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Archive for the ‘Guitarists’ Category

Lots of OMG shock horror on various guitar forums at the moment. Joe Satriani has apparently decided to dump his longstanding endorsement of Peavey amps and use Marshall JVM410’s on the upcoming tour of the new “Supergroup” Chickenfoot. Despite having the Peavey JSX signature series heads made to his exacting specifications, Satriani has decided to go for the new(ish) 4 channel head from marshall.

Now lots of people are pointing out quite correctly that Satch doesnt actually use the 2 distortion channels on his own amps & instead uses his own signature distortion pedal, made by Vox…. The Satchurator through his Peaveys clean channel and that its unlikely that there will be much difference in tone through the clean channel of a JVM.

Whatever the reason its good news for Marshall, who, thanks to the exchange rate and a much revamped product line, seem to be regaining ground lost in recent years. But all this news has done to my mind is point out the absolute nonsense surrounding Endorsement deals and the “signature” product industry as a whole.

Its quite common knowledge that a guitarist may be endorsing one brand of amplifier or guitar, while actually using another. The biggest culprits for this racket must surely be Laney & Crate, who whenever I see the artists in their adverts onstage its usually with another brand of amplifier. When Oceansize mentioned how good Laney were in a recent issue of Guitarist, it was embarrissing to see in the accompanying pictures of their backline a Marshall JCM2000 head perched atop a Laney 4 x12 in the background. Crate are also comical in the way most of their endorsers either endorse cabinets only and use another brand of amp ( Marcos Curiel from POD with a Mesa dual rectifier) or just practise amps (Lita Ford/Yngwie Malmsteen). In the early 90’s Bon Jovi’s Ritchie Sambora had a wall of Fender Tonemaster heads onstage and hidden behind them 5 rackmounted Marshall JCM800’s . Even Status Quo allegedly have Vox AC30 chassis built into Marshall JCM cabinets.

The biggest pisstakers in all this though are a tie between

1: Metallica – Kirk Hammetts new signature Randall Head isn’t all he uses, he still confesses to using Boogies live, with the bulk of his tone being created by Triaxis preamps and Dual Rectifiers again, and while James Hetfield talked to Guitarist mag about using a Diezel VH4 as the main amp in the woeful “St. Anger “sessions. His producer Bob Rock told Guitar world it was all done with a Marshall DSL100. Not that I imagine they’d be queuing up to admit to that one…..Ahem.

2: Eddie Van Halen – THe 5150 brand is now ubiquitous, with products made by Fender, Dunlop, Peavey, Musicman & Kramer. The big problem here is while Eddie is a legend, do you really want to buy equipment from a man who hasn’t written anything decent for 17+ years & made all his greatest work on a “parts” guitar costing $50 & an old Marshall plexi?

As with guitars it gets even weirder. Despite having longstanding endorsements with PRS & Gibson. The one guitar Rush’s Alex Lifeson has used as his main recording guitar for the last 2 decades is a decidedly non collectable 52 reissue telecaster. Lifeson bought it in 83 and its on pretty much every Rush record since then.

Obviously a musician has the right to use whatever he or she feels does the job best. But in this world of massive advertising campaigns and marketing hyperbole. It’d be nice to see some honesty rather than PR for a change.

Fender recently launched 2 US Custom Shop tribute edition Strats based on Dave Gilmours “legendary” Black Strat, the original guitar was a Stock 69 Strat bought from Manny’s in New York in 1970 and used on most of Pink Floyds classic albums. Atom Heart Mother/Dark Side of The Moon/ Wish You Were Here etc etc. Lots of people are excited about this, half of Future publishings editorial staff are wanking over a CD of ‘Atom Heart Mother’ even as I type. Gilmour has a new live album ‘Live in Gdansk’ to promote and sadly Rick Wright has passed away.

RIP rick.

It seems that the whole guitar fraternity are excited by this new arrival to Fenders range. I am a massive DG/Floyd fan, but somehow the hyperbole has vexed me. There are 2 models a New Old Stock guitar and a lovingly bashed up ‘Relic’ addition.

Personally I find the whole relic’ing guitars thing a bit pathetic, if you play live your guitar will get war wounds simply by gigging and being used. The dings and nicks are genuine and tell part of your guitars and therefore ultimately your story. The idea these scars are put on as part of a finishing process is as pathetic as it sounds and when guitarists disagree with me and say “oh but they feel played in” my reply is “BOLLOCKS you fucking girly dentist weekend warrior, get back to stealing my pension with your hedge fund!!!!”

Sorry…;) Rant almost over….

Basically if you strip away the marketing hype. This guitar is a US Custom shop 57 reissue with different pickups, a Callan shortened tremelo arm & block and a clever switch that gives you the neck and bridge positions together. Gilmours original is essentially now a bitsa thats had more surgery than the average Hollyoaks cast member. I had a peruse of (long time roadie) Phil Taylors book ‘The Black Strat’ in Waterstones the other day and the beast has had 3 different necks, several trems and more electronic things inserted into it than Jodie Marsh at an Ann Summers Party. It even had a Charvel neck and a Kahler trem at one point. Here it is hanging on the Hard Rock Cafe’s wall sometime in its history.

Somehow though the “legitimacy” of this model has kinda made people forget that they could easily doctor a black used 57 reissue (US or J-Craft) and simply shorten the trem arm themselves and buy some pickups to mount on their aftermarket black scratchplate. I’ve seen quite a few people already doing this and I for one think its great that with a few spares and imagination its possible to accurately replicate a guitar that a well heeled Floyd fan would pay a couple of grand for.

The irony of this signature model for me is that anyone who has seen DG live with Pink Floyd between 87 and 94 will know that his main guitar was not this (it was on loan rusting away in the hard rock cafe at the time), but a red secondhand early 80’s 57 reissue bought from Chandlers (the guitar was ex of Mick Ralph’s from Bad company I believe) and fitted with EMG pickups and a shortened trem arm. I saw Gilmour on the telly at Live Aid using this guitar with Brian Ferry, then on the telly again when Pink Floyd played Venice in the late 80’s and their ‘Earls Court’ residency in 1994.

Again this guitar has been widely copied by keen DG/Floyd enthusiasts for years. EMG actually make a Dave Gilmour DG20 signature pickup set complete on ready to mount scratchplate. I wonder how all those devotee’s with EMG powered 57 strat’s are feeling at the mo. Is it time for a respray and some pickups to be changed I wonder?

Don’t get me wrong, The Black guitar is of huge historical significance. But if your under 40 years old the guitar you most associate with Mr Gilmour is certainly not the black one. The fact that DG lent it to a Burger chain to hang on a wall for several years kinda makes me wonder if it was all that special anyway?

In typical cynical Jeztone style I wonder if this move towards a DG strat was not instigated by Dave Gilmour but by his Roadie Phil Taylor. Guitar techs to big name artists are increasingly powerful people who can act as a point man between artist and equipment manafacturer or Vintage guitar dealer. One of Metallica’s roadies has an Endorsement deal with Mesa Boogie…so I bet he welds some influence over the equipment choices of the bands he’s teching with for sure.

A DG signature based on the red one would have little in the way of difference to a stock Fender guitar, wheras the black instruments long running history of a test bed instrument for new hardware and pickups, makes it more of a Marketing mans dream. In addition it’s use on the classic Floyd albums of the 70’s also makes it sit nicely with the age group of the Doctors/Lawyers and other Baby Boomers with the money to spend £2k+ on a guitar they could replicate for less than half that amount.

In addition Dave Gilmour is the owner of a 1954 strat, serial number 0001. This guitar was used by Gilmour at the Stratpack 50th Anniversary a few years ago, while there is also claims this guitar is a bitsa, it is still the most iconic guitar in the Gilmour collection. Luckily Fender Japan make a very unofficial reproduction, basically a 57 reissue with Texas Specials and a gold adonized pickguard. A perusal of Ebay should get you one of these babies for around £550 quid, much cooler looking and far less common than a used red strat with EMG’s in ha ha!

While we are on the subject of Strats anyone who read my £500 strat challenge last year will probably be wondering if I ever did buy a guitar? Well the truth is…..after I went out and had a bit of an early 80’s nostalgia trip with my Ibanez Roadstar and Yamaha SG fetish. I’m back on the Strat trail and boy its a hard slog.

The reality is that finding a guitar to tick all my boxes is proving quite a challenge. The problem so far is that any guitar I buy will probably need some modifications in order to meet my needs as a player. Despite Fender making 150+ variations of the same guitar, nothing is quite hitting the mark yet.

Expect an update next month!

BBC Radio 2 have gone and made an excellent documentary about one of my all time guitar heroes. Former Magazine/Banshees/PIL guitarist John McGeoch.

McGeoch was the credible gunslinger of post punk and his influence can be heard in the playing of guitarists as diverse as Steve Stevens/John Frusciante/The Edge/Jonny Marr etc etc. He
influenced much of my own style with his work on Magazines The Correct use of Soap and the Banshees Ju Ju Albums.

His main instrument of Choice was the ultra Modernist Yamaha SG1000, combined with Marshall JCM & Roland combos, he also loved kicking in an MXR Flanger and digital delay from time to time.

McGeoch died in 2004, his widow and daughter survive him.

It is ironic that now only years after his death he is being celebrated

Listen to it here

…of Les Pauls is probably this one, once owned by Peter Green who sold it to Gary Moore for very little money, shortly before his descent into being a recluse.

This months cover story in Guitar & Bass Magazine is the rather sad story of a falling out between our Gaz and the recent buyer of said instrument Phil Winfield of Maverick music. Apparently Mr Moore is pissed because he always thought he was selling it to a private collector. He wanted a discreet sale to someone who was gonna lock it away in a vault and not use it for…….. er… tasteless commercial purposes.

Wheras Mr Winfields stance is its his guitar and he can do what he jolly well likes with it. This is to include Gibson making a limited run of reproductions of the instrument and displaying it at guitar shows where people can pay their respects.

Their was also a pullout lifesize pornographic wall poster of the LP’s body in a recent issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine for those of you who like to drool over such things (it wasn’t wipe clean as far as I’m aware).

Currently it’s for sale at Maverick music, with an asking price of a cool $2 million dollars. Not a bad return on the estimated £400,000 + he payed for it. A pretty good return for Gary Moore who allegedly payed £125.00 for it back in the days when I was a white blood cell in my old man’s left nut.

While I love Gary’s playing as much as I love his facial gurning. I cannot help that he’s been a little naive about how people make their money out of guitars. The two Americans with bad hair who run Guitar Centre in America bought several iconic instruments of Clapton’s at auction in 2004. Yeah the money went to old Slowhand’s Crossroads Drug Treatment centres, but that was far from their only motivation.

Given that a Gibson reproduction of Claptons Cream era 335 sells for around £9000 and that Fender are about to launch a Custom Shop repro of “Blackie” this Novemeber.  It’s safe to say that the so called “Burst Brother’s” have made some considerable money on their investments.

Back to Mr Moore as someone who has always seemed like such an authority on the instrument. I’m suprised he never saw this coming. Surely his management, guitar tech or the alleged Vintage dealers he approached to put word out he wanted to sell it, surely could have warned him of the likely prospect of someone wanting to buy the guitar and exploit it in this way.

In fact wouldn’t it have been cleverer to do it himself?  Float the guitar to a group of private investors and let them exploit every tasteless marketing/re-issue angle possible. Gary would have probably had to play some cheesy guitar shows and do some promotional work/ videos etc, but I reckon he’d have made more than £400,000, still get to play the guitar when he wanted to, and not be so angry that someone took advantage of him.

On a last note if you look up Gary on Wikipedia, you’ll see in the first photo he’s playing a PRS Custom 24. Given the value attaching itself to early “handmade” (well not done by C3PO anyway) PRS Custom’s maybe he should give Mr Winfield another call;)

I always think that theres a moment when you know you can play the guitar, and I mean play to a certain ability. I think, that moment is when you, or others are aware you have a certain style.

For guitarists, and probably any contemporary musician, whether it’s Rock, Folk, World or Jazz come to think of it, forming their own style is an incredibly important moment. Probably equal to that moment when a visual artist or a writer finds themselves. You could be painting with oils or playing blues in G. One day there comes a time when all of a sudden all the art you were exposed to/records you bought as a kid collide with your backgound playing music you didn’t like at the time, add a dash of life experience, both good and bad and………………BOOOM! there it is, your style. Your artistic footprint as it were.

As I write this I am currently listening to final unmastered mixes for my bands debut album. It is indeed a weird time, one of hope and fear if I’m brutally honest. Whats shocked me is that the 11 track album we’ve been working on will be a statement of my guitar playing, and how it stands in my……ahem…..thirties. It will also be something that other people will judge me by. The record will define others perceptions of both my and our (HoS) collective playing.

Due to the nature of Guitar playing, I think most (but not all) guitarists tend to form their voice on the instrument, more from their natrual limitations, rather than any god given ability.

I was listening to the classic and seminal ‘Holy Diver’ by Dio the other day. Now many Rock fans and guitarists will comment on the feiry nature of Vivian Campbell’s Riff’s and soloing, how he sounds almost out of control, as if he’s about to explode in some great outpouring of anger. I read an interview with Campbell some years ago, where he attests a large chunk of his guitar style of that time was due to the fact he could not alternate pick properly, and instead used downstrokes….adding a certain attack to both his tone and playing. He also went on to say how intimidated he was by his contemporaries at that time, such as George Lynch and Jake E Lee and how he felt inadequate compared to all the other ‘LA’ guitarists at that time.

I found this funny as since Campbell’s departure from Dio in 1986, pretty much every single guitarist who’s followed him has had to play like a boil in the bag version of him – Craig Goldy, Rowan Robertson, Tracy G, even the excellent and quite frankly amazing Doug Aldrich plays like a slightly updated, bluesy version of Viv. In the end the affable Irishman’s technical limitations have pretty much defined that bands sound, throughout their career. Weird huh?

There are other examples of this Bernard Butler’s tone remained the signature of Suede long after he’d been replaced by the rather geeky Richard Oakes. Hell Oakes used pretty much the same guitars and equipment as butler….at least until puberty anyway;)

The other types of player, the ones with no technical limitations are harder to define. Van Halen for sure, but he always wrote great riffs and had that lovely brown sound to boot. Steve Vai’s melodic twists and perversions have always stood him out especially in Zappa and PIL. Satriani? I kinda recognise him, but the more modern ‘Widdly’ players. You know the ones with bad hair learing out of Guitarist magazine, they always have a Cornford amps endorsement…..I don’t know, and in a way I find that more depressing. Jamie Humpries is bald and tall and looks like my sisters milkman and Rob Balducci has tinted shades……Hmmmmm. It’s like a game of Cluedo.

Back to my own style, well I always think that these things shift and move as you get older. 15 years ago, I think my soloing was much better than it is now. I was cleaner, faster and had some lovely melodic shifts. Having said that my rythym guitar was lazy,unimaginative, and the band I was playing in had trapped itself in some horrible 80’s cul de sac. I prefer the 2006 version of me. I might not be able to run around the neck as I once did, but I think I’m more interesting to listen to and I’m in a much better band. The best ever if I’m honest.

But that question of style came back to me recently. I was talking about my playing to my older brother. Also a guitarist, Thin Lizzy fan and sometime middle aged rocker. He started to go on about my soloing on a certain song by a previous group years ago and how he loved the way I played completely outside of any structure during one small section of this solo.

It dawned on me then that whatever my perceptions of my own abilities, some people will formulate and define you by things you’ve done in the past. Whats weird is the very few solo’s I play now are regimented and structured melodic peices to serve the song. Wheras the 22 year old Jez, often just ‘winged it’ and played by the seat of his pants. Often crashing horribly, If truth be told.

I think that if time travel were possible. I should go back to 1991/92 and check out the younger me. Just to see if I thnk he’s any good;) then stop off a Ladbrokes to do a spot of life transforming spread betting.

I wonder…