A selection of guitars and amps from Richard Gere''s personal collection. All photos: CHRISTIE''S IMAGES LTD. 2011
Fall Headline Tour Scheduled to Kick Off October 31st with Special Guest Myles Kennedy GRAMMYĀ® Award-nominated songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Wolfgang Van Halen is back with the latest single from the band he masterminds, Mammoth.
Mammoth: The End (Official Video)
āThe Endā is an adrenaline-driven rocker that kicks off with a signature lead guitar riff that has become a fan-favorite element in Wolfgangās music. The anthemic build of the intro gives way to the driving verse melody with each part carefully created and performed by Van Halen and his returning collaborator Michael āElvisā Baskette. The chorus is driven by the unforgettable vocal melody as the message of āTake your hand in mine and watch the end with me.ā The song is now available for pre-save via all digital service providers here.
āIāve had the tapping idea on the intro for āThe Endā since before Mammoth. I was able to fit it into this world. Itās still over-the-top and shreddy, but itās also melodic and controlled. Overall, I was doing some different things on the record, and I knew this was going to be a big step. Once we finished āThe End,ā it felt really special to me,ā explains Wolfgang Van Halen.To coincide with the single release, Wolfgang and Mammoth have released a music video for āThe Endā that is one for the history books and something rarely seen in music videos anymore. Wolfgang teamed up with legendary director Robert Rodriguez to do a modern-day interpretation of Rodriguezās 1996 hit film, From Dusk Till Dawn. The video tells the story of a rock band that is booked to play a show at a dive bar and given an ominous warning from the club owner portrayed by Danny Trejo. Mammoth decides they know better, and things quickly turn dire for the band before a surprising revelation during the final moments tie the complete video lore from the band together. Friends of Mammoth including Slash, Myles Kennedy and Wolfgangās mother Valerie Bertinelli all show up throughout the short film. Horror effects icon Greg Nicotero offered his talents to the video to create zombies, werewolves and vampires that all bring a deadly end to the attendees of the show.
With a short run of May dates creating excitement for a Mammoth tour, the band is announcing a Fall headline run. The End Tourkicks off on October 31st and runs for 5 weeks before it wraps up on December 7th. The tour will make stops in Las Vegas, NV (November 1), Atlanta, GA (November 8), Montclair, NJ (November 14), Chicago, IL (November 26) and Tempe, AZ (December 6) to name a few. Longtime friend Myles Kennedy will be the special guest on the run. Tickets will be on sale starting May 5th via artist presale and on sale to the public on Friday, May 9th. More information on all tickets and VIP passes can be found at www.mammoth.band
Thereās so much that goes into bringing a pedal to life. Hereās a stash of DIY kits in various stages of completion at the authorās workshop.
Do you scoff at pedal prices? Hereās a deep look at the process and expenses of bringing a pedal to market.
Youāve come up with something special and inspiring on the breadboard and are ready to put the circuit into a pedal. How do you do that? You could hire a contractor, but letās go full DIY.
You will need a CAD program to lay out the schematic and the subsequent circuit board. Once purchased, you need to learn to use the software to create a digital schematic and PC board. This process is not strictly about understanding the softwareāyou also need to learn PCB layout practices as they relate to grounding, trace length, footprint design, and other common elements. While adhering to these, you also need to layout hardware, like potentiometers and toggles, in specific locations that allow them to appropriately mate with the enclosure that they will be stuffed into.
Now that we have our circuit laid out, we need to create specific file types to send off to a fabrication house so that they can open the files and manufacture the PC boards correctly to our design. Once weāve submitted the files and they are approved, we wait with excitement, and dread, until they come in. Why dread? Well, we wonāt know if the PCB is correctly populated with components that fit the package footprints and distribute power correctly, and if the audio sounds like what we designed on the breadboard, until they arrive. There may also be noise or other issues that weāll need to track down before we can call the PCB finished. The first PCB that I ever designed came in looking exactly like the digital file, but did not work whatsoever.
After weāve debugged the PCB to make it work, we get to a fun and frustrating step: putting the circuit into our enclosure. The enclosure part is fun because itās the external, artistic side of the product where the builderās creativity is first seen. An unappealing look could be the deciding factor for a consumer. Iām sure most of us have made a decision on a guitar or pedal before itās even plugged in.
Trying to squeeze everything into an enclosure can become discouraging. The more hardware thatās affixed to the PCB, the more every measurement counts. This means every knob, toggle, footswitch, audio jack, and DC jack will play a role in making the PCB line up with the drill holes on the enclosure. Thatās an aspect we havenāt even covered yet.
āAn unappealing look could be the deciding factor for a consumer.ā
Most of us in the industry have our enclosures manufactured at one-stop-shop locations. This is because having the facilities and tools to do drilling, powder coating, and UV or screen printing in-house is simply not feasible for most. Once we get a line on an enclosure manufacturer, we need to get them our drill measurements. This includes drill-hole diameters and locations related to each other, and from the edges of the enclosure. Once done, we need to get those measurements into digital form along with any artwork. We also need to pick a powdercoat color from the thousands of colors available. Not all powders adhere the same way to metal and not all powders work well with UV printing. So how do we take our drill measurements, powder color, and artwork to the next step? This is stomping grounds for Adobe Illustratorāanother software program to purchase and learn. Crud!
After the enclosure files are sent off, made to spec, and received, we hold our breath and hope the populated PCB fits into the drilled enclosure. If it does, we dance. If it doesnāt, we break out the ruler and calipers and measure the places that we messed up. If the changes are to the PCB, we make them and order new samples. Same goes for the enclosure. While those revisions are being fabricated, we can focus on the packaging for the pedal. This is another fun part, and something that the customer will interact with upon receiving.
This is where I need to leave you. Before doing so, Iād like to point out that we havenāt gone into the remaining aspects of bringing a boutique pedal to life. There are still major considerations like product photos done in a photo area with a nice camera and edited with (more) software. Website construction to display that pedal along with copy and SEO, packaging materials, a label printer, and shipping software that talks to the website.
And at that, Iāve omitted a lot of small and medium steps in the breakdown of bringing a pedal to market. So I ask, are pedals really overpriced?
The bold English band return with their eighth record, Dreams on Toast. The brotherly guitar duo tell us about their pilgrimage back to Tonehenge.
The experience of locking in with the Hawkins brothers for an hour of conversation is not unlike absorbing their gonzo, wildly effervescent take on classic hard rock. To be sure, Justin, 49, the bandās frontman and de facto lead guitarist, and Dan, 48, who plays guitar, produces, and contributes backing vocals, keep you on your toes.
An instance of deep creative insight will jump-cut to a well-executed crude joke with a set-up involving slide guitar, which Justin taught himself to play during Covid lockdown in standard tuning, ānot the G cheating tuning.ā Passages of admirable self-reflection are interspersed with a freewheeling riff on Kid Rock and a debate about the finer points of crawling up oneās own arse. Itās kind of a blast.
The sad inability of critics and even audiences to reconcile fantastic hard rock with a sense of humor has dogged the Darkness throughout its existence, to the point where Dan believes the āclassic rock communityā only really came around to the band after Justin and drummer Rufus Taylor performed in Taylor Hawkinsā all-star tribute in 2022. āFinally, āOkay, these guys arenāt actually just fucking around,āā says Dan. Fair enough, but what exactly are they doing?
The Darknessā new album, Dreams on Toast, their eighth LP overall and sixth since reforming in 2011, is quite possibly their strongest set yet. In its wide-ranging, often surprising charms, it somehow manages to muddy the waters even further while also firming up an ethosānamely, that the Darkness are smart rock and pop mastercraftsmen who contain multitudes. Or, as Dan describes their M.O.: āWe can do whatever the fuck we want, whenever we want, and we donāt have to worry about it.ā Adds Justin, āThe funny thing is what we actually want to do is just write timeless songs.ā
Dreams on Toast, the British hard-rock bandās eighth full-length, is a testament to their indefatigable belief in the melding of hard-rock riffage with humor.
Justin Hawkinsā Gear
Guitars
- Atkin JH3001
- Atkin Mindhorn JH3000
- Danās red Gibson ES-355
- Danās Epiphone Casino (for slide)
- Atkin acoustic
- Brook Tavy acoustic
- Taylor 12-string
Justin and Danās Amps
- Ampete amp/cab switcher
- Vox AC30 head
- Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier
- 1959 Marshall plexi Super Lead
- Marshall 1987X
- Friedman Smallbox
- Friedman BE-100 Deluxe
- Marshall cab with Celestion Greenbacks
Effects
- Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
- SoloDallas Schaffer Replica
Strings & Picks
- Rotosound Roto Yellows .010s
- Dunlop Tortex .73 mm
Dreams on Toast boasts moments of quintessential Darknessāin, say, āWalking Through Fire,ā a hooky rock ānā roll behemoth that pays plainspoken tribute to the power of ⦠rock ānā rollāand gets even more meta with a winky line about wasting time āshooting yet another shitty video.ā For those whoāve followed the band from the start, it can evoke the shock of discovering the Darkness on MTV in 2004, when they were an exuberant burst of Queen-inspired virtuosity amidst so much overwrought post-punk and stylized garage rock. (āI fucking hate videos. I donāt even know why we bother,ā shrugs Justin, the centerpiece of several of the most memorable rock vids of the 21st century.)
Elsewhere, Dreams on Toast has a knack for subverting expectations. āThe Longest Kissā leans into the progressive-pop facility of Jeff Lynne, Sparks, or Harry Nilsson. āHot on My Tailā and āCold Hearted Womanā are deft examples of rootsy pop writing, finding a niche between honky tonk and transatlantic folk. āThe Battle for Gadget Landā engages in campy rap-rock, as if satirizing the nu metal that thrived when the Darkness was founded. It also betrays a British punk influenceāa vestige, the brothers ponder, of their fatherās excellent musical tastes and his decision to play his sons Never Mind the Bollocks, Hereās the Sex Pistols. Bewilderingly, āWeekend in Romeā features a voice-over by the actor Stephen Dorff.
But the albumās absolute highlights belong to the signature balance that allows the Darkness to remain instantly identifiable while also being custodians of rockās various traditions. āRock and Roll Party Cowboyā seems to revel in macho rock clichĆ©s, until you notice a reference to Tolstoy in the chorus and realize that the badass at the center of the narrative is in reality a stone-cold loser. āThereās a line in there, which gives it away,ā Justin explains, āwhere he says, āWhere the ladies at?āā The truth hurts: āThe party heās describing is a disaster.āāThe funny thing is what we actually want to do is just write timeless songs.ā āJustin Hawkins
The same savvy defines āI Hate Myself,ā a punked-up barroom-glam throwback that tackles heartbreak and self-contempt. The song also has a buzzed-about video in which Justin appears, unrecognizable, as a man who wears his grief, vanity, and insecurity on his face as questionable plastic surgery. The clip is startling, cinematic, and willfully not very much fun. Consequently itās inspired pushback, even within the band. āI think on this record, from the recording to the videos and everything, I think weāre challenging people,ā Justin says. āWeāre trying to explore genres and visual ideas that we havenāt done before. Like, thereās only two of us on the album cover; me and Dan arenāt even on it.
āItās like weāre doing everything differently, and in ways that make people go, āWell, what the fuck is this?ā I think weāre hopefully positioning ourselves as a band that cares about the art.ā
The brothers Hawkins in action. They wrote the songs for Dreams on Toast on an acoustic guitar, face-to-face.
Photo by Gareth Parker
Fraternal Dynamics Ā
Following 2021ās Motorheart, which was built piecemeal in the throes of the pandemic, Dreams on Toast is a welcome return to (literal) face-to-face collaboration. āPretty much everything on the album was written on an acoustic, me facing Justin,ā Dan says. āHolding my gaze,ā adds Justin, with a straight face.
āWe have quite a lot of success when Iāve just got an acoustic and Iām thrashing away,ā Dan posits, though āthrashing awayā isnāt quite fair. In fact, the through line tying Dreams on Toast to landmark Darkness singles like āI Believe in a Thing Called Love,ā āChristmas Time (Donāt Let the Bells End),ā or āLove Is Only a Feelingā is the precision of the craftāthe sheer perfection of the sonics and the shape of each song, the seamlessness with which an intro becomes a verse and then a bridge before an earworm chorus breaks down the door. Track after track.
āI think weāve always been good at arranging,ā Dan says. āSorry to blow our own trumpets, but I think that comes from Justin and my musical upbringing.ā To wit: Fleetwood Macās pop-rock masterpiece Rumours was on heavy rotation at home. At the outset of his career, after heād been a drummer and a bass player, Dan only āstarted playing guitar properly as a session player,ā he says. āAnd that kind of taught me a lot about placing things, when to do things and when not to.
āThe only reason I can play guitar is because I wanted to work out how songs were written,ā he adds later. At one point during the chat, Justin mentions his experience writing and producing music for commercial clientsāsomething he and his brother continue to partake in, in specific under-the-radar situations. He maintains that work doesnāt inform the Darkness too much, though he does allow that it furthers their understanding of the architecture of songs. āWe learn about how theyāre built,ā he says, āwhatās happening underneath the bonnet.ā
In the end, Dan explains, the band doesnāt chase down a song in the studio until itās been properly worked out. āBecause thereās no point, is there?ā Justin says. A delightful exchange about turds, and the pursuit of polishing them, ensues.
āThe only reason I can play guitar is because I wanted to work out how songs were written.ā āDan Hawkins
Dan Hawkinsā Gear
Guitars
- 2000 Gibson Les Paul Standard
- Gibson ES-355
Effects
- Ibanez TS9 and TS808 Tube Screamers
- SoloDallas Schaffer Replica
- Keeley Caverns
- Keeley Katana Boost
Strings & Picks
- Rotosound Roto Greys .011s
- Dunlop Nylon .73 mm
Dreams on Toast features the bandās current lineup with the rhythm tandem of Rufus Taylor, the son of Queen drummer Roger Taylor, and bassist Frankie Poullain. It was produced by Dan, who helms his well-appointed Hawkland Studios in Sussex, England.
Unprompted, he shows us around via Zoom, and in his lighthearted practicality, you get a sense of the study in contrast that the Hawkins brothers have presented since they were boys in the English seaside town of Lowestoft. (For an intimate look at their relationship and the bandās hard-won return, check out the 2023 documentary, Welcome to the Darkness, which will be available on platforms in the States starting in mid April.) The conventional wisdom dictates that Justin is the YouTube personality, the opinionated fount of charisma, falsetto, and unforgettable guitar leads, and Dan is the engine room, the pragmatist and a rhythm ace in the mold of his hero Malcolm Young. Itās definitely not that cut-and-dried; Dan, despite his modesty, can put together a great solo, too, and theyāre both affable and entertaining, with the pluck to have forged ahead through physical and personal challenges. But itās true enough.
āIāve been in my studio for eight hours a day working on my guitar rig for this next tour,ā Dan says, feigning salty exasperation. āIāve spent so much money.ā Enter Justin: āAnd I learned how to go snowboarding.ā Dan is interested in the guitar for āwhat it is capable of sonically, not necessarily emotionally,ā he says. āI imagine thatās like the opposite of how I see it,ā his brother replies. āThatās why it works!ā says Dan.
āAs soon as the amp question comes up ⦠I donāt even know what my settings are,ā Justin admits. āIām more concerned about guitars, and I think Danās more concerned about amps.ā
Dan the amp man: The younger Hawkins brother manages āTonehenge,ā the wall of amplifiers at his studio which he and his sibling use.
Photo by Gareth Parker
Visiting Tonehenge
Actually, Justinās response to the amp question is terrific: āYou could just send him a picture of the Tonehenge,ā he says to his brother, referring to a mouth-watering monument of heads and cabs in Danās studio. Dan goes on to explain his wall of sound and how he uses an Ampete switcher to explore various combinations. On Dreams on Toast, he says, weāre hearing plenty of Marshall and Friedmanāwhich ātake care of the EL34 stuffāāas well as a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier and a handwired Vox AC30 head that āplayed a major role.ā Dan doesnāt feel compelled to āpull out loads of weird combos,ā he says, because āweāve got a big sound that we need to portray pretty much straight away.ā Mission complete.
Guitar-wise, the big takeaway on Dreams on Toast is that weāre hearing less Les Paul than we might be used to on a Darkness record. Dan continues to swear by his 2000 Les Paul Standard, whose high-output 498 humbucker has had a huge impact on the consistency of his sound. āItās only in recent years that I realized you could actually pull the volume backā and achieve the tone of āa really nice old Les Paul,ā he says. His strings have thinned out to .011ā.052 after heād bloodied his fingers one too many times using .013ā.054 sets with a wound G.
For his part, Justin has largely moved away from the white Les Paul Customs that became an indelible part of his image long ago, settling into a fruitful partnership with the English brand Atkin, whose esteemed reputation for handcrafted acoustics shouldnāt overwhelm its versatile lineup of electrics. āI know Iāve sort of become synonymous with the white Les Paul, and thatās good; I think every generation should have a white Les Paul player,ā he says cheekily. āBut maybe my time is gone now. Maybe itās somebody elseās turn.ā
Justin enjoys his Atkin signature models: the Frankenstrat-indebted JH3001 and the JH3000 Mindhorn, an offset with two humbuckers and an LP-style bridge. āIāve always loved Strats,ā he says, beginning to describe his concept for the JH3001. āIāve always enjoyed the tonal variety, and the way they play is interesting.ā But signature instruments are opportunities to correct annoyances and combine archetypes, and so it goes with the 3001.
He wanted a floating, Floyd Rose-style bridge, which would allow him to do dive bombs āand all the things Iāve been teaching myself to do,ā he says. (Those shred moves impress as smartly deployed accents to tracks like āRock and Roll Party Cowboy.ā) Justin had long been frustrated with the standard pickup-selector location on Strats and āwanted the electronics to resemble more closely what the Les Pauls do.ā A 3-way toggle for two handwound humbuckers can be found on the upper horn, and the wiring is visible via a transparent Perspex pickguardāan homage, perhaps, to Justinās lovingly remembered Dan Armstrong acrylic guitar (for which he had only the Country Bass pickup). The JH3001, Justin says, is a āFrankenPaul, if you will,ā or, as Dan recommends, a āLesocaster.ā The Mindhorn, whose offset body might strike you as a meld of Firebird and Fender, offers Justin the reliability of a Tune-o-matic-type bridge; on other offsets heās played, like a Jaguar, heād pick so hard the strings would pop out of their saddles. āAlso, the selectorās in the right place for me,ā he says.
He also leans on his brotherās collection. One of his go-to instruments for his flourishing slide skills is Danās old Epiphone Casino. And Justin explains that Danās red Gibson ES-355 was the axe of choice for two of his hardest-hitting solos on the record: the twinned-up lines of āThe Longest Kissā and the breakaway Angus-isms of āI Hate Myself.ā
āWeāve got a big sound that we need to portray pretty much straight away.ā āDan Hawkins
Justinās signature Atkins JH3000 Mindhorn, wielded here, has forced his recognizable white Les Paul into a supporting role.
Photo by Gareth Parker
Solo Break
Which brings us to the choreographed majesty of Justinās solos across the Darkness catalogāmasterpieces in miniature, as hooky and bulletproof as the songs they complement. Justin expounds on his process: āWhen Iām trying to build a solo, we normally just run the track and I have a go. And usually, Iām going 100 miles an hour, finding phrases and trying to modify them so they donāt sound like where Iāve nicked them from. But the most important thing is that you can sing along to it, so it becomes a countermelody.ā He thinks technical dazzle can work beautifully in a solo, but only when itās held in judicious balance among less-showy principles. āThe thing that sets the great guitarists apart from the other ones is the expression,ā he says. āIām talking about dynamics and vibrato.ā
His lodestars of lead playing include Mark Knopfler, whose āTunnel of Loveā solo āshows you an infinite number of harmonic choicesā atop a straightforward chord sequence. āItās full of ideas,ā he says. āNone of itās showing off; itās all logic.ā Other favorites are similarly thoughtful rockers, among them Brian May and Jeff Beck.
He digs EVH too, though those concepts came later. āThere was a guitar teacher in Lowestoft that would teach everybody how to do thatāthe tapping and all the things that Eddie Van Halen invented,ā he recalls. āI didnāt go to that guitar teacher. I was more interested in blues playing, really, and that kind of expression. It wasnāt until later that I thought, āAh, fuck, I kind of wish Iād learned that properly.ā Because now Iām asking my guitar tech how to do it.ā
His brotherās lead playing is an inspiration as well, in its ability to surprise and draw contours that Justin simply would not. āHe makes interesting choices,ā Justin says, āand then I always scratch my head and go, āWow, I would never have thought to play that note.ā So I try and sometimes I think, āWhat would Dan do?āā
YouTube It
Watch the Darkness rip a trio of exuberant rock ānā roll romps to a massive festival audience.
Legendary shredder Joe Satriani was the first ever guest on Wong Notes, so it makes sense that heās the first returning sit-in with Cory Wong.
He teases a new song with Sammy Hagar, plus delves into the intricacies of Eddie Van Halenās playing and why he canāt quite replicate itāevery guitarist has their strengths and deficiencies, claims Satch. And believe it or not, Satriani didnāt figure standing in front of huge crowds to be one of his strengths when he was younger. Fate figured otherwise.
Satriani goes deep on one of his favorite tools, the Sustainiac pickup, and talks about how itās defined his playingājust like his trademark sunglasses, even in dark rooms. (āStupid idea, right?ā he jokes.)
And young guitarists, listen up: Satriani has some wise words on the importance of rigorous practice while youāre budding on the instrument. The big takeaway? Learn. Your. Scales.