Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 134 i Australian Guitar

A VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH STEVE EDMONDS Edmonds has been a bonafide bluesman and active member of the Australian music scene for over 35 years. Throughout his star-studded tenure, Edmonds has stayed true to his roots guitar ethos and groove sensibilities, accomplishing most duties with a modest Japanese Strat and combo setup. A venerable blues-rock trio for over 20 years, the Steve Edmonds Band holds venue records up and down the Australian east coast, performing three nights a week, 50 weeks a year. Edmonds serves as a director consultant for the Australian Jimi Hendrix Experience show, showcasing ten guitarists at a time, and consequently runs his own Hendrix & Heroes tribute show. In addition to the above, Edmonds also leads rockabilly and roots band Mescalero, as well as the inimitable Steve…

The title of Baroness’ fifth studio album, Gold & Grey, is a touch ironic: where previous records were based around bold and bright primary colours that stick out like a sore thumb on shelves, gold and grey are two very brusque and dreary colours – a stark contrast to the album itself, which takes on a broader spate of sounds and styles than all of its predecessors combined. There are chillingly dark twinges of brutality that clash against buoyant and glittery wallops of elation; quaint blips of experimental vicissitude wrapped around the towering, five minute-plus epics that cornerstone the record. “Very early on in the process, I decided that I really wanted to do something that was… Kaleidoscopic,” says frontman John Baizley. “It sounds kind of funny when I say…

Dead centre in the Venn diagram between ‘songs that make you want to roll your car windows down and belt along to at the top of your lungs’ and ‘songs so powerful and raw they give you goosebumps on parts of your body that you didn’t think could have goosebumps’, the debut album from Melbourne-native indie goddess Angie McMahon is almost certain to go down in the annals of Australian rock legends. Best soaked in alone, with volume cranked high and lights dimmed to let its warm and rousing poignancy truly shine, Saltis a slow-burning masterstroke of vehemence and humanity. McMahon wears her soul thin across its winding 11 tracks, some of which see her jam out with a backing band, and some decidedly coarse with just her reverb-slicked vocals…

It’s a simple fact of life that every relationship has its ups and downs – the same is true for all your favourite bands. Those cheesy, oversaturated press shots where they’re all laughing and slinging their arms over another’s shoulder? That shit happens maybe 0.3 percent of the time, tops. Though their timeline has been studded with milestones and accolades, Brisbane quintet WAAX have bumped over their fair share of potholes on the road to success. And that, in part, is why their debut album – the bold, biting and boisterous Big Grief – makes an earthquake of an impact; the traumatic fallout is audible in every battered wail and gristly scream that frontwoman Marie ‘Maz’ DeVita spits. She fills us in: “The whole album is about exploring loss. It’s…

If there’s one defining trend we can pin to the 2010s, it’s been… Nostalgia. Perhaps because the rest of the world is in goddamn shambles right now, pop-culture has largely shifted its focus to re-appreciating the gems of our past – whether that’s in cinema (Star Wars, Jurassic World and Ghostbusters are all titans of the present-day box office), TV (though it’s a new property, the whole allure of Stranger Things is its retro flavouring) or music; this year alone, we’ve seen chart-destroying albums drop from Weezer, Dream Theater and the Backstreet Boys – all bands who ostensibly peaked in the ‘90s, but have enjoyed wickedly lucrative comebacks as of late. If there’s one release that will send yesteryear’s music fans into a tizzy, though it’s the latest set of…

We’re living in a unique time for acoustic guitar manufacturers. Today, there’s a real sweet spot around the $1,000 mark: it’s where some of the super big brands place stripped-down guitars that do away with some of the visual flash in order to give you a sweet prestige-name instrument. It’s also where some of the more wallet-friendly brands place their upgraded guitars – the ones with extra flash and more sophisticated preamps. Ask any guitar store, and they’ll tell you that acoustic guitars are sold differently to electrics: often, a customer will walk in with an idea of what brand and model electric guitar they want (“Dude, I need a sunburst Les Paul – like Pagey!”). But acoustic guitars are usually a different story. A player will have a particular…

LIMITING VERSUS COMPRESSION A good starting point is to grasp the difference between compression and limiting – quite simply, it’s all about the ratio. A compressor has a low ratio that gently attenuates the level of the source material when it goes beyond the threshold, whereas a limiter has a high ratio that limits allof the source material once it hits the threshold. In a nutshell, a limiter is a compressor with a high ratio and, generally, a fast attack time. Compression with ratio of ten-to-one or more is generally considered limiting. Brickwall limiting (discussed later in detail) has a very high ratio and a very fast attack time. GLUING YOUR MIX TOGETHER Many tracks these days are put together piece by piece, multi-tracked at different times in different spaces…

If you’re a heavy metal guitarist, it can be easy to fall into the trap of only listening to and learning metal music. A great source of new ideas and inspiration is to study classical music, composed for instruments other than guitar. For this issue, I’ve transcribed a short excerpt from the well-known Mozart piece “Rondo Alla Turca”, written for solo piano. I’ve arranged the main melody of right-hand piano part for electric guitar (with distortion), making only a few slight variations to the original. EXERCISE #1 There are a number of key practise and performance points to note about this excerpt: use alternate picking throughout, and practise with a metronome to ensure the rhythm and picking remains even and consistent. Break the excerpt down into smaller sections, and start…

The electric guitar market of 2019 is a fantastic place for the interested buyer. The proliferation of small manufacturers and the explosion in e-commerce has upset the comfortable and complacent relationship between big manufacturers and big retailers. Now that the dust is beginning to settle and all parties are adjusting to the new normal, a sense of healthy competition prevails. Everyday guitar buyers are generally looking to buy a sonorous and stylish axe for a bit less than $1,500, and they now have the big brands (as well as boutique manufacturers) releasing fantastic mid-range guitars of all kinds. Epiphone’s Les Paul Standard Plus Top Pro epitomises this drive towards high quality at a low price point. While nothing about the design or vibe of this guitar is a surprise, Epiphone…

There have been hybrid acoustic-electric guitars for a heck of a long time now. But unlike, say, the Fender Telecaster, which Leo Fender pretty much got right in 1952, the electric-acoustic hybrid didn’t come right out of the gate in its fully realised, final form. And that’s why so many brands have so many different takes on it. It’s clear that chucking a piezo element in an electric guitar’s bridge saddle doesn’t cut it for many players – particularly those who lean more towards ‘acoustic with the occasional need for electric’ rather than the other way around. MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE This brings us to Fender’s new Acoustasonic Telecaster. The silhouette is 100 percent Telecaster, as is the bolt-on neck and the two knobs and a blade switch control…

WHEN: THURSDAY JUNE 20TH – SUNDAY 23RD, 2019 WHERE: FESTIVALPARK STENEHEI, DESSEL, EAST BELGIUM DAY ONE In spite of its typically scant population just shy of 10,000, the 2019 Graspop Metal Meeting saw over five times that amount descend on the quiet town of Dessel, East Belgium, for four days of rock, metal, beer and mud. Most of the first day was spent traipsing our way through crowds – tents and belongings in tow – to the campgrounds. Unlike in Australia, European festivals are BYO – once the tents were up, beers were cracked in abundance. In addition to a stacked lineup of guitar-wielding legends, this year’s festival featured a full-sized ferris wheel, a garden with hammocks to accomodate some well-deserved rest, and a Belgian beer bar and restaurant for…

In over 20 years of rock ’n’ roll ravishment, Chris Shiflett has donned many hats. He cut his teeth on punk in No Use For A Name (and later fronted Jackson United with his brother Scott); got his skank on with Me First And The Gimme Gimmes as a bonafide ska lord; and made the leap into chart-crushing, stadium-stuffing rock with none other than the goddamn Foo Fighters. But if there’s one genre Shiflett has a particularly squishy soft spot for, it’s country. Though he’d first dipped his toes into the yee-haw pool in 2010 with Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants (and their eponymous debut album), it was 2017’s West Coast Town that saw him cannonball in from the diving board. Produced by Americana legend Dave Cobb, the LP…

EPIPHONE AJ220SCE SOLID TOP ACOUSTIC VS RRP: $699 • australismusic.com.au The AJ-220SCE has long been one of Epiphone’s best-selling acoustic guitars with the look, sound, and build quality that first time players and professionals expect when they pick up an Epiphone. The Advanced Jumbo is commanding when required, but it’s also well-balanced which makes it perfect for both stage and studio applications. Now with a killer cutaway and Shadow’s new Performer Tuner preamp system, the AJ-220SCE takes yet another step above the competition. EPIPHONE LES PAUL CUSTOM PRO EB RRP: $1,349 • australismusic.com.au After its debut in 1954, the Les Paul Custom quickly became one of the most recognised guitars in the world. Les himself used his Custom in concert and on his album covers, including his famous duet with pal Chet…

One of the most important guitar lessons I ever had was the time my teacher introduced me to Frank Gambale’s three-note-per-string major scale pattern. There are so, so, somany reasons it’s important to learn the major scale. For example, it’s the basis of the modes. Once you know the major scale, you can begin to experiment with the modes which – get this – use the exact same notes. Try this: play a major scale using its first note as the root and you’re playing… Well, a major scale, obviously – but in the world of modes, that’s called the Ionian mode. Now play the exact same scale, but using the second note as the root – now you’re in Dorian. And so through each degree of the major scale,…

Polyphia are leading the charge in getting instrumental guitar music back in front of listeners. These uber-fashionable Californian kids combine poppy songwriting smarts, high-production video clips, and ironic millennial bling, racking up views and plays in the millions. Much of their older material leaned heavily on melodic shred-metal tropes, but with their latest album they’ve diversified their sound, exploring cleaner and jazzier textures. When it came time to create their signature models, longtime Ibanez players Tim Henson and Scott LePage turned to the company’s new AZ line as a starting point. The AZ line, released in 2018, earned rave reviews for the excellent componentry and tone lurking within an otherwise run-of-the-mill design. AZs also likely represent Ibanez’s desire to keep up with the needs of the modern guitarist who may…

IN A DOSE OF IRONY WORTHY OF ALANIS MORRISSETTE, CARL MARTIN HAS UPGRADED ONE OF THEIR VINTAGE-INSPIRED CLASSICS WITH A 2019 EDITION. When you peer back into guitar history, fuzz and vibrato are among the first true effects to really capture the imagination and herald a shift in communal psyche. Would the ‘60s have been so revolutionary if youth culture’s collective ears weren’t swimming in swooshy, fuzzy goodness? Would Jimi’s “Star Spangled Banner” performance at Woodstock have been seen as such a rallying cry against the Vietnam War if it was played with a clean tone? Hell no! It wasn’t that these effects had power in and of themselves to bring about social revolution, but they sure helped revolutionary artists to express their discontent with the status quo. The Carl…

WHEN: THURSDAY JUNE 27TH – SATURDAY 29TH, 2019 WHERE: ARGOBAAN 15, YSSELSTEYN, THE NETHERLANDS Once a year, a small village in the south of The Netherlands gets taken over by 15,000 punk and hardcore fans – much like Australia’s UNIFY Gathering, but on steroids. Celebrating 20 years, Jera On Air sees the best of metalcore, hardcore and punk descend on the village for three hot and dusty days. And like most European festivals, it’s BYO, so once the tent was up, we sat back and cracked a cold one; after all, Europe was in the midst an unprecedented heat wave. With the sun high in the sky, the tented stages were a godsend. Japanese hardcore quintet Crystal Lake were off in full force, with huge, booming bass and electro breakdowns…

From the second they kicked down the doors with their 2010 Hollow Existence EP, the fusioncore firestarters in Northlane have been hell-bent on shaking up the Australian heavy music scene. There was the labyrinthine viral campaign that launched their breakthrough 2013 record, Singularity; the revolutionary Equinox EP with UNFD labelmates and fellow ‘core lords In Hearts Wake, and the volcanic eruption of inner-fandom calamity they spurred when 2017’s Mesmer hit shelves without a word of warning. Now, for their fifth album – the punchy and punishing, yet equally buoyant Alien – Northlane have peered inwards, reinventing their core sound with a soul-tickling blend of ferocious, gnashing guitars and crisp, kaleidoscopic synths. “It was quite natural to squeeze that stuff in, as long as the song was still heavy and impactful,”…

As proved by the hulking success of Avengers: Endgame in May (pun intended), crossovers and ‘shared universes’ are all the bloody rage right now. Everywhere you look, coked-up marketing execs are trying to cram four or five popular properties into one – there’s even a Godzilla vs. King Kong movie coming out next year, which you’ll be able to enjoy while you chow on Krispy Kreme M&M doughnuts and wash them down with a Chupa Chup Slurpee. The modern rock landscape certainly isn’t exempt, either – think of your five favourite bands, and we’d guarantee at least three of them have members involved in some variation of a ‘supergroup’. The latest supergroup to send your local shredhead into a seizure of hype is Generation Axe: an all-star lineup of genre-defining…

A is for Awards, of which Metallica have won a truly jaw-dropping amount. In addition to their obligatory induction into Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame – solidified in ’09, virtually as soon as they were eligible – the Californian thrash Gods have landed such lucrative wins as nine Grammys (with a further 14 nominations), over 40 magazine-sponsored trophies (including all 14 of their nominations by Metal Edge), and the prestigious MusiCares Stevie Ray Vaughn Award, which was handed to frontman James Hetfield in 2006 for his efforts in helping those struggling with addiction fight their way to recovery. In total, Metallica’s ever-crammed trophy room hosts a total 82 wins out of 123 nominations. B is for the Big Four, the heavy metal equivalent of the Avengers consisting of Metallica,…

If you head into Mixmasters Studios in South Australia, you’ll find yourself in what can only be described as a church of recording equipment. Though there’s some modern gear, vintage is the main game down there. And yet, the owner, engineer and producer-in-chief, Mick Wordley, doesn’t describe himself as particularly technical. You’d be forgiven for thinking that Mixmasters is a place where hardcore audio experts go to drool over the never ending list of exquisite equipment, but for Mick, it’s all about options. The musicans can play with their toys, so long as they learn to pull back just before diving down the rabbithole – because at that point, the music is almost secondary. So how on earth did you wind up with an SSL 4000-E console? It was the…

This issue, I continue with the theme of knowing and outlining the chord tones under scale runs. Sometimes a guitarist can shred, but if there’s no melodic structure there, it’s hard to take anything away from their playing. Melodies that you can sing are much easier to remember than fast scale runs, and a good melody will always come from chord tones. An amazing solo will usually have a combination of both. Knowing where the chord tones sit underneath each scale will allow you to resolve phrases easily and not fall into the trap of running up and down scale patterns. Remember: arpeggios are your friends. EXERCISE #1 Exercise #1 outlines all of the E form chords of the A minor scale. There are no sharps or flats needed throughout…

It’s easy to learn the pentatonic scale, but not easy to make it interesting. In this issue, I’m going to improve your confidence surrounding hitting the ‘wrong note’ by demonstrating that there are valid notes to play outside the basic scale. I’ll also show you some of the first techniques you’ll want to try once you develop confidence. These exercises were recorded at 100 beats per minute. EXERCISES #1 AND #2: ADDING A NOTE Technically this makes your scale hexatonic, but it’s a great way to instantly add flavour to the pentatonic. It will also give you more confidence in knowing you can play ‘wrong notes’, or notes not quite in the shape you know. In Exercise #1 I’ve added a B – or a second degree – to the…