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VOLUME 121

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62 95

CONTENTS REGULARS
4 Giveaways 68
20 MARK SEYMOUR 8 News
What do you do when you have a rock‘n’roll legacy within a band, but you also 68 Recordings Tips
want to honour your own musical evolution and where you’re at now? If you’re
86 Subscriptions
ex-Hunters & Collectors frontman Mark Seymour, the answer is simple: you string
together one of the most intriguing live releases of 2017. 76 Gettin’ The Blues
78 Lead
24 CHRIS SHIFFLET 79 Shredded Metal
When he’s not shredding stadiums across the world as a Foo Fighter, Chris Shifflett 80 Modern Theory
is a sucker for some quality country. Emily Swanson puts on her best (worst) Southern
82 Album Reviews
accent and gives us the lowdown on the Cali strummer’s third solo rodeo.

28 NORTHLANE TESTING
Where were you when Northlane dropped their surprise new album, Mesmer? 66 Positive Grid BIAS Head 91 Seymour Duncan
On album #4, the Sydney shred kings reach a climactic summit: the hard-toed line Palladium Gain Stage
67 Steinberg UR22 mkII
between soaring prog and crushing metalcore. And we dive right in. Recording Pack 92 Ernie Ball Paradigm
Phosphor Bronze
72 Collings D1 Dreadnought
34 COVER STORY: CHUCK BERRY Acoustic Guitar 93 DV Mark Silver
Generation GEN 15
With 64 of his 90 years spent riffing out to his heart’s content, there ain’t a soul on 74 Mesa Boogie Triple
this Earth that hasn’t been swept away by the sweet sounds of Chuck Berry. Andrew Crown TC-50 Guitar 94 Epiphone Limited Ed.
P Street looks back on the life, the lineage, the controversies and the crowning Amplifier Head Brendon Small “Snow
Falcon” Outfit
moments of a man one could argue was the inventor of rock‘n’roll. 88 Fender American
Professional Stratocaster 95 Epiphone Limited Ed.
46 THE SMITH STREET BAND 89 Fender American
Professional Stratocaster
Brent Hinds Flying V
Custom
If we had a dollar for everything we understood about Wil Wagner’s mind, we’d be...
Deluxe Shawbucker 96 Audiofly AF120 In-Ear
Dirt broke. The punk poet has carved a legacy out of his heart-on-sleeve jams, and on Monitors
The Smith Street Band’s fourth album, they’re more powerful than ever. Matt Doria riffs 90 Godin Summit Classic CT
on the gear that brought More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me to life.
97 Audiofly AF240 Over-Ear
Headphones
4 | GIVEAWAYS

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GLITORIS
STRANGERS
LEWIS WATSON
21 MARK SEYMOUR
$10.99 NZ $11.90 ( NC. GST)
VOLUME 121

THE SMITH STREET BAND

9 771329 768001
NORTHLANE’S MESMERISING RETURN

#121
EDITORIAL
EDITOR Lachlan Marks
FREELANCE DESIGNER Glen Downey
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Matt Doria
COLUMNISTS
Adrian Whyte, Chris Zoupa, Jimmy Lardner-Brown,
Peter Hodgson, Reg Barber, Rob Long
CONTRIBUTORS
Andrew P. Street, Craig Carroll, Ed Lamington,
Matt Doria, Paul Southwell, Peter Hodgson,
Peter Zaluzny, Steve Henderson. Alex Wilson

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NATIONAL ADVERTISING MANAGER
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EMAIL lpreece@nextmedia.com.au ocking out on the go has never been
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Using the Transit City headphones couldn’t be
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6 | AUSTRALIAN GUITAR DIGITAL

Carlos Acoustic Guitar Amplification www.carlosjuan.eu

THIS ISSUE’S DIGITAL CONTENT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY Recognised as the world’s finest acoustic guitar amplification www.guitarheroes.com.au/carlos.htm

AUSTRALIAN GUITAR DIGITAL #121

IN EACH ISSUE, WE BRING YOU VIDEO INTERVIEWS WITH AUSTRALIAN AND INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS, SAMPLE
TRACKS, GUITAR VIDEO TUTORIALS, AND STYLE STUDIES COMPLETE WITH TABLATURE AND BACKING TRACKS.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

A VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH LOUIE SHELTON

Over the past several decades, you would have heard Louie Shelton’s
signature guitar riffs and solos on more hit records than any other session
guitarist in history. While there are too many to mention, some of his
classics include, Boz Scaggs’ “Low Down”, Lionel Richie’s “Hello”, Neil
Diamond’s “Play Me”, The Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back”, “ABC” and
“I’ll Be There”, and The Monkees’ “Last Train To Clarksville” and “Valerie”.
Some of the other artists Louie has recorded with include John Lennon,
Whitney Houston, Barbra Streisand, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, The
Carpenters, Joe Cocker, Kenny Rodgers, The Mamas & Papas, James Brown, FORM THE VAULT: A VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH
Ella Fitzgerald, and many others. JAK HOUSDEN
Not only did Louie play guitar on Seals And Crofts’ greatest hits, “Summer Jak Housden was the guitarist for The Badloves before becoming a full-
Breeze”, “Diamond Girl”, “We May Never Pass This Way Again” and “Get time guitarist for The Whitlams for the release of Torch The Moon in 2002.
Closer”, he produced their many Gold and Platinum certified albums. Some Before this release, however, he was a session guitarist on their 2000
of Louie’s other production credits include Art Garfunkle, England Dan and album, Love This City. Jak released a solo album, Mad About Disco, in 2004
John Ford Coley, Dan Seals, Cory Wells (of Three Dog Night), Jane Oliver, The through Boffin Records, which spawned his first single, “To Die For”. Jak is
Southern Sons, Mother Hubbard and Nashville Guitars. the brother of Little River Band lead guitarist Stephen Housden.

TUTORIAL VIDEOS
MASTERS OF ROCK
WITH STEVE FLACK
Steve presents a tutorial based on
the style of a “Master of Rock Guitar”.
In this issue, he presents part four
of a series covering Carlos Santana.
Included are backing tracks, tablature,
and Guitar Pro 6 files.
SLIDE GUITAR
WITH STEVE FLACK
Steve presents an ongoing series
covering slide guitar techniques. In
this issue, he presents part four of a
Rose Tattoo style study. Included is
a backing track, tablature, and
Guitar Pro 6 files.
IMPROVISING
WITH STEVE FLACK
Steve explores the secrets of
improvisation. This issue features
part four of an improv-style study of
the Gershwin/Duke tune “I Can’t Get
Started”. Included is tablature, solo and
backing tracks, and Guitar Pro 6 files.
UNPLUGGED BY
ARRANGEMENT
Steve Flack presents one of his
unaccompanied arrangements of
popular music for the guitar. This
issue features the tune “I Can’t
Tell You Why” by Eagles. Included
is tablature.

Also available are our regular columns, supporting tracks and tablature, plus artist tracks, What’s New, gear galleries and more!

| australianguitarmag.com.au
8 | FIRST CHORD
REMEMBERING
ROLAND’S FINEST
O
n April 1st, the music industry lost one of
its leading lights with the passing away
of Ikutaro Kakehashi at the age of 87.
Mr. Kakehashi was a man of many titles: engineer,
businessman, entrepreneur, visionary and, best
of all, music enthusiast. He was the founder of
Ace Tone, and then the Roland Corporation. He
partnered with Laurens Hammond to produce, in
Japan, a new series of Hammond keyboards; he
created portable, affordable drum machines that
are still used today; he developed, with Dave Smith
of Sequential Circuits, the Musical Instrument Digital
Interface (MIDI) – a groundbreaking instrument
communication system, still the gold standard
to this day; he brought to the market incredible
keyboards (for home and stage) that quickly
overcame the “American-made” bias; under the
Boss marque, he reinvented effects pedals with
design features that immediately became the
industry standard. And through it all, he was a
listener, welcoming outside input and responding
to the market accordingly.
I remember well the first time I metMr.
Kakehashi. It was in the late ‘80s at the Boulevarde
Hotel, after a trade night. He called me “Mr. Steve”
and genuinely wanted to know my opinion on his
guitar products – especially the new ME-5multi-
effectunit. I told him it was great and that I owned
| australianguitarmag.com.au
one, but that I felt the effects loop was located in the
wrong place in the signal chain.
He immediately produced a well-worn note pad
and took notes on my reasoning. He then handed me
the pad and asked me to draw the signal chain that
I had been describing. I noticed that the pad was full
of notes and ideas, with names, places and dates for
each. I’m sure others must have suggested a similar
change because, on the next series of multi-effects,
the signal chain had, in fact, been reconfigured. I
soon learned that this type of conversation was very
typical of him.
Mr.Kakehashi readily listened to the end
user, was genuinely interested in their opinions and
ideas, and was ready to respond if it made
for a better product. And while other companies
were building complex instruments for professionals,
Roland/Boss products were (and are still) built for
everyone. His products are as significant to the
development of contemporary music as Leo Fender’s
Precision Bass and Randall Smith’s Boogie amplifier.
Mr.Kakehashi believed that music is for everyone
and that his instruments should be for music makers
of all levels. My enduring memory of him will always
beof a gracious gentleman who had an immense
love for music and a youthful enthusiasm for
facilitating that love in others.
By Steve Henderson
SIMONE DOW
CURRENTLY PLAYING WITH
Voyager
USUALLY FOUND PLAYING
High-energy progressive metal with an
‘80s pop flavour.
YEARS ON THE FRETBOARD
I started my days on the classical guitar
when I was 11 through a music scholarship at
my school. Much to the dismay of my classical
guitar teacher, I fell in love with metal at the
age of 15 and became attached to my Gibson
Les Paul Standard, spending hours on end in
my bedroom playing along to my favourite
records. 21 years later, I’m still just as obsessed.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR
PLAYING STYLE?
The legato flavour of Satch mixed with the
wide vibrato of Gary Moore and a sprinkle of
Vai. I’m a sucker for a great melodic solo that
gets stuck in your head and hits you in the feels
with big bends and swimming delays.
FIRST AXE
A red Encore electric that my parents
bought me in Scotland. It became my
Frankenstein guitar that I taught myself how
to fix up and mod.
CURRENT AXE
An Ernie Ball Musicman JPX seven-stringer.
I picked it purely on specs as if I was to ever
have a signature guitar. It features an alder
body with a chambered maple top, mahogany
neck with an ebony fretboard, mahogany tone
block, DiMarzio pickups and a five-way blade
switch. It also has the extended lower horn
recess for easier access to the upper frets. It’s
an absolute dream to play.
FAVOURITE GUITARIST OF ALL TIME
My most influential guitarists have been
Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Gary Moore, so
I wouldn’t feel right without mentioning all
three. Currently, Guthrie Govan makes me cry.
CURRENT RELEASE
Our new album, Ghost Mile, is out May 12th.
Check out our latest Single “Ascension” on
YouTube, Spotify, our Facebook page or website,
iTunes, or wherever you like to check out music!
10 | FEATURE
MIRROR, MIRROR,
ON THE WALL…
MIRRORLAND ISN’T JUST STRANGERS’ FIRST ALBUM IN FIVE YEARS – IT’S A COMPLETE REINVENTION
FOR THE MELBOURNE ROCKERS. BY MATT DORIA
F
or the longest while, it looked as if Strangers
were done and dusted. Persona Non Grata –
the quintet’s promising debut album – dropped
all the way back in 2012, and while touring efforts
had remained decent-to-casual since, the sheer
notion of a second album seemed futile at best.
That was until the latter months of 2016, when it
was announced the now-quartet (having since axed
second guitarist Ben Kinsela) had signed to Sony
Music for the release of their second opus – no small
feat for any old bar band from Melbourne. Diving
into the months leading up to Mirrorland’s inception,
bassist Tristan Griffiths says a hiatus was escaped via
relocation and some legit dedication to their art.
“There were talks of breaking up,” he reveals.
“A few of the members had some personal issues
which took a toll on our output for a little while, but
we were able to get our act together in the end. We
moved from Sydney to Melbourne and kind of just
bunkered down in the rehearsal studio. We just kept
writing and writing – we wrote well over a hundred
tracks for this album – so it was a bit of a long haul
for us. It was so relieving to actually get into the
studio and start recording; it was kind of like a
reward after spending such a large amount of time
on the writing process.”
The stately breadth of their writing output can be
chalked up to a collective adamancy on teamwork.
Going as far as to insist Australian Guitar interview
at least half of the band, Strangers do everything
together – and that, of course, means there’s no one
| australianguitarmag.com.au
primary songwriter to keep their raft afloat.
“Very rarely was it just one of us writing for a
part,” Griffiths continues. “For most of the writing
process, all four of us would go into the studio and
throw ideas back and forth, and it was like that on
most days of the week for well over a year. It was
definitely a big team effort, and that’s what I think is
kind of cool about our band: no matter what anyone
does or what instrument they play, everyone is a
part of the process and everyone has a say.”
The end result is an album that power-slams the
listener with grandeur, riffs huge, vocals striking,
and every last melodic second painstakingly
perfected. It wouldn’t feel out of place in a stadium
setting, which is intentional – “We’ve always wanted
to be that sort of big, loud, goosebump-inducing
rock band,” chuckles lead guitarist Mark Barnes –
and a solid amount of that amplified gravity comes
from the band’s re-tinkered approach to how
guitars build their soundscapes.
“I’m in more of a position now where I can just
own it all,” says an enthusiastic Barnes. “In the past
– without talking shit on [Kinsela] – we couldn’t make
things overly complicated because he wouldn’t be
able to nail the parts, and we couldn’t have these
big, wild guitar lines because they don’t work with
another guitar behind them. But now that it’s just
me, I’ve got such a bigger canvas to work with.
“When I started writing with one guitar, my first
instinct was to make everything bigger – utilising
those big chords with the lead notes incorporated –
y’know, try to do the whole Oasis kind of thing,” he
continues. “And then further down the track, I would
just riff out real hard the whole time, ‘cause I had
twice as much room for it.”
Ultimately, Mirrorland strikes a forceful balance
between the chunkier shredding common to hard
rock and the melody-focused bends common to
pop – approachable enough to feel at home in those
aforementioned stadiums, but still heavy enough
to reel in the more stubborn of rock aficionados. “I
think a lot of the way I find my sound is by doing a
lot of single-string stuff,” Barnes says, “Playing with
down-tuned and really thick strings so everything is
sort of crunchy, and then using stacked fuzzes and
octave pedals and whatever else I need to get that
extra bit of bottom-end.”
As for the almighty axe itself, Barnes recorded
all of Mirrorland – sans a few overdub pieces,
played with an Ibanez Roadstar II and a Gibson Les
Paul Standard – on an American Standard Fender
Telecaster he ran into by way of fate.
“I think I just got really lucky with it,” he gushes
of his prized possession. “It just sounds good. I
bought it blind on eBay because I needed a guitar
with a single coil pickup for when we were doing
[Persona Non Grata] – I didn’t have a whole lot of
money, so when I saw this one going for $900, I
went, ‘Alright, that’ll do. That’ll cover all of our
bases.’ Most of our stuff is tuned down to B, and I
think it’s just a good bit of wood for B; it resonates
in all the right ways.”

STILL ON TOP
FRIENDS AND FAMILY PREPARE TO CELEBRATE THE LEGACY OF ROCK GIANTS CREAM. BY PAUL SOUTHWELL
B
ritish power trio Cream’s ongoing legacy
has well outlived the band’s explosive,
yet brief tenure, and will be celebrated by
their bloodlines with The Music Of Cream – a 50th
anniversary tour. The core trio consists of singer and
guitarist Will Johns [Eric Clapton’s nephew and son
of the late audio engineer Andy Johns], singer and
bassist Malcolm Bruce [son of Jack] and drummer
Kofi Baker [Son of Ginger], who will be joined by blues
guitarist Robben Rord and bassist Glenn Hughes
[Deep Purple’s Mark III line-up]. We spoke to Johns
about the impending tour.
When did Cream become an important band
for you as a musician?
I guess from when I started playing guitar at the
age of 15. One of the first CDs I had was The Cream Of
Eric Clapton, which had some Cream tunes that were
more full-on and meaty to my brain.
The legacy of Cream has a widespread impact
to this day. Would you say that the melodies
and harmonies they came up with are the
defining aspects of that power trio?
It’s a combination of the elements that those guys
brought to the table, so it was the melodies, but also
the drive and rhythmic aspects. Ginger [Baker, Cream
drummer] was time itself, so all of these elements
coming together made it as hard as diamond.
Would you say that the tensions between
Ginger and Jack [Bruce, late Cream bassist]
were somehow manifested musically?
Definitely. They had a thing of musical
competitiveness which I have witnessed first-hand
with Malcolm and Kofi, as they have that too.
They are so good at what they do that they have a
musical vocabulary; they make it fun to be a part
of this edgy rapport between them. They spark off
each other. I’d like to think that I’ve also got some
sort of spark, but those two had it handed down
from their fathers. It’s quite a crazy thing to watch,
and it definitely adds something to the mix – both
creatively and in the sound.
Did Eric Clapton mentor you on any aspects
of that experience?
Not those aspects, but I used to hang out with
Eric when I was starting to learn guitar – he
showed me some things, such as the opening riff
to “Crossroads” which took some time to master. I
can remember going back to him after I got that bit
down and asking, “What’s the next bit?” We all know
now that it’s the D7 chord change, but he didn’t
give it to me outright. He said, “You’ve got to figure
out that next bit on your own.” He wasn’t teaching
me so much as he was guiding me. My mum was
also an influence by saying, “You’ll never learn
that instrument,” so I guess something inside me
had to prove her wrong because I was going to be
dedicated to something.
Do the live recordings of Cream – and Eric’s
nuances in that playing – inform your own
playing substantially?
I’ve always had the utmost respect for Eric’s
playing, and was digging on what he was doing. It
is impossible to try to recreate anyone’s playing,
even though you can allude to parts of the musical
vocabulary. If you try to play all those licks and
mimic that feel, you lose whatever you had going on
in your own music.
For your tour setlist, do you favour referring
to the live recordings of Cream songs over
the studio versions?
Cream used the songs as a starting point, and
then somewhere within the song, the band would
break off into improvisation. We play the songs with
those same improvisational breaks, so the songs
aren’t really the same every night except for the
recognisable structural parts. People tend to like
how we do it, and we do it in an honest way instead
of being a cheap copy.
Presumably, that improvisational freedom
would lend itself to better integrating Glenn
Hughes and Robben Ford into the show?
Yes, Robben plays a Telecaster and brings an
| 11
aspect of attack to these Cream songs because
they mean a lot to him. It’s great music to play, and
I’m excited about his slightly edgy approach to the
music. I’m also looking forward to working with Glenn
because he has such an amazingly powerful voice.
Cream purists might expect you to use a
100-watt Marshall amplifier, Vox wah, fuzz
pedal and a Gibson SG guitar with Clapton’s
‘woman tone’.
[Laughs]. My main guitar is an Ernie Ball Music
Man EVH model, which was something my dad
gave to me when he working on Van Halen’s For
Unlawful Carnal Knowledge album. It has two
big humbuckers on the neck position to get close
to that ‘woman tone’, but I don’t try to recreate
that tone exactly because I feel like that wouldn’t
be honest. But what I create is leaning towards
that. I’d rather not use Marshall stacks, and on
the tour I might be using Mesa Boogies. I’m lucky
enough to be endorsed by Mad Professor pedals
from Finland, and I use their Deep Blue delay for
a larger and more psychedelic sound, apart from
the fuzz and the wah. I’ve then got the [Mooer
Ninety] Orange Phaser for the guitar break in
“Badge”.
Given that your father and his brother
separately produced and engineered some
amazing albums that included Clapton, do
you think that hugely increased your
appreciation for Cream?
That’s a complicated question really, but for
me growing up, Eric was my uncle, so he was
just a person. He used to take me fishing. Due
to family reasons, when I was young I was taken
away from the Los Angeles rock’n’roll studio scene
and brought to England for a more sheltered
upbringing, which happened to include a lot of
weekends down in the country with Patty and
Eric. I only got musical about it much, much
later. In a nutshell, it was only later in life that I
really understood how much these guys worked
together.
12 | FEATURE
THE GHOST
INSIDE
WITH ONLY A SHOESTRING BUDGET AND A HEAD FULL OF
DREAMS, MELBOURNE SONGSMITH LUKE YEOWARD
ADVENTURED THROUGH THE USA TO LAY DOWN HIS
SOUL-SEARCHING SOLO DEBUT. YEOWARD WALKS US THROUGH
THE JOURNEY THAT LED TO HIS DEFINITIVE WORK.
WORDS BY MATT DORIA. PHOTO BY MATHEW COYTE.
A
fter the demise of major label rock
outfit King Cannons, frontman Luke
Yeoward was burnt out, stung by
the industry and looked to the mainstream
rock sector with a sour eye. Blue collar jobs
would then consume the Melbourne singer-
songwriter, but after dipping his toes back in
with small-time punk band the 131’s, Yeoward
decided it was time to leave the past behind
him and embark on his most ambitious project
yet: a solo album.
“I feel like it’s something I should have
done a long time ago,” he says, “But the stars
hadn’t quite aligned in my mind yet. I felt like
I needed a flexible template that enabled me
to still make music, but also pay the bills and
hang out with my family. Venturing out and
making a solo album enables me that flexibility
because I can kind of do whatever I want,
y’know? I’m not worrying about the schedules
of four other people.”
As cohesive as Ghosts plays on wax, Yeoward
refused to lay down any solid plans for the
album, instead embracing his own fluctuating
bursts of creativity and allowing it to floruish
one song at a time as he traversed the USA.
“Most songs tend to appear out of
nowhere,” he muses. “You could be doing
anything – mowing the lawn, brushing your
teeth, or just sitting around one Sunday
afternoon and messing around with the
guitar – but I’d never deliberately set out to
make a record like this before. It’s a pretty
f***ing crazy thing to do, because everywhere
you go, you start all over again with a blank
piece of paper. You start with nothing on tape
and all of a sudden, you’ve made something.
That’s absolutely mental. And putting yourself
in different environments makes you feel
different things. The weather, the smells, the
sounds, the conversations – all of that stuff is
really important for songwriting, I think.
“I knew it was going to be a mashup of
vibes, but I didn’t really have any initial
ideas of what I wanted this album to be,” he
continues. “It’s one of those things where I
kind of just wanted to let the magic unfold in
whatever serendipitous sort of way that it’s
meant to. I guess for some people that’s quite
risky, but I always have faith in the process.”
Perhaps the only thing that remained
| australianguitarmag.com.au
consistent along Yeoward’s travels was
the decision to record in methods as raw
and unpolished as possible. Between takes
with a mile-long list of collaborators, he
would retreat to a garage studio manned by
punk-turned-reggae legend J. Bonner (The
Aggrolites), where the pair tracked the LP on
exclusively analogue equipment.
“Recording in that fashion, with that gear
and with those old school vibes… I’ve always
loved that kind of stuff,” he says. “Those were
the records that I used to listen to, and that’s
the concept that I resonate with the most – the
idea of everybody playing together and having
limitations on what you can do, forcing you
to make decisions and stick to them, y’know,
as opposed to recording in the digital realm
where you’ve got 50,000 f***ing bells and
whistles to choose from. It was like, ‘We’ve got
eight tracks and we’re going to put the drums
on two, all of the percussion on one, and the
guitars and the hand claps on the other one.’
It’s all very simple, and it shows.”
In its short 11 tracks, Ghosts dives into a
lifetime of musical inspiration and exploration.
From the smoky reggae hue of “Half Way” to
the bright rockabilly edge on “Who Can Save
Us Now?”, Yeoward taps into every weird and
wonderful corner of his artistry.
“I think it comes from years of absorbing
lots of different styles of music, and not just
listening to it but thinking about what you can
learn and take from it,” he explains. “Whether
you’re making a country song, a reggae song
or a rocksteady tune, you take all of your past
intellect and channel that into something that
incorporates everything. It’s a really simple
analogy, but I don’t like having too many things
on the pizza, y’know? Everyone knows that a
good pizza is a pizza with minimal ingredients,
and the trick is to have a few different pizzas
instead of just one with everything on it.”
Still, Yeoward wanted Ghosts to stand on its
own amongst his other projects. “When I’m in
131s mode, I’m transported back to 16-year-
old me with a f***ing foot-high mohawk and a
leather jacket,” he laughs. “I’m in that kind of
‘shit’s gonna get gnarly’ headspace, y’know?
And then what I do with my solo stuff is
everything else. It’s good to have a couple of
outlets like that.”
14 | FEATURE
BRITISH TROUBADOUR LEWIS WATSON RETURNS WITH MIDNIGHT, HIS SECOND ALBUM, AND ONE
WHICH TAKES A MUCH MORE IMMEDIATE APPROACH THAN HIS FIRST. BY PETER HODGSON
T
here seems to be two schools of thought for
recording, and they’ve been coexisting for
as long as multitrack recording has existed:
one is to use the studio as a tool – a creative
medium through which to sculpt and fine-tune
a song until it reveals more about itself than it
otherwise would – and the other is to capture the
moment as honestly as possible. But it seems like
more and more artists are choosing the latter at
the moment, despite the unprecedented choices
of the former. Lewis Watson has elected to
record as honestly as possible for his new album,
midnight, out now through Cooking Vinyl.
So you recorded the album with a live band.
Yes! It’s something that I’ve really wanted to
do. This is a great band, and I really wanted to
see what would happen after you dictate a song
to them and then let them do their thing. It’s
something that I think really enhanced not only
the recording process, but the songs themselves
as well. It’s helped them to come out a bit more
and give them more life.
What were the logistics of recording with
this method?
We did it in two-and-a-half weeks in a ‘stay-in’
studio in Warwickshire. I knew the chapters of
the album and how I wanted them to sound from
the demos, and we had played them literally
hundreds of times. It was a lot of fun and
| australianguitarmag.com.au
something I definitely wanted to do. The first
record was done over a period of years, so it was
very interesting to live in that bubble for just two
and a half weeks instead. And I think it’s a better
record for that.
So being a guitar magazine, we always like
to ask: What does the guitar mean to you?
The guitar is something that growing up, I’d
put on this pedestal: I’d always put off learning
it because I was intimidated by it; I thought I’d
never be good enough at it. When I was 16, I got
an acoustic guitar and thought, “I’ll try and learn
it but this won’t go very well.” But whenever I
picked it up, it was like I was in another world.
I’d never played a musical instrument before I
was 16, so it was like finding a brand new way
to express myself. My mates were going out
and doing whatever they wanted to do, but this
was something for me to do which stimulated
me mentally and emotionally. It was quite a big
escape when I was younger, and I think it’s quite
important to have that kind of constant. I think
the guitar has been a big part of shaping who I
am. Nowadays, it’s my best friend. It never leaves
my side, and wherever I am, I’ve always got it.
I buy really expensive cases so that wherever I
go, airports don’t break them, and I just get to
strum them and play songs I’ve written, songs I’m
writing, tunes I love... I just love it. To be able to
call it my career and my job is just great.
Do you have any particular favourites?
Yes! I’ve got a custom acoustic from the UK by
a guy named Patrick James Eggle. He came to
one of my shows in Cardiff and said, “I’d really
like to make you a guitar – is that okay?” I said it
would be an honour. So we had these meetings…
It’s a mahogany body with a rosewood neck, no
inlays, a really simple body, dovetail joint at the
headstock… It’s just a beautifully made guitar. It’s
a bit smaller than a conventional acoustic body –
it’s like a 00 Martin size, and it’s just a beautiful
guitar. The mids and lows are just insane. It’s got
an LR Baggs system in it. I’ve also got a Martin
OO-15M which is another mahogany guitar. It’s
fairly similar and is my day-to-day guitar when
I’m not at home. When I’m at home, in the studio
or on tour in the UK, I’ll use the Eggle, but
otherwise the Martin comes with me. I just prefer
mahogany acoustic guitars – although I do have
electric guitars too.
Are you much of a collector?
There was certainly a point where I wanted
one of everything. It was something I started
doing very early on and I realised I just had to
stop! The way I look at it is, will I ever need to use
that guitar? Can I make the sound I’m buying the
guitar for with another guitar and pedal setup?
I’m more likely to buy pedals than anything
else now, because I love that your sound can
completely change with the tap of a foot.
16 | FEATURE

| australianguitarmag.com.au

LEAD GUITARIST SAMANTHA BENNETT (A.K.A. “ANDREW”) FROM
CANBERRA’S RISING POLITICAL PUNK POWERHOUSE GLITORIS GIVES
AUSTRALIAN GUITAR THE HEADS UP ON HER NEW SIGNATURE GUITAR,
FOUR-PART HARMONIES AND THE RISE OF THE GLITERATI.
WORDS BY ED LAMINGTON. PHOTOS BY MARTIN OLLMAN
Y
eah, I’ve heard of them. I think I saw them
once…” That’s not something that’ll ever be
said by somebody who has witnessed the
pure rock fury of Canberra’s colourful punk quartet
Glitoris. They’re a band with a message, who know
how to command an audience’s attention on both
a visual and a sonic level. Their level of six-string
mastery has brought instrument makers to their
door and punters to the front row, as guitarist and
vocalist “Andrew” explains.
Fill us in on the background of the band – how
did you form, what was the message you
wanted to share, and how has it transformed
since its inception?
The band was originally a three-piece with Keven
007, Tony and Malcolm. Glitoris was conceived as
a one-off band for a one-off performance, but the
show sold out and there was demand for them to
keep going. After a few months, they approached
me to play the guitar. Tony always wanted a band
called Glitoris, and was outraged by the treatment
of Julia Gillard and misogyny in politics. Glitoris has
a manifesto, which is published in The Disgrace EP
and on our Facebook page. It’s all there. The message
is very simple – it’s about equality for women and
non-binary persons, for those identifying as LGBTQI,
for people of any race and for everyone. And that
comes in all guises, whether it’s equality at work, in
the music business, in pay, in household chores... We
take both a local and a global attitude towards it – we
do our best to raise awareness about the plight of
women and girls in other parts of the world where
the fight is to be educated; to give birth safely; to
not be married off at aged 12; to keep your clitoris.
We are basically here to challenge the patriarchy
and hold up a mirror to inequality. Basically, we’re
messengers. Our fanbase, The Gliterati, is like an
army. We’re here to represent them and we’ll be here
for as long as they want us.
Who inspired you to pick up the guitar, and
who continues to inspire you?
All of the stuff my dad listened to inspired me to
play guitar – the blues, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters,
BB King. Then all of the usual classic rock stuff: we’re
big Queen fans and Brian May is such an incredible,
unique guitarist. I couldn’t not be inspired by him.
Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols is just the ultimate
punk guitarist, too, and I love his sound. Poison Ivy
from The Cramps – I never get bored listening to her
sound. She’s got a unique guitar tone and her stage
presence was electric. And Crispin Gray from Queen
Adreena is one of my all time favourites – he had a
massive, yet very sharp sound and a huge distortion,
and he was a classic example of someone who always
knew when not to play, so when he did, it always
sounded like a bomb going off.
People pick my guitar heroes straight away when
I play – I wear all these influences very much on
my sleeve – so yeah, definitely guitarists like Tom
Morello, who redefined guitar sounds in the ‘90s
– the press have compared Glitoris’ sound to Rage
Against The Machine on a number of occasions. I just
love everything about his sound – the strength in
his riffs, the power of it, the effects like the cellular
phone in “Bullet” and that huge siren sound that
comes out of nowhere at the end of “Know Your
Enemy”. I love that stuff!
You’ve teamed up with Vance Guitars for
a signature model – how did that
relationship develop?
It’s been amazing. Late last year, Glitoris toured
The Disgrace EP, and after we flew from Melbourne
to Sydney, I took my guitar – a Fender Bullet – out
of the case and the pickup switch was completely
bust. I thought, “F***, is this even going to play?” I
didn’t have a spare guitar, either. It played fine, but
as soon as I got home, I took it to Rusty Vance to be
fixed. He was interested in the guitar and the band;
he came to see us live and it all went from there.
He wanted to make a guitar for me and I said, “How
about we call it The Glitterbomb?” I wanted it to be a
powerful and explosive guitar that captured my own
sound as well as the overall aesthetic of Glitoris. It’s
a very humbling experience, having an instrument
designed and made especially for you and your
sound. We worked on it for about three months.
There’s so much attention to detail in everything –
the headstock, the switches, the sharp neck cutoff at
the neck pickup (which was deliberate), the glow-in-
the-dark inserts – those are the best! I know it was
really tricky to get the Glitoris symbol into the fifth
fret, but Rusty did it somehow. I mean, how good
is it to have a glowing Glitoris on your fifth fret!?
Who wouldn’t want that!? It’s been brilliant to work
with Rusty. He’s made an exceptional guitar and I’m
deeply humbled that he made it for me.
What were the most important factors when it
came to the design, and what type of players
do you think will most benefit from getting
their hands on one of these?
The most important factor was the neck. It had to
be absolutely spot on in feel, in length, in frets – in
everything. There are so many guitars that I’ve tried
to play over the years and struggled with, purely
because I can’t get my fingers round the board, so
the neck had to be perfect. The next most important
thing was the weight. A Glitoris show is very high-
energy and my stage persona, ‘Andrew’, is pretty
maniacal and the guitar gets swung around a lot, so
it had to be light. Then it came down to the pickups.
The guitars in Glitoris are well balanced – Keven plays
a Gibson Nighthawk through a Fender Reverb and
her sound is a very rich, lower mid-range heavy and
sort of a voluptuous, full-bodied sound. My sound
is the opposite – very sharp and full of upper-mids
designed to cut through with an abrasive and very
gritty, irritating sound. It’s not at all pretty; it’s
actually a very harsh guitar sound by design. But with
my Fender Bullet, there was always a danger of it
slipping into a brittleness because of the two single
coils, so that had to be different on the Glitterbomb
– I needed way more power! So the Glitterbomb
has the Bareknuckles Painkiller humbucker on the
bridge, which sounds as nasty as you’d expect, and a
DiMarzio DP184 Chopper on the neck. I love both. The
Painkiller is nice and bright, crunchy, and retains the
abrasiveness but with more guts. The chopper is just
| 17
a classic, super fat and chunky punch in the face. I
flick between the two all the time and neither setting
encroaches on Keven’s sound, so it’s all good.
I hate that when you look in a guitar shop window,
there’s always Strats, Teles, Les Pauls and SGs,
and then in the corner, there’s always a baby pink
heart-shaped or flower-shaped guitar with shitty
strings on it made by thisonesforgirls.com – it’s the
most patronising and infuriating thing, because it
unnecessarily genders instruments and epitomises
everything that’s wrong with the music industry. Fuck
that. What’s needed is a “girls guitar” amnesty. Keven
and I would invite any girls who own one of these
monstrosities to a music store, where we’d gladly
exchange them for Glitterbombs. Then we’ll chuck all
the pastel heart and flower guitars on a bonfire and
burn them all in a prop-burning ceremony.
Can you run us through your current rig
(guitar/pedals/amps) and which items are the
most precious to your sound?
I play the Glitterbomb through a bunch of pedals.
Currently, that’s a DigiTech Whammy and Jim Dunlop
CryBaby Wah – and a Boss DS1, which I really think
is the best distortion out there. I’ve also got a Boss
Fuzz FZ-5, which I love breaking out for the trashier
stuff in our set. Then I’ve got a Crowther Audio
Hotcake and Harmonic Generator. I’m from London
originally, and loved The Datsuns – especially that
song (“Harmonic Generator”). Then, when I moved
to Australia four years ago, I realised the entire song
is about that one pedal – how good is that!? I had
to have it. Both those Crowthers are all over The
Disgrace EP and I use them throughout the set. Then
I have a Boss Digital Delay, which I break out for the
rockabilly stuff and a couple of solos.
The most precious item in my rig – aside from the
Glitterbomb – is my Marshall DSL JCM 2000, and I
have a Marshall cab with four Greenback Celestions
in it. It’s a monster; an absolute demon. I wouldn’t be
without it on stage.
What can punters expect from a live Glitoris
performance?
Glitter, loud guitars and guitar duels, swearing,
drum solos, superhero outfits and makeup, four-
part vocal harmonies, classic rock homages, and of
course, punk mayhem. It’s political, it’s punk and it’s
show business.
Any key advice for young female guitarists
getting their careers as musicians started in
2017? Also, is there anything you’d like say to
young men starting bands in 2017?
My advice to female guitarists is not to
compromise on your playing, on your sound or on
anything. Be the player you want to be and don’t be
talked into doing anything a certain way unless it
suits you. And you don’t necessarily need a female
role model in order to play any instrument. Which
guitarists do you like? Listen to them and learn.
To young men – how about being in a band with
girls? Never assume women don’t know about their
instruments. And when you perform, put a bill
together that involves a wider cross-section of our
musical society than just your male mates.
18 | FEATURE

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 | 19

TRANSLATION: DAMN SPICY ROCK’N’ROLL – WHICH SYDNEY

DUO POLISH CLUB DEAL IN RAVENOUS EXCESS. AMIDST A
NATIONAL TOUR ON THE BACK OF THEIR TOOTH-RATTLING
DEBUT ALBUM, WE CAUGHT UP WITH FRONTMAN AND
SHERATON FANBOY DAVID NOVAK.
BY MATT DORIA

R
arely does a band like Polish Club
– and even more rarely does an
album like their debut, Alright
Already – make their and its way to the
public eye. The duo rose seemingly from
nowhere via relentless touring (and
a version of my guitar – I tried it, it suck
meme-heavy social media presence)
over
a calamitous 2016, their spirited alloy
of
slick ‘50s Motown blues and blistering
underground punk earning them a
coveted spot at the top of the food chain
. I feel like I’m just f***in’ belting it out
Anyone that’s witnessed one of their
loose and livid live shows can agree
that
it’s not in the slightest undeserved,
but
given their niche sound and commerc
ial
abeyance, it is just a tad surprising.
“I’ve always told people that we’re
completely irrelevant in the music we
play,” says a blasé David Novak (guit
ar/
vocals) between drags of his cigarette.
“Think about the average person who
listens to music on their commute hom
e every single song – it just doesn’t feel…
– they’re not listening to guitar-based
music. And that’s fine! I’m not bemoani
ng
that; it’s all cyclical, y’know? We’re seein
g Club are in the midst of their biggest
DMA’s and Violent Soho doing songs
that sound tinged with ‘90s vibes, and
before that there were bands like The
Strokes and Interpol pulling elements
of rock music from 20, 30 years ago.
It
was always going to come back arou
nd
at some point, and by virtue of what
we do well, we’ve come across a kind
of
rock that is very soul- and blues-based.
I think we’re actually lucky that no-o
ne’s
really listening to that much guitar mus
ic
anymore – because of that, we stand
out.
We are so far from reinventing the whee
l and I’m able
that it’s ridiculous, but because we do
it
with conviction, people seem to like
it.”
Their setup is one of primal simplicity
:
drummer John-Henery laying waste
to skin and cymbal on one side, and
Novak yelling sweet nothings with swea
t
pouring down his face from behind a
weathered Epiphone Sheraton on the
other. No more, no less, and with a
large amount of focus always set on
that goddamn beautiful Sheraton. The
pitch black beauty has stuck with our
protagonist from day one, found its
way
onto every cut on Alright Already and
has, somehow, survived hundreds of
were later scrapped and the album was
then I usually find that happy medium
finished in Leichhardt), Rob [Cavallo,
by the end of it. Over time we’ve kind
almost-producer] had a truckload of of
gear gotten to a place where we’re at, for
and one of his guitars was a BB King lack
of a better term, autopilot. That’s not
Lucille, which is like the ‘fancy pants’ to
say we’re not present and trying reall
y
ed, hard, but we can do all of the physical
and I ended up just using my own guita
r. stuff without feeling like it’s a total
There’s something about it that I’m just
battle. And I think that’s just a matter
comfortable with. It’s not super smoo of
th having done it repeatedly over time.
and it’s not super easy to play with, It’s
but a f***ing struggle, man. It’s so much fun,
but like, I’m not playing up the whol
when I play it. e
wank of, ‘Ugh, we, like, love to swea
“The one quote about guitars I’ll t, and
it’s, like, really raw shit, ugh!’ No, I’m
always remember is from Jack White, just
super unfit [points to cigarette and
who said, ‘If you don’t feel like you’r then
e in takes another drag] and it’s a real f***i
a constant battle when you’re playing ng
tightrope that we’re walking up there
the guitar, you’re not doing it right.’ .I
And might pass out, and John might vom
I’m like, ‘F*** yeah!’ If I don’t feel like it…
Which has happened before.”
my hands are about to fall off, or like
I’m Alas, that one is another story for
going at 100 percent – even though
I’m another day.
just playing A, and then E, and then
A in
I
can’t buy into it. I can’t sell the song
.”
At the time of publication, Polish
national touring stint yet, with dozens
of
gigs lined up around the corner as well.
Alright Already is an album designed
undividedly for the stage, but in spite
of that, Novak says the shows are only
easier now because of their previousl
y
hectic schedules.
“If I plotted it out on a
graph,” he says, “I start
way too hard, and
then the slow
jams kick in
to catch my
breath, and

!
those infamously barbarous live sets.

r t y
On the reason for his undying love

Pa
of it, Novak cites the holy trinity of
guitar characteristics: “It was cheap,
it’s black, and it sounds good. It’s
got a cheap and muddy texture, too,
which I love. When we were in LA to
record the album (note: the LA sess
ions
20 | FEATURE

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 | 21

THE BEST
MARK SEYMOUR AND THE UNDERTOW RECAST
CLASSICS AND FUTURE CLASSICS IN AN INNOVATIVE
NEW LIVE RECORD. BY PETER HODGSON

W
hat do you do when you have a rock’n’roll Hunters catalog that hadn’t had that acoustic gestation.
legacy within a band – a very respectable So for The Undertow to come in around that material has
one – but you also want to honour your own been a great evolution. And the more solo records I’ve
musical evolution and where you’re at now? If you’re made, the more active we’ve become on tour and the
Mark Seymour, you take your band The Undertow into better that old material has ended up sounding. It’s worked
Melbourne’s legendary Bakehouse Studios and record live out so well in so many ways.”
to a small audience over three nights, pulling together a The decision to record at Bakehouse with an audience
record that captures your Hunters & Collectors material present was as much a practical as a creative one. It wasn’t
and later solo tracks, and recasts them in the voice of the just about the extra layer of energy projected onto a band
current touring unit. And you call it Roll Back The Stone, when you involve a crowd. “I think the main reason for
and you take it on a national tour. doing that was that it stops the band from wandering off to
“The notion of doing a best-of collection had been get a cup of tea,” Seymour laughs. “If they weren’t forced
around for a few years, but there wasn’t really any way of to stay in there and perform, we could have mic’d that
bringing it into focus,” Seymour says. “I’ve made so many room up exactly as we had and still come up with a decent
different records on so many different platforms, it would recording, but it would have taken a lot longer because
have been dragging together a whole lot of recordings musicians have a tendency to go off to the urn, or to
from different eras that really would have sounded noodle, or to tell jokes. So that was just a way of forcing us
dramatically different. That’s normally what happens to stay on message. We still ended up having little breaks
with best-ofs. But the happy coincidence is that this band every six songs or so, and it was really hard work. And
has really come into its own in the last few years, and my punters were just coming in and standing around and we
exposure around Australia has really
picked up – it’s developed a real force
of its own. So we decided to combine
those two ideas. It’s pretty much my
live set, and it just developed out of
that. Even my own stuff that’s quite
recent has changed radically since we
made those records, because we jam
a lot onstage during gigs. You develop
all of these extensions and sort of get
all ‘70s about everything!”
When Seymour initially struck out
on his own, he was performing in a
solo acoustic format. “I had to learn
how to play those songs. I didn’t
go out and try to play Hunters &
Collectors. The majority of people who
were into H&C didn’t seem to want to
accept the idea of that guy not being
in front of Hunters & Collectors. So
I had to go, ‘Right, what have I got
here?’ I just started playing songs
pretty much as I’d written them. I
didn’t try to do anything from the
22 | FEATURE

“I MAINLY WRITE
ON A MATON
808, BECAUSE
IT’S A NICE SIZE
AND I CAN WRAP
MYSELF AROUND
IT AND PUT MY
EAR ON THE
WOOD TO SING.”

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 | 23

were like, ‘Hi. We’re actually gonna play now…’ It was really
quite funny! I loved it.”
This being Australian Guitar, we would be remiss if we
didn’t talk about the coolest instrument in the world, and
what it means to Mark Seymour. “The guitar is my writing
tool. It’s really important. Writing on acoustic guitar is
really critical, and I’ve constantly got one near me. I’ve
got a few,” he laughs, clearly picturing a house full of
instruments. “I’ve flogged a few too! But I mainly write
on a Maton 808, because it’s a nice size and I can wrap
myself around it and put my ear on the wood to sing. Tone
is really important to me. All of that changes when you go
onstage, but in terms of accessing emotion, that’s really
critical to me. For electrics I’ve got a ’71 Telecaster, which
is the first Tele I ever bought. I’ve had numerous guitars
stolen, but that one Tele has never left me. There was
one time when some kid got onstage and took it and we
grabbed it back off him. So I’ve always managed to hang
onto that one. But there’s this amazing guitar shop, Sky
Music, and I wanted to get a backup for my Tele. I wanted underestimate it. My old white Telecaster is pretty heavy,
to really spoil myself when Hunters & Collectors did that and trying to find one like that took a long time.
reunion tour last year, so I got this sunburst Telecaster “I remember I discovered the world of guitar collecting
Custom and I got it set up just like the white one and after one of my guitars was stolen, and that was the first
added some Seymour Duncan pickups.” time I saw the connection between price and originality,”
“The thing about Teles is, I can hit them,” Seymour he continues. “Some of the guitars I played were really bad,
continues. “The thing with humbucker guitars is that you and they were worth thousands of dollars! I just think that
have to have a more delicate touch, I think, because they’ve if you can keep guitars in pristine condition, as long as they
got so much scale. I’ve got a Gibson ES-335, and it just gets sound good that’s all that matters. I have tone clear in my
very difficult to play a 335 and sing loud because I push mind when I’m writing. Things change so dramatically when
so much air that my hands start to clench and there’s no you’re onstage, and I treat that as a whole separate set of
delicacy in it. A Tele is much more robust, whereas with a parameters that I have to grapple with as I’m working. As
humbucker, the chord can get really big. That has its place, a performer, the thing you need to focus on is what your
but because I sing so hard, I need to keep my rhythm like a body is physically doing: what are the knowables? But the
clock. The funny thing with Teles, too, is they vary in weight acoustics I’ve got that I really like – even when they’ve got
so much. Timber is really important and I think people the feedback buster in them, they still sound good.”
24 | FEATURE

| australianguitarmag.com.au

Shi f t i n g
GEARS
WHEN IT COMES TO DONNING A COWBOY HAT AND
A SIX-STRING, THIS AIN’T CHRIS SHIFLETT’S
FIRST RODEO. BY EMILY SWANSON
T
here are few musicians whose
careers can be neatly summed
up by a Donny and Marie
Osmond song, and significantly fewer
would be able to claim a day job
shredding up festival stages as part
of rock juggernaut the Foo Fighters.
But Chris Shiflett is indeed a little bit
country and a little bit rock‘n’roll, and
he doesn’t give a damn who knows it.
Growing up in California in the
’70s and ’80s, Shiflett had a front
row seat as the music world ushered
in the dawn of the guitar hero. Ace
Frehley, Jimmy Page, Randy Rhoads,
Joe Perry… Tucked away with his
brothers’ records, Shiflett had reason
to worship them all. It wouldn’t be
until a while later that he’d come
to appreciate country music’s rich
tradition of incredible pickers, “Guys
like Don Rich from the Buckaroos
| 25
and Roy Nichols who played with
Merle Haggard,” and just how deeply
entrenched his hometown was in the
genre’s ’50s roots.
Following the release of 2013’s All
Hat And No Cattle, a sort of honky-
tonk covers collection that paid
homage to the Bakersfield biggies
(Merle Haggard, Buck Owens),
Shiflett has returned to his solo side
project – sans Dead Peasants – to
breathe new life into a well-worn
genre. On West Coast Town, the
guitarist swirls together hints of
Haggard And Owens, of the Stones
and Social Distortion – foot-tapping
numbers channelling the working
class spirit of his former idols. We
caught up with Shiflett to hear about
his Nashville-produced record,
stepping into the role of frontman,
and the Gibson that got away.
26 | FEATURE

“I THINK IT’S KIND OF

IRONIC THAT I WENT TO
NASHVILLE AND MADE A
RECORD THAT SOUNDS LIKE
CALIFORNIA”

| australianguitarmag.com.au

You’ve said it was the guitars that
initially drew you to country
music, but is it something of a
natural progression given your
Californian roots?
It’s interesting because although
that is true, [the country scene] was
not something I was aware of at the
time. And especially by the time I was
a little older and was going to shows
as a teenager, a lot of those old honky
tonks were still around – I went to see
them, but I also went to go see rock
and punk bands at places like The
Palomino and all of those cool old
clubs. I didn’t really understand the
history of it because I wasn’t aware of
it, but I guess somehow it just seeps in.
It really was a huge part of the culture
here; even if you don’t realise you’re
being exposed to something, you are.
Your latest solo effort, West Coast
Town, was released last month. Did
you find yourself pulling these songs
together over a number of years?
I had a lot of little song fragments
and song ideas kicking around for a
while, especially since the last Dead
Peasants record I made was all covers.
But like most people that write music,
I’m pretty undisciplined about it. Until
I knew I had a recording date, I just
wasn’t pushing myself to finish stuff.
When I booked the time, I went into a
writing frenzy and wrote every single
day, all day long, Monday to Friday. I
finished the ideas that I had and wrote
a whole bunch more, and that’s where
most of the stuff came from – those
few months leading up to going out to
Nashville to record. I really am deeply
proud of it; for me and for my solo
stuff, it’s head and shoulders above
any record I’ve ever made.
You got to work with producer
Dave Cobb on this one – someone
you’ve been a fan of for a while
now – and in Nashville, no less.
Could you talk us through what he
brought to the table?
He brought so much; he was really
amazing to work with. I’ve never
worked with a producer on my solo
stuff so I knew that I needed to make
a great record. I’m just such a fan
of his work that, when I met him
and interviewed him for my podcast
[Walking The Floor], I knew from that
point on that I had to work with him.
I called him out of the blue and asked
him, and luckily the stars aligned and
it worked out. His arrangement ideas…
He changed the songs – all of them, a
lot – and made them all way stronger
and better. I think it’s kind of ironic
that I went to Nashville and made a
record that sounds like California, but I
just wanted to go and work with Dave.
That’s where he is, so that’s where we
had to make the record. It was good
for me to get out of town and just not
have any distractions.
| 27
When it comes time to go out
and tour these songs, how
seamlessly do you slip into the
role of frontman?
It gets more comfortable all the time.
I was so uncomfortable with it when I
started doing Jackson United stuff – I
was just absolutely terrified. Terrified
of the sound of my voice coming over
a loud PA… Oh God, it was so horrible
[laughs]. But over time, I’ve done a lot
of acoustic solo shows because I knew
that if I could get comfortable playing
in that dynamic, then going out and
playing songs with the whole band
would be a lot more comfortable. And
it has been. I love it now. I’ve got a big
group of guys that I’ve put together to
go and do some shows with me, so
we’ll see what happens.
How’s your guitar rig shaping up
these days?
For my solo stuff, I’ve been playing
this ’63 Fender Esquire through a Vox
AC30 that has reverb on it. I love it. It’s
a great sounding amp and it’s great for
the country stuff because it’s got reverb
on it, so I can get a little bit of that
lonesome twang goin’, and then I have
a ’68 Gibson Non-Reverse Firebird that
I’ve been playing a lot too. That’s what
I’m going to bring out for these shows.
I have a bunch of little pedals; I tend to
switch ’em out here and there. I think I
have a Small Stone on there, and I have
an EP Boost that I can’t do anything
without – it’s, like, the best pedal ever
made. I use some different overdrives
here and there: I’ve been using the
Seymour Duncan 805 pedal a bunch.
I’ve also got one of those Strymon
blueSky reverbs on my pedalboard, but
that’s pretty much most of it.
The last time you were in Nashville
with the Foo Fighters, you
stumbled upon Zac Brown’s
enviable collection of gear. What
are some of the latest additions to
your own collection?
It’s funny, I’ve been playing my ’68
Non-Reverse Firebird so much lately
that I thought I should buy another
one so I have a couple of them for
when we tour. I found this cherry red
’68 – it was the exact same guitar, but
it was like candy apple red – it was so
amazing. It was on reverb.com, or one
of those websites, and I didn’t bid on it
in time and somebody else bought it.
It just crushed me. That’s the one that
got away. Every now and then I look
online… “Nope, hasn’t turned up yet.
One of these days…” The ’63 Esquire
that I’ve been playing, I actually bought
off Dave Cobb. It was his guitar, and
I played it a ton on my record, and
then about a week after I got home,
he called me and was like, “Hey man,
I’ve been looking at this Les Paul that I
wanna buy, but I need to sell a couple
of guitars to do it. Do you wanna buy
that ’63 Esquire?” I was like, “Sold!”
28 | FEATURE

SURPRISE,
MESMERISE
NORTHLANE BRING BACK THE RIFF AND CHASE THE
PERFECT TAKE ON THEIR SURPRISE NEW ALBUM,
MESMER. INTERVIEW BY LACHLAN MARKS

| australianguitarmag.com.au
| 29
30 | FEATURE

O
ut of nowhere on a sleepy
Friday in March 2017, a hunk
of smoldering prog-rock-
infused metalcore fell from the sky
and alarm bells rang out across the
internet: Sydney’s heavy hitters had
released a new album called Mesmer,
and you could stream it right away.
Commuters went bananas, bloggers
struggled to pound out reviews in
record time, and the fans basked
in yet another album riddled with
the most thundering of thundering
guitars known to mankind at this
point on the timeline.
“We’re able to spend time crafting
the music we want to hear with the
benefit of not having to leave the
studio early to go and work a job,” the
band said in a statement. “To an artist
these are real luxuries. We appreciate
them more than anything and we’re
in the position of being able to do this
because of you – our incredible fans
who continue to support us. You free
us to be the artists we want to be.”
Those artists include Northlane’s
dual axemen, Josh Smith and Jon
Deiley, who pushed harder than
ever to lift their songwriting craft to
match the high standards set by the
album’s super producer, US-based
David Bendeth (Paramore, Papa
Roach... Elvis Presley).

Tell us a little bit about the

decision to do a surprise release
for Mesmer – why does it suit
Northlane and your fanbase best?
JON DEILEY: I don’t think we
ever decided on doing it because we
think it suits us or our fans. We did
it because it eliminates any of the
over-hyping that’s quite common with
movies, games and albums today. If
you just simply release something
– before anyone has a chance to
speculate and potentially scare or
influence other people from listening
to it – you create an even playing
field for people to make up their own
minds all at once.
JOSH SMITH: Every time we
release music, we challenge ourselves
to do so in a different manner to keep
our fans guessing. They’ve become
accustomed to that, and we felt like
we had to go one step further this
time, and release the record as a
surprise. It was a very scary thing to
do: we had to totally back ourselves
and back the record. If the record
wasn’t going to be a hit, then this

Y O U C A N H E A R L I T T L E B I T S H E R E A N D T H E R E T H AT
ARE OUT OF TUNE, AND THE INSTRUMENTS AREN’T
QUANTISED AND OVER-EDITED AS IS THE NORM
T H E S E D AY S . ” – J O S H S M I T H

| australianguitarmag.com.au

strategy would have fallen flat on its
face. If it had leaked, the outcome
would have been pretty grave as
well. Thankfully, everything ran as we
had planned and the record is being
received amazingly well.
From a songwriting perspective,
did you have a mission statement
going into this one?
JS: Our mission was to bring
back the riff – and we sure did. We
also wanted to incorporate a lot of
electronic instruments in a way that
would compliment the songs.
From a recording perspective,
what were you most hoping
to achieve in terms of the
guitar sounds?
JS: We wanted the rhythm tones
to sound really big but still clear.
We wanted to fill up as much space
as we could so that the simpler riffs
sounded as big as possible, but with
a bit of warmth. To get this sound we
used a KT88 VHT pitbull on one side
– one of the really old ones without
a GEQ. And then on the other side,
we used a Diezel VH4. Both were
boosted with a Klon and into the same
Marshall Greenback cab.
The cab was from the ‘70s with
the original speakers. The lows
on it weren’t huge, but they were
controlled and it pushed the mids
into a place that wasn’t quite the
norm for a band like us; a fair bit
higher than usual.
This gave the vocals a lot more
room in the mix. For everything else,
we actually used our Kempers and
live pedalboards. Our goal here was
to get every part to suit the song
100 percent. We used a lot of stereo
effects for leads and clean stuff
when there was only one guitar: the
Strymon stuff is awesome for that.
JD: It’s very easy to pigeonhole
your guitar sound into one style
– especially in heavy music. Every
guitarist listening to the record wants
that perfect tone to them, and to us,
we wanted an overall big, yet defined
sound that would please the heavy
music lovers – but also not scare away
people that might not listen to intense
guitar music on the regular.
David Bendeth has a reputation
for pushing bands pretty hard.
Did he live up to that reputation?
JS: He absolutely did. An out-of-
tune vocal or a less-than-perfect
take was never good enough for him.
Everything had to be performed 100
percent perfectly, and he pushed us to
do just that. He was brutally honest,
and it was the voice we needed to
hear. We had a few guys that we were
considering in the process of selecting
a producer, and he was one of three
that we had shortlisted.
We did a conference call with
each of these guys, and David really
stood out from the rest – he was
on our backs straight away. One of
the first things he asked was, “How
many songs have you guys written?”
Jon said, “Well we’ve got about ten
instrumentally; one with finished
vocals”. David replied with, “Then
you’ve only got one song!”
JD: David uses years in the field –
and also a degree in psychology – to
understand the power dynamics in
any band and use it to his and their
advantages when trying to pull the
performances out of them. We liked
certain things about his past records,
like awesome drum sounds and big
guitars, and it all sort of time aligned
so we went with our gut instinct.
What did he bring to the album?
JS: He brought a focus to vocal
melody, lyrics, structure, and
attention to detail that we’d never
had before. To him, there was no
more important factor in a song than
the vocal, and everything had to
compliment that. This was a totally
new approach for us because in the
past, all we’d ever focused on was
getting the music right, and then
we’d slap the vocal on top. But this
time we went back through songs
and altered the progressions and
structures to compliment what the
vocal was doing. It definitely worked,
because to my ears, the songs sound
much more seamless between
instruments than ever before.
JD: When you’re writing and living
with the songs for so long, it’s hard
to make unbiased decisions about
what the final song should sound like.
It’s important to have that outside
perspective, and his perspective on
most songs is, “Would someone that
doesn’t listen to heavy music listen to
this three-minute song on the radio?”
David pulled out the best parts of the
| 31
songs and allowed them to shine with
the vocal in a very harmonious way,
which for Northlane, had never really
happened because we would write the
song and then throw the vocal on top,
never adjusting the song accordingly.
Northlane is a musical machine
that is growing at a very fast
rate. How does the pressure to
create new material and tour
influence your process when it
comes to writing and recording?
JS: It definitely keeps us on our
toes. Playing music professionally
is a business, and we need to keep
to a record cycle; we also have label
commitments to keep. We definitely
take note of what works live and use
that as the foundation for our writing
in the future. Writing on the road is
good for this as well because you
have direct inspiration – in fact, a lot
of the quirkier parts on Mesmer were
actually written on the road. We’d
jam at soundcheck when we had a
bit of spare time, chuck an iPhone at
front of house and record everything.
Sometimes there’d be a bit of magic
to be found in there, and whenever
we found that, we’d develop it further.
JD: I believe the writing should
never suffer because of touring, and
I think we learnt that lesson with our
last album, Node. With that album,
we’d lost our singer and gone on tour
with some material, and then we
basically just went into the studio and
finished the album off there. Even
though I wasn’t around during the
glory days of rock’n’roll, I understand
that people expect and demand
everything they consume at a much
higher rate these days. Eventually, I
would love to get Northlane to a point
where I could take that extra year and
create that ‘perfect’ record. But in
the meantime, I’ll take everything as
it comes and do my very best to keep
writing/recording and touring two
very different things.
What do you think most sets
Mesmer apart from the other
three albums in your catalogue?
JS: Mesmer is definitely the most
holistic record we’ve ever written. It
was a much more collaborative record
in the sense that we all contributed
to it creatively. You can definitely
hear that in the music. We recorded it
32 | FEATURE
“IF IT DOESN’T WORK OUT FOR ME,
T H E N I C A N C O N F I D E N T L Y S AY T H AT
I G AV E I T E V E R Y T H I N G . ” – J O N D E I L E Y
using traditional techniques, and all
of the perfomances are pretty raw as
David wouldn’t accept anything but
a stellar take. You can hear little bits
here and there that are out of tune,
and the instruments aren’t quantised
and over-edited as is the norm these
days. That makes for a record that
sounds much more organic.
Can you run us through one of
your current live rigs?
JS: My main live rig consists of
a pedalboard and powered kemper
feeding an EVH cab. The FOH signal
comes from the XLR outs on the
kemper, and I use the cab for feel
and stage volume. The pedalboard is
built around an RJM PBC controller,
which routes all of the effects and
takes care of all the MIDI switching.
In front of the Kemper I have a
Decimator, 805 Overdrive, J. Rockett
Archer (the best Klon type I’ve used),
a Huge Swollen Pickle Fuzz, and then
a Strymon El Capistan. The El Cap
is set up to toggle between its send
and a dry line from the end of the
before-amp effects. Both feed into
an RJM Mini Line Mixer – the El Cap is
always on, so when I take its send out
of the signal path, I don’t lose repeats
and I can use the volume on the Line
Mixer to compensate for loom length.
In my effects loop, I have a Strymon
Mobius, Timeline and Big Sky. I also
use a Radial BigShot input switcher
to switch between a Shure GLXD
wireless and a lead.
What about personal recording?
JD: My recording rig is very
simple. On tour, it’s an iRig and a
laptop with plugins, and at home, it’s
a Golden Age Project Pre-73 into an
Apogee Symphony I/O into Ableton,
and I use my pedalboard when I can
be bothered to lug it home.
How complex is your stage setup
now, and how much control do
you have over your individual
sounds? Are there any elements
left to change when you move
from venue to venue?
JS: We have a lot of control. The
beauty of using analog pedals is that
we can adjust them on the fly. There’s
a fair amount of programming that
goes into our rigs – they’re set up so
that we’re literally just hitting the
next preset for the whole show, and
tempos to the MIDI pedals are all
| australianguitarmag.com.au
mapped out. But we do a lot of stuff
on the fly, too, like the way we use our
El Capistans for flair here and there.
How much maintenance is
required for your gear these
days, and what are the most
crucial things to remember to get
done in between shows?
JS: Honestly, there isn’t that
much to be done. Our rigs have been
“overbuilt” in a sense where there’s
not much that can go wrong with
them that can’t be easily fixed. We
clean all of our connections once a
week or so on the road, which is very
important for signal strength. The
real thing that we have to take care
of is our guitars, which is just general
maintenance. The necks don’t really
move much as they’re all carbon
reinforced. The biggest thing that
seems to go wrong is the nuts wearing
down really fast because we use
such big strings. We generally have
to replace them on our main guitars
every six months or so.
You guys are obviously now
magnets for young players
wanting to know how to get their
band and their playing to higher
levels: what questions do you find
you’re most commonly asked,
and what is the advice you offer?
JS: I get asked quite a bit about
the equipment I choose to use, and
my string gauges. To me, that’s not
super important. What’s important
is practice and hard work, being
yourself and developing your own
signature style. I would recommend
that people work on themselves
more and worry less about all of the
“noise” that’s going on around them.
Worry about your chops and your
own songs, not trends.
JD: Take time with your music or
band. It’s not a race, and you have
your entire life to do the boring
stuff. Take a chance with it, but just
make sure you devote time into your
craft. When I’m at home and on a
writing cycle, I’ll try to enjoy a PS4
game or movie and I’ll feel guilty
and turn it off to go write, because
I consider the time I’m basically
wasting. I think the most important
thing of all is that if it doesn’t work
out for me, then I can confidently
say that I gave it everything.
 THE NEW ALBUM
Featuring ‘Birthmarks’, ‘Fear Of Nothing’,
‘Mirrorland’ & ‘God Is In My Head’

Exclusive Limited Deluxe Edition includes

10 track ‘Mirrorland Live From Sydney’ DVD

OUT NOW

Featuring ‘Help’, ‘Periscope’ & ‘Crooked Teeth’

2 CD DELUXE (including 16 track live album)
Standard CD and White Vinyl
34| COVER STORY

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 | 35

HAIL!
HAIL!
ROCK
’N’
MANY PEOPLE CLAIM
TO HAVE INVENTED
ROCK’N’ROLL.

ROLL
CHUCK BERRY
IS ONE OF THE
FEW WHO HAVE A
LEGITIMATE CLAIM.
ANDREW P
STREET FAREWELLS
A LEGEND.
36 | COVER STORY
Ninety years is pretty astonishing for any rock’n’roll star,
and Charles Edward Anderson Berry lived hard – to the
point that many people were shocked to hear of his death,
assuming that he’d joined the rockin’ invisible choir decades
earlier. His legacy is incredible: “Maybelline”. “Rock And
Roll Music”. “Roll Over Beethoven”. “Johnny B. Goode”.
And, um, “My Ding-A-Ling”. You can hear his influence
today in everything from The Beatles and The Stones to
every single three-chord punk band, Ramones to Green Day
inclusive. If they play rock’n’roll, they owe Berry a debt –
and he was a man who was notoriously assiduous about
collecting what he was owed.
B
erry was born in St. Louis on
October 18th 1926; the fourth
of six children to Henry and
Martha Bell Berry. Despite the era, his
family was solidly middle class: Henry
was a Baptist deacon and contractor
and Martha was a school principal,
which meant they could indulge their
precocious son’s love of music.
And Berry was an early talent – he
gave his first public performance
in 1941 at the age of fourteen –
but ended up in the Intermediate
Reformatory for Young Men at Algoa
four years later after stealing a car at
gunpoint (see the Controversy sidebar
for details), where he stayed until he
was released on his 21st birthday.
Even during this period he was
working on his music, though, forming
a vocal quartet that did occasional
gigs outside the reformatory.
Just after his 22nd birthday, he
married Themetta Suggs (a.k.a.
Toddy), the woman to whom he
would remain married for his entire
life. They had the first of their four
children, Darlin Ingrid, in 1950, and
she was followed by Aloha, Charles
Berry Jr. and Melody Exes in the
following years. In order to support
his family, Chuck worked in an auto
assembly plant, did janitorial duties
in their apartment building, and
trained as a beautician. And, just for
a little extra pocket money, he sat in
with local bands and reeled off the
blues guitar style he’d aped from his
hero, T-Bone Walker.
By 1953, he was building up a
nice local reputation in St. Louis,
thanks to his increasingly frequent
collaboration with pianist Johnnie
Johnson and his trio. Johnston’s solid
RnB roots and Berry’s unexpected
love of country music proved a potent
| australianguitarmag.com.au
combination, making the performers
palatable to white audiences –
though it helped that Berry was
also perfecting his showmanship,
including his signature ‘duck walk’.
In fact, it was country music –
specifically the traditional barnburner
“Ida Red” – that was to make Berry’s
career, and to create the melding of
traditional blues and country music
that was to mutate into what we
recognise today as rock’n’roll.
While in Chicago, Berry met
Muddy Waters, who suggested that
Leonard Chess might be interested
in potentially making a record
with them for his RnB label Chess
Records. The timing was perfect:
Chess was looking to expand beyond
the shrinking market for the blues
and thought that Berry might be
the crossover artist he needed,
specifically with the version of “Ida
Red” he and Johnson had been
playing, for which Berry had written
new lyrics and renamed “Maybelline”.
And Chess was right: “Maybelline”
sold over a million copies upon its
release in 1956, making Berry the first
mainstream African-American music
star. For all intents and purposes, this
is where rock’n’roll began.
The star kept shooting from
there. White stars like Carl Perkins
endorsed him, and he toured with
the likes of Buddy Holly and the
Everly Brothers. His success soon
eclipsed theirs, though, with a run
of hits: over a dozen songs charted
between 1957 and ‘59, including
“Rock And Roll Music”, “Sweet
Little Sixteen”, “School Days” and
his signature song, “Johnny B.
Goode”. He also started appearing
in films, giving him an incredible
reach to audiences that would
| 37
38 | COVER STORY

“WHILE BERRY HAD BEEN

LANGUISHING IN JAIL, HIS
MUSIC HAD BEEN INSPIRING
SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT
ARTISTS OF THE AGE”
| australianguitarmag.com.au

otherwise never have seen him in the flesh
– including 1959’s Go Johnny Go, named
after a line in “Johnny B. Goode”.
He was doing well financially, too: while
blues artists were being ripped off blind by
unscrupulous labels and agencies, Berry
demanded cash upfront before going on
stage (a characteristic which he was to
maintain throughout his career) and was
making canny investments in real estate
before opening St. Louis’ Berry’s Club
Bandstand – whose racially integrated
policies for guests and performers alike
was a bold refutation of the segregation
still prevalent in the US at the time.
Racism was alive and well, though,
and Berry’s relationship with the law
was to become even more fraught. There
was a hint of what was to come in 1959
when he returned a kiss from a white fan
at a gig in Meridian, Mississippi. It was
an innocent enough act, but one which
so incensed the fan’s brother that he
started shouting racial epithets at Berry,
beginning a fight which grew into a riot.
Berry was whisked away by police, who
then abruptly arrested and charged the
performer – not the furious brother – with
disturbing the peace.
A similar situation had more serious
consequences at the turn of the following
year: in December ’59, Berry was charged
with transporting a minor across state
lines for immoral purposes (see the
Controversies sidebar again), although
the situation seemed like an excuse to
punish an uppity black man rather than
any suggestion that Berry was actually
involved in “white slavery”.
He successfully appealed the verdict
on the ground that the judge was openly
racist (throughout the trial, Judge George
H. Moore refused to use Berry’s name,
referring to him only as “this negro”), but a
retrial in 1961 nonetheless also found him
guilty and he ended up spending the next
18 months in prison. This should have killed
his career stone dead, but fortunately, he
had some unexpected allies. While Berry
had been languishing in jail, his music had
been inspiring some of the most important
artists of the age. Not only were British
bands like The Beatles and The Rolling
Stones covering his material, closer to
home The Beach Boys were rewriting the
lyrics to “Sweet Little Sixteen” as “Surfin’
USA” (and creating a legal headache over
copyright – these days, the owners of
Berry’s publishers – Arc Music – control the
copyright, and the song is typically credited
to him and Brian Wilson – although Beach
Boy Mike Love claims that he contributed to
the song, as he tediously does with most of
Wilson’s compositions).
For his part, Berry signed a new deal
with Mercury and enjoyed international
hits with “You Never Can Tell” and
“Nadine”, although his other big hit of the
sixties, “No Particular Place To Go” – a
rewrite of “School Days” about the new
laws concerning seatbelts – suggested
he was starting to tread water. This
indifference also came through in his live
performances, which were starting to
become increasingly erratic. Prison had
| 39
THE
CONTR
OVER
SIES!
Berry had more than his fair
share of brushes with the law. At
age 18, he was imprisoned at a
reformatory for three years after
three counts of armed robbery and
stealing a car at gunpoint (which
Berry has subsequently insisted was
actually him flagging a car down
whilst holding an unloaded pistol –
as one does from time to time).
In 1959, he was arrested
under the ‘Mann Act’ – a piece of
legislation ostensibly set in place
to stop “white slave trafficking”
but mainly used either to curb sex
work and/or as a pretext to arrest
someone for whom authorities do
not care – for moving a 14 year old
girl over state lines to work in his
Berry’s Club Bandstand venue. It was
alleged that Berry had sex with the
girl, and he eventually served one
and a half years for the crime, which
badly derailed his career.
In 1979, he pleaded guilty to tax
evasion for playing cash-in-hand
shows on the club circuit as his star
power dwindled, accepting five
months in prison and 1,000 hours
of community service in the form of
benefit concerts.
In 1990, he agreed to a settlement
after a class action suit was brought
against him by 59 female employees
of his Southern Air restaurant in
Wentzville, Missouri, who claimed
he’d been secretly videotaping them
on the toilet. He claimed at the time
that he’d installed the camera to
catch an employee who was stealing
from the till, although it’s hard to see
why the till would be in the women’s
bathroom. In any case, police
investigating the claims reportedly
found videotapes of women –
including at least one who was
underage – using the toilet, as well
as a felony amount of marijuana.
After agreeing to cop to possession
the drugs, the child porn charges
were dropped and he served a
suspended sentence.
40 | COVER STORY

killed something inside Berry, and his

priority from this point on was to get what
he felt he was owed – particularly from
promoters – without giving much of a shit
about the gigs themselves.
From the mid-‘60s on, he started
touring solo with a guitar and picking up
bands at each show, with no rehearsal
and no communication, expecting them
to recognise each song from the opening
riff and play along. Sometimes, this
worked – one of his random pick ups in
the early ‘70s was a young New Jersey-
based guitarist and singer named Bruce
Springsteen, while the group backing Berry
on the 1967 live album Live At Fillmore
Auditorium would later find success as the
Steve Miller Band – but most of the time,
the results were at best lackluster and
often downright embarrassing.
The hits had also dried up by 1969.
The Mercury deal ended and Berry
returned to Chess, but success proved
elusive – that is, until the release of a live
recording of his beloved smutty ode to
masturbation, “My Ding-A-Ling”, became
his sole one number one single on the
mainstream charts in the US, the UK and
Canada. This proved the highlight of the
seventies as his erratic and indifferent
live performances became less and less of
a draw. He did, however, play at the White
House at the invitation of president Jimmy
Carter in 1979, around the same time
that he was convicted of tax evasion. His
underwhelming 1979 album, Rock It, was
his last for almost 40 years.
Things started to pick up in the mid-
‘80s, however. As his 60th birthday
approached, Keith Richards decided to
arrange a celebratory concert to recognise
the debt that modern musicians owed
him – a process covered in the fascinating
1986 documentary Hail! Hail! Rock’n’roll,
featuring Richards, Springsteen, Elvis
Costello, Eric Clapton, Linda Ronstadt, Etta
James, Robert Cray and a multitude of

| australianguitarmag.com.au
“PRISON HAD KILLED
| 41

SOMETHING INSIDE
BERRY, AND HIS THE
PRIORITY FROM THIS SOUND!
POINT ON WAS TO Unlike most guitarists covered
in this esteemed publication, Berry

GET WHAT HE FELT HE was not exactly what you’d call

a gear-head. Indeed, for a good

WAS OWED”
slab of his career he travelled with
a single guitar and expected the
venues he was playing at to supply
everything else, from the backline to
the backing band. Sonic control was
not, it seems, his primary concern.
Berry has always been associated
with hollow-bodied Gibson guitars:
first up, the 1957 ES-350 T (that’s
what you hear on “Johnny B.
Goode” and “Maybelline”) and then
the ES-335 from 1958 onwards.
Even his later custom Les Paul was a
hollowbody, which kind of defeats
the purpose of having a Les Paul.
You’ll also need a Fender amp to get
that toppy, twangy cut-through – a
Fender Pro should do the job nicely.
Also, if you’ve been playing along
with Berry records and wondering
if the mastering had slowed them
down because you had to tune
down half a step, it’s because Berry
actually played in flats: E flat and B
flat, particularly.
It’s never been confirmed exactly
why that was, but the prevailing
theory was that it was thanks to his
early collaborator and piano player,
Johnnie Johnson, who favoured
pounding on the black keys for his
thumping boogie-woogie.
42 | COVER STORY
“WHILE IT WAS
RECORDED
WITHOUT KNOWING
HOW SOON HIS
DEATH WOULD
COME, [CHUCK]
WAS ALWAYS
INTENDED AS HIS
FINAL ALBUM. AND
SO IT PROVED”

| australianguitarmag.com.au

others – and Berry himself, largely not giving
a shit and focussing on how much he’ll be
paid. Still, it gave his reputation a much
needed shot in the arm – as did his induction
that year as one of the inaugural honourees
in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
From there he got by on regular touring,
plus a monthly Wednesday night gig at St.
Louis’ Blueberry Hill club when he wasn’t
on the road, and the occasional legal
stoush – such as his notorious $1.2 million
settlement with former employees at his
Southern Air restaurant in 1990 after
he set up a hidden camera in the female
toilets, and a 2000 copyright battle with his
former musical foil Johnson, who claimed
he’d co-written over 50 of Berry’s songs,
including all of the biggest hits (the case
was ultimately dismissed).
Touring slowed down after Berry
collapsed during a 2011 New Years Day
show in Chicago, but in 2017, he recorded
Chuck at the age of 90 – his first album
since Rock It. It featured his live band and
several of his children (and Tom Morello, for
some reason), and was dedicated to Toddy,
with several songs alluding to his marriage –
including the follow-up to his most enduring
hit, titled “Lady B. Goode”. While it was
recorded without knowing how soon his
death would come, it was always intended
as his final album. And so it proved.
On March 18th 2017, an ambulance
was called to his home, where Berry
was unresponsive after what was later
confirmed as a heart attack. His funeral
was held three weeks later with Berry
lying in state at St. Louis club The Pageant
(his cherry red Gibson 335 fixed into the
lid of his coffin) for fans to pay their final
respects. Famous fans also paid tribute:
The Rolling Stones sent a massive guitar-
shaped floral arrangement, letters from Bill
Clinton and Paul McCartney were read, and
KISS’ Gene Simmons made an impromptu
speech about Berry’s role in “breaking
down barriers” in music.
He was a complicated man, with more
than a few demons, but his influence on
modern music is immeasurable. We will not
see his like again.
OUTER
SPACE!
At the time of writing, the Voyager
1 and 2 probes were approximately
20.6 billion kilometres and 17.05
billion kilometres away from Earth,
respectively, which is a pretty
impressive distance for elderly
robots launched into space in 1977.
Upon both probes is a golden
record etched with instructions
on how it might be played should
any intelligent life discover it,
and it contains Sounds Of Earth:
birdsong, greetings in multiple
languages, and music – including
Beethoven, Mozart, and one single
example of modern rock’n’roll
in the form of Berry’s “Johnny B.
Goode” (although EMI turned down
a request for The Beatles’ “Here
Comes The Sun”, because they’re
apparently fools).
Astronomer and physicist Carl
Sagan, who had spearheaded
the Golden Record project, sent
a lovely letter to celebrate Berry’s
60th birthday. “When they tell
you that your music will live
forever, you can usually be sure
they’re exaggerating,” he wrote.
“But ‘Johnny B. Goode’ is on the
Voyager interstellar records attached
to NASA’s Voyager spacecraft…
These records will last a billion years
or more. Happy 60th birthday, with
our admiration for the music you
have given to this world.”
This also inspired a 1977 sketch
on Saturday Night Live, in which
NASA receives the first ever
message from an alien civilisation:
“Send more Chuck Berry.”
44 | COVER STORY
TOP:
BERRY TELLING KEITH
RICHARDS TO NEVER
TOUCH HIS SHIRT AGAIN
| australianguitarmag.com.au
THE
BEATLES!
The connection between Berry and The Beatles goes deeper
than mere fandom – although the Liverpool lads were massive
Berry fans who drew deep from the well of his catalogue.
George Harrison turned “Roll Over Beethoven” into his lead
vocal turn at gigs and on With The Beatles in 1963, while
John Lennon’s ragged vocal on “Rock And Roll Music” was a
highlight of Beatles For Sale the following year. Years later, the
archival collections Live At The BBC brought a slew of Berry
covers to the public, including “Sweet Little Sixteen”, “Too
Much Monkey Business”, “Johnny B. Goode” and “Carol”,
among others.
However, Berry also inspired two of the band’s most beloved
songs: one by Paul and the other by John.
In 1968, while on a meditation retreat in Rishikesh, Paul
McCartney was goofing around with a Berry-style chug
celebrating Russia, twisting Berry’s title “Back In The USA” to
a Beach Boys’ parody about how Ukraine girls really knock
him out – which, disappointingly, wasn’t him mysteriously
predicting the 2014 civil uprising over Russia annexing the
Crimean peninsula. The resultant “Back In The USSR” became
the spirited opening track on The White Album, as well as a
showcase of just what McCartney could do with a six-string
bass. This wasn’t the only Beatles opener to have a Berry
connection, though this one got a wee bit more complicated
and involved Berry only tangentially. It’s also a fine example of
how much copyright law was a free-for-all in the ‘70s.
The final (recorded) Beatles album, Abbey Road, begins
with the slow blues chug of Lennon’s “Come Together”, which
had begun life as an attempt to write a campaign song for the
doomed gubernatorial run of LSD advocate Timothy Leary,
who hoped to defeat Ronald Reagan as governor of California
(spoiler: that didn’t work out).
CENTRE: Lennon was freestyling nonsense in the studio, including
BERRY ASKING CLAPTON the line, “Here come ol’ flattop, he come groovin’ up slowly,”
IF RICHARDS IS DEAF, which music entrepreneur/opportunist Morris “Mo” Levy – who
STUPID, OR BOTH owned most of Chuck Berry’s copyrights by that stage – felt was
too close to, “Here come a flattop, he was movin’ up with me”
in “You Can’t Catch Me”, and proceeded to sue.
Since the song also bore more than a few musical similarities
to the Berry composition, Lennon copped to the steal and
negotiated an agreement under which he’d record three songs
owned by Levy on a forthcoming album.
And he did attempt to do so – the Phil Spector-produced
covers album Rock’n’roll contained “Ya Ya” and “You Can’t
Catch Me” in 1975, while “Angel Baby” had been attempted
but didn’t make the cut. But Lennon was unable to complete the
album – Spector’s erratic behavior led him to hide the master
tapes at his home after every session, and when he nearly
killed himself in a March 1974 car accident (which left him in a
coma), Lennon couldn’t locate the tapes.
Thus, Lennon released his Walls And Bridges album first in
1974, containing only a snatch of John and Julian Lennon
singing “Ya Ya” rather than the three full songs Levy had
demanded, and Levy sued for breach of contract. Not only
that, but he released the demos that Lennon had sent him
in good faith under the name Roots: John Lennon Sings The
Great Rock & Roll Hits. Levy was awarded a bit over six
thousand dollars for Lennon’s failure to honour the deal;
Lennon was awarded $84,921.86 for Levy releasing the
tapes without permission. So… Yay?
Safe to say, Berry was more of a ‘Stones man.
46 | FEATURE

o w M e I n
Th r
The R e ver b

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 | 47

WITH MORE SCARED OF YOU

THAN YOU ARE OF ME, THE
SMITH STREET BAND TRADE
DIVE BARS AND SHOEYS FOR
THEATRES AND A MELLOW RED.
FRONTMAN WIL WAGNER
WALKS US THROUGH THE
AMBITIOUS NEW SOUND, HIS
LOVE FOR JAPANESE GUITARS,
AND THE BEST PUN-DRIVEN
PEDAL YOU’LL EVER SHAKE YOUR
HEAD AT. BY MATT DORIA

L
ike most acclaimed rock outfits, The Smith Street Band cut their teeth
playing shitty run-down bars for little more than a hardwood floor to
sleep on. Ironically, it was songs about exactly that (see: “Don’t F***
With Our Dreams”) which threw the Melbourne indie-punks into a chasm
of mainstream adoration. Now selling thousand-cap theatres out as if they
were the local bowlo, the quartet are leaving their scratchy and pensive roots
behind with More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me: a concept album darting
through the unified tumult of love and adulthood à la sprawling orchestral
undercurrents and rollercoaster soft-loud dynamics.
On earlier releases, frontman and rhythm guitarist Wil Wagner adhered to
a simple, yet effective formula: crank everything up to eleven, snap a couple
strings and wring the absolute shit out of your vocal chords. But in accuminating
his sound, Wagner took a step back and realised that, while on occasion it does
come in handy, aggression isn’t always necessary to convey a sense of passion.
“You can still make a very powerful impact while being quiet and clean,” he
muses, “and that was something I feel like I’ve only just learned with making this
record. Bands like The National, for example, are quite mono-tonal and quiet, but
they’re still really intense and emotional; it’s just that it’s contained and restrained
in this really cool way. I feel like everything that I do is always full of yelling and
harsh guitars – and that’s one way to portray intensity, but I really wanted to
portray intensity in other ways on this record. There’s a lot of examples – like on
‘Run Into The World’ and ‘Passiona’ – where I’m basically playing straight clean
guitars, but I still wanted to be present and I wanted the songs to have substance,
so I’d fuck around with gains and master volumes and all of those kinds of things.”
At first, resisting the urge to annihilate his eardrums was easier said than
done. In order to break old habits, Wagner kept himself tied to a single VOX
AC30 amp for rhythm tones, and an old hundred-watt Marshall – one that “was
only as loud as we’re talking now, but has the best f***ing overdrive” – for leads.
Surprising too for an album as sonically ambitious as More Scared is how often
simplicity bled into other facets of the recording process.
“We tracked a lot of the album live,” Wagner offers. “We overdubbed bits and
pieces, obviously, but the majority of what you hear on the record is us playing
in a room – mostly unedited – trying to actually get all four of us playing at the
same time so that it felt as authentic as we could make it. Because of that, we
just used the gear that we already understand: Lee [Hartney, lead] used the
same two guitars that he uses for the live show – a Squire Jazzmaster and a
Mustang – and I did the same, because I know how to make those guitars sound
the way I like them to sound.”
If there’s one guitar Wagner understands more than any, it’s a Japanese ‘76
Fernandes Stratocaster copy, which he’s held proudly against his waist since he
picked it up two years ago from Melbourne’s famous Music Swop Shop. Plastered
in stickers, patched in tape and monumentally heavy (this scribe almost dropped
it when Wagner handed it to them), he’s quick to label it a favourite piece of kit.
“I have a real love affair with Japanese guitars from 1976 specifically,” he
chuckles. “I’ve got a Japanese Goldtop copy and a double cutaway Les Paul
copy that both happen to be from the same year, too. I love Strats and I love
P-90s, so when I saw a Japanese Strat with P-90s on that wall… I plugged it
in for maybe five seconds and went, ‘Yeah. I’m buying this guitar.’ I was using
Jazzmasters for a long time before as well, and this Strat is exactly how I’ve
48 | FEATURE

“I HAVE A REAL LOVE

AFFAIR WITH JAPANESE
GUITARS FROM 1976
SPECIFICALLY.”
always wanted every Jazzmaster to sound.”
“I guess what I’m trying to go for in my guitar
sound is a ‘beefy jangle’,” he continues. “I want
it to be that classic rhythm guitar sound that sits
really nicely in the mix, but especially because
Fitzy [Michael Fitzgerald, bass] goes on runs
a lot and plays a lot of stuff up high, there are
some parts where I’ve sort of gotta be the bass,
y’know? So I want to have this big, warm and
jangly low-end, but one that’s not muddy, either.
That’s why I love P-90s. I find that humbuckers
get muddy too quickly for me, and straight single
coil pickups don’t have that ‘oomph’.”
Wagner’s penchant for keeping a single axe
close to heart isn’t one he developed recently.
On 2014’s Throw Me In The River (henceforth
TMITR), he rocked a slick baritone sound for
almost the entire recording. And while More
Scared isn’t nearly as reliant on such beefy,
driving tones, the baritone still held its rightful
place in the studio.
“There’s one song, ‘Suffer’, where I’m just
playing baritone,” Wagner tells us. “That’s
something Jeff [Rosenstock, producer]
introduced us to on TMITR – the idea that if you
have a heavy chorus, you should play a baritone
on it because the baritone sits perfectly between
the bass and guitar, and it really thickens up
that sound. I think that’s really cool because
it’s something that a lot of people wouldn’t do –
even I didn’t really know about baritone guitars
until Jeff told me about them.”
Having now produced an approximate half of
their discography, Rosenstock has become a vital
part of The Smith Street Band’s wider musical
anatomy. Wagner is adamant on the Long Island
punk icon (famed as the ex-frontman of seminal
DIY outfit Bomb The Music Industry!) being his
first choice to produce all future material, in
part because of their shared philosophies on the
politics of abusing equipment. Street guitar pedal. Each one of 50 hand-painted that’s perfect!’ It’s such a cool thing, and it’s a lot
“Jeff is a big proponent of squeezing out what by artist Stephen Baker (who also inked the cover easier to send in the mail than a skateboard. And
you sound like,” Wagner says. “His theory is that art for More Scared) and named after a pun on then me, Lee and Fitzy all realised that, ‘Oh my
you can have all the pedals in the world, but the one of their own song titles, It Kills Me To Have To God, we get to design a f***ing guitar pedal!’ I’m a
pedals on my board are the pedals on my board Overdrive – “Yeah, I’m very happy with that name,” complete f***ing guitar nerd, so being able to like
for a reason; it doesn’t make sense to over-run Wagner belts in a fit of laughter – was developed have a signature pedal is, like… That’s definitely
everything just because you can. It’s all kind with two key determinants in mind: firstly, in the something I never thought I’d get to do.”
of a trial and error process: sometimes you try pursuit of kindling creativity amongst their fans, Though plentiful in its own characteristics, the
a bit too hard to look for unique and different and secondly... Well, what guitarist wouldn’t jump at device is closely modelled after Wagner’s own
things, when really, there’s a reason that all the chance to have their own signature pedal!? tinkered and refined rhythm tone.
great rhythm guitars kind of sound the same. If “Y’know, a lot of bands have these ‘big ticket “I use a Fulltone OCD a lot, and I have an ARC
something makes sense, just f***ing stick with it!” items’ in their pre-order bundles,” Wagner Effects Klone which I bought online after someone
That same axiom carried itself well past the explains. “It’s usually a skateboard. We were recommended it to me – I’ve done at least 500-plus
recording stage. When it came time to scribbling talking a lot about what we wanted to do for ours, shows with that and it works as well today as it did
up the goodies they’d stuff in their pre-order and a big thing for me is that I wanted it to be the day I got it,” he gushes. “We based [the pedal]
bundles, one pitch made so much sense that it something practical and useful – something that on those two pieces, but it’s quite customisable, so
spurred fights over who in the band came up would encourage people to go and make their you can essentially have it as a low-gain overdrive
with the idea: an official motherf***ing Smith own stuff. So we were talking about maybe doing to step up into a chorus that’s not too heavy, or
some really nice notebooks, or something like you can really crank the gain up and turn it into a
that; or maybe we could hit Fender up and see pretty Tube Screamer-esque pedal. That part was
if we could do a miniature Squier Jazzmaster to something Lee really wanted. And hopefully, for the
give to 50 people. But as soon as the idea for a tour we do when the album comes out, there’ll be
guitar pedal was pitched, everyone was like, ‘Yep, one of them on all of our pedalboards.”

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 Encore!

What do you do after you’ve given the performance of a lifetime?

You deliver an encore, of course. Introducing the K.2 Series.
The next standard in powered loudspeakers.

qsc.com
©2017 QSC, LLC. All rights reserved. QSC and the QSC
logo are registered trademarks of QSC, LLC in the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office and other countries.
K10.2 K12.2 K8.2 World of K is a trademark of QSC, LLC.
ST. VINCENT
Photo by Peter Zaluzny 
52 | TABLATURE

INCLUDED IN:
Ed Sheeran - X

One
Words and Music by Ed Sheeran
Guitar Recorded Versions
Hal Leonard 138870

All Gtrs.
6=D 3=G G D5 A('11) G(„ˆˆ9)/B B‹7
5=A 2=A 4fr 6fr 7fr 7fr

4=D 1=D
Intro
Freely (q = 93)
[D]*

1
Gtr. 1 (steel . acou
²²²²²²²² 
²²²²²²²²²
5

pp
mp let ring… ²²²²²²²²²² ²²²²²²²²²²²²²
11 12 11 9 7 ^7 ^7 7 9 11

2 0
*Chord names reflect overall harmony

Verse
[D] [A]
:: :
:
1. Tell me that you’d turn down the man who asks for your hand
2. Take my hand and my heart and soul, I will

:
::

ring .
mp

: 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 6 7
:
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 7

[Bm] [G] [D]

:
:
’cause you’re wait- ing for me. And I know,
on - ly have these eyes for you. And you know,

7 7 7 4 4 11 11 11 11 11 11 11

2 9 9 9 9 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0

© 2014 Sony/ATV Music Publishing (UK) Limited

For Australia and New Zealand: Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia Pty Limited
(ABN 93 080 392 230) Locked Bag 7300, Darlinghurst NSW 1300. Australia
Print rights administered in Australia and New Zealand by Hal Leonard Australia Pty Ltd ABN 13 085 333 713
www.halleonard.com.au
Used By Permission. All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured.
Unauthorised Reproduction is Illegal.

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 | 53

[A]

: : :
you’re gon - na be a - way a while, I’ve got no plans
ev - ’ry - thing chan - ges, but we’ll be stran - gers if

11 11 11 11 12 11 11 11 11 11 6 7
0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 7 7

[Bm] [G] [D]

:
at all to leave. Would you take
we see this through We coul

7 7 7 4 4 4 11 11 11 11 11 11 = 6

2 9 9 9 9 5 5 0 0 0 0 0

[A] [G]

: :
a - way my hopes and dreams and just
stay with - in these walls and bleed, or just

:
0
6 6 6 6 4 4 4 4 4

2 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 5 5 5 5 5 5 0

[E5] [G] [A]

:
stay with me. Ooh.
stay with me. Oh, Lord, now. /

4 4 6 6
2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0
2 2 2 2 2 2
2
2
0
5 5 7 7 7
0
54 | TABLATURE

Chorus
[ ] [D C#]

All my sen - ses come to life while I’m stum - bling home as

mf

11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11

12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 11

[B ] [ ]

drunk as I have e - ver been and I’ll nev - er leave a - gain,

11 11 11 11 7 7 7 7 7 4 4 4 4 4

2 11 11 11 11 11
0
9 9 9 9 9 5 5 5 5 5 5 7

[A] [ ] [A] [ ]
: : :
’cause you are the on - ly one. And all my friends have

6 6 6 6 6 0 4 4 6 6 11 11 11 11 11 11
0 0 0
2 7 7 7 7 7
0
5 5 7 7 7
0
12 12 12 12 12 12

[D C#]

gone to find an - oth - er place to let their hearts col - lide, just pro -

11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11

2 12 12 12 12 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11
0

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 | 55

[B ] [ ]

you’ll nev - er leave a - gain,

- mise me
- you’ll al - ways be a friend,

7 7 7 7 7 4 4 4 4 4

9 9 9 9 9 5 5 5 5 5 5 7

1.
[A] [ ] [ ]
: : :
now, ’cause you are the on - ly one.

0
6 6 6 6 6 4
0
4
0
6 6 k 11
0
7 7 7 7 7 7 5 5 7 7

2.
[D] [ ] [ ]

you are the on - ly one.

: : : ::
:
cont. in slashes
p pp

11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11
: 4 6 6 7
: 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 5 7 7 7 7

Bridge
G D5

Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò
w/ad lib. strumming/picking

Stum - bl - ing half drunk, get - ting my - self lost,

56 | TABLATURE

A('11) G('9)/B Bm7

Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò

:
I am so gone, so tell me the way home.

G D5 G

Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò

:
I lis - ten to sad songs, sing - ing a - bout love,

A('11)

Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò Ò  cont. in stave

: :
and where it goes wrong.

[Bm] [G] [D5] [Bm] [G] [D5] [Bm] [G]

Ooh.

E :
:
:
:
0
7 4 2 4 7 4 2 2 4 2 7 4
0
0
9 5 0 0 0 0 9 5 0 0 9 5 5

[D5] [Bm7] [A('11)] [G'9]

::: ::: ::: :: ::

:: :: :: : :
: pp
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 2 7 7 6 6 6 4 4 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
X X X X X X X
0 0 0 0 0 9 9 7 7 7 5 5

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 | 57

Outro Chorus

[ ] [D C#]

All my sen - ses come to life while I’m stum - bling home as

11 11 11 11 11 11 11

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 11 11 11

[B 7] [G('9)]

drunk as I have e - ver been and I’ll nev - er leave a - gain,

E ::: :::
:: ::

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
11 11 0 7 7 7 4 4 4 4 0
0 0 0 0 0 0
2 11 11 11
X
9
X
5

[A('11)] [G('9)] [A('11)] [ ]

: : :
’cause you are the on - ly one. And all my friends have

:::
::
mf

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6 6 6 0 4 4 4 6 6 6 0 0 X X X
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 X
7
X
5
X
5
X
5 7
X
7
X
7
X
12 12 12 12 12
58 | TABLATURE

[D C#]

gone to find an - oth - er place to let their

0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0
X 11 11 X X X
0 0 0 0 0 0
X X
12 12 12 12 12 11 11 11 11 11

[B 7]

hearts col - lide, just pro - mise me you’ll al - ways be a friend,

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
X X X 7 7 7 7 7 7
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 X
11 11 11 9 9
X
9 9 9
X
9 9 9
0 0

[A('11)] [G('9)] [A('11)] [D5]

: : :
’cause you are the on - ly one.

near bridge
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
G GG G

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6 6 6 0 0 4 4 4 6 6 2 2
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
X X X X 0
7 7 7 5 5 5 7 7 0

| australianguitarmag.com.au
A N EW GE N E R ATI O N
FENDER.COM "6
O F AC O U S TI C S
PARAMOUNT SERIES PM1 ALL MAHOGANY NE
©2017 Fender Musical Instruments, Corp. Paramount® is a registered trademark of Jackson/Charvel Manufacturing, Inc. All rights reserved.
 CAPTURE THE SOUND

E P IN G T H E D .I.Y
KE ITH
S P IR IT A L IV E W

ANNA
LAVERTY
RECORDING TIPS STUDIO TESTED
BROUGHT TO YOU BY ACOUSTICS 101 • POSITIVE GRID BIAS HEAD
PROFILE • STEINBERG R22MKII
SOUNDMACHINE STUDIOS RECORDING PACK
62 | STUDIO PROFILE
LOCATION
Dandenong, South Melbourne,
Camberwell (in construction) and
Berlin (yes, Berlin Germany).
YOUR DIMENSIONS?
Dandenong
Control room (4 x 3.5 x 3m),
live room (6 x 5 x 3m), lounge/
kitchen (5.5 x 4 x 3.5m) and garage
(30 x 25 x 10m).
South Melbourne
Control room (4 x 5 x 3m).
Camberwell
Control room (6 x 5 x 3.5m).
Berlin
Control room (8 x 5 x 3m) and
live room (10 x 5 x 3m).
| australianguitarmag.com.au
SOUND MACHINE STUDIOS
BIT NERVOUS ABOUT CALLING THAT LOCAL STUDIO AND FINDING OUT WHETHER
THEY’RE THE RIGHT PLACE TO FINALLY RECORD YOUR GUITAR-RELATED OPUS?
WORRIED YOU WON’T ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS? THAT’S COOL, IT’S A BIG
DEAL – WE GOT THIS. IN THIS ISSUE, WE CHAT WITH DAVID COOPER FROM SOUND
MACHINE STUDIOS, WHO OPERATES FOUR LOCATIONS ACROSS TWO CONTINENTS!
GEAR LIST? operations, and is primarily used around one multifunctional control
Dandenong for editing, overdubs and mixing. room with tie lines accessible to other
This the heart of the studio South Melbourne runs an RME800 parts of the house for recording.
setup with the largest gear list. We interface with a few outboard treats
run an HD3 rig (48 in and out) via housed in the racks. It also features Berlin
Lynx Aurora 16’s with option to run custom monitoring by ProHarmonic Our other studio brother/espionage
Protools HD10, 11 (vanilla), Logic 10 with NS10s and ProAc 100s all paired creator Kris has just recently moved
or Ableton 9. to a Bryston 9b. All equipment to Berlin in Germany, and he’s having
One can follow a full analog path from Dandenong is moveable upon a righteous old time creating music
through our tape machines to either request free of charge. under his label Power Station,
our 32 channel Soundtracs Quartz or producing for other artists and just
Neve 542 consoles, or mix it up via Camberwell getting weird in Berlin.
a fully integrated patchbay - digital Currently in construction! Dave’s He runs a more than modest outfit
hybrid style - and utilise an array of renovating his house so should focused around Logic X, Aurora 16s
outboard gear. Brands such as Neve, probably have put a roof over his and his Toft ATB 24 to tie everything
Chandler, Vintech, Avalon, Lexicon, head before embarking on a studio, together. Kris is a synth/outboard
Gyraf, Tubetech, SSL, Soundtracs, MCI, but you know how it is… The place will gear head that keeps his place toasty
Universal Audio and many more are primarily be a mixing and mastering warm even in those cold German
housed at Sound Machine. suite with all the trimmings, based winter months.
Our mic locker contains a wide
variety of brands such as AKG, Audix,
Beyerdynamic, BandO, Cadenza,
Carillon, Cascade, Crown, Heil,
Neumann, Oktava, Rode, Sennheiser,
Shure, Sony and Telefunken.
We monitor via ProAc 100s, NS10s
and Tannoy SRM10s all with beautiful
amps to suit. An array of headphones
await your ears as well.
All instruments are free to use
whilst at the studio with some vintage
gems to modern classics lurking the
halls. Plug it in and see what happens!
South Melbourne
This is the smallest of the
 THE ALL-NEW VOX

M V50
$
349.99 RRP*

DOWNSIZE YOUR RIG

This little monster weighs in at only half a kilo but boasts a tremendous 50 watts of
power and produces serious guitar tone that rivals the sound of your favourite tube
amp. MV50 is equipped with Nutube, the revolutionary new vacuum tube that produces
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required for regular vacuum tubes.

The pre-amp circuit in the MV50 features a staggering number of analogue components
that effectively reproduce the dynamic character of a traditional tube amp, while an
innovative Class D power amp provides enough volume for any environment.

With speaker & line/headphone outputs, the MV50 is perfect for the stage, at home,
or in the studio for direct recording.

*The prices set out in this advertisement are recommended retail prices (RRP) only and there is no obligation for Vox dealers to comply with this recommendation. Errors and omissions excepted.

MORE INFORMATION WATCH US ON YOUTUBE LIKE US ON FACEBOOK EVENTS & PROMOTIONS

voxamps.com/mv50 youtube.com/voxaustralia facebook.com/voxampsaustralia yamahabackstage.com.au
64 | PRODUCER PROFILE
P
utting together a decent
demo at home isn’t too hard,
what with all the high-quality
and relatively affordable recording
equipment around. Sure, your
bedroom probably doesn’t compare
to a full-blown studio with all the bells
and whistles, but there’s an argument
to be had in favour of pressing
record in a comfortable, familiar
environment. That’s according to
Anna Laverty, the seasoned producer
and engineer who’s worked with
bands all over the world, including
Aussie acts Peep Tempel and Meg
Mac. Laverty loves a bit of DIY work,
so much so that she doesn’t just
suggest it, she encourages it! In fact,
some of the EPs and albums she’s
worked on include takes that were
tracked in musicians’ homes before
being mixed in the studio – and they
sound fantastic.
Why do you think a combination
of DIY and studio recording is the
best approach for some bands?
Obviously, I would prefer to be in
charge of a whole project from the
start to the end [laughs], but these
days it doesn’t happen all that much
because of budget. So if a band comes
to me and they’ve already made a
demo with a certain tone that sounds
really, really cool, I’m not going to
| australianguitarmag.com.au
RECODING TECHNIQUES
WITH ANNA LAVERTY
A LITTLE BIT OF HOME RECORDING COULD BE THE BEST ADDITION TO YOUR
UPCOMING RECORD. BY PETER ZALUZNY
spend precious studio time trying to
recreate what they already have.
Any examples of that in action?
I was in the studio with a band
called New Gods, and we were
really trying to get the first half of
a song – which was piano and vocal
– for about half of a day. The singer
couldn’t get it to work, but he went
home that night and recorded it on a
quarter-inch tape machine with on a
piano that was out of tune. The next
day, he brought it in and said, “This is
the kind of energy I want to capture.”
I was like, “You captured it. Use it!”
So we ended up using that, but the
second half of the song was the
whole band, so we had to crossfade
between that and the point in the
song when all the horns, drums, bass
and everyone else comes in. But it
worked! Every time I listen to it, I
hear that edit and I’m like, “God, how
did we get away with that?”
Based on that experience, would
you encourage everyone to try DIY
recording at least once?
Totally. But then again, I’m
pretty rare in saying that. A lot
of producers definitely wouldn’t
encourage that. I end up getting a lot
of phone calls from musicians who
are like, “Can I ask you something
about ProTools?” [laughs]. They
ring me at random hours and I talk
people through the steps, or I get
texts asking about shot cuts.
Is there anything a band can do to
make your life easier when they
bring in some home takes?
Name all of your tracks before you
start recording, so that you don’t
have 5,000 tracks called “Audio
1”, “Audio 2”, “Audio 3”, etc. And if
you’re going to do vocals, use the
best microphone that you can. I don’t
love listening to a really great vocal
performance that’s over-compressed
or sung through a dodgy mic, like
the cheaper kind of large diaphragm
condenser microphones – I really
would push people to hire a valve mic
for the day or something like that.
Do you use a bunch of mics at the
same time to give yourself variety
when mixing, and so on?
I go to tape usually, so I don’t really
have the luxury of putting seven mics
on and choosing the best one. And
it also comes from that whole ethos
of making a decision. I often use two
mics on a guitar and blend the two
sounds. But every single decision has
to be made based on what you’re
listening to. I don’t believe in, say,
using the same microphone on every
bass because it’s a bass – you have
to listen to the tone and chose the
appropriate tool.
It’s interesting you mention bass,
because you tend to use it to plug
the gaps in most of your mixes and
create a kind of soft, warm filling.
Why do you prefer that approach?
The bass is so important. It’s the
grounding of the song and sometimes
I feel it gets a little bit forgotten. So
I tend to listen to the natural note
of that instrument, and that’s the
part that I boost a little bit, then use
everything else within that one tone
to support that one note. When I’m
mixing, I’ll listen to the whole song and
just be focusing on the bass to make
sure I can hear every single note.
But even then, a lot of your rock
and punk stuff has so much punch,
like the Peep Tempel records. How
do create that kick?
Choosing the right microphone
for every single singer and a great
performance of a good song. My God,
we blow up about five amps on every
record that [The Peep Tempel] do –
that’s how we get those tones. We
just drive them too hard, and we’re
always ringing up techs saying, “We
blew up the amp again, can you have
it fixed by 10am?”
66 | TESTING 123
POSITIVEGRID BIASHEAD
ONE OF THE PREMIERE AMP SIMULATION COMPANIES BRINGS THEIR POPULAR TECHNOLOGY TO YOU IN A
CAB-FRIENDLY FORMAT. ALEX WILSON CHECKS IT OUT.
TIME TO GET CONNECTED
The front plate contains tried-and-
true gain, EQ and master volume
controls. The extras are in the upper
row, where the BIAS amp settings
can be tweaked. 25 classic amp
simulations are accessible, and can
be customised based by gain stage,
power amp and cabinet simulation.
The back plate contains stereo outs
(balanced and unbalanced), a speaker
jack, headphone jack, MIDI sockets,
footswitch inputs, and an effects loop.
The BIAS Head can run as a
soundcard via a USB connection and
also has wireless capability when
Bluetooth-paired with Positive Grid’s
iPad software. Be aware that the
Bluetooth capability will be necessary
to access the program’s GUI when
you’re away from your computer.
A TONE-WORLD ON THE GO
Overall, the above capability
TOP 5 FEATURES
• Wide array of high-quality amp and cab
emulations
• 600-watt Class D power amp, suitable for an
8-ohm cab
• Extensive connectivity options for live and
studio use
• Zero-latency processing
• Amp-matching technology for capturing and
storing sounds
| australianguitarmag.com.au
indicates that Positive Grid have most
bases covered, whether onstage or
in a studio setting. The simulations
themselves definitely numerous — once
you’ve sampled all of the classics that
the unit comes with, it’s easy enough
to log onto Positive Grid’s online
ToneCloud platform and explore an
infinite world of guitar tone. Or, you
may choose to dive into BIAS yourself
and start creating your own amps from
scratch, digital valve by digital vale.
Or, you may choose to take advantage
of the hardware’s tone-matching
technology, creating a tone print of
your favourite valve gear and taking it
with you as a patch. In terms of sheer
possibility, there’s a huge amount of
ground to cover. This is a definite plus
when it’s packed in a unit so compact.
A MODEL CITIZEN
The tube emulations themselves
perform to a high standard. Each
WHAT WE RECKON
PROS
Compact, sleek and lightweight
Highly versatile and usable
Good sound quality
setting I explored would easily yield a
usable sound that I could see pleasing
a live audience or finding a place
in a well-mixed studio recording.
The reality is that this is the era of
companies like Kemper, Fractal and,
indeed, Positive Grid. The technology
for faithfully recreating appealing
guitar tones without the need for
heavy analog hardware has advanced
to an impressive point, a fact very well
exhibited by the sounds available in
the BIAS Head. One thing I disliked was
the lack of any stompbox emulations.
As an owner of Positive Grid’s BIAS FX
desktop software, I know they have this
technology, and it would be nice for
some of those options to be available
in the BIAS head. This would only add
to its flexibility and compactness.
Of course, there will be tube fanatics
that claim to hear a difference. They’ll
be right in some cases: at times, I felt
a nagging something lacking and I
CONS
Lack of onboard stompbox-style effects
No onboard display for on-the-fly access to the
software
$2,352 RRP
suspect the culprit was the absence of
tubes. However, I think it’s important to
be pragmatic here. These are rarefied
feelings that come from guitarists who
obsess over gear. It’s important to
remember that your average listener
or live punter may not care that much
for your beloved analog warmth.
THE BOTTOM LINE
There are undoubtedly situations
where this unit would be the obvious
purchase. You could be a project studio
owner that wants an array of amps
on hand without breaking the bank
or adding unwanted latency in the
signal chain. You could be a gigging
musician that wants a lightweight and
flexible solution to your diverse tonal
needs. There’s a good chance you
could be both, too, and the BIAS Head
really shines as being able to provide
excellent sound, with tremendous
value for money, in both situations.
CONTACT
LINK AUDIO
(03) 8373 4817
www.linkaudio.com.au

STEINBERGUR22 MKIIRECORDINGPACK
SETTING UP A HOME STUDIO CAN BE DAUNTING. STEINBERG TAKES SOME OF THE STRESS OUT OF IT.
BY PETER HODGSON
O
ne of the most daunting
things about setting up
a home studio is figuring
out what goes with what. System
compatibility can be a big problem,
and the prices can be kind of a
downer. Steinberg has made both
of these concerns a little easier by
bundling three products together
with all associated cordage. They call
it the UR22 mkII Recording Pack.
NICE PACKAGE
The UR22 mkII Recording Pack
starts with – surprise surprise – the
Steinberg UR22 mkII interface. It
allows you to record and compose
music in studio quality, with
24-bit/192kHz recording quality,
connections for electric guitars
and basses via a Hi-Z switch, plus
connection for MIDI gear such as
drum pads and controllers. It has two
Class-A D-PRE mic preamps, a mix
TOP 5 FEATURES
• Great quality mic
• High quality mic preamps
• Hi-Z input for guitar and bass
• Great headphones
• iPad compatible
knob to select between DAW or input
monitoring, separate phones’ output
level control and more. And it’s not
just for your computer; connect it to
an iPad in CC mode with either the
Camera Connection Kit or Lightning-
to-USB Camera Adapter.
Next, you’ll need something to get
acoustic sound into the interface.
Steinberg includes an ST-M01
studio condenser microphone, a
high-sensitivity and wide-frequency
response mic designed to cover a
lot of ground, including vocals and
acoustic guitar. A low-noise cable
is included, as is a mic clip. So you
can hear what you’re doing, there’s
a pair of ST-H01 studio monitor
headphones included, which are
designed to provide an accurate,
sonically true and neutral signal
listening experience that is perfect
for monitoring your performance
during recording or for mixing
WHAT WE RECKON
PROS
All in one box
Great sounding mic
Useful software options
when you don’t have access to a set
of full studio monitors.
Steinberg also includes plenty of
software to do your actual recording
into: Cubase AI (a music production
software combining audio and MIDI
recording, editing and mixing),
Cubasis LE (a compact version of
Steinberg’s streamlined, multi-touch
sequencer for the iPad) and WaveLab
LE, a dedicated audio editor and
mastering package.
GET MOBILE
This is a great easy-setup system
for home recording, especially if
you’re a soloist or you lay down a lot
of ideas by yourself one track at a
time. It’ll handle a few instruments
at once, but you might be pushing
the limits of the R22 mkII – not to
mention the one included mic – if you
try to record a full band. That said,
the mic preamps sound great and the
CONS
Only one headphone out
| 67
$449 RRP
mic itself is very handy as a multi-
purpose unit. You might even find
yourself enjoying it for guitar cabs
more than, say, the venerable Shure
SM57, since this mic won’t give you
that upper-mid bite that some players
love and some do everything to dial
out. Personally, I really appreciated
the ability to hook the system up to
my iPad Pro for recording in different
parts of the house, away from my
monitors, amp and keyboards. It was
nice to sit in the back yard and strum
out a few song sketches for the birds
and unappreciative neighbours.
THE BOTTOM LINE
This is a great setup for the
beginner or hobbyist, or those who
want a satellite system to take with
them in low-footprint situations.
It’s also more than enough for
podcasters: especially when you
consider the included software.
CONTACT
YAMAHA AUSTRALIA
(03) 9693 5111
au.yamaha.com
68 | HOME RECORDING

WALL TO WALL
ROB LONG PERFECTS THE ART OF THE HOME STUDIO

T
hese days, many recordings
are being made in small
spaces – people’s homes,
garages, sheds – pretty much
wherever they can get away with it.
The standards of home recording
have of course grown exponentially
over the last twenty years, largely
due to the digital revolution, and
high quality audio interfaces and
super-fast computers are now
available on a modest budget.
With a decent, well-chosen mic
or two, some good speakers and
headphones, and a healthy mix of
talent and enthusiasm, it’s possible
to get some amazing results with
a pretty basic setup. Eventually,
though, you’ll either want to expand
your setup or overcome limitations
that present themselves over time.

SOUND IDEAS: A LOOK

INTO ACOUSTICS 101
Without a doubt, the biggest
limitation of recording at home is
the room itself. Home studios are
unfortunately fraught with sonic
challenges due to the behavior
of sound waves in small and
untreated spaces, combined with
environmental sounds that impact
on the recording. Parallel walls
combined, low ceilings and lots of
hard surfaces make for a cocktail
of audio disaster. The cost of
dealing with room issues often far
outweighs the cost of buying the
recording gear. Ask anyone who’s
ever ventured into building a pro
or semipro studio and they’ll tell
you, the rooms are by far the most
expensive part!
As well as this, there are several
common mistakes that people
make when setting up their
recording spaces. The first error
is confusing ‘acoustic treatment’
with soundproofing. While related,
they are two very different beasts.
Soundproofing deals with isolating
the studio from the outside world.
This is a major undertaking requiring
specialised building techniques
and lots of cash, unless you live in
the middle of nowhere. Acoustic
treatment deals with sound
reflections and frequency balance
within the room. This is more
manageable, though it still takes a
lot of research and experimentation.
ABOVE:
CONTROL ROOM
RIGHT:
ABSORBERS
Another misnomer is setting up
the space so that it “looks cool” with
little regards to the acoustics. The
kneejerk reaction to this is installing
lots of acoustic treatment that
only treats mid to high frequencies
(i.e. above 250hz). The result is an
unnaturally dead-sounding space
that still exhibits the same ‘boom’
and uneven frequency response as
a totally untreated room – if not
worse. Virtually nothing will sound
good in a room like this.
Acoustic design at its highest
level requires university training
and years of experience. A true
study is obviously way beyond the
scope of any short article, but let’s
get an overview and look at some
basic conventions and methods to
improve a simple setup without totally
breaking the budget.
SIZE MATTERS, BUT…
The dream, of course, is a spacious
room with high ceilings, timber

| australianguitarmag.com.au

ABOVE:
SPEAKER STANDS
BELOW LEFT:
WORK THE ANGLES
flooring and natural light, isolated
from the rest of the dwelling, street
noise and neighbours, yet still
accessible. A lot to ask for in high-
density urban living!
You may or may not have much
choice here. If it’s a one-room set
up, a bedroom or a shed, chances
are there’s little you can do to alter
it structurally. But where possible,
use the largest room available – not
just from a viewpoint of being able
to fit lots of gear and people in, but
primarily because larger rooms are
more versatile and sonically forgiving.
Home studios tend to be all about
compromise, but on the bright side,
two things give hope and perspective:
1. There is no such thing as a
‘perfect sounding’ room.
2. Any room can be improved with
judicious acoustic treatment.
| 69
But before you dive in, it’s best
to have a good listen to your room
before applying any treatment –
that way, you know what you’re
dealing with. Once you’ve chosen
your room and cleared it out of
everything unnecessary, it’s time to
measure up the dimensions.
THE 38% RULE
A clever chap named Wes Lachot
set out a guide which states that a
position 38 percent distanced from
either the front or rear wall of a
rectangular room will exhibit the
flattest bass response. So, placing
your listening chair 38 percent of
the room’s length back from the
front wall is a good starting point.
Generally in a rectangular room,
it’s best to set things up so that
the monitors are facing down the
longest wall of the room. This gives
you more room for the speakers
to throw before hitting the rear
wall, and provides more space for
listeners and performers to hang out
in the monitor’s firing line.
Next, you want to position your
speakers to form an equilateral
triangle with your listening position.
The size of your room will inform
the size of the triangle you are able
to form. While you’re at it, look
at isolating your speakers from
whatever surface they are on to
minimise vibration transfer. Speaker
stands are a good option, as are
monitor isolation pads which create
a buffer between the monitors and
the desk. Your tweeters should be
aimed at ear level.
70 | HOME RECORDING
The next challenge is to see how
the speakers interact with the side
walls. “Early reflections” are caused
by sound bouncing back off nearby
surfaces, which can impede clarity
and imaging, and confuse focus
when monitoring. As well as this,
omnidirectional bass frequencies
will travel out from the speakers
in a sphere-like shape. Some of
the energy which hits the wall will
reflect back towards the speakers.
This can cause comb filtering
and phase cancellation – thus,
it’s necessary to experiment with
monitor positioning and placing
acoustic treatment on adjacent walls
to tame reflections.
SYMMETRY
Keeping things as symmetrical as
possible is paramount. Both speakers
need to travel the same distance to
your ears and project across the same
surfaces and contours as they travel
through and around the room. All of
the reflections should be identical
on both sides. This can be tricky if
you have an immovable structural
item like a window, door or built in
cupboard halfway down the room
on one side but not the other. You
don’t want obstacles casting ‘acoustic
shadows’. Even hanging instruments
on the walls, or placing rack cases on
one side but not the other will impact
how sound reflects in your space.
ROOM MODES
Every enclosed space has naturally
occurring resonances at certain
frequencies, as dictated by the
room’s dimensions. For example, a
room five metres long would have a
resonant frequency of around 35Hz.
Multiples of 35Hz (70, 105, etc.)
| australianguitarmag.com.au
will also resonate. In basic terms,
this means that these frequencies
will be boosted unnaturally. You
can imagine how complex things
can get – especially if you have the
unfortunate situation of a square or
cubic room. Software analysers (e.g.
XTZ Room analyser) are available to
help test for room modes.
GOT IT CORNERED
As far as absorbing low
frequencies in a simple and cost-
effective way, nothing is easier and
more effective than installing corner
bass traps. Bass frequencies build
up in corners, and remember that
a rectangular room actually has 12
corners – four wall-to-wall, four wall-
to-floor and four wall-to-ceiling.
Next in line for treatment is the
rear wall. As bass wavelengths are
so long and powerful, the rear wall
of your studio may well exhibit a low
frequency build up and need some
trapping to firstly absorb the excess
low frequencies, and also to stop
the reflecting back into the room
towards the speakers.
DIFFUSION CONFUSION
Dealing with mid-to-high
frequencies is a delicate matter, as
mentioned previously. You don’t
want to eradicate these frequencies
and their reflections, you just want
to be able to control them. Acoustic
absorbers are designed to transfer
sound energy into heat, and thus
remove a percentage of certain
frequencies from the room entirely.
Diffusers, on the other hand,
scatter the sound waves and their
reflections in all directions but leave
some ambience in the room. Most
studios employ a mix of both.
ABOVE: DANCING ON THE
CLOUD CEILING
You may have heard the adage,
“Hard floors, soft ceilings”, and
visiting a few professional facilities,
you will soon see that this approach
is very common. Think of it this way
– everywhere you go, the floor is the
same distance from your ears. This is
" BOTH SPEAKERS obviously not the case with ceilings.
People use information received from
NEED TO TRAVEL THE reflected sound off nearby surfaces
constantly as a reference point.
SAME DISTANCE TO Reflections off the floor also provide
YOUR EARS AND a familiar and pleasant ambience,
especially with acoustic instruments.
PROJECT ACROSS THE In small rooms, the microphone
can often be closer to the ceiling
SAME SURFACES AND than the floor when recording
vocals. The reflections bounce back
CONTOURS AS THEY towards the singer and the mic
causing comb filtering, which
TRAVEL THROUGH results in an unnatural and hollow
AND AROUND THE sound. Ceilings can be treated in
numerous ways: installing ceiling
ROOM." tiles, buying or building a ceiling
cloud, or in creative ways like
hanging an old parachute up.
The extent of your setup and
conversion will obviously depend on
a myriad of factors – your budget,
the amount and type of usage, how
long you expect to live/work where
you are, and so forth. Tackling
acoustics is a serious – but necessary
– undertaking if you want balanced
sounding recordings and mixes. Start
slow, and improve as you go!
Rob Long is a
multi-instrumentalist and producer working
@FunkyLizardStudios in Newcastle.
72 |

COLLINGS D1
DREADNOUGHT
ACOUSTIC
GUITAR
DOES THIS AUSTIN CREATION HAVE TRUE GRIT, OR IS IT A TEXAS
CHAINSAW MASSACRE? CRAIG CARROLL CHECKS THE SPURS.

BIGGER AND BETTER IN TEXAS

Out of that beautiful velvet green
case, you get a waft of vanilla and
wood – it smells like a homewares
shop. The construction of the
instrument is second to none, and
the design is simple and understated.
Notable attractions are the faux
tortoise shell binding (which matches
the pickguard) and the open gear
tuners that might remind you of an
old watch. The wood is flawless in
selection, and the nitro lacquering is
not too thick or overly shiny, with the
basic lined top purfling black /white/
black/white and black/white rosette
having little show power, but the
ability to stand the test of time.
In the hand, the modified V neck is
a comfortable fit, and it entices you
to throw your thumb over to hit those
base strings when strumming chords. That said, playing
lead notes further up the neck is a bit of a hindrance,
forcing your hand to press harder on the back of the neck –
the action is slightly too high for it as well. The ebony neck
that comes PLEK-machined and hand-dressed feels silky
under the fingers. The neck material matching the back and
sides is mahogany, which is nice compared to other name
brands – such as Martin – who now use select hardwoods
(usually Spanish cedar) due to dwindling supplies.

AUSTINITE DELIGHT
The sitka spruce soundboard – being stiffer than the
not-as-commonly-used cedar top – won’t give you the
pronounced sparkle and string separation for fingerstyle
guitar playing, but that isn't really what this dreadnought
is designed for. When paired with the mahogany back
and sides, standard scale mahogany neck and scalloped
X-bracing, you feel the full power of this guitar when
strumming chords. Belting out a power ballad on the D1 is
epic – perfect for any singer onstage when miked or playing
at home. Playing at volume requires little effort, and
harmonics ring with plenty of sustain. Overall, the sound
is saturated, full and deep in the bass, chimey in the highs,
and delivers plenty of sustain and smoothness in the mids.
The Modified V neck is great for bluegrass and
fingerstyle playing in the lower frets, using your thumb
to play the bass notes while plucking the melody on the
higher strings – although it becomes a hindrance when
playing higher up the neck.

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 | 73

IN-DEPTH sitkar spruce top is a scalloped X-brace also

made of sitkar spruce. The ebony belly-style
SPECIFICATIONS bridge has 56mm spacing and features different
Bill Collings couldn’t deny his engineering family appointments to the Martin Dreadnought.
roots, quitting medical school in the ’70s to For instance, the bridge pins are made from
pursue his passion of building guitars. 40 years ebony rather than plastic, which may be argued
later, his meticulous and curious mind has led doesn’t last as long since plastic can tend to
him to create not only acoustic guitars, but morph into the wood after time from wear and
also archtops, electric guitars, ukuleles and tear. The bridge saddle is constructed from
mandolins, all in Austin, Texas. There is also an bone rather than corian, which some debate
offshoot production line (Waterloo: derived from effects the transference of sound, and that
Austin’s original name) that produces depression- bone is slightly superior.
era inspired guitars that are worth a look.
Finally, we can’t forget the beautiful included
Collings acoustic guitars come in a wide variety hard case that is made to measure at Callings,
of shapes and sizes, each with customisable featuring quality clasps and lined with soft
options. There are 15 base models in total, olive green felt.
starting from the smallest baby models all the
way up to baritone styles and 12-stringers.
The D1 replicates the commonly copied C.F.
BEST IN THE HANDS OF
Martin and Co. popular dreadnought shape, The dreadnought size constructed with the
deriving the moniker after a class of World War common spruce top and mahogany back and
I British battleships to describe the guitar's sides delivers a large bass response with ease.
larger body and squarer shoulders. Guitars in It's perfect for strummers who want more
the early 1900s were commonly smaller in size, volume, and for vocal accompaniment or
although the dreadnought proved popular with competing with louder acoustic instruments such
country players who needed to compete with the as banjos and fiddles. It's possible to bend the
volumes of banjo and fiddle players. The '1' in strings on the smooth ebony neck and medium
the model name denotes the base model of the nickel frets, but you can’t go too crazy on it. So,
five in this series, featuring the tried and true think more about throwing your thumb over that
sitka spruce top with Honduran mahogany back V neck to hit the bass notes, fingerstyle playing
and sides and ebony neck. More fancier models or bluegrass flatpicking than bluesy bending.
give you animal protein glue, rosewood back
and sides, abalone inlays, fancier bindings and WHY IT’S ON THE
purflings, and more wood upgrades than a golf
shop should you wish to spend the dough.
TOP SHELF
Collings’ impeccable build quality, materials
Overall, the total length is 122 mm; the body
and beautiful prominent sound is a perfect
length is 508mm and it's 124mm deep. The lower
accompaniment for any singer or guitar player.
bout is 397mm wide. The headstock is a nod
The faux tortoise shell binding, open tuning gears,
to Martin with its no-nonsense flat end, which
ebony bridge and bridge pins are an understated,
is capped with stained ebony with a mother of
yet tasteful touch that all contribute to enhance
pearl Collings logo nicely adorned with nickel
the look and quality. A great investment piece to
Waverly open tuners with a 16:1 ratio. The
be handed down through the generations.
D’Addario EJ-17 (.013”- .056”) strings feed over
a bone 43mm nut along the 648mm ebony
fingerboard dressed in Medium nickel-silver frets
that join the body at the 14th fret. The mahogany
neck is a deep V contour widening slightly to
44mm with a depth of 22mm at the first fret
and increasing to 52mm wide and 24mm deep
at the ninth fret. The 356-660mm compound
radius fingerboard is attached to the body with a
mortise and tenon hybrid neck joint with a fully
adjustable truss rod hidden inside.
The body is bound with faux tortoise shell that
matches the pickguard, with simple black and
white lined purflings also on the rosette. On the
reverse is a walnut backstrip.
Under the high-gloss nitrocellulose lacquered

WHY YOU’RE PROBABLY WHAT YOU SHOULD PRICE: $5,495 AUD

GOING TO WANT IT CONSIDER FIRST
Flawless build quality that would suit those who like It could be just a little too pricey when compared
an understated design. It's built to last for those to other brands of almost comparable quality. It's CONTACT
strumming and fingerstyle players who would like definitely worth testing out some other brands to
a long-term investment piece and are after that see if this bang for buck is worth it for you. Also, the GLADESVILLE GUITAR FACTORY
prominent dreadnought sound. The included Collings modified V shape neck isn't really suited for playing (02) 9817 2173
made-to-fit case has quality second to none. leads up the neck. guitarfactory.net
74 |
MESA/BOOGIE TRIPLE
CROWN TC-50 GUITAR
AMPLIFIER HEAD
WHAT’S NEW AND GOOD IN THE LATEST FLAGSHIP PRODUCT FROM THE CALIFORNIAN AMP HEAVYWEIGHTS?
ALEX WILSON WEIGHS IN.
TIME TO BOOGIE
Although I’m meant to be an objective journalist,
I’ll admit that it’s easy to get excited unboxing
this latest head from MESA/Boogie, not least
because it exudes heritage and class simply from
its sleek, classic-looking design. Tellingly, there
are also subtle cues in the Triple Crown’s classy
design that suggest the company’s intention for
the amp. The channel LEDs — yellow for clean, blue
for low gain and red for high gain — mirror those
of a Bogner Ecstasy, evoking the classiness and
tonal excellence of high-end boutique designs. Yet
MESA/Boogie are one of the biggest amp makers
of all time. Reading the Triple Crown’s official hype
sheet – replete with breathless claims of both
versatility and matchless tone – one can’t help but
think of Marshall’s controversial JVM line.
Have the savvy Californians solved the triangle
of tone, flexibility and price? In short: yes. The
Triple Crown has the potential to appeal to tube
snobs as well as the pragmatic player looking for
a jack of all trades. And the comparison to the
Mother Country’s amp of choice is especially apt,
because the Triple Crown’s answers to many of
| australianguitarmag.com.au
the player’s stock channel requirements have a
surprisingly British flavour.
THE ENGLISH CHANNEL(S)
Take the blue Lo channel, for example. The rich
overtones and sense of depth here are trademark
California crunch, but there’s a midrange push
that harks to Old Blighty. Flip the Drive switch
that comes on this channel and the mid hump
becomes more exaggerated, courting the extra
snarl and gain of a JCM 800. Exploring further
reveals a full-bodied and responsive overdrive. The
sound feels satisfyingly layered and complex no
matter the placement of the Gain knob. There’s a
natural-feeling tube compression as the saturation
increases, yet the channel remains dynamic,
always responding well to pick attack and nuances
in the fretting hand.
The yellow Clean channel also manifests a similar
versatility, able to project a chiming transparency on
the one hand, a bluesy push on the other, and most
in between as well. The base sound of the channel
feels close to what MESA’s Mark V was packing,
which will no doubt satisfy Petrucci fans. Finessing
the Gain knob up a little will add back some body
and spark to bring the amp into Fender territory. I
found that by switching the clean channel’s Drive
mode, I could conjure out the Triple Crown’s latent
Britishness. Set this way, the headroom feels
AC30-esque, with a richer harmonic midrange and
evocations of that famed Vox glassiness. Drive mode
will also suit lead guitar twiddlers; finding a sweet
spot to bring out your playing’s vocal and tonal
responsiveness isn't difficult.
At the other side of the spectrum is the red
Hi channel. Here, the Triple Crown stops walking
an Atlantic tightrope and plays to the company’s
American high-gain strengths. While it doesn’t
sound exactly like a Dual Rectifier, it’s certainly
got the sizzling top-end clarity and low-end depth
reminiscent of MESA’s ‘90s classic. However, I
found it much easier to dial in. Balancing the low
end against the presence control felt easy, and
interacted sympathetically with the copious gain
the Triple Crown dishes out. The amp really shines
for heavy rhythms, and the Tight switch seems to
clip the signal, pleasingly controlling dynamics to
make riffs pop behind the tube compression.
 | 75

IN-DEPTH SPECIFICATIONS
Aesthetically, the Triple Crown is a simple black amp design, the three front BEST IN THE HANDS OF
channels laid out in a pleasingly straightforward way. Six knobs and a switch per The MESA/Boogie Triple Crown is best in the hands of a guitarist who is willing
channel gives ample control without cluttering the front plate. Turn the thing to pay a little extra for a combination of quality sound and performance
around and you’ll see a bevy of options available for the picky player – it’s all versatility. If this amp’s sonic signature sounds appealing to you, and you’re
arranged in a very comprehensible fashion. Underneath the hood, this all-tube looking for a modern tube head that will bring the goods in the studio and on
Class A/B 50-watter is packing two EL-34s in the power stage, plus six 12AX7s and a stage, then the guitar wonks from Petaluma have put forward an extremely
a 12AT7 for the preamps. MESA/Boogie have opted to go for a fixed bias to assist strong contender with the Triple Crown.
with consistency and hassle-free performance, but have helpfully provided a Bias
Select switch to allow optimal operation with 6V6 or 6L6 power tubes.
WHY IT’S ON THE TOP SHELF
In addition to these excellent fundamentals, the Triple Crown comes with
The sheer number of options, the excellent tone and high-grade components
several thoughtful and useful perks. There’s a tube reverb onboard that can
and build add up to a fairly hefty price tag. It’s certainly not the most expensive
be individually assigned to each of the channels. There’s also XLR and Line Out
amp on the market, but it’s in the ballpark.
outputs that can be used for cab-free live
performance or studio recording. Although
one is obliged to use one of MESA’s three
CabClone sims on the XLR out, I was pleased
to find that the Line Out is free of this. The
many of us that like to add cabinet sims in the
box will benefit from being able to harness the
amp’s raw tone in this way.
In addition to an all-channel Master pot, there’s
also an all-channel solo boost. The boosts, the
reverb and any other feature relevant to live
performance are foot-switchable, as well as
assignable to the any of the 256 MIDI presets
that the Triple Crown can handle. I haven’t
covered every single feature of the Triple
Crown, but MESA/Boogie have clearly gone
all-out to ensure that this head won’t come up
wanting in either a live or studio setting.

WHY YOU’RE PROBABLY WHAT YOU SHOULD PRICE: $3,999 AUD

GOING TO WANT IT CONSIDER FIRST
If you’ve ever yearned to have both American Ultimately, you need to play this beast and
and British rock sounds under your feet without decide whether its signature sound palette is CONTACT
having to enter the digital realm, you definitely right for you. It’s also worth considering the wide
need to give the Triple Crown a serious look. array of digital guitar processors and heads on PRO AUDIO SUPPLIES
the market, which can provide similar flexibility (02) 6249 7766
for a cheaper price tag. proaudio.com.au
76 | TECHNIQUE
BLUES AND BEYOND WITH ADRIAN WHYTE

COLUMN AUDIO AT
AUSTRALIANGUITARMAG.COM.AU

“BERRY B. GOODE”
R
ecently, we saw the passing of = 120
rock’n’roll legend Chuck Berry,
and although past his prime, Ex 1 Ex 2

the man did what he did almost right 1 2 3 4

up until his death. This month. we look E-Gt

at the bold – yet subtle – genius of this
late and great guitar hero!
full
In my opinion, The greatest
6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 8 6
geniuses don’t generally create 6 8 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 9 8 6
a completely new thing, but help 7 8

evolve or push the boundaries of

something pre-existing. With this in
Ex 3 Ex 4
mind, there are a plethora of great
5 6 7 8
blues and jazz players prior to Chuck
Berry that used similar ideas, but it’s
the subtle pauses, slides and overall
intensity of Chuck’s playing that full full full full full
makes his style very much… Well, his
style. Let’s look at this in more detail. 6 6 6 6 6
9 8 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
8 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 5 3 8 8 8 8 8
5
All exercises recorded at 120 BPM.

EXERCISE 1
It’s no secret here that I’m drawing
some of Chuck Berry’s ideas from
the jewel in his guitar playing crown: Ex 5 Rake Ex 6
“Johnny B. Goode”. A good listen to 9 10 11

his works will show that his ideas

are pretty consistent, and a good
study of these licks will provide a
great insight into his playing. Take
this exercise here – double stops, as
we call them, were invented before
Chuck Berry, but take note of the
slides on every third double stop
(two note grouped licks) in Bar 2.
Here is the first point I would point
out when hailing this guitar legend.
Those slides accentuate a completely
different pulse over the typical ‘four
on the floor’ feel of rock’n’roll. Listen
carefully to the example provided to
capture this, or simply pay attention
to the slide markings in the tab.
EXERCISE 2
In this exercise, you’ll see the
way Berry effortlessly shifts from
bends to almost jazz-like lines.
These notes form a Bb mixolydian.
Take special note of the hammer
on from the sixth fret on the third
string to the seventh fret, marking
the shift between a minor sound and
a major sound. That right there is
the key to making your mixolyidian
scale sound like rock’n’roll by using
the outside note and hammering
into that seventh fret. You’ll notice
an accidental or flat symbol in the
3
6
6 9
7 7
notation – take this as a hint!
EXERCISE 3
This lick looks remarkably like a
G minor pentatonic lick, because in
actual fact, it is! Here, we see a Bb
major pentatonic lick that coincides
with a more typical application
as a minor pentatonic lick when
considered from the point of G. Don’t
get it? Okay, learn yourself a good ol’
G minor pentatonic and you’ll notice
it has the same notes as are in this
lick. Or simpler still, check out a Bb
major pentatonic.
EXERCISE 4
These aggressive bends and double
stops are so Chuck Berry, they could
have been called Chuck Berries!
The genius here – aside from the
expression – is also in the timing of
the notes. He had a way of playing
clever rhythms that were way ahead
8 6
8 6 7 6
8 8
of his time, which were essentially
odd timings that resolved over an
even number of bars. Use the example
tracks to get the timing right.
EXERCISE 5
Again, we use the mixolydian
based idea, but the cool thing here
is the rake leading into the second
beat. These notes are essentially the
tip of a Bb major chord. You’ll need
to dig the pick into the strings, roll
your fingers though the three notes
one at time and drag or ‘rake’ the
pick across the strings. It’s really
difficult, and I recommend slowing
it right down and getting the timing
when you press the strings as you
roll across to match the pick strike.
EXERCISE 6
Double stop licks here with the
hammer on requires a bit of finger
mashing. Tricky stuff. I barre my
6 8 6
7 8 6 7
8
8
first finger on the six, hammer my
second finger on the seven and my
third finger plays the eighth fret
before I roll it straight down on the
double stop following. As with all
exercises, hearing the lick will help
you a lot, so check out the tracks.
SUMMARY
The coolest thing about Chuck
Berry is that he was fun. He sounded
fun, his lyrics were fun, and the
guitar work is fun. Music is meant
to be entertaining, to tell a story,
and generally just transform the
moment into something else – in
that regard, Chuck Berry is one
legend that deserves all the kudos
he received. A life well lived and
well received. Hopefully he is resting
peacefully under a tree by the
railroad track, strumming to the
rhythm that the driver made… Well,
you get the picture!

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 Samantha ‘Andrew’ Bennett
Band: Glitoris
SB Signature Model ‘Glitterbomb’

Exclusively available through

Better Music / Pro Audio Supplies
www.bettermusic.com.au

VAN CECU ST OMGUI TA R S .C O M

Photo by Martin Ollman
78 | TECHNIQUE
LEAD WORK WITH PETER HODGSON
COLUMN AUDIO AT
AUSTRALIANGUITARMAG.COM.AU

SOLOING STRATEGIES
THE ART OF THE STRING SKIP
O
ne of my favourite players 1
is Nuno Bettencourt
because his playing is
funky, rhythmic, solid, and his
phrasing is spectacular. For me he
falls into that category of great
lead players who are even greater
rhythm players, and you can learn
a hell of a lot from his riffery. But
this particular column is about a
technique he often employs in his 2
leads, and it’s something he shares
in common with Eric Johnson, a very
different player: string skipping.
String skipping is exactly what it
sounds like: skipping over a string
when you’re playing a sequence of
notes. Why do this? Well it breaks
up the monotony and enforces a
wider intervallic leap than if you
were simply running up and down, 3
blasting your way through every
string in order. There are two
ways I like to use string skipping
in my playing. One is designed to
really draw attention to the leap
in intervals by playing a repeating
pattern for a sort of sequencer vibe.
The other is more freeform. Let’s
look at examples of each.
4
SEQUENCER-STYLE
Figure 1 offers two variations (a
major and a minor) on a pattern I use
a lot. This is a good one for building
up dexterity. In Figure 2 you’ll see it
repeated faster. You’ll also notice that
in both of these examples there is no
suggested articulation: try alternate-
picking these exercises with a focus 5
on nice even dynamics. Once you’ve
got that down, explore different
dynamics, such as picking harder on
the highest note of the sequence.
Figure 3 offers two ways to break
out of the rigidity of the pattern to
make it a little more expressive.
In the first bar of this figure, we’re
hammering on/pulling off everything
other than the first note on each evolved out of a particular lick in great for enhancing with hammers, the lick rises, and that jump from
string. This gives it a more flowing, Eric Johnson’s “Manhattan”. What I slides and taps. the A note on the 14th fret of the
liquid vibe. In the second bar we’re like about this one is that it covers I also like to bring the two G string to the C# on the 14th fret
sliding the notes on the B string such a wide range of pitch that it approaches together. Figure 5 is of the B string, while note a string
instead of hammering them. This has a real ‘floating’ vibe (especially more of an ‘up and down’ thing skip, is a wide enough interval to lift
version always cracks me up because with the Lydian mode that it but I stumbled upon this one while the melody even further. This one
it kind of reminds me of a slide employs), which is further enhanced searching for a melody, and it has sounds great with some delay too.
whistle. I’m easily amused. by the fact that it doesn’t go all the a really alien kind of vibe that I Come up with your own string-
way back down to the lowest note wouldn’t have hit upon if I was skipping patterns and see where
FREEFORM-STYLE at the end. The string-skip supports adhering to a specific scale when I they take you. They can be a
Figure 4 is based on a pattern the higher notes rather than defines wrote it. Again the low notes set up great rut-buster when it comes to
I’ve been using for years now, which the whole melodic contour. It’s also a kind of bed from which the rest of creating new melodies and riffs.

| australianguitarmag.com.au
 | 79
SHREDDED METAL WITH JIMMY LARDNER-BROWN

COLUMN AUDIO AT
AUSTRALIANGUITARMAG.COM.AU

THE DEAL
H
i folks. For this issue, instead 1
of looking at a bunch of
individual shred exercises,
I thought it would be cool to show
you one of my own complete solos.
The song is called “The Deal”, and
it’s from Sydney power/thrash band
Darker Half’s latest EP, Classified.
This is a moderately paced and
brooding track, and lyrically, it’s
about vampires and aliens. I tried to
capture that same feel with my solo.

EXERCISE 1
I’ve transcribed the full 16-bar
solo, and everything you need to
know is in the transcription (bends,
slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs,
right hand tapping, positioning,
rhythms, chords, etc.). Here are a
few key points to note:

• Although the majority of the song

is in the key of E minor, the solo
section here is in F# minor.

• The main scale used throughout

is F# Natural minor (Aeolian).
However, there are brief periods
where the tonality shifts to F#
Harmonic minor (Bar 8) and F#
Dorian (Bar 11).

• In Bar 11, after the bend-release-

bend, keep holding the bend and
tap the 22nd fret with your right
hand (this will sound like an E
note). Then, flick off with your
right hand and release the bend.

• Coincidentally, in this solo I used

some of the unconventional
tapping techniques that I
discussed in the previous issue
(AG #120). These occur in Bar 14
(repeatedly sliding into a note
with your left hand whilst tapping
the same note with your right
hand), and Bar 16 (doing a right • This solo was improvised in the
hand tap and then a left hand studio. I jammed for a bit until I
pull-off on the same fret in rapid recorded something that I was
succession). happy with for the first half. I then
jammed a bit more, worked out
• I feel that this solo is a good a few things, and punched in to
example of playing for the song in finish it off.
a metal context. Crazy shredding
wouldn’t have been suitable –
melodic playing is what was You can listen to my solo from “The Deal” – as well as the full seven minute
needed, with only the occasional track so you can hear it in context – over at australiangutarmag.com.au.
technical flourish. If you dig it, try learning the licks and playing along!
80 | TECHNIQUE

MUSICAL CONCEPTS FOR GUITAR WITH REG BARBER

COLUMN AUDIO AT
AUSTRALIANGUITARMAG.COM.AU

THE POWER OF THE ARPEGGIO

I
n this issue, we’re looking at
resolving phrases to major chord
tones in the two most commonly 1
used CAGED positions. We’ll start off by
mapping out patterns based on the E
and A forms of the CAGED system. This
has been done so you can see – and
more importantly, hear – the notes
belonging to the chord, the notes
belonging to the pentatonic scale, and 2
all of the notes in the key. Often we
learn patterns without really knowing
or understanding where the notes that
belong to the chord we’re playing over
actually are. Learning arpeggios helps
us create phrases that sound musical
and resolve – it’s like putting a full stop
at the end of a sentence.

EXERCISE 1
Firstly, Exercise #1 outlines the C
major barre chord in an E major form.
The next bar outlines the C major
arpeggio in this position. It’s easier
to continue this pattern in a diagonal
shape rather than going to the eighth
fret on the high E string, but we want
all of these patterns to work well
in an open position. The advantage 3
of memorising the patterns in this
way is that we can utilise a capo and
easily transpose songs when required.
The C major arpeggio shape is very
important for us to memorise, as we
are outlining the three notes of the
C major triad (C E G). These notes
are important because they are the
resolution notes – if we complete a
phrase on these notes, it will sound
like the phrase has finished. These
notes also work great as starting
points, as they belong to the chord
we are playing over.
The next bar contains the C major
pentatonic pattern. Some guitarists to the key of C major. It is a great Exercise #2 in the same way you did in the progression. If you repeat this
use this shape for most of their soloing idea to play through Exercise #1 from with the Exercise #1, making sure you exercise enough, it should become
ideas, and hopefully you’ll already start to finish on a loop. By doing this, can see where the chord tones and easier to create phrases in the relevant
know some phrases in this box shape you’re able to see exactly which notes pentatonic scale sit underneath all the positions. When we improvise phrases,
so we can build on what you already belong to the C major chord, which notes of the C major scale. This will we want to be able to resolve them
know. Play through this shape a few notes are added to create a pentatonic help you tp create musical phrases to a chord tone over the chord we
times and pay attention to which sound, and which notes are added to that resolve and sound like little are playing. We don’t always want to
notes belong to the C major arpeggio. complete the major scale sound. musical sentences or statements. resolve our phrases, but it is important
A great exercise is to try and resolve that we can. If possible, record this
each phrase to a note belonging to the EXERCISE 2 EXERCISE 3 progression as a loop and play through
C major chord. The same idea works Exercise #2 works in the same Exercise #3 is a simple three-chord Exercises #1 and #2 so you can hear
with the scale pattern in the last bar. way as Exercise #1, however Exercise progression in the key of C major. the notes of the A minor arpeggio,
The C Ionian mode, or major scale, #2 outlines the A major form of the Play through the exercise slowly – 60 pentatonic and modal pattern against
contains all of the notes that belong CAGED system. By mapping out these BPM to start with – so you can get the different chords. Then play through
to key of C major. There are seven of two forms, we can cover a fair amount the patterns under your fingers. The Exercise #3 as it is written, followed
them, and they are all naturals (no of the fretboard, from the twelfth fret idea here is to get used to hearing by an improvised phrase using the
sharps or flats) – and this is unique down to the third fret. Play through the notes surrounding each chord patterns from Exercises #1 and #2.

| australianguitarmag.com.au
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82 | CD REVIEWS
OP PICK
NORTHLANE
Mesmer
UNFD
A
fter
struggling
to find their
feet on 2015’s Node,
pseudo-djent warriors
Northlane have
stunningly perfected
their rebooted fusion
of hyper-experimental
prog rock and pit-
churning metalcore. Instantly are guitars heavier
and more restless – Josh Smith nails the rhythm
section with temperate baritone riffage, but lead
axeman Jon Deiley is downright f***ing remorseless
with a seven-string. Mesmer offers the two a scopic
canvas on which they wreak havoc: sepulchral
bends flood the sullen “Intuition”, while “Fade”
makes way for shimmering melodies and “Solar”
shines with a wah-tinged groove.
In a lot of ways, Mesmer feels like a welcome
step backwards in Northlane’s musical evolution
– it keeps the soaring atmospheric soundscapes
they explored on Node, but also reintroduces the
cold and callous breakdowns that made 2013’s
Singularity a future metalcore classic. Too, cuts like
“Veridian” and “Fade” dip into a louder, flashier
alt-rock vibe that fits the band like a glove – it’s a
cleaner sound than we’re used to, but never does
that undercut their otherwise carnal shredding.
Especially as they veer further into the arena scene,
we can see these more energetic tracks forming the
bulk of their live sets.
To that end, it’s worth staying put if Mesmer
doesn’t get your heart racing at first: the band unwind
more as the LP progresses, as if to gradually steer
the listener down a rabbit hole of better and more
interesting songs. It’s a first half marred by mundane
and monotonous jams made up for effortlessly by a
second half that expands upon everything Northlane
have showcased in a storied half-decade. Aided
by delicate synths and crisp, dynamic production
(courtesy of genre icon David Bendeth), Mesmer
presents the most confident, enthusiastic and,
powerfully so, deafening Northlane yet.
MATT DORIA
| australianguitarmag.com.au
ALI BARTER
A Suitable Girl
RONNIE RECORDS / INERTIA
Mid-twenties are
mostly
characterised by
people attempting
to become an adult
with a sense of self
while 1,000
different voices are
screaming at them
from every angle.
On her debut full-length, Ali Barter lays that
time of her life on the table, expressing
everything from elation to frustration to a
‘90s-esque dreamy, shiny and occasionally
gloomy power/grunge-pop soundtrack. A fair
chunk of A Suitable Girl chronicles her blunt,
sarcastic and, frankly, amusing reactions to a
world seen through a young feminist’s lens, but
this statement is just one part of the record. The
rest finds Barter fighting between the person
she is – shortcomings and all – and the person
she wants to be. Sometimes she stands strong,
and at others she lets out a barrage of emotions
that build up when feelings of isolation and the
uncertainties of adulthood are bearing down. It
all rolls along to the tune of juxtaposed pretty
pop vocals and dirty, warbly riffs that wrap the
record in a surrealist air. A Suitable Girl is one
hard hitting, but heavily polished (and often
hilarious) poke at the head and heart.
PETER ZALUZNY
GARY CLARK JR.
Live / North America 2016
WARNER BROS.
In the vinyl-centric
days of generations
past, the art of the
live album was one
hailed in particular
breadth. Absent was
the faculty to binge
on iPhone bootlegs
or gaudy spectacles
on Blu-Ray – rarely
did a showcase ever leave the stage, and when it
did, its hefty black wax issue was oft revered more
than whatever studio offerings fostered it. It’s with
this earnest love for such nostalgia that Gary Clark
Jr. captures the raw spirit of live soul and blues in
his second concert album, Live / North America
2016. Though culled from recordings of shows
played afront tens of thousands of fans, its back-
to-basics compositions washed over with cheers
and the gentle atmospherics of the stage impart a
warming sense of intimacy. Guitar solos are as
searing hot as they are abundant (very), but
equally poignant are the roaring choruses, hazy
bridges and snappy jam sections that wrap them.
The tracklist/setlist is mostly pulled from Jr’s 2015
album, The Story Of Sonny Boy Slim, and in a
soundscape unmarred by overdubs or clean
production, those cuts soar with every scratchy
riff and smoky twang. Jr’s versatility also shines
through in the album’s two penultimate covers,
“Honest I Do” (Jimmy Reed) and “My Baby’s Gone”
(Elmore James), which play a passionate tribute to
the blues greats of the past before bleeding into
the towering, smoky beast that is “Numb”. And
with a runtime just shy of 75 minutes, it’s hard not
to feel perfectly sated by the end of it all.
MATT DORIA
JUSTIN BERNASCONI
Barefoot Wonderland
MOUNTAIN KING / ROCKET
Not only does Justin
Bernasconi have
one of the most
elegant names in
country music
(seriously, say
‘Bernasconi’ out
loud – beautiful), he
has one of the most
soulful and down-
to-earth albums this side of the Hume Highway.
Barefoot Wonderland is decidedly simple in its
assembly, serene noodling and open-heart
verses favoured over high-energy riffage and
beefy production. To that extent, seven of its ten
cuts are wholly instrumental, five of those
finding Bernasconi riff tenderly on just a single
acoustic guitar. The standout slab is a Martin
HD-28 seven-stringer, which leaves its best – and
twangiest – impression whistling gloomily on the
slow, stinging “Melatonin”. Production (which
Bernasconi handled in solitary) is surprisingly
crisp, too, with sonic detail so finicky a keen ear
could even hear the Melbourne strummer’s
fingers brush up against his strings. Our only
advice is to spin Barefoot Wonderland in bursts:
the album wears thin pretty quickly when
listened to from start to finish, but with each
song given a chance to shine on its own, there’s
plenty of charm to unfurl.
MATT DORIA
AT THE DRIVE IN
in•ter a•li•a
RISE
The ferocious,
emotional and
unhinged At The
Drive In that penned
post-hardcore in the
‘90s have – a
whopping 17 years
since their last full-
length offering –
grown up and
brought things under control. That’s not to say
their comeback album, in•ter a•li•a, lacks punch,
energy and technical precision. It’s just that the
new album feels like it’s bursting at the seams
on the edge of destruction. 2000’s Relationship
Of Command, on the other hand, blew things to
bits at every opportunity. Command is an album
that gets better with every listen, and is worthy
of a pass that just focusses on an individual
intrument – listen to the bass on its own, for
example: pure tone and songwriting art at play.
Comparing it to in•ter a•li•a is unfair in a way,
but also it’s a comparison that’s inevitable as all
the other elements are classic At The Drive In –
frenetic song structures, strained screams and
wildly shifting time signatures ring out in a way
that’s true to their origins. But they also take
cues from the various projects that existed while
the band was on hiatus – particularly The Mars
Volta – so in•ter a•li•a doesn’t wind up simply
repeating the past. As reunion records go, it
feels like they’ve barely skipped a beat in their
discography, and at the end of the day, no one
really expected At The Drive In to still be a
blazing inferno. Even so, there’s still plenty of
fire left in the beast.
PETER ZALUZNY
84 | HOT GEAR

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The Ernie Ball CradleTune is a portable clip-on tuner and tripod neck cradle
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KEELEY FILAMENTS DISTORTION

JVB STRINGS TWIN PACKS
RRP: $265 | www.deluxeguitars.com.au
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Keeley Electronics have
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ERNIE BALL FLEXTUNE Bass and Treble controls
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l FlexTune is a high quality which boosts the ‘meat’
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| australianguitarmag.com.au
 | 85

LINE 6 HELIX LT
RRP: $1,899 | www.au.yamaha.com

Line 6 follows its revolutionary Helix with the LT guitar processor, featuring the same advanced HX
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ESP E-II M-II QM NT LIMITED EDITION AUSTRALIA EXCLUSIVE

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88 | REVIEWS
FENDER AMERICANPROFESSIONALSTRATOCASTER
IN A PERFECT WORLD, THERE’D BE A STRAT FOR EVERYONE. OH WAIT, HERE IT IS. BY PETER HODGSON
I
n some ways, the Fender Stratocaster is the
perfect platform for experimentation. That’s
why we have terms like ‘SuperStrat’, after all.
But the basic Stratocaster concept still holds up
in much of the same ways it has since the 1950s.
The American Professional Stratocaster doesn’t
attempt to redefine what the Stratocaster is, but
it doesn’t ignore the last 60-something years of
progress, either.
PRO LEAGUE
The American Professional Stratocaster has a
solid alder body with a gloss finish, and is available
in plenty of cool colours: Sonic Gray, Black, Sienna
Sunburst, Antique Olive, Olympic White and three-
colour Sunburst (yo Fender, where’s red? Everyone
knows Strats sound better when they’re red). The
neck is made of maple with a maple or rosewood
fretboard depending on what finish you opt for:
our review model is a Sonic Gray model with a
rosewood board, though to be honest, it looks a
little more blue than grey to me.
The back of the neck is the new American
Professional “Deep C” neck profile, which has
more substantial shoulders — somewhere between
a “Modern C”- and “U”-shaped profile. This is
one of my favourite Fender necks because it’s so
adaptable to so many players. The fingerboard
radius is 9.5”, which is a little rounder than what
we think of as modern necks (which can run all the
way up to 20”), but not quite as round as the 7.25”
TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON
• Alder body
• Maple neck
PROS
Lots of tones
• 22 medium jumbo frets
Great fretwork
• Fender V-Mod pickups
• Hard case Very high quality case
| australianguitarmag.com.au
radius of vintage Strats (which can be a bit of a
challenge if you’re not used to them). There are 22
narrow tall frets instead of the traditional 21, and
they’re finished to a very high standard. They’re
very shiny. The inlays are simple dots.
The bridge is a traditional six-saddle vintage-style
‘syncronised tremolo’ type, but with a two-point
fulcrum anchor, and there’s a new pop-in tremolo
arm that stays securely in position no matter how
hard you play. You can adjust the arm tension to
your personal preference, too. The tuning machines
are die-cast, sealed and non-locking models.  or bridge/middle pickup settings. And while a lot
The pickups are designed by Tim Shaw: a trio
of V-Mod single coils which are voiced specifically
for each position and which mix different Alnico
magnet types to produce powerful, nuanced tones
with original Fender sonic DNA. The neck pickup has
Alnico II magnets for the wound strings and Alnico
III for the plain, the middle has Alnico II for the
wound and Alnico V for the plain, and the bridge is
all Alnico V. Each pickup is designed to have its own
voice but also work as a system, particularly in the
crucial ‘2’ and ‘4’ pickup selector positions.
There’s also a treble bleed circuit on the
volume control so you can roll it back without
losing upper-end clarity; Fender has designed
each model’s treble bleed circuit differently
across the American Professional range so as to
get the most out of each pickup. And the tone
controls are configured so that Tone 1 operates
across the neck pickup, while Tone 2 covers both
CONS
Pricey
No red
Standard single coil hum
$3,399 RRP
the middle and bridge together.
MODS VS ROCKERS
The V-Mod pickups sound very warm and full,
especially considering they’re single coils. There’s
a lot of detail but plenty of oomph to back it up.
This makes them especially great for those of
us who like to play with fingers instead of a pick
because they pick up all those sweet nuances, but
there’s also a great attack when you play with a
pick, especially for big brash chords on the bridge
of players tend to overlook the middle pickup, it’s
responsible for some of my favourite tones out
of this guitar. It’s just the right amount of sweet
and snarl. And those ‘2’ and ‘4’ settings are full of
quack and snap, with lots of detail and bounce.
The playability is phenomenal too. The rounded
fretboard edges feel great and the neck shape
is very accommodating. And the guitar itself has
incredible natural sustain for a Strat.
THE BOTTOM LINE
This is pretty much the ultimate Stratocaster
for those who want a very high-quality Strat but
without hugely idiosyncratic features. It’s not
quite as high-performance as the models with
compound-radius fingerboards and noiseless
pickups, but it represents very much a pro-level
Stratocaster as the players of the 1950s might
have imagined a 2017 Strat to be.
CONTACT
FENDER AUSTRALIA
(02) 9666 5077
fender.com.au
 | 89

$3,399 RRP

FENDER AMERICANPROFESSIONALTELECASTER
DELUXE SHAWBUCKER
THE TELECASTER DELUXE IS SOMETHING OF AN INDIE BABY, AND FENDER JUST MADE IT EVEN BETTER.
BY PETER HODGSON

F
ender created the Telecaster Deluxe in 1973
in response to the higher levels of drive that
players of the era were using. But the ‘70s
weren’t exactly Fender’s golden years, and while
you can find some damn good vintage examples,
there are some turkeys out there as well. Fender’s
quality control has come a long way from the
dark days of the ‘70s, and these days, you can get
Tele Deluxes in a variety of different series. The
American Professional is the latest.
WHAT’S ON THE TELE?
This Tele’s body is made of solid ash, and our
review model is a pretty light piece of wood
compared to a lot of Telecasters I’ve played. Our
model is black (and finished in glossy polyurethane)
but you can also get it in Natural, three-colour
Sunburst and Sonic Gray options. The neck is
made of maple with a maple fingerboard, and
there are 22 narrow tall frets. The neck is Fender’s
super-comfy Modern C shape, and the fingerboard
radius is 9.5” for a curvy, but not too curvy feel.
The fretwork is very well executed, and the fit and
finish of the entire guitar is pretty dang well done.
The electronics consist of a pair of Tim Shaw-
designed Shawbucker pickups specifically for
each position. Each pickup has its own volume
and tone controls, and there’s a new treble-bleed
circuit to ensure that the high end remains good
and sparkly when you roll the volumes down. The
bridge is a six-saddle, through-body Strat hardtail
type with bent steel saddles, and the tuners are
Fender Standard Cast/Sealed Staggered. The
guitar ships with a TSA-approved and very high-
quality hard case.
SHAW AS SHAW CAN BE
While a lot of players associate the Telecaster
Deluxe with country, it’s really taken on a life of
its own for indie and alternative players in recent
years. True to form, the American Professional
version can handle both very well. The cleans are
sharp and clear, but not strident: since these are
humbuckers, there’s a little more smoothness
and less bite than you’d get with singles. The neck
pickup has a nice and full voice for clean chords,
and the bridge pickup has a satisfying ‘chuck’
sound. Kick on the gain, though, and these pickups
take on a different voice: the bridge pick up has a
more rock-worthy, Foo Fighters-esque growl, while
the neck pickup has a sweet, juicy attack which is
great for strummed overdriven chords, single-note
melodies and solos.
The playability is also a bit more forgiving than
a regular Telecaster model: this feels a little more
like a Strat than a Tele in some ways. That’s good
news for folks who have wrestled with the Tele’s
more stubborn tendencies.
THE BOTTOM LINE
If you love the sound of a Telecaster Deluxe but
you’ve always found the playability a bit rough
or the sound too one-dimensional, this variant
addresses those issues with ease and confidence.
It’s a really great-playing guitar that sounds
versatile and it looks the part as well.

TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON CONTACT

• Ash body
• Maple neck
PROS CONS FENDER AUSTRALIA
Playable neck No single coil settings (02) 9666 5077
• 22 medium tall frets
Distinctive clean and dirty tones No rosewood fretboard option fender.com.au
• Fender Shawbucker pickups
• Hard case Great case
90 | REVIEWS
GODIN SUMMIT CLASSIC CT
GODIN TAKES A SHOT AT A CLASSIC DESIGN. BY STEVE HENDERSON
C
anada’s Godin Guitars have been building
guitars for over 40 years. They’ve developed
a range of instruments, under an assortment
of marques, that cover most of the variants that
anyone might want: traditional solidbodies with
various pickup configurations, thinline electrics,
old school-style jazz boxes, traditional acoustics,
chambered solid acoustic/electrics, nylon acoustic/
electrics with curved fretboards, solidbody acoustic/
electric mandolins and ukes, and hybrid guitars
that will do electric, acoustic and synth-access all
at once. They also do quirky: the Merlin (a fret-able
dulcimar-ish instrument), the acoustic/electric
solidbody Multioud, the Inuk (a fretted Multioud),
the acoustic/electric solidbody Cavaquinho, the
synth-ready A10 (a solidbody six-string with triple
courses for the first and second strings) and the
strange, but too-much-fun Glissantar: an 11-string
chambered solidbody with no frets.
BACK TO BASICS
It’s a seriously diverse catalogue, ranging from
traditional to modern to exotic to weird to niche,
and always with the player in mind. Recently,
the Godin folks have gone back to basics with a
beautifully made instrument called the Summit
Classic, which features some familiar ideas
alongside a few subtle refinements. The Summit is
a maple-top, twin-humbucker, set-neck single cut
with a 24 ¾” scale, a 12” radius and a three-a-
side headstock. So, let’s call a spade a spade: the
Summit is a Les Paul-style instrument; a time-
honoured design that has contributed to every
style of music since 1952.
Godin have taken a good hard look at the
“original” and fine-tuned the design with some
detail of their own. The Summit is a chambered
TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON
• Mahogany set neck with 22 frets
• 24.75” scale, 12” radius
PROS
Superb tones and playability
• Chambered body
Great build quality
• Seymour Duncan pickups
• Faultless full gloss finish The chambered body is brilliant
| australianguitarmag.com.au
solidbody, but unlike other chambered solids,
these chambers are each tuned to a different note
to enrich the sound, then vented into the pickup
cavities to allow the chambers to “breathe” and
add some acoustic flavour to the output. Add to
this their proprietary High Definition Revoicer
(HDR) and an active circuit that augments and
boosts certain frequencies, and the Summit can
deliver quite a variety of humbucker-style tones.
LOOKING REFINED
Some less critical (but nice) refinements include
the rear comfort chamfer, super durable Richlite
fretboard, semi-recessed jack socket and control
knobs, and one-piece neck binding that is fitted
around the end of the fingerboard rather than
mitred (as on other brands, where it shrinks
and opens up). There’s even binding around the
headstock. The Summit comes standard with
a Graphtech bridge and nut, Godin’s special
lightweight mini machine heads, and Seymour
Duncan pickups. There’s a load of great features on
the Summit, and they make for an exciting variant
on this style of guitar.
Unplugged, the Summit immediately presents
a loud and toneful voice. The lows have a springy
bounce to them and the upper mids ring with a
clear chime. Strum a big chord and reach up to
the headstock and you’ll feel a surprising amount
of resonance. Plugging into a Boogie head with a
custom 212 (G12-65s), the Summit comes alive with
rich and vibrant tones. Through the clean channel,
the Summit sounds big and bold, with a tight but
lively bass and rounded trebles – the front pickup
especially has a strong and full tone. Under the
carved maple top, the chambered body is Spanish
cedar (Cedrela Odorata) – which is neither Spanish
CONS
Some pplayers may prefer a four-knob
configuration
nor cedar, but part of the mahogany family. It
weighs less than Honduran mahogany, has a lovely
grain, and is a very fine tone wood. As for weight
and resonance, the Summit is reminiscent of early
Les Pauls which, compared to later models, were
much fuller tonally and not nearly as heavy.
READY TO DRIVE
Through the drive channel, the humbuckers
deliver that addictive, syrupy midrange that we
love so much. Thick and juicy, it has a touch of
extra harmonic information thanks to the vented
chambers. Kick in the HDR and the overdrive steps
up a notch without any fizzy attack – just plenty
of overtone-laden grunt. In reality, the HDR gives
the Summit three extra sounds, and manipulating
the very smooth controls (one tone, one volume)
provides plenty of subtlety within those six options.
Into a cranked Bassman, the HDR delivers plenty of
signal to clip the preamp into that Bassman growl
(then insert an overdrive pedal and stand back).
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Summit’s neck is slick and fast, without being
particularly thin, and the fretwork is faultless.
The sunburst is superbly rendered and the overall
appearance is deliciously classic. The Summit is
also available with Duncan P-90s or P-Rails (I have
these in my Godin Icon – fabulous), so there are
options if you’re after something a little different.
The fact is, everything about the Summit speaks
of deliberate care and attention to detail. There’s
obviously a lot of passion involved in this re-vamp
of an iconic design because the improvements are
significant without being blatant. The Summit is a
vintage-style guitar for the contemporary player
who appreciates great feel and tone.
CONTACT
DYNAMIC MUSIC
(02) 9939 1299
www.godinaus.com.au
 | 91

SEYMOUR DUNCAN PALLADIUM GAIN STAGE

“IT FEELS LIKE A TUBE AMP” IS A BIG CLAIM. HOW DOES IT STACK UP? BY PETER HODGSON

F
or many, the holy grail is an analog stompbox
that has the feel and response of an
authentic tube amp. Many have tackled it
over the years but the results have always been
a little unsatisfying. Seymour Duncan’s approach
is a little different, and it wraps up elements of
the company’s past and future: SD was the first
company to make a power-scaling amplifier back in
the ‘80s, so their history with amplifier circuits runs
deep. And Max Gutnik (Senior VP of New Products
at Seymour Duncan) is the guy who brought Line
6 Helix to the market, and as VP of Products and
Marketing at Avid he was integral to products like
ProTools and ElevenRack. He’s also a heck of a
shredder who takes analog tone very seriously. In
the interests of transparency I should disclose that
I happened to write the manual for this pedal. But
this is still an objective review – I just happen to
know the pedal really well.
NO PAIN, NO GAIN
The Palladium is a high-gain pedal with controls
for Bass, Mid Level, Mid Frequency, Treble
and Presence on the top row, and Level, Gain,
Resonance and Boost on the bottom row. While
Resonance is typically used to describe a “bass
equivalent of a presence control” when found in
amps, in the Palladium’s case it refers to the gain
of the low end: lower settings give you a cleaner,
tighter bass signal, while higher settings give you
a more distorted, fat and thick low-end grind. One
way to think of it is that the Gain control governs the
overall distortion level, while Resonance handles
the distortion of the low end. The Boost section is
inspired by Seymour Duncan’s 805 Overdrive pedal,
with a preset tonal curve but a controllable level
of boost, and it’s engaged with its own separate
footswitch when the pedal is on (you cannot use the
Boost section when the pedal is in bypass mode).
LIGHT IT UP
The first time you fire up the Palladium, I highly
recommend checking out the suggested settings in
the manual. The controls are so versatile that it can
take a while to dial in your sound, so the manual
gives you some great places to start – including
grunge and extreme metal sounds. Be aware that
the Palladium doesn’t do ‘clean’ at all. If you’re
hoping to use it to sculpt a ‘just on the edge of drive’
tone, you can do so by backing off your guitar’s
volume knob like a real tube amp, but even at the
lowest setting of the Gain control, you’re going to
get a fair amount of grit when your guitar volume
is wide open. One fun trick is to set the Gain at
around six and the Resonance at zero for a really
dynamic response, where softer notes seem super
compressed but harder picking introduces a full-
voiced roar. Or, if you’re into stoner and doom styles,
max out the Resonance control for a huge low-end
wallop. Personally, I like to use the Palladium with
the Gain at about three and the Resonance around
halfway for a versatile ‘hot-rodded Marshall’ kind
of rhythm tone, then use the Boost to kick things up
a notch for big riffs and solos. The right balance of
Gain and Resonance gets me as close as I’ve ever
gotten to one of my touchstone guitar sounds – Jerry
Cantrell’s “Them Bones” tone.
THE BOTTOM LINE
It’s eerie how tube-like the Palladium is, and a
quick look at the artists who use it is pretty telling
of its versatility: Keith Merrow, Wes Hauch and
Periphery’s Mark Holcomb on the metal side, with
Robben Ford, Joe Bonamassa and Blur’s Graham
Coxon among the non-metal folks finding great
tones within it. Coxon even said that it inspired him
to want to go out on the road again. But having said
that, the Palladium can be a tricky pedal to come
to grips with on your first try. If you get the chance
to sit with one for a good chunk of time, you’ll find
your sound lurking in there.

TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON CONTACT

• Sweepable midrange
• Innovative resonance control
PROS CONS DOMINANT MUSIC
Very versatile Can take time to find your sound (03) 9873 4333
• Selectable boost
Very low noise when you’re not playing Doesn’t do ‘clean’ www.dominantmusic.com.au
• Very low noise
• Available in black or white Handy sweepable mids Boost not independently selectable
92 | REVIEWS
o, here we have yet another company
promising a must-have, game-changing,
genre-defining, life-fulfilling answer to our
prayers. And this time, it’s all about strings. The
last few years have seen a focus on things other
than the actual lumber: glues, lacquers, nuts and
saddles, bridge pins, machine heads, pickups
and, of course, strings. The recent evolution
of strings has centred on the durability factor
(coated, treated, etc.), sometimes with little regard
to tone or feel. A few years ago, I was asked to
review some treated strings, and, I admit, I was
quite reluctant due to my previous experience
with a popular brand of coated string. However,
I agreed to do it with as open a mind as I could
muster because, well, that’s the gig. Surprisingly,
they were fabulous. Having used D’Addario and
Ernie Ball strings for decades, changing to treated
strings (Cleartone) was a big step. But the new
technology was sound, and the sound was great!
ALWAYS ON THE BALL
In recent years, the folks at Ernie Ball have
taken another look at this whole ‘string thing’ and
currently offer options such as cobalt, titanium
and M-steel strings, along with their traditional
types. Now, to say that the Ernie Ball company
knows about strings is like saying Einstein was
quite clever. In the ‘60s, Ernie Ball himself was
the guy who responded (when Fender and Gibson
wouldn’t) to the needs of professional musicians
by providing lighter string sets and single gauged
strings so that players could personalise the feel
of their guitars, be more expressive (bend easier),
and fine-tune their tone. His independence as a
TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON
• Phosphor bronze
• Corrosion resistant
PROS
Authentic tone
• Break resistant
Great feel
• 90-day guarantee
• Hermetically sealed packaging
| australianguitarmag.com.au
RNIEBALL
ARADIGM
HOSPHOR BRONZE
Y, IT’S JUST A SET OF STRINGS! RIGHT?
STEVE HENDERSON
string maker eant that he could respond quickly
to market needs, and musicians everywhere
benefited immensely. So began the Ernie Ball
empire, which has contributed an extraordinary
range of practical, affordable and quality products
to the music community.
I WANT TO (BE) BREAK FREE
Their latest is the Paradigm string range, which
they claim to be “break resistant” and “ultra
durable”. In fact, they’ve put their money where their
collective mouth is by offering a 90-day replacement
guarantee – if they break or rust, they’ll give you a
new set. Ernie Ball claim their new high-strength
steel is tougher than anything else out there: up to
“37 percent increased tensile strength and 70 percent
more fatigue strength” than other coated strings. A
high-temp plasma bath “cleans and restructures the
surface of the material at a molecular level” to create
a more stable string surface. Their updated Everlast
nanotech treatment is designed to prevent corrosion
(on the string surface and in between the windings)
and repel the contaminants that cause these
problems. Plus, Paradigm plain strings incorporate
their proprietary RPS reinforcement system.
SETTLE IN
But there are three questions to consider: how
do they sound, how do they feel, and how do they
last? I test-drove a set of Paradigm phosphor
bronze strings on a 40-year-old Martin D-28 (the
benchmark model for acoustic guitars) and the first
thing I noticed was that the sound is not brassy
and clangy, like many brands tend to be when first
installed. The Paradigms have a kind of played-in
CONS
Some may initially balk at the price
$35.95 RRP
sound – that settled tone you normally start to hear
after a couple of days. The next thing I noticed was
the lack of attenuation in the top end (those weird,
muted highs common to coated strings) – the highs
are loud and proud, retaining their body in the
upper reaches of the fingerboard: play a D on the
top three strings at the tenth fret and the tone has
noticeable presence and sustain. Another issue is
the feel: the Paradigms feel ‘normal’ – not slippery
or greasy as coated strings are, but smooth with a
touch of resistance, so you always know where you
are. These are all traditional attributes that other
technologies have sometimes compromised for the
sake of longevity.
These Paradigm acoustic strings feel right
at home on my old D-28. Having had them on
the guitar for just a week, I can’t speak to their
corrosion resistivity. To test their toughness,
however, I’ve given them a hiding with some heavy
picks (1mm and 2mm nylons) and some seriously
flawed technique (my students wouldn’t get away
with it), and the Paradigms haven’t flinched. They
are still as tonally rich as when they were installed,
and they continue to stay in tune.
THE BOTTOM LINE
I don’t know anything about the tech behind
this resilience, but it works. The Paradigms sound
great – balanced and full – and after getting to know
this guitar for four decades, they sound right. Are
they cheap? Not at $30-something. But that’s not
the question. The question is, are they good value?
When they last three or more times longer than
standard strings, the answer is a clear ‘yes’. And
that makes them cheap!
CONTACT
CMC MUSIC PTY LTD
(02) 9905 2511
www.cmcmusic.com.auww

H
ot on the heels of a string of innovative (but
practical) guitar amp designs, DV Mark has
gone back to the basics for a little pocket
rocket called the Gen 15. Maybe it’s their recent
association with Music Man, or maybe it’s just time
to do something simple instead clever. Either way,
the Gen 15 presents an interesting middle ground
between modern technology and vintage cred.
SWEET 15
The Gen 15 is a single-channel, all-tube combo
that delivers a solid 15 watts from a pair of EL84s
through a single 12” driver. It has gain, volume
and boost – you can dial up a wide variety of
sounds with a full tone set, and then sweeten it up
with a touch (or a lot) of reverb. The look is very
reminiscent of those Music Man RD/RP amps of
the ‘80s: black face panel, silver grille, chrome
chassis straps, etc. But DV mark has used a flat
(not slanted) and recessed faceplate to protect the
knobs a little better; chicken head knobs; leather
cabinet corners; and a stylish, old school-style
leather handle. The whole package is just under
480mm tall (under 19” including the handle) and
weighs a smidgeon under nine kilograms (20lbs).
If you like that whole ‘70s/’80s Fender/Music Man
vibe but don’t like the weight, this amp should have
you at least a little intrigued.
Variously plugging in a vintage Strat, a Firebird
V, an old 335 Dot and a Godin Icon Convertible,
the Gen 15 offered up some marvellous sounds.
The Strat was throaty and woody, the Firebird
was bright and punchy, the 335 had that lovely fat
TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON
• 15 watts
• 2x EL34, 3x 12AX7
PROS
Solid tone
• 1x 12” DV Mark Custom speaker
Wide range of sounds
• Full tone stack
• Reverb
DV MARK SILVER
GENERATION GEN 15
A CONTEMPORARY AMP WITH A TRADITIONAL
ATTITUDE. BY STEVE HENDERSON
and expressive body, and the Icon (with Seymour
Duncan P-rails) delivered a huge variety of sounds
– from single coil thwack to the rock’n’roll clunk
of P-90s, all the way to humbucking juiciness. The
Gen 15 handled them all without ever producing
that gnarly crunch of an overloaded (in a bad way)
circuit. In fact, the Gen 15 handled all of these
guitars without ever having to compensate tonally
for each – there are simply no dud sounds here.
THE PERFECT PEDAL PAIRER
The clean sounds are pristine and surprisingly
broad thanks to the 12” speaker, but maxing the
gain knob with the master volume at midday
produced a nice furriness that wasn’t quite
distorted but wasn’t really clean. This is actually
a really handy tone because it adds density to a
‘clean’ rhythm part and absolutely loves to be
pushed by a boost or low-gain drive pedal. I used
a Zendrive, a Mesa Flux-Five, a Suhr Shiba Drive, a
BBE Green Screamer, and a really old silver screw
Boss DS-1 (yeah, I know it’s a distortion and not an
overdrive, but it just sounds so good). The Gen 15
happily worked with all of these pedals without any
fizzing or barking. The Screamer (a high quality
TS9) had that characteristic compression and
attenuated bass; the Zendrive’s signature upper
mid voice came through loud and clear, with the
Gen 15’s 12” handling it effortlessly; even with
its broad tonal options, the Flux-Five core tone
is that thick, vocal Boogie drive and the Gen 15
was immediately transformed into a Mark-series
Boogie. Even cranking the DS-1 didn’t faze this little
CONS
Boost function is a little subdued
| 93
Combo
$1,995 RRP
Head only
$1,295 RRP
amp: it just leaned a little more towards the Recto/
Marshall kind of deal and happily delivered some
mighty crunch sounds.
The Gen 15 seems to handle all manners of
gain-based input. Even doubling up on the pedals
(yep, two at once) didn’t mush up the Gen 15’s
12AX7 front end. The clarity remained consistent
from pedal to pedal, no matter which guitar was
employed. The interactive tone controls have
plenty of range, and the gain circuit – while not
metal heaven – has more than enough drive for
the whole barroom boogie/Aussie rock vibe. Want
more grunt? Use a pedal – the Gen 15 loves ‘em.
Want ‘bigger’? Three speaker outs will interface
with a larger (or just another) cab. I used a
vintage Mesa 412 and a custom 212 (with G12-65s)
– the Gen 15 filled the room with a seriously big,
but controlled tone.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Gen 15 is simple to understand and operate,
and the amp readily delivers high quality tones. Its
dynamic, touch-sensitive feel is great, and there’s
no missing that Fender-style spank (even with
EL84s) when you just want to hear a really clean
amp. Turn up the mids and it’ll go all Vox-y on you.
The Gen 15 has plenty of power for home, studio
and rehearsals. Even for small gigs, the Gen 15 will
provide the kind of proximity level that will work for
the player, then mike it up for the room. The Gen 15
is, in its simplicity, a clever little amp that delivers
the core of what we want: nice tone, nice gain,
appropriate volume, and exceptional portability.
CONTACT
CMC MUSIC
(02) 9905 2511
www.cmcmusic.com.au
94 | REVIEWS

$TBC RRP

EPIPHONELIMITED ED. BRENDONSMALL“SNOW

FALCON” OUTFIT
THE DETHKLOK/METALOCALYPSE MASTERMIND IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SOME OF THE COOLEST GIBSONS
EVER. BY PETER HODGSON

M
usician, comedian, voice actor, writer,
director, and all ‘round nice guy
Brendon Small has done so much for
metal. His animated show Metalocalypse
brought death metal to the masses, and his
Baked live comedy/music shows, with Steve
Agee and a cast of comedy and rock greats, is
a must-see if you find yourself in LA. He’s also
been responsible for some of Gibson and
Epiphone’s coolest models. The Snow Falcon is
Small’s second Epiphone signature model.
SNOW TROOPER
The Snow Falcon is a mahogany-bodied,
mahogany-necked V designed to be versatile and
very playable. It has a 1960s Slim Taper D-Profile
neck, which is very shred-friendly, with 22
medium jumbo frets on a phenolic fingerboard.
The hardware includes a fully-adjustable solid
nickel LockTone bridge and stopbar tailpiece,
solid nickel heavy-duty ¼” output jack, Grover
Rotomatics tuners with 18:1 turning ratio, and
master volume and tone pots. Each pot conceals
a trick, though: the volume control is a global
coil split push-pull, while the tone control also
doubles as a KillPot switch for ‘stutter’ effects.
The pickups are a pair of Gibson Burstbucker
humbuckers made in the USA. These are based
on the classic Gibson PAF humbuckers found in
late ‘50s Les Pauls, ES-335s, Vs, Explorers and
the like. The neck pickup is a Burstbucker-1, and
the bridge is a hotter Burstbucker-2. The guitar
comes in a Galaktikon gig bag and includes a
signed certificate of authenticity.
BRUTALS
The Burstbuckers aren’t super-hot pickups
– they get their power from their clarity, as
opposed to getting it from their output. As a
result, this is a very flexible guitar that can do
metal very well, but is capable of much, much
more. This versatility is evident even before you
hit the coil split: the humbuckers can do country,
blues, alternative, Britpop, punk and jazz before
you even step on your scooped-mid deathtone.
But they’ll keep up with every nuance of your
speed-picking, even under heavy distortion.
Hit that coil split and you can play all of your
Yngwie licks on the neck pickup, generate some
respectable alternative jangle on the middle
setting, and authentic country and blues twang on
the bridge pickup. The stutter effect of the KillPot
switch is handy, too, especially for those Randy
Rhoads and Tom Morello tricks. But depending on
how you play, it might be something you use a lot
or not at all. Regardless, it’s a cool inclusion.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Besides its distinctive look – which will appeal
to all sorts of players regardless of genres as long
as they like white – the Snow Falcon stands out
from its Flying V stablemates by way of its sheer
sonic flexibility. It can do a lot of things that a lot
of other guitars can’t, and it does them naturally
and without fuss. It’s also a very playable guitar
and built to a high degree of quality.

TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON CONTACT

• Gibson USA Burstbucker pickups
• Coil splits
PROS CONS AUSTRALIAN MUSICAL
Very versatile electronics No hard case IMPORTS (AMI)
• KillPot stutter switch
Distinctive look The look isn’t for everyone
(03) 8696 4600
• Gig bag and COA
Shredworthy neck
www.gibsonami.com
• 1960s SlimTaper D-Shape neck

| australianguitarmag.com.au

EPIPHONELIMITED ED. BRENTHINDSFLYINGV
CUSTOM
MASTODON GUITARIST BRENT HINDS GETS THE FLYING V OF HIS DREAMS. BY PETER HODGSON
M
astodon guitarist and vocalist Brent
Hinds has an instantly recognisable
style and sound. He’s used a variety
of different means to achieve it over the years,
but his new Epiphone Flying V Custom signature
model – announced last year and now hitting
stores – is the most direct way yet for you to
achieve that same sound and attitude.
V INTERESTING
Ever since Tool’s Adam Jones popularised the
use of silverburst, it’s come to symbolise low
riffs and crunchy tones – sort of like a semiotic
cue or visual shorthand of what to expect from a
guitar. Hinds’ signature model looks great, and
is immediately identifiable. It has a mahogany
body with a mahogany neck, carved to a “1958”
rounded profile which feels chunky and solid in the
hand. The neck is glued in and features an ebony
fingerboard with pearloid block inlays, which are
TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON
• Lace USA Hammer Claw pickups
• 1958 neck shape
PROS
Very unique tones
• Ebony fingerboard
Great look
• Mahogany body
Chunky neck
• Seven-ply binding
matched by a pearloid headstock inlay. The body is
bound in seven-ply black/white, the headstock in
five-ply and the fingerboard in one-ply.
The hardware includes an imitation bone
nut, 22 medium jumbo frets at a 22” radius,
Epiphone LockTone Tune-O-Matic bridge and
traditional V string-thru tailpiece, and Grover
Rotomatics tuners with an 18:1 turn ratio. The
electronics consist of Hinds’ signature Lace USA
Hammer Claws humbucking pickups connected
to individual volume controls and a master tone
knob. There are no coil splits or any trickery like
that to be found here.
HAMMER TIME
The Hammer Claws are powerful pickups, with
the bridge clocking in at 18.3k inductance and
the neck at 12k. They’re very much full-range
pickups, a lot broader and more even-toned than
co-guitarist Bill Kelliher’s ignature Lace set, which
CONS
Doesn’t do sparkly cleans
No coil splitting
95
$1,599 RRP
is quite pokey in the upper mids (the Hammer
Claws also have a mid bump, but a less harsh one
that still allows for great high-end attack). Even
so, these pickups have plenty of body and sustain
thanks to that extra power, and 12k is pretty
powerful for a neck pickup.
If your idea of ‘clean’ is sparkling clear, this
isn’t the guitar for you, but if you’re into edge-of-
dirt clean tones, this V has plenty of character. It
also handles low tunings very well, and although
shredders might not get along with the fatter
neck in the same way as, say, an Ibanez Wizard
neck, it’s still very playable.
THE BOTTOM LINE
If you’re a Mastodon fan, this guitar is a no-
brainer. But it also has applications outside of
just, “I wanna sound like Brent.” It’s great for
metal, doom, classic rock and even punk, with
plenty of attitude and character.
CONTACT
AUSTRALIAN MUSICAL
IMPORTS (AMI)
(03) 8696 4600
www.gibsonami.com
96 | REVIEWS

A
udiofly are a relatively new Australian
headphone company. They pitch their
products as a meeting of audiophile
standards with a boutique hipster aesthetic. They
make the kind of headphones that would look
great on you while you tap on your Macbook,
sipping a long black and stroking your beard at
the cool café down the street. You’d be hearing a
signal in your cans as fresh as your look. Seriously
though, these are excellent design goals to have.
Much like the venerable Rode, Audiofly are
bringing a high standard to consumer electronics
and using local talent to do so.
The AF120s are a set of in-ear monitors, while
the AF240s are large over-ear headphones. We’ll
look at the ins and outs of both separately and
give you the low-down on each.

$299.99 RRP

AUDIOFLYAF120 IN-EARMONITORS
THE PERTH-BASED COMPANY’S HEADPHONES HAVE GOT THE LOOK, BUT DO THEY DELIVER THE GOODS?
BY ALEX WILSON
STYLE AND SUBSTANCE
The AF120s come with a solid, canvas-covered
travel case. It’s quite stylish, and served me well
on the overseas tour that I tested these monitors
on. It feels a bit harder to cram the headphones
into the case compartment than it should be,
but that’s not a dealbreaker. In addition to looks,
Audiofly have put a good amount of effort into the
feel of the product. The cable is coated in a strong
woven fabric to prevent tangling. The Y-splitter
feels sturdy and can be worn comfortably down the
chest or over the back, and the tightness of the fit
adjusted with a regulation clear plastic cylinder. All
par for the course, but done very well nonetheless.
The earpieces themselves are satisfyingly
ergonomic. I’ve been told by audiologists that I
have quite bendy and unsymmetrical ear-canals,
and consequently have trouble with in-ear fits.
I was pleased to find that these Audiofly units
entered and remained in my ears with minimum
effort. The foam tips the unit came with helped
with this, too. Foam fits better than rubber, but
tends to hurt the ear over long sessions. I was,
however, disappointed to find that the foam on one
of the tips started to break and peel away after
two weeks. The tips appeared glued to the earpiece
stem, making for a moderately annoying fix when
replacing them. On the plus side, Audiofly are
generous enough to provide an assortment of foam
and rubber tips for the user to mix and match with.
SOUND ON SOUND
Of course, the most important aspect of these
ears is the sound. If I could only choose one
single adjective here, it would be “crisp”. For the
price point, the ears reproduce the clarity and
presence of familiar tracks with aplomb. The
stereo placement contributes to the feeling of
transparency and definition. Tom rolls, double-
tracked guitars and backing vocals pop pleasingly
in the side channels, and there’s powerful
articulation in the centre of the soundstage. And
these things feel loud, too. You won’t need to
crank the volume much to feel immersed in sound.
Make no mistake: the units sound great on
their own. But compared to my favoured personal
in-ear in a similar price bracket, I had a few
gripes. Low frequencies were reproduced cleanly
and sufficiently in the AF120s, but still noticeably
less present than with my own. Consequently,
the presence region of the Audioflys lacked the
pleasant silkiness of the comparison set. Midrange
response felt comparable, but the AF120s still
manifested a subtle spikiness that I couldn’t
shake. This was especially apparent in genres like
pop and metal that boost both the lows and highs.
The pronounced clarity of the headphones felt like
they unbalanced the mix a little.
YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY
These are high-level nitpicks — important, but
also subjective. Your own ears are the judge. If you
can try before you buy any kind of headphone, you
should. Personally, the Audioflys would not be my
first choice for music production or appreciation,
but they are still strong contenders for these tasks
in an objective sense. Furthermore, they excel
as live monitors. The crispness of the sound will
help your in-ear mix cut through, and the sturdy
comfort of the product really comes into its own
onstage. You’re getting a lot of the quality of a
custom mold without the price and hassle.
THE BOTTOM LINE
These would be a great choice for musos looking
for in-ears that would do the job onstage as well
as during the downtime between shows. They look
great, are built to last, and won’t break the bank.

TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON CONTACT

• Comfortable fit
• Crisp sound
PROS CONS AUDIOFLY
A versatile product suitable for multiple The frequency response of these headphones (08) 6555 1800
• Useful travel case applications may not be to your taste info@audiofly.com
• Sturdy fabric cable
Stylish and well-constructed
• Choice of headphone tips

| australianguitarmag.com.au

AUDIOFLYAF240 OVER-EARHEADPHONES
BIGGER BROTHERS, BIGGER SOUND. BY ALEX WILSON
T
he upsized sibling of Audiofly’s in-ears, the
AF240s, excelled on first listen. A quick
comparison with some cheap Sennheiser
HD202 cans revealed that the AF240s output a
relatively quiet signal. But as you crank the volume
to a comparable level, the frequency response
of the AF240s really shines. The high-end of the
spectrum retains a tremendous amount of clarity,
and even aggressiveness when appropriate for
the genre. Sibilant sound sources like vocals and
cymbals are reproduced with a smoothness that
sacrifices little of the presence required to enjoy a
great recording and performance. All this without
ever devolving into harshness.
Midrange is articulated very well, the body
of music translating powerfully while avoiding
the mushy, inarticulate roar that so often
characterises consumer-grade cans. This last
problem is something that was very evident
with the cheap Sennheisers I was comparing
the AF240s to. It’s this midrange response that
really indicates why it can be worth paying the
extra couple hundred on a pair of good cans.
It feels like there is some gentle attenuation of
TOP 5 FEATURES WHAT WE RECKON
• Comfortable fit
• Excellent frequency response
PROS
Aesthetics
• Stylish design
Audio Quality
• Built-in microphone
• Travel bag Great value
some of the midrange frequencies responsible for
so-called ‘muddiness’ or ‘boxiness’. However, if
this is indeed the case, it’s not at the expense of
being able to bring warmth to playback. Some of
the mid-heavy ‘70s recordings I tested came out
beautifully from these cans.
THE LOW-END THEORY
The bass frequencies are presented clearly
and powerfully. Low-end instruments put out
consistently strong notes while retaining the
clarity needed to anchor a good recording. The
AF240s seem to lack the heavy sub boosts that
many headphones have these days. There’s a
perception that bigger bass always means better,
but over long listens, the AF240s felt incredibly
balanced. The lack of sheer volume in the low-end
led to a balanced listening experience where kick
drums and bass guitars punch with definition and
clarity and never felt unsatisfying.
Not only is the frequency spectrum pleasantly
reproduced, but the soundstage is also excellent.
Stereo separation is wonderful. The centre exists
with clarity from the imagined centre of my head,
CONS
Lack of pronounced sub
| 97
$299.99 RRP
and I felt like the engineer’s subtle moves with
the pan pot were reproduced faithfully here. And
this applies across all bands of EQ. Things like low
bassline synths with stereo spread could be felt
warping slowly across the ears.
BONUS ROUND
In addition to excellent sound quality, the
AF240 features the same strong woven fabric
cable as the AF120s. There’s a built in mic, a
control button for playback, and a nice carry bag
to stop them getting dinged up. The headphones
are also really comfortable, feeling great over the
ears for long sessions. Much like it’s little in-ear
brother, style and coolness just reeks off of these
things. Designed beautifully, they’ll look classy
resting on your dome.
THE BOTTOM LINE
If you’re looking for headphones that sound
as great as they look, then look no further. For
the price, the combination of fit, function and
frequency response make the AF240s serious
contenders for audiophile buyers.
CONTACT
AUDIOFLY
(08) 6555 1800
info@audiofly.com
98 | FINAL NOTE
I’M ON A BOAT
MOST ARTISTS RECORD IN A STUDIO. OTHERS PREFER THE GREAT OUTDOORS. THEN THERE ARE BANDS LIKE
BUSBY MAROU, WHO LOOK FOR SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE NAUTICAL IN NATURE. BY PETER ZALUZNY
C
reative bands will find all kinds of clever
places to record outside the standard
studio. Garages, sheds, bedrooms, fields
and forests – musicians and microphones have
graced these locations at one point or another
with unique results. But boats? Or it was until
melodic folk-pop duo Busby Marou decided to take
their unrecorded third album, Postcards From The
Shell House, out to sea.
“The Shell House is a place on Great Keppel
Island [Queensland] and it’s one of the most
amazing places in the world,” Jeremy Marou recalls
fondly, speaking about working with his old friend
Thomas Busby. “We were in our space, fishing
during the daytime and recording at night on the
water. That’s an extremely tough way to record,
but we seemed to make it work. We actually took
a little studio, set it up on the boat and recorded
there. It doesn’t get much better than that!”
Look, odds are, Postcards... isn’t the first ‘boat
album’, but it’s a cool story nonetheless – one that
was born from a desire to get off the road and
just settle down for a while. Their second album,
Farewell Fitzory, culminated in a recording trip to
North America just so they could say they worked
in a Nashville studio. And while the journey was
all good fun, the pair weren’t tempted to run
across the world again. After giving themselves the
chance to slow down and take stock of everything
on familiar soil, they found the confidence to move
forward creatively.
“We co-wrote with other people this time, and we
were kind of scared, y’know, because it’s a big thing
to throw your songwriting out there,” he explains,
although the writers they managed to wrangle put
their nerves at ease. “One of my favourites was
| australianguitarmag.com.au
David Ryan Harris, John Mayer’s guitarist – he was
sort of like my idol growing up. And Jon Hume, the
lead singer from Evermore, he co-wrote a couple
of songs with us too! We didn’t keep ourselves in a
box, but we did set out saying that we didn’t want it
to be a love song album.”
Hume wound up becoming an integral part of
Postcards... Recording on a boat is cool and all, but
it’s also pretty impractical. Some parts required a
studio, so the pair set off to The Stables, a setup
owned by Hume on the outskirts of Melbourne,
where things remained just as relaxed as they
were at sea. Where songs were once penned on
the fly and recorded as soon as they sounded
good, Postcards... was the product of a purposely
prolonged writing process and longer, stress-free
stints in the studio.
“We’ve matured as musos, and we got the live
[style] album out of our system,” he explains,
referring to the Farewell Fitzroy sessions. “Even
things like, on the first and second albums, I
would never use a plugin and record an electric
song, or even touch samples and loops. But now,
it’s like... Let’s be realistic, you can’t tell the
difference [laughs]. So we weren’t always amping –
sometimes we would just go straight into ProTools
and pull down the plugins.”
Not only did Hume help write and record
Postcards..., he even let the guys use a few of his
six-strings, including a big old Falcon that Marou
seemed particularly chuffed with. Takamine
guitars handled the rest of the work, save for a few
moments that required that little extra something.
A little extra something that an old friend of theirs
just happened to have on hand.
“Pete Murray has this really nice collection of old
acoustics, and he let us use his guitars to record,”
Marou says. Their debut, as it turns out, was
recorded in Murray’s Byron Bay studio. “There was
a really nice, old, piece of shit Martin that we never
play live because you’ve got to tune it for every bar,
but it’s one of those guitars that just sounds perfect
when it’s recorded. There’s some really nice old
Gibsons in there, too – I couldn’t tell you the year
off the top of my head, but they’re vintage!”
Marou’s attitude to making music is so laid back,
it’s almost perplexing. How can someone create
such beautiful, textured sounds that leap out of
the speakers, without knowing which guitars they
used? That, however, is part of Busby Marou’s
charm. While their music has the alluring – and
often calming – tone of tunes improvised around
a campfire at dusk, everything is meticulously
crafted around their guitars then rehearsed to the
letter, until they can pull it off onstage.
“A lot of people record the guitars, sing and
then play with the sounds after recording,” says
Marou, “but we do it the other way around. We
make sure we find the perfect guitar sound first,
acoustically, and then make sure it works with
the vocals. Then we add everything around that,
mainly because when we do them live, we’re an
acoustic band – we’re two guitars – and even with a
big band, we’re guitar driven.”
Amidst a world of change, there’s always some
old habits like this that just don’t die. But sometimes
it’s best to stick to your guns and return to what
you know after pursuing the grand adventure. For
Busby Marou, heading back to their homeland and
setting up shop on a little island off the coast of
Queensland was all they needed to move forward.
And by the sounds of things, it worked. 
 LEGENDARY SOUND,
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