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45 Articles

REMEMBERING RENBOURN

John Renbourn was one of the finest folk guitarists of his generation – and that’s saying something given that his contemporaries included acoustic luminaries such as Bert Jansch, Davey Graham and Wizz Jones. Sadly, we said goodbye to John Renbourn in 2014 – but he left behind a musical legacy that is arguably broader than some of his peers, taking in everything from laid-back JJ Cale-style ballads, such as Kokomo Blues, an echo of which you can hear in some of John Mayer’s work, to medieval influences, including arrangements of Italian manuscripts from the 15th century, which you can hear on The Lady And The Unicorn from 1970. A waft of esotericism can be heard in many of his albums, too – a searching for that ineffable magic that music…

REMEMBERING RENBOURN

John Martyn, pictured here in electric mode, remains one of Britain’s most revered songsmiths. Bullish, brilliant and, by turns, tender and fierce in his musical persona, Martyn was as mercurial as he was charismatic. For many, the high-water mark of his career was the nocturnal, beautiful Solid Air from 1973, which saw his regular foil on bass, Danny Thompson, add somnolent and atmospheric upright basslines to some of the most evocative songs ever committed to vinyl, such as Go Down Easy and the album’s title track, which was dedicated to his friend Nick Drake. As the image on this page illustrates, Martyn’s playing often straddled the border between acoustic and electric and the propulsive, ethereal sounds he created using an Echoplex tape delay, in conjunction with a magnetic DeArmond pickup…

Martin Modern Deluxe Series £3,649 to £4,349 CONTACT Martin Guitars WEB www.martinguitar.com Q&A What is it? Martin has taken four of its most popular standard acoustic models – the D-18, D-28 (£4,349, main image), 000-28 and OM-28 – and given them a high-end upgrade. The emphasis is on tone and volume enhancements made through selective use of advanced materials alongside the traditional tonewoods and heritagesteeped Martin features you’d expect. What kind of technology is onboard the new guitars – and what does it do? Martin is meticulously careful not to alienate traditional Martin fans when it introduces new design features, so all the technology that’s being debuted on the Modern Deluxe Series is very low-key and has quite traditional aims, such as improving volume. On that score, the distinctive ‘red-dot’ bridge pins are made of a…

JARGON CRUNCHING

VTS Stands for Vintage Tone System. This is a Martin-developed refinement of the wood roasting or torrefaction process that we’ve seen used on many electrics and acoustics recently. In Martin’s case, the company was looking to tweak the roasting process until it closely emulated the effect of several decades of ageing on the tonewoods used for guitar tops. In guitar tops, heavy cellulose material inside the cell structure of spruce degrades over time leaving the wood lighter, more resonant and structurally stable. Martin’s team argues that the industry-standard roasting techniques they tried proved too aggressive to mimic this accurately and refined the process until they achieved results that very closely emulated the gently beneficial effects of natural ageing. In other words, it’s intended to be a way of getting vintage tone…

ALSO OUT NOW…

PINEGROVE LEATHER STRAPS £VARIOUS There’s something really nice about slinging your favourite guitar off a high-quality, comfort-enhancing strap. You feel like a pro and sore shoulders are no longer an automatic consequence after long sessions. Pinegrove Leather makes some seriously good examples by hand in Hebden Bridge in the UK. Founder Rod Boyes, a musician himself, has been making high-end leather accessories since 2012. Prices start at £49 for the 30mm-wide GS55 strap made with 3mmthick vegetable tanned leather, with bevelled edges for comfort, adjustable with Pinegrove’s double-stud system. We also like the 60mm-wide GS61 double-padded leather strap (£55) made of oiled leather, which looks comfortable enough to hang a 70s Les Paul off without undue strain! Fancy two-tone and buckled designs are also available for a bit more gelt, as well…

LOWERING THE TONE

I’ll quite possibly get thrown out of the Acoustic Guitar Magic Circle for telling everyone this, but sometimes you see something on another player’s pedalboard that doesn’t really make sense… until you see the way in which they use it. Let’s set the scene: you’re a solo acoustic player, up there all alone endeavouring to put across the fullest possible sound without a band to help out. In my case, the thing I thought was lacking was bass. Sure, I could tune my Fylde Falstaff down for a little more bottom-end – and I’ve tuned the bass string down to a B before now – but there’s only so far you can go on any acoustic before both tuning and intonation become a little wayward, to say the least. A chance…

LOWERING THE TONE

ACOUSTIC GUITARS

TAYLOR 714CE V-CLASS £3,359 As the best chefs will tell you, changing a classic recipe is taking a major risk, but that’s exactly what the acoustic gourmets at Taylor have done. X-bracing has been the norm on steel-string acoustics since the Martin company popularised its use in the early 20th century. Taylor’s Andy Powers took the bold step of developing V-bracing (explored in greater depth on p80), claiming improved sustain, balance and even intonation. We A/B’d the 714ce with an X-braced version and were impressed. It doesn’t invalidate X-braced guitars but offers a visionary alternative. www.taylorguitars.com MARTIN REIMAGINED OM-28 £2,899 This year’s reimagining of the legendary OM-28 marked a new chapter in the company’s history. The brief Chris Martin gave to his designers was to bring the company’s best-loved designs up to date while…

ACOUSTIC GUITARS

TAYLOR 714CE V-CLASS £3,359 When major contemporary acoustic guitar company Taylor changes the way it makes its guitars, we have to sit up and take notice. The Taylor V-Class bracing was introduced on some high-end limited models at the start of this year, and as the year has progressed it’s been implemented from its Grand Auditorium guitars down to the 300 Series. The design, conceived by master designer Andy Powers, is on one hand remarkably simple – it uses two slightly ‘V’ longitudinal main braces instead of the time-honoured ‘X’ employed by the majority of steel-string companies for a considerable number of years. Yet, conversely, it offers more volume, sustain and improved intonation. While many small-shop luthiers have experimented with different bracing systems, for Taylor to change the way it makes its…

Remembering JOHN RENBOURN 1944 – 2015

After touring in the south west of England in the early 1960s, John Renbourn first came to prominence when he formed a duo with Bert Jansch, riding the wave of the great English folk revival, but blazing a trail for what became known as ‘folk baroque’. The pair’s intricate and exacting instrumentals already had a flavour with Renbourn’s interest in medieval music, something he had come into contact with whilst studying classical guitar at school. Jansch and Renbourn went on to form the band Pentangle with vocalist Jacqui McShee, fiddler Sue Draheim, bass player Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox. The band’s unique blend of influences, which included blues, traditional folk with the occasional foray into pop, reached American ears, leading to appearances at the Newport Folk Festival and Carnegie…

Remembering JOHN RENBOURN 1944 – 2015

LORD OF ALL HOPEFULNESS

This is a tune that appears within the folk canon in many different guises – and names. Despite its title being that of a hymn that dates back to the 1930s with words by Jan Struther – which was heard recently at the royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May last year – the tune itself is based upon a traditional Irish song entitled Slane. It crops up in a slightly different form in Martin Simpson’s version of The Lakes Of Champlain from his album Prodigal Son. An alternative title is At The Break Of Day and features on Renbourn’s 1998 album, Traveller’s Prayer. A recording of Renbourn playing the tune live in concert as a duet with Clive Carroll in 2001 is present on a compilation…

LORD OF ALL HOPEFULNESS

Home tuition “We had a family guitar that hung in the kitchen that belonged to everybody. My father played it. He was born in Mexico and he and I used to play Spanish songs – that’s how I started playing guitar, when I was about nine. My mother [composer Ruth Crawford Seeger] didn’t play any other instruments than the piano. She wanted to play the guitar but didn’t have the mind for it. My brother, Mike [Seeger], was another influence on my upbringing; he was a more skilled guitar player and we both learned fingerpicking. “The guitar just hung on the kitchen wall and you took it down whenever you wanted to play it. I came into the kitchen one day – I would’ve been about 15 – and [Elizabeth Cotten] was…

LONNIE JOHNSON & EDDIE LANG

Originally published May 2012 On 17 November 1928 two young guitarists entered a studio to wax a series of duets that introduced a new style of guitar playing – trading licks that jazz, blues, pop and rock guitarists still rely on today. On paper, Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang couldn’t have been more different, but they had an almost telepathic bond when they played guitar together. This is the story of how two men from opposite ends of America – and opposite sides of the colour barrier – collaborated to record blazingly inventive guitar that’s influenced everyone from Django Reinhardt to Steve Vai. All-Round Genius Lonnie Johnson was born on 8 February 1894 in New Orleans. Lonnie was one of 13 children and music was the family business. His father was a professional…

LONNIE JOHNSON & EDDIE LANG

Eddie Lang’s first professional guitar was a Gibson L-4. Introduced in 1911 and advertised as a ‘Grand Concert size’ model, the L-4 was an archtop acoustic with a trapeze tailpiece and 20 frets that was developed as the demand for louder guitars increased. Bands were getting bigger and the modern harmonies being introduced in jazz were more sonically pleasing on the guitar than on the banjo. Microphone technology developed rapidly in the 1920s and new recording techniques meant that the sound of the guitar could be recorded faithfully. This led to an explosion of innovations in guitar design, led by Gibson. Lang graduated to a custom-built Gibson L-5 in 1929, which he played until his death in 1933. The L-5, first issued in 1922, was the first guitar to feature…

Lonnie Johnson’s choice of guitars was more diverse than Eddie Lang’s. Photographic records show him playing variety of Martin acoustics over the years, such as the 00-21 and 00-18 models. Lonnie also used a Gibson SJ100 on occasion. Introduced in the late 1930s, it had a large ‘super-jumbo’ body quite different to the small Martins. Lonnie may have moved to this guitar when he began playing larger auditoriums to which the big-voiced Gibson was more suited. Most intriguing of his acoustics is a mysterious 12-string that he supposedly had custom-built in Mexico sometime in the mid-1920s. This is the guitar that features on the duets with Lang. Johnson’s preference was to have only the top three strings doubled, with the low D, A and E in a normal single-string configuration.…

The mighty figures of Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian tower over the early history of lead guitar, but there was an important chapter before all that. Eddie Lang and Lonnie Johnson’s work together was inspiring, and their dazzling playing appeared on dozens of tunes. Johnson’s 12-string contrasts with Lang’s Gibson L-5 archtop, and both share rhythm and lead duties. The very presence of black and white musicians on the same records was itself revolutionary. Tragically, Lang died during a tonsillectomy operation in 1933, at the age of only 30. Having embarked on major work with Bing Crosby, we can only guess what heights his career might have reached. Lonnie Johnson moved to Chicago and continued to record and perform regularly until his death in 1970. Though brief, their partnership remains an…

DJANGO REINHARDT

Originally published May 2012 If you’ve figured out how Django Reinhardt played with such breathtaking dexterity and spirit then do let us know. Because exactly how he managed, with a badly injured left hand, to play such mind-boggling lead lines is still the subject of debate. More thrilling even than Django’s technique, though, was his spirit of invention. This is the story of how he managed to face prejudice, injury, and even Nazi persecution to emerge as one of the most awe-inspiring guitarists of all time. A Genius Is Born Django was born into the Manouche tribe of Romanies on 23 January 1910 in the town of Liberchies in Belgium. Reinhardt’s parents were jacks-of-alltrades who did whatever was necessary to bring a few centimes into the family home – a horse-drawn caravan. Providing…

DJANGO REINHARDT

Django’s trademark guitar sound can only be accurately reproduced on a Selmer-Maccaferri style guitar. These were designed in the early 30s by Mario Maccaferri, an Italian luthier who sought to increase acoustic volume through innovation. The guitars were marketed by Selmer and original models came with an internal ‘sound chamber’ to enhance projection. There were two soundhole designs: the grand bouche or D-hole, and the petit bouche or oval hole (which is what Django favoured most). Very few of the original guitars have survived and today fetch astronomical sums. Django’s own Selmer, serial number 503, is on display at the Museum Of Music in Paris.…

A common reaction when hearing Django for the first time is: “I don’t hear any problem with his hands!” Despite suffering partial paralysis in his fingers, he really did seem to be able to play with more melodic fluency than most players with double the number of fully operational fretting digits. With the usual box patterns now out of reach, he had to find new routes across the fretboard. His fairly restricted use of chords certainly developed in this way, only using his damaged fingers (if at all) on the upper strings. Without resorting to drastic measures (a stout rubber band will suffice), it’s an interesting experiment to immobilise the third and fourth fingers on your fretting hand. You now have to play scales along the strings rather than across them.…

TAYLOR BUILDER’S EDITION 717E & 517E GRAND PACIFIC £3,539 & £3,359

CONTACT Taylor Guitars PHONE +31 (0) 206676030 WEB www.taylorguitars.com What We Want To Know 1 So, it’s another dreadnought, then? You can read our interview with Taylor’s master guitar designer, Andy Powers (see p106), to find out his thoughts on that, but, yes, in all but its name this is a new Taylor “round-shoulder dreadnought” design called the Grand Pacific. 2 But doesn’t Taylor already have a dreadnought? Yes, but aside from the entry-level 110, it’s now a discontinued model. 3 So, are these just more high-end guitars we can’t afford? Our two Builder’s Edition models are serious investments, but Taylor has also launched the standard 317 and 317e at ?1,919 and ?2,099 respectively with sapele back and sides, and Sitka spruce top. No doubt more standard models will follow during the year. As far as Taylor’s V-Class…

TAYLOR BUILDER’S EDITION 717E & 517E GRAND PACIFIC £3,539 & £3,359

At this price point, you’re probably going to be looking over Martin’s fence first when making a purchasing decision, with the redoubtable D-28 reimagined at around £2.4k or the D-18 at £2.6k being the main challengers. Collings’ D2H puts another grand on the price tag at £4.3k with the option of an Adirondack top at £4.8k. Yamaha’s prestige dreadnoughts are worthy of note here, such as the LL26 ARE at just over £3k, and Takamine’s Pro Series 7 range (prices vary) is definitely worth checking out, too. You could even swerve into the handbuilt world with an Atkin Essential dreadnought at £2.6k or a D37 at £2.8k, and Roger Bucknall at Fylde Guitars in Penrith will build you a dreadnought-sized Falstaff for £3.6k. The field is wide open, just bring your ears!…

Originally published April 2019 The last time Taylor invited us to the US to preview a top-secret new product, it ended up being the company’s groundbreaking V-Class bracing. So when we joined other select members of the world’s guitar press in Nashville in late September last year for another special event, we knew it was going to be something exceptional. Like its guitars, Taylor doesn’t do half measure when it comes to unveiling its new designs. And, as we found out, the choice of Nashville was significant. Taylor introduced the Grand Pacific to us through a thoughtfully planned day in Music City that was far removed from any kind of corporate-feeling presentation and all about conveying the musicality of these instruments. It ended with us interviewing its designer, Andy Powers, back at…

Electro Magnetic

Originally published February 2019 When was the last time you went shopping for a new acoustic guitar? What was once a pleasant afternoon spent strumming down your local guitar emporium now feels more like some epic quest worthy of a Sir Walter Scott novel. You’re literally spoiled for choice these days. You can’t see the sustainable tonewood for the reclaimed mammoth bone and responsibly sourced abalone… The fact is, stamping any kind of brand identity into a new acoustic guitar isn’t easy. Most of the gear out there conforms to tried-and-trusted body formats, not least the iconic ‘dreadnought’. If you haven’t sussed it out already, that’s where the new PRS SE T50E and SE A60E models have a distinct advantage over the legions of doppelgängers. They are, well, distinctive. By incorporating some…

Electro Magnetic

Sweet ’N’ Low

Originally published March 2019 Historically speaking, if there is one thing on the average acoustic fingerstylist’s wishlist it’s extended range. Over the years they’ve tried just about everything, from simple retuning to the more elaborate prospect of investing in a monster harp guitar. Anything, in fact, that draws them closer to their main rival, the piano. The baritone guitar is another potential solution, adding additional grunt to the instrument’s bottom-end with its B E A D F# B tuning – or even lower, thanks to the extended scale length. And whereas this means adding yet another six-string to your collection, Ibanez has made you an offer that’s tough to refuse with its very affordable AE255BT. The company’s AE range covers a wide price spectrum, from just over a couple of hundred pounds…

NEW GEAR FOR 2019

1 EASTMAN DOUBLE TOP SERIES FROM £2,199 While Eastman’s electrics seem to have taken centre stage, its acoustics were actually instrumental in establishing the brand. The new Double Top Series use an innovative construction technique seen in the boutique world: “A pair of 1mmthin slices of spruce are joined with an equally thin layer of printer material called Nomex, which resembles a thin shaving of a honeycomb,” says Eastman. This top aims to create a “noticeably more resonant and responsive [sound]”. The trio of models – DT30D dreadnought, DT300 OM (both £2,199 optional pickup) and DT30GACE grand auditorium cutaway electro (£2,650, LR Baggs Anthem, pictured) – are built in the Master Luthier workshop in China. More affordable is the Adirondack spruce-topped Limited Trio: an E100SS LTD 00 in open-pore natural finish, and two…

NEW GEAR FOR 2019

A CLASS OF ITS OWN

The new V-Class-powered Grand Pacific (see review, p50) might have stolen the NAMM headlines, but Taylor’s smallest body style, the Grand Concert, has also received a V-Class makeover (in the 300, 500 and 800/Deluxe series, more to follow). Was this always part of the plan? “Absolutely,” says Andy Powers. “We do a great job in putting these instruments together, but the way we do that is to deliberately make every tool, every fixture, every clamp, method and process. Every part of every guitar needs to be designed with intention so that it can be made consistently well. That means that it takes us a little while to do something new. “Also, there are more different flavours within the GC than any other shape we make. Aside from the different tonewood pairings,…

A CLASS OF ITS OWN

Originally published February 2019 Many acoustic players worldwide will agree that the acknowledged golden era of guitar building was from the pre-war period. But the cost of these instruments is infamously prohibitive and so how does a contemporary player access those celebrated sounds of yore without breaking the bank? Enter Alister Atkin whose instruments acknowledge the building traditions of yesteryear and look, feel and sound like they could have been built more than 70 years ago. Subtle ageing processes complete the illusion and the Atkin guitars we’ve reviewed in the past have always scored highly for their classic tones and played-in, lap-friendly appeal. The workshop boasts a six-man team that combines years of hands-on building skill with up-to-date technology, which includes a CNC machine for shaping necks, a vacuum press for setting…

ANATOMY OF AN ACOUSTIC GUITAR

1 Soundboard “In very general terms, the top is the ‘speaker cone’ of the guitar,” explains Eggle. “It’s the thing that responds to the vibration of the strings and beats in and out, which starts the air moving. “When we’re selecting a top, one of the first things that we do is check the stiffness. I’m after tops that are stiff across the grain. With a weaker piece of wood, you’d have to leave it thicker to give it sufficient strength. But that extra thickness would also make it less responsive, meaning it would take longer to react to vibration from the strings. “By contrast, a stiffer, stronger piece of wood can be made into a thinner top, so the response is more immediate and dynamic. What you’re looking for is a’board that’s…

ANATOMY OF AN ACOUSTIC GUITAR

SO YOU WANT TO BUY AN ACOUSTIC?

INFORMATION IN THIS GUIDE How we chose these guitars Every guitar in this guide has been reviewed in Guitarist within the last five years and has gained a minimum of a 9/10 rating (or equivalent), achieving either a Guitarist Choice or Guitarist Gold Award. That means we feel their build quality, sound, playability and value for money are not in question at their relative price points. Scale length Scale length is important because it has a direct effect on the tension of the strings and therefore how the instrument feels to play: the longer the scale length, the higher the tension of the strings for a given pitch. There can be a tonal effect, too. Common ‘longer’ scale lengths are around 645 to 650mm (25.4 to 25.6 inches): most dreadnoughts and jumbos, for example. Common ‘shorter’…

SO YOU WANT TO BUY AN ACOUSTIC?

A WORD ON SPRUCE

SITKA SPRUCE Picea sitchensis Found in North America and Canada, this is the most common wood for tops. It offers a good mix of strength, clarity and dynamic range over a variety of styles and looks. Find it on everything from budget boxes to high-end Martins. GERMAN SPRUCE Picea abies Not to be confused with Engelmann (right), it’s also often called European spruce (as are other European spruces!), and is popular for classical guitars, violins and, increasingly, flat-top steel-strings. Similar to Adirondack, many believe. ENGELMANN SPRUCE Picea engelmanni Native to western America and Canada, this is usually an upgrade from Sitka, albeit ‘different’ rather than ‘better’. It’s lighter and less stiff; it can give a subtly richer sound than Sitka, depending on guitar. ADIRONDACK SPRUCE Picea rubens The King Of Top Woods (also called ‘red’ spruce) hails…

A WORD ON SPRUCE

FENDER CP-60S £134 Life on the road, don’t need a heavy load. A solid spruce top, mahogany body and rolled-edge rosewood fingerboard all make Fender’s parlour model a great choice for fingerstyle players who are going places. LUNA SAFARI BAMBOO £149 You don’t have to be a panda to appreciate this dinky dreadnought, which delivers a warm tone from a quirky 3/4-sized body built entirely from sustainable bamboo, while drawing the eye with moon inlays and etched soundhole design. GUILD M-240E TROUBA DOUR £447 The Troubadour tips a hat to Guild’s venerable post-war F-20 model, dealing out a tight fingerstyle-friendly voice courtesy of the solid Sitka spruce top, arched mahogany back and DeArmond Tone Boss soundhole pickup.…

Going straight through the PA live is all very well, but taking back some control of your sound and expanding your horizons is better. Boss may well have solved problems you didn’t even know you had with its VE-8 Acoustic Singer (£299) unit by putting a lot of features at your feet. For guitar, it offers reverb and chorus effects, plus a useful feature Boss call Acoustic Resonance – an effect that you dial in for more of a natural ‘acoustic’ sound for your piezo. There’s also a looper with 80 seconds of recording time for you to try out ideas when songwriting or add extra layers live (you can loop guitar and vocals independently). There’s a whole array of vocal features, too; an Enhance effect improves clarity with compression and EQ…

Let’s transduce, baby

UNDER-SADDLE PIEZO PICKUP This is a thin strip of transducing material that’s sandwiched between the bottom of your string saddle and the wood of the bridge, in the saddle slot. Where can I hear one? Pretty much any mid-price electro-acoustic guitar. SOUNDBOARD TRANSDUCERS These are small transducers, usually attached to the underside of the top or bridge. They’re often mixed with another source, piezo or soundhole. Where can I hear one? K&K Pure Mini and Yamaha ART-equipped guitars. SOUNDHOLE PICKUPS These sit across your soundhole and, in many people’s opinion, sound more ‘natural’ than undersaddle piezos or soundboard transducers. Where can I hear one? Any guitar fitted with one – they’re very easy to spot!…

Let’s transduce, baby

FENDER FA-405 £17 Give your dread a fighting chance with this budget gigbag. The rugged 400denier polyester outer layer takes moderate abuse on the chin, while the 5mm inner padding keeps your guitar scratch-free. TAYLOR WARE 61030 £80 It’s not just Taylor owners who can enjoy its gigbags. This distinctive tan case is made from water resistant 600denier nylon and it offers reassuring protection inside with high-density closed-cell foam and an inner sponge absorber. MONO M80-AD £195 This brand’s reputation for quality is well earned, and this surprisingly light hybrid shell case is a significant but worthy investment with patented Headlock to stabilise the headstock in the case during transit.…

STARTERS FOR 10 (AND A BIT)

FENDER CD-60S ALL-MA HOGAN Y £130 Fender is getting serious about value with its entrylevel Classic Design dreadnought model here; low action and a lively, defined voice makes this a welcoming start for anyone. YA MAHA FG800M.. £178 An all-matt finish gives this dreadnought more of a lived-in look with the all-rounder character we look for with projection and a good low-end presence, thumpy low mids and crisp highs. IBAN EZ AVD9……£349 The AVD9 benefits from Ibanez’s Thermo Aged process, with the Sitka spruce top given a hightemperature ‘bake’ that makes it louder and fuller across the entire frequency range.…

STARTERS FOR 10 (AND A BIT)

ACOUSTIC STRING BASICS

GAUGE & CORE Acoustic strings are usually thicker than electric strings, which means stiffer string tension. Broadly speaking,‘standard’ acoustic sets are 0.011 to 0.052 (extra light) 0.012 to 0.054 (light) and 0.013 to 0.056 (medium). There are many other variants and hybrid gauge mixes to suit different tastes. The wound strings’ steel core thickness has an effect, too: thicker core/thinner wrap gives you more volume and string tension; a thinner core/thicker wrap the opposite. MATERIALS There are two main types for acoustic wound strings: Phosphor bronze (typically 92 per copper, eight per cent tin) is the modern ‘standard’; a good all-round choice that sounds less bright than bronze when new, and maintains a more consistent tone over the strings’ lifespan than… Bronze (also called ‘brass’, 80 per cent copper, 20 per cent tin).…

L.R. BAGGS ALIGN SERIES SESSION £192 A studio-quality live sound is a footswitch away with the Session pedal, with frequency-specific compression EQ and a tone-shaping saturation control to serve up warmth and harmonics. ORANGE ACOUSTIC PRE £649 This stereo preamp/active DI gives two flexible tone-packed channels. Choose between Channel A’s warm valve circuitry and the softer analogue solid state of Channel B; or blend together. PALMER ACOUSTIC POCKET AMP £125 This scores high for flexibility, offering input options for both piezo and mag pickups, 3-band EQ tuned for acoustic instruments and a mode selector that flips your tone from vintage to modern.…

Torrefied guitar tops might be something you’ve read about already, and they’re a feature we could be hearing a lot more about in the coming years. Torrefaction is a process used by brands including Gibson, Martin, Takamine and Taylor, among others, and involves heating acoustic guitar tops at high temperatures, then super-drying them (some also bake the bracing) in controlled conditions to accelerate the ageing process. Torrefaction is the latest method designed to make instruments sound older, more mature… more vintage. The process essentially cooks the wood in a controlled way to remove the oils and resins on ‘new’ wood that would gradually disappear over years. Young tonewood tends to have more of a harder edge to its sound, but after years it can be enhanced with warmer vintage character…

ELECTRO ENHANCEMENT

TC ELECT RONIC BODYREZ – £72 This mini pedal-sized ‘acoustic pickup enhancer’ for undersaddle pickups helps to deal with plasticky piezo ‘quack’ with one control for Body; the more you dial in, the more low-end compression you get so it’s a matter of balancing that for your needs. XVIVE MIKE – £70 The Mike takes a different approach to enhancement with nine presets that seek to reproduce the room sound of a number of different acoustic model/mic combinations. So it’s a matter of finding the one best suited to your guitar with a bit of careful tweaking. BOSS AD-2 – £92 Boss might call this a preamp but there’s no traditional EQ settings in sight: instead you have the Resonance feature found on its VE-8 unit and Acoustic Stage amp with an ambience (reverb) control…

ELECTRO ENHANCEMENT

ONBOARD PREAMP Most electro-acoustic guitars are fitted with preamp circuitry. This can range from a discreet, internal preamp in the endpin socket of the guitar, through to a hulking great piece of plastic, bristling with knobs and switches in the side. OUTBOARD PREAMP If your guitar has a simple system, you might want to think about an external preamp to help shape your sound. They come in desktop, belt-clip, stompbox, multi-effects and rackmount formats, or built in to an acoustic amplifier. ACOUSTIC AMPLIFIER An acoustic amp gives you control over your sound and how you want to EQ it; it gives you a dependable onstage monitor and a good one will have a balanced XLR direct output that you can send straight the front-of-house PA.…

FENDER ACOUSTASONIC 40 £165 Fender markets the 40 as a simple ‘grab and go’ solution, but the spec sheet belies the competitive price tag. From the onboard reverb to the whizzer cone that works alongside the 6" speaker for better high-frequency response, this combo is punching above its weight. LANEY A-DUO £232 Laney’s latest value-packed combo is an 60-watter designed to be sat on, and its main controls are arranged at the side with this in mind. As well as a host of input and output features, the four EQ preset switches are useful. AER COMPACT 60 3 £795 AER’s celebrated mini-marvel is used by artists including Tommy Emmanuel (who now has his own signature version) and Martin Taylor, not to mention countless other professional players. It offers compact, powerful, twin-channel versatility and is our…

Epiphone Zenith After World War I ended just over 100 years ago on 11 November, 1918, what followed was a time of intense change as a new wave of creativity swept across the US. The Roaring Twenties saw the emergence of jazz in America and is often regarded as the first popular youth culture movement in the country’s history. Tastes were changing en masse, and during the 1920s, a new generation of cutting-edge musicians were migrating from banjo and mandolin to guitar. Jazz guitar was an even hotter trend by the beginning of the 1930s, but choices were still relatively limited for the jazz guitarist looking to buy a high-quality f-hole archtop. Indeed, Gibson hadn’t produced a new model since the L-5 in 1922. Although the Epiphone brand has been synonymous with…

Open chords are a real staple of acoustic guitar and have been put to great use on the electric by players such as Alex Lifeson, Pete Townshend and Jeff Buckley, among others. In this context, the word ‘contrasting’ refers to the combination of high fretted notes and open strings. Though there are hundreds of possibilities, here are just some to give you food for thought. The wide intervallic skips between the open and fretted strings are often a feature of chord playing when using open/altered tunings, but as these examples demonstrate, there is potential to explore before you reach for the tuners… Example 1 By virtue of the presence of the G# and B, we have here an A major 9. The low E could also be used in this instance, but…

Learning all the chordal and melodic options on the fretboard is a lifelong task, and the ‘CAGED Chord’ system is a great way of exploring the scales and chords. The premise of CAGED is that there are five chord shapes to cover all ways of playing a chord. From there, we subdivide into minor/7th/maj7th/9th and so on. As well as the different chord shapes around the fretboard, there are, of course, scales, arpeggios and patterns that can link not only harmonically with different chord voicings, but geographically in the same place on the fretboard. Here are three to get you started. Example 1 This potentially uncomfortable chord is shown here to demonstrate how, using the CAGED concept, we can create an E major chord using a C major ‘shape’. It does a…

Using alternative voicings adds colour and variety to your chords by reshuffling the order of notes. Though there are essentially just five different categories of chord shape (C, A, G, E and D), there are almost infinite possibilities in how to arrange the notes. Starting with the classical convention, the order of root, 3rd and 5th can be ‘shuffled’ to create inversions. For example, using E major, swapping the conventional voicing of E, G#, then B (R, 3, 5) in ascending order, how about 3rd, 5th, root (G#, B, E)? Or, how about putting the 5th (B) on the bottom? This gives another feel altogether. Example 1 Taking the C major chord (C, E, G) and putting the 3rd (E) on the bottom gives a grander version, great for setting up a…

As we demonstrated last time, taking conventional chords and changing the order of notes from low to high (eg, 3rd, 5th, root or 5th, root, 3rd) gives a different feel to familiar chords. But what if we expand this approach to include 7th chords, or add other alternative bass notes to give exotic hybrids or form passing bass lines underneath a chord progression when used in sequence? A conventional chord progression such as A, E, F#minor and A7 can be found in both classical and modern music. While it’s perfectly usable as is, there are some interesting variations to be found by using alternative voicings – particularly in the low register, where a small change can make a massive difference. Not all these voicings sound pleasing in isolation, but they work…

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