2015 Premier Guitar

This incredibly diverse issue includes features on famed U2 producer and pedal-steel guru Daniel Lanois, drone-metal duo Sunn O))), alt-surf outfit the Mattson 2, British metal newcomers In Search of Sun, studio legend John Siket, and a look at the first-annual Holy Grail Guitar Show in Germany. We also talk to acoustic badasses Daniel Bachman, Cian Nugent, Chuck Johnson, Tashi Dorji, and Adam Miller. To top it off, we spotlight intriguing new recording gear, and serve up four lessons from Brendon Small, Mike Stern, Greg Koch, and Shane Theriot. Our gear reviews this month include Schecter’s PT Fastback II B, the Park P45 head, Dunlop’s Clyde McCoy wah, the PRS SE Kingfisher bass, Electro-Harmonix’s 360 Nano Looper, the Yamaha LL16D ARE acoustic, Tech 21’s Fly Rig 5, Mission’s V-Boost pedal, ValveTrain’s Brandywine bass head, Kleissonic’s Tremulant, Flex Waves’ Flex EQ 7, Killer Guitar Components’ Killer Compensated Claw, and Shredneck’s Z-Series travel bass.

Pedal freaks rejoice! We’ve got info and close-up photos of 10 of the coolest stomp stations from our recent Rig Rundowns—from Pixies to Brent Mason, the War on Drugs, Larry Carlton, Brand New, Jonny Lang, Death from Above 1979, Bring Me the Horizon, the Gaslight Anthem, and Third Eye Blind. Then we’ve got a gallery of your pedalboards, which often give the pros’ boards a serious run for their money. We’ve also got a review roundup of “spring-reverb” pedals—Subdecay’s Super Spring Theory, Mojo Hand Fx’s Dewdrop, and Catalinbread’s Topanga—new photos from our Gwar and Lucinda Williams Rig Rundown video shoots, and a DIY feature with setup and maintenance tips for 12-string guitars. Our artist interviews this month include chats with Robert Pollard, Cancer Bats’ Scott Middleton, and Consider the Source’s Gabriel Marin. Other gear reviews include toys from MXR, Eastwood, Veillette, Tone Bakery, TC Electronic, T-Rex, Schertler, BC Audio, Red Witch, Outlaw, Electro-Harmonix, and Stone Deaf.

Gear fanatics will find a lot to love in this issue. For starters, our cover story details 44 new instruments, amps, and effects that wowed us at the Winter 2015 NAMM show. And our reviews start out with a roundup of four face-melting metal and hard-rock amps—Randall’s Ola Englund Satan, Engl’s Invader II E642/2, Mesa/Boogie’s Mark Five:25, and Friedman’s Double J Jerry Cantrell signature model. We also take a look at new gear from Ibanez, Demeter, Fender, Free the Tone, Radial Engineering, Dawner Prince, Acoustic, GreenChild, Phil Jones, and Slick Guitars. Rounding things out, we’ve got an in-depth feature on the history of steel guitar, as well as interviews with a wide array of players—from Imagine Dragon’s former jazzbo Wayne Sermon to avant-gardist Ben Chasny, experimentalist Oliver Ackermann from A Place to Bury Strangers (and Death by Audio pedals), tone alchemist Reine Fiske from Sweden’s the Amazing, and globetrotting acoustic adventurer Sir Richard Bishop.

If you’re itching to mod your axe, you’ll find tons to dig in this issue. Our cover story is an in-depth interview with BilT Guitars’ Tim Thelen on the technical minutiae of installing effects in your guitar—as well as the musical epiphanies that await open-minded adventurers who walk this path. On the flip side, ace Nashville luthier Tony Nagy walks us through 10 mundane-seeming—but no less-impactful—ways to drastically alter the sound and responsiveness of your guitars for less than a hundred bucks. To round out the mod section we’ve even got a gallery of PG readers’ own guitar mods. Other features this month include interviews with the always-entertaining Noel Gallagher, prog-rock veteran Mike Rutherford, and Awolnation’s Adam Bruno. We’ve also got a Forgotten Heroes piece on late Chili Pepper Hillel Slovak, and acoustic troubadour Pete Huttlinger’s advice on gigging with your flattop. Gear reviews this issue include guitar and bass products from Dunlop, Taylor, Danelectro, Korg, Supro, Engl, Relish Guitars, Xotic, DV Mark, JHS, Keeley, and more.

Gear fanatics rejoice! Our cover story this month details the droolworthiest guitars, basses, amps, and effects from Musikmesse—Europe’s biggest show for new music toys. On top of that, we’ve got 18 guitar and bass reviews—including gear from G&L, Alvarez, Mesa/Boogie, Moog, TC Electronic, Greer, Matthews Effects, Mastro, Taurus, and Function f(x)—as well as a six-pedal overdrive roundup featuring stomps from J. Rockett Audio, Way Huge, T-Rex, SviSound, Visual Sound, and Sonic Fusion. Meanwhile, our totally stacked feature section includes interviews with Faith No More’s Billy Gould and Jon Hudson, Courtney Barnett, JD McPherson, Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch, Torche’s Steve Brooks and Jonathan Nuñez, and Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard and Heath Fogg. Plus, we’ve got an eye-popping excerpt from celebrated photographer Jay Blakesberg’s new book, Guitars That Jam: Portraits of the World’s Most Storied Rock Guitars.

Premier Guitar July 2015: Our cover-story this month is a heartfelt tribute to the late blues legend B.B. King, who passed away just as we were going to press (don't miss the accompanying, never-before-heard interview on premierguitar.com). We've also got brand-new interviews with an incredibly diverse set of artists, including the Word's Robert Randolph and Luther Dickinson, Torres, My Morning Jacket, Bumblefoot, David Torn, Dwight Yoakam, and fingerstylist James Blackshaw. Our 16 in-depth gear reviews this month include not one but tworoundups—three small-bodied acoustics from Taylor, Martin, and Larrivée, and four 1x12 bass combos from Hartke, Ampeg, Fender, and Ashdown—as well as a look at Fender's new American Standard Stratocaster HSS Shawbucker, the Orange Rockerverb 50 MKIII, pedals from Gurus, Seymour Duncan, and Wren and Cuff, and more.

This year’s annual Amp Issue features a smorgasbord of invaluable knowledge for guitarists and bassists—from beginners to advanced players. For starters, AmplifiedParts.com’s tube guru Kurt Prange goes deep on power tubes, detailing the crucial tonal characteristics, important historical developments, and quintessential reference recordings for EL34, EL84, 6L6, 6V6, KT88, and KT66 valves. Then Mark Gooday, founder of Ashdown Engineering and former head engineer at Trace Elliot—two of the most influential and highly respected new bass-amp companies of the last 30 years—demystifies power amp classes (A, B, and D), as well as how to read power ratings to ensure you get the tone and oomph requisite for your needs. PG Senior Editor Joe Gore’s The Recording Guitarist column also offers savvy tips for using popular plug-ins to generate stellar tones. Meanwhile, artist interviews this month include chats with former Gov’t Mule frontman and Allman Brothers all-star Warren Haynes, influential British guitarist Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention), fingerstyle acoustic guitarist Ryley Walker, and Ruban Nielson from garage-psych band Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Our latest Forgotten Heroes installment takes a look at the fascinating life and enduring legacy of Pops Staples—an influential gospel guitarist and friend and contemporary of blues gods Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, and Albert King. Gear reviews this month include guitar and bass toys from Electro-Harmonix, Eden, TC Electronic, Ibanez, Fender, Orange, Aria, Fishman, and more.

As always, PG brings you the fastest, most comprehensive, most insightful coverage of Summer NAMM—Nashville’s new-gear extravaganza. Look for pics, descriptions, and links to video demos on 31 of the coolest new guitars, basses, amps, effects, and accessories from the show. Artist interviews this month include Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti, Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan, Between the Buried and Me’s Paul Waggoner, Pharrell guitarist/session ace Brent Paschke, and Alex Edkins from noise-rock outfit METZ. Gear reviews include in-depth looks at the new PRS S2 Vela, B.C. Rich’s BCR6N acoustic, Hudson Electronics’ Broadcast, XITS Amps’ X10, the Electro-Harmonix Bad Stone, and Tronographic’s Boxidizer. We also take a look at five mid-priced 5-string basses from Ibanez, MTD, Dingwall, G&L, and Spector.

Premier Guitar October 2015: Widely copied but never matched, our annual Pedal Issue skips the endless lists of catalog fluff and instead digs deep to offer insights and audio samples that help you figure out which of the coolest new tone toys might match your needs. This year we take a look at 34 of the latest stomps from industry heavyweights, revered boutique gurus, upstart tweakers, and everything in between. Other reviews this issue include Asher Guitars’ GT-3, Schecter’s Diamond-P Plus bass, and Guild’s M-140E acoustic. Our feature interviews this issue run a massive gamut—from Slayer’s Kerry King and Gary Holt to Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, jazz-fusion god John McLaughlin, Kristofer Steen of Swedish hardcore band Refused, acoustic legend Tommy Emmanuel, Slightly Stoopid, Soilwork, and a Forgotten Heroes piece on former Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart sideman Denny Walley.

Premier Guitar November 2015: Our features this month are all over the place. Cover artist Gary Clark Jr. ponders his eagerly anticipated new album, The Story of Sonny Boy Slim, Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, and Janick Gers discuss the triple-guitar attack of their 16th studio album, avant guitarist Mary Halvorson talks about blurring the lines between trad jazz and experimental rock, Eagles of Death Metal’s Jesse Hughes opines about the tongue-in-cheek grooves from Zipper Down, and Dean Fertita from Jack White’s other other band, Dead Weather, sets the record straight on how much his drum-playing boss actually bossed him around on the raging fretwork for Dodge & Burn. As for gear, twice a year PG brings you a boatload of rad features on ways to mod your axes. This time the lineup starts with a photo-illustrated primer on how to solder, proceeds to a piece on experimenting with pot and capacitor values by Falbo Guitars luthier (and former Seymour Duncan pickup designer) Frank Falbo, and culminates with Senior Editor Joe Gore’s review roundup of five sets of vintage-style Strat pickups. We also take a look at five very different luthiers striving to make their mark in the Middle East. Reviews this month include Peavey’s 6505 MH, EarthQuaker Device’s Park Fuzz Sound, the Maxon Hybrid Bass Driver, Catalinbread’s Fuzzrite, the PureSalem El Gordo, Dean Zelinsky Guitars’ Mule bass, the Michael Kelly Triad 10-string acoustic, and more