As the original guitarist of the Misfits, Franché Coma recorded one of punk’s great lost works, Static Age, before leaving the band in 1978. “Should I have done it? No. But I did,” he says.

In fairness, who could blame him? The Misfits were initially met with a wave of rejection from labels – even the one that funded their recordings. It wasn’t until they hired Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein as Coma’s replacement that they pushed to the forefront of punk via buzzsaw tunes and horror aesthetics.

He stayed friends with his old bandmates, watching their star rise. “I had no animosity,” he says. “There was no friction; no words, no fighting, no nothing.”

Some of the songs from Static Age – a 17-song session tracked in just 20 hours – trickled out in the ‘80s, before the full album was finally released in 1996. Since then it’s become iconic in its own right.

“Glenn Danzig was never difficult to work with,” he adds. “We had natural chemistry, except when I decided I wanted to leave the band, which was a mistake. But who knew? I thought I was moving on to something better.”

How did you end up with the Misfits?

We used to hang out at this park called Redstone Lane. [Bassist] Jerry Only and I were best friends. Jerry started playing with this band, with Manny Martinez and Glenn. They wanted to get a guitar player, and Jerry knew I was starting to play a bit. So they brought me down to Manny’s house, and that’s pretty much how I ended up with the Misfits.

What was your initial impression of Glenn?

I had no problem. He was a very talented musician, a smart guy, and had some insight into the scene in New York, which was a plus. He really knew what was going on. He wasn’t difficult to work with because he wrote the songs – he knew the songs.

He’d show you and say, “Do something like this,” or, “What do you want to do in this part?” We all just clicked.

Was the overall vibe pretty gritty, given financial constraints?

We played if we got $50, $60, or $100 bucks, whatever. It went toward the recording or the cover for the recording. So there were financial constraints, but we made it happen. I don’t ever remember taking a nickel, or even asking for a nickel.

How did the writing and sessions for Static Age kick off? What gear were you working with?

It was all the songs we originally started doing. Bullet became our first single and Attitude was on the flip side. My gear – I’m working on some of that same gear right now – was an Ampeg V4 head and a 42-inch V2 cabinet. And I used an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, and that’s pretty much it.

I bought a Gibson Explorer from a music store in Ridgewood, New Jersey: Victor’s House of Music, which is no longer there. But the guitar had no balls with the Gibson pickups, which were humbuckers. With the clean Ampeg, it was lacking the breakup we needed. So I changed to DiMarzio Super Distortions, added the Big Muff, and that pretty much created the sound.

How did Last Carress, Static Age, Bullet, and Teenagers from Mars come together?

Glenn had the rhythm for all the songs. If he wanted a little bit of a whatever with the vocals or the guitar, he’d say, “Let’s do it this way.” He’d say, “Here, give me the guitar – I’ll show you,” then I’d add what I do – you know, better!

Why did the band struggle to find a label?

We had our own label called Blank Records; a subsidiary of Mercury Records came out with that. I can still picture the one guy’s face who we worked out a deal with. We got 20 hours of recording time, the masters, the mother tapes, and an opportunity to be on Mercury.

But that never came about. They were stereotypes who thought they knew what was up-and-coming. They thought the punk scene was too underground and was never going to click. Well, 50 years later, I guess you can see it did. We really thought we had something. A lot of labels were like, “Fuck you,” and we were like, “Well, fuck you!” They thought there was no market, but you can see how things changed.

Is that why you left the Misfits?

There was no fallout. The band I was in after, Active Ingredients, I thought would go a lot further. We were headcases back then, because we turned down gigs with Iggy Pop and Tom Verlaine, because – I don’t know, we thought it was the smart move.

Glenn was probably a little frustrated with me, and I don’t blame him. But we were still all friends. I just thought the other band was going to make an impact. It was a really good band, but unfortunately it didn’t go in the direction it should have. But Doyle came along, and let’s face it, he’s the bulk image of the Misfits.

Glenn re-recorded many of the songs from Static Age in a reformed Misfits in the ‘80s. How did you feel about that?

I have no regrets about that – but I regret leaving the band. But putting the songs on Legacy of Brutality before we released Static Age in ’96, that kind of hurt a little bit, but I was like, “What an idiot I am!” Hindsight is 20/20.

But still no animosity?

Not really. I worked out it was a foolish move to leave. When Doyle came into the band it was all cool. Personally I don’t know if I could have done that. All things happen for a reason, I guess.

As you mentioned, Static Age was finally released in ’96 and is now considered a defining work.

I feel great about that. Glenn doesn’t recognize the Static Age name – he’ll tell you he believes it comes off Legacy of Brutality. I get it. But it’s what we did, and it’s pretty much everything.

I just wish I had gotten to record Horror Business, Children in Heart, and Who Killed Marilyn? I played those live before I left, and I did them a little differently. You know, different guitar player, different things. Nothing against any of the guitar players after me. I just mean it would have been cool to hear my ones.

Have you reconciled with your regret?

We always have regrets – especially when you see a band you were in playing Madison Square Garden. Doyle’s image is phenomenal, and his stage presence is outrageous. So I have no animosity. I left the band, and I shouldn’t have. We can’t undo what was done.

What might the Misfits be like had you stayed?

They were into the makeup and the horror, and all that. Could I have stepped into those shoes? I’d probably say no. I was never into horror punk. But I think my legacy is pretty good.

I don’t know what could have taken place because Doyle was always there, since he’s Jerry’s brother. He was learning the songs because Jerry always has a backup plan. Maybe we both woulda been in the band… but I doubt it.

Introduced in 1979, the Steinberger headless bass guitar was a revelation. So progressive was its design and composite construction that the fact it was headless seemed almost incidental.

Yet neither the headless concept nor the use of composite materials was entirely new: Les Paul had built a guitar with its tuners mounted on the body as early as the 1940s, while Modulus Guitars was already producing carbon-graphite necks.

Ned Steinberger, however, united the two ideas to create an instrument quite unlike anything that had gone before.

“I wasn’t aware of Les Paul’s guitar until we started to market the Steinberger bass,” he told Bass Guitar Magazine in July 2008. “It’s kind of a funny story. I was going around bragging, saying, ‘Look at this – the world’s first headless guitar!’ and Les said, ‘No, that’s wrong – I built the first headless guitar back in 1942.’

“Of course, he was right. I went to his house to see the guitar but he couldn’t find it! To Les, it was just something he did that went into the closet.”

Trained in sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Ned Steinberger came to instrument design through a chance meeting with Brooklyn bass builder Stuart Spector in the mid-1970s.

The pair would go on to develop the NS bass, later adopted by the likes of Doug Wimbish, Sting and Rex Brown, giving Steinberger his first serious experience in the world of guitar and bass design.

“At the time I was sharing space with Stuart in a Brooklyn woodworking co-op. He was building guitars with natural wood finishes and was getting feedback from dealers to the effect that these would be real cool if they were basses.

“He figured that they had a point and I became involved with him in designing what would become the Spector NS bass. Stuart taught me everything I knew about musical instruments at that time.”

It was while working on Spector basses that Steinberger began questioning one of the instrument’s most fundamental characteristics: its balance. His initial solution was to add a lead weight to the body to counteract the pull of the neck. But the experiment raised a more intriguing possibility.

Rather than adding weight, why not remove the source of the problem? That idea would ultimately lead Steinberger to dispense with the headstock altogether, and explore materials more commonly associated with aerospace and industrial design than musical instruments.

“I figured that, rather than put weights in the body, why not just move the tuners to the butt end of the guitar? From an ergonomic standpoint, I wanted to make the bass as light as possible, but I soon discovered the importance of weight and stiffness. Once I got the idea for a headless bass I became a true believer.”

A fortuitous meeting with boat designer Bob Young provided the solution.

“I was looking for someone capable of manufacturing composite instruments. Word got out and a local fiberglass supplier put me in contact with Bob.

“Bob was an amazing guy and a brilliant engineer. He knew all about composites. Remember this was back when graphite was still considered a space-age thing.”

Steinberger eventually settled on an epoxy resin reinforced with carbon graphite and glass fibre.

The resulting Steinberger L2 bass was elegantly simple. The body and neck were a one-piece moulding, with EMG pickups mounted on a removable ‘lid’ constructed from the same material. A separate fingerboard made of fibre-reinforced phenolic resin was fitted with conventional frets.

“Development of the L2 started somewhere around 1977. It was a product by 1980. The original had some practical and aesthetic issues and these were addressed with the introduction of the XL2 in 1983.”

Today, graphite reinforcement and phenolic nuts are commonplace, but Steinberger was among the first to demonstrate their practical benefits – and the benefits of headless designs in general.

He’s one of the greatest guitarists of all time by the metric of sheer technical ability alone, but of course, there was so, so much more to Eddie Van Halen than the eye-watering speed.

He had showmanship, and a composer’s flair for the dramatic, but more than that, he completely re-engineered the guitar itself: how it was played, and how they were made.

Playing-wise, EVH wasn’t the first guitarist to elicit oohs and ahhs with two-hand tapping, but he perfected it, and put it on the radar of every aspiring guitarist.

On the luthiery front, not content with the tonal limitations of his Stratocaster, Van Halen modified it with a powerful humbucker pickup – thereby helping launch nothing less than an entire new breed of electric guitars.

His tone – the legendary Brown Sound – is one of the most imitated in all of rock guitar, the product of endless tinkering and experimentation. Oh, and he was also one of the pioneers of the home recording studio.

All that said, there’s a reason his name comes up more than that of just about any other guitarist (Hendrix maybe has him beat) in this publication. But how well do you know him? His music, those technical innovations, and quirky guitars? Test your knowledge in our quiz below.

Away from new product releases, the She Rocks Awards is one of the biggest events that takes place at the NAMM show every year – and 2027’s honoree list just got a few new entries.

Ibanez signature artist Lari Basilio, eight-time Grammy-nominee Joan Osbourne, and artist development strategist Wendy Parr have been announced as honorees. Country music rising star Sacha confirmed for the event’s curtain raiser.

The awards ceremony celebrates the influence of women in music and audio, having honored everyone from Jennifer Batten and Suzi Quatro to Lzzy Hale and Samantha Fish in years gone by.

The new additions will join the already announced honorees, Kiki Wong and Melissa Manchester, with Fish returning as a co-host this time around.

Basilio has collaborated with Joe Satriani and performed with artists as varied as Willow Smith, Avril Lavigne and Doja Cat. She dropped her latest album, Redemption, last year and is now balancing virtuosity with motherhood.

Osbourne’s resumé includes work with Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder, while Parr has over 35 years of industry experience. She has assisted stars including Regina Spektor and superstar producer/songwriter Desmond Child (Kiss, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi).

The event will take place Saturday, January 30, 2027, in Anaheim, California, with tickets now available to buy.

“This year’s lineup is such a great reflection of what the She Rocks Awards has always been about – recognizing women whose impact on music takes many different forms,” says Laura B. Whitmore, founder of the Women’s International Music Network and co-producer of the She Rocks Awards.

“Joan, Lari and Wendy have each forged their own remarkable paths as artists, creators and mentors, and we’re thrilled to welcome Sacha to open the evening. And we’re not done yet – we have more exciting honorees and special guests to share as we get closer to January.”

The She Rocks Awards has the backing of firms including Positive Grid, PRS Guitars – whose owner has just been inducted into the Guitar Center RockWalk of fame – Martin, Ibanez, and Seymour Duncan.

See She Rocks Awards for more.

When Green Day released their Dookie album in 1994, they went from an underground punk group from San Francisco to one of the biggest bands in the world. Not only were they great songwriters and musicians, they got a lot of attention for Bille Joe Armstrong’s monster guitar tone, which came from a modified Marshall provided by producer Rob Cavallo.

It was tweaked at Custom Audio Electronics – founded by legendary electronics guru Bob Bradshaw – by master guitar and amp builder John Suhr. In the mid ’80s, Suhr was working at Rudy’s Music on Manhattan’s 48th Street, across the street from Manny’s. He was making a name for himself building guitars for Mark Knopfler, Peter Frampton and Reb Beach.

Suhr was also creating his own amp mods, and like most tone wizards, he was self-taught. He carried a satchel full of tech books with him on the subway to work. “I was happy when the train got held up, so I could read,” he says. “That’s where I learned a ton of it.”

He eventually got in touch with Bradshaw, who sent an amp to work on, but didn’t tell him who it was for. Suhr later found out it was Steve Lukather, one of his favorite players. It was the first time he’d modified an amp with what he calls the crunch mod – and a variation of that would eventually become the Dookie mod.

Bradshaw wanted a three-channel preamp, which became the CAE 3+. Based on Suhr’s circuitry, the first channel was a cleaner black-panel Fender sound, channel 2 was the crunch mod, and channel 3 was what a “singing overdrive tone.”

Eddie Van Halen, who was close to Bradshaw, used it on Van Halen’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge for a number of tracks – he liked channel 3.

Top studio guitar players including Lukather and Mike Landau were already using Bradshaw gear, and the 3+ proved to be a very versatile addition. Kirk Hammett used it for Metallica’s Black album, and Megadeth employed it for several records, too.

Suhr believes he created the crunch mod in 1988, and first put it into a JCM 800. His initial tone influences were the usual suspects of hard rock – Leslie West, Brian May, Neal Schon, Billy Gibbons, Angus Young. The tone he was going for was “a ballsy crunchy Marshall with some saturation in the notes.”

But he couldn’t stop tinkering.

“The more I listened to it, the more I thought, ‘Channel 2 isn’t exactly what I want. It’s a little too bassy, and a little too out of control.’

“So I modified that, and that very first preamp is what became the Dookie crunch mod. It’s a little more bassy, and more of the high-end is rolled back.” The tone he was going for was a cranked-up Plexi “but a bit less wild.”

Suhr left Bradshaw to become a master builder at Fender, so it was an assistant at CAE, the late Martin Golub, who put the crunch mod into the Green Day Marshall. “Martin was trained to do amp mods and we would job a lot of stuff out to him,” Suhr says. “He would wire our racks as well.”

Golub modified several other Marshalls for the Dookie tour.

“As I understand it, one has the channel 3 mod, and one is closer to the crunch mod,” Suhr says. “A tech who worked on one of Billie’s road amps gave me a schematic, and it was identical to the first prototype amp.” (In addition to modding amps for Green Day, Golub also reportedly worked with Tom Petty, Sum 41, Mick Mars, Brad Paisley and others.)

In a recent interview with legendary studio guitarist Tim Pierce, producer Cavallo said the amp he’d taken to Bradshaw was a 1971 Marshall Super Lead Plexi, and Armstrong used his Fernandes Strat-style with a Duncan JB pickup in the bridge. “Nobody really had any money,” he said.

“But I decided to spend a little on the off-chance that [Armstrong] might like the sound of it. We went to Bob and I said, ‘Make something that sounds kind of punk, but also sounds kind of rich,’ so that it would be very intense and bright, but also sort of sing.” (Cavallo recalled working on the amp himself, but Suhr says Golub usually did the work.)

At first, Suhr didn’t know the crunch mod was on a monster-selling album. “I didn’t learn about it until after I was at Fender, which was probably about ’93 or ’94,” he says.

“It really hit me when people started contacting me about it. I still get a ton of requests for Dookie mods. I have six of them in front of me to work on right now.”

Marshall recently announced the production of an official Green Day amp – the first artist signature they’ve made in 14 years. But if you want the sound direct from Suhr, you should be able to get it soon.

“My plan, maybe for next year, is to put all my mods into a couple of amps,” he says. “That way people can flip some switches, and if they want the Dookie mod they can flip it here.”

It’s remarkable that, over 30 years since Green Day exploded, there’s still a great demand for the tone – but, as Suhr says, “A great sound is timeless.”

Guitar heroes came in all shapes and sizes in the ‘90s. Mark Bryan might not have riffed as heavily as Cantrell, slung Superstrats like Morello, or oozed sex appeal like Navarro, focusing instead on good old-fashioned songwriting and a humble attitude on Hootie & The Blowfish hits like Let Her Cry, Hold My Hand, and Only Wanna Be with You.

“I remember saying we would have been happy if we could just sell out clubs all over,” Bryan says of their 1994 breakthrough success, Cracked Rear View. “We had no idea what was coming. It made me want to get better in order to live up to it – I was so green when we hit. I did a ton of woodshedding and songwriting, since I didn’t have a real job!”

That commitment made him the writer, player, and producer he is now with Hootie and his own band, The Screaming Trojans. “I started a home studio; it’s still evolving to this day,” he says. “Rather than try to expand my sound on just guitar, I built my studio with instruments I learned to play, like ukulele, mandolin, lap steel, and banjo.”

His current focus is his new label, Stone Point Records. And though they’re on the sidelines, Hootie & The Blowfish are still very much a thing.

“If you told me when I was young that I’d spend my entire adult life doing what I love, with some of my best friends, I would have told you. ‘That sounds like a dream come true,’” he says. “I’m still living the dream.”

What inspired you as a young player?

I grew up in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., in the ‘80s. Danny Gatton was the local guitar hero, but I was too young to ever see him. Hardcore punk and go-go were raw scenes in the city; they definitely influenced how I expressed myself through music.

But I was this awkward jock from the suburbs – I had no idea who myself was. Then, when I was around 13, I heard My Generation, arguably the first punk rock song of all time, on the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show. There was something in the energy of that song that I had to follow.

Pete Townshend became a major influence, not just as a guitar player but also composer. So did Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen, and all the heroes I discovered listening to rock radio. Once I got to college it was The Edge, Peter Buck, and Paul Westerberg.

What got you going toward being a professional musician?

I was in a high school band with Dean Felber from Hootie, called Missing in Action. I had the same cherry Gibson Les Paul Standard that I still play today. I played it through a Peavey Deuce that had channel switching.

How did you meet Darius Rucker, leading to the formation of The Wolf Brothers?

We lived in the same hall in Moore Dormitory at USC. We would put a boombox in the showers before going out, and that’s where I first heard his voice. I had my shitty Ovation acoustic at school with me. We started figuring out songs we both knew, like Take It Easy, Feelin’ Groovy, Sail On, Sultans of Swing, Family Tradition… yes, Hank Jr. – and Rocky Raccoon!

When Hootie formed, what was your vision from a guitar perspective?

Dean was the obvious choice on bass, and he also decided to attend USC, so Darius moved in with him in the dorm to make sure he would show up to shit. Dean and I would teach Darius chords and he quickly got pretty good.

For a long while, I thought we’d grow as a rhythm-lead guitar team, but Darius was more interested in singing – he’s happy to just strum along on songs he feels comfortable with.

What were the first songs you wrote, and what gear were you using on the demos that got you signed?

The first two Hootie demo cassettes actually had all of the hits from Cracked Rear View on them. I was playing my Les Paul through a Mesa Boogie Mark III at the time, but it got stolen soon after. So I bought the Mesa Boogie .50 Caliber head that I still use on tour today. I’ve played through both Marshall and Boogie cabinets live, but producer Don Gehman’s Marshall cab is the one you hear on Cracked Rear View.

How did your amp get stolen?

We had a practice space in a warehouse that we shared with other bands. Someone decided to remove my Mark III head and Marshall cabinet. I was really upset – I had to save for long periods of time in order to afford gear in those days.

We knew who did it but there was no way to prove it. I even went to his house and asked his mother to let us look in his music room. She told me to eff off or she’d call the cops. I told her, “Go ahead, call ‘em!”

I couldn’t find another Mark III head, but I found a Mark III combo 1x12; it’s hot, but just not the same. I ended up falling in love with the .50 Caliber, and I added a Tube Screamer for what would have been the middle channel on the Mark III. That’s still my live sound with Hootie.

What do you remember about making Cracked Rear View?

I used my trusty ’73 Cherry Les Paul Standard, my new-at-the-time Gibson Tennesseean hollow body, my ’69 walnut-stained Gibson ES-335, and my buddy Steve Lipton’s Fender Telecaster. I mostly played through my .50 Caliber Boogie head, connected to Don’s vintage Marshall cab. He also had an early ’60s Gibson J-45 acoustic that we used.

Where did you get the ’73 Les Paul?

I bought it for $500 in high school from my friend Bijou Khan. Jimmy Page was obviously the inspiration – I strapped it low. I never made any mods.

What can you tell us about making Let Her Cry, Hold My Hand, and Only Wanna Be with You?

We came up with the accompaniment for Let Her Cry during soundcheck at the Brewery in Raleigh while we were hung over! Darius was excited about playing us the song he’d written after he got home from the bars early that morning. I think we were playing it the way you hear it now by the third time we went through it.

Hold My Hand was the first song Soni [drummer Jim Sonefeld] brought into the band when he joined. I remember sitting on the college bedroom couch in my senior year and coming up with that high inversion part while he strummed the chords – all three of ‘em!

I came up with the riffs for Only Wanna Be with You on my 4-track and gave it to Darius to write lyrics. We were playing occasional shows with Dillon Fence at the time, and it has a similar rhythmic bounce to one of their songs, but with a double-time strum pattern. It was more like Pinball Wizard or something. It’s really fun to play, and we added some mando to the recording.

Cracked Rear View was a huge hit record. Did Bob Dylan coming after the band over Only Wanna Be with You catch you off guard?

We got clearance to use the Dylan lyrics in Only Wanna Be with You, but they still came after us on a technicality, which was kind of surprising. I sure wish they’d have handled it the way Tom Petty and Sam Smith did [when they settled a rights dispute over Smith’s 2014 song, Stay With Me, and its similarity to Petty’s Won’t Back Down]. We could have made Bob Dylan a writer on the song. But that’s all past now.

At the height of Hootie’s fame, did you get the chance to meet any of your heroes?

I met Eddie Van Halen – or ‘Shredward,’ as the guitar player from Ugly Kid Joe called him. He couldn’t have been cooler. We shared a dressing room at the Grammys, and after we won he gave me a big hug, and we all just hung out. He was so sincerely humble for a guy who was maybe the greatest on the planet. He was genuinely excited for us that evening, and I’ll never forget it.

What led to Hootie’s hiatus?

We’d done five albums and about 20 straight years of touring. It was time for a break; we were even doing Darius’ first country single on our last tour. I’ve always made solo albums out of the songs we don’t use on Hootie albums – not because I was after a career as a solo artist, but because I wanted to give those songs a life that they wouldn’t have otherwise.

You reunited and put out a new record, Imperfect Circle, in 2019. What’s the latest, considering Darius has been hinting at retirement lately?

He always says stuff like that! I think he is still enjoying it. I think we have another great album in us, maybe our best yet, since we have a way of saying things now that we never could have had when we were younger.

Whether as a solo instrument or the centrepiece of a band, the acoustic guitar continues to be one of the world’s most popular instruments, in just about any style you could name.

This example piece is played unaccompanied (Blackbird-style foot taps are optional, of course), so you’re responsible for holding the whole thing together. If you take a look at the transcription, you’ll see this isn’t a hugely complex exercise, but keeping the alternating bass clear and regular is crucial, so tapping your foot (audibly or not) is a good idea.

I chose to use a pick-and-fingers approach, as this got more definition out of the all-mahogany Martin I used for the recording, while keeping the sweet treble response. Depending on your guitar and/or preferences, you could also try a thumbpick or simply fingerstyle.

Breaking the example piece down into its component chords, we have versions of D7, D5, F6/9 and G5 in the first section. F6/9 is a chord that will likely raise questions. This version of F uses the open third and fourth strings, so we have a G (9th) and a D (6th) respectively. As with all unusual chords, there are multiple angles from which this could be described theoretically.

The simplest seems to be F6/9, rather than F6sus2, which is also correct – though neither of these names addresses the fact that the 3rd (A) is omitted! Also of note is the Em9 in the next section, which takes an influence more from the English-style folk of John Renbourn or Bert Jansch than American bluegrass, but it’s a nice chord.

As with any new piece, it’s best to take things slowly and patiently while the muscle-memory/conditioned reflex develops.

First, note that this is in drop D tuning, meaning that the low E is lowered by a tone. The overall feel of this piece owes a little something to 4 + 20 by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Sometimes the bass alternates between octaves, usually wherever we’re playing any kind of D chord.

This changes to root and 5th for virtually everything else. One notable exception (which escaped our notice until transcribing this…) is bar 7, where the low D swaps to beats 2 and 3 of the bar.

This must have helped with playing the doublestops above! It can be helpful to separate the bass notes and chords/doublestops at first, then build up to some of the more complex moments such as in bar 14.

This is the only other time we break the rhythmic pattern of the bass. Lastly, be sure to slow down in the last two bars for a grand finish.

Hear it here

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu

4 + 20 is the best style-match for the example piece, with its alternating bass fingerstyle pattern, even though this was played in an open tuning (similar to open D). You’ll hear the same alternating bass pattern (albeit strummed) in Teach Your Children, which is completely driven by the acoustic guitar.

Elsewhere, the acoustic’s presence is very evident in the title track. As an extra bonus, try to imagine waltz-style Country Girl without the strummed acoustic!

John Renbourn – The Best of John Renbourn

This collection of tunes allows us to hear not only the inestimable John Renbourn but also his collaborations with Bert Jansch and the group they went on to form, Pentangle. Be sure to check out Can’t Keep From Crying, Lord Franklin and – with the disclaimer that it may be intimidating on the first listen – I Know My Babe.

If this collection should make you curious about what else Mr Renbourn was capable of, then we urge you to check out Faro’s Rag from 1976’s The Hermit as well.

Alison Krauss & Union Station – Paper Airplane

If you like great acoustic, bluegrass and blues playing, we’re confident you’ll love this album. Check out the title track, followed by Lay My Burden Down; this flatpicking style could be played hybrid or with fingers only, but the accuracy and attack from the pick is hard to beat.

Another version of the alternating bass style drives album closer, My Opening Farewell. Also, listen out for some exemplary slide/resonator playing from the great Jerry Douglas.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly gear round-up, your one-stop-shop for keeping up to date with what’s been happening in the big wide world of guitar gear over the past seven days.

From new electric guitars to amp modeler updates, the guitar industry is never short of fresh releases, and it can sometimes be hard to stay in the loop with every new launch.

To make things a little easier, we’ve put together an essential must-read guide that will cover the major releases, the boutique drops, and everything in between.

Below you'll find my personal highlights from the week, along with plenty of honorable mentions for the new gear you might have missed. Agree with my picks? Have a highlight of your own? Let us know in the comments.

Dumble Overdrive Special

Well, it’s official. Dumble amps are back. After the Dumble Preservation Society made a public appearance at NAMM 2025, we knew this day would come. And here it is.

There’s a few things to note. First, Drew Berlin, one of the late amp maker’s close colleagues, told us that they had to build a new amp in order to retain the company trademark that Howard Alexander Dumble himself left to a small collection of trusted confidants.

Second, the new Dumble machine is designed to honor the legacy of the mythical amp engineer, and as such these new amps will be highly exclusive and made to order.

Three are listed online. The Tweedle Dee, which is inspired by the Fender Tweed circuit Dumble modded for Kenny Wayne Shepherd; the MegaPLX, which was the last amp Dumble ever made; and perhaps his most iconic creation, the Overdrive Special.

It’s the amp that’s been championed by the biggest names in guitar. John Mayer, Joe Bonamassa, Keith Urban, the list goes on. The fact it’s returned is quite a big deal.

Strymon La Brea

The Strymon Deco has been on my wishlist for as long as I can remember; ever since I played one on my friend’s pedalboard. I have the Flint already, and the larger reverb stations kind of intimidate me, but the Deco? Man, that is some pedal.

The digital Tape Saturation and Double-Tracker is one of Strymon’s biggest hits, largely thanks to that former effect. Equally effective as an always-on tone tonic and a cranked, spitty vintage tape-style fuzz, it’s one effect I’ve always wanted in my rig. The issue was, the Double Tracker feature came with it – and that would’ve been surplus to my requirements.

Strymon has read my mind, apparently. This week it launched the La Brea, which takes the magic of the Deco’s tape saturation effect, converts it for an analog package, and puts it into a standalone stompbox.

Arriving in Strymon’s new smaller form factor, it looks like the perfect middle ground for those (like me) who want the best part of Deco experience without buying an entire Deco. Strymon has been killing it with its analog pedals. The Fairfax I reviewed was awesome. I expect this will be, too.

ALSO LAUNCHED THIS WEEK

IK Multimedia TONEX 2 Player

A new desktop control platform for IK Multimedia’s flagship TONEX Board. It lets you craft entire signal chains in the software to transfer to the Board.

For more: IK Multimedia

Jackson Chris Rörland Soloist SL7

A first Jackson signature model for Sabaton’s Chris Rorland, who has put a clever little spin on the Soloist platform.

For more: Jackson

Chibson Cease and Desist knobs

Well, this is fun, isn’t it? Chibson has released cease and desist control knob tops that poke fun at Fender’s Stratocaster copyright campaign. Perfect for any S-style.

For more: Chibson USA

Mayones Henrik Linder Cali HL 6 mini bass

Yep, this is a real instrument. Mayones has partnered with Dirty Loops’ Henrik Linder for five- and six-string bass guitars that… er, well, they’re really very small. Just watch the video above.

For more: Mayones

Warm Audio Mod Series

A new series headlined by a Black Keys Peach Fuzz signature pedal, which sees Warm Audio reformat its classic effect clones into a smaller chassis – meet the Centavo Mod and WA-C1 Mod.

For more: Warm Audio

Gretsch Limited Edition Quilt Classic Falcon

Another drop-dead-gorgeous limited-edition Gretsch, which gives the Falcon a quilt maple top in Forge Glow. A very classy twist on the White Falcon.

For more: Gretsch

Brian May Red Special gin

Not a gear technically, but it does have ‘Brian May Red Special’ in its name so worth mentioning. We imagine it will be as tasty as May’s guitar tones. Gin is a very apt drink to go with the Red Special.

For more: Portobello Road Distillery

They say the best way to improve as a guitar player is is to record yourself and listen to it back. But it’s not easy. In fact, it can be all kinds of horrible.

It used to be worse. At least nowadays we can quickly record something, apply a little bit of digital voodoo to it, a nice IR, some reverb for space, gussy it up and make it sound all right, even if the playing stinks.

But if you’re at the stage where you are listening to yourself back and thinking of sticking your electric guitar on Reverb and giving up, then just take a moment, because you’re not alone. Even the pros feel this way from time to time.

Chet Atkins is one of the greatest to ever have done it – hero and mentor to Tommy Emmanuel, inspiration to a generation and all-round virtuoso. They called him ‘Mister Guitar’ – he’s the one and only Country Gentleman – and yet Atkins would hear himself play and his heart would sink.

Speaking to Guitar World in March 1986, he admitted that his playing made him feel sick. “I never like what I play – especially the old things,” he said, and there was one incident that especially stuck out in his mind.

“I remember going down the road one day and I heard a tune on the radio called The Love Bug Crawl,” said Atkins. “I can’t even remember the artist, but I was listening to this thing and I said, ‘Boy, that sounds good. Wonder who that guitar player is?’ Then suddenly I realized it was me and it sounded terrible.”

Atkins would have been forgiven for the lapse. The Love Bug Crawl was an old rockabilly standard from 1957, recorded by Jimmy Edwards. Atkins was just a young buck when he sat in on the session, alongside the likes of Floyd Cramer and Buddy Harman, aka the Nashville A-Team.

But then again, Atkins would later sign Edwards to RCA on a one-year deal, and got him to track y Otis Blackwell’s Your Love is a Good Love. So there’s that.

But anyway, the point is, our perception of our playing is now how others hear us. When Atkins was listening to this long-forgotten recording, it sounded good. It still sounds good.

But there’s a psychological switch that’s flipped when we know that’s us. For Atkins, it was a particularly violent and visceral reaction.

“It’s always that way when I hear myself,” he said. “If I don’t know it’s me I think, ‘Damn, that’s pretty good. Wonder who that is?’ Then when I realize it’s me I kind of want to throw up.”

The moral of the story? There’s a fine line between applying a critical ear to your playing and to trashing it completely, and if the great Chet Atkins feels like this, what hope do the rest of us mortals have?

Last year, Tommy Emmanuel – one of Atkins' proteges – revealed how he first met his biggest guitar hero by knocking on his door unannounced.

What is it?

If you are someone who utilises amp and effects modeling gear, you have probably heard the term ‘FRFR speaker’ at some point. These are powered speaker cabs that aim to amplify a modeler as transparently as possible, therefore preserving the tone you have likely spent hours lovingly tweaking. To achieve this, these cabinets are designed to be full-range - producing sound across the full spectrum of human hearing- and flat response - refraining from coloring your tone in any way. Hence the FRFR moniker.

From that description, you would be forgiven for assuming that all FRFR cabinets sound the same. If they don’t color your tone at all, then surely the only differences between one FRFR cab and the next would be size, shape, and volume, right? Well, the truth is, it is impossible to create a speaker cabinet that is fully transparent.

Speaker choice, size, cabinet material, construction, and so on, all conspire to make each FRFR cab sound slightly different. So, it is worth trying out a few, including the one I currently have in for review - the HeadRush FRFR-12 CAB.

HeadRush – also known for its Pedalboard and Prime modelers - is an interesting case in this field, as back in 2018, it was one of the earliest companies to release a guitar-focused FRFR monitor with its FRFR-112. While that original release is essentially a slightly reimagined wedge monitor, the new FRFR-12 CAB is styled like a guitar cab, with a three-band EQ, high-cut, an XLR line out, tilting legs, and Bluetooth connectivity.

These features are what differentiate products like this from ‘normal’ wedges/P.A speakers, and as digital modeling is now commonplace, we have a number of guitar-focused FRFR cabs to choose from - the IK Multimedia Tonex Cab, Laney LFR10, Line 6 Powercab and Fender FR12, to name just a few examples.

So, if the HeadRush FRFR-12 CAB is going to stand out in what has quickly become a crowded market, there is no room for error.

Specs

• Launch price: $499 | £359 | €429
• Type: FRFR cabinet
• Origin: China
• Output: 325 watts RMS (750 watts peak)
• Speaker: 12” woofer, 1” compression driver
• Controls: 3-band EQ, high cut, Main volume, Bluetooth volume
• Connectivity: 1 combi jack/XLR input, XLR line out, Bluetooth connectivity
• Weight: 39.2Lbs/17.8kgs
• Dimensions: 485 x 245 x 467mm/19.1” x 9.6” x 18.4”
• Contact: HeadRush

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

The pleasing thing, and the biggest upgrade to HeadRush’s previous FRFR offerings, is that the FRFR-12 CAB looks like a guitar amp.

It’s a closed-back, wooden construction with a tolex wrap that gives the whole unit a premium feel. The controls are set on a brushed aluminum panel and offer some resistance as they are turned, giving me confidence that they are built to last.

The brown-tweed grille is undeniably classy too, and lined with a little white piping at the top. That piping is very slightly raised on the left-hand side, but not problematically so.

Up top, the unit is adorned with a carry handle which, although it feels robust enough, is a little too plasticky to continue the more premium feel of the rest of the cab.

Something I have previously highlighted in other FRFR cabinets are tilting legs that scrape against the side panels. Here, HeadRush has added some soft rubber to the inside of the legs to protect the covering. A nice touch.

On the review model, however, the rubber of the left leg comes away a little easily at the end. It can be stuck back on with a firm press, but it seems the adhesive is not holding the rubber to the leg as steadily as it should. Something that could easily be a little bit of bad luck with this particular example.

Another point against the HeadRush FRFR-12 CAB is its weight. At 39.2lbs, it is considerably heavier than most other FRFR cabs. Take the Tonex Cab at around 28lbs, for example. In fact, it is not far from the weight of my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe tube combo, coming in at 43lbs. If you are into modeling to escape the backbreaking work of lugging around tube amps, you’ll want to avoid this.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

Getting set up with my Line 6 Helix and making some noise, it’s very quickly apparent that things don’t get much easier than this. Turn the cab on, use either an XLR or ¼” jack to connect your modeler to the combi input, turn up the main volume, and tweak the EQ if you need to. Done.

The legs allow you to tilt the cab back, which is a godsend for live monitoring as it directs the sound towards your ears. After all, if you are using the cab as a monitor, there is no point in directing all that volume to the back of your knees (side note, I am a big advocate for amp stands for the same reason.)

For tweaking the sound that you have sensibly pointed at the things you actually listen with, there is that aforementioned three-band EQ that both boosts and cuts, as well as a High-Cut control.

Everything is clearly labelled here and works as expected. However, as the aim of the speaker is to accurately replicate a modeled tone, I would prefer to see a notch in the middle of the three-band EQ controls to make it easier to set the cabinet completely flat before adjusting for the room you are in.

In terms of other features, there is not too much to write about, which makes sense, given the $499/£359 price. FRFR’s with bells and whistles such as the Tonex Cab and Line 6 Powercab 112 (not the Line 6 Powercab CL, that is a slightly different bit of tech) are both above $650.

What it does have is Bluetooth connectivity that works seamlessly. I was able to connect my Google Pixel 9 to the cab the first time, with no issues. There is also a separate Bluetooth volume control, which is extra handy for jamming along to backing tracks at home.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

As I touched upon earlier, every speaker cabinet will impart some slight tonal characteristics onto a sound, so it is a little tricky to tell which is the closest to the holy grail that is true transparency. However, having played just about every one available, there are a few things about the HeadRush FRFR-12 CAB that stand out. For info, I’m using my Line 6 Helix Floor with presets I have played at hundreds of gigs, along with a Fender Telecaster, Fender Stratocaster, and Gibson Les Paul.

Starting with the low end, there is enough to make clean tones sound full whilst staying super tight; however, I would like just a little extra oomph here. Turning up the Bass control to try and coax some more out of it, things get a little boxy, as you might expect on a 12” speaker. On the plus side, it retains that tightness throughout, keeping gain sounds flub-free.

The midrange is where I feel the HeadRush is doing a great job, with a smooth and clear response. Using a mid-forward Dumble-based preset, the mids are replicated in exactly the way I would expect for this sound, showing that the FRFR-12 CAB, is excelling at transparently replicating these frequencies.

Playing around with the Mid control, there is enough sweep to tweak for a room, without allowing you the facility to butcher your painstakingly constructed tone.

Where the HeadRush FRFR-12 CAB falls a little short is in the high end - at least initially. Things are a touch spiky here, but, thankfully, the High Cut control does exactly what is needed to dial that out. So in the end, it is a non-issue - just be prepared to do a little tweaking.

With that in mind, I didn’t feel the need to play around with the Treble control, but, similar to the Mid, if you find yourself in a venue that requires some adjustment, there is enough sweep to do that without going too far either way.

When it comes to volume and power, the HeadRush does not have as much on tap as something like the Tonex Cab, but there is enough to keep you happy on all but the biggest stages.

Verdict

A question often raised with these types of units is, well, why? Surely, if you are going to the bother of bringing a speaker cabinet to monitor the modeler that was meant to replace your amplifier, you may as well have just used an amplifier?

This is a fair question, and one that can be leveled at the HeadRush FRFR-12 CAB more than its competitors given its heavier weight. As a user of both modelers and real amps on stage, the answer to that question is that the benefits of modeling go beyond space-saving portability.

For example, a function band player covering a wide range of sounds is well served by a modeler with hundreds of amps and effects on tap; the stoic reliability of digital components can inspire confidence for those gigging week-in, week-out; and knowing you are going to get exactly the same sound at every gig means minimal setup and tweaking from venue to venue.

Not that there isn’t a place for good old volume and tubes, of course, but the point is that when circumstances align to make modeling the best choice for the job, it’s not always because we want to bring less gear. Therefore, a good FRFR speaker can be handy.

The HeadRush FRFR-12 CAB is certainly that. Yes, it could do with a little more impact in the low end, and there is some tweaking involved to get the high end in a good place, but the sort of missing low end is a minor issue that will be unnoticed next to the bass guitar and kick drum in a live mix, and the high-cut control offers plenty of facility for that tweaking.

Guitar World verdict: It’s easy to use, more than loud enough for monitoring yourself on all but the biggest stages, and sounds great with a little adjustment. The Bluetooth connectivity is handy for some at-home jamming, and while it’s not got a ton of other bells and whistles, what it does do, it does well.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Headrush

EytschPi42

Armadillo Distribution Enterprises has been ordered to pay more than $4million to Gibson, to reimburse its legal fees over the two brands’ long-running dispute over trademark infringing electric guitar body shapes.

Gibson filed a Rule 54 application on October 10, 2025, in a bid to reclaim its legal fees, a claim which also included a $2.34m enhancement, in part because of the complexity and specialized knowledge to tackle the case. Altogether, that would have brought the bill for Gibson's legal costs to $6,651,632.82.

The United States District Judge Amos L. Mazzant, however, rejected that, but did rule that Armadillo must pay for Gibson’s lawyer’s bill, which amounts to $3,811,026.13, plus a further $235,417.92 to cover the the costs of litigation. The Texas court ruling was made on September 25, and gave Armadillo 14 days to pay it.

The ruling comes after the legal dispute went before a second jury trial in March 2025, when the Texas court ruled largely in Gibson’s favor, protecting its SG, Explorer and Flying V body shapes, plus the word marks for the Flying V and Hummingbird.

However it, found that there had been no infringement on the ES body shape or the Dovewing headstock. Furthermore, it declared that the ES body shape was “generic”.

The jury only awarded Gibson a token $1 in damages.

Nevertheless, Gibson declared it a success. In a statement to Guitar World, Gibson described the outcome as “another major legal victory in its ongoing commitment to protecting its iconic designs.”

Judge Mazzant ruled that Gibson’s “degree of success” at the March 2025 retrial was considerable enough to grant Gibson’s Rule 54 application in part. The news is the latest plot twist in a legal battle that dates back to 2019 when Gibson sued Armadillo over alleged trademark infringement, trademark counterfeiting, unfair competition and trademark dilution.

After Gibson’s 2022 legal victory, Dean was ordered to stop manufacturing V, Z and Gran Sport electric guitars. In November 2023, Dean launched updated its lineup of V-shaped and Z-style guitars with unapologetic taglines, “Back with a Vengeance and Zero apologies,” and, “Zero f**ks given,” respectively.

Where all this leaves Dean Guitars is hard to say. In June 2026, Armadillo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy alongside Concordia, LLC, the IP holding company for Dean. This court-supervised reorganization gives Armadillo and Concordia LLC the opportunity to restructure their financial obligations.

Pamela Keris, Armadillo owner and CEO, said the move would strengthen its financial foundation and ultimately be to the long-term benefit of its brands.

“Resolving the financial pressures of recent years allows us to focus fully on growing what we’ve built,” said Keris. “We remain fully committed to our customers, our dealer network, and our employees. Dean, Luna, and ddrum are strong brands, and this process will allow us to emerge as a more resilient organization.”

There was better legal news for Armadillo in May 2026, when it won its legal battle against Dimebag Darrell's estate.

Yes, we all love pouring money into guitars, pedals, and amps, but recording and listening back to your playing is one of the most powerful ways to genuinely improve your playing. If you want to get into recording guitar, or just want to add something to an already existing setup, you should head over to Sweetwater, where you can bag some awesome savings on gear in their Studio & Recording sale

Top-tier brands like Universal Audio, PreSonus, TC Electronic, Warm Audio, Rupert Neve Designs, Shure, and plenty more have got discounts, with hundreds off in some instances. The selection admittedly isn’t massive for guitar players, but there are some nice studio monitors, audio interfaces, microphones, and a boatload of software with significant discounts.

I’ve had a look through the sale and picked out some of my favorite gear for you, to give you a head start rather than scrolling through page after page of gear. My top deal of the sale is a nice $100 discount on the Universal Audio UAD Guitar Amp Plugin Bundle. It’s got four classic amp tones with Marshall, Vox, and two Fender amp simulations.

I’ve been hands-on with all of these amp sims, and they really are fantastic quality. Plugged into an audio interface, you can get tube-like tones without spending loads, and there are a lot of powerful presets to get you started if you don’t have much experience dialing them in. For me, I love the UA stuff because it’s super simple to use and gets you a great sound quickly.

If you’re recording at home, you’re going to need an audio interface, and the PreSonus Quantum HD 2 is a great option for guitar players. In our PreSonus Quantum HD 2 review, my colleague Pete said, “It’s quite squarely aimed at us guitarists by virtue of its feature set and how the associated blurb reiterates PreSonus’ collaboration with parent company Fender. My approach was to consider this as a guitarist first, and within this context, it impresses.”

I don’t think I can put it better than that! It’s currently got a massive $175 price reduction in the Sweetwater sale, making it even better value for money than it already was.

Finally, I had to pick out a pair of studio monitors. There are some cheap, smaller PreSonus ones on sale, but if you want to blast your guitar at home, a bigger monitor is always better. The KRK Classic 8 is a beast of a monitor with its 8-inch speaker, and will deliver your guitar tones with plenty of punch.

They’re $199 each in the sale with a $50 reduction, so they will cost you less than $400 for a pair, which, if you ask any studio engineer, is really good value. They’ve got 1/4-inch and TRS inputs, so you can connect directly from your multi-effects or amp modeler, and there are controls on the back to adjust the sound if placed close to a wall.

Metallica brought heavy metal thunder to the Las Vegas Sphere last night as they became the first metal band to play the futuristic venue.

The band kickstarted their Life Burns Faster residency last night (October 1) and they didn’t hold back, pairing a hit-laden set with incredible visuals.

Benefitting from pivoting to digital modelers back in 2013, they haven’t had to tweak their backline like John Mayer did last year – who had a crafty solution to the venue’s strict noise policy. As such, they could focus on the performance, and it was full of slamming metal anthems.

From a rambunctious Battery – which saw the band’s iconic Master of Puppets reimagined in full immersive glory on the Sphere – to the album’s title track, which rounded out the night, this was Metallica unlike you’ve never seen them before.

Other big hits included Creeping Death, Sad But True, and The Memory Remains, with Kirk Hammett and bass player Robert Trujillo afforded the chance to have noodly solos at the halfway point.

The set focussed heavily on their most robust tracks, while proto-thrash-prog stonker ...And Justice for All got its first airing since 2014. Modern Metallica was represented by Now That We’re Dead, The Day The Never Comes and Lux Æterna.

And Metallica made the most of the Sphere's visual prowess. The set had everything from rollercoasters hurtling through city locations, to leviathan hourglass sand timers and immersive, flame-licked churches emblazoned on the screen behind them throughout the night.

Guitars spotted during the show include James Hetfield’s signature ESP Snakebyte, and a replica of his prized 1980 Electra Flying V. Meanwhile, a black Gibson Flying V and the unmistakable ESP Mummy could be spotted in Kirk Hammett’s hands.

Metallica will play seven more shows at the Sphere on 3, 15, 17, 22, 24, 29 and 31 October, meaning they wrap up their residency on Halloween. It’s pretty fitting.

Metallica setlist: Sphere, Las Vegas, October 1

• Battery
• Creeping Death
• Now That We're Dead
• Sad but True
• The Shortest Straw
• Wherever I May Roam
• The Day That Never Comes
• ...And Justice for All
• Kirk and Rob Doodle (Sleepwalk My Life Away)
• Nothing Else Matters
• The Call of Ktulu
• Lux Æterna
• Ride the Lightning
• The Memory Remains
• Seek & Destroy
• Master of Puppets

Heavy metal was already in full cry when Conrad ‘Cronos’ Lant and Venom got started, but they were the ones to give it a push, to pour gasoline on the fire, and to take it to new extremes.

“If Black Sabbath were Frankenstein, Venom are the Evil Dead,” said Cronos, speaking to Guitar World in 2015.

Cronos could never understand why Ozzy Osbourne would call out for God to save him. He would never take the Left Hand Path. Ozzy would sing about Satan but – as the song goes – Venom would be in league with him.

As bassist and vocalist, Cronos would lead Venom from the front. Their fundamentalist metal ethos needed a sound that it couldn’t be housetrained. Technicality and all that was a distraction. Cronos wanted chaos. And he got it.

“I decided I would be the evil bastard. But the music had to be evil, too,” he said. “So, while all these other groups would get to their lead breaks and play these pretty little leads, I wanted to have divebomb solos and guitars crashing against amplifiers and all this madness.”

Venom were formed in Newcastle, England, in 1979. Cronos was just 16 when he started on electric guitar. It was only when bassist Alan Winston got the heebie-jeebies and quit the band just five days before a show that Cronos switched codes and moved to bass.

Cronos played bass guitar like he played the electric, plugging it into his Marshall, cranking it up, playing the root notes and hoping for the best.

“Something magic happened. It sounded fucking amazing,” he said. “So I said, ‘Fuck it, I’m the bass player now!’”

In the early days, Venom would rehearse every week in a Methodist church they rented for £5, playing Judas Priest, KISS and Black Sabbath covers, and setting off the pyrotechnics that soon be their calling card. They’d pull in a few hundred metalheads to watch them rehearse.

Clive Archer, a long-haired ghoul who went by the stage name of Jesus Christ, was on vocals, Jeff ‘Mantas’ Dunn was on guitar, and Tony Bray, aka Abaddon, played drums. Archer looked the part in corpsepaint but his time was numbered.

The story goes that Mantas and Abaddon heard Cronos sing Live like an Angel (Die like a Devil) and wanted him to front the band. Other accounts say Archer was leaving anyway. Either way, it was a hinge moment for metal history. The man who would become extreme metal’s godfather and popularize the phrase ‘black metal’ was now at the mic and he was a force to be reckoned with.

Like many of music’s great pioneers, Cronos had a certain entrepreneurial acumen. He was working as an assistant engineer and tape operator at Impulse Studio, in Wallsend, not far from Newcastle, when he was asked to help record a bunch of local bands to capitalise on the rise of NWOBHM.

There was an urgent new sound and Impulse Studio’s owner, David Wood, also owned Neat Records wanted in on the action. Cronos did his bit. But he wanted some studio time for himself.

With studio engineer Mickey Sweeney oversubscribed, working all hours, Cronos would help out, and asked Sweeney to return the favor. He got Wood to give him some studio time but he paid for it.

“I ended up washing cars, sweeping the stairs and cleaning the toilets just to get that day in the studio,” Cronos recalled. ‘But we got to go into the studio and put down the stuff we had.”

Venom cut their Demon debut in April 1980, their six-song £50 Demo in October. They sounded rough but they had a vision. Neat released In League With Satan as a 7” single in April ’81, introducing Baphomet as a the band’s trademark, and put out their debut album, Welcome to Hell, in December.

Venom had arrived, much to the horror of critics. The production was horrible, and yet it is hard to understate its influence; lo-fi audio hideousness would become a production ideal for the black metal scene that Venom would influence.

Tracks like Witching Hour and Sons of Satan gave extreme metal form. Slayer, Anthrax – all of the main players in the thrash scene – would eat this stuff up. Norwegian black metal pioneers Mayhem took their name from Mayhem with Mercy.

But Cronos and Venom were just getting started. Their sophomore album, Black Metal, was the one. It sounded better, not pristine. That frenzied energy that Cronos got from punk was writ large as this super-evil Motörhead tore out the speaker.

“Lay down your soul to the gods rock ’n’ roll” came the refrain of the title track. Venom now had a record that was just as wild as their stage show. Black Metal was the album that became the genre, that became the text that informed metal’s underground subculture. It was the source.

“People credit us with starting a movement and all, but the truth is I think it was inevitable,” said Cronos, speaking to Guitar World in 2008. “Punk had died. Metal was lame. There could only be one new way to do this – for metal bands to get some fucking balls again.”

It was inevitable that Cronos would become a musician. He grew up in a musical household. His uncle played bluegrass. There was always musical instruments kicking around, and he, his sister and two brothers, were encouraged to pick them up and make some noise – not that tracks like Countess Bathory and Buried Alive were their thing.

“I knew I was doing right by my music when I found out that my parents hated it,” he said.

Venom caught heat for their use of Satan as their muse. The PMRC took exception to 1985’s Possessed. But then so did Cronos. He called Possessed “unrehearsed bollocks.”

He was refreshingly honest about his missteps. Cronos acknowledged that pulling a high-concept Rush/2112 move on 1984’s At War With Satan was too much for some fans – but isn’t that the point of being extreme, to have the audacity to give us a 20-minute black metal track that took up the entire Side A?

“Let the joyous celebrations of Hell begin”, indeed.

A band so extreme was bound to come apart at the seams. As inevitable as Cronos saw Venom’s emergence, so too was its lineup changes. Cronos was the one constant.

But then he was a something of a renaissance man, with a wicked sense of humor. Was he entirely serious when he said he died his hair with henna to be like Kate Bush, whom he was a superfan of? Probably.

He was no pushover. When Combat Records sent a production team to record Venom at Studio 54, and offered no contract, Cronos took an axe off the wall and cut the power cables. “One of the things we found out early on was that, in this business, if you let somebody rip you off, then it’s a free for all,” he said. “And you just didn’t do that to Venom.”

Cronos was many things. He became a fitness instructor in the ‘90s. He was a birdwatcher. He launched his eponymous solo project in 1990, and after reanimating Venom for a second time in 2005, he kept it going, releasing their 16th album, Into Oblivion, via Noise/BMG in May. He cultivated Carolina Reapers and Naga chili peppers. But ultimately he was free. That’s why he had no time for religion.

“My philosophy is this: you’re born and one day you’re in a box, and what you do in between is your own choice,” he said. “And to live by a dogma that tells you that you can’t do this and you can’t do that is one of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard.”

His death on October 1st, aged 63, invites discussion of his legacy. To give Cronos credit for black metal is almost to undersell his and Venom’s influence. He once described black metal as “all of the metals” and that’s his legacy.

“It’s always nice to hear that we came up with the phrase ‘black metal,’ but I get a lot more pride from seeing just how much metal is out there now,” he said.

“When I realized that there are so many millions of people around the world who also like that style of music, well, that’s just the most amazing thing in the world to me.”

You’d be hard-pressed to find a pop or rock guitarist who came of age in the ’60s who isn’t a fan of the Beatles. Carlos Alomar is no different. This is why, despite years spent working with James Brown, Chuck Berry, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger, Alomar was slack-jawed at the chance to work with Paul McCartney on his 1986 record, Press to Play.

“It was truly a wish-come-true moment,” Alomar says. “I’m not sure why Paul liked my playing, but maybe my success with David Bowie, Iggy Pop, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Duran Duran and others might have tickled his curiosity.”

This seems a good time to remind you that, in 1976, Alomar actually co-wrote a song – Fame from Bowie’s Young Americans – with Lennon, putting him in rare company with McCartney. And yes, Alomar also shares that co-write with Bowie.

Regardless of how or why it happened, Alomar lent his unique brand of rhythm playing (and a bit of lead) to McCartney tracks like Press, Pretty Little Head, Stranglehold and Only Love Remains, all of which turned 40 years old this year.

“The fact that I was included with such notable musicians who have played with Paul was awesome in itself,” Alomar says. “Paul was gracious enough to allow me to always complete my musical ideas, and then he’d simply say, ‘Great! Let’s try another song.’ Many of my tracks were first takes.”

While he and McCartney got on well during the Press to Play sessions, they haven’t seen one another since. “I departed the same way I arrived,” Alomar says. “Happy and knowing I had just served Sir Paul McCartney. Paul, in turn, met a Puerto Rican Buddhist rocker who satisfied his curiosity and gave him stories to remember!”

What led to your being called to play on Press to Play?

Like most musicians, it always starts with a call to action. I got a call from producer Hugh Padgham, whom I’d met when he produced David Bowie’s Tonight [1984]. He was now producing Paul and wanted to know my availability.

Paul had laid down some guitar parts, but Hugh felt that a “finishing” session with me would complete the tracks. At first, the answer from Paul was, “No.” But a little later, I received a call confirming that, on second thought, Paul thought it was a good idea. So off I went to meet my second Beatle.

What was it like meeting Paul?

It was unreal to meet another Beatle. [Laughs] I’d already worked with John and Yoko, and my wife, vocalist Robin Clark, worked on Ringo Starr’s 1977 album, Ringo the 4th. So – to us – George Harrison was the only missing member.

Paul is known to be pretty chill. What was he like?

He was the most regular guy I’d ever met. Almost a farmer, the kind of guy that frequents the local pub, no pretense whatsoever… a lovely chap. And I was in a friendly “home” environment as well. His wife, Linda, was there; his daughters, they were all there! But here’s my real first impression.

When I arrived, Paul invited me up to his study. There, a comfortable high‑back velvety chair invited me into its warm embrace. We talked. Paul was super-intrigued by my stories about being on the R&B chitlin’ circuit tours. We talked about Bowie, James Brown, the Apollo Theater and Harlem. Quite honestly, my curiosity as a Buddhist prompted me to ask about the Beatles and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. That time in their career had always intrigued me.

While listening, Paul turned his back to me slightly to get something. What emerged was a perfectly rolled Jamaican “carrot” ganja joint. [Laugh] We talked and talked, and time stood still. Finally, I said, “Maybe I should listen to some of the tracks before it gets too late – or we get too wasted.” That’s when we headed down to his Hogg Hill Mill studio [in East Sussex, England].

What was Hogg Hill Mill like, and what gear did you bring in?

I brought my favorite Strat, thinking it might be stylish enough to create whatever I’d need. And yes, maybe I’d get an offer to try one from the studio. But it wasn’t really a plan… more like a wish. [Laughs] But since you asked, I’ll tell you this. While maneuvering the corridors to his studio, we came across an enclosed glass studio room.

My gait stalled while the vision of what lay within froze me instantly. I felt a slight lip-drool. I might have slobbered a little as I stood in front of all this vintage Beatles gear. I’m talking about his Hofner basses, Vox amps, Mellotrons and a Beatles-logo drum kit.

There was so much gear that it was impossible to take it all in. It was too much for any musician to endure for too long, so I followed them down the hall, promising myself the luxury of returning to this sacred crypt once again.

Paul and Hugh Padgham produced Press to Play. How did they impact your guitar playing?

Hugh is one of my favorite engineers. He mixes while we’re listening. That’s really cool. So when I play anything, it already sounds like it’s mixed into the record. And he records everything, regardless of what you think. This methodology helps capture great bits of music when you least expect it.

What do you remember about putting together Press and Pretty Little Head?

We finally got to the studio, and Hugh started playing tracks for me. First song, I said, “Nah! That sounds finished. Next...” And another, I said, “That one’s cool… “Nice guitar work…” Finally, they played Press. When I listen to the tracks, I try to hear this other [hypothetical] guitar player, not me, playing something, you know?

I kinda hear it, and then I think, “Damn! Can I play that? So I look over at Hugh and tell him that I hear this digital delay effect on my guitar, and we started setting the timing.

Little did I know, he was recording everything. It appears as the intro to the song before the count-in, which was brilliant. After that, I just used classic call-and-response for the rest of the song. And then it happened – the moment every guitar player wants to hear: “Would you like to take a solo?” I was in heaven. Somebody pinch me! [Laughs] Incidentally, we used the same digital delay effect on Pretty Little Head in the Ursa Major section of the song.

What are your memories of recording Stranglehold and Only Love Remains?

Not much, because there are some songs that you have to lay in the cut, you know? Like, no signature guitar lines, just accompaniment and tone. For example, when you have a string section playing syncopated stabs and other rhythmic parts, it’s best to just play a little acoustic for color. For horns, it’s best to follow or get out of the way. Sometimes less is more; don’t disturb the groove.

Pete Townshend played on Angry. Were you in the studio with him?

No. Regrettably, sometimes we are called upon to do overdubs and not the basic rhythm tracks. To that end, I’ve not met many iconic guitarists that I’ve shared credits with. I guess the wish list continues.

The first time you heard Press to Play, what were your thoughts?

I loved it – especially the intro to Press. And I liked that it was the album’s sort-of title track. Wish-list – check! Also, remember that the final vocals, some of those spoken voices and other tidbits weren’t there when I laid down my tracks. I heard it all for the first time just like everyone else. I love being a fan.

40 years later, what does Press to Play mean to you?

It was a pleasure working with Hugh Padgham again, and we’re still connected. As for Paul, he and I had a large time. We raised our glasses high, visited Jamaica on the down-low, flew kites on the hilltop and broke bread together as family. Who could ask for more? Although we haven’t spoken since, I can always visit him in the inner chambers of my heart.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Anyone looking for a natural inheritor to Bert Jansch and John Renbourn should pay serious attention to rising Scottish guitarist Sam Grassie.

Grassie grew up around traditional folk music in Glasgow, and his deft, melodic guitar playing was shaped by the influence of British players including Dick Gaughan, Dave Goulder and the aforementioned Jansch and Renbourn. His blending of folk and trad, with complex yet expressive playing, has seen him share stages with Robert Plant, Martin Carthy and Gwenifer Raymond.

Having played with Scottish trio Avocet, Grassie moved to London in 2022 and immersed himself in the folk community, playing in ‘travelling folk club’ Les Caravanes and London collective The Broadside Hacks.

He has now released his solo debut, Where Two Hawks Fly, 11 tracks featuring both traditional and Grassie-penned arrangements, with a host of collaborators. When he spoke to Guitarist, Sam seemed happy with how the guest-filled LP translated to the live stage.

“I toured with Alfie Jones [grandson of Wizz Jones] on electric guitar, which really works well depending on the venue,” Grassie explains.

“It was great to have lots of people involved on the album, but the nice thing about acoustic guitar playing in the vein that we’re chasing is that if you’re on stage, feeling calm and your fingers are working, the guitar can do a fair amount of talking.

You’ve played in various line-ups on the British folk scene. Why did now feel like the right time for your solo debut?

I love collaborating and probably never want to do this alone, but I’ve wanted to create my own album for as long as I’ve been recording anything. When Avocet came to an end, I tried to work on my singing, but chronic fatigue meant I’d get dizzy. It was hard to practise as I was so ill. In some ways it happened as early as it could.

My Sandwood EP [2024] did better than I expected, so I wanted to build on that. Luckily, on that day I actually managed to play in time! Going from trying to play technical guitar that was above me and too fast, I realised that all the greats are just playing in time, and that’s why it sounds so bloody good.

I sent the tune that became Abhail’s to Alfie Jones [Wizz Jones’s grandson]. He added some lap steel, and that little bit of alchemy on a bare guitar track made me think that could be the sound of the album. I went for it and ran off to Berlin to record it as quickly as I could.

What did you learn from the recording process?

There was enough material to create something fairly coherent, but I was a bit slapdash when I went to Berlin and the guitar I recorded on was a nightmare! My friend Herbie Loening, who played double bass on the record, is a trad strummer and lent me his Yamaha FG-110: small body, high action, not good for fingerstyle.

There’s so much reverb on the track [so] the guitar sounded like a metallic Transformer walking down the road!

[Another thing I learned was] just be way more ready than you think you need to be. Because every time you sit down, you make loads of mistakes and you’ve spent £300 per day!

You often cite Bert Jansch as a major influence. How has your relationship to his music changed over time?

“I like that it hasn’t [changed]; it’s a constant. The deeper I go, the more admiration I have. It’s an asymptotical relationship – I’ll never be able to do what he was doing, but it’s that freedom I chase, his dexterity and fluidity. When I started getting into guitar and writing my own stuff, I thought he was the GOAT, and if I could ever do anything like that it’d be fun.

I still come back to tunes like Come Back Baby from the really early days and just think, “Fuck, that’s it.” For me, it doesn’t really get any better – it’s raw, rugged, gritty, stubborn, dark but free.

Production-wise, it’s interesting to see how the pressures of being a proper recording artist affected his later work, but I’m lucky that I’m unsuccessful enough that those pressures won’t be on me! But he always stayed true to what he wanted to do.

Your 2025 EP, Jarabi, Winter Has Gone, blended Celtic trad with Malian blues. What drew you to that crossover?

What’s cool in London at the moment is quite gritty, while in Scotland, everyone is playing super-fast and technical; it’s light and breezy with electric guitar, synth and a token gesture towards dance music with the thumping bass. But that lighter aspect isn’t raw. So there’s dark folk that’s raw, but the light folk is very clean, and something that’s trying to be light doesn’t need to be clean.

Martyn Bennett took Scottish trad music and fused it with drum and bass and jungle – his albums will knock your socks off – so when all these bands take light folk and add all this soft stuff, it’s like, “Surely, you’re all aware of this guy?” He managed that, and we should all be striving for the same.

I came across Malian music by attending gigs at the Fringe, like banjo player Jayme Stone with kora player Mansa Sissoko playing Africa To Appalachia. Malian music is the closest you can get to the sound of life and the natural world. It’s so free, fluctuating, fluid and absolutely beautiful. I’d love to find a collaborator to do more of that, but I don’t know if I have the tekkers!

You’ve had the chance to play Bert Jansch’s and Jackson C Frank’s guitars – and you recently performed a set for Turnstone Guitars with a Select Series TG model. Do you have a preference between vintage or modern instruments?

I love vintage guitars, but the Turnstone guitar [made from katalox and Swiss moon spruce] knocked me out, to be fair. I love playing beautiful modern boutique luthier guitars, and some aspects are better than vintage for live, especially unamplified. That Turnstone guitar echoed through the room, it was like playing a harp.

For recording, I really prefer vintage. Modern guitars have so much to say, so there isn’t much space left for giving it what you want to. You have to do what the guitar tells you to do – modern guitars are all light and amazing and everything is ‘Wow!’ But what if the song is sad? It’s different tools for different jobs.

I’ve literally just been to the [New Kings Road] Vintage Guitar Emporium to play a 000-28 from 1967. It was fucking amazing! But for gigging I use a modern Martin that I’ve set up myself to sound twangy and old. I’ve got a 1968 000-28; I love playing it, but I don’t have enough money to risk taking it around the place.

I have Bert’s Yamaha [LL11e] from the ’90s. It’s strange playing that because if you’re a big fan you’re thinking of the Blue Album [self-titled debut] when he had a Martin. Yamahas are great, but for me [they] don’t stand up to a high-end Martin. I’ve had nice moments sitting with it, thinking, “Shit this is Bert Jansch’s guitar and I’m lucky to hold it,” but, playing-wise, it’s not super-inspiring.

However, Jackson’s guitar was a [1948] Brazilian rosewood D-28 and it’s probably the best guitar I’ve ever played, like a whole other thing, and speaks to the fact it was there. It was inspiring to play that, and felt like there are songs still in there.

In a recent interview, you talked about coming from a rich folk tradition that’s being chipped away by TikTok. How do you think social media has shaped your playing?

Hopefully it hasn’t! The more you engage with it, the more you’re vulnerable and likely to be malleable to it. It’s like an alternate reality that we believe to be the same as our own. For me, the guitar is opposite to all that.

There are all these things in life that try to compartmentalise and distract and atomise, but when you’re playing guitar – and if you manage to get to that nice spot – you’re in a nice state of flow. If anything, it’s decreased the frequency and ease with which I can get there, but what I’m making isn’t tailored to that at all.

One of reasons I’ve stuck with the guitar is that it’s like a torch to follow; the ‘me’ when I’m playing guitar in the way that I want to play it, or [am] trying to, is a better person than me outside of that. I can learn from that self. If I could take a leaf out of the ‘guitar Sam’ book and apply it to other things, that’d be good – and one of those things is fuck social media changing how I do this thing.

What have you got planned next?

I’m going to get a dreadnought Martin, as I’ve missed that. And it’d be really cool to record the next album live. I want to get the funds together to get everyone in the room and capture that moment over a few days or weeks. Giving tracks to people to work on at home is not the same as working together in the room; people can inhabit the songs and find their space within it.

• Where Two Hawks Fly is out now via Broadside Hacks Recordings.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Jim Root has responded to the backlash that has faced Slipknot’s decision to book Marilyn Manson as the opener for their upcoming stadium tour.

The nu metal giants will embark on a massive world tour in 2027. They’ll kick off with a 90,000-capacity show at London’s Wembley Stadium, with a rotating support cast of Marilyn Manson, Lorna Shore and Hatebreed in tow.

However, Manson’s inclusion has come as a surprise to many, in light of him facing a wave of sexual misconduct allegations in recent years.

In 2025, a four-year investigation into allegations from multiple women concluded with no charges filed. Another case of alleged sexual assault concerning Manson is set to go to court in November 2027. Manson denies any wrongdoing.

For Slipknot fans, Manson’s presence on the bill makes for uneasy viewing. Jim Root, however, has tried to downplay the controversy of his booking ahead of some monumental shows for Slipknot.

Root says he “stay[s] out of the logistics of touring,” (via Louder), adding, “I concentrate on writing and being a guitarist, so forgive my ignorance about who we do shows with.

“There are other people with much bigger brains than I that coordinate all that and I honestly don’t keep up with new bands or new music,” he adds.

“[I’m] stuck listening to the same music my parents listened to when I was forming myself as a little human,” Root continues. “And I purposely don’t listen to or pay attention to what’s ‘trending’ or what’s happening at the moment so as to not get influenced by anything.”

Speaking to Guitar World earlier this year, guitarist and composer Tyler Bates, who has been part of Manson’s band across four albums since 2015, defended sticking by the singer despite the allegations.

“I had to do my homework,” he said. “I’m not endorsing any behavior other than healthy behavior.”

Elsewhere, Jim Root has recently discussed being a rare vanguard for Teles in metal. His slew of signature guitars will be vital components during next year’s Worldwide (sic)est stadium tour.

Stage curfews in New York are serious business. The watchful minders of the city’s imperious Radio City Music Hall are getting visibly nervous – it’s almost 11, and Buddy Guy and Bobby Rush are piling one blues classic on top of another. The biggest names on the guest list haven’t even done their numbers yet.

One of the Secret Service-like pros snakes onstage and whispers something in the ear of the leader of the evening’s house band, the veteran drummer Steve Jordan. From a distance, he seems indifferent.

Ever the wily frontman, Rush keeps egging Guy on. 90 years young, Guy is in his element – he’s got a stinging answer on his Strat for all of his old friend’s exhortations, and the Cheshire Cat grin on his face keeps getting bigger. He shouts, “Y’all wanna hear another one?”

The gig in question – held on Thursday, October 1 – was officially titled Buddy's Got The Blues: A 90th Birthday Concert Celebration. The blues guitar legend – the last major living link to the origins of the form, the last big, theater-filling name in the genre who grew up on the wrong side of the hellish Jim Crow south – actually turned 90 three months ago, but the cavalry came in to celebrate either way.

And we do mean the cavalry. John Mayer, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr., Shemekia Copeland, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, Billy Gibbons, Robert Randolph, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jimmie Vaughan, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and Ally Venable all took their turns onstage. And that list doesn’t even include Eric Clapton, who was listed on the bill but unable to perform due to illness.

For all that fanfare, Guy opened the proceedings in the simplest way possible. He, house band guitarist Isaiah Sharkey, and Derek Trucks sat next to each other, plucking away at I’m In the Mood. It had the ease and sweetness of a low-stakes front porch jam – three guys playing to an audience of none but crickets and fireflies.

That was until Trucks busted out some otherworldly slide licks on his resonator – that keyed the faithful into what was in store for the next three or so hours.

One after the other, three generations of virtuosos put their own spins on Guy’s voluminous body of work – channeling the raw spirit and knockout power of the originals and imbuing them with their own DNA.

One might call it a “dessert for every meal” situation. Ingram wailed away on a red polka dot Strat for his sharp-as-a-tack version of Crosscut Saw, and traded blistering, quickfire jabs with steel king Robert Randolph on a rendition of Shake Your Money Maker so spirited that it got even some of those in the “Google me” seats up and moving.

Asked to salute Stevie Ray Vaughan, Shepherd dug in on his Strat with a version of the Guy-via-SRV classic, Let Me Love You Baby. The ever-studious Bonamassa didn’t put a foot out of place in his version of A Man of Many Words, and sat perfectly in the rhythm slot while Gales took Let the Good Times Roll onto another planet.

Gales, in turn, singed eyebrows with Fish, while Gibbons and Jimmie Vaughan churned out Texas-sized grooves together and on their own. Guy and Mayer, meanwhile, took their high-profile sparring time in a funky direction. And of course, it had to end with the whole gang coming together for Hoochie Coochie Man and Got My Mojo Workin’.

That particular jam will likely draw the headlines and YouTube views, but, in the end, this was about Buddy Guy.

For all of the magnificent, fretboard-scorching, bows-from-the-crowd inducing 12-bar breaks the audience took in over the course of the three-and-a-half-plus hour show, it was Guy who really had the magic wand.

He can’t play torrents of notes anymore, obviously, but man, what he did with the ones he did play. He’d sting them, hit something and leave it for five, even 10 seconds while feedback curdled around.

When Guy was at his loosest, jamming on the likes of Boom Boom and I Just Want to Make Love to You with Rush, all the big names and bright lights fell away. Two guys, two of the last of their kind, running through the songs that they love, the songs that they can do more faithfully than anybody.

They’re getting carried away, they’re taking too long. Employees need to clock out, people need to go home. But Buddy Guy, 90 years old, is still playing. And neither Father Time nor a curfew is gonna stop him.

The late, great Dimebag Darrell wasn’t just an iconic guitarist – he also dabbled as a guitar designer, famously – with some inspiration from his modded Dean ML – developing both the Razorback and Stealth models.

These two angular metal guitars were the six-strings he became most known for. But had things turned out differently, Dimebag might have had his name on a few more designs.

In a new interview with Guitar World, Rita Haney – Dimebag’s longtime girlfriend and estate trustee – reveals that the Pantera legend had as many as five guitar body shape ideas that have never seen the light of day.

“There are still five other body shapes that no one has seen,” she says. “I’m about to share them with Dean [Zelinsky], and he’ll be the first person to put eyes on them. I’ve coveted those, it’s crazy that I haven’t shown them to anyone.”

Haney is honoring Dimebag’s legacy with Dime Guitarz, a new venture for which she’s partnered with the guitarist’s close colleague and original Dean collaborator, Dean Zelinksy.

Zelinksy, who first designed the ML model that Dimebag popularized, later worked with Dimebag on bringing his vision for the Razorback to life.

The company already has one guitar to its name, the Culprit. That particular model is based on another unsung electric guitar from Dimebag’s guitar lore – a Washburn of the same name, which was developed in the late 1990s.

Dime Guitarz’s progress hasn’t been easy, though. A high-profile legal dispute erupted between Dimebag’s estate and Dean Guitars over breach of contract and trademark disputes.

Earlier this year, while attempting to reclaim Dimebag’s guitar designs, a court ruled definitively in Dean Guitars’ favor, giving them continued use of the Stealth and Razorback models.

Haney tells Guitar World that an appeal to bring those two designs to Dime Guitarz has already been lodged. Until then, the next best alternative may be to dive into Dimebag’s old notes and pull out a few confidential gems.

“I can say that I want his legacy to continue on in a hundred years,” Haney says when pressed on those five designs. “And I want Dime Guitarz to be known for pointy guitars. It’s for any style of music you want to look tough with, not just heavy metal.”

Guitar World’s full interview with Rita Haney will be published online soon.

Dime Guitarz isn’t the only new gear venture that’s been set up to honor Dimebag. Haney is also working with Dimebag’s former guitar tech, Grady Champion, on a new line of Warhead Amps.

Europe's biggest guitar show has continued to prove itself as an unmissable date on every guitar fan's calendar. This was my second time at the Rosengarten in Mannheim, Germany, and I think I can say with some confidence that it was better than the last.

It had everything you'd want from a guitar show. Plenty of high-profile gear drops, a bunch of big-name artists, and a generally excellent vibe that brought players from across the world under one roof with one thing linking them all: a shared love of the guitar.

So, without further ado, here are my 10 highlights from Guitar Cummit 2026...

1. Matteo Mancuso finally gets his Revstar

At NAMM 2025, I was interviewing Matteo Mancuso about a potential Revstar signature. This weekend, that guitar finally became a reality.

Mancuso is well deserving of a signature model. One of the Revstar’s biggest champions alongside Chris Buck, the young Sicilian virtuoso has lit a fire in the world of instrumental fusion music over the past three years, and is lauded by the biggest names in the game.

And it’s a gorgeous guitar. Gold hardware, sunburst finish, flame maple top, DiMarzio pickups, a Mancuso logo in the 12th fret… it’s very classy.

Yes, I did play it. Yes, I did try the Mancuso fingerstyle thing. No, it did not work.

2. The only John Mayer SE Silver Sky Defender in Europe made a cameo

Last week, I spoke to John Mayer about his new collaboration with Land Rover and the new black pickguard SE Silver Sky models. It’s been a feature that lots of fans have been waiting for. Given how recent (and limited) the launch was, I was surprised to find one at the PRS booth.

Apparently, it was the only Defender SE model in Europe at the time. And it was simply stunning. The black pickguard looks really sweet on the Silver Sky, and I hope it becomes a permanent fixture in the SE range at some point in the future.

And although I have no real interest in Defenders, I must admit they have some breathtaking finishes. The Sedona Red model at the Summit (which was impossible to get hold of, owing to how popular it was) was really effective: deep, almost burgundy, with a nice nuanced metallic-esque sheen to it.

3. Höfner has left its troubles behind

I spent plenty of time over the past 18 months following and reporting on Hofner’s struggles. The makers of Paul McCartney’s iconic Violin Bass filed for bankruptcy in December 2025, but was bought out by GEWA Music a few months ago. Since then, it’s all been quite quiet. No one really knew what the future would hold for Hofner.

Well, if its Guitar Summit booth is anything to go by, the future is very bright indeed. The stand was huge; easily one of the biggest of the show. And it had plenty of instruments on display – including a few acoustics and, of course, the 500/1 Violin Bass.

It seemed like business as usual for the Hofner crew, one of whom said those famed models from the past will be made alongside newer instruments currently in development. What a turnaround.

4. Wes Hauch’s $10k Iceman was on display – but a Tube Screamer stole the Ibanez stand

Ibanez had a few things I wanted to check out at its booth this year; chief among them was Wes Hauch’s seven-string Iceman. But when I got there, something else stole my attention: an Ibanez AZ and Tube Screamer set from Bryx (think Lego).

As someone who has built the Lego Fender Stratocaster and amp, this was right up my street. At €49.99, I couldn’t quite justify it at the time, but now I’m back on English soil I kinda regret my decision. I mean, c’mon. A Tube Screamer you can build?!

But, back to serious business, the Hauch Iceman was the standout model on the Ibanez booth. The $10k price tag is still a big talking point, but it looked and felt like the real deal when I took it for a quick spin. Let's hope a more affordable model is on the cards down the line.

5. Eventide's H9 Harmonizer Gen 2 might be the G.O.A.T.

One of my friends swears by the Eventide H90, so I was very curious to get a closer look at the H9 – the smaller spiritual sibling that does everything the larger next-gen H90 can do in a much smaller package.

And my high expectations were met. It is way more intuitive to get around than the older unit, thanks to the redesigned UI, and is much better for immediate tone selecting and tweaking. All the effect algorithms were top tier, and best of all, it’s really compact. If it wasn’t so expensive I’d be getting one.

6. TONE3000 really is going to takeover

Guitar Summit also gave me my first chance to play through some TONE3000 NAM captures. You probably know what they are, but for a brief intro: Neural Amp Modeler is a free, open-source amp, cab and effects platform that’s taking the modeler world by storm.

Several big companies are cottoning on and making their products NAM-compatible. The Beam Mini was one of the very first, so I made a beeline for Blackstar’s booth to give it a go.

The amp/TONE3000 compatibility was more straightforward than I imagined. NAM captures can be browsed and uploaded directly to the Beam Mini through the partner app. You can then drop it in your signal chain alongside some other Blackstar effects.

I played through the Oil Can capture inspired by the amp used by the Foo Fighters on their debut album, and an AC/DC rig that sounded really quite excellent. I also dabbled with the newly added Moises stem separation feature, and had too much fun riffing along to some John Mayer. TONE3000 is the future of the modeler world.

7. Marshall’s booth was an ode to Jimi Hendrix

Marshall has been having lots of fun at trade shows in recent years, and always goes big with its booth designs. This year’s Summit was no exception. Spread across either side of the main concourse, the booth was an ode to Jimi Hendrix, with a big 60th anniversary tifo and those limited-edition purple swirl stacks taking pride of place.

I also enjoyed the bar lounge vibe they had going on: some plush leather chairs, a nice sofa, and some cosy lighting choices.

There was also the limited-edition Sex Pistols stack, and the more recent Dookie amp made in collaboration with Billie Joe Armstrong. Not to brag, but I heard Jared James Nichols play through the Hendrix stack. It sounded dope.

8. IK Multimedia has its touchscreen modeler – but is it enough?

IK Multimedia has been trying to keep the pace with its closest rivals with the release of its long-awaited flagship touchscreen modeler, the TONEX Board. With extra processing power and an improved user interface, this was definitely high up on my “gear I must check out” list.

First impressions? It’s good. The touchscreen definitely works, and I like the format. It was a bit chunkier than I expected – unavoidable, probably, given what’s going on underneath the hood – and from my brief encounter, I still think there are better tonal options out there.

That said, it’s more affordable than some of the closer competitors, and a solid option for both hybrid and all-in-one rigs.

9. There were too many ace artist performances to count

Naturally, all the gear was great, but one of the biggest highlights for me this year was the sheer number of amazing artists that I was fortunate enough to meet, interview, chat with, or watch play live.

I watched Andy McKee play the Nintendo Mii theme song on fingerstyle acoustic. I saw Jack Gardiner and Rabea Massaad play an anime-inspired track from their upcoming album. Jared James Nichols ripped Falsom Prison Blues with Greg Koch. Phil Demmel hosted a workshop. Showgoers really were spoiled rotten.

It’s one of the biggest draws of these events, and a big part of why the crowds keep coming back.

10. Honorable mentions

Given that I kept stumbling upon new areas of the Summit I had no idea existed, I’ve probably left something out. Please forgive me.

But shoutouts to the Dime Guitarz Culprit, Boss EX-4, Strandberg Essential Boden Tremolo, Jackson Sleep Token signatures, Guild Starfire, and just about every builder in the boutique showcase room.

What is it?

A lot of guitars are made in the Cort factories nowadays. Squier, PRS, Ibanez, and many more have some of their import guitars crafted in Cor-Tek facilities, and we’re starting to see more and more of the company’s own models emerge. The Cort KX500 Baritone is the first six-string baritone guitar the company has made, with the only other foray into the territory prior being the KX257B and EVL-K57B, both 7-string guitars with a baritone scale.

Cort has been making guitars since 1973, so they’re far from the new kids on the block. From manufacturing guitars like Kramer and Hohner in the 80s, to crafting the budget offering of the mega brands of today, the company has shipped a massive 20 million instruments as of 2023.

The KX500 is a new offering to help the brand grow in another direction, no doubt hoping to capitalize on the massive popularity of baritone guitars at the moment. It’s got a 28.03-inch scale, pairing an okoume body with an English walnut veneer top and an open-pore finish.

The neck is a five-piece roasted maple and walnut combo, shaped to a ‘D’ profile. It’s got a Macassar ebony fingerboard with a 15.75-inch radius. Teardrop inlays mark the 24 jumbo, stainless steel frets, and it also features luminous side dots. A Graph Tech Black TUSQ nut sits atop the guitar.

Hardware consists of Cort’s own hardtail bridge, with strings running through the body. A lineup of six locking tuners is on the headstock. It’s packing some serious pickups too, with the Seymour Duncan Sentient in the neck and the Nazgul in the bridge position. A three-way toggle selector controls your pickup selection, with a push-pull tone knob for coil splitting.

Specs

• Price: $929.99 | £699
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Six-string baritone guitar
• Body: Okoume with English walnut veneer top
• Neck: 5-piece roasted maple and walnut, D profile, bolt-on
• Fingerboard material/radius: Macassar ebony, 15.75" (400mm) radius, teardrop inlays, luminous side dots
• Scale length: 28.03" (712mm)
• Nut/width: Graph Tech Black TUSQ, 44.8mm
• Frets: 24, jumbo stainless steel
• Hardware: Cort hardtail bridge (string-through-body), Cort locking tuners
• String spacing at bridge: 52mm
• Electrics: Seymour Duncan Sentient (neck) and Nazgûl (bridge) humbuckers, 3-way toggle pickup selector, master volume, master tone (push/pull coil split)
• Weight: 3.1 kg
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Natural Black Burst (matte, open-pore)
• Case: Cort Gig Bag
• Contact: Cort Guitars

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

The KX500 is noably lightweight for a baritone, coming in at 3.1kg/6.8lbs on my scales. The thin, arched top, three-piece Okoume body is very Ibanez-esque in its execution, reminding me of the S and RG models There’s a belly cut on the back for additional comfort, and the neck heel is sculpted for better upper fret access.

The roasted maple neck is split by two thin strips of walnut as I examine the back side of the guitar. This is for added stability, especially useful when the higher tensions of baritones come into play. The transition point between the headstock and the neck features a volute to help protect it should it take a fall.

While the hardware is nicely applied, with the knobs and switches all feeling firm, the tuners do feel a little cheap. Some are stiffer than others, which is likely fixable with some lubrication. For a guitar that hits nearly a grand, however, I’d expect the tuning machines to offer a more consistent feel straight out of the box.

There are precious few things out of place in terms of the aesthetics, although I did spy some kind of tooling mark on the nut. It’s barely noticeable, likewise with some slight marks where the neck meets the body on the treble side. All in all, it’s a very well-put-together instrument.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

Those new to baritones can often struggle with the change in size, but the KX500 doesn’t feel like a massive jump from a regular electric guitar. The relatively light gauge strings help, with a set of D'Addario EXL157 14-68 fitted from the factory. It makes the transition pretty comfortable, even when I hadn’t played my own baritone for a short while.

If you’re coming to the instrument as someone new to baritones, you may find that 44.8-inch nut width a little daunting. Paired with the 15.75-inch radius fretboard, it makes it feel almost like a classical guitar, quite wide with the strings spaced further apart than you might be used to. It won’t be long before you’re up and running, though.

The lighter string gauge paired with a decent action makes it very playable from the off. Measuring at the 12th fret with my finger on the 1st fret, it’s ever so slightly north of 1mm, and it feels nice and low when I play it. Add in the jumbo frets, and you’ve got a very playable feel. It’s a little buzzy on the low B unplugged, but when I play clean through an amp, it doesn’t carry over.

For me, that stretch from the 1st to the 5th fret is at the limits of my capabilities as someone with a typically average hand size for my height. For smaller players, it will feel pretty massive. It doesn’t hold me back all that much, though, and I find all my usual riffs and techniques are available with a slight adjustment.

It’s a really nice-feeling neck, and the lighter gauge means full-tone bends are comparatively easy versus some of the other baritones I’ve tested recently, like the Gretsch Electromatic Jet and the Jackson Sleep Token IV Monarkh.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Sitting down in front of my audio interface to put the KX500 under a microscope in terms of tone, I run it through Line 6’s Helix Stadium Native models to see how the dual Seymour Duncan humbuckers perform.

The bridge pickup is very high output, and that’s immediate from the moment I put it through the Deluxe Reverb model. When picking hard, it drives the amp straight to break up, despite the volume not being above the halfway mark. I find I can control it with the volume knob, or by switching to the single-coil mode, which delivers a purer clean tone.

They’re quite surgical in their feel. It’s not a clean tone that will satisfy traditionalists, but if your mainstay is metal and you need pickups to handle the more melodic parts, these do a decent job. The neck humbucker is particularly nice for arpeggiated chord work, but overall they come across as a little dull when played through a totally clean amp model with a touch of spring reverb.

In the split coil positions, it’s a similar story. They’re similarly clinical, thinner versions of the humbuckers that sound slightly sharper, but lack that sweetness and dynamics of a true single coil. You won’t fool anyone into thinking you’re playing a Strat with these.

Switching to a 5150 6L6-inspired preset, things start to get a lot more fun. The bridge pickup delivers a super satisfying modern metal rhythm tone. It’s got plenty of that clank, with the natural heft from the low tuning when I chug the open low B string. It’s aggressive and snarling, but controlled enough to be precise with it.

The neck position isn’t a huge jump from the bridge sound, adding a touch more warmth and low end but sounding very much like part of the family. Here I switch to a model based on the Orange Rockerverb to eke out some doomy riffs. It sounds fantastic, with plenty of low-end oomph to underpin slow power chord riffs.

Moving to some lead work, the bridge position cuts through nicely as I lay into some huge, moody bends, adding some tape delay and plate reverb into the mix. Each note has loads of cut when I play fast alternate-picked scale runs, and switching to the neck position adds a touch of warmth, but it doesn’t sound miles away from the bridge.

Verdict

Overall, I was very impressed with the Cort KX500. It’s very much a baritone geared towards heavy players, and the playability and sound make that clear from the off. If you live to chug, you’ll find a lot to love here. That said, these aren’t the pickups you’re looking for if you want a baritone to play Ennio Morricone tunes.

The tuners could be a bit better in terms of feel, but the tuning overall does hold really well even under super harsh playing, so I can’t knock them in terms of pure performance. Overall this guitar is really nicely put together – it’s lightweight for a baritone, and feels nice and agile on a guitar strap for live playing.

Guitar World verdict: For metal players, the Cort KX500 Baritone is absolutely worth your consideration. The build quality is fantastic, and the playability is spot on, with a nice low action out of the box. The Seymour Duncan humbuckers definitely deliver when it comes to the demands of modern metal. They’re not the most versatile, though, so if you want something that can cover genres other than the heavy stuff, you’d be best off looking elsewhere.

Also try

September was a big month for 6-string signature basses, with Mayones teaming up with Henrik Linder of Dirty Loops and Dingwall joining forces with Archspire’s Jared Smith. Because apparently, four strings just aren’t enough.

But artist-approved signature models weren’t the only new arrivals. Having spent decades making a name in bass amplification, Ashdown turned its attention to the instruments themselves with the Saint Avant and Saint Artisan bass guitars.

Elsewhere, Aguilar’s new DB 700 carries on the legacy of the renowned DB 751, Guild continues to dig into its vintage heritage with the Starfire Deluxe, while Ampeg offer some much-needed relief to the band load-in.

From artist-approved 6-strings to the return of Aguilar’s legendary tube-driven tone, here’s our pick of the best new bass gear from September 2026.

Mayones Cali HL 5 & Cali HL 6

Henrik Linder has never been interested in playing bass by the rules – and his new Mayones signature model takes that approach to an entirely different level.

The Swedish virtuoso has teamed up with the Polish guitar and bass builder for the Cali HL 5 and Cali HL 6, taking Mayones’ compact Cali platform and transforming it into something that sits somewhere between a bass and a guitar.

The original Cali 4 and Cali 5 were designed as compact travel basses, with Mayones developing the instruments as a way to put high-grade tonewood left over from its full-sized instruments to good use. But once Linder got his hands on one, he saw considerably more potential in the diminutive design, asking Mayones, “Hey, can you make a 6-string version too?”

Available as 5- and 6-string models, both feature an ash top, a dual-humbucker pickup configuration, series/parallel switch and custom bridge string spacing.

According to Mayones, they’re available in the “two most important colors ever”: Gothic Black Matt and Ultra Pink.

Dingwall Jared Smith Signature

Built for the relentless precision and extreme low-end of Archspire bassist Jared Smith, Dingwall’s latest signature model delivers a stripped-back, performance-focused design made for modern metal.

Features include a single FD3n bridge pickup, custom pickup ramp and Darkglass preamp – all built to handle Archspire’s relentless attack and extreme low-end. Available in any color, as long as it’s … oh, you know.

“I wanted to create exactly the instrument I need and reduce the options I never use,” says Smith. “It has a slimmer neck that’s amazing for fast playing, and I love the focused, pissed-off tone I can get out of a solo bridge pickup.”

Ashdown Engineering Saint Avant & Saint Artisan

It’s been almost 30 years since Ashdown Engineering first arrived on the scene, and in that relatively short time the UK-based company has established itself as a big name in the world of bass amplification.

More recently, Ashdown has taken its expertise into bass guitars with the launch of the Saint Series, which is now expanding with two lines that take the original concept in distinctly different directions: the Saint Avant and the Saint Artisan.

The Avant’s defining feature is its multi-scale design, which helps optimise string tension across the fretboard. The Saint Artisan, meanwhile, heads in a more traditional direction, pairing familiar styling with some seriously striking finishes.

There are five to choose from: Verdigris Green, Aegean Blue, Obsidian Black, Amethyst Purple and Cardinal Red.

Fender Lee Sklar Precision Bass

A recreation of Lee Sklar’s own tried-and-tested P-Bass, the session legend’s new Fender signature model pairs Dual EMG active pickups with a slim 1962 Jazz Bass “C”-shaped neck and mandolin frets. It’s also equipped with a Hipshot BT-3 Bass Xtender and Badass II bridge, providing the low-end tuning flexibility that has become a key part of Sklar’s setup.

The alder body is finished in satin Heirloom nitro lacquer, recreating the naturally worn appearance of Sklar’s original bass.

“We put a lot of time, detail, and care into every part of this bass,” said Sklar. “From the pickups and electronics to the feel and response of the instrument, to make sure it captured what I love about this guitar.”

Spector NS Icon Neck-Through Series

It’s been a year since Spector introduced the Icon NS Bolt On series, bringing the brand’s unmistakable formula to a new generation of players.

Now, the Icon NS Neck Through models complete the lineup, adding Spector’s signature neck-through construction into the mix.

Designed by the Spector Custom Shop, the new models feature the brand’s familiar curved body shape, custom neck carve, crown inlays, and Aguilar DCB pickups paired with an OBP-2 preamp.

Topped with quilted maple and with four available gloss finishes, the Icon NS Series will set you back the best part of 2,000 greenbacks, but you can appreciate every one of them in the frankly jaw-dropping wood and hear them in the tone circuit.

Guild Starfire Deluxe

Guild has expanded its Newark St. Collection with a selection of new models, including the Starfire Deluxe bass – a name with serious vintage credentials and the one-time choice of axe for Jefferson Airplane’s Jack Casady among others.

“The Starfire Deluxe guitars and the Starfire Deluxe bass are reimagined versions of some of our most iconic electric instruments,” said Product Manager Nick Beach. “They honor our ’60s-era legacy of exceptional quality and vibe while also adding contemporary touches that are more relevant to today’s players.”

At the heart of the Starfire Deluxe are a pair of Guild BS-1 BiSonic single-coil pickups, each with its own volume and tone controls. A three-way toggle handles pickup selection, while a master volume provides overall level control.

The hardware keeps the vintage-inspired theme going, with Grover Vintage Bass open-gear tuners and a Guild adjustable bass bridge fitted with rosewood saddles. It’s available in two finishes: Teal the Deal and Sweet Tea.

Aguilar DB 700 Hybrid Bass Amp

Over the past few decades Aguilar bass amps have appeared on some of the world’s biggest stages, perhaps none more so than the hybrid DB 751. The DB 700 has been designed to continue that legacy.

“Driven by two 12AX7 preamp tubes, the front end uses the architecture of the DB 751 to preserve its signature harmonic richness and tonal detail,” says Aguilar.

“The amplifier delivers 700 watts of continuous power into a minimum load of 2.67 ohms via dual Speakon speaker outputs, providing immense clean headroom and compatibility with a wide range of cabinet configurations.”

Connectivity is equally impressive, with dual XLR outputs, an effects loop, aux input and headphone output. The DB 700 also brings Aguilar’s Cabinet Suite into the picture, with USB-C connectivity allowing you to load cabinet IRs for greater control over your rig sound.

Cort Guitars Retro 304

The Cort Retro 304 will sure be appreciated by small-handed and small-bodied players for its short-scale length and uncomplicated controls. The body is solid alder, finished in high-gloss Candy Apple Red or Seafoam Green. For electronics, Cort has fitted its Voiced Tone VTB-TB passive humbucker.

“This passive humbucker pickup is specifically voiced to avoid a generic sound, instead offering a deliberate vintage character that emphasizes a defined attack,” says Cort. “To keep the player’s focus on performance rather than complex signal management, the control layout is intentionally minimal, featuring a single volume knob and a single tone knob.”

While it may struggle to compete with some other basses on this list in terms of tonal versatility, at least you can carry it upstairs without doing your back in.

EBS Session 110

The medium-powered solid-state combo has long been one of the most popular amp formats in everybody’s local guitar store. And this portable combo from Swedish amp experts EBS promises superior dynamics and tone.

“The sound is built around the optimized interaction between a brand-new powerful EQ section, selected speaker, tweeter, and back-ported cabinet,” EBS writes. “Together, they deliver a deep, balanced bass response that lets the instrument’s natural character come through.”

The updated EQ section is DSP-based, featuring shelving Bass and Treble controls alongside a variable Mid-frequency control. EBS has also included its Character filter, which provides a preset voicing with a +6dB bass boost, -4.5dB mid scoop and +4.5dB treble boost.

Connectivity is equally well covered, with Bluetooth audio streaming, a headphone output and a balanced XLR line out featuring ground lift and pre/post-EQ switching.

Finally, the combo allows you to tilt it back at an angle to further project the sound from the speakers, or help you hear a bit more of what you’re doing if you’re standing right next to it.

Ampeg Venture VB-212 

Ah, the Ampeg bass cab. Heavy and hefty, it’s traditionally built for players who don’t mind a bit of back-breaking load-in.

The latest Venture VB-212 takes a rather more portable approach. Weighing in at just 40 pounds, the 2x12 cabinet handles 500 watts RMS, making it a serious option for bassists who want plenty of punch without needing a chiropractor.

It features two custom-voiced 12-inch Lavoce neodymium woofers, paired with a variable high-frequency driver with a three-way attenuator.

And if the modern black covering isn’t quite your thing, Ampeg offers the VB-212 PF Grille Assembly Accessory, allowing you to give the cab a Portaflex-style makeover and a healthy dose of old-school Ampeg attitude.

My friend James had been gassing for a ’50s-style single-cutaway Les Paul Junior and got a pretty good deal at Gibson’s Garage for a sunburst VTB model. To be fair, the VTB version is more ‘in the spirit of’ than an accurate vintage reissue. Gibson’s VSB VOS Junior ticks that box very nicely, but it costs around £2,000 more than the VBT.

Rather than break the bank, James bought the cheaper version and asked me to get it closer to vintage spec. This project isn’t going to demand any advanced luthier skills and there’ll be no refinishing or finish relicing. Instead, I’ll mostly be swapping and upgrading parts to give the guitar a ‘closet classic’ look and, hopefully, a more vintage tone.

Strip Down

Since so many parts were being changed, I began by completely stripping the guitar. With no pickup, controls and tuners onboard, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to put the husk in my freezer to see if I could force the lacquer to check. In all honesty, I did so more in hope than expectation and, sure enough, nothing happened.

Gibson claims to use nitrocellulose lacquer and, having stripped it for relic refinishes, I can confirm it is very combustible and it produces a camphor smell when you scrape or sand it. I’m happy to take Gibson at its word, but the nitrocellulose it uses below the Murphy Lab level contains a lot of plasticiser to prevent checking and it does that job very effectively.

An inverted air duster might have worked, but James’s brief was to leave the finish intact if the freezer failed.

Pots, Cap & Pickup

With the pickup disconnected and the controls removed, I grabbed the chance to measure the potentiometers. You can verify pot values by taking a resistance reading across the outer solder tags with the pot turned fully open. Both potentiometers read slightly over 500k, but I’m always bewildered by 50s-style Gibsons – such as this guitar – that aren’t wired 1950s style.

During the 1950s and early 60s, Gibson wired tone controls to the centre tag of volume controls, rather than the input tag. It may seem like a minor detail, but it generally results in a more pronounced darkening of the tone when volume controls are turned down.

James had sourced a paper-in-oil ‘Bumblebee’ replica capacitor, so I installed that 1950s style and removed the factory Orange Drop capacitor and brown jumper wire between the volume and tone pots in the process. If you find that your Gibson or Gibson-style guitar gets a little dark when you turn down the volume, take a look at the controls to see how they’re wired.

Changing to 50s wiring is one of the simplest mods you can do, and if you own a soldering iron, it won’t cost you a bean. Hardcore Junior fans may also wish to try out a 250k potentiometer for the tone control because they often featured in 1950s Juniors and apparently soften the treble response.

The stock P-90 was wax-potted and gauss readings also exceeded those I took from a couple of mid-50s P-90s. This suggested that the factory installed magnets are more likely to be Alnico V than mid-50s-spec Alnico II or III. Although swapping the magnets would have been simple enough, James wanted non-potted coils so he sourced a boutique pickup that was closer to vintage specs and also reliced.

Plastic Parts

In another departure from vintage specs, Gibson equips the Junior VBT with black control knobs, not gold. Similarly, the truss rod cover is a black/white laminated item, rather than one-ply black, and overall the plastics look a bit too shiny. James sourced some gold knobs and a butyrate P-90 cover and asked me to perform some light relicing on the parts.

Sourcing a one-ply truss rod cover wasn’t straightforward. My go-to suppliers didn’t stock them and those I found online were eye-wateringly expensive. Sometimes, however, it pays to cast the net a bit wider and I eventually found one for less than £7 on Amazon UK.

Using a scraper blade, I softened the edges of the pickguard, control cover and truss rod cover and knocked back the glossiness using 0000-grade steel wool. At this point, the plastic will often look a bit too muted and so I usually give it a light polish with Meguiar’s Scratch X to bring it back to a dull sheen.

Gold top-hat knobs are actually made from clear plastic and painted on the underside with gold lacquer. I used a scraper blade to shave off the gold around the edges and applied metallic green enamel mixed with a darker green to simulate verdigris.

I then used a cotton bud to apply StewMac’s amber and medium brown tints mixed with diluted acetone onto the outer surface and set the pots aside to dry.

Tuner Swap

Although the factory-fitted tuners worked perfectly and looked fairly good, the plan was to replace them with vintage-correct three-on-a-plate Kluson replicas and 10mm conversion bushings. This is where I ran into a slight problem because the bushing holes were not drilled in a straight line.

This was deliberate on Gibson’s part because if you look at vintage Gibsons with three-on-a-plate and individual tuners, the A and B strings are often in contact with the E string posts. Locating the A and B string bushings closer to the centre of the headstock solves the problem, but it makes fitting three-on-a-plate tuner sets a bit more complicated.

Placing masking tape strips between the outer bushing holes made it easy to see how far off the centre line the A and B string bushing holes actually were.

I only needed to make an adjustment of about 1.5mm, and I used a round rasp to modify the shape of the bushing hole. I did need to ream the outer bushing holes fractionally wider to get conversion bushings to go in, but I was just shaving off excess lacquer, rather than wood.

Doing so enabled me to position the tuners accurately so I could test fit the A and B string bushings. It was simply a case of filing, testing and then filing some more until the centre bushings pressed down into their modified holes.

The plates covered all the original screw holes and a couple of them even lined up, but fresh holes had to be made for the other replacement tuner screws, so this isn’t a modification that can be reversed without leaving telltale evidence.

Brazzing The ’Board

Another feature that distinguishes this Junior from its VOS counterpart is a far paler rosewood fretboard.

Although I didn’t have a VOS on hand to compare, I would imagine the feel of the ’boards must differ, too, because James’s Junior had the roughest fretboard I’ve ever seen on a brand-new guitar.

I can only compare its texture to dried out snakeskin leather, and there seemed to be a real prospect of getting splinters.

Sanding between frets is tricky, but scraping is fairly quick and easy. For this job, I used single-sided razor blades, which are sold online as glass scrapers. Quality can vary, but I’ve had good luck with Personna-branded blades. After scraping, I used 0000-grade steel wool to clean away the rosewood shavings and make the ’board even smoother.

To darken the fretboard, I used Angelus Dark Brown leather dye. I applied it with a cotton bud, taking care not to allow the dye to run over the ’board edges.

The dye is spirit based so it doesn’t raise the grain like water-based stains, and once it’s dried it doesn’t rub off. I’d recommend wearing latex gloves to apply it because if it gets on your fingers, it won’t wash off in a hurry. The dye also gave the marker dots a more vintage appearance. After it had dried, I followed up with some fretboard oil.

Junior School Report

So, has all this work actually improved the guitar? Visually, at least, it’s now closer to what James wanted, but any judgement would be entirely subjective. The replacement tuners work very smoothly and tuning is stable with maybe a tad less neck heaviness.

As for the tone and playability, the guitar was pretty great from the get-go, with perfectly levelled frets and nut slots that couldn’t be faulted. Then again, a lightweight mahogany body with a set neck, wraptail bridge and a P-90 is about as close to a slam dunk as it’s possible to get in guitar making.

All James’s guitar needed was a quarter turn of the truss rod nut to reduce neck relief. The replacement pickup is more microphonic than Gibson’s and has the sweeter treble and quackier midrange you probably want from a pickup wound to vintage specs with lower gauss magnets. The 50s wiring has also made the volume control more usable.

James had already fitted a lightweight aluminium Faber wraptail bridge as well as installing a full set of reliced screws before bringing the guitar to me. Whether you approve of aged parts or not, the guitar’s specs have ended up far closer to Gibson’s VOS model for considerably less outlay.

That said, the VOS version is built with hot hide glue, rather than (presumably) aliphatic resin glue, and disassembling James’s guitar to rectify that would have been both impractical and insane. All things considered, this has been a worthwhile project and well within the scope of most guitar tinkerers.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Fender has served 60 firms with cease-and-desist orders as part of its high-profile Stratocaster copyright campaign, it has been confirmed.

After Fender won a default EU copyright ruling, the company issued a wave of cease-and-desists to rival companies demanding they stop production on S-style guitars.

LsL Instruments was the first to publicly confirm it had received an order. More names targeted by Fender have since been revealed.

Those include PRS, Yamaha, and Thomann, the latter of which is actively engaged in litigation with Fender over the copyright dispute.

In a recent interview with Fender CEO Bud Cole, Bloomberg reporter Paul Sloan confirmed that other household names, such as Ernie Ball Music Man and Schecter, were also on Fender’s list of targets.

Now, in a followup interview with Vertex Effects, Sloan has shed more light on the broader scope of Fender’s Stratocaster campaign, revealing that 60 firms in total have been hit – Amazon included.

“Some YouTubers have said, ‘How do you get to 60?’” Sloan says. “They try to add up the builders, and it's hard. I've tried to do it, but they're not all builders. There are retailers in there.

“There are retailers, like Thomann, that often have house-brand guitars. Amazon got two cease-and-desist takedown orders based on guitars that were being sold [there]. So when you start adding in the marketplaces, it's easier to get to 60.”

Similar to Thomann, whose Harley Benton brand has drawn the ire of Fender, Amazon sells direct-to-consumer import brands that build Stratocaster copies.

Fender has said in the past that these cheap import sellers have been one of the key targets of its legal action. The firm it took to court to establish its default EU ruling was a Chinese manufacturer making Strat knockoffs.

Moreover, it was these Amazon-based rivals that prompted Fender to release the Squier Debut range – an uber-cheap, entry-level, Amazon-only lineup that sought to take back control of the lower end of the online market.

Fender has now gone a step further by moving to take them out of the competition completely.

Sloan notes that German instrument distributor Warwick has also been roped into the saga, for distributing a Chinese Strat-style guitar that was sold on Amazon. As a result, Warwick is also actively engaged in litigation with Fender.

The new information confirms the scale of Fender’s copyright dispute, which stretches from builders and distributors to retailers alike.

According to Cole, however, boutique builders are no longer the target. Elsewhere in his Bloomberg interview, he announced the company will focus “solely on large manufacturers”.

Cole’s interview with Bloomberg was published just before YouTuber Mary Spender’s, who grilled Cole over the fallout of the legal strategy.

During that interview, Cole admitted he’d heard player concerns over Fender’s quality control issues, and revealed steps had already been put into place to address them.

As a teen, Leo Nocentelli lent his licks to Motown’s biggest and brightest stars. In his 20s, he formed funk legends The Meters. Beyond that he’s worked with Albert King, Paul McCartney, Etta James and Peter Gabriel.

He wrote hits including Sophisticated Cissy and Cissy Strut – but he took little to no credit. “I did what I had to do,” he says. “But I don’t owe nobody nothing. I really didn’t owe nobody from Jump Street. I did it because that’s the way my heart is.”

He believes his appeal – for big names in rock, soul and blues to the countless hip-hop producers who have sampled him – is simple.

“I was able to adapt,” he says. “It didn’t matter the genre. It could have been Coltrane; it could have been Miles Davis; it could have been anybody. Everyone who hired me knew I’d adapt.”

Nocentelli is likely one of the most widely recorded and sampled players of all time. “I’m like the guy from that movie,” he laughs. “I’m a guy that happened to be at a certain place at very historical times, so I’d call myself the Forrest Gump of the music industry!”

What got you started on guitar?

My dad played banjo in a band in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. He grew up in New Orleans, met my mom, and didn’t do any more gigs. He kept after me to try and play ukulele, and I started hearing some things. I graduated to six-strings and started picking out things that were interesting to me.

I don’t know where it came from, though. It’s just what was in me. Regardless of genre, I was attracted to things, and I really wanted to play them when I heard them. Everything from Bach and Beethoven to country sounded interesting.

By 13 you were working on sessions for Otis Redding, The Supremes, The Temptations and more.

I just played for different people who were looking for music. I just happened to be 13! My first major recording was for Allen Toussaint with an artist called Lee Darcy he was producing. That started me in the recording industry.

What gear were you using for Motown?

I used a big hollowbody guitar, because when I started out, I wanted to be a jazz player like Wes Montgomery or Kenny Burrell; but then I got caught up in playing different genres. To survive in New Orleans – and to survive, period, as a Black guitarist – I had to learn how to play different genres.

How did you come to play for the Temptations and the Supremes?

I got a call one day to take a trip to Motown in Detroit. This guy named Joe Jones had a deal with Barry Gordy to bring four artists there, and I was one of them. Motown and Barry Gordy loved the band, so we started playing behind a bunch of acts that had no names at the time. They’d pay us $12 a side, and we’d be playing behind acts that became The Moonglows, The Temptations, and The Supremes.

What was the first Motown hit you played on?

It was Where Did Our Love Go, Baby by the Supremes. Nobody knew it was a bunch of New Orleans musicians – and then everyone in Motown was tripping out about this new band from New Orleans. This was before James Jamerson and all that. So you might say that New Orleans was more Motown than Detroit was at first!

In the mid ’60s you joined the army. But you kept on doing sessions during your breaks, leading to the formation of The Meters.

I was drafted but I went voluntarily. When I got there, I ran into a few musicians in Fort Riley, Kansas, and they asked me to do some gigs. I started playing guitar around there, and when I came back, The Meters started to happen.

You penned two hits: Sophisticated Sissy and Sissy Strut.

I not only had a big hand in those – I had the whole hand! Of course, those songs couldn’t have been manifested, even though I wrote them note-for-note, without the individuals in the band. That’s why I gave them credit and didn’t take it all for myself.

Do you regret not taking more credit?

After a while I thought, ‘I should take credit for writing.’ The problem was I felt like I should give them something – so I did. I gave them six or seven different albums’ worth of songs that I wrote. They used to come into the studio and wait for me to play the song, and then they’d put their expertise on it. I didn’t start taking credit until later.

What was your primary guitar with The Meters?

All those early albums were done with my Gibson ES-175. But after we signed with Warner Brothers and started Cabbage Alley, I started using a Fender Starcaster. They didn’t make many of them back then, so I was really the only notable one playing one. I actually started getting some recognition for playing one.

What led to The Meters hooking up with Dr. John for In the Right Place?

I played on a lot of Allan Toussaint's productions; I really did all of them. He had us fly down to Miami to Criteria Studios, where we did that album. I didn’t really have too much of a hand in deciding anything – Dr. John told me what to play. But it was a fantastic experience.

In 1975, The Meters attended an infamous boat party hosted by Paul McCartney. What was that like?

We had a lot of fun! Paul came down to New Orleans to record an album called Venus and Mars, and I played on a couple of songs. He asked us to do the going-away party on the Queen Mary, and we played live.

Everyone was there from Yul Brynner to Fred Astaire – he was dancing to Cissy Strut – and even Michael Jackson from The Jackson 5, who was dancing right in front of the stage to us. To be witnesses to all that, man, to be involved, was just amazing. I got to be really good friends with Paul, who showed his admiration for me and The Meters.

He was a fan of blues and R&B – no doubt, man. There’s actually a couple of photos of Paul, me and Linda, and a couple of other big stars. I think in one of the photos he’s actually passing me some weed!

You went on work with everyone from Albert King to Etta James to Peter Gabriel. What do you think all these artists liked about you as a player?

That I managed to come up with something unique when I’d play. On that Albert King record [New Orleans Heat] he recorded one of my songs.

Were you caught off guard when hip-hop artists started sampling The Meters’ songs in the ’80s and ’90s?

The first thing I thought was, ‘How much money am I gonna make from it?’ I wasn’t thinking, ‘Wow! They must really love the way I sound.’ I eventually did make some money. That was the slickest thing that ever happened to me on a business level.

A lot of those samples were used without clearance, right?

Yeah. I was honored to be sampled by Naughty by Nature, Snoop Dogg and all that. But then you had LL Cool J, who didn’t want to pay nobody. We wound up suing him, and the court granted us a win. That’s when I really learned how much money you could make. Then everybody started sampling The Meters, man – but they were doing the right thing and paying us.

In 2021 your unreleased solo album from 1971, Another Side, generated a lot of attention. Are you working on new music?

Yeah, and it’s got a lot of people on it. I’ve got Peter Gabriel, Stanley Clarke, Harry Connick Jr. and a lot of other people. It’s called Leo with The Project, and man, it’s killer. There’s no category you could put it in. I’m expecting it to be nominated for a Grammy, man. I can’t wait for the public to hear it.

Do you still play guitar every day?

No; I’m kind of really sick and tired of it. I dread doing it every time I have to, you know? I don’t feel the same way about it. I’ll play, but I don’t play with the passion I used to. I can still play at the same level, or close to it, but I don’t have anything to prove as a player. I am who I am.

Is there a future for The Meters?

It was eight or 10 albums, and I was always there until four o’clock in the morning, editing stuff and getting no credit. That’s not where my head’s at anymore. As for live gigs, I’m not really for that either. I wouldn’t care if I never did it again.

We’re starting to get revisited again; we did two sold-out shows in New Orleans at Jazz Fest, and there’s one at the Orpheum Theater that’s gonna be totally sold out. But I don’t hustle for gigs. I don’t look to be booked because I don’t really want to be booked.

Do you have advice for young players?

Learn the business. No matter how good you are, get paid for it. Otherwise you could end up being broke. It’s a cesspool of a business, man. Everybody is grabbing at you and taking advantage, so please learn the business. They’re cold-blooded, and only care about what they’re gonna get from you.

Well, it’s the first of the month, and that can mean only one thing – a slew of new guitar sales to get stuck into. Positive Grid is kicking off autumn with its Sparktober promotional event, offering significant price cuts across its range of smart amplifiers, cabinets, and accessories.

Starting today, October 1, the first wave of discounts is officially live on Positive Grid's site – and while it may be a limited offering right now, we’re expecting more deals to land in the coming days.

Leading the charge is the Spark Neo Core headphone amp, which sees a whopping 38% price drop to just $99. Perfect for portable practice, the Neo Core brings Positive Grid's acclaimed tone engine into a wired headphone setup at an unbeatable entry-level price point.

In our glowing review, we said, “If you’re on a tight budget, then the Positive Grid Spark Neo Core can absolutely replace going the traditional route of a practice amp. The sounds are simply superb, offering an immersive and inspiring playing experience, and with such a vast choice of tones on offer, most guitarists will find something they love here.”

For players looking to boost volume for live gigs or rehearsal spaces, both the Black and Pearl versions of the Spark Cab Pearl are 25% off. You can pick up either finish for $261, saving you a generous $88 off the standard $349 retail price.

These 140-watt powered cabinets integrate seamlessly with the Spark series and other modeling gear. In my 4-star review, I said, “Positive Grid proves once again why they are frontrunners in this space. The Spark Cab is not only a brilliant addition to the rig of existing Spark users, but it's also the ideal unit for modern players looking for a well-made and cost-effective FRFR cab for running their favorite digital modeler or multi-effects pedal.”

Now, the savings don't stop there. Amazon's Big Deals Days are on the horizon, kicking off on October 6, so we’re hoping to see more tasty offers on guitars land around then. Be sure to check our dedicated Prime Day guitar deals hub to see what discounts we uncover from Amazon and beyond.

Dumble’s quiet resurgence has entered a new phase: the company is now making reissues of its most famous guitar amps.

The Dumble website now lists three models available to order: the Tweedle Dee, the MegaPLX, and – perhaps most notably – the Overdrive Special.

It’s a significant development. The late Howard ‘Alexander’ Dumble is one of the most influential amp makers of all time. His builds are the stuff of legend, championed by Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Mayer, Keith Urban, Joe Bonamassa, Lowell George and many more.

When Dumble passed away in 2022, fans believed that would be the end of his brand. But in late 2024, the Dumble website was relaunched, with a teasing message promising that “new and exciting product lines and services” were in the works.

At NAMM 2025, the Dumble Preservation Society made a surprise public appearance. At the time, one of the society’s main leaders, Drew Berlin, explained to Guitar World that Dumble’s closest friends and colleagues had been left the Dumble brand name.

However, the trademark was about to expire, meaning new amps became a necessity in order to keep hold of the Dumble project.

“We had an attorney that was trying to secure all of the legal copyrights, trademarks, all of that. He was able to do it, but it was getting ready to run out,” Berlin told Guitar World. “[The attorney] goes, ‘Well, if you don’t do it, anyone can grab this and do it.’”

These new amps, then, have been a long time coming. The Overdrive Special is easily the biggest pull, and the amp Dumble is most well known for.

It’s also the amp that has been played over the years by Mayer, SRV, Bonamassa and more, known for its high headroom, crystal cleans and punchy drive. It’s available in head and combo iterations, with options for covering and grille cloth.

The Tweedle Dee, meanwhile, is an intriguing addition. The original was Dumble’s take on a highly modified Fender Tweed Deluxe circuit, with increased dynamic control and a tighter low-end. Dumble had modified the OG for Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

The final amp on the website is the MegaPLX. This one is inspired by perhaps the rarest amp Dumble ever made; he only made three of them, and the last amp he ever made was the MegaPLX 005.

What makes this particularly interesting is the fact Dumble has also launched a plugin of the MegaPLX, which has been captured by TONE3000 and NAM2.

Understandably, these are highly exclusive builds. There are no prices listed, only the invitation to get in touch if you wish to order one. Don’t expect to see production-run Dumbles any time soon. But those with deeper pockets, you know where to look…

To find out more, head over to Dumble.

This month on Bought & Sold, Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash fame drops in to talk all things guitar, from first loves to his current live rig, gear regrets and the answer to some of the guitar world's most difficult questions…

What was the first serious guitar that you bought with your own money?

It was a Burns jazz guitar. Burns hooked up with, I think, Rice Krispies and if you entered this competition on the back of the cereal box, you could win this guitar. There was no chance that I would win, although I think I did enter the competition. But, like a lot of kids in the ’50s, I had a paper round and I managed to save up money.

Somebody had won one of these guitars – this must have been about a year or two later – and wanted to sell it. So my mother pinned all the money I’d earned from the paper round to the inside pocket of my school blazer, and I went down on the train and I bought this guitar off this boy and came back on the train.

And that was my first serious guitar. It was a great guitar, it was a short scale and it had a tremolo arm on it, so I was able to emulate my hero, Hank Marvin.

Later, just before I joined Wishbone Ash, I decided I was going to go on a big adventure to Morocco overland. I’d had the guitar for a few years and played in bands with it, but I decided that I needed to travel more than I needed the guitar and I sold it.

I went up to London, sold it to Macari’s Musical Exchange and I believe at the time they gave me 40 quid for it, which was enough to go on this overland trip in a Land Rover with a bunch of strangers and end up in Marrakesh with food poisoning!

What was the last guitar you bought, and why?

Well, I’m known for being a Flying V player, but the last really good guitar I bought was a Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster. I used to collect guitars and I had a collection of about 85, and I had Stratocasters all the way from ’54 through to the early ’60s.

Anyway, I bought this Stratocaster and it’s the closest I’ve found to some of the vintage ones. It’s a good one, you know? It has a resonance to the body and you can get all the Strat tones out of it, and it’s just absolutely brilliant. They finally figured out how to remake them. I paid way too much money for it, but it will find its way onto an album.

What’s the most incredible find or bargain you’ve had when buying gear?

Probably the most incredible guitar I got was a ’58 Flying V. Later on, I got a ’59. So those two would be the most amazing guitars that I was offered. I was playing a ’67-style V; different concept, really, but also a great guitar. I never realised, but they only made about 100 of [the ’59s], but the ’58, I think they made about 98 of them.

They were subsequently sold, and I made good money on selling them. But I would say the first ’58 I got, I just couldn’t believe it. I think I appreciated these things as works of art, actually – as well as being guitars, they played great and they sounded fabulous.

What’s the strongest case of buyer’s remorse you’ve experienced when buying gear?

I had two Firebird VIIs. The most gorgeous-looking one that I bought was an original white Firebird VII with gold hardware, and I tried and tried to make that guitar sound good.

But what had happened was, at the Gibson factory, they had put so much paint on the guitar – there was probably about 3lb of paint on that guitar – it would come off in chips a 16th of an inch thick.

I tried to bring it into the stage show, but it was a thin-sounding guitar because the lacquer had simply killed the tone of the wood. I never really regretted it, I loved having it as an artefact sitting around the house, but eventually it got sold to Stephen Stills.

Have you ever sold a guitar that you now intensely regret letting go?

Well, that would be the ’58 V. I mean, I could have put my sons through college with the money from that! I could have bought a house for that! Well, times two because I had the ’58 and the ’59.

They sounded amazing and they were great, but they had big old necks on them. Albert King had big hands, he could master one of those things. I’ve got small hands, you know? So it was quite a beast, but as a thing, as a beautiful instrument, as an investment, as a piece of history, yeah, I pretty much intensely regret that.

What’s your best guitar-buying tip?

Well, first of all, don’t plug it in. Just put it on your knee and play it. Does it feel as if the whole thing is resonating? Is it responding to your touch?

And if that’s happening, then plug it into an amplifier, preferably an old tube amp, and then see if the pickups are matched with each other. Does it seem balanced? I’d say those are my two big tips. The guitar has to work acoustically, it has to give you something back.

If forced to make a choice, would you rather buy a really good guitar and a cheap amp, or a cheap guitar and a top notch amp?

Oh, that’s a really tough question. If you were looking to make a big, good sound on stage, and you were looking to make the right kind of sound on an album, probably the amplifier would make a big difference.

You could compensate for a lot of things that were wrong with the guitar with your fingers. I mean, I’ve got a ’59 Bassman sitting over there in the corner. That’s been on many albums, and if you plug a cheap guitar into that amplifier, it would sound very good.

Andy’s Go-To Rig

I’m doing a lot of festivals in the summer, so I have gone over to using a semi-digital amp called a BluGuitar made in Germany by Thomas Blug. I can throw it in a backpack, and then no matter what speakers they give me at a festival, I can plug that in. I met Thomas and he’s shown me how to do a few tweaks on it. And so, yeah, that amp with two 2x12 speaker cabs. I do prefer 10-inch speakers, to be absolutely honest with you.

I’m using fewer pedals compared with what I used to. My main overdrive is an Analog Man King of Tone. It’s got two channels and I use one as a crunch and one as an overdrive, and then if I really want to go berserk, I bring in an Ibanez Tube Screamer on top. Then it’s just a standard Boss Delay and I use an Analog Man chorus unit.

Oh, I use an [Xotic] EP booster, too. I use that a lot, especially if I want to bring the level down and I want more definition for picking. I went through a whole phase of using piezo pickups on the guitar.

I had some Flying Vs made with piezo pickups in the bridge, and I would often take a signal off and run that through the PA system. But these days I’ve found I’m going simpler and simpler. It’s all about gain management: how much do you need? When do you need it? And how do you manage it?

As far as guitars are concerned, I have to play a V. I mean, I have no choice!

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

What is it?

We’ve examined many Eastman guitars in the past, and every reviewer – including our late and terribly missed friend Dave Burrluck – has been bowled over by the quality, style, innovation and organic nature of the firm’s instruments.

Poignantly, Dave was down for reviewing this very guitar, and had made noises that he’d rather like to buy it afterwards. What Dave always said was, “Eastman guitars exude rock ’n’ roll, while certain other manufacturers’ instruments don’t.” And he had a point.

While many Eastmans we’ve seen might not have been molecule-perfect icons like, say, a PRS, they have all possessed an X-factor that makes you want to play them, gig them, even roughhouse them – not keep them imprisoned in their cases like untouchable museum pieces.

So, with all that said, let’s look at this offering from Eastman’s burgeoning range of originals: the SC Classic in Asbury Butterscotch. We love the look of this entire series of novel, rather than ‘tribute’, models. Indeed, this writer reviewed a Juliet, one of the first of these all-new designs, and praised it highly.

But where the Juliet features a Firebird-style raised centre section, a more offset look and rather more bulbous upper ‘horn’, this model takes the styling to the next level.

The SC Classic boasts some interesting design themes, too, including an Oregon pine body, which makes for extreme lightness and resonance, and the FullerTone neck that we’ve seen on several other models.

All Kauffmann Series guitars – which are promoted with the tagline, ‘Made in Holland, Born for Tone’ – are built at Eastman’s European headquarters in Mijdrecht in the Netherlands, just a few kilometres south of Amsterdam.

We spoke to Pepijn ’t Hart from Eastman and he put it to us: “All our bolt-on guitars (D’Ambrosio series, Kauffmann series, FullerTone series) are built around the most important feature: the FullerTone neck designed by Otto D’Ambrosio. We like to think that we only bring an instrument to the already overfull market if it adds something new, an improvement. So that’s why we would never do a Fender-style bolt-on neck joint.”

Our guitar’s pine body and maple neck with glued-on maple fingerboard comes in what Eastman calls its Time Travel finish. Here, the level of ageing is the brand’s Light version, so the neck feels like bare wood under your fingers, while the body seems only lightly dusted in nitrocellulose lacquer so the pine’s grain pores remain open. It’s vibey and unpretentious.

What’s more, all the guitar’s timbers are roasted, surely contributing some of that lightness and resonance we speak of, but also a much improved level of stability.

The pickup array is interesting, too. In the Gotoh In-Tune, Telecaster-style bridge plate with intonation compensated brass saddles, sits a Lollar Special T single coil with flush polepieces.

Nothing so unusual there. However, at the neck we find another Lollar, this time a beautiful Charlie Christian. Jazz guitar lovers will know that this style of pickup was fitted to the Benny Goodman Orchestra guitarist’s Gibson ES-150, which is, of course, how it gained its moniker.

This attractive pickup, black with white bevelled edging in a ‘hexagonal oblong’ shape, is also single coil but with just one raised bar polepiece.

Walt Fuller’s original design had huge bar magnets mounted under the guitar’s top, with three large visible screws holding them in place. Luckily, modern pickups like our Lollars have managed to dispense with this cumbersome method to maintain a more manageable footprint.

All the hardware is by Gotoh, including the simple-looking but highly sophisticated HAP-M tuners. These not only lock the string but also feature height-adjustable shafts and smaller holes on the three high strings for better tuning stability. They would be so easy to overlook so deserve a special mention.

The electrical components are, as always on Eastman guitars, of the highest order, too. So we find CTS 250k volume and tone pots, a Sprague Orange Drop .022 capacitor, and Gavitt Single Conductor wire with vintage cloth covering.

While we’ve mentioned how Eastman Guitars seem to rate playability and tones over pristine presentation, don’t mistake that for sloppy attention to detail.

All the woodworking is flawless, with the tightest of joints, the routing of the two-bolt neckplate and that rather interesting inset black pickguard, all micron perfect. This fret job, too, is very beautifully done, with perfectly crowned tops and exquisitely smoothed ends.

There are 24 of these beauties, which we feel on a guitar of this type is possibly over the top. That said, you don’t have to travel to the dizziest fretboard heights, but the extra frets are there should you do so.

Specs

• PRICE: $2,550 | £2,399 | €2,699 with quality padded gigbag
• ORIGIN: Mijdrecht, the Netherlands
• TYPE: Single-cutaway solidbody electric
• BODY: Roasted Oregon pine
• NECK: Roasted maple, with rounded C profile
• SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Unbleached bone/42.8mm
• FINGERBOARD: Roasted maple, integral, 254-304mm (10-12”) radius
• FRETS: 24 medium jumbo
• HARDWARE: Lightly aged nickel plated Gotoh In-Tune Telecaster style bridge, black sunken pickguard, knurled metal knobs with position markers, aluminium strap buttons
• TUNERS: Gotoh HAP-M locking, adjustable for height with smaller holes for thinner three strings
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 56mm
• ELECTRICS: Lollar Charlie Christian (neck) and Lollar Special T (bridge), 1x volume, 2x tones, 3-way blade selector switch
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 2.96/6.81/2
• OPTIONS: None
• RANGE OPTIONS: SC Vintage (from £2,299), with Lollar Royal T (neck) and Special T (bridge) pickups; SC Deluxe (from £2,399) with Lollar Lollartron (neck) and Special T (bridge) pickups (higher levels of ageing cost more)
• LEFT-HANDERS: Yes
• FINISH: Micro thin open-pore Asbury Butterscotch (as reviewed); custom colours available
• CONTACT: Eastman

Build quality, usability and sounds

A guitar this light, at only 2.96kg (6.53lb), and with that mildly aged finish, makes you just want to grab it and chuck it on with abandon. No kid gloves here! It really does feel broken in, even before you’ve played a note. But since that’s why we’re here…

As mentioned, the neck feels like bare wood, even though there’s surely the thinnest trace of nitro still there. Its shape is a very palm-friendly medium round profile, neither too chubby nor too slender.

Indeed, it’s very close to that of a ’56 Relic Strat sitting only a metre away from your scribe’s desk. It feels really nice and we can’t see it offending anyone other than the heaviest of metallers (and they would surely take no interest in such a beast).

That said, it doesn’t simply play itself. There’s a degree of fight back from the D’Addario 0.010 to 0.046 strings, and a lot of players do love that. Similarly, others might prefer to swap these for a set of .009s, or may we suggest 9.5s.

The fingerboard and those perfectly polished medium jumbo frets feel great under the fingers. This thing is speedy, too, and quick country, rock and blues licks fall out of the CS Classic all too readily. Bends, too, due to a 254mm to 304mm (10 to 12 inches) compound radius ’board, are a breeze, as is a healthy blues-rock vibrato and for all the above reasons.

Plugging into our Tone King Imperial, with OCD distortion in line, generates a delightful output of tones from the SC Classic. With a Custom Shop Telecaster and P-90-equipped Les Paul to hand the comparisons should be interesting.

As it happens, the Eastman is brighter than both heritage guitars. The Tele’s bridge pickup is darker with the tone on full, but they are much too close to call with the SC’s tone knocked back a tad. This actually makes it more versatile as some people love that real sparkle, especially when ultra clean and with chorus and delay added. Similarly, the Les Paul. And while comparing a P-90 to a CC is hardly aural science, they’re not a trillion miles apart so it’s worth doing.

The Eastman neck pickup has that same extra clarity we found with the Tele, and rolling the tone back here creates anything from the warmest jazz tone to some fabulous bluesy ones. And in the middle position with a good drenching of reverb, the SC Classic does a more than passable Peter Green impression.

Jumping on the OCD with a light to medium drive emphasises everything the Eastman has going for it. Now, obviously neither the Tele nor the Les Paul are torrefied pine with torrefied maple necks, so it seems likely that these elements – plus that tight fitting, long tenon FullerTone neck joint – are what’s bringing this added clarity and airiness.

One tiny niggle is that on the neck pickup with drive and the tone rolled off there was a volume imbalance across the strings, the bottom four overpowering the top two. An adjustment soon fixed this, but it’s still worth noting.

Any owner of this guitar would be daft not to experiment with its tone controls, since there’s a bucketful of really tasty results to be had. It’s a fabulous, highly enjoyable and extremely musical-sounding guitar.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

It’s great to see more and more guitars that are not mere copies of a few iconic originals. We love the look of Eastman’s SC Classic, and it has been a wonderful instrument to spend time with. It’s somewhat weird the visual impact that the Charlie Christian pickup lends.

This writer remembers seeing Lennon’s LP Junior with the aforesaid coil fitted in his guitar’s neck position. It was both intriguing and exciting, and it’s the same here.

But this Lollar CC is also a brilliant choice because it’s not your usual Micawber-style humbucker, plus it looks much cooler than a Gold Foil to these eyes. Together with the Special T at the bridge there’s a plethora of great guitar voices here.

The neck is particularly lovely, too, and while you may prefer a bit less of a fight and therefore fit lighter strings, the fret job and setup are so darned good that you’ll feel at home in no time. Also, we feel the pricing is perfectly fair for a European-made instrument of this quality.

Guitar World verdict: If you’re looking for something vaguely T-style but with a serious dollop of genuine personality, all we can suggest is, why not go Dutch?

Hands-on videos

Eastman

• “These guitars really come across as a very boutique, artisan pair of instruments… Above all, they’re not just another copycat design”: Eastman FullerTone SC ’52 and DC ’62 review

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World Editors’ Picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured our editors’ attention over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from September and noted our personal highlights – the playing, tones, and songwriting that most set our six-string senses a-tingling.

Highlights this month include tortuous drop-tuned riffs from up-and-coming Parisian djent merchants, a synth-heavy, 8-bit party rocker, Phoebe Bridgers’ hardest rocking song to date, a massive ambient, shoegaze soundscape, and Steven Wilson’s latest prog opus.

All that and much more in our playlist below.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

Track of the month: NOVELISTS – Ravage

We’ve had our ear out for Parisian djent merchants Novelists for some time. Their star continues to rise, no doubt helped by their endlessly inventive guitarist Florestan Durand recently beating some of the world’s top players to land a solo spot on the new Bilmuri album.

But for new single Ravage, Durand’s focus is on laying down tortuous drop-tuned riffs that writhe like snakes mid-charm. Just as addictive are the sliding lead lines in the chorus, as catchy and singable as Camille Contreras’ actual vocal.

There’s a fluidity to Durand’s playing that’s technically impressive, but melodic enough for non-guitarists to follow. And in my book, that’s the mark of a true guitar hero.

Also playing:

• Sonny Landreth – Lady On The Rise
• Ex:Re – Radio Station
• Blue Medusa – Crocodile

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

Track of the month: Anamanaguchi – Yeah I Guess

In a move that may prove controversial, I’m singling out this synth-heavy, 8-bit party rocker as my pick of the month.

On I Guess, chiptune obsessives Anamanaguchi sound like they’ve hacked a lost ’80s Nintendo game and swapped-out Mario for Andrew WK.

There’s a lot more guitar in the mix here than first meets the ear, as evidenced in their recent AudioTree session. I love it for the garage band energy, but also the way it totally re-contextualizes that guitar-centric form and warps the mix (with sidescrolling sound effects) into something that’s rattling, slightly nuts, and yet somehow makes complete sense as a pairing. It is all of the fun things delivered in one irresistible, chaotic package, and another reminder that the guitar is an instrument with infinite possibilities.

Also playing:

• 200 Stab Wounds – Pangs of Conscience
• Marcus King – Blue (ft. ERNEST)
• Greg Freeman – Loser’s Prize

Jackson Maxwell – Operations Editor

Track of the month: Phoebe Bridgers – On Video

If ever there was an excuse for Phoebe Bridgers to wheel out her BC Rich... Her contribution to the (phenomenal, in this writer’s opinion) new movie, Primetime, On Video is unlike anything Bridgers has ever done. Its central acoustic progression is beautiful but a tad unsettling – it’d be music to the ears of any Alex G fan – but the money for us in the chorus. This thing freakin’ explodes.

It’s pure hard-rock loud-quiet-loud (are those blast beats???) – those tones in the chorus are thunderous. You can get well, lost, in the infinite tones and textures of Bridgers’ new album, Lost Weekend, but this is a thrillingly, brilliantly simple companion to it.

Also playing:

• Jeff Parker, Scott Amendola, & Paul Bryan – Momentum and Backlash
• Muireann Bradley – Dancing On My Grave 
• Wavves – Pinesol

Matt Owen – News Editor

Track of the month: Austin TV – Boonmee

Does KEXP have a crazy dress code or something? Months after it gave the polka dot-clad alien duo Angine de Poitrine their big break, the radio station has served up another, erm… let’s say memorable act.

Austin TV, a post-rock instrumental band hailing from Mexico City, are the latest to make a stir on the platform. The uniform this time? Matching tunics and headpieces that are crying strands of cotton (literally). But like Angine, this is no mere gimmick. Austin TV are really good.

Take Boonme, for instance. The ambient soundscapes are massive, the shoegaze-y riffing a true spectacle. You won’t get any microtonal jams here; just anthemic noise rock. It’s inspiring me to get crazy with my pedalboard…

Also playing:

• Royal Blood – Swallow the Bomb
• U2 – Silencio
• Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram – The Chase

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

Track of the month: Steven Wilson – Requiem for a Village

Just a few hours before Steven Wilson’s latest opus dropped, I was just reminiscing about his other (or one of his many opuses), The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories). You could say I manifested Requiem for a Village, as, lo and behold, it dropped in my inbox (thank you, PR agent).

Taken from his upcoming ninth studio album, which bears the same name, it’s the type of thing that I expected and needed from Wilson. Seven minutes plus? Check. Haunting vocals? Check. A studio full of Stevens? Check. Prog rock goodness? Check. Endless guitar layers? Check. Best of all, there’s an accompanying live session where you can name-check all of the guitars and basses Steven and the Stevens use – you’re welcome.

Also playing:

• Jeff Darko – Messenger
• Ezra Collective – El Corazón
• Yvette Young, Novo Amor – black33

What is it?

Where did Washburn go? For those of us who follow the instrument industry, it's quite a shame to see the way in which this storied American brand has disappeared from the limelight in recent years.

With a dwindling model line-up, and even a shock split from their highest-profile and longest-serving endorser, Nuno Bettencourt, the company has seemed notably down on its luck lately. Now, though, there are signs of life with – and a rebirth of a cult-classic range from the company's more fruitful 1970s and ‘80s era.

That was a time at which the Gibson-inspired double-cutaway guitar was in vogue, with the likes of the boutique Hamer Special, and the more affordable Ibanez Artist and Yamaha SG, all doing a roaring trade. Washburn got in on the action too, releasing the distinctive Japanese-built Wing series in 1978 – the near century-old company's first proper foray into electric guitars and basses.

The narrow, pointed cutaways and the neck-through construction of the posher models set them apart; they're an interesting retro curio today. For 2026, though, the Wing returns – we've already looked at the Hawk guitar from the series – and brings with it a reissue of the range's best-known bass: the Scavenger.

Priced at $699, it wades into a market that's absolutely bursting with choice, from entry-level Fenders to Soundgears, Sires and Sterlings. Of course, the Scavenger's name begins with ‘S’ too, which augurs well – but the point is, it needs to impress.

Specs

• Launch price: $699 | £569 | €589
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Four-string electric bass
• Body: Mahogany
• Neck: Mahogany, C profile
• Fingerboard material/radius: Rosewood, 16” radius
• Scale length: 34”/864mm
• Nut/width: Bone / 41 mm
• Frets: 22
• Hardware: String-through-body bridge, Grover tuners, chrome
• String spacing at bridge: 19mm
• Electrics: Washburn P Style Split-coil, volume, tone, 3-way toggle switch
• Weight: 7.5lb/3.4kg
• Left-handed options: None
• Finishes: Ruby Red (as reviewed), Black
• Case: None
• Contact: Washburn

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

There's no getting around the fact that it's a bit of an acquired taste, aesthetically. Some will be turned right off it but, personally, I'm a fan of its overtly retro vibe – it really does look like the original from ‘78.

The fundamental construction quality feels more than good enough overall - no rough edges to speak of, not necessarily a given at the price.

The mahogany body and neck are both finished in transparent cherry-red; gloss lacquer for the former and satin for the latter. Many players will prefer a satin-finished neck, of course, and it's adequately executed, but there's one sticking point for me – it looks and feels a little cheap when compared to an open-grain finish, for example. The heel of the bolt-on neck is very large and cumbersome too, which doesn't help.

Componentry is a mixed bag; the chrome die-cast sealed tuners look a little weedy and ‘budget’, but then the bridge is a very solid, high-mass item with chunky saddles. It's even set into the arched top of the body for the correct string angle – and it provides the option of through-body stringing, which is how this example has been set up. Very nice.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★☆

I'd done a bit of research into the original Scavenger, becoming slightly apprehensive when I read about examples tipping the scales at 11lbs or more. I needn't have worried about that; this example is, in fact, quite a lightweight at around 7.5lbs.

From the box, though, it needed a fair bit of adjustment - the neck was bowed too far back, causing open strings to choke out. Thankfully, after letting in some relief at the truss rod, and adjusting the bridge saddles to compensate, the Scavenger started to come good. This done, the playing experience is much better – the neck is a good, comfortable shape, and it’s an enjoyable instrument with a nice natural ring to it.

Balance can be a bit of a sketchy subject on symmetrical double-cutaway instruments like this; it’s certainly a bass that sits on your lap differently, and hangs a little oddly on the strap compared to a Fender-style equivalent.

One saving grace is the strap button’s position on the inner horn – it looks a bit awkward, but it does pivot the bass’s neck upwards into a slightly more useful position.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

There are no fancy tricks whatsoever with the Scavenger’s electrics. With a classic split-coil pickup in the traditional middle position, and a simple Volume and Tone control layout, it’s classic P-bass territory all the way down.

So, my direct comparison is my own beloved P-bass of choice - actually, a 1983 Ibanez Roadstar, but with that same traditional layout; a bass that would have been a contemporary of the original Scavenger.

And the Washburn gives a great account of itself - like my old Ibanez, it doesn’t sound like a vintage-spec Fender, but that works in its favour for all sorts of hotter tones.

With my go-to Ampeg SVT and Acoustic 360 emulations, the P-bass sounds of the late ‘70s and ‘80s come roaring out of the Scavenger - it could probably do Motown if you wanted, but this bass seemingly yearns to slam out punk, new wave and alt-rock riffs.

If your tastes run heavier, consider that abrasive sludge-metallers Kowloon Walled City also favor old Washburn basses like this too.

Verdict

As I hinted in the opening to this review, I've a soft spot for Washburn as a bit of an ‘underdog’ brand. To add to this, I also have a curious obsession with ‘70s and ‘80s Japanese instruments so, admittedly, I rather wanted to like the Scavenger to begin with. Thankfully, there is plenty to like.

I can see it going down a storm with players who want a gnarly P-bass sound, but in a format that looks and feels a bit different and left-field.

With its hot and powerful tone, it will suit more aggressive players down to the ground, and its cult-classic aesthetics will only add to that appeal. On this basis, let's hope for more interesting products to come from Washburn.

Guitar World verdict: The new Scavenger reissue proves that Washburn still has much to offer, even by simply returning to its back catalogue. It's a fun, lightweight, playable instrument with a killer, aggressive P-bass growl. If you like the ‘70s throwback styling, you'll surely enjoy the rest of the package too.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Washburn TV

• Best bass guitars 2026: long and short-scale bass options for beginners to pros

It’s often hard for players to recall the exact moment they stumbled across a riff or lick that would end up becoming a hit. It’s equally difficult to pinpoint the ins and outs of a recording session. That was especially the case for Mars, who failed to remember recording of Mötley Crüe’s Girls, Girls, Girls – because he was unconscious for it.

Bizarre stories fly out of the Mötley Crüe camp with wild abandon, and have done since their 1981 debut album, Too Fast for Love, hit the shelves. In the May 2005 issue of Guitar World, Mars regaled another.

The story centers around the band’s fourth album, Girls, Girls, Girls. It was a standout smash in 1987, and is certified four times platinum in the US.

Mars revealed he recorded the title track’s water tight rhythm parts with a “Kramer through a Marshall head absolutely dry”. No effects were allowed anywhere near his signal.

“It's doubled,” he adds. “So it's big, but everything's dry – a nice big dirty sound.”

As for its leads, while a guitar solo punctuates the middle section, a descending staccato run rounds the song out in flashy fashion. The rumor was that Mars fell off his chair while recording it and producer Bob Rock simply let the tape run. Mars remembers it in a slightly more dramatic – and suitably rock ’n’ roll – manner.

“I was drunk,” he says. “I fell flat on my face, but I held onto the guitar neck, so I could still squeeze out some notes, even though I was unconscious.”

It sounds impossible – and it could well be, given that not all stories that come out of the Crüe camp are based entirely in reality. But we’ll let this one slide, as it’s a great tale regardless. Even if it comes from the band’s most substance-soaked era.

“That was during a dark period,” Mars accepts. “I was drinking my head off. It's always something. I have a very addictive personality. Even when I quit drinking, I couldn't stop taking pain medication.”

Sadly, for Crüe fans, Mars acrimoniously left the band in 2023. John 5 was drafted into the group in his place. Mars has since said that reconciliation is off the table and the relationship between both parties continues to sour amid disputes over the resulting lawsuits.

But the crazy stories of the band’s 1980s peak cannot be taken away from Mars, and recording licks like that on Girls, Girls, Girls – while slipping out of consciousness – is classic Crüe, whichever way you look at it.

Jackson has partnered with Chris Rörland to release the Sabaton guitarist’s first signature guitar with the company.

Rörland’s speed and power have helped carry the Swedish metal institution’s sound ever since he became a member of the band back in 2012. Now, his services to the metal world have been recognized by Jackson, four years after Rörland joined its artist roster.

The Pro Series Signature Chris Rörland SL7, then, pools together some of Rörland’s go-to features in the Soloist template. Seven strings, EMG 81-7H and 85-7H pickups, a Floyd Rose tremolo, a 26.5” scale length… it’s all there.

Other appointments include a Satin Black Finish, compound radius ebony fingerboard, and a sole volume knob. Its three-way toggle selector switch, deployed instead of the Soloist’s usual blade fixture, has also been moved closer to the neck for ease of access.

It’s all been carefully put together to help Rörland find his perfect guitar. Before this signature, no other guitars sat quite right with him.

“I never found a guitar that felt 110% right for me,” Rörland notes. “I wanted to build a real beast – effortless to play, stays in tune and built for the stage. We moved the volume knob out of the way and positioned the toggle so I can switch pickups with my middle finger mid-solo.

“I also chose a 26.5-inch scale for extra stability with my lower tunings. It’s precise, aggressive and reliable – a guitar that doesn’t fight you. You plug it in, and it’s ready to go to war.”

Jon Romanowski, VP of Product, Jackson, adds, “Chris represents exactly the kind of player who makes sense for Jackson. His playing is incredibly precise and technical, but there’s also an intensity and power to it that connects immediately with an audience. With the SL7, we wanted to build an instrument around the way Chris actually play.”

The Pro Series Signature Chris Rörland SL7 Soloist is available now for $1,599.

Head over to Jackson to find out more.

Strymon has unveiled the La Brea – an all-analog tape drive pedal that continues the legacy of one of its most beloved stompboxes.

The effects specialist’s digital Deco Tape Saturation and Double-Tracker quickly became a firm fan favorite when it was released 12 years ago. For many, the tape saturation side became a must-have tool – as an always-on tone thickener, switchable boost, or all-out overdrive.

Now the firm has dropped the La Brea – a next-gen pedal that singles out that tape saturation goodness in a new all-analog form, all while keeping one eye on expanding into unchartered territory.

It is, in effect, a tape drive that replicates classic reel-to-reel mastering tapes that add fullness, rather than harshness, to the signal the more aggressively it is cranked.

Before he became an analog pedal engineer at Strymon, Josh Forbes read Strymon co-founder’s white paper on the story behind the Deco. He became fascinated with how he could mimic “true tape behavior in a fully analog design.”

After 10 years of research and putting vintage effects under the microscope, La Brea delivers plenty of saturation options with a simple interface design.

Handily, a three-position switch allows players to add in the high frequencies naturally lost as the saturation ramps up. The first mode is for injecting high frequencies exclusively. There is also Mid – for adding upper midrange frequencies – and a Flat mode.

It has more gain on tap than the Deco, too, and a fully discrete dry path serves up “two distinct personalities that players can use to craft personal sounds.”

In essence, the dry path always stays in phase with the saturated output, meaning players can add a little or a lot with no comb filtering or other artifacts. Alternatively, the discrete options can see La Brea doubling as a clean boost for more fatness.

The benefits don’t stop there, either, and it could breathe new life into existing gear.

“It’s a powerful tool that can help wake up dark humbuckers, add bite to older strings or make setting up a rig even easier,” Strymon says.

“It’s quickly become the favorite drive pedal for a bunch of people at the office”, Sytrymon’s marketing lead, Sean Halley, says. “The fact that it’s based on tape means that it never gets harsh, never gets strident, and mates really well with all different types of amplifiers.

“I’ve had one on my gigging board since the beginning of the year in disguise, so I’m excited to take the tape off and finally let people see what it is!”

La Brea is available now for $199, and adds a new chapter to the Deco’s fabled heritage.

See Strymon for more.

Hello, and welcome to my new Guitar World column. It’s great to be doing this again, after more than 30 years. Over the course of the next several months, I look forward to sharing and illustrating some of the many various concepts and techniques for both soloing and rhythm playing that are at the core of my multi-faceted approach to music and guitar playing.

Let’s begin with a look at legato phrasing. The term legato means “smooth and connected,” and for guitar players, this generally refers to an abundant use of hammer-ons and pull-offs, with minimal use of the pick, in terms of the way notes are articulated.

The focus of this lesson is a lick that I first played back in the early ’90s and have since used in a variety of contexts. I played it in the Testament song So Many Lies, from our 1992 album, The Ritual. At the time, I was discovering and studying the playing of legendary jazz-fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth, who was without doubt one of the greatest legato-style players ever.

Along with the legato phasing, the lick is based on the fourth mode of the B melodic minor scale (B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A#), which starts on E (the scale’s fourth degree) and is known as E Lydian-b7, or E Lydian-dominant.

Figure 1 illustrates this fast one-bar lick, which is played in a steady succession of 32nd notes played across all six strings. I begin on E (1st string, 12th fret) and hammer-on to G# at the 16th fret then pull-off to F# and back to E.

I then move one string lower and sound the first note, D (2nd string, 15th fret) by hammering my pinkie down onto the string “from nowhere.” the pick is not used to sound this note or any of those that follow, all of which are articulated with either hammer-ons or pull-offs. I fret all the notes on the top two strings with my 1st, 3rd and 4th fingers.

The sequence then migrates over to all of the remaining strings, staying within the framework of E Lydian-dominant. Notice that, when playing the notes on the G and D strings, I switch my fret-hand fingering to 1, 2 and 4, moving back to 1, 3 and 4 on the A string and then to 1, 2 and 4 when I get to the low E string.

Let’s look at the scale itself one octave at a time: Figure 2 illustrates E Lydian-b7, played in the lower octave, moving between the low E and D strings. Figures 3 and 4 offer two ways to finger the scale in the next higher octave.

The best way to get this lick under your fingers is to break it into smaller pieces: Figures 5 and 6 focus on the first part, played on the top three strings.

Figures 7 and 8 show how it lays on the bottom three strings.

Now that you have an understanding of the lick and how it’s executed, let’s move to a different key and part of the fretboard.

Figure 9 shows this same lick played in 7th position and transposed to B Lydian-b7 (B, C#, D#, E#, F#, G#, A), which is the fourth mode of F# melodic minor (F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E#).

As you will find, this lick offers a great way to get a handle on legato phrasing, as well as the intriguing sound of Lydian-dominant.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Right, it’s fair to say most of us will never make it to our 90th birthday, let alone still be playing sold-out shows with a polkadot guitar in hand – but blues legend Buddy Guy will be doing just that this week.

For more than seven decades, Buddy Guy has defined the sound of the blues. His innovative guitar work has inspired generations of musicians, from Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan to Eric Clapton and John Mayer. Now, for his milestone birthday, some of music's biggest names are coming together for a once-in-a-lifetime concert to honor this living blues icon.

Buddy’s Got The Blues: A 90th Birthday Concert Celebration is a star-studded event promising a night of unforgettable performances and emotional tributes in honor of a living legend and you can stream the whole thing at Nugs.net.

The lineup reads like a who’s who of contemporary blues and rock, with everyone from Eric Clapton to John Mayer, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, as well as Jon Batiste, Aloe Blacc, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr., Shemekia Copeland, Robert Cray, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, Billy Gibbons, Ivan Neville, Robert Randolph, Bobby Rush, Isaiah Sharkey, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jimmie Vaughan, Ally Venable, Willie Weeks, and Kim Wilson.

To top it off, current Rolling Stones drummer Steve Jordan will serve as the show's musical director.

Speaking about the event, Guy says, “Can't wait to celebrate 90 years of living, loving, and playing the blues with all my friends. We’ll make it a night not just for me, but for the folks who taught us, the friends we’ve played with, and the ones coming up behind us.”

So, whether you’re a lifelong blues fan or just discovering Buddy Guy’s music, this concert offers a rare opportunity to see so many celebrated artists share the stage in a heartfelt salute to one of their heroes.

How to watch from anywhere

Perhaps the best part is you don’t have to be in the audience at the venue to experience the show. The event will be streamed worldwide, giving fans everywhere the chance to join the celebration from the comfort of their own homes.

Hosted by nugs.net, the livestream ensures that Buddy’s 90th birthday is truly a global affair. All you need is an internet connection and a ticket from nugs.net/BuddyGuy to tune in.

Tickets cost $39.99 for HD or $49.99 for 4K, but you get a 25% discount if you subscribe to the site.

Better yet, a portion of the livestream proceeds will benefit the American Cancer Society, continuing Buddy’s tradition of using his platform to give back and make a difference.

What is nugs?

Nugs is a premier online platform for live music streaming, offering fans access to thousands of concerts and exclusive recordings from legendary artists and emerging acts alike.

Founded in 1997, Nugs began as a resource for fans to access high-quality live recordings of their favorite bands. Over the years, it has become the go-to destination for music lovers who want to relive the magic of the live concert experience from anywhere in the world.

One of the platform’s strongest features is its vast library. Nugs partners with a wide array of artists to provide official concert recordings, both recent and archival. Subscribers can stream or download shows in HD and even 4K, often just hours after the performance.

Whether you’re a fan of Buddy Guy, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Dead & Company, Metallica, or Phish, the catalog is constantly expanding with new live content added regularly.

The platform is available on web and mobile apps, and can be streamed to your smart TV, making it easy to enjoy concerts without leaving the comfort of your living room – and unless you have a particularly hostile roommate, no one will throw a pint of what you hope is beer over you while you wait for the main act to start.

Of course, you don't need to sign up for a full-on subscription, but doing so unlocks unlimited streaming access to the entire catalog, letting you explore decades of concerts.

Subscribers often receive discounts on special events and pay-per-view livestreams – such as Buddy Guy’s 90th birthday concert – and early access to exclusive releases.

See the full line-up

Eric Clapton says selling two of his prized electric guitars at auction in 2004 was a “big, big mistake” but accepts the wider context justified the painful split.

The two guitars – his late Cream-era Gibson ES-335 and his iconic “Blackie” Stratocaster – sold for a combined $1,807,000 at the Christie’s auction. In total, the event raised $7.44 million, with roughly $6.4 million going to Clapton’s Crossroads drug addiction rehabilitation center.

The ES-335, a 1964 model with a mysterious origin story, featured at Cream’s farewell show at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1968. It’s now been confirmed that Epiphone will release a special re-issue of the guitar next summer.

The Strat, meanwhile, came into Clapton’s life in 1970, and was pieced together from three different 1950s models. He recorded seminal hits including Cocaine, I Shot the Sheriff and Lay Down Sally with the guitar.

They’re both iconic six-strings in their own right, and they helped raise vital funds for Crossroads, which celebrated its 28th anniversary in star-studded style over the weekend. But that didn’t make letting them go any easier for Slowhand.

“When the auction was going on, I had to constantly keep saying, ‘This is your purpose. You are an alcoholic, and if you don't stay sober, you won’t be able to help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety,’” he recalls in an interview with Guitar Center.

“So this is all for that purpose. Crossroads is for that purpose. So I’m disproportionately obsessed with the survival of that place.”

Crossroads offers “a therapeutic, supportive and safe environment—away from the confusion of life in addiction – on the beautiful island of Antigua” in the Caribbean.

Everything from high-profile auctions to seven editions of the Crossroads Guitar Festival, which unites a host of prolific players on the stage, have helped raise funds for the center. It means everything to Clapton.

“My primary purpose is to stay sober, and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety,” he notes. “That’s above me being a musician or a husband or a father. It’s the number one thing.”

So, yes, selling those guitars, he says with a nervous laugh, was a “big, big mistake.” But zoom out, and it's easy to see why Slowhand parted ways with them.

Now, Guitar Center’s Crossroads collection – which takes in high-end recreations of some of Clapton’s most historic guitars – is adding more money to the pot.

Last week, John Mayer and PRS announced a new collaboration with Land Rover, unveiling a host of limited Silver Sky signature guitars in Defender colorways.

The drop caused a stir online. Not because of the new colorways, or the fact that it debuted the black pickguard Silver Sky. Guitarists were too busy focusing on the name of the guitar.

Social media will have you believe that the Defender Silver Sky is a pointed, unsubtle barb at Fender over its ongoing Stratocaster copyright dispute. After all, the word ‘Defender’ literally contains ‘Fender’.

It seemed that everyone on the internet all thought the same thing. Fender had issued PRS a cease-and-desist letter over the Silver Sky. The De-Fender Silver Sky, therefore, was PRS hitting back at Fender in the best way possible: an S-style of its own with ‘Fender’ on it.

But is that really the case? Well, no. The timeline doesn’t add up. When we spoke to John Mayer about the collaboration earlier this month, he revealed that talks with Land Rover stretched back to the start of the year – before Fender scored the default EU ruling on which it’s based its entire legal strategy.

“We've been working on this since January or February, in terms of the loose conversation about it,” Mayer said. “Then, into March, we started getting into what colors they should be and how we make things work.”

If you needed any more evidence, Mayer’s passion for Defenders didn’t miraculously appear this year. That would’ve been one helluva coincidence. No, he’s been collecting the luxury 4x4s for years.

For the record, he bought his first Defender around 2007, in Arles Blue. Arles Blue is one of the colors included in the collaboration drop. The defense rests.

For Mayer, this wasn’t about getting back at his old endorser; it was pure wish fulfilment.

“It’s been a dream of mine for a long time to align with a brand that’s known so well for its colors and adapt those colors so that they live on the Silver Sky,” Mayer told us. “I’m a huge fan of Defenders and a collector of Defenders. This is marrying two things I love.”

Visit PRS Guitars to browse the full collection of Defender Silver Skys.

Picture the scene if you will. It’s Christmas morning in 1950s America, snow is falling, Bing Crosby is crooning carols on the wireless, and a family is gathered around a tree with presents arranged beneath.

Having grown out of little league baseball and lost interest in push bikes, Johnny has been begging his parents for an electric guitar and it looks like his dreams are about to come true.

Johnny has promised his parents that he will take lessons and learn those wholesome standards they so enjoy. But we all know that will never happen because Johnny has been secretly listening to Elvis and Chuck Berry, and his family doesn’t know what’s about to hit them.

No doubt countless guitar-playing journeys started with fortunate kids tearing wrapping paper off a Fender Esquire and a Champ, or a Les Paul Junior and a GA-5. They were the relatively affordable products that the manufacturers of the time marketed as ‘student models’. But the most remarkable thing about those guitars, and to a lesser extent the amps, was that many were good enough to become career instruments.

Maintaining Standards

A degree of compromise followed by a series of upgrades is pretty typical with modern entry-level guitars, but things weren’t always like that and Gibson’s 1950s student models are a case in point. In 1954 the Les Paul Junior became Gibson’s second solidbody and it predated the two-pickup Special by a year.

When designing a more affordable version of the Goldtop, Gibson clearly decided to simplify the production process, rather than compromise quality, and that distinction is crucial.

Instead of joining and carving maple pieces into an arch, Gibson dispensed with maple altogether (though some early Juniors with maple bodies are known to exist), opting for a flat and unbound slab of mahogany – much like the approach taken by another manufacturer then coming to prominence out on the West Coast.

Bolt-on necks would have been anathema to Gibson, so the Junior had a set neck attached with Gibson’s regular hide glue. There was no body binding, and simple celluloid dots were installed, but the unbound fretboards were still made from Brazilian rosewood.

Although fixed to a single plate, rather than mounted individually, the inner workings of the Kluson tuners were no different from the ones fitted to the Goldtop. As for the wraptail bridge, it was identical to the one that would feature on Goldtops from 1953 and is considered to be tonally superior to the later tune-o-matic.

Potentiometers varied in value, with 250k sometimes used for tone, but they were the same Centralab units featured in Gibson’s most prestigious models. Depending on when they were made, 1950s Juniors were also equipped with the ‘Grey Tiger’ and Sprague ‘Bumblebee’ tone capacitors.

Most remarkably, Gibson decided to install a P-90. Granted, you only got one, but the Junior’s P-90 was no different from the ones in Gibson’s top-end guitars. Besides a vogue for replacing tired Klusons with cast tuners in later decades, there was nothing about Les Paul Juniors that could be or needed to be upgraded.

Building ‘student models’ to a standard – not a price – could be viewed as shrewd. In the 1950s the thinking was that budding guitarists who had a good experience with their first guitars would stay loyal to the brand and eventually go more upmarket.

Cheap Thrills

During the 1970s there wasn’t a vast variety of quality guitars to choose from, and cash-strapped musicians would often seek out secondhand Fender and Gibson models that had fallen out of favour. With all the ’Bursts and 335s hoovered up by heavy rockers and prog players, pub rockers and proto-punks started buying Juniors and Specials.

Gary Moore cottoned onto Les Paul Juniors early on, maybe having heard what they could do in the hands of Leslie West and Mick Ralphs. Pete Cummings, who was road manager for Gary’s band Skid Row, has told of an incident that occurred in Cincinnati in the early 1970s.

“When we were there Gary saw an ad for a Gibson Les Paul Junior somewhere about 50 miles from the city,” he recalled. “We went to a private house in a rural location and Gary went into the house while I waited outside. About 15 minutes later Gary emerged with the guitar and a battered case. That was certainly his first Les Paul Junior.”

It wasn’t to be his last because Gary acquired this 1955 Junior from Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols. Over a decade on from Gary’s death, Bonhams handled the sale of his guitar collection – The Final Encore – and managed to trace some of its history. According to Bonhams’ lot notes, “Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols left this guitar at Gary’s Hampstead flat for some months before Gary bought it from him”.

In his autobiography Lonely Boy: Tales From A Sex Pistol Steve Jones details some of the gear he acquired before he became famous. According to Jones, the Les Paul Junior he sold to Gary Moore was taken from Mott The Hoople, but it didn’t belong to Mick Ralphs. It was actually one of two mid-50s Les Paul Juniors that his successor Luther Grosvenor – aka Ariel Bender – used on Mott’s 1974 US tour.

When we contacted Luther, he stated that in 1974 after he had left Mott The Hoople and was forming the band that would become Widowmaker, they were “rehearsing on New Kings Road in a basement that lots of people used. I suggested having a break and when we came back, the guitar had gone…”

Unlikely as it may seem, Gary and Steve Jones played together in a band called The Greedy Bastards that was formed by Phil Lynott in 1978. Although the project proved shortlived, black-and-white footage of the band playing a gig at The Electric Ballroom in Camden can be found online. Gary appears to be playing a Les Paul Standard, while the Junior is being wielded by Steve Jones.

In the March 1987 edition of Making Music magazine, Gary said that his Junior “used to be Steve Jones’, but he left it at my house one day… so I gave him £250 for it…”

The Junior was definitely Gary’s by 1979 because there is plenty of photographic evidence of him using it on Thin Lizzy’s Black Rose tour that year. In that same issue of Making Music Gary said that he used the Junior for guitar harmonies on his Wild Frontier album, and it was also the main guitar on Victims Of The Future.

California Dreaming

In November 2025, Bonhams sold the Junior for £40,960 including premium to Matthieu Lucas of Matt’s Guitar Shop in Paris.

“We had sold Steve Jones’ Les Paul Custom a couple of years ago and I really wanted to get another Sex Pistols guitar,” Matt tells us.

“I bought it believing it had potential to go to a Sex Pistols collector, but we were contacted by Will Wallner, who is a professional guitarist and a massive Gary Moore fan. He was disappointed that he couldn’t get the guitar when Bonhams auctioned it, so it’s great that he was able to buy it from us.

“The Junior is a very interesting guitar,” Matt continues, “because it has such a fat neck and the P-90 sounds amazing.

“It was modified by Gary over the years and he tried another pickup at some point, but he went back to the original P-90. It had a typical late-’70s or early ’80s refret with medium jumbo wire, and the tuners were changed for Schallers. It’s not too light or heavy, and more of a riff machine than a lead guitar, but that didn’t stop Gary because he was such a genius player.”

Will Wallner was born in Devon but has been based in LA for most of his adult life. Formerly a member of White Wizard, Will is now a solo artist, session player and currently plays with Seattle-based metal band Sanctuary.

“Gary is my favourite guitar player,” Matt says, “and I may have the largest collection of his gear. I have lots of his guitars and amps, including the amp he used to record The Loner, the ‘Plexi’ that he used on the BBM album [Around the Next Dream], his two main DSL heads, ’70s stuff like 20-watt Marshall heads, and a nice 1959 Gibson combo.

“The main reason I wanted the Junior is the clip of him jamming backstage with Phil Lynott and, of course, he played it with Thin Lizzy. When I first opened the Junior’s case and tuned it up, I played some of Gary’s old stuff, like Victims Of The Future, and it sounded exactly like it did on the album.”

“It’s a beautiful instrument, everything works perfectly and I have no problems with the bridge,” Will tells us.

“It’s beaten up, but that makes it more special. I read an interview with Gary describing an [incident] at his flat with Steve Jones. Apparently, Steve threw the Junior against the wall, stormed out and never came back to get it. When I look at the knocks, I imagine one of them must be from the wall at Gary’s place.

“I had never played a Junior before this one, but I’ve been playing it non-stop since I got it and I used it on a recording just a couple of days ago.”

Will assures us that Gary’s Junior will continue to be played live and in the studio, and we can’t help feeling it has ended up in exactly the right place.

• With thanks to Matt’s Guitar Shop in Paris for allowing us to photograph this guitar.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

25 years ago, Jimmy Eat World’s breakthrough 2001 album, Bleed American, took the Arizona emo band from VFW hall shows to the top of the charts. But it almost didn’t happen at all. To paraphrase frontman and co-guitarist Jim Adkins on the album’s mega hit The Middle, it just took some time.

Scooped up by Capitol Records during the ’90s alternative-rock gold rush, Jimmy Eat World arrived in major-label land with just a scrappy indie release of speedy pop-punk under its belt and a growing interest in the barbed riffs and mathy rhythms of post-hardcore. After two albums, 1996’s Static Prevails and 1999’s Clarity, posted dismal sales, though, they quietly exited the big machine.

But unlike scores of other alt-leaning rock bands that were gobbled up and spit out by the majors, Jimmy Eat World wasn’t finished yet. Hopeful for a second chance, the band again enlisted producer Mark Trombino, who had helmed their previous records – albums which, especially Clarity, fans loved for their strong melodies, titanic riffs and increasingly ornate instrumentation.

In the van Capitol bought them years earlier, Jimmy Eat World toured relentlessly and saved the earnings to pay Trombino. They grabbed copies of their Capitol releases to sell at gigs while playing to thousands across Europe and worked day jobs in the interim. When they had pooled together enough cash to track Bleed American, they not only had the strongest songs of their career but had tightened into the band that could pull them off.

“Going in to make Bleed American was a little bit different than making Clarity because of the amount of touring that we were doing in between, and just being in that environment where it's just two guitars,” Adkins says, “so you're thinking about your creative solutions with that in mind.”

Stripping their sound back to a two-guitar attack from the adventurous experimentations of their previous work – whose lack of sales got them dropped, only to be rediscovered and championed by bands like Paramore during the aughts emo explosion – suited their increased use of drop-D tuning, which helped lower the boom on songs like the stomping title track.

“At first it was like a novelty thing, like you get a new effect pedal and all of a sudden you write a song around it,” he says. “It's that thing that tricks you to get you out of your own head, so you can just experiment. Then you hear yourself play something that sounded cool so you do that again, and before you know it, you're fleshing out a song.”

While dialing up their ambitions in songcraft, the band also scaled down the scope of their songs. Adkins says he found inspiration listening to classic songwriters like the Everly Brothers and Bruce Springsteen, who mastered the ability to execute an idea with simplicity and directness.

“You might have heard it a million times and not really paid attention to it growing up, but then all of a sudden you're like, wait a minute – Dancing in the Dark just works,” he says. “Like, what is it that makes it work? How can I do that? I think most of our material that pushes the band forward has started off like, ‘I don't know if we can get away with this, guys.’”

But they did and then some. After total sales of their previous album barely cracked five digits, Bleed American’s punchy, anthemic tunes quickly scored the band its first Platinum album.

Three singles – the bruising title track alongside the thundering sing-along Sweetness and the emotive Hear You Me – all yielded Gold and Platinum platters of their own. But The Middle, certified 9x Platinum, peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it a genuine crossover smash. In 2024, the song joined Spotify’s Billion Streams Club.

On the opening riff of The Middle, Adkins and Linton lock into a tightly wound guitar figure composed of variations on the same riff.

“Sometimes it might be unison, sometimes we might hit a lower voicing, the notes that imply the progression, but add in a mid-to-high voicing that's sometimes unison or sometimes maybe like a harmony itself,” Adkins says – the kind of interlocking guitar line he traces back to Thin Lizzy's twin-guitar harmonies.

After years chasing the sprawl and mathy detours of post-hardcore, the band started exploring how to extract the most from each riff instead. “There was a tendency to scale back the scope of what you're trying to do," Adkins says, “and push how tight and lockstep you can make it and how simple you can make it, as almost a subversive kind of goal.”

For two guitarists who'd been shredheads in the early '90s, stripping a song down to a handful of chords was more Never Mind the Bollocks than Surfing with the Alien. "That's the best way I can describe it: oh man, we can get away with this!"

The guitar solo on The Middle broke a different rule. Where the solo on Bleed American and most of the band's earlier leads – like the extended bridge solo on Clarity’s Just Watch the Fireworks – grow out of the vocal melody, hinting at it and then taking off, the solo on The Middle has no connection to anything else happening in the song. "That was different," Adkins says. "That might be the first time we've ever done that."

He built it across a series of takes rather than working it out on paper. "I knew what I wanted to do; the arc of it was there from the beginning," he says. "It was just figuring out how to build something with that arc – theme, repeat, variation, kick it up a notch." The one consistent trick, he says, is that it never backs off: "always ascending, that's either ascending or faster."

Adkins doesn't consider himself a lead player by nature.

"I'm not like a shredder guitar player. I don't do leads, even though I kind of grew up with that scene of players," he says. "It was more about finding a clever way to make a theme and variation of it that is building. There's a narrative arc to it, and that I knew I wanted to have. But what actually happened in it was figured out on the spot."

Across the album, Adkins and co-guitarist and vocalist Tom Linton kept the gear simple, a stark contrast from Clarity’s kitchen-sink list of bells, chimes, glockenspiels and other ornamentation.

Adkins used a Gibson Les Paul Studio and 1979 Marshall JMP Super Lead, while Linton played his Gibson SG through an Orange AD140, with a Vox AC30 and a Fender Princeton for occasional overdubs.

However, the band did experiment on the album’s more reflective moments. Hear You Me, Your House and Cautioners all feature looping, shimmering guitar textures built with Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler pedals, which had recently hit the market.

“You could loop things and then reverse it and do an octave and record it. Sometimes it might take like 10 minutes to get the composition of your loop just right. After you’d get it to a place that sounded cool, we’d hit record, walk out of the room, and five minutes later come back.”

While Bleed American changed everything for Jimmy Eat World, Adkins and his bandmates were seasoned enough to keep the focus on the music and not merely the success.

“The best outcome would be this gives us an opportunity to keep doing this,” he says of the band’s philosophy of the new world they entered on Bleed American. “That's the best we could hope for.”

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Fresh from his performance at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, John Mayer has just announced his return to the Sphere in Las Vegas next year for a run of shows featuring three distinct sets.

Set to take place in April 2027, the event will see Mayer perform solo, with a full band, and with the John Mayer Trio, showcasing the guitarist and singer-songwriter’s stylistic palette across each set. His solo performance will feature acoustic guitar and, at times, piano and electric guitar, while the Trio will see him explore his blues-rock side alongside bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordan.

It’s Mayer’s first time performing at the Sphere as a solo act. However, he’s more than familiar with the venue following his two residencies with Dead & Company in 2024 and 2025.

For last year’s residency, Mayer famously decided against ditching his prized Dumbles and Fenders for modelers, despite the venue’s well-known shortcomings for onstage amps, instead stashing them backstage.

As for his highly anticipated return with the Trio, Mayer will perform with Palladino and Jordan for the first time since 2023.

The trio reunited at that year’s edition of Love Rocks Benefit Concert for their first gig together in six years, with Mayer fully embracing his roots by pulling out a Fender Monterey Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster.

The residency will kick off on April 8, with shows on the 10, 11, 15, 17, and 18. Pre-sale begins on October 7 at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET, while general tickets go on sale on October 9 at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET.

For more information, visit John Mayer’s official website.

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and Cheap Trick guitar legend Rick Nielsen is auctioning off some of his most recognizable and off-kilter guitars, of course.

The eccentric guitarist’s collection includes two 1968 Gibson Explorers, and a 1963 Guild Merle Travis, one of only three ever made. One of his three custom five-neck guitars will also be up for grabs, the stage-played 2004 Hamer “Five Neck” Korina, estimated to sell for more than $175,000.

“How did I come up with such a backbreaking idea for an instrument? Well, back at shows in the late ’70s and early ’80s, I used to stack up as many as five guitars for my guitar solo,” Nielsen once told Guitar Player.

“Eventually, this part of the show gave birth to the idea of building a multi-necked guitar. The original concept was to have a six-neck that spun like a roulette wheel, so that I could play one neck and then rotate to the next, but then I decided to go with something more conservative – five necks in a row!”

Another Hamer, his 1975 Standard electric, is also hitting the auction block. Custom-built for Nielsen, it was his workhorse in the ’70s and ’80s, and was used during his career-defining performance at Japan’s The Budokan in 1978, Chicagofest in 1981, and Rockpalast in Germany in 1983. It’s now estimated to fetch between $200,000 and $300,000.

This auction offers a glimpse into Nielsen’s passion for guitar collecting, which started at an early age. His parents owned a music store, and after seeing the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, he bought his first Les Paul – a 1955 Gold Top – for $65, which he still owns to this day.

“I couldn’t sing or dance, but I was big into songwriting, and I tried to put everything I had into that,” says Nielsen.

“I knew I was never going to be a virtuoso, so I ended up being a ‘medium-oso.’ I started out with one guitar, and over the years the collection just kept growing. It seemed like a good time to sell some of it – you can’t take it with you. When it’s all over, hopefully I’ll still have one guitar.”

The auction, which is kicking off on October 24, will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, an organization close to the guitarist’s heart.

The sale will be held live at Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum at the Historic Nashville Municipal Auditorium.

“From the guitars that helped define Nielsen’s unmistakable sound and style to personal pieces collected throughout his extraordinary career, The Rick Nielsen Collection offers fans and collectors an unprecedented opportunity to own a piece of rock history,” reads the statement from Julien’s Auctions, the auction house leading the sale.

For more information, visit Julien’s.

Back in 1982, a fast-rising – and perhaps unassuming – jazz virtuoso by the name of Emily Remler told People Magazine, “I may look like a nice Jewish girl from New Jersey, but inside I'm a 50-year-old, heavy-set black man with a big thumb, like Wes Montgomery.”

She may not be a household name, but Remler had the technique to hold her own alongside contemporaries like Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Joe Pass and Jennifer Batten. She also had something rarer: a sound and a musical personality that were unmistakably hers.

This was precisely what drew filmmaker Al Naffah, the writer, director and producer of Firefly: The Emily Remler Story, to her. It eventually compelled him to craft a documentary that celebrates her work and legacy – often ignored in the mainstream.

“I was a student in Paris and used to regularly listen to the station TSF Jazz. I remember one evening hearing Emily play and feeling an immediate connection to her phrasing and tonality,” he tells Guitar World in an exclusive interview.

“Discovering not only that it was a woman playing, but also that she had died at just 32 made me intrigued to find out more about her life and discover her outstanding discography.”

Naffah couldn’t help but draw parallels between Remler and another jazz great gone too soon.

“I remember watching Asif Kapadia’s Amy about Amy Winehouse and thinking about Emily Remler. Both were extraordinary Jewish women in music who battled addiction and intense sexism but whose lives were cut tragically short,” he explains.

“But what stayed with me was the possibility of hearing Emily tell her own story. When I realised how much footage and audio of her existed, I could see a film built around her voice and performances. That was the moment she stopped being a subject I admired and became a film I felt I had to make.”

Naffah went on a journey to unearth rare performances, television appearances, photographs, and interviews in which Remler speaks about her life, in her own words.

He also went a step further by interviewing a rolodex of guitarists, including Jennifer Batten, Martin Taylor, and The Last Dinner Party’s Emily Roberts – those who either experienced Remler’s music firsthand or were influenced by her legacy.

“What comes through in the interviews is that Emily’s influence began with how she played. She was doing that in a world where women instrumentalists had to work much harder to be taken seriously. She endured horrific sexism and misogyny throughout her career but became something that she had to rise above.

“She would frequently say that she had to be ‘Twice as good as a man.’ [For example,] Emily used Polytone solid-state amplifiers and Fender tube amplifiers, but frequently had to endure comments like, ‘Can a woman really carry that big amp?’

“One contributor in the film even tells of how she would go into recording studios, and people would look at her like she didn’t know how to plug in the guitar.

“Emily refused to let those expectations define what she could do. For later guitarists, that combination of musical excellence and determination made her a powerful example.”

Moreover, he notes that Remler herself refused to be defined by style or genre – describing herself as a “melting pot” in archival footage. She wasn’t just a composite of her heroes – namely, Wes Montgomery, Herb Ellis, Joe Pass and Charlie Christian – but, armed with her distinctive red Gibson ES-330, and later, a Borys B120 hollow body, took a magpie-like approach and created something uniquely hers.

“She studied the tradition closely, then played with enough conviction that you hear Emily, rather than a list of her influences,” Naffah continues.

“Seeing the evolution of her playing in early footage of concerts alongside people like Astrud Gilberto to her towering presence on stage leading a group of guitar legends – John Abercrombie, Mick Goodrick and John Scofield – you can see how much she wanted to be, and was, a natural leader.”

After poring over hundreds of hours of footage and interviews, Naffah points to a story that best encapsulates Remler’s character and dedication to her craft.

“My favourite story in the film is her simple reply to what she would consider to be the greatest achievement of her career: to have earned the respect of the idols she looked up to.

“For Pat Martino to tell her he had a good time, for Pat Metheny to be in the audience at her shows, and for Joe Pass to have recommended her for gigs. It says so much about her character and her motivation to be respected amongst the greats despite all the obstacles she had to deal with.”

Remler’s promising career was cut short when she died of heart failure at the age of 32 while touring in Australia. Her longstanding addiction to heroin and Dilaudid is thought to have contributed to her death – a tragedy that Naffah says the team was careful to touch upon without falling into the trap of sensationalism.

“We have worked very hard in co-operation with Emily’s closest friends and family, particularly her sister Jane Remler Blank and childhood friend, Susan Itkin Kurshenoff.

“We all felt that it would be wrong to ignore the theme of addiction in the film, and we have managed to find previously unseen footage of Emily discussing her challenges openly so that the audience can hear it directly from her.”

As Remler would have turned 70 next year, Naffah says it feels particularly timely to release the documentary in 2027.

After receiving crucial support from Berklee College of Music and Beth Marlis at Musicians Institute Hollywood, he’s now appealing to the guitar community to contribute to his team's Kickstarter campaign. The aim is to raise roughly $27,000, “to strengthen the story edit and move the film toward completion.

“We felt that starting with the Kickstarter was the right way to tap into Emily’s huge grassroots fanbase and invite people to become part of the project,” he explains.

“A personal recommendation to a friend, a guitar teacher, or a local jazz group can make a real difference. Backing it will help us build momentum and bring Emily’s story to the screen.”

More importantly though, releasing the film during such a poignant year gives Naffah, his team, and Remler’s friends and family a chance to bring her work to a new generation.

“I don’t think a film can define Emily’s legacy; she did that through her playing. But it can help ensure that more people hear it, understand the obstacles she faced, and recognise just how much she achieved.”

• For more information, head to Firefly: The Emily Remler Story's Kickstarter campaign.

Eddie Vedder saved an Irish rock band over the weekend, offering up his own electric guitar for use after all their gear had been stolen.

Two days after playing at the iconic Troubadour in West Hollywood, Florence Road were scheduled to play Vedder’s Ohana Festival in Dana Point, California.

However, they were forced to pull out, announcing they’d had all their guitars and pedalboards stolen from their van. In a statement posted to Instagram, the band wrote, “We’ve tried absolutely everything to make it happen.”

Vedder heard of Florence Road’s troubles and came to their rescue. Not only did he help find them a new evening slot to play on Saturday night, he personally gave frontwoman Lily Aron his own guitar so the set could go ahead.

“What an insane 48 hours!!!” Aron wrote on Florence Road’s Instagram. “We couldn’t be more grateful to Eddie Vedder and the team at Ohana Festival. The second Eddie heard our guitars were stolen he insisted I play his. A true gentleman.”

Aron also shared a picture of Vedder handing over his heavily decorated black Fender Telecaster, which flashes a ‘Joe Strummer Trash City’ sticker below the bridge.

Vedder is no stranger to a sticker-bound Telecaster, and this particular model looks like the Pearl Jam frontman’s own DIY take on the Joe Strummer’s Custom Shop signature guitar.

Strummer, a man whose sticker antics characterized his relationship with the guitar, was honored by Fender in 2024 with a Masterbuilt recreation of his main axe.

Whatever the story behind Vedder’s Tele, it was graciously gifted temporarily to Florence Road, who were able to continue their run of US shows in style thanks to the Seattle icon.

Florence Road have yet to release their debut album, but they’ve emerged as one of rock’s most exciting modern acts. The four-piece have toured with Wolf Alice and Olivia Rodrgio, and have millions of likes on TikTok. And now they’ve been championed by Vedder.

Head over to Florence Road’s Instagram page to check out their material.

The fretboard of an acoustic guitar can be a lovely place to live – inspiring, rewarding, nice view et cetera.

However, when it comes to the number of frets that should ideally sit between the nut and the body join, there remains plenty of room for debate. In the following numerical stream of consciousness I’ll shed light on the two most popular choices and one increasingly prominent outlier.

From its classical roots to the first flat-top prototypes, the 12-fret neck-to-body join has been the original choice for an acoustic guitar. More traditionally entrenched players to this day continue to see any diversion as an evolutionary dead end. There are evidently pros and cons involved, of course. Let’s look at the good stuff first.

It is undeniable that the sound of a 12-fret instrument is one of the primary advantages. The architecture of these guitars involves a neck that joins the body at a nodal point and a bridge location on or near to the centre of the guitar’s lower bout. This lends a voice that players often describe as rich, sophisticated and complex.

You can certainly expect a more diffuse response that pushes the soundboard’s monopole and cross dipole in a different way from a 14-fret instrument, especially when playing fingerstyle. Some players – myself included – also enjoy the visual logic of each string meeting the body join at the octave as you sight down the neck, very helpful.

In the cons column we have to address the fact that many of us make extensive use of at least one capo. On a non-cutaway 12-fret guitar it doesn’t take long before things start getting cramped.

We should also add the fact that the majority of 12-fret instruments are built in the vintage style and that inevitably means a chunky old neck and the challenge of changing steel strings on a slotted headstock without bleeding out on the floor.

While cutaway 12-fret guitars do exist, they tend to be the preserve of bespoke acoustic luthiers such as Marc Beneteau and Michael Greenfield.

Some such as Casimi Guitars of South Africa go so far as to make 12-fret instruments almost exclusively (bar the 13-fret C5 Baritone in this case). As ever, the sublime comes at a price.

Numbers Game

Now let’s address the 14-fret guitar. Martin’s short-lived relationship with the banjo superstar Perry Bechtel is often credited with the introduction of the 14-fret guitar when he approached the company in 1929, but Gibson’s 14-fret Hawaiian models were released around the same time, following on from the success of its L-5 archtop, launched in 1923.

Ironically, Bechtel himself defected to an L-5 within a couple of years of Martin’s first 14-fret models leaving the production line. The perfidy of that banjo player may never be forgotten, but he did play a part in some wonderful guitars.

Let’s face it, the vast majority of flat-top steel-string guitars in the world today feature a 14-fret neck-to-body join. There are some very good reasons for this.

The 14-fret design addresses most of the 12-fret equivalent’s foibles, giving unfettered access to loads of notes (including a far more comfortable octave E blues scale), a solid headstock, a slimmer neck, and a voice that loves being driven with a pick and cutting through a band mix.

While the 14-fret dreadnought dominates in the acoustic guitar domain, there is now increasing love for Orchestra, Grand Auditorium, Grand Concert, Jumbo and Small Jumbo instruments that go up to 11 – plus three. If you’re reading this then the chances are that you own and love at least one similar instrument.

Now it’s time for our wildcard: the 13-fret acoustic guitar. Setting aside any latent triskaidekaphobia, we need to look back to the very first acoustic steel-string guitar signature model – the Gibson Nick Lucas Special – which in between its 12- and 14-fret iterations briefly saw the sun as a 13-fret model. But why?

Logic dictates that a 13-fret guitar should occupy a happy medium – a fine balance between the warm, intimate tones of a 12-fret and the muscular articulation of the 14-fret. So what went wrong? Well, things sometimes just don’t work out, and while the 13-fret Nick Lucas did not last as a production model, original examples are now highly prized by players and collectors alike. Bob Dylan had one, which helps.

Credit for the current resurgence of interest in 13-fret guitars must go to the late Paul Hostetter who collaborated with Richard Hoover of the Santa Cruz Guitar Company to produce a deep-body 13-fret version of the Nick Lucas design under the H13 model. This is, it has to be said, a superb guitar.

The past few years have seen adoption of the 13-fret instruments by several prominent players – in fact, it seems like all the cool kids have got one. Martin Simpson and Louis Campbell can both be seen toting 13-fret Fylde instruments, and bell harmonic maestro Alan Gogoll has been melting faces around the world with a 13-fret signature model by Swedish luthier Ted Åstrand.

This reinvigoration of the 13-fret instrument’s popularity has led to some luthiers making standard models with this design. Regardez s’il vous plaît the elegant Blind Guitars B-24 model by French luthier Virgile Pilon (pictured above) we featured recently as one such example. That whole instrument was designed as a 13-fret guitar and Virgile is sticking to his guns – there are no plans for any other iteration.

In practice, what this all means for us – as lovers of the guitar and its music – is that once again we stand to benefit in this golden age of acoustic lutherie.

Choice is a beautiful thing, especially when it is guided by in-depth collaborations between guitar makers and the musicians who play their work. No matter what configuration you choose, the options for ergonomic joy, aesthetic depth of meaning and sonic splendour are more varied than ever before. Give thanks.

Three to get ready: From 12 to 14 in three easy steps

Gibson Century Collection – $2,299

If you’re into the 12-fret idea then Gibson’s new Century Collection should very definitely be on your radar. As 2026 brings with it the centennial of the brand’s flat-top acoustics, Gibson has released 12-fret versions of the venerable J-185 small jumbo, small-body L-00 and slope-shoulder dreadnought J-45 (pictured) models. That’s a lot of tone to go for. Which to choose? That’s up to you. Maybe all three!

Åstrand Guitars – $21,000

While still rare and wonderful, 13-fret guitars are indeed out there. Among the finest I’ve heard recently was Ted Åstrand’s new 00 Signature Goldfish model for Alan Gogoll (both pictured above).

I had the pleasure of hearing this instrument in action while producing Alan’s album Echidna’s Parade at Hansa Studios in Berlin when it was only days old. A beautiful sound and the ideal starting point for a bespoke creation.

Greenfield Guitars G1 From $30,000

Looking for one guitar to rule them all with a choice of neck joins? Michael Greenfield’s G1 model is now available in both 12- and 14-fret configurations with no difference in base price.

Players from Keith Richards and Andy McKee to Tony McManus and Paul Stanley are devotees of this S-Tier Canadian luthier. There’s a waiting list, of course, but that could give you time to save up.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

There’s been a flurry of activity around Guitar Center’s RockWalk of Fame in 2026, with a host of stars joining an established cast of inductees. Iconic luthier Paul Reed Smith is the latest name to be honored, and he’s been inducted by his good friend and signature artist, John Mayer.

After securing the loyalty of Carlos Santana and Al Di Meola early on, Mayer has gone on to be the poster boy for PRS guitars, with his signature model, the Silver Sky, going toe-to-toe with the Fender Strat for year-on-year sales.

Smith’s handprints will now be found on Guitar Center’s RockWalk of Fame in Hollywood, alongside the likes of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Sabbath. Mayer was on hand to deliver a heartfelt speech at the ceremony, which took place during Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival over the weekend.

“I speak on behalf of the artists that pre-date my 10-year relationship with Paul Reed Smith,” Mayer says. “I stand here, and I think I speak for artists like Santana, Mark Tremonti and David Grissom, John McLaughlin, and Neal Schon and I get to put some words to I think what is all of our feelings about Paul.

“There is a lot of love in this man's heart,” he adds. “We have that love for playing guitar. We all share it. Paul has it. I have it. We keep each other pushing with that love for the guitar. Paul Reed Smith, it is an honor to induct you into the Guitar Center RockWalk.”

“Every time you talk,” Smith responds, “I cry.”

“Paul is obsessive about building the perfect guitar – and I mean that as the highest compliment,” said Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto.

“He has spent his life questioning every assumption about how a guitar should sound, feel and perform, and then doing the hard work to make it better. That obsession has materially moved the electric guitar forward and raised the bar for the entire industry.”

From the roaring success of the Silver Sky to budget belters like the SE NF 53, it’s hard to argue against that sentiment.

Back in June, one of rock’s great partnerships, Billy Idol and Steve Stevens, were inducted into the RockWalk, the first to get the nod since Gary Clark Jr. in 2024.

In the background, meanwhile, the store is looking for players to test its new in-house brand’s builds, but you’ll be sworn to secrecy if you sign up for it. Dalporto believes its new guitar designs will swerve away from copyists to be “revolutionary.”

Davidson’s Well Strung Guitars was founded in 2019 by Paige and David Davidson. Prior to Well Strung, David was a co-owner of We Buy Guitars alongside Richard Friedman, as well as the curator at Songbirds Guitar Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Paige has a business and marketing background, serving as the social media director for Songbirds Guitar Museum, where she fell in love with the rich history that surrounds vintage guitars and their brands.

Following the museum’s closure during the pandemic, David and Paige decided to take their small store and turn it into one of the world’s largest vintage-exclusive shops, specializing in Fender, Gibson, Gretsch and Rickenbacker. We’ll let Paige take it from here.

How many instruments are in your shop right now?

We’re home to more than 500 vintage instruments, all of which are available for sale!

What’s the coolest guitar in the shop?

Tough question. Cool is subjective, but the coolest piece right now is a 1960 Gibson Les Paul Custom in Cherry. Only about six of these were produced, making this guitar truly special.

What’s has been your favorite instrument you’ve ever had in the shop?

A 1963 Fender Strat in Olympic White with gold hardware and a tortoiseshell pickguard. The combination was something I hadn’t seen before. It was the most fantastic-sounding, perfectly worn-in guitar. Plus, who doesn’t love gold hardware?

What’s the most sought-after model by customers, generally speaking?

This changes from week to week, but at the moment, we’ve been fielding the most calls about 1958 to 1960 Gibson Les Pauls in Sunburst, more commonly referred to as “’bursts.” A close second is Blackguard Telecasters from the ’50s.

What separates good and great guitars?

Some players are looking for specific tonal qualities while others are focused on pickup output or neck thickness. I think you just need to love what you play. Jack Pearson gigs with a $199 Squier Strat, so…

When someone walks in for the first time, what do you hope they feel?

Like they are in the comfort of their home, just surrounded by some of the most iconic instruments of our time. We like to keep our environment one that feels like a cozy, well-stocked living room. We want you to feel like you’ve been coming here for years, even if it’s the first time we’ve met.

What is one thing everyone should know about your shop?