Get the Feb. 09 Guitar Player
Do you subscribe to Guitar Player? I did for a long time, and then didn’t for many years. I clearly remember – as clearly as I can remember these days – an issue with a guy from The Cure on the cover. That was it for me. That was diversity for the sake of it, and poor taste in guitar-related music.
But this year (2008) I subscribed again, I believe after buying the issue with Slash on the cover (airplane fodder). Good issue. So is the latest one, with the boys from Metallica on the cover. For WoodyTone fans, I’ll put it to you this way:
Pat Travers (short but solid article)
> He likes a good guitar player for a little competition on stage.
Gary Moore feature (solid)
> Good interview, lots of good gear info. On his latest CD “Bad for You Baby,” he used a Gibson Vintage Original Spec Les Paul and a Tele with mostly Fender amps, but a Marshall DSL 2000 and a 1959 SPLX (the X for an effects loop) made appearances. He now favors 1959HWs.
** Gary is also having a signature Marshall built. “I’m going for a 100-watt head like the old 1959 Super Lead – with a spring reverb and the four inputs – but it will have a switch that links the inputs internally…. It’ll also have a half-power switch and a boost….”
Yngwie Malmsteen feature (appropriately reverent)
> Good info. He likes the narrower magnetic field of single-coil-sized pickups because they give better definition, and says there’s “no secret” to playing a scalloped fretboard.
Trevor Rabin (remember him?)
> This is more about film scoring (interesting), but it’s good to see that he hasn’t been forgotten.
Metallica (I’m not a fan, but good tone info in the article)
> Apparently on the new CD they went with an older sound that, surprisingly, has more mids. Hetfield: “I’ve grown to love the apparent volume effect of mids.”
Scotty Moore (classy, and the guy deserves to be featured once a year)
> This whole interview is worth a read and re-read and re-read. When is a book coming out on Scotty?
10 Things You Gotta Do to Play Like EVH
> Haven’t yet had the opportunity to put the lessons to the test, but the words made sense. I wish someone would pay to have one of those Neil Zlozower VH II studio photos blown up to life size. Who knows what Ed gems might be gleaned from that.
This, and more, is all from one issue – of a guitar magazine. Whoda thunk it?
Category: Edward Van Halen, Gary Moore, Les Paul, Marshall, Metallica, Pat Travers, Telecaster, Yngwie Malmsteen
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Good tip, btw there is a book by Scotty hisself called Thats Alright Elvis that covers his experiences from managing him to having his sunburst taken outa his hands for most of the 68Special to other ways he got no money or glory. I was very jazzed to see him in 01. Another axeman I was very excited to meet was porl thompson of the Cure. Turns out he did play the guitar solo on the Blood. I met him when he onthe tour where he was playing the leads on Song Remains the Same etc. for Page Plant. So I wd have to argue there is much about the Cure that merits a guitar cover, especially to hollow body fetishists. Ditto Geordie,JonCarruthers,JustinBurrows, RobinGuthrie, KevinShields , loads of English pop guys produced worthy songs And Magic ax tones but were overlooked or underprobed by guitar press, yet their influence was obvious on thousands of guitarists. Try picking up any issue of option, nme, or alt press in the 90s without finding at least five bands compared to my bloody valentine, yet loveless barely went gold. In other words more people formed a band to be like mbv than bought their disc! I jest but only slightly.