensure stability in your string bends, with a side-to-side motion (FIGURE 13). When bending, without the assistance and support of the other fingers, the intonation usually is not there. The fingers, wrist and arm work together, which is especially useful when fretting the bends with only two fingers, or one. I used to sit for hours and hours, fretting a note and then bending up to that note from a lower fret, listening for precision in intonation (FIGURE 14). I’d then practice three-fret bends and one-fret bends (FIGURE 15), applying vibrato after the apex of the bend is reached. Put limitations on your practice parameters; for one hour, focus exclusively on precision bending, and then practice making every element of the technique sound like music (FIGURE 16). You can’t sound like you’re struggling, either—you have to get to the point where it sounds natural and relaxed. There’s a song on the album Mod-
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note is the vibrato, and this essential technique must be practiced intently. The conventional “rock and roll” vibrato is an up-down-up-down movement, pulling the string up and down in even movements. You must focus on vibrating the correct note, with attention once again to proper intonation. You can move the string down a little and up a little (FIGURE 20), or side-to-side, as a classical violinist would do. I use a circular vibrato, which is a mixture of the two. It’s very important to have control over your vibrato. So, practice all of the different varieties, and some of the parameters of vibrato are depth, width and speed. On really big vibratos, like Zakk Wylde’s, he’ll vibrate a G note and bend it up a whole step to A. Practice vibrato with every fretting finger on every string in every position. When I vibrato on my B or high E string, I can’t do my circular vibrato as well because there’s less fretboard under the string. Having THE SOUL OF THE
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(circular vibrato) (circular vibrato) ! !7 7 5 5 5 9 9 9 9 9 9 ! !7 5 5 !5 9 9 9 9 9 9 7 ! !7 5 5 !5 9 9 9 9 9 9 !7 21 FIGURE F I G U R E 21 21 FIGURE 16 14 16 17 17 20 20 20 ! ( ) 17 17 16 14 16 16 17 ! 19 20 FIGURE 2115 14 ( ) 14 17 17 16 14 16 16 14 16 17 16 17 19 17 20 20 20 20 16 15 14 17 ( 17) 16 14 16 16 14 16 17 16 17 ! ! 19 17 20 20 20 ! 20 ! 16 15 16 3 3 3 3 3 3 FIGURE 22 3 FIGURE 23 3 3 FIGURE 22 FIGURE 23 1 F I G U R E 2 2 F I G U R E 2 3 1 FIGURE 22 FIGURE 23 ) 10 10 ( 10 10 ! 10 0 81 10 8 10 8 7 8 8 7 10 10 10 10 ( 10) 10 10 0 8 10 8 10 8 7 8 ! 0 8 10 8 10 8 7 888 77 99 77 10 10 10 ( 10) 10 10 ! 9 7 3 2 w/bar w/bar 3 2 w/bar 3 2 6 6 6 6 4 9 9 64 9 6 4 9 6 4 9 11 7 4 9 74 11 7 4 6 6 99 77 7 9 4 4 0 4 5 44 6 6 4 9 9 6 4 9 6 4 9 6 4 9 11 7 4 9 11 G 6 6 6 6 4 9 9 6 4 9 6 4 9 6 4 9 11 7 4 9 11 74 9 7 7 9 4 G 4 0 4 5 4 7 9 4 G 4 0 4 5 10 6 10 12 12 12 12 10 12 6 10 12 13 10 12 12 12 12 13 12 12 10 12 12 10 12 6 9 10 99 12 12 10 12 13 10 12 12 12 12 10 12 10 10 13 12 12 10 12 6 4 9 12 12 10 12 13 13 12 12 10 12 6 4 9 9 10 9 12 6 4 9 9 10 up andstring down) (bend up and down)
ern Primitive called “Dark Matter,” in which I perform the melody with all of these weird stretches (FIGURE 17). It took me forever to get the microtonal bends in the last part just right! You can take a melodic phrase and play it normally and then articulate it with bends only (FIGURE 18). No other technique will give you that specific type of sound. Be sure to practice string bends with every fretting finger too (FIGURE 19).
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control over the speed of the vibrato is a delicious thing, too, but it takes practice. It’s more of a state of mind than a control of the muscles; the muscles will react based on what you’re listening for. Vibrato is what makes the note sing, especially up high on the neck (FIGURE 21). Practice stretching notes and adding vibrato (FIGURE 22), focusing on different speeds and widths. Use your imagination! If you focus on these different approaches, they’ll soon come out naturally in your playing, based on the intent of the melody. In this example (FIGURE 23), I call on different vibratos in different spots in order to make a specific musical statement. Of course, there is also the vibrato bar, which I brought in during the last example, and you can certainly experiment with bar vibrato. If I focus on using the bar, the vibratos will sound much different (FIGURE 24). Or I can use finger vibrato and bar vibrato together (FIGURE 25). The vibrato bar adds a whole different dimension to the instrument, and there’s so much you can do with it. I’ve investigated the vibrato bar quite extensively—that could be an entire class in and of itself. With any vibrato, you’re looking for ease of control, flowing without thinking, good intonation and nice tone. Those simple techniques are very helpful. Here is a great way to practice moving around with bends and vibratos on a given string (FIGURE 26). I like to sit and practice making up melodies utilizing these techniques. If you reach out past your abilities, you’ll discover new ideas to explore. And if you can’t get something just right, make an exercise out of it that’s based on that technique (FIGURE 27), and it will come easier next time.
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IT’S ESSENTIAL TO SPEND SOME TIME NOT KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO AND JUST PLAYING WHATEVER COMES TO YOU IN THE MOMENT.”
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THE SOUL OF THE NOTE IS THE VIBRATO, AND THIS ESSENTIAL TECHNIQUE MUST BE PRACTICED INTENTLY.”
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odies. When I was much younger, I was more fascinated with picking, but nowadays I’m more interested in phrasing and in legato-style playing. Legato playing requires accuracy in hammer-ons, pull-offs and finger slides, so a great exercise is to play a series of trills on each string and in every position (FIGURES 28 and 29). Do that until you are blue in the face! You’d be surprised how hard it is to keep a solid trill going after a minute and a half! Also, use every pair of fingers and all different speeds, and listen carefully so that you’ll develop control of the technique. Does a middle-and-ring-finger trill sound as good as an index-middle one? You have to practice every two-finger combination you can think of, and then proceed to every combination of three fingers (FIGURE 30). It may start off sounding uneven, so just relax, take a breath and continue. Try any distance between frets, any kind of stretch—the only criteria is that it has to sound good. If it doesn’t, find the patience to correct it. The way you find the patience is this: you know that if you work on it, eventually it’s going to come out amazing and sound great. That’s the incentive to keep working diligently. I recommend a methodical approach, moving through every type of trill, in regard to the distance between the notes, the speed of the trill, where you are on the fretboard and the fingers to use (FIGURE 31). Try trilling as long as you can between just two notes, and the trick is, the longer you want to go, the more relaxed you need to be. If you tighten up, the trill will stop. Just relax your fret hand, and your endurance will increase. Then try playing freely and making the technique sound musical (FIGURES 32 and 33). Another great approach is to limit the technique to ascending and descending one string (FIGURE 34), playing within a scale with just the fret hand and focusing on the legato trilling technique. Break it down to just two notes, played slowly and carefully, and gradually build the technique from there, until you have three notes that all sound clear and defined (FIGURE 35). Legato means “flowing and connected,” so strive to make every note sustain and sound crystal clear (FIGURE 36).
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you can make part of your vocabulary that are powerful when it comes to playing melodies are dynamics and phrasing. Phrasing can be exhibited through the use of space (FIGURE 37), which will serve to emphasize dynamics as well. In terms of dynamics, you can play staccato—short and sharp—or let the notes sustain, or use palm-muting (P.M.), pinch harmonics (P.H.) and a plethora of different techniques to span a wide dynamic range. Phrasing is the heart of a melody, the way you turn certain notes, the way you end a line, the way you use vibrato. If I play this (FIGURE 38), there’s a lot of phrasing in play, in regard to the way in which the melody is performed. Every movement and technique serves to create shapes of dynamics, of articulation, and taken together, they will play important roles in the way a melody is phrased. The beginning of this next example (FIGURE 39) does not have much phrasing or articulation, so in the second half I bring more of these techniques into the picture, resulting in a more musical statement.
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GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
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ASIDE FROM STUDYING all of the previously discussed playing techniques, it’s also good to know the basics, like the names of all of the strings, all the notes on the fretboard and how to play all of the basic firstposition “open” chords (FIGURE 40) and basic barre chords (FIGURE 41). When you play these chords, make sure you can hear every note, and you can switch between chords smoothly. If you play a D chord in one area of the board, move it around (FIGURE 42). Be sure that each of these voicings sounds in tune as you play. Memorize every chord there is—there are many books and study guides on the internet where you can find this basic information. Acquaint
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CHOR D S
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intervals: 1
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FFIGURE I G U R E 47 47
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FFIGURE IGURE 4 466
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GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
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F I G U R E 45 45 FIGURE
B¨maj13(#11)
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42
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a long time before I learned how to lock into a groove. Focusing on what it means to “lock in” with other musicians is vital, and it all has to do with rhythm. A great thing to do is to play to a drum machine or click track (FIGURE 46). Learning to play to a groove is about meditating on it, so listen very carefully and start with sustained chords before moving into strumming (FIGURE 47). Once you begin to feel a solid connection to the beat, try more complex strumming patterns with eighth- and 16th-note rhythms (FIGURE 48); for the adventurous, try laying different rhythmic syncopations and odd meters on top of the straight beat. In time, you will sync up to the beat, and once you understand that feel, you can pull back against the beat, or push ahead, in an effort to create different musical IT TOOK ME
3
R HYT HM
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FFIGURE I G U R E 444 4
yourself with every chord! The most effective way to learn a chord is by listening deeply to it. This is a D major chord in second position (FIGURE 43), and I can fill your mind with a lot of information about it: it comprises the first, third and fifth scale degrees of the D major scale; I could show you how to write it out in standard notation; I can show you every inversion of it. That’s all fine, but that’s not a “D chord.” It’s like, your name is just a sound—it’s not who you are. The same thing applies to chords. Listen intensely to the sound of the chord, and that sound, and that feeling, is what a D chord really is. You will create a relationship with the chord. Eventually, you do this with every chord, so that each chord and chord type has a deeper meaning to you. This is how you develop as a musician and not just a technician. I could tell you that this is a specific chord (FIGURE 44), but the most important thing is the sound and the way that chord makes you feel. The chord has a personality, and you won’t get to know it unless you listen to it deeply. It has a story to tell; you own the chord, and you become the chord as the sound permeates your whole body. This is true for any chord (FIGURE 45).
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FFIGURE I G U R E 448 8
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Am7 5 5 5
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5 5 5
7 7 7 7
7 5 5 7 5 7 5 5 7 5 7 5 5 7 5 5 5 5 5
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impressions within the rhythmic pattern itself.
P R ACT I CE R OU T I N ES YOUR PRACTICE ROUTINES need to be based on what your goals are. My usual practice routine when I was young was nine hours a day—I’d start at 3 P.M., when I got home from school, and I’d go until midnight. The reason it was nine hours is that it was divided into three three-hour segments, with specific things I wanted to accomplish in each hour. It’s not necessary to practice that much, unless you want to be like an Olympic athlete, and even then, you have to be careful. Some people are “naturals” and they really don’t need to practice that much. When I was first giving Dweezil Zappa some lessons, I thought, Uh oh…, because he had never played and he was having difficulty. But the rate at which he improved was astonishing. Within one week, he was playing guitar very well, and a few weeks later I was bringing him tapes of Yngwie Malmsteen and Eddie Van Halen. He was a natural. People have to decide how much time to put in, relative to what is comfortable for them. I think it’s good to round it off; I liked to get to everything in one day. If you have two hours, allocate a certain amount of time to developing the vessel: exercises, scales, techniques, chords, rhythm, strumming, locking in with a drum machine and ear training. But a good portion of the time should be spent on being present and playing and creating in the moment. You have to exercise your imagination, and that is different than honing the vessel. It’s good to work on the academic, mechanical stuff, but it’s essential to spend some time not knowing what you are going to do and just playing whatever comes to you in the moment. In this way, you are exercising your spontaneous reaction to musical situations.
WOOD STOCK MU S I C LA BS IT HAS ALWAYS been a dream and intent of mine to one day start a comprehensive music school that offers
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STEVE VAI, JOHN PETRUCCI AND A HOST OF OTHERS LEND THEIR FRETBOARD SKILLS TO A NEW COLLECTION OF MUSIC FROM ERNIE BALL MUSIC MAN OWNER STERLING BALL.
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teve Vai’s label, Favored Nations, recently signed a distribution deal with Mascot Records. And while that sounds as thrilling as something you’d read on page 47 of The Wall Street Journal, it’s actually pretty huge; the move frees up Vai to sign artists to Mascot through the Favored Nations imprint. The first project to be released through this new deal is The Mutual Admiration Society, an album by bassist/guitarist (and Ernie Ball Music Man owner and CEO) Sterling Ball and his longtime friends, drummer John Ferraro and keyboardist Jim Cox. The disc—which is slated for a January 19 release—features guest appearances by a crew of jaw-dropping guitarists, including John Petrucci, Albert Lee, session legend Jay Graydon and three stellar Steves—Lukather, Morse and Vai. “The sound and earthiness of this ‘country-fusiony-jazz-esque’ record is phenomenal,” Vai says. “But perhaps the thing
for me that’s most surprising about this record is how unique a player Sterling is. We express who we are through our instruments, and the way Sterling plays has a warmth in the tone and conscientiousness in the note choice that’s accessible and deeply pleasing.” The album is essentially an ode to the music Ball grew up listening to and playing—and Vai, Petrucci, Morse and the rest of the pack were thrilled to be involved. Lee’s fretwork can be heard on covers of Buck Owens’ “Crying Time” and Hank Williams’ “Hey Good Looking”; Morse plays on “The In Crowd,” the catchy Dobie Gray classic. Lukather graces traditional blues number “Baby, Please Don’t Go” while Vai tack-
les “Sugar Shack,” a 1963 hit by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs. “That song was huge for me when I was four, and it stuck,” Vai says. “My goal with the melody was to try and retain the innocence and charm of the original.” Petrucci’s track— although seemingly out of the blue—perfectly sums up the album’s fun vibes. “Truth is, I wasn’t sure what tune to do,” the Dream Theater guitarist confesses. “The fact that Sterling was paying homage to music he grew up with and had special meaning to him, it was intimidating trying to pick a song. So, I was happy when Sterling—who knows I was a huge ‘Disnerd’— suggested playing a Disney song. We decided that a medley of tunes from a couple of 1940s animated Disney movies and some old-school Disneyland/Disney World theme-park songs would make for the ultimate guitar-powered walk down Main Street USA.” —Damian Fanelli
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THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE CAREER OF ANY MUSICIAN IS THE ABILITY TO LISTEN.” a new kind of music educational experience. I have had the great fortune to have intimately experienced most aspects of the music business and feel I have a wealth of essential information to share, in regards to being an independent musician in the business and achieving goals in ways that elude conventional music school curriculums. As fate would have it, about a year ago I partnered with some wonderful, talented folks who were already in the process of creating such a music school, Michael Lang: creator of the original Woodstock Festival and well-known music producer, Paul Green: founder of School of Rock, Bill Reichblum: successful internet entrepreneur, and David Jarrett, who has developed entertainment companies around the world. The school is called Woodstock Music Lab. We purchased and are converting a 50,000-square-foot elementary school on 23 acres in Woodstock, New York, with plans to have multiple studios, rehearsal and classrooms, broadcasting/streaming facilities for live events, online education and perhaps the best-sounding recording studio in the country (picture a live room the size of a gymnasium), and an immersive experience that incorporates reallife music-project challenges that give students and young artists just starting in their careers an opportunity to work with the best producers, writers, musicians, engineers and business leaders on site and online for collaborative production in a rigorous immersion model. As we develop this, we will be posting updates and the admissions process to woodstockmusiclab.com. Be sure to look for next issue’s Master Class with Joe Satriani!
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46 GU I TA R WOR L D GU I TA R WOR L D • AUGUST 2015
Forever
Young 1 9 5 3 – 2 0 1 7
Guitar World mourns the passing of Malcolm Young, the solid-as-a-rock rhythm guitarist and songwriter who served as the unshakable foundation of AC/DC from the very beginning.
48 G U I TA R W O R L D
BY AL AN DI PERNA
THE RHYTHM GUITAR PLAYING OF MALCOLM YOUNG is one of rock’s great monuments. A massive edifice—solid and weighty, yet hewn with brutally exacting precision—it was the cornerstone of AC/DC’s music from the Seventies right up to our own time. Many rank Young as the greatest rock rhythm guitarist ever, which puts him out front in a distinguished company that includes icons like John Lennon, Keith Richards and all who have followed in their wake.
BOB KING/REDFERNS)/GETTY IMAGES
Angus (left) and Malcolm Young backstage in 1976; Malcolm is clutching his ubiquitous 1963 Gretsch Jet Firebird
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H U LTO N A R C H I V E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; M A LC O L M A LO N E : M I C H A E L P U T L A N D/ G E T T Y I M A G E S
Rhythm guitar is an often-underrated art, but it was far from Young’s only contribution to the AC/DC juggernaut. He was also the band’s founder and one of its chief songwriters, working in both cases in tandem with his younger brother and AC/DC lead guitarist Angus Young. In 2014, AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson summed up Malcolm Young’s importance to the band as follows: “He was the one that was behind AC/ DC. He was our spiritual leader. He was our spitfire.” It was indeed a sad day for rock and roll, as Eddie Van Halen tweeted, when that flame was extinguished on November 18, 2017, particularly as Malcolm’s passing came just a month after the death of his and Angus’ elder brother George Young, who had played a key role in AC/DC’s career. But Malcolm’s death was far from unexpected. Rock fans all knew that his health was poor. He’d suffered from lung cancer, heart trouble and dementia. The latter affliction had forced him to leave AC/DC in 2014 and go into managed care. That sad departure marked the end of an adventure that had begun in 1973, when Angus and Malcolm first formed AC/DC in Sydney, Australia. The brothers were born in Scotland but had emigrated Down Under in 1963 with their family. It was a major, and sometimes difficult, transition for two young boys. Angus once recalled coming home and saying, “Mum, I think they put us on another planet.” But that only served to strengthen the bond between Angus, Malcolm and George, as well as their eldest brother Stephen and sole sister Margaret. (There were two other brothers, William Jr., who came to Australia with the family, and Alex, who remained behind in the U.K.) One of the major ways in
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which that bond was expressed was through music. “Among all my brothers, we all played instruments,” Angus told me in 2014. “We could all play a party and try to cover all the different styles of music. Because some liked a bit of folk or jazz, some liked blues, other ones wanted rock.” Rock would turn out to be the family business. George was the first sibling to find fame, with the mid-Sixties beat group the Easybeats, which he’d formed with a fellow migrant, Harry Vanda. It was Vanda who gave Malcolm the guitar that would be his signature ax for the entirety of his career, a 1963 Gretsch Jet Firebird that he’d modify extensively over the years. “It was Harry’s guitar,” Malcolm told me in 1995. “He gave it to me when I was 14, just as a gift. He’d played it for a while, but he’d moved on to Gibsons. He knew I was keen and he threw it my way. And I just adapted it for rhythm—with a fuzz box in the early days. You know, a kid in the bedroom—just stripping it apart for rhythm. It evolved out of necessity, that guitar.” Malcolm and Angus even played with George and Harry in a group called the Marcus Hook Roll Band for a short while. This was right before Angus and Malcolm got AC/DC going, taking that band’s name from an electrical voltage indicator on Margaret’s sewing machine. Even at this early stage of the game, the siblings’ guitar roles were already pretty much locked in. “Angus always just played lead,” Malcolm told me. “He never bothered with chords. He just wanted to solo. And I used to sit there figuring out tunes—the chords and what have you. I was playing guitar since I was about four. So I’d be strumming along to a little Elvis riff or whatever. And of course
when the Beatles came out, I was around ten, 11 or 12; I was trying to learn their tunes, with the chords. Angus played at an early age as well. But by the time he got to be like ten or 11, it was Hendrix and things like that. So he was already hearing the guitar in a different way than me. Sometimes he’d say, ‘Mal, you should play leads as well.’ But I just felt so uncomfortable with it. So I said, ‘The band’s rockin’. Let’s just keep things as they are.’ All we wanted to do was make a noise, to be honest with you.” Rhythm guitarists often double as a rock band’s lead singer/front person. But Malcolm never fancied that role. From the moment Angus first wore his schoolboy
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suit onstage—another idea suggested by sister Margaret—he was destined to become the brother who grabbed the attention of the crowd, frequently upstaging each of the band’s three vocalists: Dave Evans, Bon Scott and Brian Johnson. And while Malcolm would step out front to nail the occasional backing vocal, his place was generally the backline. From there he drove the band like a locomotive—albeit one with a lot of heart. While AC/DC went through three drummers and two bassists over the course of their career, the band’s groove never sounded like anything other than AC/DC. That strutting, swaggering backbeat, that
Facing: Malcolm Young performs Young’s rhythm guirandy, rhythmic push-andwith AC/DC at London's tar mastery is ultimately pull—that’s what Malcolm Marquee Club on May 12, 1976 a matter of that unquanYoung gave to rock. And it’s Above: The 1977 version of the tifiable factor known as one of the things that defined band featured (from left) Phillip feel, although Fender AC/DC, from their 1976 Rudd, Angus Young, Mark Evans, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott heavy picks and heavy debut album, High Voltage, gauge strings—often onward. Gibson Sonomatics, “You do have to hit the .012–.056—also contributed the nasty bark guitar pretty hard to get that thing from it,” of his tone. Malcolm once explained to me. “But it’s “That came about by accident, really,” he not just a smash smash. It’s a dig. You actusaid of the heavy gauges. “Just to keep the ally dig into those strings. You’re gettin’ band in tune! With two guitars, thumpin’ under them! It’s percussion, is what it is. It’s the Christ out of ’em at the same time, nothrhythm. I think of it more like piano playing ever sounded like it was in tune. But it ing sometimes. It’s what I know—all I know. came with a sound, these thick strings.” And it suits me right down to the ground.”
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Top: Malcolm (left) and Angus in Germany in 1992 Above: Angus carries Malcolm's guitar after Malcolm's funeral service, which took place November 28 at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney
F U N E R A L : J A M E S D. M O R G A N / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; G E R M A N Y: M A R T Y N G O O D A C R E / G E T T Y I M A G E S
Factor in vintage Marshall amps, and heavy is the key word here. But Malcolm never considered AC/DC a heavy metal band, although they were sometimes described as one. Then again, they also initially were classified as a punk band, largely because their mid-Seventies emergence coincided with the dawn of punk rock and they seemed a bit bratty and working class. “We were giving punk music a good name,” Angus once quipped. “Because that was the word they’d use to describe us—punk band. They’d get the wrong idea. They’d put us on the same bill as punk bands. And they sure got a shock when they started spitting at us and we spat back.” Malcolm preferred to describe AC/DC simply as rock and roll, once stating that AC/DC and the Rolling Stones were the only real rock and roll bands left. And while
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their career hasn’t lasted quite as long as the Stones, AC/DC have survived the vicissitudes of changing rock fashion and setbacks that might have defeated a lesser band. Malcolm is credited with holding AC/ DC together when singer Bon Scott died in 1980, keeping Angus focused on writing the songs that became Back in Black, hailed by many as AC/DC’s greatest album. They got the songs down first, then they went out and found the voice that would bring them to life. The nasty, high-pitched screech that Brian Johnson could produce with his vocal
“He was the one that was behind AC/DC. He was our spiritual leader. He was our spitfire.“ — BRIAN JOHNSON
cords seemed an anatomical impossibility. But it was the perfect voice for AC/DC’s rough-and-ready brand of rock and roll. Songcraft was another one of Malcolm’s priorities and strong suits throughout AC/ DC’s career. He’d often fine-tune riffs and ideas that Angus brought to the table, building songs that grab you from the first note and keep your head banging right through to the very end. “We play with dynamics a lot in this band, through the years,” Malcolm explained to me. “Just being a straightahead four-piece band, you’re very limited. So we’ve got to use a lot of dynamics. It’s all about suspense and drama.” Malcolm’s personal life wasn’t devoid of drama either. In 1988 he had to take time off, missing the majority AC/DC’s Blow Up Your Video U.S. tour to get his alcoholism under control. This was the first occasion on which he was replaced by his and Angus’ cousin Stevie Young—another family member with the right DNA and many hours of jamming with Malcolm and Angus under his belt. But Malcolm was soon sober and back on the job, spearheading AC/DC through their 1990 “comeback” album, The Razors Edge, a latter-day classic. Over the years AC/DC worked with many legendary producers. Along with the stalwart team of George Young and Harry Vanda, there was Mutt Lange, Bruce Fairbairn, Brendan O’Brien and Rick Rubin— a virtual who’s-who of top rock producers. But Malcolm was always the ultimate authority for Angus, when it came to guitar parts. “No matter who we did work with,” Angus told me. “I always looked to Mal in the end if I played a guitar solo or a little break here and there. And he would always say yea or nay.” Malcolm and Angus’ guitar playing is so closely interwoven that it’s difficult to consider either one in isolation. This is also what’s quintessentially rock and roll about AC/DC. They’re heirs to the two-guitar tradition of John Lennon and George Harrison, or Keith Richards and any of his co-guitar-
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54 GU I TA R WOR L D GU I TA R WOR L D • SEP T EM BER 2017
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ists in the Rolling Stones. Only Malcolm and Angus’ sibling connection made the mesh even tighter. “If you’ve been jammin’ since you were kids together, I guess it becomes second nature,” Malcolm said. “We know each other so well. Any brothers. If you can imagine two brothers, they know each other inside out. It’s virtually the same with guitar playing.” Given the brothers’ close fraternal bond, Angus was among the first to detect the early signs of Malcolm’s dementia—the
“All we wanted to do was make a noise, to be honest.“
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56 GU I TA R WOR L D GU I TA R WOR L D • SEP T EM BER 2017
— MALCOLM YOUNG
confusion and memory problems that are part of the condition. But the closeness made these distressing symptoms all the harder to accept. In 2014, Angus told me that Malcolm’s symptoms had been growing for “a number of years. He got a little disconnected when we were making the album Black Ice. It was becoming more and more kind of noticeable. But I’ve also noticed over the years, in hindsight, that he was having problems. But it was hard to figure out what it was, strange enough as it seems.” Dementia usually strikes people much older than Malcolm was at the time, and there are also many specific forms of dementia. These factors made it difficult for the Young family to obtain a definitive diagnosis at first. “We were kind of hoping that Malcolm would get better,” said Angus. “We kind of delayed on that, not knowing. I suppose it is a kind of hard thing. I mean he’s still there. But the condition itself, you know that it’s not him. I know his wife kind of feels that way. It’s like she’s lost her husband.” Malcolm was also diagnosed with lung cancer shortly after the Black Ice tour. Surgery to remove the cancer was successful, but the ordeal must surely have weakened him further. He also suffered from a heart condition which required that he wear a pacemaker. The Twenty-teens were a bleak time for AC/DC in general. In 2016 severe hearing loss forced Brian Johnson to leave the band. But even in Malcolm’s absence from AC/ DC, his presence was still felt. Much of the band’s most recent album, Rock or Bust, was pieced together from unfinished song ideas that Malcolm had left behind. And this is most likely how it will be in the years to come. While Malcolm Young has left his body, his influence and his contribution to rock music will continue to loom large. “Malcolm’s always been a strong presence in the band,” said Angus. “He formed the band. It was his brainwaves that put it all together. It was him who guided us from the beginning.”
By RICHARD BIENSTOCK
Photos By SANJAY PARIKH
Older, wiser and more mature, the members of ASKING ALEXANDRIA —now reunited with singer DANNY WORSNOP—put the ugliness of the recent past behind them and look ahead to a future brimming with good vibes, fun times and some seriously ferocious metalcore mayhem.
GUITAR WORLD
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Asking Alexandria’s Cameron Liddell (left) and Ben Bruce
INCE BURSTING ONTO the metal scene almost a decade ago with a style that pulled from sources as varied as ferocious modern metalcore, synthy electronic music and cocksure Eighties glam, Asking Alexandria have established themselves as one of the wildest and most unique heavy bands going. But after three successful albums, including 2013’s From Death to Destiny, which reached Number Five on the Billboard 200, the British five-piece fractured when singer Danny Worsnop, who for many fans served as the focal point of the band, split under acrimonious circumstances. In the aftermath, Worsnop pursued a more traditional hard rock sound with his other project, We Are Harlot, while Asking Alexandria recruited a new singer, Denis Stoff, and released a fourth album, The Black. Looking back now, guitarist Cameron Liddell acknowledges it was a trying period for the band. “It was a dark time for a year, a year and a half,” he says. “But with Danny, we had reached a point where we weren’t brothers like we used to be. It didn’t feel like that close connection anymore. And then you add in alcohol and drug problems… So we separated for a little while, and ultimately he left the band.” But as the saying goes, time heals all wounds. “Sometime last year, Danny and I were both in L.A., and we met up one night and hung out,” Asking Alexandria founder and coguitarist Ben Bruce says. “We ended up watching American Satan together, which is a movie I just starred in. And we were just chilling and he was like, ‘Man, I miss this…’ And I just went, ‘Me, too, dude!’ And it kind of just started there. I went back to Arizona, where I live, and he went back to Nashville. And then he ended up flying out to hang out again, and we were in the studio and we’d been drinking and he was like, ‘Hey, remember that song “Vultures” we wrote together years ago? Let’s record it together again for old time’s sake.’ And so we recorded it just for fun and it was so good. The chemistry was still there. When Danny finished singing I ran into the room and gave him a huge hug. And after that it was like, ‘Man, this is where you belong, you know?’ ”
“I DEFINITELY THINK THERE’S BANDS OUT THERE THAT WANT TO FOLLOW OUR FOOTSTEPS. WE PAVED THE WAY FOR A LOT OF BANDS IN OUR SCENE.” —CAMERON LIDDELL
Now, Worsnop is indeed back where he belongs, and after a triumphant round of touring earlier this year, the reunited band, which also includes longtime bassist Sam Bettley and drummer James Cassells, have now released a new studio record, which they chose to title,
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simply, Asking Alexandria. “It’s the original lineup back together again,” Bruce says. “It’s Asking Alexandria in full swing, happy and excited and hungry. It was like, what else could we possibly name this album?” Given the excitement around the reunion with Worsnop from within the band and also among their fans, the members knew that when it came to writing and recording the new material they had to come out with all guns blazing. “It was make-or-break time,” Liddell says. “And we ended up making the best record of our lives.” That meant an album that, as Liddell puts it, “keeps our original Asking style but also ventures out. We’ve got the heavy songs, but there’s also a fresh new sound.” For example, he continues, “I feel like when we were first starting out we had a lot of electronic stuff
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in the music, and I think we lost that a little bit on From Death to Destiny. But now we’ve brought it back, and in a way more modern way. This music feels like the future. Honestly, there are sections on the record that, if you’d played it for me years ago I’d be like, ‘There’s no way that’s us…’ ” True to Liddell’s words, Asking Alexandria is perhaps the band’s most forward-looking and diverse offering yet. While intense tracks like “I Am One” and “Room 138” hearken back to the band’s metalcore roots, first single “Into the Fire” is a straight-up fist-pumping hard rock anthem. Then there’s the swelling electro-pop-rocker, “Hopelessly Hopeful,” the beat-driven “Empire,” with Seattle rapper Bingx taking center stage, and the aforementioned “Vultures,” the song that brought Bruce and Worsnop back together, and that in its recorded form features a spare arrangement anchored by strummed acoustic guitars. Says Bruce, “I think this is the first record where we went in and we basically said to everyone, ‘Fuck you guys, we’re not doing what we’re told. We want to experiment and we want to do what we love. We’re doing this for us.’ ” Part of that process also led to the band examining their past, present and future. This
“IT’S THE ORIGINAL LINEUP BACK TOGETHER AGAIN. IT’S ASKING ALEXANDRIA IN FULL SWING, HAPPY AND EXCITED AND HUNGRY.”
AXOLOGY
—BEN BRUCE
self-reflection is evident in songs like “Alone in a Room” and, in particular, the skittering “Where Did It Go?” which finds Worsnop literally scrolling through Asking Alexandria’s history album by album, even mentioning The Black—or, as he puts it in the song’s second verse, the “fourth one, the ‘wasn’t me’ one.” “This album, there’s actually quite a lot of songs that address our time apart and the band from its inception to now,” Bruce says. “ ‘Alone in a Room,’ that opens the whole record with the words, ‘I’ve been away a little while.’ It’s awesome to hear that kind of honesty in music. And ‘Where Did It Go?’—Danny’s singing about album one all the way up to album five.” The latter song also finds Worsnop taking a jab at the newer crop of metal bands that have come up in the past few years, stating that Asking Alexandria are “writing the records your favorite bands rip off in their records.” “Some of that’s tongue-in-cheek,” Bruce admits, “but there’s a lot of truth to what is said. I feel like a lot of bands have done that. We noticed it particularly after [Asking Alexandria’s 2009 Sumerian debut] Stand Up and Scream. So we kind of changed direction and went toward more of a rock and roll, Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, Eighties thing, but with
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a modern twist. And then we noticed a lot of bands doing that, too. So in the song we’re just having a bit of fun. We’re saying, ‘Yeah, we know what’s been going on. And guess what? We’re gonna write another record for you guys to look up to and probably steal in a few years’ time as well!’ ” Adds Liddell, “I definitely think there’s bands out there that want to follow our footsteps. We paved the way for a lot of bands in our scene, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t. And I’m honored that that would even be the case. But at the same time, I still feel like we’re a baby band. Sometimes I think, Holy shit, I can’t believe we’ve been doing it this long!” Part of their being able to do it for this long, it would seem, has hinged on the band members’ determination to push through adversity. Says Liddell, “That last tour with Danny, a North American tour, was the lowest of the low, at least for me. It wasn’t the best of times. And I think the fans could see that onstage we weren’t that tight-knit family anymore. That kind of got everyone down and depressed, and we didn’t know what was going to happen after that.” During that period, Bruce says, “We’d just been pushed to the breaking point. Every-
• GUITAR (Bruce) Fender Telecaster Deluxe Shawbucker; (Liddell) Kiesel SCB • AMPS (both) Fractal Audio Axe-Fx II • EFFECTS (Bruce) JST Toneforge Ben Bruce; (Liddell) various effects courtesy of Axe-Fx II
one was unhappy, everyone was messed up on drugs and alcohol, it wasn’t a happy place in our lives.” Nowadays, he continues, things are different. “We’re all a bit more chill. We’re older, we’ve gone through the party phase. Everyone’s married or in relationships. I’ve got two kids and a wife at home. We’ve calmed down a lot.” He laughs. “We’re more likely to go out for a meal together and have a chat and then go back to the bus and watch a movie than to go, you know, find a bunch of blow and just go crazy. We’re just more mindful of one another, and of not burning each other out like we did the first time around. Which is good, because as it stands we have so much on the books. There’s a lot of tours lined up, and we want to do the U.S., all of Europe, Japan, Asia, Australia, South America… We want to go everywhere in 2018.” Liddell concurs. “We’re not finished,” he says. “We’re nowhere near finished. This new chapter has only just begun. And it’s definitely going to be the biggest chapter in our career, for sure.”
NECESSARY EVIL ON THEIR NINTH STUDIO ALBUM ,
KINGDOMS DISDAINED,
FLORIDA DEATH METAL PIONEERS
MORBID ANGEL RETEAM WITH VOCALIST/BASSIST STEVE TUCKER AND RETURN TO THE FURIOUS HELLSPAWN RIFFAGE AND DEMONIC BLAST BEATS OLD-SCHOOL FANS EXPECT. IN HIS OWN PECULIAR WAY, GUITARIST
TREY AZAGTHOTH
EXPLAINS WHAT LED TO HIS BAND RIGHTING THE WRONGS OF THE RECENT PAST.
BY JON
WIEDERHORN
PHOTOS BY CHRIS
CASELLA
65 FEBRUARY 2018
“
WOULD YOU RATHER DIE IN BED OR IN A NUCLEAR holocaust?” asks Morbid Angel guitarist and primary songwriter Trey Azagthoth in the middle of an interview about the band’s new album, Kingdoms Disdained. It’s just one of many odd and abrupt comments or utterances he makes during the conversation. “I’d rather be like those people in the movie Deep Impact that stand on a beach waiting to be blown away by the tidal forces,” he continues. “Not one of the snivelers who commits suicide or tries to hide from all the fantastic events and amazing things coming for everyone to experience. It’s a good death.” The analogy is cryptic, for sure. It also makes a certain amount of sense—especially for Azagthoth, whose enigmatic explanations sometimes defy logic. Not this one. Kingdoms Disdained is a furious, apocalyptic, go-for-broke record on which Morbid Angel’s co-founder prioritized speed and skewed technical rhythms over electronics or atmospherics. It’s the kind of all-in release that conjures images of Tibetan monks igniting their fuel-soaked robes or cult followers gulping the KoolAid in their final act of pure devotion.
Old-school Morbid Angel fans would accept no less than that kind of commitment after the mid-paced, industrialtinged and largely disappointing 2011 album Illud Divinum Insanus. After all, this is one of the main bands that put Florida death metal on the map in the mid Eighties. For Kingdoms Disdained, Azagthoth relied on instinct, writing quickly and recording over several months, as opposed to the five years it took to create the band’s last album. He said goodbye to longtime frontman David Vincent and reunited with ex– Morbid Angel vocalist and bassist Steve Tucker, who has been in out of the band twice and last played on 2003’s Heretic before Vincent’s return in 2004. The move caused a mini-kerfuffle, but Tucker accepted the invitation to return to the Morbid fold with enthusiasm, and he and guitarworld.com
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Azagthoth have put any squabbles behind them in order to recapture the type of brutality they tapped into on 1998’s Formulas Fatal to the Flesh and 2000’s Gateway to Annihilation. With the help of producer Erik Rutan (who played guitar in Morbid Angel for two three-year stints), Morbid Angel has created a modern-sounding, old-school album full of barreling double-bass drumming, machine-gun blast beats, skewed riffs and choppy guitar patterns. Throughout songs like “Garden of Disdain,” “Architect and Iconoclast” lie an abundance of hairpin turns, long, deep string bends and vertigo-inducing tempo shifts. From one song to the next, Azagthoth plays a torrent of mindblowing solos, ranging from the detuned noise wash of “Piles of Little Arms” to the frantic hammer-on, pulloffs and tapping of “The Righteous Voice.” Whether playing textural fills or blinding sweep-picked, flanger-saturated runs, Azagthoth is locked in the moment and going with the flow—mostly by necessity. “Bro, I didn’t have much of a clue as to what to do for solos so I just got in there and jammed to it and recorded things,” he admits. “I was just exploring the place and tapping into the magic of the moment. Magic and philosophy is the code, just like the code for computer software. But humans are better than any computer, really. We can all create an embed into ourselves—the kind of code that we deem useful to achieve whatever results we want to achieve.” When asked to elaborate, Azagthoth blurts, “Humans are dynamic and we can program ourselves, by what we choose to influence and condition ourselves with. It is beautiful what humans can actually do. I look at things in my own freaky way and find musical influence in everything: My 1998 Trans Am WS6 Ram Air, my guns, my new BMX bike, Jim Beam, good green, strong coffee.” Azagthoth pauses, as if he’s finished his thought, but he’s really only halfway done; when he’s on a roll he speaks as rapidly as he plays. “I’m also inspired by old children’s TV shows and video games: Thundarr the Barbarian, Quake 3 Arena, Resident Evil, Dino Crisis and Twisted Metal 2. Also, Land of the Lost, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Electro Woman and Dyna Girl and, for sure, Dungeons and Dragons, and I am a very caring dungeon master.” Some have described Azogthoth as mentally unbalanced. At the very least, he’s inordinately eccentric. In the band’s nascent days, he and Vincent cut themselves as part of Satanic blood rituals
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Steve Tucker (left) and Trey Azagthoth; Azagthoth is holding his Nineties Ibanez Universe 7-String
before taking the stage. Since then, Azagthogh has sought inspiration through a combination of magic, creative visualization and the teachings of motivational speaker Tony Robbins and alternative medicine guru Deepak Chopra. Yet, it’s too easy to dismiss Azagthoth as a demented guitar wizard whose extra-curricular pursuits imbue him with strength, but whose quirky ideas keep him a quantum leap from reality. Analysis of his conversation, however, reveals that the guitarist usually only descends into gibberish when he’s annoyed or if he wants to change a subject. When asked if he was unhappy with the largely negative reaction to Illud Divinum Insanus, which was the first collaboration with Vincent since 1995’s Domination, Azagthoth drifts away into asylumville. “Momma’s little baby likes short’nen, short’nen/Momma’s little baby likes short’nen bread,” he sings, then spins off into an unnerving narrative: “CoriBell, those weeds are growing faster than you pulling them. Mary-Bell, your daddy watching the way you planting that and
it don’t look straight. Lilly-Bell, that plow is not gonna plow without a little elbow grease.” Then Azagthoth returns to song, “Momma’s little baby likes short’nen short’nen/Momma’s little baby likes short’nen bread.” Even if his unsettling asides aren’t a stunt and actually reveal some mental instability, they don’t detract from his stellar playing. Since 1989, when Morbid Angel emerged with the next-generation soul-shredder Altars of Madness, Azagthoth has been one of the most skilled rhythm and lead players in death metal. On Kingdoms Disdained, he rips through his staircase rhythms and seemingly backward chugs on his 1990s Ibanez Universe 7-String with a custom green pick guard. For his leads, Azagthoth used six different guitars from various companies that he refuses to name. “I am not endorsed by anyone and I buy all my guitars used off eBay,” he says. He equipped the axes with Floyd Rose tremolos and employed a variety of pickup configurations, including a middle-position single-coil pickup. “I love how a single-coil pickup struggles since it’s so low-output, but it works so nice when the picking attack is hardcore.” Azagthoth is less secretive about his other gear. For Kingdoms Disdained, he ran two mid-Nineties high-gain 100-watt Marshall heads with EL34s through clas-
THE ULTIMATE BLUE
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Azagthoth plays his B.C. Rich “InstaGIB” Ironbird
sic 1960 4x12 cabinets and wired the signal through an Eventide H3000 for a stereo effect. “I don’t like to stack my speakers ’cause I don’t want it at ear level,” he says. “For me, I like them down on the ground so the sound can just hit me in the waist.” Live and in the studio, Azagthoth tunes a half-step down and uses heavy GHS strings on his six- and seven-string guitars (.009, .011, .016, .026, .036, .046 and, for the seven-string, .056). For effects, he favors a Line 6 wireless that plugs into an MXR Flanger, which he primarily sets for a “slow jet sweep sound” for rhythms. From there, he plugs into an MXR Phase 90 set at a mid-speed. “The rate makes it wobble like complete acid, and I love it,” he enthuses. Then, he plugs into a Morley Wah before returning the signal chain to his rack and a Tom Scholz Rockman Midi Octopus. “It’s hard to find, but every now and then you see one on eBay,” he says. “I use that with my Univibe to put the Univibe in and out of effects chain via midi.” Finally, Azagthoth plugs into a ProCo R2DU Rat rackmount distortion and an MXR Kerry King EQ box, which he favors since it has two outs and he runs two amps and a stereo sound (achieved from the way he sets his H3000 into the FX loops in the amps). Morbid Angel spent three weeks in preproduction rehearsing for Kingdoms Disdained at Rutan’s Mana Recording Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida. Then, they took
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almost a month recording the album, which Rutan and Azagthoth co-produced. Azagthoth is the only Morbid Angel member who played on the band’s last album. New rhythm guitarist Dan Vadim Von (ex-Wretch) replaced Thor “Destructhor” Anders Myhren, who lives in Norway and found it too difficult to coordinate his schedule. And Scott Fuller (Annihilated, Errorgeist) took the Morbid drum seat from Tim Yeung, who wanted to continue playing with Vincent. Azagthoth meshed especially well with Fuller, who was able to keep up with the speedfreak tempos and barreling groove and incorporate a variety of syncopated beats and acrobatic fills. “I mapped out the beats for Scott and I think this record has the best polyrhythms I ever did,” Azagthoth says. They’re kind of at a new level. I added in a lot of nice swing. And having Scott playing to the songs was epic and wonderful—like beautiful acid.” As thrilled as Azagthoth is with the savage return to form Morbid Angel displays on Kingdoms Disdained, he offers no apologies for the computerized beats and effects of Illud Divinum Insanus. “It just shows how David and I are in different worlds these days,” he says. “He is, for sure, an artist and great in his own way, but was becoming so very different than what I was into. It was a confused effort and that is why I changed the lineup.” “I already knew the result was gonna be off during rehearsals and recording,” he adds, revealing more about what went awry. “Some of it turned out cool, but David
made his vocals too loud—like usual—and the rhythm guitars got subdued in the mix. Then David flew to L.A. to finish some vocals with the engineer that mixed the record. And it seems he influenced how the mix was gonna turn out. Before I heard the final mixes for the record I thought it was gonna sound a lot more heavy. But nothing could save a silly song like ‘Radikult,’ which I just tried to ignore. I had nothing to do with that thing.” When asked why he consented to the release of Illud Divinum Insanus, Azagthoth pauses before answering, as if choosing his words carefully. He implies that he felt it might be interesting to present a different side of the band. Then he offers a garbled bit of verbiage that explains little else. “The third principle of the Triumvirate says, ‘I create myself and my world. I am the one who creates the happenings in my life,’ ” Azagthoth explains. “It is a useful principle of guideline and, as Tony Robbins says, ‘It is not important that a belief be 100 percent accurate, but it is most important that a belief be useful. It is a part of the real freedoms we all have as a natural asset.’ ” As Morbid Angel prepare to tour to support Kingdoms Disdained, Vincent and exMorbid drummer Tim Yeung will continue to play shows with his new band I Am Morbid, which performs strictly Vincent-era Morbid songs. Conversely, Morbid Angel will only play songs that never featured Vincent. “With that other lineup, we played the same set for so many years and added a couple songs here and there,” Azagthoth explains. “We are not boycotting old songs, but when I got my new lineup I wanted to use these other songs, which are also really cool and we even added songs we never ever played live before. And also I wanted to show how this band did awesome things even without David Vincent.” Having mentioned his old bandmate again, Azagthoth lapses back into mental ward mode. “Here we go with the ole chuck wagon…axle busted and back wheel draggin’,” he rhymes. As for Vincent’s decision to tour Morbid songs with I Am Morbid, Azagthoth is more lucid and only mildly annoyed. “Sometimes ya just gotta laugh,” he says. “I’m moving on, and hey, I wish David all the best with whatever he’s doing. Me and David made great things in the past for many years and then we grew apart. But now I have people working with me that I can relate to better. Working with Steve is awesome and we go out there and do all that fucked up, sick-ass shit again.”
Dave Keuning / the killers
yamaha.com/revstar
DISCOVER THE LEGEND After recording eleven studio albums this is the first non-vintage amplifier I’ve been able to record with. It has a pure natural sound that is classic.
- Lenny Kravitz Black Magick Head
Black Magick Combo w/ 1x15 Cab
SuproUSA.com Photo by Mathieu Bitton
FE B RUARY 2018
GUITAR WORLD
PLATINUM AWARD EX
CELLENCE
EVH 5150 III 50-watt EL34 head, shown with matching 2x12 cabinet
the gear in review
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JACKSON Pro S e r i e s Soloist SL7 HT
76
YAMAHA Pac i f i c a PAC 611 V F M X
77
KHDK ELECTRONICS Ghoul Jr O ve rdr i ve
Golden Glory EVH 5150 III 50-WATT EL34 HEAD By Chris Gill THE EVH 5150 IIIS EL34 100-WATT HEAD, which
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NEW EQ E lect ro -H a r m o ni x Slammi Plus an d I b a nez AV N 11 Aco u s t i c G u i t a r
EVH released just over a year ago, is one of the most impressive amps to come along in recent times. However, if the amp has one flaw, it’s that it just may be a little too much amp for most guitarists, especially ones who don’t regularly tour in arenas and stadiums or make six figures at each show (hell, most of us are lucky if we even get a six-pack to play a show). Fortunately, guitarists didn’t have to wait very long for EVH
to follow up with a 50-watt version—the EVH 5150 III 50-watt EL34 head. Like the previous 50-watt companion to the regular EVH 5150 III 100-watt head, the 50-watt EL34 version costs less than half the price of its 100-watt EL34 counterpart and weighs just over half as much as well, but it delivers about 90 percent of the same features and performance, making it an incredible deal for guitarists who lust for the incredible EVH 5150 III EL34 tones.
guitarworld.com
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SOUNDCHECK
FEATURES The EVH 5150 III 50-Watt EL34 head comes in a “small box” configuration, which means the front and rear panels provide fewer control knobs than the 100-watt head. As a result, the 50-watt head retains the original three-channel design with independent volume and gain controls for each channel, but channels 1 and 2 share the same set of low, mid and high EQ controls and the volume and gain controls for channels 1 and 2 are configured as stacked concentric knobs. Also, instead of individual presence and resonance controls for each channel as found on the 100-watt head, all three channels share global presence and resonance controls. The only other significant features found on the 100-watt head that are missing on the 50-watt amp are the external bias adjustment and test points. However, the 50-watt head includes additional features not found on the 100-watt head: a ¼-inch headphone output and MIDI input jack. Beyond those features and the 50-watt circuit powered by a pair of matched JJ EL34 tubes, the 50-watt head is essentially
CHEAT SHEET
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LIST PRICE: $1,517.23 MANUFACTURER: EVH, evhgear.com
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
the same as the 100-watt head. There are ¼-inch send and return jacks for the effects loop, a ¼-inch line output, a pair of parallel speaker outputs and 4/8/16-ohm impedance switch as well as a footswitch jack for the included four-switch foot controller for selecting individual channels and the effects loop. The front panel also provides two push buttons for manually selecting channels. PERFORMANCE Like its 100-watt big brother, the EVH 5150 III 50-Watt EL34 head is impressively versatile. Overall, the tonal personality for each channel on both amps’ heads is identical. The 100-watt head may be louder, but the 50-watt head hits the power tube distortion sweet spot at lower volume levels that most guitarists will find more appealing for studio recording applications and gigs in smaller venues where “total annihilation” volume levels aren’t necessary. But while the overall volume output may be lower, the distortion character, particularly of channels 2 and 3, is actually more aggressive, which is really impressive considering that the
A pair of JJ EL34 power amp tubes and seven JJ ECC83/12AX7 preamp/ effects loop tubes provide 50 watts of output and incredible gain.
Channels 1 and 2 feature stacked concentric volume and gain controls and share the same set of low, mid and high EQ controls.
The ¼-inch headphone output jack and MIDI input jack are features not included on the flagship 100-watt 5150 IIIS EL34 head.
100-watt 5150 IIIS EL34 head was already one of the most animalistic, snarling amps I’ve ever played. Channel 1 provides British-flavored clean tones with ample headroom and distinctive treble sparkle. The clean tones reside between the slinky sheen of a great Marshall clean tone (think Andy Summers, Malcolm Young or Jamie West-Oram) and the chime of a Vox AC30, most closely resembling the glorious grind of a Watkins Dominator. Channel 2 delivers the ballsy, classic, coveted crunch and distortion tones of Eddie Van Halen’s legendary Marshall Super Lead heard on the first six Van Halen albums. The midrange on channel 2 is simply perfect, pushing solos right to the front of the mix and expressing every fine nuance in detail and high definition. For modern metal guitarists, channel 3 is the stunner. The saturation is harmonically dense, making a single guitar sound like four or more stacked guitar tracks, yet string-to-string definition remains crystal clear. The bass is massive, but it is easily tightly focused with the resonance control.
The included four-switch foot controller allows users to select individual channels and the effects loop with clickless, pop-free performance.
THE BOTTOM LINE While the EVH 5150 III 50-Watt EL34 head may cost less than half as much as its 100watt big brother, it’s an incredible value as it offers the same versatile variety of first-class tones in a much more compact package.
SOUNDCHECK
Gray’s Anatomy
GUITAR WORLD
GOLD AWARD P
ER
FORMANC
JACKSON PRO SERIES SOLOIST SL7 HT E
By Chris Gill
CURRENTLY OFFERING 32 different sevenstring guitar models, Jackson has positioned itself as a leading contender in the sevenstring market. All of Jackson’s seven-string models are solidbody guitars with metaland shred-oriented built-for-speed designs, so if that’s your specialty as well and you’re looking for a seven-string, chances are good that Jackson has exactly the model you need. For players who prefer a hardtail bridge, traditional (i.e. non-slanted or multiscale) fretboard, passive pickups and a nonextended scale length, Jackson’s Pro Series Soloist SL7 HT is a great choice. Priced right in the middle of Jackson’s seven-string range, it offers a great balance of value and pro features.
FEATURES The most distinctive feature of the Jackson SL7 HT is its body construction, which places a layer of ash with a distinctive transparent satin Charcoal Gray finish on top of a slab of mahogany. The single-piece maple neck extends all the way to the body’s heel for true neck-throughbody construction, but ash laminates on the sides and back give the body a consistent look. Neck features include a 25 ½-inch scale length, single-layer bound ebony fingerboard with a 12-to-16-inch compound radius and 24 jumbo frets, oiled finish and a slim, flat profile. The headstock features a pointed seven-in-line reverse design and single-layer binding.
CHEAT SHEET
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LIST PRICE: $1,319.71 MANUFACTURER: Jackson, jacksonguitars.com
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
The strings are solidly anchored in place thanks to die-cast locking tuning machines and the string-thru-body bridge. The master volume and master tone controls have black metal dome-style knobs, and a five-position blade switch provides instant access to a variety of full humbucking and split-coil tones from the pair of Seymour Duncan SH-6 7 pickups with uncovered coils and ceramic magnets. The pickups are direct mounted to the body for enhanced resonance and dynamics. PERFORMANCE Consistent with Jackson’s other Soloist models, the SL7 HT is a speed machine with a very fastplaying neck and controls perfectly placed for quick, easy access while remaining out of the way when playing. The neck is one of the most comfortable seven-string necks I’ve ever played, and despite having a very slim profile it feels rock solid. The high-output Duncan SH-6 humbuckers deliver remarkably clear and well-balanced sound. Thanks to treble and midrange emphasis with slightly rolled-back bass, the pickups allow the low B string to produce a brilliant, metallic clang rather than the deadened mush often encountered on seven-string guitars with nonextended scales. As a result, this SL7 HT sounds as good when played with a clean amp setting as it does when pushed to the brink with high-gain distortion.
The distinctive construction incorporates an ash top, mahogany body and single-piece maple neck that truly extends through the entire body.
A pair of Seymour Duncan SH-6 7 humbucking pickups deliver an ideal combination of highoutput punch and outstanding clarity.
THE BOTTOM LINE Jackson’s expertise in designing and building seven-string solidbody guitars really shines through in the Pro Series Soloist SL7 HT, which delivers outstanding tone and playability for a surprisingly affordable price.
THE NAME YOU TRUST FOR TAB You can’t always trust what you see online. Learn the right way with these authorized transcriptions!
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SOUNDCHECK
GUITAR WORLD
PLATINUM AWARD EX
CELLENCE
Double Trouble YAMAHA PACIFICA PAC611VFMX By Ch ris G ill
DUAL-PICKUP GUITARS FEATURING both humbucking and single-coil pickups first started appearing on the market during the Sixties. With a few exceptions, the most common configuration was to place the single-coil pickup at the bridge and the humbucker at the neck. But during the Eighties a handful of players like George Lynch and Warren DeMartini preferred to reverse that configuration, placing the single-coil at the neck and the humbucker at the bridge, which is ideal for hard rockers and blues players who prefer humbucker bridge tones but also need a full range of single-coil tones. More recently numerous guitarists, including Matt Bellamy, John 5, Lee Malia, Munky, Chris Robertson and others, have favored that setup as well, and now a few dozen guitar models offer this highly versatile pickup configuration as a standard feature, such as the Yamaha Pacifica PAC611VFMX reviewed here.
FEATURES The Yamaha Pacifica PAC611VFMX is a limited-edition model
76
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
offering several professional-quality upgrades and distinctive styling. Should you miss out on the limited-edition version, Yamaha also offers two other 611 models (the HFM and VFM) with slightly different features as well as the more affordable PAC311H. The main distinguishing features of the PAC611VFMX include a selection of matte finishes (translucent black, translucent blue or root beer) and an aluminum pickguard. Tonewood materials consist of an alder body with a maple top and flame maple laminate, maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. The bolt-on neck features 22 medium-jumbo frets, a 25 ½-inch scale length, 13 ¾-inch radius, shallow C-shaped profile and Graph Tech Black TUSQ nut. The chrome-plated hardware is high quality and includes Grover locking tuners, a Wilkinson VS-50 vibrato bridge and knurled dome-top knobs for the master volume and master tone/pushpull coil-split controls. A Seymour Duncan Custom 5 TB-14 Trembucker humbucking
pickup resides in the bridge position in a mounting ring, while the Seymour Duncan Vintage SP90-1n Alnico 5 neck single-coil pickup is direct-mounted to the body. A three-position blade pickup switch lets you select bridge, both or neck settings. Beyond that, the PAC611VFMX offers the classic Yamaha Pacifica asymmetrical double-cutaway design, with a deeply scooped treble cutaway and generous, comfortable belly and forearm contours. Also typical of Yamaha guitars is the meticulous attention to detail in all aspects of construction, from the tight-fitting neck pocket to the silky smooth fretwork. PERFORMANCE Although the Yamaha PAC611VFMX pairs a very high-output humbucker (our example’s TB-14 measured 14.4k ohms of resistance) with a vintage-output single-coil (the SP90-1n measured 7.6k ohms resistance), the volume output and character of each pickup is surprisingly well matched, with no noticeable drop in volume when switching from
Buzz Bin GUITAR WORLD
PLATINUM AWARD EX
CELLENCE
KHDK Electronics Ghoul Jr Overdrive
CHEAT SHEET
the bridge to the neck pickup. However, the TB-14 is pretty much dirty from the get-go, generating a slight amount of distortion even with my Friedman Pink Taco’s gain control completely at zero. At higher levels of amp gain, the TB-14 is very aggressive yet satisfyingly defined and clear, with a distinctive midrange that’s fat but never muddy. In contrast, the neck SP90-1n sounds big and round but with plenty of string “clang” and percussive snap that’s perfect for funk or ballsy blues solos. The guitar is a joy to play, but if you’ve ever played a Yamaha Pacifica guitar you probably already knew that. The neck provides just the right balance of slimness for speed with ample heft for rock-solid stability. The matte finish and aluminum pickguard are super-cool aesthetic upgrades, so if you prefer that look over the other Pacifica 611 models it’s completely worth the extra handful of bucks and effort to track down this limited-edition beauty.
LIST PRICE: $1,050 MANUFACTURER: Yamaha, usa.yamaha.com A Seymour Duncan TB-14 bridge humbucker and Seymour Duncan SP90-1n neck single-coil pickup provide a wide range of heavy and vintage tones. The matte finish and aluminum pickguard are exclusive features offered only on this limited-edition version of the Pacifica 611 model.
THE BOTTOM LINE With its very affordable street price and custom-shop-level construction, attention to detail and features, the Yamaha PAC611VFMX is a highly versatile axe that delivers the heaviest humbucker tones and dazzling vintage-style P90 action.
Of all the things in the world that aim to “Seek & Destroy,” I wasn’t expecting it to come from Kirk Hammett. No, I’m not talking about Metallica’s guitarist launching a heat-seeking missile toward my house (however some people might enjoy that), but I did receive an explosive overdrive from KHDK Electronics, fiendishly called the Ghoul Jr. And after plugging in, I must sincerely confess, this brand-new mini pedal comes pretty damn close to blowing your doors off in tone. KHDK Electronics is the brainchild of Hammett and David Karon (hence the KHDK acronym) and is fueled by Hammett’s passion for creating a line of kickass guitar pedals, which happen to be mostly dirt boxes of fuzz, distortion and overdrive, and the Ghoul Jr is their first mini pedal. When asked about his new creation, Hammett remarked that “Evil things come in small packages…” and while he might be right if he’s talking about certain dictators, the truth is the Ghoul Jr is less evil but far more wickedly good. The Ghoul Jr features controls for drive, volume and tone, plus two threeway mini-toggle switches for Voice and Style. It’s an extremely transparent overdrive that’s—oddly enough—sweetly voiced. I was expecting incendiary crunch but found that the Ghoul Jr excelled at creamy overdrive that cuts. What’s amazing is I didn’t even use the tone control because it didn’t color my amp’s settings. The Style switch offers three modes of gain, while Voice acts as a frequency switch. For the most amount of gain, putting both switches in the down position unleashes in-your-face aggression. But I found leaving both switches in the center makes the overdrive tone dynamically rich with harmonics that jump out. —Paul Riario
STREET PRICE: $149.95 MANUFACTURER: KHDK Electronics,
guitarworld.com
77
SOUNDCHECK
Electro-Harmonix SLAMMI PLUS
The Electro-Harmonix Slammi Plus is a polyphonic pitch shifter and harmony pedal that features glitch-free pitch shifting over a plus/minus three-octave range and the ability to transpose up, down or both simultaneously. The pedal has an 11-position Shift switch that selects the transposition interval, starting with Detune for a chorus or doubling effect, and includes the following: Minor 2nd, Major 2nd, Minor 3rd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, 1 Octave, 2 Octaves and 3 Octaves. The pedal’s Dual Mode outputs two separate pitch-shifted intervals simultaneously and provides 11 unique interval combinations. The Slammi Plus also features an X-Fade function where the pitch-shifted interval is fixed and cross-fades between a dry note and a pitch-shifted note or crossfades from one pitch-shifted interval to another. The Slammi Plus is fully polyphonic at all times and provides enhanced flexibility in setting the heel position’s pitch-shifted interval. The Blend control allows users to fine tune their wet/dry mix.
STREET PRICE $168 ehx.com
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GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
Ibanez
AVN11 ACOUSTIC GUITAR The Ibanez AVN11 acoustic guitar is part of Ibanez’s Artwood Vintage series, which borrows the best features from highly desired vintage instruments. The AVN11 has a parlor body shape and provides a fullbodied low-end and smooth sustain in the treble notes, which are common characteristics of vintage guitars. The acoustic features a Solid Caucasian Spruce top that is “Thermo Aged” through torrefaction, making the tone wood lighter, harder and more stable. The process approximates the tonal characteristics of wood that has dried for decades and provides dynamic response and a louder sound. The guitar also features a semi-gloss antique brown sunburst finish, mahogany back and sides, Thermo Aged Spruce X bracing, a mahogany satin finish “Soft-V” shape neck, Ovangkol bridge and fretboard with gold mother of pearl dot inlays, cream binding with herringbone purfling, bone nut and saddle, and antique nickel finish tuners with oval knobs.
LIST PRICE $749.99 ibanez.com
on tour 2018
the new album! available jan. 19 180 gram double vinyl digital download compact disc
2/01 2/02 2/03 2/05 2/06 2 /07 2/09 2/10 2/11 2/13 2/14 2/15 2/16 2/17 4/06 4/07 4/08 4/09 4/12 4/13 4/14 4/15 4/16 4/26 4/27 4/28
includes duets with jason isbell mark knopfler amanda shires jerry douglas rodney crowell jorma kaukonen david grisman jake shimabukuro ja ricky skaggs bryan sutton j.d. simo and more
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COLUMNS
By Jimmy Brown
THAT OLD FAMILIAR FEELING
The standard minor-drop progression IN THIS LESSON and the next, I’m going
to cover an old musical staple, a familiarsounding four-chord progression that has an endearing, poignantly sentimental quality that tugs on some people’s heart strings and has, with variations, been used and abused by many songwriters over the past 80 years, and I’ll present a variety of ways to play it on the guitar. We’ll start by identifying various incarnations of the progression and examples of its use in popular music, and in the next lesson, I’ll show you some fun ways to outline it melodically. The progression is called the minor drop, and like stock blues turnarounds and other familiar moves that countless songwriters have “borrowed,” it has become an enticingly useful musical cliché. It begins on a minor chord, the root note of which then descends, or “drops,” chromatically (one fret at a time) while the other chord tones remain stationary. (This is an example of what music theoreticians call oblique voice-leading.) The introductions to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” the Beatles’ “Michelle” and Tom Petty’s “Into the Great Wide Open” are wellknown examples of this signature move, performed in the keys of A minor, F minor and E minor, respectively. Other famous songs from the 20th century that incorporate the minor drop, in varying keys, in each instance used as part of a longer progression, are Pink Floyd’s “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” the old jazz standard “My Funny Valentine,” “This Masquerade” by Leon Russell, “Veronica” by Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life” and “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” “Gentle on My Mind” (famously covered by Glen Campbell), the Beatles’ “Something,” “All My Loving” and “Got to Get You Into My Life,” “Secret O’ Life” by James Taylor, the Bee Gees’ “You Should Be Dancing,” Emerson Lake and Palmer’s “C’est La Vie,” “Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce, “The Christmas Song” (“Chestnuts roasing...”) by Mel Tormé, “After the Lovin’ ” (popularized by singer Engelbert Humperdinck), “My Way” (famously covered by both Frank
80
For video of this lesson, go to GuitarWorld.com/Feb2018
STRING THEORY
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
Play each measure twice. The second time through, substitute the fifth chord for the fourth.
FIG. 1 1 full barre chords in A minor FIGURE Am
Am(maj7) Am7
5 5 5 7 7 5
T A B
5 5 5 6 7 5
with bass drop Am G#aug
(Am6 or D7)
5 5 5 5 7 5
5 5 5 4
5 7 5 7 5
5
5 5 5 7 7 5
FIGURE FIG. 2 2 open chords in A minor Am
Am(maj7) Am7
0 1 2 2 0
T A B
0 1 1 2 0
0 1 2 4 0
5 5 6
5 5 5
4
3
with bass drop Am G#aug
(Am6 or D7)
0 1 0 2 0
0 3 5 4 5
0 1 2 2 0
1 3 2 0
1 2 2 0
1 1 2 0
1 0 2 0
1 0 0 0 2 3
T A B
0 0 0 2
5 6 6 7 5
Em/D# Em/D (C#m7b5 or A7)
FIG. 4 4 key of E minor FIGURE Em
5 6 7 7 5
0 0 0 1
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 2 4
0 2 0 2 0
5 6 5
5 6 4
5
5
(F#m7b5 or D9/F#)
3
5 6 4 5
Sinatra and Elvis Presley) and, probably the “schmaltzy-est” love song ever, “Feelings” (recorded by singer Morris Albert). FIGURES 1–4 illustrate several sets of voicings and fingerings for the minor-drop progression, presented in the theory-friendly keys of A minor, E minor and D minor, with a few common variations included. It’s worth noting that, with the minor-drop progression, the names of the second, third and fourth chords depend on what the bass line does, meaning whether it stays on the initial minor chord’s root, as a pedal tone, beneath the chromatically descending line, resulting in a minor triad followed by a minor major-seven chord, a minor seven and then a minor six, respectively, or follows the descent, in which case there’s no acknowledgement of the original chord’s name in the subsequent ones, so you have a minor chord followed by an augmented triad a half step lower, then a second-inversion major triad and a minor seven flat-five chord. In either case, composers will oftentimes, after the first three chords, resolve the starting chord’s root note down a fifth (or up a fourth) to a major, dominant seven or dominant nine chord, with the fourth note of the
7
4
0 6
4
0
0 1 2 2
0 1 2 0
2
2
with bass drop Dm Dm/C# Dm/C (Bm7b5 or G7/B) 1 3 2 0
1 3 2
1 3 2
1 3 2
1 3 0
4
3
2
2
with bass drop and add2 Em(add2) D#aug(add#2) Gmaj7/D 0
5 5 5 4 5
2
0 1 0 2
4
Dm Dm(maj7) Dm7 (Dm6 or G7) Dm Dm(maj7) Dm7 (Dm6 or G9)
T A B
5 5 5 4
C/G
0 1 1 2
FIG. 3 3 key of D minor FIGURE
(F#m7b5 or D9)
C/G
0 5
4
0
0
C#m7b5 4
2
0
0
0
descending line becoming that chord’s major third. The D/Fs in the “Stairway” intro is a prime example of this move. A common and effective use of the minor drop is to apply it to the ii (two) minor chord in a major key and use it as a means of prolonging and decorating a ii-V-I (twofive-one) progression, which is how it’s employed in “Gentle on My Mind,” “My Way” and both Stevie Wonder songs cited earlier (It also works with the minor iii and vi chords). And it’s also common to change direction after the third chord and backtrack to the minor major-seven, which many people find to be the most intriguing and bittersweet-sounding chord in the progression. “I Just Called to Say I Love You” and “You Should Be Dancing” are two examples of songs in which this retrograde move occurs. Try transposing these sets of voicings that don’t include any open strings, to other keys and positions, to expand your musical vocabulary and working knowledge of chords and fretboard shapes. Next time, I’ll show you some fun, shred-y ways to arpeggiate the minor-drop progression that work well with distortion.
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
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COLUMNS
by Andy Aledort
DRONE, IF YOU WANT TO
Using open-string drones in melodies
IN THE PREVIOUS two columns, we investigated the use of open-string drones as an element in the presentation of a solo or melodic line. In these examples, the rearticulated, ringing open string serves as the tonic—the home key, or the “one”—and sets the harmonic environment and intervallic relationship to all of the other notes in the line. The open low E and A strings are often used as drones, facilitating the use of the higher strings for melody playing. Although the G string is situated in the “middle of the pack,” its use as an open-string drone is very distinct and has a great sound quality. One reason for this is that it serves to create the impression of open G tuning, a staple of acoustic and electric blues music. Because the open-string drone concept is so appropriate for blues-type playing, and we’re utilizing the open G string as our tonic, let’s look at the blues-approved G Mixolydian mode (G A B C D E F) played on all the other strings besides the G. FIGURE 1 illustrates G Mixolydian played up and down the high E string. Notice that it’s articulated with hammer-ons, finger slides, pull-offs and vibratos, in order to establish the typical manner by which blues guitarists will move through this scale when soloing. FIGURE 2 illustrates G Mixolydian ascending the B string. Memorize this pattern and then practice it in descending form as well, incorporating pull-offs and slides in order to achieve a legato (smooth and connected) phrasing feel. FIGURES 3-5 show the G Mixolydian mode played on the D, A and low E strings, respectively. Memorize these patterns too and practice both ascending and descending. A great way to create a bluesy open-G– like sound is to play melodic lines and patterns on a given string while simultaneously sounding the open G string as a drone, or pedal tone. In FIGURE 6, I employ hybrid picking—the combination of fingerpicking and flatpicking—to simultaneously sound ascending and descending phrases on the high E string while also sounding the open G. Use the plectrum to strike the G string and pluck the notes on the high E string with your middle or ring finger.
82
For video of this lesson, go to GuitarWorld.com/Feb2018
IN DEEP
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
FIGURE FIG. 1 1 G Mixolydian, 1st string
0 1 3 5 7 8 10 12
1
3
5
6
8 10 12
14
0
1
19 21
3
3
1
3
0
0
0
5
7
1
8 10
12
8
0
!
0 1 3
0
2
3
5
7
9
10
0
2
3
5
6
3
0
0
7
8
10
12
12
14
!
15 17
19 20
FIG. 6 6 q = 102 FIGURE N.C.(G)
13
1/4
3
FIGURE FIG. 3 3 G Mixolydian, 4th string
13 15 17 18 20
FIGURE FIG. 5 5 G Mixolydian, 6th string
FIGURE FIG. 4 4 G Mixolydian, 5th string
!
15 17
13 12 10 8 7 5 3 1
!
FIGURE FIG. 2 2 G Mixolydian, 2nd string 0
13 15 17 19 20 19 17 15
1
!
15 17
19 20 1/2
3
6
6
3
0
0
0
0
5 0
3 0
1
let ring throughout 1/2
1
3
0
3
0
0
1
0
1/2
3
3
0
6
3
0
0
0
1/2
12 12 10 8 0
3
0
6
3
0
0
FIG. 7 7 FIGURE
q = 84 N.C.(G)
let ring throughout * 1/2
12 12 0
12 10 8 0
* 1/2
6 0
8
5 0
5
3 0
1
* 1/2
0
15 17 15 13 12 12 12 0 0 0
3 0
12 10 8 0
*pull string in toward palm
6 0
8 10 8 0 0
0 0 10 0 14 /
0 8 0
FIGURE FIG. 8 8 q = 84 N.C.(G)
1/2
0 9
0 0 0 0 0 12 12 12 10 12 10 9 7
/0
0 7
9
1/2
5
1/2
0 9
9
0 3
5
0 7 5
0 2
2
0 3 2
2
1/2
0 2
0 0
2
0 5
0 " 5
0 7
1/2
0 2
2
3
Now let’s apply this concept to melodic lines played on all of the other strings. In FIGURE 6, half-step bends are used to add flavor to the line. In FIGURE 7, with melodies played on the B string, perform the halfstep bends by pulling the string in toward your palm, away from the open G string, so as to not bump into it. In FIGURE 8, a melodic
0 3
0
0 2
0 0
0 0
0 8 10
5
line is played on the D string, and these halfstep bends must be performed by bending the strings in an upward manner, by pushing the string away from the open G string. Now that you’re familiar with this approach, try inventing some lines of your own on the A and low E strings while simultaneously sounding the open G-string drone.
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.
LESSONS
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by Mike Orlando of Adrenaline Mob
THE FAST LANE
A tribute to the great Shawn Lane
A HUGE MUSICAL influence of mine is
Shawn Lane, one of the greatest guitarists ever, who sadly left us at the age of 40. Shawn inspired me to develop licks and patterns along the lines of his distinct approach, oftentimes comprised of drum-like patterns based on specific poly-rhythms and syncopations, executed with mindboggling speed. FIGURE 1 is a good example of a Shawn Lane–type lick. It’s based on the D minor pentatonic (D F G A C) and D blues scales (D F G Af A C) and performed with fast alternate picking. The lick is phrased in a steady sequence of sextuplets, or six-note groups, with six notes played on each beat in a descending contour. Two notes are played on each string as I steadily move across the fretboard. Another element to the articulation of the lick is that I like to rake into the first note of each beat, which means that I drag the pick across fret-hand-muted lower strings before striking the target note. When playing fast descending sequences like this, I’ll often barre my index finger across a given fret, in this case the 10th, which serves as an anchor as I move across the strings from high to low. The finger isn’t actually barred in a conventional way; instead, I keep it in that position throughout but only apply fretting pressure against the strings when needed. FIGURE 2 offers a twist on this idea: I begin with a reverse incarnation of FIGURE 1, moving instead from low to high strings in steady sextuplets, and in the second half of the phrase, I descend back down the scale in alternating descending groups of three. Another twist is provided via the “chicken pickin’” technique employed here, as I repeatedly pluck the highest string in each three-note group with my middle finger, followed by a picked downstroke on the adjacent lower string. FIGURE 3 is another Shawn Lane–inspired run, this time based on a steady progression of 32-note patterns, each of which descends in four-note groups while also shifting up the fretboard in whole-tone (two-fret) increments. Once again, the lick is performed with alternate picking throughout, so start slowly and gradually build up speed, striving for clear, precise articulation.
84
For video of this lesson, go to GuitarWorld.com/Feb2018
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
Tune down one whole step (low to high, D G C F A D).
FIG. 1 1 FIGURE
x x
N.C.(D5)
13 10
13 10
13
3
10
10 12
13 10 13 10
10 12
10 12
10 12
12 10
12 10
12
10
12 10 12 10
12 10
10
3
!
13 10
10
6
10 12
10 12
10 13
12 10 12 10
3
10 13
10 12
6
6
3 3 3 *hybrid picking: pick w/finger
3 1
97
3 1
3 1
97
12
10
12 10
3
13 10
10 13
3
3 1
3
3 1
3 1
3
3
1
5 3
3 1
5 3
5 3
3
1
5
5
13 13 13 11
6
5
7
3
10 10
7 7
1715
7 5
1715
7 5
1715
7
7
5
13 11
9
5
7 5
1715
19
9
9
15 13
9 9
7 7
7
9
7
6
17 17 17 15
6
7 7 10 10
7
6
15 15 15 13
6
N.C.(Bm)
7 7 10 10
3
6
11 9
7 5
5 3
sim.
5
6
FIGURE FIG. 5 5
3 1
11 9 11 9 1311 1311 1513 1513 97 11 9 11 9 1311 1311 1513 1513
11 11 11 9
12 10
6
FIG. 4 4 FIGURE
12 10
N.C.
97
12 10
6
6
*
FIGURE FIG. 3 3
sim.
13 10
6
10 12
10 13
13 10
12 10
N.C.(D5)
13 10
6
FIG. 2 2 FIGURE
13 10 x
17 15
19
6
7 7 9 9
9 9
7 7
7 7 9 9
9 9
7 7
7
7
9
9
10
10
7
7
7
FIGURE 4 offers a cool variation, in which the first note is picked repeatedly before descending the remainder of the pattern. FIGURE 5 is also based on alternatepicked 32nd notes, this time with each note
7
10
10
5
5
7
7
5
7 !
in the pattern double-picked, as I descend the B minor pentatonic scale (B D E Fs A). I highly recommend checking out Shawn’s masterful playing on his solo albums and many guest appearances.
Mike Orlando is the lead guitarist and a founding member of heavy metal powerhouse Adrenaline Mob. Their new album, We the People, is out now via Century Media.
LESSONS
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COLUMNS
MOB RULES
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Marc Eric Nashville Guitarist/Singer Songwriter/Producer
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CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
1
11/30/17
10:21 AM
by Mike Dawes
some specific, intricate rhythmic ideas, as presented in a composition of mine called “Fortress,” featured on my latest release, Era. I wrote this piece while living in Northern Ireland, and it’s very much inspired by the music of that country, as well as its landscape and people, and the political climate that was present there in the Seventies. “Fortress” is essentially a slow Celtic ballad in 6/8 meter, with a waltz-like vibe. Underneath the fingerpicked chordal and melodic elements is a “kick drum” pattern that I perform by slapping my pick-hand palm against the face of the guitar. The percussive pattern of this palm accent is a bit odd, as, in isolation, it’s played in a rhythm of 7/8, while the fingerpicked pattern is performed in a 6/8 meter. The odd juxtaposition of rhythms is intended to compositionally imply an air of unrest, akin to that for which the region is known. Let’s first address the melodic elements of the piece. First, my guitar is once again in DADGAD tuning (low to high, D A D G A D), and I’m using a capo at the fourth fret. All notes and chords sound two whole steps higher than written, with the instrument thought of in “transposing” terms, meaning that while the open sixth string actually sounds a concert-pitch Fs note, we will think of it as D, as if we weren’t using a capo. The most effective way to learn this part is to first focus on the strict singlenote melody, and then bring in the lower notes that serve to indicate the harmony, or chordal references. Unlike some of my other compositions that incorporate the use of polyrhythms that eventually sync up, that’s not the case here, as the melodic lines are presented in differing rhythmic contexts four times while the “kick drum” pattern continues throughout. This makes the part somewhat difficult to learn, but it’s a great exercise in thinking about one time signature, in this case 6/8, while muscle memory will take care of the other, 7/8.
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
N.C.(D)
2
let ring throughout 0 4 2 0 0 0
0
2 0 20
0
4
0
0 2
024040
0 2 0
0
0
0
2
4 2
0
FIG. 22 FIGURE
D
fingerpick let ring throughout 0 04 2 0 0 02 0 20 0 0 0 4 5
FIGURE FIG. 33
D
D/C#
G/B
Gmaj7
let ring throughout 0 24 4 2 0 0 02 02 0 2 2 0 0 0 4 4 2 0 5 3
FIG. 44 FIGURE
D
0 42 0
D/C#
G/B
let ring throughout
0
2
4
2 0 2 4
0
0
0
2
0
0 00 0
Gmaj7
-
*
0
20
0 20
3 *Hit face of gtr. w/pick-hand palm.
2 5
0 2 4 0 4 0 5 A
2 0
D/E
0 00 0 5 4
In FIGURE 1, I present the melodic line as it is performed the first time through: notice the incorporation of hammer-ons and pull-offs, which serve to emulate the sound of Celtic instruments and Celtic music overall. In FIGURE 2, I introduce a low D bass note into the pattern in order to lay down the harmonic backdrop of the home key of D (concert pitch Fs). This steady root note fortifies the Celtic feel in a way that brings to mind bagpipes, which always feature a steady drone note accompanying with the melody. Now, in FIGURE 3, I’ve added some harmonizing to the melodic lines, which serves to add depth to the harmony while also creating a more substantial melodic statement and changing some of the bass notes under the melody. With these new
A
0
0 2 0
0
0
D/F#
0 2 4 0 4 0 0 0 0 2
D/E
4
D/F#
0 0 0 2 0 2 4 4 0 0 0
2
2
4
0
4 5 4 2
0
G
0
0
D
A7
D
5
G
-
0 0 5
A7 4 2 5 4 0
0 2 0 0
0
4 2 5 4 0
2 0
0
bass notes, a chord progression is alluded to that adds even more depth to the composition. Work in these new bass notes and melodic harmony notes carefully, so that they will fall on the appropriate beats with precision. Once you have this figure down, it’s time to bring in the percussive kick drum pattern, illustrated in FIGURE 4: In bar 1, the accents fall on the second eighth note of beat one and the 16th-note upbeat of the fifth eighth note in the bar, as well as the downbeat of the final eighth note. As you play through the remaining four bars, you’ll see that these kick drum accents shift continually to different places in the bar. I recommend that you slowly and diligently add these accents as you play through the four-bar example.
Mike Dawes is a British guitarist and touring musician, hailed as one of the world’s most creative fingerstyle performers. His new album, Era (Qten Records), is available now. For more information, visit mikedawes.co.uk.
L A R RY D I M A R Z I O
IN THIS COLUMN, I’d like to present
FIGURE FIG. 1 1
The influence of Celtic music on my acoustic playing
Tune to D A D G A D (low to high: D A D G A D). Capo at 4th fret. All music sounds two whole steps higher than written. All tab numbers are relative to the capo.
CELTIC CADENCES
86
For video of this lesson, go to GuitarWorld.com/Feb2018
COLUMNS
WOOD VIBRATIONS
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NOTATION GUIDE GUITAR WORLD ’ S MOST COMMONLY USED TABL ATURE SYMBOLS “tablature clef” time signature whole notes (held for four beats) N.C.(E)
*string 1 2 3 4 5 6
quarter notes (held for one beat each) let ring E
half notes (held for two beats each) D
A
2 3 2 0
2 2 2 0
0
2
2
0
0 0 1
*String 1 is the thinnest string, 6 is the thickest. Numbers on the lines indicate frets (0 = open strings). eighth notes C
“1
count
1
0
2
3
2
eighth eighth 16th rest note notes 2
count: “1
and
3
and
and
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
ee and uh 3 ee and uh
3 3 0 0 2 3
and
2
and
1
4
and
2 2 0
and
1
2
count: “1 and 2
4”
3
2 0
1
3
and
4
ee and
2 2 2 0
2 2 0
and uh
pull-off
0
2
2 2 0
1
2
1
0
2
ee and
3
3
3
15
4”
*pre-bend and release (“reverse bend”) full
14
3
4” count: “1
*natural harmonics N.H.
7 7
12
15
full
15
15
and
1
full
8
2
2
*pinch harmonic (note fretted)
palm muting (picking hand) E5
P.H.
P.M.
*Harmonic sounded by picking hand.
trill (quick succession of hammer-ons and pull-offs)
staccato (short) notes
and 4
3
(8)
2 0
3
4
*Bend string before picking.
*
2 0
2 0
2 0
2 0
5 5 3
2 0
X X X
*
X X X
X X X
X X X
7 7
tremolo picking
0
2
3
5
10
7
9
3
*
88
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
X X X
X X X
X X X
X X X
sweep picking (“raking”)
(9)
7
5 5 3
*Loosen grip on strings so that they no longer touch the fretboard.
*
7
8
fret-hand muting G5
5
*Lightly touch string directly over fret, then pick.
7
4”
tie
grace-note slide 12
3
7
and
12
and
legato slide
grace-note bend
vibrato
2 2 0
hammer-on
15
5
3
half rest
full
(7)
2
2 2 0
3 3 0 0 2 3
full
12
2 2 2 0
and 3 and 4 and 1 *Don’t rearticulate notes in parentheses.
bend and release in time (whole-step bend)
12
2
*tied rhythms
count: “1
3
dotted quarter note
2
3 3 0 0 2 3
(7)
4
16th rest
dotted quarter note G
7
0
0
2
and
quarter rest
dotted half note (held for three beats) A
G/B
8
7
7
= downstroke
8
9
10
3
= upstroke
Notation Guide 1
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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PERFORMANCE NOTES
•••
HOW TO PLAY THIS MONTH ’S SONGS • • •
“SPIT OUT THE BONE” Metallica
A KEY ELEMENT of Metallica’s meaty, powerful-sounding rhythm guitar parts in this song (and others) lies in guitarists James Hetfield’s and Kirk Hammett’s use of palm muting. Indicated in the tablature by the abbreviation “P.M.,” the technique involves resting the fleshy, outer edge of your pick hand’s palm against the strings as you pick, with the hand positioned just forward of and slightly in contact with the guitar’s bridge. As the amount of pressure you apply to the strings with the palm greatly affects the sound and duration of the muted notes, beginning players should spend time experimenting with palm placement and varying degrees of pressure when attempting to match the sound of Hetfield and Hammett’s notes on the recording. If your guitar has a floating, Floyd Rose–style tremolo bridge (as Hammett’s does), note that you’ll need to be extra careful not to position your palm beyond the bridge’s string saddles. This is because, any further back, the pressure applied from the palm mute will likely push down on the floating bridge, causing all the strings to go sharp in pitch, which you don’t want to happen!
“ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK”
Bill Haley & His Comets STACCATO DOTS appearing above certain tablature numbers in this transcription indicate where lead guitarist Danny Cedrone employed fret-hand muting to create the short, poppy chord rhythms featured throughout the verse sections of this classic song and recording. To recreate these staccato articulations, simply lift your fingers off the fretboard immediately following each strum, but only just enough to stop the strings from vibrating. Don’t lift your fingers off the strings, as doing so would likely result in the sounding of unwanted open-string pull-offs. As you study this chart, refer to the recording often and listen to how long, or short, the various chords need to ring before performing each fret-hand mute.
“MOTHERLESS CHILDREN” Eric Clapton
THE BEST WAY to play through “Motherless Children” from start to finish is to follow Eric Clapton’s lead and wear your slide on your pinkie. Doing so will leave three fret-hand fingers available to form the various chord shapes he plays and is all but required to perform the G/D or A/E barré chords in the song’s verse and chorus sections!
To best reproduce the sound of Hammett’s solo licks featured in this song, keep a close eye out for such legato phrasing techniques as hammer-ons, pull-offs and finger slides. These are all represented in the tablature by solid, curved lines, called “slurs,” that arc over two or more different tab numbers on the same line (string). You only pick the first note of a slur, with the following note sounded by either a pull-off (see beat one of bar 93, for example) or a hammer-on (see beat one of bar 97, Gtrs. 1 and 2), depending on the note direction. A slur accompanied by a straight diagonal line between the two tab numbers indicates that you slide the first note’s fretting finger up or down to the following note, as in bars 74 and 104.
Cedrone fingers the first half of his fiery, groundbreaking guitar solo by planting his index finger on the B string’s fifth-fret E note and using his ring finger and pinkie to alternately interject the higher Fs and G notes at the seventh and eighth frets, respectively. Although he does occasionally lift his index finger off the string to sound the open B note (see the end of bars 21, 22, and 24), Cedrone largely keeps his hand “glued” to the fifth fret during the entire first four bars of the solo. Cedrone performed his blistering 16thnote rhythms in bars 21–24 using downup alternate picking. Strive to sync your downstrokes to each downbeat. In other words, make sure you down-pick the notes that fall on the first and third 16th-note of each beat. Incidentally, Cedrone was paid $21 for the “Rock Around the Clock” session. A little over two months later, he died after falling down a staircase, never understanding the effect his guitar solo would have on the next few decades of popular music. He was replaced by guitarist Franny Beecher.
For those of you new to playing with a slide, be aware that you should position it directly over the metal fret indicated in the tab, not behind it, where you would normally press down on the string with your finger when fretting a note. And to achieve accurate intonation (pitch centering), try to position the slide so that it is parallel to the fret. It’s also crucial that you mute any un-played strings, as this will help eliminate, or at least minimize, unwanted noise and overtones caused by sympathetic string vibrations that can occur as you drag the slide over the strings. This muting action can be achieved by simply resting your pickhand’s palm on the lower strings as you play. Finally, when holding a slide note, it may help to wiggle the slide back and forth over the fret to create a vibrato, which can go a long way toward masking any imperfections in note intonation while making the guitar sing. Slide playing works best on a guitar with moderate to high action (string height) at both the bridge and nut. With low action, it’s all too easy for the slide to “clack” against the fretboard, resulting in excessive string buzz. Guitarists who frequently play with a slide often prefer to have a separate guitar specifically set up with higher action for slide playing, as a good slide setup is not always ideal for conventional playing, and vice versa, although players like Warren Haynes are masters at adapting and adjusting their touch to both slide and nonslide playing on the same guitar.
—JEFF PERRIN
—JEFF PERRIN
—JEFF PERRIN
90
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
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Jimmy Eat World - with the OM7 Dynamic Vocal Microphone
TRANSCRIPTIONS
SPIT OUT THE BONE Metallica
As heard on HARWIRED... TO SELF-DESTRUCT Words and music by JAMES HETFIELD AND LARS ULRICH • Transcribed by JEFF PERRIN
F#5
G5
A5
B¨5
F5
5fr
14
14
C#5/G#
14
E5/B
4fr
B5
D5
D5/A 5fr
14
B¨5
14
C5
1
Em
14
G5
5fr
14
Dsus2
1133
E5
A5
7fr
1133
A
E5
6fr
7fr
1133
13
14
23
2
34
13
14
1
Intro (0:00) Moderately q = 166 (w/double-time feel on repeat) F#5 G5
N.C.(E5)
N.C.(E5)
G5
A5
5 3
7 5
3
5
Gtrs. 1 and 2 (elec. w/dist.)
1
P.M.
0
P.M.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4 2
5 3
0
2
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5-string Bass Bass Fig. 1
0
0
0
0
0
0
N.C.(E5)
F#5
G5
P.M.
3
0
0
0
0
N.C.(E5)
0
0
F#5
G5
F#5
G5
A5
4 2
5 3
4 2
5 3
7 5
2
3
2
3
5
P.M.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4 2
5 3
0
0
0
0
end Bass Fig. 1 0
0
0
N.C.(E5)
0
0
F#5 G5
Gtrs. 1 and 2
5
P.M.
4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
0
N.C.(E5)
2
3
0
0
G5 A5
P.M.
5 3
5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
N.C.(E5)
F#5 G5
P.M.
7 5
4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
5 3
Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 (see bar 1)
92
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
“SPIT OUT THE BONE” WORDS AND MUSIC BY JAMES HETFIELD AND LARS ULRICH COPYRIGHT © 2016 CREEPING DEATH MUSIC (GMR) INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT SECURED ALL RIGHTS RESERVED REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD LLC
“SPIT OUT THE BONE”
N.C.(E5)
F#5
Gtrs. 1 and 2 P.M. 8
0
G5
F#5
G5
1.
A5
(end double-time feel)
(w/slight N.H.)
0
0
4 2
0
5 3
4 2
5 3
7 5
0
7 5
Bass 0
B
2.
0
2
3
2
3
5 !
5
X X
0
0
7 5
7 5
5 !
*pick scrape
P.M.
X
*Gtr. 2 only
5 !
(0:28)
(q = 162) N.C.(E5) 12 P.M.
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Bass Fig. 2
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Gtrs. 1 and 2 Rhy. Fig. 1 16 P.M.
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
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
1. P.M.
*
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10
P.M.
12 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
9
P.M.
10 0 0 0 0
9 10
*
P.M.
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10
12 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
9
10
9 10
10
12
Bass plays Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 12)
2.
A5
Gtrs. 1 and 2 20 P.M.
0
0
*
0
0
C
9
4 2
10
B¨5
A5
P.M.
5 3
7 5
4 2
5 3
7 5
8 6
7 5
*Gtr. 1 only
Bass 0
F#5 G5 A5
P.M.
0
0
0
2
3
5
2
3
5
6
5
G5 A5 F5
E5
P.M.
**
N.H.
0
0
*Notes played by Gtr. 1 only.
5 3
7 5
3 1
Gtr. 1
2 0
(Gtrs. 1 and 2)
X X
3.2
**Let Gtr. 2 ring into next bar. pitch: B
3
5
1
! 0
0 !
(0:57, 1:48)
(q = 166) (w/double-time feel) N.C.(E5) Gtrs. 1 and 2 play Rhy. Fig. 1 (see bar 12)
Bass Bass Fig. 3 25
0
0
0
(repeat previous bar)
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
3
2
3
5
guitarworld.com
93
TRANSCRIPTIONS Gtrs. 1 and 2 P.M.
29
0
P.M.
0
0
0
0
0
0
10
0
12
0
P.M.
0
0
0
0
0
0
9
0
10
0
0
0
9
0
10
Bass plays first two bars of Bass Fig. 3 (see bar 25)
F#5 G5
Gtrs. 1 and 2 P.M.
31
0
P.M.
0
0
0
D
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
F#5 G5
12
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
9
0
0
10
2
3
4 2
5 3
7 5
2
3
5
A5
P.M.
4 2
5 3
7 5
2
3
5
Verses (1:09, 2:00)
(q = 170)
1. Come 2. Plug
B5 Rhy. Fig. 2 34
10
0
A5
P.M.
B5 36
unto into
me me
and I
you will guarantee
perfection devotion
feel
D5
P.M.
4 2
2
2
2
2
2
7
7
7
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
7
7
7
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
7
7
7
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
7
7
7 5
Bass Fig. 4 7
7
Come unto Plug into
7
7
me me
7
7
and dedicate and dedicate
D5
P.M.
4 2
2 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
7 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 5
7
7
7 7 7
7
never save you
7
7
7 7 7
feel rejection from emotion
D5
7
G5
39 P.M.
7 7 7
Come unto Plug into
7
7
7 7
5
G5
7
7
Come unto Plug into
me me
You’ll I’ll
P.M.
5 3
3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3
3
3 3 3
me me
and and
3
3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
5 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3
terminate terminate
D5/A end Rhy. Fig. 2
P.M.
7 5
5
7 5 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 5
7 5 5
end Bass Fig. 4 3
94
3
3 3 3
3
3
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
3 3
5
3
3
3 3 3
3
3
3 3 3
3
3
3 3 3
5
5
“SPIT OUT THE BONE”
Remove your heart It’s only Accelerate Utopian
B5 Gtrs. 1 and 2 play Rhy. Fig. 2 (see bar 34)
4 2
Gtr. 3 (elec. w/dist.) (2nd Verse only) 42
0
Bleeding through your fragile the Earth Finally cure B5
good for bleeding solution D5
&2
0 4
4
2
7
7
7
7
5
5
5
5
0
46
Remove your thought ’cause it’s only for deceiving Exterminate speeding up the evolution G5
0
0
5 3
E
5
5
3
3
X X X
X X X
9
thoughts destroy within course a master plan D5/A
0
12
5
11
9
0
7
0
11
9
Deceiving Set on D5 G5
D5
0
11
Bass plays Bass Fig. 4 (see bar 34)
skin of man
10
12
14
14
10
12
12
Chorus (1:31, 2:22, 6:33)
(q = 166)
(1., 3.) Disappear (2.) Reinvent
like
man was never here earth inhabitant N.C.
the
F#5 Gtr. 3 plays Fill 1 second time (see below) Gtr. 3 plays Fill 4 third time (see below) Gtrs. 1 and 2 P.M. 50 4 2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
F#5
F5 N.C.(E5) F5
* N.H.
2
2
0 !
2
F#5
P.M.
15
4 2
F5 N.C.(E5) F5
P.M.
3 1
0 0
3 1
4 2
3 1
0 0
3 1
1
0
1
2
1
0
1
*Produce random natural harmonics while sliding finger up string and performing 16th-note tremolo picking.
Bass 2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Long live machine E5
2
P.M.
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
4 2
2
3 1
(F#5)
0 11 9
2
1
0
3 1
1
4 2
2
3 1
1
0 0
0
3 1
1
Fill 4 (6:33) Gtr. 3
0 11 9
F#5 F5 N.C.(E5) F5 F#5 F5 N.C.(E5) F5
P.M.
0 0
Fill 1 (2:22)
Gtr. 3
2
The future supreme F#5 F5 N.C.(E5) F5 F#5 F5N.C.(E5) F5 E5
P.M.
53
2
w/bar
(F#5)
-1½
0 0 0 12 12
12 12
12 12
(to slack)
guitarworld.com
95
TRANSCRIPTIONS
(2nd time end double-time feel) Man overthrown E5
1., 3.
1st time, go back to C (bar 25) 2nd time (3rd ending), skip ahead to R Outro (bar 168)
Spit out the bone Gtr. 1 plays Fill 2 first time F#5 F5 N.C.(E5) F5 F#5 F5 N.C.(E5) F5 E5 (see below) Gtr. 1 plays Fill 3 second time (see below)
2 0
0
2.
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0 0 0
0
0
the
Spit out E5
2 0
2 0
2 0
2 0
0
0 0
1
3 1
0
1
4 2
3 1
2
0 0
1
0
0
0
3 1
pitch: A
0 !
6 6 4 4
6 6 4 4
5
7 7 7
5
5
7
7
5 7 7 7 7
5
5
7
5
7
5 7 7 7 7
5
5
7
5
7
4
4
4
4
C#5/G#
5
7 7 7
5
7
5
7
8
7
Fill 2 (1:46)
Gtr. 1
96
6 6 4 4
Bass Fig. 5 5
(E5)
8
7
5
7
5
5
7 7 7
5
5
7
5
Fill 3 (6:47)
Gtr. 1
0 12 12
5
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
15
(E5)
13 !
Bass
6 6 4 4
C#5/G#
E5/B
9 9 7 7
6 6 4 4
Bass
Gtrs. 1 and 2 69
0 !
Bass Interlude (2:41) E5 Gtrs. 1 and 2 play Rhy. Fig. 3 (see bar 61)
5
17
2 0
1
(2.1)
C#5/G#
Bass
F
2
3 1
2 0
0 0 0
4 2
2.1
-1/2
bone
Gtrs. 1 and 2 Rhy. Fig. 3 61 P.M.
65
w/bar
Gtr. 2 N.H.
57
w/fdbk.
13 ! pitch: C
7
4
6 6 4 4
6 6 4 4
6 6 4 4
4
4
4
“SPIT OUT THE BONE”
G
(2:59)
(q = 172) (w/double-time feel) N.C.(E5)
73
5
5 7 7 7 7
1/4
5
C#5/G#
1/4
5
7
7
7
8
7
5
7
8
7
5
7
5
5
5 7 7 7 7
5
7
5
6 6 4 4
7
6 6 4 4
Bass plays Bass Fig. 5 simile (see bar 69)
E5/B
C#5/G#
Gtrs. 1 and 2 77 9 9 7 7
9 9 7 7
9 9 7 7
5
7
6 6 4 4
5
5
3
5
2
Bass 5
5
5
5
E5/B
6 6 4 4
6 6 4 4
6 6 4 4
2
2
2
2
2
5
5
1/4
5
7
7
G5
Gtrs. 1 and 2 Rhy. Fig. 4 85
H
89
8
7
7
5
8
7
7
7
E5
5
7
5
5 7 7 7 7
N.C.(E5) G5
5
5
7
5
7
6 6 4 4
7
5
7
7
5
5
5 3
5 3
5
3
3
Bridge (3:32) N.C.(E5)
3
7
5
7
5
E5
N.C.(E5) G5
6 6 4 4
6 6 4 4
(end double-time feel) N.C.(E5) G5 E5
E5
P.M.
2 0
0
0
5
5
5
Bass Fig. 6
5
C#5/G#
N.C.(E5)
3
6 6 4 4
Bass plays Bass Fig. 5 simile (see bar 69)
Bass
1/4
5 7 7 7 7
5
6 6 4 4
C#5/G#
N.C.(E5)
Gtrs. 1 and 2 81
6 6 4 4
The flesh We lay N.C.(E5)
G5
7
5
7
5
5 3
5 3
3
3
2 0
5
Your man Machined
betrays the flesh him down to rest G5
5
3
7
5
7
5
7
5
7
5
has had his time the new divine
F#5
5 3
5 3
4 2
3
3
2
guitarworld.com
97
TRANSCRIPTIONS
I
1st Guitar Solo (3:44) (w/double-time feel) N.C.(E5) G5 E5 Gtrs. 1 and 2 play Rhy. Fig. 4 four times (see bar 85)
G5
E5
Gtr. 3 w/wah pedal 93 3
2
0
2
0
2
0
0
2
Bass plays Bass Fig. 6 four times (see bar 85)
G5 12 12
12 12
12 12
14
N.C.(G5)
12 12
14 14
12
N.C.(G5)
15
B¨5
5
Gtrs. 1 and 2
5
5 !
5
P.M.
5 !
3
3
3
3
1
3
3
3
3
3 1
3 1
1
1
B¨5
5
1
3
3
3
5 3
3
3
3
3
5
5
1
5
5
5
P.M.
3 1
1
D5 1
5
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
5 3
3
3
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
0 3 3
3
P.M.
1
14
P.M.
3
5 3
3
3
3
3
3
14
14
A5 1
1
5
5
1
5
5
5
3
1
3
3
3
3
7 5
3
3
3
3
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
+2½
*pull bar up
3 3
1
1
5
5
P.M.
3 3
0 3 3
(pick scrape)
3
12 12
E5
1/4
P.M.
C5 1
12 12
2
2
E5
5
Bass
98
12
P.M.
1
1
N.C.(G5)
14
(trem. pick)
5
0
3
1
5
0
2
G5
14
B¨5
Gtr. 3 97
100
0
2
E5
1/4
95
0
3 3
3 3
5
5
5
(wah off) 0
5
0
*Gradually pull bar up until strings “fret out” (approx. +2½ steps high)
0
X !
5 !
5 !
7 5
“SPIT OUT THE BONE”
J
(3:57)
E5
Gtr. 3 103
9
0
N.C.(G5)
9
9
9 7 7 9 7 5 7
10
10 9
9
0
9
9
9
5
2 0
3
Gtr. 2 Rhy. Fig. 5
P.M.
Bass 0
0
0 0 0
7
5
7 7
5
5 7
5
(play 4 times) X 4 4 G4
4
5
5
3
3
10
(play 4 times)
10
0 12
12 12 10
(play 4 times)
5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 P.M.
5
(play 4 times)
3 3 3 3
3
3
3 3 3
5 5 5 5
3
5
5
5
5
5
(4:19)
Stop Stop
and and
breathing dreaming
Gtr. 1 107 0 0 0 2 2 0
0 0
0 0 0
0
All All Gtr. 1
111
dedicate terminate G5
0
0 0 0
0
3
meaning feelings
let ring throughout 0 0 0 2 2 0
Bass plays Bass Fig. 8 (see bar 107)
0
0 !
me) me)
0
3 3 3
You You
0
to for
0 3 2 0
3
(Dedicate (Terminate Dsus2
me me
3 3 0 0
Em Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 5 (see bar 103)
0
to for
0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0
Bass Bass Fig. 8
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
0
Em Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. 5 (see bar 103)
7 9
P.M.
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
7
0
0
2 0
9 9
3
Gtr. 1
0
9
7 5 5 75 4 5
9 7
10
(play 4 times) X 5 5 G5
3
Gtr. 4 (3rd and 4th repeats only)
K
7
(D5)
3
3
3 3 3
dedicate terminate G5
0 3 3 0 0 3
3
2
to for
2 2 2
2
2
2 2 2
2
(end double-time feel) me (Dedicate to me) me Dsus2
0
0 3 2 0
guitarworld.com
99
TRANSCRIPTIONS
L
(4:41)
(q = 168) F#5 G5 A5 F#5 G5 A5
Gtrs. 1 and 2 115 P.M. 4 2
5 3
B¨5 A5
P.M.
7 5
4 2
5 3
7 5
8 6
7 5
G5 A5 F5
N.C.(E5)
P.M.
P.M.
5 3
7 5
3 1
Bass 2
3
5
2
3
5
6
5
3
5
1
14 12 14 12
12 12
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
12 10 12 10
5
5
5
5
5
5
3
5
5
5
10 10
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
*
5
(play 4 times)
P.M.
5
5
3
5
2
3
4
*Substitute top notes fourth time.
M
119
(4:56)
N.C.(E5)
F5
E5
0
3 1
2 0
0
0
F#5
100
0
N.C.(E5) F5
0
F5
7
0
N.C.(E5) F5
5
7 5
0
0
F#5
9 7
N.C.(E5)
3 1
0 0
3 1
4 2
3 1
0 0
3 1
0
0
2
1
0
1
2
1
0
1
0
0
N.C.(E5) F5
F#5
F5
F5
N.C.(E5) F5
N.C.(E5)
9 7
9 7
5
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
9 7
9 7
5
5
E5
P.M.
4 2
3 1
0 0
3 1
4 2
3 1
0 0
3 1
0
0
2
1
0
1
2
1
0
1
0
0
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
N.C.(E5)
E5
4 2
F#5 125
F5
1
P.M.
122
0
D5
9 7
5
9 7
5
0
0
0
0
14 14
12 12
12 12
7
5
5
“SPIT OUT THE BONE”
N F#5 F5 N.C.(E5) F5 F#5 F5 N.C.(E5) F5 Rhy. Fill 1 P.M.
128 4 2
2
(5:21)
(q = 158) (w/half-time feel)
(q = 168)
3 1
0 0
1
3 1
0
4 2
1
3 1
2
0 0
1
3 1
0
1
N.C.(E5)
F#5 F5 E5
4 2
(play 3 times)
14 12 12 14 12 12 0
0
0
7
0
5
5
F#5
P.M.
3 1
7
2 0
6
2 0
5
5
Gtr. 3 132
4
2
3
4
3
2
3 0
0
O
2
1
0
1
2
1
0
7
6
0
0
5
5
(end half-time feel)
9 7
Gtrs. 1-3
5 !
(play 3 times)
0
0
0
0
14 14
12 12
12 12
7
5
5
(5:44)
(q = 166) N.C.(E5)
F#5 G5
Gtrs. 1 and 2 Rhy. Fig. 6 136 P.M.
1
2 0
N.C.(E5)
9 7
Bass
3 1
*Play repeats simile.
7
E5
Gtrs. 1-3 3
4 2
2.
N.C.(E5)
(play 4 times) 12 *
42
1.
F#5 F5 N.C.(E5) F5 F#5 F5 N.C.(E5) F5 Gtrs. 1 and 2 play Rhy. Fill 1 (see bar 128)
F5 E5
N.C.(E5)
G5 A5
P.M.
4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
N.C.(E5)
F#5 G5
P.M.
5 3
5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
7 5
4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
5 3
3
0
5
0
3
Bass Bass Fig. 9
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
1.
0
0
0
3
0
0
0
0
0
2
2.
N.C.(E5) 139
0
F#5 G5
P.M.
0
0
0
0
4 2
5 3
F#5 G5 A5 end Rhy. Fig. 6 4 2
5 3
7 5
end Bass Fig. 9 0
0
2
3
2
3
5
N.C.(E5)
F#5 G5
F#5
G5
A5
4 2
5 3
4 2
5 3
7 5
0
X X
2
3
2
3
5
5 !
P.M.
0
0
0
0
0
0
7 5
guitarworld.com
101
TRANSCRIPTIONS
P
2nd Guitar Solo (5:57)
(q = 174) (w/double-time feel) N.C.(E5) Gtrs. 1 and 2 play Rhy. Fig. 6 twice (see bar 136)
Gtr. 3 142
14
1
F#5 G5
1
12
15
12
G5
1
12 14
N.C.(E5)
15
14
1
12
12
15
14
1
12
12
14
A5
15
14
12
12
12
14
15
12
Bass plays Bass Fig. 9 twice (see bar 136)
N.C.(E5) 144 14
1
12
F#5 G5
1
15 12
14 14
12
12
N.C.(E5)
F#5
15 14 12
15 12 12
12
15 14 12
3
N.C.(E5)
147
7 7
9
7 7
A5
Gtr. 3 150
7
4
5
7 7
8 9
E5
A5
8 9
5
7
4
B5
5
4
0
4
5
5 5 5
5
5
5 5 5
8
8 8 8
N.C.(E5) Gtrs. 1 and 2 play Rhy. Fig. 6 twice (see bar 136) Gtr. 3 154 7
10
7
7 10 8
7
7 10 8
6
7
7
3
N.C.(E5)
7
F#5
7 10
F#5
159 14 14
102
1/2
14 14 14 14
14
12 12
5
7 7 7
8
5
12 10
F#5 G5 A5
7
8
9
9
C5
7
5 5
4
4
4
4
7
0 5 3
5
5 5 5
5
5
5 5 5
8
9
12 10
9
9
8
12 10 9
8
P.M.
7
5 5
G5
N.C.(E5)
F#5
G5
17 17 15 14 14 17 17
N.C.(E5)
14
7 5
8 10
10
A5
9 12 10 9 10 10 10
15
F#5
1
w/bar
0
G5 A5 N.C.(E5)
0 !
14 14
14 / 14 0 12 1/2
-2½
14 14
1/2
12
F#5 G5
14
12 12
F#5
G5
N.C.(E5)
F#5
G5
F#5
G5
A5
1
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
12 15 12
7
7 5
G5
9
2
D5
5
N.C.(E5)
9
9
3
1/2
12 12 12 12
9
77
7 7
3
14 12 10 10 14 12 10 10 15 14 12 12 15 14 12 12
(end double-time feel) N.C.(E5) G5 A5
4 4
7 7
2 0
7
77
7 7
F#5 G5
0 G5
7
9
F#5 G5
3
Bass plays Bass Fig. 9 twice (see bar 136)
156
7
4 2
8
N.C.(E5)
7 7
A5
0
5 3
G5
7 7
9
N.C.(E5)
3
F#5
4
4
7
15 14 12 12
12
3
0
2 0
5
9
7 7
C5
Gtrs. 1 and 2
Bass
7 7
G5 A5
15 14 12
12
3
N.C.(E5)
2
G5 F#5
14
12
14
12 15 12
12
15 12
14
12
15 12 17 12 15 12
14
12 15 12
12
14 12 14
“SPIT OUT THE BONE”
Q
(6:25)
(q = 168) N.C.(E5)
Gtr. 3 162 19 15
17
16
15
17
15
14
15
0
10
0
12
3
13
12
13
12
3
P.M.
0
14
3
0
0
0
12
0
0
0
9
0
12
11
3
P.M.
12
10
10
12
3
P.M.
10
0
0
0
10
0
0
0
7
0
9
0
0
0
9
0
0
0
5
0
7
Bass Fig. 10 0
0
10
0
Gtrs. 1 and 2 play Rhy. Fig. 7 (see bar 162) Gtr. 3 164 19 15 15 17 14 17 17 16
3
3
9
15
14
3
Bass plays Bass Fig. 10 (see bar 162) 166
14
15
3
P.M.
Bass
14
3
Gtrs. 1 and 2 Rhy. Fig. 7
0
17
14
15
15
7
12
3
13
12
3
12
13
14
R
9
12
X
14 12
0
10 12 10
0
0
14 12
0
0
15 14
0
0
14 12
0
7
12
11
3
Go back to
0
15 14
0
E
0
Chorus (bar 50) (wah off) 17 15 0
Outro (6:49) N.C.(E5)
Gtrs. 1 and 2 168 P.M.
10
3
(w/wah)
10
5
P.M.
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10
P.M.
12 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
9
P.M.
10 0 0 0 0
9 10
1.
P.M.
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
10
12 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
9
10
9 10
10
12
Bass plays Bass Fig. 3 (see bar 25) 2.
Gtr. 1 172 P.M.
0
0
0
0
9
10
Gtr. 2
P.M.
F#5 G5 A5
F#5 G5 A5
P.M.
P.M.
4 2
5 3
7 5
P.M.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
9
10
4 2
5 3
7 5
B¨5
8 6
A5
7 5
P.M.
4 2
5 3
7 5
4 2
5 3
7 5
8 6
7 5
2
3
5
2
3
5
6
5
Bass 2
3
G5 A5
F5
P.M.
5 3
7 5
3 1
P.M.
5 3
7 5
3 1
3
5
1
E5
2 0 2 0
5
12 12
2
5
12 12
0 0
2
0 0 0
guitarworld.com
103
TRANSCRIPTIONS
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK Bill Haley & His Comets
As heard on ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK Words and music by MAX C. FREEDMAN AND JIMMY DeKNIGHT • Transcribed by JEFF PERRIN A
E7 5fr
3421
A
A 9fr
3241
Moderately q = 180
One
Gtr. (elec. w/clean tone)
Five
six
1
5 6 7 7
7
6
(A) 10 9
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
10 9
10 9
10 9
ten
7
9 10 9
1. Put
eleven o’clock
5 7 6 7
9 10 9
7
tonight
7
X X
clock
5 6 7 7
5 7 6 7
7
7
the
7
rock around
5 7 6 7
5 6 7 7
321
5 6 7 7
5 6 7 7
5fr
A
Nine
5 6 7 7
E7
Rhy. Fill 1 (1:14)
104
rock
o’clock
111
111
rock
A 6fr
eight o’clock
rock We’re gonna
E¨9 4fr
132
four
twelve o’clock
D¨9 8fr
111
three o’clock
Bass (Acous. upright bass arr. for elec. bass)
3
A¨ 7fr
111
two
seven o’clock
E9 5fr
132
3 =
Intro (0:00)
D9
5fr
your
5 7 6 7
7
9 10 9
“ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK” WORDS AND MUSIC BY MAX C. FREEDMAN AND JIMMY DEKNIGHT COPYRIGHT © 1953 MYERS MUSIC INC., KASSNER ASSOCIATED PUBLISHERS LTD. AND CAPANO MUSIC. COPYRIGHT RENEWED ALL RIGHTS ON BEHALF OF MYERS MUSIC INC. AND KASSNER ASSOCIATED PUBLISHERS LTD. ADMINISTERED BY SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, 424 CHURCH STREET, SUITE 1200, NASHVILLE, TN 37219. INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT SECURED ALL RIGHTS RESERVED REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF HAL LEONARD LLC
“ ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK”
B
1st - 4th Verses (0:11, 0:27, 0:59, 1:14)
(1.) (2.) (3.) (4.)
9
on and join glad rags three clock strikes two five six chimes ring eight ten eleven nine A Gtr. substitutes Rhy. Fill 1 on 4th Verse (see below)
9 10 9
Bass Fig. 1 7
9 10 9
clock strikes one yell for more seventh heaven so will you 12
9 10 9
7
7
5
9
5
’til
7
7
5 5 5
broad
daylight
9 10 9
clock
5 5 5
9
9 10 9
5 5 5
7
7
9 10 9
6
7
Bass Fill 3 (1:28)
7
9
(E9)
7 7 7
7
9
We’re
gonna
4
7
gonna
rock around
7 7 7
9
6
9
6
7
5
rock
6
when the we’ll in and
tonight
7
gonna
fun down right strong
9
5
some slows be
E9
9
5
We’re
7
the
9 10 9
9
4
7
7
6
6
around
5 5 5
Substitute Bass Fill 2 on 4th Verse (see below)
rock
will have the band we’ll be goin’
I’ll
7
9
9 10 9
We If
D9
rock
9 10 9
9
We’re gonna
9
(D9)
rock
Bass Fill 2 (1:20)
hon’ four seven too
Bass Fill 1
7
6
A 9 10 9
7
rock 15
9 10 9
9
6
9
9 10 9
me and and
9
7
9
6
guitarworld.com
105
TRANSCRIPTIONS
On 4th Verse, skip ahead to
the
18
clock
7 7 7
Substitute Bass Fill 1 on 3rd Verse (see bar 10)
9
C
A
7 7 7
7
9 10 9
Interlude (bar 33).
7
9
9
* 9 10 9
9 10 9
Substitute Bass Fill 3 on 4th Verse
7
(third time) 4. When it’s
9 10 9
(see previous page) 6
7
D
(first time) 2. When the
tonight
*omit slide on 2nd Verse
7
5
7
5
Guitar Solo (0:43) N.C.(A)
Gtr. 21 5 5 5 5 7 7 5 8 8 X 7 7 5 5 0 5
5 5 5 5 7 7 5 5 8 8 5 7 5 5 0 0
5 5 5 5 7 7 5 5 8 X 5 7 7 7 5 5
Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 (see bar 9)
(D9)
1/4 1/2
24 8
27
5
7
5
8
5
7
5
8
5
7
5
7
7
5
7
0
7
7
5
1/4 1/2
7
7
(A) 7
7
7
5
1/4 1/2
7
7
7
7
5
7
6
1/4 1/2
7
7
6
6
0
5
6
5
7
6
5
8
7
6
7
6
5
4
7
6
5
4
5
30
33
6
5
4
7
6
5
4
0
4
7
0
7
5
Interlude (1:30) A 9 10 9
9 10 9
9 10 9
9 10 9
9 9 10 10 9 9
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
5
4
9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9
Bass plays first four bars of Bass Fig. 1 (see bar 9)
106
5
4
7
6
5
0
3
4
5
9 10 9
6
9 10 9
7
9 10 9
5
5
9 10 9
B
3rd Verse (bar 9)
3. When
(A)
D
7
(E9)
Go back to
7
7
4
5
9 9 10 10 9 9
4
5
6
7
the
5
9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9
“ ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK”
Gtr. 37
Bass
D9
5 5 5
5 5 5
5 5 5
4
5
41
Gtr. 45
5 5 5
7 7 7
7 7 7
9
7
9 10 9
7 7 7
7 7 7
7 7 7
cool off A A¨
then A
9 10 9
9 10 9
9 10 9
8 9 8
9 10 9
9 10 9
9 10 9
7
7
7
9 10 9
9 10 9
9 10 9
6
7
rock 49
D¨9
around D9
the
D9 5 5 5
4 4 4
5 5 5
broad A
52
1099
Gtr. 55
Bass
daylight A¨ A 9 10 9
8 9 8
N.C.(A) 5
7
5
5 5 5
7
0
9 10 9
8
7
clock D9
4 4 4
5 5 5
9 10 9
8
9
0
7
rock around E9
7 7 7
6 6 6
7 7 7
7
7
5
0
6
7
6
9 10 9
9 10 9
9 10 9
5
0
9 10 9
5
7
9 10 9
9 10 9
9 10 9
5
again A¨ A
8 9 8
8 9 8
9 10 9
9 10 9
rock A¨ A
rock
rock
8 9 8
9 10 9
E¨9
E9
6 6 6
7 7 7
9 10 9
5
We’regonna
5
7
3 3
the E¨9
clock E9
6 6 6
7 7 7
’til A¨
7 7 7
9 10 9
7
the clock A¨ A 9 10 9
9 10 9
8 9 8
tonight
(E7) 6
9 10 9
7
7
5 5 5
(Dm7) 7
7
We’re gonna
5 5 5
9 10 9
gonna E¨9
(D7) 8
8 9 8
E9
rock
9 10 9
4 4 4
’round
tonight D¨9 D9 5 5 5
9 10 9
A¨ A
We’re gonna
(A7) 5
D¨9
8 9 8
9
Start a - rockin’
Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 (see bar 9)
A
9
A¨
5. When the
7 7 7
A
6
9
5 5 5
7
4
7
8 9 8
5 5 5
7 7 7
9
8 9 8
5 5 5
5
5th Verse (1:46) Clock strikes twelve we’ll A¨ A A¨ 9 10 9
5 5 5
7
7 7 7
6
5 5 5
5
7 7 7
7
E
7
E9
A
A
5
7
7
4
5
5 6 7
7
guitarworld.com
107
TRANSCRIPTIONS
MOTHERLESS CHILDREN Eric Clapton
As heard on 461 OCEAN BOULEVARD Traditional song, arrangement by ERIC CLAPTON AND CARK RADLE • Transcribed by JEFF PERRIN
Chords for Gtr. 1 (open A tuning) D
A
D/A
Dsus4
5fr
G/D
E
5fr
111111
2 1
112
A/E
5fr
7fr
1312
F 7fr
1111
1312
E5
E6
8fr
111
Chords for Gtr. 3 (standard tuning) Dsus2
A5
A6
D5
D6
4fr
13
A
1
4fr
3
1
D5
D6
4fr
3
1
3
5fr
E5 5fr
13
F5
A
7fr
14
8fr
13
1333
111
Intro (0:00) Moderately q = 124 N.C.(A5)
*Gtr. 1 (elec. w/overdrive, open A tuning) Riff A
1
3
0
2
0
2
0
0
2
0
0
2
0
0
2
0
0
2
0
2
0
0
2
0
0
2
3
0
2
0
2
3
*Doubled by Gtr. 2 (elec. w/overdrive, open A tuning) on repeat (Composite arrangement: Two guitars arranged for one.)
Gtrs. 1 and 2 play Riff A (see bar 1) Gtr. 3 (elec. w/overdrive, standard tuning) Riff B
2
4
2
2
2
2
4
2
2
4
2
2
4
2
2
2
4
2
2
2
4
2
2
4
5
2
3
2
2
3
Bass
*
5
5
*Note played on repeat only.
(q = 128) Gtrs. 1 and 2 play Riff A three times (see bar 1) Gtr. 3 plays Riff B three times (see bar 3) (drums enter)
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
Bass
8
108
5
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
0
2
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
COPYRIGHT INFO TKTKTKTKTK TKTKTKTKTKT TKT KT TKT KTKTKTKT TKT TK TK TKTKTKTKT TKT KT TK TKT KT TK TK KT TK KT K TK TKTKTKTKKTTKKTKT TK TK TK TKTKTKTKT KT TK TK KT KT
“ MOTHERLESS CHILDREN ”
Gtrs. 1 and 2 11
D
0 0 0
0 2 2
2
0
0
2
0 0
2
0
Gtr. 3 2
2 4
Bass
B
2 2 2
4
2
2
2
4 2
5
5
5
5 5 5
4 2
0
2
2 2
2
0 5
5
A5
A6
0
0
5 5 5 5 5 5
5 5 5 5 5 5
Dsus2
4
5
2
2
2 2
4 4
0
(w/phaser effect) 0 3 2 0
0 2 0
5 !
0
3
3 !
5 !
(0:33)
A5
A6
A5
A6
D5
12 10 12 12 12 12
D6
(w/slide)
15
P.M.
P.M.
2 0
0
4 0
5
Rhy. Fig. 1
P.M.
2 0
0
4 0
0
Bass Fig. 1 5
5
9
7
5
4
5
5
7
D5
5
5
D6 5
P.M.
P.M.
2 0
0
7
5
0
4 0
4
7
P.M.
0
5
P.M.
2 0
5
0
4 0
0
4
5
5 3
P.M.
0
2
P.M.
2 0
7
0
5
9
A5
A6
5
5
0
7
0
P.M. 4 0
A5
0
2 0
7
7
P.M.
0
4 0
7 9
7
3
D5
2
0
5
P.M.
2 0
0
4 5
5
3
9
4
7
2 0
5
5
2 0
3 4
5 0
2
4
5
7
(play repeats simile)
A5 A6 Rhy. Fig. 2 19
12 12
12 12
A5
A6
12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
0 0 0
Rhy. Fig. 2a
2 0
2 0
5 5
4 0
4
77 7
E6 7 7 7
7 7 7
E5
7 7 7
7 7 7
E6 7 7
D5
3 3
5 5
D6 5 5
5
D5
5 5
5 5
E5 F 5 5 5
7 7 7
8 8 88
8 8 8 8
2 0
2 0
7
5
4
8
0
8
8
let ring 10
4 0
5
8
Bass Fig. 2 5
E5
2 0
5
7
0
4 0
0
7
6
9
2 0
7
0
4 0
0
7
6
9
7 5
5
7 5
9 5
7 5
5
4
7
7 5
7 5
9 10 7 8
5
5
7
8
10 10
10 8
8
8
6
10
10
3 1
5 3
guitarworld.com
109
TRANSCRIPTIONS
23
A5 A6 A5 A6 D5 Gtr. 3 plays first three bars of Rhy. Fig. 1 (see bar 15) Gtrs. 1 and 2
12
10
12
12
12
5
12
D6
D5
5
7
5
5
Dsus2
2
Gtr. 3
0
5 5
0
3
0
2
2 0
2 0
3
4
7
9
5
5 !
0
3
2
Bass Bass Fill 1 5
0
3
A6
5
5
0
5 5
2
A5
5
Rhy. Fill 1
2 0
2
0
0 5 5
0
3
2
! 5
5 !
Verses (1:06, 1:36, 2:39) 1. Motherless children will do 2. Father will do 3. Sister
D/A
A5
Gtr. 1
time have a hard he can the best she can the best D/A Dsus4 D
A
when mother is dead Lord when your mother is dead Lord when your mother is dead Lord D/A A D/A Dsus4 A
(w/slide) P.M.
29
P.M.
1 0 X 2 X 0
0 0
0 0 0 X 0 0 X 0
1 0 2 0 0
5 5 5 5 5 5
Gtr. 3 Rhy. Fig. 3
2 2 4 0 0 0
2 4 0 0 0 0 0 X X
5
5 5
5
9
7 7
9
7
have a the the
0 0
1 0 2
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0
1 0 X X 2 X X
5 5 5
Bass plays Bass Fig. 3 (see bar 29)
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
7
time he can she can
5 5
5 5
7 5
0 4
G/D
5 5
X X X X
7
when mother when your mother when your mother
Dsus4 D 5 6 5
0 0 0 0 0 0
5 5
1 0 2
0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0
P.M.
7 7 9 5 5 5 5 5
4
5 5
hard best best
6 5
P.M.
7 9 5 5 5 5
A5 D/A D A D/A Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 3 (see bar 29) 0 0 0
5 5
Bass Fig. 3
Motherless children Father will do Sister will do Gtr. 1 33
6 5
P.M.
P.M.
Bass
110
A6
0
5 5
0
C
A5
Gtrs. 1 and 2 26
3
5
Bass plays first three bars of Bass Fig. 1 (see bar 15)
A5
D6
6 5 7
0 X 0 X
2 0 0
P.M.
9
is dead is dead is dead
P.M.
P.M.
4 0 0
7
7
5 6 5 5 5 5 5
9
5 5
5 5
5 6 0 5 5 00 7 0
P.M.
0 7 77 79 7 0 5 55 55 5
7 9 5 5 5
7
G/D
5 5
9
7 07
9 7
Lord Lord Lord
A
D/A
A
0 1 0 0 0 X X 2
1 0 2 2 2 2
4 2 0 0 0 0
5 5
D Dsus4 D
0 0 0 0 0 0
D
D/A
0 0
1 0 2
0 0 0 0
55 5
Dsus4 D
5 5 5
6 5
5 5
G/D
5 5
5 5
6 5 7
0 0 0 0 0 0
“ MOTHERLESS CHILDREN ”
D
Chorus (1:21, 1:51, 2:54) go They don’t to have anywhere best Father he can will do the best Sister she can will do the E A A/E E Gtr. 1 substitutes Rhy. Fig. 2 on 2nd and 3rd Choruses (see bar 19) Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 2a (see bar 19)
37
0 0 0 0
0 0 0
X X X
0 0 0
0 0
0 0 0
0 0
2 2 2
7 7 7
8 7 9
7 7
7 7 7
Wandering around So many things So many things D
7 7 7
7 7 7
7 7 7
0 0
5 5 5
0 0
5 5 5
5 5 5
5 5 5
5 5 5
from door father sister F
a a
w/slide
5 5 5
8 8 8
5 5 5
Bass plays Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 19)
to door can’t understand can’t understand
40
8 8 8
8 8 8
8 8 8
8 8 8
8 8 8
8 8 8
8 8 8
Nobody treats you like a Nobody treats you like a Nobody treats you like a A A D/A D/A Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 3 (see bar 29)
0 0 0
1 0 2 0
0 0 0
1 0 2 0
0 0 0
mother mother mother D
2 2
2 2
5 5 5
G/D 6 5 7
5 5 5
Bass plays Bass Fig. 3 (see bar 29)
mother mother mother A
is is is D/A
dead dead dead
0 0
1 0 2
0 0 0
43
E
0
0
0 0 0
D
0 0 0
1 0 2
5 5 5
0 0
Gtrs. 1 and 2
12
(w/slide)
10
12 12
12
D5
5 12
5
7
5
Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 twice simile (see bar 15) 49
2 2
G/D
D 5 5 5
5 5 5
5 5 5
6 5 7
(3rd time) When your
G/D
A6
A5
A6
5
5
5 5 5
5 5 5
F
0 0 0
(bar 63)
mother
G/D
D
6 5 7
0 0 0
5 5 5
6 5 7
5 5
X X
X X
Guitar Interlude (2:06) A5 A6 A5 A6 D5 D6 Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 twice (see bar 15)
45
D/A
your your your
On 3rd Chorus, skip ahead to
Lord Lord A
when when when
will will will
12
A5
A6
10
12 12
A5
12
A6 12
D5
5
5
12
Gtr. 2
12 12 12 12 12 12 12
Bass plays Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 19)
7
7
5 5
D5 7
14
14
E6
E5
17 12 ( 12) 12
17
A5
5 0
D6
3
2
0
A5
A6
5
E6
3
2
D5
5
0
D6
12 ( 12) 12 17
17
17
17 15
A5
17
15 15 15
D5
2
0
5
A5 0
3
5
5
00
55 "55 55 D5
5
D5
3
0
A6
17
A5 5
0
A5 A6 A5 A6 E5 Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 2 (see bar 19)
Gtr. 1 53 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
D6
5
D6
2
0
E5 F
12 12
15
13
12 10
0
17
12 11 12
17 15
17
12 15
guitarworld.com
111
TRANSCRIPTIONS
A5 A6 A5 A6 D5 Gtr. 3 plays first four bars of Rhy. Fig. 1 (see bar 15)
Gtrs. 1 and 2 57 12 10 12 10
12 12
12
12
D6
5
5
7
D5
7
7
D6
5
5
A5
A6
D5
5 0
3
2
5
5
0
0
Bass plays first four bars of Bass Fig. 1 (see bar 15) Go back to
A5 Dsus2 Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fill 1 simile (see bar 26)
Gtr. 1 60
3
2
3
2
0
0
0
5
5
5
5 5 5
5
5 5 5 ! !
5
Gtr. 2
3rd Verse (bar 29)
5 5 5
55
0
C
0 5 5
Bass plays Bass Fill 1 (see bar 26)
F
(3:09)
is is is is Gtr. 2 63
A
0 0
2 0
When your mother When your mother When your mother
Lord A
D/A
0 2 2
1., 2., 3.
dead dead dead dead
0
D/A
2 0
0
D
2
0
G/D D
0 2 2
0 0 0
Gtr. 3
Rhy. Fig. 4 0 0 0
0 0 0
1 0 2 0
2 0
0
2
0 3 2 0
2 2 2 2
Bass Fig. 4 5
is
0 0 0 0 X 0 0 0 X 0 X 0
1 0 X X 2 X X X X
4 2
2
9
7
4 2
2
7 9
4 2
7
5 5 5 5
6 5 5 5 7 5 5 5
5 5 5
5 5 5
5 5 5
0 0 0
2 4
3 3 3
4 2
5 4
5
3
7
4 2
5
7
dead
2 0
0 2 2
6 5 7
0 0 0
2
0 0
2
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
3
4 2
4
5 5 5 5
5 5 5
2 4
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
7
5
When your mother
A A D/A D/A Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fig. 4 (see bar 63) Gtr. 2 Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 4a (see bar 63) 66 0
2 0
3 2 0
Bass plays Bass Fig. 4 (see bar 63) 3
112
2
G/D
G/D D
3
Bass
0 2 2
D
Rhy. Fig. 4a 2 4
When your mother
G/D
(play repeats simile)
Gtr. 4
4.
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
D
2
G/D
3 2 0
3
2
3 2 0
3
G/D
D
2
3 2 0
3
2
0
A
2
0
0 2 2
6 5 7 5
5 5 5
5 5 5
5 4 is
7
5
7
6 5 7 5
4
0 0 0 0 0 0
7
dead A
D/A
0 0 0
5 5 5
2 0
0
D/A
2
0 2 0
2
7
“ MOTHERLESS CHILDREN ”
When your D
69
G/D
0 2 2
G/D
D
0 0 0
0
2 0
2 0
dead is dead is A D/A
mother
3 2 0
2
A
0 0 0
0 2 2
D/A
0
2 0
0 0
2
D
2
When When D
G/D
0 2 2
0 0 0
0
2
2
mother mother
your your G/D 0 3 2 0
3
2
3
is dead A D/A D/A A Gtr. 1 plays last four bars of Rhy. Fig. 4 simile (see bar 63) Gtr. 3 plays last four bars of Rhy. Fig. 4a simile (see bar 63)
When D
G/D
your mother G/D
D
Gtr. 2 72
0
0
2
0
0
0
2
Bass 5
7
0
2
5
0
2
0
4
2
5
0
2
4
7
5
D/A
0
0
2
0
7
0
5
0
3
2
2
0
0
2
0
2
3
4
7
5
X
4
5
7
X
5
4
G/D
0
7
2
0
2
5
0
D 0
5
0
2
4
G/D
7
0
5
X
0
0
4
5
X
X
7
(3:47)
Gtrs. 1 and 2 76 (w/slide) 12 10
12
12 12
5 12
D6
D5
5
7
5
A5 A6 A5 A6 Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 2 (see bar 19)
12 12
12
12 12
12 12 12 12 12
5
Bass plays Bass Fig. 1 simile (see bar 15)
D6
5
0
E5
E6
E5
E6
14
16 12 ( 12)
A5
10
A5 A6 A5 A6 D5 Gtr. 3 plays first three bars of Rhy. Fig. 1 (see bar 15)
12
12
12
12
12
5
5
Bass plays first three bars of Bass Fig. 1 (see bar 15)
D6
7
A6
3 2
17
A6
5
5
0
D5
D6
17 15
15 15 15
D5
5
A5
5
Bass plays Bass Fig. 2 (see bar 19)
84
0
2
D
2
5
A5 A6 A5 A6 D5 Gtr. 3 plays Rhy. Fig. 1 (see bar 15)
80
0
A
0
5
5
0
dead
is D/A
A
74
G
4
5
0
2
5
7
D6
D5
A5
3 2
0
E5 10
33
12 10
A6
2 2
0 0
55
5 5
F
11
A5
0
D5
0 0
12
5 5
0 0
12 12
A5 A6 5 5 5
12
0
guitarworld.com
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TRANSCRIPTIONS
“ MOTHERLESS CHILDREN ”
H A5
Dsus2
Gtr. 1 87
33 33
2 2
0 0
Gtr. 2
2 2
0 0
Outro (4:16)
Freely
5 5
0
0
5 5
5 5
5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
0
0
2 2
3 5 3 3 5 3
5 5
2 2
5 5
2 2
5 3 5 3 10 5 3 5 3 10
5 5
2 2
2 2
5 5
12 12
2 2
2 2
2 2
5 5
2 2
10 10
2 0
3
4
Bass 5
91
4
7
3 2 0
5
0
3 2 0
3
2
2
5 !
5
5
4
5 !
5
0 0
0 12 12 12
12 12 12
2 2 2 0
2
4
2
4
2
12
2
5
5 !
12 10
3
3
5
0
7
5
12
12
12
Bass
114
5 5
5 5
1 1
2 2
!5
5
5
2 !
5
(trem. strum) 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0
0 2 2 2 0
0
2 !
5
5
12 12 12
5 !
0 2 2 2 0
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
0 0 12 12 12
0 12 12 12 12
2 2 2
0 0 0 0
0 2 2 0
5 !
Gtr. 3 (organ arr. for gtr.) 95 0 !
1 1 1
3
2 12 2 12 2 12 12 12 12 12 ! 2 2 2
3
(trem. pick)
5
10
2
12 12 12
0 0
0 0
0
4 4
2 2
3
let ring
Gtr. 3
5 5
5
(random percussion through end of track) 0 !
GU I TA R WOR L D • F EBRUA RY 2018
0 !
0 !
5
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TONAL RECALL THE SECRETS BEHIND FAMOUS GUITAR SOUNDS
“THUNDERSTRUCK”
AC/DC ● THE RAZORS EDGE, 1990 ● GUITARIST: MALCOLM YOUNG By Chris Gill
Arguments about the best guitarists are highly subjective, but when it comes to choosing the best hard rock rhythm guitarist of all time, there really is no question that this distinction belongs exclusively to Malcolm Young. Although Malcolm’s tone was relatively consistent over the years, during AC/ DC’s classic 1978–80 period spanning the Powerage through Back in Black albums, his tone was slightly more distorted and darker (allegedly due to his use of Marshall 2203 100-watt master volume heads). Before and after that he mainly relied on Marshall Super Bass heads in the studio, which defined his signature rhythm tone heard on songs like “Dirty Deeds,” “Let There Be Rock,” “For Those About to Rock” and “Thunderstruck.” Basically, the amp is dialed in clean but as loud as possible to ride on the razor’s edge of power amp distortion and deliver the ideal combination of grind, twang, clang and crunch, with no distorted preamp “hair,” fizz or compression. For “Thunderstruck,” Malcolm’s guitar was his trademark Gretsch Jet Firebird with a single vintage Filter’tron humbucker at the bridge and a Badass wraparound bridge (he returned to the original Gretsch roller bridge and Burns tailpiece with the strings extending to the tailblock a few years later). Extra-heavy strings (.012–.058) combined with the Jet Firebird’s chambered body provided generous resonance to produce a distinctive midrange honk, further embellished by turning the amp’s bass control way down low, which also leaves sonic space to allow the bass guitar and kick drum to sound bigger.
ORIGINAL GEAR GUITAR: 1963 Gretsch 6131 Jet Firebird with single Filter’tron humbucker (bridge) and Badass bridge AMP: 1971 100-watt Marshall JMP Super Bass model 1992 head (Presence: 3, Bass: 1, Middle: 5, Treble: 6, Volume 1: 7, Volume 2: 0; guitar plugged into Channel 1 top input) CABINET: Marshall 1960B (straight) 4x12 with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers EFFECTS: None
Gretsch G5445T Double Jet Marshall DSL15C combo TV Jones TV Classic pickup
STRINGS/TUNING: Gibson Pure Nickel Wound .012–.058 strings with wound G string/standard PICK: Fender Extra Heavy
TONE TIP: Use the Marshall’s Classic Gain channel cranked way up and with the Deep switch engaged but the Bass knob down low and no Tone Shift. The TV Jones TV Classic pickup provides ideal string and treble zing without sounding shrill.
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