Digital Products

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.

Fender’s Jaguar and Jazzmaster are experiencing something of a resurgence of late, but many players still consider them wonky and difficult to work with. Our cover story this month demystifies the process of setting up these stellar instruments’ unique hardware and physiognomy so that you can get yours performing the way Leo intended. Other features this month include a how-to on refinishing your guitar at home, interviews with killer players—including Morrissey sideman Boz Boorer, Valerie June, Once  Human’s Logan Mader and Max Karon, and Norman Blake—and a Forgotten Heroes piece on the mighty hill-country legend R.L. Burnside. We also talk to 26 guitar and bass notables—including Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson, Together Pangea’s William Keegan, Jennifer Batten, and Donna Grantis—on the most life-changing album in their collection. Our 13 guitar and bass reviews this month include looks at Taylor’s Academy 10e, the Marshall 2525C Mini Jubilee, Gibson’s EB 4, the TC Electronic Rusty Fuzz, the Universal Audio Apollo Twin MkII, the Rivolta Combinata, Reverend’s Mike Watt Wattplower, and more.

In our cover story this month we talk to Animals as Leaders mastermind Tosin Abasi and his 8-string cohort Javier Reyes about their new album, The Madness of Many. Our other artist interviews include chats with Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, Warpaint’s Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman, Stick Men’s Tony Levin and Markus Reuter, Meshuggah’s Mårten Hagström, Lynyrd Skynyrd cofounder Gary Rossington, and “Godfather of Fusion” Larry Coryell. We’ve also got a bonus lesson on learning to play outside the conventional chord-scale mindset. As for gear coverage, this month we dive deep into the world of bucket-brigade effects of yesterday and today, as well as review Foxpedal’s Defector, the Spector Timbre acoustic 4-string, TC Electronic’s Tailspin, Free the Tone’s Ambi Space, the Eastwood Senn, Sandberg’s Forty Eight bass, the Milkman Pint, MXR’s Echoplex Delay, Collings OM2H T, Dunlop’s CBM105Q Mini Bass Cry Baby, Fender ’57 Custom Pro , Wren and Cuff’s Sonder, Lollar’s P-90 Staple, and the Ernie Ball Ambient Delay.

Our cover story this month looks at the intriguing story of how bizarre electric guitars came to be born behind the Iron Curtain despite the Soviet government’s ban on rock ’n’ roll, jazz, and other Western music during the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. We also dive deep on gear terminology in a comprehensive shopper’s guide that clarifies nomenclature often found confusing by both newcomers and long-timers alike as they shop for instruments, amps, and effects. Meanwhile, our artist interviews this month include former Sonic Youth frontwoman Kim Gordon, Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman, David Crosby, Doyle Bramhall II, and Margaret Glaspy. As for gear reviews, this month we take a look at Fractal Audio’s AX8, the Ernie Ball Caprice 4-string, Boss’ GT-1 multi-effector, the Tsakalis AudioWorks Ocean reverb, MXR’s Shin-Juku Drive, Vick Audio’s Hypocenter Delay, Tech 21’s Bass Fly Rig, the Batson GC22 Americana flattop, the Godin Summit Classic CT Convertible, Hartke’s TX600, Jam Pedals’ Delay Llama Supreme, B.A. Ferguson’s Classic Class Shirley, and Greenchild’s G777.

This month our “Echoes from the Garage” cover story examines not just at the seminal bands, guitarists, and gear from the ’60s garage-rock movement, but also looks at the effect they had on subsequent rock forms from the ’70s to today. In other artist coverage, shred lords Steve Vai and Devin Townsend interview each other about their latest releases, Modern Primitive / Passion & Warfare and Transcendence, respectively. We also talk to Pixies’ Joey Santiago and bassist Paz Lenchantin, bluesman Dex Romweber, Stargazer Lilies’ John Cep and Kim Field, Steve Rothery from storied U.K. prog outfit Marillion, and Stephen Egerton from legendary SoCal punk quartet Descendents. We’ve also got a feature lesson by gypsy-jazz scholar Michael Horowitz on the essential elements of Django Reinhardt’s groundbreaking style. Our gear reviews this month include in-depth looks at the retro-vibed Danelectro ’64 and Guild S-200 T-Bird 6-strings, as well as Fender’s new Mustang PJ bass, the Tremulator Plus, Bogner’s new Goldfinger 54 Phi head and 2×12, the Parson 1975HW head, Experimental Noize’s Aphazing, Taurus’ Stomp-Head 5.CE, Mu-Fx’s Boostron 3, the Cort 5B Plus AS bass, CopperSound’s Telegraph Stutter, TC Electronic’s WireTap Riff Recorder, and Journey Instruments’ OB660 bass.