COVER FEATURE
HOW TO SOUND LIKE THE ROLLING STONES – WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SHIRT ON THE OVERHEATED VINTAGE MARKET
The Rolling Stones’ sound is governed by its own arcane magic. Many have tried to imitate it but no one has really got close. There are few more elusive sounds in guitar than that of Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, not to mention Mick Taylor. It can be wraithlike, spidery chords and phrases like smoke in the wind. It can be in your face, like Jumpin’ Jack Flashor Start Me Up. As with their rock ’n’ roll influences, their guitar and amp choices are old-school, their rigs minimalistic. Keef might have popularised the fuzz pedal with the Maestro-driven riff to Satisfaction, but he has engaged little further pedalboard culture.
What’s more important is guitar and amp choice, with a few carefully chosen added extras, and here we will look at some options at a beginner to intermediate player’s budget, and for the serious amateur and jobbing pro. You can’t really buy a Micawber clone, Richards’ iconic modded Telecaster. Who among us can afford a ’59 ES-335? Who would dare fire bullets into our Gibson SJ-200, as Richards famously did? But we can find alternatives on the market. The rest? Well that’s all about your touch, feel and vintage rock ’n’ roll and blues vocabulary.
The best things in life are free
THREE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO SOUND LIKE THE STONES –WITHOUT PAYING A PENNY
1Learn open tunings
Keef’s favourite is Open G (low to high: D-G-D-G-B-D)
2Use five strings
Richards doesn’t need the sixth. It gets in the way!
3Play with a great drummer Or, at the very least, a great rhythm track!
You Got The Silver
FENDER VINTERA TELECASTER ’70S CUSTOM
Fender’s Vintera series knocks it out the park when it comes to affordable takes on its classic designs. If we’re looking at the Keef side of things, the Telecaster ’70s Custom should be able to handle most of the catalogue with its Wide Range humbucker at the neck position and ’70s-voiced Tele single-coil at the bridge. The ‘Thin C’ period-correct neck profile and 7.25” fingerboard radius should make it feel authentically ’70s, allowing you to wrap your grip right around the neck and throttle out the chords.
FENDER VINTERA II ’50S STRATOCASTER IN 2-COLOR SUNBURST
Ronnie Wood has played guitars from Zemaitis and Duesenberg as well as a Firebird, a Les Paul Junior, and his custom ESP. But his old faithful is a sunburst mid-’50s hardtail Strat. Now, it’s hard to find a non-Custom Shop model with a hardtail.
Robert Cray’s signature Strat is a superb option, but it has a ’60s C profile neck. We want a soft-V. The 1957 Strat from the American Vintage II series is another solid contender but for a grand, this new Vintera II model has the
