Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 165 i Australian Guitar

Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram talks about his new blues la bel Red Zero Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram has announced he’s launching a new label specifically for blues and blues-influenced artists. Red Zero is named after two of the earliest places Ingram played in Clarksdale, Mississippi – Red’s Lounge and the Ground Zero Blues Club and it’s first release was Ingram’s own third album Hard Road, issued at the end of September. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Ingram explained that his aim for the label is to help younger blues musicians from being ripped off. “I just figured I was at a time in my career where I could start helping other young blues musicians and singers to be shown more in the spotlight. “A lot of artists have been shot down…

IMET BRENT Hinds a few years ago at a Mastodon gig. For some reason, he was standing next to me at the public bar, waiting in line to buy a drink, rather than staying out of sight backstage, so I introduced myself as a writer for Australian Guitar’s sister magazine, Total Guitar, and bought him a beer and a shot. We talked briefly before he headed backstage, but I couldn’t quite figure him out. My impression was that he was a bit of an introvert, perhaps not that good with new people — someone who saved his flamboyance for the stage. In his personality, Hinds — who died August 20 in a traffic collision in Atlanta at age 51 — was rather like the music of Mastodon. Their eight studio…

For a while it felt like there might not be another Living End record. The punkish Melbourne three-piece – comprising Andy Strachan on drums, Scott Owen on double bass and Chris Cheney on guitar and vocals – released their last LP, Wunderbar, in 2018. Seven years is a long time for the Living End: the three-piece has released eight LPs and six EPs since forming in Melbourne’s beery punk and rockabilly underground in 1994. And into the picture is Cheney’s 2022 solo record The Storm Before The Clam, which could have signalled a shift in creative priorities. Their new LP I Only Trust Rock n Roll allays these fears. Not only does it sound like The Living End never went away (though they’ve still played live during their recording intermission),…

By 1964, Fender was a few years away from its 20th anniversary, business was strong and fine guitars and amps continued to pour from the company’s Fullerton factories in California. Around 600 people worked there – the majority in manufacturing, spread across the 29 buildings that had appeared as demand grew through the years. Forrest White, in charge of production, recalled that by the end of ’64 his workers were making 1,500 guitars a week, compared with just 40 a week when he’d joined Leo’s small setup 10 years earlier. As well as the electrics and amps, Fender’s catalogues and price lists from the mid-60s also featured acoustics, effects, accessories and Fender-Rhodes electric pianos. “There’s always this suspicion when a big company takes over that they’re going to make a…

Blues guitar is surely one of the most pleasing and satisfying styles to play. So many guitarists gravitate toward this genre as it can be accessible to beginner and advanced players alike, due to factors like its basis in musical simplicity. Think of the hypnotically appealing, repeating 12-bar structure over which the sound of the Minor Pentatonic scale can wail so beautifully - Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix all make fabulous use of the scale. Certain other players incorporate intricate lines of musical complexity, like the mixing of Minor and Major Pentatonic scales and the use of jazzier harmony, as we hear with a player like BB King. Then there are unusual melodic approaches, with the use of more exotic scales and runs, and even…

Returning to the drawing board for his third ESP/LTD signature guitar, Rammstein’s Richard ZK has pivoted toward the trending offset shape and bestowed it with some killer appointments. Headlined by signature, chrome-covered Fishman Fluence active humbuckers — fast becoming go-to pickups for metal guitars — and an arcade-style kill switch, it stays true to his Strat-like tonewood preferences. But his beloved Floyd Rose is gone and new creative utilities are in. ZK tested three different bridge options blindfolded, saying, “If I knew which one was the Floyd Rose, I would’ve chosen that.” A classic-style locking TonePros stoptail was chosen on “sound alone” but has been partially recessed into the body so that the hand comfort of a Floyd was retained. There are very few discernible flaws or blemishes in this…

Taylor’s guitars are clean-cut, original and (most of the time) their sound owes little to the past. The benefits of that approach are all to be found in this neat and sleek Grand Auditorium cutaway 314ce Studio — but also one or two of the drawbacks. Who is Taylor aiming at with this guitar? One clue is that, while relatively simple cosmetically, the 314ce Studio is built with solid woods throughout, rather than cheaper laminates. In fact, Taylor states that this model is now “the lowest-priced gateway to the solid wood experience,” though at $3,499 it’s hardly a beginner’s model. Think of it as a beckoning invitation to buy your first “serious” Taylor, if you will. To keep the price tag tempting, not all of this guitar is made in…

SINCE 2012, STU Mackenzie’s band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has dropped a whopping 27 albums, classified by many as psych-rock. It doesn’t bug him now. “I used to care about this stuff,” he says. “But people can call it whatever they want.” On latest release Phantom Island, Mackenzie continues to run a gamut of jazz, rock, guitars and loads of strings. “Everything that you do is all kind of joined,” he says. “Sometimes you think you’re doing something really fresh, new and exciting. But you’re always tied to what you’ve done in the past.” Should we expect to wait long for King Gizzard’s next album? “I feel a bit of a duty to keep working, and keep on the tools,” he reports. “Having a job in this business…

The reason you smash [a guitar] is because you’re having problems with it and it’s your way of fixing it, really. You’ve already sent it to the luthier, you’ve already put the new nut on there. You’ve worked with this guitar for years, and it does that one fuckin’ thing one time too many, and you go, ‘You know what? You’re going out tonight, buddy.’ It’s a great show when that happens, too, but I hate losing an awesome guitar. Also you can hurt yourself. In St. Louis, we did this really awesome show, and I did a Babe Ruth up against a wall. It smashed into a million pieces, but I tore my rotator cuff. — Holiday 2010 I was 12 or 13 when I first heard [Metallica’s] Master…

WITHOUT A SINGLE doubt, the most familiar character in heavy metal, the late Ozzy Osbourne, was presented to the public as a madman, a maniac and a court jester whose life was a constant ricochet from one chaotic episode to another. There was a degree of truth to this exaggerated persona — in his younger years, Ozzy was definitely prone to extreme actions when under the influence of alcohol or drugs — but he also earned our sympathy for his flaws, our admiration for his music and our respect for his talent for recognizing guitar genius. Born John Michael Osbourne in the war-damaged suburb of Aston in Birmingham, England, on December 3, 1948, Ozzy (as we’ll call him from now on) was one of six children to Jack and Lillian…

SLASH WAS THERE when, in the aftermath of Guns N’ Roses’ 1987 debut album, Appetite for Destruction, the band suddenly exploded onto a chaotic arc from Sunset Strip hopefuls to one of the biggest, most debauched rock acts on the planet — so it’s hard to imagine anything phasing him. But when the guitar maestro considers how far GN’R has come since his and bassist Duff McKagan’s return in 2016, his mind is clearly blown. As he tells us, “It really trips me out that all of this has happened.” From the outside looking in, of course, Slash’s return to the GN’R fold seemed inevitable. Behind the scenes, though, he and GN’R vocalist and leader Axl Rose barely spoke after the guitarist left the band in 1996, let alone thought…

Jackson American Series Rhoads RR24 RRP: $5,149 • au.jacksonguitars.com Behold the Jackson American Series RR24, a bold and brutal shred machine born in the USA. This iconic metal axe is crafted to devastating perfection in our Corona California factory using only the finest materials and components. The RR24’s offset Rhoads alder body turns heads with its sleek, weapon-like contours while providing resonant, lively tone. Its neck-through-body three-piece maple neck with graphite reinforcement delivers supreme stability and sustain. 24 Jumbo stainless-steel frets top the 12”-16” compound radius ebony fingerboard allowing effortless bending across the entire fretboard. For tone that’s tight yet expressive, we’ve equipped the RR24 with Seymour Duncan JB and ‘59 humbuckers. These USA-made pickups roar with thick distortion when you dig in, cleaning up nicely for singing leads. Fender…

MUSIC FANS KNEW Ozzy Osbourne as the Prince of Darkness or maybe even the Messiah of Metal, but among the hard-rock guitar community, he’ll always be remembered as the Godfather of Heavy Guitar. Thanks to his impeccable taste, discerning ear and a perfect 1,000 batting record when choosing great guitarists for his bands, Ozzy introduced the world to an incredible roster of phenomenal players that he hand-picked from the underground and boldly brought into the mainstream during his 45-plus years as a solo artist. This is a big reason why he warrants so much celebratory zeal from a magazine otherwise dedicated to guitar players: the effect Ozzy had on the world of guitar cannot be over-estimated, even though he never played the instrument himself. The amount of great guitar music…

AFTER SLASH AND Duff McKagan exited Guns N’ Roses in the mid-Nineties, things went kinda sideways for a bit. The band kept rolling, but it was host to a cavalcade of guitar players, from Buckethead to Paul Tobias to Robin Finck to DJ Ashba to Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal. As you can imagine, all that change did not give rise to new music. It’s not that Axl Rose wasn’t writing tunes; it’s just that honing them proved… difficult. But things shifted for the better — on the guitar side, at least -when Richard Fortus, who at the time was touring with Enrique Iglesias, was drafted into Guns in 2002. Fortus brought immediate stability to a situation that was anything but stable. Twenty-three years later, GN’R is still wreaking havoc on a…

As lead guitarist and singer with British supergroup Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler has been one of the world’s most high-profile artists since Sultans Of Swing captivated listeners back in 1977. A few years later in 1985 the group’s album Brothers In Arms became a colossal hit, coinciding with its release on the new music format, CD. The iconic song Money For Nothing with its reference to MTV, and a video featuring computer generated animation, caught the wave of enthusiasm for music television featuring artist videos. “Some of his parts would be much more difficult to execute without at least using hybrid picking, where the pick and fingers are used together. ” Knopfler’s approach is based around a rootsy fingerpicked way of playing (mostly thumb, first finger and second finger). This…

Originally introduced back in 2019, Fender’s most advanced USA production models received a Mk II refresh earlier this year. These American Ultra IIs are fine modernstyle guitars that top the USA line with a choice of Telecaster, Stratocaster (including a left-hand model), Strat HSS and the more futuristic Meteora. But you might have missed another modern strand in the form of the American Ultra Luxe models that were actually launched back in 2021: four guitars with stainless-steel frets, the Ultra’s compound radius fingerboard, and an ‘augmented D’ profile neck shape. The HSS Strat and dual-humbucking Tele featured alder bodies and Floyd Rose vibratos; the Strat and standard Tele used ash bodies with the same hardware as those Ultra II models. Now, introduced just a few weeks ago are their replacements:…