An ex head of the Fender Custom Shop has seemingly issued a message to his former employer with a new S-style build.

After a court ruling gave Fender legal protection over its Stratocaster body design, Thomann, PRS, Yamaha and more have since received cease-and-desist letters, leaving the body shape’s place in the market uncertain.

Mike Eldred, who ran the Fender Custom Shop in the 1990s, has apparently reacted to the unpopular legal strategy. He’s unveiled his first S-Style guitar under his new firm, El Cabron.

Not only does its familiar S-shape fly in the face of Fender’s legal wrangles, but it also features an important message.

“Never let a corporation tell you what the rules are,” it says in all capitals. It’s serving Tom Morello’s Arm the Homeless guitar. Ironically, that’s an S-type too.

El Cabron’s Black Corp electric guitar features a Gotoh 510 tremolo, a single humbucker bridge pickup, and a single volume control. If anything, it’s a little more G&L Rampage than vintage Stratocaster. The message comes through all the same.

To top it off, the guitar also features Banksy artwork beneath the trem. It depicts a masked protester throwing a bouquet of flowers and is intended to symbolize prioritizing peace and love over anger and violence.

During his time in Fender’s ranks, Eldred built guitars for a feast of celebrated players, including Eric Clapton, Brad Paisley, John Mayer and Keith Urban.

Eldred isn't the only former Fender employee to take aim at the firm. Ex-Masterbuilder John Cruz also recently teamed up with Chinese guitar maker Farida for another S-style.

One of the smaller firms targeted by Fender’s campaign was LsL Instruments. It has since unveiled an all-new design, which it hopes will offset the lawsuit’s impact. In an age of small brands pushing the needle on new, original body shapes, it could signal the start of a wider industry trend.

What is it?

It’s hard to believe that the Z.Vex Fuzz Factory is over 30 years old, heck, it’s almost as old as I am. This tiny, yet pioneering stompbox launched way back in 1995 and proved that not all boutique pedals had to recreate historic units from the past. Instead, they could innovate and push the medium forward into bold new territories.

Used by everyone from Deftones axeman Stef Carpenter to resident Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy, and noise junky Trent Reznor, the Fuzz Factory has a long list of famous admirers – and it seems it’s just as popular today as it was back in the day.

The unit is built around a pair of new old stock germanium transistors, and it ditches the traditional tone-shaping of level, tone, and gain in favor of direct control over transistor bias and stability to unlock everything from Velcro-like sputter and gating to infinite, self-oscillating synthy squeals – but it can do some classic Fuzz Face sounds as well, if you like your fuzz tone boring...

As you’d expect from an old-school boutique pedal, the vast majority of Z.Vex pedals are hand-painted, hand-assembled, and produced in relatively small batches in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That said, the model I’m reviewing is part of the Vexter series. This is a slightly more affordable version of the Fuzz Factory. While the innards are the same, this one features UV-printed artwork and is assembled in Taiwan.

Those who like to run pedals on batteries will be happy to hear the pedal draws very little current: a tiny 3 mA, to be exact. For context, and as Z.Vex points out in the manual, an Ibanez Tube Screamer runs at almost 40 mA. Of course, the pedal can also run on a standard 9V center-negative pedalboard power supply.

Today, I’m taking this famous box of fuzz for a test drive to see if it lives up to its stellar reputation and to see if, after 30 years, it’s still one of the best fuzz pedals on the market.

Specs

• Launch price: $229 | £189 | €199
• Type: Germanium Fuzz / Self-Oscillating Fuzz Effect Pedal
• Controls: Volume, Gate, Comp, Drive, Stab
• Features: NOS 1960s Germanium transistors, interactive self-oscillation, velcro-fuzz to synth tones, silk-screened graphics, LED indicator
• Connectivity: 1/4" Mono Input, 1/4" Mono Output
• Bypass: True Bypass
• Power: 9V DC center-negative / 9V Battery (~4mA current draw)
• Dimensions: 4.70" x 2.38" x 1.82" (119 mm x 60 mm x 46 mm)
• Weight: 0.5 lbs (0.23 kg)
• Options: Hand-Painted Fuzz Factory, Fat Fuzz Factory (with bass switch), Fuzz Factory 7
• Contact: Z.Vex

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

It's fair to say the Fuzz Factory is an iconic-looking pedal. Now, while it does do other enclosure styles, this small horizontal format has become somewhat of a trademark of the brand. Yes, it may not be the most practical when trying to Tetris together a pedalboard, but I’ve always thought it looked cool – and it certainly stands out among the sea of other boutique stompboxes.

Another trademark is the cartoony, colorful hand-painted graphics, which are unfortunately missing on this version. That’s not to say the UV-printed graphic is bad; I actually think it looks great, but it doesn’t quite have the charm or uniqueness of the original.

Really, though, it’s not about how a pedal looks, it’s more about how well it’s built, and like all Z.Vex units, this one feels expertly put together. There’s a reassuring heft to the pedal, the knobs are smooth, and the footswitch is robust. Really, what more do you need in a pedal?

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

When I say this is one of the most interactive fuzz pedals around, I really do mean it. Each dial parameter seems to morph and change depending on how the others are set. Even in the manual, Z.Vex jokes, “Although the five knobs are named for the parameters over which they seem to have the most control, please don’t hold me to it.”

The result is a pedal that’s genuinely fun to experiment with. It’s somewhat unpredictable in its nature, and that’s what’s so engaging about it. A few small adjustments can make wild changes to the tone.

Going through the controls, the first, aside from the output volume, is Gate. As you’d expect. This can be a noisy little pedal, so this is used to fully kill any unwanted buzz, hiss, or feedback. Now, it can even be used to tune the feedback pitch, too, if you’re a fan of things getting a little unruly and a touch mad.

The Comp control adjusts the overall attack character of the fuzz. Turn it left for a softer sound, and right for a harder, more immediate one. Again, though, like the other controls, its parameters change when used in conjunction with the other dials.

Drive is used to dial in the amount of distortion. Well, it is if you’re running the Fuzz Factory as a traditional fuzz pedal. This control doesn’t really do anything if you have the Comp dial maxed out.

When it comes to the Stability control, there’s a warning in the manual, “Use all the way right. Do not adjust this control below 2:00, unless you like your fuzz soft and squishy.” Very basically, Stability regulates the voltage supplied to the pedal's internal germanium transistors. By starving or feeding the circuit power, it dictates whether the pedal behaves like a “normal” fuzz or a spitting, sputtering noise machine.

Rarely do I get to play with a pedal that’s so simply laid out, yet invites so much experimentation. I think a large portion of the success of this fuzz is how fun it is to dial in. I lost hours of my life finding cool and interesting settings, and I don’t care one bit – in fact, I loved spending so much time endlessly tweaking.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

For testing, I’m running a Gibson Les Paul directly into the Fuzz Factory and then into a Vox AC30 set fairly clean and open, with a smidge of reverb.

With so much talk of experimentation, it's easy to write off the Fuzz Factory as only for those who like absolutely feral fuzz tones, but it does the classic sounds very well indeed. Leaving the Gate and Comp dials all the way down for the moment, I push the Drive to around halfway and keep the Stab on max. The tone is somewhat Fuzz Face-like. It’s smooth, seriously dynamic, and plays very well with my guitar’s volume pot.

Push the gain further and bring in the Comp, and things start to get very heavy and thick with tonnes of compression. I did start to dial up the gate here too, trying to catch some of the buzz. Things get pretty filthy in this setting, and in the best possible way.

These settings alone are worth the price of admission, but this tiny stomp can do a whole lot more than that, it is a factory of fuzz, after all.

If you max out the Comp and Drive, and pull back on the Stab, you get that quintessential “Velcro” fuzz sound that is addictive to play. It sounds fierce and unpredictable, and it's perfect for garage rock-style single-note riffing. I genuinely love this setting.

Would I use it all the time? No, of course not, but it’s bags of fun. The tone here shifts from something you’d instantly recognize as a standard guitar sound to something that could be considered synth-like, especially as those high octaves start to creep in.

Moving the dials while playing can create filter sweeps. At times, it almost sounds like tuning an old radio, with wild feedback screams and other equally mad, noisy sounds that are all part of the fun with this pedal.

It isn’t for the faint of heart, or guitarists who like a mild Tube Screamer into a slightly overdriven tube amp to go with their equally beige cup of tea. It’s for lovers of over-the-top filthy saturation and those who don’t mind more than a little knob tinkering.

Verdict

The Z.Vex Fuzz Factory is a true icon in the world of effects pedals, and after three decades, it still stands out as a bold, innovative stomp that more than lives up to its reputation.

Unlike troves of boutique pedals that simply pay homage to the past, the Fuzz Factory has always forged its own path, offering a unique and experimental approach to fuzz that has attracted a legion of devoted fans, famous and normies alike.

For me, what sets the Fuzz Factory apart is its sheer versatility and interactivity. The unusual control set invites hours of sonic tinkering. Each knob interacts with the others in unpredictable ways, making the pedal as much an instrument as an effect. Whether you crave classic, dynamic Fuzz Face-like tones or wild, synth-like oscillations and velcro-gated textures, the Fuzz Factory delivers it in spades.

The Vexter Series provides the same legendary circuit at a more accessible price point, trading the original hand-painted graphics for sleek UV-printed artwork. Despite the change in aesthetics, the build quality remains exceptional, with robust components and a solid feel underfoot. Honestly, outside of the printed graphic, most of us would be hard-pressed to notice, or indeed hear, the difference.

Okay, I’ll admit that this pedal isn’t for everyone. Its unpredictable character and penchant for chaos make it best suited for players who live on the wilder side of the street. But for those willing to dive in, the rewards are immense.

I genuinely think the Z.Vex Fuzz Factory remains one of the most creative, inspiring, and fun fuzz pedals ever made. It’s a modern classic in every sense of the word, and one that continues to push the boundaries of what a stompbox can do.

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Hands-on videos

Pedal Of The Day

Matt Kelly

The electric guitar was still in its infancy when guitarists and electrical engineers sought new ways to make the instrument sound different than an acoustic guitar ever could.

Only a few years after the first guitar amps emerged, foot pedals appeared that allowed players to manually adjust volume and tone settings while performing.

However, the very first outboard device that provided a truly new sound effect was the DeArmond Model 60 Tremolo Control unit and its big brother, the Model 800 Trem-Trol volume/tremolo pedal, which DeArmond introduced during the late ’40s.

DeArmond actually planned on introducing the Tremolo Control as far back as 1941 as an effect device for electric organs and early electric pianos, but parts and materials shortages during World War II delayed its debut.

Even though tremolo became a built-in feature of many combo amps (usually on models designed for accordion players) shortly after these DeArmond effects came out, the Model 60 and Model 800 both enjoyed a pretty long and successful lifespan until the late ’50s, mainly thanks to guitarists who were more enthusiastic about the device than keyboard or accordion players.

During the early ’60s, DeArmond replaced the Model 60 with the 60B, which was enclosed in a less-costly plastic housing and featured push-button on/off switches for selecting the straight instrument signal or the tremolo effect.

The most fascinating element of the DeArmond unit’s design is that the tremolo effect (volume/amplitude modulation) is created purely by electro-mechanical means instead of an electrical circuit.

The interior components are a steampunk wonderland of spindles, rubber flywheels, a motor, pendulum arm and a small canister filled with conductive electrolytic liquid (Windex is an ideal substitute for replacing the original fluid that has evaporated).

The motor shakes the canister back and forth causing the amount of signal reaching the output to fluctuate, creating a very organic-sounding tremolo effect. The flywheel and gears allow users to adjust the effect’s speed via the Rate/Speed control, and a separate control potentiometer adjusts the effect’s depth/intensity.

The shark-shaped Model 800, which is longer and bulkier than an average wah pedal, is probably the most “pedalboard friendly” model of the three variations, although the only way to bypass the tremolo effect is via a slider switch on the side. Modern players who want a stompbox-style means of experiencing the vintage mojo of the Model 60 or 60B can incorporate these units in their rigs via a loop switcher.

Only a handful of classic recordings featuring the DeArmond Tremolo can be verified, but they are quite influential. The first known instance is Muddy Waters 1953 Chess recording of Flood.

Later, during the mid-to-late-’50s, Bo Diddley and Duane Eddy used their DeArmond Tremolo effects frequently, including on the hit singles Bo Diddley and Rebel Rouser, respectively. A gray 60B unit made a notable appearance during the late ’60s on stage with Canned Heat at the Woodstock Festival (Rollin’ Blues and On the Road Again).

Although the DeArmond Tremolo became forgotten by the ’70s after it was discontinued, players like Ry Cooder and Billy Gibbons revived its cult status during the ’80s and ’90s, respectively.

Gibbons has used his DeArmond Tremolo effects frequently on ZZ Top albums starting with Rhythmeen in 1996, and he often plays through two at once for a psychedelic, unsynchronized stereo tremolo effect on stage.

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

Considering that David Gilmour’s iconic Black Strat has sold twice at auction for a combined $18.55 million to make it the world’s most expensive guitar, it’s safe to say there’s money in rare Pink Floyd memorabilia.

By comparison, a gold Dark Side of the Moon plectrum is a veritable bargain at $6,400.

Having previously worked with other culture-starting British bands like the Who and Queen, The Royal Mint partnered with Pink Floyd for a special collaboration in May. This ‘that’s definitely not a standard issue Jazz III’ guitar pick is the result of a second wave of work together.

It’s limited to 10 pieces, each priced at £4,750, or around $6,400. Elsewhere, that could get you a Murphy Lab Gibson Les Paul, or a couple of premium PRS Silver Skys. But it is 18 Carat Gold.

The pick, the Royal Mint says, “is amongst the first of its kind,” and despite appearances, can be used to whack guitar strings. Personally, this writer wouldn’t dare, given the price, although Brian May and Billy Gibbons get a great tone from coins, so maybe I’m being cynical.

“A must-have collector’s piece for Pink Floyd fans,” the Mint says, “its tactile, beveled edge makes this plectrum a fully functional accessory for the guitar.”

“The iconic prism is instantly recognizable to fans around the world, and Henry Gray has done a remarkable job of bringing it to life with the craft and detail this band deserves,” director of commemorative coins, Rebecca Morgan, adds. “Their influence on music, art and culture is immeasurable, and we’re incredibly proud that The Royal Mint can play its part in preserving that legacy forever.”

Luckily, a copper version is available for just £39.95 (approx. $54), to appeal to more budget-conscious players.

In other Pink Floyd artifact news, the search for the late Syd Barrett’s Mirror Disc Telecaster goes on. There are fears that, even if a contender emerged, it would be nearly impossible to verify. Maybe the crack team that helped find Paul McCartney’s long-lost Höfner violin bass – who are now hunting for the Back to the Future guitar – are the people for the job.

See the Royal Mint for more.

Few guitars command the attention quite like the Gibson Flying V. As a young, aspiring guitarist, I remember that I was totally mesmerized by how aggressive it looked, only to realize that playing one sitting down was a total mess; it kept sliding right off my lap.

It’s a weird design that you have to adjust to, but that fine line between a trainwreck and a stroke of genius is exactly what Ted McCarty tapped into during Gibson’s ‘modernist’ push in 1957.

Crafted from African korina wood, featuring a split headstock and a body that cut away into a dramatic, sweeping arrowhead, the original Flying V was unlike anything else on the market. Released in 1958, the futuristic design was way too radical for the conservative jazz and country players of the era.

Gibson had quietly pulled it by 1960 after only shipping about 100 units. It reemerged in 1967, when Gibson brought it back with some crucial changes, trading the original korina wood for a mahogany body, adding a larger pickguard, and updating it with a stopbar or Vibrola tailpiece. This forgotten failure somehow clawed its way back to define everything from raw Delta blues to thrash metal.

Blues guitarists played a significant role in popularizing the Flying V. Lonnie Mack favored a ’58 model throughout his career. Albert King was famously a lefty who flipped a right-handed ’58 korina V upside down: the way he grabbed those massive, string bends out of his V proved the design had plenty of tone to back up its wild looks.

In the late ’60s, Jimi Hendrix dragged the V straight into the psychedelic stratosphere, hand-painting his ’67 Flying V and completely blurring the lines of what a rock guitar was supposed to look like.

By the time the ’70s rolled around, Rudolf Schenker had turned the V into a visual trademark for the Scorpions, while his brother Michael took it into absolute guitar shred territory.

Michael’s legendary half-black/half-white Gibson Vs became the ultimate symbol for blistering, lightning-fast solos, proving that this crazy V shape was more than worthy. By the late ’70s, Dean Guitars put its own stamp on the iconic shape with the Dean V. Boasting an oversized wing-shaped headstock and a massive string-through V-plate tailpiece, it was quickly adopted by heavyweight players such as ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.

By the 1980s, music got harder and faster, and the V shape evolved and underwent its wildest mutation yet. Virtuoso Randy Rhoads teamed with Grover Jackson to develop an offset V-shaped guitar named ‘The Concorde’.

The look was so radical that Grover Jackson slapped his own last name on the headstock instead of his established Charvel logo. He did it purely to protect the Charvel name and avoid alienating his traditional customers if the guitar flopped, accidentally launching one of the most renowned guitar brands on Earth in the process: Jackson Guitars.

The sharp evolution of the Jackson models weaponized the V for the metal era, and the Concorde evolved into the iconic Randy Rhoads model that the metal community has fully embraced for the past four decades. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth made the Jackson King V his signature guitar for much of his career.

Even boutique brands are putting their own spin on the V, like the radical, custom-built Dirty Boy ‘Dirty V’ that completely twists the traditional shape. And, today, Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram is carrying the torch for modern Delta blues, tearing up stages with a killer, custom-built V-shape from Banker Guitars.

C’est La V

To fully grasp why the Flying V remains an iconic tone monster, you have to look closely at how they’re constructed. Luthier Matt Hughes of Banker Guitars highlights the tonality and build variations separating generations of the V.

“The 1958 original Flying Vs were carved from a beefier 1 1/2-inch slab of korina, whereas the 1967 mahogany reissues were cut thinner at 1 3/8 inches,” he says. “The construction approach shifted completely. On the ’67 models, Gibson routed a massive electronics cavity right through the center to mount a giant pickguard, fundamentally hollowing out the footprint compared with a solid string-through ’58 korina body.

“Recreating those original specs requires rare, thick slabs of korina wood, but when it’s done right, that solid construction generates a distinctly snappier midrange and a unique resonance that you simply cannot achieve with thin mahogany.”

What fascinates me most as a player is how the V’s shape changes the physics of how you play, requiring you to wear it differently. Blues-rock powerhouse Jared James Nichols describes how plugging into a Flying V shatters conventional playing habits.

“When you first strap on a V, you realize it’s completely unlike any traditional guitar shape,” he tells us. “It feels less like a guitar and more like a sword. Standard instruments just rest on your leg or hug your hip, but a Flying V demands a different kind of choreography. If you try to position it traditionally, it simply doesn’t feel right.

“You have to pull the body directly into your frame, almost like you’re giving the instrument a physical hug. It forces you into a more personal, aggressive stance where you’re actively shaping the guitar to the contours of your own body. It’s deeply expressive, and commands you to play it with authority.”

The Gibson Flying V was never a failure; it was just waiting for the rest of us to catch up. Today, the value of those rare, pristine, 1958 original korina wood Flying Vs has skyrocketed.

They aren’t just vintage guitars any more, they’re pieces of six-string fine art that easily command jaw-dropping price tags into the hundreds of thousands.

Take Joe Bonamassa’s 1958 korina Flying V, affectionately known as ‘Donny J’, which he bought for over $400,000 – going down in JoBo history as the most he’d ever paid for a guitar when he bought it in 2019. Decades after it originally crashed and burned, the Flying V stands as a masterclass in why we shouldn’t judge a design by its first act.

Three to get ready: Descendants of the V

Epiphone Futura Flying V Custom – $899/£849

If you’re ready to steal the spotlight, the Epiphone Futura Flying V Custom is begging to cause a scene. This modern machine pays homage to the classic Flying V soul with a solid mahogany body, compound-radius ebony fretboard, string-through-body bridge, and stainless-steel frets. At a price that feels almost suspiciously good, it delivers boutique-grade performance without the boutique sticker shock.

Dirty Boy ‘Dirty V’ – $3,500

If you think traditional Vs are too polite, the custom Dirty Boy ‘Dirty V’ is here to pick a fight. This boutique monster gives the classic design a radical offset twist, matching its dangerous attitude with a mahogany body, heavily checked road-worn finish, and premium gold hardware.

Outfitted with dual humbuckers for maximum muscle, it’s a high-end, modern-day evolution of the V shape with built-in attitude.

Jackson RRT-5 Pro Series Rhoads – $1,099/£849

Pushing the boundaries of the original Flying V design, Grover Jackson and Randy Rhoads somehow made one of rock’s craziest shapes even more outrageous.

The Jackson Pro Series RRT-5 Rhoads sharpens the V’s silhouette with offset wings, a flat neck, high-output pickups, and 24 jumbo frets. This iconic heavy metal shred machine remains one of the most extreme and instantly recognizable V variants ever created.

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

Just outside the Czech city of Brno, known for its motor racing circuit, there are rolling fields and orchards dotted with hamlets and canals.

Pulling up to the white stone frontage of an old mill in the village of Velké Němčice, you might think we were about to enter some artisanal throwback to a hand-crafted past. But a quick look around inside tells another story.

Five-axis robots cut precision neck joints, while humidity is micro-controlled in different areas of Furch’s factory to optimise the various processes taking place – from glueing bracing to soundboards, to fitting hi-tech climate-compensating truss rods to the guitars being built.

There is a certain boyish delight on CEO Petr Furch’s face as he explains how Furch engineers guitars as much as it crafts them. He’s a big believer in human hands doing the jobs that require lots of careful micro-decisions and judicious tweaks – like glueing binding to a guitar body.

But when it comes to the things that are at their best when they are simply deadly accurate, every time, like cutting a neck joint, he says without a shred of doubt that he prefers hi-tech robotics to do the job.

Like a football manager picking the best squad, he simply assigns people and machines to different stages in the construction of a guitar according to which choice will yield the best finished instrument, as he sees it.

It’s refreshing to hear after all the (admittedly compelling) emphasis on craft and legacy that established acoustic makers such as Gibson and Martin often employ. To be fair to them, they know that not only can they lean quite hard into history to sell their guitars but that people actually expect it of them – which can be its own form of gilded cage sometimes, if you want to branch out and try something new.

As a relatively young company that’s still building its profile around the world, Furch doesn’t have that problem. Instead, it has plenty of things to talk about concerning the future of acoustic guitar design, which is being defined in its workshops every day, according to the company.

Its guitars are now offered in one of two formats: Performance or Deluxe variants. The former comes with a high-quality LR Baggs pickup system, whereas the Deluxes are designed for an immersive unplugged experience and feature the elegant Booster Soundport system – a series of slots in the upper side of the guitar that spills some of the sound of the instrument back towards the player for a more immersive playing experience.

The company’s colour-coded system for indicating where each model sits in the overall range, from entry level to the highest spec the company offers, is perhaps the only unintuitive thing about their instruments (the cheapest guitars belong to the Violet range and the quality and features increase incrementally through the Blue, Green and Yellow ranges all the way up to the flagship, high-end Red range).

But what is common to all Furch guitars is perhaps more surprising than what differentiates them.

All have soundboards that have been individually analysed and tuned for the best resonance and performance, a high-end feature normally reserved for Custom instruments, and most of them feature some variation of the Bevel Duo system of a comfort armrest on the top edge of the guitar and a bellycut behind, again a feature normally only seen on high-end or custom acoustics but, at Furch, a pretty standard perk on its guitars.

With all this percolating in our minds, we managed to grab CEO Petr Furch – son of company founder, Frantisek Furch – for a chat amid various 45th Anniversary celebrations taking place at the factory during our visit, to talk about what it takes to be different and to genuinely move the state of the art forward in that most traditional area of lutherie: acoustic guitar design.

Furch has been around for 45 years now – what core values that were a feature of the company when it started are still true of it today?

I think even from the beginning, even in my father’s times, it was not really about making a copy of somebody else’s guitar. It was about improving the guitar in general. In the ’90s, we didn’t have so many possibilities. We didn’t have the budgets and the revenue we have right now, so we didn’t have so much possibility to invest in such great things [as we can do] today.

But still, I think the core [of our ethos] was: let’s improve the guitar somehow [with] things that customers need – or maybe they don’t know they need it, but it would be helpful for them – in terms of the ergonomics, durability or longevity of the guitar. Or, of course, the main thing: the sound.

I think these are our core values, which have been there basically since the first guitar. And these days, bigger-budget technology is available, and let’s say our internal knowledge – how to utilise that technology – these are new things and they’re opening new doors for us.

You have to consider that the guitar world and the world in general is a very dynamic place. Therefore, new ideas are coming, new technologies and new ways of how you can produce something. So if you mix it all together, you can always find some new way to improve [things], though that doesn’t mean that the older stuff was bad. It’s just that you have new possibilities, new knowledge, and so new opportunities. So that’s how I see guitar as well.

What’s interesting about Furch is that it isn’t just interested in the usual showpiece upgrades to a guitar’s tone such as a nice soundboard. You’ve spent just as much time coming up with a so-called Resonance-Enhancing Finish. What does that contribute to the sound of your guitars and why make it such a priority to get right?

The acoustic guitar generates its sound by vibrating the body of the guitar. Therefore, the physical properties of that ‘box’ are important and, of course, it has to somehow resonate the weight of the soundboard – and the flexibility of the soundboard is important.

So if you want to go deeper into the detail of the guitar construction, at some point you have to say to yourself, “Okay, how do I cover and protect this ‘box’?” And, at the same time, ‘How can I avoid compromising the sound?’

You’re trying to figure out, “What kind of protective cover should I put on it? What should be the material? Should it be soft or hard or thick or thin?” Years ago, that [question had] already prompted me to think about exactly what finish I’m going to use.

So we consulted with many companies that specialised in producing lacquers and finishes, and we came up with a formula for a material that is specific for us and specifically designed for a guitar body and guitar shapes. We had to really play with properties of the finish so it’s applicable, especially on round edges and sharp edges of the guitar.

Basically, we needed a lacquer that was as thin as possible and as hard as possible. But at the same time it must also be flexible somehow, though not soft, because the guitar body is always moving with humidity: the top is either lifting or dropping down, even the sides.

It took me more than a year in our spraying department, mixing different additives supplied by the manufacturer of the lacquer. And I was mixing and testing, spraying, curing, sanding and so on. After a year, we got to the [right] formula – I think it was in 2017 – where we started to apply this finish to all our guitars.

And actually these days we call it a Resonance-Enhancing Finish and we apply at least a little bit of that lacquer to all our guitars. Even if you have a [more basic] open-pore finish, we put a little bit of that lacquer on it because we found out that it really improves the sound.”

What tonal qualities does that Resonance-Enhancing Finish enhance, in your view?

Extra volume is the main thing that you can notice – but it’s improved balance as well, and enhanced high frequency a little bit, too. But the volume [boost] is really noticeable.

One of the most eye-catching innovations Furch has recently introduced is the CNR System Active neck joint and truss rod mechanism. It’s designed to automatically counteract changes to your setup that might happen when you take the guitar into different climate conditions, either drier or more humid. How does that work?

CNR Active System is a special neck-to-body joint. We made sure that it’s not visible from the outside, but inside there is this piece of wood that we call the Expansion Element. So the direction of the grain of this block of wood is set so it can absorb the humidity and expand and shrink with ambient humidity.

Basically, the expansion or shrinkage of that piece of wood [which is mechanically connected to the neck joint] is making the neck tilt backwards or forwards a little bit relative to the body…

If your top is exposed to high humidity and is lifting, the Expansion Element basically compensates for a change. And the other way around, if you have a guitar exposed to low humidity and the top is dropping [CNR Active will adjust the neck angle slightly to compensate], so the string action stays pretty much the same.

Also the added value to that concept is that you can use a special Allen key to perform what for years was termed a ‘neck reset’ in seconds. You very quickly adjust your neck angle and therefore your string action and playability in a couple of seconds, and this is very powerful.

It’s pleasing that amid all the hi-tech solutions Furch uses, a block of wood – albeit mounted in a precision-engineered mechanism – turned out to be the best material for automatically adjusting for changes in climate…

It makes sense. I mean, your top is also made of wood, and wood is reacting with certain dynamics and a certain speed to the humidity.

We were initially thinking about some artificial material [for the Expansion Element], for example, that probably could be more predictable than wood. But after all this, [wood] was the best solution. Because once you do a couple of tests, find the right length of that expansion element – basically, how big the expansion is going to be – then it really does the best job here.

Do you think of making acoustic guitars as a craft or a science?

I think it’s a little bit of both. I’m an analytical person, so I tend to work with data and I tend to [take steps to] obtain the data if I don’t have them.

But, of course, there are many things that I still don’t know about guitars and don’t understand about the guitar, so those are the blind spots for me, which still need to be explored. Those, for now, I just have to sort of intuitively decide – so in that way I would say it’s more like a craft.

What are the most interesting challenges that still lie ahead of you, in terms of crafting ever-better guitars?

Materials, for sure. Every year some materials become less and less available. That doesn’t mean that we will go away – or anybody should go away – from making wooden guitars because wood is still the best acoustically performing material out there and not every species is endangered.

But working with materials, that would be one topic not only for us [to expand our horizons on] but for all guitar manufacturers. Because when we are getting deeper and deeper in understanding the guitar and basically improving for guitar sound specifically, it’s getting tougher and tougher to make another step forward.

We have a couple of main [areas for evolving the art of making guitars] that we are still researching… there are always ideas. And there are also dead ends that we encounter, where we have to say, “Okay, we shouldn’t go this way because if the guitar would maybe end up being too expensive, the resulting sound improvement will be too small.”

So the [process of raising the game] gets more difficult with every new generation of our guitars. But I’m not complaining – this is the game and we’re gonna play it well. I like challenges and they give us the potential to improve ourselves.

• For more information, see Furch Guitars.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

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

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

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

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

Positive Grid Spark Pedal

The latest entry to the Positive Grid Spark family, the Spark Pedal is the firm’s first floor-based amp modeler and multi-effects. It joins an uber-competitive market but, with the Positive Grid name proudly on its chassis, we imagine this will be just as popular as its practice amp siblings.

It’s the Spark experience in a pedal, with onboard controls for amp models and effects, as well as an onboard looper and stereo functionality. There’s also Positive Grid’s Spark AI tone creation, and it gives access to the Spark community for browsing a bunch of different tones and presets.

Unsurprisingly, it passed our in-house review with flying colors. In fact, we loved it so much that we said it was “nigh on impossible to craft a bad tone”. No mean feat, that’s for sure. And, at just $199, it looks like incredibly good value for money in a market filled with more expensive competitors.

Seymour Duncan Joe Bonamassa Pawn Shop P-90s

Ever stumbled across a guitar that has changed your relationship with tone? Joe Bonamassa certainly has, when he crossed paths with a 1961 Gibson SG that had been fitted with P-90s. It was, he says, the guitar that made him fall in love with P-90s.

Funnily enough, a Gibson SG loaded with P-90s also made this writer fall in love with them. But I’m not the one getting a signature set. Instead, JoBo gets the honor. He worked with Seymour Duncan to bring his Pawn Shop P-90s to the masses, promising to deliver the same tonal punch, power and attitude that his original model delivered.

Squier Paranormal Series Troy Van Leeuwen Telecaster XII

Just when we thought the Paranormal Series couldn’t get any cooler, Squier goes ahead and releases the lineup’s first signature guitar – which just so happens to be a 12-string Telecaster for Troy Van Leeuwen.

The Queens of the Stone Age guitarist has been rocking a custom shop 12-string Tele for a few years now, but this one brings it to the masses at an incredibly tempting $599 price point. The Copper finish is lovely. The 12 strings look and sound awesome. What’s not to like?!

“The Custom Shop has a more vintage-style bridge. I didn’t want that for this – I wanted something that was user-friendly right out of the box,” he tells Guitar World in a new interview. “Functionality is so important because it’s hard to get a 12-string bridge to work right. It had to be usable because when you’ve got 12 strings, you really need them to stay in tune.”

ALSO LAUNCHED THIS WEEK

Farida JC-1

Ex-Fender Master Builder John Cruz has joined Chinese guitar builder Farida. Their first model together might look familiar. A notable release considering everything that’s going on in the market right now…

For more: Farida

Yamaha Pacifica Plus colors

The very-lovely-indeed Yamaha Pacifica Plus just got even lovelier thanks to some flash new colorways. Sonic Blue, Ice Blue, Fired Red and Tobacco Brown Sunburst are on tap.

For more: Yamaha

RockBoard Second Tiers

The most requested piece of gear RockBoard has ever had, the Second Tiers offers boutique-level pedalboard amenities for those who don’t want to spend thousands on more expensive alternatives. Tiered, modular designs with opening tops. Heck yeah.

For more: RockBoard

Gretsch Black Limba Electromatics

Gretsch has given its Electromatic CVT and Jet models a black limba glow-up, giving the fan favorite affordable electrics a very-easy-on-the-eye tonewood.

For more: Gretsch

Gibson ELEV8 humbuckers

The next generation of Gibson humbuckers arrived this week, when the company brought its ELEV8 humbuckers – previously found in the Victory Baritone – to the aftermarket. They mark the first time Gibson has used Alnico 8 magnets in any of its pickups.

For more: Gibson

SolidGoldFX FUZZBOX

A deliciously drippy, bitty, fuzzy Tone Bender MKII style silicon fuzz pedal from the brains at SolidGoldFX. As a bonus, it’s been taken up a level to make it more suitable for modern ‘boards without losing its bite.

For more: SolidGold FX

EarthQuaker Devices Stereo Easy Listening

An updated stereo version of EarthQuaker Devices hugely popular Easy Listening pedal. One of the best pedalboard headphone practice amp solutions out there, now in stereo. Noice.

For more: EarthQuaker Devices

Walrus Audio Fundamental Lo-Fi Delay

The latest entry to the Walrus Audio Fundamental line, the Lo-Fi Delay does exactly what you’d expect it to: it’s a delay pedal that delivers worn, warped and wonderfully unpredictable repeats. An affordable must-have for shoegazers and sound experimentalists alike.

For more: Walrus Audio

This has been the year when we have pondered the future for S-style guitars – but what if that future has been out in China working at Farida Guitars on a limited run high-end model?

John Cruz, former Master Builder at the Fender Custom Shop, has unveiled his first design with the Chinese guitar brand, the JC-1, and it is a relic’d vintage-inspired electric with some choice modern appointments.

This is a historic moment for the Chinese guitar brand. Hiring Cruz is something of a coup. And after 273 days of development, it has a borne fruit.

“It’s the first time a Chinese guitar brand has brought a world-class master guitar builder onboard,” says Farida. “And we believe it’s the start of something even better.”

Farida has put considerable resources behind this move. In the JC-1’s introductory video, Farida says it build Cruz a Custom Shop, and gave him time to get to work. Cruise himself walks through his process.

“To build a great guitar you have to start with great wood,” says Cruz. “I weigh every body blank to find the exact weight I’m looking for. Then I like to tap on them and listen to the voice that tells me which one will be used.”

The JC-1 has a two-piece alder body, a bolt-on Canadian maple neck fashioned into a “JC Comfy C” profile (“sized between a Regular C and a Larger C for an exceptionally comfortable grip”), and the Olympic White finish and tortoiseshell pickguard all speak to the design inspirations.

The fingerboard is rosewood. The finish, which will be a big selling point, is described as a light relic, “with every detail drawn from John Cruz’s own observations of how guitars wear through everyday use – as both a player and a luthier.”

The three single-coil pickups are a custom wind co-developed by Cruz and his team at Farida, and they promise a ‘60s-style sound. But the most interesting thing here is the control setup.

They are hooked up to a 5-way selector switch, master volume and tone knobs, with the second tone control operating as a blend knob, so that in positions 1 and 5 you can mix the neck pickup with the bridge and vice versa.

“I am a guitar builder but I am also a guitar player,” says Cruz. “I know the guitar is a working instrument, something you pick up day after day, that’s why playability is everything to me.”

Farida Guitars does not have a huge presence in the US or UK markets. And they are only making 60 of these.

But Farida’s Instagram suggests these will be priced $1,989, which for a relic’d electric guitar built by a former Master Builder, is a competitive price. You can see more of this guitar at Farida Guitars Instagram.

Innovation Week: In a recent interview with Guitar World, Ernie Ball’s Director of Engineering and Product Development, Drew Montell, said with a laugh, “Most people hate our best-selling guitars right out of the gate.”

The two defining electric guitars were both designed in the early 1950s. We pore over minute variations on the templates, but their inner workings have – to be honest – not changed all that much.

Full disclaimer, if I’m coming across as a bit high and mighty, the designs of the two guitars that sit behind me as I write this are both old enough to collect Social Security payments. I’ve not, say, installed fuzz circuits in either of them – they’d be fully recognizable to anyone who bought them the year they first hit shelves.

Now, if you move away from the instruments themselves, you’ll find that our little universe has been quite amenable to leaps and bounds in technology. Marty McFly yourself into 1954 or 1961, and show the people buying a brand-new Stratocaster or Epiphone Casino a Neural DSP Quad Cortex mini – “yeah – you just use this touchscreen and there are almost a hundred amps, over a hundred effects, and... oh, right, so, a touchscreen is something where you...”

Elsewhere, one of the main reasons the Beatles quit touring 60 years ago was the inability of their amps to compete with the howls of tens of thousands of screaming fans – now, there are amps fitted with tone-shaping AI tech.

So, what would you like to see from the future of guitars? Do you want to see the instruments themselves leap forward technologically like the devices you plug them into? Should the Strat and Les Paul be joined on Mount Rushmore by new, more futuristic designs? Would you like to see the old giants knocked off their pedestal entirely? None of the above?

Let us know in the comments below.

• On Apple News? Head here to join the discussion.

Innovation Week: For most of the electric guitar’s history, frets were something players simply accepted would wear out. Bend enough strings, play enough gigs and sooner or later those shiny crowns develop flat spots and divots. Then came stainless steel: harder, smoother and so durable that, for many players, they’ll never have to worry about another fret job.

Traditional fretwire is generally a copper/nickel alloy. It’s easy for a repair tech to cut, seat, level and crown but it eventually wears down. Stainless steel is considerably harder, which is great once it’s on the guitar but much tougher for a tech to work with.

This is not a new invention. The Parker Fly helped put stainless frets on the radar in the early ’90s, and boutique builders have offered them for years. What has changed is availability. The feature has steadily migrated from custom order spec sheets to regular production guitars, including Fender’s American Ultra Luxe models, ESP’s LTD Deluxe 1000 Series and, more recently, Epiphone’s $899 Futura range.

So what do they actually feel like? When stainless frets are properly installed and polished, bends can feel exceptionally smooth, with less of the gritty drag that develops on softer, worn wire. Philip Sayce summed it up perfectly when I spoke with him: “It’s like putting on your skates and going out on a fresh sheet of ice. You can take these big, long strides.”

For a player whose vocabulary is built around huge bends and wide vibrato, that slippery feel is not a minor detail. Sayce said one of his older Strats once needed fretwork roughly every 18 months but with stainless steel frets, that interval stretched closer to five years. “Less wear and tear,” he said, “and I think they feel great.”

The shred crowd has reached a similar conclusion. Periphery’s Misha Mansoor highlighted the jumbo stainless steel frets on his signature Jackson So-Cal, describing its neck as “very easy to shred on.” The general consensus among many players is that bends feel “super-slippery” compared to the sometimes gritty feel of standard nickel frets.

There is, however, an important qualifier: material alone cannot rescue bad fretwork. Height, width, crown shape, fretboard radius and the quality of the level and polish all have a major effect on feel. A beautifully dressed set of nickel frets can play better than a mediocre stainless steel job. Stainless steel simply holds that polished surface much longer.

Then there’s the tone debate. Some players hear a slightly brighter, harder or more immediate attack while others hear no meaningful difference at all. Most players feel that the difference is subtle compared with swapping pickups, strings, picks or speakers. If you like the sound of your guitar now, stainless steel frets aren’t going to turn it into a different instrument.

The real drawback is the work involved. Stainless steel fret wire is tougher on cutters and files, takes longer to dress and can make a refret more expensive. It also demands an experienced hand, particularly on a bound fingerboard. But manufacturers know players are willing to pay for the result.

When ESP adopted stainless steel on their LTD Deluxe 1000 Series guitars, president and CEO Matt Masciandaro explained that it had become their customers’ number one request for a design update. Even budget brands like EART now come standard with stainless steel frets on all their guitars.

I can vouch for the appeal firsthand. A few years ago, I had my Les Paul refretted with jumbo stainless steel fret wire. The bends became noticeably smoother, almost effortless and the wear since then has been virtually nonexistent.

It didn’t change the guitar’s voice; it simply made it feel freshly dressed every time I picked it up. Theres little doubt that this guitar will need another fret job…at least in my lifetime.

That may be the real selling point here. Guitars are built to be played hard and for most of the guitar’s history it meant accepting that frets would eventually wear and need replacing every few years. Stainless steel doesn’t much change how a guitar sounds as it changes how long a guitar keeps feeling new. Smooth bends with nothing getting in the way between your hands and the note.

What is it?

You will always stand out with an Orange amplifier in your backline, not only because of its brightly colored aesthetic, but also because of a classic tone that has been powering players since 1968. With that sort of heritage, some brands would be content only to lean on past successes and put out re-issue after re-issue, but Orange has consistently launched creative new products alongside its classic amps. Case in point: the new Baby Terror.

It joins Orange’s ‘Baby’ line of products, which utilizes tried and tested solid-state tech but with interesting features aimed at the gigging musician. It’s stable mates include products such as the Pedal Baby, which is a rack-mount power amp built to work with the relatively modern convention of pedalboard pre-amps, and the two-channel Dual Baby, the first channel of which informs part of the Baby Terror's design.

Form factor-wise, Baby Terror takes obvious influence from the Micro Terror line and is an impressively tiny 20-watt guitar amp head. Like the rest of the Baby series, it is solid-state and boasts a couple of interesting features. Namely, the Tubby switch first found on the Dual Baby, a footswitchable volume boost and a balanced XLR output, all of which we will dive into.

If you are a tube amplifier aficionado, don’t let the solid-state thing put you off. Orange has form for using this tech in a way that feels impressively tube-like, not only in the Baby lineup but also in the Crush series of products.

In other words, the Baby Terror has a pretty high bar to meet.

Specs

• Launch price: $249 | £199 | €236
• Type: Lunchbox head
• Origin: China
• Output: 20 watts
• Channels: 1
• Controls: FS Volume, Volume, Gain, Presence, Treble, Middle, Bass, Tubby switch
• Connectivity: 1/4" input, speaker output, effects loop, XLR direct out
• Footswitch: Purchased separately
• Weight: 3.3lbs/1.5kgs
• Dimensions: 165x140x100mm/6.4"x5.5"x3.9"
• Contact: Orange

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

A metal chassis, a big, chunky metal handle, and some equally chunky rubber feet give this baby box a rather hardy feel. Being solid-state too, the internals are not as sensitive as fragile glass tubes, so it really makes an impression as a tough little thing.

Little being the operative word, as at 165 x 140 x 100 mm and just 1.5kg, it is delightfully small, even for a lunchbox-style head.

The controls on the front panel all feel robust in use, as do the inputs and outputs on the back, with the exception of the external power adapter. With a product designed to run straight into a mains socket and potentially gigged with, I would always rather see an IEC cable instead of the comparatively flimsy DC adapter included here.

All of this is protected within a handy soft case, which is thick enough to feel premium and offer some shielding from the inevitable scuffs that come with taking advantage of the amp's portability.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

As a one-channel amplifier, the Baby Terror is, by nature, a simple beast. On the front panel sit the three-band EQ, Presence, Volume, and Gain controls, all of which are clearly labeled and self-explanatory.

I say clearly labeled, as Orange has forgone its trademark icons in favor of simple text to label these controls. Personally, having previously criticized those icons for their lack of beginner-friendliness, I am a fan of this choice.

Also on the front panel lie two of the features that make this amp interesting beyond its diminutive stature. Namely, the Tubby switch, which thickens up the low end on cleaner settings, and a second footswitchable Volume control.

The latter is particularly handy for providing a little boost to get your solos to rise above the mix in a live band. To be clear, it is not a second channel, but rather a second volume to control the single channel with.

What is a shame, though, is that, unlike a lot of amplifiers, the Baby Terror does not come with a footswitch, so you'll need to invest in an Orange FS-1 Mini or similar to make full use of this.

The rear of the amp sports the input for a footswitch, the 8/16ohms output, as well as an effects loop that is particularly handy on a single-channel amp that likes to break up, and a balanced XLR direct out.

It’s great to have that direct output, but it is not cabinet-emulated, so you will have to run your own Impulse Response or cabinet emulation externally to properly use this. With so many other options to go direct without this added hassle, un-emulated direct outs feel a little superfluous in the current market.

On a related note, Orange says that the Baby Terror is suitable for desktop practice. I disagree.

While of course you can use it at home, that unemulated output makes utilising the XLR out for this use a bit of a faff magnet, and for most, using the Baby Terror with a guitar cabinet at home will take up more room than is convenient. You could buy a small cabinet specifically for home practice, but it would make more sense to put that cash into one of the many, and generally very affordable, home practice amps on the market that tend to boast home targeted features such as Bluetooth connectivity.

It's worth mentioning the Orange Micro Terror here, as its auxiliary input makes it a slightly better option for jamming at home. However, its headphone output is also un-emulated, so it runs into the same issue.

Still, the Baby Terror is an amp that costs just $249/£199, so I am not expecting a smorgasbord of bells and whistles, and I am appreciative of those features that are here. Assuming that they don’t come at the expense of tone, of course.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Thankfully, there is nothing to worry about as far as that goes. I am putting it through its paces via an Orange PPC212V cab, a Gibson SG, Fender Elite Stratocaster, and a humbucker-loaded Orangewood Clementine semi (because, orange).

The Baby Terror possesses the familiar, mid-forward growl with a high-end presence that we have come to expect from Orange amplifiers. Like most Orange amps, it is built to drive, as it gets into edge-of-breakup territory relatively quickly at about halfway on the Gain control with my Stratocaster, and a little before that with my SG.

The Gain control needs to be set at least a quarter of the way up before any decent volume comes out of the amp too (even with the master volume set at full), meaning that there isn’t much clean headroom to play around with here.

So it's not for the country pickers, but perfect if you want an amp that breaks up without pushing too many decibels. Assuming you don't want to distort your time-based effects, this is where the effects loop comes in handy too and keeps the amp viable as a pedal platform.

Because of this, and as a solid-state amp with just 20 watts, it’s not suited to situations where you need things loud, but it will give you enough to monitor yourself on smaller stages, at rehearsals, or to do some studio recording with, while using the DI to send things to front-of-house.

Getting a clean tone, then, is all about rolling back the volume control on the guitar. Knocking just a little off the volume control with the amp set up on the edge of breakup gets straight into sparkly cleans with a little bit of grit as I dig in. It’s an old-school approach, but one that yields a very dynamic feel.

It does not quite have some of the luscious overtones of more expensive amplifiers, but that does not stop it from being a ton of fun to play.

Pushing the gain further reveals that the Baby Terror is capable of some meaty saturated tones, comfortably within heavy rock territory.

Throughout all of this playing, I find the amp to be relatively tight in the low end, with a tendency to get a little muddy as the gain gets cranked. For this, though, we have the Tubby switch, so I flick it to see if it solves the problem, and the answer is a resounding yes.

It reduces the low end, which results in those distorted palm-muted riffs sounding incredibly tight, and lends leads a little more cut. It is a subtle change, but one that is in exactly the right place. It’s almost as if Orange have been doing this for nearly 60 years.

EQ-wise, the Mid control is pretty subtle, leaving me feeling like I could do with a little bit more range here. The Bass, Treble and Presence controls, however, all offer enough to allow plenty of room for tweaking.

Lastly, I dig out my Browne Amplification Ethane pedal and find that the amp takes pedals incredibly well. Pushing it with the Tube Screamer-esque side of the overdrive pedal cuts the bass further, reduces airy highs and boosts the gain into a territory more than suitable for metal and heavier styles of music.

Alternatively, the Blues Breaker-inspired Carbon side of the pedal boosts the amp into more gain, with the pedal reflected in the way the tone stays bright, perfect for those classic rock riffs.

In short, it may not do clean all that well, but it can do just about everything else.

Verdict

The Baby line of products is proof that solid state can sound great, and the Baby Terror, as the newest addition to this lineup, is no different.

Built to rock, it is a low-headroom machine that reacts well to your guitar's volume control and responds dynamically to your pick attack. It has a delightfully old-school feel about it, furthered by the lack of modern digital wizardry that often complicates things.

The other side of that coin is that the Baby Terror doesn’t boast a ton of fancy features, but the footswitchable second volume control, an effects loop, and the Tubby switch are great additions that add facility in the places guitarists most need them.

For a lot of users, the Baby Terror is going to fall between the cracks as it does not have quite enough volume for big stages, nor is it practical for use as a home practice amp in the current market. But for studios, smaller gigs where space is often a premium, and rehearsal rooms, it’s a capable little thing.

Guitar World verdict: A tiny amp that delivers big, the Orange Baby Terror is perfect for the studio, small stages or rehearsals, when you need an amp that will happily break up at lower volumes. It’s the classic Orange bark, alongside some well-chosen features in a fun and affordable package.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Orange

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Gibson has ushered in a new pickup era with the all-new ELEV8 humbuckers, which are said to be “the next generation of the Gibson humbucker”.

Notably, they recruit Alnico 8 magnets, which have been used for a Gibson pickup for the first time in its history.

The magnets combine with custom-gauge wire for punch and high-level dynamic response. For the eagle-eyed readers who feel the ELEV8 name sounds familiar, it’s because they’ve already featured in Gibson’s bold new Victory baritone model.

In short, they’re designed to be the best of both worlds, marrying “Gibson humbucker heritage with the power, clarity, and articulation modern players demand.”

Now made available as aftermarket pickups, they arrive in Standard, Plus, and Underwound models, each with four-conductor wiring. For those wanting to pimp their current squeeze, these passive pups represent a new high-gain option.

Seth Lover invented the original Patent Applied For humbucker in 1955. Since then, Alnico 2, 3, 4, and 5 magnets have been commonplace across Gibson pickups. But more is more, right?

Granted, Alnico 8 magnets have been around for a good few years now, but with the ELEV8 range, Gibson becomes one of the first major builders to invest in a magnet that can be seen as a hot-rodded version of Alnico 5.

The Standard pickups pack 10k ohms and come in both traditional Gibson neck and bridge spacings, with the ELEV8 Plus “thoughtfully overwound” at 15k ohms. With a tight bass response and a voicing better suited to high-gain tones, that makes it an ideal bridge ‘bucker, with a Standard model in the neck.

Meanwhile, the ELEV8 Underwound is also designed with the neck position in mind, and a touch more vintage in its character.

The pickups, Gibson believes, “give modern players the confidence to explore drop tunings, aggressive palm-muted riffs, and dense mixes without sacrificing precision.” Time will tell, but the recipe certainly suggests these are the hottest Gibson PAF-style pickups yet. Maybe, at long last, the Les Paul can assert its authority as a djent machine.

Not all of Gibson’s innovations over the years have been humdingers – robot tuners, anyone? – but this feels like the kind of evolution a lot of modern players will get behind.

Each pickup is priced between $139 and $149, and is available uncovered with Double Black or Zebra bobbins, or with Double Black bobbins beneath a nickel cover.

See Gibson for more.

The following excerpt is adapted from Josh Scott's forward for Art of the Stompbox by Chris Cassone.

The first guitar pedals I ever encountered were sitting in a glass case at Russellville Pawn on the main highway that cut through the center of my small Alabama town. They changed my life.

I was probably 15, and there they were – a handful of lovingly used stompboxes with price tags hanging on those classic paper tags with a single string tied around the knobs. What struck me wasn't their promise of sonic transformation – I barely understood what they did. It was how completely different they were from each other.

A Zoom 505 with its digital display and plastic housing looked like a piece of consumer electronics, something that belonged next to a Nintendo or a calculator. But the scratched-up BOSS pedal sitting next to it had the solid, purposeful presence of a craftsman's tool – something my dad might pick up at the hardware store because he had work to get done.

Even then, I sensed that these visual differences meant something. The brands weren't just competing on features or price; they were making completely different statements about what a guitar pedal should be, who should use it, and how seriously you should consider the aesthetic.

Decades later, as both a pedal builder and a student of guitar culture, I've come to realize that this moment in that pawn shop captured something essential about the relationship between sound and sight in our instrument's evolution. We don't just hear our pedals – we live with them, arrange them, obsess over them, and yes, judge them by their covers.

That visual language has never been more diverse or sophisticated. Every pedal is a collaboration between sound and sight, between engineer and artist, between maker and musician. In an era when anyone can build a circuit, it's often the visual language that separates the memorable from the forgettable, the iconic from the ignored.

The guitar pedal occupies a unique space in industrial design – simultaneously utilitarian and expressive, mass-produced yet personal. These are objects designed to be stepped on, yet many never touch the floor. They're tools for making music, but they're also statements about who we are as players and what we value as artists.

I've always believed that the best pedal designs aren't decorations applied to functional objects – they're integral expressions of the musical philosophy contained within.

When Ivor Arbiter made his Fuzz Face smile, when Bill Finnegan chose the perfect shade of gold for his Klon, when BOSS created their color-coded universe, they weren't just making pedals look different. They were creating visual languages that would become part of how we understand and relate to our instruments.

In my own company's evolution from hand-stamped boxes to printed graphics, I've learned that every design choice – from the thickness of a line to the placement of a logo – either adds to or subtracts from this musical conversation. The best pedal art doesn't just catch your eye; it becomes part of your sound in ways you might not even consciously realize.

Pedals are not mere effects processors but artifacts of creative intent. In the world of guitar effects, beauty and function aren't opposing forces – they're partners in the endless pursuit of the perfect sound.

• Art of the Stompbox: Celebrating The Visual Artistry of Effects Pedals features 300 color photographs from 60 pedal makers across 18 countries, with a foreword by Josh Scott of JHS Pedals and a cover testimonial from the late Ace Frehley of KISS. It's available now via Amazon.

Innovation Week: Ask a child to draw a guitar, and chances are they’ll draw a Stratocaster. Shop for guitars online, and S-types dominate your options. It is, by and large, the quintessential electric guitar silhouette.

But it’s not the only one, and Fender’s ongoing cease-and-desist campaign, as it bids to reaffirm its ownership of the Stratocaster body shape, will only force other manufacturers to think outside the box.

Changes had already started before Fender swung into action. In recent years, new body shapes have flooded the market. They offer fresh contours, curves, or angularity to sit alongside the classics.

Kiesel has introduced two new shapes – the Kyber and the offset Antares – over the last 14 months. Eastman has gone bold with the FullerTone Offset ’62. Taylor, Ibanez, Baum, Collings and Gavilan guitars (spearheaded by former Fender Custom Shop ace Levi Perry) have also stepped away from existing templates. Some designs are more familiar. Others, like the Valiant Mercury, hybridize the norms for something bold.

Indie builders are largely driving innovation. Tosin Abasi, the virtuoso behind Abasi Concepts and the bold Larada body shape, has a theory about why.

Risk and reward

“There’s been a lot of experimentation in the past,” he says. “But the percentage of what’s accepted is actually pretty low. The risk-reward analysis for large multinational corporations is different – it can limit how much experimentation they can validate. A lot of the artisan stuff is occurring on a small scale.”

He severed ties with Ibanez to launch his own brand in 2017, aiming to create an ergonomic eight-string guitar from the ground up. Before then, most were elongated versions of pre-existing concepts. Building on Strandberg’s game-changing ergonomics – now a buzzword in all guitar PR – he sees the tide is turning.

“Ergonomic-driven guitars are now feature sets that are pretty established, but they weren’t 10 years ago,” Abasi says. “Larger companies are leaving us to take the risk. Once something is validated, they can essentially copy and address a market that was created for them.”

When the Ibanez Alpha launched, swathes of people compared it to pre-existing designs; accusations of homework copying were flung around with abandon. Abasi himself has another take: he says there “isn’t a ton of permission to introduce new designs,” in a largely conservative market.

Nostalgia is easier to sell because of the legacies of those instruments. But extended-range guitar communities showed him that a sliver of the market had an appetite for purpose-built guitars. That market has grown to be one that Ibanez – and Kiesel – can no longer ignore.

Artist innovations

Music Man, however, has long been using its signature collaborations as a chance to break from the mould. Work with St. Vincent, Albert Lee, and Omar Rodríguez-López, as well as its tradition-skewing Kaizen for Abasi, proves the company doesn’t want to play safe.

“We’re the odd to everyone’s even,” says Drew Montell, Director of Engineering and Product Development. “We have a lot of brand equity in our artist roster, and we really pride ourselves on providing them with the tools they need. Sometimes they’re incredibly outlandish.”

Montell says those projects “are exactly what I live for” and he feels a big part of the market appreciates Music Man’s push to innovate. But it’s still a tough ask.

“When you’re making something, you don’t know if it’s just a weird blob or something that can become an aesthetic of its own,” he says. “The biggest challenge is, ‘What’s too outlandish versus what will people be willing to get behind?’”

Releasing a design in collaboration with a player who often colors outside the lines makes it easier. Still: “Most people hate our best-selling guitars right out of the gate,” Montell laughs. “I don’t want to say we don’t care what people think; we’re just confident that once someone puts it in their hands, they’ll recognize it’s not just a weird shape. It’s actually for a reason.”

He does concede, however, that the company’s reputation for quirky designs is both “a blessing and a curse,” as they’re now expected to push the envelope again and again.

That’s interesting, because Abasi compares the Kaizen to a Porsche 911, and says the core design will remain, with small adjustments expected in future generations. Now he has a design that nails its extended-range, ergonomic-focused brief, it’s evolution over revolution.

Augmenting acoustics

If electric guitar manufacturers feel that the shackles are always on them, acoustic builders are far more constricted when it comes to innovation.

With its Super Auditorium design, introduced with the Gold Label Collection last January, Taylor has found a way to get creative within the confines of acoustic guitar design. It builds on its Grand Auditorium concept, but boasts a slightly longer body and wider lower bout.

“I enjoy working with curves and proportions and studying how profile shapes are used to shape an instrument’s tone,” says Andy Powers, CEO and Chief Guitar Designer at Taylor Guitars. “Mechanically and structurally, the builder needs to work out the physics of the shape, its voicing, how the woods will be bent into form, and how the silhouette affects the design’s prospective voicing.

“With an existing shape, you have the known variables in mind. With a new shape, all the variables are on the bench for development. The shapes of acoustic flattop guitars are not arbitrary aesthetic decisions. Each curve and dimension brings a sonic impact.” Even the slightest deviation from the norm can have massive sonic side effects.

Additionally, Powers suggests that “many guitar shapes are popular because manufacturers prefer to build designs that fit an existing case.” It’s a point which can add outlay of buying into a new concept – another risk for the player.

Pleasingly, Powers says the playing community has “largely welcomed” his design, as it offers “a good blend of classic proportions” and has proved well-suited to a variety of genres. But there’s a long way to go. “Beyond this initial response, it will require years for the shape to become firmly established into the library of guitar designs.”

Our bodies in mind

All three manufacturers are forward-thinking, but form must always follow function. Powers says “the physical comfort and weight balance were paramount in the design” of his Powers Electric A-Type.

Music Man go through up to 10 iterations before electronics and hardware are even considered. Abasi notes: “You have to design within the confines of the human interfacing with the instrument.”

He adds: “Stratocasters were the first double cutaway I know of, and there’s an ergonomic benefit to the upper register, so I think ergonomics have always been the core of guitar design – within reason.”

More and more manufacturers are finding ways to let their creativity fly. Montell, for one, believes makers have a duty to accommodate players of all persuasions. It's likely that recent events – from Fender’s lawsuits to the increasing space for adventurous guitar designs – will see many more makers follow suit.

“I would hate it if the industry just said, ‘All distortion pedals have been done before; don’t make a new one,’” Montell says. “It’s fantastic that so many manufacturers, designers and players are willing to try new things. Our job is to create tools that people can actually use, and a guitar that someone always wants to go back to.”

Guitar Center has issued an open call for guitar players to test its new in-house electric guitar, but it comes with a few conditions.

The retail giant has been busy working on its own guitar brand for almost a year now, long before the project was publicly announced back in April.

For the as-yet-unnamed venture, Guitar Center asked players for their help, inviting ideas and feedback on social media platforms in an ambitious attempt to bring something new to the market. Now they’ve entered the next stage of development.

“We’ve been building and creating a new guitar line from scratch, and that new guitar line has been based on interactions with you and your feedback,” Dalporto says on Instagram. “You guys have been giving us tons of feedback on your aspirations and dreams and hopes of what you would like to see in a new guitar.

“We are now at the point where we’re getting prototypes into our office and we want real-world feedback – feedback from you.”

The call has been issued to those in the LA area. Testing will take place at Guitar Center’s office in Westlake Village, CA, in late September and early October. Those wanting to get involved can email info@GCPLB.com with some background information on you and your playing style.

However, there are a few things to note. Rich Thrush, lead on the Guitar Labs project, laid out the terms for getting hands-on with the prototype in a Reddit post.

“You'll need to visit our Westlake Village, CA office in early October, leave your phone outside the testing area, and sign a Non Disclosure Agreement before participating,” the post reads. “We're looking for genuine players who are willing to share honest opinions.

“If you're primarily an influencer or represent a brand, please let us know when you reach out. We'd still love to connect, but we'll likely involve you at a later stage of the project.”

Some guitarists were skeptical when the Guitar Labs project was announced, which CEO Gabe Dalporto directly addressed in an interview with Guitar World.

“Most retailers simply make copycat products and charge a little less,” he said earlier this summer. That’s completely uninteresting to me.”

The Guitar Labs project comes amid a years-long overhaul of Guitar Center’s business model. Guitar World sat down with Dalporto to discuss his plans for the retailer last year, discussing fan concerns in the process.

Recently, we asked you whether you thought Guitar Center had shown any signs of improvement following the chain’s restructure.

Head over to Guitar Center’s Guitar Labs Sub-Reddit for more information.

Innovation Week: These days, it really does feel like there’s an app for everything. I can use my phone to control my lights at home, start my dishwasher from another room, and even generate a full recipe for tonight’s dinner by scanning the random ingredients left in my fridge – what a time to be alive!

It was inevitable, then, that apps would infiltrate our guitar playing, too. Most practice amps come with a companion app these days that gives you better access to tone shaping, handy practice tools, and basic utilities to improve your at-home tone. These apps give you broader control over your amp beyond the physical dials on the unit and can turn what is a fairly basic feature set into something much more powerful and, well, engaging.

But while this marks a seismic shift in technology, not every guitarist is happy to use their phone while jamming. For some guitarists, these apps are a step too far and just get in the way of the fun part of practicing, playing the guitar.

Today, I'm back squaring off with my Guitar World colleague Matt McCracken to settle the debate around apps. We both have strong opinions: I think apps are now a vital part of the modern practice routine, while Matt thinks the opposite, preferring to plug straight into his amplifier and leave the phone behind.

Below you’ll find our detailed arguments for and against practice amp companion apps, and a poll at the end of the article so you can vote on which side of the fence you are on. Without further ado, let's dive in.

The argument for apps

For me, integrating apps with practice amps opens up a world of possibilities that just aren’t always possible on the hardware alone. I genuinely believe they make navigating amp settings much easier and more intuitive.

I think a phone or tablet screen is simply easier to read and interact with than a row of tiny knobs or a fiddly scroll wheel. This is especially true for deeper settings like adjusting EQ parameters or a noise gate threshold.

Some apps even let you visualize your entire signal chain, meaning you can see your exact effects set up, move things around, and experiment with pedal placement.

There’s also the sheer convenience factor. With a companion app, you’re not just limited to a handful of effects or amp models baked into the unit. Take my beloved Positive Grid Spark Mini desktop amp. With the app loaded and synced, I can access hundreds of effects pedals without buying all the hardware, swap amp models on the fly, and save complex presets for every song in my setlist.

Through the physical amp, I have just three tones to play with, but via the app I have access to over 10,000! Better yet, many apps offer built-in practice tools, such as tuners, metronomes, and loopers, all in one place.

Another feature that’s not quite as glamorous as banks of effects, but equally as important, is wireless updates. Instead of plugging my amp into a computer or worrying about missing new features, I can install firmware updates and access fresh sounds over Bluetooth.

As manufacturers release new amp models, effects, or practice tools, these updates can be delivered straight to my device. This means I’m not stuck with the amp I bought on day one, it can evolve alongside me as a player.

Then there’s streaming backing tracks, which is what I probably use the app for more than anything. I find this feature to be a massive benefit for practicing at home on my own. Whether I’m learning a new song, jamming along to my favorite albums, or just noodling my way through yet another E minor blues, it’s nice to be able to feel like I’m playing along with a full band.

Many apps even offer integrated libraries of backing tracks or let you import your own, so I can practice improvisation, soloing, or rhythm guitar with a full-band sound behind me. Some apps go a step further, letting you slow down tracks, loop sections, or even remove the guitar part from the original song, making learning tricky parts way easier.

The argument against apps

Technology is great, but when I’m playing my electric guitar, I want as few barriers as possible between me and the actual playing. As someone who is very time-poor, the idea of having to sync Bluetooth, pull out my phone, or load extra apps on my computer is a straight no from me, dawg.

I’ve had a fair few occasions where the app couldn't connect to my phone via Bluetooth, which has hampered my practice. Sometimes even trying to access the guitar tuner in an app has derailed my playing, turning it into a fault-finding session instead of a chance to rehearse, write songs, or brush up on techniques.

I appreciate that it’s the modern world and most things require updates. I’m more than happy to sit through a software download and installation that improves the performance or adds new features. What I’m not willing to deal with is downtime due to software not performing correctly. Technology is supposed to make things easier, not get in the way.

We have so many distractions in modern life that the last thing I want when I’m playing guitar is to have my phone in front of me.

Phones are a constant distraction at the best of times. Having one on the desk while playing makes it easy to start scrolling social media instead of learning that new song. It makes getting pulled into the endless scroll that much easier, and we all know how that turns out. 20 wasted minutes later, you remember what it was you were supposed to be doing in the first place.

With so many options available in modern guitar apps, you can easily spend more time changing settings and using chord finders than you do actually playing. Instead of focusing on technique, apps can often pull you into changing your compressor settings, EQs, and other tweaks. It’s a proper case of using your eyes instead of your ears, focusing on parameters and values instead of listening to the sound and adjusting your playing accordingly.

I feel there’s definite fatigue among players I know when it comes to dealing with these things. I’m sure I’m not the only one who sighs when a product release makes a big deal about its new software, and honestly, I’m getting tired of settings being hidden behind it. Give me something that has proper knobs and buttons to get to grips with, and I’ll happily play my guitar for hours and hours.

Conclusion

Really, when it comes to practicing, there’s no correct answer here. You need to find the option that works best for you. For many players, the benefits of practice amps apps are undeniable. Beyond sheer convenience, they can foster creativity and make learning more engaging for so many guitarists, but that’s not necessarily true for everyone.

For some, they're an extra barrier stopping them from getting straight to the playing part of practice. They can be clunky to operate, unreliable, and outside of a few useful functions, not all that beneficial to your playing overall.

We've had our say; now it's your turn. Vote below on whether or not you think apps are useful or not in guitar gear. Sound off in the comments and let us know which side you're on. Better yet, tell us what your current practice rig looks like.

Gretsch has launched black limba versions its affordable and uber-desirable Electromatic CVT and Jet models.

The revamp not only introduces a new tonewood to the range, but gives both guitars a fetching appearance, with the West African hardwood’s famous, striking dark brown and black streaks shining beneath clear gloss finishes.

The CVT has become a major player in the affordable guitar market, and its new baritone model has received widespread praise. Here, the makeover is more than just aesthetic.

Lightweight and resonant, black limba has been used for both body and neck. The latter is sculpted to Gretsch’s Performance C-profile and capped with a 22-fret, bound rosewood fingerboard. Pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays keep things minimal and classy.

It also features a Wraparound bridge with adjustable saddles, die-cast sealed tuners, and a Graph Tech NuBone nut. The electronics center on golden Twin Six humbuckers, flanked by a Master Volume control with treble bleed, a Tone knob, and a three-way switch. Priced at $599.99 / £549 / €649, it keeps the competitive edge with a striking new look.

The Jet, meanwhile, dials things up a few notches. It again features a black limba body paired with a black limba Performance C-shaped neck.

Its 12”-Radius Bound Ebony Fingerboard gets the same inlays and 22 Medium Jumbo Frets, but elsewhere has slightly more premium specs. Here, the bridge is a LockDown locking version of the same wraparound design, with another NuBone nut and more die-cast-sealed tuners to keep tuning tight.

The electronics then go a step further with PureVolt Twin Six humbuckers, billed as “beautifully dynamic, exceptionally expressive, and addictively powerful.” The neck uses an Alnico IV magnet, and the bridge uses an Alnico V. Again, the treble bleed feature is wired into the Master Volume.

Beyond that, it has individual pickup controls and a push-pull for single-coil snap on each pickup. With the split coil activated and the three-way switch in the middle position, it makes for one hum-canceling ‘bucker. That’s all reflected in its $749 / £629 / €739 price tag.

See Gretsch for more.

When it comes to bang for your buck, I can think of few brands that are as budget-friendly as Harley Benton. Their guitars are designed to do one thing: give players great build quality and top-tier specs at prices that don’t break the bank. Now, you can get them even cheaper thanks to up to 60% off in the Thomann Guitar Days sale.

I’ve reviewed loads of Harley Benton gear over the past few years, and I spotted four bits of guitar gear in the sale that I’ve been personally hands-on with get discounts. For my money, Harley Benton guitars are amongst the best value you can buy right now, so I highly recommend checking these models out.

Innovation Week: From the first solidbody breakthroughs of the 1950s to today’s digital rigs, guitar innovation has never really stopped.

This list looks at some of the most innovative products to reshape the instrument, its amplification and the way players create sound.

Some were radical leaps, others clever refinements, but each changed what guitarists could do and pushed the instrument somewhere new.

1. Mass-produced Modular Solidbody Guitar

Leo Fender was not trying to make history, he was trying to build a guitar a working musician could repair without much fuss. A solid slab of wood cut down on feedback problems that plagued hollow body guitars, and a neck you could unbolt with a screwdriver made repairs and mass production painless. Earlier electric guitars and solidbodies existed, but this particular combination is the one that stuck, and most of what follows on this list was built on that same practical foundation. That serviceable design helped make swapping parts and customizing an instrument part of guitar culture.

2. Humbucking Guitar Pickup

Single coil pickups had one persistent problem, they picked up hum from nearby electrical equipment just as readily as they picked up your strings. Seth Lover at Gibson and Ray Butts at Gretsch both wired two coils together so their hum canceled out while the string signal stayed intact. The PAF and the Filter'Tron don’t sound much alike, but they share the same clever trick under the hood. The humbucker delivered a thicker, smoother voice that became a sound players wanted in its own right.

3. Fuzz Pedal

Before the fuzz pedal existed, that gritty, broken sound was just something that happened by accident, a blown speaker or a faulty console channel. Glenn Snoddy and Revis Hobbs heard that accident and figured there was a market for it. The Gibson Maestro FZ-1 packaged that distorted character into a simple stompbox, and a few years later the Rolling Stones used it on their hit song Satisfaction and turned it into a phenomenon. This kickstarted the widespread adoption of the fuzz pedal. What began as a happy accident soon became a new color guitarists could summon from a pedal.

4. High Gain Guitar Preamp and Master Volume

Randall Smith at Mesa Boogie was trying to solve a relatable problem, guitarists wanted their amps to sound pushed right to the edge, but not everyone can play at stadium volume in their living room. His answer was cascading gain stages together and adding a master volume knob to tame the power section. It let players dial in real, singing saturation at apartment friendly levels, and it laid the groundwork for essentially every high gain amp built since. For players, gain could become part of an amp’s core voice instead of simply more volume.

5. Digital Amplifier Modeling

For most of guitar history, if you wanted a specific amp's sound, you needed to actually own that amp, or know somebody who did. Line 6 treated an amplifier's behavior as something a processor could simply recreate. Their AxSys 212 combo amp released in 1996 got that idea rolling, but it was the small, oddly shaped POD released two years later that put digital modeling within reach of anyone with a desk, letting players scroll through decades of amp history. Just as important, one compact rig could suddenly cover sounds that once required several different amplifiers.

6. Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo

Dramatic whammy bar dives were technically possible before Floyd Rose came along, they just came with a real cost, your guitar would rarely stay in tune afterward. Rose's system clamped the strings at both the nut and bridge, so the slippage causing that trouble stayed contained. Restringing takes more patience now, but players gained a whole vocabulary of extreme vibrato moves, from subtle shimmer to violent dive bombs. Locking tremolo systems are now standard on many guitars today.

7. EchoSonic Amp

Tape echo had already proven itself in the recording studio back in the 1950s but it took Ray Butts to build one directly into a guitar amplifier and hand the effect to guitar players. Scotty Moore bought one of Butts' EchoSonic amps in 1955, and used it to get that warm, repeating slap back sound all over Elvis's earliest recordings. A guitarist no longer needed an engineer down the hall for that texture when they could create it themselves. That marriage of amplification and echo helped make effects feel like part of the instrument itself.

8. Wah Pedal

The wah gave guitarists a way to make their instruments talk, cry and occasionally throw a tantrum. Rocking the pedal shifts which frequencies get emphasized, giving notes a vocal quality and rhythm parts some extra attitude. Brad Plunkett’s work at Thomas Organ gave us the familiar design, and Hendrix and Clapton wasted little time showing what it could do. Work it through a solo or leave it parked for that nasal snarl. The wah pedal remains one of the most popular guitar effects in history.

9. Two Point Synchronized Vibrato

The Stratocaster vibrato turned pitch bending into something any guitarist could put to work. Its spring loaded bridge made subtle shimmer, chord dips and expressive bar work easy and intuitive, helping define everything from surf guitar to later rock styles. It was a remarkably effective design, but it was never built for the kind of extreme abuse players would eventually throw at it. That weakness would ultimately set the stage for Floyd Rose and the locking trem. It helped turn the vibrato arm from a novelty into a part of a player’s vocabulary.

10. Amplifier Profiling and Captures

Traditional amp modeling gave players a menu of digital recreations chosen by the manufacturer. Kemper flipped that idea around by letting guitarists profile their own amps, sending test signals through the real rig, measuring its response and creating a digital version that could be stored and recalled anywhere. That idea helped push digital guitar rigs into a new era. Today, systems such as Neural DSP’s Quad Cortex and IK Multimedia’s TONEX can capture real amps and pedals, while Fractal’s Axe FX and Line 6 Helix Stadium continue pushing increasingly sophisticated component based modeling. What once required racks of gear can now live in one floorboard.

11. Eventide 910 Harmonizer

The Eventide H910 Harmonizer did something that still sounds unbelievable on paper, it took a guitar's pitch and shifted it up or down in real time, without the player touching the strings any differently. It had a slightly alien quality at first, and honestly still does, but that strangeness was the appeal. Years later, the DigiTech Whammy brought a simplified version of the same idea to a foot pedal, so pitch dives no longer required an actual whammy bar. That opened the door to harmonized leads, strange textures and pitch effects that grew increasingly adventurous.

12. Boss DD-2 Delay

Digital delay was once the kind of technology you expected to find in a studio rack, not on the floor in front of a guitar amp. Early units were large, expensive and well beyond the reach of many working players. The BOSS DD 2 changed that by packing digital delay into a standard compact stompbox. Suddenly guitarists could get clean, repeatable echoes from something that fit on a pedalboard and did not cost a fortune. More than just convenient, it helped make digital delay a practical everyday effect for players everywhere.

13. Spring Reverb

Spring reverb puts a little room ambience in your amp, courtesy of a few vibrating metal springs. Your guitar signal drives the springs, and a pickup converts their vibrations back into an electrical signal. Alan Young’s compact Hammond design helped bring the effect to guitar rigs, with Fender and Ampeg offering it by 1961. A twist of a knob could now add a little depth or the big, splashy, dripping sounds that became a surf guitar staple. It also proved that ambience did not have to come from a studio or effects unit.

14. Analog Electronic Chorus

Analog chorus became a defining guitar effect in the mid 1970s, first appearing in Roland’s JC 120 Jazz Chorus amplifier in 1975 before Boss put the idea on the floor with the CE 1 in 1976. Using bucket brigade circuitry, chorus slightly delays a copy of the guitar signal, gently shifts its pitch and blends it back with the dry sound. The result is that familiar sense of width, shimmer and movement. By the time the CE 2 arrived in 1979, chorus was well on its way to becoming an essential guitar effect.

15. Friedman/Synergy IR Load

Friedman’s IR Load combines a reactive load box, attenuator, IR cabinet section and stereo reamplification in a single rack unit, but the most interesting part is Synergy’s machine learning power amp technology. It analyzes the connected speaker cabinet and adjusts its response in real time to recreate the sag, compression and harmonic movement of a cranked tube power section. That makes the IR Load unusually flexible, whether you are taming a loud head, recording direct, running silently or using it as the heart of a powerful stereo stage rig.

16. Guitar Synthesizer

What if the instrument in your hands was not really a guitar at all, but a controller for an entirely different world of sound? Roland’s GS 500 guitar and GR 500 synthesizer, introduced in 1977, let players use familiar strings, frets and picking technique to trigger sustained synth textures, bass like voices and sounds that had previously belonged mostly to keyboard players. Guitarists could suddenly approach electronic music without abandoning the physical feel of a guitar, opening the door to a completely new vocabulary of tones and helping establish the guitar synthesizer as a serious creative tool.

17. Active Guitar Pickup Systems

Passive pickups are largely at the mercy of whatever cable and pedals sit between the guitar and the amp. Rob Turner’s idea with EMG was to build a small preamp into the pickup itself, buffering the signal before it ever left the guitar. The result was a cleaner, more consistent output regardless of what came next. Metal players embraced it, but so did players like David Gilmour. The tradeoff is a battery, and despite the reputation, active does not automatically mean louder or heavier.

18. Tube Amplifiers

Tube amplifiers helped establish the electric guitar’s voice, from ringing clean tones to the roar that would define rock. Their vacuum tubes amplify the signal, while pushing the circuit hard can introduce overdrive, compression and rich harmonics. Although the technology predates the 1950s, designs such as Fender’s tweed Bassman and Marshall’s JTM45 helped make those qualities central to guitar playing. Changes in picking attack and guitar volume could reshape the sound, making the amplifier an extension of the player’s technique. That interaction helped turn distortion into a musical tool, shaping generations of blues, rock and metal.

19. Guitar Wireless Systems

Before practical wireless systems came along, a guitarist’s freedom onstage was limited by the length of the cable. Ken Schaffer’s wireless system changed that, giving players room to move without giving up reliability or tone. AC/DC, Kiss and David Gilmour were among the early adopters. There was an unexpected bonus too. The system added a slight tonal character of its own, enough that players came to love it. Decades later, builders still make preamps and pedals designed specifically to recreate that signature Schaffer sound.

20. PLEK Machine

Developed in Germany, the computerized Plek machine scans the neck and frets under real or simulated string tension, then uses that information to guide precise fret leveling and crowning. A skilled operator decides what needs changing and can preview the results before any metal comes off. The payoff can be lower action, cleaner bends and fewer buzzing notes. It gives builders and repair shops a repeatable way to get more guitars playing at their best. For manufacturers, that repeatability means setup quality can be measured, documented and reproduced more consistently from guitar to guitar.

Innovation Week: Strandberg opened the floodgates to a whole new era for the electric guitar. Headless, ergonomic designs are threatening to become the new normal. But New Zealander Dom Pearson, the brains behind Pearson guitars, believes the company has “shot itself in the foot” with its business model. And he has eyes on its throne.

By 2031 he intends to outsell the Swedes and perpetuate his belief that headless guitars are the future. The days of headstocks and industry giants, he thinks, are numbered, and the Pearson Omega – a bizarre-looking metal build with insane upper fret access – is him putting his money where his mouth is.

“From a playability standpoint, headless guitars are objectively superior,” he says. “The only reason headstocks are still popular is because of the culture. The next generation are watching TikTok, and they’re seeing all these crazy headless guitars. When they’re 60-year-old dentists with money for a vintage guitar, they’re going to want a Strandberg, not a Fender. Les Pauls will be collectible art pieces.

“Maybe I’m just young and delusional, but I would bet on headless guitars, and that’s what I’m doing with business.”

In his early teens he bought knock-off guitar bodies, borrowed his dad’s woodworking tools, sand them down and spec them with Chinese parts. His first fully original build was carbon fiber, drawing on his uncle’s experience of making bike frames from the same material. Raw aluminum has since proven more affordable, and just as malleable.

“You can’t do anything interesting with wood anymore,” he states. “It’s all been done. And I don’t believe in the tonewood debate.”

Pearson assembles the guitars himself. Their powder-coated bodies are machined locally in New Zealand. Modern C- and Strat-style necks are custom-made in China, with standard and multi-scale options available.

The modified Hipshot bridge design is bolstered by a Gotoh/Floyd Rose locking nut. It’s wired in with easily-replaceable OEM Alnico 2 humbuckers with dedicated coil-split switches, a three-way selector, plus A500K pots sourced for Korea. He makes around 80 instruments a month.

There’s a wicked attention to detail, too. The Pearson headstock is compatible with wall-mounted stands and there’s a subtle body cut for traditional stands, countering a Strandberg setback. The strap weaves through the guitar’s open-plan body, which means strap locks aren’t needed, and it hugs the player’s form better.

The Omega dials back some of the absurdities of his earlier builds, like the purposefully alien Hyper B. It’s a guitar built for the future, without severing all ties with the past.

“I wanted a Stratocaster neck with Les Paul pickups and a Strandberg body,” Pearson says. “I know there’s a market for a Strandberg Boden, but I know there’s also a massive market for a Boden that has more traditional attributes.”

Ibanez has recognized that, hence its Quest series of guitars, replacing Strandberg’s trapezoidal EndurNeck with its Wizard profiles. The Omega aims to be even more accessible. “The Hyper B was about how weird and wacky I could get,“ Pearson says.

“It got a lot of hate – that was half the plan. The Omega is me asking, ‘How can I build 1,000 guitars a week?’ I’m thinking about mass scalability, because I want people from all over the world playing them.”

He also feels the Omega’s price gives it the advantage. At $1,075, it’s slightly cheaper than Ibanez’s Q Series, and nearly $100 less than the Strandberg Essential. Moreover, he doesn’t want to fall into similar preconceptions of who his builds are for.

“Strandberg really pigeonholed themselves with prog metal,” he says. “I want to be broader – I want jazz and blues players to play the Omega. I want to see it in Taylor Swift’s hands. I need that for the brand.”

Crucially, he’s backing the industry to shift in his favor. “Ibanez saw it was losing out on a market because of Strandberg,” he says of the firm’s pivot into headless builds. “Fender and Gibson are going to start dying out; they’re so driven by shareholders they’re not going to take any risks. Smaller companies are moving the needle.

“But Strandberg is owned by private equity now, so I don’t think they’re interested in selling 100,000 guitars a year; they want to stay niche. That’s how I’m gonna overtake them. I’m thinking massive scale, affordable workhorse guitars.”

His ambitions are lofty, but with Paul Masvidal already showing an interest in the firm, and Plini’s interest piqued, Pearson might not be building these guitars on his own for much longer.

• Find out more at Pearson Instruments.

Joe Bonamassa has another signature Seymour Duncan pickup set under his belt – and this one is inspired by the pawn shop SG that spawned his love for P-90s.

From vintage guitar shops to auctions and beyond, Bonamassa goes to great lengths to score rare pieces of gear. Sometimes, he finds beauties in more unlikely places, and it was a pawn shop guitar that ignited his love affair with P-90 pickups.

The guitar in question was a 1961 white Gibson SG, and now Seymour Duncan has faithfully recreated those underdog pickups as the Joe Bonamassa “Pawn Shop Special” 1961 P90 Set.

Promising “airy highs, expressive midrange, and snarling overdrive response,” they’re wired with Alnico 4 magnets and have been given a custom wind.

Each set uses period-correct components to “bring the coveted Nerdville tone within reach of every P90 aficionado.”

Bonamassa discovered the ’61 SG while on tour after a tip off from a tech. It was the best heads-up he’s ever had.

“Very rarely do you find a special guitar in a pawn shop,” he says. “Well, one day in 2010 I was playing the Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was the middle of winter, and I heard there was a pawn shop around the corner with an interesting SG from one of the crew guys.

“I ended up bringing it back to the Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne. I plugged it in, and these particular P-90s were the P-90s that I was searching for. Over the years, I always thought they were either too dark or too bright; not for me. But this was the beginning of my love affair with P-90s.”

That love affair has since seen him drop a stunning signature Iridescent Copper Epiphone Les Paul, saddled with Epiphone-made P-90s.

The “Pawn Shop Special” 1961 P90 Set is the first time Seymour Duncan and Bonamassa have worked on signature P-90s. Previous collabs have included recreating Tommy Bolin’s PAFs and single-coils inspired by his obscure Greenburst Strat.

The first 610 sets sold will include a Nerdville #001 inventory tag, a certificate of authenticity signed by Bonamassa and Seymour Duncan, and limited edition packaging. The sets are priced at $375.

Check out Seymour Duncan for more.

Elsewhere, Bonamassa has shown off how drop D can be killer for the blues, revealing how “hiding” your pick can make you a more expressive player.

José Arredondo might not be a household name, but to generations of guitarists, his name was synonymous with great tone. During the ’80s and early ’90s, a line of players beat a path to his workshop in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley after Eddie Van Halen dropped his name in guitar magazine interviews.

Arredondo modded Marshalls for James Hetfield (who played through a José-modified Marshall on Kill ’Em All and said it was his favorite amp), John Sykes (who used a José-modded Marshall on the best-selling 1987 Whitesnake album), Mick Mars (Mötley Crüe’s Dr. Feelgood), Steve Vai (David Lee Roth’s Eat ’Em and Smile), Peter Frampton, Steve Lukather, Steve Stevens, Akira Takasaki and countless others.

For many years, biographical information on Arredondo and details of his work were a mystery, which only made his urban legend grow. Other than a brief profile that appeared in the August 1988 issue of Guitar Player magazine, articles about him were scarce.

As Dave Friedman started becoming a great amp wizard in his own right, he chased down examples of José’s modified amps and researched info about his high-gain designs and technical nuances.

Eventually Friedman became somewhat of a José-ologist. His knowledge recently culminated in the Friedman/Arredondo Jose amplifier, which he developed with the Arredondo family’s blessing.

The Jose amp combines several of Arredondo’s acclaimed innovations in one amp. A wonderful tribute to the man and his tones, it’s also the closest you can get to a José-modified Marshall in modern times without spending a small fortune.

This is how a humble, elusive man from Chile became the amp tech to the stars and changed amp design forever.

In the ’80s, nightclubs lining West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip attracted countless kids who wanted to make it in the rock music biz. Hair metal bands competed for major label deals and great guitar playing ruled as guitarists studied at GIT (Guitar Institute of Technology) by day and played gigs at night. In 1987, Dave Friedman arrived in L.A. as an 18-year-old aspiring guitarist chasing rock star dreams.

Over the Hollywood Hills in the nearby San Fernando Valley, a variety of amp techs including Arredondo, Lee Jackson, Paul Rivera were performing hot-rodded high-gain modifications on amps from their workshops to meet the needs of this new generation of metal players.

Arredondo was already an experienced amp tech and designer well before he launched his own business. During the mid ’60s, Arredondo worked for Thomas Organ, where he reportedly helped develop the Vox Super Beatle amp. Later, he worked for Ampeg as a Service Manager, which led to him working on amps for the Rolling Stones and going on tour with them in 1969.

Most players first learned about Arredondo from guitar magazines. When Eddie Van Halen cryptically mentioned “José, an old guy from Argentina (sic) who knows a lot of tricks and does stuff for me” in his April 1980 Guitar Player magazine cover story, curious guitarists started seeking this mysterious tech.

When Ed eventually confirmed Arredondo’s identity in the mid-’80s, the tech’s business went through the roof.

So many customers flocked to Arredondo’s Arrco Electronics shop on Van Nuys Boulevard in Sherman Oaks that he relocated his business to the three-car garage at his home to maintain a more private profile and select clientele. Visitors recall seeing stacks of amps with names like Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch, Jake E. Lee and Adrian Vandenberg on the service tags.

“Everybody talked about José,” Friedman says. “Eddie, Mick Mars, George Lynch. He was a pioneer of what are now considered modern-style amps and modern-style gain, and he was definitely the best amp tech in Hollywood at the time.”

Shortly after Friedman arrived in L.A., he landed a job with Andy Brauer Studio Rentals, which catered to the top studio musicians and pros. Here he became acquainted with leading techs like rack guru Bob Bradshaw and amp wizards that included Reinhold Bogner, Bruce Egnater, Steven Fryette and Mike Soldano.

Arredondo also did some repair, maintenance and occasional modification work for Brauer, and Andy gave Dave José’s phone number.

Although amps with master volume controls became increasingly common during the ’80s, the holy grail was to get the heavy, overdriven sound of a fully cranked non-master volume Marshall with its power tubes blazing, but at a lower volume.

“My favorite kind of sound is a cranked-up, old Lead-spec Plexi,” Friedman says. “I was always going after that sound; I just wanted to find a way to do it with a master volume and get that sound at a lower volume.”

When Friedman first met José, he brought over a 100-watt Marshall JTM “black flag” Plexi – a rare and valuable 1967 model. Arredondo installed his three-in-one mod, which Friedman says “added a gain stage with three distinct structures in the front, like boosting a four-input Marshall, but with a regular JCM100-style (Marshall Model 2555 Silver Jubilee) master volume added between the EQ and power amp.”

Friedman also had Arredondo put an extra gain knob in the back of the amp so it would look stock from the front.

“That was his basic mod, and frankly, that was enough gain,” Friedman continues, noting that Arredondo generally didn’t do modern-style high-gain mods, even though his modded Marshalls have produced some very heavy tones, like those heard on Kill ’Em All and Dr. Feelgood.

“He only did a few higher-gain mods. People have gotten way out of hand with gain, but most pros that other players are emulating actually use settings where the gain is backed way off.”

Adding to José’s legend and mystery was the fact that many guitar players tried to keep their gear specs top secret. A few boutique amp builders (most notably Howard “Alexander” Dumble) and pedal designers (like Bill Finnegan of Klon Centaur overdrive fame) were equally secretive, covering their circuits with black epoxy so nobody could reverse engineer or copy their work.

Friedman recalled José “never covered anything up,” but at the time Friedman was still new to amp technology, and he wouldn’t have known what José was doing anyway.

Eddie Van Halen was the player most closely associated with José. The two first met in the early ’70s when Ed’s father drove him to Arredondo’s shop to have José repair the guitarist’s 1968 Marshall Super Lead amp. However, there’s some debate over whether José actually modified Ed’s amps or simply repaired and maintained them. Ed eventually admitted that it was the latter.

“I told people that José Arredondo modified my amp to throw him a bone and help him out,” Van Halen told Chris Gill, author of Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen, in 2007. “José made most of his money by doing modifications to people’s amps, but he never did anything to my amps other than re-tube them, set the bias and replace things that blew, like the transformers.

“For years people thought that I had my amps hot-rodded, but they were stock. My Marshall had no line output or master volume. In a funny way I feel a bit guilty about telling people about José’s mods because I lied, but a lot of people dug them. I don’t own any of those modified amps. All of my Marshalls are stock 100-watt heads.”

Friedman, who has seen the inside of numerous Marshall amps that Van Halen owned, including the guitarist’s “number one” 1968 100-watt model 1959 Super Lead, confirmed that Van Halen’s Marshalls were basically stock.

“Eddie didn’t really have modded amps. José serviced and tweaked them. He would change the impedance selectors to heavy-duty selectors that improved reliability.

“He made some slight tweaks in the circuit and would set the bias a certain way for the Variac Ed used so he wouldn’t blow up the output transformers. He provided Ed with matched sets of tubes so the amps would operate more efficiently, and a variety of other things like that.”

In 1989, while they were recording the Black Album, Metallica guitarists James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett, along with producer Bob Rock, hired Arredondo to modify some Marshall heads.

Hetfield was already a big fan of Arredondo’s work – his favorite amp was a José-modded Marshall that he used to record Kill ’Em All, and he was crushed when that amp was stolen in 1983. The theft of that amp inspired the song Fade to Black.

Unfortunately, Hetfield was lukewarm about his modified 1973 Super Lead, feeling that it sounded nowhere near as good as Rock’s José-modded Marshall (Hammett never received his amp back from Arredondo, who died before the work was completed).

Hetfield tried to use the amp on several subsequent Metallica albums but never bonded with it. When working on Metallica’s latest album, 72 Seasons, producer Greg Fidelman hired Friedman to work on Hetfield’s José-modded amp, which Friedman says, “needed a lot of love. Once I fixed it, they liked it so much they used it on the album”.

It’s hard to estimate how many amps José modified. If you can find an original, it won’t come cheap. They rarely come up for sale, and a street-price guesstimate starts between $15,000 and $20,000, with celebrity-associated amps going for considerably more. Richard Fortus owned the José amp that Mick Mars used on Dr. Feelgood, and he reportedly sold it recently for $45,000.

With Friedman’s Jose amp, you can get a Marshall-style amp loaded with faithful reconstructions of Arredondo’s innovations for $3,799.

Friedman conceived his José tribute amp many years ago, but he wanted the family’s endorsement before he went ahead with production. Eventually he was introduced to José’s daughter Marisol, who gave the project her blessing.

Once Marisol gave the okay, it took Friedman about 34 months to finalize the amp’s design and bring it to market.

The Jose model is a 100-watt head with four EL34 tubes featuring several of Arredondo’s most iconic mods in one amp. Details include a three-way “Gain Style” switch, a Fat switch and two switchable global Presence controls, which provide a choice of vintage or modern presence tones.

“It’s a loving tribute to José, who never made a production amp, so I’ve made it for him now,” Friedman says. “I didn’t reinvent the wheel with this amp. I made it as a tribute to the man and his sounds.”

In the mid-’80s, Arredondo and Van Halen planned to go into business to manufacture an amp designed by José. A few prototypes were allegedly built, but Van Halen eventually opted to develop the 5150 with Peavey instead.

Arredondo passed away September 16, 1994, nine days before his 71st birthday. Although José was a private character who never sought fortune and fame, he probably would have been pleased to know that his innovations and tones have lived on.

“I would hope it would bring a big smile to his face because he had such a great smile,” Friedman says. “He was a warm, friendly, wonderful individual once you got to know him.”

• For more on the Jose Series, head to Friedman Amplification.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

What is it?

Electro-Harmonix likes to describe it as a “distortion/sustainer,” but the rest of us think of it as a fuzz pedal, and arguably one of the most important. This massive stompbox may have launched way back in 1969, but it’s still being used today by a list of guitar legends that reads like a who's who of the greatest ever to strum a six-string.

The humble Big Muff helped David Gilmour get comfortably numb, disarmed Billy Corgan, and was there when J Mascis defined the freak scene. It’s a staple of alternative music, and as such, it’s had more variations than you can shake a Jazzmaster at.

Over the years, transistors were swapped out, and the circuit was tweaked, refined, and improved to evolve alongside the players who used it. Today, there are a whopping 11 options to choose from in the current EHX catalog, all based on the various versions through the pedal's long and storied history – and that’s not counting the boutique clones and copies that have used the Muff as inspiration.

Today, I’m looking at the iconic Big Muff Pi. For most players, this is the most classic version of the Muff, at least from a visual point of view. Standing proud in its over-the-top, giant enclosure, the pedal relies on a classic 4-stage silicon transistor circuit to create its famous singing sustain and crushing distorted harmonics.

The unit features a basic three-knob layout with dials for Volume, Tone, and the gain knob labeled as Sustain. It's true bypass and can run on a 9V battery or a pedalboard power supply.

The Big Muff is pedal royalty at this point, and with a long list of famous admirers, it certainly doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone. That said, today I’m going to take a closer look at the stomp that defined good guitar tone for so many, see how it holds up today, and see whether it’s just nostalgia or has a place on modern pedalboards.

Specs

• Launch price: $101 | £75 | €89
• Type: Fuzz
• Controls: Volume, Tone, Sustain
• Features: Quad-transistor fuzz with true bypass switching
• Connectivity: 1/4" input and output
• Bypass: True bypass
• Power: 9V
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 75 mm x 175 mm
• Weight: 450 g
• Options: N/A
• Contact: Electro-Harmonix

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

Right, first things first, this pedal is massive. Like, seriously big. Fun fact: it’s called the Big Muff because it was larger than Mike Matthews’ compact original Muff Fuzz, which predated this one by a few months. Well, it certainly lives up to the name.

Is it totally impractical by today’s pedal standards? Absolutely, but I don’t care one bit. I’ve always thought the Big Muff was a cool-looking pedal, and the ginormous and unwieldy enclosure is a lot of the appeal. From a build point of view, it’s a pretty lightweight pedal; in fact, it feels almost like there’s nothing inside it, but that’s not to say it feels cheap. Far from it. It feels solidly put together and well made with smooth controls and a firm but satisfying footswitch.

I’ve gigged many versions of the Big Muff, from this one to the Little Big Muff, the Nano, and even a Russian one, and I can reassure you that they always hold up to the harsh rigors of stage life. Genuinely, I’m yet to break one, and I’m not exactly light on my feet when I’m stomping around on stage.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

With just a trio of dials, this pedal works just like any other three-knob drive pedal – and it’s not exactly difficult to dial in. In a world of complex modern pedals, I think the control layout here is refreshingly simple; even pure beginners can get a usable sound with very little fuss. The three knobs of Volume, Tone, and Sustain are clearly labeled and large enough to grab mid-song if you wanted to make on-the-fly adjustments on stage.

Obviously, the volume knob controls the overall output level, allowing you to match or boost your signal to sit perfectly in a mix. The Tone knob is a sweeping EQ that shifts the pedal’s voice from dark and woolly to bright and biting; use this dial to season the high-end to taste.

Of course, the Sustain knob is where the magic happens. Turning it up increases the gain, and adds more clipping and saturation, pushing the fuzz from a subtle sizzle to the classic, roaring Big Muff wall of sound. I’d honestly say the interaction between these controls is very intuitive. There’s really no bad setting, and you can quickly find usable tones without endless tweaking.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

I don't think it’s hyperbolic to say the sound of the Big Muff Pi is instantly recognizable. It's thick, saturated, and loaded with sustain. Personally to me, this is the archetypal fuzz tone – it’s at least the fuzz sound I’m the most familiar with.

There’s something about the huge, creamy, and harmonically rich tone that flatters both chords and single-note lines, and I just can’t get enough of it.

Sonically, the pedal delivers a massive low end with smooth highs, but the mid-range is noticeably scooped. This lack of mids is perhaps both the Big Muff’s calling card and, for some, its Achilles heel.

Many players love the scooped sound, but others think it lacks definition, and well, that’s a fair comment. It can sound a little unfocused, and when playing in a band, it can be easily lost in the mix.

Playing a Gibson Firebird through the Big Muff into a mid-focused amp like my beloved Vox AC30, I found that pairing helped balance the pedal’s inherent lack of midrange. This amp’s natural pokeyness added focus and punch, letting the Muff’s character shine through without sounding too hollow.

Stacking the Big Muff with other pedals opens up even more tonal possibilities. Placing a transparent overdrive in front can tighten the lows and bring the mids forward, while running it after modulation and delay can create lush, swirling shoegaze soundscapes.

I found that the pedal responds really well to different guitars and pickups, but always retains its unmistakable Muff-y identity.

Verdict

The Big Muff is a stone-cold classic in my eyes. You certainly don’t get to enjoy 57 years on the pedalboards of iconic players unless you sound the part, are dependable, and easy to use – and well, the Big Muff Pi ticks all three boxes.

Its instantly recognizable voice, massive sustain, and rich, creamy fuzz have inspired generations of guitarists and shaped the sound of countless records.

Despite its undeniably bulky enclosure, which is sure to frustrate anyone trying to maximize pedalboard real estate, the payoff in tone is more than worth the inconvenience.

The straightforward three-knob layout is refreshingly simple, allowing you to dial in everything from smooth, singing leads to thick, wall-of-sound chords with minimal effort. While the classic mid-scoop can make it tricky to sit perfectly in every mix, it’s also a key part of the Big Muff’s character, and a clever amp or pedal pairing can overcome this small limitation.

What truly sets the Big Muff apart is its versatility and enduring appeal. Whether you’re chasing Gilmour’s soaring solos, Corgan’s alt-rock crunch, or J Mascis’s fuzz-drenched riffing, the Big Muff delivers in spades.

Yes, more feature-packed or compact fuzz pedals are on the market, and some variants offer greater flexibility, but none capture the iconic sound and spirit of the original quite like the Big Muff Pi. If you want classic fuzz in its purest form, this pedal remains the gold standard.

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That Pedal Show

Today is Tuesday. I got home on Sunday from a trip to San Francisco with my guitar and pedals, where I opened for Spike and the Gimmie Gimmes at The Kilowatt city venue. It was fabulous.

But while my pedal bag included a PolyTune, OCD and reverb, all I really needed was my beloved Vox wah-wah. Hello, my name is Eva Walker. I'm a wah-wah addict, and this is my story.

I remember my first wah-wah fondly. I didn’t buy it – it was gifted to me by an ex. But no matter the source, I marveled that I could manipulate my guitar’s natural tone with a simple flex or point of my foot. As a former dancer (tap and ballet) I could put my training to good use.

For me, the wah-wah is single-handedly the greatest, most recognizable guitar sound. The alternation between high and low frequency isn’t just a cool effect – it’s power! It’s the ability to influence the listener from sounding like a temper tantrum from my two-year-old daughter to the teacher on Charlie Brown giving a lecture.

What I love most is that it sounds like it could be talking or crying. Whenever I hear a player using it, I wonder: are they speaking or are they weeping?

One of my favorite weeping wah-wah songs is Maggot Brain by Funkadelic. As some guitar-heads know, George Clinton told Eddie Hazel to play the lead solo as if his mother just died. Mission accomplished!

Although I think it’s more that the Strat’s mother just died and Funkadelic are the pallbearers. Sometimes I can’t listen to the whole 10-minute song without feeling overly emotional.

The weeping wah-wah features prominently in plenty of songs from the 1960s and ’70s. Perhaps most famously is Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix; he sounds like he’s wailing, screaming and even begging. Somehow, though, it’s just two tones on a seesaw.

As for that delightful talking wah-wah, players know that making a guitar talk isn’t the most difficult thing in the world. The talent is in how a player puts emotion into that language. One of my favorite examples is What I Am by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians.

The guitar practically raps – clean, calm and consistent, the energy builds as it makes its final point. Kenny Withrow knows how to make his guitar talk. It’s like he gave it a public speaking class; he shows real diction and dexterity.

Another great example is Tell Me Something Good by Rufus and Chaka Khan. It’s as if Chaka Khan is Chuck D and the lead guitar is Flava Flav – yes, that’s the hype wah! The guitar offers two standout features that could carry the track on their own, yet they prove to be complimentary in the background; the peanut gallery.

More of my favorite wah-wah comes in 1970s Afrorock songs from areas like Nigeria and Zambia. W.I.T.C.H, Chrissy Zebby Tembo and the Ngozi Family kill me. Tracks like Coffin Maker and Troublemaker are Zamrock staples that heavily stand on the fuzzy wah-wah.

The recordings at times even sound cheap or low quality – muffled. But it’s the talent and the choices made by the musicians that make them some of the best recordings I’ve ever heard, where the wah-wah displays rawness, resilience and frustration from civil wars and economic struggle.

Another example is Blacky Joe from the Nigerian band PRO (People’s Rock Outfit). The tune puts me in the shoes of the titular Joe, who’s burnt all his bridges in town. He’s a misfit, constantly in shady situations. The guitar solo at the end could easily be Joe running away or begging for his life. It’s the sound of a defenseless man.

The best compliment I’ve ever gotten came from a man in New York. I’d just come off stage after an hour with my favorite pedal. “Wow!” he said. “You’re like Jimi Hendrix but with a better ass!”

I’m pretty sure I hugged him. Hey, addicts have to stick together.

What is it?

When it comes to cramming a lot of tone into tiny units, Positive Grid's Spark Series of amp modelers has led the industry for years. From combos and practice amps to headphones and the pocket-sized Spark Go, the Sand Diego-based firm has proven a formidable player in the field.

It’s a surprise, then, that it’s taken this long for the tech to be converted into the more traditional pedal format. With the say-it-as-it-is Spark Pedal, that’s changing.

Crafted as an all-in-one amp and effects pedal, with a looper and partner mobile app for scrupulous tone sculpting, it’s super compact and caters to electric guitars, acoustics, and bass in equal measure. Flexibility is also the name of the game, with the pedal ready to become the epicenter of someone’s entire rig, a recording tool, or a versatile practice station.

Under the hood is the same Spark tech that has impressed players worldwide. It packs 33 amp models, 43 effects, and grants users access to over 100,000 tones through Positive Grid’s online ToneCloud community. That creates near-infinite tonal possibilities in a unit that easily slots into a guitar bag.

Other features include a rechargeable battery for up to seven hours of shredding (there’s no mains power option), Bluetooth connectivity with users funneled through its partnering mobile amp for operation, and AI tone building.

The latter is the same prompt-generating feature that first launched in its impressive Bias X plugin, and it can craft tones on demand from the array of amp models and effects baked into the pedal.

Positive Grid's software is typically quick and easy to get great results from, and its track record of releases attests to that. So, is the Spark pedal another victory for the series, or does the new format fall short?

Specs

• PRICE: $199 | £179
• ORIGIN: China
• TYPE: Amp and effects modeler pedal
• FEATURES: 33 amps and 43 effects, plus access to the Positive Grid ToneCloud community, looper, Bluetooth, MIDI-compatible 
• CONTROLS: Drive, three-band EQ, amp type, volume, three preset footswitches
• CONNECTIONS: Input, mono and stereo outputs, expression pedal, MIDI in/out, USB-C port, headphone jack
• POWER: Built-in battery with up to seven hours of playtime, rechargeable via USB-C
• DIMENSIONS: 170 (w) x 100 (d) x 30-50mm (h)
• CONTACT: Positive Grid

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

At 0.58kg, it weighs just a little more than a standard Boss pedal, and about half of a Crybaby Wah. And with the Spark’s signature black-and-gold drip, it walks a tightrope between classic pedal and modern aesthetics, in my book. It’s small but mighty.

All the in/outputs are housed to the rear of the pedal, and with expression pedal compatibility as well as MIDI – with 3.5mm jack-to-MIDI port adapters coming in the box it ships in – it’s well equipped and neatly assembled. The Power and Bluetooth buttons, however, sit by the input, so an angled jack is slightly ill-advised, as it gets in the way. It’s a small note.

Intriguingly, the Spark Pedal follows the lead of the Spark Go in that most of its outer shell is textured rubber, yet it looks and feels durable. The real benefit here is that the entire bottom skirt of the pedal means it’s never really in the mood for sliding about.

As with most other Spark products, there’s a real marriage between the unit and its mobile app, which means I’m tethered to both a lot of the time. For more traditional players who don’t want extra screens and tech to get a pedal to sing, it’s likely to prove off-putting. But it also makes a lot of sense.

Often, these products are better managed through a mobile or desktop app, but still let you craft tones and edit settings within the unit itself. That's the case here with EQ, amp and effect type editable on the hardware but further control requiring the app. In truth, I imagine most players intrigued by the Spark Pedal will not be put off by this phone-and-stompbox marriage, given that it’s very much a futuristic, tech-filled product; it’s digital through and through. The app makes the experience far better.

Setting up the app and using it was pleasingly intuitive. But without coming across as ‘old man yells at cloud,’ the thought of tweaking a tone via my phone at soundcheck is pretty bizarre.

The pedal itself looks really smart and makes great use of the limited space. Its row of six knobs has multiple uses and, at a glance, makes the powerful pedal look much prettier and far less intimidating. They’re quite stiff to touch, in a pleasing, sturdily built way, and they give the Spark Pedal a fairly premium feel considering it’s almost entirely rubber and plastic.

From there, a series of seven lights flicker and flash to show players what mode it’s in, whether Bluetooth is on, the power status, and more. It takes me a minute to get to grips with everything, but I find it as intuitive as it can be. Still, the app is where I tend to gravitate, because it displays the amps and pedals, etc., in a more obvious way – I can see the green tube screamer or the Marshall-looking amp head – it feels far more tactile and less like I’m getting dressed in the dark.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

In amp mode, the dials are straightforward: Drive, a three-band EQ, the big center dial for choosing the amp type (Clean, Glassy, Crunch, High-Gain, Metal, and Bass), and the master volume. While the dials have lines on them, as is tradition, each is also surrounded by LED lights that show how much, or how little, something is dialed in. It’s all very clear.

Pressing the center dial switches the Spark Pedal from Amp to FX mode, and the dials now offer different functions. The far-left dial houses the Boost, Distortion, and Fuzz effects, increasing in intensity before switching to the next effect. The next dial does likewise with modulations – Tremolo, Chorus, Phaser, and Flanger. On the other side of the center dial, there are choices of Digital, Vintage, Multi, and Reverse delays, and Studio, Chamber, Hall, and Ambient reverbs.

If I press and hold the center button, the tuner engages, which, for me, is a really important feature if Positive Grid has any real hopes of players using the Spark Pedal live. The pedal doesn’t display the name of the note being played; it only tells me if it’s sharp, flat, or just right. For minor adjustments on the go, it’s useful enough, but for any more specifics, the app becomes a crutch – for better or for worse.

The same applies elsewhere. Spark Pedal sans app is well-suited for making smaller adjustments. Sure, adding a little fuzz, delay, and reverb to a crunch tone can make it sound wholly different, and I am having a lot of fun making those more wholesale changes on the pedal’s face, but there’s also a ceiling. For anything more involved, like tweaking the speed of the Tremolo, the feedback of the delay, or the specific amp at play, the app becomes a necessity.

One benefit of being chained to the app is making the most of Positive Grid’s AI tone generator. I first typed in “modern prog rock rhythm,” and within about a minute – there was a short wait – it served up three presets and a breakdown of how it got there. The three presets are previewable and savable, making for an easy addition to my bank of tones.

The crunch tone I found a little underwhelming; it was a bit too scuzzy for what I was looking for, but the middle option paired a Friedman BE-100 (down as BE-101) and matching cab with a Tube Drive and a few other accouterments. The problem is that when I accidentally press back on my phone, it closes the app completely and takes a few seconds to reconnect to the pedal. It also takes me back to the home page, which is frustrating, as I lose that tone entirely.

The Amp Type dial is also smart. Once I find a tone I like - for instance, I found a user-made Slash/Guns N’ Roses tone using a Marshall - I can tweak the amp type, as it says on the tin. So if that crunch amp needs a shot in the arm, I can turn it to high gain while leaving the other settings alone, or pull it back for a glassy clean. It also changes the cab to match the head, which is the best way to work it.

So yes, it’s designed to be used almost always in conjunction with the app, which is like the key to the Spark Pedal’s tonal kingdom, but the pedal itself is also really well laid out; everything makes sense, everything’s easy to find and tweak, and it’s hard to find any major downsides here.

Also, with three preset footswitches per bank, and each bank wholly customizable, that should leave most players with enough tones to cover a song each for live. For example, preset one could be a glassy clean with a little chorus, with the other two for rhythm and lead channels.

Naturally, it’s not as plentiful as Neural DSP Quad Cortex, a Line 6, Kemper, or the other leading built-for-live modelers, but there should be more than enough to get by. Preset changes are also lightning quick. But for those looking to take this into the rehearsal room and beyond, I think it's a drawback in terms of flexibility that it's completely battery-powered – you can't use your pedal power supply or any other mains adaptor here. You always need to consider battery depletion and recharging.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

From my experience with Positive Grid's Spark range of modelers, it’s nigh-on impossible to craft a bad tone. Its products are always really easy to use and very forgiving. The Spark Pedal is no different. Even with some of the built-in metal tones, which were initially too nasal, old-school, and cliché for me, a simple nip-and-tuck with the EQ quickly fixes things. Not once have I managed to concoct something downright awful; it’s just taste that dictates whether what I dial in is exciting or not inspiring enough to lock that particular amp in place.

You can see that by scrolling through the provided presets. From a pure clean tone provided by a model of a Matchless DC-30, to some really lovely, warm-but-gritty crunch tones from an Orange AD30, and searing 5150 lead tones (all from bank B), the bar is high, and the versatility of sounds on offer is hard to argue with. I rarely tweak the other presets; they’re finely tuned to begin with.

I plug a variety of electric guitars into the Spark Pedal. From a Fishman-powered Charvel San Dimas Tele to a seven-string Strandberg Boden N2 Standard and a 30” Gear4Music baritone tuned one octave below drop-D, it handles everything I throw at it with ease. There’s no tuning so low that the amps fall apart, and really, given the breadth of options, no genre that feels out of reach.

With tones so quick to dial in, or find via provided, user-made, and AI-powered presets, there’s a sense of a great well of inspiration for players to draw upon.

There are rare moments when I’m left a little disappointed. The Reverse Delay, for instance, has an inherently digital sound and doesn’t track quite as well as I’d like. It’s a little glitchy. But more often than not, reaching for an effect gives me what I want, from fuzzing up a bass tone (which sounded great with my baritone) to embellishing a clean tone with a nice, wavering chorus. Largely, very few moments of using the pedal have left me wanting more.

For those looking to call upon cornerstone tones for covers, this is an excellent value option. Whether it's a Marshall JCM-800 for tight, British rock and metal tones, or a Blackface Duo (based on a Fender Twin) for spangly, John Mayer-inspired cleans, the Spark Pedal nails the brief time and again. The quality is high enough to gig with, and versatile enough to make a solo practice an absolute hoot. Playing also feels dynamic under my fingers, and the amps the tones are modeled off are easy to recognize the majority of the time – something a lot of cheaper modelers can struggle with.

Moreover, it tracks really well, so using it to record, practice, and gig are all tasks it’s more than capable of handling. Add in an expression pedal and MIDI switching, and this is a serious bit of kit for a price closer to a single effect pedal or wireless guitar system than the big dog modelers of the world.

Verdict

Positive Grid's reputation with the Spark family of products has preceded it here. Its track record of delivering impressive, highly versatile tones in really affordable, user-friendly packages is a standout. So it’s perhaps wise that it’s taken this long to add a more traditional amp-in-a-box format to the celebrated series; it’s gone into this task emboldened by previous successes, and it comes out on the other end with flying colors.

Tone-wise, there’s no compromise compared to the rest of the range. It’s the same great array of options, all tweakable and re-shapable on the pedal itself, and, to a larger, more detailed extent, via the partner app.

For $199, it feels like a real steal, and certainly has its head above a lot of the other competitors circling that same price point. Sure, it’s no (much more expensive) Quad Cortex or Tone Master Pro, but the drop-off isn’t insane either, and it’s packed with more than enough features to get almost every player by.

My playing experience was 10x better with the app loaded, even just as a visual aid to see what amp and effects a preset offers, and whether I wanted to swap anything out. The tuner was also far better on the app than the pedal alone, so that reliance on a mobile phone companion may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and will make it more suited to the home environment for others.

But with three presets per bank, AI tone building, and enough amps and effects to handle all genres, there’s a hell of a lot going for the Spark Pedal.

Guitar World verdict: For those new to the modeling world, or players with tighter budgets, this should be top of mind for practice and gigs alike into an FRFR cab or PA. For more experienced players, and those with a little more cash to splash, it’s more of a practice and recording companion plugged straight into a DAW, or used via Bluetooth to jam along to songs, rather than something that might replace your trusty amp or a higher-end modeler. With its price, ease of use, and some really nice features, this pedal makes a very welcome addition to the Spark’s genuinely brilliant range of low-cost modelers.

• More info: Positive Grid

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Positive Grid

• Best amp modelers: rack-mounted and floorboard options for every budget

What is it?

With the PR for its new drop-tuning pedal, the Chug Capo, Ola Englund’s Solar is coming out of the traps with confidence and at least two potential aces up its sleeve.

The pedal’s shtick is simple: It pitches the entire guitar signal by a set number of semitones – stretching up and down one octave each – and does so, the firm reckons, with a greater clarity than ever before. Yet many other pedals, like the long-adored DigiTech Drop, the new and impressive challenger, the Boss XS series, aren’t going to take such hype lightly. The Chug Capo can’t be deemed the new gold standard without winning a fight or two first.

Chiefly, Solar points to two standout factors that go in its favor. Firstly, the “digital bi-directional capo” pedal promises the lowest-latency performance, roughly half that of the other big players. That means players can chug to their heart’s content without it feeling like it’s dragging; it might make them forget the signal has been pitched altogether.

Secondly, there’s talk of retaining "sonic integrity" even with the shifting at its most extreme. That means full, detailed note clarity with single notes and chords. The Boss XS-100 proved remarkable at this; with its artifact-free shifting, it made it one of 2025’s most impressive pedals. The bar is high.

The overarching idea from Solar here is that this pedal could feasibly replace the need to gig with multiple guitars, as it can handle tuning changes in a flash and it also benefits from a preset slot. At the same time, a Mix dial also lets it double as an octaver. It could become a real cuckoo piece of gear.

Lastly, there’s also the option of plugging in a non-latching switch, which is not included, and would need to be purchased from a third party. The Boss FS-5U and the Harley Benton Tap Tempo Switch have both been confirmed as compatible.

So then, the Solar Chug Capo is a pretty straightforward design, and its makers are talking a big game. But how does it fare against the pedals it claims to be ready to slay?

Specs

• Price: $249 (approx £186/€217)
• Type: Pitch shifter and octaver pedal
• Controls: Pitch +/-, mix, Fav, on/off footswitch
• Connectivity: 1/4" inputs, outputs, 3.5mm non-latching switch input, 9V DC, USB-C
• Power: DC 9V, 180mA
• Dimensions: 120mm x 70mm (4.72 x 2.75 Inches)
• Contact: Solar Guitars

Build quality ★★★★½

The pedal is an absolute tank. Coming in a little boxier than your average Boss pedal, it should sit on most pedalboards with little fuss, and honestly feels like it could survive a nuclear holocaust and still be able to down-tune the world’s last-ever electric guitar. Its metal face makes it clear what kind of guitar playing it’s aimed at – even if I’ve never been a fan of how on-the-nose Solar is with the cliché metal aesthetic – and its four interface buttons and sole footswitch are equally rock-solid.

Curiously, it boots up at -2 by default. I find it a shame that it doesn’t recall the last setting used, but it’s an easy fix nevertheless.

Meanwhile, the on light glows red when the pedal is engaged. There are no color discrepancies between up and down shifts, but it glows blue when the Mix mode is on.

Still, its lack of MIDI connectivity harms its compatibility in modern rigs. It’s built to either be on or off throughout a song, but it feels like an oversight all the same.

Usability and features ★★★★☆

The Chug Capo's interface is as simple as it gets, and that works in its favor. The screen is bright and clear, with arrows on either side for pitching the signal up and down. A dot appears above the Mix and Fav mini switches to indicate when they’re engaged, and on the darkest stages, visibility should be no issue.

Pressing the Mix button turns it into octaver mode, blending the dry and pitched signals. Holding the switch down for around four seconds displays a number between 1 and 99, which is the percentage of the pitched signal that’s audible. The higher the number, the drier the signal I get. Conveniently, it defaults to a 50/50 split, unless I’m recalling a preset.

Speaking of which, the Fav button instantly brings up a saved setting, and a new favorite can be saved by holding the button down for 4 seconds again. It’s a doddle to do. However, given that Englund and Solar see this as a trusty gigging companion, I think this feature should have been taken further. There is only one preset slot, so for sets where more than one shift is needed, I’d need to squat down and dial everything in manually. Nevertheless, having presets at all is still a feature the compact competition of the Boss XS-1 and DigiTech Drop don't offer.

Granted, hitting the Fav button a second time restores the pedal to its last setting, including whether Mix is on or off and its percentage. That means there are, in essence, two settings you have access to, which does give its practicality a shot in the arm – even if the non-preset mode will need to be freshly dialed in every time I boot up the pedal. But there’s another issue, too.

I feel the Mix and/or Fav buttons could have benefited from being footswitches. There are feasibility issues here, of course, with Solar wanting to keep the pedal as small as possible. But even the smallest of feet are going to have issues trying to hit any of those buttons on the fly, while not simultaneously hitting one of the arrows. Of course, this is where the extra non-latching switch comes in, connecting via a ¼” to 3.5mm cable handily provided in the box. I can confirm the Boss FS-5U works a treat, but it also increases the pedal’s surface area and, in fixing one operational problem, causes clunky problems of its own.

Another feature Englund is very happy about is how fast the pedal turns on/off, and does so without any weird glitches. Bashing the footswitch repeatedly confirmed that, which is great for peace of mind when making changes mid-song.

Sounds ★★★★☆

In Englund’s own words, the pedal has been created to satisfy his need for “something fast, something tight, and something specifically made for metal rhythm playing,” and so it only seems fair that that’s the benchmark the pedal is put up against.

When tracking fast, aggressively picked riffs, the pedal does its duties with aplomb, and it’s easy to forget that the guitar is actually pitched at times, given the speed of its response and how smooth it handles riffs. Even pinch harmonics squeal with clarity and aren’t smeared with weird glitches.

It’s a similar deal for chords; they don’t get too mushy; they don’t sound warped, and only when making more extreme shifts – +/-7 is where imperfections start to arise – are chords marred by a sense of artificiality. It’s all very impressive, and honestly, even in 2026, expecting an extreme pitch jump to be executed flawlessly feels unrealistic.

Solar forewarns players that “for Solos, some digital artifact is unavoidable and audible as in all pitch manipulators, but the tone remains faithful to the source.” This is very much the case, and, in a shootout with the Boss XS-100 and DigiTech Drop, playing the same Gojira-inspired aggressive metal riff through -2, -4, -8, and -12 shifts, the Solar wins out in terms of tone preservation. There is a minor signal loss and a little of the life sucked out of the Boss, while the DigiTech falls just behind that. The differences, I must add, aren’t night and day, but it’s clear that in moments like this, I am finding that Solar can walk as well as it talks.

However, the tone-sapping is avoided by compressing the pitched signal; it’s essentially trying to pep the signal back up after applying the effect. While that means it really does excel when playing heavy riffs, the compression is far more noticeable with clean tones. Here, the Boss is the outright winner, perhaps alluding to the fact that the Boss is meant to be a catch-all in terms of genres and styles, while this is an area that isn’t the Chug Capo’s strong suit. It adds a little too much grit to the clean tone for my liking, as it endeavors to prevent the signal from losing too much character.

As for solos, I’d go one step further than Solar’s advice. Where possible, disengage the effect and shift the pitch manually, perhaps only relying on it if there are open-string passages that are vital. It keeps things pure; the Chug Capo is meant to be a rhythm machine above all else.

Again, the differences between the three pedals are negligible, but if you’re reading this with very specific uses of the pedal in mind, they are really important aspects to consider. If, like I imagine I would, you need a pedal to go between D and C standard at the press of a button during a metal show, the Solar edges the Boss. And that surprised me, because the Boss is exceptional.

But for more universal applications, I fear Solar’s quest to make it the ultimate chugger means Boss takes the crown for its versatility. If metal rhythms aren’t your only usage, the Boss suddenly becomes way more viable.

It’s only around +/- 7, and beyond that I start to feel the pedal show its weaknesses, but that’s common across its competitors, too – it’s a big jump; there are always going to be side effects. For anything less, I’d happily use this over bringing an extra guitar to a gig, and the pitched tones are virtually indistinguishable from the non-pitched tones with regard to the cleanliness and purity of the effect in that first quartet of semitone shifts. To that end, the Solar can hold its head high. For one-track metal rhythm usage, this pedal will absolutely be a godsend for so many gigging riffers.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★☆

The Chug Capo does exactly what it says on the tin when it comes to standing as a potential replacement for a second guitar for gigging metal bands. When shifting the signal by up to seven semitones, my tone doesn’t suffer; chords ring out fully, fast runs are tracked with ease. Even pinch harmonics remain clear and artifact-free.

But, ultimately, it’s a pedal designed for metal guitarists. For more universal uses, especially in lower-gain and clean settings, the Boss XS-100 beats it, but not by much.

The fact it only has one preset slot, and that the Mix dial – which turns it into an octaver – isn’t overly accessible on the fly, lets it down a little, but for metal guitar pitch shifts on the fly, I feel Solar’s big talk isn't hyperbole.

Guitar World’s verdict: Designed to be the ultimate pitch-shifting pedal for metal rhythm guitar playing, the Chug Capo aces the test with its shifts up to +/-7 semitones artifact-free, while also retaining the original tone and handling fast passages and chords comfortably. But it has also painted itself into a corner, away from high-gain settings; its inherent compression becomes apparent, and I feel that a few quality-of-life features have been overlooked. It isn’t the undisputed king, but it certainly deserves a place in the castle’s keep.

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Attila Voros

Squier has unveiled its first Paranormal Series signature guitar – a 12-string Telecaster built for Queens of the Stone Age’s Troy Van Leeuwen.

The Paranormal Series has been Squier’s most reliable range for bizarre and bonkers builds since its inception back in 2020. It has produced everything from the Jazzmaster XII to the Super-Sonic.

It made perfect sense, then, as the home for Van Leeuwen’s new signature: a recreation of his Masterbuilt Custom Shop 12-string Telecaster that he’s played with QOTSA and Iggy Pop.

Perhaps too niche for a Masterbuilt reissue, maybe a bit too daring for a standard Fender run, the Squier Paranormal Series is the perfect place for this oddball. And since Van Leeuwen wanted to keep it as accessible as possible, it made sense for all involved.

“When creating my second signature with Fender, I wanted an instrument at an affordable price point that could inspire anyone who’s ever been curious about playing a 12-string,” he says.

“Having worked with the team for over a decade, they easily connected with my vision for a guitar that’s designed for functionality, aesthetically striking, and would sound great right out of the box.”

The result is a 12-string like no other, inspired by one of Van Leeuwen’s main workhorse guitars. It features a nyatoh body and maple neck, as well as a pair of Fender Designed Alnico single-coils.

The Custom Telecaster XII headstock is drafted to help with those six extra strings, while a 12-string top-load/string-through bridge shoots for maximum functionality. Again, that was important to Van Leeuwen.

“The Custom Shop has a more vintage-style bridge. I didn’t want that for this – I wanted something that was user-friendly right out of the box,” he tells Guitar World.

“Functionality is so important because it’s hard to get a 12-string bridge to work right. It had to be usable because when you’ve got 12-strings, you really need them to stay in tune.”

Other appointments include an Indian laurel fingerboard, 1.6875” wide nut, and gorgeous Copper colorway.

At $599, it’s a very tempting price point for an electric 12-string. And it’s no show piece, either. Van Leeuwen himself used the then-unannounced Squier version when he played with Michael Stipe on Jimmy Kimmel.

The Paranormal Troy Van Leeuwen Telecaster XII is available now for $599.

Visit Fender.com for more.

Innovation Week: For most of the electric guitar’s history, changing pickups has meant commitment. Strings come off, screws come out, the control cavity opens and somewhere along the way a soldering iron gets hot. That’s fine if you’re installing a favorite set for good. Not so appealing if you simply want to try a different pickup five minutes later.

The idea of quick change pickups is not new. Dan Armstrong’s clear Ampeg guitars, launched in 1969, used interchangeable pickups that could slide in and out without dismantling the instrument. What has changed is the number of modern builders revisiting that idea and the different ways they’re trying to make pickup swapping as routine as changing a pedal.

Gibson takes a more straightforward approach with its Quick Connect system. Used on select Gibson guitars since 2011, it replaces traditional solder joints with plug in connectors inside the control cavity. It may not be as quick and easy as some other systems but with a screwdriver and a compatible Gibson pickup, the job becomes considerably less intimidating.

Seymour Duncan’s Liberator, EMG’s solderless system, Kwikplug by Guitar Fetish and Obsidian Wire harnesses follow the same general philosophy. They leave the conventional pickup mounting arrangement intact but remove soldering from the equation. For home experimenters, repair shops and players wary worried about cooking a lead wire or soldering a bad joint, solderless pickup connectors may be appealing.

The most dramatic reinvention comes from Guitar X, whose Swiss developed magnetic, removable module mounting system allows pickups to be pulled through the rear of a compatible guitar and replaced in seconds. Guitar X offers mounted pickups from Cream T, Fralin, Seymour Duncan and others, while its technology has also found its way into guitars from additional builders.

Somnium takes a more engineered approach with their Tonestorm system. It uses machined aluminum cartridges that snap into the guitar body and make their electrical connection automatically. The cartridge can house standard pickups from different manufacturers, including active and passive designs, and a loaded module can be changed in seconds.

Aclam takes a similar route with its AECPUS Exchangeable Cartridge Pickup System offered on Canivell guitars. Pickups live in cartridges that lock into a rear frame using gold plated contacts, allowing players to move between single coils, humbuckers and P 90s without removing strings or reaching for a soldering iron.

Other builders expand the modular idea beyond one pickup at a time. Reddick’s Voyager guitar uses complete removable pickup layouts plus separate control modules, so a player can move from humbuckers to single coils, P 90s or Tele style combinations in seconds.

Fern’s Phoenix guitar goes further by putting pickups, controls, wiring and capacitors into completely interchangeable cherry wood modules that can be swapped out in seconds.

Then there are newcomers like The Boaz One which uses complete pickup cassettes, while Shark Guitars uses a one button release module that accepts standard single coils, humbuckers, P 90s and active pickups.

The Gyrock system from France’s Wild Customs is perhaps the most mechanically ambitious quick change design in the category.

Rather than removing one pickup and installing another, the guitar houses several pickups inside the body on rotating drums, mechanically shifting the desired pair beneath the strings and giving players access to as many as 15 real pickup combinations. The pickups are mounted in removable Gyrock modules accessed from the rear, so the cartridges themselves can also be replaced with different pickups.

The advantages of quick-change systems are pretty obvious but there are also some drawbacks. Most true cartridge systems require a guitar designed specifically around them, or some fairly serious modification to an existing instrument. And because many use their own proprietary format, they only really work if enough guitars, pickups and replacement modules are available to support the system.

The cost for some of these systems may be out of range for some players and many guitarists still like the idea of owning several guitars rather than asking one instrument to impersonate all of them.

So, has the soldering iron finally met its match? Not quite. Most of these systems still live in their own little worlds and they’re not compatible with each other. Once you commit to a particular system, you’re kind of stuck there.

Plenty of players will keep soldering the old fashioned way simply because that’s how they like to do things. But the idea that every pickup swap has to become a wiring project is starting to feel a little dated. The soldering iron isn’t going anywhere, but it may finally be getting some competition.

Innovation Week: The guitar industry is famously slow-moving. Heck, we’re still obsessing over designs pioneered in the ’50s. But every now and then, there will be a genuine game-changer – something that roots itself in the wider guitar consciousness and becomes part of the lexicon of the instrument.

But for every Line 6 Pod or EverTune, there’s an innovation that didn’t quite pan out – and as digital became the go-to buzz word for experimentation, the 21st century was full of ’em.

Below, we chart some of the designs that didn’t stand the test of time – or even make it through the next year…

Gibson Firebird X

You won’t always know when your new future-forward electric guitar design has failed – but there will be signs, like when hundreds of them are lying side by side in a parking lot, awaiting execution, as heavy machinery revs up in preparation to run over them and pound them into a mess of kindling and wire.

That is our abiding memory of the Gibson Firebird X, the guitar that was predicted to change guitar forever – but which ended up in a 2019 YouTube snuff movie.

“Don’t be so proud of this technological terror you have created,” warned intergalactic bad guy Darth Vader. He was speaking in 1975, but it could have been 2011 in response to then-Gibson chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz’s bullish pronouncement that we had just witnessed the future of guitar.

Complete with Robot tuners – more on them shortly – the Firebird X was as far from three pickups and the truth as you could get. A fugly offset with a complicated array of switches, sliders and dials for its onboard effects, 55 presets, piezo mode, tuning mode…

There was no manual. Not even Gibson knew what to do with this thing. Crazy, especially when Gibson had actually released an arguably more radical reimagining of the electric guitar three years prior, when the HD.6X-Pro Digital Guitar augmented the classy Les Paul platform with the capability to route the signal from each string individually via a hexaphonic pickup.

Okay, this didn’t catch on either – all those cables! – but for those of us who have forever been excited by Eddie Van Halen’s Ripley Guitar, the HD.6X-Pro was kind of cool. And it didn’t have Robot tuners.

Gibson Robot Guitar

If anything was emblematic of Gibson’s slide under the previous administration, it was the Gibson Robot Guitar, which featured a self-tuning system from Tronical that turned the tuners for you. It was like playing a guitar with an SUV parked on the headstock.

But Gibson wasn’t the only company to lose its mind in thrall to technology. The biggest guitar failures of the 21st century were really no different from the age-old missteps in guitar design when the likes of Vox, Kay, Guyatone, etc., were packing guitars with onboard effects in the ’70s.

Ibanez RGKP6

Exhibit A: the Ibanez RGKP6, which was presented as an entry-level RG-style shredder but had a Mini Kaoss Pad S2 on the front. It had what every $500 electric guitar didn’t need; namely its own touchpad-operated effects processor, sample recorder and audio player. Matt Bellamy, you have a lot to answer for.

Peavey AT-200

So, too, has Antares. Its Auto-Tune technology destroyed pop, and in 2012 it provided Peavey with the brains behind its Auto-Tune Guitar.

The AT-200 was a relatively stock S-style with onboard tech that digitally altered its tuning, providing you with virtual capo features – not to mention “perfect” intonation up and down the neck, much to the envy of three-saddle Telecaster players worldwide. Where is it now?

Moog E1

The Moog E1 was another that came and went. Endless sustain, Moog synth sounds, but again, kind of ugly, super-expensive, and these sounds would arrive in amp modelers and plugins.

Line 6 Variax

We should also mention the Line 6 Variax in dispatches. This was Line 6’s industry standard modeling tech in a guitar. Again, it never quite took off, but Steve Howe of Yes is a huge fan, most recently using its virtual sitar setting on his 2024 solo album, Guitarscape.

DigiTech iPB-10 Programmable Pedal Board 

You might be forgiven for thinking that, for a short while in the 2010s, guitar players were hellbent on destroying their iPads.

How else could you account for new all-in-one integrated pedalboard systems from DigiTech and IK Multimedia that required your iPad to be mounted to them, on the floor, providing the digital brain of your rig?

Okay, technically, you didn’t need to have your iPad actually in the unit at all times. When using DigiTech’s iPB-10 Programmable Pedal Board, launched in 2011, you could do the programming, remember your presets, and detach the tablet. But who has the memory for that? Not many of us.

IK Multimedia iRig Stomp I/O

The iPB-10 itself might not have lasted long, but its discontinuation didn’t stop IK Multimedia from revisiting the concept in 2018 with the iRig Stomp I/O.

You could load AmpliTube on your iPhone, iPad, or Microsoft Surface and use the device as a MIDI controller/audio interface. An iPad on the floor seemed foolhardy, but what did for these products was the march of progress.

Orange OPC

Guitar’s digital transformation got particularly weird in 2011 when Orange released an amp and personal computer combo, the OPC – spreadsheets up front, overdrive at the back.

Source Audio Hot Hand Ring

Source Audio invited us to look unhinged with the Hot Hand MIDI controller. You wore the device as a ring and you could control your pedals with a hand gesture. No-one got the memo that, even in the 21st century, playing guitar is largely a two-handed activity.

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

What is it?

There is only one show in town if you want a hot-rodded T-style guitar with active EMGs, a satin-smooth neck carved from caramelized flame maple, 24 stainless steel frets and contemporary ergonomics visited upon body and fingerboard alike – and you want all of this and some change from 500 bucks.

You know it. We know it. Harley Benton knows it. This is the German budget gear brand’s USP, doing more, charging less, and that is great. But can its guitars excite us in the same way as, say, a Charvel?

Charvel’s Standard Series San Dimas Style 2 postmodern Supertele is both a clear rival to the Fusion T-II, and it has mojo behind its build – the pop-cultural cachet that comes with being at the epicenter of the high-performance electric guitar revolution in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s.

Harley Benton does not have that but what its newly refreshed Fusion-T II series does have is options and plenty of them. It overwhelms us with numbers, with 18 new models released this year alone in a cornucopia of solid-color, metallic and translucent finishes.

Have yours with the choice of a six-saddle Babicz Z Series hardtail bridge or a Babicz 2-point tremolo. Locking tuners come as standard.

We think of the T-style as a blue-collar tool, the quintessential workhorse, and yet some of these Fusion-T II models present themselves as bona fide peacocks, such as the Quilt Raspberry Burst model with its bougie maple veneer giving it the rarified airs of a boutique build.

It looks just as ostentatious in Quilt Dusk Glow, a model that really speaks to the LA hotrod inspiration at play with a mismatched pair of Tesla Opus humbuckers, one covered, one uncovered with zebra bobbins. It’s as though you put it in the shop and asked them to swap the bridge humbucker out. Oh, and while you were there you got some coil-taps too.

We don’t have any of this fancy pants stuff here. The Fusion-T II EMG MN HT SBK is the made-for-metal option – and was evidently named by a cat walking across the Harley Benton keyboard.

Resplendent in Satin Black with black hardware and loaded with a pair of EMG Custom Retroactive Hot 70 humbuckers at the neck and bridge, and a Babicz hardtail, plus it comes with a reverse headstock that is kinda metal but really makes us think of something Joe Perry would play.

Specs

• Launch price: $479 | £429 | €499
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Nyatoh
• Neck: Roasted Canadian flamed maple / Modern C profile (21mm thickness at 12th fret: 23mm at 12th
• Fingerboard: Roasted Canadian flamed maple, 12" to 16" compound radius
• Scale length: 25.5”/648mm
• Nut/width: Graphtech TUSQ XL / 42mm
• Frets: 24, Blacksmith stainless steel medium jumbo frets
• Hardware: Harley Benton-branded Jinho JN-07 locking tuners, Babicz Z-Series FCH-Fixed 6 hardtail bridge
• String spacing at bridge: 52.5mm
• Electrics: 2x EMG Custom Retroactive Hot 70 humbuckers (neck and bridge), 3-way pickup selector, volume, tone
• Weight: 7.15lb/3.25kg
• Options: The Fusion T-II series includes 18 models, with other options fitted with Tesla Opus-1 humbuckers at the neck and bridge and the choice of the Babicz Z-Series FCH-Fixed 6 hardtail or Babicz FCH 2-Point Special Z-Series C Full Contact Tremolo
• Left-handed options: Yes, Satin Black
• Finishes: Satin Black
• Cases: No
• Contact: Harley Benton / Thomann

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

It’s funny when we talk about T-styles and S-styles and all that jazz (topical, too, but let’s not go there). But no, it’s funny/weird because the shape tells us very little about the guitar itself.

I have this Harley Benton sitting alongside my Fender Classic Player Baja Telecaster, which is very much in the style of the original Butterscotch blackguard… It’s just a big ol' slab o’ ash. The Harley Benton looks like it has more in common with a B-2 stealth bomber. They feel completely different. They sit differently in your lap.

Like the rest of the Fusion-T II series, this has a solid nyatoh body with heavy contouring in the cutaway and a generous amount of sculpting on the heel. All of which is not only a concession to player comfort but helps keep the weight down. This is a lightweight instrument at just over 7lbs.

The caramelized maple is nicely figured and well-fired to a deep reddish walnut. The neck joins the body with a four-bolt joint and a separate piece of roasted figured maple forms the fingerboard. It looks like a veneer on the headstock just to finish it off nicely.

Everything on this guitar is tidy, the fingerboard with its circle dot inlays on a figured piece of maple makes us think of high-end Ernie Ball Music Man designs such as the Sabre. The glow-in-the-dark fretmarkers along the side of the fingerboard is a welcome sight too.

The frets are smooth, their tangs disappearing into the fingerboard edges which has been left unbound. As per the fashion of high-performance electrics, the truss rod adjustment wheel is found at the top of the fingerboard.

The volume and tone controls are knurled metal and sit in recesses on the body’s top. The absence of a pickguard just adds to the minimalism. The Babicz bridge is a really tidy piece of kit. This and the quality tuners keeps things nice and steady. Tuning this up took no time at all – and it held its tune. What did take forever was trying to open the battery compartment on the back of the instrument. It’s either a footery contraption or I'm getting old. Both are probably true.

The only thing, however, to catch the eye is the misalignment of the pickup pole pieces and strings. They align on the neck pickup, but it is especially noticeable that the low E, A and D strings do not at the bridge. Would Harley Benton have been better to go for the Hot 70 with the wider Floyd/Fender spacing of 52mm?

Maybe. But the plot thickens. These are Custom Hot 70s, where all the pole-pieces are black and fixed (a regular Hot 70 humbucker has one slug with plain pole pieces, one with adjustable screw pole pieces). Sonically, they are the same pickup but are evidently made to Harley Benton specs, perhaps to support mass production.

The body is routed for a regular-sized humbucker – it’s doubtful whether a Trembucker sizing would fit better. Now, this does not make any appreciable difference to the tone in this instance, but it does look strange.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★★

I’m no stickler for a guitar’s weight but at the same time you will get no complaints from me at a 7lb guitar, especially one that's built for zippy playing styles.

Upper fret access is superlative on this instrument. It’s strange how this sits on the lap. The Fusion-T II feels as though the 12th fret within easier reach than my Tele. This could be an illusion, or it could be subliminal design cues to encourage players to tear up the fingerboard.

With all of the Fender-owned shred, rock and metal brands (EVH Gear, Charvel and Jackson) all widely using the 12” to 16” compound radius fingerboard, we can probably call this the industry standard, and it’s hard not to like as the fingerboard flattens towards the summit of the neck. Many a player will find these fingerboard dimensions the Platonic ideal.

The best compliment I can pay this neck – heck, this guitar – is that it at times it reminded me a little of the Fender American Ultra II Tele, although that has a D profile neck with a bit more wood on the shoulders.

Maybe a buttery smooth satin finished neck with a crowd-pleasing shape and stainless steel frets is all your need for that hyper-luxurious sports guitar vibe.

Also, don't worry about this neck being one of those obscenely thin profiles where it's a bit like running in carbon-plated shoes and you start cramping up after three songs. There's comfort baked into the menu.

Finally, kudos to Babicz for designing a bridge with no scratchy grub screws to catch your hand when palm muting. Epicurus was right all along; it's the little things...

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

The thing with Harley Benton is that it sometimes all feels like it is all too good to be true. The prices, the specs, all that.

And so, as a skeptic, it is almost disappointing to test out the controls and find that they do their job, that the tone knob does indeed roll back some of that bridge pickup top-end, making those clean tones more palatable when playing solo – more Les Paul-esque than anything else. What were we saying about the shape of the guitar telling us very little? Yeah, that x100.

The middle position, both humbuckers in play, is a superb voicing for hot and crunchy, kinda woolly ‘70s rock sounds, with the active EMG pairing invoking the decade that gave them their name.

And here’s the thing. I must make a confession. The Fusion-T II’s 21st-century design, the matte black finish and athletic ergonomics, the prospect of being sonically steamrollered by the merciless power of active EMGs, was not overwhelmingly enticing – it's like you’d need to be guitar's very own Chuck Yaeger to fully test this instrument's capabilities. But five minutes was all it took to change my mind.

There’s something pre-mastered about the Hot 70 humbucker tone, that gives you that trademark EMG bloom and clarity when played clean. Those of us introduced to EMG by Metallica et al will be relieved to know that the neck humbucker with a Boss Waza Craft CE-2W Chorus and a short delay gives you those Hetfield-esque clean tones – thick, splashy, box-office stuff.

Those a little bored of that sound might then be genuinely excited that this guitar is way more than that. Okay, they’re too beefy to be properly skronky but there’s a nice trebly scratch to that bridge humbucker that’s fit for CCR chord work.

You can access much of the Dazed & Confused tone universe, the talky throatiness of Aerosmith and Foghat, by pumping up the gain and rolling back on the volume. Playing around with the tone pot will even unearth some pseudo-cocked wah sounds.

And then, say, when Friday night arrives, you can look forward to playing on 10 and working with all the harmonic volatility that a great high-output pickup gives you.

Personally, I can take or leave active pickups. A passionate yearning for them as a teenager has given way to this feeling that I'd rather someone put a battery in me, not my guitar. But the low-noise, high-output performance makes me happy to have them here.

You can be extreme on this. You can be a little more tucked in. You can absolutely nail that early ‘80s metal tone without too much effort. Even on this old Blackstar tube amp combo with a little chorus and Catalinbread tape echo emulation, it’s all there. Vivian Campbell, Eddie Van Halen, George Lynch eat yer heart out.

Verdict

That misalignment of polepieces and strings caused a minor existentialist panic that there was something fundamentally wrong with this picture. But there wasn’t. And there was, in truth, nothing really wrong with this picture at all; that an electric guitar under $500 can play and sound as this does – it’s remarkable.

We musicians can be a snobbish about brand recognition. We want to play what our heroes play. But a little time spent with a guitar like this changes the calculus, especially in an inflationary economic environment.

No matter how competitive the market for guitar gear has become, it is not exactly saturated with T-styles at this price point with top-tier pickups from a market-leading brand, with guitars that combine an ambitious spec with an effective execution. There’s no question that the closure of the Harley Benton Reverb store is a kick in the backside for players in the US but, even so, this EMG-equipped Fusion-T II could still present great value.

It’s not without drawbacks. There is only one finish option. You have to stick a battery in it. You’ll have to buy a gig bag or a case separately and the visual of that pickup alignment is hard to get by. But that’s like going on holiday for two weeks and complaining about a day of rain. Did you have fun? Yes. Would you go back? Also yes.

Guitar World verdict: Harley Benton beefs up the T-style but avoids the pitfall of muscle above all else, with an active pickup that balances power with dynamics. And it puts the ball in the court of more established brands, challenging them to follow suit and officially make roasted figured maple, stainless steel frets and EMGs, y’know, a thing on guitars at this price.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Harley Benton

• "This could well be Harley Benton's most impressive electric guitar platform yet when it comes to value": Harley Benton ST-Modern HSS review

With Labor Day upon us, it can mean only one thing – huge savings on your favorite guitar brands! With hearty discounts on everything from Gibson to Epiphone, Fender to Schecter, now might be the best time to treat yourself to that special piece of musical equipment you've been eyeing. Whether that's a shred-worthy electric guitar, an angelic acoustic guitar, or a thunderous new bass, there’s plenty to get excited about this Labor Day.

It seems the biggest names in music retail have gone all in this year, with the likes of Guitar Center, Sweetwater, Positive Grid, and more slashing prices on some of their most popular products, but we think the most exciting offers come courtesy of Musician's Friend. Right now, you can score a whopping up to 60% off a huge range of music-making goodies.

As you’d expect, if you want to take advantage of these tasty deals, you'll want to be quick, as the sale ends on September 9. Below, I’ve highlighted a few of my favorite discounts so you can save some time and go straight to the good stuff.

Okay, so the headline offer from this sale is a colossal $6,000 off the stunning Gibson Johnny Cash SJ-200 Signature acoustic, a rare tribute to the Man in Black. Handcrafted by Gibson’s Custom Shop, this limited-edition guitar captures Cash’s signature tone and style with an AAA Sitka spruce top and stunning AAA flamed maple back and sides. The jumbo body delivers bold sound and projection, perfect for cutting through any mix. Whether you’re a collector or a player chasing authentic Cash vibes, this deal is an unmissable chance to own a piece of music history at a massive discount.

My favorite gigging guitar is my beloved Gibson Flying V. I take it to every gig, and it never lets me down. I've always thought about getting another as a backup for shows, but I've always found it difficult to justify – that was until I saw $120 off the Epiphone Flying V '70s. The T-Type Pro pickups rock, the body is incredibly well-balanced, and, of course, it looks fantastic!

Next up is a whopping $300 off the quirky D'Angelico Premier Series Bedford. It's got retro charm a-plenty, plus a seriously flexible P-90 pickup setup that gives you access to a huge range of tones.

If you want something more metal, this Schecter C-1 Platinum has a humongous $200 reduction, making it one of the best-value guitars in the whole sale for metalheads.

Looking for more epic guitar deals? Below is a list of the sales you don't want to miss

Today is the big one; Labor Day 2026 is delivering the goods left, right and center with all manner of guitar deals popping up to help you satiate your GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). Some of the discounts I've spotted so far today are right up there with what I'd expect to see at the end of November when the Black Friday guitar deals roll around, so if you can't hold out until then, you're in luck as now is a great time to shop.

With hearty discounts up to 50% on a huge range of gear from Fender to Gibson, Jackson, Martin and Blackstar at Sweetwater, through to potential 60% savings, plus discount coupons, at Musician's Friend, now is the best opportunity of the year so far to save money on some new guitar goodies; whether that's a shred-worthy electric guitar, an angelic acoustic guitar, or a thunderous new bass.

More of the biggest names in music retail have gone all in on the Labor Day sales this year too, with big hitters like Guitar Center, Positive Grid and Guitar Tricks all slashing prices on some of their most popular products and services.

In my experience, most sales should hang about for at least a couple of days after Labor Day, but if you see something you like, I'd recommend picking it up as soon as possible before the sale ends or potentially limited stock runs out.

Below, I've highlighted what I think are the best Labor Day guitar sales in town right now.

When the DragonForce shredder launched his first-ever signature guitar collaboration with PRS in the summer of 2025, it caused quite the stir online. Its bold style was completely different from anything Paul Reed Smith had put out before, with an all-new body design, Fishman Fluence Signature pickups, and even ditched the birds-in-flight inlays for a brood of dragons. It doesn’t get more DragonForce than that!

Speaking of his new model, Herman Li said, “With the PRS SE Chleo, we set out to create the best affordable professional-quality guitar unlike anything out there. It delivers a unique combination of effortless playability, outstanding craftsmanship, and versatile tonal range.

“It combines modern innovations with classic style, giving players the tools they need to create everything from classic tones to cutting-edge, new sounds,” he continues. “The SE Chleo was tour-tested to withstand night after night of intense live shows, in any touring conditions.”

The model is currently available in a trio of eye-catching finish options, from the striking green and yellow Mantis Burst to the pink Orchid Dusk and the gothic Charcoal Purple Burst, all of which show off a fierce flame maple top – but today there’s a new finish option being added to the list.

Sweetwater has just announced an exclusive Black Satin colorway of the SE Chleo. As expected, all other specs remain the same, with only the color difference being the distinguishing factor. So you can expect figured maple-topped mahogany beneath that jet-black paint job, a bolt-on maple neck reinforced with carbon-fiber rods, and a 20-inch-radiused ebony fingerboard.

The pickups are also the same, with a duo of Fishman Fluence Omniforce humbuckers onboard. These unique active, multi-voice pickups feature a copper-free, layered PCB design and, along with a 5-way pickup selector with push-pull functionality, generate a wealth of tonal options. The guitar is available now at Sweetwater for $1,949, that’s $50 cheaper than the originals.

In other Sweetwater news, the company has just kicked off its Guitar Month sale, where customers can access limited-time discounts, special financing options, and some tasty six-string bargains. In case that wasn’t enough, there’s also a Labor Day sale running now, with up to 50% off selected items. So we highly recommend heading to the site to see what goodies you can grab while the offers last.

Innovation Week: Every guitarist with a Tune-O-Matic and stopbar tailpiece setup knows the ritual. Feed the string through the bar, over the bridge, up the neck, then wind three full wraps around the tuning post and wait for the thing to settle down over the next few hours of playing.

Steadfast Designs looked at that ritual and decided to run it in reverse. Its debut product, the Steadfast Stopbar, is a patented aluminum tailpiece that locks the ball end of the string at the tuning post and clamps the other end at the tailpiece with a small set screw.

Pull each string tight, then secure it with the supplied hex driver. It’s a mechanical flip, but one aimed squarely at anyone who has ever dreaded restringing the day before a gig.

By anchoring both ends of the string instead of relying on friction and wraps around a post, the company claims you get tuning stability quickly after restringing, along with a restring that takes a fraction of the usual time.

Stability is improved by eliminating the wraps of string that can settle around the posts. You still need to stretch the strings and retune, as the company’s own instructions point out, but you arrive at stable tuning much faster. For touring players and guitar techs, that difference alone could be worth the upgrade.

The stopbar is CNC-machined in the USA from solid billet aircraft grade aluminum rather than the die cast zinc most factory stopbars are made from, and it shows on the scale. The Steadfast bar weighs in at 37 grams against roughly 88 grams for a typical Gibson zinc unit.

Less mass moving around under string tension means that more vibration reaches the guitar body rather than getting soaked up by the hardware, according to Steadfast. This contributes to better sustain and a clearer top-end.

Steadfast has also hinted at future titanium and stainless steel versions for players chasing even more sustain. Tone arguments involving guitar hardware are almost always subjective, so you’ll have to hear this with your own ears.

Installation is easy – it’s a drop-in replacement with no drilling required. Steadfast says it fits the vast majority of Tune-O Matic guitars from Gibson, Epiphone, Gretsch, ESP, Ibanez, Schecter and plenty of others, in both US and metric post spacing.

Prices run from $99 for a faded finish model up to $169 for a 24k gold plated Custom model. The company backs it with a limited lifetime guarantee.

Steadfast joins a crowded field of stopbar variations – the top-wrap-friendly Lightning Bar, for one – with an idea that’s worth trying for yourself. The question now is whether guitarists will warm to its backwards approach enough to make it a keeper.

• For more info, head to Steadfast Stopbar.

Innovation Week: Just a few short years ago, impulse responses (IRs) were something only studio engineers had ever really heard of. Now, they’re in the lexicon of every modern guitar player. Everyone’s downloading IRs, but precious few actually understand how to properly use them, let alone what they actually are.

I’ve heard so many guitar players complain about the sound of their modeled guitar tone. Or just outright claim that amp modelers are crap. This is why understanding what an impulse response is and how it works is all part and parcel of getting the best possible sound when using your amp modeler or multi-effects pedal.

I’ve been recording guitars digitally for over 20 years now, and I was running a multi-effects unit with amp modeling directly into PAs when I was touring with my band in the early 2010s. So, safe to say I’ve been there and got the T-shirt when it comes to this stuff. We’ll start with what IRs are and how they’re made, then we’ll get onto how to use them properly.

What is an impulse response?

An impulse response is a snapshot of an audio device or space, captured in order to recreate the way it sounds. The first part, the impulse, is a burst of sound we feed into the device. The impulse contains every frequency in the spectrum of sound, delivered all at once, and all at the same level.

If you run this impulse into a guitar cabinet and record what comes out, you get a snapshot of what that cab is capable of in terms of audio. That includes the frequency response, phase response, and the decay of the sound over time.

In the modern age, we use a logarithmic sine sweep to capture the sound of a guitar cabinet. This lasts about 10 to 20 seconds and helps deliver more energy to really move the speaker and capture what it’s doing more accurately. This is then collapsed down to create the short impulse response.

An impulse response is the recording, but the process of applying it is called convolution. Convolution combines your dry signal and the impulse response, then sums the whole thing together.

It might sound complicated, but if you bring an impulse response into your DAW, it’s just a simple WAV file, and it will appear as a tiny spike of sound that disappears very quickly.

A single snapshot

Impulse responses are a really accurate way of capturing the sound of a guitar cabinet, but they’re linear. That’s why we can’t get impulse responses of very dynamic sounds, like fuzz pedals. They’re also linear over time, which is why we don’t have impulse responses of modulation effects.

Impulse responses can capture things like cone breakup on an amp, which is why they sound so convincing. They just can’t capture how that behavior changes with dynamics or over time.

Amp speakers can get hot, resulting in power compression and resistance changes that occur when you drive them hard and play for a long time. The IR is taken at one level, so you can’t replicate that when using an impulse response with your amp modeler.

Despite that, this linear behavior is what we want. A speaker is typically a pretty linear thing, unless it's being pushed especially hard. If an amp model feels lifeless, it’s far more likely to be down to the model rather than the cabinet impulse response.

Cabinet impulse responses

So what are you getting when you buy an impulse response? Well, it’s not quite a full 4x12 cabinet. An impulse response typically only captures one speaker, with one microphone, in one room. It picks up the construction of the cabinet, whether it’s open- or closed-back, and the preamp and converters used in the recording process.

The one-microphone part is really important, because the placement of a microphone on a guitar cabinet drastically changes how it sounds. Dead center of the speaker delivers a much more fizzy and direct sound. Move it sideways from the center, and it gets warmer and darker. Angling the microphone away from the cabinet also takes away the top end. Engineers call this 'off-axis' placement.

You also get a change in sound when you pull the mic back from the cabinet. Close up, you can take advantage of the proximity effect, resulting in a thicker low-end. Pull it back, and you start to capture more of the room that the cabinet is in.

This is why you can get two impulse responses of the same make of guitar cabinet, but they’ll sound nothing alike. When you’re downloading a cabinet IR pack, you’re getting that engineer's take on a particular sound, and their preference for microphone, positioning, etc.

In impulse response packs, you’ll often get loads of different mic positions, so it’s worth auditioning them to find out what you prefer. Some guitarists like a 57 right on the cone; others prefer a 421 on the seam of the speaker angled at 45 degrees. Some prefer a condenser mic. The devil’s in the detail, and you’ll need to do a lot of auditioning to get the most out of your purchase.

You might have hundreds of IRs in a pack, but you’ll probably only end up using three of them!

Convolution reverbs

Guitar cabinet impulse responses are around 20 to 50ms, so they’re discernible as a tone for the human ear. Once you get to 80ms it becomes more like an echo. Past 200 ms, the human ear hears it as an actual space. This is where we get into convolution reverbs.

It’s a similar process, but this time you play a sine wave sweep into a room or space and capture the result with a microphone, usually a stereo pair. Doing this gives you a linear response of how the room or space reacts, and you can then play your own sounds through it to make it sound like it’s in the same space without having to physically be there.

Like our guitar cabinet impulse responses, convolution reverbs are linear over time. That means you can’t properly change things like the decay time, size, diffusion, etc. It’s why convolution reverbs are less popular for guitarists versus the more common algorithmic reverb in your pedals, because they’re nowhere near as flexible.

They’ve been used in studios for a long time, however, because they’re useful for creating spaces for other instruments like drum kits or vocals.

Impulse responses versus captures

Impulse responses and captures do a similar thing. Where impulse responses are linear recordings of a system’s reaction to sound, captures do much more complex processing.

Captures use a test signal that trains a neural network to recreate the relationship between the input and output. It can capture the dynamics of an amp in terms of input level, but is static at the particular settings the amp was recorded at.

An amp simulation or model mimics all of the components, knobs, transformers, tubes, and anything else going on underneath the surface. Captures tend to sound better than models, but models offer more flexibility as you get a more realistic response when you turn the knobs.

The reason that impulse responses are still the standard for speakers is that, as we mentioned before, speakers are very linear in their response. It would be a waste to use processing power to simulate this using capture or modeling technology, so for now, impulse responses are still the way to go for guitar cabinet modeling.

How to use an impulse response

So, now we know everything we need to know about impulse responses, let’s get to actually using them. These are my top tips you need to know to get the best out of an impulse response.

1. Turn off the cab block

If you’re running an impulse response, make sure you’ve not still got the original cab block running. Stacking two responses after another is a recipe for muddy tone. You want an IR or cab block if using an FRFR speaker or headphones, but turn off the IR or cab block if you’re running into an actual guitar cabinet.

2. Signal chain

There are a couple of places to put your IR block in the signal chain. Generally speaking, we want it after your overdrives, fuzzes, and your amp block. Where things get interesting is the placement of reverbs, delays, and modulation. You can experiment with putting them between the amp and cab block, or making them the last parts of the signal chain.

3. EQ adjustments

Most IRs let you adjust the EQ, and you’ll want to remove any sub frequencies. High-passing around the 60-70 Hz mark will help tighten up the low-end of your tone. Just be careful here because a low E is at 82 Hz, so you don’t want to be cutting off the fundamental of your low strings.

We also want to cut at the high-end, with a low-pass filter somewhere between 5 and 8 kHz to get rid of unwanted fizz. You might want to extend this out for a clean tone. If you find you’re cutting a lot here, sometimes it’s better to choose a darker impulse response rather than taking away all your high-end.

4. Use mic blends

Many IR manufacturers include mic blends, which for me are the best kinds of impulse responses. These have two different microphones blended into a single response, which is what is often done during professional recording of guitars.

You can do this manually with two separate IRs, but you need an impulse response loader with a time alignment control to get rid of any potential comb filtering, which can have a negative effect on your tone.

5. Audition at volume

Loads of guitarists create their dream tone at home with headphones, then when they go to play with their band it gets lost in the mix. If you want to ensure your impulse response is great no matter where you play, you need to tweak it at performance volumes. This will allow you to get a tone that cuts through when playing with other instruments.

6. Check your levels

If you’re using IRs from different manufacturers, it’s important to make sure your levels aren’t jumping up and down. Different engineers normalize at different levels, so you could be shifting the balance of your sound up and down by a few dB when switching patches. This also affects anything downstream of the IR, so make sure those levels are correct.

7. IR format & length

Certain impulse responses are designed for use with different modelers. Most IR manufacturers label these, but not all of them do. Some IRs are done at 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, or 96 kHz, and different modelers are compatible with different frequencies, so make sure to check which one yours is designed to work with.

Some amp modelers and IR loaders are also capable of working with longer impulse responses. Most will truncate an IR if it’s the wrong length, so this won’t have a huge impact on most users. It is worth checking what your modeler is compatible with, as there’s a slight improvement in quality with a longer IR.

IR devices

So now we know what impulse responses are, what they’re not, and how to use them; here’s a brief list of the devices you can use.

1. Multi-effects/modeler

Probably the most common use case. Pretty much every amp modeler and multi-effects unit has an IR block nowadays, even the budget ones. It’s a great way to massively upgrade the sound of your models on budget multi-effects pedals by replacing the stock cab block with a 3rd party IR.

2. Reactive load box

If you’re hell-bent on using a real tube amp but need more flexibility, a reactive load box could be the way to go. Many load boxes now feature a way to upload your own impulse responses, allowing you to bring the sound of any cab you want with the flexibility of playing or recording at lower levels.

3. IR loader pedals

There are also quite a few impulse response loader pedals nowadays, so you can bring the power of IRs straight to your pedalboard. Some of these also come with amp models, or you can use them with power amp pedals if you want to keep everything on your ‘board.

4. In the DAW

There are plenty of free and paid IR loaders that can be used inside the vast majority of DAWs. If you’re recording with guitar plugins, you can simply disable the cab block inside the software, then add the IR loader as the next plugin in the chain to load your cabinet response of choice. There’s plenty of software that also allows you to load third-party IRs, too.

The life and times of Pink Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett is filled with much mystery and weirdness, so it’s fitting the guitar most closely associated with him also has a similar reputation.

This guitar was a ’60s Fender Esquire often called the “Mirror Disc Telecaster” that Barrett modified by covering the body with silver-colored mylar foil wrap and polished circular metal discs that reflected light (but weren’t actually mirrors).

Pink Floyd guitar enthusiasts often describe this guitar as a 1962 model due to its laminated rosewood fretboard (identifiable by the straight angle of the edge of rosewood protruding past the nut).

However, highly detailed photos and video that have emerged recently clearly show that the headstock decal has three patent numbers below the “Esquire” (damaged to read “Esquipe”) name, which didn’t appear on the Esquire until 1963.

Allegedly Barrett bought this guitar brand new in either 1964 or ’65, so it’s most likely a 1964 model. The Esquire originally had a stock light blonde (almost white) finish before Barrett covered the body.

Barrett used this Esquire almost exclusively on Pink Floyd’s first singles and debut album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

It became famous in its own right during Pink Floyd’s early concerts, where the metal discs reflected lights and colors from the psychedelic light show. Barrett played it on A Saucerful of Secrets as well, but shortly after the album’s release he stopped using it for shows, preferring a white Tele he recently purchased.

In late 1968, after the release of A Saucerful of Secrets, Barrett traded his “Mirror Disc” Esquire for a black Telecaster Custom. From that point onwards, the guitar’s whereabouts have remained unknown.

It’s possible that Barrett or the person he sold it to removed all of the distinctive modifications, so even if the guitar were discovered today it would be very difficult to verify as actually being the Pink Floyd founder’s guitar.

Syd’s Esquire might be gone forever, but, as he once sang, “Isn’t it good to be lost in the wood?”

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

Finding the first one of anything can be a tricky business. It can make your head hurt. Try this, for example: Who made the first guitar? Impossible to know, especially as you can tie yourself in knots defining ‘guitar’ before you even get to brands and time periods and… well, you get the picture.

But let’s try something that ought to be simpler. What was the first signature guitar?

You know what a signature guitar is, of course. One that bears the name of a well-known musician, usually alongside a popular brand name, offering some kind of connection to a guitar that this particular guitarist is or was known to play, and is manufactured as a production item and offered for sale to us mere mortals.

Replace that phrase “well-known musician” with “your guitar teacher”, however, and some early examples come into view. The Bambina, which dated from about 1870, was a tiny classical-like instrument with a 13-inch scale, designed by Catharina Josepha Pratten.

She was a well-known guitar teacher in London at the time and had a brilliant scheme: she signed labels and sent them to her French guitar maker, who stuck them inside the guitars that she would then sell on to pupils eager to have an affordable instrument with a hint of teacher’s magic. Maybe the Bambinas qualify as the first signature guitars?

This kind of idea continued, for example with Martin’s special Style 44 for Vahdah Olcott-Bickford, a Hollywood-based teacher – only a touch over 30 were made, starting in 1913, the majority in Martin’s size 0. Other signatures in this category followed, always with the aim of the teacher having an answer ready for when the student asks the inevitable question: “What guitar should I buy?” Ah! Here’s one specially for you!

There were more early acoustic instruments that qualify as signature trailblazers, and the first Gibson signature guitar, if a vanishingly rare one, was probably the Walter Boehm harp guitar of 1923.

Walter, a successful musician and businessman based in Buffalo, New York, was an early adopter of Gibson’s mighty harp guitars and helped the company’s development of the instrument, popularising its role in mandolin orchestras and standardising tuning.

The idea was to play the instrument’s regular six strings as normal, while the extensive set of sub-bass strings – in Gibson’s design supported by an extension connected to the body and the headstock – added sustained bass accompaniment and drones.

A few years later, and still at Gibson in Kalamazoo, we’re greeted by the man who seems the most likely contender for the title of First Famous Guitarist To Get His Own Signature Model.

Nick Lucas was known as America’s Singing Troubadour, and he became a big star with catchy hits, including his 1929 smash Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips With Me – almost as off-the-rails as the much later cover version by Tiny Tim. Some of Nick’s more sensible cuts, such as Teasing The Frets, show off his assured guitar playing, too.

Gibson’s extravagant ’29 catalogue blurb for its Nick Lucas guitar looks very much like the model for every piece of signature-guitar hype that followed.

“The wizardry of Nick Lucas and his guitar is known to all music lovers,” it says. “Combining his ideas and knowledge with the skill of Gibson Artist-Craftsmen has given birth to a truly magnificent guitar. To play it is to know a measure of the same inspiration that has carried Nick Lucas to great heights.

“You love the feel as it comes to life with the touch of your fingers. Your regard grows like a rare flower watered by the crystal drops of purest melody. It is indeed an instrument by an artist, for the artist.”

There were other signature acoustics from this era, including a Harmony guitar named for Roy ‘Wizard Of The Strings’ Smeck, the lute-shape Vita-Guitar launched in 1928. Roy was a widely popular star from the vaudeville days who played ukulele and banjo as well as steel and Spanish guitar.

Gibson, too, made a deal with Smeck a few years later for the Roy Smeck Radio Grande and Stage Deluxe Hawaiian flat-tops, first seen in 1934.

A few signature models turned up in Gibson’s contract brands around this time. The company repurposed a flat-top from its budget Kalamazoo line for a Recording King model, the Carson J Robison, introduced in 1933 for the New York-based country singer-songwriter. Recording King was a house brand of the hugely successful Montgomery Ward mail-order operation.

At the end of the ’30s, Gibson produced a pair of short-lived Recording King signature models for the singing cowboy Ray Whitley, who helped Gibson with the introduction of its SJ/J‑200 jumbo flat-top.

During the early years of electric development, there was an obscure Harmony-made Rickenbacker electric flat-top, the Ken Roberts of 1935. More or less all we know about Mr Roberts is that his first name was Ken and that he wasn’t Alvino Rey.

A year later, Epiphone launched the fabulous if hefty Electar Rocco double-neck electric lap-steel, although history insists we remember Anthony Rocco as an effects pioneer thanks to his Tonexpressor volume/tone pedal.

Toward the end of the ’30s, the tireless Roy Smeck signed off on a couple more Recording King guitars, his Professional and A104 electric steels.

Big In America

As the memories of World War II began to fade and the 1950s arrived, Gibson noticed that the novel solidbody electrics Leo Fender and his team were making over in California were becoming popular. The firm’s bosses decided to compete by developing Gibson’s own electric solidbody, and then made a signature deal with Les Paul, the best-known guitarist in America.

Les had chopped up several guitars in an effort to get nearer the kind of electric instrument he wanted and the sounds he had in mind. But of prime importance for Gibson was his fame. He’d bagged a No 1 hit with Mary Ford, the 1951 multi-vocal multi-guitar How High The Moon.

At Gibson, the design team came up with the new Les Paul Model (apart from Les’s own trapeze tailpiece, which was soon replaced). This typifies the approach of many guitar makers before and since: slapping a famous name on an instrument that the company either already made or devised itself.

It was a step beyond the ads and catalogues of the ’50s featuring this well-known player with that particular guitar: Laurindo Almeida and a Vega E-300, say; perhaps Jimmy Bryant and a Broadcaster; or maybe Mary Osborne and a White Falcon.

Other brands sought their own Les Paul and associated model as the decade progressed. An early one was the Framus 5/120 Billy Lorento (aka Bill Lawrence) archtop, introduced in 1953.

Also in ’53, Hofner’s UK agent Selmer unusually opted for a combined effort, introducing the aptly named Committee, designed with six leading British guitarists: Frank Deniz, Ike Isaacs, Jack Llewellyn, Freddie Phillips, Roy Plummer and Bert Weedon. In ’57, Kay introduced a trio of Barney Kessel models, complete with the brand’s wonderful Kelvinator headstocks.

A little later, when Barney shifted his allegiance to Gibson, Kay simply omitted the ‘Barney Kessel’ pickguards and kept the Kessel-less model names.

Naturally, it was exciting to be honoured with a signature model – a promo boost rarely does a musician any harm. Gretsch launched its Chet Atkins 6120 and solid 6121 in 1955 and the Chet Atkins Country Gentleman and Tennessean three years later. Chet recalled some 40 years later how much it meant to have a signature model.

“I was thrilled to have my name on a guitar,” he told this writer, “like Les Paul had his name on the Gibson. I was so thrilled by that – and now I don’t know why. Now, it wouldn’t mean that much to me.

“At the time, I was fired up with ambition and I was so anxious to be known all over the world, to be known as a great guitarist. And that deal with Gretsch was one brick in the edifice that would help that happen.”

Band Aid

The modern idea of the signature guitar was taking shape as the 1950s rolled into the ’60s. More artist models hit the shops, tempting players who wondered if some of their hero’s fairy dust might be lurking under the frets or inside the pickups of the instrument bearing the big star’s name.

In the ’60s, as rock and pop exploded, a slew of new signature models appeared, and one new trend underlined the popularity of the band over the individual musician: Mosrite gave us its Ventures model in 1963, Gretsch introduced a Monkees guitar in ’66, and Guyatone hooked up with Japanese heroes Sharp 5 a year later.

Is it the player, or is it the guitar? That debate around the value of a signature model will run and run. In the meantime, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start practising your signature. There’s a knack to make it fit snugly on the headstock of your choice without grazing the brand logo or the tuners. Why not do some advance planning? Then when the call comes you’ll be ready.

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

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

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

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

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

IK Multimedia TONEX Board

The modeler we’ve all been waiting for? I’ve certainly been keeping an eye out for this one for a few years now. IK Multimedia’s flagship floorboard rig solution, this touchscreen-equipped powerhouse puts the whole TONEX ecosystem into one relatively compact pedal.

At $999, it’s competitively priced against offerings from Neural DSP and Line 6, and with a bunch of classic IK Multimedia goodies baked in, it makes for a worthy addition to the market.

You get your usual AI Machine Modeling, AmpliTube and TONEX effects, access to the ToneNET community for swapping and sharing tone captures, and a powerful signal chain that can be set up in all sorts of clever ways.

Best of all, it looks like a breeze to operate. A touchscreen is now an essential on modern modelers, and the visual depictions of the gear that’s being dialed in is always a nice touch.

Billy Gibbons Pearly Gates

How would you like to own a meticulous replica of Billy Gibbons’ legendary Pearly Gates Les Paul, and get a personal performance from the ZZ Top hero while you’re at it? It’s certainly a novel way to release a guitar, but Gibson is offering just that.

Pearly Gates is one of the most iconic Les Paul’s of all time. Gibbons bought it for $250 back in the day, and used it to track some iconic ZZ Top moments. It’s now been given Gibson’s highly exclusive Custom Shop ‘Collector’s Edition’ treatment, which comes with some unique case candy.

Only 30 will be made, and they’ll be sold exclusively at an event in Nashville. The evening will also host a Q&A with Gibbons, an intimate performance, and a meet and greet with the man himself. Gibson hasn’t listed a price for all of that. Probably for good reason…

ALSO RELEASED THIS WEEK

Ibanez September 2026 drop

Ibanez dropped some new surprise models this week. New signatures for its star players Joe Satriani, Nita Strauss and Steve Vai, as well as an absurd metal P Series, serve as highlights. But there’s also some new acoustics and accessories on tap…

For more: Ibanez

Keeley Tube Drive

Another one for the ‘overdrives I really want’ list (yes, I have one of those). This dual drive from Keeley features a 12AX7 tube for genuine valve-flavored compression and dynamics, as well as Robert Keeley’s famed ‘Phat Mod’ overdrive circuit included as stock.

For more: Keeley Electronics

Fender x Timex

Another lifestyle collaboration from Fender, this time with Timex, which has produced a watch that integrates genuine guitar-making elements into its design. The butterscotch blonde wood grain insert on the dial is pretty swanky.

For more: Timex

HeadRush FRFR CAB

More FRFR speakers for the market, which is now a hot contest between HeadRush, Positive Grid, Fender, Line 6, Blackstar, Laney, among others. HeadRush is no stranger to the game, but the FRFR CAB lineup is a new series. At $399, they’re pretty competitive and have some nice features to shout about – including Bluetooth streaming.

For more: HeadRush

Taylor Next Generation 12-Fret Grand Concert models

Taylor has expanded its Next Generation lineup with five new 12-fret Grand Concert models. Lots of numbers and letters in the product names as usual, but the elevator pitch is this: some more high-end acoustics, and the first 12-string 12-fret Grand Concert model ever released.

For more: Taylor

ESP September 2026 drop

ESP has completely overhauled its Black Metal series as part of a release that’s rolled out nine new models. There’s a lot to unpack. Baritones, sleek finishes, Seymour Duncan pickups, Floyd Rose bridges… you name it. A vintage drop from ESP.

For more: ESP

Fender John Osborne Telecaster pickups

Loved the sound of John Osborne’s signature Telecaster but didn’t like the B-Bender? Well, firstly, are you okay? Secondly, you can now equip your own Tele with the same tonal goodness sans the string-bending gadget: Fender has dropped some aftermarket Osborne single-coils.

For more: Fender

Solar Guitars Chug Plug

Fender, Blackstar, IK Multimedia and Boss have a new unlikely rival in Solar Guitars, which has entered the headphone amp game for the first time.

For more: Solar Guitars

If you mention the words Fender and Esquire, most guitarists these days will picture a Telecaster-style guitar with no neck pickup. Fender’s Esquire model actually predated the Telecaster, and indeed the Broadcaster, having first been produced in the spring of 1950.

Although a single bridge pickup was standard, Fender soon began offering a two-pickup ‘double Esquire’ version for a modest upcharge.

Some Esquires were also returned to the factory to have neck pickups installed, and others were converted by owners themselves – often years later. Fender paused Esquire production between late summer 1950 and January 1951, offering only a two-pickup model newly dubbed the Broadcaster. When Esquire production eventually resumed, it became Fender’s official single-pickup single-cutaway option – and things have remained that way ever since.

Single-pickup guitars were nothing new when the Esquire was released, but most were lap steel or jazzbox-style instruments with the pickup in the neck position. Paul Bigsby was clearly an influence on Leo Fender and during the 1940s he made a single-bridge-pickup guitar for Merle Travis.

Merle’s guitar had what appears to be a three-way selector switch that operated in line with the strings and three control knobs. Leo Fender’s approach was similar and was a laudable attempt to provide Esquire players with instant access to three distinctive preset tones. We’ll discuss those settings later on.

It’s hard to identify any big-name players who have used a single-pickup Esquire throughout their careers. The likes of Steve Cropper, Jeff Beck and Billy Gibbons have all played them at some point, but they graduated to Telecasters and other models. Bruce Springsteen’s Esquire already had a neck pickup fitted when he bought it, and there’s no evidence to suggest he ever changed it back.

Toto Gesture

Although better known for playing his Rosanna ’Burst and his more recent affiliation with Music Man, session ace and Toto founding member Steve Lukather also owned and played a 1951 Esquire for decades.

In an interview with Vintage Guitar magazine, Steve revealed how he acquired the guitar in the late 70s: “I already had the Goldtop and ’Burst, and I began to look into other vintage guitars. The Esquire just fell into my lap; I paid 600 bucks for it.”

Steve was acting on the advice of his friend Paul ‘Jamo’ Jameson who persuaded him that collecting vintage guitars would be a sound long-term investment. “He actually hipped me to a lot of stuff,” he said. “Had I listened more than I did – because I thought paying a couple of grand for a guitar was insane back then – I would’ve bought everything.”

The Esquire became a studio staple for Steve and he recalled using it extensively on Toto IV. “Anything that sounds remotely like a Tele is that Esquire. It’s me doing my impression of Keith Richards.” He also used the Esquire on sessions with Joni Mitchell and Dolly Parton, and played it on Ringo Starr’s single Let’s Change The World.

When we contacted Steve, he seemed to have few regrets about selling it. “It was clean and sounded and played great,” he says, “but I was cleaning house and some guy offered me a shit ton of dollars for it and I said yes. Vintage gear is getting to the point where it’s so expensive, the crash will occur and values will drop so…”

French Connection

The Esquire now resides in Paris and is owned by Matthieu Lucas of Matt’s Guitar Shop. It’s in fairly remarkable condition for its age with the dirty yellow butterscotch lacquer that is so typical of Blackguards from this timeframe. The finish itself is semi-opaque and the ash body’s grain pattern is clear to see.

There are a few scratches and nicks on the surface, along with a small patch of buckle rash adjacent to the string ferrules, but the guitar certainly hasn’t endured decades of hard gigging in the honkytonks. While there is some finger wear on the fretboard, the lacquer on the back of the neck remains largely intact.

Fender began transitioning from flat-head to cross-head screws in 1951, and this Esquire has a mixture of both. The neck, bridge and control screws are all cross-heads, but the pickup, pickguard and switch screws are flat-heads.

David Davidson of Well Strung Guitars in New York had the opportunity to examine the guitar and told us that there was a 1mega-ohm potentiometer in the volume position and he believed the 7.24k pickup had been rewound.

The neck was initialled ‘TG’ with December ’51 pencil dates on the neck and body. Dowel plugs in the neck pickup cavity indicated that a second pickup was installed at some point and, in addition to a refret, a set of Schaller tuners has been fitted.

The Esquire is housed in a 1970s Fender case with a ‘Steve Lukather’ stencil and case candy that includes a note from Steve along with a photo of him playing the guitar and other documentation.

Is Less More?

Some guitarists hold the view that single-pickup electric guitars are tonally superior, and the most commonly cited examples are Les Paul Juniors versus Les Paul Specials, and Fender Esquires versus Telecasters.

In short, it’s the ‘all I need is one pickup and a cranked up valve amp and I can get every tone I need’ school of thought – and if that works for a player, it’s hard to dispute.

Regarding Juniors, there’s also the simplified controls argument, but if the complexities of a three-way pickup selector flummox you, there could be other issues at play. The touted sonic benefits include greater brightness and clarity, enhanced resonance and improved sustain. Focusing solely on Fenders, it might be interesting to analyse why that may be the case.

The fundamental differences between an Esquire and a Telecaster are one pickup, rather than two (obviously), and different control wiring. Addressing the pickup disparity first, the two factors to consider are lower weight and less magnetic pull on the strings to inhibit vibration. Popping a Telecaster neck pickup on some digital scales we get a reading of 62.4g (2.2oz).

Telecaster guitars vary considerably in weight, but let’s assume they range from 2.7kg to 4.5kg (roughly 6lb to 10lb). Running the numbers, the weight of a neck pickup equates to between ¹/43 and ¹/72 of the overall weight of the guitar. To put that in context, a set of vintage-style Kluson tuners weighs 135g and a set of die-cast tuners is around 175g, which makes the weight argument seem a bit moot.

The decreased magnetic pull factor may have more to it. As someone who has spent more time than is healthy swapping magnets in humbuckers and P-90s, this writer can report there are audible differences in sustain characteristics.

In short, the same pickups hang onto notes noticeably longer with weaker Alnico III than strong Alnico V magnets. This is only discernible, however, with clean or mildly overdriven tones. If you crank up the gain or use a compressor or overdrive pedal, everything evens out.

What’s more, a lack of sustain in Les Pauls with Alnico V-powered Patent Applied For pickups is not a noted characteristic. It’s also worth remembering that Telecaster neck pickups have traditionally been made with relatively weak Alnico III slugs. On balance, the improved sustain argument does seem to have merit, but it’s fairly marginal.

Switching Stuff

Turning to the electronics, Esquires and pre-1968 Teles both had one setting with a preset treble roll-off. Whether it’s applied to a neck or bridge pickup doesn’t make much difference because they’re both dull to the point of impracticality. So let’s keep things simple and assume we’re comparing Esquires with Telecasters with neck/both/bridge switching options.

In this instance, the Esquire’s middle setting corresponds to the Telecaster’s bridge setting because the tone control is out of circuit on the Esquire’s back setting. Whenever a tone control is connected to a pickup there’s some degree of treble roll-off – even when the control itself is turned fully up – and this may be why the Esquire is noted for having a brighter and more cutting tone.

The trade-off is that, for obvious reasons, an Esquire can’t give you neck pickup or neck and bridge in combination tones. A Telecaster can, however, do the wide open Esquire thing if you disconnect the bridge pickup from the tone control or fit a no-load tone potentiometer.

In recent years, the ‘Eldred’ mod has become popular among Esquire players. The ‘neck’ setting is slightly revoiced to produce a mid-heavy cocked-wah tone with ample clarity and more than a hint of P-90 heft.

The question ultimately boils down to whether Esquires justify their ‘too cool for school’ reputation or if they’re guitars that are precisely one third as good as they could be. Esquires have a unique vibe that some players genuinely prefer, but when this writer performs Esquire conversions for clients he invariably finds himself converting them back to Tele specs within weeks.

If you’re a T-type enthusiast, you’ll probably want to own an Esquire as well as a Telecaster, but if it has to be one or the other, then a Telecaster may be the better option.

• With thanks to Matt’s Guitar Shop in Paris for allowing us to photograph this guitar.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.