As Ann Wilson reflects on Heart’s immense legacy, her story unavoidably includes a fair few notable music peers that Wilson and co hung out with during the heady days of the ’80s and ’90s.

“I still remember meeting Jerry in the early-’90s,” Wilson tells Guitar World of her first encounter with Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell.

“There’d been a concert with a bunch of northwest bands playing, and we all ended up out at Nancy’s farm out in Woodinville [Washington]. We were laughing and jamming, and it went on ‘til everybody had drank too much to drive – so everyone just slept there.”

Wilson recalls how she and Jerry were the last ones awake and thought it would be a good idea to clean the house, aided by a bottle of leftover champagne.

“We went down to the stables and fed the horses a bunch of apples – and gave them some champagne. By the time the sun came up, we were friends. There was no weirdness at all. There wasn’t even an age differential that anyone cared about. It was just two musicians together.”

The Heart vocalist goes on to recall a piece of advice that Cantrell imparted back then that she can still remember to this day.

“Jerry’s guitar style is truly original. He once told me, ‘All the bands that are really huge, they figure out what their thing is, then they lean into it hard until people want to puke.’”

She continues, “It was rough language, but I knew what he meant. You just figure out what you’re saying, and you don’t do anything else. That’s what Jerry does. He doesn’t care about notes lined up like a scale. He loves the songs to move around, y’know, kinda fluid. I think he hears way more than seven tones.”

Her bond with Cantrell extended well beyond those encounters. She lent her vocals to the Alice in Chains tracks Brother and Am I Inside from their 1992 Sap EP. Later, she recorded a cover of Rooster, honoring her Seattle roots and the enduring legacy of Alice in Chains.

Wilson’s authorized 2026 documentary film, In My Voice, premiered earlier this year, alongside a North American special screening, and is set for wider release in November.

Guitar World’s upcoming interview with Ann Wilson will be published in the coming weeks.

The Eagles are prolonging their retirement party by extending their stay at the Las Vegas Sphere.

The all-American rock legends are tagging two more dates onto their already record-breaking stint at the venue.

The extra shows, on January 8 and 9 next year, means they’re pulling even further away from the 48-show residency record set by Dead & Company during a thrill-a-minute stay that ended last year.

In total, the band will play 74 shows at the 20,000-capacity venue, spanning 37 weekends.

They’re currently sharing the space with thrash giants Metallica, who kicked off their residency earlier this month and notably, this is one of four extensions to their stay since their first Sphere show.

Don Henley has previously said their Sphere shows, which began on back in 2024, were “a later career blessing” and so they’ll play close to a centenary of shows there. They’ve already played to over a million fans at the venue.

Chris Holt has been part of those performances since January 17, 2025, following Steuart Smith’s retirement, and he didn’t even have to audition for the gig.

Aside from that notable changing of the guard, the shows have been full of highlights so far, not least for giving Joe Walsh an excuse to bring different instruments to the stage, including using a Squier Telecaster to play his solo classic, Rocky Mountain Way (via Reddit). He may even break out his Yamaha Revstar again.

The band has been tweaking their immersive visuals since opening night with one key highlight – spoiler ahead – being Vince Gill’s ‘rooftop’ guitar solo during In the City.

Elsewhere, Roger Waters has come out firing at James Hetfield after his controversial statements made early into the band’s sphere residency which seem to poke fun at the recent fallout surrounding Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour.

And John Mayer – fresh from developing his creative solution to the venue’s noise restrictions with Dead & Company – will reunite his blues trio to return to the venue as a solo artist next year.

Tickets for the Eagles’ record-smashing shows at the Sphere start at $175, and will be the band’s last.

Visit The Sphere for more info.

Ovation is marking its 60th anniversary by reviving one of its most unique electric guitar designs, the Viper.

It was a concept that found a fan in Jeff Buckley. Now it’s been brought into the present day.

Over the years, while guitar recipes have remained broadly conservative, there have been those who have vied to reinvent the wheel.

Ovation, spearheaded by aerospace engineer Charles Kaman, was one of them, first producing an acoustic with a roundback body, before creating a battle axe-shaped guitar that Ace Frehley used across Kiss’ debut album in 1974.

The Viper was first released in the mid-’70s and now returns in two distinct versions, both of which are limited to 60 pieces, for obvious birthday-related reasons.

The new design “captures the spirit of the original”, and has a lightweight, ergonomically-minded body at its core, with plenty of modern specs to boot.

Tonewoods and hardware specs differ between the models. The Viper IV-DTD-G features a basswood body with a maple veneer and a Babicz Fixed Six hardtail bridge. The Viper IV-1-G, on the other hand, features an alder body and a Babicz FCH-2 Point tremolo.

US-made Lace Sensor Hot Gold Dually humbuckers are bolstered with push-pull coil splits.

They’re both 25.5” scale, and have bolt-on maple becks with Java rosewood fingerboards. Those, in turn, are capped with 24 frets and have Black Tusq nuts, with oil-sealed Ovation tuners on their headstocks.

“Ovation has always been at its strongest when we dared to be different,” says Ovation’s Product Manager, Thomas Neuhierl. “For our 60th birthday, we are bringing that courage back to the stage.”

Colorway options are locked. The IV-DTD-G features a Blue Burst, while its snakey sibling is finished in a more natural-looking Honey Burst.

The two new Ovation Viper models – the Viper IV-DTD-G and Viper IV-1-G – come with a gig bag and cost €1,194 apiece (approx. $1,122).

See Ovation for more.

PRS has made a major play in the metal guitar market by introducing the Tekton lineup.

Dubbed “a whole new family of guitars”, the Tektons fill a gap in the PRS catalog and look to go toe to toe with the heavyweights of the metal guitar world.

The Maryland brand is no stranger to heavy music. Mark Tremonti, Mark Holcomb, and Herman Li are all PRS artists who have signature guitars designed for hard rock, metal and shred.

Some of the specs rolled out here will be familiar, too. Floyd Rose tremolos and seven-string configurations are available in the PRS lineup.

But PRS says the Tekton family has been purpose-built from the ground-up to meet a very specific design brief: to be the most modern spec’d electric guitars they can be, “designed for the most technical of modern players”.

The company has therefore pulled no punches: radical body carves, ultra-thin neck profiles, longer scale lengths, and all-new Stylus pickups engineered to get the most out of digital rigs.

Four Tektons are available: the OG hardtail, ‘T’ two-point tremolo, “Floyd” Floyd Rose trem, and “SVN” seven-string. Each features a new Tekton body silhouette that is a halfway house between the Custom 24 and Vela designs.

But while the shape itself might not be too radical, PRS has compensated for that with the contouring. The belly carve is huge, and the neck heel is heavily sculpted. It is the thinnest body PRS has ever designed.

Elsewhere, the bolt-on maple necks – also the thinnest that PRS has ever made in standard production – feature a 16” radius ebony fingerboard with stainless steel frets. 16” is a new one for PRS, and this is the first time the company has used stainless steel frets, too.

Notably, the Tektons feature the same string spacing found on John Mayer’s Silver Sky and Mark Lettieri’s Fiore. Slightly wider than usual PRS guitars, it’s said to be better for sweeps, arpeggios and precise pick attack.

The Bird inlays have also been ditched for offset dots and Luminlay side dots. The necks feature hormigo strength rods for stability and resonance, taking cues from the carbon fiber rods found in Li’s Chleo signature.

As for tonewoods, the Tekton “Floyd” has an all-alder body, while the others have mahogany backs with highly flamed mango tops.

PRS has also debuted its new Stylus humbuckers. Complete with coil-splitting, they feature alnico 5 magnets and are voiced for “clarity, articulation and character”.

They promise to deliver “aggressive tones without sacrificing note definition”, and that improved definition is said to be present whether playing through an amp or a modern modeling rig.

Interestingly, they offer a flatter output than most humbuckers in a bid to cater to digital gear. Given that much of modern metal music is recorded using digital modelers, it makes sense, but this might be the first time we’ve seen a mainstream brand build a pickup with modelers in mind.

The flatter output offers some of its own character, but the aim of the game here is to keep your amp and modeler tones fully intact.

“These pickups are exceedingly well-judged – crisp, clear delivery that lets your carefully dialed tones shine through,” Guitar World's review of the Tekton T notes.

“The output doesn’t overpower a clean signal, and helps to keep higher gain tight and defined, with great string separation.”

It’s a big move from PRS. For a firm largely associated with classic builds, the Tektons represent a radical lane change.

“This is not just introducing a new model. We are planting a flag for a whole new family of guitars,” PRS Director of Sales Jim Cullen says. “Since day one, PRS has been built around a combination of player feedback and our experience as guitar makers.

“Listening to musicians while continually refining our craft has helped us create instruments that serve as tools for a wide range of players. Over the years, we have heard a growing call for more modern spec’d PRS guitars. The Tekton is our answer to that call.”

Price-wise, the Tekton and Tekton T will list for $2,899, while the Floyd and SVN variants will be priced at $2,999.

Read our full review of the Tekton T and Tekton SVN models, and head over to PRS Guitars to find out more.

John Mayer has an exceptional nose for guitar talent. In the past, he’s championed the likes of Madison Cunningham, Justus West and George Collins.

Therefore, when he dishes out praise, you know it’s reserved for the best of the best. And in a recent interview with Guitar World, he heaped acclaim on a British guitar ace who’s racking up quite the list of admirers.

“Chris Buck,” Mayer replies when asked who he’s listening to at the moment. “He’s great. He’s freaking phenomenal. The guy’s bending? He’s curving the bullet.”

The Cardinal Black guitarist is one of the hottest blues-rock stars working the circuit. His ultra-melodic style, which pivots between fingerstyle and pick action, brims with tastefulness and a vocal sensibility.

But his technique, particularly his bending, is top class. Mayer is particularly in awe of the way Buck is able to use the same tools at everyone’s disposal but go beyond the confines of the fretboard. It’s a skill that only the very best can master.

“They bend a little bit, but ultimately, you have six vertical lines and 22 horizontal lines,” Mayer adds. “If you can make your instrument sound like it’s circular, like it’s a ball, I’m done.

“Bill Evans played the piano as if you never saw a piano before. You would not think that that’s the instrument he was playing on. That’s even harder to do. He only had pressure, velocity, and could curve the bullet.

“It’s like, I love baseball pitchers because they can do things with a baseball that you can’t imagine. Those are physics. I love people who just have this other take on the physics of the instrument.”

Mayer isn’t the only one who has singled out Buck for praise. Guns N’ Roses guitar hero Slash is also a big admirer. In fact, he was so impressed by his playing that he helped Cardinal Black solve their visa issues when they were planning their first US tour last year.

Elsewhere in his Guitar World interview, Mayer listed the other contemporary guitar heroes that he’s currently listening to.

“I saw Marcus King playing with MonoNeon,” he reveals. “There’s a band called Improvement Movement that blew me away.

“In terms of guitar players, when Bill Frisell plays, I don’t scroll. When Charlie Hunter plays, I don’t scroll. I don’t scroll when I see Blake Mills play. I don’t scroll when I see Doyle Bramhall play, or when Julian Lage plays.”

Mayer was speaking to Guitar World about his newest Silver Sky collaboration with Land Rover Defender – which, as the timeline confirms, was not a dig at Fender.

Gibson is honoring Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ five-decade legacy with a limited-edition 50th Anniversary Flying V, inspired by the iconic Heartbreakers logo featured on the band’s self-titled 1976 debut album.

Dubbed the “Flying Five,” the collection features a quintet of distinctive finishes. Only 50 guitars will be produced in each color worldwide.

“The Heartbreakers logo has been part of the band’s identity since the first album, so seeing Gibson reinterpret it through the Flying V 50th anniversary edition feels overdue, as they have been part of the story since the beginning,” comments Adria Petty, Tom Petty’s daughter.

“The V was an essential part of the imagery onstage for my dad as well as the band rose to fame in the 1970’s.

“The collection honors Tom and the Heartbreakers’ history while giving musicians and fans a new way to carry that spirit forward.”

Built with a mahogany body and matching neck, the 50th anniversary model pairs the classic V silhouette with the Heartbreakers’ legacy.

It features a SlimTaper neck and rosewood fretboard with a 12" radius, 22 medium jumbo frets, and acrylic dot inlays. The guitar also boasts a mother-of-pearl Gibson headstock logo, Grover Rotomatic tuners, and a Graph Tech nut.

Tribute touches come by way of the Heartbreaker 50th truss rod cover, a reproduction of Tom Petty’s signature on the back of the headstock, and, of course, those five gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finishes: Gainesville Gold, Graphite Metallic, Heartbreaker Red, Pearl White Metallic and Pelham Blue.

Other specs include a pair of ’70s Tribute humbucker pickups, individual volume controls, a master tone control with an Orange Drop capacitor, and a three-way pickup selector.

Finishing touches include the gold-plated hardware, which includes an aluminum Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge and Stop Bar tailpiece.

The Tom Petty Flying V 50th Anniversary guitars and accompanying apparel are now available at Gibson Garage locations and online.

For more information, head to Gibson.

Dazzling American guitar talent Charlie Robbins has revealed his starring role in the soundtrack to the new Street Fighter movie. He calls getting the gig “a dream come true.”

Robbins operates under the banner of Syncatto and also plays in prog rock band Artificial Language. Having featured in two other notable soundtracks recently – Netflix’s Cobra Kai and the Star Wars Outlaws video game – he’s added the video game and movie franchise to his already bulging resume.

With a cast list including country star and Gretsch signature artist Orville Peck, and the Dumble-loving, Metallica guitar building guitarist-actor, Jason Momoa, Robbins is in good company.

His unique and honestly mind-boggling approach to the selective picking technique popularized by Tosin Abasi drives his contributions forward, giving it that real arcade game feel. But there are some rather sumptuous lead lines too that lend themselves to the film’s more majestic moments.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I am featured in the Street Fighter movie,” Robbins beams on Instagram. “This is genuinely a dream come true.

“I contributed to eight tracks on the soundtrack; I’m lucky to be able to play next to so many amazing musicians!”

Robbins was hired by Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson, who also served as composers for the film.

Birenberg and Robinson have a solid track record of recruiting modern guitar greats to film scores, previously telling Guitar World of how they tapped Tim Henson and Tosin Abasi to work on Cobra Kai.

Alongside original music, the soundtrack features songs from Soungarden, the Offspring, and White Zombie. Virtuosic bass player Jacob Umansky is another notable name on the film’s OST credits. Ibanez fusion wizard Jack Gardiner and Andrey Synowiec also contributed guitar work on the score.

Speaking to Guitar World about his ever-rising profile in late 2023, Robbins said he often gets comments that the sounds he conjures out of his electric guitars defy convention. To that, he asks where the rulebook is. His focus is on pushing the instrument forwards, and he is doing that in droves.

And he’s not the only guitarist getting hired for movie work. Marcin contributed his acoustic wizardry to Netflix’s One Piece soundtrack, Polyphia's Tim Henson featured on Ultraman: Rising, and Yvette Young played on the score for James Gunn’s Superman movie last year.

Bob Dylan’s rotating cast of guitar players added a new name to the mix as the folk hero kicked off his latest tour with a mystery guitar player in tow.

The guitarist’s identity has yet to be officially confirmed, but as Rolling Stone reports, fan theories point towards Telecaster finger-picker, Mike Seal as being the new guitarist.

Dylan didn’t introduce his band members on the night. He didn’t say a word between songs, apparently. Seal is yet to make a post on his socials about the show, and Dylan setlist guru Bill Pagel hedged his bets by listing him as “?” in his gig report.

It looks promising like a promising theory. Seal is a highly celebrated, Grammy-nominated session musician. But if Seal isn’t the man in question here, it would be another fascinating twist in Dylan’s guitarist merry-go-round.

The new six-string slinger, unveiled at the Lights of Autumn Tour’s first show at the Oslo Spektrum in Norway over the weekend, is Dylan’s sixth in five months.

Jimmie Vaughan, jazz ace Julian Lage, and Jad Tariq have also played roles in Dylan’s band in recent months, after Doug Lancio and Bob Britt both exited over the summer.

Joel Patterson, meanwhile, went from playing to 150 people a night to thousands after his call-up. He was in the band in Norway, but who was alongside him is yet to be clarified.

Why Dylan is going through so many guitarists remains a mystery. Lage and Tariq are expected to be in and out of the group as they balance other commitments, and neither were able to fly to the Norwegian capital for the tour’s opening night. They’ll likely return to the fold at different points across the tour.

Still, it was an interesting night as far as the setlist was concerned. Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood) was played for the first time since 2005, while Tangled Up in Blue, dusted off for the first time since 2018, was the subject of a heavily stripped-down reworking.

The tour continues in Gothenburg, Sweden tonight (October 19) before shows in Denmark, Germany, Belgium and beyond.

He’ll wrap up the tour with a five-night stint at London’s Royal Festival Hall. There may yet be more guitarists added to the roster during that time as his Bobness seemingly vies to work around the packed calendars of Lage and Tariq. It’s never a dull day.

Elsewhere, one of Dylan’s most famous guitar partners, Robbie Robertson, has opened up on his boss’ rocky transition from acoustic to electric.

Times are a-changing at Emerald Guitars, as the Irish guitar giant has just retired its entire range to make way for its next chapter.

The outgoing collection has been abruptly discontinued, and its replacements – a host of next-gen builds emboldened by the completion of a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility – have been revealed.

Four third-generation X20 models and the new X20 Noir range represent “a major renewal” of the firm’s approach to guitar making. The shake up comes after its growth in the US market saw it setting up a distribution hub to handle demand last year.

The new range includes the Steel String, a “balanced, responsive acoustic suited to fingerstyle and strumming”; the Short Scale, which offers a “more relaxed string feel” with a 24” scale; the X20 Nylon guitar; and the X20 12-String

All four models, which are made from carbon fiber, are largely customizable. Players can explore different veneers, colors and specifications via Emerald’s 3D guitar builder.

There’s something supercar-esque to Emerald’s builds, with the guitars towing the delicate line between classic designs and something altogether more forward thinking.

Emerald says the next-gen builds make the most of its 25-year history making carbon fiber guitars, redesigning its platform around sound, playing comfort and personal expression. Of course, having new tools to bring its ideas to life won’t hurt, either.

The Noir range, however, has a “focused specification for everyday playing.” This carbon fiber acoustic boasts a comfort-sculpted body, an offset soundhole, and onboard electronics.

Aside from making it look like a secret agent’s gadget, the offset soundhole is designed to project the guitar’s sound towards the player. It also features a one-piece carbon fiber neck, standing as part of a construction that makes it far less susceptible to tuning slips amid changing temperatures.

Built with a 25.5” scale length, it features a 16” radius fingerboard and a new Emerald pickup and preamp system that pairs an under-saddle pickup with an internal microphone.

There are also side-mounted controls for a three-band EQ, Phase Reversal, Mic Volume, Main Volume, and a chromatic tuner.

Unfortunately, it isn’t customizable like its other X20 stablemates. It differentiates itself with a composite bridge (as opposed to carbon fiber) and nickel frets instead of stainless steel. The Crystal Ice satin texture finish looks deadly. It costs $1,495/€1,595/£1,295.

All 16 previous-generation models have been consigned to the past to make room for a raft of new designs and ideas, although previously confirmed custom orders will still go ahead as planned. Expect to hear more about Emeralds next era in 2027.

Head over to Emerald Guitars to find out more.

Lonnie Mack’s guitar rig sold for more than half a million dollars at a recent auction event that set a new world record for a 1959 Gibson Les Paul ’Burst.

Heritage Auction’s Vintage Guitars and Musical Instruments Signature took place over the weekend and realized $2.16 million across 188 sold lots.

The two big hitters were the record setter – an “exceptionally preserved” 1959 Les Paul Standard – and Lonnie Mack’s workhorse Flying V, which was rarely out of the Stevie Ray Vaughan-adored bluesman’s hands. They sold for a combined $1.3 million.

Mack’s one-and-only 1958 korina Flying V went for a big six-figure sum. Just the seventh guitar off the production line of one of Gibson’s most prestigious runs, it sold alongside his 1962 Magnatone Custom 440 combo amp for $550,000.

Mack’s pioneering amalgamation of blues, rock, and country guitar playing cemented his place as a legend of the guitar world. He was a key influence of Stevie Ray Vaughan, who later helped revive the unsung hero’s career after a chance encounter.

The V was, as ever, put hard to work in the studio as SRV produced his comeback album, Strike Like Lightning, in 1985.

Heritage Auction’s Aaron Piscopo says the six-string “helped shape the sound of modern electric guitar,” and it’s hard to argue against the sentiment.

“Together, their results demonstrate the depth of collecting interest in great instruments and the musical history they carry,” he adds.

It shared the spotlight with a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, which broke the record for the most expensive guitar of its kind without celebrity provenance to sell at auction. It went for $781,250.

1959 is the golden year of vintage Les Pauls, and this record-smashing electric guitar underscores just how valuable they are today. The guitar, bearing serial No. 9 0640, looks pristine all these years on, its sunburst finish as glorious as ever.

It still sports its original humbuckers, and the solder joints on its potentiometers and capacitors haven’t succumbed to any modifications since leaving Gibson’s former Kalamazoo factory.

It left the previous non-celebrity guitar record holder – a $611,000 1958/63 Gibson Explorer – in tatters.

“The 1959 Les Paul Standard has long been one of the most sought-after electric guitars in the world, and this example offered an extraordinary combination of originality, preservation and documented collecting history,” says Aaron Piscopo.

“Its record price speaks to the importance collectors place on finding an exceptional instrument.”

Visit Heritage Auctions to explore the full lot.

Naturally, the figures raised here are some way off the fees which celebrity axes fetched during the bumper auction of Jim Irsay’s collection earlier this year, which hugely changed the make up of the list of the world’s most expensive guitars.

Chuck Berry’s son has looked back on what made his father such a singular talent on the guitar – and it was all down to, er, the size of his hands.

Fire up one some archive footage on YouTube of Berry in his pomp and you’ll see, the man was built different. He had those elastic legs that let him duck walk across the stage then slip into the splits. He didn’t just play the Gibson ES-355, he took it dancing.

Berry gave guitar an electrifying new sound, and he brought a new sense of physicality to how it could be played. People can debate all they like about natural talent, and whether these gifts are in the blood.

But in a new interview with Guitarist, Berry’s son, Charles Berry Jr., explained that his dad had an advantage over other players – his hands were huge. We’re talking serious wingspan.

“Well, my dad could do things on a guitar neck that most people couldn’t, just because of the physical size of his hands,” explains Berry Jr.

“I mean, from thumb to pinky finger, he could almost stretch the entire octave. His hands were gargantuan. Even his first finger – he’s going easily eight or nine frets up the fretboard, so he could go crazy.”

This surely is not always an advantage. Might guitars that are thinner across the nut make it a little cramped to fret chords? Berry made his name playing a mid ‘50s Gibson ES-350TD, and at that time the guitars coming out of Kalamazoo had nut width of 41.3mm. It wasn’t until 1959 that the nut width was extended to 42.9 mm. All of this came into play.

Those fingers, the way they commandeered the fretboard, they played a crucial role in defining Berry’s style. Berry Jr. says his father’s lead-rhythm style, his trademark flurry of kinetic doublestops, was a function of his hand size.

“His fingers were really big, too. So they were long and they were thick,” says Berry Jr. “That’s why he did a lot of those doublestops because it was easier for him to play two or three strings at once than individual picking.

“Now, I’ve seen the man do that, and you can hear him doing stuff like that on Butterscotch or Woodpecker, where he’s just single-note-picking his brains out.”

But the rest of Chuck Berry was what came from the gut. He was not a player to bone up on chord shapes and scales or stay up all night sweating the technique.

“He just played,” says Berry Jr. “It wasn’t like he was Andrés Segovia, playing an acoustic guitar with every finger on both of his hands. He had a pick and it was mainly downstrokes, very rarely down/up.”

You can read this interview with Chuck Berry Jr. in the latest issue of Guitarist at Magazines Direct – subscribe and you'll save a ton of money.

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.

Fender American Professional

This is a biggie. 2026 has been a strange year for Fender. Its Stratocaster copyright dispute campaign hasn’t gone down well with players. How will the company rebuild?

Well, a good starting point would be to launch some killer new guitars, and in a year where much of the Fender chat has been about things happening off the pitch, it’s refreshing to see the firm revamp the American Professional range in the way it has.

New offset bridges. Updated Strat saddles. Upgrades that correct decades-long gripes. Classic finishes. It all makes for great reading on paper, and if Bud Cole’s insistence that quality control is on the up, they could make for great playing, too.

No doubt these will go under the microscope when they start shipping. The internet will try to find any flaw it can find. There’s a lot riding on this one. We at Guitar World HQ have put our heads together to discuss what it all means…

JHS Pedals Wanderer

I think I need to take a long hard look in the mirror. I have the JHS Pedals Morning Glory and the Notaklon, so why oh why am I tempted to buy the Wanderer? After all, it just puts both of those circuits in one unit.

I will justify it on grounds of saving space, and the fact that a twofer pedal looks much easier for gain stacking. Plus, the switching and connectivity options are handy. My honest answer, though, will probably be something along the lines of: ‘It just looks really cool.’

Who can blame me? This does look cool. And it sounds great. Both circuits are indispensable on my pedalboard. Someone please hide my wallet from me…

Jackson Legend Series

I’m not hugely keen on pointy metal guitars, but Jackson’s new Legend Series feels worthy of a shoutout – not least because it has recreated Randy Rhoads’ iconic V-shaped electric guitar in all its glory.

It’s joined by new models that honor iconic models wielded by Scott Ian, David Ellefson and Marty Friedman. The source material guitars all played an important role in metal – and Jackson – history.

The Legend Series will expand in the future with reissues of other influential Jackson guitars. Excited to see what gets rolled out in the future…

ALSO LAUNCHED THIS WEEK

Fender x George Harrison Dark Horse Records Collection

A limited edition capsule that honors George Harrison’s Dark Horse Records label. This limited-edition Strat is the highlight.

For more: Fender Japan

Gibson Original Collection

A new collection of Gibson acoustics that roll out the firm’s revolutionary new acoustic pickup system, designed in collab with Baggs.

For more: Gibson

Harley Benton Guitar MAX Fusion LH

A southpaw-configured Harley Benton signature guitar for YouTuber Guitar MAX. That Holographic finish is very nice.

For more: Harley Benton

Zoom Neurig

An uber-affordable modeler that offers NAM integration and AI-powered stem separation. A seriously impressive move from Zoom.

For more: Zoom

Line 6 Helix Stadium Eras update

Speaking of stem separation, that has now been brought to the Helix Stadium – along with a bunch of new amps, cabs and effects – with Line 6’s Eras update.

For more: Line 6

MXR Turbo Tuner

A new tuner from MXR, which is built around the original Sonic Research Turbo Tuner. The gold standard tool promises to be closer than close with its accuracy.

For more: MXR

Neko Pocket Wireless Guitar Studio

A must-have tool for guitarists? This pocket-sized studio offers wireless connection and instantaneous recording capabilities. This looks mega: it’s already raised 10x its goal on Kickstarter.

For more: Kickstarter

EHX Wailer Wah Pro

The latest entry to EHX’s wah pedal lineage, with an inductor-free circuit for reduced feedback and a die-cast chassis for ultra ruggedness. If a wah pedal was a tank, it’d look like this.

For more: EHX

Fulltone OCD’Lux

The OCD is one of the most popular modern drive pedals. Now it’s been amped up in the form of the OCD’Lux, which offers four voices from its two distinct surfaces. My pedalboard is going to be filled with twofer overdrives at this point…

For more: Fulltone

Taylor Legacy Collection Hawaiian Koa

Taylor has bought the Koa Series to is Legacy Collection for the first time with two new limited-edition builds – one of which is a Jumbo 12-string.

For more: Taylor

As gear continues to shrink to super convenient, super transportable sizes, one company has wondered “what if studios shrunk, too?”

The Neko, from Neko Engineering, could be the answer to that question. Launched on Kickstarter this week, it is a pocket-sized studio that marries wireless connectivity, amp and pedal modeling and recording with AI tools. The focus, it says, is on learning songs, and turning guitar riffs into fully-formed arrangements.

Simplicity is also key, with Neko Engineering saying it’s looking to get “players of all experience levels playing without juggling equipment and apps before strumming a single chord.”

So, what exactly is it?

Well, the unit is pretty powerful. Two wireless jacks live and charge inside Neko, with one plugging into a guitar or bass, and the other to an amp or mixer. The small but mighty Neko then handles sound processing, with NAM tones a huge plus, and as well as multi-track recording.

It’s also emboldened by useful tools such as AI stem separation, the ability to mute the guitar in a track and play in its place, turn audio into tabs that are then displayed on its display, and build backing tracks and arrangements through generative AI.

The Time Machine feature also lets musicians listen back to ideas they’ve previously played, even if they forgot to hit record before hitting the strings. That’s handy, even if the generative AI elements aren’t going to excite everyone.

Notably, the NAM tie-in means players have access to the staggeringly big Tone3000 library of amp and outboard gear captures, with plenty saveable directly onto the device.

For those who hate getting entangled in cables, it can connect to amps wirelessly – with cable routing also on offer. In all, Neko Engineering says its “giving musicians the tools to practice, capture ideas and develop their musicianship with a new level of ease.”

And there’s clearly something in it, too. Within the first 24-hours, the Kickstarter had been backed with $10,000 of pledges. Suffice to say its initial $30,000 goal has been left eating dust; over $260k has been raised already.

“Neko began with a simple frustration: sometimes the thought of setting everything up to play guitar was enough to stop me from playing at all,” says Vadim Smirnov, founder of Neko Engineering. “We kept asking, ‘What if getting started felt as effortless as putting in your AirPods?’ Neko was our answer.”

Pledging with rewards (ie, you get the unit) starts at $449. Retail price is $599.

Neko Engineering plans to begin shipping the Neko to backers in April 2027.

See Kickstarter for more.

Sometimes, dream gear remains just that: a dream. Vintage 1959 Gibson Les Pauls and Custom Shop Strats don’t come cheap, but for Emily Wolfe, being forced to go down a more affordable route was positively life-changing.

For the longest time, she dreamed of executing her musical vision with a Gibson ES-335. Those hollow-bodied beauties aren’t exactly the cheapest, though. So she’s had to get creative with her instrument choices.

“The reason why I started playing [Epiphone] Sheratons was because they were so beautiful to me. Like, an ES-335 is so pretty, but as a college kid, you don't have any money,” she tells Guitar World.

“So I went to the Guitar Center and I was like, ‘I want a 335 so bad. But I have $600, and that’s a really beautiful black Sheridan... I’m gonna get it.’”

The Epiphone-branded take on the 335 recipe was the perfect suitor for a budget-restricted Wolfe. The fact she didn’t have more to spend that day has ended up being a blessing.

“That was the thing I played forever,” she smiles. “It was the only one. It was honestly part of my body.”

As her profile rose, she was introduced to Cody Allen, who has been her Gibson/Epiphone representative ever since. It’s been a fruitful partnership.

“She was one of the first people that was like, ‘I really believe in you,’” Wolfe relays. “She was like, ‘We need to go to NAMM. We're taking you and your band, and you’re gonna play the Gibson Showcase.’

“I guess we crushed it,” she reflects. “Because then Epiphone people came over and were like, ‘We've got to do a signature.’”

Wolfe now has two Epiphone Sheratons to her name: her flagship black model, and the most recent White Wolfe.

“I chose the Bone White this time around to represent my evolution as an artist,” she explained during its launch. “White is just something I wouldn’t normally pick, and I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. I feel like when you get out of your comfort zone that’s where the magic happens.”

The guitarist has since been expanding her guitar arsenal, and has also broken down her gnarly approach to tone. But her career may have taken a very different shape if she decided not to buy a Sheraton that day. It was $600 well spent.

Wolfe’s full interview is available to watch Guitar World’s YouTube channel.

Today, Wolfe released her new single, Kill Me With A Kiss, which you can listen to in the video above.

We’ve all been there: you sit down with your guitar, pick in hand, only to gravitate towards the same three minor pentatonic licks you mastered years ago. Take it from me, breaking out of a playing rut takes structure, and that can only be achieved with a proper teacher. Now, if you want to seriously level up your chops from home, and without it costing the earth, this time-limited Guitar Tricks Rocktober deal is the best offer online right now. And Guitar Tricks just so happens to be our favorite online guitar lessons platform.

When our writer Chris Schwarten put the platform through its paces, he awarded it a competition-beating 4.5 out of 5 stars in his review, calling it “an exceptional platform for novices, intermediates and advanced guitarists alike”.

What really sets Guitar Tricks apart is the sheer depth of tuition. While other platforms cater strictly to day-one beginners, Guitar Tricks holds your hand from the basics – thanks to its Guided Core Learning System – before opening you up to more advanced, genre-specific paths covering genres like blues, country, rock, and acoustic, alongside specific techniques.

The song tutorials are worth the money alone. You aren't just getting approximate chord playthroughs, you get multi-camera 4K breakdowns of classic tracks note-for-note, complete with recommended amp and guitar settings.

At a standard rate of $19.95 per month or $179.99 annually, Guitar Tricks is already competitively priced, but dropping the annual cost down to just $99 for Rocktober makes it an absolute steal. But this offer only runs through to Tuesday October 20th, so you’ll need to act fast if you want to snap it up.

And if you're worried about signing up blind, the platform offers an unbeatable 60-day money-back guarantee, so you can test drive it for two full months risk-free and get your money back if you’re less than satisfied.

This year’s Black Friday guitar deals are fast approaching, so keep it locked to Guitar World for all the latest early offers.

All of the electric guitar tones we hear on The Sea of Emotion, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai’s first-ever studio album together, are wholly thrilling yet reassuringly familiar.

There is something unmistakable about how each of these players address the instrument, their tones distinct yet complementary. Within a couple of notes you know exactly who is playing what.

But in a new interview with Guitarist, Steve Vai admits that all is not what it seems – when engineering the tones, he leaned heavily on guitar plugins. They both did.

Vai credits Satriani for the idea. Though, Vai blames Satriani might be the more appropriate construction – because he was definitely not onboard with plugins until he heard what Satriani did with them on 2022’s The Elephants of Mars.

“After I heard Joe’s album, The Elephants Of Mars, he told me he’d used plugins, and I was stunned,” admits Vai. “Because I had a very snobbish attitude: ‘Oh, you have to have microphones.’ So I started fooling around with SansAmp and realised how easy it is.”

Satriani was well versed in this “no amps, no mics” approach. He had a bundle of plugins from SansAmp, Tonex, Brainworx, and Neural DSP. The Neural plugins especially pleased Vai, but he’s not decommissioning his quote/unquote real guitar amps just yet.

“Now, it’s mostly the Neural stuff that I use,” he says. “There were a couple of things where I still used a combination of my [Carvin] Legacy 3 amp and my Synergy module.”

And no one is going to wean Vai off mic’ing his guitars.

“I would mic things ad nauseum,” says Vai. “I’d have two stereo cabs, three mics on the front of each, one in the back, then 4ft away. And then sets of stereo [AKG] 414 room mics. And it’s nice… but it’s a lot of setup, a lot of work.”

The pair also unpack some of the guitars they used to track the album. Satch was using his Chrome Boy JS Ibanez signature guitar and its gold sibling – Gold Boy? He used his Paisley finish prototype and a Taylor nylon-string guitar.

Vai leaned upon his usual complement of Ibanez PIA and JEM guitars, all the familiar faces – Evo, Flo III and friends.

If you are a long-time fan of Satriani and Vai, it should not come as a surprise to learn that there are sitars on the recording.

“Steve and I are always putting sitars on our albums,” says Satriani. Only this time out there was something really radical, a seven-string sitar custom-made by Sterling Ball.

You can read this Satch/Vai interview in full in the latest issue of Guitarist – better still, save and subscribe.

The Sea of Emotion is available to preorder, out November 6 via earMUSIC.

Though George Harrison’s fabled 1974 Dark Horse tour was one of his most divisive, the record label he created in conjunction with his fifth solo album, Dark Horse Records, has enjoyed a far greater legacy.

It’s now the subject of a special Fender Japan collaboration “celebrating the musical legacy and creative spirit of George Harrison.”

The collection comprises a Dark Horse Records Strat, a signature ukulele for his son, Dhani, and a host of accessories.

Dark Horse Records has launched releases from big-name acts. From Harrison’s supergroup, The Traveling Wilburys, to Billy Idol, Cat Stevens, and Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord, it's proven a huge success.

The George Harrison Dark Horse Records Stratocaster (¥198,000, approx. $1,250) then, recognizes that. It features custom Dark Horse artwork, gold hardware and an engraved neckplate, and is available in three colorways: Black, Orange, and Olympic White. Each mirrors the label’s color scheme.

It sticks with the Strat’s historic tonewood recipe, pairing an alder body and maple neck – here with a modern C-shape – and 9.5” rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium-jumbo frets.

A trio of three Player Series Alnico 5 Strat single-coil pickups line up alongside the usual five-way switch. Hardware includes a two-point synchronized tremolo with bent-steel saddles, and Fender ClassicGear tuners.

Having assumed control of the label in 2020, Dhani Harrison is also recognized in the collaboration. His signature uke “reflects his own approach to music and design while extending the Harrison family’s creative connection with Fender.” It’s priced at ¥75,900 (approx. $480).

There’s also a guitar strap with Dark Horse-inspired artwork, which comes in a premium gift box to the tune of ¥10,450 (approx. $66), and a guitar pick set with 12 unique designs, (¥3,850, approx. $24).

For a haul to keep you warm, there’s the Dark Horse Records Capsule Collection which can cost up to ¥77,000 (approx. $487). The 15-piece, Made-in-Japan apparel collection features T-shirts, shirts, sweatshirts and denim, inspired by Harrison's personal style and the visual history of Dark Horse Records.

The Black Strat is available exclusively at Fender’s flagship store in Tokyo, with the other models available for pre-order through select channels.

See Fender Japan for more.

Former Pink Floyd bassist and vocalist Roger Waters has weighed in on James Hetfield’s comments at the Sphere in Las Vegas on October 10, in which he took shots at artists who use their platforms to make political statements.

“I just gotta say, Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bullshit, OK?” Hetfield said during the show. “We are here... no bullshit... we're here to forget about all the outside shit, OK? Metallica's agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby!”

Though Hetfield didn’t mention any artists by name, the comments came just weeks after the recent Macklemore-Ed Sheeran debacle.

Waters has now torn into Hetfield on The Katie Halper Show, saying, “Can we stop talking about this prick? I’m so bored with him. He’s just showing that he’s a complete prick. He's got an IQ of about three, and why we're talking about him, I honestly don't know because he's a nobody and he'll always be. He may have a few hundred million dollars or whatever, but he's a prick.”

Waters took things a step further by claiming that Hetfield is “no musician. I heard them playing acoustic instruments and they couldn't. It was appalling.”

He continued, “It’s a shame this prick didn’t have somebody around him to explain that being kind is way more important than all that loud music and bouncing around and whatever.” Waters ended his rant with a call for Palestinian solidarity.

Recently, the Pink Floyd bassist blasted Ed Sheeran for his response to Macklemore’s removal from his tour following onstage pro-Palestinian and anti-ICE comments.

John Mayer occupies a place of his own in the pantheon of 21st century popular music.

He’s a pop superstar who’s penned smash hits that’ve reigned supreme on supermarket playlists for two decades, but dig into what’s actually coming out of those always painfully blown-out speakers, and you’ll hear someone whose compositional and guitar skills shine as bright as his soulful vocals.

About those guitar skills. He’s an indisputable virtuoso who’s seamlessly jumped from propulsive, coffeehouse acoustic fare to washed jeans, early-aughts guitar-pop to folk, and even country. On the real guitar-heavy side, meanwhile, you can find his performances with the explosive, blues-rock-oriented John Mayer Trio, and his many expansive, Americana-tinged jams with the late Bob Weir in Dead & Company.

But even those who don’t fancy literally any of the above stand up and take note of his gear choices.

Dissatisfied with the limitations of the then-60+-year-old Stratocaster, Mayer teamed up with Paul Reed Smith a decade ago to create what he saw as an elevated version of it. Polarizing upon its release, the resulting model, the PRS Silver Sky, was the second best-selling electric guitar on Reverb last year, having topped those charts in 2022 and 2023.

The Richter Scale was also piqued when the analog loyalist revealed last year that Neural DSP had – with his endorsement and collaboration – created a digital plugin that so faithfully nailed the intricacies of his analog tone that even he couldn’t tell the difference between them.

So, with all that said of his stature and the ink spilled in his wake, how well do you know Mr. Mayer? The music, and those gear choices that leave our little word abuzz? Test your knowledge in our quiz below.

To say that JHS Pedals founder Josh Scott is stompbox obsessed would be an understatement. He’s scoured every corner of the earth to find weird and wonderful devices, and many have inspired some of his firm’s most cherished creations.

Now, he’s selling a “crap ton” of that collection on Reverb. The store is launching on the online marketplace on Wednesday 21 October. The Josh Scott Collection includes JHS Pedals prototypes, one-of-one builds and some obscure oddities from his gear-hunting adventures.

Some standout picks from the lot, described by Reverb as “a pedal lover’s paradise,” include a Klon Centaur Silver Horsie, and a pre-lawsuit Behringer Centaur, which kicked up quite the fuss last year.

Other notable offerings include a swarm of Delta Lab Tube Drivers – fans kept sending them to him after he mentioned it in a video several years back – and Barcus-Berry preamps, which were a big player behind-the-scenes during JHS infamous Notadumble fiasco.

There’s also a Behringer Vintage Distortion, which Scott describes as “a weird Big Muff clone”; a Silvertone 1484 Twin Twelve amp, which he based the Twin Twelve drive pedal off; and a grey casing for the JHS Color Box from its NAMM debut 10 years ago.

Since then, fans have been moaning to Scott that they prefer the grey enclose to the white one it ultimately released with. “This is one of the craziest items in our history,” he says.

A “boxload” of Boss JB-2s signed by Scott and some paper-wrapped “artisan” JHS pedals featuring custom artwork also stand out. In short, there’s a lot.

“I’m about to sell a crap ton of really cool stuff that I need to sell because it’s all just crashing down on me and ruining my life,” says Scott. “It’s a truckload of things, literally. A freight truck arrived and took pallets of gear for this Reverb shop.

“I’ve played and tested every single piece of gear in this shop, and it’s all ready to be passed on to the next player. That’s why it's all going on Reverb.”

Unfortunately, some items will be exclusively for those with deep pockets, given their provenance. Still, Reverb notes that most pedals in the shop will range from $60 to $600, with more than half under the $500 threshold.

See Reverb for more.

JHS Pedals has just crammed two of its most popular overdrive pedals into one god box unit, weeks after launching a collaborative pedal with DIY specialist, Coppersound. It’s the pedal Scott was building right before his horror bike crash.

No matter how good at guitar a player may be, no one is immune to string breaks. It just so happened that when Joe Bonamassa snapped a string on stage recently – something that rarely happens to him these days – it was on a massive stage, surrounded by guitar legends.

The occasion was Buddy Guy’s all-star 90th birthday bash. The polka dot Strat veteran is still going strong despite closing in on a century, and celebrated his birthday alongside the likes of John Mayer, Derek Trucks, and Billy Gibbons.

“There’s videos of me playing five strings on this guitar because I broke a string in the first bend,” he tells Guitar World of the show.

Suffice to say, he and the white Strat he grabbed for the performance styled it out. There’s even a video on YouTube from the gig entitled “Joe Bonamassa killer guitar solo.” The fact he pulled it off with a major handicap is a real flex.

JoBo stepped in to play Many of Many Words before tackling Baby What You Want Me to Do with his good friend and fierce south paw, Eric Gales. Watching footage from the show, there is no obvious moment where the string breaks, and he does exceptionally well not to let any panic he will have been feeling in that moment show on his face. Fair play.

His Guitar World interview coincides with the launch of his latest Fender signature, and first-ever digital amp, the Tone Master take on his beloved ‘59 Twin. This, after he revealed he’s warming to amp modeling.

“I’m not the guy to go like, ‘Well, hey, I’m just I'm tired of dragging stuff around at gigs,’ because I don’t have to,” he explains of his decision to go digital.

“But today [for his interview with GW], there’s no entourage. I showed up myself, and I put that [Tone Master amp] in the Uber, and it was cool.

“I notice it cuts through, and it's got plenty of power, but it's not offensive,” he adds. “It's not too bright. It does what a high power twin does. It’s nice and crisp on the you know clean side, but roars and has plenty of gain to solo.”

Bonamassa has also joined the secret supergroup that used to play clubs in the ‘90s, and his soulful playing was a highlight of the 2026 edition of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads.

Head over to the Guitar World YouTube channel to watch the full interview with Joe Bonamassa.

Fender’s updated American Professional series is here – representing one of the biggest overhauls of the firm’s core US line we’ve seen in years, and its top priority for 2026.

The Corona-built Am Pro line is, of course, the firm’s ultimate totem: its best balance of classic design, contemporary features, or (to use the words of the Fender faithful) “coloring inside the lines”, available in a US production model.

Cease and desists aside, then, it’s the Big F’s biggest release of the year [you’re fired - Ed] and, while you might not realize it to look at this lineup of classic shapes, a lot has changed.

Fender remains a constant talking point for players, as it has done so since approximately 1952, and there is plenty to discuss around this launch.

We asked the nearest handful of GW staffers for their reactions to the new lineup and what they think it means for Fender in 2026. Here’s what they had to say…

Matt Parker, Deputy Editor

This is the first time in a very long time that I can recall us reporting on a planned price drop on a guitar line (as opposed to a sale), with the price of the Strat and Tele both trimming $100 off the asking price of their predecessors in the Am Pro II line. Given the economics and lead times required in building guitars at scale, it cannot simply be a kneejerk reaction to Strat-gate, either, but must have been baked-in from the start.

The post-Covid era has seen long held assumptions on guitars’ origins and price points shredded – and not without friction, but one thing I note about the AmPro price drop is that we’re now reaching a crossover point. The high-end of FMIC’s Mexican productions – for example, the Mike McCready signature Strat, or the Charvel Phil Collen PC1-E – are now equal to or more expensive than its US line.

A $1,799-$2k price point is good news for players’ wallets, but it's significant for other reasons, too. It shows us Fender wants to create breathing room between its US series, close the chasm-like gap with offshore products, and, just maybe, significantly undercut a certain PRS build…

Rob Laing, Reviews Editor

I always felt Fender has had a weird relationship with the bridge design for its Jazzmaster and Jaguar offsets in the past couple of decades – often relying on an outdated and impractical late ’50s design, or having to borrow from a Mustang. It’s no wonder third-party companies had to get involved to offer retrofit designs.

So, following the excitement around the Custom Shop RSD bridge that very few of us had a chance to access, the new J-Bridge on the new Am Pro models feels long overdue to reflect the demands of players who are now taking these designs far beyond their surf music origins.

I'm also very pleased to see Oxblood finishes in the options for both offsets. These have the makings to be Fender's strongest Jag and Jazz models yet.

Matt Owen, News Editor

It feels like we haven’t spoken about a new Fender range for quite a while. Most of the chat this year has been about, ya know, The Strat Thing. But precisely because of what’s happening off the pitch, it’s inevitably going to frame people’s perspectives of the new American Professional range. And for that reason I can’t help but feel there is a lot riding on this one for Fender.

I’m most intrigued by the fact that this is our first US-made Fender line launch since CEO Bud Cole revealed new quality control processes have quietly been introduced in Corona, responding to online criticism that Fender guitars aren’t up to par these days.

Whether those QC claims are warranted or not is a separate discussion, but Fender has owned up and is taking action. So, when these start shipping, you best believe they’ll be examined with a fine tooth comb.

Having briefly played a few of them myself, the early signs are very good indeed. If Fender knocks it out of the park, what then? Will it be enough to start building bridges?

Michael Astley-Brown, Editor-in-Chief

Speaking of bridges [you’re also fired – Ed], this is the most player-focused launch we’ve seen from Fender in ages. Rather than going all-in on marketing-friendly new finishes that are never, ever as popular as sunburst, the driving force has been everything you can’t see – the unsexy stuff that makes a difference.

In-house volume and tone pots with a consistent taper. Tweaked pole piece positioning for better string-to-string balance. Bridges that address 70 years of player gripes, including that Custom Shop-derived Jazzmaster/Jaguar number, which could be an in-house game-changer. I’ve played it and was blown away by how smooth the tremolo felt.

The internet is going to internet, but it bodes well for anyone who doubts where Fender’s focus lies right now. Our review models are currently in transit, so watch this space.

What do you think of Fender’s new Am Pro lineup? Let us know in the comments below.

• For more information on the American Professional range, head to Fender.com.

Tony Iommi was just 17 when a gruesome run in with industrial-grade machinery saw him losing the ends of his middle and ring fingers on his fretting hand.

Django Reinhardt’s ability to keep on playing despite limited digits inspired Iommi to keep going, and he’s gone from thimbles as makeshift fingertips to fully-fledged prosthetic fingers since.

But the prosthetic solution isn’t quite as robust as one might expect. They have their own issues and truly, the problem-solving approach hasn’t evolved all that much.

In a recent interview with Classic Rock, Iommi revealed that he gets his prosthetic fix by bulk ordering full prosthetic arms, chopping off the necessary digits, and Frankenstein’ing them onto his right hand, with strips of leather for extra grip.

Speaking in the latest issue of Guitar World, the Black Sabbath legend has shed more light on the reality behind the hack that has helped prolong his playing days.

“I have to keep the fingertips in shape when I’m on tour,” he says. “I change the leather parts every couple of weeks, and it's a bit of a hassle, but I’ve got used to it.”

He also modifies his string-fiddling contraption to avoid any painful incidents.

“I put tape on those fingers, and then I put a bit of glue on the tape and push the thimble until it holds on,” he explains. “They used to fall off, and it was a bloody pain trying to find them.”

The process is a little crude, but considering the weight of Iommi’s reputation – and the weight of the music he has conjured with Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell and as a solo artist – it clearly isn’t holding him back. But that’s not to say his experiences have always been pain-free.

Asked if he could use his injured fingers without their accessories, he issues a blunt “no”. It has happened before. And it was not pretty.

“I couldn’t get through the gig, because I couldn’t touch the strings with those fingers,” he elaborates. “The bone is right under the skin. One time, years ago, when it did come off, I fretted a string and it sliced right through my finger. There was blood all over the place.

“But I can play with the two other fingers – I learned to use my little finger [pinky] in the early days because I had to.”

Iommi’s full interview, as he discusses his first solo album in 21 years, is available to order in print and digital formats.

Head to Magazines Direct to pick up your copy today.

Yngwie Malmsteen has looked back on the time he turned down the chance to join David Lee Roth’s band before Steve Vai landed the role.

When Roth parted ways with Van Halen, he began the hunt for a suitable guitar player to help head up his burgeoning solo band. Vai got the job, but he wasn’t the only one considered for the gig.

Steve Stevens was courted, but had commitments with Billy Idol. Malmsteen, it turns out, was also on the shortlist, and was offered the opportunity to join. However, he said no.

“I was on tour with my solo band in 1985,” Malmsteen tells Eonmusic (via Ultimate Guitar). “I had a band called Talas as an opening act, and the bass player in Talas was Billy Sheehan.

“Roth would come to the shows all the time, and he had just left Van Halen, and he wanted to get the hottest guitar player, I guess.

“So he told me he thought we could do a great thing together, and I think he's an awesome guy, and I really like the Van Halen albums with him, they're really good and everything. I probably should have done it, but I didn't.

“So I just basically said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks. I'm honored, but I'm really on a roll now,’ which I kind of was, but not really.”

Sheehan played a key role in this transitional period in 1980s music. He wasn’t just the link between Roth and Malmsteen. He was also the mutual connection between Vai and the former Van Halen vocalist, and responsible for that partnership getting off the ground.

“The original idea was Steve Stevens, but he was busy with Billy Idol and wisely decided to stay with him,” Sheehan once told Guitar Player.

“I told Dave I know another Steve, ’cause at the time my band Talas was on Relativity Records out of New York City, and Steve was also on that label, and we’d talked about doing something together before the Roth thing happened.

“Steve, because of his association with Frank Zappa, had a sense of humor about his playing, which was very important for the Roth band.”

It was a transitional time for all involved. Malmsteen had also been offered the UFO gig before he accepted Alcatrazz, and Vai – who got the Roth gig – had recently replaced the Swedish speed sweeper in the latter band.

Teenage guitar wunderkind Nene Royal has become a worldwide sensation after winning America’s Got Talent, following a series of viral renditions of classics such as Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun, the Cranberries’ Zombie, and the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army.

Now, the 16-year-old Thai guitarist has made her big-stage debut away from AGT. Last night (October 14), she supported her favorite band, Avenged Sevenfold, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

She entertained the crowd with her AGT repertoire, including Black Hole Sun, Zombie, and Muse’s Hysteria, as well as Rage Against the Machine's Killing In The Name and System of a Down’s I-E-A-I-A-I-O.

That wasn’t all, however, as she also joined Avenged Sevenfold as a guest performer on Bat Country and Unholy Confessions. As is now typical for Royal, she wielded her trusty vintage Ibanez MC300.

Speaking to Metal Hammer ahead of the performance, Royal described it as a moment when “Dreams come true. Incredible,” especially since Avenged Sevenfold’s Synyster Gates is her ultimate guitar hero, as revealed in an interview with Guitar World.

“It’s my first time playing support to Avenged Sevenfold, so I was like, [big sigh] ‘I’m scared!’” she told Metal Hammer. “And I’m going to play in front of how many? 40,000!”

“The managers in Singapore text me: ‘Oh, I hear you wanna play with Avenged Sevenfold?’ I was like, ‘Yeah!’ They said, ‘Well, Avenged Sevenfold want you to support them.’ They asked for me. ‘Do you wanna do it?’ I was like, ‘Yeah!’”

This high-profile support slot is just one of the many projects Royal has in the pipeline. She’s now “planning to create my own songs, and also doing some tours. I really wanna collaborate with those legendary bands.”

In her upcoming authorized documentary film, In My Voice, Heart’s Ann Wilson looks back on her incredible, decades-long career and touches on her bond and musical evolution alongside her sister and guitar virtuoso, Nancy Wilson.

“I started out with Nancy, of course,” she tells Guitar World in a new interview. “As a kid, I had mononucleosis and couldn’t go to school for three months, so my grandmother gave me a nylon-string acoustic. I’d try to figure out chords, but when I wasn’t playing, Nancy would pick it up and just rule on it.

“I mean, it was so easy for her. You’d put on Simon and Garfunkel records, and she could just completely play like Paul Simon. I’m four years older, but she just went sailing past me. I realized she was a killer player when she was only eight or something.”

When Nancy started going up to the fledgling band’s new home base of Vancouver, Canada, in 1974, she initially played acoustic.

“But pretty soon, she got her hands on an electric guitar” and everything changed.

“She approaches it as if it were an acoustic,” Ann says of why Nancy’s electric playing is so special.

“Y’know, she was friends with Joni Mitchell’s main guitar guy and got some of the tunings out of him and made them her own. Now, of course, she’s a complete original – no one plays like her.”

Ann Wilson’s In My Voice had its initial screenings earlier this year as part of a special nationwide tour. Additionally, she's joined forces with Tripsitter for her newly released album, Consecrated Ground.

Guitar World’s full interview with the Heart frontwoman will be coming out in the next couple of weeks.

Jackson has announced its new Legend Series, which will honor some of the firm’s most influential artists and electric guitars.

Randy Rhoads, Scott Ian, Marty Friedman and David Ellefson have been honored in the collection’s first drop, which comprises recreations of each player’s most iconic Jacksons.

For Rhoads, it had to be his famed white, gold and asymmetrical Concorde V which he built with Grover Jackson in 1980. At the time, he was igniting Ozzy Osbourne’s post-Sabbath career, and was widely regarded one of the greatest guitar players in the world before his tragic death in 1982.

So, the Legend Series Randy Rhoads CD1 ($2,499) looks to get as close to the source material as possible. It pairs an alder body with a bound 12”-16” compound radius ebony fingerboard. It is wired with Seymour Duncan JB/59’ humbuckers so it should have plenty of bark, bite, and nuance, and boasts a vintage-accurate six saddle tremolo with whammy bar.

Elsewhere in the drop, Scott Ian’s V ($2,199) is also a Rhoads model, complete with the “Not” graphic that was central to the Anthrax’s 1980s imagery. Built with a neck-through construction, it’s also appointed with a top-mount Floyd Rose 1000 trem, and an alder body.

“My Not Rhoads was such an important part of my journey,” Ian says of the guitar the Legend Series recreates. “It’s been used on every Anthrax record, and it was the main guitar on those first five albums in the ’80s. It’s the guitar that made my life – I discovered my tone with it.”

After joining in time to blaze a thousand solos on Rust In Peace, Marty Friedman was a valued weapon during Megadeth’s most prolific decade. Here, his late ‘90s Jackson Kelly signature ($2,299) has been faithfully revived.

Built from the original sample, it boasts an angular alder body, three-piece maple, 12”-16” compound radius ebony fretboard and, once more, a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge. Elsewhere, there are Jackson’s famed Sharkfin inlays, and a fixed Kahler 7330 bridge.

“The KE-1 represents living the dream to me,” says Friedman. “When I had the opportunity to create my own signature guitar, I went all out with Jackson to build the ultimate heavy metal guitar. No expense was spared. The KE-1 remains a huge part of my journey and an iconic instrument that people associate with me.”

Finally, his former bandmate David Ellefson represents the cream of Jackson’s bass player crop. The Jackson Legend Series Limited Edition Signature David Ellefson Concert Bass CB V ($2,499) is a reproduction of the firm’s first-ever five-string bass, which was built for him in 1990.

At its core, it marries an alder body, three-piece through-body quartersawn maple neck and 12”–16” compound radius ebony fingerboard. A Jackson HiMass bridge, open-gear hipshot tuners, and EMG 40DC and CS pickups – complete with a three-band EQ – also make the cut. Ellefson calls it a “sleek, high-octane” instrument.

Jackson’s four horsemen of metal guitar playing are heavy hitters, and to steal a phrase from Megadeth, these are guitars that take no prisoners.

“From Ozzy Osbourne and Anthrax to Megadeth, these artists have pushed the boundaries of music and inspired generations of players who followed,” says Jackson.

“Together, their fingerprints are on nearly every riff, run and record that followed, cementing Jackson as the instrument of choice for the players who built metal from the ground up.”

See Jackson for more.

After unveiling a next-gen acoustic guitar pickup setup last month, Gibson has integrated the system’s “studio-grade” tones into four new instruments.

The HiFi DNA system was built in collaboration with esteemed acoustic pickup manufacturer Baggs. Gibson reckons its dual sensor approach has produced its “most natural” acoustic tones, and could potentially revolutionize the way we amplify acoustics.

The firm is now putting its money where its mouth is by installing it into four new models.

The new range is one first chances for players to see what all the fuss is about. It comprises two J-45 models – a J-45 Original and J-45 60s Original Fixed Bridge – as well as a Country Western 60s Original, and Southern Jumbo 40s Original.

The system’s two sensors run through their own custom-voiced preamp before the signals are blended. The result, it claims, is high-fidelity sound, and “unprecedented realism”. But what of the guitars that now house it?

The J-45 Original ($3,299) returns to its Jumbo roots. With 1930s-styled appointments, alongside a round-shoulder dreadnought bod, it pairs mahogany back and sides with a solid Sitka spruce top.

Its neck is mahogany and features a speed-friendly SlimTaper profile. Capped with a 20-fret rosewood fingerboard, it also features nickel-plated Grover open-back tuners, a flat-top rosewood bridge, and a bone nut with TUSQ bridge pins.

It’s available in Autumn Burst and Vintage Sunburst gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finishes

The Fixed Bridge variant ($3,199) has 1960s cues, and a fixed belly-up bridge, while sticking pretty faithful to the rest of the recipe. It comes in two finishes: Vintage Sunburst with a tortoise pickguard and Vintage Cherry Sunburst with a white pickguard.

As for the Southern Jumbo 40s Original ($3,99), rosewood back and sides pair with a solid Sitka spruce top with multi-ply binding. It too rocks a SlimTaper mahogany neck with 20-fret rosewood fingerboard, and the same bone nut, TUSQ bridge pins combo.

Away from that, it has a closed-slot, belly-down rosewood bridge, and a tortoise-colored teardrop pickguard. It is exclusively available in a Vintage Sunburst finish.

Last but not least, the Country Western 60s Original returns to Gibson’s core lineup, revving “one of the most celebrated versions of this historic design.”

Like its new stablemates, it’s also 24,75” scale, with Gibson opting for the J-45-adjacent mahogany and Sitka spruce body wood pairing. Its mahogany neck has a Round profile this time, while its rosewood 'board mirrors the Southern Jumbo with mother-of-pearl split parallelogram inlays.

A bone nut and saddle partner with a rosewood belly-up bridge, more TUSQ pins, and Gotoh tuners. Available in Antique Natural, it’s rounded out with a single-ply tortoiseshell pickguard.

The four models help usher in a new era of Gibson acoustics, and are available now.

See Gibson for more.

It isn’t just the acoustics getting some pickup love from the Nashville-based gear giants. It has embraced Alnico 8 magnets for its future-focused and high-powered ELEV8 humbuckers.

Diamond Rowe, of Tetrarch fame, graced this past Sunday’s (October 11) Atlanta Falcons vs. Baltimore Ravens NFL game with her guitar chops with her own rendition of the Metallica classic Enter Sandman.

The performance was even more special because the game was held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, where Rowe was born and raised.

“WE DID IT. We brought heavy music to NFL Sunday Night Football,” Rowe wrote on social media, alongside a snippet of her performance – and what she deems as a career high.

“What an awesome experience. I’ve dedicated my entire life to this instrument. Countless hours practicing, years of grinding, taking risks, making sacrifices, and chasing a dream that many (most I can still call by name) told us was impossible. But we continue to shatter those glass ceilings, and moments like this remind me exactly why I’ve never once thought about quitting.

“When the Falcons came to me and asked me to suggest some songs that would be recognizable and bring some serious energy to the stadium, there was one band that instantly came to mind… Metallica.”

Rowe goes on to say that she chose a Metallica track simply because it was the band that made her “fall in love” with heavy music, as well as inspire her to pick up the instrument. Therefore, having the unique opportunity to “pay homage to who I consider the greatest band of all time” in a stadium was “an absolute honor.”

“I couldn’t be more proud to represent heavy music on a stage like this, in front of 70,000 strong. If there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout this journey, it’s that you should always bet on yourself… We can officially check the NFL off the bucket list, y'all! Now somebody tell the boys in Metallica!”

Rowe wielded her signature guitar – the Pro Series Signature Diamond Rowe DR12MG EVTN6 – which she released alongside Jackson two years ago.

The release made Rowe the first Black woman in heavy music to have her own signature model – a moment that continued to mark and celebrate Rowe’s ascension to the upper echelons of metal.

Ozzy Osbourne’s doctors warned the singer not to play his Back to the Beginning show, but did so anyway, Sharon Osbourne has revealed.

The Prince of Darkness’ all-star retirement party brought the curtain down on his change-making career. He died just 17 days later, aged 76.

Tony Iommi has previously revealed he had uncertainties about the physical toll playing the show would have on Ozzy, and was shocked at his deteriorating health during rehearsals.

Sharon Osbourne’s recent comments, via Rolling Stone, underscore the guitarist’s pre-show concerns.

“We moved back to England, and we had a whole new team of doctors,” she explains. “His new doctors didn’t want to take doctor’s notes from America. They wanted to make their own assessment on him. He was in hospital for a week in England [after being in hospital in the US].

“After he came out of hospital, they asked for a meeting, and they came to our house,” she develops. “We had six different doctors and, like, a quarterback, because there were all of these specialists for the heart, for Parkinson’s, for his lungs…”

Ultimately, the team of experts – all concerned about various issues Ozzy was battling – suggested the inevitable.

“They advised us not to do the show,” Sharon says. “They said it would kill him. We were all together and Ozzy said, ‘It’s not an option. It’s what I want.’ He said, ‘I know I’m dying. If I miss a few months of my life, I want to go this way. This is what I want.’

“It was his wish, and we went through it. He said to me, ‘Another six months, what’s it going to do for me?’”

“He was very, very emotional,” Sharon acknowledges. “But you know what? It was beautiful too. It was amazing. How lucky was he to go out that way? I say he went out like a Viking.”

Meanwhile, Billy Morrison has said delivering a eulogy at Ozzy’s funeral was one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do, and Iommi has revealed what he said to him during their final phone call.

JHS Pedals has packed two of its most popular overdrive pedals into an all-powerful twofer pedal, the Wanderer – and taken the two-in-one concept to a new dimension.

The Wanderer houses both the Morning Glory, a Bluesbreaker-inspired transparent overdrive, and the Notaklön, the company’s celebrated Klon clone.

Josh Scott’s firm, then, is understandably billing this as “the ultimate overdrive,” and it’s the first pedal to feature JHS’ new vertical two-in-one format.

With top-mounted jacks offering separate in/outs and effects loops for each pedal, players can weave them into different spots in their pedalboard signal chain. It’s also compatible with JHS’ Red Remote switch (sold separately) to unlock four separate gain stages.

That unit-splitting independence also means each pedal can be run on separate sides of a loop on a switcher, and have settings saved in different presets. It’s leaning hard into the two-in-one concept.

For those unfamiliar with how each of the pedals are designed, Morning Glory “delivers all the tonal and responsive nuance that your amp is missing” and is very-much intended to be on all the time.

The Notaklön, a take on the lauded Klon Centaur that first launched as a DIY pedal pack, pushes clean tones to edge-of-breakup and injects further vintage rock grit to already pushed tones.

The pairing means stacking them on top of one another could have some seriously entertaining and timeless tonal results. Scott has had them both on his ‘board for years, stacking the Notaklön atop the Morning Glory for his rhythm tone, and then using the Red Remote for an extra gain boost when playing leads.

All the controls for both pedals remain, with a total of six dials, two footswitches and two miniswitches. That’s Volume, Drive and Tone for the Morning Glory, and Volume, Gain and Treble, for the Notaklön.

For the Morning Glory, flipping the Gain toggle engages high gain mode, while the +/- switch of the Notaklön kicks things up by 4 dB, increases the midrange and engages an additional stage of hard clipping.

For fans of both pedals, and for pedalboard space saving, the JHS Pedals Wanderer could be a real doozy for $299, as buying both separately would set you back a good $30 more. Plus, if the build-it-yourself element of the Notaklön was off-putting, this one comes ready made.

The JHS Pedals Wanderer is available now for $299.

See JHS Pedals for more.

Also this year, JHS Pedals has corrected its biggest mistake with the relaunch of its cult classic DIY Dumble pedal, and its latest reverb has found a fan in Guitar World’s Matt McCracken.

Fender has ushered in the next generation of its flagship American Professional series of electric guitars and bass guitars.

It is one of Fender’s most significant launches in recent memory. Even without all the noise surrounding the company’s Stratocaster copyright campaign, the new collection introduces some of the most comprehensive updates ever added to Fender’s flagship lineup.

More surprisingly, it’s not accompanied by a price hike, either, with the overhauled models starting at $1,799 – a $100 less than the typical asking prices on its predecessor, the American Professional II line.

The new drop comprises your usual Fender suspects: Stratocaster, Stratocaster HSS, Telecaster, Hotshot Telecaster, Jazzmaster, Jaguar and Precision / Jazz Bass models.

The headline features are new pickups, updated hardware and tweaked electronics, but perhaps not in the arbitrary way that often gets thrown around with regular launches.

Instead, Fender insists it’s gone deep on development and taken a player-first approach that hopes to correct decades-old gripes and markedly improve upon existing specs.

First, you’ll notice the number delineation has been dropped. This isn’t American Professional III, just American Professional – a mark of intent as the firm attempts to create clarity between its series.

The range is built chiefly around those three aforementioned core upgrades. Across the board, new V-Mod III pickups have been rolled out. However, these are uniquely spec’d to each model, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Notably, the Stratocaster, Jazzmaster and Telecaster pickups each get new magnet staggers, meaning the magnets follow the radius of the fretboards more closely. Fender Senior Design Engineer Steven Casado tells Guitar World this results in a tone that holds up better under heavy distortion and feels easier to play under chords.

The pickups also have a few additional turns for more output and a more ‘modern’ tone, and a more complex combination of magnet types and wire gauges. The humbucker found in the HSS Strat, meanwhile, uses two coils with different pitch and wire gauges for a more balanced tone.

The next big headline is the hardware. The American Pro range looks to correct a number of long-established player woes on the tail end, by rolling out new bridges for its core models.

The Strat bent steel bridge saddles no longer have screw ends sticking out the top, preventing any nasty hand scratches when resting, while the Telecaster bridge now has compensated brass bullet saddles with grooves.

Perhaps most notably, though, the offsets get a redesigned HiMass Modern Bridge and Panorama tremolo for a more robust and reliable setup. These are all things guitar fans have picked apart in the past and have been waiting for Fender to fix.

Those offsets are particularly a big deal. Aftermarket bridge upgrades to Jazzmasters and Jaguars are common. This, on paper, should solve those problems.

“The charge was led by the bridges and the pickups overall,” Fender’s Justin Norvell tells Guitar World. “We didn’t want to just say we changed everything. But we were like, ‘What can we do here? How can we make it better?’

“The Stratocaster having a new saddle that enables the screws not to stick up, that [solves] a 70-plus-year gripe,” he continues. “And the Jazzmaster bridge – you know, everyone's loved the Custom Shop RSD bridge. That bridge is one of one, handmade and milled. It was like, ‘How can you make it in quantity?’”

Another key foundation is the updated electronics. Fender is making a big deal about its new ClassicGear Precision pots that offer an improved taper and an ‘ideal’ tension when moving through the motions. Every guitar also gets a push-push tone control for an additional voice.

It might sound like a small update but it shows Fender’s desire to dive into the nitty gritty of it all: “It’s under the hood,” Norvell admits. “90 percent of people won't notice and won't care, but we do.”

Elsewhere, we should mention the updated Deep C neck profiles which are paired with rolled fretboard edges, and suite of classic and contemporary colorways on tap. There’s 3-Color Sunburst, Olympic White and Butterscotch Blonde, but also Oxblood, Aged Cherry Burst and Dark Night.

“Fender was built on original ideas – instruments designed from scratch that changed what music could sound like,” Norvell echoes in a press release. “These are not interchangeable instruments. For generations, Fender's most iconic designs have carried distinct identities.”

The new American Professional electrics start from $1,799 for the Stratocaster, and Telecaster, the Stratocaster HSS and Hotshot Telecaster come in from $1,849, then there is the Jazzmaster ($1,899), Jaguar ($1,949) and Precision / Jazz Bass models (at $1,899 and $1,999, respectively). Left-handed versions land in spring 2027.

The price point represents a surprising reversal on the long-running upwards trajectory of Fender’s US build prices.

Head over to Fender for more.

Tom Morello has called Randy Rhoads the “greatest hard rock guitar player of all time” on multiple occasions. However, what might not be as widely known is that Morello advocated for Rhoads’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – and is one of the few individuals ever to handle one of the most-prized Rhoads guitars.

“His sister, who’s lovely, is very protective of all the stuff,” he tells Classic Rock in a new interview. “It’s sealed away somewhere in a secret vault, and no one knows where it is. I’d asked her if I could see it, and she said: ‘Nobody sees it.’ You gotta respect that.”

The Rage Against the Machine guitarist goes on to reveal that Randy’s sister, Kathy Rhoads D'Argenzio, changed her mind a year after that fateful first ask. The guitar in question turned out to be Rhoads’ personally designed white, asymmetrically V-shaped Jackson Concorde, named after the aircraft he flew home aboard in late 1980.

“She texts me saying the guitar is at her house that afternoon, on its way back from the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and now would I like to go see it?” he continues. “His mom didn’t want anyone else to ever play it again, but I got to hold it.”

It was such a special experience that Morello can still recall every little detail. “That was pretty emotional for me. The crazy thing was that the leather guitar strap still smelled of cigarette smoke. He was performing up until the day he died, so that strap had smoke from 1982 left in it.”

Rhoads’ Jackson Concorde was on display at the Rock Hall 2021 Inductee Exhibit, which launched on October 24, 2021, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland.

The sorely missed Ozzy Osbourne guitarist was posthumously inducted to the RRHOF by Morello and honored with the Musical Excellence Award. This was followed by tributes from the likes of Metallica's Kirk Hammett, Osbourne, Steve Vai, and Zakk Wylde.

Given that NAM is being widely tipped as the future of guitar tones, it’s no surprise to see big-name brands embracing the technology. Zoom is the latest to do so with the Neurig – an affordable touchscreen-equipped modeler that is packed with impressive features.

A compact but by no means stunted amp modeler, Zoom believes the Neurig is “a next-generation guitar pedal that will redefine everything.” Chief among its stacked spec sheet is the fact it natively supports NAM A2 Lite from TONE3000.

An open-source amp modeling architecture, NAM hype has been sweeping through the guitar industry in recent times and could change the way we interact with digital guitar tones.

Blackstar was the first to implement it into its own offerings via the Beam Mini, and it feels like something of an arms race for others to follow suit.

Zoom, then, is ahead of the curve, and what is being labelled the “most accurate and best sounding amp modeling technology in history” serves as the brains behind the Neurig.

The tech, it says, “reproduces the amplifier itself, not just the tone,” therefore bottling “the behavior of every knob and parameter of legendary amplifiers and effects pedals,” which are all stored within the unit.

In all, there are 32 amp heads built in, ranging from a Marshall JTM 45 and 1965 Fender Twin Reverb to the more gnarly sounds of a Diezel Herbert and a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier.

Notably, there are six original amplifier sounds, from the Redloom, which is a ‘60s-styled small tube amp, Muddy, a blues-rock-leaning vintage crunch amp, and the Pollex, which is specifically engineered to handle drop tunings, djent, and slap bass.

But the Neurig isn’t limited to just what’s built in, as NAM integration means users can freely load amps, pedals and cabinets into the mix, and even capture full signal chains of their other gear picks.

Users can import over 700,000 NAM capture and IR libraries into the Neurig for free.

Unsurprisingly, the Neurig packs an insane amount of effects into its chrome-encased guts. A rich array of reverbs, delays, and modulations are augmented by more leftfield options including a bit crusher, rotary speaker sim, ring modulator, and pitch shifter.

On top of that, 17 effects have been tailored for use in conjunction with an expression pedal (you’ll need to bring your own) with volume and a breadth of wah sounds joined by reverbs, resonance effects, and more.

As for connectivity, it features a send and return for pedalboard integration, MIDI in/out, stereo and mono outputs, and the signal path can also be split in two.

Other notable mentions include Bluetooth connectivity, the ability to run series, parallel, and split routing, and run up to 14 effects simultaneously. Plus there’s a looper, and a battery that can last 4.5 hours.

It also has four footswitches and two rotary controls for dialing in signal chains.

Leaning further into the futuristic side of the Neurig, it even features an AI-driven tone generation and even AI stem separation functionality for removing guitar parts from tracks. These are accessible via the SessionZ Pedal cloud service.

All this totals to the sum of ¥47,800, which is approximately $300. Of course, that is a rough conversion while we wait for an official US price, but if it is anywhere near that ballpark, the Neurig could be one to watch. That’s a slither of the cost of a Quad Cortex or Tone Master Pro.

See Zoom for more.

Slash has become the latest recipient of the Les Paul Spirit Award, following Bob Weir, Steve Miller, and Peter Frampton.

The top-hatted guitar hero has been a poster boy for Gibson’s single cut ever since Guns N’ Roses burst onto the scene with the Appetite for Destruction in 1987 – even if the guitar at the center of the record wasn’t actually a Gibson.

Still, he owns more Les Pauls than most mortals could fathom, including a highly prized ‘50s Goldtop. With them in his hands, he has headlined festivals and stadiums, and sold over 100 million albums across his various bands. So, on October 5, he became the latest star to win the Les Paul Spirit Award.

It was presented by the Les Paul Foundation in partnership with Gibson Gives, Gibson’s charitable arm which has produced some rather storied guitars in recent years.

The award recognizes Slash’s contributions to rock guitar, as he is a player who, in its own words, “Embodies Les Paul’s pioneering spirit through innovation, creativity, technology and music.”

Slash grew close with Les Paul himself during his lifetime, and often frequented the guitarist and engineer’s New York residency shows at The Iridium and other events. The private party where Slash was honored took place at the Les Paul Recording Studio.

“Les was so much more than a great guitarist and innovator,” Slash says. “He was an inventor who changed the instrument itself, built groundbreaking recording equipment and completely reimagined how artists could record music.

“I feel incredibly lucky that I got to know him, hang out with him and play music with him,” he adds. “I cherish the relationship we had, and receiving an award that carries his name and spirit is a tremendous honor.”

“Not only does Slash exemplify the creativity and curiosity Les had during his life, but he is also an extraordinary talent and a wonderful supporter of the Les Paul Foundation,” adds Michael Braunstein, Executive Director of the Les Paul Foundation.

“If Les were still alive today, Slash and he would be jamming onstage together somewhere regularly.”

Aptly, it was a sentiment Braunstein shared when honoring Peter Frampton – the owner of the iconic Phenix Les Paul – with the award in 2024.

While the wait for a new GNR album continues, Slash is set to join Aerosmith on stage later this month as part of two blockbuster Hollywood Bowl shows.

Save for special songs or occasions, John Mayer is rarely seen without a Silver Sky in his hands. That changed over the weekend as he grabbed a Music Man Axis to shred some Van Halen.

Mayer shared the stage with Dave Grohl at the annual Soundstage of Hope benefit concert at Chaplin Studios in Los Angeles on October 10. They were two of the big name artists getting in on the action, and their rare guitar pairing stole the show.

With Chad Smith on drums and Grohl donning an all-black Gibson RD offset, Mayer tipped his hat to one of his earliest guitar heroes. Specifically, he played Eddie’s 1990s Music Man signature, with a striking purple finish, a flame maple top, and a “JCM” Monogram headstock.

This model in particular is a Custom Shop replica of the one Eddie Van Halen was pictured with on the cover of Guitar World magazine in September 1991. Mayer, who fell in love with the guitar because of the cover, once called the custom model a “the dream machine.”

At Chaplin Studios, Mayer more than put it through its paces during a cover of Van Halen’s most famous cover: The Kinks’ You Really Got Me. During the track, he unfurled some screaming leads and supple volume swells, making full use of the Floyd Rose and whammy bar. Plus, in true EVH style, there were oodles of phaser warping his tone.

The guitar means a lot to Mayer, so it’s no surprise he was excited to bring it out onto the stage.

Posting on Instagram in 2014, he wrote: “Throwback Thursday, with a twist. Back in 1991, at the age of 13, I bought a Guitar World with Eddie Van Halen on the cover and fell in love with his Music Man signature model (and his playing.)

“23 years later I reached out to Ernie Ball/Music Man and asked if they could make my childhood dream come to life by building one more of these long-discontinued guitars,” he continues.

“Here it is, made from original parts stored away since 1991. The dream machine. I can’t begin to describe the joy.”

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Mayer. He’s traded solos with Derek Trucks at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads, dropped two Land Rover-inspired Silver Sky models – which are not a dig at Fender, it turns out – and announced his return to the Las Vegas Sphere.

It’s also not the first time he has paid tribute to Van Halen. In 2008, Mayer covered Panama with a Frankenstein guitar.

Last Thursday, October 1, I had the privilege of seeing Buddy Guy’s all-star 90th birthday concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

I’m really not kidding when I say “all-star”. (Deep breath) 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 a turn in the spotlight.

And of course, it had to end with a jam for the ages. The entire ensemble all backed Guy and vocalist Bobby Rush for two of the former’s standards – Hoochie Coochie Man and Got My Mojo Workin’.

It was a tad cacophonus, I must say, but seeing that much talent onstage at one time was a once-in-a-lifetime experience I’ll never forget. And, aren’t all the best jams a bit hairy anyway?

That’s my “and then they got up onstage and played together!” story, but I know a lot of you readers have one too. What’s the best guitar jam you’ve ever seen?

This doesn’t have to have taken place in an arena with big-name players, mind. It could’ve been a club, a bar, hell, a garage. It could involve guitarists from your hometown who work in insurance sales now, or “if you know you know” players who never made it beyond three-figure-capacity venues.

Tell us your story in the comments below.

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It does not take much to get guitar players arguing with each other. But there are few topics that get people going like tonewoods.

Some players will die on the hill of mahogany bodies making for warmer, fuller-sounding electric or acoustic guitars while others say it is a total myth. Generously, the latter will tell the former that it’s all psychosomatic, that the brain is leading the ear. Less generously, they’ll tell you that you’re full of crap. And so it goes.

It doesn’t matter that Paul Reed Smith, who knows quite a bit about making a guitar, chooses tonewoods with the same care as a Michelin-starred chef sources their game and seafood. Some players remain unconvinced, and one in particular even has his own guitar brand, Zakk Wylde.

In a recent interview with Guitar World, Wylde was discussing how he chose tonewoods for Wylde Audio’s new lineup of acoustic guitars. Its grand auditorium range is its first acoustic instruments in what has been exclusively an electric brand specializing in some of the most aggressive shapes you will see on the market. Wylde says his opinion on tonewood has changed over the years.

“There are tried-and-true woods for guitars, even more so with acoustics than electrics,” says Wylde. “When I was younger, I remember reading a thing with Yngwie Malmsteen where he was talking about the different tones that come out of Strats made out of different woods. He also spoke about how he’d change from a maple neck to a rosewood neck and notice how the sound changed.”

Malmsteen: there’s one we can count on backing up Mr Smith from Maryland’s stance. Wylde says all this doesn’t matter on the electric guitar.

“On electrics, your pickups work as a microphone,” he says. “I saw this one guy who did a test where he took the pickups out of his guitar, put them on a cinder block attached to a neck – and it sounded identical.”

These videos do exist. There are more dramatic examples yet, some truly weird experiments to disprove the tonal merits of having a nice thick cap of AAA figured maple on top of some well-cured mahogany – to prove how the pickup is doing all of the heavy lifting.

“That’s where a lot of the tone is coming from,” says Wylde. “Just to disprove all the people who spend their lives arguing about which sounds better out of ash, maple, alder, mahogany or rosewood. One guy even recorded a microwave with some pickups on it and a guitar neck. And when he A/B’d that against his actual electric, it sounded the same.”

But Wylde is a salesman, too. What about those grand auditoriums, with their Norse snake and bullseye graphics?

“If you listen real hard, you’ll be able to hear the difference in tone,” jokes Wylde. “My friends come round and say they can’t tell the difference. But they’re not listening hard enough. [Laughs] It just might depend on how many adult beverages you’d had that evening – because I heard that can affect how you hear things!”

You can read Guitar World’s interview with Zakk Wylde in the latest issue, available from Magazines Direct.

Guitar World famously listed Stanley Jordan as one of 40 players who changed the post-1980 modern era of guitar playing, and by the sound of it, he’s about to do that again.

Jordan, a player we associate with the frontiers of jazz guitar, is working on a metal album.

And not only that. In a new interview with Guitar World, Jordan says he’s using James Hetfield’s signature ESP Iron Cross single-cut to do it. “It’s a great heavy metal guitar with a great feel for the right hand,” he says.

No doubt! But what’s this about a metal album?

“Yes, it’s coming! With my tandem guitars, I can run different distortion pedals and wah-wahs on both guitars at the exact same time,” he says. “It’s insane what you can do.”

The “tandem guitars” setup needs an explanation. This is all kinds of nuts. If you have seen Jordan perform live, then you’ll know exactly what this is. Jordan’s two-handed “touch technique” allows him to effectively play two guitars at once. And we thought one guitar was difficult enough to control. He says his Vigier is still his number one electric guitar, but why restrict himself to just one?

“I’ve recently gone back to my “tandem guitars” setup where I play two guitars simultaneously. For the right-hand guitar, I’m using a PRS Santana. I love its short-scale length. The strings feel loose, which makes the touch technique much easier.”

The other guitar in this setup right now is the Iron Cross. Jordan is getting it adjusted as we speak so that it fits better in this “tandem” setup.

It’s like every time Jordan picks up the guitar, the act of playing has been transformed in some way, like he’s turning conventional wisdom on its head.

Even his collabs are crazy. Sadly, B.B. King died before the pair for the chance to record together, but they had effectively shook hands and agreed they’d work together, and were – get this – going to cover the Doors’ Riders on the Storm. Seriously.

What will Jordan think of next? Well, he’s developing a DJ/guitar live setup involving two computers running Ableton Live with the intent of bringing is voluminous knowledge of jazz theory into electronic music. “I use a massive array of foot pedals to DJ with while I’m playing guitar with my hands,” he says.

But whatever you do, if you see him down at your local science museum, stand well back. He’s been exploring methods of controlling fire with his guitar.

“I’ve also wanted to do a flame technique,” he says. “I once visited a science museum where they hooked me up to a Rubens tube, meaning my guitar was literally controlling and shaping physical fire. You can find the video of it on YouTube.”

And you can watch it below.

You can read the interview with Stanley Jordan in full in the new issue of Guitar World, which is on sale now. Better still, Subscribe and save a heap of money.

Though they eschewed the formal label, Pink Floyd were a lowercase ‘p’ progressive rock band in the truest sense. They pushed buttons and boundaries – selling records by the tens of millions entirely on their own terms.

At the forefront was David Gilmour, a new kind of guitar hero. With him came no tales of debauchery, no flamboyance, windmills, or capes.

He had plenty of moments in the spotlight, sure, but his solos were stunning exercises in control – not a note out of place, each one serving its purpose. His touch was and is unmistakable, his tone – even in its aggressive moments – delicate and perfectly articulated.

The equipment Gilmour used has also become the stuff of legend. Though he views even his guitars as “tools of the trade”, one of his six-strings became the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction – by a factor of more than two – earlier this year, never mind the many pedals that have been modeled after his sound.

There were also others. Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd’s enigmatic founder and original singer/guitarist, whose playing style was, if not virtuosic, groundbreaking and one-of-one; and, of course, Roger Waters, their bassist, outspoken lyricist, and occasional guitarist.

So, how well do you know Pink Floyd? The legendary gear, the iconic songs, and the guitarists who lent them an occasional hand along the way? Test your knowledge in our quiz below.

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.

Fender Tone Master ’59 Twin-Amp JB Edition

Joe Bonamassa being won over by the digital version of one of his favorite tube amps ever is one plot twist we didn’t have in the guitar bingo card for 2026, and yet here we are, with the latest expansion of the Tone Master series a replica of a high-powered Twin.

And this beauty is a real beast. Seriously. When Fender demoed this amp for Team GW, and some idiot chose to sit in the front row, the volume was assaultively loud. They couldn’t take it past 4 on the dial. This really was a Twin, tubes or no tubes.

And it sounded incredible. Bonamassa is, of course, not going to decommission his tube amps and turn the Amp Shanty over to Silicon Valley for a refresh. He was a skeptic at first. “I wanted to hate it,” he admits. But in this game, the only thing you can trust is your ears. He stuck the Tone Master Twin in his live rig and it performed, night after night.

“We’re all in agreement that this amp was tighter, punchier, and better,” says Bonamassa. “I never thought I’d see in my lifetime the fact that I’d be sitting next to a digital amp. Sound makes you play. Sound inspires you to play. You just need to know how to unlock the sound you hear in your head and get it out.”

This high-powered combo amp runs at 85-watts full power, driving a pair of 12” Celestion JB Neodymium speakers, but there is five-way power scaling available via rotary dial, and there are some contemporary tweaks to the design. There is a Vintage/Tight switch, an effects loop, and there is an XLR output with three onboard cab sims that are editable via the app.

More info: Joe Bonamassa goes digital with the first ever Fender Tone Master signature amp

Fender John 5 Telecaster Collection

Sticking with Fender here, because this is a big one: a trio of signature Telecasters co-designed with Mötley Crüe guitarist John 5, and offering two versions at an approachable price point. There’s also a Custom Shop model at an unapproachable price point – but it is exactly the same guitar he plays live with the Crüe, and it is stunning.

If that Custom Shop Phantom is too pricey at six grand, worry not; the Indonesian version is a serious instrument. It has a nyatoh body, not two piece alder, but it has the all-important kill-switch, Floyd Rose vibrato, and the dual DiMarzio D-Activator humbuckers that make this such a wild hotrod. That’s the Phantom, all black, black anodized pickguard.

Rounding out the trio is a familiar design as the Ghost returns to haunt us once more, with its Arctic White finish and red binding, inlays, headstock logo, pickup bobbins and controls. And it asks a difficult question of anyone looking for a souped-up Tele for hard rock and metal: do you want a hardtail six-saddle bridge like the Ghost, or a Floyd like the Phantom? Well you could theoretically get both for the price of a top-of-the-line US-made Telecaster, and these sound and play great.

More info: John 5 becomes the most decorated Telecaster artist in history with three new signature Fenders

Behringer Zentara

Here’s a sweet overdrive pedal from what we could call the Lawsuit Era of stompboxes. If you will remember Behringer launched this Klon clone in 2024, branded as the Centara, didn’t have the brand name on the front, looked very much like the original, so much so that creator, Bill Finnegan, subsequently sued Behringer’s parent company, Music Tribe.

About this time last year, the case was dismissed by Finnegan himself, with Behringer having making a few adjustments to the design. Meet the Zentara.

Yes, it’s still modeled after Finnegan’s much-feted, much-cloned and now super-rare and very expensive original drive – and right about now those soft-clipping germanium diodes will be whispering sweet nothings into your ear, singing their siren song to cork-sniffers and breadboard bores who like to talk component drift at house parties.

And hell’s bells it’s only 75 bucks. They even make a small version, and offer both sizes in the classic gold enclosure or silver.

More info: Behringer got sued over its Klon Centaur clone. Now it’s back with four different versions – all priced under $76

ALSO LAUNCHED THIS WEEK

Dunable Riley Pinkerton Minotaur Summoner

This signature collab for the Rat Queen was absolutely going to be my headline item this week, but alas, they’re only making four of them. Four! Now, that is a limited run. But what a cool guitar. Two cutaways, one Direwolf humbucker, a killswitch, vibes, magical. Praise, hail Riley Pinkerton!

For more: Dunable Guitars

HeadRush NAM Firmware update

Why take one NAM capture into your signal chain when you can take two? After just one wash with HeadRush’s firmware update, your tone will be brighter and shinier, or deeper and fuller, or both at same time!

Yup, HeadRush’s big bet on native NAM A2 compatibility gets extended, allowing players to run two NAM captures simultaneously. Works on all tone types. Great for turning frizz to fuzz.

For more: HeadRush

Keeley Electronics Compressor Plus Germanium

Robert Keeley celebrates 25 years of his his industry classic compressor pedal with a germanium power-up and a cool stripped-down stylistic refresh. It’ll still do the same job, but promises more warmth and touch-sensitivity. The single-coil/humbucker switch remains a super-useful feature, too.

For more: Keeley Electronics

Gibson Custom Shop 1957 L5 VOS Reissue

When Gibson goes all-in on making a high-end archtop, it goes all-in knowing it has the weight of history on its shoulders.

Here, they pull out all the stops on one of its most hallowed hollowbodies, using a dovetail neck joint for the first time on an archtop, using 3D scans on originals to make sure they nail the vibe – not to mention using some very handsome pieces of AAA figured maple for the bookmatched back and sides. Stunning work. And chef’s kiss for that tailpiece.

For more: Gibson revives one of the most influential archtops in its history

Ernie Ball Music Man Albert Lee Collection 2026

There’s something about Albert Lee’s signature guitar that makes us think of Adam West’s Batmobile, or if not a Lincoln Futura then maybe one of those Atomic Age golden era car builds you see cruising along in American Graffiti. Which is to say it’s ridiculously cool.

This refresh sees a limited edition (75 units, megabucks) version for the Ball Family Reserve, and a regular HSS version which is still a serious, serious instrument, and unusual for having, well, that shape, but a DiMarzio humbucker paired with Seymour Duncan single-coils. That shape, though!

For more: Ernie Ball Music Man

D’Addario XS Nickel Bronze acoustic strings

D’Addario applies its premium string coating to its premium acoustic guitar string and promise hi-fi clarity and longer-lasting freshness.

For more: D'Addario

Boss 10th Anniversary Katana

There is no reason why digital guitar amps can't look like objects of great aesthetic appeal. Just 'cos they're packing in the tones, it's not all functionality, a little style goes a long way. The Katana has always looked cool but this 10th Anniversary edition with blue figured maple cabinets is really something.

For more: Boss

DiMarzio x Phillip Knight Northern Lights humbucker

Phillip Knight has had a longstanding problem with the Northern Lights humbuckers he makes under his Blackstock Pickups brand. They’re just too damn popular. Everybody wants some, and he can’t keep up, so he’s partnered with DiMarzio to make more of them, taking them to a wider audience.

The ingredients are the same, they’re still US-made, but there have been improvements to the baseplate and potting.

For more: Know Your Gear Podcast

Journey’s show at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma last night (October 8) was halted for a medical emergency when drummer Deen Castronovo took ill and had to be helped off the stage.

The band were just two songs into their set. They opened with Be Good to Yourself, following it with Stone in Love, and that was it, Castronovo’s night was over.

The group left the stage. The house lights came up, and after a pause, rhythm guitarist and lead keyboard player Jonathan Cain addressed the audience, asking them to keep Castronovo in their thoughts. Though he did not have much information to share with them, and at that point he was unsure whether the gig was going to continue.

“Our drummer is having a medical emergency, right now, at this very moment, so we’re going to see what happens as this progresses,” said Cain. “It’s an unfortunate situation. We’re really sorry. We’re hoping it’s only a delay. But please have your prayers ready for Deen Castronovo. Everybody, thank you.”

25 minutes later, the show was back on. Neal Schon introduced Castronovo’s drum tech, Steve Toomey, to the crowd, asked them to give him a round of applause before apologizing for the delay. “We love you all,” Schon said. “We’re very sorry for the inconvenience.”

Toomey duly stepped behind the kit, counted them all in, and away they went into Ask the Lonely. The show must go on. There was no further update on Castronovo’s condition, but Schon suggested that it was not that serious, and dedicated their performance to him.

“This concert is for Deen,” he said. “I think he’s going to be fine.”

Journey fans will still be in the dark as to Castronovo’s health. There is no mention of the incident on the band’s social media channels. Though they did post footage of Schon’s wicked solo before Wheel in the Sky on Instagram.

Journey are on their epic Final Frontier Tour, which has been winding its way around the enormodomes of the United States since late February. Tomorrow night they play the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas. Here's hoping Castronovo makes a speedy recovery.

Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill has announced his retirement, stepping down from the British metal stalwarts after 57 years of service.

Described as “the backbone of Judas Priest” in an official statement, the 74-year-old has made the tough decision to leave the group.

Hill, the band’s third bass player after a series of early line-up changes, joined in 1970, and has played on every single one of Priest’s 19 studio albums, from 1974’s Rocka Rolla to 2024’s Invincible Shield.

“For a long time now, when asked ‘how long can you continue,’ I’ve always answered, ‘until my performances suffer,” he says in an official statement. “I hate to say it, but that time has come.

“For some years now, I’ve been struggling with the onset of the evil arthritis, which is now in an advanced state in my left shoulder and right hand, established in my right shoulder, and present in both knees. I’ve been fighting this with painkillers, gels, and recently with cortisone injections in my shoulder and hand.”

Treatments, he says, made it possible for him to lay down his punching basslines on the band’s latest album. Since then, he has doubted his ability to take the music onto the road.

“We asked our good friend Davey Rimmer from Uriah Heep and Elegant Weapons to learn the set list to stand in for me if I had to pull out, which I did for the London show,” he says of their recent European tour.

“This was due to me snapping a tendon in my left shoulder, as if I didn’t have enough problems with it, just before the encore during the Brussels show two days before [September 18, 2026].”

Reluctantly stepping aside as the band flattened the English capitol’s Eventim Apollo has been a wake-up call for Hill, who says, “I’ve neglected my family life for 57 years.”

“I’ve decided to retire and spend the remaining years making up for it,” he adds. “There’s not a day goes by where I don’t give thanks for the incredible journey I’ve lived through, and it just remains for me to say that I love you all, and thank you for the life you’ve let me live.”

With the news, Hill confirms that Rimmer will take his spot in one of Britain’s most important metal bands.

Longstanding guitarist Glenn Tipton, meanwhile, has already retired from touring as age catches up with him, but is still proving a riff machine in the studio alongside Richie Faulkner. It means that vocalist Rob Halford is the only member to have played on Rocka Rolla left touring with the group.

The destruction of a 145-year-old Martin guitar in Quentin Tarantino’s film, The Hateful Eight, is embedded into guitar folklore. But what if it was no accident?

A former Martin employee has just blown the story wide open. He doesn’t believe the narrative that has been told over the past 11 years. He says Tarantino wanted it destroyed.

Set in Wyoming Territory during the 1870s, the Academy Award-winning flick follows Kurt Russell’s bounty hunter, John “the Hangman” Ruth. He has captured Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Daisy Domergue when they get caught in a blizzard and are forced to seek shelter.

Domergue is a guitarist, and so Leigh was handed a period-correct Martin, believed to be worth around $15,000 to practice on, so she could authentically strum away on set.

In the film, Ruth gets annoyed by her constant string fiddling, and at one point, takes the acoustic guitar off her and smashes it to pieces. The story goes that it was a tragic mixup that saw the ancient Martin – and not a prop guitar – destroyed during the scene. That might not be the case.

“Tarantino filmed it at night on purpose so that the guitar tech wouldn’t be there,” Dick Boak, Martin’s now retired in-house historian tells the Gear Gab Podcast with Eric Dahl podcast.

“He [the tech] had gone home, and they never brought the papier-mâché guitars out. They just had the regular guitar,” he claims. “She [Leigh] played her little thing, and Kurt Russell grabbed it out of her hands.”

The ‘mixup’ has since become stuff of legend, with what’s left of the guitar even put on display at the Martin booth at NAMM 2024. The guitar had been loaned to the filmmakers from the Martin Museum – a place where it neighbors Kurt Cobain relics and haunted guitars – and didn’t come back in one piece.

In fact, Boak says he feared the incident would get him sacked. But Tarantino is Tarantino; he only ever makes movies his way.

“Tarantino wanted to get a genuine reaction out of her,” Boak says of the scene. “And yeah, he did. I’ll never forget it, you know – the reaction on her face and everything from that.”

Martin has since, and rather understandably, changed its loan policy for museum instruments after Russell’s cowboy Pete Townshend impression. No other production company is going anywhere near its artefacts.

Apparently there were six prop models made, to spare the priceless Martin a gruesome fate. Moreover, Russell was egged on to treat the guitar like it owed him a sizeable wad of cash that fateful day on set. The actor, in turn, says he doesn’t care about the guitar’s destruction, and believes the whole thing has been blown out of proportion.

Boak’s claims add a fresh twist to the tale, and, if anything, steep even more prominence onto the poor instrument.

Last month, metal guitar legend Tony Iommi said he turned down Andrew Watt’s offer to make one last Black Sabbath album with the original lineup. Watt himself, however, has just spun a very different story on the matter, and why plans for a 20th Sabbath album never got off the ground.

Watt first made his name working with pop artists before working with giants of rock and metal, from being a key player in Ozzy Osbourne’s late-career purple patch to Pearl Jam and the Rolling Stones. Through his closeness with the Prince of Darkness, the idea of making one last Black Sabbath record with the original lineup – Bill Ward having been absent from 2013’s 13 – was floated.

The young producer was desperate to get the band back together. Iommi, citing Watt’s pushiness and lack of understanding of how the original lineup operates, rejected the offer.

However, in a new interview with Lipps Service/Spin, Watt blames the botched plans on other circumstances, and insinuates Iommi was onboard.

“We had made these two Ozzy albums, and Ozzy wanted to make another album,” Watt says. “He didn’t want to do exactly the same thing that we had done before, so he was into the idea of doing a Sabbath album.

“Sharon and him said I had to call and talk to each guy and see if they were into it,” he continues. “So I called Tony, talked to him, and he said he was into it as long as Bill [Ward, drums] was there. That was everyone’s thing. Ozzy was like, ‘If Bill does it, we’ll do it.’”

Bass player Geezer Butler – who has just made a guest appearance on the new Mastodon record – is said to have felt the same. So all Watt had to do, he says, was convince the drummer to pick up his sticks and play.

“I had this 40-minute call with Bill, which was one of the weirdest and funniest phone calls ever,” Watt details. “Long story short, it ended up that Bill wasn’t able to do it for a multitude of different reasons, so that’s why that didn't happen. But the other guys were all into doing it.”

It doesn’t take a detective to spot the big difference between the two stories, so it’s anyone’s guess which tale is closer to the truth.

What is apparent, however is that Iommi has a new solo album – and band – to focus on in 2026.

There’s a long-running joke in the guitar industry that PRS guitars are for dentists and lawyers. The sentiment is that those who fork out $7,000+ for a PRS McCarty are rich hobbyists, rather than hard-working touring musicians.

In a recent fan-led Q&A with UK music store Andertons, firm owner Paul Reed Smith was asked about his firm’s reputation head on. “Hey Paul,” write Getthefunkout46, “why do you make guitars exclusively for dentists?”

It’s a pointed question, and one that Smith embraces with a smile. But he’s not in the mood to simply laugh it off. He wants to set the record straight, and actually insinuates that there are other firms more deserving of that affiliation.

“I didn’t know Carlos Santana and John Mayer were dentists,” he first chuckles. Then the laughter subsides.

“The question implies that only dentists and doctors buy the guitars. It's just not true anymore,” he says. “I mean, there was a time in the late ’80s [when] maybe that was true, but Sweetwater did a thing: the most expensive guitars. We weren’t in the first 10. We’ve done everything in our power to make the SEs affordable.”

He has a point. Coming from Cort's massive – and impressive – Indonesian factory, most SEs offer great value for money, such as the NF 53 SE, which was one of 2025’s best sub–$1k electric guitars. The Silver Sky SE has been selling like hot cakes, too. Herman Li’s signature SE, though, is something of an outlier at $1,999.

Still, Smith isn’t done pleading his case.

“These S2s are really affordable,” he continues. “Look, you can say that to some people, a Private Stock's not affordable [at $8,000 – $14,000], but that's an awful lot of time and energy and skill level for what we charge for them. So I'm okay with it.”

Elsewhere in the Q&A, Smith was quizzed on tonewoods, having previously offered an interesting take on the debate, and had his first Greggs sausage roll [a budget UK fast food staple]. So it was quite the day for him.

Smith has just been inducted into Guitar Center’s RockWalk of Fame, after a heartfelt speech from John Mayer.

Oasis' critically acclaimed documentary, Don't Look Back In Anger, is scheduled to hit streaming on Friday, October 9, and you can get a front-row seat to the action via a Disney+ or Hulu subscription.

Focusing on the band's return to the live stage in 2025, it includes never-before-seen footage from an interview with Liam and Noel Gallagher, as well as full performances of classic tracks like Wonderwall, Slide Away, D'You Know What I Mean?, and Half The World Away.

The film has already been a hit at the UK and Ireland box offices earlier this month. It's proven a hit with audiences and critics, earning a 97% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, with an audience rating of 98.

Read on to find out how to watch Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger for yourself, no matter where you are in the world.

How to watch Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger

To watch Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger, you'll need a Disney+ or Hulu subscription. Here's the latest US and UK prices:

• 🇺🇸 $9.99 - Disney/Hulu bundle
• 🇺🇸 $19.99 - Disney/Hulu Premium bundle
• 🇬🇧 £5.99 - Standard with ads
• 🇬🇧 £9.99 - Standard
• 🇬🇧 £14.99 - Premium

Unfortunately, there's no free trial for Disney+ or Hulu, but there are often special offers on the services throughout the year, so keep an eye out.

How to watch Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger from anywhere

If you're traveling for work or happen to be on holiday, you can still catch the action by using a VPN.

A VPN changes your IP location, allowing you to watch the film no matter where you are in the world. At Guitar World, we recommend NordVPN. It's currently reduced by 75%, so it's a great time to sign up, and you get a 30-day money-back guarantee for peace of mind.

How to use a VPN

1. Install your VPN. As we've mentioned above, Nord VPN is Guitar World's favorite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you're currently outside of the country and don't want to miss out on seeing Don't Look Back In Anger as soon as it arrives, just select your country from the list, then log on to your Disney+/Hulu account as usual.

3. Kick back and relax: That's it, you're all set to watch this critically acclaimed documentary as you prepare for the Oasis 2027 tour!

Watch the trailer

Oasis '27 Tour Dates

May 21: Glasgow Celtic Park, UK
May 23: Glasgow Celtic Park, UK
May 25: Glasgow Celtic Park, UK
May 28: Glasgow Celtic Park, UK
May 29: Glasgow Celtic Park, UK
Jun 04: Manchester Etihad Stadium, UK
Jun 06: Manchester Etihad Stadium, UK
Jun 08: Manchester Etihad Stadium, UK
Jun 11: Manchester Etihad Stadium, UK
Jun 12: Manchester Etihad Stadium, UK
Jun 15: Manchester Etihad Stadium, UK
Jun 18: Manchester Etihad Stadium, UK
Jun 19: Manchester Etihad Stadium, UK
Jun 22: Manchester Etihad Stadium, UK
Jun 25: Manchester Etihad Stadium, UK
Jun 26: Manchester Etihad Stadium, UK
Jul 02: Munich Allianz Arena, Germany
Jul 03: Munich Allianz Arena, Germany
Jul 06: Munich Allianz Arena, Germany
Jul 10: Barcelona Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, Spain
Jul 11: Barcelona Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, Spain
Jul 16: Amsterdam Johan Cruijff ArenA, Netherlands
Jul 17: Amsterdam Johan Cruijff ArenA, Netherlands
Jul 20: Paris Stade de France, France
Jul 24: Paris Stade de France, France
Jul 26: Rome Stadio Olimpico, Italy
Jul 29: Rome Stadio Olimpico, Italy
Jul 30: Rome Stadio Olimpico, Italy

Aug 10: Boston Gillette Stadium, MA
Aug 13: Boston Gillette Stadium, MA
Aug 14: Boston Gillette Stadium, MA
Aug 20: Las Vega Allegiant Stadium, CA
Aug 21: Las Vegas Allegiant Stadium, US
Aug 24: Las Vegas Allegiant Stadium, CA

Sep 04: Slane Castle, Ireland
Sep 05: Slane Castle, Ireland
Sep 11: Knebworth Park, UK
Sep 12: Knebworth Park, UK
Sep 18: Knebworth Park, UK
Sep 19: Knebworth Park, UK
Sep 25: Knebworth Park, UK
Sep 26: Knebworth Park, UK

What else is on Disney+

Disney+ is one of the many streaming services available, and it has a small number of quality music documentaries to tune into once you're done watching Oasis.

The service features the likes of Peter Jackson's Beatles doc Let It Be and the three-part Beatles series Get Back. Other musical highlights include the brilliant Travis Barker documentary Louder Than Fear, Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, Summer ’82: When Zappa Came To Sicily, Abbey Road: If These Walls Could Sing, Hip-Hop And The White House, and the 2024 biopic The Beach Boys.

For a lot of people, the real draw of Disney+ and the reason many have subscriptions for years is that it's home to the entire Star Wars universe – all the classic movies are here, alongside spin-offs such as The Mandalorian, Andor, The Book of Boba Fett, and The Clone Wars animated series. There's even an option to watch everything in timeline order.

Marvel content is another draw, and like the Star Wars content, it's crammed with flicks, series, and shorts – and the ability to binge on the entire MCU complete timeline.

Joe Bonamassa has become the first artist to be honored with a signature model in Fender’s Tone Master amp series, with a reissue of his favorite combo: a 1959 Twin. And shockingly, it’s all-digital.

The Fender Tone Master ‘59 Twin Amp JB Edition sees the vintage charm of the high-powered late ‘50s tweed amplifier, emboldened by a choice modern features.

A mainstay of his touring and studio rig, Bonamassa is rarely apart from his beloved Twin. This collaboration, then, hinged on replicating the “sound and response of his vintage originals together with the versatility and functionality of Fender’s modern Tone Master platform.”

At its heart are 2x12” Celestion JB Neodymium Speakers paired with a six-way power attenuator. That means its tones are just as achievable at bedroom and neighbor-friendly volumes as they are when backed by 85-watts of power on the stage.

The original, Fender says, is “too loud for mere mortals when playing small gigs or at home,” so this power shift feature is a smart addition. As is the fact the combo has ground lift and a three-way cabinet simulator, letting players fuse the amp’s tones with their preferred impulse responses via the Tone Master IR Manager app.

The Celestion speakers have been chosen for “punch, warmth and articulation” aplenty. They have also gone through a weight reduction process to save a player’s back when lugging the combo around on tour.

Aside from a three-way EQ, onboard controls take in a built-in spring reverb, and controls for Presence Volume Bright and Volume Normal. Beyond that, there’s an effects loop for time-based effects and a Vintage/Tight switch for enhancing its bass response.

On the surface, it really feels like Bonamassa has taken everything that’s great about vintage and modern amplifiers in their own rights, and stirred them into a signature brew. According to Fender, the bluesman reckons it actually goes one better than the original.

“Joe Bonamassa is one of the world’s foremost authorities on vintage amplifiers, and he knows these original Twins as well as anyone,” says Fender’s Chief Product Officer, Max Gutnik. “For someone with Joe’s ears, experience and deep commitment to vintage tube amps to choose a digital Fender, and say it sounds even better than the original, is a real inflection point for our industry.”

The collaboration continues the Bonamassa-Fender relationship after a late ‘40s signature amp, and a reissue of his ‘61 Nocaster, dubbed The Bludgeon. It’s unlikely to be his last.

Recently, he shocked the guitar world by revealing that he’s warming to digital gear and amp modeling – it now looks like the unit he was using on tour was likely this signature build. As such, it is Bonamassa putting his money where his mouth is.

The Fender Tone Master ‘59 Twin Amp JB Edition is available now for $1,999.99/£1,789 €2,099.

See Fender for more information.

American rock heavyweights Aerosmith have officially confirmed their return to the stage, “for two nights only” at the Hollywood Bowl.

There’s not long to wait for their first shows since their 2023 farewell tour came to a premature halt in light of Steven Tyler’s vocal injuries. The band will take over the 18,000-capacity venue on October 29 and November 1.

Dubbed California Dream On: Aerosmith & Friends, the two shows will welcome a plethora of guests that pay tribute to the band’s half-century legacy, across a range of genres.

So, yes, while RUN DMC will appear, there’s a glut of rock icons set to play a role. From electric guitar legends Slash and Nuno Bettencourt to Tom Morello, and Steve Stevens, and there’ll be extra vocal flair from Sammy Hagar, Billy Idol and Godsmack’s Sully Erna.

Super producer and guitarist Andrew Watt, Heart, Alice in Chains duo Jerry Cantrell and Mike Inez, Marcus King, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, and sticksman to the virtuosos, Kenny Aronoff, will also feature.

The shows are being spearheaded by another big-name producer, Don Was. The man who has wrestled with the Rolling Stones, John Mayer and the Black Crowes is serving as Musical Director and also set to appear at the show.

The cast of guests will change across the two nights, with the band saying to expect “unforgettable collaborations and unexpected moments.” They’ve also teased more surprise announcements to come.

Says Aerosmith: “These highly anticipated performances will mark a return to the stage for Aerosmith, giving fans a rare opportunity to experience the band together once again and the unmistakable chemistry and stage presence that have defined their live shows for more than five decades.”

In August last year, Joe Perry refused to rule out one more Aerosmith show so the band could end on their own terms. It seems likely then, that these shows could well represent Aerosmith’s own Back to the Beginning – a chance to go out with a bang, not a whimper.

Since their last show, Perry and Tyler have linked up numerous times, including their controversial MTV VMAs performance where they paid tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne.

They’ve also released a surprise collaborative EP with Yungblud, who Perry says “really has the stuff.” The One More Time EP was their first new music since 2012’s Music From Another Dimension!.

Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets for the two shows on Thursday October 8th at 10am PDT until Friday October 9th at 10am PDT through the Citi Entertainment program.

The remaining tickets will go on sale on Saturday October 10th at 10am PDT.

See Aerosmith for more.

Getting hold of the cash for an original Klon Centaur pedal in 2026 increasingly involves the sale of vital organs, so it’s not surprising that affordable Klon clones have proliferated. Now, seemingly undeterred by a lawsuit for its on-the-nose copy, Behringer has announced for four more clone builds.

The Behringer Zentara and Zentara Mini, with both models offering gold and silver variants, albeit with the same circuitry as their predecessor. The firm says the priority here is “to make sure everyone has access to these sounds.”

As such, there are no tonal differences to note between the Zentara and Zentara Mini. It is really down to how much spare real estate you have on your pedalboard, and what kind of shiny you prefer.

The German brand’s provactive take on the original Centaur model was pulled in light of the legal action taken against it, and soon many appeared for hugely inflated prices on second-hand sites.

“So please,” Behringer’s YouTube host Adam Husk nudges, “don’t be bidding up the old version on eBay.”

Replicating the transparency of the original has been a key goal here, with the Gain offering subtle touches of grit, or full blown overdrive bite. Like the original, too, it is accompanied by Treble and controls, and they can be stacked together for even more oomph.

Bill Finnegan, who developed the cult classic pedal in the early ’90s, called Behringer’s $69 Centaur Overdrive “a blatant counterfeit” as he launched his lawsuit in May 2025.

That forced the firm to make some changes to its design, rebranding as the Centara Overdrive and updating its artwork, and the case was ultimately – and quietly – dismissed in October last year.

So, after a very public lawsuit – which Behringer pokes fun at throughout the quartet’s unveiling video – Behringer is doubling down on one of the cheapest Klon copies around.

All four pedals are available now, with most stockists selling them for $75.90 apiece.

Finnegan, though, isn’t the only one mad at Behringer for its cheap remakes of classic stompboxes. The makers of Mu-Tron III had some choice words to say about the brand after another $69 clone hit the market.

See Behringer for more on Zentara pedals.