INTERVIEW: Dragonforce’s Herman Li
It’s always tough on fans when a singer leaves a band. Sure, Van Halen did fine with Sammy Hagar, and AC/DC didn’t exactly flounder when Brian Johnson joined, but there’s always that moment of “Oh jeez, will this work?” Post-Lane Warrant, heck, even post-Hagar Van Halen – there’s lots of scope for a misstep. Well the new Dragonforce album, The Power Within, will immediately shut up anyone who expects the band to lose some of its edge following the departure of ZP Theart. About a year after Theart walked, Dragonforce announced they’d enlisted Marc Hudson as their new voice. And what a voice. Dragonforce still sounds like Dragonforce, but even more musical, more powerful and more exciting. For a band who dishes out killer riffs and impossible guitar licks as easily as walking, kicking it up a notch is quite a feat. But The Power Within delivers.
Hi Herman! We haven’t met before but I remember you kicking around on the Jemsite forums back in the day.
Oh yeah! I still go to Jemsite. It’s got good information.
It’s been great to see forum regulars like you and James McIlroy (Cradle of Filth) going on to such big things.
Yeah! Actually James gave me the contact with Ibanez to get my deal!
No way!
Yeah!
Well, first question: What did the switch to Marc bring to the creative process?
With the switch of singer we definitely turned the whole recording process, the rehearsing, the whole band thing upside down and changed everything around. I think it was going to happen anyway, because after we finished the last album I wanted to really look back at the ten years we’d been doing the band – y’know, how we did it, how we wanted to change things, how we could make it better. So for this album and the recording process, I suppose I can almost say it’s completely different from the last album, the last two albums.
COOL GEAR ALERT: Line 6 StageSource L3t
I just received a press release from Line 6 about their new StageSource L3t powered loudspeaker, which is now shipping. At first glance this looks like a great PA-type speaker – and I’m sure it is – but it also offers some very interesting applications for the guitarist. It can serve as an acoustic guitar amp, which is handy, but it can also be used with Line 6 POD gear as a speaker system. So if you’re really attached to your ‘in the box’ POD settings and would like to use them onstage without running through a conventional amp, pair your POD with one of these and you’re ready to go.
Line 6 Ships StageSource L3t, the World’s Most Versatile High-powered Loudspeaker for Musicians
- Now available, StageSource L3t combines multi-function design with Smart Speaker modes, integrated mixer and digital networking for the widest variety of live sound applications -
CALABASAS, Calif. – April 10, 2012 – Line 6, Inc. proudly announces the availability of StageSource™ L3t. StageSource loudspeaker systems are built on a powerful new technology platform that enables a single enclosure to provide best-of-class performance in multiple live sound functions.
StageSource L3t is the most flexible loudspeaker available for musicians. Using six innovative Smart Speaker modes, the L3t optimizes its output for a variety of performance scenarios: front-of-house PA, floor monitor, personal PA, keyboard and acoustic guitar backline or with Line 6 POD® multi-effect processors as a high-performance electric guitar speaker system. Smart Speaker modes can be set manually or automatically via built-in orientation sensors that detect whether the speaker has been pole-mounted or rotated and tilted for use as a monitor.
Guitar Gallery of the Day: Mayones
Today’s guitar gallery is Mayones. They make plenty of great production line guitars – check out the Regius Elements – PERFECT with fretted or fretless neck, Seymour Duncan pickups and GraphTech Ghost System (Piezo preamp + MIDI Hexpander), or this Legend T - but their customs are a step beyond even that, as you’ll see from their gallery here. Check out the Setius PRO 7 Slime pictured above. It has an ash top, mahogany body with open sound chambers (look close and you’ll spot ‘em), cbony freeboard, custom green acrylic Slime inscription and position markers, DiMarzio Evolution (bridge) + PAF 7 (neck) pickups with Green covers, genuine Floyd Rose 7 bridge and Schaller tuners.
Or how about this Setius Dime Bomb XTrem 36? 36 frets, DiMarzio Evolution 7 humbucker (angled for 6 strings)… very cool.
New Rush album out June 8 – single out next week!
You’ve heard two songs from it previewed on the excellent Time Machine live album, now get ready for the real deal! Rush will release Clockwork Angels on June 8, with new single “Headlong Flight” hitting the airwaves and internets on Friday April 20. That’s next week! I can’t wait for this one, and I know a lot of I Heart Guitar readers are big Rush fans too. Fingers crossed for an Australian tour. Please?
RUSH RETURNS WITH “CLOCKWORK ANGELS”
CELEBRATED ROCK TRIO’S FIRST STUDIO ALBUM IN FIVE YEARS SET TO ARRIVE ON JUNE 8TH
Legendary rock band Rush have unveiled details of its highly anticipated, new album, “CLOCKWORK ANGELS.” This is the renowned trio’s first new collection of original material in over five years and their first studio release via Anthem/Roadrunner Records. “CLOCKWORK ANGELS,” the band’s 20thstudio album, will be released on June 8th .
The band is sharing an advanced taste of the music with a hard-riffing album trailer based on the “Clockwork” cover art on Billboard.com .
INTERVIEW: Buddy Guy
Blues legend. That’s all there is to it. Buddy Guy is one of the pioneers of the Chicago blues sound, a continually amazing guitarist, highly energetic performer, and a prime influence on one Mr Jimi Hendrix. At 75 years young, Guy is nowhere near slowing down, playing Australian dates in Sydney and Melbourne with Jonny Lang, as well as a standout set at Bluesfest. I spoke to Guy prior to Bluesfest and just after he finished up a string of dates on the Experience Hendrix tour in the USA.
“I’ve can’t count the times I’ve been to Australia,” Guy says. “I started coming down there in 1972. That was my first time coming down and I had never met [Delta Blues legend] Arthur Crudup before. I think it was the guy who created the Newport Jazz Festival, George Wein – he was taking it around the world, and that was my first visit to Australia. And what a country, man. I just fell in love with it.”
COOL GEAR ALERT: Vintage and Laka by Vintage ukuleles
Guitar Gallery Of The Day: Strictly7
Sure, Strictly7 don’t strictly make 7-string guitars – they also do 6, 8 and 9-string models – but whatever the string count, their guitars are incredible. Various production models are available with passive DiMarzio and Bare Knuckle or active Seymour Duncan and EMG pickups. Check out their custom gallery here, but make sure you check out their production models too – including their Ola Englund signature model (read Ola’s blog here).
REVIEW: DiMarzio Area T 615
The Fender Telecaster was the first production-line solidbody electric guitar, and Leo and co got it pretty much right the first time around. The Telecaster’s design is like a perfect storm of tone: the chunky body and the bolt-on neck joint encourage a particular kind of string energy transfer that retains a great deal of treble, and this gives the Tele its legendary ring. But there are many different approaches to the Tele tone. Some players need to tame the treble a bit, some wish to emphasise it, some require lower output, some want lower noise, and some want higher output. The DiMarzio Area T 615 is aimed at modern country players who need to retain the classic Tele tone but who need something a little more finely tuned for overdrive sounds as well as cleans. These players need the true Tele twang, but they also need solid, punchy tones for the rockier styles that have progressively crept into modern country.
The hum-cancelling DiMarzio Area T 615 is built with an Alnico 2 magnet. It has an output of 200 mV and a DC resistance of 7.93 Kohm. This puts it above the vintage-toned Area T bridge (175 Kohm) and below the heftier Area Hot T Bridge (238 Kohm).
Guitar Gallery Of The Day: Ormsby Guitars
Ormsby Guitars, from Perth, Australia, make some incredible custom instruments as well as a standard range, and they offer an intensive guitar making course which I hear great things about (and which I hope to do myself some time soon). All instruments are custom made from a variety of exotic and Australian timbers, their own hand wound pickups, and top shelf hardware. Six and seven strings, multi-scale, cool inlays… lots of eye candy at the Ormsby galleries, which you can see here.
Hi! I'm Peter Hodgson. I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), Blunt, Beat (including their weekly hard rock/metal column Crunch) and The Brag. And I'm Assistant Social Coordinator with Seymour Duncan.
I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've also dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.
You can check out my guitar playing at Bandcamp or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com