Back in September 2007 I reviewed a documentary called Strat Masters which as the title suggested focussed on Leo Fender’s Stratocaster and the players that have used them over the years. Well it doesn’t take a genius to work out what ‘Leo Fender’s Telecaster – The Original Twang’ is about, this 2 DVD documentary talks to some of the greatest guitar players in history about arguably the greatest guitar in history. Everyone from Keith Richards to G E Smith to Jeff Beck to James Burton and even pickup designing legend Seymour Duncan talk in depth about their love for this versatile guitar that has hardly changed since its inception back in the 1940’s. There are a load of live performances from players such as G E Smith, James Burton as well as never seen before footage of the Fender production line in the early 1950’s as well as tours of the current Fender facilities including interviews with Leo’s former business partner the late Don Randall. One guy who I didn’t really know much about was Redd Volkaert who features heavily in the film but he is one amazing guitar player and he plays a number of examples to show the versatility of the Telecaster. Oh and I now want a Blue-burst Telecaster with gold hardware and a birdseye Maple fretboard thanks to Jerry Donahue’s appearance and performance.

The film tracks the 60 year history of The Broadcaster / Esquire / No-Caster and Telecaster from it’s humble beginnings in the orange groves of Fullerton, to the latest production at the fabulous Fender factory and custom shop in Corona, California.

...filmed in the UK, Eastern Europe, New York and California, to interview some of the true legends of music

As well as some of the legends of yesterday there are also some of the Telecaster new blood included in this documentary such as Richie Kotzen and John 5 who not only shows his exhaustive collection of Telecasters but also demos his signature model with a few country and metal crossover licks. There is also an interview with Norman Harris of Norm’s Rare Guitars in Hollywood who shows some of the finest Teles in his collection. There is also a great interview with Fender Custom Shop master builder John Cruz who explains how the Jeff Beck reissue Telecaster which is an accurate reproduction of an incredibly worn Esquire, every detail has been copied including the pickguard wear and pickup and bridge erosion, John explains the whole process.

I can’t see how any guitar player wouldn’t find this film interesting as it is the definitive film on the the most important guitar in history, the catalyst for everything that has come since and it has renewed my G.A.S. for a Tele as if I didn’t need encouragement!

If you want to purchase this double DVD head over to http://www.stratmasters.com/.

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MI Effects (sister company to MI Amplification) are boutique effects manufacturer based in Sydney, Australia and they’re effects are popular all over the world due to their range of top quality overdrive and distortion pedals such as the Tube Zone, Crunch Box and Neo Fuzz. Now MI Effects are launching their latest pedal the MI Effects Compressor. This is probably the hardest product demo I have ever recorded because first of all I am uploading to YouTube which will add its own compression to the sound but also because this is a very versatile and beautifully transparent Compressor. You don’t necessarily notice a compressor when you hear a recording as it may be used as a subtle enhancement to make your guitar more punchy, the MI Compressor certainly did a great job of making my Black Pearl amp sound a lot tighter especially overdriven.

I have recorded a few examples using the compressor’s built in Noise Gate, something I have personally never seen on a Compressor before and a really great idea as Compressor’s amplify any background noise along with your guitar signal so if you are using a distortion pedal you could place this after it in the chain and use it to control your noise as well as tighten up your tone.

Compressors are really great for chicken pickin’ leads and articulated chords on clean but I also really liked how much character the MI Compressor added to my tone when I had the amp set to overdriven, basically what you are hearing is my Genz Benz Black Pearl 30 combo with the Volume and Boost up full, the EQ voicing set to natural, treble, middle and Bass set to 12 O’Clock and Top set to 1 O’clock. This setting creates a nice crunchy overdrive but it’s a bit flubby so the MI Compressor tightened it up nicely as if I had the master volume pushed up to half way rather than a quarter.

If you are looking for a Compressor that is transparent, versatile and includes features you don’t find on other Compressors like the Noise Gate and ability to run at 25v then check out the MI Effects Compressor. Head over to the MI Effects Dealers section to find out where you can go and give the pedal a test drive.

MI Effects website.

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I still find it hard to believe this is only Paul’s 3rd fully instrumental guitar album considering how long Paul has been around and I’m sure I read somewhere after “Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar” that he wouldn’t make another instrumental, luckily for Paul Gilbert fans this was either false information or he changed his mind because ‘Fuzz Universe’ is brilliant.

Fuzz Universe is quite different to ‘Get Out Of My Yard’ & ‘Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar’ and it took me a couple of listens to really appreciate it. The opening track ‘Fuzz Universe’ is what I consider “typical” Paul Gilbert, it has his signature arpeggiated and fast alternate picked licks that despite being terrifyingly difficult to play are also melodic and catchy. The rhythm has a bit of an 80’s rock feel to it, a bit of flashback to Racer X. Most of the tracks including ‘Fuzz Universe’ and the following track ‘Olympic’ have a live sound due to Paul playing a single guitar track throughout so he alternates between the rhythm and melody/solo parts. Paul uses a lot of effects on this album and pulls out the Octave pedal for this track which sounds really nice with his already crunchy tones coming from an array of Ibanez Fireman models, he recently told Premier Guitar magazine they are loaded with DiMarzio hum-cancelling single-coils - “I used them for most of the album… I’m not sure what they are called yet, but they sound killer”.

‘Count Juan Chutrifo’ has that 70’s funk rock feel similar to Bronx 1971 from ‘Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar’ including Hammond Organ and a subtle Wah on the guitar throughout.

Paul is a fan of arranging classical music for electric guitar with ‘Haydn Symphony No. 88 Finale’ on ‘Get Out Of My Yard’ and on ‘Fuzz Universe’ he arranges a ‘Bach Partita in Dm’. I’m not personally much of a fan of distorted guitars playing actual classical music and always skip the Haydn track on GOOMY but this Bach Partita is pretty good.

‘Blue Orpheus’ is a cover of a crazy Todd Rundgren song (check the original here) and Paul recreates the vocal harmony intro with layered guitars that actually end up sounding like the intro to a Queen song! This track had me scratching my head for ages until I read that it was an old Todd Rundgren track in Paul’s Premier Guitar interview, I couldn’t work out where this was coming from. The melodies are certainly nothing I would normally associate with Paul and it has this kind of cheesy yet infectious rhythm guitar part and a lead tone that is straight out of an 80’s film like Rocky (you know the bit in Rocky IV where he is driving at night in his Lamborghini). It also has a guitar rhythm track similar to ‘The Echo Song’ from GOOMY which works really well as an accompaniment.

‘Will My Screen Door Stop Neptune’ is my favourite track on the album at the moment, again the intro chords are not what I would normally associate with Paul Gilbert but apparently they are inspired by The Beatles. Wonderful funky crunchy tones on this track with a halftime drum track that gives the guitar plenty of room to breath and the solo is crazy, insanely fluid and apparently it was the first take?!

I’m not sure where the influence for ‘Propeller’ came from but it is definitely leaning toward the jazzy side of Paul Gilbert, the Octave pedal (Whammy maybe?) creates a unique whistling melody tone and there is a nice Hammond Organ solo followed by a Bass solo and it is another track with a single guitar throughout which gives it a live feel even though it is obviously not a single take as each guitar has a different tone.

‘Don’t Rain on My Firewood’ is another funky track with plenty of Wah throughout! Think ‘Rusty Boat’ or ‘Bultaco Saturno’ but with more Wah.

‘Plastic Dracula’ is another typical Paul Gilbert style track with the 80’s influenced riffs but with Paul’s unique stamp on it and maybe a bit of Hendrix thrown the mix too.

‘Blowtorch’ is a pretty cool track with a tricky sounding open string pull off main riff and a great breakdown that builds back up slowly for over 2 minutes and in doing so actually becomes the majority of the track which I thought was interesting.

‘Mantra The Lawn’ is probably my least favourite track on the album, I don’t really like the melody. I do like the breakdown in the middle mind you as it has a kind of Hendrixy vibe.

The final track ‘Batter Up’ is like a Beach Boys kind of Surf style track and Paul says in the PG interview that he wants to play the drums for this track live and teach his drummer the guitar parts so that he can do the drum solos! I’d like to see that.

On the whole, and it seems to ridiculous to say this about someone held in such high esteem as Paul Gilbert, this album sounds more mature both in terms of tone and composition… well, definitely in terms of tone, I’d say this album has some of Paul’s best guitar sounds to date steering away from the fizzy thin distortion of ‘Get Out Of My Yard’ (I still love the album, just not a massive fan of the guitar tone). If you liked ‘Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar’ you are going to love ‘Fuzz Universe’.

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