Guitar Noize - guitar news, crazy guitar designs and cool guitar videos

Watermelon in Easter Hay (Frank Zappa ‘Joe’s Garage’)

Frank released an incredible four albums in 1979, I think! This marks a very purple patch for the genius of Frank. This is definitely my very favourite album ever made. My number one. And it has been since I first got immersed in it many years ago. Erm… it’s quite deep but basically by Watermelon Joe is pretty depressed and “imagines his last imaginary guitar solo”. Frank pulls one of the most chilling pieces you’ll ever hear out of his hat closing out the story in true style. This is just genius.

Rat Tomago (Frank Zappa ‘Sheik Yerbouti’)

Welcome to goosebump city!! This is a live solo outtake from the classic Frank tune The Torture Never Stops off the 76 album Zoot Allures. The band absolutely rock here, Bozzio really knew how to work with Frank in the solo sections and they just rip it up for 5 gloriously spellbinding minutes. There’s not a single chord change in the whole thing and yet it’s totally captivating start to finish. The album closes with Yo Mama… one of the finest chilling moments ever. I get teary eyed every time I hear that too.

Somebody Get Me a Doctor (Van Halen ‘II’)

Personally, I have grown to like this album more than the first Van Halen record. The songs are better, the band is sloppier, the egos are bigger but I dunno… it just has so much character! Spanish Fly proved Edward could fret and tap without all that high gain but for me it’s the amazing riff on Somebody Get Me a Doctor that did it. This was one riff I absolutely had to know.

Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd ‘The Wall’)

Some of you will be thinking “about time!!” for the Floyd. I liked Wish You Were Here and Animals but in terms of inspiring guitar it has to be The Wall where it hits you in the chest. The solos on Numb are just sublime… without these a whole lot of stuff would never have happened!!

Girls Got Rhythm (AC/DC ‘Highway to Hell’)

Awwww man I miss the Bon Scott DC! It’s always right on the edge… you expect the band to fall over with the excitement of it all at any moment. I couldn’t really decide which track on this album to pick so settled on this track which is always so much fun and possibly one the best rock songs ever recorded!

There we are. 1979. There were at least another 10 recordings that didn’t make it. I hope you’ll check out some of these if you’re not familiar with them. They really have been life changing for me and still inspire the hell out of me!! It’s been a joy to listen to these again to write this post.

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Apology:

OK, I admit I’ve blundered… I don’t know how but somehow I missed some of my absolute fave albums these last few weeks… I really can’t ignore these tracks so…

1977 Race With Devil On Spanish Highway (Al Di Meoly ‘Elegant Gypsy’)

Holy smoke Batman Al Di is on fire on this record!! His playing throughout the entire album is tremendous. Quite how he did it with that Les Paul and such a clean tone I’ll never quite work out. It was surely just played really, really, really loud!! The outro solo is completely magical!! Actually, anything from Al Di’s first four or five solo records is worth checking out. Malmsteen must have been going out of his mind trying to learn this stuff in 77!!

1978 Egyptian Danza (Al Di Meola ‘Casino’)

I absolutely ADORE Egyptian Danza. I warm up with this pretty much everyday. I must have driven my neighbours nuts by know. The interaction between Al Di, Anthony Jackson and Steve Gadd in the riff is just beautiful.

There… hopefully the damage done is repaired!! Al Di forgive me!!

Have a good weekend folks!!
Pauly.

The Shaman JPM Standard is a deceptive name as it suggests that there may be a custom or pro version with a higher spec, in fact it is the only guitar currently available from Shaman Guitars and the features are far from standard. The deep set neck construction of the Canadian Hard Maple neck comes with either a Rosewood or Maple fingerboard with Abalone inlays and has a 460mm double acting trust rod is installed. The mahogany body is available with either a Flame Maple or Quilted Maple top and in a variety of colour finishes: Trans Black Sunburst, Cherry Sunburst, Old Natural, Ocean Blue Sunburst, Vintage Tobacco Sunburst, Trans Purple Sunburst and Vintage 2-Tone Sunburst. The input jack is situated on the rear of the guitar using traditional Fender style hardware, not a bad idea but I wonder how comfortable that would be. Shaman Custom Locking System machineheads feature a 1/19 gear ratio for fine and smooth tuning, which eliminates the need for a locking nut that can deaden sustain and the tuners have staggered heights to eliminate the need for string trees. The Wilkinson WVS50IIK vibrato system features a steel base plate, push-in arm and ‘locked-down’ stainless steel saddle for perfect ‘return to zero’ performance coupled with the Shaman Custom Nut which ensures crystal clear tones and sustain.

The Shaman Custom Alumitone® pickups are made in the U.S.A. by Lace and are designed to provide a hotter output than traditional pickups. You may have seen back in February that I featured the Lace Helix Guitar which also featured Lace’s very cool looking Alumitone pickups and it is great to see another guitar builder using these pickups because they give the guitar a much more unique look and they sound great, just check out this video from PremierGuitar.com.

Well this is certainly one for the Crazy Guitar Designs pile, not to mention ugly, unusable and well, not real. Yes this is a 3D render rather than an actual instrument if you hadn’t already guessed and not something I imagine will be going into production anytime soon. For starters it seems to have SynthAxe style equidistant frets which unlike the SynthAxe simply won’t work, so major design flaw there. Secondly the upper fret access is non-existant due to the ridiculous horns and what about the distance between the pickups?! It is visually stunning with its Alien Vs Predator mixture of red LED lights and shiny black curves but practical it is not. But that is because this guitar was not designed by a luthier but rather an artist called Steven Almond.

I had never heard of Inky Hollow until this years LIMS show when Music Radar featured a couple of their new guitar designs. Custom graphics on guitars were all the rage back in the 80’s and are suddenly having a bit of a revival. Inky Hollow’s Tom Shepherd will actually paint just about any instrument but his guitars do really stand out. All the artworks on the guitars are commissioned therefore each individual job is slightly different and the time needed for each one isn’t really known until Tom has all the necessary information but he does have a rough price guide starting from £400 for a front only, solid colour back and sides.

Inky Hollow are based in Swansea, Wales so really this is only going to be relevant to people in the UK but if you have ever had an idea for a custom paint job on your guitar like say having Thundercats painted onto your Ibanez why not give Tom a shout!

The 22 Caliber is a versatile 22-watt guitar head that fits in the palm of your hand. Just plug it into any 4-, 8- or 16-ohm speaker, and you’ll get a big, sweet musical sound.

Crank the 22 Caliber’s volume, and it’ll go into overdrive - like a vintage amp with a single volume control. Flip on the Bright switch to add some bite and definition.

It’s not just a guitar head; it’s a shrunken head, with all good voodoo.

Interesting product from Electro-Harmonix, all you need is an overdrive pedal to add a bit more gain and you’re all set!

For more info check out the Electro Harmonix site.

Imagine two of the greatest blues guitar players in history in a room together jamming each others tracks and old blues classics. Put Albert King, one of the most influential blues guitarist/vocalists of all time and Stevie Ray Vaughan, probably THE most influential and talented blues guitarists/vocalists of all time together with a band and press record, surely you can’t fail to capture something magical. Well they did, and it is.

This album was recorded live for television on December 6, 1983, at CHCH-TV studios in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and origin ally released as an album in August 17, 1999. This album is notable as this is the only known recording of Stevie Ray Vaughan and his idol Albert King together. Initially King wasn’t going to do the show as he didn’t know who Stevie Ray Vaughan was. He didn’t realize that Stevie Ray Vaughan was actually ‘little Stevie’, the ‘skinny kid’ that he let sit in when King played in Texas.

The album opens with the classic track “Call It Stormy Monday” with Albert King’s singing solo lines, just on the edge of breakup and in this case coloured with a bit of Phaser, and unmistakeable smokey vocals. Stevie Ray seems to shy away from playing at first but begins to play some tasteful quiet licks after Albert says to him “I can’t hear you”. He certainly seems to enjoy hearing Stevie Ray play, and starts to chuckle when his guitar finally starts to cut through the band. The great thing about this album is that everything is captured so any talking, shouting, laughing between Albert and Stevie Ray comes through on the mic, you can almost smell the cigarette smoke as you are transported to an intimate blues club. You can hear a lot of Albert’s influence in Stevie’s playing but it has this extra level of energy and feel that only Stevie Ray had.

The second track is called “Old Times” and is just Albert and Stevie Ray reminiscing about when they first met, there aren’t many recordings of Stevie Ray talking so it is really nice to have these conversations on record.
“...most guitar players, they just play fast and don’t concentrate on no soul, but you got ‘em both.” - Albert to Stevie Ray.

The following track is the Stevie Ray Vaughan classic “Pride and Joy” and I never tire of hearing this song especially when you have Albert King playing fills throughout. Albert’s tone is great he sounds like he is really cranking his amp and the humbuckers are pushing the tubes into overdrive.

“Ask Me No Questions” is apparently an old tune by BB King, I know that because Albert introduces it on the record as he is asking Stevie Ray if he heard it, he says he recorded it in San Francisco ‘83. Stevie just jams along as if he had written it. Is that a bit of delay on Stevie Ray’s solo? You don’t hear that very often, it is pretty subtle but gives the sound a great depth. Great interplay between the two blues legends at the end of this track and they end laughing and shouting.

“Pep Talk” this is Albert giving Stevie Ray some advice on life and his career, “...you’re already pretty good… but er, you’re gonna be better and I’m gonna be watching ya.”

“Blues At Sunrise” was a track Albert recorded with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, if ever there was anyone who could sit in for the late great Jimi it would be the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan. In my opinion he is the only person to come close to Jimi and after Albert reminds him he has to play Jimi’s parts he launches into some signature Hendrix riff’s coloured with a little SRV magic which has Albert laughing in awe. Albert also tells a story about Jimi and Janis during the middle of the song like he is explaining to Stevie how this song came about before asking Stevie to play. This song is the longest on the album at 15 minutes and has a similar vibe to Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile, amazing. Albert even breaks a string during the recording and this leads into the next track “Turn It Over” where Albert talks to Stevie Ray about how he hasn’t been maintaining his strings because after 28 years he wants to slow down and hand over to Stevie. There are some great candid moments of conversation on this CD.

“Overall Junction” is a blues shuffle that is a classic stomping blues jam, no vocals just Albert & Stevie Ray trading licks and it is 8 minutes of classic blues playing mistakes, feedback and all!

“Who is Stevie?” this is another conversation between Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, “I like this being here with you… we used to call you little Stevie.” Albert chuckles before launching into the final track “Don’t Lie To Me” once again with Stevie trading licks with Albert over a fast 12 bar blues and pounding Hammond Organ. Much as I like Stevie Ray Vaughan’s vocals Albert King’s was to blues singing what Stevie was to guitar playing, he just had that extra bit of magic in his vocal chords.

On June 30, 2009, the legendary Stax Records label will reissue the digitally remastered version of In Session – the Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan 1983 live album that reached #1 on Billboard’s blues album chart, selling more than 300,000 units. The reissue includes three sets of liner notes by Fantasy and Stax Records’ Bill Belmont, and journalists Lee Hildebrand and Dan Forte.

We are now only 3 riffs from the end of this competition including this one so I have been gradually turning up the heat with the difficulty, but it seems I may have turned it up a little too high a little too quickly! I’ve surprised just how little correct answers I’ve had over the last 2 weeks. This week is easier if you are not a shred-geek so I will have to see if I will be monitoring the answers with interest. Don’t expect the next couple of weeks to be easy though, this is a competition after all! Good luck and here is a quick reminder of the prize pack:

Download the tab for this riff here.

The Ibanez Darkstone is currently being advertised on the Ibanez UK site and aside from the name which is a little to close to Gibson’s Dark Fire for my liking it is quite a departure from their usual pointy headstocked shred machines we know and love, well I do. The Darkstone is better known as the DN500 and shares some of the styling of the FR1620, a Telecaster inspired guitar featuring Ibanez’s Tight-End bridge. The DN500 however features a Tight-Tune Bridge and Tailpiece designed to lock down securely and prevent any kind of wobble or movement. Each saddle is locked into the base plate, and the bridge is anchored by stud bolts into the body of the guitar. Furthermore, the studs are also locked onto the base plate so that the maximum vibration from the string is transferred to the body. Ibanez say that the guitar features a solid, rich and resonant heavy tone due to the Sapele body and set neck. The tone pot doubles as a coil split switch when pulled into the up position to increase the tonal variations from the 3 way selector.

Personally I prefer the FR1620 to the DN500, it has a much classier body shape and, having played it, and incredibly thick and powerful tone and a great Wizard Maple neck with a Walnut fingerboard. The DN500 has a strange cutout where the rear strap button is situated which makes it look a bit BC Rich or something and I don’t really like the inlays so much, but that is just my opinion.

For more information and images check out the Ibanez Darkstone microsite

Eruption (Van Halen ‘Van Halen’)

Well. Erm. This changed everything. This was like a spaceship had landed in your front room and a being from the future. Truly astonishing and one of the few genuine defining moments in guitar.

Running With the Devil (Van Halen ‘Van Halen’)

One of the finest rock riffs ever. The power in the guitar sound is simply astonishing and peeps still argue over how he got the sound and sometimes even Eddie doesn’t seem to remember the story in detail. Edward Van Halen gets two entries this week and let’s be frank, he could have had all five.

RDNZL (Frank Zappa ‘Studio Tan’)

This is definitely one of my favourite albums. Frank’s genius is everywhere here. From the absolutely phenomenal ‘The Adventures of Greggary Peccary’ to RDNZL Frank shows us just how wonderful music should be. The guitar solo on RDNZL has influenced me in almost everything I’ve done ever since I heard it. Wild, totally out of control and yet gorgeous.

Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits ‘Dire Straits’)

Whether you like Dire Straits or not there’s no denying that Mark Knopfler can play a little. It’s hard to imagine now just how different he was to the rest of the guitarists in the world at that time. He was a breath of fresh air. If only he hadn’t worn that headband…

Sin City (AC/DC ‘Powerage’)

Goddamn this song grooves. This is an overlooked album in the AC/DC catalog and that’s a shame coz it really is a great album. Not their best admittedly but there’s some gorgeous tracks on there and the Young brothers really know how to riff it up.

A bit late for the “weekend” this week… I felt I should honour the MJ post that was up over the weekend. Love or hate Michael Jackson he’s scribbled all over the pop world in permanent ink and we won’t be rubbing the mark he made out any time soon that’s for sure.

P.

Every musician wants to pay tribute to Michael Jackson at the moment including Steve Vai and Andy Timmons who performed an instrumental version of “Beat It” live at Meinl Guitar Festival on June 27th. Andy didn’t really get much of a look in which is a shame but then when you are on stage with Steve Vai I imagine you soon get used to that, unless of course you are Joe Satriani. Personally I think “Beat It” should be left well alone and this sounded kind of weird but Vai doesn’t do straight covers, that is just the way he plays.

via MusicRadar.com