EX LA K DAYS”

BONUS
GUITAR PICKS

PLUS
PAUL
KELLY

MAX
CAVALERA

GERMAN
METAL
SPECIAL

THE
PREATURES

ROYAL
BLOOD

THY ART
IS MURDER

RISE
THE VILLAINS WHO AGAINST

23
BURNED IT ALL + MORE
$10.99 NZ $11.90 (INC. GST)
VOLUME 123

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 NOW AVAILABL IN
NATURAL AND CANDY PPLE RE

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 8 22

66 96

CONTENTS REGULARS
6 News 86
18 THY ART IS MURDER 50 Subscriptions
Narrowly avoiding death at the hand of frontman CJ McMahon’s departure, Thy
Art Is Murder are back at the top of the food chain. Peter Hodgson talks with head 68 Recording Tips
axeman Andy Marsh about their rollercoaster ride from Holy War to Dear Desolation.
76 Gettin’ The Blues
78 Lead
22 THE PREATURES 80 Modern Theory
It took a hot minute, but The Preatures are back and more badarse than ever with a
scorching new album. Matt Doria dives into the stripped-back sounds of Girlhood.
82 Shredded Metal
84 Album Reviews
26 PAUL KELLY 86 Hot Gear
Paul Kelly tells Andrew P Street about struggling with band names, the balmy St.
Kilda weather, and the power of a third fret capo. TESTING
72
36 GERMAN METAL SPECIAL Soundcraft Ui24R

With some big celebrations underway, Peter Zaluzny riffs on the generation-spanning
74 TOP SHELF: Collings
Statesman LC Deluxe
impact of German metal with iconic bands Edguy, Accept and Blind Guardian.
94
88 Charvel Pro-Mod San
Dimas Style 2
40 COVER STORY: QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE 90 VOX MV50 Series
Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme and his fellow guitar bandits Dean
92 Music Man StingRay
Fertitas and Troy Van Leeuwen are gleefully burning bridges with their new, Mark
Old Smoothie
Ronson-produced album, Villains. Lachlan Marks peers behind the emerald curtain
for a stiff drink and an impromptu guitar lesson. 94 Epiphone
Hummingbird PRO

36 RISE AGAINST 96 Fishman SA330x / SA

Sub / SA Expand
The wolves are here to play, and they’re here to stay. Peter Zaluzny explores how
one republican president helped Rise Against become a roaring beast when they
were struggling to muster up a voice.
4 | AUSTRALIAN GUITAR DIGITAL

EX L K DAYS” THIS ISSUE’S DIGITAL Carlos Acoustic Guitar Amplification carlosjuan.eu

CONTENT IS BROUGHT
TO YOU BY Recognised as the world’s finest acoustic guitar amplification guitarheroes.com.au/carlos.htm

BONUS
GUITAR PICKS AUSTRALIAN GUITAR DIGITAL #123
IN EACH ISSUE, WE BRING YOU VIDEO INTERVIEWS WITH AUSTRALIAN AND
INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS, SAMPLE TRACKS, VIDEO TUTORIALS, AND STYLE STUDIES
COMPLETE WITH TABLATURE AND BACKING TRACKS.
PLUS
PAUL EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS
KELLY

MAX
CAVALERA
VIDEO INTERVIEW spent years in the
GERMAN
WITH PETER WALKER world of large scale
METAL
SPECIAL
Peter Walker was a founding member of control systems
THE progressive hard rock band Bakery. After six years as a designer and
PREATURES
on the road, Walker migrated to the studio world coder, but stumbled
ROYAL
BLOOD via Charles Fisher and Trafalgar Studios, where he back to guitars and
THY ART often worked with people he knew from his touring started playing
IS MURDER
days. He engineered and produced numerous again in 2010.
RISE
albums through the ‘70s and ‘80s, covering a wide Walker also
THE VILLAINS WHO AGAINST

23
BURNED IT ALL + MORE range of music from rock, pop and country, all the built a range of
$10.99 NZ $11 90 ( NC. GST)
VOLUME 123

way to film soundtracks and the like. These were
9 771329 768001 FULL MELBOURNE GUITAR SHOW WRAP UP heady days, with large budgets and long sessions.
Walker was also a resident session guitarist,
playing on many tracks and advertising jingles.
Much of that work was uncredited, as his specialty
#123 was replacing existing parts – or beefing them
up – for albums by well-known bands. His work
can be heard on “Eagle Rock” (Daddy Cool), “Hey
True Blue” (John Williamson) and “Khe Sahn”(Cold
Chisel), to name just a few tracks. Other local
acts Walker has engineer for include Midnight Oil,
EDITORIAL Hoodoo Gurus, John Williamson, Air Supply, Tommy
EDITOR Lachlan Marks
Emmanuel and Buffalo. He also recorded for
FREELANCE DESIGNER Glen Downey
international acts like Elvis Costello, David Bowie,
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Matt Doria
Police and Duran Duran.
COLUMNISTS By the ‘90s, Walker had moved into the digital
Adrian Whyte, Jimmy Lardner-Brown, age, writing software and working on his first major
Peter Hodgson, Reg Barber, Rob Long
invention: a cordless, attitude-sensing joystick.
CONTRIBUTORS It’s still recognised as the fastest responding
Andrew P Street, Ed Lamington, Matt Doria, Paul Southwell, Peter
VR joystick around, even 25 years later. He then
Hodgson, Peter Zaluzny, Steve Henderson, Alex Wilson
stompboxes for Ian
Moss, with whom
he’d been a friend
since the early
Chisel days. “Our
goal was to get any pickup’s tone to survive the
tortuous journey through cables, pedalboards,
stompboxes and more cables. And I had Ian as my
crash test dummy!” says Walker.
After years of industrial design and patenting,
his latest invention – the Virtual Jeff – won the
‘Best In Show’ award at NAMM 2017.
Recently, Moss approached Walker once more
to produce his latest album. “We’ve spent about
18 months arranging and recording between his
tours,” Walker says. “It’s all his own material and it
covers a big range; he’s had a lot of opportunities
and influences over a long career. It was also a
great opportunity to put together the band of his
dreams - at least in the studio!”

ADVERTISING FORM THE VAULT: A

NATIONAL ADVERTISING MANAGER Lewis Preece VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH
EMAIL lpreece@nextmedia.com.au KERRYN TOLHURST
A formidable presence in Australian folk,
ADVERTISING CO-ORDINATOR Di Preece rock and roots music since the late ‘60s, Kerryn
EMAIL dpreece@nextmedia.com.au Tolhurst has earned a reputation in his homeland
and North America as a distinctive and eloquent
musician, a chart-topping songwriter, and a
SUBSCRIPTIONS producer of note. Kerryn sprang to national
attention in the ‘70s as a defining member of
www.mymagazines.com.au bands Country Radio and The Dingoes. He penned
The Dingoes in 2010.
Toll free 1300 361 146 or +61 2 9901 6111 Back: Kevin Bennet, John Bois, Ashley Davies. Top 40 hits “All Fired Up” for Pat Benetar, “Man In
Front: Chris Copping, Chris Stockley, The Middle” for LRB, and memorable Australian
Locked Bag 3355, St Leonards NSW 1590 Broderick Smith, Kerryn Tolhurst.
hit “Way Out West” as a member of The Dingoes.

TUTORIAL VIDEOS
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER David Gardiner MASTERS OF SLIDE GUITAR IMPROVISING UNPLUGGED BY
COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Bruce Duncan
ROCK WITH WITH STEVE WITH STEVE ARRANGEMENT
Australian Guitar is published by nextmedia Pty Ltd ACN: 128 805 970, Level 6, Building
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| australianguitarmag.com.au
6 | FIRST CHORD
DWEEZIL ZAPPA CELEBRATES
50 YEARS OF FRANK ZAPPA
G
uitarists owe Dweezil Zappa a huge debt
of gratitude. Not only is he a great player
in his own right, but he’s also leading the
charge in keeping the music of his father – the one
and only Frank Zappa – alive for new generations.
David Roy Williams, in collaboration with
Principal Entertainment, will present Dweezil
Zappa and The Others Of Intention – celebrating
50 years of Zappa with a series of concerts and
exclusive guitar masterclasses in Australia and
New Zealand come early 2018.
In a pun-filled press release that’s too good
to not share, the promoters say, “Freak Out! to
some of the most inventive and wildly original
music ever committed to tape! Discover Who
Are The Brain Police? as Dweezil conducts
immaculate explorations and excavations of
Frank’s 50-year-old debut album. Take a drive
with the ‘Muffin Man’ along the ‘Inca Roads’ in
the ‘Orange County Lumber Truck’ as Dweezil
digs in for a suite mined from one of Frank
Zappa’s most acclaimed albums, Joe’s Garage.
“Dweezil will be whippin’ up a ‘G-Spot Tornado’
as he explores everything from the deepest album
cuts to the cult favourites that have made Frank
Zappa and his music such an indelible influence
on our musical culture.
“Before you ask, ‘Is That All There Is?’, Dweezil
| australianguitarmag.com.au
will be holding exclusive and strictly limited guitar
masterclasses and Q&A sessions before each show,
exploring exciting new approaches to that guitar
that he has employed to play his dad’s most
sophisticated and challenging melodies. These
masterclasses provide theories that destroy the
boundaries that confine musical creativity.
“So don’t be a ‘Zomby Woof’, move like the
‘Teenage Wind’ and grab a ticket before they’re
all gone, as The Son Of Shut Up ‘n Play Yer Guitar
shows you how it’s done.”
TOUR DATES
Tuesday 20 February
Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland
Thursday 22 February
Tivoli Theatre, Brisbane
Friday 23 February
Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Saturday 24 February
Forum Theatre, Melbourne
Sunday 25 February
The Gov, Adelaide
Tuesday 27 February
Astor Theatre, Perth
Tickets are on sale now via the usual outlets.
KELLA VEE
CURRENTLY PLAYING WITH
Elko Fields: a two-piece scuzz-rock band from
Brisbane. I play the role of frontwoman on lead
guitar and vocals.
USUALLY FOUND PLAYING
Heavy rock with a kick of blues. It’s always as
loud, low and long as possible.
YEARS ON THE FRETBOARD
I’d say approximately 23 years, or 8,395 days to
be precise. I picked it up around age five.
PLAYING STYLE
I’m a sucker for concocting semitone bends,
drones and a bunch of triads. I fell in love with
tuning to C standard and fumbling my way
around there a lot.
FIRST AXE
I grew up dribbling over my Dad’s 1966 Fender
Strat. My grandfather bought me a little black
Fender Squier at age five, and my parents tried
to convince me it was just as good so I would
stop smacking nice guitars into walls when I was
trying to pick them up.
CURRENT AXE
Elko Fields has me on a Gibson Les Paul Custom.
It’s a complete back-breaker onstage, but that
hasn’t been enough to stop me.
RIG
The bulk of my rumble comes from a Black Arts
Pharoah Fuzz and a Crowther Prunes & Custard.
The two were meant to be together.
SECRET WEAPON
Whisky and rehearsing in the dark.
FAVOURITE GUITARIST
I’ve always admired Hendrix’s ability to switch
seamlessly between lead and rhythm. As the
sole guitarist in a band, it’s pretty inspiring.
FAVOURITE LOCAL
Zed Charles from The Royal Artillery is always a
treat to watch onstage. He knows heavy blues
like the back of his hand.
CURRENT RELEASE:
We just released the Elko Fields EP on 12-inch
vinyl with a bunch of accompanying film clips.
8 | AXES IN ACTION

MICHAEL DOLCE

THE
MELBOURNE
GUITAR SHOW
2017
PETER HODGSON HIT THE BOOTHS HARD TO BRING YOU THE VERY BEST OF MGS 2017.

T
he Melbourne Guitar Show is in its third world-class instrument for any player who craves
year, and every year, it’s bigger and better vintage tone but wants a bit more of a modern
than the one before it. As Rick Chadwick playability. To that end, Nick’s performance on
of CMC Music Australia told us during a visit to the Whammy Bar stage was a stunning show of
his company’s packed booth, “The first year was virtuosity and instrumental songcraft.
great, and the second year was a little busier. But
this year, it’s been wall-to-wall people the whole The Sherlock V3 High
time. We keep hearing about the decline of the Voltage Distortion
guitar, but look around you. Does it look like the was on show again
guitar is in trouble?” this year, though it’s
been a little further
Zakk Wylde’s Wylde Audio brand, distributed by tweaked and refined
Schecter, was on display. You may remember when compared to
that Australian Guitar got to check out Wylde’s its 2016 debut. This
personal prototypes of these a few years ago. twin-channel stomper is an all-valve distortion
The guitars available to the public seem to be unit which takes the high-gain circuitry of the
identical to those first samples Wylde showed us, Fat Head and shrinks it down to pedal form with
and the finishes are all flawless. These guitars three gain modes – High, Low and Medium, all
are obviously going to appeal to Wylde fans first adjustable via a four-button DIP Switch on the
and foremost, but don’t overlook them if you’re underside of the V3.
not a member of the BLS family.

By far the most talked-about piece of gear at the

show was the USA-made Peavey HP2 guitar. If
it looks familiar, that’s because these are being
made out of unfinished bodies that had been
stockpiled when a certain famous endorser left
the company a while back. This new version,
named after company founder Hartley Peavey,
features slightly tweaked pickups that are The MBC-1 Matthew Bellamy Signature guitar
designed to sound as good in single coil mode by Cort was developed in cooperation with
as they do as humbuckers. There’s a range of Nick Johnston performed at the MGS, and his Manson Guitar Works to the Muse frontman’s
beautiful new finishes in addition to the classic signature Schecter USA Custom Shop guitar was exacting specs, with Manson-designed pickups,
black and ivory models we all remember. The on display as well. Featuring Schecter pickups a killswitch, locking tuners and a basswood
first run using the old bodies has already been designed with Nick and a more shred-friendly body. The guitar is available in matte black
purchased by dealers. neck than it may initially appear, this is a and sparkly red finishes.

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 |9

Wanna see something cool? How about these

KISS-inspired finishes by airbrush artist Mark
Emerson? He had plenty of other guitars on
display too, including a great Iron Maiden
‘Eddie’ and plenty of others.

BOSS is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its

legendary compact pedals with a special box
set comprising reissues of the PH-1 Phaser, OD-1
Overdrive and SP-1 Spectrum. The Spectrum is
a particularly interesting pedal: it’s an EQ pedal
of sorts, but it’s not like any EQ pedal you ever
heard. It can give clean and edge-of-dirt guitar
tones a real kick in the pants, and it’s also great
with electric pianos like the Fender Rhodes.

Innovative Music is the Australian distributor of

Kemper profiling amps. What really seems to
make Kemper devices stand out among all the
other similar ones is their very tube-like response,
which seems to resonate particularly with more
traditional players who need the versatility of a
digital amp but crave the tone of the real deal.
Seriously, plug into one of these and try varying
your picking strength to see what happens.
Want to make your own guitar? Check out
Wildwood Instruments’ electric guitar making
courses. Some examples of the kinds of guitars
you can make there were on display, including
the beautiful 335-inspired piece pictured here.
Who knows, you might kick off your guitar-making
career with this course, then have your own booth
at a future MGS!
Over at the Reverb.com booth, Melbourne
luthier Joseph Price’s latest – the Soxy Guitars
Fullatone – barely spent any time in its stand.
Every time we walked past, someone was
playing this handmade beauty. The Reverb
stand also hosted a few Ormsby guitars and
plenty of other goodies.
10 | AXES IN ACTION

Ibanez seems to have kicked their finishes up

a notch in recent years. Perfect examples at
opposite ends of the spectrum are the S Series
and Artcore models seen here. One has an almost
luminous and very glossy green sunburst finish,
while the other is aged and bashed up to feel like
a lived-in, much loved old guitar. There were
plenty of other Ibanez guitars scattered around
the show floor, including the venerable Steve Vai
Jem7VWH over at the KC’s Rock Shop booth.

The CMC Music Australia booth was almost

Did you know Strandberg guitars are available
in Australia? Jon Bloomer of Tone Temple was at
the Melbourne Guitar Show with a selection of
beautiful instruments – as used by the likes of
Aussie guitar phenomenon Plini – and there was
pretty much always someone playing a guitar at
the booth for the whole show.
impossible to get to, being one of the busiest of
the show. For those that could find their way into
it, the Ernie Ball Music Man St. Vincent signature
model guitar was unmissable and unmistakable,
as were a few John Petrucci Majesty models
and the signature guitar for Maroon 5’s James
Valentine. There were also plenty of Markbass
and DV Mark amps on show, and a range of new
Sterling By Music Man instruments.
Melbourne retailer World of Music has
done a great job of repositioning themselves
as a destination for boutique pedals by the
likes of Death By Audio, Old Blood Noise
Endeavors and Earthquaker Devices. Their
display featured more pedals than Vernon
Reid’s storage shed!

Guitar Village had lots of great gear on

show, from oddballs like an ‘80s Roland
synth guitar to a handful of new Hamer
guitars. Yes, this legendary brand has been
revived after being bought and mothballed
by FMIC. Hamer is now owned by US Music
Corp, and they seem to be dipping their
toe in the waters with some affordable, yet
high-quality models. Hopefully we’ll see the
return of USA-made Hamers and models like
the Californian before too long.

| australianguitarmag.com.au

The Fender booth was full of beautiful guitars –
including a couple of very pricey Custom Shop
instruments with pastel coloured candy-striping
– plus the Brad Paisely Telecaster, an affordable
road-worn instrument that combines a sparkly
finish with a transparent paisley pickguard for
a lived-in Custom look. Oh, and for those who
like their home decor to echo their guitar fetish,
there were some pretty cool Stratocaster and
Telecaster bookends on display.
Sunburst Music had an exceptionally enviable
collection of vintage guitars on show, including
some beautiful old Gretsches and Fenders.
Vox displayed their new MV50 series of mini amps,
and Diesel was on hand to demo these small, yet
highly powerful amplifiers. You’ll find the review
elsewhere in these pages, but there are models
based on the AC30, a classic American clean and a
modern British high-gain sound.
| 11
Up in the acoustic room, there were plenty of
guitars from the likes of Yamaha, Cole Clark,
Maton, Martin, Gretsch – in particular, a
Gretsch Rancher Dreadnought acoustic with
a Fideli’tron humbucking pickup and a Bigsby
tremolo – and some truly beautiful Washburns,
including one that was played by Kirk Lorange
during his ‘up close and personal’ Q&A session
hosted by yours truly. But tucked away in a
corner was one of the most breathtaking
guitars of the show: a handmade Octigan
archtop made by Roderick Octigan.
Speaking of modellers, there were plenty of
opportunities to try out the latest and greatest:
the Headrush Pedalboard, Line 6 Helix, Fractal
Audio Axe-Fx and Positive Grid BIAS Amp were
all available for players to try, and each revealed
its particular strengths. This is a really exciting
time for guitarists, with this technology finally
reaching its maturity and finding a great balance
between traditional and futuristic. Line 6 also
had the latest iteration of the Spider range on
display, which streamlines the controls while also
incorporating influences from the Helix.
12 | FEATURE

SHIFTING
30 YEARS INTO HIS CAREER, TO THE BONE SEES STEVEN WILSON BLENDING HIS POP AND PROG
SENSIBILITIES MORE AUDACIOUSLY THAN EVER BEFORE. AUSTRALIAN GUITAR GOT HIM ON THE PHONE TO
TALK ABOUT, AMONG OTHER THINGS, WHY THE ‘80S WAS SO GOOD.
BY ALEX WILSON

“F
or me, if playing one note through a
chain of effects is the sound I’m after,
I don’t feel any regret about that.”
These might seem like strange words for a man
routinely praised as the greatest art-rock musician
to come out of the UK in a generation, but Steven
Wilson has always had a conflicted relationship
with progressive rock. He’s consistently pushed the
stylistic and emotional boundaries of a genre that’s
often ruled by the tastes of ‘70s-obssessed classicists.
In simple terms, Wilson’s latest offering, To The
Bone, pushes the clock forward one decade to the
1980s. The album’s songs are generally punchy
and resplendent, with pop hooks that evoke
watershed artists like Kate Bush, Tears For Fears
and Talk Talk. But there’s much more depth to his
musical shift than simply homage to a different
period. “It’s about a particular combination of
great pop with extremely expert production,
performance and meaningful lyrics,” says Wilson.
“That balance between accessibility and ambition
is something the ‘80s excelled at. With a few
exceptions, the last couple of decades have seen
this ideal disappear in pop songwriting.”
“Permanating”, one of the album’s singles,
encapsulates this shift. Driven by a propulsive
beat and dreamy textures, the hooks and polished
production conceal a complex arrangement and a
note of melancholy. It also features one of many
solos Wilson has scattered across the album, which
is of note for fans.
Wilson’s prestige, as former leader of Porcupine
Tree and now a solo artist, has given him the pick of
prog’s best guns-for-hire for his past few records –
at one point, his band featured renowned shredder
Guthrie Govan. But for his latest batch of songs, he
wanted a more personal touch. “There’s a difference
between playing the guitar as a songwriter and
playing the guitar as a session player,” notes
Wilson. “I wanted the guitar playing – in the solos
particularly – to be an extension of the songwriting
sensibility. I wanted it to have more of an organic
quality that’s emotionally integrated with the songs.
Not to diminish the contributions of any other
guitarists I’ve worked with, but that’s the nub of it.”
In terms of gear, Wilson takes a “whatever
works” approach. “I do like to experiment and I’m
not a purist,” he says. “I’m equally keen to play
around with plugins on a digital workstation as I
am to play with an analog signal chain. There’s
everything from my punky Mexican Telecaster
going through a tiny practice amp I keep in my
studio – that’s the main sound for the track
‘People Who Eat Darkness’: very biting. The other
extreme is the cathedralesque shoegaze guitars at
the end of ‘Pariah’. They’re going through octave
pedals, reverbs and distortion to the point that it
becomes pure texture.”
Ultimately, it seems that the method matters less
than the result. The main goal is for something
to sound good and have a character that is fresh
and interesting. “I love to abstract the guitar and
I love the fact that the guitar remains the most
versatile instrument of all,” says Wilson. “I’m often
disappointed when I hear records that don’t explore
the instrument’s possibilities.”
Wilson’s latest songs may have a pop tinge, but
they don’t lack any lyrical depth that complements
the musical polish. To The Bone continues his
tradition of bringing emotional resonance and
mature subject matter to a progressive rock
audience – one often maligned for being content
with pretentious lyrics. “I feel like the best art is all
about holding up a mirror,” notes Wilson. “It’s not
preachy or overtly topical, but it’s an attempt to
reflect your perspective back to your audience.”
It’s with no doubt that 2017 is a strange year.
Wilson is aware of this, and wonders if there’s a
place for his record in both the musical and wider
worlds. But if he truly has any doubts, they haven’t
stopped him from asking the big questions. “This is
an album about perspective,” he explains. “It starts
with a quote about truth, and goes on to explain that
what we call ‘truth’ isn’t anything of the sort. It’s
actually all about perspective, filtered through your
race, gender, religion, politics and upbringing. This is
what I see – do you see yourself in here as well?”

| australianguitarmag.com.au
14 | FEATURE
I
t begins in the harsh winter of 2016, when
the Novocastrian singer-songwriter dropped
their second EP, I Just Have A Lot Of Feelings.
The four-track beast came at a dark time in
Cox’s life: they were wrestling with the grip of a
destructive eating disorder, traversing the cracks
of broken relationships and battling dire mental
health issues. But the release not only served as
an outlet of catharsis for Cox – it marked a turning
point that would inform the evolution both of their
personal life and their artistry.
“In releasing [Feelings], I had made myself super
vulnerable – those songs were like open wounds in
a lot of ways,” they admit. “So having put that out
there and having it be so well received made me
want to write something that drew from and built
on those experiences. I wanted to write something
that, in one way or another, discussed how you can
find strength in vulnerability.”
The confidence to open up didn’t come easy for
Cox, and for a while, performing to a crowd was
a vicious struggle strewn in insecurity and terror.
Forcing themself to stare those insecurities down
(often in the frame of an observing stranger) acted
as a therapy for Cox, and allowed them to grow
more comfortably in their own head. And on the
flipside, their use of painfully relatable lyrical quips
meant their audience had something to connect
with and find their own sense of healing in.
“When Feelings came out – especially with songs
like ‘Netflix’ and ‘Weighty’ – a lot of people came
to me and were like, ‘This really speaks to me
because I’ve lived through X and Y as well,’ and that
made me realise that there’s this sort of power in
| australianguitarmag.com.au
WALKING
UNTIDY LINES IS THE RAW, EMOTIVE AND
POWERFUL DEBUT FROM INDIE-POP TRAILBLAZER
RACHEL MARIA COX. AUSTRALIAN GUITAR
WADES THROUGH ITS CHAOTIC BACKSTORY.
saying out loud the things that people are told to
be ashamed of,” Cox says. “Because they’re topics
that make you want to hide and keep quiet, and the
more that you face up to that and the more that
you see other people facing up to that, the easier it
is to gain a sense of strength and solidarity.”
Thus led to Untidy Lines being markedly more
upbeat than any of Cox’s former output. In addition
to their personal growth, the past year has seen
them hit a lot of strides as an artist: notably, the
leap from calm acoustic backdrops to a rollicking
full-band setup, and a crowdfunding campaign
that drew in close to $7,000 (an experience they
describe as “60 days of constant terror”). Cox says
that both milestones influenced the pop-heavy
leanings of their debut full-length.
“I wanted to make [Untidy Lines] a high-energy
album mainly because it’s been great to perform
with a full band, and I wanted to do something that
I knew would be fun to play with them,” they say.
“And also, y’know, when you’re recording with other
people’s money, you really want to write as many
hits as you can. When we reached that crowdfunding
goal, I was like, ‘Man, people have given me a heap
of cash without knowing what they’re gonna get – I
have to put out wall-to-wall bangers here!’”
It only takes one playthrough of the record to see
that Cox pulled their mission off without a hitch:
Untidy Lines is loud, lively and sounds absolutely
huge with Cox’s searing vocal harmonies washing
over the jam-heavy interplay of axemen Josh
Gibson and Jack Lundie. But as tight as everything
sounds on wax, Cox is quick to point out that things
were a little less than organised behind the scenes.
WORDS: MATT DORIA
PHOTO: DAVE MCCARTHY
“All of my band members are in really great side
projects, so they all bring something unique to the
table,” they say, “But it also means they’re really
f***ing difficult to get in the same room at the same
time. All up, we had maybe six hours of rehearsal
time together before we went into the studio. And
none of us were in the same room for the recording,
either – Edgy [James Edge] tracked his drum parts
first, and I couldn’t be there because the only day
that worked for him was the day I was at work.”
Despite scheduling disasters, personal unrest
and, just after the studio sessions wrapped,
Lundie’s exit (which forced the now-foursome to
completely re-haul their parts for the stage), Cox
is optimistic of the album’s outcome.
“I didn’t really do a good job of planning
anything,” they chuckle, “but y’know, it all came
together in the end! Joe [Andersons, producer]
was also just super chill and easy to work with,
especially when it came to the fact that I was
basically trying to hold a sinking battleship
together with Blu-Tack™ and duct tape.
“There’s a triumph in the record,” they close
with a deep sigh. “We’ve made it this far. The
whole record is me kind of going, ‘Damn! After
all this drama, I’m still alive and everything is
still happening!’ The recording process was the
cherry on top of that – it was an example of life
imitating art, I suppose, because the album is a
bit of a hot mess. It’s imperfect and it deals with
a lot of tumultuous feelings, but it’s about
constantly improving, and that’s exactly what
recording it was like… It also appears to be how
I live my life, but that’s okay!”

THE SON
EVAN STANLEY’S DAD IS PRETTY WELL KNOWN. BUT THE DIVES HAVE THE SONGS AND CHOPS TO
STAND ON THEIR OWN WITHOUT A SILVER PLATFORM-BOOTED LEG UP. BY PETER HODGSON
S
o, what’s it like growing up with Paul Stanley
as your dad?” Don’t worry, dear AG readers,
that’s the last thing we’d think of asking
Evan Stanley in our interview with him and The
Dives’ lead singer/co-guitarist Mike Lefton. The
fact that his dad is a rock legend who stands out
front of KISS every night is cool trivia, but it has
no bearing whatsoever on the catchy late ‘70s/
early ‘80s-inspired power pop of The Dives (think
The Knack meets Cheap Trick). As the band’s
debut EP, Everybody’s Talkin’, makes clear, this is
a musical entity with its own sound and its own set
of influences that have very little to do with the
Starchild. And Stanley neither relies on the family
connection for attention nor uses it as a crutch.
The first thing that really hits you about The Dives
is the natural interplay between its two guitarists. “I
don’t want to say it was a happy accident, but when
we started jamming, we really hit it off as friends
and as musicians,” Stanley says. “We both grew up
on the same stuff, so we play off each other naturally
rather than just repeat what the other is doing. We
try to not copy ourselves, so if Mikey is playing one
inversion of a chord, I’ll play a different inversion
or add a suspension. We’ve both been in enough
musical situations that we understand that in a band
with two guitarists, it’s usually counter-productive
for them to both be playing the same part.”
“Totally,” Lefton agrees. “It’s about making sure
that we’re not stepping on each other’s toes, and
about moving the song along.
“Both of us are very Gibson oriented,” Stanley
says. “When I first met Mikey, I had written some
songs on a Rickenbacker 12-string. I’d always loved
the sound of a 12-string – ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’,
‘A Hard Day’s Night’... You can’t beat that. And this
guy can rip on a Rickenbacker 12-string, for sure!
We’ve both got Strats that we love, but we’re Gibson
guys. You can’t beat a great Gibson.”
Lefton tends to lean towards a particular Gibson
SG Custom. “I use that for most of the shows,” he
says. Meanwhile, Stanley favours a late ‘88 or early
‘89 Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul – “Right when
they were coming out of the Norlin era and starting
to make great guitars again,” he tells us. “It is a
prototype for the ’59 Les Paul reissue, and they
only made a few of them to show around to artists
and dealers. The specs are totally off for a ’59, but
it plays like no other Les Paul I’ve owned or played.
I’ve been lucky enough to play a number of ‘58s,
‘59s and ‘60s, and to me, this guitar is the perfect
model. It fits in my hand in a way that none other
has, and I adore it.”
Amp-wise, Stanley relies on a Marshall JTM45
and a Fender 1x12 cabinet, but the EP was recorded
exclusively with 50-watt ENGL combos. “As soon as
we started playing them, we were sure we had to
use them on the recording because they could do
| 15
everything,” Lefton says. “Everyone tends to think of
them as high-gain amps, but they just sounded like
us. They just sung, and they had the perfect amount
of break-up.” Stanley is considering switching to an
ENGL Artist 50 as his live amp as a result.
“My favourite pedal to use as a main source of
overdrive is a Fulltone Plimsoul,” he continues. “I
tend to go back and forth between a very clean
sound from the amp and a somewhat dirty-to-fairly
dirty sound for certain songs, and definitely for
soloing. The Plimsoul has such a natural, broken-
up Marshall quality, rather than sounding like that
fake buzzsaw distortion of certain pedals that I try
to stay away from. Both of us are gear nuts, but
most of the time I think the best sound comes from
the guitar plugged straight into amp, which isn’t
always practical live.”
Lefton’s main drives are a Way Huge Red Llama
and an Alexander Silver Jubilee. “The Llama has
a bit more of a Fender Tweed flavour,” he says,
“And the Jubilee is like a Marshall – it sounds so
awesome. It really does sound like an amp in a box,
and it’s one of those pedals that sounds great with
a wide variety of amps.”
So given that Stanley grew up surrounded by
music and guitars, what was the moment that made
him realise the axe was something that fit his own
identity and sense of self? “When the store ran out
of trumpets,” he assures us.
16 | FEATURE
S T I C K T O
ROOTS WITH A NEW BACKING BAND (BUT TRADITIONAL ETHOS),
SEPULTURA FOUNDERS MAX AND IGGOR CAVALERA ARE
FINALLY GIVING ROOTS THE FULL-ALBUM WORLD TOUR IT’S DESERVED
SINCE ‘96. AND THIS MONTH, IT’S COMING TO AUSTRALIA.
WORDS BY MATT DORIA. PHOTO BY ANDY HAYBALL.
T
he cadaverous howls of “Roots! Bloody
ROOOOTS!” are enough to kickstart the cold
and/or lifeless heart of any metalhead worth
their patches. But it’s not just the blood-curdling
gutturals and walloping riffs that made Sepultura’s
1996 breakthrough a driving force in the scenes to
come – it’s the gritty production, lack of restraint
and, subverting any notion of formula, an ambitious
fusion of Brazilian tribal music with sharp, punishing
thrash metal. 21 years later, Roots is still such a
crucial opus that its braintrust, Max and Iggor
Cavalera, are selling out arena shows in its honour
wherever their passports will take them.
“We had no expectations when we started this
tour,” says Max Cavalera, rhythm guitarist and lead
throat-savager on the album. “At first it was like,
‘Let’s do a few shows and see what happens’ –
y’know, it was just for fun, and so I could be with my
brother and we could play together – but the next
thing we know, people were losing their shit! All of
the places we were playing sold out, so we decided
to really go for it.”
What started as short stint of club shows in the
States quickly ballooned to expansive treks all
throughout Europe, the UK, Russia (surprisingly
enough) and, of course, their native South America.
And come the latter weeks of September, the
brothers will bring their one-of-a-kind tribal moshes
Down Under with a five-date theatre tour hitting
Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
“Australia has always been very fanatic and very
devoted,” says an audibly hyped Cavalera, “so I’m
expecting to see the biggest pits we’ve had on this
tour. [Roots is] a special record, so I think it will bring
out a lot of the old fans, but also a new generation of
fans that have never seen us play these songs.”
It was interesting to witness, when the tour was
first announced, just how many younger fans there
are stoked to swing their warpaint-decked limbs
in the pit. Cavalera pins the generational impact
of Roots down to the welcoming nature of a wider
heavy music scene. “Metal bridges the gap between
everything – between generations, races, social
communities… The coolest thing about metal is that
it’s a really close society,” he rhapsodises.
“In the real world, society fails because there’s
so much racism and so much of a division between
these communities that all hate each other. But in
metal, there’s none of that. No matter where you’re
from – you can be from Australia, from Brazil, even
from somewhere like Israel – that love for metal is
| australianguitarmag.com.au
Y O U R
stronger than anything else. And I think that’s one of
the coolest things about metal: it transcends politics
and it transcends religion. Metal is our religion!”
Roots is particularly notable for tightening
the dissonance between cultures in mainstream
metal. At the time of its release, the most
prominent heavy scenes in the Western world were
dominated by white bands that carried a universally
homogenous style. By exposing those circles to the
raw, anomalous sounds of Brazilian tribal music,
Sepultura forced metal into a new worldview. Which,
as Cavalera explains, was their prime motive.
“The whole theme of Roots is to embrace and be
proud of your culture,” he muses, “And to show your
culture to the people that might not have known
anything about it. That’s the thing about Roots that
I’m most proud of: we show off our Brazilian culture
the way it is, which is very powerful, very strong and
very beautiful. And I think, as well, those sounds had
never been done in that way before.”
In the studio, Sepultura enlisted the talents of
the Mato Grosso-native Xavante tribe, who used
their own traditional instruments to lay down the
album’s indigenous spark. Authentically replicating
their chants and primal beats onstage proves an
interesting challenge for the Cavalera brothers, but
instead of resorting to backing tracks or drafting
in extra musicians, they’ve gone a step further and
mastered the instruments for themselves.
“I play the berimbau* bit on the beginning of
‘Attitude’ and we both do percussion on ‘Ambush’
and ‘Ratamahatta’,” Cavalera says. “And we’ve got
songs like ‘Itsari’, where Iggor recreates the voice
of the Indian and does the drumming on top of it.
It’s fantastic to watch.”
When it comes to the otherwise skull-shattering
fretwork that pillars Roots, Cavalera promises a
faster and more intense journey in concert – but also
one that stays true to its… Well, roots, and doesn’t
bastardise the band’s original vision in favour of a
more ‘2017’ sound. “I think Roots is an album that
has survived the test of time,” Cavalera says when
asked why. “It sounds as great today as it did when
it came out… Even better, maybe! And I think the
songs are better live now than they ever have been,
so it really is a privilege and an honour to get to play
them after 21 years.”
* - a berimbau is a long, single-stringed musical bow that
tears out a unique (and f***ing sexy) twang.
 THE
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 O
18 | FEATURE
V E T
AGA I N
AUSTRALIAN GUITAR’S PETER HODGSON TALKS WITH THY ART IS
MURDER’S HEAD AXEMAN ANDY MARSH ABOUT THEIR ROLLERCOASTER
RIDE FROM HOLY WAR TO DEAR DESOLATION.
T
hy Art Is Murder could easily have been
thrown off their steady upward trajectory
by the departure of vocalist Chris “CJ”
McMahon towards the end of 2016. Lineup changes
– especially behind the mic – can rapidly change
the fortunes of a band, and for a while there, it
was uncertain just how Thy Art would look going
forward. A number of touring vocalists stepped in
to fill the void, and it appeared that the plan was
to select a new permanent full-time vocalist to
reassert their rightful place in the deathcore
pantheon. Then, at the Unify Gathering in January,
McMahon was back, bringing with him a new
commitment and fire. The ultimate result is Dear
Desolation, the band’s fourth studio album. It’s their
most brutal yet, with killer guitar tones and lots of
great riffs and songs. Australian Guitar caught up
with former AG cover star Andy Marsh to talk about
this new phase in the band’s history.
Talk us through the process of how you got
from the last record to here.
ANDY MARSH: It’s been a bit of a
rollercoaster. There have been a lot of
precautionary measures and a lot of changes to
the strategy of touring and whatnot so that we
can navigate this period and figure everything out.
There’s been a lot of tippy-toeing around. There’s
a lot of politics involved in being in a band, from
the band members ourselves, to the crew who rely
on you for their job, to the management, to the
agents, the other bands, the fans, promoters – it’s
neverending how this industry intertwines. It’s
kind of like the investment marketplace: a line-up
change can cast doubt into investors’ minds,
and a totally arbitrary thing can affect the price.
Likewise with us, CJ being out of the band changed
| australianguitarmag.com.au
so many things for us. We just proceeded with
caution and underplayed things quite a lot, and
that helped us get through the storm.
I guess as we get older, we become better
at dealing with unpredictable situations.
MARSH: Absolutely. I think that’s my primary
skill: navigating difficult situations and coming up
with solutions. We’re all committed to each other
as friends – to this little institution and to this
little conglomerate that is the band, as friends, as
creators, and then to the fans – and to continue
to deliver music that we find enjoyable, and that
our fans will find enjoyable as well. Touring is our
livelihood, and it is only afforded because our fans
enjoy the music. Many are generous enough to
purchase our music and support us in that way,
but even if they don’t purchase it, if they enjoy the
music, it creates an opportunity for us to tour. That
only exists because of the relationship between the
creator and the consumer. So for us to have this
as a job wouldn’t exist just because we like making
music. If we were a stay-at-home band who put
records out for the sake of putting them out, then
sure, we wouldn’t need fans and we’d just keep
working our jobs and making records and putting
them on the internet – but we love to get out and
actually perform music, and our ability to do so
depends solely on that relationship.
Did you guys have to reignite your link with
CJ after the time apart and the changes you’d
all gone through personally?
MARSH: We’re a band of people who just
get on with it. Obviously, there was some kind of
caution and trepidation about how it was going
to be, but we were making an album anyway and
we would have had another vocalist had it not
panned out with CJ. Obviously, our preference was
for him to return. We’ve said this before in other
interviews: we imagine him as the other guy in
our band. We’ve been together for a long time
and his is the voice we hear over the music, in the
same way the way you imagine how the guitar
or the kick drum sounds. His voice is the one we
imagine when we write. So we went in and started
writing the record, we and had been working
towards it with CJ to make sure we were willing to
accept him back, and he was ready to come back
and deal with the pressure and responsibility that
comes with being in this band. But you never know
how that’s going to pan out until you get there. I
mean, people bail on their weddings right before
they’re about to put the ring on their finger! So
if that hadn’t worked out, then Nicholas Arthur
– who had been singing for us in Europe – would
have done it. But we got together before playing
Unify and that was great, like it was meant to be.
CJ truly was like a healed man.
You worked with Will Putney again this
time around. Is he a permanent fixture for
your sound?
MARSH: From a production standpoint, a
lot of people don’t understand the difference
between a recording engineer, a mixing engineer,
a mastering engineer and a producer. Will is all of
those things, but the main asset that he provides
to the band – aside from his friendship – is
guidance as a producer, in terms of songwriting,
in terms of structure and in terms of, ‘No, don’t
do that, you did that on the last record.’ We’ll
have these moves we’ll make in going from one
section to another, and he’ll say, ‘It feels too
O K I LL | 19
20 | FEATURE

“IF YOU’RE
familiar. You did this last time.’ He’s like that try to monitor information from as
extra member of the band that knows as much many sources as possible. In this
about how to play our songs as we do. But day and age, if you’re listening to

LISTENING TO
he’s removed that one step that we aren’t able or watching just one news source,
to be by not being so close to it. We feel that you’re definitely screwing up.

G
we have a great working dynamic going on, Everyone has their motivation for

OR WATCHIN
and there’s no real need to change that up. In that and they have their back-door
terms of introducing new dynamics in terms deals and agendas, and for whatever

of sonics, maybe someday we would consider
using a different mix engineer to apply some
kind of change or evolution – if we felt it
was necessary – but in terms of the actual
production, we make our records in about
two weeks with Will. We like to work long hours
and so does he.
WS
reason, the majority just cannot
understand that that’s how the world
is. Maybe it’s this thing of, ‘We don’t
JU ST ON E NE
’RE
want it to be that way, so we won’t
believe it,’ but that’s the way it is. So
to answer your question, I try to collect
SO U RC E , YO U
P.”
my news from as many sources as

Your conceptual approach is very distinct,

and heavily informed by world events. Given
possible.

What guitars were you shredding SC RE W I N G U

the biases from both sides within the
media, where do you get your news?
MARSH: I think just having good
perception. I know that sounds really whack to
say, but I like to think I’m a pretty good reader
of people and situations, and I think that
does allow you to forecast and see the true
motivation. There’s this rich tapestry of what
goes on behind everything. I mean, it’s not just
the toilet that you flush – there’s this network
of pipes and levers and switches that lead that
water to and away from you, and some people
can see that network behind everything.
Sometimes I feel that when you see a situation,
you can see those ulterior motives that are
really going on behind something. So I do
feel very in-tune with things like that, which
allows me to then better understand and
moderate the data that I do collect – and I do
out on in the studio?
MARSH: We used an Ibanez RGD2127
with an EverTune bridge, and we
recorded most of the rhythm guitars
in three or four days. Recording the rhythm
guitars normally takes forever, simply because
of the tuning: when you’re stacking guitars, any
kind of micro adjustment in the tuning is bad.
You’re often tuning guitars for four hours a day!
But the EverTune made a massive difference.
It’s our lucky pickup. There’s this violin or
amber, honey-yellow Ibanez Prestige seven-
string that they only made a few of ten or more
years ago, and we used it on Hate and Holy
War, but because we were using the 2127 for
the extra scale length and EverTune, we had to
de-solder that pickup and put it in the RGD. And
I removed all of the other electronics so it was
just pickup to amp.
And for leads?
MARSH: I have a very lucky guitar, an Ibanez
JEM BRMR – a mirrored one that the TSA cracked
for me. And I also used my touring guitar, which
is an Ibanez RGD2127 in Lamborghini Yellow that
I call ‘The Bumblebee’. It has a Seymour Duncan
Pegasus pickup in the bridge and a Sentient in
the neck. I think the Pegasus is a great pickup.
The midrange texture is totally different to a
traditional metal pickup, and the super, super
high-end is kind of lopped off, which I like because
you’re going to take that off for a recording
anyway. And we used a lot of cool pedals – too
many to remember! The amp is a 5150, and we
used maybe a Diesel as well.

| australianguitarmag.com.au
22 | FEATURE

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 Aolld
Go THE
IN ‘HOOD
IT TOOK A HOT MINUTE, BUT THE PREATURES
ARE BACK AND MORE BADARSE THAN EVER WITH
THEIR SCORCHING SECOND ALBUM, GIRLHOOD.
BY MATT DORIA
I
t certainly doesn’t feel like three years have
passed since they dropped their head-turning
debut, Blue Planet Eyes, though. The Sydney
indie rollickers have smashed out milestone after
milestone since 2014, touring everywhere from
Sweden to South Korea with an ever-growing
arsenal of chart-smashing hits. So when it came
time for the crew to start thinking about its
follow-up, they were at a crossroads: how the hell
would they replicate that early success, and how
could they do it in a short enough span of time
that they’d retain relevancy?
The answer came easy. With a mid-2016 one-off
single (“I Know A Girl”) to keep fans at bay, The
Preatures slipped into a deep hibernation and
buckled down on making Girlhood the masterpiece
it deserved to be.
“The fact that we toured for three years
straight on the back of [Blue Planet Eyes] kind
of… I wouldn’t say it wore us out,” opens bassist
Thomas Champion, “But we ended up going, ‘Okay,
we need to slow down.’ That led to us taking a
year and a half off to make this record, which was
so beneficial for the band. We hadn’t been doing
anything else – we played a few shows here and
there, but our philosophy was mainly just, ‘Let’s
buckle down and get this thing done.’ And y’know,
we blew through a couple of deadlines, but we
did what was necessary. After we blew through
the first deadline, we stumbled upon two songs
that wouldn’t have made the record if we forced
ourselves to rush things.”
Those two songs are “Magick” and “Something
New” – incidentally, two apt descriptors for
| 23
Girlhood in itself. In tinkering their sound to fit
a new era, The Preatures took a step back to
reexamine what it meant to coalesce as a unit –
a move that was triggered by the departure of
guitarist and co-vocalist Gideon Bensen.
“I think it was a process of elevating everything
for us,” says lead guitarist Jack Moffitt. “Obviously,
having a member leave any group is going to
change the way things work, but we ended up
learning things that we wouldn’t have learnt any
other way. We had to figure out what the band
meant to us at that point, and how we’d work as,
essentially, a three-piece.”
“It was actually quite nice because it meant
that we kind of had a clean state,” Champion
butts in. “We could reinvent the dynamic. I
mean, we’ve always had a very close dynamic
between Jack, Luke [Davidson, drums] and I as
a unit, but this time it was kind of like, ‘We can
do whatever we want!’”
Though somehow still managing to kick the
energy up a notch, Girlhood is instantly tighter
and more refined than its predecessor. Upon first
listen, there’s the impression that the now-quartet
must have banded together to hone their sound.
And in a sense, that’s true – Champion played
guitar on the record and Moffitt whacked out
some synth, for example – but as Moffitt tells us,
the album’s sonic restraint came more from their
decision to focus on songwriting individually.
“It was an attitude shift that you can hear in the
playing on this record,” he says. “What’s so great
about Blue Planet Eyes is that it’s sort of like a
little Meccano set and it just fits together in this
24 | FEATURE

way that we never really tried to explain because

we were always in the midst of doing it. But with
this record, we’d start with songs on our own and
then bring them into the group – as opposed to
writing songs as a group and then working them
outwards – and that meant we each had a new
approach to certain things. Like, there’s a couple of
slower tracks on this record, where the command
of them is within our own space as musicians.”
In tensing up their sound, the band embraced
a minimalist approach to their gear collections.
Though plenty of toys were passed around in
the studio (namely, a few vintage Strats, the odd
Gibson acoustic, a Rickenbacker 335 and more
analogue synth than Thom Yorke could handle),
Moffitt and Champion settled on a total of four
guitars across a weighty 11 tracks.
“If you’re surrounded by too much stuff and
you don’t have an intimate relationship with what
you’re working on, it’s like a sinkhole that you end
up getting trapped in,” Moffitt admits. “You end up
spending five hours trying to get this one guitar
tone right because you keep jumping between
different guitars and amps. It pays to just go with
what you know.”
When the band take Girlhood on the road come
September, fans can expect a more lowkey – but
still as powerful as ever – performance. “With all
respects to Gideon,” Champion says, “Not having
an extra voice or guitar in the mix has sort of
opened up an air around everything else that’s
happening in these songs. Everything sounds a lot
less constricted now, so it’ll be really cool to see
how that works in larger venues like the Enmore in
Sydney and the Forum in Melbourne. That’s a lot
of people to impress with just four instruments,
which is a really exciting challenge.”
Despite being their biggest domestic tour yet,
the band are adamant on steering clear of any
gratuitous bells or whistles. They’re tackling
sold-out theatres with a pub show attitude – if
you were lucky enough to catch their secret
Lansdowne show back in June, you’ll have a
good idea of what to expect. “It all starts here,”
Champion says, pointing to the Lansdowne’s band
room behind us. “If the show doesn’t work in a
half empty 250-cap room like this, it’s not going to
work in a 1,500-cap theatre.”
Worth noting, too, is that what punters hear on
Girlhood won’t exactly be what they hear in the pit.
“We’ve stripped a lot of things back,” Moffitt says
of the translation from LP to amp. “We’re taking
a really old-school approach of taking only the
best parts of what we do and amplifying them out.
All of the parts need to be strong and everything
needs to be tight – if it doesn’t stack up from the
stage, it’s not going to work in the crowd. That’s
one of the best things about where we’re at now:
we have a certain understanding about what that
takes and what we need to do to make our songs
sound their best.”
“I’m trying to summarise two or three guitar
parts into a single performance, and I love that
challenge,” he continues. “It’s doing my head in,
but it’s fun. There’s something special to be found
in playing things that you’ve recorded and not “IF THE SHOW DOESN’T
performed live; there’s always a way to pick up a
line that you wouldn’t have realised in the studio WORK IN A HALF EMPTY
because you’re not doing it for like an audience.
Like, some guitar solos may be a little tame in
200-CAP ROOM, IT’S NOT
the studio because they work for the record, but
then you get up onstage and feel like everyone
GOING TO WORK IN A
is looking at you and waiting for you to do 1,500-CAP THEATRE”
something, and that’s when it gets exciting.”

| australianguitarmag.com.au
26 | FEATURE
FINE
TIME
PAUL KELLY TELLS ANDREW P STREET ABOUT
STRUGGLING WITH BAND NAMES, THE BALMY
ST. KILDA WEATHER, AND THE POWER OF A
THIRD FRET CAPO.
I
t’s been a surprisingly long time since Paul Kelly
has made… Well, a Paul Kelly record. He’s been
enormously busy, to be clear, but on projects with
very clearly defined boundaries. Since Stolen Apples
came out in 2007, he’s written an autobiography (How
To Make Gravy, published in 2010) and featured in a
biopic (Stories Of Me in 2012), compiled his entire body
of work in alphabetical order for the A-Z collection and
related tours, and roamed the country swapping songs
with Neil Finn – which was later released as the Goin’ My
Way album in 2013.
He’s also made a bunch of records, but they’ve all
been somewhat conceptual in nature. 2012’s Spring
And Fall was a concept album tracking the slow death
of a (fictitious) relationship in middle age; 2014’s The
Merri Soul Sessions was a chance for Kelly and his
long time band to revisit old songs with new singers;
his two 2016 albums were a collaboration of songs for
funerals (Death’s Dateless Night, with Charlie Owen) and
commissioned musical interpretations of Shakespearean
writings (Seven Sonnets And A Song).
So Life Is Fine is the first time in a decade that Kelly
has just gotten a bunch of songs together and made
them into a record – but as we sit in the elegantly fancy
EMI offices in Sydney, he explains that he’s always got
songs kicking around.
“The songs came over a few years. They were songs
I’d written, but they were the songs that weren’t fitting
into the other projects. A song like ‘Josephina’ must be
eight or nine years old now, but didn’t really belong on
anything I was working on then – I liked it as a song, but
it didn’t really fit on any of those other records. ‘Rising
Moon’ has been around for a few years, as has ‘My Man’s
Got A Cold’. I don’t really go. ‘Here comes the record, and
I’ll write these songs.’ It’s more that I’ve just been fooling
around with stuff over the years.”
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Was there any overarching theme to the album?
I knew I wanted to make a band record, because
Spring And Fall wasn’t a band record – it was pretty
pastoral; there was no bass and drums. And this one’s
sort of an extension of the Merri Soul record, getting
the band together with some upbeat songs. I’m singing
most of them, but I’m also giving some of the vocals out
– I gave one song to Vika and one to Linda Bull.
At the risk of comparing it to The Messengers,
So Life Is Fine almost sounds like it could be a
“Paul Kelly And The Something” record, since
the band is so prominent on it.
Yeah. I was actually tossing around ‘Paul Kelly And
The...’ names, but we never came up with a great one.
I was also talking to a couple of people at EMI about it,
and they were like, “[Sigh] can you give us a normal Paul
Kelly record?” And I said, “Yeah. I’ve got one coming. It’s
going to be poppy and rocky with short, upbeat songs
and lots off riffs, and some of the songs are more
light-hearted.” I think once people hear it, it’ll be pretty
obvious that it was a strong group effort.
You took piano lessons before you started making
this album – why so?
I’m sick of my own limitations and habits as a writer.
The lessons were great fun. I practiced a lot and I had
lessons in 2014 and 2015 before things got really busy
again. And a few songs came out of that. “My Man’s
Got A Cold” was one. Obviously, it gave me some
different voices to play with. I think we all tend to fall
into our own patterns over time, and so anything you
can do to break that helps. Whether that’s to put the
guitar under your chin and muck around with it, or pick
up another instrument, or play something you don’t
know that well – I’m all for it.
| 27

Photo: Jamie Williams

28 | FEATURE
“ONCE PEOPLE
HEAR IT, IT’LL BE
OBVIOUS THAT IT
WAS A STRONG
GROUP EFFORT.”
What other songs do you think wouldn’t have
existed had you not spent some time in a
different headspace?
Oh, I think “I Smell Trouble” – that’s me playing
the piano on that – and “Finally Something Good”.
One of the pieces I was looking at with Adam
[Rudegeair, the Melbourne jazz artist who
taught Kelly piano] was by Thelonius Monk – a
piece called Misterioso. And he just showed me,
just to get me to practice my playing sixths. And
so I was fooling over that, and I started to write
a tune to that.
You also mentioned that you’ve been playing
more electric guitar again.
I’ve always played a bit of electric guitar,
mainly in the shows. I don’t know – did I play
an electric on the record? We had Ash [Naylor]
doing most of it.
Well, when you’ve got Ash Naylor at hand,
why would you?
[Laughs] Exactly! And Dan Kelly played on a few
tracks as well.
Again, was that a matter of rediscovering
some old tricks, or getting away from doing
| australianguitarmag.com.au
chords and basic stuff around that?
It was being able to make some noise and
writing things around that. I usually write songs
so hat they’re usually just based on chords. I like
to write around a riff.
Leaving aside the song itself, So Life Is Fine is
such a good title. It almost feels like it’s a
glass-half-empty test for the punter: do they
read it as, “Oh yeah, life is fiiiiiine” or, “Eh,
life is fine, I guess”? Or do they take ‘fine’ as
in a thread that could be easily snapped. It’s
a very evocative title for something that’s so
simple, which is impressive for three words.
[Laughs] Yeah.
And so to clarify the title’s intent, are you
drowning on the cover or are you waving?
[Laughs] I’m just swimming around, going,
“Hurry up and get this photo over and done
with!” It was taken by a friend of mine, Steve
Young. He said, “Can I do your portrait?” I said,
“Yeah, okay.” He said, “Would you mind doing it
in the water in St. Kilda?” I said, “Okay.”
That is the bluest water I’ve ever seen at
St. Kilda.
Photo: Maclay Heriot
Oh, I assume it’s Photoshopped. The original
photo wasn’t taken there. It’s been coloured.
It looked downright tropical, which is not
what I immediately associate with St. Kilda.
[In a defensive tone] Hey, sometimes St. Kilda
is quite tropical.
One thing I liked about “Firewood and
Candles” was that it really took me back to
when I was first listening to your music –
which was when I was first learning to play
the guitar – and how I could really hear the
shapes of the chords; y’know, “Hey, that’s a
D! That’s an A! I can play that!” It was really
inspiring to me.
I hadn’t even noticed I did that. That’s
interesting. I still write pretty much all those
chords in the first position, if I don’t like it, then
I capo up the neck. So with that song it’s ended
up in a funny key, ‘Firewood and Candles’: it’s an
E minor as far as the shapes go, but it’s actually
in G minor.
G Minor is fun to write in. It makes you work.
Yeah. Put the capo on the third fret and
you’ll be alright.
 DEUT
30 | FEATURE

SCHL
AND
DOMI
NATI
ON!
MAYBE IT’S SOMETHING IN THEIR WATER, BUT THE GERMAN METAL
SCENE HAS A HISTORY OF PRODUCING RIFFS AS LONGSTANDING
AS THEY ARE BRUTAL. EDGUY, BLIND GUARDIAN AND
ACCEPT, WHO ARE ALL ON THE VERGE OF CELEBRATING BIG
BIRTHDAYS, HAVE BEEN AROUND LONG ENOUGH TO HAVE SEEN
SOME PRETTY SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN ONE OF THE LOUDEST
GENRES AROUND. IT’S TIME TO GET NOSTALGIC WITH SOME OF
THE COUNTRY’S BEST HEAVY BANDS. BY PETER ZALUZNY

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| 31
32 | FEATURE
A
h, Germany: the land of pretzels, perfect
beer and plenty of heavy metal. Where
legions of headbangers, clad in black
from head to toe, spend all summer roaming
between an abundant number of festivals, and
genre-defining bands remind everyone why the
country’s music scene is held in such high regard.
So many significant outfits – including Edguy, Blind
Guardian and Accept – grew out of small towns or
cities at a time when the world was turning most
of its attention towards riff-masters in England
and the United States.
While the odds weren’t necessarily against them,
they weren’t exactly stacked in their favour either.
Despite it all, these legendary bands have reached
veteran status, and are about to celebrate some
significant milestones. Edguy – the fun-loving
metallers that came together at a high school in
Fulda – have just hit 25 years. Blind Guardian –
one of the pioneers of power metal born out of
Krefeld – are turning 30. And Accept – the band
that formed before heavy metal was even a term
– are about to celebrate their 40th birthday
(including a hiatus or two). On occasions like this,
our old friend Nostalgia has a tendency to take
people back to their childhood or, in this instance,
the early days of the German metal scene.
“There were a whole lot of people. There was a
pub that we used to hang out in and we used to go
to concerts together,” says Marcus Seipen, excitedly
recounting youthful days in Krefeld before his
career with Blind Guardian took off. “I remember
when Metallica came here for the Master Of
Puppets tour – we went there with something like
20 cars which were all full, went to the gig and
then went back to the pub and celebrated. And
I’m still in contact with all those people. We have
a reunion party once a year.”
Fulda wasn’t all that different, according to Jens
Ludwig from Edguy. The city had a small, healthy
scene, but a high school-esque attitude lingered
around it. “There were a few bands around who
were organising and exchanging gigs, but we were
the newbies,” he recalls. “Nobody took us seriously
until we started to record our own music. Then
people were kind of proud, like, ‘Hey, I’ve known
those guys from the beginning,’ and all that stuff.”
But Solingen? That was a different story. It had
metal – in fact, there were young people making
music all over the place. But Accept’s mainstay
guitarist, Wolf Hoffman, believes it was a scene
“that grew out of necessity.
“Most people think of Germany as having alps,
Bavaria, Munich, and Hamburg – all these beautiful
places,” he explains in a deep, gruff tone. “Solingen
was a working class environment with lots of
factories – it was sort of the armpit of Germany.
“WHEN YOU SEE HOW MUCH
YOUR MUSIC TOUCHES
THEM - THAT’S PRICELESS.”
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Everybody had a band; I think it was our escape
from the grim reality. Meeting five times a week, at
least, gave us something to do.”
Regardless of their background, all three bands
shared the same dreams – play metal, make it to the
big leagues and see the world. Fast-forward through
years of slogging it out in small venues, summer
jobs to buy new equipment, and bog-standard $50
guitars that sounded about as good as a shoebox
with strings, and you’ve got three bands that etched
themselves into German metal history. “I remember
doing odd jobs at Bayer chemical company for
weeks, and working all through the summer months
just to earn enough to buy a new instrument,”
Hoffmann adds. Clearly, there was a demand for
homegrown bands to compliment the flow of artists
rolling in from England and the USA.
Accept became known for their straight up,
no-nonsense classic metal, reinforced by weighty
that filled their fans with an air of explosive power.
Even their new record, Rise Of Chaos, takes most
of its cues from the current, chaotic state of the
planet, although Hoffman insists that they’re merely
observations. “We’re not trying to teach people or
be too political in any shape or form,” he explains.
“But we don’t want to write about bullshit because
we have a chance to express something meaningful.
We’re not politicians; we’re not doing anything of
real significance; we’re just making f***ing metal
and having fun doing it!”
Though the impending anniversary may be on his
mind, Hoffman just sees it as the inevitable passage
of time. He’s just blown away by the fact that Accept
are still releasing records after so long. “It’s almost
like giving birth to 15 children,” he laughs.
There’s still some fun to be had when walking
down memory lane, of course, as Edguy found out
when they looked back on their career while putting
together their expansive 25th birthday compilation,
Monuments. The colossal collection includes
classic tracks, deep cuts, live videos, a photo book
and even a handful of new tracks that neatly map
Edguy’s career. A significant part of the process
was finding photos and stories that represented
their refusal to follow the status quo.
“There were been some aspects where we were
coming up with ideas and the record label said, ‘You
can’t do that in a heavy metal band,’” Ludwig says,
chuckling again, “Like the cover, showing the band as
superheroes in comic-style artwork. But we always
said, ‘Why not?’ and the only answer was, ‘Well,
because heavy metal people have to be serious.’ But
we still did it, and most of the time it paid off.
“We had fun playing shows, and we had fun
being together, so we didn’t see why that shouldn’t
be an aspect of the band,” he adds, before
reluctantly opening up about Edguy’s earliest
 | 33

DAS RIFF
With so many iconic guitarists on hand, we
couldn’t resist the opportunity to pick their
brains about the six-strings that were popular
in the early German metal scene.

MARCUS SEIPEN
“We all looked at the guitars our heroes were
playing on the posters and the records. For me,
Maiden were always an influence, so it was the
Stratocaster because Dave Murray was playing
one. Thin Lizzy played a role for me too so I
wanted a Les Paul. My first electric guitar was a
copy of Michael Schenker’s black and white Flying
V. It wasn’t a high-quality guitar, but it did the
trick for me because it looked like one.”

JENS LUDWIG
“My first electric guitar was from a German brand
called Hohner, and the second one was a Jackson
Kelly. I had an Ibanez S Series axe after that, and
then in ‘99, I started my first small endorsement
with a French brand called Lâg Guitars.”

WOLF HOFFMAN
“All the instruments came from either America or
Britain, and most of the acts that we listened to
were coming from the UK. Ibanez didn’t exist, so
Gibson and Fender were really the only choices – and
Framus, but those were sort of the beginner models
and lower-priced guitars that everybody had. But
now, they’re making really high-quality instruments;
they’re completely different. My first cheapo electric
was a department store guitar, which was maybe a
$50 hand-me-down. I can’t remember what model it
was, but it had four pickups, if you can believe that.
Luckily, I was good friends with the local guitar store
owner and he always let us just take stuff to rehearsal
to try, so I constantly schlepped stuff into the studio –
amps, pedals, guitars – every week, literally, for years.
It was crazy, but great.”
34 | FEATURE

attempts at fashion, when pressed about the compilation’s photobook. “There

were these trousers at the very beginning, all neon with black combined...
Everybody did things in their early years that might be embarrassing, but they
make us what we are today.”
While it’s amusing to think of what could have been had Ludwig stuck to
his fluro-clad roots, the final iteration of Edguy’s style was a little more
fashion-forward. Frankly, they’re probably better off with the way things
wound up, especially since they never abandoned the sense of fun that made
them so intoxicating in the first place.
Each band has left their mark on music history. Words like ‘important’,
‘significant’ and ‘groundbreaking’ are often thrown around with them,
and rightly so. But the crown for hardcore fandom? That would have to go
to Blind Guardian. That’s not to say Edguy and Accept haven’t built up a
cross-generational army of dedicated followers, but it’s hard to compete
with a group that can bring their audience to tears at every show.
“The song ‘Lord of the Rings’ seems to touch people in a very intense way,”
Sepian explains when discussing Blind Guardian’s new live album, Beyond The
Spheres. “Whenever Hansi [Kürsch, lead vocals] announced it would be the
next song, there were people bursting into tears. Just talking about it, I get
goosebumps again.” Even Sepian wasn’t immune to the moment. Night after
night, his eyes welled up with the fans as they unreservedly poured themselves
into the song. “When you see how much it means to them – how much your
music touches them – that’s priceless,” he adds. “Nothing compares to that.”
Veteran bands tend to see these little rituals grow outside their control –
the longer they’ve been around, the more engrained they become. It’s things
like impromptu sing-alongs to riffs in staple songs, or walls of death that need
no direction – you know a band has truly made it when fans know exactly what
to do without following commands.
And that’s not uncommon in good old Deutschland. Hell, it’s the main
reason why these guys are all celebrating big birthdays this year. Sure, Edguy,
Blind Guardian and Accept worked hard to build solid reputations early on,
but that sincerity in their mutual respect for everyone on and off the stage,
and their work to help carve out a distinctly homegrown scene, ensured their
longevity. So here’s to their 50th birthdays! Sounds crazy? Maybe elsewhere,
but spending half a century making music with the same group of friends
doesn’t seem so far-fetched in Germany.

“[METAL] WAS OUR FROM V TO SHINING V

Nothing fires an Accept fan up more than the flash of Wolf Hoffman’s iconic white

ESCAPE FROM A
Flying V. The first one didn’t quite match his dream colour, but Wolf found a way
to make it work.
“In the studio, when nobody was looking, all the recordings were done on the

GRIM REALITY.
Strat,” he says. “But the Flying V was great for performing live, and I thought it
was cool as hell! It made people look, and certainly in our hometown, seeing two
of them together was unusual. But I wanted mine to be white, and my first V was
actually like a brown sunburst – some boring colour. So, I took it to a car spray
paint booth. I had it sprayed with real cheap finish because I didn’t want to pay
the price to have it done properly by a guitar store.”

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38 | FEATURE

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 | 39

MAKE
WAY
FOR
THE
BAD
GUYS
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE FRONTMAN
JOSH HOMME AND HIS FELLOW GUITAR BANDITS
DEAN FERTITAS AND TROY VAN LEEUWEN
ARE GLEEFULLY BURNING BRIDGES WITH THEIR NEW,
MARK RONSON-PRODUCED ALBUM, VILLAINS.

LACHLAN MARKS PEERS BEHIND THE EMERALD

CURTAIN FOR A STIFF DRINK AND AN IMPROMPTU
GUITAR LESSON.
40 | FEATURE

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...
M
ost young journalists dream of meeting their
heroes and being invited into a momentarily
larger-than-life existence, being flung behind
the curtain and ending up with wild stories of rock’n’roll
excess to regale their inner circle with.
But it’s not 1970 anymore, Toto. Everyone has a
camera in their pocket, and media is immediate.
An artist is often very much just someone who has
a product to sell (sometimes begrudgingly), time is
| 41

precious when you’re trying to hit every outlet, and the

adage of “all publicity is good publicity” no longer rings
true. The quotes are often well-rehearsed and polite,
and the process runs according to plan – there’s usually
a publicist a few centimetres away to get them back on
course if it doesn’t.
Music journalism is so streamlined in 2017 that when
it suddenly does go off course by way of that ‘day one’
journo fantasy, you realise that you’ve only ever thought
about how great the experience would be – never what
you would actually do in it.
When Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh
Homme – holding court backstage before their sold-out
Sydney show (off the back of headlining Splendour In
The Grass) – paused our interview, stood up and walked
into his dressing room saying, “Come over here, let’s get
some tequila,” we froze in our seat for a second and all
that came out was, “Ah... Um... Sounds great?”

JERRY LEE LEWIS, THREE GUITARS

AND THE HARDEST SONG
But we’ll come back to that. First up, we were lucky
enough to spend some time in the company of
Queens’ accomplished multi-instrumentalists Troy
Van Leeuwen (A Perfect Circle) and Dean Fertitas (The
Dead Weather). These are the men who flank Homme
in the studio and onstage, every night, in the ceaseless
dogfight that is Queens Of The Stone Age vs. The
Expectations Of The Public.
Despite what we previously noted about the sometimes
meat grinder-like nature of these types of press
engagements, we’re gifted with an ace up our sleeve in
the fact that guitarists love to talk about guitar. Both
players were excited to discuss their craft and what went
in their bold new album, Villains. The decision to engage
dance producer Mark Ronson in the process spooked some
long-term fans – no doubt deliberately.

DEAN FERTITA: It actually didn’t change things much

at all. For me, personally, I felt a little more relaxed
because Mark’s a fan.

TROY VAN LEEUWEN: He was really easygoing, and

we got to know him really fast. He let us be who we are,
and sometimes he even reminded us of who we are – it
was important for us to be the band and for him to be
the producer. It’s a live record, for the most part.

DF: It’s cool because we were in a situation where we

were both making records that are slightly different to
what we were used to, so he was able to try new
approaches on things that he wouldn’t normally. The
same went for us, too.

TVL: The way I saw him reacting to what we were doing

on the guitar... He was very much excited by anything
that was a little bit outside of ‘normal’, especially
when it came to what Dean and I do. Anything that we
were doing would not only support the vocal, but the
atmosphere as well. That was always encouraged – the
creepier, the better.
42 | FEATURE

I WANT TO BE THERE
FOR THE MOST
IMPORTANT MOMENTS
OF THEIR LIVES, AND
I WANT TO SING
ABOUT THE MOST
IMPORTANT MOMENTS
IN OUR LIVES. TO DO
THAT, YOU HAVE TO
RISK EVERYTHING
JOSH HOMME

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 | 43

Queens Of The Stone Age are one band that

has three guitar moments, but it never feels
like, say, Iron Maiden. Is that something you
have to police yourselves from doing when
you’re writing, or is it naturally tasteful?
DF: It becomes an interesting way to approach the
guitar, because none of us want redundancies in guitar
playing. We don’t need to have three people playing
stuff at the same time – but every once in a while, you
put yourself in a situation where the only way you can
do it things rhythmically is to have three guitars. It’s
forced us to reapproach an instrument that we’ve played
in a certain way for our whole lives, and that was really
cool to do.

TVL: There’s a lot of basic language between the three

of us, too, where it’s really not that hard to figure out
what we’re trying to do. It’s become very easy, musically,
to be like, “Oh, you’re trying to do that, I should do this,”
or, “I should sit this one out.” Guitar players usually tend
to have an ego, and we all do, but it’s all healthy and
respectful. Because at the end of the day, we’re really
just serving the song.

You guys are both multi-instrumentalists.

What’s your relationship like with the guitar
in regards to the other instruments you play?
DF: It’s funny – I started playing the piano when I was
a kid, and did classical piano lessons for years. But then
I got an AC/DC record and started playing guitar, and I
never wanted to play keyboards again. Growing up, you
almost don’t even want to acknowledge that you should
be in a rock’n’roll band. There’s no keyboards here,
right? Then, years later, I started talking to other friends
and started to fall back in love with the piano. After all,
what’s more rock’n’roll than Jerry Lee Lewis?
That helped me fall in love with both instruments
more. I come back to the guitar and it feels new, and I’m
thinking about how I’m seeing things differently. And
then if I move to the keys, I think about playing in the
same way I would play the guitar, almost.

TVL: It’s always interesting to switch them up a little

bit, too. You don’t play guitar notes in a chord or an
arpeggio or whatever in the same way that you do on a
piano. I learned from both instruments; both feed each
other. After playing the keys for a while, I’ll approach
the guitar in a completely different way. I think that’s
important. It keeps things feeling fresh.

At this point in your career, how much

preparation does it take to reactivate the
machine that is Queens Of The Stone Age?
TVL: For me, the older stuff is like riding a bicycle, and
the newer stuff is very tone-intensive. Gear-wise, we
had to really figure out what we were going to do – that
was the biggest challenge. The playing is in us already,
but trying to condense all of those sounds from seven
records into one rig? That’s a f***ing bitch.

I know the rigs are a bit of a secret for you

guys, but is there anything in there you’d say
is a key element for you?
TVL: I tend to lean on my Jazzmaster. I can get
whatever I want out of that guitar, tone-wise. As far
as choosing one pedal, though, that’s really tough. I
designed a pedal: it’s called the Raven, and it’s basically
a filter boost pedal. It’s two-in-one. I’ve had a whammy
pedal on my board since 1995, and I can get away with
that. And I like my ‘65 Bassman. That’s my amp. I’ve
always used it.

DF: It’s really hard for us because we’re all about colour
and ambience. For me, it’s anything that has a filter
44 | FEATURE

| australianguitarmag.com.au

sweep, so I can occupy a different spot in the
frequency range.
Are there any parts in the show – like,
say with tonight – that fill you with a
healthy fear when it comes to what
you’ve got to accomplish on the guitar?
DF: Gosh. I’ve gotta say, the newest single
[“The Way You Used To Do”] is a big one for us.
It’s deceptively difficult.
TVL: It’s so hard. There’s three guitars
playing all the time. You can’t get the tone
of the guitar by smashing it – you have to be
delicate – but it’s such an upbeat song, so
it’s a real juxtaposition. Your heart’s going,
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” but your fingers have to
be delicate. It’s really tough, but it’s all about
restraint. I’m playing a 12-string guitar on the
song, the other guys are playing six-strings,
and there’s no doubling – everything is
intertwined, so if your part is even a little bit
off, everyone feels it.
How long will it be until you reckon
those nerves will have shaken off?
DF: Probably when the tour’s over.
IT’S FORCED US TO
REAPPROACH AN
INSTRUMENT THAT
WE’VE PLAYED IN
A CERTAIN WAY
FOR OUR WHOLE
LIVES A CERTAIN
WAY, AND THAT
WAS REALLY COOL
TO DO
DEAN FERTITA
| 45
THE SECRET DISGRACE,
THE FIERY DEATH
AND A NINE-STRING GUITAR
Sometime later, as we enter the dressing room
with Homme, we greet Van Leeuwen again –
this time, he’s flipping his way through a
sizeable rack of tailored suits in preparation
for the evening’s performance.
Diligently tapping away on a practice pad
in the corner is drummer Jon Theodore. “Hey,
what’s up? I hate guitars by the way,” he says
with a smile.
Van Leeuwen is entrusted with pouring
the drinks, and Homme – with the aide of a
walking cane due to a torn meniscus – is now
free to roam around a much more comfortable
domain to answer and deflect questions at his
choosing. He’s by no means sober, but the man
is still remarkably articulate and engaging.
When asked what it’s like to deal with the
expectation that each album will outdo the
last creatively, he counters, “The truth is, the
bar is gone. We stand on top of what we did,
so it’s beneath us in that respect. We stand on
it to look further and go somewhere we haven’t
gone before. We use some of the tools that
we’ve always used, because that’s who we are.
But we need to burn the old ones, like a f***ing
Viking funeral, so you know that we mean
business. I mean, I’ve got old school Peaveys
out there on stage tonight. When was the last
time you saw one of those?”
It’s been a while. “Even the Peavey logo is its
own disgrace, right? So these are 70 solid state
musicians and standards, right? These things
were always in the background in our band, but
you never knew. We’re using tube shit, too, but
the electricity of the solid state – beating it to
the punch – it’s like a microsecond gets there
first. It’s like dog bite – so it’s clearly a casual,
‘Go f*** yourself,’ but it’s also a, ‘Come all ye,
come closer, look at how f***ed this is.’
Van Leeuwen interjects: “It’s also another
opportunity to say, ‘Well, what really makes
this sound the way it does with our band are
these,’” he says, flexing his fingers.
“Y’know, I never understood that reference
point until we jammed with Billy Gibbons,”
Homme explains. “I’d always say, ‘Yes, I know,’
but I didn’t really know what that actually
meant. But I took the best top one percent of
all my amps, and I swear to God, every time
he played, I shut my eyes and it sounded the
f***ing same. So I was like, ‘Ah, shit.’ Everything
he plays sounds the same through every amp. It
just sounds the f***ing same. He’s the master.”
We angle the conversation back to the
progressive nature of Queens Of The Stone
Age’s recordings – the unhinged, synth-heavy
chaos of Villains and how this ‘Viking funeral’
approach applies to songwriting. Do you literally
have to throw out or reverse everything you’ve
learned so far?
“I think the process of going backwards
is one of the great lessons that people don’t
know,” Homme deadpans. “If you have a great
part and you’re looking for another part, try
playing it backwards.”
As ridiculous as it sounds, that’s actually a
great tip. Van Leeuwen emerges with three
wine glasses, all overflowing with tequila. “It’s
kind of a big one, sorry. I got the biggest one,
though. Cheers.”
“To the biggest tip!” Homme toasts, raising
his glass high.
46 | FEATURE

TRYING TO
CONDENSE ALL
OF THOSE
SOUNDS FROM
SEVEN RECORDS
INTO ONE RIG?
THAT’S A F***ING
BITCH

TROY VAN LEEUWEN

| australianguitarmag.com.au

In keeping with his fixation on doing things
backwards, Homme goes on to explain that
Queens had always intended to announce
that Mark Ronson had completed production
on the album before anyone had heard a lick
of the music.
“Some people have to get bummed out,
because it’s what they do. we’re here for
them,” he laughs. “Because the truth is,
part of what we do is defy expectations by
defining them. There’s a bit of a, like... A
magician sets up a scenario that tells you,
‘This is the truth,’ and you have to say, ‘Okay,
that’s the truth,’ and then they say, ‘No it’s
not!’ And the great thing about magic is that
someone knows it ain’t true, someone else
genuinely believes it is, and both parties are
happy. That’s the magic – happiness from both
sides of the coin, y’know?”
The core of most magic tricks being that
the actual trick has been performed
before the explaination of what the trick
is has even finished.
JH: Right, by redefining expectation in
order to defy it.
Which is what you have done, with
announcing it first?
JH: But see, the release of the doves is only
the successful delivery of the planning of
doves. And frankly, I don’t have a social
media presence or anything like that because
it’s called a following in that you follow me. I
don’t follow you, and that’s the way it is,
right? But also to make sure that we’re not
checking too hard on what’s behind us. I
know what we’ve done and I want to be
someone’s favourite thing. It’s not just to be
a dick – that’s not good enough. I want to
be there for the most important moments
of their lives, and I want to sing about the
most important moments in our lives. To do
that, you have to risk everything. You have
to be willing to set a bridge alight and watch
the f***er burn; watch everyone pick sides
and be like, “We’re not on that side! We’re
not on your side, we’re on our side.”
You’ve got to be willing to upset
people, right?
JH: You have to be willing to lose people in
the fire of it all. And when the dust settles... It
is what it is. I believe in a philosophy of, “Risk
nothing, get nothing.” The bigger the risk, the
bigger the reward, and honestly, the bigger the
failure – which is sexy. On the last record, I said
to Troy: “Look, I’m really sorry, ‘cause this could
go really horrible.”
Either way, it’s always exciting.
JH: But isn’t that the minimum obligation?
To excite people?
JH: Shouldn’t it be so? If you’re lucky enough
to play in a band for a living, you get to travel.
I came all the way here, he [Van Leeuwen]
came all the way here, we brought all of our
shit here – we didn’t rent anything – and my
meniscus is torn. Like, it’s too late to f***ing
pussy out on me now, Marvin. It’s time to
f***ing go! So what am I supposed to do? I
came all the way here and I’m supposed to go
| 47
out on the mic and be like, “Well, I’ve got a
bit of good news and a bit of bad news?” I’m
sorry: this is going to happen no matter what.
And there’s a certain comfort in that. We’re
past the point of no return, which is good,
because we work best in insurmountable odds.
How’d Ronson go matching your
work ethic, then?
JH: I will say this: we’re a band born of work.
The thing that saved us from being a cliché
on a VH1 Behind The Music is that we’ve
always worked hard and deserved to party.
We’ve always been thrown out after the work
has been done, and Ronson is the only guy
that has ever, frankly – and I say this with a
certain amount of trepidation for his own
health – outworked us. We’d work all week
long and be like, “Weekends are off.” He
would f***ing fly to China to play a DJ set
on Saturday night, come back on Monday
morning and be like, “Hi.”
And does he speak fluent guitar?
JH: We track the main guitars, bass and
drums live, and then add this accoutrement
that fills it in. He was like – he’s got this
totally Woody Allen-esque Jewish thing going
on – “Should I even be here?” And I was
like, “Of course.” And he was like, “Why?”
And I said, “To tell is if it’s good or not.”
And he goes, “It’s good. Can I go?” So even
though we’re known for guitars, it was like,
“Dude, does that make you stoked or not?”
Because in those moments, producing is
as much cheerleading as it is having frank
conversations about a collective truth.
Maybe spare you the pain of agonising
over something by actually giving you a
distinct answer?
JH: Certainly once you’re able to have a trust…
TVL: Tree.
JH: A trust tree. Once you know your glossary
is the same and that the words you’re using
mean the same things, having a touchstone for
someone that isn’t playing is a good thing. For
us, it’s not always necessary, but I felt like for
this album it was totally necessary.
Where’s your ultimate satisfaction in
this process: getting it right in
rehearsal, the recorded product, or
finally playing it live?
JH: For me, it’s when it’s perfectly recorded.
Because that’s where you get your actualised
work. And then forever after that point, we’re
trying to destroy it live.
Let’s wrap this up with somewhat of an
anti-question: what piece of commonly
given advice do you think young players
should completely ignore?
JH: “Go meet people.” Don’t meet anybody. In
fact, stay away from everybody, and emerge
fully formed. Have you ever met anyone that
can take anything off of the internet?
Nope.
JH: So don’t meet people – emerge only
when you’re fully formed.
 ...
As we’re saying our goodbyes, Van Leeuwen pulls something from his
pocket and grabs Homme by the shoulder. It’s a white guitar plectrum with
the AC/DC logo on it. At his DJ gig the night before, a young man came up
to him after spinning some of the Australian icons. As it turns out, he was
Malcolm Young’s son. He gave the band a few picks, and Homme’s eyes
light up. “I gotta put this somewhere safe.”
He heads for his guitar rack and a thought suddenly crosses his mind.
“This for a guitar mag right? You better play this,” he says, handing over
his Echopark Esperanto Z-style white nine-string guitar.
Before we know it, we’re getting an impromptu guitar lesson. “It’s
simple,” he promises, fretting a chord over our shoulder with his gigantic
hands. “I’ll tell you how it works – you’re in Motörhead from here up, but
you’re in The Cure from here down.”
In other words, the lowest three strings are the same as a regular six-
string, and the highest three are doubled-up like a twelve-string.
“So I was at my friend’s house one night,” Homme muses, “And he has a
‘20s parlour guitar. It was just for show, and it was the opposite, so I went
on the internet really quick and saw that there was no such thing.”
The lesson continues. “Now, bend the note. See how it always feels out
of tune and in tune, which is the goal at any given moment.”
When asked how many of these currently exist, Homme realises that he
has no backup. “Maybe I should get another one.”
He pauses for a moment. “You know what? It’s better that there’s only
one. You know how many there needs to be? None. So one is like one extra
from none, y’know?”
IMITED ED ION
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52 | FEATURE
AT THE DOOR
HOW ONE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT HELPED
RISE AGAINST BECOME A ROARING BEAST WHEN
THEY WERE STRUGGLING TO MUSTER UP A VOICE.
BY PETER ZALUZNY
T
here’s an almost sad irony to the life of a punk
musician: their most inspired work emerges when
they have something to fight against and when they
have a message to spread. In other words, punk bands are
at their best when the world is at its worst. The thought of
such an existence would make most people dive into the
nearest corner and roll around in the fetal position, but
bands like Rise Against relish in the opportunity to charge
through walls and rip out the heart of outdated social and
political positions. If it wasn’t for Donald Trump, their latest
LP, Wolves, may not have packed the same potent punch.
In 2016, the USA had come out of a political period
that the band agreed with for the most part. At the time,
it seemed that someone of a similar ilk would be making
their way to the White House and generally progressive
attitudes would roll on. While happy, Rise Against were
at a loss for where they could go next. Their job was
far from over, but the evolution of their creative path
wasn’t immediately clear. Then suddenly, seemingly out
of nowhere, politics in America took a dramatic turn and
everything hit the fan. With that, the spark became an
inferno, and Wolves emerged from the flames.
Now, let’s not mince words here: Rise Against are a
proudly left-wing band, and the painful reality of a
Republican presidency brought them back into action,
but they flatly refused to write an anti-Trump record.
That would be too easy, and besides, you don’t destroy an
ideological mountain by taking aim at the top. They wanted
to inspire everyone to stand up against the emergence of
what they felt were regressive attitudes – sexism, racism,
discrimination and homophobia. These, and the growing
validation of such beliefs, were in their scope.
Because the man at the top? He’s a small part of the
problem, and Rise Against wanted to get under the skin of
those that share his views before they became the norm.
They had to weaken the foundations before the mountain
became an Everest, and that meant targeting their
philosophies. It was a grand plan, but the right one, as
frontman Tim McIlrath found when he was gearing up to
shoot a video for the album’s second single, “The Violence”.
| australianguitarmag.com.au
Just before you head out to shoot the clip in
Presidents Park – which is an area filed with old
presidential busts – the location’s board of
directions cancelled your permit on the grounds
that the video was anti-government. That seems
ludicrous, especially in a country where free speech
is enshrined in the Constitution.
I guess as a band, we’ve had a few run-ins. Like, we’ve
never had a sponsor for one of our own tours, but we do
play festivals that are a part of that world because we want
our music to be heard. But we’ve had problems with that:
we were asked to play the US Army stage during the height
of the Iraq war at a festival somewhere – they’d basically
spent money to get a foot in the festival where they could
try to recruit young people to fight in Iraq. So we called the
festival and said, “With all due respect, we’ll still play your
festival, but you’ve got to put us on a different stage. We’re
not going to be under that backdrop.”
What happened?
They got really shitty. They called us un-American and
said that we hated the troops. There was a DJ on the air
saying, “If you’re uncle is in the army, Rise Against hates
your uncle.” We saw the power of media, radio, nationalism
and trigger-happy patriotism, and how that power can turn
people so easily. I remember emailing Tom Morello at that
point, too, because it was really stressful for us, and I was
like, “Hey, this just happened to us, did this ever happen to
you guys when you were playing in the ‘90s?” And he said,
“Are you f***ing kidding me!? This happens all the time!
That happened all through our career. Don’t be alarmed by
this, it’s going to happen to you again so consider it a
badge of honour.” People were realising that our band has
teeth – that it has claws and that it’s deemed as dangerous
– and there’s some flattery in that.
So you feel the same way about “The Violence” now?
I’ll be honest – when I found out we’d been shut down, my
first emotion was pride. Rise Against is my baby, and to see
that the baby was growing up and still effective was cool.
 | 53

“PEOPLE WERE
REALISING THAT OUR
BAND HAS TEETH,
AND THERE’S SOME
FLATTERY IN THAT”
54 | FEATURE
“IT WAS INTERESTING
TO FEEL LIKE MY
COUNTRY WAS GOING
IN A DIRECTION I
DIDN’T RECOGNISE”
It’s an interesting time to live in America, to put it lightly. How did the
political and social climate influence Wolves?
I’d spent time reflecting on what a Rise Against record could look like in 2017.
We had eight years of fairly progressive politics – that certainly wasn’t without
its faults, but for the most part, we were seeing things like same-sex marriage
become a reality, and a drawback of war and military power. I think a lot of
people – including me – thought a progressive candidate was probably going to
win the next election, too, and it was like, “Where does Rise Against fit into that?
What does Rise Against say in the wake of good news?” I was at a loss. I wasn’t
exactly sure what we’d be honing on, and then when the election pulled the rug
out from under us, I was like, “Holy shit!” I couldn’t believe it was happening.
We were right back to the wood shed. It was like, “Okay, this is the era that Rise
Against was built for.”
So the band is at its best when you feel things are at their worst?
There’s something oddly poetic about that.
These kind of administrations have always been good for punk rock. We
started in the Clinton era, we weathered the Bush administration and then went
into eight years of Obama. Something that it’s taught us is that ideologies are
the things that survive, and the actual person doesn’t. The person – Trump or
Bush – they’re just the symptom of a much bigger disease, and I don’t want to
treat that symptom with these songs. I want to treat the disease.
And you were in the belly of the beast while making Wolves, right?
We were in Nashville, Tennessee at the time, and Trump voters were
everywhere. There were Trump signs in the fields that we’d drive by and in
windows on the way to the studio, and a lot of times I saw people just like me,
but they felt like this was the recourse they needed to take, which made me
really think. In that sense, the reality of a Trump country was a good place to
put that record together, because I don’t want to live in that bubble or echo
chamber where I only surround myself with other people who agree with me.
It was interesting to feel like the black sheep in that city, and to feel like my
country was going in a direction I didn’t recognise.
You’ve been at that creative process for a while now – it’s been
something like 18 years since Rise Against started. How do you think
age has helped you process and present political and social subjects?
With age comes the experience of being there to observe the audiences’
reaction, and realising what works and what doesn’t work. Before I started with
Rise Against, I was playing in a lot of Fugazi-style bands. The lyrics I were writing
| australianguitarmag.com.au
were more on the vague side – kind of artsy, maybe – and you’d be hard pressed
to translate what I was trying to say. But when Rise Against got together, my
mission was to make this shit understood – to hit people like a fist. Over the
years, you figure out how to make that fist, how to hit people the hardest
with it and how to get them to grasp what you’re talking about. Rise Against
is broad strokes: there’s no massive intricacy to our music, and it’s not meant
to challenge the listener. God bless the bands that are out there doing that – I
love those bands as well, but we are not one of those bands. We’re just a music
muscle, and we want that to be black and white.
It seems to be working. Wolves is a real kick in the teeth.
It’s a response to the current rise of sexism and racism, especially in America,
and people are at a loss as to how to react to it. I think there’s been a grieving
process in the wake of the Trump administration, and I wanted to take that and
put it into more of an active process. I wanted to say something like, “We are the
wolves at the gate, not the people crying about what’s happening in the world
and feeling defeated by it.”
What was it like watching that unfold in your own backyard?
It was pretty shocking. I feel like a lot of people like me look at things like
racism and sexism as these monsters that we’ve locked up in cages. While they
still exist, we live in a world that outright condemns them, for the most part.
So to watch these monsters get loose – to watch the cages be unlocked – it was
a strange place to live in. I felt like a stranger in my own country, and it’s like
everybody’s been given permission to be an arsehole. That’s what’s crazy, is how
global it all is. It’s in Australia and it’s across Europe as well, and it makes you
realise that humanity is connected. Borders and flags only matter so much when
emotions and feelings translate across the globe.
Did the same guitars and equipment that you’ve used on previous
records make their way with you onto Wolves?
All the guitars on Wolves were recorded entirely with the EverTune Bridge,
as they were on The Black Market. It allowed me, Zach [Blair, lead guitar] and
the whole band as songwriters to try more things without the annoying parts of
keeping shit in tune, which slows you down. I could turn to Nick [Raskulinecz],
our producer, and say, “I have five different ideas for the bridge coming up,” and
with that guitar, I could record the ideas perfectly in tune. Without that guitar,
we might have gotten through two of them before we’d both be burned out, so
we’d say, “Screw the other three, one of these has got to be good enough.” That
never happened with the EverTune.
A N EW GE N E R ATI O N
FENDER.COM"6
O F AC O U S TI C S
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56 | TABLATURE

INCLUDED IN:
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Fell on Black Days Guitar Recorded Versions
Hal Leonard   
Words and Music by Chris Cornell

Copyright © 1994 You Make Me Sick I Make Music

All Rights Administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203
International Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved

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 CAPTURE THE SOUND

ITA L L O V E IN THE
DIG D OM
GIN G E R K IN G

JIMI
LLOYD -W YAT T

BROUGHT TO YOU BY
RECORDING TIPS STUDIO TESTED
THE OTHER STRINGED • SOUNDCRAFT
INSTRUMENTS UI24R DIGITAL MIXER
66 | PRODUCER PROFILE
W
hen Jimi Lloyd-Wyatt
decided to establish
Ginger Studios in
Melbourne, he immediately threw
himself into the deep end. He hadn’t
run a studio before, but a stint with
Jonathan Burnside – famous for his
work on Grinspoon, Sleepy Jackson
and Dan Sultan records – left Wyatt
hungry for a space to call his own. He
eventually found the ideal location
in 2012 and thus, Ginger Studios was
born. Since then, artists from every
genre under the sun – including The
McQueens, Paul Kelly and Tim Rogers
– have passed through Ginger’s
doors. It may be one of the newer
studios on the block, but Wyatt has
already developed the kind of unique
ear that helps him find guitar tones
where others won’t... Like in a fire
extinguisher, for example.
Why did you decide to put an
SSL Duality Delta at the heart
of your studio?
It was the only choice. They sound
the best and have a really intuitive
workflow, the signal chain through
the console of EQ and compression
is all analogue, and the DAW control
integrates seamlessly with ProTools.
How does it benefit the various
guitar-based genres that you
work with?
The preamps have a ‘drive’ switch,
| australianguitarmag.com.au
RECORDING TECHNIQUES
WITH JIMI LLOYD-WYATT
FIRE SAFETY EQUIPMENT? PVC PIPE? IS THIS A PLUMBING STORE? NO, THEY’RE JUST
ITEMS IN THE EFFECTS COLLECTION AT GINGER STUDIOS. BY PETER ZALUZNY
so the board kind of has three
different flavours of mic pre. It means
you don’t need a bunch of outboard
taking up space and drawing extra
power, and you can quickly switch to
find one that’s right for the source.
For guitars, I like to use the drive
switch in, turned all the way to third
order harmonics. It’s magic. It isn’t
distortion like a stomp box, though –
it’s more of a character change that
you can make to suit the music.
Any other bits of essential gear
that complement the SSL?
The most important thing for
recording anything is the
environment. That said, I do love my
Telefunken mics for acoustics and
my SM57s and MD421s for electrics.
But the bright orange Augspurger
monitors – which were custom
designed for the studio – are possibly
the most important piece of gear I
own. They’re truthful in all frequency
ranges, at all volumes and on all kinds
of music, and they’re particularly
revealing for guitars and any issues
that might be lurking about.
And are you capturing your
recordings to tape or digital?
I’m a digital guy these days. I don’t
have time for tape nor the hassles of
it. Who wants to hear, “Hang on to that
great idea, Mr. Guitar Man, I just need
to spend 30 minutes adjusting the bias
on this tape deck to get it perfect for
your next take.” I have used plenty
of tape in my time, and I really like
some of the limitations it imposes on
the creative process, but I also like
the accessibility of the modern studio
formats. I want studios to be inclusive
places where young players who have
new and inspiring ideas can play on
their records, so that their creative
expression can live in recordings.
When you’re dealing with heavier
genres, rock, metal and so on,
how do you bring out that punch
without overloading the mix?
Thankfully, the loudness wars
are over! All major streaming
services have implemented loudness
management so there is no point in
making louder and louder records.
Punch comes from dynamics, without
quiet there can be no loud! When
it comes to dimension and space
in mixes, I like to use the full width
of panning available with plenty of
parallel compression. It allows me to
bring heaps of body to a mix whilst
maintaining clarity and depth in the
recording so that the song doesn’t get
lost in a sea of noise.
Are there any EQ tricks that can
help as well?
Giving everything its place in a mix
is key. You can’t just chop the bottom
octaves off every sound in a mix, turn
it up and think you’ll have a great
sounding record. That just makes it
sound tinny. Emphasise the part that
makes it killer. Cleaning up the bottom
end so there isn’t any superfluous
rumble is important, but if a guitar is
working for a track because of its low
frequency energy, don’t rob it of that.
How do you go about micing up for
a rock session like that?
I love printing room mics – as it can
really help to fill in a sonic picture
and glue stuff together – but it’s all
about Shure SM57s and Sennheiser
MD421s for me. I tend to use less
mics on a jazz track than a rock
track, mainly because I can get a lot
of aggression and energy out of the
room mics for drums. I’ve done a
bunch of Jazz things where I’ve had
the piano in the drum booth and the
drums in the big room, so I could
get the character or vibe the artist
needed for their music.
Any other similarly memorable
mic setups?
There’s a fire extinguisher in the
noise lock where I sometimes stick
guitar amps. When you mic it up,
you get a really zingy sound that no
amount of EQ, plugin or reverb can
match. Likewise, a long piece of
steel or PVC tubing in front of an
amp with a mic at the end can give
a really cool sound.
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68 | HOME RECORDING

THE GRASS IS
SOMETIMES BLUE
ROB LONG DISCUSSES THE OTHER STRUM-ABLE STRINGED
INSTRUMENTS AND HOW BEST TO PLUCK THE BEST SOUND.

O
ver the years, we’ve watched
the walls between genres
gradually crumble. This is a
very healthy development, as it
allows artists to draw upon a wider
set of influences, have a broader
palette with which to create, and
generally keep the musical gene
pool alive and growing rather than
shrinking and mutating!
From a recording point of view,
this often means the introduction of
instruments other than the standard
guitar, bass, drums and keyboard setup
of the common rock or pop formats.
Acts like John Butler, Mumford & Sons,
The Lumineers, Imagine Dragons and
Judah & The Lion have all incorporated
more traditional acoustic instruments
into their styles, and effectively
brought the sounds of the mountains
to the big cities in a whole new way.
If you’re a composer or musician
working on your own material,
learning how to capture these
instruments to get what you want
out of them is imperative. Likewise, if
you’re engineering for clients (live or in
the studio), it’s even more critical that
you have some sense of where to start.
I have been in many situations where
it’s painfully obvious that the engineer
can’t even name the instrument they
are about to mic, let alone have any
clue on where the sound comes from
or how to capture it! The ultimate DIY
course would involve a session with a
competent player on the instrument
in question, where you take time
moving a mic around the instrument
and the space, and get familiar with all
the possibilities before you jump into
tracking on a song.
Electric instruments can be fairly
forgiving in many ways: The amp
often provides half the tone, and
you can get away with cheaper ABOVE: on their weapon of choice, or rock/pop very basic techniques, and tend to
instruments and bend them to your IT'S TIME GIVE A PLUCK ABOUT players who have picked up a new approach their second instrument in
GREAT SOUND
will. Acoustic instruments are a little instrument as a second or third option. the same way they’d approach their
different. There’s nothing to hide The specialists will tend to have first one. There’s absolutely nothing
behind, so purists spend top dollar much more developed techniques, wrong with that. On the contrary,
on their gear. It's also worth noting more expensive equipment, a creating a new or unusual sound from
that tuning cheaper acoustic more thorough knowledge of the a traditional instrument is often the
instruments is often more instrument’s capability and legacy goal, and can add flavour to a track
challenging than it is to play them! throughout musical history. On the that a virtuoso may not! Some tracks
other side, they are often very picky require that smooth, professional
THE SUN CAME UP AND about what music they want to play edge that a specialist session player
THE DEVIL WENT DOWN and how it should be done. can provide. Other tracks scream for
Players tend to fall into two main Those who pick up more traditional something more unusual, edgy and
groups – acoustic music specialists instruments to add a "string to their unique. Often the songwriter makes
who are fully focussed and proficient bow" often have super budget models, the best contribution, as the ideas are

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 | 69

more sympathetic to the track. It’s

about the song, not the instrument.
Learn the rules, then burn the rules!
Going for the high res, rich, natural
sound on acoustic instruments often
calls for high-end gear, or at least a
very specific and tailored chain to suit
the instrument in question. To find
out what the top guns use, look no
further than the fine fellows who
track the elite bluegrass, jazz and
world music artists around the globe.
They, of course, have access to all of
the ‘to die for’ goodies under the sun.
Budget aside, let’s take a quick look at
some conventions.
Like anything studio related,
there are so many variables that it’s
difficult to generalise, but regarding
microphone choice, there’s always
the good old LCD for high-fidelity,
full frequency range and elegance.
However, you’ll soon notice that
engineers often tend to lean
towards the smaller, pencil-type
condensers rather than their larger
diaphragm brothers. These tend to
capture a tighter, flatter and more
focussed response. The smaller
diaphragm responds more quickly to
transients, making SDCs ‘faster’ mics.
Omnidirectional mics tend to sound
more natural, as they don’t exhibit the common. The goal is to capture ABOVE: micing closer to the sound hole (or ‘f’
proximity effect (unnaturally increased enough variety of tone and texture BEST OF BOW WORLDS hole) can warm things up.
bass response from close proximity to from a blend of two mics to avoid
the sound source). hardcore EQing. Experiment with a BELOW: RUN! I HEAR BANJOS!
Ribbon mics really hold their own high pass filter on one mic to minimise BANJO BASICS Despite the clichés, the banjo can
here as well, though, especially on frequency overlap from one mic to the be an incredibly versatile instrument.
instruments which are a little harsh, other. And of course, as always, check They can be played delicately – almost
bright, squeaky or otherwise a the phase for cancellation. harp-like – and can make you weep
little too righteous and need some Generally with acoustic stringed for all the right reasons! But of course,
smoothing and body. Regarding instruments, one mic is used to banjos can also get loud – banjo roll
ribbons, think ‘natural, warm capture the body of the instrument, patterns are often 16th notes, making
character’. A few years ago, I did whilst another is placed to capture the them busy. This, in turn, requires all
some tracking in a little boutique top end detail (i.e. string, pick, bow, the electronics to be fast in order
Nashville studio that specialises in bridge, finger or fretboard noise). to capture the transients well. The
bluegrass music. I was gobsmacked Larger instruments like guitars and sound tends to need space to develop.
when I realised they only owned basses can project excessive boom Hence, close micing often gives a
three condenser mics and a couple from the sound hole and should be limited perspective on the instrument’s
of dynamics – the rest were a mix of miced off from a distance, if at all. full tonal range. For starters, try a
ribbons of all age and manner! Smaller instruments like violins and condenser 50 to 100 centimetres out
The use of stereo mics is very mandolins are more forgiving, and from the spot where the neck meets
the body. Have a listen to the tone
ring as well – this could be a good spot
to put a second mic, or something a
little more ‘pointy’ like a solo mic. If
the sight of a banjo makes you feel
the need to paddle more quickly
downstream, try feeding one through a
wah pedal into a quad stack!

FIDDLING WITH VIOLINS

The technical difference between
a ‘fiddle’ and a ‘violin’ is zilch! The
difference is the player, the technique,
and the genre. For example, 'violin'
is a common term in classical music,
whilst 'fiddle' is more in tune with
country or folk. But from the studio
perspective, it can also be the way
you track it. Like banjos, violins can
produce lots of volume when played
a certain way, and they interact a lot
with the space. Again, it's typical to see
the mic placed 50 to 100 centimetres
70 | HOME RECORDING
above the instrument, often aimed
at the point where the bow meets
the strings. For more detail, use
condensers. These can make certain
players and instruments sound a little
scratchy and harsh, though. If you
have a ribbon, this would be the time
to give it a run.
Of course, there are many players
who have ditched the traditional
sounding violin for a much more
flamboyant approach, going as far
as treating it like an electric guitar
by using stomp pedals, amps and
electric fiddles. When you combine
classical chops with some psychedelic
inspiration, the sky it the limit!
A DOBRO-YDIAN SLIP
Dobros and resonator guitars
can sound incredible across a range
of genres in the hands of the right
musician. Basically, the sound
emanates from two points: the sound
holes, and the resonator (metal
speaker-like cone) situated under the
bridge. Traditional bluegrass players
use metal banjo picks, but sometimes
you’ll want to avoid the click of the pick
as it can be distracting. Other times,
though, it might add some colour. The
same applies to the scratchy sound
of the slide against the stings – it can
really add atmosphere, or on the
contrary, sound like an audio glitch. It
depends on what you're going for!
Once again, the playing style will
influence the mic setup. Generally,
you can alter the ‘zing to warm’ ratio
by moving between the sound hole
| australianguitarmag.com.au
INSET:
TIME TO SLIDE
BELOW:
THE ORIGINAL EIGHT-STRING
and the bridge, or of course, go the
double mic setup and find a blend
that works. Some resonators have
a magnetic pickup installed to feed
straight into an amp. It's party time
when you start fooling around with
a blend of electrified and acoustic
sounds. I even once re-amped the
miced stem back through an amp
when the composer decided the take
was perfect, but needed some chilli!
A MANDOLIN OR
AMANDA LYNN?
Mandolins can really add some
sparkle to a track. They blend well
with acoustic guitars in a left-right
configuration, or you can use them as
a feature. SDCs are your friend here;
you can get in quite tight and find a
sweet spot that grabs some sound hole
warmth and some string or picking
detail. Trad players use the famous
‘chop’, which acts like a snare pattern
on the 2 and 4 of the bar. Transients
are big and fast, so be prepared!
Whether you go for the ‘natural’
approach or go the path less travelled,
some more traditional instruments can
really lift a track. Don’t be afraid to
experiment – just make sure you warn
the neighbours first!
Rob Long is a
multi-instrumentalist
and producer working
@FunkyLizardStudios in
Newcastle
72 | TESTING 123
SOUNDCRAFT UI24R
AN IMPRESSIVE ATTEMPT TO FIT VIRTUALLY ALL GIG PRODUCTION GEAR INTO 4RU SPACES.
BY ALEX WILSON
T
he past few years have seen
several companies touting
integrated digital mixers
as solutions for the multi-faceted
technical requirements of
live performance. The Ui24R is
Soundcraft’s most extensive and
full-featured offering to this market,
and we reviewed its smaller cousin,
the Ui16, last year. Even at 24
channels big, the Ui24R can only
manage a smaller channel load than
competitors from other brands.
For those unfamiliar with these
kind of units, the Ui24R can look a
bit daunting at first glance. But the
concepts behind it are quite simple
– the key is understanding how they
fit together. The core technology is
built around 20 analog inputs, which
are kitted with high-quality Studer
preamps. These allow the artist and
their crew to take whatever signals
required, from drum mics to vocals
to bass and guitars. Two line level
inputs and two channels of digital USB
playback make up the 24 channels
implied in the product name.
TOP 5 FEATURES
• Remote mixing via tablet or smartphone
• Built-in FX and amp simulation
• Integrated Wi-Fi network for up to ten
control surfaces
• Cross platform HTML interface
• 24 channels
| australianguitarmag.com.au
The Ui24R allows for the sounds to
be mixed on its digital console
environment, powered by dbx,
Lexicon and DigiTech processing. As
well as having analog outputs for a
front-of-house mix, there are also
eight auxiliary sends for monitoring
or other output needs. The unit also
functions as an A/D converter, allowing
simultaneous recording of all 22 inputs
and the stereo mix onto a USB drive, a
computer or both.
HAND ME THE REMOTE
The unit powers its own built-in
dual-band Wi-Fi network, which allows
for up to ten mobile devices to control
the unit remotely. In practice, this
means that all but the very largest of
bands will be able to have both crew
and performers control relevant parts
of the mix from their device of choice.
This is made all the easier by the
inspired decision to code the mix
environment as a web interface rather
than a mobile app. This eliminates
some of the software issues that might
come up when your FOH guy wants to
WHAT WE RECKON
PROS
Excellent remote connectivity via Wi-Fi
Good array of effects
Well-designed and pratical
work with a laptop and monitor, but
your guitarist is addicted to his iPhone.
Each band member can also be
assigned a personal ‘view’ of the the
mix channels and choices that are
relevant to them. With the right setup,
the FOH mixer can have full purview
of the mix while band members are
restricted to controlling channels
relevant to their monitor mix.
MASS EFFECT
Soundcraft have put their web
interface up on their product website,
with some sample audio running in
it, to give prospective customers a
chance to get a feel for the unit before
purchasing. Having spent a bit of time
with their mix interface, I think it does
the job fairly well. Anyone who has
familiarity with the digital mix consoles
found in most venues will be at home.
The quality effects processing
from dbx, Lexicon and DigiTech will
be found among the very clean and
useable effect pool. This includes the
standard EQs, comps, gates, delays
and reverbs and then some nice extras
CONS
Software is sometimes limited by analog-style
design decisions
RRP: $1,799
like chorus, de-essing and even guitar
amp simulation.
Sounds replicating big-name amp
companies are included, along with
some basic guitar FX. Your mileage
will vary on whether you see them
as appropriate for monitoring, as a
backup/parallel rig, or the basis for
the main guitar sound.
BANDS BIG AND SMALL
Ultimately, the Ui24R is best suited
to touring groups that have some
degree of control over the production
specs of venues they are booked to
play. Without time and co-operation
from venue staff to patch a unit like
this correctly, it would be hard to
extract all the benefits from it.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Ui24R is one of the units that
tries to do everything and mostly
succeeds. There has been little that
has been left out, and it’s a very
attractive proposition for serious
touring groups with sophisticated live
performance needs.
CONTACT
JANDS
(02) 9582 0909
www.jands.com.au
 I N T R O D U C I N G

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74 |

COLLINGS
STATESMAN
LC DELUXE
HOLLOW BODY, FULL TONES.
BY PETER HODGSON

T
his guitar arrived a few days after the news that
founder Bill Collings had passed away. “He was the
amazingly creative force behind Collings Guitars
for over 40 years,” the company says. “Through his
unique and innate understanding of how things work,
and how to make things work better, he set the bar in
our industry and touched many lives in the process.
His skill and incredible sense of design were not just
limited to working with wood, but were also obvious
in his passion for building hot rods. To Bill, the design
and execution of elegant form and function were what
mattered most. Perhaps even more exceptional than
his ability to craft some of the finest instruments in
the world was his ability to teach and inspire. He
created a quality-centred culture that will carry on
to honour his life’s work and legacy. He was loved by
many and will be greatly missed.”
This guitar is inspired by classic hollowbody designs
of the 1940s and '50s, but like everything Collings
produces, it has its own clearly distinctive style and
visual appeal. You can see it in the sweet of the
bass-side bout, the carve of the treble-side cutaway,
the asymmetrical headstock and the classy tuner
buttons. It’s clearly a big ticket item, with your dollars
going towards genuine craftsmanship and uniqueness.
The body and top are made of maple laminate, with
the outer-facing pieces – even the sides – all featuring
a beautiful three-dimensional flame that is enhanced
by the Tobacco Sunburst finish. The neck is Honduran
mahogany and it’s very comfortable and slick – the kind
of neck you can play for hours. You can order this model
with various inlay options, but the review guitar has no
position markers on the fretboard (there are side dots,
of course), and I feel like this clean look is really the
right way to go with this design. It doesn’t need inlays to
distract from the even tones of the ebony fingerboard,
which offset the lighter hues of the body.
Collings outfits this model with a Bigsby B3 vibrato
and a floating bridge, and it’s one of the smoothest
Bigsby setups I’ve ever played. The strings glide
smoothly over the bridge saddles and nut, and they
return to pitch with perfect accuracy.
The electronics include a pair of TV Jones FilterTron
pickups which employ an Alnico magnet twice the size of
a traditional PAF pickup magnet, while the low-wound,
tightly spaced bobbins capture the zip and zing of the
strings without imparting too much grit or growl of
their own. The idea is to take a great-sounding guitar
and present its natural tones on a silver platter. The

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 | 75

wiring harness is ‘50s style’ – a method which
maintains more clarity when you roll down the volume
controls compared to the more modern way of wiring
up this kind of layout.
Sonically, this is a very earthy sounding guitar which
sounds full and sweet through a clean amp, but seems
to really come to life with just a hair of gain. Think more
‘overdriven clean amp’ than ‘5150 on 11'. In this mode,
the guitar has a vocal midrange, tight low end and
smooth highs, and it’s great for fingerstyle playing. Even
though Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsay Buckingham doesn’t
use this kind of guitar, his tones are what repeatedly
came to mind during testing. It’s an ideal instrument for
country and country-jazz styles, naturally, but it also
sounds great for indie, alternative and goth-rock tones
– basically, it'll work for anything where you need your
notes to breathe and bloom rather than crash and bash.
This is another great example of Collings bringing
together the best of old and new. While the design looks
classic, there are plenty of design, finish and setup
tweaks that make it feel a little more modern while still
retaining heart and artistry.
IN-DEPTH
SPECIFICATIONS
The Collings LC Deluxe is a full hollowbody
electric guitar inspired by the classic sounds
pioneered by players such as Chet Atkins and
Eddie Cochran, with a trestle-braced maple
laminate body, Honduran mahogany neck,
ebony fingerboard, Bigsby B3 vibrato, TV Jones
Filtertron pickups and a 24 7/8-inch scale length.
BEST IN THE HANDS OF
The rosewood and cedar pairing delivers a full
sound with string clarity together with the low
action – it's perfect for fingerstyle and jazz
players who need string definition, beautiful
harmonics and sustain. Because of the low
action and flatter neck, extreme string bending
doesn't play as well immediately. Blues players
may wish to adjust.
WHY IT’S ON THE TOP
SHELF
Distinctive design, flawless workmanship, well
thought out electronics, a flawless setup and a
breathtaking finish that really has to be seen in
person to appreciate.

WHY YOU’RE PROBABLY WHAT YOU SHOULD PRICE $7,195 AUD

GOING TO WANT IT
This guitar feels like a world-class,
professional-level instrument, from finish to
setup. As much care seems to have gone
into the playing experience as the sound and
looks, making it one of the finest ‘complete
package’ guitars we’ve seen.
CONSIDER FIRST
Perhaps you prefer PAF-style humbuckers, or
you’re not a fan of the Bigsby. If that’s you, CONTACT
Collings makes a number of variations on this
design: perhaps you’d prefer the SoCo LC with GLADESVILLE GUITAR FACTORY
Lollar humbuckers, Kluson stop tailpiece and a (02) 9817 2173
semi-hollow body.
guitarfactory.net
76 | TECHNIQUE
BLUES AND BEYOND WITH ADRIAN WHYTE

COLUMN AUDIO AT
AUSTRALIANGUITARMAG.COM.AU

HARMONISING PENTATONICS
A
s lead players, we sometimes = 100
tend to forget that the guitar 1 2
is a polyphonic instrument. 1 2 3 4

That’s a really fancy way of saying E-Gt

we can play more than one note at
a time. It also reminds me of Polly
Waffle, which was a chocolate bar, 5 8 5
5 8 8 5 5 8 5
and now I’m hungry! But I digress... 5 7 7 5 5 7 5
5 7 7 5 7 7 5 7
Today, we’re looking at our good 3 5 7 7 5 3 7 5 7 7
5 5 8
old friend, the minor pentatonic
scale, with a fresh approach; we’re
going to play streams of two note 3
5 6 7 8
ideas within this scale. The limitations
of the pentatonic actually make it
tricky, theoretically, as there isn’t
much consistency in terms of the 5
5 8 5 8 5
intervals from one note to the next. 5 5 5 7 7 5 5 5
5 5 5 7 7 5 5 5
So check out these exercises, and 7 3 7 5 7 7 5 7 3
5 5 8 8 5
remember, you can apply them
however you like and find your own
way with them. All exercises were 4 5
recorded at 100bpm. 9 10 11 12

EXERCISES #1 AND #2
I’m going to launch into both
exercises here because the first
exercise is simply a minor pentatonic
scale in the key of A. I have shown
you how to play through the shape
using a sightly different approach,
which will allow us to play the root
note and the next note in the scale at
the same time. This will be apparent
in Exercise #3, so just bare with me.
For Exercise #2, you will now be
introduced to the glorious sound of
a harmonised pentatonic. Straight
away, you will need to start thinking
about flattening your fingers in the
ham-fisted manner your teacher has
probably told you not to. Right now,
though, you must! You need to roll
the first finger over two strings and
flatten out the third finger in order to
pinch two notes at a time. At times,
you will also be able to use two
fingers – try to do what makes logical
sense or feels right. Theoretically
speaking, this will be an easy article
because it’s quite simple, and we are
ultimately just harmonising simple
pentatonic melodies.
EXERCISE #3
Do you see that first interval? Well,
that wouldn’t be possible if we used
the standard pentatonic box shape
where our first finger is on the fifth
fret. You’ll find it useful to slide up
into the next shape with the third
finger remaining on the sixth string
5 7
5 7 7 7
3 3 5 7
5 5
13
8 5 8
5 5
7 5 7 7
7 7
8 5
and sliding up to the eighth fret. You
will then drop the second finger on
the seventh fret of the fifth string.
This should give you an insight into
the required logic, but again, it’s up to
you. In this exercise, I’ve tried to apply
a fairly consistent interval – or gap,
if you will – between the steps in the
scale and the additional note on top.
However, it falls apart when we play
the D note, because we don’t have
an F in an A minor pentatonic. As a
result, the quality of those two notes
will have a different sound to the
quality of the notes before – quality
being the resulted mood created by
the combination of two or more notes.
So, there are a couple of different
qualities, but it all sounds fantastic
in a stream of notes. Try it and you’ll
see. This is why pentatonic scales
are so widely used. You’ll need to use
5 8 5 5
5 8 8 8 8 8 5 8
7 7 7 7 7 5
7 7 7 7
7 5
5 7
5
the third finger and the pinky when
playing the seventh and eighth
frets together on the second and
third strings.
EXERCISE #4
All of the same concepts are at play
here, only this time I’m overlapping
notes. From one pair of harmonised
notes to the next, you’ll see I’ve
kept one note and changed another,
creating a building effect. This stuff
is really underutilised. In truth, I’ve
barely explored it, but the need to
offer something fresh to readers has
certainly inspired me to develop these
ideas more. Why shouldn’t you?
EXERCISE #5
This exercise demonstrates what
happens if you spread the notes
further than one string apart, and is
5 8
5 5 5
7 5 5 7 7 5 7
3 3 7 7
5 8
just the beginning of an abundance
of possibilities! This is a great sound.
You may need to use a pick and a
finger to catch both notes, or play it
fingerstyle. Your left hand will need
to bar at time, and you’ll need to
practice these ideas slowly to develop
smooth fingerings. Again, they sound
great, and I highly encourage you to
employ this over greater distances.
SUMMARY
It really does amaze me how
little things seem to have been
explored, and I hope these ideas
open your mind a little. If you think of
something but you’re not sure if it’s
worth putting into action, I implore
you: see if it sounds good, and if it
does, go forth and make it your own!
If it sounds bad, go forth and make
it... Er, someone else’s!

| australianguitarmag.com.au
78 | TECHNIQUE
LEAD WORK WITH PETER HODGSON
COLUMN AUDIO AT
AUSTRALIANGUITARMAG.COM.AU

SOLOING STRATEGIES:
OPEN STRINGS
S
omething’s been bugging me.
Nobody seems to know how
to mute their damn strings
anymore. I’m not talking about the
good old-fashioned ‘chugga-chugga’
metal mute; I’m talking about stopping
unwanted strings from ringing out
while you’re playing a note or a chord.
And yeah, you can buy all sorts of
promotional-logo’d string mutes to
stick on your guitar right down by
the nut to stop those stray string
noises, but for me, that would just be
another thing to lose along with half a
dozen Jazz IIIs every week. And what
happens if you find yourself handed
an unfamiliar guitar in a jam situation?
You don’t have a fret wrap on you,
and you’ve spent your life up until
that moment letting those fuzzy little
buggers take care of cleaning up your
playing so you don’t have to. What
happens then, huh!?
Aright, alright, a disclaimer: there
are some instances where these
do-dads are a good idea – particularly
if you’re into a lot of two-handed
tapping. But something I heard in
a Marty Friedman clinic once really
stuck with me: he likes those stray
harmonics, semi-random string noises
and the weird sympathetic overtones
you get from choosing exactly when
and when not to mute. He feels that
it adds more humanity and vibrance
to certain moments. And that’s not
coming from an anti-technique player:
Friedman is one of the most incredibly
talented shredders you’ll ever hear.
The dude knows what he’s doing.
I personally feel that a fret wrap
is a great tool for the right moment,
but I see some players who won’t solo
without one, and I feel like they’re
really short-changing themselves when
it comes to cool open-string licks and
the like. Yes, you can adjust a mute
so that it’s only minimally affecting some interesting little grace notes. As in Gary Moore’s “End Of The World” – percussive and almost robotic sound.
open strings, but then they’re not as you go from the fretted note to the although you really should track down Take this lick further up onto the other
effective at overall muting. open string, pull the string slightly the actual song to hear how great it strings and see where it takes you – it
Anyway, this is all just a long way of towards the floor. This helps to sound is, because this isn’t anywhere near sounds great and it looks even better.
saying, “Here are some cool licks you the open string more loudly, and it the actual lick. Try playing the same
can’t do if a fret wrap is messing up also adds a very slight micro-bend to pattern on different strings, letting Again, I’m not against string mutes:
your open strings.” the very end of the fretted note. It’s different open strings ring out. I think they have a time and a place,
the kind of effect that’s almost too and they can be really helpful in the
FIGURE A subtle to consciously perceive, but FIGURE C studio. But don’t let them become a
This is a simple pull-off lick which you can feel it. This is one of my favourite licks ever. crutch that prevents you from fully
is slightly inspired by Brett Garsed’s Mute the strings with your left hand, mastering your instrument, and don’t
solo in John Farnham’s “Two Strong FIGURE B hit those open strings hard with the let yourself miss out on some of the
Hearts”. It has a nice bounce to it, and This one is kind of inspired by the pick and then hammer each of the cool things that can happen when you
when performed properly, it gives you badarse opening unaccompanied solo fretted notes really solidly for a very explore open strings.

| australianguitarmag.com.au
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80 | TECHNIQUE

MUSICAL CONCEPTS FOR GUITAR WITH REG BARBER

COLUMN AUDIO AT
AUSTRALIANGUITARMAG.COM.AU

IT’S A RESOLUTION, BABY!

T
his issue continues along the 1
theme of the last one, where
we used inversions along one
string, but this time we’re going
to look at the Bm7b5 (or half-
diminished) shape. We are looking
at some ways of resolving phrases
to diminished chord tones using
inversions of the Bm7b5 arpeggio.
We will start off by mapping out 2
one octave patterns of the Bm7b5
arpeggio along the E string. This will
help us see, and more importantly
hear, the notes belonging to the B
half-diminished arpeggio and see how
they fit into our three-note-per-string
modal patterns in C major. Sometimes
we learn patterns without really
knowing or understanding where the
notes that belong to the chord we are
playing over actually are. Learning
and using arpeggios helps us to
create phrases that sound musical
and resolve, or sound finished. Once
we have played a phrase, we can
make it sound complete by resolving
to a chord tone, so it’s important to
know where they are. 3
EXERCISE #1
Exercise #1 outlines a one-octave
pattern of the Bm7b5 arpeggio. There
are a few different patterns we can
map out based on the CAGED system,
but these ones work well because
they fit neatly within the three-
note-per-string modal patterns that
many guitarists already know and
use. Bar #1 shows the root position
chord tones of B half-diminished –
B D F A. Bar #2 outlines a Bm7b5
arpeggio, but the notes appear in a
different order – instead of B D F A,
we have D F A B. This is called the invaluable tool for creating new riffs. when descending. We usually think of EXERCISE #3
‘first inversion’. Inversions are often sweep arpeggios whenever the word Exercise #3 outlines two octaves of
used when playing chords to create EXERCISE #2 ‘sweep’ is mentioned, but sweep the Bm7b5 arpeggio in all inversions.
smooth voice leading, but they can Exercise #2 outlines the three- picking is just as beneficial to speed After playing through exercise #3, you
also be used with arpeggio or scale note-per-string patterns that these when playing scales. should start to see how these shape
patterns. Bar #3 outlines the second arpeggio shapes sit within. The first Bar #2 outlines the C Ionian or sits within the different modal patterns
inversion with the note order being bar outlines the B locrian shape in major scale pattern and our first of C major. The second bar outlines
F A B D. The last bar outlines third the root position. This is the last inversion Bm7b5 fits neatly within the first inversion Bm7b5 and it fits
inversion of an Bm7b5 arpeggio with mode of the C major scale, and this pattern. Try playing the scale, neatly within the C Ionian pattern. The
the notes being A B D F. Try looping contains all seven notes of C major, and then the arpeggio from exercise third bar outlines the second inversion
a B half-diminished chord vamp and but beginning and ending on a B one to hear how Bm7b5 sounds of Bm7b5, which fits neatly within
play through this exercise. It is a great note. Rhythmically, this exercise uses against C Ionian. The third bar is the the F lydian modal pattern. The last
way to come up with new phrases six notes per beat, or sextuplets. This F Lydian pattern. bar outlines the third inversion fitting
by shifting to a different inversion one flies by at 120 beats per minute, The last bar outlines A Aeolian, or within the A Aeolian mode. Once you
without varying the pattern you are so make sure you use sweep picking. the minor scale. Listen to the sound have these shapes under your fingers,
playing. Once you have them under Play each grouping of three notes of Bm7b5 against these patterns. This try improvising your own phrases using
your fingers, try varying the note as down–up–down when ascending is another very effective method for a combination of scale runs and the
values and phrasing – it can be an through the scale, and up–down–up writing new phrases and great riffs. Bm7b5 arpeggio inversions.

| australianguitarmag.com.au
Instruments Corporation.Fender® is a trademark of FMIC. All rights reserved. FENDER.COM.AU
82 | TECHNIQUE
SHREDDED METAL WITH JIMMY LARDNER-BROWN

COLUMN AUDIO AT
AUSTRALIANGUITARMAG.COM.AU

SWEEPING AND TAPPING

O
ne of my personal favourite
lead guitar techniques is
something I like to call
1
sweep-tapped arpeggios. By this,
I mean you sweep pick an ascending
arpeggio and then tap an extra note
higher in pitch with your right hand.
It creates a very smooth, fluid, and
piano-like effect. I think they sound
pretty cool!

EXERCISE #1
In the key of B, I’ve notated the
major and minor versions of a basic
arpeggio shape using this sweep-tap
technique. Although you can use
any arpeggio shape, I’ve found that
this one is the easiest, so it’s a good
place to start. Starting on the fifth
string, use the one continuous right
hand downward pick stroke while
fretting the left-hand notes – slightly
releasing the pressure after each
note is played. When you get to the
first string, hammer-on with your left
hand and then slightly move your
right hand towards the fretboard
and tap the next note with your right 2
hand middle finger (the 19th fret
octave, in this case). You then pull
off your right hand middle finger
(by slightly flicking it downwards)
into a left hand pull-off. Move your
right hand back into position and
then perform an upwards sweep,
finishing where you started on the
root note. Start slow and work on the
coordination of both hands before
trying to build up the speed.

EXERCISE #2
Here, in the key of E minor, I’ve
taken the basic major/minor shapes
from the previous exercise and
applied them to a Im-Vm-VII-IV-VI-
III-VI-VII-Im chord progression. This
involves quite a bit of jumping around
the fretboard, so once again, start off
slow and work on staying in time. For
some of the arpeggios further down
the fretboard, you may find that you
need to sweep pick in a diagonal
motion (towards the neck as you
ascend and away from the neck as
you descend). This is so that you have
time to reach the tapped note. Keep
in mind that this is just an exercise –
in a more musical context, you should
be careful not to overdo it with this
sweep-tap technique! Give these sweep-tapped arpeggios a go for yourself and try incorporating the technique into your own solos.

| australianguitarmag.com.au
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84 | CD REVIEWS
OP PICK
FOO FIGHTERS
Concrete And Gold
SONY
T
he Foo Fighters’
ability to
consistently
deliver a slab of wall-
to-wall guitars has
long been a source
of both praise and
criticism alike. They’ve
always had rock on
lock – it’s why they still
headline the world’s
biggest festivals, and when every other rock mainstay
eventually jumps ship to the pop realm, it’s what we
can depend on.
But the Foos’ ninth LP is a curious beast indeed.
For a band well into their second decade, they still
manage a number of firsts. Long-time keyboardist
Rami Jaffee has earned his status as a bonafide Foo
(and a commemorative pin, probably) as he officially
rounds out the band to a six-piece. It’s also the first
time Dave Grohl has called upon a pop songwriter
(Greg Kurstin) to handle production duties.
The man behind Adele’s “Hello” doesn’t seem
like an obvious choice, but then again, this isn’t an
obvious Foos record. It takes its cues from the classic
rock and blues of old – it’s one that sees a Beatle sit
behind the kit on the ‘70s rock-inspired “Sunday Rain”
while resident tubthumper Taylor Hawkins steps up
to the mic; one that takes a raw and bluesy, gospel-
inspired approach on “The Sky is a Neighborhood”,
complete with vocal harmonies from The Kills’
Alison Mosshart. It’s an album that seemingly
delivers Grohl’s take on “Blackbird” with the delicate
fingerpicking of “Happy Ever After (Zero Hour)”.
And yet, the hallmarks of a Foos record remain:
the heavily distorted “La Dee Da” recalls the wild,
unrestrained edge of “Wattershed”, while the
massive chorus of “Arrows” instils it with instant
replay value. Elsewhere, Shawn Stockman of Boyz II
Men lends his vocals to the ambling, slow-burner of
a title track (and it doesn’t make for the anomaly
those words would suggest).
It’s not quite the speakers-to-11 screech-a-thon that
a monster lead single like “Run” would suggest, but
there’s a depth here that Grohl and the gang have
never fully allowed themselves to explore until now.
So much for an “indefinite hiatus”, eh?
EMILY SWANSON
| australianguitarmag.com.au
NOAH GUNDERSEN that, as much as you grow desperate for them to,
White Noise
COOKING VINYL
White Noise is an
album about being an
never quite stick. Rap verses on the first two tracks
feel overtly forced and shoehorned in – closer
“Diavolos” could’ve served as their intemperate
saviour, but instead it’s grating and sloppy and
artist – or rather, marred by a cheesy pseudo-chorus. Rather than
Noel Gunderson’s continue to churn records out every quarter,
experiences as an Crossfaith need to step back and really examine
artist living in a what their place in music is... Because it’s not this.
vortex of emotional MATT DORIA
extremes – but rather
than alienate the PAPER THIN
listener by telling Living With. Being Without.
stories, Gunderson builds something of a sensory LOST BOY
record: one that uses a surrealist combination of
electronica and alt-rock (à la Radiohead) to convey Newcastle is doling
emotional scenarios that can’t be described with out some seriously
words. Gunderson’s pop-like compositions are at killer alternative at
their strongest when grounded in rock, drifting the moment, and
through walls of shoegaze, light grunge and dark, Living With. Being
lilting minimalist piano with synthesised strings. Without. is all the
Moments like these generate an engrossing proof one needs of
atmosphere that ebbs and flows through highs and that. Across four
lows, and only falls apart when he opts out for his pure belters, Paper
voice and an acoustic guitar. Thin dig into a wealth
PETER ZALUZNY of gooey emo-punk perfection, fusing soft twangs
and numbing riffs to shape compelling soundscapes
PROPHETS OF RAGE worthy of every goosebump they elicit. Guitars are
Self-titled just as crucial as the lyrics in rendering emotion
SONY here – take for example the rapturous crescendo
Supergroups are of “Post-It Note”, which bellies a flare of strained
always at least a little intensity with its pummelling wails before
bit cringe-inducing, crumbling into a peaceful strum. Every track is so
and the same is meticulously tight, so grandiose and dynamic that
undoubtedly true for it’s hard to believe Paper Thin are still in their
the new rap-rock formative era. It’s a notable step up from last year’s
goulash of Rage eponymous debut – which was stunning to begin
Against The Machine, with – and it feels like the band have cracked the
Public Enemy and code to their own stylistic charm: a lively mash-up
Cypress Hill. But of Camp Cope and Kisschasy by way of Blink 182’s
where Prophets Of Rage stand out is in the fact that two-tone lead vocals. You can catch Paper Thin
they actually deserve to exist: in the wake of Brexit playing in-stores and pub shows right now, but it’s
and the alt-right, this breed of vicious leftist hard without a doubt they’ll be filling theatres in no time.
rock is relevant once more, and for that, Prophets MATT DORIA
Of Rage is duly refreshing. Though production is a
touch too polished for the riffs to genuinely shine, THE BRONX
Tom Morello has a field day ripping thick, rumbly Bronx V
and roaring fretwork on the LP. His whammy-happy COOKING VINYL
spark hasn’t aged a day since the aughts, either –
Prophets Of Rage sounds almost profoundly dated, The Bronx have been
but only ever in the most delicious ways. With a angry, they’ve been
hefty blend of RATM’s energy and Cypress Hill’s inspired, and they’ve
grime, Prophets Of Rage is an LP well worth turning spent time musing
what was initially a one-off jam into a fully fledged on the move to
thing. All that’s missing is those spine-rattling yells adulthood when the
from Zack de la Rocha. Sorry. It had to be said. venomous rage of
MATT DORIA youth dies down. But
on Bronx V (or
CROSSFAITH BRVNX, Bronx or V),
Freedom we see a band that has moved so far towards
UNFD personal extremes that they’ve become emotionally
indifferent. It’s intentionally exhausting – most of
From 2015’s XENO the lyrics are inspired by frontman Matt Caughthran
onwards, Crossfaith falling into the darkest realms of mental health,
have battled with a right when societal structures started to break
bit of an identity down. Guitars are drenched in distortion from the
crisis: are they a get-go, and drive through your skull with the
balls-to-the-wall unrelenting force of a hedonistic binge fuelled by
Metallican thrash someone with nothing to lose. It’s pretty bleak –
unit, or an Enter Bronx V takes you to uncomfortable places – but
Shikarian dancecore the way it tackles social lethargy through ferocity is
beast? The Japanese oddly uplifting, and manages to ignite the fire that
fusion-moshers came close to finding their feet last can help us bypass apathetic hell. Sure, the solution
year with the tight, hardstyle-tinged New Age is to jump, kick and scream until you’re hoarse, but
Warriors EP, but Freedom instantly throws them maybe that’s all we need right now.
back off with a messy string of half-baked ideas PETER ZALUZNY
86 | HOT GEAR

HOT
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EQ can also be controlled with an expression pedal, making it easy to create
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TW OR
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in four, eight, or 16 ohm impedance versions to match the output of any
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you need to work at a reduced volume level. Its analogue speaker simulator
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It features both balanced line and unbalanced speaker outputs, a polarity
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| australianguitarmag.com.au
 | 87

ERNIE BALL SHORT SCALE BASS STRINGS

RRP: $51.95 | cmcmusic.com.au

After years of requests, Ernie Ball has announced they will now make their
popular nickel-wound Slinky Bass strings available for short scale basses. The
most obvious reason to use a short scale bass (but definitely not the only one) is
its compact size. Many bassists also find closer fret spacing more comfortable.
However, professional bassists are well aware of a ‘secret’ to the sound of a
short scale bass: shorter strings require less tension to achieve correct tuning,
and lower tension means a more flexible feeling string that gives you a fatter
bottom end ‘bloom’ on low notes while, at the same time, presenting top notes
that sound a little smoother.
Specifically engineered to fit short scale (30.5-inch) basses, the new Ernie Ball
Short Scale Slinky Bass strings are constructed utilising the same production
methods and materials as their original Slinky nickel-wound bass strings,
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MATCHLESS AVALON 30
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The Avalon utilises an innovative new hybrid

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between Hi and Lo inputs with a switchable
impedance (4, 8, 16 ohms).

CRAFTER WB700 C/EN

RRP: $1,299 | drumpartner.com.au

The first bowl back guitar to be made out of

woven wood, the Crafter WB700 C/EN features a
mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard and bridge,
and a solid Sitka spruce top. The fingerboard inlay
is done in stunning abalone as is the soundhole
inlay. This is coupled with deluxe chrome tuners
with bean buttons, an LR-T FX preamp and an LR
Baggs Element pickup.

CRAFTER AUTUMN LEAF

45TH ANNIVERSARY GUITAR
(AL-ROSE PLUS)
RRP: $1,699 (with hardcase)
drumpartner.com.au

Crafter build a special Grand Auditorium

acoustic-electric every two years to celebrate the
company’s anniversary. Each of these anniversary
guitars has a unique design on the fretboard
and around the soundhole. The Autumn Leaf 45
(AL-Rose Plus) features a solid Engelmann spruce
top, a solid rosewood back, autumn leaf inlays,
Grover gold tuners and an LR-T DX preamp with an
LR Baggs Element pickup.
88 | REVIEWS
CHARVEL PRO-MOD SANDIMASSTYLE2
CHARVEL’S TAKE ON THE TELE IS SOMETHING GLORIOUS TO BEHOLD.
HERE ARE THREE FINE – AND VERY DIFFERENT – EXAMPLES.
BY PETER HODGSON
I
t’s been great to see the return of Charvel
since the brand was acquired by FMIC in
2002. FMIC has very carefully built the brand
up to an interesting place in terms of product
range: Charvel represents the ‘Superstrat’
segment, incorporating more modern player
features, hotter pickups and flashier finishes
on a somewhat traditional framework, leaving
Fender free to explore the past and future of its
classic models, and Jackson to handle the more
metal-oriented stuff.
For this issue, Fender Music Australia sent us
three of their finest Charvels, each a take on the
classic Telecaster shape but approaching it from a
different perspective. Charvel’s Tele-like line is the
Pro-Mod Style 2, and it’s an incredibly versatile
platform as we’ll see.
THE PRO-MOD SAN DIMAS STYLE 2
HH HT M ASH
Of the three guitars reviewed here, this one
is the most Tele-like thanks to its ash body and
| australianguitarmag.com.au
maple fingerboard. But it’s clearly not designed to
be your grandpappy’s Tele. It has Seymour Duncan
JB and ’59 humbucking pickups with a push-pull
coil split, a No-Load tone control that is effectively
bypassed when it’s on full mode, a Charvel HT6
hardtail bridge that seems to take its cues from
Hipshot, and a trio of very player-friendly carves
in the back: the Shredder’s Cut heel, which
takes a little wedge out of the block neck joint; a
scalloped lower back bout on the treble cutaway
that allows you to more comfortably angle you
hand for upper-fret shredding; and a beveled back
output jack which places the cord at an angle that
ensures it won’t get yanked out and can be easily
threaded through the strap.
Sonically, this is a powerful guitar with lots of
bite and detail. The JB is a very midrange-heavy
pickup, but all that ash and maple ensures there’s
enough top end to cut through as well. The ’59 is a
fatter, fuller-sounding neck pickup, which balances
well with the JB and sounds great when split.
In fact, you might find yourself using the split
coil modes a lot more than usual on this guitar
because they sound quite Tele-like and versatile.
I put it down to the extra high-end clarity. In terms
of playability, this is much more of a modern affair
than a Tele, with a 12-to-16-inch compound radius
fingerboard that feels comfortable all the way up
and down and handles everything from chunky
chords to soaring leads.
THE PRO-MOD SAN DIMAS STYLE 2
HH FR QM
This guitar is similar to the Style 2 HH HT M
Ash in some ways, but it’s also very different
in some ways. Both have the same neck shape,
compound radius fingerboard, Seymour Duncan
humbuckers and additional back bevelling, but
the HH FR QM is much more of a shredder’s
machine. It has a Floyd Rose double locking
tremolo, an alder body with quilted maple top,
rosewood fingerboard and a glossy finish which
seems to reign in the top end a little more
and give the overall sound a little more of a

compressed vibe.
The JB’s mids really cut through here, making
it a great lead guitar or a chunky-sounding
rhythm beast. Harmonics practically leap off
the strings and jump at your throat. The clean
tones aren’t quite as characterful as on the Ash
model, and you’ll probably find yourself tending
towards the humbucker mode here just because
those unrestrained mids and slightly smoother
highs are so well-suited to high-gain tones. The
’59 works well here too but you might want to
raise the adjustable pole pieces a little to get a
tad more treble detail.
THE JOE DUPLANTIER SIGNATURE PRO-
MOD SAN DIMAS STYLE 2 HH
This signature model for the Gojira frontman
TOP 5 FEATURES
• Compound radius necks
• Shredder’s cut and scalloped cutaway
PROS
• Seymour Duncan or Duncan Designed pickups
• Locking tuners
• Jumbo frets
is based on his USA-made signature model, but
produced in Indonesia to be more affordable.
Despite the cheaper build, however, it feels
reassuringly well-made with lots of custom
appointments, rather than just being a Tele-style
guitar with humbuckers. For instance, it has
the same heel and treble cutaway carve as the
other two Pro-Mods reviewed here, as well
as a 12-to-16-inch compound radius ebony
fingerboard, 22 jumbo frets, three-way toggle
switch with a unique diamond-shaped switch
cap, compound radius-compensated bridge with
anchored tailpiece, and Charvel locking tuners.
The neck and white satin-finished body are
both made of nato – which has the appearance
of roasted maple – helping to give it more of
an upmarket vibe. It also has Duncan Designed
WHAT WE RECKON
CONS
Classic looks but modern tone No coil split on Duplantier model
Versatile pickups
| 89
RRP $1,499- $2299
humbucking pickups, designed by Seymour
Duncan but produced offshore. These models
are based on the classic JB and ’59.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Sonically, this guitar is a little more open-
sounding that the other two. It’s slightly more
scooped in the mids and a little brighter in the
top end, while still retaining much of the same
basic tone. And if you’re a fan of the classic
Gojora ‘raked harmonic chord’ sound, this
guitar will do it with ease. It’s great for
atmospheric cleans as well, but unlike the
other two guitars, there’s no coil-splitting here:
what you see is what you get. And what you get
is a very muscular, yet detailed-sounding metal
machine with no fuss.
CONTACT
FENDER AUSTRALIA
fender.com.au
(02) 9666 5077
90 | REVIEWS
VOX MV50 SERIES
THE BRITISH HEAVYWEIGHTS CONTINUE TO INNOVATE WITH THEIR NEW SERIES OF MINI-MONSTERS.
BY PETER HODGSON
V
OX has always been an innovator. The
venerable AC30 was both visually and
sonically distinct from the Fender amps that
were coveted at the time, and they were a heck of a
lot easier for British players to get
their hands on, which is a similar story to how
Marshall came to be.
Their Teardrop guitars were a refreshing approach
to guitar design at a time when the
instrument was struggling with how to approach
non-traditional shapes; the VOX Wah pedal was,
and is still, iconic; the ValveTronix range was an
early adopter for the blend of tube and digital
technologies in a multi-effects unit; and the Night
Train brought the boutique lunchbox amp head to
the mainstream. Now, they’re doing it all over again
with the MV50 line of amps.
The MV50 series is designed to give you a
unique voicing in an undeniably cute, yet incredibly
roadworthy 50-watt miniature enclosure. The range
consists of three amplifiers, each of them single-
channel units dedicated with a particular purpose.
| australianguitarmag.com.au
The MV50 AC is based on the AC30, in what is
probably the most logical marketing choice in
history. The MV50 Clean is inspired by classic
American amplifiers, which is shorthand for
“Fender-like clean tones”. Then there’s the MV50
Rock, which is based on more aggressive tones
reminiscent of high-gain British amplifiers – think
of a cranked JCM800 and you’re somewhere in the
same zone.
The series is kept quite uniform, with more or
less the same basic features in each: there are
three control knobs, a retro-looking VU meter
and an input jack on the front, while around the
back you’ll find a line/phone jack and a speaker
out. At the heart of all three models is the
revolutionary Nutube vacuum tube. Conceptually,
it’s similar to a conventional vacuum tube with
an anode grid filament structure, and it operates
exactly as a triode vacuum tube would as far as
the circuit is concerned.
But by applying their vacuum fluorescent
display technology, the designers have devised
a structure which achieves substantial power
saving, miniaturisation and other general quality
improvements when compared to a conventional
vacuum tube. It actually looks more like a
microchip than a typical vacuum tube, and it
requires less than two percent of the power that
conventional tubes need to run.
MV50 AC
Controls include Gain, Tone and Volume, and
the Nutube is augmented with analog components
designed to emulate the dynamics and harmonics
of a regular tube amp. This amp has the exact
chimey, bell-like ‘dirty/clean’ feel of an AC30,
with all the ring and jangle you could want from
single coil chording with the beef and distinctive
midrange clang of a great humbucker-and-AC30
rig. The circuit is very dynamic: dig in harder with
your pick, and you’ll most definitely notice more
gain and volume, and if you hit it with a treble
booster, Brian May style, it’ll respond exactly as
you would hope.
 | 91

RRP: $349.99

MV50 CLEAN
Since the MV50 Clean has no need for a gain
control, its three knobs control Treble, Bass
and Volume. This is a great choice for this amp
because it allows VOX to voice each control at
their frequency sweet-spots rather than operating
at something of a compromise.
The treble knob in particular is very carefully
voiced to give you clarity and detail without
getting too harsh. At its upper settings, it made
my Strat with Seymour Duncan Jimi Hendrix
pickups sound almost like an acoustic guitar,
especially on the ‘neck and middle’ setting.
But when I plugged in my Les Paul, I found a
great jazz tone, and there were plenty of usable
country tones to be found, especially when
adding a compressor and a tremolo pedal. It’s
also a great amp for multi-effect units because
it’ll clearly reproduce whatever you plug into it.
MV50 ROCK
The MV50 Rock can sound very fat, yet fuzzy,
in the spirit of classic Tony Iommi rhythm tones
– but it’s also capable of some perfectly smooth
blues rock sounds, hard rock tones and thick
walls of chunky gain. Oh, and it does a sound
that mimics Adam Jones or Tool like you wouldn’t
believe, with careful placement of the Gain
control and just the right pickups.
This amp is the most high-gain of the series,
but it also cleans up very nicely from your guitar’s
volume control, making it the best all-rounder of
the three. If you’re a Van Halen-style player who
likes to run everything from the guitar, you’ll find
all of your tone here. But more than the other
two, this amp would really benefit from an
effects loop or at least a rudimentary reverb
control. All of that gain and harmonic juice
would be even better if you were able to place
it in a spatial context without having to add
effects at the mixing desk.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Each of these amps are great at their own
purpose, and they’re affordable enough that
you could easily justify buying all three and a
switching pedal for a flexible and cool looking
multi-amp rig. The MV50 Rock is clearly the
most flexible of the three, but whichever one
you go for, these three amps are all very
portable, adaptable, affordable and loud.

TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON CONTACT

• Three control knobs on each model
• Adorably tiny size
PROS CONS YAMAHA AUSTRALIA
Very affordable. Buy all three! No reverb or FX loop au.yamaha.com
• Retro-looking VU meter
Innovative tube technology that still (03) 9693 5111
• Nutube vacuum tube sounds authentic
• Input and line/phone jacks Idiot-proof controls
92 | REVIEWS
MUSIC MAN STINGRAYOLDSMOOTHIE
THE RETURN OF A CLASSIC. WELCOME BACK!
BY STEVE HENDERSON
T
he original StingRay bass (and its
stablemate, the StingRay I guitar), designed
by Leo Fender and Forrest White, hit the
market in 1976 – two years after the release of
their fabulous guitar amps – and bass players took
to it in droves. Its fat, bright tones coincided nicely
with some of the newer music styles emerging in
the mid-’70s, and its stylish design seemed to be
an upgraded version of the fabulous Precision Bass
that was also designed by Fender and his team.
Ironically, the StingRay guitar failed to capture
anyone’s attention – if you’ve played one, you’ll
immediately know why – and quickly faded into
obscurity along with the StingRay II and the
subsequent Sabre models. In 1984, when the Music
Man company self-destructed a mere decade
after it officially began, the Ernie Ball company
bought Music Man and its various patents. The
following year, Ernie Ball started producing basses
at their old Earthwood factory in San Luis Obispo,
and almost ten years after it first appeared, the
StingRay bass was reborn. The 1985 version of
| australianguitarmag.com.au
the StingRay was a cut above the original, but it
retained the killer design that still looks as fresh
and cool today as it did 40 years ago.
But the Ernie Ball x Music Man relationship
predates the purchase considerably. During the
‘70s, Sterling Ball (Ernie’s son) worked at Music
Man on that original StingRay design, beta testing
and fine-tuning the instrument. Since acquiring
the Music Man marque, Sterling Ball has driven
the reintroduction of the StingRay and the
development of other successful guitar and bass
designs. So, how does all of this relate to our
review instrument? Isn’t it just a StingRay?
A LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE
Yes, it is – but it’s a very specific StingRay. It’s
an as-faithful-as-possible reproduction of the
26th prototype of the ‘70s StingRay series: “Old
Smoothie” to Sterling’s friends. I guess he must
have liked that particular bass, because here it
is, replicated for the StingRay’s 40th anniversary
(released last year in the USA). Old Smoothie
has a bunch of the original’s features: 34-inch
scale, maple neck and fingerboard, 21 thin and
low-profile frets, and a long and fat Alnico V
humbucker with ten pole pieces (so that the
strings are in-between the pole pieces rather than
over them). The two-band active EQ makes tonal
choices simpler, and the pots are smooth and even.
Old Smoothie has a through-loaded bridge – a
design that maximises sustain and tone compared
to a top-loaded bridge that has a kind of cantilever
effect. It’s a more expensive option, but it makes
for a tighter, more focussed tone and more positive
feel. This bridge also incorporates those weird
mutes under each string, which can be deployed
for that flatwound sound.
SAME, BUT DIFFERENT
However, it’s not an exact clone. Thankfully,
they’ve chosen not to copy the original’s bullet
rod, instead using their brilliantly simple and
contemporary truss rod adjustment device (that
little wheel at the base of the neck). The body is

alder instead of ash, and its sunbursting is more
stylishly rendered, fading smoothly through the
three hues. The lacquer is more contemporary:
‘70s Music Man (and Fender) instruments had a
heavier lacquer that caused acoustic dampening
– affecting the resonance – and had the potential
to chip and crack. Old Smoothie’s poly finish has
another benefit: it has less of a dampening effect,
allowing for a longer resonance which means more
sustain and more open tones. It also looks and
feels better, and is more resilient.
Playing Old Smoothie unplugged reveals a
definite low-mid tone with overtones that are
easily identified. The neck is super comfy along
the entire length, and the alder body is less
fatiguing to play and clearly more resonant
than the original’s swamp ash. Plugged in, that
familiar StingRay punch is there in spades. The
TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON
• Sunburst alder body
• Maple neck
PROS
Classic tone
• Humbucker
Simple layout
• Two-band active EQ
High quality construction
• Top-load bridge
humbucker has a natural midrange push, and the
bass and treble circuits (the active preamp was,
in the ‘70s, a ground breaking addition) allow the
player to sculpt the sonic range with a good degree
of accuracy. The tone has a harmonic strength
that supports the fundamental tones brilliantly;
the fundamentals are still tight and defined, but
there’s a subsonic deal happening that, through
a great bass amp, adds a bloom to each note and
creates a deeper aural image.
THE BOTTOM LINE
If you’re after the classic thump of a P Bass, but
with little more finesse and versatility, a StingRay
is just what you need – and Old Smoothie is no
exception. The price? In the ‘70s and ‘80s, when
you could buy a three-bed brick house for $70k,
the StingRay was a premium instrument retailing
CONS
Small frets may not suit everyone
| 93
RRP: $4,895
for around $1,200 – so, by comparison, this new
and improved StingRay is a bargain. Old Smoothie
is a finely crafted instrument and there’s clearly
been a lot of love driving this project because
this is a way better instrument than the original
was. The fretwork, finish and general attention
to detail is first-rate. Tonally, Old Smoothie is
every bit the classic StingRay, but the playability
has benefitted immensely from 40 years of
production experience. The fact is, Old Smoothie
has all the tone and vibe of the original, along
with the playability and tight manufacturing
tolerances of a modern Music Man instrument.
Old Smoothie would be right at home in the hands
of the retro stylist or the modern player. And, in
another 40 years, a whole new generation will be
digging the StingRay vibe, and Old Smoothie will
still be making it happen.
CONTACT
CMC MUSIC
cmcmusic.com.au
(02) 9905 2511
94 | REVIEWS
EPIPHONEHUMMINGBIRDPRO
AN AFFORDABLE PLUG-IN VERSION OF A GIBSON CLASSIC.
BY PETER HODGSON
T
he Gibson Hummingbird square-shoulder
dreadnought, originally released in 1960, is
one of those guitars that invokes all sorts of
images and emotional resonances. Keith Richards
and Mick Jagger both used them, as did Thom
Yorke, John McLaughlin and Chris Cornell.
You can spy one in Almost Famous, where it
provides a little visual indicator of the time-
frame. They look equally at home on classic rock,
country and alternative stages, and they carry
a decently hefty price tag. Epiphone has taken
the wallet-sting out of this notoriously beautiful
model, and added some electronics to make it
more stage-friendly. Let’s take a peek.
IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM
OF FLATTERY
The Epiphone Hummingbird PRO looks very
much like the original Gibson version, with
the most noticeable difference being the
larger and more ornate Epiphone headstock
in place of the typical Gibson one, or the more
| australianguitarmag.com.au
commonly-seen ‘Gibson-like, but snipped at the
edges’ Epiphone design. It has a solid spruce
top on a select mahogany back and sides, with
a select mahogany neck which is cut to a
SlimTaper D Profile carve.
The fingerboard has 20 medium frets and a
12-inch radius, and like the Gibson version, it has
pearloid parallelogram inlays and, of course, the
classic Hummingbird pickguard. The originals
were made of tortoise shell, but this version is
made with an imitation material. The bridge
saddle is made of imitation bone, too. The
hummingbird isn’t real either, obviously, but
the tuners are real Grovers with a 14:1 turn ratio.
The electronics setup is built around a Shadow
NanoFlex pickup and ePerformer preamp, which
has controls for Master Volume, Treble and Bass,
plus a Dynamics slider and a Phase button for
helping to eliminate feedback.
HUMS LIKE A... WELL...
Firstly – and most importantly – this guitar
sounds and feels very much like a Hummingbird.
Sure, it’ll feel more like a classic one after
50-something years of throttling, but the broad
essence of a vintage model is very much there,
and it’ll only get better over the years as that
solid spruce top settles in.
That’s the magic of a solid top as opposed to
a laminate one: the more you play them, the
sweeter they sound, as the vibrations and the
natural drying of the wood work together to
create something truly special.
This guitar has the full, yet tight low end,
bright upper mids and clear highs of a classic
dreadnought, with enough personality to sound
great whether you use a pick, your fingers or
even slide. In fact, it’s a brilliant slide guitar
thanks to those upper mids and breathy highs.
SHORT AND SWEET
The plugged-in sound is very, very adaptable.
The key element seems to be that Dynamics
control, which lets you find the sweet spot for
 | 95

RRP: $699

whatever musical situation you may be in. It’ll
assist you to make individual notes ring out
clearly from within a full chord, or knit them
together more tightly for when you need to take
more of a ‘wall of sound’ type approach. And
if you’re doing a lot of Chet-style fingerpicking
work, it’ll help you to find the perfect balance of
bass, chord and melody.
Personally, I’m rarely a fan of onboard preamps
unless they bring something special to the table
in terms of flexibility, or at least capture the
guitar’s individual voice. This one doesn’t pretend
to be a multi-mic setup that reproduces all the
resonances and reverberations inside the body,
but it does provide plenty of different voices
across a wide spectrum of genres for use both
onstage or in the studio.
CUTTING THE BULK
The playability of this guitar is great, especially
if you prefer your acoustics a little more on the
‘neck feels like an electric’ side of things. It
certainly feels more like a Les Paul or SG than a
big and bulky acoustic, which is probably why
this model has been so revered by rockers who
need something playable for acoustic moments
in an evening’s set.
It should be noted though that upper-fret
access is pretty much restricted past the 15th
fret, so this isn’t necessarily the guitar to swing
for if you need those higher notes at the widdly
end of the neck. A Hummingbird with a cutaway
just wouldn’t be a Hummingbird though, after
all and this a classic guitar for the collection at
a really great price.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Ultimately, this is a really well-built guitar
that brings the key attributes of the Gibson
Hummingbird to everyone. The USA-made Gibson
model is still a nicer guitar, but something tells
me that owners of the Epiphone version will
probably bond with theirs a little quicker, since its
lower price point means you won’t be as stressed
about little nicks and bumps.
I’ve seen players buy expensive dream guitars
and then be too scared of the dang things to play
them anything but timidly. But with this guitar,
Epiphone has really created the best of both
worlds: a Hummingbird that looks and sounds
the part, but is player-friendly enough that you
won’t hold back when you’re pouring your heart
and soul into it.

TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON CONTACT

• Solid spruce top
• Parallelogram inlays
PROS CONS AUSTRALIAN MUSICAL
Versatile preamp No upper fret access. IMPORTS (AMI)
• Grover tuners
Electric guitarist-friendly neck gibsonami.com
• Shadow preamp and pickup
Look at it. LOOK AT IT!
(03) 8696 4600
• Classic looks
96 | REVIEWS
FISHMAN SA330X /SASUB/SAEXPAND
IS IT A LARGE ACOUSTIC GUITAR COMBO, OR IS IT A SMALL PA?
BY STEVE HENDERSON
R
ecently, the folks at Fishman have come up
with a string of interesting and practical
gadgets, almost all designed to deliver or
enhance as pure an acoustic sound as possible –
the exception being their fabulous Fluence series
of electric guitar pickups. The diversity of their
products – from piezo-based transducers and
magnetic/microphone hybrids, preamps and
modellers to amplification systems – means there’s
bound to be something for everyone. Artists as
diverse as Jerry Douglas, The Oak Ridge Boys, John
Oates, Steve Earle, Matchbox 20, Ben Butler, Steel
Panther, John Hyatt, Greg Koch, Lisa Loeb, John
McLaughlin, Sonny Landreth and James Taylor have
all made Fishman devices a part of their rigs.
A GREAT CATCH
Full disclosure: I am a Fishman owner. I have
owned a Loudbox Mini and an SA220 since their
respective releases, so I can attest to their great
sound and long-term usability. The Mini is 60 watts
of easily luggable tone – I don’t know why anyone
with an acoustic or electric wouldn’t want one of
| australianguitarmag.com.au
these tiny dynamos. And the SA220, especially, is a
clever and practical amplification system designed
so that the live performer has what they need at
their fingertips, but doesn’t have to be a rocket
scientist to drive it. With that in mind, a new SA
model is worthy of investigation.
The SA330x is a slightly more complex version
of the SA220. It’s still a lightweight line array
system, but it addresses the real or perceived
shortcomings of its predecessor: the power,
bottom end and channel limitations. If nothing
more, these upgrades make the system more of
a versatile set-up. As for the panel layouts, these
are very much the same as the original 220, with
the channel inputs and controls on the front and
the extra outputs and interfacing on the rear. The
330 still allows for only two channels by itself
(which we’ll talk more about later on), each with
a combination XLR/phono input, a full tone stack
and dedicated reverb and anti-feedback controls.
There are even a couple of LEDs to illuminate the
front panel, which is a nice touch.
The new power rating gives us a 50 percent
increase over the SA220, adding a bit more weight
and punch to the delivery. Six four-inch woofers
bi-amped with a one-inch neodymium tweeter
produce 330 real watts, which is plenty of juice
to fill a small to medium venue. Dispersion is
wide rather than long, so it spreads throughout
the venue and the audience hears the real thing
no matter where they are sitting. And, almost
magically, there’s no need for stage monitors:
performers hear their signal from the front-of-
house feed. You’ll love this if you’re an acoustic
player, because acoustic guitar feedback happens
when the soundboard and the stage monitors face
each other, looping the signal. With the SA system,
feedback is eliminated to an extraordinary extent.
THE REAL TEST
Tonally, the SA330 is similar to the 220 – very
defined and very accurate. If you’re a guitarist or
vocalist, the 330 does the business with a sweet,
even tone that kind of envelops you. However, if
you’re using keys or bass, the low end might be a
little thin, in which case Fishman has developed

a small, lightweight subwoofer delivering 300
watts through a switchable crossover – it also
acts as a base for the 330 to minimise the whole
system’s footprint. Together, the two units present
a beautiful, articulate and hi-fi tone with no hard
knee through the crossover point. Tested with
a Maton MSH-210D, an old Washburn F-style
mandolin, a Stingray Fretless, a Godin 5th Ave and
a variety of vocal mics, the SA system performed
faultlessly, presenting each source with a vibrant
and uncoloured realism (except when we added
some reverb – we love our reverb).
The tone is absolutely true to the each
instrument: the mandolin was bright and chirpy,
the 5th Ave was warm and dynamic, and the Maton
dreadnought was rich and woody with plenty of
low end thump. The spread is remarkable. There’s
no ‘on-axis’ edginess or ‘off-axis’ dullness until you
TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON
• 300 watts, line array
• Two- or three-way design
PROS
Great tone
• Expandable
Professional features
• Lightweight and portable
• Wide dispersion Super easy set-up
steer more than 90 degrees off axis – even then,
there’s not much tonal variation. It all makes for a
very even distribution of sound.
CHANNELLING GREATNESS
The main critique of the previous SA is the lack
of channels, and given the number of duos or
soloists with tracks, this is entirely justified. Two
SA330s can interface for four channels, but Fishman
have now created a four-channel miniature, yet
comprehensive mixer that can be fitted to the 330
for a complete six-channel, single-unit system. The
330’s optional trolley case (it ships with a simple
padded cover) even has a special pocket for the
mixer. The mixer channels each have volume, a full
tone stack, reverb control, phase and pad switches,
and phantom power. It plugs in with a single
multi-pin lead, but alternatively, any mixer can be
CONS
None
| 97
RRP: $2,999.99 (SA330x)
RRP: $1,499 (SA Sub)
RRP: $499 (SA Expand)
connected to a 330’s aux in port.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The basic system is the SA330x, which is a
self-contained two-channel, 330-watt PA ‘column’
with a padded cover and tripod. Add the mixer,
and it’s a six-channel system; add the SA Sub
to either of these options, and you’ll have some
serious wattage (630w) and great coverage; add
the sub, and you’ll have a broader range with
plenty of warm bass. It’s an easy lug, too: the
SA300x is only 12.5 kilograms (with the stand)
and the sub is just 12.4 kilos. It’s expandable – any
number of devices can be chained together as
required, which is very clever. But even by itself,
the 330 is a great unit. The SA330x/SA SUB system
is a practical, professional audio source for the
soloist, duo or small combo.
CONTACT
DYNAMIC MUSIC
dynamicmusic.com.au
(02) 9939 1299
98 | FINAL NOTE
WRITING FOR OLD WOUNDS
IT’S THE UPBEAT ALBUM OF 2017, THEMATICALLY, BUT IT’S BUILT AROUND FEELING UTTERLY AWFUL.
HOW DID ROYAL BLOOD GET SO DARK!? STORY AND PHOTO BY PETER ZALUZNY
E
xhausted. Excited. Burnt out, but blown away.
After releasing their self-titled debut in 2014,
Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher’s lives went from
zero to 100 almost overnight. The duo from Brighton,
better known as Royal Blood, were being hailed as
the saviours of rock and roll. Pub gigs turned into
mega festival slots with audiences in the thousands;
it was a wild ride, and one that the guys aren’t soon
going to forget, but years of touring took their toll
on Kerr. When the chaos of LP1 was all over, the
singer/bassist went home, grabbed his instrument
and slammed it into a door. It was obliterated, but
Kerr seemed relieved.
“That was probably me saying, ‘You can’t make us
do this anymore,’” he laughs. “It was like, ‘We could
have done more gigs, but now we definitely can’t.’”
Although cathartic, a busted bass didn’t leave him
with many options. “But Fender called,” he adds. “I
had a chat with them about short scale basses, and
they had a Jaguar Squier one on hand. I really liked
it, but I also liked the pickup I was using, so they
made me, like, a posh version of the Squier short
scale. Before, I’d used these Gretschs that were £300
off the shelf, but I just couldn’t go back.”
The lesson? Smash your way to making your
dreams come true. Okay, it’s not a great lesson, but it
paid off and the Squier became his main instrument
on the new album, How Did We Get So Dark? This
time, Kerr felt confident exploring sounds outside the
riff-laden stomp rock and youthful angst wrapped
up in rumbling riffs that defined their debut. Sure,
tracks like “Lights Out” and “I Only Lie When I Love
You” still reach the deafening heights of “Figure it
Out”, but Kerr and Thatcher don’t lean on big sounds
as much as they used to. Instead, ...So Dark turns
| australianguitarmag.com.au
your attention towards its bleak subject matter.
“I experienced quite a lot of darkness making
it, but I didn’t want to write about what was
going on, because that meant addressing it,” he
says, alluding to the topics while withholding the
details. “But there was a point where I realised I
had to be honest with myself. So I got really into
the theme of things beginning as something good
and then turning into something poisonous, and
there were a lot of metaphors about the process
of dying.” And just as it starts to sound like the
most unexpectedly morbid record of 2017, Kerr
smiles and adds, “It might as well be a really
upbeat record about feeling like shit.”
Though he keeps the specifics under wraps,
you get the sense that …So Dark’s narrative is at
least partially inspired by the experience of being
in a band that blew up unexpectedly. But despite
the hard slog through a period that he refers to
as “f***ing mental”, Kerr holds the experience in
high esteem. By the end, he felt confident enough
to branch out from the core sound of their debut,
which meant mixing up the writing style and
toying with new gear.
“The way we recorded a lot of the album was
through layering things,” he explains. “I had the
bass lines, but I was changing the scene with all
the guitar tones, which meant a lot of re-amping
and adding some extra stuff – two Fender Super
Sonics, an 8x10 and a 1x15 – to the rig. There
were all of these huge sound changes and amp
configurations, but working out how to do all that
live was a bit of an afterthought.”
In other words, Royal Blood took a complicated
rig and made it even bigger. That seems about
right, but Despite Kerr’s insistence that they
weren’t considering the stage while writing, the
songs lived up to expectations laid by their debut.
The live configuration is built to shatter ceilings,
rattle ribcages and cack foundations. Even if
you’re chilling at the rear with a beer, you’ll see
ripples rolling through the cup. And boy, has ...So
Dark done their legacy proud.
He admits, however, that the gigs weren’t quite
up to scratch until recently, as he couldn’t recreate
all the sounds from the studio. Trying to wrangle the
bounty of pedals was impossible for anything short
of an octopus, which meant compromises had to be
made. But that all changed when someone showed
him the VooDoo Lab Ground Control.
“Ultimately, what it’s afforded me to do is
make some way more impressive guitar sounds
because I don’t spend half the show hitting four
pedals at the same time,” he explains. “Now I can
go into much finer details with the sounds, even
on songs from the first record. It’s like we sort of
remastered everything.”
So while Royal Blood’s rapid rise to fame and
workhorse tour that ensured may have proved
brutal at times, Kerr and Thatcher were smart
enough to treat their journey as an education of
sorts. And sure, they could have cloned their first
record for round two, but instead they made a
conscious departure from their origins, and it paid
off. That said, there are some styles that Kerr will
adamantly exclude forever. “My hate for cymbals
has grown massively over the years,” he says. “Ben
naturally plays a very hip-hop style anyway, but I’m
like, ‘Please don’t rock out on a cymbal. Just keep it
clean!’ F*** cymbals. They suck.”
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