Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 114 i Australian Guitar

A VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH HARRY BRUS – PART 1 In this two part interview, Steve Flack talks to renowned Australian bass player Harry Brus, who takes us on a journey through a career that spans almost five decades and saw him perform with many of Australia’s best musicians and artists. Harry arrived in Australia at the age of seven from Graz Austria. As a teenager, he was initially inspired by the sounds of the great Hank B Marvin, and after seeing a live performance of The Beatles, Harry picked up a guitar and decided that playing music was going to be his life. In ‘65, his band The Amazons scored a record deal with Festival Records, and since then, he has never stopped working as a professional musician. Harry’s music…

Violent Soho are Brisbane’s masters of the grunge-favoured loud/soft dynamic. Most folks know them for their mighty track “Covered In Chrome” - now a festival sing-along classic - and other cuts from 2013’s Hungry Ghost album. Behind that success, however, is an incredibly hardworking band that has put in over ten years in the business, lauded as the second coming in the late 2000s, before finding themselves unsigned and broke in 2012, never expecting that the next year would see them catapulted higher than ever before. Fresh from wowing record crowds at this year’s Laneway Festival, we ushered guitarists Luke Boerdam and James Tidswell into Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney’s favourite hall of rock’n’roll, to nurse their hangovers and talk tones, new album and the glory days of sharing a single tuner…

GUITARS Ibanez has unveiled a new line of swirl-painted Steve Vai Universe models in late celebration of last year’s 25th anniversary of Vai’s Passion & Warfare album. There are three models: Passion (white, pink and blue), Warfare (orange and red) and a Silver Anniversary version with colours inspired by one of Steve’s first Universes (the primarily blue one he used in Whitesnake) with silver hardware. Ibanez has also revived its Talman line of guitars in a new series of Strat and Telecaster-style pickup layouts. These have been available in some territories since about halfway through 2015, but they’re now in line for a much wider release. Other standouts were the JBM27, a new seven-string version of Periphery guitarist Jake Bowen’s signature model with his signature DiMarzio Titan pickups, the AELFF10…

Patch bays aren’t terribly sexy as far as musical gear goes - not in the same way as, say, a Cherry Sunburst ’59 Les Paul or a pointy green Dimebag Darrell Stealth, anyway - but they’re crucial for organising your workflow and ensuring you spend most of your time making music, instead of fiddling around with cords. We all know Switchcraft from their super-reliable jacks and plugs, and pretty much every guitarist in the world has run their signal through Switchcraft gear at one time or another, whether they know it or not. But the company does much more. The 1625 StudioPatch Series TT Patch Module is just one example of an extensive range of studio gadgetry. PATCHCORD ADAMS The idea behind the 1625 is that it can grow along…

CHECK OUT THE ACCOMPANYING VIDEOS ONLINE WHERE DID I BEGIN? I want to thank everyone for tuning in again this month for another vignette into my mind and guitar playing. Australian Guitar is a great publication chock full of great tips, tricks, and theory. Thanks for taking the time to check out what I have to say. Last time, we discussed the importance of discovering your learning style, whether you were an audio or visual learner, and how to use that insight to improve your playing. In becoming self aware of how we learn, we tailor an approach that is effective and systematic. Some people are great auditory learners, while others are visual. The rest of us are a hybrid of both. Beyond learning styles, players aspire to various levels.…

In simple terms, a pedal point (or pedal note/tone) is a sustained or repeated note played against a melody. Its origins come from ‘classical’ music and was used by composers such as Bach and Mozart (the term originated from the sustain provided by an organ’s pedal keyboard). In heavy metal, pedal points are used quite frequently. Eg. Thrash metal riffs that pedal off the low E string, or riffs where the bass player stays on the low E while the guitars do something more intricate. For metal/shred lead guitar (as I will be looking at in this column), pedal point is most commonly associated with Yngwie Malmsteen and the neoclassical movement of the 1980s. The following examples are in the key of A minor and primarily use the harmonic minor…

MEGADETH Dystopia UNIVERSAL It didn’t seem possible at this point (we’re still trying to shake the fact that Super Collider exists), but lo and behold, Megadeth have made another great thrash metal album. Dystopia soars with a bloodied fervency the seminal shred unit haven’t held in over a decade; try to look past Dave Mustaine’s torn’n’tattered voice and his inadmissibly xenophobic lyricisms – the man knows what to do with a 10-string in his fists, and with all of that ‘elderly man passionate about politics he doesn’t really understand’ anger built up, he’s able to really let loose with some gnawing riffs. Newcoming axe wizard Kiko Loureiro is a welcome throw into the fold, his solos scathing and his breakdowns ebullient. He and Mustaine shine through most eminently on “Post…

The Markbass designers have teamed up with French-Canadian jazzer Alain Caron to take a fresh look at the compact combo idea. Caron, an award-winning bassist who already has a signature bass (by George Furlanetto), certainly knows his way around bass tone and has worked with luminaries such as Mike Stern, Dennis Chambers, and Billy Cobham. His technique has both precision and feel, and his tone is always a pleasure to experience. The Markbass/Caron alliance is a very exciting idea, but does the world really need another compact bass combo? BI-AMPED, REAR-PORTED AND READY TO ROLL The Combo 121 Lite Alain Caron is a bi-amped, rear-ported combo that pumps 500 watts through its neodymium 12”, and another 300 watts through a newly-designed 1.25” compression driver. The controls are comprehensive, but simple…

I just really love noise,” says DMA’s guitarist Matt Mason. “I like it a lot. I was going to start a side project just making really noisy shit, and Tommy [O’Dell, vocals] was really happy about that. He was like, ‘Go get that shit out of your system then come back and we’ll make some real music’.” Right there is the push and pull of DMA’s, a band as much in love with irresistible hooks as they are a cascading wall of guitars. O’Dell, Mason and his fellow guitarist Johnny Took are young lads, but they’ve knuckled down in the short time they’ve been on the scene. With hype simmering off from their 2013 self-produced breakout single “Delete”, they’ve toured the world and dropped small releases ahead of the release…

Dream Theater have never shied away from ambitious projects. The epic 23-minute “A Change Of Seasons,” the narrative concept album Scenes From A Memory, the two-disc Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence (which explored all sorts of emotional and mental health issues)… But the band have never created a project as heavily involved and fully realised as The Astonishing. The band’s thirteenth studio album, The Astonishing is a two-disc concept record which tells the story of a post apocalyptic retro-futuristic world where music has been replaced with electronic noise. It’s your classic ‘dystopian world is awoken by the beauty of music’ storyline. And along the way, Dream Theater - guitarist John Petrucci, bass player John Myung, keyboard player Jordan Rudess, drummer Mike Mangini and vocalist James LaBrie - are given license…

Chris Vallejo has a fondness for classic equipment. He was introduced to ‘70s rock records at an early age, and soon after realised that a career in music was the only option. Although a degree in mechanical engineering put the goal on hold, he eventually left his hometown in Adelaide, to open a studio in Sydney with a surprisingly small understanding of how to run one. Today, after years of learning by doing, Vallejo has stocked Linear Recordings with some of the best vintage gear money can buy including two tape decks, a classic Quad-8, and a one-of-a-kind custom Neve console that’s so rare, it doesn’t even have a production number. The Neve you own is one of a kind, isn’t it? It’s a custom-made model that was commissioned by…

THE HOW, WHY AND FEAR FACTORS For many people, there’s a Wayne’s World-style guitar buying experience in which they see the guitar of their dreams in stores (or these days just as likely online) and spend months, years, decades even, pining over it and telling themselves that one day they’ll have the right job, the right band, and the financial smarts to save enough dollars to get it. It’s a glorious moment when the universe aligns and they finally get their hands on their prize. Sadly, that never happened for me. I’ve honestly never had “the one”. I always loved guitars and the way they looked and sounded, but I could never settle on just one that I thought would be worth sacrificing three months’ salary for. In my mind,…

Body: Bloodwood Neck: Bloodwood Fretboard: Ebony Faceplate: Ebony Truss rod: Gotoh two way Frets: Stainless steel Scale: 24.625” Tuners: Sperzel locking tuners – Nickel Honey Tea inlay: Mother of pearl Fretboard inlay: Mother of pearl Nut: Mother of pearl Heel cap: Mother of pearl Bridge: Gotoh Tune-o-matic – Nickel Tailpiece: Long Gibson-style (customised) Pickups: Bridge: high output humbucker – Nickel Neck: Single coil – Nickel Electronics: Three way switch, volume knobs x2 Finish: Nitrocellulose paint & clear lacquer Strings: Ernie Ball Beefy Slinky 11-54…

The evolution of the blues is an incredible journey – from three chords and five notes to the ingenious exploration by the likes of Charlie Parker, it holds many forms and truly is the foundation of western music as we know it. For these next two issues, I want to show you a very different side and take you through the rhythm part of my interpretation of a bebop blues. There are three tracks included with this month’s issue – Track 1 is the full track including the head you will be learning next issue (that’s jazz speak for the lead part), Track 2 will be just the rhythm part you will learn today, and Track 3 will be the whole track with a space left for you to fill…

Victorious UNIVERSAL Wolfmother have become one of those bands that just keep on kicking. Despite temporary splits, multiple line-up changes and, let’s be honest, a decline in popularity since their debut went gangbusters, Andrew Stockdale and his gang are still plugging away with their ‘70s rock revival repertoire. Victorious is yet another Wolfmother record that showcases Stockdale’s delight in performing classic hard rock riffs inspired by the likes of Sabbath and Zeppelin - and that’s pretty much it. Most of the guitar noodling and extended solos he’s known for has been replaced by straight up, no nonsense, groovy driving rock, which packs a kind of carefree attitude that’s surprisingly good fun. But in the end, it’s still the same old song and dance Stockdale’s been swinging for over a decade,…

Outside of the underground, it’s not always an easy ride for heavy bands in Australia. We love our pop, indie, electronic and folk stuff, but metal has to work that bit harder to get some traction with the average punter. Polaris, then, have hit it out of the park with their latest EP The Guilt & The Grief. Since dropping in January this year, it debuted on #34 on the ARIA Album chart and #11 on the Australian album chart. This is based off iTunes sales alone, where they debuted at #6 in the Rock & Metal chart and #11 overall. Clearly, people want what these Sydney lads have got. Currently unsigned, their success has been organic and based on word of mouth and metal’s community vibe. Siew had a…

LOCATION? Pony Music, 3/37-41 Hallam South Road, Hallam VIC 3803 DIMENSIONS? Our complex has many recording space options. The control room is 6.8m L x 6m W x 3.67m H. The main live room is a massive 10m (l) x 8m (w) x 5.5m (h), the second live room is 5m x 3.25m x 3.76m with the third space 6.1m x 5.5m x 3.2m. We also have many other spaces available. GEAR LIST? The best of both worlds: analog front end into ProTools through awesome microphone preamps, microphones, and analog to digital converters - all the classic gear to get you the best sound. Our gear list is extensive and changes often. We have many rare and boutique items, as well as the required professional studio items. The studio is…

Good mic technique is paramount to capturing good tones. As any professional engineer will tell you, it's an ever-evolving, lifelong pursuit. There is no definitive method, but there are conventions that will save you a load of time! As your experience and mic kit evolve, you’ll inevitably find new ways to approach things. What constitutes a ‘good’ mic technique? Put simply - placing a suitable mic in an appropriate position to capture the ‘desired tone’ at the source. Obviously, the ‘desired tone’ can take many forms. Generally, engineers are trying to accurately capture the natural sound of the instrument in question – as close as possible to what the listener hears when sitting near the performer. Other situations may call for something different. For example, adding special effects or specific…

ag So how did your career as a luthier begin, and what drew you to the work? I bought my first guitar at the age of 18, a 1961 Gretsch Anniversary for $500 at Venue Music in the city. Being an old, well-worn and well played instrument, it needed some love, so I sent it for a re-fret and set up, etc. Some three hundred dollars and two months later, I got back my guitar and decided then if anything needed to be fixed on this thing, I was going to be the one to do it, so my tinkering with fixing guitars started there. A few years ago, I watched It Might Get Loud and saw master luthier and general creative super wizard, Randy Parsons, working on Jack White’s…

Many guitarists feel daunted by scales. How do you know which one to use over a given chord progression? How do you memorise their intervals? How do you expand them out across the entire neck? The fun thing about playing guitar is that it’s as simple or as difficult as you want it to be. There are many great players who know their scales and modes forwards, backwards and on four different necks at the same time. There are others who couldn’t even tell you the names of the strings. Each is equally capable of making great music because ultimately, it’s all about the sound that comes out in the end. And a few great players - Eddie Van Halen and Dimebag Darrell - have made some pretty great music…

This issue we continue to look at a mash-up of two different fretboard mapping concepts – the CAGED system and the ‘three note per string’ scale system. Both methods work very well at giving us a clear map of the fretboard and when combined you get the benefits of both. The following exercises borrow from both soloing concepts. When these two concepts are combined it will give you a useful map of the fretboard without requiring too much memorisation of different chord shapes, scales and arpeggios. Some of the advantages of this combination of concepts are you can also move easily between chords with very smooth voice leading, as notes are moving by a tone or semitone between chords and some chord tones are note moving at all. Arpeggios for…