“When I first started to play, it was a real bitch. You have to prove yourself every time. You have to play twice as good as any man. But you just can’t let it intimidate you,” virtuoso jazz player Emily Remler once told Guitar World. And prove herself she did.

By that year, the early 20-something guitarist had already cut her teeth training at the prestigious Berklee College of Music and playing in blues and jazz clubs around New Orleans.

She took things a step further when she released two studio albums under the respected label Concord – 1981’s Firefly and 1982’s Take Two.

“Berklee didn’t prepare me for Little Queenie and the Percolators, say – it gave me a good knowledge of harmony, though, and I learned to read there,” she told GW in a January 1983 interview.

“I could solo over something without hearing it first, just by knowing the idea – but I didn’t learn to play with soul or feeling. You learn that yourself.”

As Guitar World observed her performing at New York's legendary Blue Note in the lead-up to her second release, Remler spoke about her wide-ranging influences.

While jazz icons Wes Montgomery and Barney Kessel were central to her style, she also drew inspiration from rock ’n’ roll and Jimi Hendrix.

“I’ve been listening to The Essential Jimi Hendrix, which I had on cassette while I was spending time on the beach in Jamaica this summer. Hendrix was amazing; he was singing and playing scat lines long before [George] Benson…”

“Somebody just told me I sounded like Hendrix,” she added with a shrug.

And while she sounded nothing like Hendrix, Remler's unapologetic approach to her instrument and her knack for blending genres were reminiscent of Jimi.

“I’ve been playing for 10 years,” she explained, “started out with folk songs, like everybody does. But I knew something was up – I could sing all sorts of rock solos, sax breaks, and my friends couldn’t do that.

“So then I tried to play rock stuff – Johnny Winter, Hendrix, the Stones.” Remler noted that, at that point, she “didn’t particularly like jazz; I couldn’t hear what was happening in it.”

“But at Berklee School of Music, I couldn’t avoid jazz,” she continues, “and when I heard Pat Martino and Wes Montgomery, I got really excited right away. I changed to jazz in my first year.”

Remler's fire continued to burn brightly until 1990. After leaving Concord and signing with Justice Records, the guitarist recorded This Is Me, which would prove to be her final album.

It marked a radical departure from her previous works, reflecting a more experimental and singular voice that forayed into electric jazz-pop.

Remler never saw the album's release. She died of heart failure at 32 while on tour in Australia, after grappling with a heroin and Dilaudid addiction.

34 years later, in 2024, producer Zev Feldman, alongside Bill Milkowski and George Klabin, paid homage to the virtuoso by releasing the posthumous live album, Cookin' at the Queens: Live in Las Vegas 1984 & 1988.

It offers a glimpse into the live performances of a pioneering guitarist who was gone too soon.

Bob Dylan is proving to still be full of surprises, with jazz maestro Julian Lage an unexpected addition to his current touring band. But it’s unclear how long he’ll stick around for.

The hard-working and highly esteemed guitarist has entered the fray under the radar, stepping out on stage with Dylan and company without fanfare, a press release, or an excited announcement about what is a very exciting meeting of worlds.

Lage has replaced Doug Lancio, who first joined the band for 2021’s Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, but no one seems to know why, and for how long.

The Los Angeles Times, which was in attendance at his Santa Barbara Bowl show last week, is even reporting that a spokesperson for the Like a Rolling Stone songwriter was unable to confirm if this will be a fleeting few appearances for Lage or the start of a more substantial relationship.

The move is typical Dylan; a man who has spent his 85 years on the planet dancing to his own beat is at it again.

Of course, Lage may just be filling in for Lancio – the fact he’s six shows deep into the tour doesn’t necessarily point to him being a more permanent addition. But either way, he’s proved a smart pick, with the LA Times in particular highlighting his “tender and spooky” playing on Tryin’ to Get to Heaven, “where every 30 seconds or so the chords would go in some direction I could never have predicted,” Mikael Wood writes.

Interestingly, Lage never mentioned his then-impending work with His Bobness when Guitar World interviewed him just a few weeks back. Lage’s socials have shed no light on the matter, either.

A further snoop around online for more information about the Lage-Dylan tie-in suggests his arrival has prompted a change to the set list.

Instagram page Liveformusic says that “the setlists have taken a more stable and predictable format,” blending Rough and Rowdy Ways cuts with classics like All Along the Watchtower, When I Paint My Masterpiece, and Watching the River Flow. There’s also been a handful of covers chucked into their set, including songs by blues greats Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Bobby “Blue” Bland.

Despite working with everyone from Nels Cline to Yoko Ono and Virgil Donati, Lage has yet to reach household name status. He’s still very much a guitarist’s guitarist, and in those circles his reputation more than precedes him; this once child prodigy has grown into a very skilled, stylish, and accomplished player.

As one Instagram commenter says, it’s perhaps a little strange to see this guitar phenomenon reduced, in a way, to being a sub to a star, but who would rightly turn Dylan down? It’s a collaboration we should probably soak up while it lasts.

In related news, Lage and Al Di Meola sat down for a revealing roundtable chat with Guitar World, where the chemistry was flying, and no topic was off the table.

Round-table interviews with rockstars always carry a risk. You can make the intros. Dim the lights. But if the chemistry doesn’t fire, it can feel like forcing giant pandas to mate.

Fortunately, as pan-generational giants of US jazz, Al Di Meola and Julian Lage have long admired each other’s work, and while the 71-year-old Di Meola remains a New Jersey tough-guy with a palpable nostalgia for the old industry, offset by the 38-year-old Lage’s more abstract take on the craft and business, we’re soon off to the races.

All that’s left to do is run the dictaphone, tee up a hot topic – from YouTube shredders to the instrument’s next quantum leap – and catch the flying sparks.

Let’s start with the state of the art. There were once clearly defined new frontiers for guitar, from electric blues right through to shred and beyond. Do you still feel there’s a new frontier for the instrument?

Al Di Meola: Well, there seems to be a whole new generation of great players coming up. But as advanced as a lot of them are, I sometimes feel bad that they’re not in the glory days of the record industry any more. And as great of a record as they make, most of us won’t know about it.

You almost feel like, “Man, you missed out on the best ever,” y’know? The brilliance is unbelievable, but I can’t associate them with an album or piece of music. Unlike when we came up in the mid-’70s, when you’d think of Weather Report and then you’d think of Heavy Weather.

There’s more killers out there than ever before. I’m glad I’m not starting now! It’s a good thing I have a little bit of an accumulation of what could be a legacy, like, 30-something albums, and I’m like, “Okay, phew, I got that done.”

Julian Lage: I think you’re right. Granted, I don’t know what the best days of the recording industry were, and I do think it’s a different topography nowadays, [but] I think everything swings back and forth, y’know? I’m not expecting the record industry to go back to what it was, but the desire to take in music the way we all received it years ago – I think that’s coming back.

What would you say are the big obstacles for guitar players these days?

Di Meola: Here’s the big issue that doesn’t get talked about. Back then, before cellphones and computers, we practised way more. And it was way more focused on the songs. For instance, I made an album about 15 years ago at the Power Station in New York. And I noticed, as soon as we were done with the track, which was killer, everybody ran out in the hallway.

Now, back in the day, everybody would run into the control room to hear their performance. But everybody was on their phone, like, networking, y’know? And I said, “This is not right.” We went as far as to tell the receptionist to hold all calls.

That phone is always right there, within arm’s length. We got addicted to something that we can’t break. But back in the time when we didn’t need it because it didn’t exist, our focus on our work was phenomenal. Like when I did The Guitar Trio with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía: the first tour, we were in our hotel rooms practising for the show that night because we knew we had to be up on our game.

There was no “let me check my phone”. And when I listen to those records, I cannot do what the hell I did back then now. Not that I want to, by the way. Velocity isn’t my number one desire. I’ve been devoting more time to composing.

Is it more helpful to have constraints or freedom when you’re creating music?

Di Meola: My record company gave me, on my last record, as much time as I wanted. And I went, “Boy, that’s a good thing and a bad thing.” Because in the days when they had deadlines for shipments, you had to be done no matter what. In a way, it was good to have that pressure. Otherwise, you start experimenting, doing so many different things, and then you go, “Wait, let me listen to those early takes” – and you already had it.

Lage: I’ve never made a record in more than a few days, ever in my life. It’s always been one or two days, or three days if you really have a big budget and everyone’s available. But I have re-made records. I once made a two-day record, and a month later I realised I wasn’t happy with it – I changed everything about it, and I did another two days. But my perception of what’s a limiting or liberating factor isn’t always accurate.

I can see a situation presenting all these challenges, then in retrospect I look back and realise I had complete freedom. And vice versa: there have been times when I thought, “I have all this freedom, why am I not getting anything I like?” So I can’t say I’m the most solid barometer of what’s helping me and what’s limiting me.

Di Meola: The barometer, Julian, is when you record something, and you want to hear it over and over. I recorded a whole record called The Infinite Desire [1998] and at the end I just didn’t feel like hearing it. So I wound up re-recording the whole record. It took a lot of guts, it took some extra money, whatever, but I gotta like what I do. Then again, I am talking about a different time with better budgets than what we see on our horizon, which is like, “Holy shit.” It looks massively different now.

Guitar virtuosity can be a double-edged sword. What does it mean to you, in its most positive and negative sense?

Di Meola: It’s a balance, man. It’s the variety. It’s the ingredients you put in the soup. If it’s all velocity, it’s overkill. Not that I haven’t been accused of that a few times. But it should be a story within a story. Velocity for velocity’s sake is not the key.

It’s about the lines you play and how they meet one another. There was a big emphasis on velocity back in the ’70s. It was insane, but luckily I was with Chick Corea and playing some meaty compositions in the context of displaying whatever youthful velocity I had at the time.

You need a composition. There’s no two ways about it. If a guy’s only playing licks, they might be phenomenal licks, but what’s it pertaining to? So I have, over the years, been paying less attention to technique and more to developing as a composer because that’s what keeps the attention of the audience. Soloing is an aspect of it, but that’s not going to hold many in the audience.

The worst thing in the world is if you hear [an ambitious part] in your head and it comes out sloppy. So that’s where the ability to play technically – at the moment you hear it in your head – is important. Because there’s nothing worse than sloppy.

What’s your take on the virtuosity debate, Julian?

Lage: I feel the same way about that balance, y’know? My definition of virtuosity has definitely changed over the years. I think, especially in my generation, there’s often a coyness about virtuosity.

Like, you might have the ability to do it, but you don’t because that would be too forward or something. And I’ve had some pitfalls, where I maybe had the ability to play something but didn’t do it at a moment when it would actually have been good for the music. I’ve definitely shifted my perspective on that. Anybody who’s in service of the music, with whatever skills they have at their disposal, I think they’re using it responsibly and beautifully.

And as Al said, it’s as much about space as it is about velocity or density or harmonic complexity, or whatever it might be. You know, I hear Julian Bream, and I think that’s the mastery level I dream of. Or I think Jim Hall is one of the great virtuosos. He was so self-effacing and maybe never thought of himself as ‘that player’, but his mastery over space and time, you can’t tell me that’s not the highest level of virtuosity.

But I don’t think there’s anything offensive about a kind of rudderless virtuosity, either. I just don’t think it does anything for you as a player.

How do you stay in touch with the spirit of music when you play, rather than just mechanically operating the guitar?

Lage: I come from a couple of different traditions of players that really celebrate the kind of kinaesthetic experience of playing the guitar. You think of someone like Derek Bailey, or even Fripp, for that matter. Y’know, players who create sound with an instrument using their gestures, but in an unusual way, and there’s something that feels good about it.

I’ve just never been someone who’s good at warm-ups or ratcheting things up to a certain level. I’m rather rough around the edges in those respects, to be honest. But I play a lot of guitar, and things show up. After an hour of playing, I feel different than after 10 minutes, and different again than after four hours of playing.

If something’s still not coming together, I’ll take a moment and work on it. But not too much. When I was younger, I practised maniacally – and it was good, but I could hear in my own playing, especially on the bandstand, that I was someone who practised a lot, and that was a different thing than the players I was looking up to, who just kind of emanated this thing.

So I made a decision to kind of chill out a little bit, so it didn’t sound like I was preparing all day for something. If I played different music that required it, that would be different. But I’m involved in group improvisation music and songs that are more from the Americana tradition. It’s a different swagger.

You both have a love and appreciation for the acoustic guitar. What do you get from that instrument that you don’t get from the electric?

Di Meola: Well, rhythm is one. The way I’d approach playing rhythm on acoustic guitar is different than with an electric. Electric is more of a voice; it’s like a singer, there’s more lyrical possibilities that you don’t have with an acoustic. But the nature of my compositions signal the necessity of playing with my nylon Spanish guitar because there’s a lot of arpeggiated, rhythmic, syncopated things.

Plus, in some ways, I’ve exhausted the louder electric days. Even though I’m trying to keep it alive, my tendencies over the last 30 years have been going more and more for this acoustic ensemble. Whether it’s a trio or quartet or quintet, it’s just the way it’s gone due to aging and maturity. And the music has gotten deeper as a result.

I feel like I’m more and more into the acoustic camp overall. I got that bug back when I was playing with Paco. With my own band, we had 10 tons of equipment and we’d be rolling up these cases to the airport check-in counter, and they’d weigh it all and at the end they’d charge me $13,000 because it was so overweight.

I’d be crying sometimes, like, “Please, give us a break!” And then I’d watch Paco. Not even a spare guitar. He had his cigarettes in his suitcase, one shirt for a tour. One! I asked him: “Paco, how do you have one shirt?” One day, I caught him in the bathroom, and he had his shirt off and he was taping paper towels under his armpits. I said, “Why are you doing that?” And he said: “One shirt!”

What does the acoustic guitar mean to you, Julian?

Lage: I think of myself as an acoustic player first and foremost. Anything I’ve ever done on electric is kind of an extension of that same sound. But they are different. The electric basically implies that I’m playing with an ensemble, so my role is more one of orchestration – how I contribute to the sound and how I fit between the bass and the drums.

And acoustic is usually more something I would be doing if it was just me, and that is a bit more ‘Technicolor’, frankly. I hear such a wide range of frequencies because nothing’s covering it up. No other sound is there.

So, in my head, acoustic is the louder, more luscious sonic world, and the electric is a little more penned-in, but it kinda threads a needle through an ensemble. I always wanted to have that experience of an electric being this kind of unleashed voice. But it’s just not my constitution. I don’t like loud sounds. I don’t want to play loud.

Julian, you’ve just played in London at the Royal Festival Hall, and Al, you’ll play the Barbican in June. What does the city and its music scene mean to you?

Di Meola: I haven’t been to London in a good five years. So there’s a lot of anticipation for the show. I have a lot of reasons to love London. I once did a tribute record to The Beatles at Abbey Road, and that was one of the highlights of my career.

I felt like a five-year-old at Disney World. It was so great to be in the same environment and tell the engineer: “Pro Tools? No, no, no, I want to go 8-track analogue. Y’know, like the other group that recorded here?”

I did three tracks and I was very happy with the sound. Like, “Wow, that studio really is something.” Then I went back to New York to try to finish it. But I couldn’t match it sonically, so I knew I had to go back.

But before I went back, I rented a house in the Hamptons to really focus on arranging the rest of the pieces. And it just so happens that my next-door neighbour was Paul McCartney. We got to talking, you know, but I never told him who I was. I had this fear that maybe he wouldn’t know me.

But the next year, I rented the house again and by then I had the finished product. And my wife said, “Why don’t you write him a little note about what The Beatles meant to you growing up?” So I stuck the note in the CD case, and when he pulled into the drive in his brown Rolls Royce, she said, “Go down there, give him the CD.” I said, “Oh no, I can’t.” She goes, “Give me that thing!” She runs down – and I was so impressed that she did that for me. It was just a beautiful memory that will live with me.

• Al Di Meola plays the Barbican in London on June 25. For more information on the guitarists’ latest projects and forthcoming tour dates, visit Al Di Meola and Julian Lage.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Just shy of 60 years after his passing, few guitarists hold as much reverence as Wes Montgomery. The bebop virtuoso helped take jazz guitar to a whole new level across a changemaking career, and he did it all in an unusual way.

At the time, and even still today, most guitarists struck the strings of their big box guitars with a guitar pick. But Montgomery, chasing a sound later described by Guitar Player scribe Ralph Gleason as a “bolt of lightning,” used his thumb instead.

The technique took hours to master but it made him a legend, made even more impressive by the speed and fluidity he generated from playing solely with his thumb.

Yet Montgomery, who died on June 15, 1968, didn’t necessarily see it that way. He was forced to play without a pick out of sheer necessity, softly brushing the strings during his after-hours practise sessions so as to not wake or disturb anyone.

It became his signature style and sound, one that would define his legacy as a player. It was one of his greatest strengths, but the man himself also saw it as his biggest weakness.

“That’s one of my downfalls,” Montgomery once told Guitar Player in a rare interview in 1973. “In order to get a certain amount of speed, you should use a pick, I think. A lot of cats say you don’t have to play fast, but being able to play fast can cause you to phrase better.

“But I just didn’t like the sound,” he explains. “I tried it for about two months. I didn’t use the thumb at all. But after two months, I still couldn’t use the pick, so I said I’d go ahead and use the thumb.

“I liked the tone better with the thumb, but the technique better with the pick; I couldn’t have them both.”

Yet while Montgomery focused on the flaws of his playing, others have seen it differently over the decades. Ultra-melodic guitarist Maya Delilah says she gets “a lot more feeling when I play with my fingers”, citing Montgomery as the player who encouraged her to ditch the pick.

Matteo Mancuso has also called the late legend “one of the best,” and named him as one of the key players who helped shape his sound.

“I love how he found his sound through his limitations, because he was using just his right-hand thumb,” he told Guitar World in 2024. “Most players wouldn’t be able to do much with just that.”

Decades later, other players are finding great success with swapping picks for their thumb, with Tosin Abasi’s thumping technique – also adopted by modern-day stars like Josh de la Victoria and Charlie Robbins – has echoes of Montgomery, even if it isn’t a direct influence.

These are players who prove that there are always different ways to play, and oftentimes, their lineage can be traced back to Montgomery.

No wonder Bill Frisell had to pinch himself when he assembled the line-up for In My Dreams. After half-a-century pushing the envelope of modern jazz, the Baltimore-born band leader had played in practically every format, from airtight duo to opulent chamber orchestra.

But the 75-year-old is still buzzing from taking the stage last year with a wishlist sextet of his all-time-favourite collaborators – Jenny Scheinman (violin), Eyvind Kang (viola), Hank Roberts (cello), Thomas Morgan (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums) – to record this live album for the esteemed Blue Note label.

Tell us how this amazing lineup came together for the album.

I’ve been playing a lot as a trio with Thomas and Rudy. But it had been some years since I played with Jenny, Eyvind and Hank. I just woke up one day and had this idea of putting both things together. It’s not like I’m out in front of the band, like, ‘This is my thing and I’m the soloist.’ What gets me excited is being in the midst of it, and it’s a conversation we’re all having together.”

How freeform is the band’s performance on this album?

At the beginning, I’ll write out the music and everyone is looking at the same score, and maybe there’s some discussion, like, ‘Oh, you should play this part or that part.’ But I know these people so well and we trust each other.

So what happens after all these years is they start making choices themselves. That’s what’s so exciting. It’s like they’re actually improvising the arrangement, so the lines between ‘solo’, ‘accompaniment’ and ‘orchestration’ start to blur and the music takes on a life of its own.

And there’s no such thing as a ‘mistake’. If somebody goes off the edge, you help them back on, rather than call them out. A recording is like a snapshot of what happened in that one moment.

But that’s not the end of it. That’s just the beginning. The next time we play, we’re trying something else. Even if we play the same songs in the same order, we just keep looking for something else to happen.

How does it feel when the band really falls in step?

It’s like there’s an actual physical sensation when I’m playing with them. Like, if I play a melody with someone else and it really locks in, there’s this amazing thing that happens. You can actually feel it in your fingers, and you’re breathing together and it’s like your fingers start melting into the fingerboard or something.

And it makes a sound where it’s not them and it’s not me – it turns into another instrument. But it’s always weird when I try to describe what happens when we’re playing. I don’t want to mess up the magic. You try to analyse it, but I want there to be some kind of mystery and not lose that.

Did you test yourself and your playing on this album?

“Hopefully, I’m testing myself every time I play. It’s an ongoing thing. From the first moment I ever picked up a guitar, every time you play, you’re taking one more step. With music, I’ll never get to whatever it is I’m trying to get to. But you’re just constantly reaching.

Can you tell us about the dream that loosely inspired this album?

It could be 40 years ago, but it’s so vivid. I go into this old house and up this dark stairway into a kind of library. There are these little people with brown hoods and they welcome me. First, they say they want me to see what colours really look like. So they pull out this red cube and it’s so intense, a red like I’d never seen before.

Then they want me to hear what real music sounds like. Suddenly, there’s this drill going through my forehead into my brain and every musical sound I’ve ever heard in my life is happening simultaneously but with this incredible clarity. It wasn’t chaos – everything was focused into this amazingly beautiful sound that was so complex and so many things moving, but I could hear every little detail.

That dream has stayed with me all this time. And it’s not like I achieved that goal on this album, but it’s somewhere in the back of my mind as something to strive for.

Do you think there are parallels between dreaming and performing music?

I think about that a lot. When you wake up from a dream, whatever was happening, whether it was good, bad, scary or happy, it just evaporates. It’s gone. And that reminds me of what it’s like when we’re playing. When you’re really in the music, it’s like, the moment you become aware that it’s really happening, it evaporates.

It’s an ensemble, of course, but what are your own favourite guitar moments?

I was really happy with Isfahan. I have such respect for Billy Strayhorn as a composer that it’s like sacred ground, and just the fact I could somehow make a statement with that song, with these people, I guess I’m proud of that. It’s taken me years to even feel worthy to play it on a concert.

It’s extraordinary, if you look at it in just a mathematical way, analysing the harmony, melody and the notes he chose. But what takes the time is to get past that and for it to just become part of my blood. So when I’m playing it, I’m not thinking, ‘Well, this is a Bb,’ but getting to a point where you feel like you’re singing the melody on guitar.

What do you remember about recording the album?

The recordings came from three different sources: this really nice old hall in Brooklyn called Roulette, another small place in Connecticut, and a concert in Denver, which the band didn’t even know we were recording – which was kinda great.

Then we had to edit it all together, and I never did anything quite like that before, where there’d be one melody from Brooklyn, another from Denver, and the engineer found a way to make it sound like it was all coming from the same place.

You exclusively used your modded JW Black Telecaster. Why is that such a good recording guitar for you?

“It’s super-comfortable, for one thing, with that slightly shorter scale than a regular Fender. I don’t think I use the bridge pickup at all; it’s all the TK Smith neck pickup. I don’t understand the inner workings. It’s a single coil, but there’s no noise. There’s some kind of metal ring around it – I don’t know if that’s something to do with keeping it quiet.

I mean, I love the sound of single coils, like P-90s or whatever. But sometimes they’re so problematic in different rooms with buzzing and stuff. But this TK Smith pickup is completely quiet. And then it has a lot of low-end, but it’s very clear at the same time. It’s very warm, it’s not muddy and it’s not shrill, but there’s real definition.

For a number of years now, I’ve also been using flat-wound strings instead of round-wound. I think that has a lot to do with the attack on the lower notes.

What amp and pedals did you lean towards for this material?

At the gig in Brooklyn, I was home, so I just used my own amp, which is a Carr Sportsman. It’s kinda like a Princeton, that amount of power – maybe a little more – but with one 12-inch speaker. But then, at the other concerts, I borrowed a Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue.

With pedals, it’s not a lot. There’s a Strymon Flint. There’s some loops and weird stuff that I used the Line 6 DL4 for – it’s the newer one that’s sort of smaller. I had the Jam Pedals Rattler, and sometimes I’ll also use [an MXR] Carbon Copy.

This album heralds your 75th birthday. Do jazz players get better with age?

I hope so. I hope I’m not getting worse! I just keep trying. I never really intentionally go back and listen to things I did long ago, but sometimes, something will turn up on YouTube and it’s like, ‘Whoa, how did I possibly [do that]?’

I don’t know if I got better or worse. It’s like, sometimes I can’t believe the things I was able to play years ago. But then I’m also like, ‘Wow, what was I thinking?’ Y’know, about some stupid thing I was playing.

Do you recognise that young player from the ECM label in the ’80s?

Kind of, yeah. But it’s a double-edged thing. All this time, what I’ve been trying to do is make what I’m doing clearer and clearer, try to get rid of all the excess, whatever doesn’t need to be there. Sometimes, I’ll hear a recording from back then and it’s like, ‘Wow, that’s too much.’ Or it’s the sound. I used to use a volume pedal all the time and it kind of drives me crazy when I hear it now.

You’ve said in the past that players put too much emphasis on gear.

For sure. I think our mind is the most powerful pedal you can get. Our imagination, y’know? Really, if you have the music in your head, that’s the most important thing.

When all’s said and done, are you pleased with In My Dreams?

As pleased as I can ever be. The music is always moving and changing, so it’s something I have to get used to, that thing of, ‘Okay, we need to stop now, we’ve captured that moment.’ So I’m very happy with the album. But it’s always, like, as soon as I’m done, I’m moving on to the next thing.

• In My Dreams is out now via Blue Note.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Robben Ford has looked back on the time he worked with Fender on designing the Esprit Ultra – the Big F's answer to a legacy Gibson guitar.

Across his career, Ford has lent his chops to George Harrison, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis, Little Feat, Kiss and more. Playing alongside different artists has meant that he's had to tweak his rig and upgrade his guitar arsenal over the years – and that lead to a collaboration with Fender on an oft-forgotten custom model.

“It was the Robben Ford custom model, the Esprit Ultra,” Ford tells Guitarist in the latest issue.

“It wasn’t initially called that – I was the only guy playing that guitar. It was their version of a semi-hollow, which it wasn’t, but it had sound cavities in it, and the woods were very bright. Somehow, I was comfortable with that guitar. It just sort of worked.

“I was a part of the choice of woods and design and everything, and I had this inclination to go towards solidbody instruments instead of the 335, which I’d been using really up until that point. Fender approached me about making something, so we did, and I used that guitar a ton.”

Ford reveals he employed that guitar extensively on his 1988 opus Talk to Your Daughter, and admits he “used one guitar exclusively for a few years.” Turns out, his commitment to the model meant that people started noticing that it was one of a kind.

He says, “They started asking Fender about it, and they [Fender] decided to make it a Custom Shop Robben Ford model.”

Now discontinued, the 24.75” scale Custom Shop model was built around Fender’s Esprit/Flame platform and aimed to deliver the quintessential blues-jazz fusion tone associated with Ford. Initially produced in Japan between 1987 and 1993, production moved to the US Custom Shop in 1994, with the last models built in 2002.

In more recent news, Ford divulged how Jeff Beck got him back to playing the Strat – and why he was never bored in his role as Joni Mitchell’s sideman.

For more from Ford, plus new interviews with Kim Gordon and the latest scoop on the historic Jim Irsay collection and auction, pick up issue 535 of Guitarist from Magazines Direct.

Jazz fusion virtuoso Masayoshi Takanaka has had a long and wildly successful career in his home country, Japan, with his 1976 debut, Seychelles, cementing him as a “pioneer in Japan’s rock fusion scene.”

But Takanaka's career is not stuck in the ’70s. Instead, he's currently riding a new wave of international popularity at the age of 72.

Last year, Tanaka's work exploded on streaming, after his guitar solo appeared in the soundtrack of the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson/Benny Safdie sports drama The Smashing Machine, leading to his revival in the States.

“In Japan, most of the people at my shows are in their 50s, 60s, or 70s,” says Takanaka in an interview with The Guardian. “But in LA, most people were in their 20s. You could really feel their energy, and hear the audience cheering so loud. It got me really emotional.”

Now, he's heading to the UK, US, Australia, and New Zealand, with shows quickly selling out. “It’s hard to grasp and understand,” Takanaka admits. “It doesn’t feel real.”

Perhaps one of the most distinctive elements of Takanaka’s playing – and, by extension, his image – is his signature red surfboard guitar.

A joint venture between the guitarist and luthier Takeda Yutaka, the larger-than-life guitar was meant to embody the care-free, beachy essence of his psych-surf sound. It was also crafted as an homage to his friend who had passed away, an event that made him think about his own existence.

“You can do what you like while you're alive. When you're dead, you can't do anything. So I decided to make a surfboard guitar,” Takanaka revealed in an interview published on Surfer Today.

“I'm jumping the gun a bit, but I was thinking, ‘Oh, come to think of it, surfing was popular around the time of the Bubble Era… I have a summer song that goes well with it…’ and then I thought it would be interesting to make a surfing guitar. I heard it was hard to make.”

After discussing options, Takanaka and Yutaka managed to modify a real surfboard by hollowing it out so that an actual guitar could fit inside it.

“The surfboard itself is hollow inside, so you can't attach the neck or parts directly to it,” explained the luthier. “So I attached the neck to a small wooden body and screwed it in from the back of the surfboard.

“In order not to sacrifice playability, we made sure it wasn't too heavy and left enough clearance around the neck. Considering maintenance, the guitar part is removable.”

The now-iconic surfboard guitar – originally in a light blue colorway – debuted during Takanaka's 2004 and 2005 tours, before it was repainted bright red.

As for what it takes to play this off-kilter guitar, Takanaka explained, “It's hard to play, as expected. I just play this because I wonder if people watching me will find it fun, but I wonder if some percentage of them think I'm stupid.”

Its weight certainly doesn't help... and serves as a real testament to the virtuoso's skills. “It weighs about six kilograms [13.2 pounds]. So if I play two songs with this guitar at a concert, I will get a little more exhausted. So, I think it would be better to use it only occasionally.”

And, if you're hoping to spot the surfboard guitar at any of his upcoming shows... well, let's just say you're in for a treat.

“Actually, I gave it away after using it at a lot of my shows in Japan,” says Takanaka, but he managed to get it back just for this world tour.

“I thought I didn’t need it anymore. But life is short, and you have to do what you really want to do while you’re still alive – that was why I made the guitar in the first place.”

Speaking of some of the most unconventional guitars out there, famed Twin Peaks filmmaker David Lynch was the owner of both a five-necked guitar as well as an avant-garde guitar-meets-synthesizer Parker Fly, which was sold at auction last year.

Bass phenom Kinga Głyk is leading the vanguard of musicians taking jazz to the mainstream – with a little help from YouTube and social media, of course.

“My dad always told me to be 100 percent involved in whatever I play, no matter whether there are five thousand people or just one person in the room,” Głyk told Bass Player in a 2020 interview. “In music, it’s very important to put your heart into what you play.”

Głyk applies this same approach to her covers. Precisely a decade ago, the then 19-year-old posted her own take on pioneering fusion bassist Jeff Berlin’s rendition of Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven. What started as an unassuming cover quickly turned into a viral video that empowered Głyk to take her career beyond her native Poland.

“I think what happened with Tears in Heaven for me, years ago, I didn't know that was possible,” she says matter-of-factly in an interview with Rick Beato.

“I thought my computer actually broke. I called my brother, and I was like, ‘Do you see the views... you see them moving? This is not normal.’”

As for how social media can actually serve as a launchpad – rather than a hindrance – for artists, Głyk says that, “Now I think it's much easier to do it. I think it's a good side of it – we all can share things, and people can follow you for that and be with you and support you.

“But I think it's important to sometimes remove your brain from this world. I treat it more like my job, where I do it and then I go and live my life. So it's not for me, constantly thinking about if people reacted to something well or not, because you can be very depressed [if you do that].”

And, speaking of social media pressures on musicians, last year virtuoso Yvette Young spoke candidly about the pressures of touring in the social media age – and why we all need to rethink our relationship with music.

Jazz and acoustic guitar virtuoso Ralph Towner has died at the age of 85. News of the musician's passing was shared on January 18 by his long-term label ECM. His daughter, Celeste Towner, confirmed the news.

Best associated with the six- and twelve-string acoustic, Towner expanded the jazz lexicon with his avant-garde approach to the instrument. While initially gaining fame as a pianist, he quickly stepped to the forefront of the late ’60s New York jazz scene as a guitarist.

Fast forward to the ’70s – the height of jazz fusion – and Towner would make the most of that decade to establish himself as a jazz guitar tour de force.

Not only did he appear on Paul Winter Consort’s album Road, which included the Towner-penned Icarus – now a jazz standard – but he also formed the modern jazz/world music quartet Oregon, lent his chops as a sideman on Weather Report's 1972 album I Sing the Body Electric, and went on to form a longstanding relationship with ECM, the label that released virtually all his non-Oregon recordings after his 1973 debut as a leader, Trios / Solos.

“There’s something about having the freedom to basically direct the music yourself,” Towner told Jazz Times in 2017.

“Guitar is such a good solo instrument; there’s a sense of playing an ensemble kind of music, but on your own. You certainly have a different role. With others, it’s several people playing a single piece of music.

“In jazz, they’re all composing as they’re playing, even if there’s a pre-organized tune that you’re playing on or a completely freeform piece; it’s still composition. When you’re on your own, basically you’re the only composer.”

Both with Oregon and as a solo artist, Towner stood out for his inventive use of overdubbing – allowing him to play the guitar and the piano at the same time – best exemplified in his 1974 record, Diary, in which he essentially duets with himself.

Towner moved to Italy in the early ’90s, settling in Palermo before making Rome his home. Oregon continued to record and perform on a prolific level, with Towner – alongside multi-instrumentalist Paul McCandless and bassist Glen Moore – touring with different band members following the death of sitar and tabla player Collin Walcott in 1984.

Summing up his work with Oregon – and his ethos toward his musical projects – Towner asserted in an interview with Innerviews, “The reason we continue is strictly because the music keeps improving. If the music wasn’t good, we would have stopped quite a while ago.”

For many guitarists, one of the major draws to learning jazz and jazz blues is the richness and beauty of the chord work: a tapestry of stunning voicings and extensions that brings a whole new level of emotion and depth to the music.

Jumping into this world can seem daunting at first, so let's simplify the process so you can play gorgeous new chords in a way that is inspiring and easy to understand.

One of the most common progressions in jazz, and in popular music generally, is the I-VI-II-V progression. In the key of C major, this would involve the chords C-Am-Dm-G or Cmaj7-Am7-Dm7-G7 if you wanted a jazzier sound.

Often used as a turnaround, this sequence forms a solid foundation which we can modify with extensions, voicings, inversions and substitutions – the options are almost endless!

Sometimes you’ll end up with a progression that on the surface may appear to bear little resemblance to its humble I-VI-II-V beginnings, but dig a little deeper and you’ll see that there is a logic to explain how and why we end up there.

For this article, you will get to understand a handful of these common modifications. These will provide more artistic freedom of chord choices, so you can express yourself with sophistication and richness. So let's take a close look at some of the tricks of the trade, as used by a handful of jazz guitar legends.

Example 1: The foundation

First, let's establish a basic starting point; a purely diatonic I-VI-II-V progression in the key of C major. Diatonic simply means that we’re using only notes from our parent scale to build these chords, the C major scale in this case. This progression will be the template for this article, allowing you to adapt and modify these changes in interesting and inspiring ways.

Notice that each and every chord is extended with its 7th: The I chord is major 7th (Cmaj7), the VI and II chords are both minor 7th (Am7 and Dm7), and the V chord is a dominant 7th (G7).

For the second pass through the progression, you will go straight in with a couple of common modifications: a substitute for the I chord (Cmaj7) with the III chord (Em7) to add a minor vibe. Then the quality of the VI chord will change from minor (Am7) to dominant (A7) in order to set the II chord (Dm7) more elegantly.

As far as voicings go (ie how the chord's notes are placed together), the most useful and common options are used for each chord type throughout this example.

Example 2: Herb Ellis style

Here you'll take a look at how Herb Ellis might have extended these chords further, and be introduced to some important modifications. Instead of a Cmaj7 chord, this time you'll play one of my personal favorites, a C6 chord. This is a straight major chord with a 6th added: C major with an A note. This is a bedrock chord of swing and traditional jazz, not a plain major and not as bluesy or (perhaps) unresolved sounding as C7.

A couple of diminished 7th chords (ie four notes, each a minor 3rd apart) are introduced to create a chromatic climb in the bass, before cycling back around and using dominant chords for the III, VI, II and V. Notice the use of passing chords a semitone above the destination chord each time also (eg Bb7 passes to the destination A7). This adds a slinky bluesy flavor to the progression.

Lastly, enjoy the final C6/G chord: C6 in second inversion (5th in the bass). It's one of the richest and sweetest low voiced chords you can play on guitar. More importantly, it's very jazzy sounding!

Example 3: Joe Pass style

Joe Pass was a true master of adding movement and internal melodies within his chord changes - his 1975 live duet show with Ella Fitzgerald in Hannover is a must-see for just how incredibly adept he was at this as a sole accompanist.

You'll expand your chordal palette even further with the addition of minor 11ths, Dominant 13ths and stacked alterations: rich and sophisticated extensions to 7th chords. There are also internal melodic movements into the chords.

Adding movement to chord changes is about maintaining momentum, sometimes along the bass strings, other times on top of the chords, or even in the middle of them. All three approaches feature throughout this example.

Notice the G#13 chord preceding the G13, similar to the Herb Ellis example: this is simply a passing chord (G#13: a richer version of G#7) a semitone above the destination chord (G13).

Example 4: Johnny Smith style

Johnny Smith was quite the chord magician. His use of dense closed voicings, often moving alarmingly quickly, created an almost otherworldly, organ-like tone. In this example the tempo is kept low which allows your focus to be about clean and articulate technique.

These stretchy chord voicings are a great work-out for agility building and hand posture. Make sure to keep your thumb low down at the back of the neck in order to allow your hand to fully open up. It’s also important to keep a shallow wrist angle as anything too severe will cut your mobility down right away.

The opening C6 chord voicing is a good example of a closed voicing, which simply means that the intervals in the chord remain in perfect ascending order. In this case, you have the C major triad running from low to high on the fifth to third strings, with the 6th (an A note) added on the 10th fret, second string.

There’s a certain magic to this sound and it’s a world worth exploring. Notice the use of more upper extensions on the minor chords: 9ths and 11ths.

Take note of the Db7(b5) voicing in Bar 2. This is a tritone substitution and is as simple as taking the original G7 voicing from the opening progression, and swapping the G bass note, for the note three tones (a tritone) away which is Db. This helps the bass to resolve seamlessly down a semitone further to the C note in bar 3.

You'll use two different voicings for the Dm11 chord, one contains the 9 also and one omits it. Then for the cherry on top, you'll play a Johnny Smith classic dominant chord voicing; a G13(b9). It's a good finger-tangler of a shape that requires a thumb over the fretboard for the G bass. You can always choose to omit the bass note if you prefer though. This chord resolves beautifully to C6 - notice the chromatic voice-leading along the first string in the last three changes (G, Ab, A).

Example 5: Barney Kessel style

Barney Kessel’s playing was often lively with a keen focus on swing, groove and pocket. Here you'll look at how the I-VI-II-V progression can make for the perfect, hard-swinging mid-tempo intro.

You start off with a C major in first inversion (ie the chord's third - E - is the lowest note) played as a spread triad. Then there's a common substitution; swapping the VI chord (here, it would be Am7) for a diminished 7th built off the root of the key.

In Bar 1 the diminished 7th is highly colorful as it’s not Cdim7 in root position (ie the C is the bass note) but Cdim7 in first inversion (Eb is the bass note) with a spicy major 7 (B note) at the top. In isolation, this chord can sound odd and tense. However, within the context of Bar 1 moving to Bar 2, it’s simply a jazzy passing chord that is evocative of guitarists like Barney as well as pianists like Oscar Peterson and McCoy Tyner.

The chromatic bass-line continues as you connect to the II chord (Dm7). You then cycle round the same progression again starting with C6. This time you use a favorite Barney Kessel/George Van Eps/Freddie Green/Matt Munisteri style manoeuvre for the II-V. Bar 4 starts with a spread Dm triad before walking the middle note of the chord up to the major 3rd of G7 (a B note).

Example 6: Wes Montgomery style

Wes Montgomery was a huge fan of the “ladybird turnaround”, a progression derived from Tadd Dameron’s 1939 tune, Lady Bird. Based in C, this would involve four major 7th chords: Cmaj7-Ebmaj7-Abmaj7-Dbmaj7. This sublime little run of chords soon became another very popular turnaround amongst bebop and swing musicians. Although not technically hard to play, theory wise it benefits from a little explaining.

Starting on Em7, you're re-using the trick of subbing the III chord in place of the I (Cmaj7). From there you get into tri-tone substitution - Eb being the tritone sub of Am, Ab being the tritone sub of Dm and Db being the tritone sub of G7.

Wes liked to use a mix of major and Dominant chord types for these progressions, so do play around with as many options as you can think of here. Try using various major 7ths, or all major 9ths, or perhaps all dominant 13ths.

In short, mix and match to your heart’s desire!

Jazz legends in action!

Joe Pass - Ain't Misbehaving

Joe was as creative as he was virtuosic. Watch how he navigates the chord changes and creates intricate inner melodies with confidence and clarity.

Tal Farlow - Misty

Tal was renowned as a fast player with big hands. Watch how he uses his thumb to grab 7th, 9th and altered chords as well as the ease of his picking hand during this beautiful jazz song.

Wes Montgomery - Here's That Rainy Day

If you can take your eyes away from Wes' unique thumb-only picking style (and how he splays his fingers out on the pick guard), you will see much beauty coming from his fretting hand as he uses single notes, octaves and chords for the rich changes to this famous piece.

The recently formed Pete Roth Trio are well on their way to becoming one of the most exciting new names in modern jazz.

Led by German-born, UK-based guitar instructor Pete, with session musician Mike Pratt on bass and ex-King Crimson legend Bill Bruford coming out of retirement to sit behind the kit, they’ve been amazing crowds across the UK, Europe and Japan with a bold take on contemporary fusion.

Their current setlist features original compositions like Looking Forward To Looking Back and Dancing With Grace, as well as daring interpretations of famous works by John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and Antonín Dvořák.

Back to the Beginning

“I didn’t really plan on doing this,” says Pete Roth, on how the band got formed. “Bill called me two years ago and suggested jamming. We knew each other from teaching at the Academy Of Contemporary Music. I was also his drum tech in my early 20s.

“We decided to try some jazz standards, it went well, so then we needed a bass player. I was touring a lot with Mike Pratt at the time, so I invited him along to the next jam with no aspirations other than stepping into a room and making good music.”

Giant Steps

Though the music generally falls under the jazz bracket, this band really does take inspiration from everywhere.

“It was a conscious decision to play a real variety of styles,” says Pete. “None of us really wanted to play straight jazz. Mike is a funky player, Bill comes from a prog rock and traditional jazz background, while I’m more hard rock and blues. You can hear all of that in there. We’ve been playing tunes like Billie’s Bounce by Charlie Parker, but giving it our own twist.”

Take Five

According to Pete, this is a band who place great emphasis on melodic and harmonic freedom. Given his background as a session player, it’s something he finds greatly rewarding.

“It’s the first time I’ve been in a situation where all answers are ‘yes’,” he grins. “This band interacts and reacts. No two nights are the same. There’s a risk in working like that but also a beauty to the freedom.

“It’s something we’re not willing to give up, regardless of the safety net that comes with things being more meticulously planned. Of course, there’s some musical scaffolding, but the middle section is always up for grabs.”

In the Mood

As for tools of the trade, Pete’s main guitar is an Epiphone Sheraton that gets plugged into a Fender Deluxe and a Dr Z EZG-50, running in stereo.

“I get width from the Dr Z, but there’s a lovely directness that comes from the Deluxe,” he notes. “We deliberately use interesting effects for texture, [such as] my Boss SY-1, which has everything from bells and synths to organs. There’s nothing straight about what we are doing, I would call it ‘near-jazz’, rather than proper jazz.

“I also have a first generation Fulltone Full-Drive, which I absolutely love. My always-on is the Xotic RC Booster, and I like the Boss CE-2 for chorus. There’s a Boss DD-7 for digital delay, plus a TC Electronic reverb and looper.”

The Beat Goes On

Working with one of the most deeply admired drummers in progressive rock has certainly helped get things off to a good start, though Pete would be the first to admit Bill’s wealth of knowledge has also opened doors creatively.

“Bill has made a huge difference to my style,” smiles Pete. “I might play from muscle memory, but he has such a sharp musical mind, he can tell when you are just waffling. He always tells me to double down on the ideas that are more specific and less generic. I’m amazed by the depth of his talent. His knowledge is incredible.”

Less is more

For the Pete Roth Trio, a lot of excitement comes from the sonic space each member has to create on stage and in the moment.

“Playing as a trio lets us step into each other’s frequencies more than bigger bands,” admits Pete.

“That’s part of the fun. We will look at each other and work it all out there and then, making each other play differently. It’s a small, intimate sound guided by opportunity. This is a live band rather than a studio band – it’s all about capturing the connection with each other and the audience, and how it all bounces around.”

• The Pete Roth Trio with Bill Bruford are on tour in Europe and the UK in Sep/Oct.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

If you've seen John Mayer in concert, listened to D'Angelo's masterpiece Black Messiah, and what's often billed as Miles Davis' final oeuvre, Rubberband, then you’ve been graced by Isaiah Sharkey's fine, jazz-infused handiwork.

At just 36, the guitar player has accumulated a hefty résumé – and an equally fine guitar collection, which, as of recently, includes a guitar originally custom-made for George Benson.

“Well, that guitar, I don’t really get a chance to play that out much,” he tells Guitar World in a new interview, referring to the Princess Isabella – a beauty of a baritone guitar crafted by German luthier Jens Ritter.

Princess Isabella was originally built to emulate the feel and tone of an archtop jazz guitar, but in a white-and-gold solid-body form. What’s more, it’s just an inch thick, with no onboard controls, to ensure as pure a tone as possible.

“I just acquired that guitar, maybe about a couple of weeks ago. And that guitar is a very special one because Ritter actually made that guitar for George Benson. It’s actually the prototype for George Benson.

“So, it's one of one,” he explains. “And it’s a very special guitar, and surprisingly pretty warm for the body shape, you know, being so thin. But Ritter did a really amazing job, and it’s not only a really beautiful guitar, but it sounds great.”

Perhaps his recent acquisition of this unique guitar has been bolstered by his budding friendship with the man himself, George Benson.

“Over the years, we’ve met here and there briefly, but recently, connecting with him on a more consistent basis is actually something that, in some ways, has been surreal,” he gushes.

“To be able to sit down, and more than even playing, just listen to his stories, was beautiful. The amount of wisdom he has just in basic conversation gives you so many different perspectives to take into consideration musically, as an artist, and in life, too.”

This isn't the first Benson-adjacent guitar that Sharkey has acquired. Back in December, the guitarist publicly announced that he's the new owner of one of Benson's legendary Gibson Johnny Smiths.

Maya Delilah's soul-soothing blend of jazz, pop, and, well, soul, broke through during the pandemic, but the guitarist and singer-songwriter was far from just a fleeting trend.

The artist doubled down on her genre-blending playing and songwriting style in her Blue Note Records debut, The Long Way Around, which firmly cemented her as a guitar player with the touch and technicality that recalls the likes of John Mayer.

Delilah's decision to play sans pick harks back to her acoustic guitar and banjo roots, transferred to electric guitar, with her fingerpicking tone becoming even more pronounced by her decision to almost exclusively plug directly into a Fender Blues Junior, without relying on any pedals.

And while, as a Fender Class of 2024 alum, she's mostly seen brandishing Strats nowadays, she doesn't shy away from mentioning an off-kilter choice as her all-time favorite guitar: an electric Maton, which she unearthed at a guitar shop in London.

“I just love it, and there’s apparently only two of them, so I feel very lucky to have it,” she tells Guitar World. “It’s got a slight hollow body, so it’s a really warm jazz tone. I spent seven hours in the guitar shop that day before I bought it to make sure it was the right guitar.”

Elsewhere in the same interview, Delilah credits a jazz giant as her inspiration for her fingerstyle technique.

"The guitarist I actually used to reference as a kid for not using a pick was Wes Montgomery, because he used his thumb a lot, and I used to use my thumb more than I do now.”

“I think the only thing it feels like it holds me back from is occasional speed,” she discloses. “But at this time, I feel like I get a lot more feeling when I play with my fingers as well.”

Speaking of Montgomery, there's another fast-rising guitarist who named him as one of the players who shaped his core sound...

Ernest Ranglin has a legacy that spans genres and generations.

As a session player for various Jamaican record labels – including the ever-influential Studio One and Island Records – his rhythmic guitar style helped drive the very inception of ska, and create the first bona fide global Jamaican hit, Millie Small's My Boy Lollipop. He also served as a mentor to some of the country's best-known musicians.

One of the artists that he worked with? One of the pioneers of reggae, and perhaps the genre's figurehead: Bob Marley.

"He was young when we started working together, but you could already tell that he had something," Ranglin tells Guitar World in a new interview.

“There was a drive, a presence. I helped guide him early on. I helped with his early tunes – It Hurts to be Alone and Simmer Down and a few others. He later wanted me to help him not only learn guitar but arrange.

“Well, I think he caught on,” he adds with a laugh.

Another Jamaican legend whose journey Ranglin was part of was the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jimmy Cliff. “I was Jimmy’s musical director for many years,” he asserts. “I helped him develop his true sound and guided and collaborated with him on songwriting.

“A lot of young musicians came through at that time – brimming with raw talent. I feel like I helped give it shape and structure.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Guitar World's full interview with Ernest Ranglin will be published in the coming weeks.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that social media can make or break you. In Mateus Asato's case, social media has proven to be a way for him to carve a path to the higher echelons of the music industry, leading to an ever-evolving résumé that includes names like Bruno Mars, Tori Kelly, Jessie J, Joe Satriani, and John Petrucci, as well as a signature guitar with Suhr.

However, back in 2016, Asato's role as an A-list sideman left him questioning his future. While traveling to South Korea for a guitar clinic – and confronted with real-life human beings who had discovered him through Instagram and were actually invested in his personal career – he realized there was tremendous potential to switch gears from “sideman” to “artist.”

“I had no idea of the impact that these little Instagram videos were having until I actually went to South Korea,” he tells Guitar.com. “There were 500 people there just to see this ‘Mateus Asato guy’. That totally changed the game for me: ‘Wait a minute, I play for an artist… but also there’s a big potential for me to just do my own stuff’.”

Working on his own material has been far from easy, however. Discussions with friend and producer Matt Mainhard made him realize that “it’s not okay to just have a list of songs. We gotta have a theme. We gotta have some sort of concept, or something that will tell you where to go”.

As for what we can expect from his hotly anticipated debut record, Asato sums it up as, “The album is definitely a journey through all the sides of Mateus. The Mateus who’s a sideman, Mateus as the Instagram boy, and then the Mateus that got more mature over the years. Who developed a different vision regarding music, regarding how I see guitar.”

So-called “Instagram guitarists” have been in hot water recently, with the Giacomo Turra controversy putting into question the lengths some go to to achieve virality and reap the benefits that guitar stardom offers.

After announcing the return of the Surfcaster back at NAMM earlier this year, Jackson has now officially re-launched its cult offset design, which has been revived with the aim of “offering modern metalheads a sleek new take on a classic machine”.

The Surfcaster’s return was one of the biggest talking points at NAMM 2025, and the model itself has certainly been one of the most requested Jackson electric guitars of the past few years. In fact, calls for a reissue reached unprecedented heights thanks to Periphery’s Misha Mansoor and Spiritbox’s Mike Stringer, whose own custom shop models have resulted in a surge in popularity for the Surfcaster.

The Surfcaster has a curious history: launched by Charvel/Jackson in the early ’90s, the lipstick pickup-adorned model was aimed at surf and country players, and counted Steve Cropper among its early endorsees.

Later, it would be kitted out with humbuckers to cater for Jackson’s more typical audience, but upon the brand’s acquisition by Fender in 2002, the model was dropped – presumably to avoid competing with the Big F’s Jazzmaster.

We weren’t expecting the first Surfcasters to be quite so affordable, however. The JS Series Surfcaster is $249, while the Indonesian-built X Series Surfcaster is $549, and the seven-string version (yes!) is $599.

All three guitars are very much metal-focused, teaming the offset, Jazzmaster-esque shape with a pair of humbuckers, a hardtail bridge and black hardware on none-more-black finishes (although the JS does offer a Snow White option alongside Gloss Black).

Playability should be on point courtesy of a 12”-16” compound radius bound fingerboard, available across the range (the X Series’ is laurel, the JS’ is amaranth).

24 jumbo frets are a universal feature, but only the X Series model features the oh-so-’80s sharkfin inlays and contoured heel, while the JS model has the more typical Fender-style four-bolt neckplate and dot inlays.

As was the case when the Surfcasters were unveiled back at NAMM, info on the pickups are sparse, though they have been badged high-output and made in-house. The X Series’ look a lot sleeker, and we imagine there will be that little bit extra definition versus the JS.

There’s a three-way toggle pickup selector on the X, while you get a blade selector switch on the cheaper model. The seven-string does away with the neck pickup, tone knob and pickup selector of its six-string siblings, leaving just a bridge humbucker and volume control.

The wonky three-a-side headstock, complete with enormous Jackson logo, might not win over metal-leaning Fender obsessives, but we reckon it’s just the right side of ’90s kitsch.

All in all, it’s a commendable return for the Surfcaster, and an enticing first dip of the toe in offset waters for Jackson. We’re looking forward to seeing what else the firm does with the design throughout 2025.

On that note, you’ll forgive us if we’re a bit emotional about this one. We’ve been harassing Fender employees to build high-spec offsets for at least five years now, so to see our efforts finally come to fruition – and at this price point – is very cool indeed. Mansoor and Stringer models next, please…

The X Series and JS Series Surfcasters are available now.

For more information, hit up Jackson Guitars.

Lo-fi is to audio what black-and-white or sepia-tinted film is to visual. Often lo-fi tracks will loop a sample from an old vinyl record, complete with scratches and crackles, then drop it over a modern beat.

In this case, the idea is to be able to create your own loops or chord progressions, although this knowledge is useful beyond this genre, too, of course.

Apologies in advance for Example 1, which is a bit of a stretch, but sometimes we have to make these sacrifices if we’re going to find voicings you don’t hear every day! All of these chords have their highest note (B) in common, with most of them also featuring F# as the second highest.

As we play through these, it’s interesting to hear the shifting intervals and changing relationships. It’s yet another angle at which we can look at harmony and chord construction, which benefits every single area of our playing – with the possible exception of an aching fretting hand…

Example 1. Gmaj7

This is a Gmaj7 but with an unusual stacking of notes and a wide skip between the 5th (D) on the fifth string and the 3rd (B) on the third string.

On the top two strings we have the maj7th (F#) and another 3rd (B) in ascending order. The fourth string is muted.

Example 2. G#7(#9)

This is a very similar shape, but it keeps the top two notes (F# and B) while we shift everything else up one semitone or fret. The result is a G#7(#9).

If you moved your fourth finger up to the 8th fret, you’d be back to the maj7th voicing but in G#.

Example 3. Am9

This Am9 keeps the B on the top, but we lose the F# for now. In this position we could use the open fifth string as our root, but we’d lose some consistency in the tone and the chord wouldn’t be movable, so that’s the reason for this seeming harder than it needs to be!

Example 4. D13(b9)

Like a few of the other examples, this D13(b9) doesn’t use the fifth string. This means we have a wide interval of a dominant 7 (aka b7) between the root and the next note in the chord as you brush across the strings.

The top three notes give us the b9th (Eb), the 3rd (F#) and the 13th (B).

Example 5. Gmaj9

This Gmaj9 gives a nice finishing chord, meaning Examples 3, 4 and 5 in sequence give us the II-V-I progression, a classic chord move in this style.

Perhaps it would be nice to cycle Examples 1 to 4 a few times, then finish with this? From bottom to top, we have: Root (G), 3rd (B), maj7th (F#) and 9th (A).

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Jazz guitarist George Freeman, a mainstay of Chicago’s music scene, died on April 1 at 97 – mere days before he was due to play a show in celebration of his 98th birthday.

Coming from a family of gifted musicians – which included his older brothers, drummer Eldridge “Bruz” Freeman and hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist Earle Lavon “Von” Freeman – he was introduced to the city’s thriving scene at a young age.

During his teens, he was in the band program at the iconic DuSable High School and, instead of settling for the background, recognized that guitarists could occupy a role at the front – just like Chicago’s tenor players.

After dipping his toes into New York City’s jazz scene and recording with the Joe Morris Orchestra, the guitarist returned to Chicago in the ’50s, where he ended up playing with Charlie Parker.

Most notably, his performances at the Pershing Ballroom showed a guitarist who didn’t shy away from using his amp’s overdrive or power chords – seamlessly swapping solos with Parker, and further cementing his position in the scene.

Speaking about the archival recording of the two playing Keen and Peachy, Freeman told Guitar Player, “When you get onstage, you try to play something that everybody knows. Bird [Charlie Parker's nickname] had a heart of gold, and he could play anything.

“I had been playing standards and dances, no problem. But when he called out that song, I got nervous. I was standing next to him playing, and he just grinned from ear to ear, because he had never heard a guitar player play like that.”

However, when 1959 rolled around, he ventured further and hit the road with tenor saxophonist Sil Austin and vocalist Jackie Wilson, followed by organist Wild Bill Davis, and finally with organist Richard “Groove” Holmes.

In fact, he spent most of the ’60s touring with Groove Holmes – even featuring on Holmes’ first record, Groove. It was his stint with tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons in the late ’60s, however, that brought him more widespread acclaim – a fruitful collaboration defined by a push-and-pull between Ammons’ dislike for avant-garde jazz and Freeman’s guitar parts, which very much fell into that realm.

In 1969, Freeman proved he could very much take the lead with his debut, Birth Sign, which was followed by a string of albums across the decades. Even well into his 90s, the jazz maestro never stopped performing – with his final studio album as a leader, The Good Life, recorded in 2022 and dropped on April 10, 2023, his 96th birthday.

As for his advice to musicians on how to swing, Freeman told Guitar Player in a 2023 interview, “Swing is about supporting, and you’ve got to support. You’ve got to love your fellow musicians. When they take a solo, you’ve got to listen, push them and make them feel good.

“You want to make them sound good. That’s the secret. And I expect the same from my musicians when I’m soloing. If you don’t support me, you don’t have any love in your heart for me.”

Not only is Al Di Meola revered for his melodic guitar chops, he's also known for his world class rhythmic sensibilities. Throughout his career, the jazz fusion legend has proved time and again the significance of nailing a solid sense of rhythm and, by extension, experimenting with different rhythmic styles.

Di Meola's penchant for rhythmic experimentation first started early on when he developed an affinity for percussion during his school years – and it's an obsession that still continues to this day, as he reveals in a new interview with Rick Beato.

“I was highly influenced by percussion and drums,” he told Music Radar of his guitar style back in 2015. “Those were really my first loves and all through school I didn’t pay attention so much and constantly I was tapping my fingers on the top of the desk while keeping a steady quarter-note 4/4 with my foot under the desk – and I would practice playing counter-rhythms against my foot.”

His formative years also included soaking in the rhythms showcased in New York's Latin clubs – a hands-on study in rhythm that would forever shape his approach not only to his guitar playing but also to composition.

“I did spend a lot of years by myself, getting into New York City and hanging out in salsa clubs,” he tells Beato in a new interview. “I remember climbing up the stairs, even if a lot of people were dancing and the big band was going, whether it was Tito Puente or whoever, and I just took it all in.

“And I spent a lot of years – which I shouldn't have done, but now that I look back, I'm glad I did it – tapping rhythms.”

Di Meola recalls how, before transferring these newfound rhythms to guitar, he always started with a more primordial technique: tapping his foot, “always concentrating on the 4/4... never going out of time.”

“What I've said in a lot of demonstrations or clinics I've done, is [to] really focus on the foot. It becomes very important because whatever syncopations you're playing on the upper half of your body cannot influence down there. So it's like two separate parts."

Essentially, Di Meola insists it's crucial for your foot to be locked in – like a metronome – when you play counter-rhythms, a practice that ensures you don't get completely thrown off.

And if you want a glimpse of rhythmic virtuosity, this unearthed rehearsal footage of Al Di Meola rehearsing Race with the Devil on a Spanish Highway with Steve Vai is bound to teach you a thing or two about technique.

Jeff Beck’s Blow by Blow shouldn’t have been a success. By all accounts, it was a huge risk, even in the heady, more musically adventurous era of the mid-’70s. It was an instrumental album – an instrumental jazz album.

Perhaps oddest of all, it was an instrumental jazz album by a rock guitarist, which meant that it ran a highly possible risk of alienating rock and jazz audiences alike. And even though Epic Records released separate singles of three songs from the album in Japan, the U.K. and the U.S., none of the songs became hits.

Yet audiences in the United States, United Kingdom and beyond enthusiastically embraced Blow by Blow. It peaked at a remarkable Number 4 on the Billboard 200 album chart and earned Platinum certification, outselling every single album Beck previously released with the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice, which all managed to go Gold. In fact, Blow by Blow (along with its similar follow-up, Wired) remains the best-selling album of Beck’s entire career.

However, the success of Blow by Blow was much wider reaching than mere chart positions and album sales figures. Beck’s bold move opened up new possibilities for jazz and progressive guitarists like Al Di Meola, Allan Holdsworth and numerous other musicians to release albums that appealed to jazz and rock fans alike.

It also helped spark the instrumental shred guitar phenomenon that started a few years later in the early ’80s by proving that there was indeed a relatively sizable potential audience for instrumental guitar music.

Its success even had a profound effect on Beck himself, giving him a sense of direction that influenced his remaining career by encouraging him to rely on his inner muse.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Blow by Blow, we’re taking a look back at the history of this revolutionary album that changed the path and popularity of the electric guitar in a highly profound way.

From blues to funk

During the early ’70s, Jeff Beck had earned a reputation as being difficult to work with that was not entirely undeserved. Ever since being fired from the Yardbirds in November 1966, Beck seemed unable or unwilling to settle into any particular musical direction for a prolonged period of time.

When Beck first put together the Jeff Beck Group with singer Rod Stewart in 1967, he went through a staggering variety of bass players and drummers before settling upon Ronnie Wood on bass and Micky Waller on drums just prior to recording their first album, 1968’s Truth.

However, Waller was gone by the second album (1969’s Beck-Ola), and by the third Jeff Beck Group album the guitarist was accompanied by an entirely different lineup as Beck shifted from a hard rock/blues focus to a more funk and R&B-inspired sound.

That second lineup managed to last two albums (Rough & Ready, Jeff Beck Group) before Beck threw in the towel during the summer of 1972. Retaining only keyboardist Max Middleton, Beck started a new lineup with Tim Bogert on bass and vocals and Carmine Appice on drums.

This eventually became the hard blues-rock power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice, but that band was also short-lived and broke up in early 1974 after releasing one studio album and a live album released in Japan.

In an interview with Classic Rock, Appice said, “Rod Stewart had told me long ago regarding Jeff: ‘Don’t do it. You’ll do an album or two, and then it’ll be over.’ We didn’t listen to that advice, but that’s what happened. It ended up a mess at the end.”

Reports of arguments and physical altercations suggested that Beck was nearly impossible to work with, which was partly true. However, the main reason why the guitarist went through so many different lineups is that he was still searching to find his own musical voice.

It was particularly frustrating for Beck when his good friend Jimmy Page experienced greater success with Led Zeppelin using a similar heavy blues-rock formula Beck that pioneered on Truth, which preceded Led Zeppelin by about half a year. The fact that Zep also recorded a cover of Muddy Waters’ You Shook Me further salted his wounds.

Looking to move beyond the increasingly crowded blues-rock idiom, Beck became attracted to the allure of funk and R&B. This led to a botched attempt to record an album at Detroit’s legendary Motown studios in 1970 and the inspired, albeit ultimately underwhelming, hiring of Steve Cropper to produce the Jeff Beck Group album in 1972.

That album featured a cover version of Stevie Wonder’s I Got to Have a Song, which captured Wonder’s attention. Later that year, Wonder invited Beck to participate in sessions at Electric Lady studios in New York City for the album Talking Book. Beck played guitar on Lookin’ for Another Pure Love.

During the sessions, Beck also inspired Wonder to write Superstition when the guitarist was fooling around on the drums and came up with a driving, funky beat. Jamming on a Hohner Clavinet keyboard, Wonder wrote what Beck called “the riff of the century.”

Wonder planned on giving the song exclusively to Beck as a gift, but Wonder’s management quickly saw its potential as a hit single and demanded that he record it himself.

Beck later recorded a heavy rock version of Superstition for the first Beck, Bogert & Appice album, but its impact was ultimately thwarted by the dynamic brilliance of Wonder’s single.

Apparently feeling somewhat guilty for the events that transpired with Superstition, Wonder later eventually delivered another gift to Beck that proved to be even more beneficial to the guitarist’s career.

Enter fusion

Sometime during the early ’70s, a mishap led to a profound life-changing event for Beck. While working in his garage trying to repair a car he had crashed, Beck had an epiphany.

“I was looking up at the wreck of the car that I’d crashed, thinking I was finished,” Beck wrote in his book Beck01: Hot Rods and Rock & Roll. “I was working underneath the car and could hardly move. My head was on the ground and water was coming down the driveway. A little transistor radio was playing Miles Davis’s Jack Johnson [the track was Right Off, which is the entirety of side one].

“Lying there in the water, I realized I wasn’t done yet, and this music was going to save me. I went inside and just sat there, sopping wet, listening to the album. I thought I’d been resurrected, like a phoenix. I went out and bought the record and then found out about [guitarist] John McLaughlin and [drummer] Billy Cobham.”

Beck kept his newfound passion for this burgeoning style of jazz known as fusion, which added new exploratory elements of rock and electric instruments to the jazz vernacular, mostly to himself over the next few years.

He was fascinated with the improvisational and rhythmic possibilities that jazz-fusion presented for expanding the rock repertoire, especially since he was beginning to grow tired of playing the same blues-rock riffs.

“A handful of tapes knock me out,” Beck told Steve Rosen in the November 1975 issue of Guitar Player, “things like Billy Cobham, Stanley Clarke – all the great rock and rollers. I call Billy Cobham a rock and roller because he’s so forceful. Rock’s an energy to me. It’s more complex now than it was, but it’s rock just the same.”

Carmine Appice later claimed that he introduced Beck to Billy Cobham’s 1973 Spectrum album during their time together in Beck, Bogert & Appice, but by that time Beck seemed to already be familiar with Cobham and McLaughlin’s work together in McLaughlin’s post-Miles Davis band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

In fact, Beck allegedly cancelled shows by Beck, Bogert & Appice so he could attend the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s concerts in New York’s Central Park in August 1973. Even if Appice and Beck did share a common love of fusion music, that never emerged as a direction pursued by their band.

“I remember Mahavishnu Orchestra playing in Central Park at the Schaefer Music Festival in August 1973,” Beck wrote in Beck01.

“Between Nothingness & Eternity was the live album that resulted from that concert. There was something like 30,000 people watching this ridiculously high-powered music: jazz-rock fusion, furious playing and outrageous time signatures. I thought, ‘This is more like it,’ and that’s where Blow by Blow came from.”

McLaughlin’s guitar playing with the Mahavishnu Orchestra was raw, exhilarating and blazingly fast, as were Tommy Bolin’s guitar performances with Cobham on Spectrum. Both impressed Beck significantly, but the guitarist actually took more inspiration from the synthesizer player that both groups (as well as Stanley Clarke) shared in common: Jan Hammer.

“Jan gave me a new, exciting look into the future,” Beck told Guitar Player in 1975. “He plays the Moog a lot like a guitar, and his sounds went straight into me. So I started playing like him. I didn’t sound like him, but his phrases influenced me immensely.”

Possibly the ultimate turning point for Beck was when Mahavishnu Orchestra released Apocalypse in April 1974, which happened to be about the same time Beck disbanded Beck, Bogert & Appice and was seriously considering releasing a jazz-fusion album as a solo artist as his next career move.

McLaughlin had assembled a new lineup for his group, replacing Cobham and Hammer with drummer Narada Michael Walden and keyboardist Gayle Moran, respectively, but Beck barely noticed the absence of some of his favorite players. Instead, he was particularly blown away by the dynamic blend of aggressive guitar accompanied by lush orchestral arrangements performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Apocalypse was expertly produced by Sir George Martin, who called it “one of the best records I have ever made” in his 1979 book All You Need Is Ears. The album’s immaculate sound quality and energy convinced Beck that he needed to hire Martin to produce his solo album.

“I turned up at George Martin’s office with a diabolically bad demo,” Beck recalled, “but he could see there was something there.” Martin agreed to sign on to the project, and in October 1974 work on Blow by Blow commenced at London’s AIR studios.

The lineup

Beck reunited with keyboardist Max Middleton to write material and record Blow by Blow. Initially Carmine Appice played drums on the early sessions, but he was fired after he insisted on having his name appear prominently alongside Beck’s on the album cover.

“Carmine kicked up such a fuss about him wanting it to be his album,” Middleton told journalist Bruce Stringer in 2003, “so Jeff kicked him off and asked me if I knew anybody else. I brought in [drummer] Richard Bailey and [bassist] Phillip Chen because I knew them for some time, and that was how we did that album.”

Although Blow by Blow is commonly described as a jazz-rock fusion album, it’s really more of a jazz-funk fusion effort.

“I was constantly trying to put funk into the record,” Beck said. “I was influenced by Larry Graham’s Graham Central Station, which I was listening to on a loop in my car at the time. I played George [Martin] a couple of tracks, and he said it was the worst-recorded sound he’d ever heard.

“George wanted Beatles-esque orchestrations and strong melodies. I didn’t really appreciate what George was doing to the extent he deserved. I should’ve known better than to underestimate him. I didn’t take much notice of what he was gently trying to push me to do.”

Beck won the argument, of course, since it was his solo album and his name appeared on the cover. The funk element is strong and present from the get-go, with scratchy funk chords that are more than obviously inspired by Jimmy Nolen’s playing on James Brown’s Sex Machine kicking off the album’s first track, You Know What I Mean, penned by Beck and Middleton.

However, Beck’s adventurous solos and complex lead melodies showed listeners used to his heavy rock bluster that he was venturing deep into new territory.

“That Blow by Blow opening is pure funk,” says John McLaughlin, who co-headlined Beck’s 1975 tour in support of Blow by Blow.

“I’m sure that’s why he hired [drummer] Bernard Purdie and [bassist] Wilbur Bascomb, who both came from James Brown’s band, as his rhythm section for the tour. When we both got together to jam at the end of each show, we would be dancing on stage with that rhythm section just kicking our butts.”

Allegedly George Martin was not the biggest fan of Middleton’s reggae-inspired arrangement of the Beatles’ She’s a Woman. Beck had actually publicly leaked this arrangement of the Lennon and McCartney tune earlier when he performed alongside the band Upp, who he was producing, on the BBC’s Five Faces of the Guitar special broadcast in September 1974.

The BBC broadcast possibly provides a glimpse at the main rig Beck used while recording Blow by Blow. Here the guitarist was seen playing his modified 1954 “Oxblood” Gibson Les Paul, an Ampeg VT-40 combo amp, Colorsound Overdriver, Cry Baby wah, ZB Custom volume pedal and Kustom “The Bag” talk box, the latter heard prominently on She’s a Woman.

Other gear that Beck is known to have used on the album includes two Stratocasters – an early ’70s Olympic White model and one with a stripped-finish early ’60s body and mid-’70s rosewood neck – and the famous “Tele-Gib” 1959 Telecaster with two PAF humbuckers assembled by Seymour Duncan.

The Beck composition Constipated Duck pulls the album back into funk territory with Middleton’s clavinet licks and Beck’s trippy double-stop echo tricks. The guitarist’s distinctive note bends offer the first glimpse at Jan Hammer’s influence. More Nolen-style chords kick off AIR Blower (credited to the entire band) before the song quickly settles into a funk-fusion groove.

Beck’s gritty fuzz tone solos and harmonized lines in tandem with Middleton’s synth take the guitarist about as far away from his blues-rock past as Mississippi is from Manhattan, further punctuated by Beck’s jazzy lines around the 3-1/2 minute mark where a slow, loose tempo shift occurs.

Side one closes with Scatterbrain co-written by Beck and Middleton, which sounds the closest to the reason why Beck hired Martin to produce the album in the first place.

Here, the orchestral string section that Martin wanted all along finally makes an appearance, although it’s more subdued than the arrangements Martin employed on Apocalypse. The jazz fusion element is present and accounted for in full force, with some passages even bearing a slight resemblance to Mahavishnu’s Vision Is a Naked Sword.

Wonder himself makes an uncredited appearance playing clavinet on Thelonious, which he also wrote during the Talking Book sessions.

This is arguably the deepest funk track on the album, with grooves and riffs that almost match Superstition. Beck uses a Mu-Tron Octave Divider to summon a downright nas-tay horn- or synth-like tone, punctuated by talk box accents.

Next, Freeway Jam finally delivers the track that most closely fits the jazz-rock fusion description. This was also the album’s closest thing to a hit, receiving heavy rotation on FM album rock stations throughout most of the remainder of the ’70s.

Here, Beck is definitely playing one of his Strats, liberally using the vibrato bar to accentuate notes with wild warbling bends and deep dives. Like Lovers it also became a fixture of Beck’s live set lists.

Diamond Dust ends Blow by Blow with the accompaniment of a second orchestral string arrangement by Martin.

The song was written by Bernie Holland, who was the guitarist in the band Hummingbird, formed in 1974 by Middleton and other members of the second iteration of the Jeff Beck Group. The song is as much of a showcase for Middleton’s electric piano and synth playing as it is for Beck’s melodic motifs and soloing.

Aftermath

Beck acknowledged John McLaughlin’s profound influence by inviting the Mahavishnu Orchestra on a co-headlining tour in 1975.

“We just wanted to see if it was going to work, and boy, did it work,” recalled Beck. “The next thing I knew I was on stage doing a double headliner with John. It was a bit barbaric and chaotic, but it was more music per square inch than l’d ever heard. When we opened the show, the audience went utterly berserk.”

Beck and McLaughlin’s cross-pollination of rock and jazz styles had made both outcasts of sorts from their respective main genres, but by banding together they helped lift each other up and beyond those restraints and biases.

McLaughlin was particularly touched by Beck’s acknowledgement of the Mahavishnu guitarist’s influence on his playing style.

“When you have an impact on somebody who is already a very fine musician, it’s kind of a little humbling, isn’t it?” McLaughlin says.

“Beck was kind of an outsider, and I got a lot of flak from the traditional jazz community where I was being told, ‘This ain’t jazz.’ But Jeff broke down those barriers, and now they’ve disappeared.

“Today it doesn’t matter what kind of music you play; it’s how you play it. When the spirit gets you, it doesn’t matter where you’re coming from – the spirit will be heard. Every musician that I know who heard Jeff loved him, and his spirit will live on forever.”

• This was a preview of the upcoming Jeff Beck biography Blow by Blow by Brad Tolinski & Chris Gill, scheduled for release in October by Grand Central/Hachette Books.

Colorful Miles Davis stories are legion – a quick Google search will net you plenty revolving around the jazz icon's famous temper.

Davis was just as formidable when it came to his musical vision, a famously straight shooter who expected nothing but the best from his well-vetted bandmates. With those high expectations, though, typically came a great deal of quiet respect.

As the '60s came to a close, Davis, hungry for a new direction, began venturing increasingly into rock territory, picking up a cast of new musicians – many of whom would go on to become legends themselves – along the way.

One of these was electric guitar titan John McLaughlin, who had similarly left the British session scene for more adventurous musical waters. McLaughlin's first appearance with Davis was on the latter's first full submersion into the combination jazz-rock sound that would become loosely known as “fusion,” the 1969 LP, In a Silent Way.

At one point during the sessions for that album, Davis – not getting what he wanted from McLaughlin – stopped his entire band and turned to the guitarist. But, McLaughlin told Guitar World in a 1998 interview, what came next was less a tongue-lashing than a simple, but profound musical direction.

Davis' instruction? “Play like you don’t know how to play the guitar.”

Given that McLaughlin would go on to appear on Bitches Brew – the truly seismic 1970 Davis album that cemented the trumpeter as nothing less than one of the most significant figures in 20th century music – the two certainly got on the same wavelength in time. Such were the guitarist's contributions to Bitches Brew that one of its tracks was even named after him.

Of those album's sessions, McLaughlin recalled to GW in 1998, “He'd wave his hands dramatically up or down to indicate the dynamics he wanted, and then point to somebody and say 'play.' And you'd play.

“We were in a big circle, but it felt like Miles was in a boxing ring, bouncing and weaving, feeding what was happening. It was like a cauldron.”

Overall, McLaughlin said, Davis was a fickle boss who nonetheless brought out, and welcomed, incredible creativity from those he played with.

“He never told you what not to play; he'd throw you a curveball just to make you think about it,” the guitarist told GW. “He wanted to get your honest response – he was the most blunt, honest person I've ever met.”

Though we’re used to seeing Fender produce wild hybrid builds through its oddball Squier Paranormal range, Fender Japan has bucked the trend by unveiling a Big F-branded Frankenstein’d creation that mashes two of the firm’s offset shapes.

The newly minted Starmaster is (no prizes for getting this right) a mish-mash electric guitar model that takes inspiration from both the Jazzmaster and the Starcaster – the latter of which has experienced something of a resurgence over the past few years.

However, while on paper the Starmaster is a term that seems absolutely loaded with glorious potential – a Thinline Jazzmaster body with Starcaster trimmings, for example, would have been a winner – Fender Japan has opted instead to go down an alternative route.

It’s a choice that might deter some punters, though, because FJ has decided to slap its all-too-divisive oversized Starcaster headstock onto the body of a Jazzmaster.

The result is, it has to be said, a very odd-looking Jazzmaster that from the pictures looks eerily out of proportion to itself.

Nevertheless, it could be another one of Fender Japan’s classic ‘growers’, and while it’s not exactly what we’d have gone for with a Jazzmaster/Starcaster hybrid, there’s no denying there’s a certain ugly-duckling sort of charm to it that might win us over eventually.

But the color-matched headstock aside, we’re also intrigued by what Fender Japan has actually done to the Jazzmaster body itself. For the Starmaster, the offset has been given a strange, stepped upper bout bevel, which offers a contrasting finish to the rest of the guitar.

It’s certainly not something you’d find on a regular Jazzmaster. Heck, the sports car-style vibe we get from this reminds us of comments Fender made when describing the American Ultra II range – which, of course, dropped the Jazzmaster in favor of the Meteora.

However, this is not a discarded Ultra II Jazzmaster body. Instead, as Fender Japan explains, it is a continuation of the Starcaster’s headstock design, which also features the same two-step bevel motif.

Bevels aside, it’s a standard Jazzmaster body, available in Jupiter Blue, Candy Apple Red and Black (which has a sleek silver highlight). Oh, and to make it even more divisive, it's available in Antigua.

The guitar is built from an alder body, while the U-shape maple neck offers a rosewood fingerboard with a 9.5” radius and 22 medium jumbo frets. The electronics department accommodates Hybrid II Custom Voiced single-coils.

These are wired to a traditional Jazzmaster control layout for a guitar that, if you only pay attention to the fretboard and body, looks just like an oddball Jazzmaster proper.

As another cool addition, the divisive new offset also boasts a brand-new headstock decal that flaunts the new Starmaster model name. Could this be the start of a fully fledged Starmaster line? It’s only a limited launch, so probably not, but if this divisive offset takes flight, who knows…

The Fender Made in Japan Limited Starmaster is available for 192,500 Japanese Yen, approximately $1,290.

Head over to Fender Japan to find out more.

At a time when funk had a firm foothold around the Great Lakes, where bands like Parliament, the Ohio Players, Slave, and Earth, Wind & Fire cranked out industrial-strength soul, Portland, Oregon’s Pleasure was happy to blaze its own jazzy dance trail in the Northwest.

“We were sort of isolated up there,” bassist Nate Phillips told Bass Player, “so we just did our own thing.”

The group’s fusion-influenced dance music reached its peak with Glide, the Top 10 R&B single from the album Future Now. The tune sports some of the finest bass work of the era, as Phillips drives the track with his formidable slap technique.

“Everybody asks how I got that tone. I used my ’70 Fender Jazz, which has a maple fingerboard with block inlays. I remember putting a fresh set of Rotosound roundwounds on right before doing that take.”

Phillips grew up working the berry and bean fields outside Portland, where AM pop radio was his escape from the bugs, dirt, cold, and hunger. “My brother and I would play R&B records, and we’d turn them up so loud they would engulf me!”

By the time he was old enough to sneak into clubs, Phillips had started playing around town.

“We were doing songs by Kool & the Gang, the Ohio Players, and Dyke & the Blazers, but we were also influenced by jazz and early fusion, like Herbie Hancock’s Fat Albert Rotunda, Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, and stuff on producer Creed Taylor’s CTI label.”

Phillips spawned the lick that became Glide on a visit to his mother’s house in Portland. “I had my Fender Jazz Bass with me – I always took it wherever I went. I was messing around playing 10ths, because I had noticed guys like Chuck Rainey doing that a lot.

“After about 20 minutes of working it out, I taped it and left it alone until our next rehearsal. When I played the line, everybody just fell in perfectly – I didn’t have to say anything.

“I have to give it up to them and their energy and enthusiasm. I’m deeply flattered and humbled by the comments young bass players make about the song – it blows me away. But I didn’t do it alone.”

Naturally, you’ll want to loosen up before sliding on into Glide. It’s a challenging line that’ll give your thumb a real workout, and it’ll have your fretting hand jumping up and down the neck.

Phillips kicks off the intro groove with a string of disco octaves, positioning his hand so his thumb is roughly parallel to the strings and popping with his index finger. Things start to heat up after the ghost-note pickup to bar 3, where he follows up his hammer-on with a slide into G and a sturdy syncopated figure.

On various repeats of this intro line, Phillips fills out his line with muted ghost-notes. “I'd throw those little ghost-notes in there to keep the line moving.”

Phillips rests for most of bar 4, leaving room for Marlon McClain’s snaky guitar licks until his authoritative pop on D. (Note: There are a few different edits of Glide, including the full 6:31 album track and a 4:24 radio edit. The second ending at bar 12 can only be heard on the full version.

What follows is a tight little four-bar phrase that has just about every trick in a funk bassist’s tool kit – double-stops, slides, hammer-ons, double-thumbing, triplets – you name it!

“Our engineer Phil Kaffel said, ‘Your bass sounds so good, let’s just go straight into the 24-track.’ When we mixed it, I think he used Keypex or a Urei compressor. They had to fight to get the bass that high in the mix. I thought it was too much; I love hearing other bass players real loud, but not myself.”

Phillips gets a jump on the verse groove by anticipating the one on the pickup to bar 23 at 00:45, where he first plucks the double-stopped 10ths with his thumb and index finger. The upbeat chromatic slide into the C#m double-stop sets up that bar’s downbeats so they have maximum impact.

In 00:51, his bassline becomes hyperkinetic, as he uses a double-stop slide to connect two impossibly funky licks. Be sure to drill this passage at moderate tempos before taking it on at full speed – the beginning of this line is pretty sparse, but it really picks up.

What is it?

The Meteora is the biggest outlier in Fender’s high-performance American Ultra II lineup: it’s based on a body shape that wasn’t designed six-plus decades ago.

Graduating from its debut appearance in the 2018 Parallel Universe lineup, the none-more-offset has lived on as part of the Player Plus series, but the Ultra II edition marks its most expensive incarnation yet.

It also replaces the Jazzmaster in the range, as Fender sought to position it as a “sports car version” of its venerable offset – heck, there’s even a bass version now.

On paper, it makes perfect sense: the Meteora is a contemporary electric guitar design, so to equip it with modern player-centric specs should be a sure thing. But with a price tag of $2,249, are players searching for a pro-spec guitar going to be willing to take the risk on an unfamiliar Fender shape over a Strat or Tele?

Specs

Launch price: $2,249/£2,189/€2,639
Made: USA
Type: Six-string electric guitar
Body: Alder
Neck: Quartersawn maple, modern D
Fingerboard: Ebony, 10-14" compound radius
Scale length: 25.5"
Nut/width: Graph Tech TUSQ, 24.8mm
Frets: 22 medium jumbo
Hardware: Short post locking tuners, 6-saddle hardtail bridge with stainless steel block saddles
Electrics: 2x Haymaker humbuckers w/ Alnico V Bar magnets, 3-way pickup selector, 1x volume (w/ S-1 coil-split switch), 1x tone, 1x bass cut knob.
Left-handed options: No
Finishes: Texas Tea, Ultraburst, Avalanche (reviewed)
Cases: Fender hardshell case
Contact: Fender.com

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

The American Ultra II range is pitched as Fender’s most advanced instruments yet, and the Meteora is spec’d accordingly. Its quartersawn maple neck is claimed to be Fender’s fastest ever, courtesy of an Ultra Satin finish with Modern D profile and 10-14” compound-radius fingerboard. My Avalanche-finished review model features a satin-finished maple fretboard, but Texas Tea and Ultraburst colorways come with ebony.

Ultra rolled fingerboard edges further enhance the smoothness factor to the point where the medium-jumbo frets simply glide by, while the addition of glow-in-the-dark Luminlay side dots and a Graph Tech TUSQ nut add to the instrument’s finessed spec sheet.

The finishing touch to the ’go-faster’ feel are the radical contours around the rear of the body that offer increased access to the upper register of the fretboard, adding extra comfort to an already comfortable design – more on that later.

Hardtail bridges are very much in vogue, and the stainless steel saddles here look the part, while the deluxe locking tuners are a welcome addition for foolproof string changes.

Given the brand-name parts that feature elsewhere on the instrument, it may be a little disappointing to find a pair of in-house Fender humbuckers onboard, but its all-new Haymaker units are touted as “powerful, expressive and articulate”. So you can file those under ’modern’.

They’re adjusted via an unusual-for-Fender control suite of Master Volume, Treble Cut (essentially a Master Tone) and Bass Cut, while an S-1 Switch appears in the volume knob to activate a coil-split for both pickups.

Speaking of controls, Fender claims those aluminum knobs are ’knurled’, but a better description would be ’cheese grater’. The sharpness makes them grippier, but given the proximity of the volume knob to the bridge pickup, you’ll have to watch your hand during more aggressive performances – it wasn’t a problem for me 99% of the time (and I appreciated how the placement aids pinkie volume swells), but I can confirm that thing hurts when you hit it.

Unfortunately, given that control houses the S-1 switch, it’s not an easy swap, either. Forget the frets – Fender might want to give its controls a rolled edges treatment in future, or at least shift their position.

Otherwise, the build quality is impossible to fault. Finishing is perfect, the neck pocket is tight, and my review model was perfectly set up for speed. There’s some lovely attention to detail with the polished string tree and recessed output jack, not to mention that anodized aluminum pickguard. Minus the volume knob placement, it’s one of the most impressive Fender USA builds we’ve seen in recent years.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★★

There’s something about the Meteora’s shape that tricks your mind into thinking the body is enormous. But in reality, it’s slightly smaller than its closest stablemate, the Jazzmaster, with a slimmer waist and comparable weight. It’s a surprisingly comfortable shape to play sitting down, and well-balanced standing up.

Full disclosure, I’ve got a bias for high-performance offsets – it’s a neglected market, judging by the circles I play in, although that’s slowly being rectified – but the way the Meteora plays is, in short, perfection.

The D profile neck shape is somewhere between an Ibanez Wizard and your common-or-garden Strat appendage. It’s a goldilocks depth that disappears into your hand.

The satin finish and rolled fingerboard edges combine to create an effortless playing experience, which is consistent right up to the 22nd fret, thanks to the compound radius and some of the most radical body contouring we’ve seen on a Fender. Once you’ve played a sculpted heel, it’s hard to go back to a rock-blocking bolt-on, which in 2025 feels positively archaic. But anyway.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

The Luminlay dots may be borrowed by Fender stablemates Jackson, but the pickups sound like they’re inspired by Charvel. These are hot and bright, yet with an incredibly meaty bass response.

That works wonders with the bridge pickup, which is rich and well-rounded, and will appeal to players of a heavier persuasion – the clarity with gain is something to behold, with fierce definition even with lower tunings. Djent it most definitely does.

But the neck suffers from a woollier response that’s especially apparent on the low E string. A lower-output pickup might have delivered a more usable full-humbucker tone.

Splitting the coils helps, of course – being high-output humbuckers to start with, you’re not going to get into Strat territory here, but there’s just enough spank to funk, and you can certainly get some sparkle, too, ideal for melding with effects. Think Billy Corgan on early Smashing Pumpkins and you’re in the right coil-split tonal ballpark.

The Bass Cut knob is a relatively unique addition in the current Fender catalog and seriously bolsters the guitar’s versatility. Roll it back and you’ll trim the low-end and overall output, making for glassier cleans and more cutting dirty tones.

Given the pickups’ proclivity for low-end, I tended to roll this back a third or so much of the time, but I found I wanted it wound back further for the neck pickup. A Bass Cut knob or coil-split switch per pickup would certainly aid live performance, albeit make the control set more complicated.

As it stands, however, this is a superb guitar for recording and session work: being able to dial in the right amount of low-end for your drive pedals, amp or the mix you’re working with is a blessing. The treble bleed on the volume control helps to broaden the range of usable output levels, too, with no loss of high-end.

Verdict

With this high-spec American Ultra II edition, Fender is pitching the Meteora as its modern offset, with the Jazzmaster a more vintage platform. And I’d argue this is the former’s most successful incarnation yet.

Some players may long for the Strat-style vibrato that graced the Player Plus version – and yes, the color options are a little bland compared to the more affordable Meteora’s Silverburst and Cosmic Jade – but everything about this guitar is dead-on trend, right down to the Reverend and Yamaha-inspired bass cut control.

The Meteora is a comfortable shape that’s effortlessly playable and loaded with inspiring, versatile tones for anyone who doesn’t want just another Strat or Tele, and lends itself to heavier styles as well as alternative players seeking more tweakability from their guitars.

Final verdict: This is one of the best legitimately new guitars Fender has produced in decades – despite one painfully positioned volume control. As it stands, however, this is convincing proof of the company’s contemporary offset ambitions and a standout guitar in its highest-spec range. Long live the Meteora!

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• “A guitar so playable that you might need to put the brakes on yourself and remember to play to the count”: Fender American Ultra II Telecaster review

By building on the tradition of great bass-playing composers like Charles Mingus and Oscar Pettiford, while pushing the instrumental envelope as far as any modern great, Dave Holland ranks as a true living legend of jazz.

Born in Wolverhampton, England, he spent his adolescence playing bass guitar in local pop groups. At 17, he heard bassists Ray Brown and Leroy Vinegar for the first time, and it was a watershed moment in his development.

“They blew me away,” Holland told Bass Player. “I bought a cheap plywood upright and started learning lines off all the records I could find.”

As his local star grew, Holland left home for London and found an excellent teacher in London Philharmonic Principal Bassist James Merrit. Recognizing his potential, Merrit recommended him to the Guildhall School of Music.

One evening in 1968, Miles Davis, in London on tour, stopped by Ronnie Scott's jazz club, where he happened upon Holland playing in a piano trio. Liking what he heard, Miles called a few days later and asked him to move to New York. Holland didn't blink. “I sold all my stuff. I even left my car out on the street!”

Holland's arrival in New York coincided with one of Miles' most transformative periods, and it would prove to be a turning point in his career. Over the course of three years Holland played on many of Davis's best regarded albums of the period, including Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way and Live at the Fillmore East.

“The experience with Miles was a chance to see how he developed music: what elements he discarded and what elements he used in a piece, and how he related to the musicians – his way of encouraging you to really look inside yourself to figure out what your creative contributions could be.”

The following interview from the Bass Player archives took place in January 2005, following a short tour with Herbie Hancock on piano, Wayne Shorter on saxophone, and Brian Blade on drums.

How was your recent tour with Herbie Hancock?

“That band was interesting because we had only three days of rehearsal. We did five or six hours a day, but we spent most of the time talking. It wasn't always about music, either; we discussed politics, books, imagery, but what it all added up to was an empathy, which I think is crucial.

“I don't think we really saw where the music could go until the first concert. And it sort of stayed that way for the whole tour. It was all the things I love about music, in terms of the human element: people giving and taking and sharing, being willing to take the lead or step back and let somebody else speak.”

What would you say to someone trying to develop a musical vision?

“Sometimes musicians are waiting for some big intuitive leap of creativity where a light is going to go off, but a lot of it is in the trenches. Go to the bass; work some stuff out. Go to the piano; write a song. Try to refine your compositions. Focus on the journeyman aspects of being a musician. I think that helps you make consistent progress in your development.

“I remember reading an interview with Coltrane where he said that if he could play only one new idea every day, then at the end of the year he'd have 365 new ideas. And that would be progress. When I read that, I thought, ‘Yeah – that's what progress is.’ It's not about huge leaps.”

How has your practice regimen changed over the years?

“As a young musician I focused on learning about the basics of music. I was practicing with records and trying to understand how to play a certain feel, or understanding how to create a good bassline and be supportive – learning how to solo and so on. Those are the things I'm still learning.”

“Now, a big part of my practice is about keeping my physical side prepared. It's pretty boring in some ways. Usually the first thing I do is play through all the scales, the 12 major and minor keys and all the arpeggios. Then I have some pizzicato exercises I practice. It's like calisthenics.

“The other part of practicing, which I think becomes more important as you get older and have got the mechanics of music behind you, is mental preparation – the conceptual practice.

“For me, the conceptual preparation deals with playing the keyboard and analyzing aspects of music from that perspective. The keyboard is the central instrument to the music. You can realize the whole orchestra on a piano.”

What non-musical things inspire you?

“One of the first impressions I had when I played with Miles was standing behind him and being amazed by his presence, and his focus. It's something I've seen in great players: the ability to be totally in the moment, totally immersed in the world of what they're creating. It's like a boxer: You've got to be mentally prepared for what you're about to do. And it's not like you've got to meditate.”

“Sometimes it's about sitting around with the other musicians and having some good conversation. But once you hit the stage, it's about being focused on what's happening, where the music is at, where it's going, and where it's coming from using your full emotional resources on bringing the music to bear.”

It sounds like listening is essential to this focus.

“Listening is at least as important as playing. All the great players were great listeners as well. Music is about entering into a communion with the other musicians and being connected – having a dialogue with one another.

“A real important part of a good performance is how connected we are – how much we're able to share in creating the music. When you have that kind of feeling in a band, it gives you freedom. You have trust; you have support.”

Can you point to experiences in your musical past that were essential to your development as a bandleader?

“It goes back a long way. As a young musician, I was watching and trying to learn from the people I worked with. I dug Kenny Wheeler's approach to composition. Chris McGregor, a South African bandleader, had a multi-racial band that ended up in London. Chris’s band was a wonderful mixture of South African styles with Ellington and Cecil Taylor. He was a mentor in some ways, and an inspiration.

“Sometimes a person is inspiring because of their dedication and intensity. Miles had a way of really refining a composition down to its absolute minimal essentials, and discarding everything else. He could do that when he played, too. He had a way of using space and playing the notes that really mattered.

“Working with Anthony Braxton and Sam Rivers was also important. Anthony was inspiring because of his dedication and his commitment to finding his own voice and to being his own person in the music. During that period he encouraged me a lot to do the same thing. He d say to me, ‘Holland, you just got to insist on your music!’ We'd laugh about it, but it was a crucial thing.”

How did you become so fluid in odd meters?

“It's an ongoing process. We come out of a culture that very rarely moves outside 4/4. But if we were Turkish or Greek or Arabic, odd meters would be part of our daily experience. So it's something you have to work on and train yourself to do.

“A lot of my composing comes out of wanting to write a song that is both interesting to play and that will help me develop my ideas about playing.

“You see the same process with Coltrane: he wrote songs that were connected with the concepts that he was developing as a player. The two worlds feed each other. And it's all about one foot in front of the other – learning about yourself, the music, and the possibilities that come out of what you're working on.”

“Introduced in 1961, the Fender VI is often referred to as the Bass VI. When I was growing up I wasn’t a catalogue geek and I was unaware that this model even existed when I saw a listing in the classifieds of a local newspaper for a Fender VI. I just assumed it was a six-string guitar. It was a sunburst and the guy wanted $200 so I bought it anyway.

“My friend recognised what it was and I soon discovered that the VI was used by Glen Campbell, The Hollies, Aerosmith, Jack Bruce, The Beatles and Brian Wilson. The VI also became a studio staple in Nashville. Although I wasn’t even old enough to drive, I had discovered that you could open up Fender guitars and find dates on the neck and body.

“I had also learned how to read date codes on potentiometers, and very few people knew these things in the 1970s. The neck date was 11/60 and the potentiometer dates showed January 1961, so it was one of the very first VIs made.

“I just fell in love with these instruments, but for whatever reason I sold it and I later realised that the later ones had different pickups. Most people think they’re Stratocaster pickups, but they’re really not because the coil is wider. If you look at the bobbin material and how it’s cut, they’re basically Telecaster bridge pickups complete with inductance plates.

“They have the cool-looking metal surrounds, too. The earlier pickups really do sound better and that’s why they’re the ones serious professionals want if they’re using them to record. They sound richer and thicker than the later Jaguar pickup and they’re just wonderful.”

“I went on a quest looking for the earlier ones with the Telecaster pickups. I saw a few sunburst examples but never any custom colours. They’re so rare to see on a VI and are actually far more common on Stratocasters and Jazzmasters.

“I eventually found a blonde one and I hung onto that for a while, then I found a Fiesta Red ’63 with the later pickups, and eventually I came across the Shoreline Gold one that we can see here.

“It’s a January ’62 with the bridge cover, all the tags and a slab fretboard. The headstock is non-matching, but by late 1962 matching headstocks were on practically every one, despite it supposedly being an optional extra.

“The ’63 Champagne Sparkle came from a guy in California who used to be a guitar finder for me. He thought it might have belonged to someone famous, but he wasn’t sure who. Of course, that set me off on another quest. I discovered that Kathy Marshall, the ‘Queen Of Surf Guitar’, had a Champagne Sparkle Jaguar.”

“Having mixed a quantity of paint, Fender would have sprayed more than one instrument in that colour, so I’m sure this VI was painted at the same time as hers. I tried to figure out who Kathy’s bass player was, but it seems she mostly sat in with other bands, and I never did find out who the original owner was.

“It’s a genuine Dennis Swiden sparkle finish of the period and there’s only a little bit of wear and tear. I used to talk with Dennis on the phone and he shared lots of little tells to identify original examples.

“The period from 1961 to ’64 was a crazy time and that’s when almost all of the Fender sparkle finishes were done. Fender carried on spraying sparkle finishes in-house up to ’68, but they look very different. The metal flake altered and a lot of them had urethane over the top, rather than nitrocellulose.”

“The later VIs had Jaguar-style circuitry where you could turn each pickup on and off individually and also that phasey bass-cut setting. That fourth switch wasn’t included on the earlier ones. It’s interesting that you can still get strings for them and my preference is for flat-wounds because they sound more authentic. But you can also fit round-wound strings and play with a dime to get that sharper Joe Perry sound.

“The mute is another great feature that players like Glen Campbell used, but the reissues don’t have them. The VI can sound like so many different instruments; I think people are rediscovering them and creating sounds that have been missing from music for a long time.

“Of the two guitars, the Shoreline Gold is my favourite. Technically, it’s for sale – I’ve priced it at a point where I hope nobody will ever buy it because I know I’ll never see another.”

For nearly two decades with Rage Against the Machine and six years with Audioslave, Tim Commerford has navigated a never-ending quest for the ultimate distortion tone. He's built his own stompboxes. He's tinkered with his amps. He's even wound his own pickups – by hand. And he's as secretive as he is satisfied about the progress of his one-man tone trek.

“I'm like the Pablo Escobar of bass,” he told Bass Player, referring to the notoriously violent drug kingpin. “If a dude works on my pedalboard, it's almost like I have to kill him after he's done. I don't, but a few times I've told people, ‘If you let anyone know what you've done to my 'board, I'm coming back!’”

With his larger-than-life personality, and obsessiveness about his sound, it's easy to see how Commerford has become one of the most distinctive voices in rock bass. But don't be too quick to categorize him: he's also a jazz fan who's studied upright and actively applies the advice of Jaco Pastorius to his bass playing.

Since Commerford first set about establishing a bass sound for Rage by using a Marshall Guv’nor stompbox for riff-rock distortion, he has constantly experimented with his tone and he is quite secretive about his discoveries.

“My setup is my shit; I spent 10 years getting it to be the way it is, and for me to just break it down and tell everyone exactly what I've done, is just blowing it.”

Still, he confided some of his gear secrets to Bass Player.

For Commerford, it all starts with pickups. For a time his main bass was a BEAD-tuned Fender Jazz with an ash body, maple Precision neck, and Leo Quann Badass bridge. That bass contained the pickups from a similar instrument he used on three Rage albums and numerous tours.

“I smashed that bass on MTV and I regret it to this day. It had these '70s Jazz pickups I got in England. When I'm on tour I'll go to all these luthier shops and look for Jazz pickups.”

After Commerford acquired those pickups, he rewound them by hand, which he says gave him more sustain and feedback. “To wind pickups by hand, you have to take your time and slowly stack the wires. It's not the kind of thing you can do in one day; it took me about two weeks.

“I liken it to winding the winch on my four-wheel-drive truck: You don't want to just hit the rewind button and let it stack up wherever it wants. You want it to stack perfectly so it almost looks brand-new. And thicker wire doesn't take as long to wrap. I don’t look for the cleanest sound; I like that edgy, dirty tone. If you use different wire on your pickups, you'll absolutely get a different sound.”

One of Commerford's main musical goals is to fill the sonic space of both bass and rhythm guitar, especially during Tom Morello's guitar solos.

“During the show, I know fools are focusing on those solos, but when Tom goes from rhythm guitar to solo, I jump that shit up to another level, and it sounds like nothing drops out. If I don't already have it maxed out, I will max it out during his solos.”

Commerford achieves his multi-level bass sound with a three-rig setup: one amp and cabinet for a clean sound, one for a middle-of-the-road overdrive, and one for full-on distortion. The clean sound always stays on, and he can kick in the two other layers of grit using a custom pedalboard switching system.

“You can try to figure it out, but there's no way you ever will. I even have cords on my shit that don't do anything!”

Before the switcher splits the bass signal into three paths, it goes through a delay pedal, so that all three parts of the signal are affected when Commerford kicks in the delay. While his clean sound remains stompbox-free, post-switcher distortion and wah pedals feed his two edgier sounds.

Commerford's ultimate secret weapon is a one-of-a-kind, custom-made distortion box, based on a pedal he crafted himself from parts of an old wah pedal. “My distortion comes before everything else. If you have a good distortion box, then all the other pedals work great.

“I always shoot for distortion that sounds like a saw blade without a lot of teeth. It's not like a guitar distortion that goes sshhhhh; it's more like a gritty a-a-a-gghhh! As of late, though, l've been getting more of my distortion by turning up the amp gain and the master volume. That's the best distortion.”

After the distortion stompboxes, Commerford has a pair of bass wahs, one going to each of his distortion rigs. “When I use the wah, it's not just the highs or the mids, it's the whole range. I've got my foot on both wahs at the same time; I put a piece of wood on top of them so I can use them like one pedal.”

Commerford's favorite recorded sound with Rage Against The Machine was on the group's second album, Evil Empire, on which he used two SVT heads and two Classic 8x10 cabinets, both mic'd and direct.

“I let producers use as much DI as they want until I start noticing it. Those clackety sounds that come out of it are not good. With three amps and cabinets, it's like there are two other guys waiting backstage to come back me up. It just thickens things up and brings in more tone. And it's ultimately about the tone.”

One of the more intriguing aspects of bassist Anthony Jackson's career – which includes the design and development of the 6-string contrabass guitar, and appearances on seminal jazz and fusion albums – is the high level of artistry and creativity he has been able to achieve on pop recordings.

Nowhere is this more evident than on his three consecutive Warner Bros albums with Chaka Khan. Of the three – Chaka, Naughty, and What Cha' Gonna Do For Me? – Naughty stands as Jackson's favorite, and a testament to an era of craftsmanship and indulgence long gone from the record business.

“When I reflect on the Naughty experience, I realize that it was right at a time when I was starting to develop and form my own style,” Jackson told Bass Player. “By project's end I had solidified many of my concepts.”

Jackson and his fellow session musicians convened at Atlantic Studios in midtown Manhattan in mid 1979 to record Naughty. The core rhythm section, built around ex-Average White Band members Hamish Stuart on guitar and Steve Ferrone on drums, plus Jackson, keyboardist Leon Pendarvis, and guitarist Jeff Mironov, created parts from demos and lead sheets.

After the two-week process was completed, Jackson told producer Arif Mardin he felt he could improve upon his basslines if he was given extra time. “I simply wasn't satisfied with what I'd done at the sessions. The songs were so good I felt they deserved more intensive parts.”

Mardin, with strings, horns, and final vocals still to be done, agreed. He gave Jackson cassettes of the six songs he played on (Willie Weeks, Marcus Miller, and Chaka's brother Mark Stevens covered for a previously booked Jackson on the album's other four tracks) and told him he'd call him in right before mixing – a period that turned out to be three months.

Jackson's creative process involved getting in his car each evening at sunset and driving around for hours while listening to the songs over and over. He began composing basslines in his head, which he memorized, leaving a little room for improvisation when he got back “between the monitors.”

The results are exhilarating; from Jackson's deep-in-the-pocket, precisely executed grooves; to his Jamerson-esque chromaticism; and a take-no-prisoners fearlessness and tenacity.

Nathan East, who switched to 5-string after hearing Jackson's contrabass in the early '80s, told Bass Player, “Anthony's performance on Move Me No Mountain should be studied by all bassists. For me, it’s the perfect bassline, and it represents a standard of creativity that should be the barometer for all of us who consider ourselves to be studio bassists. Anthony Jackson is a genius.”

The extra time provided by Mardin enabled Jackson to re-think the range of his parts, specifically in Clouds and Mountain, where he wanted a low C. Unfortunately, his first two 6-string basses, built by Carl Thompson, were retired, and he had yet to connect with Ken Smith, who would make his next contrabass.

That left Jackson, who was playing his “career girl” at the time – a Fender hybrid consisting of a ’75 Jazz Bass body, a ’73 Precision neck, and Rotosound Swing Bass strings – with only one option: tune the bass down two whole-steps.

“It was quite an education. I had to raise the bridge, raise the walnut nut slots by filling them with cement epoxy and sanding them, and fiddle with the truss rod, all to get a suitable string height and tension. And even then I had to use a very light touch when plucking, to keep the strings from flopping against the frets.”

The track begins with Jackson's whole-notes in the intro; listen for how the long the low C in bar 3 rings, due to it being an open string.

Bar 6 contains one of the bass part's centerpieces, Jackson's octave-and-a-half fill. “I was proud of that – it was based on something I played on the original band take.” It also sets the tone for Jackson's arpeggio approach.

The first verse, at 00:46, establishes two themes: Jackson's frequent use of chromatic passing notes, and his decision to play busier, with more fills on the last four bars of the eight-bar verses, where the harmony moves to the Gbmaj7/Ab chord.

The most ear-grabbing of these in the first verse is at 00:59; note the tritone between Ab and D, which is a favorite Jackson device.

For the first chorus, at 01:05, Jackson takes a similar approach to his verse concept: He stays home with a set figure in the first four bars, but when the chord changes at 01:15 he adds some interest and motion.

Another notable aspect is Jackson’s seamless lock with drummer Steve Ferrone; among rhythm sections, the pair became known for being so tight you couldn't differentiate between Ferrone's kick and Jackson's bass notes.

“Steve is such a great pocket player, I found it really enhanced the groove to leave space. I would cut off my notes at times so they wouldn't ring into his snare drum hits. It became one of those intangibles that helped a track in an almost subliminal way.”

Verse two, at 01:40, contains more tasty chromatic moves and arpeggio-derived fills. Also emerging as the track moves to the second chorus is Jackson's love of 4ths. This leads to interesting tensions in the harmony, such as the Gb at 02:10 (the 4th of the Dbmaj7 chord over the Eb pedal).

Entering the final chorus, Jackson – having now developed the part up to full steam – adds some new devices. This includes the ground-shaking, kick-drum-locked quarter-notes beginning at 03:22, and the space Jackson leaves on beat one at 03:34.

“That was a nuance I later used to full effect on Steely Dan’s Glamour Profession, where I never play on beat one.”

The part's other centerpiece and veritable bass climax occurs in the form of the staggering fill at 03:30.

“I wanted to do something suggesting 4ths and suspensions, and that's what came out. I played the last six notes as a sort of sweeping pattern intended to stand out from the measure's other notes. Then I had to make the long jump from the 10th fret, G string (tuned to Eb) to the 3rd fret, E string (tuned to C) on the downbeat.”

Regaining his breath during the repeated chorus figure, Jackson has some fun with the phrase in the last four bars before the fade.

“It's important to note that the freedom I was given on Naughty sped up my growth as a player; I've never had an experience like it since. I owe a great debt to Arif and Chaka, who enthusiastically accepted and adapted to my contributions.”

In turn, the bass world owes thanks to Anthony Jackson for his preceding and continuing advancements to the art of the bass guitar.

With three guitarists, endless hooks and an immersive approach to tone, flipturn invite you to drift into their nostalgic dreampop world where single coils rule, guitars and synths feel like closely related species, and a blissful haze of analog chorus hangs thick in the ether.

The Floridian five-piece – singer/rhythm guitarist Dillon Basse, lead guitarist Tristan Duncan, guitarist/synth player Mitch Fountain, bassist Madeline Jarman and drummer Devon VonBalson – have been playing together for the best part of a decade, building a strong bond and a devout following along the way.

Duncan expresses their uncomplicated approach as a road-warrior outfit: “We bring a lot of energy and make sure people are having a good time.” Riding high off a recent performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and with a monster tour stretching out in support of sophomore album Burnout Days, 2025 looks set to be a huge year.

Across the LP’s 12 tracks you’ll find ethereal earworms (Sunlight), vivid futuristic sketches (Juno) and vibey choruses pulled straight out of the ’70s (Tides). At the core of every single one is the vibrant guitar interplay of Fender aficionados Duncan, Basse and Fountain.

“We take a lot of time to make sure we’re not stepping on the others’ toes,” says Fountain. “Dillon often takes the low rumble of the guitar, Tristan might be doing the lead and maybe I’m doing some really jangly stuff up at the top.”

The best way to conceptualize their approach, says Duncan, is to imagine three individuals all sitting at one piano. “You can’t all play the same part – you’ve got to spread out,” he explains. “Taking that kind of ideology into being guitar players means you can be really rich and lush with harmonization and melodies.”

A rigorous approach to demoing is also key, with fipturn often working through multiple iterations of a song before recording it for real. While the guitar parts and arrangements are set by then, there’s still plenty of room to get creative with tone.

“We might find 50 guitars to choose from,” says Mitch. “All of a sudden, something that was on an electric might now be on a rubber-bridge acoustic, so the tones become more experimental.”

His Surf Green Fender American Standard Telecaster is an interesting beast – a Limited Edition from 2016, it features a one-piece rosewood neck rather than the usual maple.

It has a hand-rubbed oil finish, allowing for a softer neck feel than you might get with urethane or polyester. It’s fitted with a Twisted Tele pickup in the neck position and a Broadcaster in the bridge position, offering twang or twinkle, depending on the mood.

During the album sessions – which took place at Sonic Ranch, outside of El Paso, Texas – Duncan fell in love with a ’67 Fender Jazzmaster he found in the studio’s collection, and used it to create a wealth of fuzzed-up leads and dreamy abstractions.

He also used an Acoustasonic Jazzmaster for standout moments, like the reverb-soaked harmonic riff at the heart of Swim Between Trees, which has a quality not unlike an airy arpeggiated synth loop.

“I’m in open E and I’m just playing harmonics off the 12th, 7th and 5th frets,” he says. “I found a pattern that sounded like a cool melody and I used the bridge pickup because it’s a little less acoustic-sounding and has more sheen. It just popped through the mix. Then we did some in-the-box effects to give it more space with reverb.”

At the center of Duncan and Fountain’s sonic universe is a pedal that neither could live without: the Walrus Audio Julia Analog Chorus/Vibrato. Offering big, smooth chorus sounds that hug the mix, or moments of oddball wooze, it’s all over Burnout Days. In fact, “Julia” is so integral to the sound, she could be considered the sixth member of flipturn.

“I love the modular nature of having pedals in front of you,” says Duncan, whose current board includes Chase Bliss’ Clean and Onward pedals and a classic Tube Screamer. Fountain uses Strymon’s Big Sky and TimeLine delays, a JHS Morning Glory Overdrive, a Keeley Compressor and a Voodoo Lab Pedal Switcher PX-8 to reduce the “tap dancing” during live shows, while he also handles keyboard duties.

The pair have learned a thing or two about recreating complex studio sounds live on stage. “The most terrifying thing is when a pedalboard stops working,” says Fountain. “There’s a meme about it where R2-D2 is fixing a ship during a battle. That’s what it feels like when you’re trying to diagnose your pedalboard during a show!”

The solution? “Bring extra patch cables,” he advises. Then remain calm and pray for the rig-wrangling force to be with you.

• Burnout Days is out now via Dualtone Music Group. Tour dates kick off on February 26.

One of the more difficult techniques to master on the guitar is performing fast arpeggios, often played as a series of single notes on adjacent, and sometimes non-adjacent, strings.

The term “arpeggio” means “broken chord,” as the chord tones are played individually, in succession, as opposed to all at once.

Arpeggios are found in virtually every style of music, from the classical études of JS Bach to blues, jazz, country and bluegrass. They’re especially integral to the Gypsy-jazz style, as exemplified by the music of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli.

My latest album, Charisma, includes a track called Master Gracey’s Manor, which is built from a combination of classical-style arpeggios and Gypsy-jazz-flavored minor melodies.

The tune was inspired by the music of film composer Danny Elfman, known for his work with director Tim Burton in films such as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Sleepy Hollow, as well as the music from the Mystic Manor in Hong Kong Disneyland.

Figure 1 illustrates the opening series of arpeggios, which I play as 16th notes in 68 meter. Bar 1 begins with arpeggios played across the bottom four strings, starting with a Gm arpeggio via the notes G, D, G and Bb, followed by D/F# via the notes F#, D, F# and A, and then a return to Gm. This two-bar phrase then repeats.

In bar 6, I switch to a Cm arpeggio, built from the notes C, G, C and Eb, played on the middle four strings, then move back to the previous pattern that starts on Gm. I palm-mute these arpeggios (P.M.), in order to give them a percussive quality

Figure 2 presents the song’s initial theme, which may be analyzed as being based on either the G Aeolian mode (G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F) or the G harmonic minor scale (G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F#), as the 7th is not used.

The lines in bars 1-6 are played exclusively on the D, G and B strings and are also performed with palm-muting, except for the fast hammer-ons and pull-offs in bars 1, 2 and 6. For this part of the melody, I like to allow the string to ring a bit more, in order to emphasize the articulation and sound of the hammer/pulls.

In bars 7 and 8, the lines change, in order to follow the progression of Cm - Gm - D7 - Gm. Starting in bar 7, I execute the Cm arpeggio by playing two consecutive notes on the G string, followed by single notes on the D and A strings. I then take this same approach with the Gm and D7 arpeggios.

Figure 3 illustrates the initial melody in a broken-down fashion: bar 1 indicates the opening phrase, followed by the remainder of the line in bars 2-5.

Figure 4 delineates the arpeggios that outline the Cm - Gm - D7 - Gm progression. As you’ll find, it can be tricky to sound these arpeggios cleanly when playing them up to speed.

I suggest using alternate picking throughout, and begin by playing each arpeggio individually and slowly until it feels comfortable under your fingers.

NAMM 2025: Fender truly returned to NAMM with a bang this year.

In one of its biggest launches in years, the company unveiled the $599 Standard Series lineup, an Indonesian-built line that aims to bring the concept of an affordable Fender back to the table, and marks a real sea change for the company.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, though, were the two lines of electric guitars from the company's always-impressive Custom Shop that made their debut at the show.

One of these was the booze-inspired Cocktail Collection, and the other is the equally awe-inspiring 2025 Prestige Collection.

There are 11 Prestige Collection models in total – half-a-dozen Strats, a pair of Teles, a Meteora, a rare Performer model, and, most notably, a baritone Jazzmaster, the last of which has proven to be a very hot commodity in recent years.

Let's start with that Jazzmaster, then. Built by Custom Shop Masterbuilder Andy Hicks, the Prestige Sub-Sonic Jazzmaster boasts a Black Limba body with a quarter-sawn roasted maple large “C” Sub-Sonic neck with a 9.5” radius fingerboard and an extended 27" scale length.

A Thin Black Burst lacquer finish, period black inlays, and a black headstock with a chrome Fender decal give the guitar its look, while a trio of mini-humbuckers lead the sonic charge.

Another eyebrow-raiser in the collection is the Prestige Carved Top Meteora, built by Custom Shop Masterbuilder Kyle McMillin.

This quirky offset is built with a select mahogany body topped with a bound and carved 5A quilted maple top, and features a 3A flame maple neck with a slab ebony fingerboard. A pair of Sonic Pickups humbuckers and a recessed Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo also come aboard.

The attention of collectors will be piqued by the Prestige Performer, which brings the cult, short-lived, mid-80s Fender model of the same name back to life.

The 21st century version is a painstaking recreation of the original, but for a few modern-minded points – a contoured neck heel, 9.5” to 12” compound fingerboard radius, and Custom Classic Hardtail Strat bridge.

The collection's Telecasters are no less impressive.

The Prestige Custom Tele, built by Custom Shop Masterbuilder Austin MacNutt, features a gorgeous custom Feldthouse Family Woodworks top, and the combination of a Custom Shop Josefina Campos Hand-Wound ’55/’56 Tele bridge pickup with a Curtis Novak mini-humbucker in the neck.

Built by Senior Masterbuilder Dennis Galuska, the Paisley Telecaster XII boasts a custom paisley finish, a quartersawn maple neck with a “Gumby” 12-string headstock, and a Custom Shop Josefina Campos hand-wound ‘67 Tele bridge pickup paired with a Curtis Novak Electric XII neck pickup.

Highlights of the Prestige collection's six Strats include the Prestige '66 Stratocaster, which is powered by a trio of Custom Shop Josefina Campos Hand-Wound ’66 Strat pickups and boasts a stunning Aged Cherry Sunburst finish, and the Contura Stratocaster, which is built with 27 feet of gold wire and 25 diamonds along with various cuts of hand-selected maple.

For those unaware, these one-of-a-kind Fender Custom Shop builds are more for most of us to look at and admire than buy. The Prestige collection guitars range in price from $10,200, for the Prestige '66 Strat, to $50,000, for the aforementioned Contura Strat.

“The Prestige Collection showcases bespoke masterpieces, each one a testament to the individual creativity and technical brilliance of its builder,” a statement from Fender reads.

“With intricate finishes, exotic tonewoods, and immaculate details, these instruments exemplify Fender’s commitment to pushing the limits of guitar innovation.”

For more info, visit the Fender Custom Shop.

NAMM 2025: Fender has announced a new limited edition Sparkle Series of its Player II guitars, with Strats, Teles, and Jazz and Precision bass guitars getting a glittering.

The Player Series was launched to bring the look, feel, and sounds of sought-after Fender classics to more humble price tags, with the updated Player II line impressing with their “effortless playability”.

Here, the Sparkle finish, split evenly between electric guitars and bass, is a little muted, making for a classier aesthetic rather than an all-out dazzle fest with the same Three-Color Sunburst finish present across the four new instruments.

As Fender says, “The Player II Stratocaster radiates timeless Fender charm, but under the hood, it’s primed for today’s players,” with the specs closely mirroring the rest of the range.

In terms of the Stratocaster ($899.99), that sees Player Series Alnico V Single-Coil Strat pickups, curated for “crystalline highs, musical mids and tight lows that elevate any genre,” sitting at its core. A five-way switch helps extract the most out of its SSS design.

A modern C-profile sculpts the neck, which gets a satin urethane finish and a 9.5" radius, has been selected for comfortable playing. Slab rosewood and maple fingerboards, both with smooth rolled edges, are on offer and serve up 22 frets each. Its hardware is capped by a two-point tremolo and ClassicGear tuners.

That spec sheet has been copied over to the Tele ($899.99) with the key differences being a three-position blade switch for its twin single coil pickups and a six-saddle bridge with block steel saddles replacing the tremolo.

The basses and their necks have also been sculpted for fast and fluid playability as the same modern C-profile, 9.5" radius and choice of slab rosewood and maple 'boards is repeated.

Here, the Jazz ($899.99) sets itself apart with 20 medium jumbo frets, and Player Series Alnico V Single-Coil J Bass pickups for sweet highs, growling mids and seismic lows.

Hardware appointments include an adjustable four-saddle bridge, single-groove steel saddles and open-gear tuners.

As for the Precision Bass ($899.99), it features Player Series Alnico V Split-Coil P Bass pickups and the classic P-Bass outline, but otherwise, it shares like-for-like specs with the Jazz.

The quarter of subtly sparkling guitars, billed as the Fender Player II Limited Edition Sparkle Series, will be available in March.

Head to Fender for more information.

NAMM 2025: It’s day one and Fender has already blindsided us several times over at this year’s NAMM show. One of the biggest surprises, though, has to be the launch of a whole new tier of sub-$600 models, the Fender Standard series, which is being produced in Indonesia.

Fender has long used its name on non-US builds, and had great faith in the facility already, with perhaps the biggest vote of confidence being the arrival of the Fender-badged Tom Delonge Starcaster.

Meanwhile, as the series name suggests, the spec of the new Standards offers few surprises itself: the line encompasses a Stratocaster, HSS Strat, Telecaster, Jazz Bass, and Precision Bass.

Each features the ubiquitous Modern ‘C’ shaped necks, Fender Standard pickups, and some of the usual suspects in terms of finishes (a Butterscotch Blonde Tele, Sunburst Strat, black basses), plus a few fetching ‘color in the lines’ curve-balls like Aqua Marine Metallic and Candy Cola.

“Built to accompany players on their formative musical adventures, the Fender Standard Series delivers the approachable playability and inspiring tone that made Fender an icon of rock & roll,” says Fender. “[Each model] truly sets the standard for the Fender experience.”

The other thing that is standard across the board – right through to the new Acoustasonics – is their price point: a uniform $599. This, alongside the ‘Standard’ tag, tells us something about the thinking behind this line at Fender.

“It’s been on the drawing board for a couple years now,” Fender’s Executive VP of Product, Justin Norvell, told Guitar World at the 2025 NAMM Show.

“Squier and Fender used to touch each other, basically – and I think Squier does have a ceiling and the Player Series has moved up [in price] – but Fender is always supposed to be accessible.

“It was called the ‘working man's guitar’ back in the day, so that's been our goal. We were like, ‘Well, how do we do this?’ We're not just plugging holes, it's a feasible instrument that could exist between Modern Classic Squiers and what a Player [series model] is.

“A Player series Strat at one point was $500/$600 – and that doesn't exist anymore. So that's how it was born: we wanted to make Fender more affordable and to a wider amount of people.”

Meanwhile, in Norvell’s 2024 interview with Guitar World he discussed the long-rising quality in Fender’s non-US factories, and the challenges of rising prices, which have meant even Fender’s Mexican offerings are starting to feel a little pricey for those early-stage players who simply want the Big F on the headstock.

As such, while the Standard line’s arrival might be surprising, it’s the logical conclusion, given the situation. It plugs the widening gap that has opened in Fender’s line-up between Squier and Fender’s Mexican builds and, crucially, enables you to buy a Fender branded guitar for well under the $1,000 mark.

The days of getting a Player model for $599 have clearly passed, but Fender has clearly determined to give the people what they want – and not at any cost. So here we are: the new Standard…

For more information on the Standards, head to Fender

NAMM 2025: Jackson has announced the return of the Surfcaster, its cult offset design, as part of its most affordable electric guitar ranges, with the aim of “offering modern metalheads a sleek new take on a classic machine”.

The Surfcaster has a curious history: launched by Charvel/Jackson in the early ’90s, the lipstick pickup-adorned model was aimed at surf and country players, and counted Steve Cropper among its early endorsees.

Later, it would be kitted out with humbuckers to cater for Jackson’s more typical audience, but upon the brand’s acquisition by Fender in 2002, the model was dropped – presumably to avoid competing with the Big F’s Jazzmaster.

But interest in the model has surged in recent years as Periphery’s Misha Mansoor and Spiritbox’s Mike Stringer have raved about their own Custom Shop creations – which may well have paved the way for the offset’s return.

We weren’t expecting the first Surfcasters to be quite so affordable, however. The JS Series Surfcaster is $249, while the Indonesian-built X Series Surfcaster is $549, and the seven-string version (yes!) is $599.

All three guitars are very much metal-focused, teaming the offset, Jazzmaster-esque shape with a pair of humbuckers, a hardtail bridge and black hardware on none-more-black finishes (although the JS does offer a Snow White option alongside Gloss Black).

Playability should be on point courtesy of a 12”-16” compound radius bound fingerboard, available across the range (the X Series’ is laurel, the JS’ is amaranth).

24 jumbo frets are a universal feature, but only the X Series model features the oh-so-’80s sharkfin inlays and contoured heel, while the JS model has the more typical Fender-style four-bolt neckplate and dot inlays.

We haven’t got a whole lot of info on the pickups as of yet, other than they’re high-output and made in-house. The X Series’ look a lot sleeker, and we imagine there will be that little bit extra definition versus the JS.

There’s a three-way toggle pickup selector on the X, while you get a blade selector switch on the cheaper model. The seven-string does away with the neck pickup, tone knob and pickup selector of its six-string siblings, leaving just a bridge humbucker and volume control.

The wonky three-a-side headstock, complete with enormous Jackson logo, might not win over metal-leaning Fender obsessives, but we reckon it’s just the right side of ’90s kitsch.

All in all, it’s a commendable return for the Surfcaster, and an enticing first dip of the toe in offset waters for Jackson. We’re looking forward to seeing what else the firm does with the design throughout 2025.

On that note, you’ll forgive us if we’re a bit emotional about this one. We’ve been harassing Fender employees to build high-spec offsets for at least five years now, so to see our efforts finally come to fruition – and at this price point – is very cool indeed. Mansoor and Stringer models next, please…

The X Series and JS Series Surfcasters land in spring 2025. For more information, hit up Jackson Guitars.

NAMM 2025: Fresh from launching its new Indonesian-made Standard line, Fender has also unveiled Standard versions of its innovative Acoustasonic electric-acoustic guitars – bringing us the most affordable take on the model yet.

As such, it appears to be an instrument tailored towards less experienced players, but with a greatly reduced outlay – coming in at $599 compared to the circa $1,999 price of the premium builds – will help appeal to players intrigued by the guitar’s concept as well.

For the uninitiated, the Acoustasonic series takes hybrid electric and acoustic guitars to the next level, marrying electric-inspired body shapes, namely Stratocasters, Telecasters and Jazzmasters with an acoustic-inspired build driven by an acoustic engine and noiseless magnetic pickups.

Billie Eilish's maestro brother, FINNEAS, and Jack White have since been bestowed with signature takes on the recipe.

As mentioned, the latest takes on the formula hail from Fender’s Indonesian facility, which appears well-suited to the task, having excelled in handling affordable semi-hollow style builds in the past, not least the recent Fender Tom DeLonge signature Starcaster.

Initial launch information is a little on the sparse side, but it is confirmed that there are two Standard models to choose from, in the form of Tele and Jazzmaster shapes.

There's no Strat on the roster yet, which is a little surprising give this is Fender, after all, but tells us something of what it thinks will most appeal to players shopping at this price point.

Like the premium models, both guitars offer a braced solid Sitka spruce top, and a fully chambered body, while pickups are said to be “Fender and Fishman designed”, though we can’t confirm the exact models at the time of writing.

The on-board analog electronics include Volume and Blend controls as Fender promises “the familiar playing feel of Fender icons”. One thing that is clear from the pictures is that Fender has opted to drop the three-way selector switch found on its higher-priced builds.

Both models are offered in Black, Aged Natural, and Honey Burst finishes.

The Acoustasonic concept has seemed to outperform expectations since its launch, catching the ear of a new generation of players, in the process.

FINNEAS, whose totemic work with Billie Eilish, Demi Lovato saw him became the first recipient of a signature Acoustasonic last year, explained why the build struck a chord with him.

“I was first introduced to the Acoustasonic guitar in 2019 when I was on tour with Billie, and I played it at every show that year,” FINNEAS said, when his signature was announced.

“I’m a big DI guy. I don’t have any amps on stage, I don’t have any amps in the studio, so to me how it sounds plugged straight into an audio interface or a PA is what I’m looking for.”

“The dual personality of the Acoustasonic Standard equips players with a versatile spectrum of acoustic and electric tones in a single creative tool,” says Fender. “It sets the Acoustasonic experience.”

The Fender Acoustasonic Standard Series is set to launch in April and will be priced at $599.99 apiece.

Head to Fender for more information.

Marcus Miller personifies the cool bassist. He rubbed elbows with Miles Davis, and even his speaking voice is rife with the trumpeter's jazz slang. But Miller is far from arrogant. Instead, he communicates in thoughtful, casual tones, often delivered at a pace that evokes his back-of-the-pocket basslines.

Of course, his musical voice is much louder. There are his unmistakable compositions, with their textured jazz-hop grooves and moody, open harmonies stalking sing-song melodies. And then there's his slapped and plucked '77 Jazz Bass, which fast became a sonic presence to rival Jaco's fretless.

In addition to his work as a sideman, Miller’s solo career has yielded several esteemed recordings, including the 15-track Silver Rain, which features thunderous bass anthems, ballads, and a title track co-written with Eric Clapton (who also provided the lead vocal and a solo).

Miller's usual run for covers was also in place, with the works of no less than Duke Ellington, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Edgar Winter, and even Beethoven reshaped to flow from his fertile mind to his funky fingerboard.

“I've settled into the concept that covers are a key part of jazz history,” Miller told Bass Player. “It raised some eyebrows when people first heard Coltrane's version of My Favorite Things or Miles covering show tunes, but now they're among our most treasured jazz performances.

“Doing a song people already know tells them so much about you and how you see the world, because they have a reference. I think it's important to have a balance, but I like what covers reveal about an artist.”

The following interview from the Bass Player archives took place in April 2005. We spoke with Marcus before a Japanese tour to discuss his playing style (including the profusion of Marcus clones), and the cool effect on Silver Rain.

What led you to cover Prince's Girls and Boys?

“I'm a big fan; he's an incredible artist, and his bass playing is just crazy. I learned so much about phrasing and attitude on the bass from his 1980 album Dirty Mind. But Ive always liked Girls and Boys because of the baritone sax line; I thought I could do it on bass clarinet to give it an off-center vibe.

“I also like to force myself into different keys; this one is in Bb, which is weird for funk bass. Anyway, I went back to the original once and then did it off the top of my head. I play the melody on my 1977 Jazz. I wanted someone with a lot of character in their voice to sing the hook, and I was fortunate to get Macy Gray.”

Form- and arrangement-wise, your covers of Frankenstein, Boogie On Reggae Woman, and Sophisticated Lady stay fairly close to the originals, in contrast to Power of Soul, which has new material.

“We generally wanted to get to the solo sections and let everyone play, because improvisation was a big part of doing these songs live. Frankenstein was one of those tunes people dug in all the different neighbourhoods back in the '70s, so it's a good piece to bring everyone together. I did it from memory, having last played it in clubs 20 years ago.

“Boogie On Reggae Woman was something we were fooling around with, and I thought, ‘I want to claim that bassline for bass guitar!’ Stevie Wonder's synth part is brilliant; he's got his whole heart and soul in it, and it was really hard to make it sound natural on the electric. I listened to the original to remember all the lines, because he never plays the same thing twice – no doubt from his Jamerson influence. The only change I made was to extend some of the harmonies.

“I had recently recorded Sophisticated Ladies as a guest of Solid Brass, a Japanese brass band, and I fell in love with it again. I thought it was a perfect melody for bass clarinet, which has a longing quality to it. I reharmonized it a bit, and I used my fretless Modulus 6 because I needed the upper range.”

“As for Power of Soul, we've been doing it for a while; it's a feature for Dean Brown. I built a new section from the opening riff, and we play the main riff, but we don't get to the chorus.”

Your most intriguing cover is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

“I've been pointed in a classical direction from having worked on an opera CD with Kenn Hicks, and also because my son plays a lot of classical piano in the house. One day he was playing the Moonlight Sonata, and I found myself going, ‘Man – that Beethoven was a soulful cat!’

“As a kid, whenever I heard that kind of music I always added a beat or a bassline in my head, and it dawned on me that I should present the same concept to people, to show them how I reimagine this music when I hear it.

“So while my son was playing, I was getting on his nerves by playing a bassline on my upright, singing the beat, and telling him that if Beethoven had a drum set, this is what he would have told the drummer to play!”

Were you thinking vocally when interpreting the melody on your '77 Jazz?

“I used a vocal/blues guitar approach, because the groove is sort of gospel 6/8 with a backbeat. I also have blues guitarist Lucky Peterson playing fills throughout and soloing at the end of the track. The key to the melody, though, is that it's so simple and beautiful, and it's all connected with a single line.”

What inspires your techniques and phrasing?

“When I slide up to a note or bend to it, it's emulating a singer, because they usually don't hit notes right on. The hammer-ons and trills pertain to vocal vibrato, but I also use them because the fretted bass doesn't sustain as well, so I'll add a hammer-on to keep the note going. Plus, it gives the line attitude.

“I think playing other instruments helps me, too, as does the fact that I've worked with phrasing masters like Miles, Luther Vandross, and Roberta Flack. The bottom line is: phrasing is everything. It's what gives music its character. Once you've learned your scales and techniques, you have to come out the other side and realize it's all a tool, and now you have to find a way to reach people.”

Judging by the many solo bass CDs we receive, you're competing with Jaco and Victor Wooten as the most copied bass stylist.

“That's one step in all of our developments, like the kid in high-school who sounded just like so-and-so. It's a good thing at that point, but eventually it's best to move on. What helped me in high school were friends like Omar Hakim and Kenny Washington, who didn't want to sound like anyone but themselves.

“It was an ethic when I started playing the clubs in Jamaica, Queens: the only thing that mattered was whether people could tell who you were in the first three notes! Tom Browne was a master at that.

“I joined Lenny White's band at age 17, and I remember asking him, ‘How do you get your own sound?’ He said, ‘By playing in as many different environments as possible.’ Sure enough, when I got into Miles' band in 1981, playing like my idols – Jaco, Stanley, and Larry Graham – wasn't going to work in that musical setting, so I had to dig and find something else.”

“It was the same thing playing with Luther Vandross. Now you've got cats who are making their own environments with computers, and there's not a whole lot of other musicians involved in their development. They need to find other musicians to play with in order to find themselves, if that's what they value.”

B.B. King was already a 20-year veteran bluesman when he began to seep into mainstream America's consciousness during the late '60s, via the praise of rock guitarists like Eric Clapton and Mike Bloomfield and an opening spot on a 1969 Rolling Stones tour.

At MCA, King's label, a young producer named Bill Szymczyk approached King about recording with New York session musicians. A somewhat reluctant B.B. agreed to do half an album with the studio crew and half live (at the Village Gate) with his band. The result was the now-classic Live and Well.

The session portion went so well, in fact, that a few months later, in September 1969, the group reconvened to record the epic LP Completely Well. The nine-track platter was not only King's breakthrough album, it launched the modern blues era largely on the strength of a crossover smash called The Thrill Is Gone.

Just who was this dream team, and what was their hit-making formula? Szymczyk's first call was to veteran session drummer/contractor Herb Lovelle, who reached out to guitarist Hugh McCracken, keyboardist Paul Harris, and a young bassist named Jerry Jemmott.

Jemmott had cracked the lofty studio scene a year earlier when he saved the session for Aretha Franklin’s Think by coming up with a funky bassline that brought the track together.

“The goal was to shake up B.B.'s music and make it chart-friendly,” Jemmott told Bass Player. “The first thing we did was turn all of his shuffle tunes into straight-eighth R&B, pop, or rock feels. The key song was Why I Sing the Blues (a hit from Live and Well), and the concept took off from there.”

The scenerio at the old Hit Factory on West 47th Street was as follows: King would stand in the middle of the room and sing and play his songs, and the rhythm section surrounding him would come up with parts and eventually an arrangement. After several run-throughs, they would record a few takes.

Jemmott played his 1964 Jazz Bass (which would be stolen soon afterward), strung with La Bella flatwounds, and he went direct and through an Ampeg B-15 in the room. Feeling that his sound came from his fingers and the instrument, though, he requested that only the direct signal be recorded.

The Thrill Is Gone is a 12-bar minor blues written by fellow bluesman Roy Hawkins (with Rick Darnell) that King had been playing as a shuffle for years, but he wasn't quite happy with it. That soon changed when Lovelle put a locked-down, straight-eighth R&B feel to it.

Still, Szymczyk wondered what to do with the tune afterward. He joked, “How about B.B. with strings?” After a laugh, they realized it might just work. Arranger Bert de Coteaux was called in, and he balanced his violins with a stabbing cello part inspired by Lovelle and Jemmott's syncopated interplay.

The track begins with Lovelle's drum fill and Jemmott's pickup note – the move that defines his part – leading into the 12-bar intro.

“What came to me, hearing the song, was the way I played bossa novas on upright: that subtle half-step-below approach. But on electric bass it was too pronounced, so I slid into the tonic to make it smoother.

“To me, it was a two feel, like Think, but with an added pickup and an extra eighth-note after one and three. Herb and I always thought in half-time.”

With the pattern firmly in place, Jemmott adds variation via his ascending or descending lead-ins to the next chord change. Of note is Lovelle's kick drum pattern, which often puts two 16ths against Jemmott's eighth-note pickups.

“Herb and I would lock without playing the exact same figure. It enabled us to enhance the pattern and the song, and it freed us up to do what we wanted within the support framework. It was like a conversation between us.”

Also of interest is the Gmaj7 chord in the turnaround, which is usually a dominant 7 chord in the standard minor blues form.

Jemmott continues his previous 12-bar path in the first sung verse, save the different lead-in in bar 16. The second sung verse, features the entrance of light strings and more Jemmott variations, including his use of quarter-notes.

King's first solo chorus is at 01:38, with an increase in the presence of the strings and Jemmott's slick lead-in. For King's second solo turn, at 03:14, Jemmott introduces an effective new move by dropping to a quarter-note on beat two.

He continues this into the first part of the rideout, which stays on the tonic into the fade (with probing cellos back in). “It was a way to lock it down and ride out into the sunset, and the steady tonic fit with the song's somber mood.”

January is usually a tight month for most, with the hangover from the post-Christmas splurge still lingering. If you’ve got the January gear blues, then you’ll want to check out the latest sale over at the official Fender shop, where you can land yourself a huge 20% off a series of web-exclusive guitars and basses.

The sale is all Squier guitar models, which see Fender getting a little more experimental versus their usual, more vintage-inspired instruments. Think wild color schemes, alternative pickup configurations, and rarer resurrections of old Fender designs. These deals are only available until January 19th, so if you’re looking for a great deal on a new guitar you’ll need to act fast with this one.

We had a look through the sale to see what was available, and our eye was immediately caught by the Squier Paranormal Troublemaker Telecaster Deluxe. With more than a hint of Les Paul about it, this tune-o-matic-equipped Telecaster is packing two humbuckers for a thick tonality. It can do coil splitting too, so you can get your hands on some of Fender’s signature single coil sounds as well. It’s currently sitting at just $359.99 thanks to a big reduction of $90.

Next up we absolutely love the Squier Sonic Stratocaster HT H, which gives you Tom DeLonge Strat vibes for just $159.99 thanks to a nice $40 discount in the sale. In our Squier Sonic Stratocaster HT H review, we gave it a massive four and a half stars out of five, praising it for its quality build and finish, as well as the excellent playability offered by its ‘C’ neck profile.

Finally, we had to give a shout-out to the weird yet wonderful Squier Paranormal Jazzmaster XII, which has a hefty $90 discount at the moment. It’s available in two limited edition finishes and delivers the perfect electric 12-string guitar tone for very little money. Everybody should have at least one 12-string in their collection, and if you’re looking for one of the best value-for-money examples out there, this Squier Paranormal version is a great shout. It’s beautifully put together and although there’s a little neck dive thanks to the large headstock, it’s a small price to pay for a truly stellar instrument.

Like its Lydian cousin, the Mixolydian mode deviates from the major scale by just one note – the major 7th, which is lowered by a semitone to become a minor 7th. It's a crucial difference that gives Mixolydian licks and chord progressions a bluesier edge than the sometimes overly bright-sounding major scale.

To demonstrate this, we'll start by looking at the notes of the A Mixolydian mode compared to A major:

A major notes: A B C# D E F# G#

A Mixolydian notes: A B C# D E F# G

As you can see, the two scales are identical except for the G#/G note, and the Mixolydian intervals are as follows:

Root, major 2nd, major 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, major 6th, minor 7th

Built from the fifth degree of the major scale, the relationship between the major 3rd and the minor 7th gives the Mixolydian mode its defining sound. If this combination of major 3rd and minor 7th sounds familiar (and don't worry if it doesn't!) it's because these are also the most important intervals in a dominant 7th chord. And what's the root chord of A Mixolydian? Why, A7 of course!

A7 notes: A C# E G

A7 intervals: root, major 3rd, perfect 5th, minor 7th

Built from the fifth degree of the major scale, the dominant nature of the Mixolydian mode makes it perfect for blues-rock, jazz and classic hard rock.

Make sure to watch our video lesson where we explain all of this and more. Scroll down to find tab and audio for all the examples you see played in the video.

A Mixolydian mode (5th position)

We'll begin with a simple two-octave shape of the Mixolydian mode in A. If you're new to the Mixolydian mode, play through it slowly and listen out for the minor 7th G note. This is the only note that's different from the major scale.

A Mixolydian mode (pedal exercise)

Playing the mode up and down the fifth string, alternating with the open-string root note is a great way to hear the unique Mixolydian quality. Again, home in on the minor 7th. It’s the G note at the 10th fret.

A Mixolydian mode (diads)

This time the mode is played as major and minor 3rd diads on the first and second strings. When you've played through this a few times, see if you can work out the Mixolydian diads in 3rds on the remaining string pairs.

A Mixolydian mode (triads)

Harmonizing the Mixolydian mode as simple major and minor chords is another great way to hear the unique sound of the mode. You can also view these chords as being from the parent scale of A Mixolydian (A B C# D E F# G) – that’s the D major scale (D E F# G A B C#).

A Mixolydian mode (7th chords)

Develop the triads further into 7th chords and you'll notice that the I chord, A, becomes the edgy sounding dominant 7th (A7). This is the gateway to some interesting Mixolydian progressions and provides a big difference to the major scale whose root 7th chord is the smoother maj7.

A Mixolydian mode (rhythm guitar)

Mixolydian is a natural starting point for blues and jazz, but the sound of 7th chords also works really well in pop and rock. This simple progression hints at bands like Maroon 5 who frequently use sophisticated chords and progressions.

A Mixolydian mode (chords and arpeggios)

Here’s an interesting variation on the ii – v – I progression, in the Mixolydian mode the ii chord remains minor (Bm here) but the v chord also becomes minor (Em7) and the I chord is now a dominant seventh.

A Mixolydian mode (lead guitar lick)

As with the other modes you want to target the colour tones when soloing, so, here, in bar 1, that means hitting the G (the minor 7th) over the A7. However, we're not hanging on it for too long. This tense interval either wants to resolve to a stronger chord tone (A, C# or E) on the A7, or it will become a clash on the following Dmaj7 chord.

Built on the 2nd degree of the major scale and with a trademark bittersweet sound, the Dorian mode is a favourite amongst jazz and blues players. And, though you can certainly use it in any genre, the Dorian mode is a great choice for adding colour to guitar solos in those particular styles.

It's a minor mode and a close cousin of the Aeolian/natural minor scale, differing on just one note/interval. Our tutorial is in A Dorian so begin by familiarizing yourself with the notes, which are as follows:

A B C D E F# G

Next, move on and take a look at the how the intervals correspond to the notes:

Root, major 2nd, minor 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, major 6th, minor 7th

The true character of the scale comes from the combination of its minor 3rd and major 6th. "Why?", you ask! Well, where the more conventional, dark sounding Aeolian/natural minor scale features both minor 3rd and minor 6th intervals, it's the contrast of minor and major that perks up the Dorian mode.

Robben Ford is a great example of an artist who really knows how to target the 6th. One of the most common approaches is to play A Dorian over an Am7 chord, targeting the 6th, F#, in the process. And for many players Dorian is the scale of choice over the ii chord in the ii-V-I progression, e.g. Am7-D7-G.

We explain all this and more in our video lesson, plus there's tab and audio below.

A Dorian mode (5th position)

We'll start by playing through the Dorian mode in 5th position. Pay attention to where the crucial major 6th, the F#, is at all times. When you’ve played it a few times, try and work out some different shapes/positions and, again, always keep an eye on the all-important F# note.

A Dorian mode (pedal exercise)

We're using an open fifth-string pedal tone approach here. Listen out for how the colour tones sound against the open A root note, especially the F# (major 6th) at the 9th fret and the G (minor 7th) at the 10th fret.

A Dorian mode (diads)

Here the scale is harmonized in 3rds but the low A drone note behind it all gives the Dorian mode context. Again, really focus on the sound of the minor 3rd (C), major 6th (F#) and minor 7th (G).

A Dorian mode (triads)

The mode opens up when it’s played as simple major and minor chords – which is what we're doing here. Spend some time on moving from the i chord (Am) to the ii chord (Bm) as these two minor chords form the bedrock of many Dorian mode chord progressions.

A Dorian mode (7th chords)

7th chords add more of a dimension to the Dorian mode and you’ll definitely hear the jazz character of the mode emerge just through playing these shapes. Again, focus on the Am7 to Bm7 move as it’s so common in jazz, blues and rock.

A Dorian mode (rhythm guitar riff)

The sound of a ii minor chord moving to a IV dominant is common in jazz, funk and disco especially and this 70s disco themed example shows how these chords can be used. Throw in some Nile Rodgers style muted string stabs and hey presto – instant disco!

A Dorian mode (arpeggios)

Here’s the aforementioned Am7 to Bm7 move, followed by the Cmaj7 chord that's built on the minor 3rd degree of the Dorian mode. Our example is played as arpeggios but after you’ve played my parts try varying them to include different picking patterns or strumming.

Dorian mode (lead guitar solo)

The F# note is vital in the A Dorian mode. It’s a major 6th and doesn't appear in the Am (i) chord. It’s also the major 3rd of the D major (IV) chord. So, playing this just before the move from i to IV gives a momentary ‘outside' tension followed by the ‘inside’ sound of a chord tone. Notice it here at the end of bar 1 of our solo lick.

Record company owner, songwriter, producer, book author, magician, acrobat, naturalist... oh, and a wonderful bassist, too. Victor Lemonte Wooten has certainly packed in the adventures in a life that began on 11 September, 1964 in Mountain Home, Idaho.

Wooten's debut solo album, A Show of Hands, was recorded with only a four-string bass guitar; a love letter to the instrument, it's considered to be a seminal release. But that was just the first set for one of the most profound and influential bass heroes.

His 1997 side What Did He Say? revealed the considerable musical depth behind the double-thumbing and countless other techniques he innovated, while things really kicked up a notch in 2012 when Wooten set out to embrace the singer/songwriter realm.

On Words and Tones, one of two simultaneously released albums on Vix Records, he featured no fewer than nine female vocalists delivering originals (and a few covers) that encompass funk, folk, pop, jazz, R&B, rap, and Latin genres, all without losing the memorable weight of their hooks.

Yin to Words and Tones’ yang is Sword and Stone – derived by moving the letter S in both words of the former's title. It's a high-caliber instrumental take on the vocal tunes. The 28 songs en masse cast Wooten's basses in head-shaking new sonic roles that only he can conceive of and deliver.

“My bass solos incorporated my hair-tie technique,” he told Bass Player. “I always have a hair tie around the nut of my bass, and I pull it up to around the 17th fret while playing around the 8th fret. That makes some of the notes pop out with screaming harmonics – I do it on Sword and Stone, Say Word and It's All Right.”

The following interview from the Bass Player archives took place in February 2013, with Wooten taking a break from his East Coast tour.

What led to your two-album concept?

“My original idea was to do an album featuring female vocalists, because listening to a great female vocal performance has always been at the top of the musical food chain for me. But as I was recording demo tracks for the vocalists, I would play the melodies on bass, and I realized I liked the songs as instrumentals, too.

“So, having my own label, I got to fulfil a longtime dream of having two separate albums come out on the same day. I wanted to make each one different, knowing they were going to have a lot of the same material, so I recorded different solos and changed the arrangements and instrumentation.”

Did you view the instrumental album as more of a bass disc, and how did you handle the challenge of interpreting the songs instrumentally?

“I didn't view either disc as a bass showcase. Over the last few years the prime focus of my projects has been the music; these albums are all about the songs. If there was a certain melody or lyric I wanted to highlight on the instrumental version, I would frame it to stand out by doubling it, or via the groove, or by putting an open break in, as I did on A Woman's Strength.”

“It's funny; I've been asked which one to listen to first – assuming I'll be blessed by fans who buy both. It's an individual choice, but Words and Tones is how the songs were originally conceived.”

Your layering of basses gives both albums a unique sound.

“The layered basses make me feel like the music is my own. But I'm not doing it to be clever or showy. It just so happens I play bass better than anything else, so that's the fastest way to get my ideas from my head and heart to tape. If I had to sit there with my limited keyboard skills and punch one chord at a time, it would pull me away from the creative process. I have all of my different range basses around me, and I plug them in and throw down the parts.

“What I mainly need to be aware of is the tracks can sound a little lower in range than folks are used to hearing. So in some cases I'd add a high line on keyboard or my Bassimer to balance it out; having the female vocalists helps there, as well. Other than that, the only issue is to be in time and in tune, but often I like the tension created by the basses not being perfectly in tune with each other.”

Sword & Stone seems to be a signature piece; it certainly has signature solos on both versions.

“That song was pivotal; it was the very first one I worked on, and it was supposed to be a mellow Joni Mitchell/Jaco type of piece. But I found this amazing double-time Indian clay pot loop on Pro Tools that I couldn't resist, and it put me in a whole new frame of mind for the song and the album, which was supposed to be like Joni's Shadows and Light album.

“Here, I used my tenor bass with a little distortion and flanger, and I just played whatever came into my head, loosely keeping in mind the root of the first chord in the two-chord progression.

“I've come to realize that when I play in the range of a guitar or horn – which sits on top of the music – I can get away with anything note-wise. You can't do that on the low end; the frequencies are too wide, and they vibrate too slowly, to play ‘out' when soloing in that register.

“Another key when playing ‘out' up high is having good time and phrasing, because people don't only listen with their ears, they feel with their bodies.”

Hope, Merlin, and Keep It Low from Sword and Stone are the most bass-centric tracks.

“I had some instrumental tunes I wanted to use, but I couldn't get them off an old computer, so I literally wrote and recorded Hope and Merlin the morning before I went to master the albums.

“Hope is a solo chordal piece on my stereo tenor bass, with me rolling tape, trying ideas, and then reacting and adding to those ideas. Merlin is from a loop-pedal feel that I sang into my iPhone. I recorded the bottom part and then added about six more parts on top. For the lead solo, I applied some altered scales I learned from keyboardist Steve Weingart.

“Keep It Low started as a groove we used to play in my Soul Circus band, and I recorded it to remember it. When summer NAMM started in Nashville, I would grab whoever was in town – Bill Dickens, Oteil Burbridge, Kai Eckhardt – and have them come over and play once through the track.

“For this project, I took all 11 guest contributions and flew them at different times, all around the track; then I added a crazy solo using my stereo bass panned across the spectrum, with the effects changing from right to left.”

Your use of strings – including your playing cello and viola – is a key sonic component, especially on A Women's Strength and Love to Hear U Laugh.

“I've always loved the sound of real strings; the grit of the bow, the hair across strings. Laugh was the first cello song I recorded, and it had been three years since I played, so there was some pain and plenty of Pro Tools takes involved. I doubled the melody on viola for a different sound, but I played it vertically in my lap, like a cello, because I had better control and tone that way. My friend Kelly Ellis also played cello on Women's Strength.”

Groove-wise, what stands out is your tumbao-like part on Love Is My Favorite Word, and Heaven, where your bass provides the track's feel.

“All of those are played on my Fodera N.Y.C. 5, with heavier-gauge strings and higher action. The tumbao on Love isn't authentic; I don't know clavé, so it's just me playing what I wanted it to feel like. I hope I didn't offend any cultures!

“Heaven is a tribute to lost family members. Aside from the solo section, in which my brothers Joseph, Regi, Roy, and I each start with the last line from the previous solo, the song is really just the bottom bass and the chordal bass on top. The bouncy, sort of double-timey bassline just happened; I wanted to keep an upbeat side, given the solemn content.”

Allen Abbassi might not be a household name to every guitarist, but the products he’s helped to develop during his 24 years at Fender most certainly are. As Director of Fender Electric Guitars, every launch bearing the big F on the headstock since 2007 has had to pass his personal test of feel and tone.

The Player Series, American Professional, American Vintage, Alternate Reality, Parallel Universe and, of course, just about every Fender signature guitar of the last 18 years – from the Mike McCready Strat to the Tom DeLonge Starcaster – have all fallen under Abbassi’s remit.

Now he’s presenting Fender’s top-of-the-line Ultra II – “the sports car versions, if you will” – of the firm’s most beloved models, including the Strat, Tele, P and J bass and, in a surprise addition, the recently developed Meteora offset.

“If Fender is a spectrum from vintage to modern, these are all the way to the right on the modern spectrum,” Abbassi says.

You’ll find compound radius necks, noiseless pickups, sleek contouring, locking tuners and even Luminlay side dots as standard. They are quite simply the most forward-thinking Fenders you’ll find.

The guitarist of today is increasingly hard to pigeonhole, in both aesthetic and playing style; so while you might presume the Ultra II is designed purely to appeal to tech-heads, Abbassi notes its remit has widened considerably.

“It's also for players who seek a guitar that gets out of their way and plays effortlessly,” he explains. “It's all noiseless pickups, so it’s great for players who favor giant pedalboards, or who play clubs with noisy electricity, or play in the studio and they want to be very quiet.

“I’ve even had R&B and jazz players, who you’d have thought would be interested in more vintage stuff, pick up an Ultra and fall in love with it.”

Sat in Fender’s London HQ and artist showroom – a former stained glass window factory, with a top room in the church-like eaves lined with glittering models – we want to know what it takes to develop the company’s fastest-playing neck; how Abassi pushes the envelope without chopping off a Strat horn; and why, in the Ultra II line, the Meteora is in but the faithful Jazzmaster is out.

The early leaps in Fender development – particularly between the Tele and the Strat – came from talking directly to players. With social media, YouTube, pro players, home players and so on, how do you find the voices to listen to?

“We definitely read a lot about what players are talking about on forums. We watch YouTube a lot. We talk to artists and dealers. And when people are in the office in Hollywood, we talk directly to them.

“Sometimes when we’re working on a project like Ultra, we’ll call on friends who are professionals – Brett Simons, Mason Stoops, Jamie Kime, Jorgen Carlsson – and say, ‘Hey, why don't you come visit? I’m working on something I’d like you to hear.’”

One of the big claims is that the Ultra II is Fender’s fastest-playing neck. How do you determine something like that?

“Well, it’s not necessarily scientifically tested! But most of us in the product department have been around Fender for a long time. I’ve pretty much touched every new Tele or Strat neck we’ve made since 2007, so just from experience, I can tell the difference in what ‘a fast-playing neck’ would be versus a non-fast playing.

“Some of it’s intuitive: things that, as a player, you’d just agree are true. For instance, changing from lacquer to a satin-finish urethane-based neck –especially with the treatment we apply – you can just feel that it’s really smooth and easy to move your hand up and down the neck.

“And some of it’s experience; these necks definitely feel faster to me. When we’ve put them in the hands of players, they agree. I don’t know if that's leading the witness! But most players agree that the rolled edges and the slim neck, and this ‘Goldilocks’ thickness, feel like a very fast-playing neck.”

How many iterations do you go through to get to that point?

“It could be anywhere from just two or three, or we could have our R&D department make 10 different versions. We have such a large pool to draw from of vintage-style neck shapes that it can be challenging to decide what’s just right.”

As you keep adjusting the parameters of modern designs, where’s the line – when is a Strat no longer a Strat, or a Tele no longer a Tele?

“Fender is known for a certain tonal quality. It’s described as ‘crystalline,’ ‘bell-like,’ ‘brilliant,’ ‘trebly.’ With a Strat you have quackiness; with a Tele you have twanginess. If you start to stray from those core tones, you start to get away from what a Strat or a Tele is.

“These instruments are very versatile, and tons of different types of players from all different genres use them, but you can always kind of hear if it's a Tele or a Strat – and a lot of that has to do with the quality of the tone from the pickups. Once we say, ‘That really doesn't have the twang and snap of a Tele pickup,’ we feel like we’ve gone too far.

“With the body shapes, obviously we can modify and tweak small parts like contours. But we’re not gonna chop off a horn, and we’re not gonna radically cut out another part. There’s legacy and history there that we’re careful about maintaining. So with the bodies it’s easier to know when you’ve crossed the line – you want a Strat to look like a Strat.”

Why did you decide to drop the Jazzmaster Ultra from the line in favor of the Meteora?

“One of the main reasons is we want to always be fresh and try something new. The Meteora is really neat because it’s a new shape for Fender. You don’t see us doing a lot of new shapes.

“We wanted to feature it in a high-end series. It had been just a limited edition, then we put it in the Player Plus line, and it did pretty well there. We want to have it available in as many different forms, to see what artists are interested in it.

“Ultra II is for a more advanced player who’s into high performance. That’s the type of player we feels a Meteora would suit. It’s kind of a futuristic-looking Jazzmaster – like a sports car version. We’ve loaded it with some incredible new Haymaker humbuckers that are tonally incredible, and they’re a little bit more aggressive.”

So it’s for the modern-minded Fender fan.

“More than a Jazzmaster, because that’s a very traditional instrument. Bringing that into the Ultra high-end performance line is fun, but maybe a dichotomy. It almost doesn’t fit.”

The GuitarWorld.com team has been campaigning for high-end offsets from Fender brands. In particular, we loved Mike Stringer’s custom Jackson Surfcaster, and Jackson’s Misha Mansoor build. Are there plans for high-end offsets in the main Fender range?

“Offsets, in general, have grown in popularity quite a bit. So you’ll see more high-end offsets coming from Fender in the future. I can’t reveal anything specifically. In our American Vintage line, that’s more high-end, we always have a Jazzmaster in there. That’s a trend you’re gonna see continue: offering more modern versions.”

It appears there is an increasing crossover between Fender brands shapes. Is it a totally siloed development for you? Fender does Fender, Jackson does Jackson, Charvel does Charvel, and so on?

“There’s a little bit of crossover, because we’re friends with those guys, and we talk about what we’re doing, and innovations can be shared across brands – pickup development, neck shapes, finishes and things like that.

“For example, Luminlay side dots are a big part of the new Ultra II line. It’s a very, very modern feature and they work remarkably well. Our Charvel/Jackson line has been using that for a while, but we’d never tried it in Fender. It’s an awesome feature that people like, so why wouldn’t a Fender player like it? In the past you might have said, ‘That’s only for a metal or super high-performance hard rock guy.’ Well, maybe not!”

Another area where you have room to experiment is in finishes. What are the most popular new finishes?

“For certain in the Ultra line, Texas Tea. It’s not traditional Fender in any way; it’s a more forward-thinking finish that caught on like wildfire with Ultra I. It was as popular as the ’Burst and that’s why we carried it over.

“It’s a very metallic finish, and in certain lights it looks black or brown, with a hint of gold. We didn’t know it was going to be so popular. We had four or five different versions of it, where we said, ‘No, not right... No, no, no.’ And all of a sudden we got that one and said, ‘That's it!’ And you still wonder if it’s going to work, but that became one of the most popular colors.

“’Burst, Black and White tended to be the most popular colors, but in recent years, we saw White overtook Black – and now Blue is now more popular than Black.

“Over in American Professional, Dark Night was one of the most popular colors; a brand-new color that did remarkably well. So we do a good job, I think, working with our paint department to come up with ideas that aren’t traditional Fender, but really work.”

Looking back over your time at Fender, what have been the big surprises?

“I think a lot is when we try to push the boundaries of what Fender is. I’ve been surprised by the success of things like Parallel Universe, Alternate Reality. We had some really interesting models that were not traditional Fender that really created a lot of buzz.

“Another was the Player series. We seemed to get it so right. The traditional life cycle of a series is you have a hump and it goes down and down after the first year. But for three or four years in a row the Player series grew in popularity. That was very surprising to me. We really felt like we hit a nerve.”

In 2023 Justin Norvell told us the secret to Fender's longevity was a sort of “healthy paranoia.” How would you characterize it?

“I think we’re fervently invested in the quality and the sound, the Fender legacy and the history of the instruments. We know why people like them – because of Leo’s designs – and we’re experts in making sure that whatever we do with Fender still has the quality Leo developed.

“We have to color within the lines, you know? It can be tough; we’re not going to chop off the horn of a Strat, but we still want to offer new Strats. I think one of the reasons it’s endured is because we love and cherish the instruments.

“But also it’s because artists love Fender, and they’re constantly making new music that inspired people around the world. The artists keep the love for Fender going. I’m not designing these for me – I’m designing them for artists to take and be inspired.”

• Explore the Fender American Ultra II range.

What is it?

Is it a bass? Is it a guitar? Ask around and you’ll get different answers, but one thing’s for sure, the Squier Limited Edition Classic Vibe Bass VI is one of the most unique instruments I’ve ever had my hands on.

The 30-inch scale is in short-scale bass guitar territory, but the string spacing and the fact there are six strings point toward the traditional electric guitar. It also has a non-locking tremolo like you’d find on a Jazzmaster or Jaguar, and I can’t ever recall seeing a tremolo unit on a bass as stock before.

The poplar offset body is hefty and finished in the ever-divisive Antigua colorway. Born of an accident when Fender burned the outer edges of some of its guitar bodies, it’s certainly eye-catching.

The recreation of the effect on the pickguard gives the guitar some interesting symmetry, and much like its indecision as to what kind of instrument it wants to be, the finish is neither garish nor subtle. The non-guitarists I showed it to found it unremarkable, whereas all my guitarist mates hated it.

The neck is gorgeous, though. I love black block inlays on a maple fretboard, and the vintage gloss finish is fantastic. The black binding and inlays contrast beautifully with the maple thanks to the glossy finish, which really makes the whole instrument pop.

It’s a ‘C’ profile, which feels like the right balance of heft and slink for an instrument with larger proportions. 21 narrow tall frets give you plenty of feel when you slide up and down the neck, and the nut width at just below 43mm will feel comfortable to the majority of guitar players.

Keeping in theme, the electronics are similarly unique, with three single coil pickups that are very spaced out on the body. Each pickup has a dedicated slide switch for on or off, while a fourth switch engages a ‘strangle’ circuit which takes out some of the bass frequencies. You can order the pickups any which way you like, with combinations or just single pickups engaged. A master volume and tone knob offer additional tone sculpting options.

In terms of hardware, the standout spec here is that non-locking floating vibrato. It’s a seemingly strange addition to what is essentially a bass guitar, but more on that later. You get a six-saddle bridge that you typically find on Fender’s offset guitars, and six vintage-style tuners adorn the headstock.

Specs

• Launch price: $499 / £479 / €549
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Six-string electric bass guitar
• Body: Poplar
• Neck: Maple, ‘C’
• Fingerboard: Maple
• Scale length: 30”/762mm
• Nut/width: Bone, 42.86mm
• Frets: 21 frets, narrow tall
• Hardware: Vintage-style tuners, 6-saddle vintage-style bridge with non-locking floating vibrato
• String spacing at bridge: 52mm
• Electrics: 3x Fender-designed alnico single-coils, master volume, master tone, 3-on/off slide switches (one for each pickup), 2-position slide switch for bass-cut ‘strangle’ circuit
• Options: N/A
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Antigua
• Cases: No case
• Contact: Fender

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

Build quality feels like a given nowadays, and I rarely receive a guitar I think is below the expected standard, but there were some small flaws with the Classic Vibe Bass VI. On the plus side, there’s absolutely nothing out of place on the neck with the frets well dressed, the gloss finish applied with perfection, and ditto for the binding and the block inlays. The tuners respond well to your inputs, with each giving an even response.

The classic issue of the loose, squeaky tremolo arm from this style of bridge is here – which can be permanently remedied with the hammer trick – more a design flaw than a build quality issue though. I did find that the volume knob felt a little loose in its housing. This could have happened during the shipping process to be fair, and again is something easily remedied.

I also noticed that both the knobs weren’t applied in the same manner, which will have any detail-orientated guitarists out there boiling, as the knobs point in slightly different directions when they’re both at full blast.

It sounds like I've only got complaints regarding the build quality, but these are small issues that don’t detract from the sound or playability of the instrument. Overall, the finish is exceptionally well applied, even if you’re not a fan of Antigua, and the guitar feels well put together. Aesthetically it’s hard to find any fault with it at all.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

Finally sitting down to play through a Neural DSP Quad Cortex and Positive Grid’s Spark Live acting as an FRFR speaker, I immediately noticed that the action was set a little low, leading to some string buzz on the lower notes of the low E that were audible through the speaker. Nothing that a quick raise of the bridge couldn’t solve though.

Playing the Bass VI is a really strange experience. On the lower strings, it feels like a bass thanks to the tuning being a full octave below a regular guitar. Playing riffs and single-note licks feels distinctly bass-like, and the string gauge is similar to what you would find on a bass or extended-range guitar.

Moving to simple barre chords around the eighth fret makes it feel more like a guitar with heavy strings on, a feel more similar to a baritone. Go to play lead on it and you get something between the higher strings on a bass and the lower notes on a guitar.

On the one hand, it’s too slinky to be a bass, with legato licks coming a lot easier, and yet you can’t bend quite as easily as you can on a guitar, it’s less limber qualities belying the fact this is a longer scale instrument.

It is very playable for guitar licks, though. It didn't take me long to get up to speed with some of my favorite scale runs and lead licks. The neck profile makes it comfortable for fast playing and once you've gotten accommodated to the spacing, you can absolutely rip on it like you would a guitar.

If you want to try and play it like a traditional bass you can, but it’s a little awkward as the pickups don’t have enough clearance to rest your thumb on comfortably.

I made the best of it resting my thumb on top of the pickguard, and once I’d gotten used to the string spacing and reined in the attack with my fingers, it felt more like plucking away at a short-scale bass guitar, albeit with the occasional wayward hit of an unintended string when trying to mute.

The vibrato works really well, and it holds its tuning brilliantly even when you lean on it. Adding vibrato to the low chords you can play is a decidedly different sound to what most guitarists are used to, and it’s great fun to mess around with. The arm does feel a little close to the strings though, so if I was going to keep this guitar I’d probably make some adjustments and get the arm resting further away from the strings for easier control.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

With individual on/off slider switches for each of the three single-coil pickups, you can use any combination of the pickups together with one another. Using the pickup nearest the neck delivers a decidedly bass guitar-like tone, and when combined with a Gallien-Kreuger bass amp model on the Quad Cortex, there’s little doubting the bass guitar qualities of the Bass VI. Round and warm, with oodles of low-end energy, in a blind test I don’t think anyone would think you’re playing something other than a P or Jazz Bass.

The middle position is pretty bass-heavy too, leaning slightly more to the midrange but to my ear, not too dissimilar to the neck pickup. In the bridge position however, you get a much more guitarist-friendly tone, with a lot of that low-end roundness gone and plenty more of that midrange and treble ‘clank’ in the tone. Here if you play higher up the neck it sounds much more like an electric guitar with single coils, with plenty of chime and cut.

Playing through a clean amp gets you a unique tone, particularly with open chords at the lower end of the neck. It’s hard to quantify, sounding somewhat like a bass yet having more clarity than you’d find if you pulled similar shapes on your bass guitar. It sounds beautiful with clean-picked arpeggios higher up the neck, delivering its own distinctive voice that’s quite unlike anything else in my guitar collection.

I’ve seen quite a few heavy bands using the Bass VI nowadays and I can report that if it’s your bag, then yes it does djent. Your picking and string muting technique better be really good though, because it can get noisy with the bridge construction at higher gain levels.

With the right technique and high-gain amp model engaged, it’ll absolutely sound like an 8-string guitar though, with the single-coils helping it deliver plenty of clarity, even when I tuned it down to drop D.

Curious to see how it would sound with other instruments, I booted up the project for my band's latest song and got to work seeing how it would fit into a full band mix. It’s a bit of a strange one to drop in where there’s already a bass or electric guitar though, and it seems to work better as texture or backing to something already there.

Adding some drive and chorus to the tone alongside a bass amp model and pairing it with the bass line helped bring that section further to the front of the mix. Similarly, when I doubled the heavy palm-muted guitar riff at the end through a guitar amp model, it gave it some extra heft that wouldn’t be immediately noticeable on first listen, but you’d definitely miss it if it wasn’t there.

On its own, the ability to play both bass and guitar parts is really useful if you’re doing a lot of production. You can get bassy chord stabs that are much more coherent than they would be via regular bass guitar, while djent-y guitar breakdowns or doubled leads can deliver some fantastic extra textures to your mixes.

Verdict

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that the Classic Vibe Bass VI is an inspiring instrument to play. Because it doesn’t feel quite like or bass or quite like a guitar, you find yourself approaching riffs differently, and I felt super-creative every time I picked it up. It forces you to adjust your technique to account for the different gauge strings, and that’s always a good thing when you want to pull yourself out of the rut of a regular six-string guitar.

It is a very niche instrument though, and I’ll caveat most of what I’ve said with the fact I regularly play a baritone, so it doesn’t feel that alien to me. Much like the baritone though, once you get over the initial feel of the longer scale, it’s the kind of instrument that can be a really powerful songwriting tool, or a versatile addition to the arsenal of a recording guitarist.

Would I want it as the lead instrument in a band or composition? I’d argue probably not. In the supporting actor role though it’s absolutely brilliant, and it will play a vital role in helping beef up the sound of a live band or add an extra layer of audio to recorded compositions.

Final verdict: Despite a slight identity crisis, the Bass VI is a truly unique instrument that has its own lane. On the one hand, it's separate from the bass or electric guitar, and yet it can imitate both. Truly unique instruments are few and far apart in this world of Strat and LP copies, so for the guitarist who wants to push the boundaries, the Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI is a potential game changer.

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What is it?

A penny for Jimmy Bryant’s thoughts. Oh to have a time machine to travel back and present the original master of the Fender Telecaster with this just as he was about to track 1954’s 2 Guitars Country Style.

Just what would Bryant have made of this, Fender’s seminal, groundbreaking yet utilitarian electric guitar design reborn in the American Ultra II series as a high-performance six-string? Speedy West would’ve fallen off his seat. What would Albert Collins have made of it, or Muddy Waters?

We have grown accustomed to thinking of the Telecaster as Fender’s hammer; the workhorse. But great guitar designs can be refined without losing a sense of themselves (Keith Richards prefers his Teles with just five strings).

That’s what Fender has been doing since time immemorial, and it’s what it is doing with the American Ultra II series, a range also including the Stratocaster, Strat HSS, the relatively new Meteora offset, and variants of the Jazz Bass and Precision Bass.

See the Custom Shop if you want to live out that time machine dream, 1962 all over again, or the American Vintage II range, which picks a date and era of Fender design and riffs on it.

The American Ultra II Telecaster is not that; it is a sequel that pushes the boundaries of modern refinement.

As soon as you take it out of its molded (and stackable) hard-shell guitar case, you can get the drift; the Ultra Contours, the belly cut, the forearm sculpting, all the timber that’s been whittled away from the lower cutaway and the heel to improve upper-fret access.

Or it could be the 1-ply anodized aluminum pickguard that tells you we have started a new chapter for the model. The original was launched just in time for the rock ’n’ roll revolution.

The American Ultra II makes its debut in the era of AI, Big Data, shrinkflation, ChatGPT, Netflix and chill, TikTok shredding and crypto. But don’t worry, there’s still something familiar. This is not a pair of Ray-Bans that connect to Google; it’s still a Telecaster. But what does it add to the Telecaster story?

Specs

Launch price: $2,199/£2,259/€2,649
Made: USA
Type: Six-string electric guitar
Body: Select alder
Neck: Maple / quartersawn, Modern D, bolt-on
Fingerboard: Maple, 10" to 14" radius
Scale length: 25.5"/648 mm
Nut/width: Graph Tech Tusq / 42.8 mm
Frets: 22, medium jumbo
Hardware: Locking tuners, Chromed brass hard-tail six-saddle string-through bridge, 1-ply gold anodized aluminum pickguard
Electrics: Pickups, controls, switching
Weight: 7.23lb/3.3kg
Options: Ebony fingerboard with Texas Tea and Solar Flare finishes (same price), silver pickguard on Texas Tea and Avalance, black on Sinister Red and Solar Flare
Left-handed options: No.
Finishes: Ultraburst (as reviewed), Avalanche, Sinister Red, Solar Flare, Texas Tea
Cases: Fender Hardshell case
Contact: Fender

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★1/2

The American Ultra II series models all have a lot in common. We have select alder bodies. The necks are all quartersawn maple, which as the timber enthusiasts among you will know is more expensive, more stable. In this case that neck and fretboard all one in the same.

Ebony fingerboards are offered with other finishes. The Modern D neck shape is a leitmotif and key selling point of the range, with each neck bolted to the body just as Leo had intended them, and finished in Ultra Satin as, surely, every player will want a neck to be. Spoiler: this is a thoroughly agreeable neck treatment that is one of the most, if not the most, tactile playing experiences you could imagine.

For all the 21st-century details – the Fender logo in gold, the locking Fender-branded tuners, the Luminlay glow-in-the-dark fret markers down the side of the fingerboard, “Ultra Rolled” fingerboard edges and of course the 10” to 14” compound radius fingerboard – you strap this up and it feels like a Telecaster.

I have an American Ultra II Stratocaster HSS right here for comparison, dressed similarly in Ultra Burst with gold pickguard, and it feels like a different guitar, even if its neck is fundamentally the same.

A pair of Ultra Noiseless Vintage Telecaster single-coil pickups assume their usual position at the neck and bridge, and there is a three-way slider switch to select them, volume and tone controls, and an S-1 switch on the volume pot that, when engaged, bypasses the pickup selector to run both pickups in series.

Fender has used agreeably knurled metal knobs for this purpose. Like the rubber-gripped skirted knobs on the AmUltra II Strat, they are real quality. The switches, too, they clunk confidently into place; this is luthiery as engineering.

There’s no quibble with the finish or the factory setup. This is the Corona, California facility operating at the top of its game. Fret edges are on-point. The frets, indeed, are worthy of comment. They’re nickel, not stainless steel, but polished with such vigor you might think they were.

For all the modernization here, Fender has not gone full Charvel with these (FMIC already owns Charvel) so the AmUltra IIs are not hot-rodded per se. The frets are medium jumbo, and there are only 22 of them, no need to go full two-octave here. The Graph Tech Tusq nut is cut nicely, with Fender using short-post locking tuners to improve the break angle over the nut.

The bridge is full of surprises. It’s one of those modern adjustable six-saddle designs, an antidote to the bane of traditional Telecaster tuning compromises. And it is finished in chrome to match the tuners. But it is brass, “chromed brass”, so we’ve theoretically got a tone profile similar to those old-school Teles we all know and love – three brass barrel saddles and the truth.

Vintage enthusiasts have all kinds of peccadillos when it comes to Telecaster specs, and that’s fine, but surely we can all agree that being able to adjust the truss rod via the headstock is an improvement.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★★

Full disclosure: I was looking forward to playing the American Ultra II Telecaster but John 5 ruined it for me. The Stratocaster HSS had got me hooked on the neck. Anyone could get used to that fit and finish. And yet, just before strapping up the Telecaster, I made the mistake of watching John 5 demo it, a spectacle that would leave most of us feeling inadequate, as though we are playing the guitar with boxing gloves on. Needless to say, he makes the most of the high-performance platform.

But here’s the rub. The American Ultra II Telecaster makes you a better player. Or at least makes you think you are. There’s something so accommodating about it; how it sits, how balanced it is, how those rolled fingerboard edges offer a subtle but telling contribution to the playing experience. It’s a guitar that gets out of your way and puts the wind at your back.

Country and bluegrass virtuosos might frown upon it because it’s just not sport. I’ve got a Classic Baja Player Telecaster for comparison, a much loved guitar; great, hulking slab of ash that it is, and while it still feels like Telecaster land with the AmUltra there is something almost obnoxiously easy about how it plays without feeling like someone has slipped you a Charvel Style 2 when you weren’t looking; in other words, that 10” to 14” compound radius is well judged, contemporary but not radically so.

It simply feels like sensible dimensions for a playable guitar, for those inspired by the Jumpin’ Jack Flash riff and Rising Force alike. And furthermore the speed does not come at the price of comfort. There is a lot to love about the primal wood slab of a '50s Tele but, goodness, this is nicer after an hour of playing. And hey, with all this playability, maybe that John 5 stuff is achievable. Maybe.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★1/2

The American Ultra II might be souped-up for slinkiness but it presents a familiar set of core sounds. The control circuit is similar to the Classic Baja Player Tele, with the S-1 switch presenting a fourth voice presenting those two single-coils in series for a tone that’s kinda funky, appropriate for country, and interesting when you’ve got some effects on it. Let your compressor pedal do its worst and it’ll be great for the former, but with some drive and a bit of flanger it’s kind of psychedelic.

But what the world needs from a Telecaster is twang and this one’s got it in abundance. That bridge pickup has all the moxie you would want from a Tele. Even if it hits you will that slim-jim high-end cut it’s got a lot of personality, pure Nashville fried chicken when picked closer to the bridge, and Led Zeppelin I when played with amp overdrive at high volume. The clarity is forensically detailed.

It’s interesting putting this side by side with the Baja Tele, a Mexican-built Custom Shop collaboration with a Twisted Tele pickup in the neck and a Broadcaster-style vintage single-coil at the bridge. It is a great-sounding instrument. But the AmUltra II Tele sounds a little more dialed in by comparison, more hi-fi – if that makes sense. The Noiseless pickups help. They really are effective. This is a quiet guitar.

That said, there’s nothing sacrilegious about the sounds you’ll get out of this thing. We have 21st-century playability but the tones would not spook anyone who had made the quantum leap here from the ‘50s.

The pickups are perfectly balanced. That middle position, with both pickups in parallel, is a great rock rhythm sound. The neck pickup is precise and punchy, addictive. Dial back the tone and put a hint of grit on the amp and it sounds great for jazz.

And, as yer man, John 5, ably shows, it can take plenty of gain. Telecasters always have but with those Noiseless pickups that is now a very real option.

Verdict

Fender’s state-of-the-art Telecaster is not cheap. It has competition, too, and it is coming from inside the room, so to speak, from Fender-owned Charvel, from Fender’s own Player Plus series, which does a similar job at half the price. But does it do it quite as well as this? More to the point, does anyone?

It is hard to find a more playable T-style than this. This American Ultra II series builds upon the good work of the original AmUltra models that launched in 2019.

It takes the Telecaster further while playing to its strengths. It’s still a workhorse, still hugely versatile, offering reference tones to unleash in all kinds of musical styles and a speedy, up-to-the-minute ride.

The finish options are a disappointment, at least by Fender's high standards (no one does a solid color better). But if what you are looking for is classic Telecaster tones, no hum, the X-factor of that S-1 series mode and a guitar so playable that you might need to put the brakes on yourself and remember to play to the count, then this is it.

Tactile, streamlined, impeccably put together, there’s no way Jimmy Bryant wouldn’t have dug this.

Guitar World verdict: A radical revamp of Telecaster playability reaffirms a commitment to classic Tele tones in Fender’s modernized take on the solid-body electric that started it all. Those Noiseless Vintage pickups give it a high-fidelity, EQ’d quality; the Tele as the best version of itself. It’s a workhorse for the biggest job you’ve got.

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Hands-on videos

Fender ft. John 5

Fender

Guitar Center

Sweetwater

Andertons

• Fender Tone Master Pro review

Isaiah Sharkey has revealed he’s bought a guitar that once belonged to his favorite player of all time: George Benson.

In October, Benson announced he would be opening his first-ever Reverb store, through which he has been selling a number of electric guitars from his wider collection. Highlights from the virtual guitar shop included his legendary, natural-finished Gibson Johnny Smith, which he used to record his 1976 chart-topping record, Breezin’.

That wasn’t the only Gibson Johnny Smith model that Benson put up for sale, though. Rather, it was joined by another 1976 sunburst example, which was recently purchased by soul, blues, jazz and rock guitar virtuoso Isaiah Sharkey.

“My first memory in life is the guitar. And most of my life I’ve spent playing it,” Sharkey writes in a new Instagram post, in which he demos his new prized possession. “A great deal of that time was spent trying to learn by listening to records concepts and ideas from the greatest guitarist in world (in my humble opinion) @georgebensonguitar.

“There’s absolutely no one like him. And now thanks to Mr. Benson and @reverb I’ve been able to own one of his babies! Beyond a dream come true. Thank you @reverb & @georgebensonguitar for giving folks like us an opportunity to experience a beautiful instrument such as this! I will cherish this for the rest of my life!!”

Along with his Ibanez signature guitars, Benson and his music is widely synonymous with the Gibson Johnny Smith. The model first arrived in the early 1960s, a signature model for the revered jazzman from whom it got its name, and underwent a few changes before going out of production in 1989.

Resembling the shape and elegance of Gibson’s L5, the Johnny Smith model most commonly came fitted with a sole neck pickup, with a pickguard-mounted control knob in charge of volume.

“Not too long ago, George Benson had his official shop on Reverb, and he was so gracious enough to share some of his most beautiful instruments in his collection, continues Sharkey, who has cemented his reputation as one of today’s finest guitar players, thanks to numerous session stints with the likes of John Mayer, Keith Urban and more.

“I saw this one, and I wanted this one. Anybody that knows me knows that George Benson is absolutely my favorite guitar player of all time. This guitar feels so amazing and it’s my new baby. Y’all will be seeing me play this quite a bit.”

As mentioned, this wasn’t the only Johnny Smith model Benson owned, nor was it perhaps the most notable example. That honor must go to the natural-finished variant that was used to record Breezin’, and which is currently still up for sale with a listing price of $999,999.

In a recent conversation with Guitar World, Benson recalled how he first got his hands on that particular guitar.

“Johnny Smith is truly one of the great guitar players of our era,” Benson reflected of the guitar in question in a Reverb video. “He made a deal to create a guitar for the Gibson company, and this was the guitar.

“This is a perfect cross between the acoustic electric sound and the jazz sound. Probably one of my favorite guitars in the world. It has a very even sound.”

Head over to Reverb to peruse the whole George Benson store.

In this lesson, I’d like to discuss playing over what’s known as a I - VI - II - V (“one-six-two-five”) chord progression, which is common in a variety of musical styles, from country to rock to folk to jazz and blues.

You’ll find it in many old blues tunes, such as some by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, through the later recordings of Eric Clapton and many others. The examples I offer here are played in the key of F and with a swing-eighths feel. And all of the chords have a dominant 7 quality or implied tonality. So the basic underlying progression is F7 - D7 - G7 - C7.

Figure 1 shows a rhythm part based on this progression: I begin with a boogie pattern on F5 (a low F note with C, the 5th, above it) to F6 (with C moving up to D, the 6th), played through bar 1 and beat 1 of bar 2.

This is followed by the chords Eb7/Bb to D7/A, both with the 5th in the bass, which creates a warm sound. D7/A is the VI (six) chord, and I approached it from a half step, or one fret, above.

The bar ends with Ab7 to G7 at the start of bar 3, again utilizing “half step above” approach, which I then also apply to Db7/Ab to C7/G. The figure ends with a return to the I, F5 to F6, which can be looked at as implied F7 chord.

Now, one could easily play licks based on the F blues scale (F, Ab, Bb, B, C, Eb) over the entire progression, and it would work well. But in this lesson, I’d like to demonstrate “making the changes,” which means acknowledging each chord melodically.

Figure 2 presents a solo that does this. I begin over F7 with a simple melody based on F major pentatonic (F, G, A, C, D). In bar 2, I set up the arrival of D7/A by playing Eb, a half step above the D root, which is known as the flatted 9th, or b9. This is mirrored in the chord progression via Eb7/Ab to D7/A.

I take the same approach in bar 3 for the next chord, G7, as I play Ab to G (b9 to root), and the subsequent chord, C7/G, by playing Db to C (again, b9 to root), setting up the return to F7 and a lick based on the F blues scale. Taking this same approach with each of these changes like this sounds pleasing while making things easier to think about.

In terms of setting up the change from F7 to D7, Figure 3 illustrates D7 and D7b9, which includes the Eb note. I then play B, the 3rd of G7, then E, the 3rd of C7.

Figure 4 shows how the descending line Db , C, Bb sets up a nice resolution to A, the 3rd of F7. Figure 5 demonstrates the same concept applied in a higher register.

Finally, Figure 6 offers another melodic example. After playing F major pentatonic over F7, I play Eb to D to set up D7. Bar 3 ends with Db to C, played over C7, setting up the return to the I chord, F7.

Although he has been associated with the New York jazz and fusion scene since the 1990s, Wayne Krantz is originally from Corvallis, Oregon where he was born on 26th July, 1956.

Krantz took up the guitar at age 14 inspired by The Beatles and was later drawn to progressive rock bands, particularly Jethro Tull and Chicago. Krantz attended Berklee Music School and has described himself as a Pat Metheny-style player during this period.

Following his graduation from Berklee, Krantz eventually found his way to the signature gritty ‘edge-of-breakup’ Stratocaster sound which can be heard on solo albums from Signals in 1990, onwards.

Krantz has been identified with the 1973 Stratocaster pictured on his early solo albums, but also uses Tyler S-style guitars and more recently, the white Suhr S-style pictured. Krantz tends to downplay the importance of equipment beyond the guitar itself, generally favouring generic amps rather than ‘boutique’ style models.

While at Berklee, Krantz studied with ‘jazz guitar guru to the greats’, Mick Goodrick, assimilating the language and vocabulary of the great improvisers.

He was, however, soon dissatisfied with his sound and approach as he later reflected: “For a while I sounded like a cross between Pat Metheny and Jim Hall, but when I moved to New York I purged myself of everything and everyone and started over.” Hence Krantz’s unique and idiosyncratic sound, borne of a desire to find a unique approach and sound.

Krantz emerged onto a fusion scene in the early 1990s that was dominated by well-established names like Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Mike Stern and Allan Holdsworth. However, Wayne stood out from their often fat or effects-laden tones with his raw Strat sound and funky, staccato attack.

By the mid-90s he generally eschewed the use of effects, instead preferring a slightly gritty clean tone, employing a heavy pick attack in conjunction with hybrid picking, often incorporating unusual open-string ideas.

Krantz likes to create his own scale formulas based on thinking about intervals rather than conventional patterns ‘inherited’ from learning the CAGED system and three-notes-per-string approach.

Specifically, he often restricts himself to only improvising with just a few notes, choosing a four-fret zone on the fretboard to phrase with. This is designed to break out of the predictable patterns that a player may develop, or jaded vocabulary and well-worn licks. After working through these examples explore these concepts for yourself.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 6, Bass 7, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 2

As Wayne is famed for his use of S-style guitars go for a spiky, ‘just breaking up’ single-coil tone using a generic American-style amp sound or model. The GT recording was made directly to a computer interface using a Line 6 Helix set to a cleanish Fender amp tone with a slight amount of overdrive. A plate reverb and some digital delay was added in the DAW.

Example 1.

This uses the G Diminished Whole-Half scale to demonstrate some of Krantz’s use of syncopation and space. Where many of the players covered in other chapters present dense lines of continuous 16th notes, Krantz tends to make use of different rhythms and space to create the interest.

The quaver rest on the first beat and the placement of subsequent rests, allows the notes to fall on the ‘off’ beats so as to sound less predictable and more interesting.

Example 2.

Here’s one way Krantz uses superimposition; a Cm7b5 arpeggio is played over a G Minor chord to generate the 4th (C), b6th (Eb), b3rd (Bb) and 7th (F#/Gb) intervals.

Example 3.

Krantz often makes use of open strings for tension notes such as Minor 2nds. This is a G Dorian scale run at the 10th position, but every time an open string is available for a scale tone it is played instead of the fretted note.

This mixing of fretted notes higher up the fretboard with open strings creates an interesting texture that guitarist Bill Frisell also employs. You can already see from these few examples how Krantz is anything but your run-of-the-mill fusion guitarist.

Example 4.

This presents another tension device used by Krantz: the Whole-Tone scale. The example also uses chromatic passing notes to bridge the two-fret gap between all of the scale tones.

This adds interest to the symmetrical and somewhat predictable nature of the scale. A good rule in using this scale is to make sure that the 3rd of the chord that you are playing the scale over is included in the line to create some sense of consonance.

Example 5.

In terms of harmony and scale-chord connection, this largely uses the G Dorian scale with some chromatic passing tones. The 16th-note rests add rhythmic variety and lend a funky quality to the line that works particularly well on a Stratocaster whose relatively thin tones leave more space than thicker-toned humbuckers.

The example makes full use of all strings when playing G Minor based ideas in the fifth position: note especially the use of the lower strings.

Example 6.

This further explores the lower registers of the guitar, in an example of how Krantz might use a melodic cell consisting of three or four notes which he then moves around in parallel, exploring melodic and rhythmic possibilities while moving between scale tones (consonance) and chromatic notes (dissonance).

Example 7.

The basic concept behind this is that of superimposing a bluesy chromatic C7 line over G Minor in the first two bars.

This C Mixolydian over G Minor essentially amounts to a G Dorian line but with a slightly different emphasis from simply thinking ‘G Minor’. The second half of the line uses open-string pull-offs, somewhat in the manner of a country or rock player but with a tighter, funkier rhythmic sensibility.

Example 8.

This uses open strings and the G Dorian tonality but this time the line rapidly ascends the fretboard using sextuplets. Again, the technical difficulty is maintaining evenness and clear articulation across the line. The Pentatonic phrase that ends the line adds two16th-note rests for some syncopation.

Example 9.

We start with conventional jazz-fusion 16th-note phrasing but the repeated figure in bar 2 which jumps octaves twice, is a simple concept that adds an unusual twist to the phrasing and melodic contour of the line. The final bar returns us to the more conventional phrasing of the first.

Example 10.

The choppy stop-start rhythms and choice of G Diminished (Whole-Half) over G Minor in this generate considerable tension. The note choices broadly amount to an Eb7 Altered sound superimposed over the underlying G Minor tonality resolving to an idea consisting of stacked 4ths from G Minor Pentatonic.

As 2024 draws to a close, online gear retailer Reverb has maintained tradition by announcing its best-selling electric guitars of the year.

As always, three lists have been supplied – one for overall best-sellers, the best-selling used guitars, and best-selling new releases for 2024 – and, as is usually the case, the results make for rather interesting reading.

Perhaps the biggest headline is the fact that, for the overall list, the once-dominant PRS SE Silver Sky has slipped two places in the rankings to third position, having comfortably held down the top spot for Reverb’s best-selling lists in 2022 and 2023.

As Reverb notes, though, that may have been slightly skewed by the fact that the two guitars that came above it were the Fender Player Telecaster (ranked at no. 1) and the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster (no. 2) – two models that received generous discounts over the year, making them even more accessible to players.

The Player Tele, for example, is to be discontinued in favor of the updated Player II iteration, while the American Pro II Strat – usually $1,800 – has had its price reduced, perhaps pointing to a coming range update.

“The PRS SE Silver Sky, after leading our overall best-selling guitars list for two years, did not come in No. 1 in 2024,” explains Reverb.

“It was nudged out by the Fender Player Telecaster and Fender American Professional II Stratocaster, which were both widely available for discounts this year compared to their previous retail price tags.”

The rest of the list makes for largely familiar reading for those who have been following these roundups for the past few years, but there are some significant movers.

Gibson, for example, has two new entries on the list: the SG Standard and SG Standard ’61. Interestingly, neither of those two cropped up in last year's overall rundown.

What’s more, Squier seems to have a reduced representation this time out (potentially due to those Fender discounts) with only the ever-present Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster retaining its space. The Squier Classic Vibe ’50s Telecaster and Classic Vibe ’60s Jazzmaster both drop off, making way for the Fender JV Modified ’50s Strat HSS and American Ultra Strat, which was absent last year.

The rest of the top 10 is made up of bread-and-butter guitars, with the ESP LTD EC-1000 once again holding down its place alongside the likes of the Fender American Vintage II ’61 Strat, Gibson Les Paul Standard (both ’50s and ’60s variants) and a handful of PRS guitars, including the SE David Grissom signature, SE Custom 24 and Silver Sky proper.

This year, the more interesting list of Reverb’s three is by far the one that pits 2024’s newest releases against one another.

There have been some blockbuster guitar launches this year, so it might come as a surprise that neither the new Player II range nor the Dave Grohl’s Epiphone DG-335 – widely recognized as one of the most anticipated signatures of recent years – didn’t take top spot.

Instead, it is the PRS SE CE 24 Standard Satin that tops the list. However, when you consider that this is the most affordable CE guitar that the Maryland brand has ever produced – and the fact Guitarist gave it a faultless five-star review when it launched – the outcome is less surprising.

It’s followed by Fender’s made-in-Indonesia Tom DeLonge Starcaster, and then the DG-335, which sits in third.

Other notable entries include the Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster, which has already sold out after it was launched mere weeks ago, the updated Fender Player II Telecaster and Stratocaster, and the Epiphone Inspired By Gibson Custom ’59 ES-335.

The overall best-seller list can all be found below, and more information can be found over at Reverb.

Overall Best-Selling Electric Guitars of 2024

1. Fender Player Telecaster
2. Fender American Professional II Stratocaster
3. PRS SE Silver Sky
4. Fender Player Stratocaster
5. Fender American Professional II Telecaster
6. Gibson Les Paul Standard '60s
7. Gibson Les Paul Standard '50s
8. PRS Silver Sky John Mayer Signature
9. PRS SE David Grissom Tremolo Signature
10. PRS SE Custom 24
11. Fender American Ultra Telecaster
12. Gibson Les Paul Classic (2019-Present)
13. Gibson SG Standard (2019–Present)
14. Fender American Vintage II '61 Stratocaster
15. Gibson SG Standard '61 w/ Stop Bar Tailpiece (2019 - Present)
16. ESP LTD EC-1000
17. Fender American Ultra Stratocaster
18. Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster
19. Fender American Standard Stratocaster (2008–16)
20. Fender JV Modified '50s Stratocaster HSS

Rodrigo’s style is a rich combination of jazz, fusion and soul sounds, always firmly based around strong melodies. Most importantly, he uses the guitar to create a huge range of less obviously ‘guitar-like’ textures.

His cascading chord/melodies are reminiscent of a pianist using the sustain pedal, since they beautifully blend into one another. However, on top of this he effortlessly plays quick lines with double-stops or even full triads, channelling an entire horn section!

Rodrigo has created several fantastic packages for JTCguitar, including Dorian Sounds, Soul Fusion Masterclass Volumes 1 to 3, plus as a box-set of the above, as well as 20 Neo-Soul Fusion Licks. So, a wealth of great stuff to start and continue your neo-soul fusion journey.

And with that in mind, here are three excerpts from his masterclass 10 Levels of Neo Soul. In this particular package, Rodrigo isolates several theoretical and conceptual elements that go to make up his signature sound and it’s incredibly inspiring music.

As this is essentially a ‘fusion’ style, we’re playing over quite a jazzy chord progression here, and you might notice that the chords are not all found in one key.

There are several possible interpretations, but Rodrigo likes to view the C7-Gm-Am section as being in D minor, with the A minor being the Minor V chord. And then the B minor chord is the relative minor of D major. This makes for an easy way to visualise the various changing notes at your disposal.

Example 1

Example 2

One of the easiest ways to add a touch of neo-soul to your own playing is by adding little melodic embellishments to chords. When a progression moves through two different keys like this one, start by adding notes from the arpeggios, using your ears to find the best scale tones to fill the gaps.

Another classic neo-soul approach is the use of melodic double-stops. This allows for more of a ‘lead guitar’ sound, without completely sacrificing the harmonic richness. The most important thing is to work around notes from the underlying chord. This exercise demonstrates several ways of framing an F major arpeggio.

Example 3

Now we’ll return to the chord progression from Example 1, soloing over it with a mixture of double-stop and single-note lines. As mentioned in the main text, Rodrigo likes to view the majority of this progression as being in D minor, hence you’ll notice the shape of D minor pentatonic (D-F-G-A-C) in these lines.

Artie Zaitz is a jazz guitarist and Hammond organ player from London who is already a mainstay on the jazz scene at the age of 30.

With his father, Jake Zaitz, himself an established blues guitarist, Artie was exposed to blues and jazz music from an early age, and became influenced by the mid-’60s soul jazz organ/guitar trios associated with the New York Chitlin circuit.

Artie’s debut album as bandleader, The Regulator, is a six-track affair that celebrates the analogue sounds of that ’60s style, along with added percussion.

Friend & Foe

Artie’s smooth, articulate playing on The Regulator and his other projects demonstrates how much respect he has for his six-string.

“The guitar is my main instrument,” he says. “I’m the most fluent and fluid on it, I would say. My father is a guitarist and he took it upon himself to teach me a lot of blues and some jazz. I got really into it by osmosis. The guitar is so worldwide and has so many avenues to explore. It can sing and it cuts through all genres.

“It’s a beautiful thing and can be your best friend one day and your rival the next, so it keeps you on your toes. I’ve geeked out about it for a long time, through tones and all the different things you can get into. It’s never ending, really.”

Electric Shock

When Artie talks about the players who have influenced his playing and music over the years, names such as B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Grant Green and John Scofield are mentioned.

“I’m primarily an electric guitarist,” he says, “a single-note player, although I love playing chords. [The electric] has that tone and projection. I consider the amplifier as a second instrument, too, because you have to match them well for an ideal situation. When you get one that really works for you and can sing, then it’s quite a beautiful thing.

’I also love the unpredictability of playing an electric guitar; that can be fun.”

In the Studio

Artie explains his guitar and amp setup: “The main axe I use for jazz is a 1960 Gibson ES-330,” he says. “But I also use a Fender Telecaster that I got when I was 14 and that’s my main one for anything, really. I’ve put flat‑wounds on it now, so I can use it for jazz, too. It’s a ’62 Japanese reissue, which has really good woods; they make the best reissue guitars.

“I borrowed an amp when we were recording the album,” he adds, “a 1957 Fender Tweed Deluxe, and I used the studio’s Fender spring tank for reverb. But what I use mostly is a Fender Excelsior, which are these limited‑edition reissue amps and they’re great. Just 13 watts, 15-inch speaker – it’s got a lot of power. I use that or a Fender Princeton Reverb, generally.”

Live Action

Artie is a self-confessed stickler for sound, so it was important to him to record The Regulator in as live a setting as possible.

“Yeah, all in the same room, too, which is starting to become less common,” he says. “For me, it’s the best way to really feel the band in the moment, like a live situation. The closer you are to the musicians, the more you can pick up. When you start separating things, it’s just never going to be the same. It feels more organic.”

And the mistakes? “I do love mistakes,” he smiles. “You come to admire them, and mistakes are prevalent in so much of the music we love. It just shows that we’re human. If the vibe is great, that’s what you go for.”

Do the Conga: Artie assembled his band from the pick of London’s jazz scene players

When it came to making his album, Artie was keen to give the traditional organ-trio albums a twist, and brought together a band comprising Ross Stanley on Hammond C3, Steve Brown on drums and David Pattman on conga (Cuban drum).

“I wanted to capture the sound of that band at that time,” he says, “but I also tried to keep the spirit of soul-jazz organ combos. That combo is all encompassing: you can play funk, jazz, blues, soul tunes, Latin, especially with the conga. And I love the conga, it takes it up a notch for me and takes it past that regular organ trio. It brought a new dimension to the sound.”

• The Regulator is out now via Banger Factory.