BoogieKnight
After five decades on the road – and still rocking – Status Quo’s Rick Parfitt has already suggested his nickname should be changed from the Wild Old Man of Rock’n'Roll to the Mild Old Man of Rock’n'Roll. And even though the guitarist’s past excesses are the stuff of legend, it’s hard to reconcile the image More »
Jazz-blues soloing
THIS MONTH I WANT to revisit a topic covered some years ago, which is soloing over a straightforward blues progression using jazz ideas. So we’ll be exploring our soloing options on a three-chord progression, and talking about how jazz and fusion players might approach the sequence. For this, I’m going to use a standard 12-bar More »
Eddie Van Halen
THIS MONTH’S player needs no introduction. EVH is a bona fide rock guitar legend, right up there with the likes of Clapton, Page and Hendrix as far as iconic status is concerned. Having seen Jimmy Page incorporate open strings for some legato phrases, Eddie realised that he could use both hands on the neck to More »
Greg Koch
Whilst in his early twenties he was living a lifestyle no doubt familiar to many of the readers (and writers) of these pages, working in a music shop in his native Milwaukee during the day and playing bar gigs by night. He caught the ear of a travelling Fender rep that was visiting the store, More »
Led Zeppelin
LED ZEPPELIN HAS become the stuff of rock legend, with all four members celebrated in their own right. Back in 1968, it was Jimmy Page who assembled bassist John Paul Jones, singer Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, to form a band that would use what he called ‘light and shade’ to demolish musical boundaries, More »
Martin Taylor
MARTIN TAYLOR IS the most successful jazz guitarist the UK has ever produced – not without good reason too, as he is an absolute monster player! Whereas most musicians would content themselves with one speciality, over Martin’s extensive and fruitful career he has proved himself to be equally successful in a huge array of settings. More »
Sound&Vision
Chris Rea is a busy man. Not content with producing his first album of original solo material in over 10 years and preparing for a UK tour in 2012, his new offering
Seventh wave
For many metal fans, pop music is considered the ultimate antithesis, one where neither skill nor musicianship or substance takes priority. Mind you, as any musician knows, no matter what your tastes,
Best Bass AMP
WARWICK Hellborg Mono Power 500 Amp & Preamp Although the winner of our bass amp category is way beyond most people’s budget, Warwick’s Hellborg preamp and power amp make up a cool-looking,
Recommendations of guitars
WARWICK Adam Clayton Re verso Signature The Reverso is a reversed version of Warwick’s Explorer-influenced Stryker bass, and it’s built to U2 bassist Adam Clayton’s specs from top-quality exotic woods. The back
Best guiar
SQUIER Vintage Modified Jaguar Of the three Vintage Modified Squier models we reviewed in 2010, after the Precision, it was the VM Jaguar that got us all hot under the collar. The
T-REX Reptile 2
T-REX Reptile 2 TheT-Rex Reptile 2 is an excellent example of how sweetly ‘best of both worlds’ digital/analogue theory can work in practice. Digital processing brings low-noise operation and flexibility; faux-analogue signal-tampering
Recommended
MOOG MF-108M Cluster Flux This cheekily-named pedal with its gorgeous ‘NASA coffee table’styling and high price tag isn’t just a chorus. No, indeed. One half of the Cluster Flux provides analogue delay-based
Takamine IKI
Takamine rarely fails to impress with its annual limited editions, and this year’s ‘Iki’ is no exception. Meaning ‘the traditional aesthetic ideal that seeks to promote an emotional connection between the person
Guitar awards
E-H Neo Clone Vintage-style chorus PRICE £50 CONTACT www.ehx.com Electro-Harmonix has spent the past few years giving all its old stompboxes a facelift and launching what seems like about a million new
Martin GPCP A4
This GPCPA4 grand performance (read grand auditorium-size) model is one of Martin’s much more affordable follow-ups to last year’s PAI Performing Artists. The latter carry a multi-function Fishman Fl Aura imaging blender;
