All The World’s A Stage

This month, the Guitarist team packed its bags and headed down to the all-new UK Guitar Show, along with our pals from Guitar Techniques and Total Guitar. We had a brilliant weekend – big thanks to all the readers who came up to say hello while we were on the show floor. It was a pleasure to meet you all and I hope you had a great time. My personal highlight of the show was seeing so many of the guitars that Rory Gallagher made his spellbinding music with, from that oh-so-weathered ’61 Strat to his 1932 National Triolian resonator. Having listened with renewed admiration to Deuce in the car on the way up, seeing his guitars – each bearing numerous scars of a long and illustrious life on the road – was a poignant reminder of the man’s huge talent.

Thanks also to everyone who came to see me, Nev Marten and Mick Taylor have a bash at some classic Hendrix and Cream tracks in the evening in the guise of the Cream Experience (see what we did there?). We’ve performed the set, in various forms, at a few festival gigs over the past year or so, and we love playing such stellar material to an audience of guitar fans. Of course, quality gear helps when it comes to showtime, so we hope you enjoy our review of the stage-ready Custom Shop Fenders that grace this month’s cover and which spring from the inventive minds of the Master Builders. To read the review and hear their insights on what makes the ideal six-stringed companion for gigs small and large, turn to p84.

Elsewhere in this month’s packed issue, we’re lucky enough to have Kirk Fletcher, a great player and a real gent, pass on some of his best blues licks in a sixpage tutorial (see p66) that’ll help make your own playing more expressive and musical next time you step up to the mic. If that whets your appetite for learning, check out Richard Barrett’s tribute to the playing style of Robin Trower on p146’s Blues Headlines tuition column. In the meantime, gig done, I’m going back to the woodshed to see if I can’t get a few Rory tunes learnt, too. Who knows, maybe we’ll perform some at next year’s show? Enjoy the issue.