I Heart Guitar

Fender offsets are the ultimate indie guitar. They coax players towards textural, chordal playing, angular melodies, ringing open strings, and often a lot of extra noises, clatters and clangs thanks to that entertainingly unique tremolo system. It seems weird in retrospect that indie guitar icon Johnny Marr wasn’t a Fender Jaguar player until picking one up in Modest Mouse in the 2000s. Now it almost feels strange to see him without a Jaguar. 

Marr’s latest signature model takes the majority of its cues from his existing model, which is among my favourite Fender guitars. The biggest difference, and it’s a huge one, is the addition of a trio of lipstick pickups in place of the Jaguar’s regular two single coils. But let’s back up a bit and break it down. 

We’ll start with the overall features. We’ve got an alder body with a gorgeously deep custom gloss nitrocellulose black laquer finish and a 22-fret maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. The fingerboard radius is 9.5”, a slightly flatter board than you would expect on a Jaguar (where 7.25” is more common). The back of the neck is carved to Marr’s specific preferences, inspired by the neck on his ’65 Jaguar. The 24” Jaguar scale is present and correct, and while the vintage tremolo initially looks pretty standard, there are a number of tweaks to the spec. The vibrato itself is a classic vintage-style floating Jaguar unit but it employs a nylon sleeve insert and a taller tremolo arm, while the bridge uses a Jaguar base with Mustang saddles and speclialised nylon post inserts (and the radius differs from the standard Marr model in order to match the flatter neck of this version). There’s also a removable bridge cover in the same style as the ashtray covers found on Strats, Teles, Jazz Basses etc. Cool touch. 

But what makes this particular Marr model stand out is its electronics setup. First up and most obviously we have those three lipstick pickups. They’re made by Kent Armstrong to Marr’s specs, and represent his continued search for tone and versatility. In addition to the typical master volume and master tone controls, there’s a four-way pickup selector switch to give you bridge, bridge+neck in parallel, neck, and bridge+neck in series modes. 

An extra three-way switch on the top control plate flips between the wiring of the original Marr Jaguar model (complete with muted middle pickup in keeping with said original model’s two-pickup layout); a version of the same but with the middle pickup added to every setting; and a middle-only option that bypasses the four-way switch. There’s also a brightness switch which really takes the low end out of the signal if you need it. Then there’s a secondary brightness switch which only operates on the neck+bridge series mode. Fender and Marr have figured out how to get a huge amount of variety out of this circuit. To me it doesn’t feel too complicated but I’m sure there are players who think there’s too much going on here. 

Sonically, this guitar is supremely versatile. The in-between settings afforded by the middle pickup create a texture that we’re just not hearing from a Jaguar: clearer, snappier, slightly hollow, definitely gritty. Then flip back to the two-pickup mode and you’re locked in to a new take on the classic Jag vibe, edgier and twangier but no less bold and powerful. The tone is almost a little Telecaster-like looser, darker within the middle frequencies, but you can zap that darkess straight to heck with the brightness switch. 

The sheer clarity of this guitar makes it a great choice for players who use loads of pedals: it maintains its character no matter what you’re piling on top of it. And it’s definitely geared towards clean and edge-of-dirt sounds, but I found a few settings that wanted nothing more than to absolutely roar through a fuzz pedal. 

Is this the ultimate Jag? Can it be the ultimate Jag in a world where the regular Marr model exists? I dunno but it’s certainly the most fun Jaguar I’ve played in years and undeniably the most versatile one ever. My only suggestion would be, hey guys, how about a version with a lipstick humbucker in the bridge position? Aww c’mon, it’d be cool. 

The post REVIEW: Fender Johnny Marr Signature Special Jaguar appeared first on I Heart Guitar.

This last year has been, without doubt, the absolute worst of my life. I lost my mum. I lost three other family members. My wife had several hospital visits and an operation. I suffered a bunch of health stuff. Already in treatment for depression and anxiety, the sheer weight of everything I was trying to deal with meant that if I was not at work, I was at home just laying on the sofa staring at the walls. I was bursting into tears at random moments or memories every day. Things got bad. You know the kind of bad I mean. The kind where there were two nights in particular where I almost never came home. 

I’m seeing an amazing therapist now who is really helping me. I feel like I’ve come through the deepest darkest parts of my depression and grief now. A big part of that has been forcing myself to look for the light. Turning off the phone and letting myself get lost in books. Going for long walks and feeding the local birds (I could write a whole article about the birds in the neighbourhood now, the family of magpies who gather around me and sing for peanuts, the spotted dove pair, the crafty Currawongs, the dishevelled little Magpie Lark who flies in circles around my head like I’m in a Loony Toons cartoon and I’ve just been hit in the head with a mallet).

And one of the other things that’s really helped has been setting up a pedalboard in the living room so I can just play with no fuss whenever I feel like it. 

Earlier this year I got a TONEX Pedal by IK Multimedia. I’d already been using TONEX in my recording setup but the depressive funk I’ve been in meant that my computer stuff was no longer all hooked up and my studio space was basically being used as storage. So I brought my monitors out into the living room, popped them either side of the TV an sound bar, plugged in my pedalboard (it stashes nicely out of sight under the TV cabinet) and now I have this little rig that I can immediately hook into when I need it. I have a Line 6 HX One before the TONEX pedal and an Eventide H9 after it, all connected via MIDI into some Hotone controllers so I can do all sorts of fun clever stuff. I spend hours with a guitar in my lap creating presets and fine-tuning tones, downloading tone models and generally just playing guitar for fun again. I love to pop on YouTube or the Retro channel on Aussie streaming service Binge and just play along, no expectations, no pressure, just let my ear take me where it will. 

It’s so healing. 

The one thing that has been able to quiet my mind on my worst days has been that feeling of picking up the guitar and instantly turning into notes. Becoming music. My conscious mind shuts off and I’m just focused on sound and melody. It’s a kind of meditation that takes you outside of yourself in one way and very deep into your subconscious in another. And through it all, I’m starting to regain the urge to write, to get my recording stuff set up again, to play guitar for people, to maybe even put together a band and get out there.

Playing guitar has been a huge part of my healing, alongside the very hard, very intentional work I’m putting in with my therapist to turn these feelings around, and those long walks listeing to music or podcasts or just the sound of nature, and feeding my bird friends which makes me feel engaged in the natural world around me. It’s all important. I don’t know if I would have found my joy in playing guitar again if it wasn’t for that TONEX Pedal sitting on my board (and now I see there’s a TONEX Plug headphone amp unit which is funny cos just last week I posted on Facebook that I wish IK would release one, and while I often have advance knowledge of products due to my work at a guitar store and in the music media, in this case I had no idea). 

Ultimately inspiration is wherever you find it: a new guitar, a new tuning, a new pickup or amp, finding new material to learn. In my case, just having my favourite guitar sounds within easy reach has been really energising, at a time where I needed something to lift me up. I don’t think I’ll ever be over my depression and I’ll never get over all the loss of the past 12 months and especially losing my mum. But I’m trying really hard to remember the good when I’m dragged down by the bad. And playing guitar is really, really good. 

The post How a guitar pedal helped pull me out of a depression pit appeared first on I Heart Guitar.

Some bands build their early careers on a well-placed cover, like Van Halen blasting right out of
the gate with a redefining take on The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me.” Some bands make a point of
avoiding covers altogether. And some love their covers so much that at a certain point in their
career they’ll release an entire album of covers (and there’s a great list of them here). Buried
somewhere in the middle of it all though is the covers EP. For many listeners a covers EP hits a
certain sweet spot: enough tracks to feel like a little treat, not so many as to lose focus or have
listeners impatiently drumming their fingers waiting for the next album of original material. A
covers EP says “dude, listen to these songs that we loved when we were starting out” but it
doesn’t say “and you must listen to everything I listened to in order to understand where I’m
coming from.” There are countless covers EPs out there but these are my personal favorites.

Skid Row – B Side Ourselves

“Psycho Therapy” (Ramones)
“C’mon and Love Me” (KISS)
“Delivering the Goods” (Judas Priest)
“What You’re Doing” (Rush)
“Little Wing” (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

Skid Row released this EP between their Slave To The Grind and Subhuman Race albums, and
it stood out for me because in those pre-Spotify/YouTube/iTunes days you couldn’t simply
command a song to appear in your ears: you had to either catch it on the radio or encounter its
physical representation in the form of a CD or cassette. Wild, I know. So for me, this was the
first time I’d heard a song by The Ramones, and although I was already a Jimi Hendrix fan by
age 13 I hadn’t yet come across “Little Wing.” The Judas Priest cover features a guest
appearance by the metal god Rob Halford himself, and there’s an energy throughout this disc
which captures the power of Skid Row in this unique era, when they successfully survived the
last days of rock’s hair metal era and before grunge temporarily put the boot in to bands like
Skid Row. This was a band with the world at their feet and a song in their hearts.

Metallica – The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited

“Helpless” (Diamond Head)
“The Small Hours” (Holocaust)
“The Wait” (Killing Joke)
“Crash Course In Brain Surgery” (Budgie)
“Last Caress/Green Hell” (Misfits)

This EP represented Metallica’s first release with Jason Newsted on bass following the tragic
death of Cliff Burton, and the band chose to go back to their roots before diving in to new music.
These tracks are all available on the band’s 1998 Garage Inc double album too, but for me they
tell an entirely different story when heard in their original context instead of fitting in amongst
other covers, B-sides and one-offs. If Garage Inc is the story of a band using their platform as
The World’s Biggest Metal Band to shine a light on the songs that inspired them, Garage Days
Re-Revisited tells a story of a band who was struggling to cope with the emotion of the situation,
and who retreated to the comfort of the jam room and the songs that inspired them in their early
days before life became so complicated.

Stone Sour – Meanwhile In Burbank…

“We Die Young” (Alice In Chains)
“Heading Out To The Highway” (Judas Priest)
“Love Gun” (KISS)
“Creeping Death” (Metallica)
“Children Of The Grave” (Black Sabbath)

I get a feeling we’ll be seeing more of this as time goes on: covers EPs that feature songs
released post-1990. While most of Stone Sour’s recent covers EP (the first of a trilogy) focuses
on tracks from the 1980s, the inclusion of Alice In Chains’ “We Die Young” acknowledges AIC’s
rightful place in the Great Heavy Rock Songbook. It’s interesting to note that this EP features
songs by Judas Priest and KISS, just like Skid Row’s. And it’s also cool to see a band paying
tribute to Metallica, who have done so much to share cool covers with the world.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Covers EP

“A Teenager in Love” (Dion and the Belmonts)
“Havana Affair” (The Ramones)
“Search and Destroy” (Iggy Pop and James Williamson of The Stooges)
“Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” (Neil Young)
“I Get Around” (The Beach Boys)
“Suffragette City” (David Bowie)

The Chili Peppers released this EP in 2012 as an iTunes-only digital download to celebrate their
induction in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. The idea was to pay tribute to other bands who came
before them in joining the ranks of the Hall. The tracks themselves date from between 1991 and
2011, with three guitarists represented: John Frusctiante, Dave Navarro and Josh Klinghoffer.

Rush – Feedback

“Summertime Blues” (Eddie Cochran/Jerry Capehart)
“Heart Full of Soul” (The Yardbirds)
“For What It’s Worth” (Buffalo Springfield)
“The Seeker” (The Who)
“Mr. Soul” (Buffalo Springfield)
“Seven and Seven Is” (Love)
“Shapes Of Things (The Yardbirds)
“Crossroads” (Robert Johnson, Cream)

Alright, this one is probably long enough to qualify as an album if you really wanna stretch it, but
this eight-song release clocks in at just over 27 minutes. While most of the EPs covered (ha!) in
this list feature songs from the ‘metal and onwards’ era, Rush’s reflects an earlier era, an era we
now think of as ‘classic rock.’ Heck, it even includes two songs apiece by Buffalo Springfield and
The Yardbirds, and you might as well count “Summertime Blues” as a The Who song too and at
them to the ‘two songs by…’ list. What’s really great about Feedback is that it gives the listener
a clear indication of where Rush derived their energy, yet it provides virtually no hints
whatsoever as to how they developed such a progressive, iconic sound of their own.

Page Title: Five Great Covers EPs
Page Description: Here are five great covers EPs by Metallica, Stone Sour, Red Hot Chili
Peppers, Rush and Skid Row. What are your favorites?
Page Keywords: Metallica,Stone Sour,Red Hot Chili Peppers,Rush,Skid Row,Jimi
Hendrix,Black Sabbath,Judas Priest,Ramones,Alice In Chains,

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