Guitar Noize

Jonas Tamas - Sharp Guitar From a Flat Planet

2009-07-09T22:58:07Z

Jonas Tamas is very talented guitarist from Hungary and “Sharp Guitars from a Flat Planet” is his debut instrumental release. Jonas’ influences are obviously trenched in metal and instrumental rock guitar. His fast Satriani-esque legato phrases fuse into fast picking sections reminiscent of John Petrucci and Yngwie Malmsteen but Jonas has much more to offer than speedy playing and flashy tapping, Jonas has a some great melodic ideas too. Below is a summary of some of the tracks from the album:

The opening track “Zenith” has an interesting intro riff that uses some interesting polyrhythms with 2 virtual bars of 7/8 followed by 4 16th notes to make up the rest of the backing track 4/4 driving rhythm. This track really sets the scene for the album with good melodies and tight rhythm playing.

“Golden” in Jonas’ own words is a tribute to neoclassical players of the 80’s such as Yngwie, Tony Macalpine. I thought it was like a modern take on Jason Becker Perpetual Burn era especially the harmonized arpeggio melodies, although the chugging rhythms are a lot heavier. The breakdown in the middle of the track shows a more bluesy/fusiony phrasing side to Jonas which is a nice contrast to the rest of the track.

There is a 7 string used on “Tight Squeeze” which gives the track a really moody feel, although the melody skips over the top with some impressively fluid tapped passages. Lots of Lydian passages which work so well in rock and metal.

“I Feel Sorry” is a nice change at the halfway point of the album with a slow tempo, piano backing and nice crunchy/clean guitars to begin with, shame these didn’t continue for the whole track I thought they suited it much better than the heavy overdriven guitar. The idea behind this track is that the guitars panned left and right are having a conversation with each other, again a nice idea which I would have liked continued for the entire track. The guitars with less gain seemed to tease a different style of playing from Jonas, more bluesy which I like a lot.

“Locrian Locusts” has some interesting melodies due to Jonas’ use of the “Lydian natural sixth” scale, a mode of the Harmonic Minor scale and the Locrian mode. Much darker sounding than some of the other tracks on the album and obviously meant to tell a story of the swarm of hungry Locusts decimating the land.

“Eloquent Look” is another track using Polyrhythms where the rhythm guitar plays a 5/4 riff against a 4/4 drum beat while the keyboards play in 3/4!? Eventually all the parts fall into the same time signature and the lead plays a tapped melody that is almost a study in tapping techniques, from tapped arpeggios, tapped bends and apparently multi-fingered tapping too. This track is another of the darker sounding tracks with a harmonic minor sound to it.

“Conversion” sounds very 80’s to me in the beginning, I think the rhythm is very George Lynch. The riff is actually more complicated than it first seems as Jonas points out it keeps shifting its modality from Lydian to Mixolydian to Aeolian and that is just the intro, this song actually has more keys than a locksmith’s workshop. It apparently meanders from E Minor to F# Phrygian, F Harmonic Minor, F# Lydian, D Minor, C Minor and Eb Minor! It is composed in a way that you really don’t notice at all though.

The only criticism I have is that the delay drenched middy solo guitar sound is used so much throughout the album that my ears got a bit tired I would liked to have had some different lead tones rather than sticking to one favourite setup. Jonas is an incredible technical master of the guitar with a progressive rock style, I imagine he would also sit well in a fusion rock setting as he has a great deal of music theory knowledge and improvisational skills. I would really like to hear Jonas playing some blues based rock as the playing in “I Feel Sorry” hint at another side to his playing yet to be explored in full, maybe I can pursuade him to record a track!

For more information check out JonasTamas.com.

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Electro-Harmonix announce the Riddle and Enigma Envelope Filter pedals

2009-07-09T00:17:49Z

You have to hand it to Electro-Harmonix not only do they create some of the most inspiring effects pedals on the planet they also produce and encourage fans to produce demos that are absolutely stunning and show you exactly what the sonic capabilities are of each product. Just check out the Riddle Envelope Filter demo above and the Enigma Envelope Filter pedal below (Bass version).

These pedals look like a lot of fun although it is probably more useful in a studio situation where you can fiddle with the knobs on playback.

For more info head over to EHX.com

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So who is this Orianthi then?

2009-07-08T22:14:51Z

You have probably heard the name Orianthi a lot recently, the reason being that the Aussie guitarist from Adelaide, South Australia had just finished an intensive rehearsal schedule of 6 days a week for the past 3 months as Michael Jackson’s latest guitarist for the ‘This Is It’ tour. Orianthi will play at Michael Jackson’s public memorial.

If you haven’t heard of Orianthi before she now lives in Los Angeles after recently being signed to Geffen and has been playing guitar since the age of six. She got her big break in 2003 when she was invited to perform onstage in Adelaide, at Memorial Drive, with Carlos Santana, and has since played with stars Steve Vai, Prince, ZZ Top and country music sensation Carrie Underwood, at the American Grammy Awards. Carlos Santana actually said “It’s not cute any more. It’s seriously ass-whooping. If I was going to pass the baton to somebody, she would be my first choice.”

Here is a video of Orianthi performing at the 2007 Crossroads Festival:

Oh and Orianthi can rock too, check out this video of her playing “Song For Steve” opening for Steve Vai at the Filmore:

Orianthi MySpace

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Guitar Noize 2nd birthday Ernie Ball giveaway winners

2009-07-07T22:54:51Z

The wait is over the contest closed on Sunday night and the winners were drawn at random using the Random.org number generator which takes a range eg. 1 to number of comments made. I have contacted the winners by replying to their comment on the original contest post and once I receive responses I will arrange for the prizes to be posted to them asap.

The winning commenters were:

1st prize winner of 20 sets of Ernie Ball guitar strings and a Powerpeg winder was Mark F.
2nd prize winner of 10 sets of Ernie Ball guitar strings and an Ernie Ball strap pack was Furtherton.
3rd prize winner of 6 sets of Ernie Ball guitar strings, a pack of Wonder Wipes and some Ernie Ball Guitar Picks was Mulyadi Robin.

Congratulations to you all hope you enjoy your Ernie Ball products and thank you for helping make Guitar Noize’s 2nd birthday so special.

Update: All prizes have now been shipped to the winners, hope you enjoy your Ernie Ball goodies!

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Win a William’son Red Bee guitar contest

2009-07-07T11:28:30Z

Muzicosphere has just launched a competition to win a William’son Red Bee guitar, all you have to do is record a video of yourself demoing a guitar / bass etc. and use the site’s contest form to submit your entry (the entry form will be up tomorrow). You have until September 6 to submit your video and the public voting will be open until September 20, a winner will then be chosen from the ten videos with the most public votes.

For more info head over to Muzicosphere.

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Name That Riff Round 1 - Riff 7

2009-07-06T21:36:39Z

This is the penultimate riff of Round 1 (Round 2 will happen later in the year in case you are wondering) and things are really heating up, last week seems to have been a major stumbling block which surprised me and I thought this week was really easy… not so sure anymore only time will tell! Good luck and here is a quick reminder of the prize pack:

Download the tab for this riff here.

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My week of Tweets 28/06/09 - 05/07/09

2009-07-05T22:25:42Z

RT @g4guitar: Are you a GUITAR TEACHER? Join our social network for teachers http://g4network.ning.com/

Forrest Lee Jr playing country through a Bugera 333XL head and 4x12 cab! http://bit.ly/nKhyh

Guitar Endorsements, the list http://bit.ly/jtoyE

RT @LearnHowGuitar: Rock School heading to Portsmouth, England - http://www.rockschools-uk.com/

Vox Night Train demo http://bit.ly/k44zv

Jennifer Batten interview tribute highlights michael jacksons role in her stardom. http://bit.ly/9gM9g

Teaser trailer of the Ozzy Osbourne movie “Wreckage Of My Past” http://www.wreckageofmypast.com/teaser.html

Joe Knaggs leaves PRS to pursue his own artistic endeavor, he was director of R&D and Private Stock http://bit.ly/2zH4o

RT @premierguitar: Parker Introduces the DF842 Adam Dutkiewicz & the DF824 Vernon Reid http://bit.ly/jLfht

Steve Jackson interviewed about his collection and shop http://su.pr/30ZrSB (@rareguitars)

Mayones/Blackhawk guitar competition results - http://su.pr/8lrnf5 I’m not even in the top 10. No surprises there then!

RT @GuitarBreak: Dave Kilminster & Guthrie Govan @ Pistoia Blues festival today… http://tinyurl.com/ly6mnl

Also appearing at Pistoia Blues festival: Kaki King, Derek Trucks, Larry Carlton, Taj Mahal & Chickenfoot! http://bit.ly/UWaHm

RT @greghoweguitar: COME AND GET IT! http://bit.ly/7KLan

RT @guitarlifestyle: Guthrie Govan playing solo acoustic: http://bit.ly/6y6P0 - holy crap!

Free eBook - Taming High Gain Distortion http://su.pr/2vHNgF

Orianthi to play at Michael Jackson memorial http://bit.ly/fILpC Santana helped her gain publicity, but this will surely make her a star.

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5 for the weekend 1979

2009-07-03T11:43:00Z

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.

…

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.

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Shaman JPM Standard

2009-07-03T05:09:34Z

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.

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Spiral Electric Guitar

2009-07-02T01:39:46Z

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.

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Inky Hollow custom painted instruments

2009-07-01T21:44:39Z

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!

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Electro-Harmonix announce the 22 Calibre Power Amp

2009-07-01T01:50:10Z

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.

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Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan In Session remastered

2009-06-30T21:30:09Z

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.

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Name That Riff Round 1 Riff 6

2009-06-29T22:07:03Z

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.

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Ibanez Darkstone

2009-06-29T18:14:10Z

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

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