Plus—our latest musical obsessions!
Question: What’s a riff that sounds easy, but is hard to play?
Dominic Miller—Sting
Photo by Christoph Bombart
A: “Angie” by the Rolling Stones. It’s one of those guitar parts that sounds so straightforward (A minor, E7, G, F, C, etc.), yet no one actually plays it correctly.
I was guilty of this, too, until I went forensic with it and discovered all these subtle nuances with every chord—suspended chords, hidden licks, passing bass notes, and more. It’s an exquisite guitar riff placing Keith Richards right up there, in my opinion.
Dominic Miller's Current Obsession:
I probably share my current obsession with most of my contemporaries, namely The Beatles: Get Back documentary. I can’t get my head around how their sound is so perfect, making me think hard about what it takes to make a band gel. It’s chemistry and theirs is #%^ing rocket science as far as I’m concerned because all the elements work so perfectly together, yet in isolation none of the parts sound like anything special. Even the timing and tuning are off a lot of the time. What you end up with is the truth. I envy non-musicians and music fans mostly because they feel the truth more than most musicians do. Perfectionism is the enemy in recording situations. Neil Young’s Harvest is proof of that. A sublime album because it’s just straight-up honest. I was 14 when I first heard it and it spoke to me as it still does now, but if I put my muso hat on it’s all over the place. Kudos to the producers of the era! Takeaway? Next time I’m in a studio, I want to first cut the tracks live, second, don’t obsess about perfect timing and articulation, and last, but not least, make sure we have a good time.
Albert Madariaga—Reader of the Month
A: “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” by Tears for Fears.
Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Official Music Video)
The opening riff is easy, sure, but getting the timing and the accents right and keeping it going is a bit challenging.
Albert Madariaga's Current Obsession:
I’m currently obsessed with a new amp head I’m having custom-built by an amp guru in North Texas. He asked me about my favorite tones, the guitars I play, my technique, how I use pedals, and styles of music. When he told me that he believes the best amp for me will be modeled after a specific Dumble (I’m not going to tell which one), it was a “Hell, yeah!” moment. He no longer builds amps for a living and is doing this one-off just for me. Gonna wrap it in purple tolex with a nice accompanying grill cloth then backlight the front panel. I can’t wait!
Jason Shadrick—Associate Editor
A: When I was younger, I had a hell of a time figuring out “Satellite” by Dave Matthews Band.
Dave Matthews Band - Satellite
On the surface, it’s a medium-tempo, single-note riff that sounded as if Andy Summers sat in with Bela Fleck. I distinctly remember when I got the first three notes—all stacked fifths—and felt like I really accomplished something. My real breakthrough was when I saw DMB on MTV. I recorded it on a VHS tape and watched it every morning before school until I could cop Dave’s fingering. I’m still not sure if it’s 100 percent, but it makes a great finger-stretching warm-up.
Jason Shadrick's Current Obsession:
I haven’t been able to stop listening to Tallgrass by Bret and Joslyn Boyer. It’s a collection of old-time folk and traditional tunes masterfully arranged for acoustic guitar and upright bass. Bret has been a friend and guitar hero for nearly 20 years and his inventive playing doesn’t browbeat you with overly complex feats of technical mastery or dense harmony—even though he can play that card when needed. The father-daughter duo’s sole focus is the song, and that approach has become all too rare.
Pete Thorn—Contributing Writer
A: Van Halen, “Beautiful Girls.” This one swings HARD. To get the feel and the duration of the notes correct is a challenge.
Van Halen - Van Halen II - Beautiful Girls
You have to skip between the strings quite a bit and mute the notes just right, both with your left hand and your right, like when he clips short the open E and B strings, as a dyad, “Bang a Gong” style. And when he bounces in the intro from the A-string riff to the A5 dyad on the G and D strings, down to the F# on the low-E string—all tight, groovy, and seamless! It’s got a groove, a swing, a pocket that is super deep. And you have to use your guitar volume knob to clean up in the verses! It’s very dynamic. Such great rhythm guitar playing, interspersed with bursts of Eddie’s super-fun lead stylings! “I’m The One” is another super-deep swung groove that almost no one can play correctly! But I chose “Beautiful Girls” because no one ever mentions it as a “difficult to play” riff, even though I think it really is!
Pete Thorn's Current Obsession:
The new Failure album, Wild Type Droid. They’re always stretching, within the rock genre … they never stagnate. Great songs, mixed with awesome production. I toured with Kellii Scott, the drummer, in a band called Blinker the Star for a while, and he’s one of the grooviest, deep-pocket rock drummers I’ve ever played with. He’s very deliberate with his playing, like Dave Grohl. I love that style of rock drumming. No BS, just POWER. Great fills that support the song. And Ken Andrews is a force to be reckoned with all the way around, as a writer, player, and producer/engineer/mixer. Give it a spin!
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Revv G3 Purple Channel Preamp/Overdrive/Distortion Pedal - Anniversary Edition
The Revv G3 revolutionized high gain pedals in 2018 with its tube-like response & tight, clear high gain tones. Suddenly the same boutique tones used by metal artists & producers worldwide were available to anyone in a compact pedal. Now the G3 returns with a new V2 circuit revision that raises the bar again.
If 3 Were 6
With six times the controls found on the 1 and 2 versions (if you discount the original’s on/off slider switch,) the LPB-3’s control complement offers pre-gain, boost, mid freq, bass, treble, and mid knobs, with a center detent on the latter three so you can find the midpoint easily. A mini-toggle labeled “max” selects between 20 dB and 33 dB of maximum gain, and another labeled “Q” flips the resonance of the mid EQ between high and low. Obviously, this represents a significant expansion of the LPB’s capabilities.
More than just a booster with a passive tone, the LPB-3 boasts a genuine active EQ stage plus parametric midrange section, comprising the two knobs with shaded legends, mid freq and mid level. The gain stages have also been reimagined to include a pre-gain stage before the EQ, which enables up to 20 dB of input gain. The boost stage that follows the EQ is essentially a level control with gain to allow for up to 33 dB of gain through the LPB-3 when the “max” mini toggle is set to 33dB
A slider switch accessible inside the pedal selects between buffered or true bypass for the hard-latch footswitch. An AC adapter is included, which supplies 200mA of DC at 9.6 volts to the center-negative power input, and EHX specifies that nothing supplying less than 120mA or more than 12 volts should be used. There’s no space for an internal battery.
Power-Boosted
The LPB-3 reveals boatloads of range that betters many linear boosts on the market. There’s lots of tone-shaping power here. Uncolored boost is available when you want it, and the preamp gain knob colors and fattens your signal as you crank it up—even before you tap into the massive flexibility in the EQ stage.
“The preamp gain knob colors and fattens your signal as you crank it up—even before you tap into the massive flexibility in the EQ stage.”
I found the two mid controls work best when used judiciously, and my guitars and amps preferred subtle changes pretty close to the midpoint on each. However, there are still tremendous variations in your mid boost (or scoop, for that matter) within just 15 or 20 percent range in either direction from the center detent. Pushing the boost and pre-gain too far, particularly with the 33 dB setting engaged, can lead to some harsh sounds, but they are easy to avoid and might even be desirable for some users that like to work at more creative extremes.
The Verdict
The new LPB-3 has much, much more range than its predecessors, providing flexible preamp, boost, and overdrive sounds that can be reshaped in significant ways via the powerful EQ. It gives precise tone-tuning flexibility to sticklers that like to match a guitar and amp to a song in a very precise way, but also opens up more radical paths for experimentalists. That it does all this at a $129 price is beyond reasonable.
Electro-Harmonix Lpb-3 Linear Power Booster & Eq Effect Pedal Silver And Blue
