pLUS JOHN SCOfIBLD KARNIVOOL IAgUILD "'ACOUSTICS JANUARY 2011 ,650 CAN >650 01> o 7447001010 4 ~ewB~Y ANEW BAY M ED I A PU B LI CAT ION Media JANUARY 2011 I V OLUME 45, NUMBER 1 GP COMMUNITY 20 Don't let anyo ne tell you that it's not all about you l Share your photos, gear and CD/DV D reviews, likes/di sli kes, favorite amps and guitars, tone and techniq ue tips, gig stories, and more with the Guitor Player reader community. What are yo u waiting for? Joi n inl LESSONS RIFFS 96 Ten Things You Gotta Do to Play 24 The Legacy of Les Paul at the Iridium, MJ's sid eman, Like ... Alex Lifeson Explore the riffs, th e effects, the vibrato, and Tommy Shaw on Styx then and now, Exp erienc e PRS. the attitud e of the coolest guy in the coolest Steve Morse talks tone, and morel band to ever write songs about necromancers. COVER STORY 108 Hey Jazz Guy Jake Hertzog sp in s co mping knowledge. 70 Joe Satriani The king of instrumental guitar holds court on his new 110 GIT lesson albu m, Block Swans and Wormhole Wizards. his Vadim Zil bershtein shares the ult im ate funk pre-gig preparation, and his take on the blu es. wo rkou t. BONUS! Mike Kenea Uy ta lks abo ut wo rking with Satch. ARTISTS GEAR 38 Cool Event Guitar Player's 36 New Gear! Guitar Superstar 2010 112 Roundup! Six new acoustics from Guild 42 Blues Kenny Wayne Shepherd 48 Metal Karnivool's Drew Goddard and Mark 122 Pigtronix Mothership Hosking and Philosopher King 54 Classical Liona Bo yd 128 lexicon 60 Jazz John Scofield PCM Native Reverb Bundle 66 Roots Tony Joe White 130 Traynor Darkhorse BACKSTAGE 132 Stompbox Fever! Fu lltone Plimsoul 154 Name the Guitar Hero! 134 Brain Snack 5 Things About Cables 138 Posh vs. Poor A Bonnie Raitt rig for any budget. COVER PHOTO Joe Satriani, photographed in Sa n Rafael, California by Paul Haggard POSTMASTER Send address changes to GUitar Player Box 469073 Escondido CA 92046 GU itar Plavel (155N 0017-5463) IS published nt to Bleuchlp International PO Box 25542 London ON N6C 6 18 GU I T AR PLAYER.COM MORE ONLINE! Expand your experience far beyond the pages of Guitar Player at guitarplayer.com/january2011 COOL STUFF 24/7! • Watch Jo e Satriani de mo a new tune at guitarplayer.com/video • Get home recording tips from Peter Frampton at guitarpla ye r.com/gear • Learn how to play like Tony lomm i at gui tarplayer.com/lessons • Dig a classic Paul Simon interview at gu itarplayer.com/artists JOIN THE GP COMMUNITY! Facebook Get news and post comments at face book.com/ gu ita rp laye rmag GP Forum Debate, shock, educate, and share with fel low readers at gu itarplayer.com Twitter Follow daily tweets at twitter.com/guitarplayernow ~ ... ,,,., ' ..., BY VINNIE DEMASI PHOT()GR:-'lPH BY [( •.. h (, j.TLr" Things You Gotta Do to Play Like ALEXLIFESe AS A PRE- TEEN DISCOVERING and Gibson doubleneck cutting an but determined what I'd be doing with rock music in the early '80s, ax-wield­ impressive figure-and I had my first the rest of my life. ing role models were plentiful but it was guitar hero. I owned every album, Okay, so I'm going a little fan-boy Alex Lifeson- and his band Rush-who sported a complete wardrobe of concert here, but I'll bet that if you're reading motivated me to pick up a guitar. Some­ shirts and pins, and was a card-carrying this, you have a similar tale to tell. In thing about the Canadian trio's ability member of the Rush Backstage Club. my 25 years as a music student, educa­ to fuse heavy metal's visceral force with Hell-bent on rock stardom, I ordered a tor, journalist, and performer, I am prog's intricacies, their Samurai-class Rush Anthology songbook, hijacked my consistently amazed by how many of my chops, and lyrics that dared address top­ brother's Giannini nylon-string, and deci­ peers fo und their initial inspiration, val­ ics outside the usual sex, drugs, and rock phered the G, D, andA7 chord diagrams idation, and identification in the music and roll dictum resonated with me in a needed to strum "Closer to the Heart," of Rush. Not to mention a whole gener­ way no previous band had. Factor in Life­ the simplest song in the book. That first ation of game-changing guitarists-Kirk son's innate coolness-his long locks surge of rapturous musical discovery all Hammett, Larry LaLonde, Paul Gilbert, G U ITA RPLAYER. COM LS I \· ith boy ling . In Jca­ am : my val­ usic ner­ Kirk GUITARP L A YER. COM 97 ------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ , ., ,,:, i#'~" , ;.:,,~~ ~~/"" \~0~~' :~~;~~~ <'~k>" k~ · ~~~}~¥~'~. i' 10 THINGS YOU GOTTA DO TO PLAY LIKE ALEX LIFESON Billy Corgan, and John Petrucci, to name BE A TONE TREKKIE A later switch to PRS guitars paralleled a few-who cite Lifeson as a prime mover. A rarity in the pantheon of a move towards a heavier, less electroni­ Born Aleksandar Zivojinovic and reared guitar gods, Lifeson isn't cally reliant sound, 2002's Vapor Trails was in Toronto, Lifeson founded Rush with identified with a singular the first Rush album since the early '70s skin-pounding schoolmate John Rutsey in sound, In fact, he can lay to be completely synth-free, • 1968, When bassist/ vocalist/ keyboardist claim to multiple telltale Currently, Lifeson rocks a stable of cus­ • Geddy Lee joined the fold, his wailing oper­ tones at different stages of tom Floyd Rose-fitted Gibson Les atic singing and formidable 4-string skills his career. On early records like Fly by Night Pauls-including some with a Fishman piezo He.. reg\ solidified a heavy rock sound in the Grand and Caress of Steel, Alex relied mostly on a system for acoustic sounds-as well as his ings wi Funk Railroad and Cactus paradigm, The Marshall stack-amplified Gibson ES-335 original ES-355, His backline sports Signa­ to the Ii replacement of Rutsey with drummer/ lyri­ for his beefy growl, with liberal doses of ture Series Hughes & Kettner TriAmp MKII's establis cist Neil Peart in 1974 heralded a more wah pedal for solos, By 1977's A Farewell and Coreblade models, and his rack includes F/f7addl progressive, experimental direction for the to Kings, he'd switched to Hiwatt amps, a TC Electronic G-Force and 1210 Spatial tial-soul band and, excepting a brief hiatus around added a doubleneck Gibson EDS-1275 and Expander, In Lifeson's capable hands, all this F#bam the turn of the century due to personal custom-built alpine white ES-355, and he machinery is able to reproduce over three tragedies in Peart's family, the fabled troika began experimenting with chorus, as the decades' worth of history-making tones, has endured, constantly changing, broad­ addition of keyboards nudged the band's ening, and redefining its sound, And in sound in a more lush direction, HOLD THE 3RD '1m what is a lesson the music industry mar­ 1981's Moving Pictures swapped Gibsons Intrinsically predisposed to J= 8 8· ~ keting machine hopefully takes to heart, for Strats modified with Floyd Rose lock­ deviate from the norm, the less easily categorized the band became, ing tremolos and Bill Lawrence humbuckers Lifeson regularly sought the more their popularity grew, in the bridge position into Marshall com­ out aurally rich alternatives No surprise then that Lifeson, perhaps bos, Here, Lifeson's leaner tone offered a to standard chord voicings, more so than any other rock guitarist of clarity that complemented the band's One favorite tactic was to his era and stature, has a style and sound increasing use of synthesizers and Moog substitute a harmonically ambiguous unre­ that's been constantly evolving and impos­ Taurus pedals, Strikingly, Lifeson proved solved suspension (either a sus2 or sus4) sible to pigeonhole, And though he released to be one of the most lyrical, evocative for a given chord's 3rd-the note that deter­ a fine solo album, Victor, in 1996, analyz­ whammy bar artisans, as evidenced by the mines major or minor tonality. ing his playing outside the context of haunting solo in "Limelight," almost unan­ The moveable sus2 voicings in Ex.! are Rush's music would be a bit like disasso­ imously cited as his finest moment, based on A-shape fifth-string-root barre ciating Mickey Mantle from pinstripes, Throughout the '80s Lifeson willingly chords, voiced with the 5 in the bass on Aside from his stringed accomplish­ assumed a more textural role in the band's the low-E string, Dreamily strummed on ments, Lifeson is also lauded for his sense sonic schema, which now included an acoustic, they evoke the introductory of humor, amicable nature towards fans sequences, samples, triggers, and electronic "Tide Pools" section to Rush's epic "Nat­ and journalists, and willingness to lay back drums, Relying on a rack of Korg, Roland, ural Science," or the intro to "Resist." while his virtuosic bandmates flaunt their and DeltaLab signal processors, Lifeson A compelling substitute for electrified world-class skills, A lesson in Lerxst (as painted ethereal, abstract, and echo-laden root-5th-octave power chords, the quartet Peart and Lee affectionately call him) cer­ soundscapes, His innovative (and artisti­ of sus grips in Ex.2 will help you catch the tainly has something to offer 6-stringers cally altruistic) efforts on 1984's Grace Under drift of Lifeson's main riff to the classic of all ilks, So, get ready to", Pressure were acknowledged by GP readers "Tom Sawyer." T who crowned him Best Rock Guitarist, ~ B Esus2/B Dsus2/A Csus2/G Asus2/E BSUS2/F# I I 3 4 I I 003400 I I 3 4 I I "' [I UD mm "II Emaddt I I.