Digital Products

Premier Guitar January 2018: Our cover story this month is a true treat for longtime fans of Radiohead: After decades of avoiding guitar interviews, Ed O’Brien steps out of the shadows to gratefully ruminate with PG about his journey in one of modern rock’s most celebrated—and confounding—bands. We also talk to funk bassist extraordinaire Bootsy Collins, blues badass Samantha Fish, Bloodclot’s Todd Youth (formerly of Danzig) and Nick Oliveri (previously of Queens of the Stone Age), and—in a double-whammy treasure—avant-garde guitarist Elliott Sharp interviews storied producer Peter K. Siegel about his work recording with Doc Watson and Roy Buchanan. On the gear front, this issue we have a feature all about the ins and outs of guitar necks—materials, construction, profile shapes, etc.—as well as 13 guitar and bass reviews, including the Gretsch Players Edition Broadkaster, Wooly Coats’ Spanky MkII, the Mayones Hydra, Baroni Lab’s Mini Amp 50, Traveler’s LTD EC-1, the Grez Mendocino, KHDK’s Abyss, Old Blood Noise Endeavors’ Fault, the Serek Midwestern 2, Mid-Fi Electronics’ Magick i, the RainSong CH-WS, and Rocket Surgeon’s Boris. In our print edition only, we also have transcriptions of Van Halen’s “Mean Street,” Doc Watson’s “Blackberry Blossom,” and King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man.”

Whether you’re completely turned off by fuzz pedals or just brand-new to and overwhelmed by them, this month’s cover story demystifies this sometimes-confusing stompbox niche and explains how the right fuzz can stoke inspiration in any genre imaginable. On the artist front, we’ve got interviews with Wendy Melvoin (from the late great Prince’s band the Revolution), Metalocalypse mastermind Brendon Small, and bluesman Jonny Lang. We’ve also got a feature offering an insider’s perspective on recording guitar for film and TV soundtracks, as well as a primer on both how to play slide guitar, and the pros and cons of different slide types. Song transcriptions this month (print only) are Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb,” Mastodon’s “Curl of the Burl,” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well (Part 1).” Meanwhile our gear-review section deep-dives on the Coppersound Foxcatcher, Guitar Pro 7, Outlaw Effects’ Deputy Marshal, Korg’s AW-LT100B bass tuner, the Headrush Pedalboard, Ashdown’s SZ Funk Face, Bigfoot Engineering’s King Fuzz XL, the Boss Acoustic Singer Live combo, the MOD Duo, Pinter’s SB1-J Jazz Jr., Allen Eden’s Disciple 5 bass, and the Keeley Compressor Plus.

In addition to our usual crazily diverse lineup of gear reviews and artist interviews, this month we’ve got an array of acoustic-oriented coverage—from a roundup of three unique flattops from Art & Lutherie, Guild, and Cort, to a review of the new AER Compact 60/3 TE, an interview with singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, and profiles of luthiers Dana Bourgeois, Kathy Wingert, Fylde Guitars’ Roger Bucknall, Kevin Ryan, and Isaac Jang. We also interview Juan Alderete and suGar Yoshinaga from Halo Orbit, Body Count’s Ernie C and Juan Garcia, Warren Haynes, and Rhys Chatham. In the print edition, song transcriptions this month are Muse’s “Psycho,” Chris Stapleton’s “Parachute,” and Dropkick Murphys’ “I’m Shipping up to Boston.” Meanwhile, the rest of the review section includes close-looks at the Way Huge Russian Pickle, Rainger FX’s Dr. Freakenstein Dwarf Bass, the GFI Specular Reverb, Greg Howe’s Lick Box from Carl Martin, the Prestige NYS Deluxe MC, Doug Kauer’s Titan KR1, the Fuchs ODS Classic, Stomp Audio Labs’ Octopus, the Fender American Professional Jazz bass, and Trace Elliot’s ELF bass head.

This issue marks our foray into serving up three song transcriptions per issue (print edition only), with this month’s offerings including tablature for Jack White’s “I’m Shakin’,” Brent Mason’s “Hot Wired,” and the Allman Brothers Band’s “Little Martha.” Meanwhile, our cover story this month talks to gruesome shredder extraordinaire John 5 about his latest Fender Custom Shop Telecaster and the making of his new album, Season of the Witch, and other artist features include chats with British songwriting icon Robyn Hitchcock, psych-rock freaks King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and Pallbearer’s Devin Holt and Brett Campbell. On the gear front, we’ve got a how-to on understanding and optimizing expression pedals in your rig, a bass-overdrive review roundup—which includes Tech 21’s SansAmp Bass Driver DI Version 2, Gallien-Krueger’s Plex, the Providence Brick Drive, and Two Notes’ Le Bass—and reviews of Electro-Harmonix’s Blurst, the Cusack Orthrus, TWA’s Hot Saké, Taylor’s Mini-e bass, the Carr Mercury V, Strymon’s Riverside, Mooer’s Ocean Machine, the Breedlove Premier Concerto, the Boss EV-30 expression pedal, Ibanez’s SRH505F bass, Seymour Duncan’s PowerStage 170, and Winfield’s Dust Devil combo.