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Maker of Hammer Jammer Device for Guitars Launches Kickstarter Program — Video

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Some of you might remember we posted a story (with video) about a device called the Hammer Jammer.

The Hammer Jammer is a percussive device that fits onto electric or acoustic guitars, producing a different-sounding attack — something in the ballpark of a hammer dulcimer on speed.

Our story and its video went viral, which led Ohio-based Big Walnut Productions, maker of the Hammer Jammer, to believe its product is, to say the least, ready for the guitar market.

As a result, the company has launched a Kickstarter program to raise $50,000, which would enable them to manufacture the device. You can check out the Kickstarter progam right here.

Here's some info from the company:

The Hammer Jammer was invented in the Nineties, with about 2,000 samples produced at that time that were never pushed into the mainstream guitar market for a number of reasons. However, Ken McCaw, inventor of the Hammer Jammer, who is also a film composer, used the Hammer Jammer on a trailer for a feature film released in Europe about five years ago. From that, interest for this invention began to grow around the world.

The demonstration video in this Kickstarter program was posted on YouTube in January 2014 and went viral. It became obvious that this unique invention is now ready for the guitar market. All Hammer Jammer samples were sold within a couple of weeks, to players in 60 countries, many of them young guitarists. This Kickerstarter program is for the purpose of building new tools for the device, which will include some requested modifications that will provide additional instrument applications.

It has also been learned recently that the Hammer Jammer provides a legitimate and highly useful device for handicapped people and players with arthritis and other issues that make finger picking and standard picking technique prohibitive.

For more info, visit Big Walnut Productions here and check out the company's Kickstarter program here.


DVD Combo Pack — 'Talkin' Blues' Parts 1 and 2 — on Sale at Guitar World Online Store

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The Talkin' Blues DVD Combo Pack is available now at the Guitar World Online Store for a special sale price — $24.95 (down from $29.98)!

Get both Talkin' Blues DVDs from Keith Wyatt in this special combo offer! That's four hours of in-depth video lessons on essential blues elements and guitar-playing techniques.

Don't miss out on this amazing blues tutorial at a great price!

Talkin' Blues DVD Part 1:

Precision string bending
Low-register phrasing for musical effect
How to use fills effectively
Chicken-pickin' phrases for a funky feel
How to bring your licks to life with accented notes
Jazz-blues techniques:extensions, alterations and substitutions
How to make licks groove with swinging eighth notes

Talkin' Blues DVD Part 2:

"Street Jazz" chord extensions and alterations
Soloing over chord substitutions
How to play like Blink Blake and Charlie Christian
How to match the solo to the song
"Dead thumb (or pick)" technique
Conversational phrasing
Sixth and ninth chords
The New Orleans sound

Your instructor: For more than 35 years, Wyatt has been active as a guitarist and educator specializing in American music. He is a prolific author of books, instructional videos and columns on subjects ranging from theory and ear training to beginning guitar methods and blues and "roots" styles. Since 1978, Keith has been an instructor at the world-famous Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, where he also serves as Director of Curriculum. Since 1996, he has been touring internationally and recording with LA's legendary Blasters.

This combo pack is available now at the Guitar World Online Store!

Richie Sambora Honors Les Paul with Three Special Live Shows at New York's Iridium

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While in Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora saw a million faces and rocked them all.

But nothing will quite compare to three very intimate live performances he has planned to mark the anniversary of the birth of the great Les Paul, who would’ve turned 99 this past June 9.

On July 22 and 23, Sambora will take the stage at New York City’s 170-seat Iridium, the famed jazz club where Paul performed weekly for 12 years until his passing in 2009, for a set that will include selections from his solo albums, as well as songs from the Bon Jovi catalog and, of course, a few favorites made famous by Paul.

“Les was my good friend, and he was genius,” Sambora says. “When I play the Iridium, I know he’ll be on my shoulder and I’m gonna do my best to make him proud. This show is not about me—this is my tribute to him and that’s how I’m gonna frame it. It’s pretty intense, man. I just hope I don’t get too emotional!”

The concerts, which will be taped and aired this fall on Public Television’s Front and Center, will feature the guitarist’s current touring band, including Australian guitar virtuoso Orianthi Panagaris, who graced the cover of the April 2013 cover of Guitar World.

“The way I met Orianthi was pure happenstance,” Sambora says. “I was in Maui last year, and Alice Cooper invited me play a benefit on New Year’s Eve. Ori was playing in his band at the time and we started jamming. The chemistry was immediate and combustible. We tore the place apart.

“When I decided to do some solo shows this year, my second guitarist had to bow out, and I immediately thought of Ori. She was available and Alice gave it his blessing, and we’ve been touring, writing and working together ever since. Even though she is younger than I am, we’re both influenced by a lot of the same music, and our styles just mesh.”

As for Bon Jovi, Sambora is focusing on his own music for the moment and is working on a batch of new songs for an album that will hopefully be released later this year.

“I’m having a great time. I get to be an artist again. The framework I was in made it hard for me to go back to my roots and do what I was meant to do—really play the guitar. People think it’s risky to go out on my own, but the real risk is not doing it: the risk of regret, the risk of not expressing myself.”

And what will the man be playing as he tips his hat to Les Paul at the Iridium this Tuesday and Wednesday?

“Ha! Les Pauls, of course,” he laughs. “I’m lucky enough to have some real nice ones, including an unbelievable white one Les gave me himself.”

ESP Announces Limited-Edition Metallica 'Ride the Lightning' Guitar at Summer NAMM

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A very cool — and very limited — LTD Metallica Ride the Lightning guitar was one of the first pieces of new gear to greet us at this week's Summer NAMM Show in Nashville.

Here's some info about the guitar, direct from the ESP Guitars staff:

We're in Nashville—aka "Music City USA"—at the Summer NAMM Show which opens Thursday July 17, and we have a couple of new guitar models to unveil. The first is the LTD “Ride the Lightning” limited-edition guitar. It was created to commemorate the 30-year anniversary of Metallica’s second album, which was released July 27, 1984. It features a graphic finish that mimics the cover art of that iconic album.

“ESP and Metallica’s guitarists James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett have a relationship that goes back more than two decades,” says Matt Masciandaro, president and CEO of ESP. “Last year, we successfully released a limited-edition guitar for the 30-year anniversary of their first album, Kill ‘Em All. We are happy to offer another new Metallica-focused guitar for serious players, collectors, and fans.”

ESP plans to produce only 300 of the LTD Ride the Lightning models worldwide, making each one a highly sought-after collectible due to its relative rarity.

Its features include an alder body with maple neck (bolt-on construction) at 25.5” scale, and an ebony fingerboard with 24 XJ frets. EMG 60 (neck) and EMG 81 (bridge) active pickups are included, along with TOM bridge and string-thru-body design. The guitar also features a Metallica logo fingerboard inlay, and each guitar includes an ESP form-fit case with the Metallica logo, and a certificate of authenticity.

Ride the Lightning helped establish Metallica as serious contenders in the metal arena and led to their major label signing later in 1984. Some of the now-classic songs on that album include "For Whom the Bell Tolls,""Fade to Black” and "Creeping Death.”

More info on the LTD Ride the Lightning model will be forthcoming!

Additional Content

Wild Stringdom with John Petrucci: Combining Triad Arpeggios to Form Polytonal Chordal Allusions

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As I have discussed in previous columns, I often use triadic arpeggio forms within my riffs and solos as a tool to create rich-sounding, poly-chordal sounds.

I’d like to continue in that vein in this month’s column by presenting different ways in which to move from one arpeggio form to another, using a series of specific triads that complement one another well.

Let’s start with the triads F# diminished and D major, as shown in FIGURES 1 and FIGURE 2, respectively. The F# diminished triad is built from the notes C, F# and A, and the D major triad is built from almost the same set of notes, D, F# and A. Both FIGURES 1 and 2 show these triads as played in fifth position for comparison.

If I wanted to get a bluesy vibe, I’d use the D major triad and combine it with the F# diminished triad, as demonstrated in FIGURE 3. Here, the C note is heard as the b7 (flat seventh) of D, implying a D dominant-seven tonality.

Now let’s try combining the F# diminished arpeggio with an A minor arpeggio—A C E—as shown in FIGURE 4. The combination of these two sets of notes gives an F#m7b5 arpeggio (F# A C E: see FIGURE 5). These licks work well over an Am chord, as the inclusion of the F# note, the major sixth of A, implies an Am6, A Dorian–mode type of sound.

As you probably have noticed, all of these arpeggios are played on the top three strings, and I often like to incorporate sweep picking when using arpeggios like this. FIGURE 6 illustrates a combination of an Em7 arpeggio—E G B D—and a Gmaj7 arpeggio—G B D F#. As denoted in the example, in order to sweep pick these arpeggio shapes properly, begin with an upstroke on the first note and then use a single down-stroke to rake across the top three strings to play the next three notes.

The form ends with another upstroke. I then slide up to 10th position and reverse the process, beginning with a down-stroke and then using a single upstroke to rake across the top three strings, moving from high to low. FIGURE 7 offers an example of applying this approach to the chord progression Em7 Am9 F#m7b5 Gmaj7.

This is the last installment of Wild Stringdom for now. I hope these columns have been useful to you and have served to broaden your knowledge of the guitar while building up your chops. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you out on the road!



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Additional Content

Review: ESP E-II ST-2 Rosewood RDB Guitar — Video

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These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the September 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.

Any guitar that features a flat top, double cutaways, dual humbuckers and a locking Floyd Rose is typically pigeonholed as a “shredder’s guitar,” suggesting a predetermined limit of expression and application.

In fact, the platform was originally conceived to correct performance-limiting design flaws and, consequently, addressed the requirements of technically proficient virtuosos, helping them to develop their talents fully.

A handful of modern luthiers have refined the style over the past 30 years, and ESP now joins this small club with the new, Japanese-built E-II Series ST-2. (The E-II guitars replace the company’s Standard Series.) It’s a true player’s machine that rivals the finest contemporary guitars for playability, and at less than half the typical price.

Exclusive Video Premiere: Trevor Hall’s “Wish Man” Live Acoustic

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Singer songwriter Trevor Hall surprised his fans with the sudden release of his new 12-track album Chapter of the Forest on June 17.

And now the wonderfully good surprises continue!

This one is a live acoustic video filmed at DeathStar Studios in Los Angeles. In it, Hall shares the story behind the song and then performs a live solo acoustic version.

This soul searching song easily showcases Hall’s talent as a songwriter. But what I truly love is that this performance is somewhat Springsteen-like in its urgency and heartfelt intensity.

Hall shares, “"Wish Man" is about being in the here and now. It's about recognizing the hidden angels of the earth and seeing the Divine in all people.”

View it here:

To kick off the album debut, Hall performed a live concert via his YouTube channel where he performed some of the new songs including the studio version of “Wish Man.” Click here to view his performance.

The 12 songs on Chapter of the Forest were born during a yearlong sabbatical where Hall returned to his beloved India, Nepal, Vermont, and Maine, and spent that time in deep reflection and spiritual connection embracing life-altering events.

Hall explains in his own words, “This album is inspired by simplicity, by the roots of life, and by the beauty that one finds in solitude and in nature. I am more excited than ever before due to the fact that this is the first record that I have done entirely on my own…purely from the heart.”

Trevor Hall is currently touring with Michael Franti’s Soulshine Summer 2014 tour hitting 30+outdoor amphitheaters across the country. In the fall, Hall will embark on a headlining tour in support of Chapter of the Forest.

Trevor Hall began songwriting and performing when he was 16 years old. He burst into the music scene with the song “The Lime Tree,” which was featured on the Shrek the Third soundtrack. Hall’s captivating live performances and growing popularity have led to sold out tours across the country as well as touring with such artists as Steel Pulse, The Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, Matisyahu, Michael Franti and Colbie Callait.

In 2009, Hall released his Vanguard debut which featured the single “Unity,” a song written and performed with longtime friend, Matisyahu. The self-titled release debuted at #7 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and Hall was cited by MTV’s ‘Subway Fresh Buzz’ Series as “one of the 20 emerging artists for 2010.” His follow up album Everything, Everytime, Everywhere debuted on iTunes Rock Chart at #3, iTunes Top Albums at #12 and #8 Amazon Movers & Shakers. The featured single “Brand New Day” was used as the music bed for the reformatted CBS This Morning Show.

Current tour dates:

07-21 New York, NY – Pier 97 w/ Michael Franti
07-22 Philadelphia, PA – Skyline Stage at the Mann Center w/ Michael Franti
07-25 Wilmington, NC – Battleship Park w/ Michael Franti
07-26 Portsmouth, VA – nTelos Pavilion w/ Michael Franti
07-27 Charlotte, NC – Uptown Amphitheater at The Music Factory w/ Michael Franti
07-29 Boca Raton, FL – Sunset Cove Amphitheater w/ Michael Franti
07-30 St. Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheater w/ Michael Franti
08-01 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade Music Park w/ Michael Franti
08-02 Nashville, TN – The Woods at Fontanel w/ Michael Franti

Find out more at http://www.trevorhallmusic.com

Theory of a Deadman Premiere New Album, ‘Savages’

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Canadian hard-rock band Theory of a Deadman will release their new album, Savages, July 29 via Roadrunner Records. In anticipation, the band has teamed up with GuitarWorld.com to premiere the entire album stream right here, right now. Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!

To pre-order Savages, visit iTunes or Roadrunner Records'webstore. For more on Theory of a Deadman, visit their website and follow them on Facebook.

FOR MORE: Watch the lyric video for the title track, which features a guest appearance by shock-rock legend Alice Cooper.


Guitarist Plays Along to Sobbing Japanese Politician — Video

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I don't know why this video exists, but exist it does.

Because my Japanese is incredibly rusty (and/or nonexistent), I'm not totally sure what's going on here. But it seems as though a politician or public figure was involved in some sort of scandal (as usual). So he appeared on TV to cry about it.

And, of course, a guitarist (wearing a bow tie — maybe he's a waiter?) saw the video, got a kick out of the moans and cries of the politician or public figure and figured he'd mimic them with his guitar. And he made a video of it.

It's actually sort of interesting.

P.S.: If anyone anyone out speaks Japanese and can help explain what's going on, please add a comment below; we'll update the story with any new info.

UPDATE: A commenter (gsallan) has offered the following info:

"Nonomura (the screaming guy) was a member of the Hyogo Prefecture Assembly, and racked up about $30,000 worth of shady travel expenses that he can't justify. The picture-in-picture is from his reaction to being questioned."

Thank you, gsallan!

Johnny Depp Joins Aerosmith Onstage for "Train Kept A-Rollin'"— Video

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As he often does, Johnny Depp joined Aerosmith on stage last week to play "Train Kept A-Rollin'."

The big event, which was filmed by fan is available for viewing below, took place last Wednesday at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

This is the same song the actor performed with the band in August 2012 show at the Hollywood Bowl in L.A.

Watch the video below. And, as always, tell us what you think!

Additional Content

Learn How to Play Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time

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Guitar World picked 'em, and now you can play 'em — thanks to a new book, Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time.

This collection of 100 must-know guitar leads transcribed note for note! This unique book also includes insightful background and performance notes for more than 40 of the best solos.

Songs include:

• Alive
• All Along the Watchtower
• Aqualung
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• Cliffs of Dover
• Crazy Train
• Cross Road Blues (Crossroads)
• Eruption
• Get the Funk Out
• Hotel California
• Layla
• Little Red Corvette
• Money
• November Rain
• One
• Pride and Joy
• Sharp Dressed Man
• Smells like Teen Spirit
• Stairway to Heaven
• The Star-Spangled Banner
• Sultans of Swing
• Sweet Child O' Mine
• Sympathy for the Devil
• Walk This Way
• While My Guitar Gently Weeps
• Won't Get Fooled Again
• Working Man
• You Shook Me All Night Long

... And many more!

This 320-page book is available now at the Guitar World Online Store for $29.99!

Massive Premiere New Album, 'Full Throttle'— Exclusive

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Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive world premiere of Full Throttle, the new album from Australia's Massive.

With their huge riffs and double-tracked vocals, this band certainly doesn't make their high ambitions a secret. The band's songs are lined with energy, wanting nothing more than to burst out of your speakers.

For more about Massive, visit their official website.

Check out the exclusive stream below and tell us what you think in the comments or on Facebook!

Review: Ibanez Tube Screamer TS808DX Overdrive Pro Pedal — Video

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These videos and audio files are bonus content related to the September 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store.

Guitarists often prefer the flexibility of having two overdrive pedals in their signal chain: one dialed to increase distortion/gain and another set up strictly as a volume/signal boost.

In celebration of the Tube Screamer's 35th anniversary, Ibanez engineered both into one pedal and used the reference-quality TS808 as its platform. The 808 gained almost mythic status when players learned that it was Stevie Ray Vaughan's go-to overdrive pedal.

The new Ibanez TS808DX Tube Screamer Overdrive Pro offers the revered TS808 overdrive circuit, an independent clean boost and a few long-awaited performance-enhancing features, honoring the pedal's history and taking its legendary organic tones to new heights.

Betcha Can't Play This: Tapping and Skipping with Andy Wood

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This is a tapping run that incorporates string skipping and a couple of fret-hand finger slides.

It’s based on the A natural minor scale [A B C D E F G], but the notes are organized into arpeggios, which imply some interesting "tall" chord sounds.

Although it is played in steady 16th notes, it sounds and feels out of time because of the unusual melodic contour.

When skipping to another string, often the first note is hammered on "from nowhere" by one of the fret-hand fingers [indicated by "H"]. Strive for an even attack and volume note to note, making each hammer-on quick and firm. When pulling off, flick the string slightly sideways, in toward the palm.

I tap a couple of the notes on the high E string with my ring finger, which makes the jumps across the strings a little easier. Mute the strings you’re not playing on with your pick-hand palm to keep them from ringing.

The lick ends with a big bend on the B string, which I perform by tapping the string then bending it upward with both hands, using the fret hand’s fingers to help the tapping finger bend the string.

For more on Wood and his band, Down from Up, visit andywoodmusic.com and downfromup.com.

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The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach Discusses New Album, 'Turn Blue'

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This is an excerpt from the September 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the rest of this story, plus features on Dan Auerbach's off-beat guitars, Eric Clapton and his new J.J. Cale tribute album, Judas Priest, 17 Amazing practice amps, columns, tabs and reviews of new gear from Epiphone, ESP Guitars, Visual Sound, Blackstar, G&L Guitars, Ibanez and more, check out the September 2014 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.

Black and Blue: Dan Auerbach tells how the Black Keys made their latest hit album, Turn Blue, in the midst of personal hardship, using a handful of guitars, amps and effects and a whole lotta spontaneous inspiration.

Black Keys guitarist and singer Dan Auerbach is obsessed with arcane, el-cheapo mid–20th century guitars: Teiscos, Nationals, Supros, Silvertones.

But that fixation is rivaled only by his passion for collecting vintage vinyl and under-the-radar new music. “Yesterday, I was listening to some dub [reggae] that I have on vinyl,” he says. “And this morning, I was listening to some South American Sixties psych music.”

When it comes to current music, Auerbach’s passion for contemporary hip-hop is balanced by a fondness for less mainstream fare, like moody Canadian act Timber Timbre and U.K. retro-pop unit Metronomy. “I love their English Riviera album,” the guitarist raves. “There’s some really amazing plectrum bass playing on it. I just love the record’s experimentation and sonic limitlessness.”

In one way or another, these variegated influences find their way into the Black Keys’ own music. Their new album, Turn Blue, takes them further along the ambitious sonic trajectory they’ve been following ever since Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney teamed up with über producer Brian Burton, a.k.a. Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Gorillaz, Norah Jones) for the Keys’ 2008 album, Attack & Release. Like all the Black Keys’ records, Turn Blue’s sound is firmly based in the garage-rock interplay between Auerbach’s bluesy squawk-box aggression and Carney’s flailing frenzy. But over this foundation, the Keys have woven a mesmerizing web of ghostly synths and eerie sonic textures. Auerbach plays bass as well as guitar on the album, and he splits keyboard duties with Danger Mouse.

“Anybody can jump on any instrument at any time,” Auerbach says. “There are really no rules when we’re in the studio.”

With its stately tempo, lazily strummed acoustic guitar and spectral synth line, the album’s opening track, “Weight of Love,” invites comparison with the classic-rock majesty of Pink Floyd. “We love that kind of music,” Auerbach admits, “so it’s in us to be capable of doing that. It’s just something that we’ve never tried to go for before. But we had the time and that little spark of creativity to start us in that direction, and on a couple of songs we saw it through.”

“Weight of Love” also is the most guitar-solo-intensive Black Keys track to date. Auerbach’s psychedelicized midsong magic carpet ride is followed up by a soaring outro excursion to the creative dark side that lurks somewhere underneath his regular-guy, flannel-and-denim Midwestern exterior.

“That was all spur of the moment,” he says. “We’d just built that song up, and the end has this massive crescendo where everybody’s really going for it. It really called for a guitar solo, and I just improvised something. Then I put a harmony guitar on top of it. Honestly, it was 20 minutes and done, not something I really labored on very long. Everything on this record happened very naturally.”

Auerbach seems to have little or no use for premeditation. He appears to be proud of the fact that he and Carney were completely unprepared when they entered the studio to make True Blue, the heavily anticipated follow-up to 2011’s strong-selling, Grammy-winning and critically lauded El Camino.

“We didn’t have any songs written,” he says. “We had no sense of what we were gonna do. We just went in blind. The blind leading the blind. We didn’t have any real goal other than to make an album. So we wrote songs every day. We just improvised. I guess the goal was to try to have a song done every day, maybe every two days at the most. And we did.”

Sessions for Turn Blue began at a studio in Benton Harbor, Michigan, called the Key Club, where Auerbach and Carney worked on their own. Danger Mouse joined them for subsequent sessions at Sunset Sound in L.A. and Auerbach’s own Easy Eye studio in Nashville. Auerbach also seems to take pride in the fact that he came up with the album’s infectious lead single, “Fever,” during the early sessions in Michigan, without assistance from Danger Mouse, who has served as the band’s co-writer as well as producer on the past few albums.

“Fever” exemplifies Auerbach’s formidable strength as a tunesmith—he can write catchy pop hooks that go straight to your head like a sugar rush. The song’s main synth line wouldn’t be out of place in an early Eighties hit by OMD or Depeche Mode. “Fever” is also one of many seriously bass-driven songs on Turn Blue. Throughout the album sessions, Auerbach played a Fender Mustang bass guitar through “a good, old-time transformer D.I.,” he notes, usually employing a pick. “I really like palm-muted pick bass,” he says. “Especially if you’ve got flatwound strings. It’s just classic—a really nice bass sound that kind of sits well in a mix and is really propulsive.”

This is an excerpt from the September 2014 issue of Guitar World. For the rest of this story, plus features on Dan Auerbach's off-beat guitars, Eric Clapton and his new J.J. Cale tribute album, Judas Priest, 17 Amazing practice amps, columns, tabs and reviews of new gear from Epiphone, ESP Guitars, Visual Sound, Blackstar, G&L Guitars, Ibanez and more, check out the September 2014 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.


2014 Summer NAMM Show Photos: Gear Galore in Nashville

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Another Summer NAMM Show has come and gone!

As always, Guitar World was there in force, shooting photos and videos, gathering endless gear news and trying out (and gawking at) all the new cool stuff being introduced for 2014.

Since we spent most of our time on the floor of Nashville's Music City Center, Guitar World's Twitter feed and Facebook pages were our primary means of sharing photos of new gear and other NAMM scenery.

Therefore, we hope you'll check out our still-available NAMM photos on Twitter and Facebook.

Even though the show is over, we'll be posting more news items about the coolest new gear, plus a series of photo galleries (showing gear, celebrities and "the scene" in general) and videos from the event.

You can check out our first photo gallery below! NOTE: If, for some reason, an image doesn't display in preview mode, remember you can click on the photo to expand it!

Bailiff Premiere New Song, "Golden Hour"— Exclusive

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Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of "'Golden Hour," a new song by Bailiff. The track is from the band's upcoming EP, Remise II, which will be released October 7.

"'Golden Hour" came together quite rapidly one night in our rehearsal room attic in Chicago," says Josh Siegel (guitar/vocals).

"Owen and Ren had a drum and bass idea that they locked into while I plunked around on the guitar. I had a cheap guitar I mainly used for playing slide, but that night I picked it up and started experimenting without a slide for the first time. The guitar had all six strings tuned to a B note.

"I made up that tuning one night but later read that Lou Reed used to do that to his guitars. It sounded like a group of slightly out-of-tune violins, and the tuning forced me to get crafty with how I moved around on the neck. We found some ideas for a verse and a chorus and then took a break to think out a pre-chorus and bridge so that we could demo it. The guitar parts mirror the vocal melodies throughout most of the song.

"We are a trio but we love the sound of a big gang of singers chanting a melody, so I used the guitar part to mimic that sound. Our producer told us we needed a real uptempo track to contrast the more somber song that we'd already written for the Remise II EP, so we made a point to keep 'Golden Hour' brisk and heavy. I'd read somewhere that the term 'Golden Hour' refers to the small window of time you've got after a major injury to get medical help. I talked with Owen about having that phrase stuck in my head and we sat down later in the week and collaborated on the lyrics to finish this one up."

For more about Bailliff, visit bailiffmusic.com.

Joe Bonamassa Releases Trailer for New Album, 'Different Shades of Blue'— Video

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As we announced last week, Joe Bonamassa will be releasing his 16th album, Different Shades of Blue, September 23 through J&R Adventures.

Now the singer/guitarist has released a preview video — often known as an EPK (electronic press kit) — for the new album. You can check out the entire seven-and-a-half-minute trailer below. In the clip, Bonamassa previews several of the tracks, discusses the recording process and more.

This is Bonamassa’s first studio album in two years and the first in his career to be made up entirely of original material. As always, gear lovers get to see a nice selection of Bonamassa's guitars, including a few sweet Gibson Les Pauls!

Check out the trailer below. Right below that, you'll find the first official music video from the album; it's the title track, "Different Shades of Blue." Enjoy both!

Guitar World's Top 50 Guitar Albums of the Eighties

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In early 1990, the editors of Guitar World magazine sat back, grabbed some coffee and painstakingly selected what they considered the top 50 guitar albums of the just-ended Eighties.

In the photo gallery below, you can see what they came up with!

The albums are listed in order, from "killer" to "jaw-droppingly awesome." Or from 50 to 1, depending on your perspective.

Please note that there are actually 51 albums in the gallery (There was a tie somewhere along the way).

Don't agree with the vintage editors' vintage choices? As always, let your voice be heard! Share your opinion in the comments below or on Facebook!

Head back to the ... past!

Aristides 060 "Arium" Guitar — Demo Video with Ola Englund

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GuitarWorld.com has posted several stories over the years about Aristides guitars, which are made out of something called "arium."

Arium is a new material designed by Poort Artistides and Delft University in the Netherlands.

While we don't know a lot about it, we know Aristides' arium guitars are formed in a mold. Arium has no fiber structure, which allows it to vibrate three-dimensionally, increasing an instrument's sustain and volume. Arium doesn't contain water, so it is more stable and requires less maintenance.

According to Aristides, by creating a one-piece constructed guitars using arium, sound waves can resonate throughout the instrument without disruption.

Anyway, although we have posted photo galleries of Aristides guitars (including THIS ONE and THIS ONE), we've never posted a high-quality demo video showing the guitar in action.

Until now, that is. In this new clip, guitarist Ola Englund demos Aristides' 060 model. As always, check it out and let us know what you think on Facebook or in the comments below!

For more information, visit aristidesinstruments.com.

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