December 2014
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Editorial Editor Jamie Dickson jamie.dickson@futurenet.com Content editor Chris Vinnicombe chris.vinnicombe@futurenet.com Gear reviews editor Dave Burrluck dave@daveburrluck.com Deputy gear reviews editor Michael Brown michael.brown@futurenet.com Managing editor Josh Gardner josh.gardner@futurenet.com Production editor Gary Walker gary.walker@futurenet.com Art editor Rob Antonello rob.antonello@futurenet.com Senior music editor Jason Sidwell jason.sidwell@futurenet.com Music engraver Chris Francis AV content produced by Martin Holmes
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Unplug The Winter Blues Around this time of year I promise myself I’ll use the long evenings to brush up on some technique, maybe learn a few tricky licks that have eluded the fingers thus far. But this time, learning whole songs, and their lyrics, to play on acoustic guitar seemed like a better goal. Visiting friends recently, a small group of musicians was gathered in the back yard at twilight, round a small bonfire. A guitar was passed round and we all took a song or two: great fun and didn’t cost a penny – all those dusty songs in the attic of memory, recalled from long ago, got an airing. Lyrics stumbled, chords were fumbled, but there was plenty of laughter and lots of fun. So as we present yet another bumper Gear Of The Year edition for your delectation (and look forward to our next Guitarist Presents Acoustic quarterly digest for all things unplugged, on sale 3 December), why not consider getting your hands on an acoustic this year, if you don’t have one. As we’ve said before, the easiest way to win a round of applause on guitar is to sing a song with one. So, here’s to hale and hearty song in the gloaming of the year...
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Jamie Dickson Editor Print: 20,931 Digital: 4,116 The ABC combined print and digital circulation for Jan-Dec 2013 is:
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This month, Guitarist moved to a new office space after 10 years in our old digs. Clearing away a decade of clutter was a Herculean task, and the resulting bedlam led to A) the loss of a set of drill-bits B) the creation of a complete set of Guitarist back issues on one bookshelf (that Rob will never let anyone touch. Ever) and C) some examples of truly abysmal box-lifting technique. Therefore, we extend our heartfelt thanks to the good people of Wye Valley and Brew Dog breweries, who sent us an unspeakably well-timed gift of… free beer! It was just the ticket to toast our new surroundings, and stopped certain members of the team talking about the Ninja Turtles film for all of 20 minutes…
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December 2014 Guitarist 3
Contents
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100 People & Playing Charlie Burchill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Eric Johnson & Mike Stern . . . . 45 Jimmy Barnes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Charlie Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Status Quo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Shovels & Rope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Regulars Welcome From The Editor . . . . . . 3 Front End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Readers’ Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 New Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Subscribe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Longterm Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Gear Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Readers’ Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 6 Guitarist December 2014
The Guitar Magazine Issue 388 December 2014
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Gear Of The Year 2014 Our annual round-up of the most impressive guitar gear of the last 12 months returns with over 50 must-try products for you to get your teeth into – from guitars and amps to effects and more. There’s also the usual dash of opinion, and new for 2014, Guitarist contributors put together their rigs of the year
VIDEOS
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New gear this month MacPherson Nomad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Barnett-Davies 15/30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Tanglewood TPE SF DLX & TPE DC DLX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Gus Guitars G3 Seven Baritone . . . . . . . . . . 40 Fender Classic Player Baja 60s Tele, Triple Tele and Strat HH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 BluGuitar Amp1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Seymour Duncan Pedals Round-up . . 134 DigiTech Bass Whammy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Band Of Gypsys Fuzz Face Mini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Amptweaker SwirlPool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Boss VE-2 Vocal Harmonist . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Fender Reclaimed Old Growth Redwood Stratocaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Nineboys Tonk Bros Parlour Guitar . . 142 Old Gold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
http://bit.ly/ guitarist388 Manson
How to watch From now on, you’ll be able to stream all of the accompanying video content from a YouTube playlist, accessible via the short web link below. Simply type it into your PC, tablet or mobile device’s web browser and watch it all from there. In the case of audio-only files, we will publish a separate download link on the page. And fear not, all back-issue Vault content remains available online at vault.guitarist.co.uk. step 1 Go to: http://bit.ly/guitarist388
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Play and enjoy. Simple!
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MacPherson Nomad ÂŁ1,995 WHAT IS IT? Deluxe, finely-crafted modern bolt-on electric
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VIDEO DEMO MacPherson Nomad
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Crafty Brit
British builder for various UK brands breaks out under his own name. About time, too! Words
Dave Burrluck Joby Sessions
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ased in Southend, Dan MacPherson is one of the most experienced UK guitar makers you, quite possibly, won’t have heard of. Without knowing it, you might well have read about his work, played or even owned one of his guitars. Dan MacPherson, as DM Guitars, has been the ‘ghost’ builder for numerous small UK brands, supplying parts, finishing and even entire instruments since 1990, along with creating numerous custom guitars. In 2010, Dan changed focus to launch his eponymous brand with standard models – all with copious options, of course – as well as one-off custom dream machines. He’s an old-school builder, too: pin routers, not CNC machines. He classes our review instrument, the Nomad, as “the first of the new MacPherson range of guitars… a versatile go-anywhere instrument.” As befits his reputation, the Nomad is impeccably crafted. It’s an elegant, paireddown design, based, of course, on the Stratocaster, with subtly different cutaway geometry and numerous nods to modern makers such as PRS, with its natural edge ‘binding’. The body is centre-jointed swamp ash faced with a figured tola veneer (an African wood used commonly as a furniture veneer), that aside from its deep brown colouration looks like a ‘dirty’ figured maple compared to the stronger, simpler waved grain of the swamp ash. It gives the instrument a restrained ‘poshness’ that’s offset perfectly by the gold-plated Schaller roller-saddle bridge, Gotoh HAP tuners, control knobs, mounting screws and Schaller strap buttons. The maple neck, joined to the body on the round-nosed heel by four recessed screws, has a lovely shallow C-style profile (20.6mm deep at the 1st fret, 22.4mm at the 12th ) and is
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MacPherson Nomad
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3 topped with an Indian rosewood ’board that features immaculately fitted and fettled Jescar stainless steel frets – the only markers are on the side. As reflects the modernist vibe, the fingerboard radius is conical, starting with a modern Fender 9.5 inches and gradually flattening out to 16 inches by the 22nd fret. “The fingerboard is bound,” says MacPherson, “the fingerboard blank has two strips cut from it, which are then glued back on [after the fret slots are cut] prior to fretting. This not only looks neat, but it prevents ‘lacquer pop’ and makes refretting a lot cleaner.” Finishing, too, is superb: “the neck is finished in polyurethane with a light vintage tint and the finish to the body is polyester, but as you’ll see, it’s not a yard thick, as most people believe polyester is. The top colour is the natural colour of the tola veneer with a light burst added; the rear of the body is a light tint burst to harmonise the contrast of the front.” The dual Gemini pickups are also UK-made, the Mountain King “offers rich, creamy (almost vintage-like) humbucker sounds,”
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4 according to Gemini, “but with more girth and a bit less presence. Even amps with limited gain will saturate much more quickly.”
Feel & Sounds
The supplied setup is light and low and the flatter fingerboard and relatively thin but high frets ensure fast and really in-tune playability. There’s little doubt this is designed for the more virtuoso player. There’s a crisp ring acoustically, with a little more ‘Gibson’, in terms of a honkier midrange to the character – all part of its hybrid design. Plugged in, moving from both vintage and modern-spec single-coil Strats to this is really quite a leap. The clean Fender twang and crispness of our reference guitars is dramatically revoiced: darker and thicker… and that’s in single-coil mode; full humbucker voices sound like a power-Les Paul with the tone knocked back. With some amp adjustment, while we miss some more classic single-coil bite, there are some rich sounds here that certainly suit extended jazzier chord voicings and arpeggios, though where we’d
1 The tasteful goldplated Schaller rollersaddle bridge and controls give the Nomad a refined look 2 Gotoh’s heightadjustable post (HAP) tuners do what they say and ensure perfectly balanced behind-the-nut string angles 3 The headstock is backangled 3.5 degrees, so in combination with those tuners there’s no need for string trees. Truss rod access is vintage-style at the body end of the neck 4 The C-shape profile maple neck is joined to the body by these four recessed screws
VIDEO DEMO MacPherson Nomad
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usually go for the volume to thin things out a little we lose more clarity, and the tone stays fully up all through our tests. There are certainly some power-Gibson sounds here, with crunchier classic-rock gain, and where most of our guitars would be uncontrollable at extreme gain, this one loves those scenarios.
Verdict
This is a fabulously made guitar that is nearimpossible to fault. To our ears, however, the pickup choice is a little polarising: in heaviergained settings it might well be your ultimate sound, but for its more journeyman intention, we’d be spec’ing some hot-vintage ’buckers, which would suit the style a little more. Of course, that’s the beauty of the custom maker: your favourite pickup is just an email or phone call away, and MacPherson offers the cream of UK-made pickup brands. And that is the whole raison d’être of makers such as Dan MacPherson: £2,000 will buy you a very good off-the-shelf bolt-on, but if you want your own features you’ll more often than not be disappointed or find you’re shown into a steeply rising ‘custom shop’ scenario. Not here – even the basic option list is expansive – and we’ve rarely played a better UK custom guitar. If you know what you want, this is world class.
Even the basic option list is expansive – and we’ve rarely played a better UK custom guitar
MacPherson Nomad PRICE: £1,995 (inc case) ORIGIN: UK TYPE: Solidbody electric BODY: Two-piece swamp ash with figured tola veneer top NECK: Maple, bolt-on SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”) NUT/WIDTH: Graphite/43.2mm FINGERBOARD: Indian rosewood, abalone side dots, 241-406mm (9.5-16”) radius FRETS: 22, medium/high stainless steel HARDWARE: Gold-plated Schaller STM roller saddle bridge with through-body strings; Grover enclosed HAP tuners STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52mm ELECTRICS: Two Gemini Mountain King open-coil humbuckers, 3-way toggle pickup selector switch, master volume (with pull/push coil-tap for bridge pickup) and master tone (with pull/push coil-tap for neck pickup) WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.5/7.72 OPTIONS: The base price of the Nomad is £1,649 with satin finish and chrome hardware. Numerous options, inc body and fingerboard wood, inlays, neck shape, and pickups and hardware. £POA RANGE OPTIONS: MacPherson standard models include the Teleinspired Outlaw (from £1,749), the classic-rock Rogue (from £999), the set-neck Preacher (£POA) and the posher-rock Pagan (from £1,649) LEFT-HANDERS: To order FINISHES: Semi-natural high gloss Tola ’Burst MacPherson Guitars 01702 465930 www.macphersonguitars.com
G U ITARI S T RATI N G Build quality Playability Sound Value for money
Guitarist says: Beautifully made and finished with a very clean modern aesthetic. The supplied pickups are aimed at gain-laden tones but, of course, you can choose your own
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Barnett-Davies 15/30 £1,629 What is it? Unique, hand-built 1x12 combo from the East Sussex-based boutique amplifier maker
Tidy Barnett A Brit boutique amp that’s refreshingly different Words
Nick Guppy Joby Sessions
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et another new name to add to our list of British boutique builders, BarnettDavies is based in East Sussex and its amp already has a list of dedicated fans that include Keane, who used two of them to amplify the piano on their Under The Iron Sea album. This 15/30 combo is small, very portable, and very loud if needed, with a proper quad-EL84 power stage driving your choice of loudspeaker. The lightweight aluminium chassis encloses a hand-wired vintage eyelet board circuit that’s built to last and uses very high-grade components. There are two channels for clean and overdrive, which share a conventional three-band EQ, with global reverb level. Less conventional is the 15/30’s ability to either swap between channels or run them both at the same time, adding considerably increased tonal range. The reverb has a neat two-level preset arrangement with a second level control built into the footswitch, so rather than switching it
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