It may be an old joke, but there’s something to be said for taking things up a notch, and this month the bass community did just that with a heap of new products, ranging from downloadable plugins to vintage-style reissues, and a whole lot more besides.

In the month that saw Suzi Quatro promote the release of her 18th studio album, and Paul McCartney launch his first solo album in over five years, we’ve been talking shop with the best luthiers, bass builders, and low-end gurus, to bring you a must-read report on the latest new gear.

For starters, Fender marked the 75th anniversary of the P-Bass with three new limited-edition models. Will anyone ever topple the Precision from its perch as the best-selling bass of all time?

EMG was also celebrating its 50th anniversary with the launch of three new signature pickup sets for session legend Lee Sklar, Living Colour trailblazer Doug Wimbish, and Metallica powerhouse Robert Trujillo.

Here’s our pick of bass gear releases in May.

Pachyderm Instruments Whamola

Despite slapping down the years on a variety of bass guitars, most of which have been custom jobs from Brooklyn luthier Carl Thompson, Primus bassist Les Claypool has also employed a range of other instruments, including the famous Whamola, which is featured on the song Whamola by Claypool’s Frog Brigade as well as the South Park theme song variations and the Robot Chicken theme.

“It’s a one-string instrument with a handle on it, and I hit it with a stick,” says Claypool. “It’s basically a percussion instrument, the way I play it: it doesn’t have a lot of tonality to it, but I tend to pick up whatever’s handy.”

Pachyderm Instruments has now announced that a small run of Whamolas will be available at the merch booth during the Claypool Gold Tour, which began on May 20th and will continue through July 4th.

We make no promises that fans will come out playing it like he does, but if anyone knows about taking the instrument to the next level, it’s Les Claypool.

Rickenbacker 4000V CB TB

Few players are as closely tied to the Rickenbacker sound as Geddy Lee, whose snarling 4001 tone helped define classic Rush records throughout the ’70s.

Ahead of the upcoming Fifty Something reunion tour, Rickenbacker has revealed a new custom bass built to Lee’s own specs: an unapologetically retro four-string. that blends vintage appointments, and a Turquoise Blue finish.

Originally offered on the late ’50s combo series instruments, the Turquoise Blue finish is accented with checkerboard binding around the body. Another notable throwback is the bridge, which is the 425 style with four saddles as found in the early 4000 and 4005 models.

The 4000V CB TB is fitted with a Vintage Single Coil Toaster Top and a Bass Horseshoe pickup. Rather than volume and tone controls, Lee requested two volume knobs (one for each pickup) that are wired to a mono output.

Most of the rest of us will never get to own one, but a bassist can dream, right?

Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Bass Big Muff Pi 2

For many, the stompbox daddy of all fuzz is the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi. The recently released dual op-amp Bass Big Muff 2 has now been upgraded with the release of the Deluxe Bass Big Muff 2.

Bass-centric upgrades include a blend knob, and a foot switchable crossover section that splits your signal into two bands. The pedal’s I/O section has also been expanded to include a pad switch on the input, a DI output, and a Direct output.

Looking for a Big Muff? Well this one’s massive.

Fender Limited Edition 75th Anniversary Precision Bass Collection

It was way back in 1951 that Fender first put their Precision Bass into production, so 2026 sees the 75th anniversary, not just of that instrument, but pretty much the concept of the electric bass itself. Without it, your instrument of choice would be radically different, and we wouldn’t have jobs.

Fender is marking the occasion with a trio of limited-edition models.

Leading the pack is the American Vintage II 1951 Precision Bass, a recreation of Leo Fender’s original slab-bodied design. It’s finished in classic Butterscotch Blonde and equipped with a period-correct single-coil pickup.

At the other end of the spectrum sits the more contemporary American Professional PJ Bass, which pairs a traditional split-coil Precision pickup with a Jazz Bass bridge pickup. Other modern upgrades include a HiMass bridge, figured maple top options, and gold hardware.

Meanwhile, the Player II Precision Bass offers a more accessible route into the anniversary lineup. Despite its lower price point, the Player II P-Bass still packs upgraded appointments, a performance-focused neck profile, and a Diamond Dust Sparkle finish.

Darkglass Anagram Marketplace

Darkglass Electronics has officially launched the Anagram Marketplace, a plugin ecosystem designed to expand the capabilities of its flagship Anagram multi-effects processor with third-party effects, and creator-developed tools.

Darkglass describes the move as “the next evolution of the Anagram platform”, transforming the unit from a standalone processor into what is effectively an app-based environment for bassists, producers and sound designers.

Available through the Darkglass Suite, the Marketplace introduces downloadable plugins created both by Darkglass and external developers, opening the door to a continuously evolving library of sounds and processing tools.

Surely worth the attention of every single person who has ever applied finger or thumb or pick to string.

EarthQuaker Devices Scrolls Bass Odyssey

On the list of effects pedals guaranteed to get the average bass guitarist's pulse racing, an all-analog bass preamp is unlikely to feature highly. However, having complete control over your tone has long been the secret weapon in many a pro player's rig. Some use it to add extra polish to their overall sound, while others use it in conjunction with other effects to tweak them to perfection.

The Scrolls Bass Odyssey from Ohio's highly-rated EarthQuaker Devices combines a comprehensive active EQ section with a tube-style drive circuit. Add to that an effects loop, parallel output and balanced XLR out, and you’ve got a studio-ready pedal that’s ideal for use in any setup with multiple signal paths.

Play one of these high-end pedals and you’ll understand exactly how boutique makers such as EarthQuaker Devices earn their keep.

EMG Signature Bass Pickup Sets

EMG is celebrating its 50th anniversary with the launch of three new signature bass pickup sets for Metallica powerhouse Robert Trujillo, Living Colour trailblazer Doug Wimbish, and session legend Lee Sklar.

The Lee Sklar P Set is a recreation of the original split-coil pickup configuration housed in Sklar’s famed “Frankenstein” Precision Bass.

According to EMG, the set revives the look and sound of the company’s earliest production runs, complete with raised-logo covers and a specially tweaked preamp designed to mirror Sklar’s long-running 18-volt setup.

Doug Wimbish’s DW Set takes a similarly archival approach. The PJ configuration – previously exclusive to his signature Spector basses – has now been released as a standalone aftermarket set for the first time.

EMG says the pickups were recreated directly from the exact PJ combination Wimbish has used since the early ’80s, with vintage-style branding and both long- and short-Jazz sizing options available.

Meanwhile, Robert Trujillo’s existing RT “Rip Tide” signature set has received a flashy anniversary makeover in a new gold finish. While the electronics remain unchanged, the updated aesthetic joins a broader series of special-edition EMG anniversary products tied to Metallica’s long-running relationship with the pickup giant. All three pickup sets ship with EMG’s solderless wiring system.

Nordstrand Acinonyx V

Nordstrand Audio has expanded its retro-inspired Acinonyx lineup with the launch of the new Acinonyx 5 – a five-string evolution of the company’s offset short-scale bass design that arrives after a limited-edition run last year.

At the heart of the Acinonyx 5 is a compact 30.7-inch short scale, paired with an Indian rosewood fingerboard featuring a compound radius for a more modern feel across the neck. Nordstrand also promises a comfortably worn-in playing experience, describing the neck profile as one that “fits the hand like an old broken in glove.”

Seamoon FX More!

Sounding like a machine from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, the More! By Seamoon FX is a totally different breed of octave pedal.

Unlike regular octave pedals or synth-style processors, the More! appears to focus on enhancing the fundamental low frequencies beneath the original signal, offering what Seamoon describes as a more “felt than heard” effect.

The pedal sports a notably stripped-back control layout, featuring a single level knob alongside a toggle switch that shifts between two distinct bass emphasis modes. One setting prioritizes deeper sub-bass response for smoother, weightier tones, while the second introduces a more aggressive mid-bass character with increased dynamic saturation.

Kikichi Guitars

Japanese boutique bass builder Kikuchi Guitars has officially launched in Europe and the United States, bringing the craftsmanship of veteran luthier Yoshiyuki “Yoshi” Kikuchi to a wider global audience.

Kikuchi’s résumé reads like a history of high-end bass building. After founding Atelier Z in the 1980s, he relocated to New York in the early ’90s, where he worked alongside respected builders Roger Sadowsky and John Suhr. He later oversaw production of the acclaimed Sadowsky Metroline Japan basses – experience that now feeds directly into his own boutique operation.

With a pedigree rooted in some of the most respected names in boutique bass building, Kikuchi Guitars arrives as a serious new contender for players chasing vintage-inspired tone with modern precision.

Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, Deep Purple formed the holy trinity that would ultimately induce heavy metal. Yet while the band has always pinned the meters in terms of popularity, sales, and volume, critical acclaim has been less than royal – especially when viewed in the context of Zeppelin and Sabbath.

Consider Roger Glover's snarling bass guitar on Purple's 1972 classic, Machine Head – a record that would set the tone for decades of ensuing music – and it's clear his contribution to the canon of rock bass has been largely overlooked.

The Machine Head sessions were cut with what was effectively Deep Purple Mark II, the classic lineup of Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Ian Gillan vocals, Roger Glover bass, Jon Lord keyboards and a thundering lan Paice on drums.

Glover's thunderously clanky Rickenbacker/P-Bass tones were formidable, though Glover himself admitted to being very unsettled by his sound at the time: “Too much clank and not enough thump”, he told Bass Player in 2013.

“By the time I got to Purple, I felt my tone was too distorted, with not enough bottom. I used a Rick on Machine Head and I wasn't happy with the sound.

“When we did the 25th Anniversary remix, my engineer (Peter Denenberg) isolated it and said, ‘People would kill for a sound like that’, but I always felt my tone was too distorted, especially with the Rickenbacker. Having had a P-Bass and a Fender Mustang previously, I guess I didn't realize what I had.”

Born November 30, 1945, in Brecon, Wales, and raised in London, Glover began his musical journey with piano lessons at age seven. Gravitating toward rock & roll, he picked up guitar at 13. Bass entered the picture soon after, when Glover saw his first live band, the Lightnings, rehearsing in a local gym.

“Upon seeing them, my two friends and I decided to start a band; they were both better guitarists than I was, so I said, I'll be the bass player, and I removed the top two strings on my Spanish guitar.”

Glover moved to North London in 1961 and formed the Madisons. A year later, the Madisons merged with the Lightnings to become Episode Six. Six released over a dozen singles, never quite breaking through, but that would all change for Glover when Deep Purple came calling in the summer of ’69.

How did you come to join Deep Purple?

Ian Gillan and I were in a band called Episode Six, where we were writing together. Purple was looking for a singer, and Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore came to see us and offered Ian the gig, which he took.

Soon after, Ian called me and said, ‘The band is looking for songs – come in and play them our songs.’ So I met Lord and he listened and passed on what we had, but he played me Hallelujah and asked me to record it with them that night.

After the session he offered me the gig and I turned him down. I said, ‘You already took our singer, if I leave Episode Six it kills everyone else's hopes and dreams, and I can't live with that.’ So he said, ‘Well, think about it.’

I went home and thought about it all night and called him the next morning to take the gig. It still amazes me how close I came to not following this path.

What about original bassist Nick Simper?

Well, the band politics were horrible. Nick didn't know he'd been replaced until someone told him, and on the Hallelujah session I used his bass and amp. I felt bad; both (original vocalist) Rod Evans and Nick were let go without notice, which must have hurt terribly.

I've never met Nick, but his bass playing definitely had an impact on me because I had to play his parts. I thought he had a great plucking sound; you can really hear it on Hush – I could never get that sound.

People have noted that the bass is louder on Machine Head than other early Purple albums. Was there a reason?

I really don't know why that was, but it surprises me, as well. I very rarely listen to our own stuff, and so you forget what the recordings actually sound like; but every time I hear the original on the radio I go, ‘Jesus, the bass is loud!’

How did you come up with those bass parts?

Do you know the theory of the zen archer? The zen archer draws his bow back and as soon as he eyes the target he lets his arrow go. The reason is, the longer he hesitates and tries to make sure he hits the target, the more off he's going to be because his hands will start to shake. In other words, your first instinct is always your best bet.

But at the basic level, the bass has to anchor and groove at all costs. I mean, you can get a little complicated on the bass, but it doesn't really help the song.

What’s your role as a songwriter?

There's no formula for it, other than we're aware we're a hard rock band, and that's what the music is going to be. So it's within those confines, except hard rock is unconfined in that it has elements of blues, folk, classical, and jazz.

Someone might come in with a riff or a chord sequence, something fairly basic that everyone can chew on for a while, and the song kind of evolves. It's always been the same with Purple. We don't write Purple songs; we just write songs that become Purple songs because we're playing them.

Who were your key bass influences?

The first bass player I heard who was totally different from everyone else was Jack Bruce. Then I got into John Entwistle – My Generation blew me away – and Tim Bogert with Vanilla Fudge. But they were all virtuoso players.

I think the bassist who had the most impact on me was Paul McCartney, because he was both a great songwriter and a great player. He had the lyrical sensibility to say something profound on bass that didn't get in the way of anything else.

Even though I don't want to emulate them, I admire technical players. Two of my heroes are Jaco Pastorius and Victor Wooten. They're just brilliant musicians. Occasionally I'll go on YouTube and check out Victor or Abraham Laboriel.

What advice would you offer to young bassists?

If you want to be a bass player, study and borrow from the best and learn how to really enjoy playing the instrument. You can have just as much fun gigging in a little band at your local pub every Saturday evening as you'll ever get from being a celebrity bass player.

A big reason Purple made it is that we didn't follow any trends; hard rock wasn't in vogue at the time, and we had no hope in hell of getting on the radio. We just did what we wanted to do, and it happened to become successful. That's really the truest kind of success you can achieve.

In his 1995 Bass Player cover story, Paul McCartney said his prize period on bass guitar was around Rubber Soul and Sgt. Pepper, where he could put all his energy into the song and bassline, as opposed to his “okay” bass playing in Wings, due to his having numerous hats to wear, ranging from bandleader to business manager.

Guitarist Laurence Juber, whose career as a London and then Los Angeles session musician is separated by his two-year stint with Wings, begged to differ.

“Paul wrote a lot of great music and played a lot of terrific bass with Wings that is still under-appreciated,” said Juber in the October 2013 issue of Bass Player. “Some of it I don't think he even recognizes himself, yet.”

McCartney’s bassline for Silly Love Songs, which spent five weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. charts, is a case in point.

The track, from the album Wings at the Speed of Sound, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in January and February 1976. Criticized and taunted by the music press and John Lennon alike for writing “lightweight” songs, McCartney wrote it as a biting response, later cutting a more techno-oriented version featuring Louis Johnson on bass for the 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street.

Based on his later studio experience with Wings, Juber confirmed that Paul played his flatwound-strung Rickenbacker 4001S with a heavy-gauge pick, likely both direct and through a miked Fender Bassman, with a Fairchild Compressor on all bass tracks.

Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch on guitars, and drummer Joe English on drums rounded out the rhythm section, with keyboards, vocals, a four-piece horn section, and strings all added later.

What stands out about Silly Love Songs as compared to McCartney's Beatle bass anthem, Come Together, where the one-bar bass figure snakes around the vocals, or his 1979 Wings bass tour de force, Goodnight Tonight, where the busy bassline answers and fills in between the sparse vocal line, is that the vocal and bassline run together in counterpoint.

That's a key aspect to Juber, who covered Silly Love Songs on solo guitar for his 2005 album, One Wing.

“Paul's gift for singing and playing a bassline in counterpoint is remarkable. One of my favorite Paul McCartney bass parts is on his first solo single, Another Day, where at times the bass and vocals move in parallel sevenths. When counterpoint is done well like that it can drift outside of strict church harmony, and that's where the personality really emerges.”

Silly Love Songs begins with eight bars of a simulated assembly line, perhaps a symbolic precursor to the driving, repetitive bassline and four-on-the-floor drum pulse that lie ahead. Four more bars of intro allude to the bassline shape, which takes its full four-bar form at the first verse.

Interestingly, McCartney’s vocal is a three-bar phrase, leaving the fourth bar open for bass; however, the bar 4 bassline is actually finishing a two-bar phrase that begins under the Fmaj 7 chord in bar 3.

Two key elements are McCartney's use of chromatic passing notes, which help the melodic flow of the line (a device he has always employed, as a fan of Tin Pan Alley songs), and his interesting application of short and long notes.

“Paul plays with a very hard touch onstage, but he has a real sensitivity to dynamics and note duration in the studio. Even though the basic sequence of C Em7 Fmaj7 repeats in both the verses and choruses, the ear doesn't tire of it because he doesn't use a heavier, final-sounding, dominant V chord cadence.”

For the first chorus, at 01:02, McCartney keeps the same driving bassline, while the vocals pare down to whole notes. His use of up-and-down strokes with a pick is revealed via his 16th-note pickup at 01:32.

The bridge arrives with a unison riff that answers the vocal before building over the last five bars. The horn soli gives way to the breakdown at 03:12. As the vocals get more contrapuntal, the bass builds to a root-5th-octave pattern.

The horn soli reprises at 03:42, leading into a more minimal breakdown at 04:13, without bass for a bit (listen around 04:43 for bass panned way left and in the distance). The buildup involves McCartney's Latin bass figure again and a trick horn soli that lasts only four bars.

Finally, the song returns to a verse at 05:22, ending exotically on the III minor chord – “the most bittersweet chord in the C major scale,” noted Juber.

The Rickenbacker 360/12 might not have been the very first 12-string electric guitar to appear on the market – it was preceded by the 12-string necks found on the doubleneck Gibson EDS-1275 and Stratosphere Twin in the ’50s and the single 12-string neck Danelectro Bellzouki in 1961 – but it instantly elevated the electric 12-string from novelty item to essential tool upon its public debut in 1964.

A 360/12 prototype given to George Harrison was prominently featured in the Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night and its accompanying soundtrack, inspiring insatiable lust for the lush sounds of the electric 12 among aspiring and pro guitarists alike.

The Byrds, Beach Boys and other popular ’60s bands that didn’t begin with “B” (like the Jefferson Airplane, the Rolling Stones and the Who) further increased the popularity of the 360/12’s distinctive jingle-jangle sounds.

Although the 360/12 was essentially a Rickenbacker 360 model (introduced in 1958) with a 12-string neck, the innovative headstock design still was a noteworthy engineering achievement. Rickenbacker president F.C.

Hall thought the standard 12-string headstock looked awkwardly elongated thanks to its 6x6 tuner configuration, so he asked the head of Rickenbacker’s woodshop Dick Burke to figure out a way to fit 12 tuners onto a standard six-string size headstock. Burke quickly came up with an ingenious and elegant solution that combined normal electric guitar tuning pegs with classic-style pegs inset in headstock slots.

Early Ric 360/12 models were equipped with low-output “toaster” single-coil pickups that deliver a very bright and metallic tone. Later versions come with Hi-Gain single-coil pickups that produce a richer, fuller sound.

While the toaster pickups play a major role in the sound of songs like Ticket to Ride and Mr. Tambourine Man, a good studio or pedal compressor is also essential for dialing in warmer tone and the perfect treble shimmer without strident overtones.

Generally, a crystal-clean amp setting works best, and the amp can even be pushed to the edge of overdrive with good results, but too much gain and distortion usually results in an indecipherable mess.

The original six-saddle bridge makes it difficult to intonate all of the strings properly, which is particularly noticeable when playing above the 12th fret.

Fortunately, replacement 12-saddle bridges are available from Rickenbacker and other manufacturers. Traditionally, the 360/12 features a 21-fret neck, but since 1969 Rickenbacker have offered 360/12 models that expanded the total number of frets to 24. Currently, the traditional 21-fret neck is standard.

The jangly sound of the Rickenbacker 360/12 instantly evokes images of the mid-’60s, and most players who have picked one up since then have used it for music heavily inspired by that era.

Tom Petty and Mike Campbell, James Honeyman-Scott (the Pretenders), Johnny Marr, Marty Wilson-Piper (the Church), and Dave Gregory (XTC) helped revive the Ric 360/12 sound during the ’70s and ’80s, and Steve Howe proved that it could even work in a progressive rock context with Yes.

More recent 360/12 fans include Jonny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien of Radiohead, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Jeff Buckley and Andy Bell of Ride and Oasis.

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

“Nothing’s changed on it,” says Christie’s Amelia Walker of the glowing NOS look of John Lennon’s 1964 Rickenbacker Model 1996. “The Rickenbacker wasn’t used for a huge amount of time – it was a sort of replacement while his black 325 was being mended – but it’s got such a distinct look because it was one of the English [Rose-Morris] models with the f-hole like a violin,” she adds.

The guitar has now sold for $1,270,000 as part of the mammoth Jim Irsay Collection auction. But it had a long history leading up to the sale. Guitar historian Tony Bacon picks up the story here.

“In 1964, Rickenbacker began exporting guitars to the British distribution company Rose-Morris. Rickenbacker had produced some of its short-scale 300-series guitars with an f-hole, unlike those with the regular sealed top. Rose-Morris liked the f-hole and asked for it on the bigger-body guitars it bought, too, instead of Rickenbacker’s regular slash-shape soundhole,” Tony explains.

“The firm had its own model-number system and catalogued its Rickenbacker line accordingly – 1993 (Rickenbacker’s 330/12), 1995 (615), 1996 (325), 1997 (335), and 1998 (345) – but stopped Ricky imports a few years later as sales faltered.

“John Lennon had played a couple of American originals of Rickenbacker’s 325 model since his band’s early days, and it was his second 325 that suffered an unfortunate accident at a Beatles Christmas ’64 residency at Hammersmith Odeon [which ran from 24 December 1964 to 16 January 1965], resulting in a crack from the nut and around the back of the headstock,” Tony continues.

“Rose-Morris came to the rescue, happy to provide one of its ‘British’ model 1996 versions of the 325, finished as standard in fireglo red-sunburst, rather than John’s preferred black.

“He used it for the remaining shows, but soon had his regular 325 back in a reasonably playable condition, ready for the band’s first sessions of 1965 at Abbey Road. He later gave the 1996 to Ringo Starr [in 1968], who sold it at auction in 2015.”

“The Rickenbacker doesn’t necessarily have any key recordings associated with it,” Amelia Walker adds. “It was basically used [as a replacement] at Hammersmith during the Beatles’ Christmas Show in 1964 [to 1965]. And then after that it was kept in Lennon’s attic studio at Kenwood.

“You can see the guitar in photographs right by his Farfisa and the Brenell tape machines that he had up in the attic. It’s right there, so you can assume that it may have figured in compositions or on demos, but I don’t think it was used on any [official] recordings.”

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

Comprising guitarist John Squire, Ian Brown on vocals, Alan “Reni” Wren on drums, and the late bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield, the Stone Roses emerged from the vibrant Manchester music scene in the late 1980s with a brand-new sound that combined ’60s guitar pop with contemporary dance grooves.

Powered by one of the best rhythm sections of the decade, their self-titled debut album filled the dancefloors of student unions everywhere, and introduced a whole generation of rock fans to the joy of dance music and club culture.

“Dance music is very bass-driven,” said Mani back in March 2000. “With rock ’n’ roll you always get some shit-hot guitar player stealing everyone's thunder, y’know? But bass is mega-important – anyone who's got an ounce of groove in them realizes that.”

Taken from their highly influential self-titled debut album, released in 1989, Waterfall is classic Roses stuff: a jangly guitar riff propelled along by a double time drum groove, searing vocal melodies, and an understated bassline played high up the neck, which complements the song’s ’60s vibe perfectly.

“Ian and John are both big Sly Stone and Northern Soul fans – I suppose you can't help but wear your influences on your sleeve. We were always – I wouldn't call it pinching – recycling our favorite grooves. We were very eco-friendly about it.”

Written in the key of F#, Waterfall uses primarily diatonic chords with the exception of the E major (VII) that kicks off the chorus and provides a contrast from the predominant tonic chord riff.

The main bass riff is constructed from the root (F#), fifth (C#) and octave, consciously avoiding the major third, which allows Squire's jangly guitar (that emphasises the 3rd and 4th of the chord) to ring clearly.

It’s played entirely in ninth position using only the first and third fingers of your fretting hand. Don't emphasise the hammer-on at the end of the bar – this should be subtle and not detract from the song's floating groove. For the rest of the song Mani doubles Squire's descending bass patterns an octave lower.

Delivered in the rolling, groovy style for which he was well known, Mani’s bassline came out without much forethought. “I think the more knowledge you have, the more constrained you are,” he told Bass Player in 2010. “That’s just my way of looking at it.”

“What I’ve done in my playing career is try not to learn anything – scales, and the circle of bloody fifths and thirds and what have you. I don’t want to know how it works, because then you’re missing out on all the other stuff by looking at the parameters that you’re supposed to abide by.

“I think the more knowledge you have, the more constrained you are. Ignorance is bliss. I’d take passion over technical knowledge any day. I just play what comes straight out of my heart.”

In the Roses, Mani famously played a paint-splattered Rickenbacker bass through a Mesa/Boogie rig.

“I think it's a 3000 or an El Dorado or something. It's as rare as rocking horse shit. It's getting a bit tatty now – there's nothing left on the truss rod – and l've just managed to find another one. I just really like the tone and the attack and everything you get on them. It's a fucking man’s bass!”

This month on Bought & Sold, we have a bona-fide legend who might always be remembered for popularising the 12-string guitar, but has also done his bit for the 7-string acoustic guitar, too.

It’s Mr Roger McGuinn, the co-founder and frontman of the Byrds, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, and icon of folk-rock. And he’s here to share his life in guitars…

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

I bought it from Lyon & Healy in Chicago. It was a Martin 00-21 acoustic six-string. It cost me, like, $165. At the time, I bought it because I was going to the Old Town School of Folk Music; [co-founder and folk musician] Frank Hamilton played one just like it, and so did Josh White [Jr]. I thought it was the quintessential folk guitar at the time, and I still have it! It’s hanging on my wall, still plays and sounds really good.

Tell us about the last guitar you bought and why you decided to buy it?

Well, I’ve got some signature models made up for Martin on both 12-string acoustic and seven-string acoustic, which I designed for them. And so, they give you half off on it, so I bought some of those. I guess that’s the last thing I bought… I haven’t bought any guitars for a while.

What’s the most incredible find or bargain that you’ve ever had when buying guitars?

Bargain? Well, I got a Rickenbacker 360/12 for around $600, which, as you know, is a pretty good price for those things!

I haven’t used it on any notable recordings, but I took it on the road when I opened for The Beach Boys some years ago. And Marty Stuart had a TV show a few years back and I played it on that. And now, I have it right here in my studio and I use it for practice.

What’s the strongest case of buyer’s remorse that you’ve had after buying a guitar?

It was an Ovation 12-string. Ovations had just come out at that time and Glen Campbell was playing one, so Clarence [White] and I bought Ovations. The thing fell apart! The struts came out of the inside, it rattled…

And besides that, the round back was hard to play because it gets in the way and you can’t put it on your knee like a regular guitar. I don’t remember what I did with it… I think I gave it away.

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

No, I never really sold a guitar like that, but I’ve had them stolen from me. The one that was stolen was when I was playing with The Byrds, and we were at Fordham University [New York City] in 1965. We were in the dressing room and this guy walked in with a silver Rickenbacker case.

I thought, ‘Oh, it’s just a fellow musician, that’s fine,’ and then he walked out with the case. And when I went to get my guitar, it was gone. Years later, it went up for sale and was sold in Las Vegas for some enormous amount of money. I think it ended up at the Experience Music Project in Seattle.

What’s your best buying tip for anyone looking to buy their ultimate guitar?

It depends on your price range. But make sure the action is good because the first guitar I had – and this is a common story – the action was too high and I couldn’t really play it at all. Some look good, but they don’t play.

So make sure the action is less than a quarter-inch and you can play chords on it. That’s my advice. And they make some really good inexpensive guitars, like Jasmine, a subsidiary of Takamine, which are made in Indonesia. It’s like a $100 guitar, but it plays really well.

When was the last time you stopped and looked in a guitar shop window or browsed online, and what were you looking at?

I really haven’t been shopping for guitars. I’ve got enough guitars [laughs]. But gear-wise, I’ve been looking at and I’ve got some little Roland amplifiers, which are good. And I’ve got a JangleBox, which is a good device for anybody who wants that Byrds kind of sound on a Rickenbacker.

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

Yeah, the guitar comes first. It’s kind of like the microphone and it’s the most important thing in the recording. It’s your instrument. And for amps, I love the Roland JC-120. It’s got a nice clean sound, the Rick just sounds really great through it, it’s got some reverb, and you push a pedal and record like a basic track and then play over it. So it’s got some cool things going for it.

If you could only use humbuckers or single coils for the rest of your career, which would you choose, and why?

Well, I like them both. They have different sounds, I think. And I’m not sure what it’s called, but it’s the ‘toaster’ pickup on my signature model Rickenbacker that has a mellow sound, which I like. And then the humbuckers have a more powerful sound.

Roger’s go-to rig

I use a JangleBox when I’m home, but on the road you can’t use the JangleBox because it’ll pick up the 60-cycle hum from the lighting and different electrical interference that’s out there. So I go through the soundboard when I’m on stage.

And now, on stage, I carry my Rickenbacker 370/12 signature model, and I’ve got a Martin HD7 seven-string guitar that I helped design for Martin. Then I have the Martin D12-45 from 1970 that has a really good sound. And then I’ve a five-string longneck banjo.

• Sweetheart of The Rodeo-50th Anniversary Live is out now via Friday Rights Management.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

John Fogerty recently featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to discuss some of the key mods he made to his legendary Acme Rickenbacker electric guitar – and revealed the most important one was inspired by a trio of British guitar greats.

“This is the guitar I purchased right at the beginning of 1969,” he tells Colbert proudly. It's the instrument with which he made his name, using it to write a score of hits with Creedence Clearwater Revival at a highly politicised era of American history. Famously, he gave it to a 12-year-old kid when CCR disbanded as he mourned the loss of the band that had changed his life.

“It was a Rickenbacker, but I made a bunch of changes to it, because I found some things lacking with the standard model,” he goes on. “The most important thing is that I put a Gibson humbucker off of a Les Paul [in the bridge].”

That all-important mod was done with a little British influence.

“I'd heard about these fellas in England. There was quite a mystique. They were Jimmy, Jeff, and Eric,” he says, referring to Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton. The three blues rock guitar greats were vital figureheads in the British guitar scene in the 1960s, and all cut their teeth in the Yardbirds.

During that era, the trio also commonly played humbucker-equipped guitars. Clapton had the Beano Burst and 'The Fool' SG, for example, while Page purchased his Number One Les Paul in 1969. Beck also famously played the YardBurst. Such sonic decisions clearly rubbed off on Fogerty, who looked to reshape his Rickenbacker in their tonal image.

“It really helped,” he adds of the humbucker. “When it got done, I changed the name plate and hand-painted 'ACME' right there [on the headstock].” It's inscribed in yellow paint as a nod to the fictional munitions firm that features in Looney Tunes cartoons.

Fogerty thanks his wife, Julie, for reuniting him with the guitar in 2016, though he nearly bought it back himself years earlier. It was in the hands of vintage guitar guru Norman Harris at the time, but he shied away from its hefty price tag.

Fogerty recently recalled writing one of CCR's most iconic tracks and how he knew he was onto a winner from the off. It was a time, he says, when he was skeptical about what guitar pedals could do for his tone.

He's now re-recorded his most seminal cuts for a new solo record, and his busy touring schedule has seen the 80-year-old adopt a rigorous practice regimen that includes doing some two-handed tapping on an Ibanez RG.

Blessed with an unmistakable vocal shriek in addition to his superlative bass skills, Gary Lee Weinrib – nicknamed Geddy Lee after the way his grandmother used to pronounce his name – was among the first bass guitar players to combine funk with elements of progressive-rock and make it big while doing so.

Complemented by his virtuoso bandmates in Rush – guitarist Alex Lifeson and the late drummer Neil Peart – Lee’s bass playing veers from the subtle, to the atmospheric, to an all-out riff storm.

“Sometimes I hit the bass so damn hard that you can hear not only the frets whack but sometimes the string hitting the pickup,” Lee told Bass Player back in 2006. “I can be a bit of an animal!”

Gear-wise, Geddy is best known for his signature Fender Jazz Bass, although he’s plucked a Rickenbacker or two in his time as well.

“When we signed our first record deal in 1974, I got my share of our small advance and the first thing I did was buy a Rickenbacker 4001. I think I paid about $400 for it.

“Much to my dismay, when I plugged it in, it didn’t sound like Chris Squire! It took me quite a lot of fiddling to get it to sound the way I wanted.

“I tried a Fender Precision as well. I played with the shape of the body: I cut it into a teardrop shape and added a Jazz bridge pickup to hotrod it up. I actually destroyed that bass, pretty much! It had a pretty outrageous sound.”

Shortly after Rush's 1974 debut album, the trio began to explore long, multi-part compositions with rhythmically complex passages, hitting its stride with 1975’s prog-rock treasure Fly By Night.

“I used the Rickenbacker on nearly every track on Fly by Night. But on By-Tor and the Snow Dog, a fantasy tune that featured characters representing good and evil, I was given the role of By-Tor, the evil one.

“There’s a monster sound that growls during one really chaotic musical segment, so I put my '69 Precision Bass through a Fuzz-Tone. It was distorted all to shit; we added phasing, and ultimately put in everything but the kitchen sink.”

“I had all that going through a volume pedal, so every time the monster was supposed to growl, I would lean on the pedal. It sounded like a real monster!”

Around 1977's A Farewell to Kings, Lee sought to make his bass sound even bigger, and began using Moog Taurus bass pedals and a doubleneck Rickenbacker bass/guitar to create the lush soundscapes of the epic Xanadu.

1981's Moving Pictures finally broke the band into mainstream rock radio with hits like the anthemic Tom Sawyer and the tweaked-out instrumental YYZ.

“I have this 1972 Fender Jazz that I used a lot on those albums,” said Lee when asked about his current instrument of choice. “It's just a great recording bass, one which people have often mistaken, sound-wise, for my Rickenbacker.

“You can get that out of a Ricky, there’s no question about it, but it’s a lot of fiddling. I wanted to get a bit more punch in the bottom end, and what I liked about the Jazz Bass was that it was really easy to get a great tone in the studio.”

“The Jazz Bass has a really sweet neck, and I feel far more fluid playing it than I ever did on the Rickenbacker.”

Guitar thefts are, unfortunately, a negative side effect of being a guitarist, and the Byrds' Roger McGuinn learned that the hard way in 1965: his prized Rickenbacker was swiped from right under his nose during a rather nonchalant heist.

Rickenbacker electric guitars and 12-string acoustics have been McGuinn's instruments of choice throughout a career that has seen him record with Simon & Garfunkel, and collaborate with Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. In 1991, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in recognition of his work in the Byrds – a band he co-founded a year before the fateful night he lost his favorite instrument.

“I was playing with The Byrds, and we were at Fordham University [New York City] in 1965,” he explains in the new issue of Guitarist. “We were in the dressing room, and this guy walked in with a silver Rickenbacker case. I thought, 'Oh, it's just a fellow musician, that's fine, and then he walked out with the case.”

McGuinn’s trust was misplaced. “When I went to get my guitar,” he continues, “it was gone.”

Instruments have been swiped from backstage countless times, and, in the case of Nuno Bettencourt’s double-neck Washburn N8, from the stage, too. But while the story of that high-stakes theft ended happily, with the Portuguese shredder getting his axe back in miraculous circumstances, McGuinn wasn’t quite so lucky.

“Years later, it went up for sale and was sold in Las Vegas for some enormous amount of money,” he states. “I think it ended up at the Experience Music Project in Seattle.”

McGuinn's relationship with Rickenbacker goes way back. He was one of the earliest owners of a 12-string Rickenbacker, and used one to cover Bob Dylan's Mr Tambourine Man for the band's first single. That, he admits all these years later, could have failed drastically had they not taken precautionary measures.

“[David] Crosby said, ‘I don't like it, man.’ He said, ‘That folky 2/4 time never gonna play on the radio.’ And he was right,” he confessed back in April.

So, the song was redressed in 4/4 and given an electric rock feel, helping it better resonate with contemporary audiences, most of whom were hooked on the Beatles.

Elsewhere, McGuinn has explained why the band didn't follow the Kinks and the Who into the world of distorted guitars, while Christian Parker, who has released two Byrds covers albums, has reflected on the band's unsung legacy as folk-rock pioneers.

McGuinn’s full interview can be found in the latest issue of Guitarist. Head to Magazines Direct to pick up a copy.

John Fogerty confesses he's more of an amp aficionado than a pedal enthusiast. “It was probably the best-sounding solid-state amp ever made,” he waxed lyrical in a 2023 Guitar World interview, when talking about the Kustom amps he used during his Creedence Clearwater Revival era.

“I was playing a Kustom K200A[-4], which was an amazing rig. It was roughly 100 watts and was solid-state. It didn’t sound hard and cold and sterile the way so many other solid-state amps of that era sounded. And I’m just talking about when I used it clean. That amp had four effects built in; one was reverb, which I never used…”

And, speaking of effects, in a recent interview with Rick Beato, the lauded songwriter and guitarist reveals that, back in the ’60s, he “didn't know anything about pedals.

“It's one of those weird things in life,” he confesses. “You notice – especially culturally or politically – people will change their mind about some subject. I was kind of that way about pedals. ‘Why do I need a pedal?’ It seemed like some communist idea or something.”

As for why he opted for Kustom amps, Fogerty says that “they had created this amp in such a way that it's [a] natural sound. If you turned it up pretty loud, [it] didn't have that horrible, tight, too clean sound that so many of the solid state amps were into.

“And I always felt that a Blackface or the Silverface Fender – the Twin Reverb, the big amp, I thought was too harsh for me. I still do. The Kustom amp kind of had some hair on the notes – and it was perfect for strumming an electric guitar, especially a Rickenbacker. The toaster pickups on that guitar weren't real, real loud, so that the amp had some finesse to it.

“That combination was perfect, the Rick with the Kustom amp,” he concludes.

Elsewhere in the Beato interview, Fogerty recalls the moment he wrote one of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s most iconic tracks.

Few things in life are as heartbreaking as lost guitar stories, but on the flip side, nothing warms the heart quite like a reunion tale – and John Fogerty once experienced both extremes with his most iconic electric guitar.

The guitar in question is Fogerty's modded Rickenbacker 325, nicknamed ACME. Fogerty had played it on stage at Woodstock and then on the Ed Sullivan Show, both in 1969.

In the studio, it was essential in shaping the sounds of some of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s biggest hits – including Up Around the Bend, Green River, and Travelin’ Band – and nearly every other standard tuning song from their Bayou Country album onwards.

He’d customized it too, adding a humbucker lifted from a Gibson Les Paul at the bridge position, installing a Bigsby vibrato, and removing the Rickenbacker nameplate from the headstock. “ACME” was inscribed in its place in yellow paint, a nod to the fictional cartoon munitions firm with which Wile E. Coyote had a loyalty card.

Then, around 1973 or 1974, Fogerty foolishly let it go for free after CCR’s demise.

“[It was a] dumb idea, [a] foolish idea, to give a guitar away that has meant so much to you and has been so much a part of your recording, right?” he says, rhetorically, on the Sodajerker On Songwriting podcast.

“But I’m just a human swimming in the river that we’re all swimming in, and I was just affected by my feelings, so I gave this guitar away.”

Years later, he almost bought it back off Norman Harris of Norman’s Rare Guitars, but even with a discounted $90,000 price tag, Fogerty resisted splurging on a reunion.

“Happily, Julie [Fogerty's wife] went out and found my old ACME guitar, several years ago. It must be about eight years ago now, something like that,” he relays. “I had given it away to a 12-year-old kid, shortly after Creedence broke up. I think at the time, I was kind of heartbroken about my band breaking up, and all of that… hurt and heartbroken and wanting to turn over a new leaf and start a new page.

One Christmas morning – in 2016 by Fogerty’s estimations – it was there, under the tree. The greatest gift.

“I was immediately struck dumb,” he had told Rolling Stone in 2017. “I turned to my wife and said, ‘Am I about to get overwhelmed here?’

“It sounds great. And more importantly, it sounds like that guitar that’s on these records.”

Now, with it back in his possession – and after Fogerty got his publishing rights back in 2023 after 50 years – he’s used ACME to re-record a host of CCR classics.

“The hairs stood up on the back of my neck,” he says, having used it to track the guitar solo in the reprised Green River. “It was exactly that sound, 100 percent. I dare say I haven’t heard that sound since those days when I had the guitar.”

Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years, released last week via Concord and ushered in a long-craved new era in Fogerty’s career.

The Byrds were famously one of the first rock ’n’ roll band to be signed to Columbia Records – no mean feat considering the label's longstanding love affair with jazz and classical Broadway show tunes, especially at the time.

An audition tape that landed in the hands of Miles Davis' agent – plus a little coaxing from the jazz trumpeter himself – led the quintet to secure their first deal with Columbia – and guitarist (and frontman) Roger McGuinn's Rickenbacker 360 12-string would serve as the secret sauce that helped make their debut single stand out from the flurry of releases.

“Columbia was very conservative. They didn't like rock ’n’ roll,” McGuinn says in an interview with Pete Ganbarg on the Rock & Roll High School Podcast. “They thought it might tarnish their reputation as a quality label.

“So they gave us a record deal for one single, and if we didn’t get it hit with a single, we were out. So we needed a strong song, and that's where [Jim] Dickson [their manager at the time] came up with Mr. Tambourine Man. He knew Dylan, and he got a copy of it sent out from M. Witmark & Sons in New York, Dylan's publisher at the time, and we all sat around listening to it.”

However, not everyone in the band was as enthusiastic as Dickson about the song – which Dylan himself released in March 1965, roughly a month before the Byrds’ rolled out their own version.

“[David] Crosby said, ‘I don't like it, man.’ He said, ‘That folky 2/4 time never gonna play on the radio.’ And he was right. They were playing rock ’n’ roll.’” To make the song work for them, and more palatable to audiences, McGuinn changed the time signature to 4/4 time, and the band – along with Dickson – gave it the electric rock treatment, effectively creating the subgenre of folk rock.

A key part of the song's makeover was the addition of McGuinn's distinct jangly guitar playing – courtesy of his Rickenbacker. As the third-ever person to own a Rickenbacker – following a certain George Harrison – the Byrds' guitarist had big shoes to fill, but the left-field guitar eventually became his signature instrument.

"I've been listening to the Searchers and the Seekers, and they had these really cool 12-string intros,” he says of his initial inspiration to incorporate the Rickenbacker. “I found out later it wasn't a 12-string – it's two sixes in octaves – but they got to 12-strings later, and that sound for an intro was really captivating. I thought it'd be cool to do that with Mr. Tambourine Man.”

Speaking more about how he managed to achieve the “jingle-jangle” tone that continues to capture guitarists’ imagination to this day, McGuinn told Guitar World that his Rick was awash with compression – courtesy of Fairchild compressors and Pultec limiters.

“The technique was to run one compressor into another – piggyback them – just to get as much compression as possible to get as much sustain as possible. Because the Rickenbacker is a very short-sustain instrument. That’s good for rhythm, but it’s not good for lead.”

He continued, “The lead lines I was doing needed longer sustain. So we used compression. Originally, though, I think the reason why we started using compression wasn’t for the sustain. It was a by-product of the fact that [recording engineers] did it so that we wouldn’t blow up their equipment!”

The Byrds’ lasting impact can be epitomized in New York guitarist Christian Parker’s two albums’ worth of a love letter to the Byrds' repertoire – with Parker going as far as picking specific instruments and gear to match the era and the material.

John Fogerty has played many electric guitars, but one defined his Creedence Clearwater Revival sound: a Rickenbacker 325. When he was reunited with it for Christmas 2016, after more than 40 years apart, he reportedly began sobbing uncontrollably.

Now, Norm Harris, owner of Norman's Rare Guitars, has revealed to Guitar World that he offered to sell the guitar back to Fogerty years earlier – and at a knockdown price.

Fogerty had played the Rickenbacker on the Ed Sullivan Show and on stage at Woodstock. It had been used to record classics like Up Around the Bend, Green River, and Travelin’ Band, along with every other Creedence song in standard tuning from 1969’s Bayou Country onwards.

When Creedence disbanded, a discouraged Fogerty gave the guitar away. “I was just detached and numb at that point,” he told Rolling Stone. “I think I gave it away to sort of end that chapter of my life.”

Now Norman Harris tells us Fogerty considered buying the guitar when it was for sale in Norman’s Rare Guitars.

Norm had bought the guitar from the guy Fogerty had given it to back in 1973. The guitar was not difficult to identify: “It was Fireglo, and [Fogerty] had put a humbucking pickup in it and taken the Rickenbacker nameplate off the headstock,” says Norm.

In place of the Rickenbacker logo, Fogerty painted ACME in yellow, a reference to the fictional company from Warner Bros cartoons.

“Years later, I decided I was going to sell it,” Norm remembers. “I was asking a certain price, I think about $90,000, and John came in with his wife and was interested.

“He was interested in doing something but said, ‘You know what? I gave the guitar away. I feel stupid buying it.’ I said, ‘Well, you can have it for 40 [thousand],’ and he just said, ‘I don’t feel good about buying it and spending all this money.’

“So he didn’t buy it from me,” continues Norm. “I sold it to Gary’s Classic Guitars, and he paid 90 [thousand], I think, for it. And then, John’s wife decided she wanted to buy it for him. I’m not sure what she paid Gary, but I’m sure it was more than 90!”

As rockstar-owned Rickenbackers go, Fogerty’s was something of a bargain. One owned by John Lennon and gifted to Ringo Starr sold for $910,000 , narrowly missing out on the list of most expensive guitars of all time.

Elsewhere in the interview, Norman Harris hinted that Joe Bonamassa could take over Norman’s Rare Guitars. John Fogerty, meanwhile, has been playing a very different guitar in a surprising video of him practicing his two-handed tapping.

For the full interview with Norman Harris, check out the May 2025 issue of Guitar World, available from Magazines Direct.

Beyond his immeasurable musical legacy, Motörhead frontman Lemmy is set to be forever memorialized in bronze with a statue in his native Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent in the UK.

The $2.8 million sculpture of the rock icon, who passed away in 2015, will finally be unveiled on May 8. Although it was initially authorized last year, a Queen Victoria-era law required further approval due to its placement on council-owned highway land. Now, with all necessary permissions secured, the tribute to Lemmy is set to become a permanent fixture in his hometown.

According to comments made by a Stoke-on-Trent Council spokesperson to the BBC: “Stoke-on-Trent has produced many famous faces over the years and what better way to honor one of our own than by installing a statue in the town where they were born – and in our centenary year as well. We are looking forward to welcoming visitors from all over the world for the unveiling.”

The statue, sculpted by Andy Edwards – the artist in charge of the world-famous Beatles statue in Liverpool – will depict Lemmy at the height of his fame in the ’80s, portraying him in his iconic pose: head slightly tilted upwards towards a microphone while playing his Rickenbacker 4001.

“Lemmy was a personal hero to me,” confesses Edwards in an interview with the BBC. “The reason for making this statue is to give other people that pleasure that I've had in thinking back, those memories at Victoria Hall, Bingley Hall, and Vale Park” – referring to the venues where he saw Lemmy perform.

“This new statue of Lem is special, not just because I share the same birthplace as him or because of how much he personally means to me, but because it's so important to have a permanent international landmark celebrating him where he was born.

He continues, “Lemmy gave me joy, confidence in myself, and energy, and he's also an avatar of the original spirit and power of rock and roll. I really hope it will become a meeting place for people from all over the world to take the journey to.”

The sculptor also paid special attention to recreating the finer details of Lemmy's legendary bass – almost as famous as its player. “I put those details in because if you don't, people sense there's something not quite right and they don't hang around as long,” he says.

“You want people to hang about because you want people to go back in time and get their imaginations going.”

Lemmy’s upcoming statue is one of several hometown tributes of legendary players erected in recent years. A statue of Rory Gallagher was recently unveiled in his “second home” of Belfast, with plans in place for the Northern Irish city to also commemorate its son, Gary Moore, with a similar tribute.

Mercyful Fate and Fury bassist Becky Baldwin is no overnight success. She spent years cutting her teeth with sessions and tours, all the while building an online community.

Then she caught the attention of a group she had admired for decades.

Mercyful Fate, one of heavy metal’s most influential bands, were urgently looking for a bassist when – call it faith or pure coincidence – they came across Baldwin's playthrough videos on Instagram.

“Hank Sherman, one of the guitarists, said, ‘I’ve seen this bassist who's more of a metal-style player on Instagram, and maybe you should check her out.’ This was in August 2022, just before they played Bloodstock,” she recalls.

“The band and the management were watching some of my videos, and they were like, ‘Yeah, let's ask her. This is a good idea.’ Then they came across my posts saying, ‘At Bloodstock. Going to watch Mercyful Fate this weekend,’ and they decided they would offer the job to me there and then at the festival.”

It was everything Baldwin had been building towards since she got her first bass on her 13th birthday.

“My main influences then were Metallica, Cliff Burton, [and] Lemmy with Motörhead,” she recalls. “I think I focused more on old-school ’80s and ’70s, heavy metal, and thrash metal. That was the direction I was heading in.”

Many people would know you from your bass covers on YouTube and social media. How did it all start? Did you ever think it would blow up?

“Not at all. Occasionally, I tried to film videos playing along to something, and it never really took off too well. But I had really bad recording equipment. As I got slightly better technology, I was actually getting better videos, and I started putting them up just to entertain my friends.

“I didn't expect it to pick up as much as it did, where a lot of people that I didn't know personally were starting to follow my page. And that was quite different. I had no idea how any of these things work, like hashtags and trending and going viral.

“And yeah, it suddenly started capturing groups of people who thought it was something a bit different, like the kind of songs I was covering and the way I played them, and also it being bass.

“They like to hear the bass in isolation and bring it more to the forefront of the song because a lot of songs have great basslines, but you can barely hear them. Once it started happening, then I was like, ‘Yeah, this is fun. Let’s see how far this can go.’”

You're associated with the Rickenbacker – or as your fans call it, the Rickenbecky. How did it become your bass of choice?

“I've got the 4001. And then the other one is the 4003. I kind of use both. I mean, my favorite is the vintage one [the 4001], because it's got a lot of history. The first bass players that I was really following, Lemmy and Cliff Burton, used them. I guess not many people play them nowadays, so when you see them, you associate them with that era of music.

“I think it was in 2018 that I got the 4001. I'd been looking at it on eBay for a while and realized that I actually wanted to bid on it. But then figured out that I knew someone who was also trying to bid on the same bass.

“I decided not to go for it as it was quite expensive. But they didn't actually pay for it in the end so it came back online. It was the day that one of the old Motörhead guitarists, Fast Eddie Clarke died… and then the bass came back on eBay. And I was like, ‘This is a sign I'm supposed to have it.’ It just felt like destiny to have this bass.

“They have both been modified. I think it makes more sense as a metal player to swap the pickups, so I've swapped the bridge pickup for a Seymour Duncan. Cliff Burton did a similar thing with his, and Lemmy also had a signature Seymour Duncan pickup. Also, visually, I've got a different pickguard.”

And in terms of other gear?

“I've got the Darkglass A0900 head and DG212N cab. It's really light, so I love using that. Some of the people who were working at Darkglass moved over to Neural DSP. I still use the Darkglass amp, but instead of the [Alpha Omega] Photon pedal, I'm now using the Quad Cortex.

“It has Darkglass sounds already loaded into it, but it's just got other useful things like a tuner, a drop-tune button, and loads of effects that you could spend hours playing around with, but I keep it simple. Just one distortion, maybe a little boost here and there.

“I also use the D'Addario NYXL strings, 45 to 105 gauge. And then I use one of their heavier ones on the other bass, because that's the bass where I do more D standard tuning.”

You've got a very specific fingerstyle technique that lends itself well to bass. How did you develop it?

“It's basically just playing as hard as you possibly can. And yeah, I just try to stay consistent in whacking the strings. I use two fingers, and it's alternating between those two. I haven't really tried developing a three-finger technique with picking, as it didn't feel quite right. It was harder to get the accents that I wanted and get the dynamics right. So I stuck with that.

“Once someone made a comment saying like, ‘Oh, yeah, girls playing bass. They always just tickle the strings. They don't play properly.’ And I was like, ‘You're kidding me!’

“I think from then on, I was trying to prove a point to play hard, play punk and metal, and really do it justice and make sure that when those people see how girls can play bass, they'll change their minds.”

Onto the big one. How did the Mercyful Fate gig come about?

“It was the Instagram, YouTube, Facebook… all this stuff. Having a presence there paid off. I never expected it to go this way. And it was great when it meant that I could work with more brands and stuff. And I thought, ‘Oh, that's a great perk.’

“But I didn't think the people I'd be showing my playing to would be one of the most influential heavy metal bands of the early ’80s.

“They had a bass player called Joey Vera and they had some tours moved around because of Covid delays and everything. And it turned out that the tour they had clashed with Joey's other band, Armored Saint.

“They had this American tour and they needed someone to step in. And they asked around a little bit, and their management suggested a bunch of people. They said nobody on this list seemed like a good fit for the band, like in terms of playing style, or visually, or just in the other things that the bass player had done.

“They also noticed that everyone on that list was a guy, and they said, ‘It doesn't necessarily have to be a guy. We can look at anyone.’ Then I think they noticed that Whitesnake had a new bass player called Tanya O'Callaghan, a woman from an era of music that's completely different from Whitesnake, but the fans accepted her and she was a great fit for the band.

“So they were like, ‘If they could do something like this, maybe we can do that as well.’ It's cool to see how another woman's success opens the door for more people to do it.”

So what was it like getting the call? Did you have to audition for the role?

“I'd just got my camping ticket for Bloodstock, and I go in and on the day that they play, I'm wandering around the bar or something, and someone comes up to me and says, ‘Hey, can you come and speak to this person?’ ‘Yeah, sure.’ I don't know who that is. But then I realized I'm going backstage… of the main stage.

“I'm like, ‘Whoa, what's going on here? Where are we going? Who are we meeting?’ And then I start to realize that I was probably going to be meeting Mercyful Fate because they're on in a few hours and I didn't know any of the other bands. But that would be the most logical thing going on here.

“Once I came backstage and met them, they said, ‘Do you know why you're here? We need you to go on tour with us. We need a bass player. We need someone to play in Mercyful Fate. You think you could learn our songs and come on tour with us in a couple of months?’

“I was just depping at that point. I did that tour. And then after that, we had some festivals in Mexico a few months later. This year, we played in Brazil and Chile. They understood that Joey's priorities are with his own band, because he's one of the original members of that band, so then they offered me to join permanently.”

So, obviously, you had to learn all of Timmy Hanson's basslines. How did you balance staying true to his style while putting your own twist on things?

“My aim was to get all the parts as accurate as possible to Timmy's original lines. There were some parts on old recordings where it was quite hard to hear the bassline.

“But there are live recordings from Joey, who has been playing with them a bit more recently. And Joey also did me a massive favor and got a mixdown of the full live show, and had the bass mix really loud so that I could hear exactly what he was playing.

“He's been in the industry and has been doing this job for a lot longer than I have, so I feel that I can trust what he's doing. And of course, the band is used to what he's playing because he did that tour in the summer of 2022.

“It was between listening to the originals and listening to Joey's parts where I kind of found the best parts that I wanted to do. There are a few bits where I could hear Joe doing something slightly different to Timmy. But I really liked what Joey was doing for the live show.

“I think Timmy's lines don't feel too dissimilar to what I would do with the song anyway, so it felt quite easy to strike that balance of honoring his parts, but also doing something that I was comfortable with playing.”

You have also played in a Metallica tribute band. How did you find tackling Cliff Burton's sound and style?

“I dep for them whenever their bass player is away. A couple of years ago, their bass player was really busy and so I did quite a lot of shows. Whenever they need me, I'm happy to step in.

“Cliff is a very unique player. And I think the more you study his basslines, the more you can see and hear his background in learning piano before he learned bass.

“So you can see that he'll use different kinds of arpeggios and scales. Whereas I think most of the songwriting was coming from other members of the band that I don't think had that kind of approach.

“But when he came to add his own mark on it, you can hear that he's applying theory and adding maybe more creative chromatic bass guitar riffs than the other members would present to him.

“Then he'd be like, ‘Okay, I want to make this make more sense in a musical way, because that's how my brain works.’ And that's kind of how I like to write basslines as well. I've always studied Cliff Burton's work as much as possible, so it was really nice to play with a tribute band and be able to take another deep dive into those songs.”

What has been the most surreal moment of your career so far?

“Probably the Mercyful Fate thing. And the show we did in LA – Dave Grohl came and was hanging out backstage. I just didn't expect him to be much of a massive Mercyful Fate fan. But I've got this video of him in the audience singing along, and it's so cool.

“And then afterward I got to meet him, and that was just a very surreal moment. I also got to meet Rob Halford [Judas Priest], another great musician. I never thought these things would happen.”

“I was just in Denmark. Metallica were playing in Copenhagen, and some of the band members are based over there. So I flew over to meet them. We went to see Metallica and we got to meet Lars [Ulrich] at the end because he's a big Mercyful Fate fan.

“So he was happy to have us there at the show, and this was a real full-circle moment. I was like, ‘Oh my god, you're in my favorite band ever.’ And he's like, ‘You’re in my favorite band.’”

The classic Chris Squire bass tone is best described as clanky, clacky, brittle, hollow and so on, but rather than deciphering endless adjectives it's probably best to listen to Roundabout and marvel at its prominent, treble-loaded tone, delivered with startling picking speed and agility.

Squire referred to the bassline as “quintessential” with some humour, having been asked about it so many times, but he was right – it perfectly sums up his approach to the bass guitar.

Squire, who died in 2015 from leukaemia, was best known for playing a 1964 Rickenbacker with the serial number DC127, often thought to be a regular 4001S model. It was actually an RM1999 – in other words, an import into the UK by Rose Morris, Rickenbacker's official British importer at the time.

Asked why he chose a Ricky, Squire explained: “Because when they originally came into England, Pete Quaife from the Kinks bought one, and John Entwistle bought one. I worked at a guitar shop called Boosey & Hawkes, who were the importers, and I got the third one.

“It's a brilliant bass... I have a relationship with it; it just plays itself, really. The pickups are all cockeyed and crappy; by modern standards they wouldn't figure as being efficient at all. But it's the inefficiency that makes it so good.”

Squire's Rickenbacker underwent several drastic changes over the years, the most radical coming when he rewired the single-output bass with stereo outputs in the early '70s.

His idea was that certain effects worked better with either the neck or bridge pickup, a concept copied by a few notable bassists over the years.

“I invented that whole thing! I didn't do it because I wanted to play in stereo. It’s because I loved the fuzz tone I could get from the neck pickup, but with the bridge pickup, the fuzz was horribly nasal-sounding. All of my guitars have stereo outputs for that reason. With new innovations through the years, these little nuances have come into play and been part of my development.”

Squire covered the bass in flowery wallpaper in the hippie era, but when he wanted to move on from that look, removing the paper also entailed the removal of the original Fireglo finish. He then covered it with silver paper, and once again, this needed to be sanded off when he grew tired of it. His tech applied a cream lacquer finish to the bass, which now weighed a bit less than a regular Rickenbacker: This was also a factor in its sound, said Squire, although it's unknown if this was ever professionally assessed.

His signature 4001CS bass, when it was launched in 1991, didn't sound exactly like the original, though, so maybe he was onto something.

More modifications were made in the mid-'80s by luthier Michael Tobias, who told Bass Player, “The peghead had been broken off more than once. When I got the bass, it was hanging by a thread, and there was almost no glue surface left. The break was almost straight through under the nut.

“Because of the way Rickenbacker cut out the truss-rod access, there wasn't much area to rebond. I got a new rod system and made a scarf joint so there'd be some area to glue. I recreated the original peghead with the proper wood, attached it, shaped it to the existing neck profile, and matched the paint.”

It emerged that the RM1999's bridge pickup, which Squire referred to as having a “tinny sound”, was defunct by the time Tobias got to it. “It was actually dead. I installed a new pickup from Rickenbacker, but Chris didn't like it, so I put the old pickup back in. It would pick up a little from the working pickup and make some sound, but not on its own.”

Squire used a dozen or so basses across his career, including four-strings from Lakland, Tobias, MPC and Yamaha, a Ranney eight-string and Fender Telecaster and Jazz basses. As well as the original Rickenbacker, the two basses that received the most attention were a Wal triple-neck given to him by Rick Wakeman – and first played by Wakeman bassist Roger Newell – and a green Jim Mouradian bass.

The former featured doubled A, D, and G strings at the top, a fretted four-string in the center and a fretless four-string on the bottom – and, along with Geddy Lee's twin-neck Rickenbacker, is probably the ultimate prog-rock instrument.

Of the Mouradian, he explained in a webchat: “Jim Mouradian and myself designed the bass. The way the wood is shaped is in the initials C and S. It looks like a fairly '80s metal design in a way.”

This being Chris Squire, more tales abound of some genuinely innovative approaches to bass – such as a bass fitted with guitar strings, on which he played four-string chords, and a Gibson double-neck that he played on the song Safe on the Fish Out Of Water album.

The innovation here was that he played the bass with only the guitar neck's pickups switched on, leading to a ringing, resonant tone that didn't sound remotely like a regular bass.

In all cases, Squire always used a standard-gauge set of Rotosound Swing Bass roundwound strings, attributing some of his tone to this choice. “The first person I knew to use them was John Entwistle. As far as I remember, he was very responsible for developing them with James Howe, who originally started the company.

“John said to James Howe that he wanted the bass to sound more like the low-end of a grand piano, and that was that. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Who fan since I was a teen, and I always loved John's sound, so I tried the strings, too.”

“The story goes that the guys at Rickenbacker got rather upset at me. Because people were putting Rotosound roundwounds on their Rickenbackers, they were wearing down the softer fretwire on those earlier basses.

“When I first visited the Rickenbacker factory, I thought I was going to get a hero's welcome. But they were like, ‘Come take a look at our repair room,’ where they had a hundred basses that had been returned. We have a good relationship now, but originally we had a rocky start!”

Chris Squire. Paul McCartney. Lemmy. Bruce Foxton. Roger Glover. Cliff Burton. John Entwistle. At some point or other, these and many other household-name bass players have wielded a Rickenbacker 4001 (1961-81) or its successor the 4003 (’82 to date), and what a joyous noise they make, too. 

Sure, the Rickenbacker 4001 looks a bit nuts; certainly, it sounds a bit eccentric. But it’s a stone-cold classic bass guitar that cuts through the most unfriendly mix and will be your friend for life.

Don’t believe us? Well, we drafted in the man who is arguably the most famous Ricky player of them all, Geddy Lee of Rush, to explain what it is about this iconic bass that makes it so splendiferous. Although he ‘crossed the floor’ to Fender more years ago than even he cares to remember, his affection for the old warhorse is unending – and frankly, what’s good enough for Geddy is good enough for the rest of us…

Do you remember the first time you saw a 4001, Geddy?

“The first time I ever saw that bass was in a Beatles video – I think it was Hey Jude. I saw Paul McCartney playing it, and first of all it struck me as a great-looking bass. When you’re a kid – and even today! – cool-looking basses have a particular value, ha ha! I don’t know what colour it was, because our TV was black and white, but I think it was a solid colour.” 

When was the first time you saw one played live?

“The first time I saw someone playing one was Chris Squire, in the early days of Yes. John Entwistle played one for a short while too, but it was really Squire’s use of the 4001 that made me fall in love with it. The tone he got out of it was so clear and crisp, and it had such great definition.”

The tone of the 4001 is both loved and hated by bass players: clearly you fell into the former camp.

“Let me say that I do love the sound of the Rickenbacker, but I will qualify that by saying that I love the sound that Chris Squire got out of it – and that’s the sound that made me want to buy one. When we signed our first record deal in 1974, I got my share of our small advance and the first thing I did was buy a Rickenbacker. I think I paid about $400 for it. Much to my dismay, when I plugged it in, it didn’t sound like Chris Squire!”

“I found that all through the years I used the Ricky: it had a great trebly sound, but I had a hard time getting the right amount of bottom end unless I used the Rick-O-Sound feature, which enabled you to send each pickup to a different source. I used to send the bass pickup to a bass amp and the treble pickup to an amp that was set up for that twangy sound. It took quite a lot of work to get it to sound like a classic Ricky. It wasn’t easy to get the sound I wanted!” 

You play a Fender Jazz nowadays. Why did you switch? 

“The Ricky worked well in the early days for the kind of tone that I wanted, but in the late '70s I picked up a used Jazz in a pawn shop and started working it into our sound almost immediately. On Moving Pictures for example, half the songs are played on a Ricky and the other half are on a Jazz. I wanted to get a bit more punch in the bottom end. You can get that out of a Ricky, there’s no question about it, but it’s a lot of fiddling, as I said earlier. What I liked about the Jazz was that it was really easy to get a great tone in the studio.” 

Did you ever feel like giving the Ricky another shot on a Rush album?

“I last broke it out when we started recording the album, Snakes & Arrows, but we just didn’t like the way it sounded. We just couldn’t get the sounds out of it that we get so easily out of the Jazz, so there didn’t seem to be any point. Could we have made it work? Yes. Would we have got anything unique out of it? I didn’t think so, and neither did our producer, so we just gave up on it. I think we wanted to use it just so we could say we’d used it!” 

You once told us that you bring out the 4001 for the encores just to make the people who always ask you about the Ricky shut up. Is that still the case?

“Yeah, exactly. My road crew even made some T-shirts that say, ‘Yes, He’s Playing The F***ing Ricky!’ I’ve been playing the Jazz now for many more years than I played the Ricky, but I’m still more closely associated with the Ricky.” 

Do you think the Rickenbacker 4001 is still a bass everyone should play?

“It’s a question of taste, really. Different strokes for different bass folks! I love lots of different basses. Also, different basses sound good at different times: I have a fantastic Wal at home that I used for a couple of albums, and I adore that bass, but there was time when it sounded right to me and a time when it sounded really wrong to me, so I stopped using it. The Ricky is a classic. It has a unique tone which makes it stand out, and it deserves kudos for that.”

As far as 12-string electric guitars go, it’s hard to beat a Rickenbacker Capri model. The Fender Electric XII is perhaps the greatest competitor in terms of playability and sound, and the Gibson EDS-1275 doubleneck also deserves an honourable mention. 

But with The Beatles’ George Harrison and The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn chiming away on Rickenbackers, while topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic during the mid‑’60s, it’s difficult to argue that a more era-defining 12-string exists. 

Comprising six- and 12-string instruments, the ‘300 series’ semi-hollowbody Capri line is to Rickenbacker what the Les Paul is to Gibson, or the Stratocaster is to Fender.

An icon of the guitar world, this timeless design continues to define the company’s identity and, along with the popular Rickenbacker bass family, is its greatest success. The Capri blueprint was originally developed by legendary guitar designer Roger Rossmeisl. 

German expat Rossmeisl had honed his craft in Europe building jazz guitars under the Roger brand before emigrating to America in 1953. The master luthier was briefly employed at Gibson before being recruited by Rickenbacker in ’54, then by Fender in ’62, where he also developed numerous models, including the Telecaster Thinline and Coronado.

Prototyped in late ’57 and entering production early the following year, the inaugural Capris comprised four short-scale models (listed in ’58 as the 310, 315, 320 and 325). These were swiftly followed by the full-scale standard (330, 335, 340 and 345) and deluxe (360, 365, 370 and 375) models. (The ascending model numbers correspond to spec as follows: two pickups/no vibrato; two pickups/vibrato; three pickups/no vibrato; and three pickups/vibrato.) 

The vast majority of the first batch consisted of 325s à la John Lennon, and, by a freaky twist of fate, the young Beatle bought the very first Capri made (serial V81) in 1960 in Hamburg after it was shipped to its maker Rossmeisl’s homeland! Lennon then brought it back to the US, displaying the guitar on national television during the band’s record-breaking The Ed Sullivan Show appearance in February ’64 when 73 million Americans tuned in to watch.

During the same trip, Rickenbacker boss FC Hall presented Harrison with a prototype Rickenbacker 360/12. The guitarist quickly put the new 12-string to good use on stage and in the studio, creating unprecedented global demand. 

Harrison’s 360/12 was developed in ’63, based on the six-string 360 deluxe model, by renowned guitar builder Dick Burke at FC Hall’s behest. It features a double-bound body with a flat/non-contoured top and slash soundhole. 

It was the second 360/12 prototype (the first was given to country artist Suzi Arden) and sported Burke’s intuitive tuner arrangement that allowed all 12 machineheads to be fitted on a regular size headstock.

It also debuted Rickenbacker’s now standard practice of placing the octave string on the treble side, thus allowing for punchier attack on the downstroke. In ’64, the 360/12 was put into regular production alongside the 370/12. These rounded-top/bound-back guitars were followed by the non-contoured, unbound 330/12 in ’65.

Within a few short years, the electric 12-string bubble had burst and demand dropped considerably. Nevertheless, those yearning for that classic mid-60s jangle needn’t look any further than a Rickenbacker 12-string Capri. 

When it comes to established and well-respected electric guitar brands, Fender is probably the first name that springs to mind. However, in the realm of acoustic guitars, the Californian giants usually aren’t the first brand that people will think of. This is understandable considering that heritage brands like Martin and Taylor have dominated the acoustic corner of the guitar world for decades. However, we’re here to tell you that one of the best Fender acoustic guitars in this guide may be the perfect choice for you.

Fender's acoustic guitar history has been an interesting journey. Initially designed in the early '60s by former Rickenbacker master luthier Roger Rossmeisl, Fender's first foray into acoustic guitars aimed to breathe new life into the traditionally conventional acoustic guitar market. Inspired by the carefree, beach-going attitude of 1960s California, Fender released models like the Malibu and Newporter. These models featured their iconic 6-in-line headstock that caused a stir among acoustic traditionalists, which still happens to this day!

After discontinuation in the 1970s, Fender re-introduced their acoustic guitars back to the market in the late '80s after the company's tumultuous start to the decade. Today, Fender has been committed to releasing a wide range of acoustic guitars, including budget-friendly options and high-end, innovative instruments.

Today we are going to take a closer look at the some hand-picked Fender acoustics currently on the market. Taking into account their price point, features, and benefits, by the end of this guide we are confident you will find an option suitable for your needs.

Best Fender acoustic guitars: Guitar World recommends

For sheer value for money, you don't need to look much beyond the Fender Paramount PD-220E Dreadnought. Competitively-priced in the mid-range acoustic space, the PD-220E is a solid wood guitar that delivers weighty low-end, mid-range punch and looks the business. You even get a molded hard case thrown in.

For the experienced player looking for an acoustic guitar that can do it all, the Fender American Acoustasonic Jazzmaster is a great premium option. Using state-of-the-art Acoustic Engine technology, this hybrid Jazzmaster is capable of producing luscious acoustic tones to soaring lead lines. An acoustic guitar has never been so versatile and we believe the higher price point is well justified because of its versatility and comfortable playability.

If you’re a fresh-faced beginner then check out the Fender CD-60S. A well-articulated dreadnought with a solid top for under $200? You’re not going to get a better beginner acoustic guitar to learn to play on than this.

Best Fender acoustic guitars: Product guide

The mid-priced dreadnought acoustic market is a crowded one, with Martin and Yamaha taking up a lot of the space. However, Fender’s Paramount PD-220E is a completely solid wood option that deserves some spotlight.

The 3-Color Sunburst and Natural finishes both come with a solid Sitka spruce top and solid mahogany back and sides. Like any dreadnought worth its salt, the PD-220E has a clearly defined midrange with plenty of low-end oomph.

The Aged Cognac Burst is fully mahogany and is quintessentially warm, which is particularly “woody” in character and pronounced in the lower midrange. If you’re looking for a slightly spankier high-end, the Natural or 3-Color Sunburst options have solid Sitka spruce tops which offer a little more sparkle.

With the newly designed Paramount range, Fender set out to pay their respects to the classic acoustic guitar of the ‘30s – an era that transformed the acoustic into how we recognize it today. Most noticeably influenced is the feathered, checkered purfling that hugs the guitar’s edges. The rosette features a similar design and we appreciate the attention to detail Fender has included.

Like all models in the Paramount range, the PD-220E comes with a molded hard case to keep your axe safe. Overall, this is a fantastic mid-range dreadnought that deserves more attention than it's given.

Read the full Fender Paramount PD-220E review

The Fender Acoustasonic range has its fair share of admirers and detractors, and we're definitely in the former category. So when Fender announced that they were releasing a Jazzmaster in this trailblazing range, you bet we were excited.

Boasting the largest body in the Acoustasonic range, the Jazzmaster is the most resonant of the bunch. We understand that the Acoustasonic player will primarily be playing amplified, but rest assured, acoustically this guitar is louder than it looks. The larger body size produces a richer tone than its predecessors and there is a much more pronounced low end.

Kitted out with a satin solid Sitka spruce top – try saying that five times in a row – and mahogany back and sides, this guitar feels very comfortable. The smooth contours allow for hours of playing without any arm fatigue and it is well-balanced on your lap.

Fender collaborated with acoustic pickup superstars Fishman to create the Acoustic Engine found in the Acoustasonic series. This advanced electronic system allows the user to blend acoustic and electric guitar tones. Powered by Fishman’s Aura technology, there is a five-way selector switch that will cycle through the guitar’s different tones. The mod control will allow you to choose between two different voicings – A or B – and acts as a blend knob between the two, opening up incredibly unique tonal possibilities

There are three pickups in total including an under-saddle piezo and an internal body sensor pickup; however, the Shawbucker is the standout. It is much thicker and warmer than the Noiseless single coil found on the Stratocaster and Telecaster Acoustasonics and packs a mighty punch. This may not be to every acoustic player’s taste, but it’s definitely a lot of fun.

For experienced players looking to streamline their guitar collection without sacrificing versatility, playability or comfort, the Acoustasonic Jazzmaster is the premium option to beat.

Read the full Fender American Acoustasonic Jazzmaster review

Looking for an affordable acoustic guitar that will take you from beginner to intermediate playing? Look no further than the Fender CD-60S.

With a solid mahogany top and laminated mahogany back and sides, this all-mahogany guitar offers a warm, woody tone that's perfect for singer-songwriters. A solid top is a feature that usually demands a higher price tag, so you’re definitely getting good bang for your buck.

The rolled fingerboard edges are another premium feature on the CD-60S and are paired with a comfortable ‘easy-to-play’ shaped neck which feels great even in an experienced player’s hands. Long gone are the days of learning on terrible acoustic guitars which would send even the most resolute learners running.

The dreadnought body delivers a big, full-bodied acoustic sound that projects across a room. The deep body and the scalloped bracing result in a pleasant boom when you strike a chord and is very prominent in the low end. Be warned, however, this is a big guitar so it’s not the best suited for smaller players.

If you prefer a brighter acoustic you can always go for the solid spruce top CD-60S. Available in a natural or black finish, the spruce version commands the same price tag as its mahogany sibling. Fender has smashed a home run with the CD-60S, and for value for money you can’t beat it.

Read the full Fender CD-60S All Mahogany review

The Paramount series is at the top end of Fender’s acoustic range, and in it are plenty of classy guitars. None more so than the PS-220E Parlor. With its small body, flattop design, and exquisite details like feathered purfling, soundhole rosette and snowflake pearloid fingerboard inlays, this guitar is as visually stunning as it is sonically impressive.

Although this isn’t an American-made Fender – which will upset a few folks because of its price – you can’t argue with the premium materials used in its construction. The solid Sitka spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides and Fishman Sonitone pickup are hallmarks of a premium quality guitar.

While the PS-220E Parlor's small size may have some sonic limitations, the offset X-bracing pattern maximizes the resonance of its top for extra movement. This little gem packs plenty of punch and sits prominently in the midrange, ensuring you'll be heard loud and clear. If you manage to try this guitar, stick it in open G as it sounds beautiful.

The PS-220E comes in three different finishes. The Natural and 3-Color Vintage Sunburst both have a solid Sitka spruce top for extra spank, whereas the Aged Cognac Burst is all solid mahogany for a little extra warmth. We love that Fender offers the PS-220E with different configurations, meaning that there will be a version to suit your tastes.

On top of all the great details mentioned above you get a sturdy hardshell case which fewer and fewer guitars come with nowadays.

Although Fender has been around since the 1940s, it isn't set in its ways, sticking to boring tradition after boring tradition. This is perhaps most evident in the California series.

With an array of bold finishes and sweet matching headstocks, the California series sees Fender take inspiration from its past and propel itself straight into the 21st century. The Newporter is a Fender-exclusive shape and is a medium-sized auditorium body. Every aspect of this guitar is sleek, particularly the neck which is a slim-taper "C"-shaped profile, very reminiscent of their electrics.

If the neck shape is reminiscent of their electrics, the 6-in-line headstock is a complete copy and it does make for a unique look that you’ll either love or hate. The wood choice is somewhat predictable with laminated mahogany back and sides and a familiar solid spruce top.

Since this is a slim-bodied guitar, don’t expect a big thunderous low end – but do know that the Newporter Player has plenty of high-end zing with a spanky tonality to suit an array of playing styles.

The Fishman CD-1 pickup is a nice touch that shouldn’t be overlooked. We found the built-in tuner to be pretty reliable and the pickup replicated the guitar’s sound well when amplified. This lightweight guitar would be a brilliant option to take to your local open mic night.

The Newporter’s unique aesthetic is further pushed by the six different bold finishes. We love the Candy Apple Red but if you’re into something a bit more subdued, Fender does offer it in Natural.

Read the full Fender California Series Newporter Player review

Tim Armstrong has been the lead songwriter for the punk band Rancid since 1991. For the past three decades, he has relied upon his original 1960s Fender acoustic for inspiration. Fender has already paid homage with a 6-string re-issue but we believe this 12-string variant is a whole lot more fun.

With pearl acrylic Hellcat inlays and dual skulls at the 12th fret, this thing screams attitude. The Fender Tim Armstrong Hellcat has been purposely designed to stand out from the crowd, and the ‘70s style rosette and 4-Ply Tortoiseshell help tie the look together.

You are getting a solid mahogany top, laminated mahogany back and sides, Graph Tech NuBone nut and a Fishman Isys III pickup system in this concert-sized signature. Although a little quieter than a dreadnought, this guitar has plenty of pleasing natural harmonics and will still bark when you dig in a little.

Although we love the look of the vintage-style headstock, the tuning pegs aren’t the best quality and could potentially do with an upgrade down the road.

If you’ve had your eye on an Acoustasonic but don’t want to drain your savings, Fender has you covered. The Acoustasonic Player series delivers the heart and soul of its American counterpart but has been assembled in their Ensenada factory in Mexico.

Although the Fishman Acoustasonic Enhancer has been dropped and there are only six blendable voices instead of 10 via a three-way selector switch, the Player’s core design remains the same. The ‘tuned’ soundhole is present, it sports the same modern deep C-shape neck profile and the Acoustic Engine still functions, although with fewer options.

Fender has opted for a Rosewood fingerboard on the Player as opposed to Ebony, but for a lot of people this will be a preferable swap. If you love having as many tonal options as possible, the American version will be more suitable. However, if option paralysis is something that suffocates your creativity, six voicings will be more than enough.

When plugged in, you’ll be hearing an under-saddle piezo for warm and organic acoustic tones. For the electric sounds, Fender has implemented a noiseless N4 single coil which gives a flavorful, full-bodied single-coil bite. One of the only downsides of the Player Acoustasonic is the fact it’s battery-powered. Don’t get caught out with a dead battery on stage.

Read the full Fender Acoustasonic Player Telecaster review

Look, if you’ve been playing for decades and have a Gibson J-45, Martin D-28, and a Lowden O-21 at your disposal, then the Fender FA-15 isn’t for you. However, we’ve picked it because it’s a fantastic option for young beginners to dip their toes in the world of acoustic guitar.

The FA-15 is a 3/4 size guitar with a 23.3” scale length, perfect for younger children. With a small dreadnought-style body, this will give the budding guitarist in your life the perfect chance to get familiar with the instrument. It’s comfortable, has been set up well, and even comes with an additional gig bag so you can take it to lessons.

Another category of player this will appeal to is the traveling guitarist. Its small stature makes it easy to sling on your back and take on your journeys. Sure everyone staying at your hostel accommodation will hate you but it will keep your fingers moving and quell your guitar-playing appetite.

There are four finishes available that cover a laminated agathis top and laminated sapele back and sides. You usually see nato pop up on more affordable guitars and Fender has utilized that wood on the FA-15’s neck. Although these are cheaper materials, the guitar is sturdy enough to survive even the most carefree child or an intense gap year of self-discovery.

The Fender FA-345CE is an ideal option for the guitarist who loves the look of uniquely figured exotic wood but doesn’t want to remortgage their house to afford it.

Addressing the elephant in the room straight away, this is an all-laminate guitar. Some may shake their head in disgust; however, if you can look past that, the FA-345CE offers plenty of value.

Fender has used a laminated flamed maple top and laminated lacewood back and sides. Lacewood is an interesting choice and it is usually quite strikingly figured and makes an aesthetically pleasing match with the top.

This guitar is part of the FA series, as indicated by the '3+3' headstock, and it also boasts a Viking bridge and tortoiseshell binding for added detail and a touch more pizazz.

There is a Fishman CD-1 preamp and pickup installed and the cutaway allows easier access to the higher frets. If you usually find yourself down that end of the neck, this will feel right at home and comfortable.

One of the standout qualities of the Fender FA-345CE is its exceptional natural tone. Although its auditorium body is a bit smaller than a dreadnought, it still delivers impressive note articulation and a resonant, vibrant character.

Best Fender acoustic guitars: Buyer's advice

How we choose the best Fender acoustic guitars

Here at Guitar World, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything guitar related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our guides.

When choosing what we believe to be the best Fender acoustic guitars available right now, we combine our hands-on experience, user reviews and testimonies and engage in lengthy discussions with our editorial colleagues to reach a consensus about the top products in any given category.

First and foremost, we are guitarists, and we want other players to find the right product for them. So we take into careful consideration everything from budget to feature set, ease of use and durability to come up with a list of what we can safely say are the best Fender acoustic guitars on the market right now.

Read more about our rating system, how we choose the gear we feature, and exactly how we test each product.

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If you want to imitate the sound of the Beatles by acquiring the exact same models and vintages of gear that they used, good luck.

The guitar and amp models the Beatles played are some of the most collectible and expensive items on the vintage market today, especially items that match the same exact years, like their 1962 and ’64 Gibson J-160E acoustic-electrics, 1957 Gretsch Duo Jet, or a 1963 Rickenbacker 325.

Check our guide to how the Beatles crafted the guitar and bass tones that forever changed the sound of rock music for more on those exact models.

Similarly, vintage Vox tube amps from the ’60s fetch a pretty penny, and the hybrid solid-state/tube Vox models like the 7120 and UL730 are exceedingly rare, although fortunately the silverface Fender amps they used in the latter years are still somewhat reasonably priced.

Manufacturers often produce limited reproductions of the guitars the Beatles played, but usually these are expensive collector’s items aimed at boomers with large bank accounts. Occasionally an affordable run of instruments will emerge, particularly around notable anniversaries, but these items also get snatched up quickly.

With the exception of the rare Vox hybrid amps and most Rickenbacker guitars and basses (which have highly protected copyrights), the sound of many of the Beatles rigs can be replicated with affordable, readily available gear. We’ve put together a list of our favorite choices that won’t break the bank. While not everything will meet the needs of players in Beatles tribute bands who need to accurately look the part, these instruments certainly sound the part.

Electric guitars

Original: Rickenbacker 325 CapriAlternative: Squier Mini Stratocaster

John Lennon’s 1958, 1963 and 1964 Rickenbacker 325 Capri electric guitars (the latter actually being a Rose-Morris 1996 variant) are iconic instruments of the early days of Beatlemania. 

Because Rickenbacker vigorously guards copyrights and its instruments are so unique and distinctive, the best option for purists is to dig deep into their pocketbooks and buy an actual Ric. 

With its short 22-inch scale (two inches longer than the 325’s scale) and three single-coil pickups, the Squier Mini Stratocaster is about as close as one can come on a budget. Use heavy-gauge flatwound strings.

Original: 1957 Gretsch 6128 Duo JetAlternative: Gretsch G5230T Electromatic Jet

Harrison’s Duo Jet had a pair of DeArmond Dynasonic single coils, so to replicate his twang you’ll want to replace the Electromatic’s humbuckers with Dynasonic-inspired pickups like the TV Jones T-Armond.

Original: 1963 Gretsch 6122 Country Gentleman / c. 1962-63 Gretsch 6119 TennesseanAlternative: Gretsch G5420T Electromatic Classic Hollowbody

Although many Beatles enthusiasts consider the Gretsch Country Gentleman an essential Beatlemania guitar because it appeared in many live shows, television broadcasts and the film A Hard Day’s Night, George Harrison actually used his Gretsch Tennessean hollowbody more often in the studio. 

The Gretsch G5420T Electromatic Classic Hollowbody is a great alternative (particularly the walnut stain finish version), but like the Electromatic Jet, it has humbuckers. TV Jones TV-HT replacement pickups sound very close to the Tennessean’s original HiLo’Tron single coils.

Original: 1961 Fender StratocasterAlternative: Fender Vintera ’60s Strat

The Vintera 60s Strat has the closest vibe to a vintage ’60s Strat that you can buy for just over a grand.

Original: Epiphone E230TD/TDV CasinoAlternative: Epiphone Casino

Played by Harrison, Lennon and McCartney on dozens of songs, an Epiphone Casino is a must-have for any guitarist who wants to duplicate Beatles guitar tones. Fortunately, Epiphone offers an affordable import Casino model that perfectly captures authentic Beatles tones and vibe.

Original: 1963/65 Rickenbacker 360/12Alternative: Reverend Airwave 12-string

Like the Rickenbacker 325, there really is no substitute for a Rickenbacker 360/12. However, the Reverend Airwave electric 12-string guitar  ticks a lot of the right boxes, including its semi-hollow construction, single-coil pickups and 24.75-inch scale.

Original: 1964 Fender Esquire/1968 Fender Rosewood TelecasterAlternative: Fender JV Modified ‘60s Custom Telecaster/Eastwood Mad Cat RT

Fender currently doesn’t offer any Esquire or Rosewood Telecaster models (although that could change at a moment’s notice), but a good ’60s-style Telecaster will get you at least 90 percent of the way there for authentic Beatles tones. 

We particularly like the JV Modified ’60s Custom Telecaster for its overall versatility. If you prefer the look of Harrison’s rosewood Tele, the Eastwood Mad Cat RT is a super cool choice.

Original: 1964 Gibson SG StandardAlternative: Epiphone SG Standard 60s Maestro Vibrola

With its Maestro Vibrola tailpiece and ProBucker pickups, this Epiphone model not only looks the part but it sounds like it, too.

Original: 1957 Gibson Les Paul StandardAlternative: Epiphone Les Paul Standard 50s

Like the Epiphone SG Standard, the Epiphone Les Paul Standard 50s is about as good as it gets for under a grand. This model may not come with Lucy’s red finish, but the Metallic Gold option hints at Lucy’s origins.

Acoustic guitars

Original: 1962/64 Gibson J-160EAlternative: Epiphone Casino

Neither Gibson nor Epiphone offers a J-160E-style model anymore. Because the original ’50s and ’60s models had heavy tops with ladder bracing, a modern acoustic-electric won’t really cut it either. 

However, the fully hollow Epiphone Casino actually delivers unplugged acoustic tones that come close, and the neck P90 pickup can closely duplicate the tones of the J-160E’s P90 when plugged in.

Original: 1964 Epiphone Texan FT-79Alternative: Epiphone Masterbilt Texan

Epiphone still offers a Texan model, and it’s a highly affordable Masterbilt model – enough said.

Original: 1968 Gibson J-200Alternative: Epiphone J-200

Harrison’s ’60s J-200 had a Tuneomatic bridge that gave it a distinctive jangly tone, but many acoustic purists consider the bone saddle in the Epiphone versions bridge a more traditional and better sounding option. The jumbo body dimensions also deliver the requisite volume projection and bass.

Bass Guitars

Original: 1961/63 Hofner 500/1Alternative: Hofner Violin Ignition SE or Ignition SE Cavern

Featuring hollowbody construction and a short 30-inch scale length, Hofner’s Ignition Series basses deliver sound and looks to please discriminating fans of original Beatle bass tones that come direct from the source.

Original: 1964 Rickenbacker 4001SAlternative: Rickenbacker 4003S

Similar to the Rickenbacker guitars above, there really aren’t any affordable brand-new alternatives to the Ric 4001S on today’s market. If you absolutely have to have a Ric bass, the 4003S is available for just over two grand.

Original: 1966 Fender Jazz BassAlternative: Fender Player Jazz Bass

The Fender Player Jazz Bass delivers the classic punchy, rumbling tones of McCartney’s latter-day Beatles bass tracks. 

Original: 1968 Fender Bass VIAlternative: Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI

Instead of shelling out thousands for an original vintage Fender Bass VI or a baritone that’s more suitable for metal, you can pick up a Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI for less than five bills. It even has the same bound fingerboard and large CBS-era-style headstock as the model played by John and George.

Amps

Because the Beatles used so many different amp models in the studio over the course of 1963 through 1970, it can be frustrating attempting to duplicate their amp rigs. 

The hybrid tube/solid-state Vox amps, which are quite rare, can be particularly difficult to replicate accurately, but fortunately the Fender amps they used in the latter days are the opposite. Instead of chasing individual tones, I recommend casting a net wider and focusing on good general-purpose tones that can be divided into two distinctive camps: Vox and Fender.

Vox AC15C2 2x12

The Vox AC15C2 does a great job covering the gamut of classic Beatles tones from their mop-top beginnings to their early psychedelic explorations. Its clean tones are particularly stellar, and the Top Boost channel can dial in period-correct tonal character. If you need more volume output for performing on stage, the AC30C2 delivers the goods for a few hundred more bucks. 

Fender ‘68 Custom Princeton Reverb

With the exception of McCartney’s Blonde Bassman and Harrison’s blackface Showman and Deluxe, most of the Beatles’ Fender amp tones in the studio came courtesy of late ’60s silverface models. 

The Fender ’68 Custom Princeton Reverb provides very sweet silverface clean and overdrive tones at studio volume levels. For higher stage output levels, the Fender ’68 Custom Pro Reverb occupies a nice sweet spot between the Deluxe Reverb and Twin Reverb amps.

Effects pedals

The Beatles did not employ too many pedal effects in the studio other than various fuzz boxes and an occasional wah or volume pedal. 

Many of their more dramatic effects were created using studio techniques like tape flanging or ADT (artificial double tracking). However, a handful of fuzz boxes and pedals that duplicate studio effects are very helpful for nailing authentic Beatles tones.

Boss TB-2W Tone Bender

A Sola Sound Tone Bender first showed up at Beatles sessions while they were recording Rubber Soul in 1965, and various Sola Sound Tone Benders played important roles on Revolver and beyond. 

The Boss TB-2W accurately replicates the tones of an original Sola Sound Tone Bender Mk II, while its adjustable voltage settings expands the range of available tones. Medium Attack settings are ideal for mid-’60s lead tones, while dialing the Attack up full takes the sound into Sgt. Pepper territory.

JHS Colour Box 2

A modern reproduction of the REDD.47 line amplifier that was used to generate the gritty distortion on Revolution will set you back more than two grand, but the JHS Colour Box 2, based upon a Neve 1073 mic preamp, will get you very close to that distinctive sound for less than a fourth of that price. 

It’s also in a pedal format so you can use it on stage, and it’s a highly versatile preamp/EQ that sounds great with any instrument or vocals (not just for over-the-top distortion).

Dunlop JDF2 Classic Fuzz Face

A Fuzz Face is essential if you want to replicate most of the distorted lead guitar tones heard on Abbey Road and Let It Be. 

Keeley 30MS Automatic Double Tracker

This pedal’s “Abbey” mode should give you a good idea what it does. Yes, this is an electronic version of the tape machine-based ADT effect that the Beatles often employed. Your guitar will gently weep when you plug it into this.

Electro-Harmonix Lester K

If you don’t have the space or upper body strength to deal with a huge Leslie 147RV cabinet, the Electro-Harmonix Lester K provides dazzling rotating speaker effects that sound every bit as good as the real thing, and fits into your guitar case.

As one of the greatest bassists in the history of metal and hard rock, Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister, who died on December 28th 2015, played bass with more attitude than anybody else, and with a sound that was completely unique. “Lemmy’s bass playing with Motörhead was just so insane,” said Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan. “His tone was so huge that you can’t talk about distorted bass guitar without mentioning him.”

Talking to BP, Lemmy once said that his technique “was based on guitar. I found out about drone strings, where you let the A or the D string ring and play the melody on the G. It falls in very well behind the guitar.” 

No one can stick it to the man like Lemmy. He truly embodied the spirit of rock 'n' roll. Here we dig into his 5 greatest basslines.

1. Motörhead (Motörhead, 1977)

Lemmy wrote Motörhead for English space-rockers Hawkwind, before they fired him in May 1975 following his arrest for drug possession on the Canadian border. Re-recorded and released on Motörhead’s 1977 debut album, the new version helped Motörhead become known as the band both punks and metalheads could unite behind. Lemmy's bassline is heavy metal perfection.

2. Stay Clean (Overkill, 1979)

When you think of great bass guitar soloists, Lemmy might not be the first person who springs to mind, but go grab a copy of Motörhead’s 1979 album, Overkill and hit play on the second track - Stay Clean. In fact, no less than six of the albums ten original songs remained on the setlist right up until the end, with four of them included at Motörhead's final show in December 2015.

3. Ace Of Spades (Ace Of Spades, 1980)

As well as having one of the best intro riffs ever, Ace Of Spades is without doubt Motörhead’s best known and most successful song. Lemmy’s bass perfectly matched his sandpapery voice, and the furious pace was captured perfectly at ear-splitting volume by producer Vic Maile. Never had Motörhead sounded so together and yet so raw. Turn up the gain and go for it.

4. Over Your Shoulder (Sacrifice, 1995)

Motörhead took on a new lease of life with their twelfth studio album, Sacrifice, which was capable of matching, and probably beating their classic cut, Ace of Spades. Lemmy wrote in the album notes: “Put it in your system and your girlfriend's clothes fall off.” The album insert also offered a year’s supply of whiskey as a competition prize. Detune everything to Eb and crank things up good and loud.

5. Overnight Sensation (Overnight Sensation, 1996)

The intro to Overnight Sensation shows just how crushing Lemmy’s bass tone was, with a massive combination of chords and distortion. As well as having one of the best bass intros in rock, there’s a breakdown where Lemmy plays a short solo as he bends notes and backs up his own lead line to keep the riff going. 

The new song from Motörhead, Greedy Bastards, is one of two previously unreleased songs (the other being Bullet in Your Brain) taken from Motörhead’s upcoming reissue of their 2015 studio album Bad Magic. Titled Bad Magic: Seriously Bad Magic, the reissue is due out on February 24, and will also feature a cover of Heroes by David Bowie, as well as a recording of Motörhead’s set at the 2015 Fuji Rock festival. Natalia Jonderko Śmiechowicz produced an animated video for the track.

Motörhead release a reissue of their final studio album Bad Magic on February 24th. Bad Magic: Seriously Bad Magic is available to pre-order in all formats.

San Francisco metal kings Machine Head are probably the biggest band to emerge in the post-Metallica era, delivering albums powered by Adam Duce’s razor-sharp bass parts throughout the early 2000s. "Being in a successful band is a matter of having a lot of different components come together and the stars and the planets aligning," he tells us. "There's a lot of hard work too, but for most bands that hard work goes completely unrewarded. There's a lot of luck involved in remaining a heavy metal band for 20 years or whatever."

The essence of Duce's bass sound is the same as that which underpins all his heroes: energy, and its release into a headbanging crowd. "My heroes were Geezer Butler, Steve Harris and Cliff Burton," he says. "Seeing those old videos of Cliff when Metallica were opening for Ozzy in 1996, you think 'Look at that dude attack that bass!' and that's what it's all about to me. Some of the stuff that he did on those early Metallica albums was incredible."

“I’m going to risk upsetting a few Metallica fans here,"says Duce. "But for me, when I think of my favourite Cliff Burton bassline it’s not '(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth'… but 'For Whom The Bell Tolls', first released on the group's second album, Ride the Lightning.

"Cliff’s overall influence on the sound stands out so much. I have no idea how he got that insane tone at the beginning, but I know he had a Stratocaster pickup hidden under the bridge of the old Rickenbacker 4001 that he used.

"You can completely hear the difference between this album and their first one, Kill ’Em All. I used to play that album over and over again, saying, ‘What’s Cliff doing there?’ and that’s how I really learnt to play bass."

Last time we spoke with Duce, he was playing a Zon bass. As he recalls, “I remember telling them how badly I sweat on stage, and that I needed the most simple, non-moving parts bridge that I could get, so it wouldn’t get rusty!”

The most unorthodox element of that Zon, which Duce has replicated on his current Yamaha, was the suspicious lack of visible tone controls. “I had the bass and treble pots on the back of the bass. They were set into the body and adjusted with a screwdriver. You could set them where you wanted and then roll with it, without accidentally hitting them when you played live.”

This remains an important consideration for Duce, who often hits the bass with wide, hard-hitting strokes. Asked what tips he can give us for building picking precision, Duce explains: "Being in time with the drums is quintessential to good bass playing. You can't be sloppy. We do so many intricate things, and it's got to be good. If it's not tight it's going to sound terrible."

Tickets for Machine Head's US tour are on sale now. Visit machinehead1.com for details.

Sinai Dub Box (2012-2022) is the perfect collectible artefact, a box set of seven 7” vinyl singles that is limited to 1000 copies and is therefore both scarce and expensive to buy, although fortunately digital alternatives exist. 

Fans of Al Cisneros, bassist and vocalist with the cult stoner/doom metal band Sleep and founder of the experimental duo OM, will line up to purchase the box set. Somehow, its weight and exclusivity, coupled with the sidewalk-shaking low-end of the immense music it contains, aligns perfectly with the ethos of Cisneros’ mission. 

“There’s a few new songs on this box set, and the rest are ones that I put out myself over the past decade. I decided to remaster all of those and put them into one place, because it’s time to move forward with the next chapter,” says Cisneros. 

With a decade of monstrous bass guitar tones contained in these seven slices of vinyl, does he feel that his sound has changed over the years? 

“To an extent,” he agrees. “The early songs were recorded on a Rickenbacker 4004, and I love those bass tones. It’s just direct: it’s not even through an amp, it’s just direct into the board with a little bit of compression. And then the most recent song is High Concentrate, which I recorded with a Ricky 4003S5, again straight into the board, although I’ll also use Ampeg and Orange if I need an amp. 

“I think that bass sounds a little bit better than the 4004, but it’s not a large difference. As I’m sure you can tell, I EQ the hell out of it, to get some overwhelming sub frequency.” 

The box set also represents 10 years of Cisneros learning to engineer his music, he tells us. What are the challenges there? 

“Well, there’s been times I’ve got a test pressing back from the vinyl factory, and the stylus doesn’t even want to stay in the groove, because there’s so much low end. It’s resonating the vents in the building and everything!” he laughs. “That doesn’t sound good, so it’s been a learning process for me about bass frequencies and their relationship to the drums, so that they can both speak without eclipsing one another. 

“There’s a couple of records in the box which I would definitely remix if I was recording them today. You have to turn the bass down on the hi-fi to hear it properly, because it just sounds like a truck outside.”

A lifelong Rickenbacker player, Cisneros has been seen with a variety of Rickys worldwide since he first came to prominence in 1992 with Sleep’s much-acclaimed second album, Sleep’s Holy Mountain. “For my lifespan, I’ll be playing Rickenbackers,” he says, prompting us to ask what it is that he loves about these ever-popular, always-divisive basses. 

“I also like the sound of a Fender Jazz,” he tells us, “but for me, when I hear the sound of the Rickenbackers on Rush’s Permanent Waves, and Geddy Lee’s tone on Free Will and Jacob’s Ladder, there’s nothing else like that. I see bass makers trying to improve and re-improve what they do, but for me, I think that at a certain point, it’s more important to pause and ask, ‘Are we really making this bass better than it was before?’” 

Does he acquire new Rickenbackers as time passes, or has he got his collection down? “I’ve got it down now,” he says. “They recently built me a 4420, which is a four-string 4003AC on top and the five-string version on the bottom. It’s incredible. It means I don’t have to switch basses on stage between songs. Depending on the way that we compose the set, that can be really cool.” 

We recently interviewed Les Claypool of Primus, a fellow Geddy Lee fan, who bewailed the weight of his Rickenbacker 4080, which has a bass at the top and a guitar on the bottom.

“My 4420 is really heavy,” agrees Cisneros. “I played it on tour a couple of months back, and I assumed I could get through a whole set with it, but now I understand why Geddy only used it on the song Xanadu! You pretty much have to get physical therapy to play that instrument.”

When Rickenbacker first introduced five-strings to their classic 4000 bass series a few years ago, the new instruments divided Ricky fans, partly because the pickups looked out of place, but also because the idea of a low B string on such a resolutely vintage design felt a touch blasphemous. Which way does Cisneros go on this crucial matter? 

“I love their five-strings,” he says, “and since about 2010, I’ve been using them more and more. You can only tune down a four-string so far, and I don’t believe that those drop-tuning devices really do anything. I think they’re just a way to sell more strings. Also, if you want to keep the tonality of the instrument, as well as the action that you’re used to playing on the fifth string, you need a proper five-string bass.”

He adds: “I only use a five for a few songs here and there: On the new OM album, which we’re about to start mixing, it’s on a couple of longer pieces. I have one from the Nineties that they made on the first run, and the 4003S5 that they introduced with the wider fretboard. I think I prefer the more recent model. 

“Anyway, they both sound good. You know, Rickenbacker really put spirit into their builds. You can go there and see it. It’s not a soulless, mechanized assembly line. It’s individual people putting care into it. It’s really something else.”

This brings us to the thematic content of the music on the box set. Whether with Sleep, OM or solo, Cisneros’ songs and lyrics have always reflected an interest in otherworldly dimensions and how to get there, assisted by a keen interest in psychedelic experimentation: see Sleep’s classic Dopesmoker album from 2003. I’m interested to know how playing bass, especially with the numbingly heavy dub style that Cisneros plays so effortlessly, fits in with all this. 

“Well, it’s a cliché, but you get out of the way,” he says. “You just let be, and if there’s a bass and a drum groove happening, that’s what the universe is doing with you. Just be, just let it go. It’s hard to explain.”

Do we bass players have a shortcut to that mindset because of what we do? “Definitely. My mind goes back to the writings of [medieval Japanese philosopher] Miyamoto Musashi, and his Book Of Five Rings, and these types of things. That’s the OG flow state, right? Let your heart go into the amplifier. If it’s not coming from there, it’s generally going to be more noise than music. Take your music seriously, but keep a sense of humor, too.”

Cisneros’ method is to clear his mind and allow his bass parts to come to him, he says. 

“I’m not religious in a conventional sense, but I have a daily practice based on meditation and internal quiet. That’s the starting point for my daily life for me. I do some yoga, too. Not hatha yoga, but yoga proper from the teachings of [ancient Indian sage] Patanjali, which is basically mindfulness. Technically, it’s mindlessness – you want less mind and more heart. All of those things are the Rush albums of my daily life. You know what I mean?”

He continues: “Bass grooves are all out there in the universe. When we’re quiet, on our best days, we sense them. I don’t think we build or create them – I think they’re there already. They were there way before us, and they’ll be there way after. We have this calibration in our body with our heart and our breathing. Those are both timing mechanisms, and I think they hone in on the universe. 

“If you’re quiet enough, and this ties into the daily practice I mentioned, sometimes – due to something beyond you – you will be lucky enough to hear a groove. It appears, and you recognize it, and you’re like, ‘Holy shit. There it is!’ You hear it, and feel it. You can document it and recreate it on your instrument, and hopefully it will make people feel happy when they hear it. I think that’s the secret.” 

We’ll take that. Plug in your bass, switch off your mind – and listen. 

• Sinai Dub Box (2012-2022) is out now via Drag City.

The story goes that Ben Hall, son of recently retired company president John, and grandson of Francis Hall who led the firm during its ’60s heyday, posted a pic on the Rickenbacker Guitars’ Facebook page back in May 2021. 

It was of a metallic purple 330 model (Hall called it “Grape Jelly”) with black hardware. It transpired that he had commissioned a small run for the home market. UK distributor Rosetti saw the post, loved the idea and ordered its own limited run of 25. They renamed the colour Midnight Purple, and a real showstopper it is, too.

Rather than coming out with new models every year, Rickenbacker likes to augment its small and well established line with special editions such as this. And since they are harder to come by than hen’s teeth, it’s hardly surprising that they fly off the shelves. 

Of course, the 330 is among the company’s best known and most popular models, so it is ripe for this kind of experimentation. 

Our particular 330 follows most of the model’s well-documented construction techniques, including the semi-acoustic ‘crescent moon cutaway’ body carved from maple with ‘cat’s eye’ soundhole, a three-ply neck of maple and walnut, an idiosyncratic two-tier pickguard, and a five-control layout, including the mysterious ‘blend’ switch (which acts on the neck pickup only, in order to balance it against the bridge pickup’s volume and tone).

However, this limited run eschews the usual lacquered rosewood fingerboard for one in Richlite, the man-made ebony material that’s become a widely accepted alternative.

This 330 also comes with the company’s beefier Hi-Gain single-coil pickups, and not the legendary Toaster models that created the wonderful ’60s jangle of Pete Townshend, George Harrison and Roger McGuinn. 

Instead, we get the similarly toned but heartier chime of Peter Buck and Johnny Marr. Note, too, that the regular nickel hardware and white double pickguards are replaced with mean-looking black, and the effect is pretty spectacular. 

Moving away from those classic colours of yesteryear might have the purists up in arms, but not everyone lives in the past. Could this be your new Rickenbacker?  

• With thanks to Sound Affects for the loan of this stunning guitar.

Rickenbacker holds a unique seat in the pantheon of great American guitar builders. It was the first to introduce the electric guitar concept by taking it to market in 1932 following the development of the horseshoe pickup the previous year. 

By the late 1950s Rickenbacker’s new owner FC Hall was keen to break into the thinline semi-acoustic market and would launch a series of guitars that have endured for more than six decades. 

Known as the Capri, this iconic design was a marvel of guitar craftsmanship when it arrived in January 1958. Furthermore, by a bizarre twist of fate, the very first Capri ever made – serial number V81 – ended up in the hands of John Lennon in 1960, directly changing the course of popular culture as a consequence. 

It’s a strange tale that bounces back and forth across the pond. Boiled down, it simply goes like this: a German-born luthier by the name of Roger Rossmeisl (1927-1979) emigrates to America, teams up with Rickenbacker in California then designs a new style of electric guitar. 

The very first one he makes ends up being shipped back to his homeland where a young John Lennon finds it for sale in a Hamburg music store. Lennon buys this now historic Capri – a 325 model – and within a few years the world is gripped by Beatlemania. 

Subsequently, demand for Rickenbackers explodes. Augmented by a plethora of British invasion bands toting Rose Morris-imported Capris, Rickenbacker’s place in history is well and truly cemented. But who was Roger Rossmeisl and how did this all begin?

“Roger Rossmeisl was born in Germany where his father, Wenzel, a jazz musician, was making guitars throughout the 1930s,” begins Martin Kelly, whose new Rickenbacker book – crammed with incredible photography courtesy of his brother, Paul Kelly – has recently set the guitar world alight with its definitive account of the company’s colourful history.

“During the war, Roger was sent to safety in Schönbach, Austria, where, between the age of 12 and 18, he learned the art of guitar making under the tutelage of a guy called Franz Hirsch. 

“He returned, fully trained, to Berlin after the war and set up shop working alongside his father making jazz guitars under the Roger brand. They were producing beautifully made guitars, but in post-war Germany materials were in desperately short supply and it wasn’t long before Wenzel was caught smuggling materials in from the communist-controlled East. He was sentenced to four years in prison and Roger was left holding the baby. 

“After a couple of years running the company alone, Roger hit money problems and wrote to Gibson in Kalamazoo, where [company president] Ted McCarty offered him a job, so [in 1953] he packed up shop and emigrated to the US. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out at Gibson.

“Ted was less than impressed with an acoustic guitar Roger built, which had a thick carved top, and there was still a lot of anti-German feeling among some of the staff during the post-war years.

“So Roger split for sunnier climes and a stint playing Hawaiian guitar on a cruise ship on the West Coast, eventually ending up in Los Angeles where he landed a job at Rickenbacker [in early ’54]. I don’t doubt he’d knocked on Leo Fender’s door as well, but it was Rickenbacker who gave him his first real break.”

Indeed, Rossmeisl eventually joined Fender in 1962 where he would go on to develop several new guitar designs, beginning with its first foray into acoustics (“Very underrated guitars!” Martin tells us). 

However, his most enduring contribution to the Fullerton firm’s catalogue is the Thinline Telecaster released in ’68 – a design that evolved directly from his earlier efforts at Rickenbacker. 

“The Capri design is essentially a solidbody hollowed out from the rear with the back glued on, very much like the Telecaster Thinline,” Martin says. “In fact, the Telecaster Thinline is very much a Rickenbacker made by Fender – because that’s what Roger went over there and did! 

“The Thinline and Fender Coronado – also designed by Rossmeisl – even sport the same stylised f-holes seen on Roger guitars from the ’40s right through to Rose Morris Rickenbackers. It’s Roger Rossmeisl all the way. Roger has given so much to the guitar world that people take for granted. And there’s probably more we don’t know about.” 

At this point in the story, it must be pointed out that the Fender-Rickenbacker connection extends further back than Roger Rossmeisl’s appearance. 

After Rickenbacker’s co-founder Adolph Rickenbacher made it known to Fender partner FC Hall that he was preparing to retire, the astute businessman bought the firm in December 1953, much to the chagrin of his Fender colleagues. Having been involved with Fender since the mid‑1940s, Hall was ultimately frozen out of the company in 1955. 

“FC’s role in Fender had been seriously diluted by 1953 and he clearly wanted something he could call his own,” says Martin. “He definitely had his eyes on the prize. The electric-guitar market was beginning to explode and FC wanted his own piece of the action.”

Having acquired Rickenbacker, FC Hall approached an industrial designer named Hunt Lewis in order to produce a brand-new Spanish-style electric guitar. The instrument’s blueprint is dated April 1954 and depicts a solid construction hollowed out from the front with a glued-on top. This design effectively laid the groundwork for Rossmeisl’s refinements once he came onboard two months later. 

“The genesis of the Capri range stems from the early Combo 600 and 800 models designed by Hunt Lewis,” says Martin. “Lewis wasn’t a guitarist and looked at the guitar in the way an industrial designer might. He came up with the idea of making the body from a hollowed-out solid block of wood, something Roger hadn’t previously done.

“Hunt’s original design shows the body being hollowed out from the front with a top being glued on. But when Roger arrives a few weeks later he makes changes. For example, he hollows from the reverse side, putting a German carve into the top.

“Roger finesses the design somewhat, he changes the cutaway and the headstock shape, but the principle of taking a solid block and hollowing it out remains. No-one else was making guitars that way. Although you get chambered out bits on a Gretsch or Les Paul, it’s not the same as being completely hollowed out.”

During his first few years at Rickenbacker, Rossmeisl was mostly working to a brief while introducing his own embellishments. Impressed by what he saw, by 1957 FC Hall was urging him to come forward with new designs. 

“The Capri series evolved from the Combo series,” says Martin. “The Capris were the first truly semi-acoustic guitars that Roger made with soundholes. He advanced the process to make the guitars super lightweight by taking a lot more wood out. The top and sides are one piece, and he’d hollow right through for the slash/soundhole. Then he’d glue a piece of wood on the back. 

“By 1957, FC was letting Roger off the leash a little and that’s when you really begin to see the flair and flamboyance of his designs. It’s when the company’s brand identity really takes shape. 

“You see several ideas creeping in that Roger had developed in Germany – triangular markers, slash (cat’s eye) soundholes, deluxe binding – all these sorts of things that he’d been using before suddenly start coming into the picture. 

“If you look at late-’40s Roger guitars, you’ll see numerous connections with his Rickenbacker designs. Take the laminated necks, for example – that’s something Roger was doing earlier, which he carried over to Rickenbacker.

“Strips of contrasting wood not only made the necks stronger but gave them an upmarket appeal. There are lots of other details that are similar to Roger guitars, like the fingerboard bindings, ‘R’-tailpieces, headstock shapes… but he refined it all at Rickenbacker.”

Though Roger employed a high level of craftsmanship, the carving of tops was a relatively time-consuming process. Naturally, FC Hall required more turnover. 

“It was in this moment that things start coming together,” Martin says. “That’s when the Capri range was really born. One of the things Roger had brought over from Germany was carved tops. Most early Combo models featured the German carve; it was not only time-consuming but kept prices higher than the competition. 

“FC was clearly requesting to ‘speed production up’ and that’s when you start seeing the flat-top Ricks. The first prototype for the Capri range, known as the Polynesian, did indeed have a carved top, but by the time production commenced and Roger built Lennon’s V81, the carved-top idea had been abandoned and all Rickenbackers from that point, bar a few specials, featured flat tops.

“FC immediately saw the potential of the new range and named it ‘Capri’ in honour of the family cat. There were just six 325s made with solid tops like Lennon’s, but after those first six, Rossmeisl started cutting f-holes into the short-scale Capris.”

Having created the short-scale 325 in January ’58, Rossmeisl continued to evolve the Capri body shape. Via three ‘long body’ prototypes he arrived at the full-scale 300‑series Capri dimensions. 

“Roger kind of stretched the dimensions of the 325 body design lengthways then sideways,” says Martin. “That’s how he arrived at the classic late-50s style Capri. In ’61, he redesigned the Capri again, dropping the waist and filling out the body horns. It’s a subtle but very dramatic change. There were hints of it coming, but the Capri range with its extreme cutaway really defined the iconic Rickenbacker look – and the company’s image for decades to come.”  

• Rickenbacker Guitars: Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fireglo by Martin Kelly and Paul Kelly is available now via Phantom Books

Trying to scratch that itch for some high-end low-end? Are you gassing to add one of the best high-end bass guitars to your collection? An heirloom quality beast that'll keep you in the groove and your band in the pocket?

Talking of pockets, you're going to need some deep ones when it comes to premium bass guitars, but that's to be expected. The difficult part is knowing what to choose from the bewildering number of fine instruments out there, all vying for both your attention and your readies.

Do you go long-scale or short? Vintage or contemporary? Active or passive? Four string or five? Or six? The choice can be daunting, which is why we're here to help. Read on for our verdict on eight of the best high-end bass guitars your money can buy.

Best high-end bass guitars: Guitar World's Choice

If your aim is to buy one of the very finest bass guitars out there, then we recommend the almost peerless Fodera Emperor 5 Standard Classic. We say 'almost peerless' because you can spend a whole lot more on a custom Fodera, but there's really no need. This is simply an astonishing active 5-string bass. Hand built in small numbers in Brooklyn, from the very best components and tonewoods, it feels magnificent to play and sounds simply glorious.

What if you want a high-quality workhorse that can provide a versatile gamut of tones while shrugging off the kind of punishment a life on the road inflicts? Then, we recommend that old favorite, the Fender Jazz, but this time with some contemporary appointments.

The Fender American Ultra Jazz Bass is the most comfortable, most innovative and most versatile mainstream bass the Californian company has ever built. Thanks to its comfy body contours, amazing neck, noiseless pups and active circuitry, you won't be left wanting.

Best high-end bass guitars: Product guide

A decade ago, Fodera was all about producing eye-wateringly expensive hand-built custom basses from its modest workshop in Brooklyn. These basses had unicorn status, you'd hear about them, dream about them but rarely, if ever, see one in the flesh.

Then, in 2011, Fodera introduced its 'Standard' range, a more accessible diffusion line. You know, a bit like Fender/Squier. Thing is, Fodera's interpretation of the words 'Standard' and 'accessible' is a bit more elastic than ours, and here it's been stretched to the limit.

The J-style Emperor 5 Standard Classic is also hand built by a small team of luthiers in a modest workshop in Brooklyn, using the finest materials. And yes, for most of us, it remains eye-wateringly expensive. 

Highlights include dual-coil pups designed in collaboration with Seymour Duncan, and a Pope three-band preamp. Broadly speaking, the signature tone is focused, punchy, with a smooth upper midrange. In reality, because the pups can be split and the EQ options are almost endless, it's possible to tease a huge sonic palette from this bass.

If you simply must have a custom Fodera then expect to pay another two or three grand at least, but why bother? It's difficult to see how it's possible to improve on the Emperor 5 Standard Classic. 

Yes, we could easily have featured a bare bones vintage reissued Jazz, or a custom shop beauty. However, the unashamedly contemporary American Ultra hits the spot for us. It may not be a single luthier piece, and the materials used are certainly not exotic, but its iconic design, faultless construction, excellent noiseless pickups and clever active electronics make it one of the most desirable bass guitars in this guide.

This is a bass for the hard-working professional, who needs a super reliable, versatile bass for demanding gigs and sessions. It's a veritable toolbox of tones. 

The ’70s inspired body has been modified subtly with a sculpted rear contour that makes wearing this Jazz for hours a comfier proposition. Fender has also improved playability by tapering the heel to allow unhindered access to the upper register, and by bolting on a modern D-shape neck with a 10"-14" compound-radius.

Now for the clever stuff. Early iterations of Fender's noiseless pickups could be a bit hit and miss but these latest Vintage versions nail that Jazz tone – focused, punchy with defined mids and clear highs – perfectly, with zero noise.

The preamp adds additional power and headroom, and the strip of controls are so intuitive that dialling in a tone that's floating about in your head is simplicity itself. You can, of course, always revert to passive mode too.

But is a factory-built Fender really a high-end bass? Let's not forget that Leo didn't care about vintage provenance or luxury appointments, he was a genius innovator always looking to the future. We think he would have approved of the American Ultra.

Read the full Fender American Ultra Jazz Bass review

What a genius Leo Fender was. Not satisfied with revolutionizing the electric guitar and bass (not to mention amps) at Fender, he continued to innovate at G&L and was, of course, instrumental in the development of the StingRay bass. It broke new ground in the mid-’70s, being the first bass to feature active electronics in the shape of a 9v preamp and two-band EQ. 

The StingRay has gone through a lot of changes since then, and this latest five string Special version features two Neodymium Humbuckers and a potent 18v preamp with three-band EQ. Frankly, it's a StingRay on steroids, a venomous monster of a bass.

The 'Ray has always got a lot of love for its punchy sound, which makes it a natural for both heavy rock styles and funk slap bass. The StingRay 5 Special covers the same sonic ground with aplomb but ups the stakes and then some. On top of that, StingRays have always been exceptionally well built from top notch components, and this one is no exception. 

Want to hear what a Streamer Stage 1 sounds like in the hands of a gifted player? Then listen to Stuart Zender laying down some masterful grooves on early Jamiroquai tracks. Since its inception in the '80s, it's always been a favorite with the funk and slap fraternity, but it can do heavy too, as Robert Trujillo continues to prove with Metallica (albeit with EMG pups).

This particular Streamer is plucked from Warwick's top-end Masterbuilt series, which means it's drop dead gorgeous. Its AAA flamed maple top is mated to a thin, three-piece wenge neck, with a wenge fingerboard that's wearing 24 highly polished, jumbo bronze frets. Hardware is high-mass, gold-plated brass. Stunning.

Active MEC P/J pickups and three-way EQ lend it awesome tone and formidable versatility. Hate searching around for 9v batteries? Us too. Well, fret no more because this Streamer comes with a rechargeable lithium battery and USB charge port. 

All that maple makes this a relatively lightweight bass with additional clarity in the mid-range and highs, which gives it a tone that's particularly punchy and clear. If, however, you're looking for more warmth, seek out a Stage 1 or Stage 2 made from alternative tonewoods – there's plenty of choice.

The Rickenbacker 4003 is a real paradox of a bass guitar. Few other basses manage to straddle so many genres from, in no particular order, rock to prog to punk to indie to heavy metal to the more extreme ends of metal. Seemingly, it's an instrument that can turn its hand to almost anything.

Yet, it has a very distinctive tone that's immediately recognizable and, frankly, not universally appreciated. You either love it or you hate it.

True, there's some versatility to be had – after all, in the late Beatles era Macca managed to coax some beautifully rounded, mellow sounds from his very similar 4001. But most other players strap on a Ricky to let fly with its ballsy, aggressive neck pickup that's defined by a punchy, treble-prominent clarity. Listen to anyone from Geddy Lee to Chris Squire to hear that tone in spades (OK, Lemmy too).

Rickenbacker basses are still made in California in limited quantities, so supply is always an issue and pricing is all over the place. But, if you're a Ricky fan, your life isn't complete without one, so get one if you can.

German luthier Gerald Marleaux and his team are obsessed with timber to the extent they've amassed a breathtaking collection of rare tonewoods. Where possible, they'll even travel to buy fallen trees that, after being sawn to size, may sit air-drying for years in Marleaux's climate-monitored warehouse before being transformed into exquisite bass guitars. 

The Consat Signature is a fine example. Its striking ash body is capped with a highly figured piece of burl wood, in this case walnut. Joined to that wonderful body, with six sturdy bolts, is a flamed maple neck, topped with an ebony fingerboard that's been delicately inlayed with abalone.

Every component is made by Marleaux or designed specifically for it, except for the pickups, which can be specced as either Delano or Häussel, and the gold Schaller tuners. 

This is an active bass with a three band semi-parametric EQ that, unusually, can store user defined frequencies for future recall. The signature sound is direct, transparent with a sustain that seemingly lasts forever. Beyond that, Gerald is keen to point out that every Marleaux bass sounds unique because the tonewoods will differ from one instrument to the next.

Unmistakably a PRS, the Grainger was, in fact, designed by John Scofield collaborator Gary Grainger with input from Wyzard (Mother's Finest) and Kevin Walker (Justin Timberlake). No doubt Paul Reed Smith had some say too.

If you want to go truly high-end then you can commission PRS to build you a custom Private Stock bass, but still, the Grainger's an awesome instrument that's available off-the-shelf without the wait or the additional expense. As with all of Paul's premium guitars, quality is unrivalled – woe betide any PRS luthier who jeopardizes the brand's sterling reputation in this regard.

The Grainger uses the tried and tested combination of a mahogany body with a maple cap to deliver a sound that's warm and rich, yet delightfully balanced by a relatively bright high end. Two Gary Grainger 5 (GG) pups provide ample power that, no matter how hard you drive them, never lack clarity. 

The 18v PRS/Grainger active electronics give you additional punch, headroom and access to more modern sounds but switching the pickups to passive mode delivers some wonderfully vintage tones that quickly become addictive.

The Grainger 5-String Bass is available in a variety of gorgeous finishes, including a selection with PRS' best quality 10-tops. Luverly!

It's one of the quirkiest looking but, at the same time, one of the most recognizable bass guitars of all time. The Hofner 500/1 is also the second bass in this guide that owes a huge debt to Sir Paul McCartney, who popularized its use in the early to mid-’60s.

Not only does it look unique, it sounds unusual too. The Hofner has a readily identifiable warm, woody thump that's long on character but short on sustain. 

This particular model, which is handmade in Germany, is based on the one that was made for Paul in 1963. It features a spruce top, maple back and sides, a flame maple neck and bucketloads of that early Beatles tone. The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed it differs from Paul's '61 bass in that the middle pickup has been moved closer to the bridge, altering the tone somewhat.

A must for Beatles fans, it is nevertheless not the most versatile of instruments, so if this is going to be your only bass then perhaps look elsewhere. Just as Paul did back in '65 when he moved on to his Rickenbacker.

Best high-end bass guitars: Buying advice

If you're fortunate enough to have a sizeable stack of notes burning a hole in your pocket then congratulations, high-end bass ownership is just the musical 'ka-ching' of a cash register away. Most likely an interweb virtual one, but that's still a thing, right?

Anyway, at some stage in your pre-purchase phase it will probably dawn on you that money buys you options, which is a good thing, but getting your head around the number of available choices can result in agonising bouts of indecision.

Don't worry, we're going to break down your prospective bass purchase into some manageable chunks.

Factory-built vs custom shop vs single luthier

Why settle for a factory-built bass when you could be playing a custom shop model, or better still, a unique instrument from a single luthier?

A quick Google will reward you with the names of dozens, if not hundreds, of luthiers who would love to craft you a gorgeous bass. Some will be famous names with incredible bodies of work behind them, while others will be less well known. Employing the former will almost certainly mean a long wait of many months or even years, while commissioning the latter involves a degree of risk.

A universal issue with small-scale luthier businesses is that they're unable to hold the huge range of quality tonewoods that bigger brands such as Fender do. They just don't have the buying power or the storage facilities.

It's for these reasons that we haven't included truly small-scale builders in this guide. That's not to say that many of them don't produce incredible instruments, they do.

Commission a single luthier-built custom shop bass from a bigger brand and you'll also face a long wait, but you'll be dealing with a known company with better resources and, if you're lucky, superior lines of communication. Most big-brand custom shops also produce team-built stock that can be bought off the shelf, either direct or from your friendly dealer.

We've featured a few of these team-built custom shop bass guitars in this guide, such as the Hofner 500/1 Vintage 'Mersey' Violin Electric Bass Guitar and the Warwick Masterbuilt Streamer Stage 1 4.

Interestingly, one of our recommended basses is the superb Emperor 5 Standard, which despite its $6,600/£5,699 price tag is not a custom shop guitar but instead part of Fodera's less expensive Standard line. In reality, it's built to the same exacting standards as any other custom shop bass, it's just that Fodera has chosen to elevate its custom models to a higher level entirely.

The contemporary-styled Jazz Bass Ultra, which sits just below Fender's custom shop models, represents the pinnacle of Fender's mainline build. It's not a one-off, and it doesn't sport a prestigious custom shop badge, but it is generously specced, and very well screwed together. So much so, that for hectic session work we'd choose it over many of the fancier bass guitars here.

Custom shop or not, any bass retailing for over $/£2,000 should be faultless.

Vintage vs contemporary

There's something rather magical about owning a bass like a Ricky 4000 series, or a Macca-style Hofner. We don't know whether it's due to the vintage vibe, or the simple pleasure of playing an uncomplicated instrument, but these authentic re-releases certainly have a beguiling purity.

However, time moves on and bass guitars have become immeasurably more capable during the past few decades, mostly due to the addition of active electronics and a fifth, or even sixth, string.

You'll find that most of the bass guitars in this guide, even the Fender Jazz and the Music Man StingRay, are unashamedly contemporary. Treat yourself to the Hofner if you're a huge Beatles fan and play little else, but if it's to be your only bass then something like the Fender or the PRS will bring so much more versatility to your rig.

How many strings?

Jaco Pastorius, arguably the best bassist of all time, played a beat up old '62 Jazz bass with just four strings, which didn't seem to trouble him a bit. Of course, musical styles have moved on a bit since his tragic, untimely death in the late '80s and many metal players now favor five or six strings to get the heavy, low rumble they crave.

They're not alone, funk and jazz players are increasingly appreciating the sonic flexibility of a low B string too. Our view is that if you're investing in an expensive bass then it's a wise idea to at least explore the possibility of purchasing a five string. Metalheads should consider six.

Scale length and sizes

If you're a guitarist hankering after a bit of bass action, or you're blessed with a modest-size body that's attached to small hands, the neck of a bass guitar can appear ridiculously gargantuan. The frets will probably feel way too much of a stretch, and the whole instrument will almost certainly be excessively heavy.

The solution? A short scale bass. These have a 30" scale length, against the standard 34", which means that the frets will be closer together, the strings will be a little looser, and there's a tendency towards a warmer, smoother sound. It's likely the body will be slightly smaller and lighter too, improving balance for tiny frames.

A good example is the Hofner featured above, which has a short 30" scale length and is remarkably light. The Fender Jazz isn't particularly light, nor does it have a short scale length, but it does have a curiously narrow nut width, which makes it popular among transient guitarists moving across to the deep dark side of bass playing.

Tonewoods

Most bass guitars are made using the same familiar tonewoods that are used to build electric guitars. Maple is popular for necks, and it, rosewood and ebony are commonly used for fingerboards. Alder and ash bodies are valued for their balanced tone, whereas mahogany is warmer to the extent it's often capped with maple to reinforce the top end.

High-end bass guitars around the $/£2,000 mark will use straight-grained, good quality tonewoods with no visible defects. Spend a little more and you'll start to find figuring beginning to creep in, culminating in beautiful AAA maple tiger-stripe tops and highly decorative necks. Spend a lot more and all sorts of exotica from Walnut to African Dibetou make an appearance.

Just remember that an expensive slab of burl wood, beautiful though it may be, won't necessarily improve the tone and definitely won't improve playability. We say, spend what you can on the neck, electrics and hardware before going too wild with fancy figuring. 

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There’s a good story told about Chet Atkins. One day, someone who had stopped to listen to him play said, “Man, that guitar sure sounds good!” According to the tale, Chet put the guitar down on a chair then said to its admirer: “How good does it sound now?” 

His point, of course, is that guitars are just lumps of metal and wood until a player brings them to life. As enjoyable as it is to pore over the technical evolution of famous guitar models – and we do plenty of that – instruments can’t be truly historic until they are used to make influential music. Pioneering musicians, in their turn, set the agenda for the next generation of instrument design – and so the wheel of history turns. 

In that sense, the player and the instrument itself are forever entangled, indivisible. That’s why, when we decided to explore which guitars have had the most impact on history, we realised it must include not just classic models (though sometimes it is enough to simply invent something first to make history), but also identify specific iconic instruments that represented a fleeting moment when the world stopped to listen to a new sound and, in so doing, was changed forever. 

For example, it’s hard to imagine Peggy Sue without Buddy Holly’s ’55 Strat. By the same token, the Strat itself might never have become an icon of rock ’n’ roll without Buddy Holly. 

The following article therefore represents an attempt to trace the most crucial pairings of artist and instrument, each of which tilted history on its axis just a little and set music rolling down a new path. They also contain lesser-known contributions to the evolution of the instrument that were made by guitar designs that, without setting the world alight, nonetheless changed our perception of what the guitar could and should be.

Our guide in this endeavour is celebrated guitar historian Tony Bacon, who compiled the following list of 50 extraordinary instruments that mark a watershed in the history of the instrument, both musically and technically. We hope you gain fresh insight into the evolution of guitar as you join us on the journey. 

1. c.1590 Unknown Maker five-course guitar

This very early guitar is a rare survivor, thanks partly to its prized workmanship. It has five courses, a format that developed around the mid-16th century from the earlier ‘treble’ four-course instrument. A course can be a single, double (as here), or even triple string. Inevitably, this guitar has been restored: as such, the top has been replaced and the neck rebuilt and cut down, although a beautiful central ‘rose’ in the soundhole is original.

2. c. 1804 Pagés six-course guitar

Around the end of the 18th century, makers began to move from five to six courses, and with the addition of the low-E course, tuning began to settle at EADGBE. A further change to six single strings, at first in Italy and France, resulted in something closer to a modern flat-top. This six-course guitar was made in Cadiz, Spain, by Josef Pagés with 12 full-size metal frets and shorter ‘treble’ frets on the body.          

3. 1888 Torres classical guitar

In the 19th century, the classical guitar began to take shape, and the maker most responsible for this evolution was a Spaniard named Antonio de Torres, active from the 1850s to the 1890s. He determined the guitar’s top as key to its sound and developed a fan-strutting pattern for the underside. Torres domed the lower bout, shifted the bridge further into the body, and used relatively thin woods. His ideas for an integrated guitar were widely adopted in Spain and abroad.

4. Maybelle Carter’s 1928 Gibson L-5

Lloyd Loar’s greatest contribution at Gibson was the Master Series L-5 guitar, introduced in 1922. It had violin-style f-holes instead of a regular soundhole and established many of the ideas for the modern archtop acoustic. 

Maybelle Carter regularly played an L-5, setting templates for much of country, bluegrass and folk guitar. Her style neatly blurred the lines between melody and rhythm, always supporting the singer and providing crisp leads where needed.

5. Joan Baez’s 1929 Martin 0-45

Following Martin’s innovative X-bracing, in the early decades of the 20th century, it came to define the modern flat-top guitar, and by 1928 was bracing all models for steel strings.

Joan Baez acquired this ’29 0-45 in 1959 for $200 and has played it (or a replica) ever since. Martin’s Size 0 was a relatively large ‘parlour guitar’, a little over 13 inches wide, and 45 was the fanciest Style with distinctive abalone inlay.

6. Lead Belly’s c.1930 Stella 12-string 

The skiffle, folk and blues boom of the '50s and '60s brought a new popularity to the 12-string, its sizable singer-supporting sound coming from strings arranged in six pairs tuned in octaves and unison doubling. 

Records by the country bluesman Lead Belly, who mostly played a Stella 12 like this one, were a big influence. The Stella brand was used at the time by the Oscar Schmidt instrument company of New Jersey.

7. 1932 Rickenbacker Frying Pan prototype

This maple lap-steel experiment was the first guitar to feature an electro-magnetic pickup, which makes it effectively the basis for the majority of electric guitars that have followed since. 

George Beauchamp was a partner in Ro-Pat-In – soon renamed the Electro String Instrument Company – along with Adolph Rickenbacker and Paul Barth, and he devised the instrument’s ‘horseshoe’ pickup. Electro began selling the cast aluminium production-version A-25 lap steel later in 1932.

8. Charlie Christian’s c.1937 Gibson ES-150

This was Gibson’s first Spanish electric guitar, launched in 1936. After World War II, electrics would become an important part of Gibson’s revived business, but the ES-150 marked an important first step in that direction. 

Charlie Christian played early Gibson electrics, including a 150, with Benny Goodman, and his pioneering work proved that amplified guitars could work as soloing instruments in jazz and elsewhere. He died just 25 years old in 1942.

9. Mark Knopfler’s 1937 National Style 0

When Mark Knopfler’s National guitar, shining like the Mississippi Delta, starred on the cover of Dire Straits’ 1985 album, Brothers In Arms, it sparked a revival of interest in resonator instruments. 

Visible on Knopfler’s guitar are the vivid decorations National sandblasted onto the bodies of some of its models. John Dopyera and George Beauchamp at National developed a system with aluminium resonators suspended inside a guitar’s metal body to produce extra volume and a distinctive sound.

10. 1939 National Sonora

This was probably the first two-pickup electric guitar. Until National in California introduced this model, the electric lap steel and Spanish electrics that began to trickle out from some makers during the 30s all had single pickups, usually at the bridge (although Gibson, for example, put its Spanish guitar pickup at the neck). 

The obscure Sonora model paved the way for two, three or more pickups – but there remained an appeal to the simplicity of one.

11. 1948 Bigsby Merle Travis

This remarkably influential guitar looks closer to our idea of a modern solid electric guitar than anything that had gone before.

Merle Travis was a fine country guitarist, Paul Bigsby a mechanic and woodworker who fixed motorcycles and built custom pedal-steel guitars. They devised the Bigsby-Travis guitar in California in the late 40s, pre-dating Fender’s first solidbody.

Bigsby – better known for his vibrato, patented four years later – produced some similar guitars but only in small numbers.

12. 1950 Fender Broadcaster

This is the guitar that roused an entire industry to seriously consider the new idea of a modern mass-produced solidbody electric guitar. Gretsch complained about Fender’s original name, Broadcaster, and during 1951 Fender changed it to Telecaster. 

The much-copied Tele retained its straightforward, no-nonsense style and playability through the ensuing decades and remains a near-perfect utilitarian design geared for mass production – and for players who continue to recognise the value of elegant simplicity.

13. Les Paul’s 1952 Gibson Les Paul Model

Even a conservative Midwest company such as Gibson did not wait long to react to Fender’s activities in California, and soon the firm was busy designing its own new solidbody. 

It was introduced in 1952, reflecting Gibson’s craft heritage in contrast to Fender’s unpretentious approach, and endorsed by America’s most famous guitarist, Les Paul. This guitar, since much restored, was one that Gibson gave to Les Paul himself and which the guitarist used widely in the 50s. 

14. Grady Martin’s 1952 Bigsby doubleneck

Among the Spanish electrics made by Paul Bigsby was the first solidbody doubleneck guitar, built in 1952 for the busy Nashville studio guitarist Grady Martin. He ordered his Bigsby doubleneck with a regular six-string neck plus a five-string mandolin neck. 

For Bigsby, used to making double- and triple-neck steels, the design may have seemed a logical step, but it paved the way for other brave makers and strapping musicians to chance their arm with several necks.

15. Buddy Holly’s c.1955 Fender Stratocaster

Fender’s second solidbody was introduced in 1954. Three years later, in December ’57, American TV provided a boost for the guitar when Buddy Holly strummed a Strat on The Ed Sullivan Show. 

Holly had topped the charts with That’ll Be The Day and now had a new 45, Peggy Sue, and his Strat was on the cover of his ’57 album, The “Chirping” Crickets, too. Suddenly, thousands of aspiring guitarists knew the guitar they wanted for Christmas. 

16. Chuck Berry’s 1955 Gibson ES-350T

Chuck Berry invented so much about electric guitar playing – including the signature licks that influenced every budding rock ’n’ roller in the '50s and early '60s – that it’s easy to overlook his guitars. 

Chuck’s axe of choice in the classic early days was a stylish 350T, which combined a comfortable thinline body with a shorter neck and scale, and the model set the style for many of the electric hollowbodies to come from Gibson as well as other makers.

17. 1955 Stratosphere Twin

This rare model is the one for which the Missouri-based brothers Russ and Claude Deaver will go down in guitar history because it was the first production doubleneck electric and it incorporated the first 12-string electric. 

Their 12-string, also offered as a single-neck model, used an unusual tuning system that required guitarists to reconsider their playing techniques. Chet Atkins used a Twin, as did the West Coast session guitarist Jimmy Bryant, but Stratosphere’s instruments soon faded from the scene. 

18. Joni Mitchell’s 1956 Martin D-28

Joni Mitchell learned to play guitar from a Pete Seeger instruction book. She soon developed her own picking style and a fondness for alternative tunings, which she played during the late 60s and early 70s on her main guitar of the period, a ’56 D-28.

Martin first made the big dreadnought guitars in 1916 for Ditson, and in 1931 introduced its own models, the D-18 and D-28, followed by the high-end D-45 in ’33.

19. 1957 Silvertone 1323

The mighty mail-order firm Sears, Roebuck was an important source of affordable guitars in the '50s and '60s. 

Danelectro, Harmony, Kay and others supplied instruments to Sears bearing the company’s own Silvertone brand, and, by the late-'50s, Sears was offering a line of models such as this Silvertone 1323, derived from a Dano U2. 

Thousands of would-be American guitarists started out with their cheap, effective Silvertones thanks to the Danelectro factory in New Jersey.

20. 1958 Gibson ES-335

The now-classic 335 was Gibson’s most revolutionary electric guitar. It had two radical body features: double cutaways, and a semi-solid structure. The cutaways made it easier to reach higher frets, while a solid maple block inside the body tamed feedback and combined solidbody-like sustain with a hollowbody’s woody warmth. 

The result was a comfortable electric for the modern player who wanted to explore traditional tones at elevated volume levels.

21. 1958 Fender Jazzmaster

Following the success of the Telecaster, Esquire and Stratocaster, as well as the Precision Bass and Jazz Bass, in 1958 Fender introduced a further solidbody guitar – the high-end Jazzmaster. 

It had an enlarged headstock, a body with Fender’s new offset-waist design, the first Fender appearance of a separate rosewood fingerboard, two new-style single-coil pickups, a floating vibrato bridge, and an array of controls including a switch to select between preset rhythm and lead settings.

22. John Lennon’s 1958 Rickenbacker 325

The Beatles have been important to Rickenbacker, and this is where that connection began. John Lennon bought this, his first American guitar, when his band played a residency in Hamburg, Germany, in 1960. 

After a long life, today it has a non-standard pickguard and knobs, and the finish restored to original natural. Lennon played this and a later 325 throughout most of the band’s life on stage and in the studio.

23. Dave Davies’s 1958 Gibson Flying V

In 1958, Gibson introduced the Flying V and Explorer models to almost universal disapproval, and only 98 Vs were made before production ceased in ’59. 

When Dave Davies happened on an original V during a Kinks US tour in 1965, he went on to provide the first glimpse of this rare instrument for many fellow guitarists. It became clear to players what a great guitar this was, and showed makers that a solidbody could be virtually any shape.

24. Bo Diddley’s 1958 Gretsch custom rectangular guitar

Rock ’n’ roll hero Bo Diddley teamed up with Gretsch to create a series of unusually shaped guitars, including this flat-sided beast from 1958. Billboard magazine noted that Gretsch “has made a special custom-built square guitar for Bo Diddley – this is a strong artist who would probably sound great even with glockenspiel accompaniment”. 

Here was early and very public evidence that some players no longer required instruments that matched the conventional template.

25. Eric Clapton’s c.1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard ‘Beano’

This guitar, missing since stolen in 1966, is a rare example of an influential instrument that no-one has seen for a very long time indeed. Clapton bought the sunburst Les Paul in London in ’65, using it for John Mayall’s Blues Breakers album.

The cover had EC reading a copy of the Beano comic – hence the guitar’s nickname – and sunburst Standards rose dramatically in popularity and value as Clapton and others demonstrated their musical worth.

Read more: The strange case of the missing Beano: where is Eric Clapton’s stolen Les Paul?

26. George Harrison’s 1963 Rickenbacker 360/12

Rickenbacker models became the electric 12-strings of choice during a mid-60s trend for the 12’s big chiming sound, prompted by George Harrison.

Rickenbacker gave him this guitar – actually an early prototype – during the group’s first American tour early in 1964, and he used this and a second gifted Rickenbacker on many Beatle live shows and recordings, including A Hard Day’s Night and Ticket To Ride. 

27. Johnny Winter’s 1963 Gibson Firebird V

With Fenders popular, Gibson looked for a competing design, landing with the Firebird line, new for 1963 and devised by car designer Ray Dietrich. Firebirds had a neck-through-body design and a similar look to Fender’s offset style, which gained these first Firebirds the ‘reverse’ nickname. 

The Texan bluesman Johnny Winter favoured a sunburst V, which he bought around 1970 for $225, and he showed just what it could do, especially when he took a slide to it.

28. 1966 Vox Guitar Organ

The Guitar Organ – devised by Dick Denney, who designed many Vox amplifiers – had frets with contacts connected to the innards of a Vox organ in the body. The idea here was to create organ sounds or guitar sounds, individually or simultaneously. 

It was a difficult instrument to play, not least because of a neck wider at the nut than the body, and did not last long, but it provided an early suggestion that a guitar might be made to sound like a keyboard. 

29. Jack White’s c.1965 Airline 7283

Alongside Sears, Roebuck, the other big name in US mail-order was Montgomery Ward. Like Sears, it bought in instruments for its house brand, Airline, and served many a fledgling guitarist. 

Valco in Chicago built a series of models for Ward, some of which used moulded-fibreglass bodies, like some similar Valco-made National and Supro guitars. When Jack White later used an Airline for his work in The White Stripes, Airline became a key name in retro-land. 

30. Kurt Cobain’s 1965 Fender Jaguar

Kurt Cobain’s favoured guitar for Nevermind-era Nirvana was a left-handed Jaguar. It had some odd features for a ’65, various aftermarket mods, including DiMarzio pickups and an extra volume knob, and it soon gained a taped-off toggle area. 

During the 90s and beyond, Cobain’s love of offset Fenders did much to repopularise these models, which had gone in and (more often) out of fashion through the years since their introduction.

31. Jimmie Webster’s 1966 Gretsch White Falcon Super Project-O-Sonic 6137

The White Falcon was a spectacular gleaming object that appeared in 1955, designed by Gretsch’s chief ideas man, Jimmie Webster.

This double-cutaway guitar was owned by Webster himself and typifies Gretsch mid-'60s style, with double mute switches and pads, telescopic vibrato arm, multiple stereo controls, Space Control bridge, T-Zone slanted frets, thumbnail markers, two Filter’Trons, and, of course, That Great Gretsch Sound. It surely qualifies as a gadgeteer’s guide to extreme gadget guitars.

32. 1968 Micro-Frets The Orbiter

This innovative instrument was probably the first wireless guitar, well ahead of its time. The onboard FM transmitter’s antenna sat on the upper horn of the body and a receiver plugged into an amp. 

The idea came to Ralph Jones at Micro-Frets in Maryland from the growing popularity of wireless-controlled garage doors. Micro-Frets guitars had an unusual side-join body construction, and some had a clever intonated nut, but the brand was gone by the mid-70s.

33. 1969 Ampeg Dan Armstrong See-Through

Ampeg, better known for amps, hired Dan Armstrong to design this guitar, which had a body carved from a block of clear plastic, as much to grab attention as to exploit any sonic potential the material might have. 

Another novel idea was the six slide-in/slide-out pickups – Rock, Country or Jazz in Treble or Bass varieties. The See-Through guitar lasted little more than a year in production, brought down by conservative guitarists (Keef excepted) and expensive production.

34. Jimmy Page’s 1971 Gibson EDS-1275

Jimmy Page ordered a doubleneck from Gibson in the early 70s so that he could play both the six-string and the 12-string parts of Stairway To Heaven on stage without changing guitars. 

It prompted a surge of prog-tastic interest in such twin-pronged beasts from the likes of John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra), Steve Howe (Yes) and Alex Lifeson (Rush). Gibson spotted the trend, too, and reissued its EDS-1275 Double 12 in 1975.

35. Angus Young’s c.1971 Gibson SG Standard

The SG was a fine piece of sculptural guitar design when Gibson introduced it in 1961, a modernistic amalgam of bevels and points much studied by other makers. Angus Young showed how one model type could sustain a guitarist through his whole career, acquiring his first SG in Australia in the early 70s. 

In addition to his SG Standard, also notable is Angus’s iconic c.1970 SG Custom, used throughout the Back In Black tour, which had its middle pickup removed and pickguard replaced.

36. 1971 Ovation Electric Legend 1617

In 1971, Charles H Kaman’s Ovation brand popularised the integrated amplified acoustic, an idea that caught on quickly among many other makers. Ovation had already raised eyebrows among the conservative world of flat-tops with its ‘Lyrachord’ composite fibreglass bowl-shaped backs. 

The brand’s electro-acoustics were a more important development, using piezo pickups mounted under the bridge saddles linked to an onboard preamp to provide an amplified acoustic sound, with controls on the body’s side. 

37. 1976 Fender Telecaster Deluxe

Influenced by a popular mod that added a neck humbucker to a Tele, Fender put twin humbuckers on the existing Thinline in ’71 and the Deluxe (’73), and a neck ’bucker on the Custom (’72). 

Fender said of the two-’bucker models: “The humbucking pickups not only help eliminate feedback, they also add a gutty midrange and bass sound.” It was about as close as Fender would come officially to say: “This Fender is like a Gibson.”

38. 1976 BC Rich Mockingbird

On the road to the pointiest of pointy guitars, BC Rich in general and the Mockingbird in particular drew the eye of many a metallic musician. It wasn’t only its dangerous curves. 

Bernardo Rico’s guitars often had neck-through construction, and the controls provided a knob-twiddler’s paradise. The ’76 Mockingbird has a volume per pickup and a master tone, a regular three-way toggle, a coil-tap per pickup, a phase switch and a five-way chickenhead varitone filter. Enough?

39. Edward Van Halen’s c.1977 Frankenstrat

Ed’s guitars paved the way for '80s SuperStrats as a result of his fun with DIY. His Frankenstrats began around 1977 with the black-and-white guitar seen on the cover of the first Van Halen album. 

He took a Strat-style body and neck from Charvel, a PAF humbucker from a 335, slanted at the bridge, glued in some jumbo Gibson frets, screwed on a Strat vibrato, and fitted a single volume control. Ready to rock.

40. 1981 Gibson Chet Atkins CEC

Amplifying a nylon-string guitar for stage use took a useful step when Gibson collaborated with Chet Atkins to design the CEC electro-acoustic classical. Despite his reputation as an electric player, Atkins was, by the 80s, mostly playing nylon-string classical-style flat-tops, and he wanted a practical electric model. 

His idea for Gibson used a semi-solid body and a piezo bridge pickup, the result mostly looking and feeling something like a classical guitar but louder.

41. 1982 Fender Squier Series Telecaster ’52

Fender introduced vintage reissues with a trio of models in 1982 that recalled '50s features, at first made at the Fujigen factory in Japan. The company’s European agent requested budget-price versions to compete with the multitude of Fender copies, which, in its view, were damaging the market. 

The result was the Squier, which has since expanded greatly to a strong second-tier brand for Fender, and the spur for many other makers to develop quality overseas manufacturing. 

42. 1983 Jackson Randy Rhoads

Randy Rhoads was playing with Ozzy Osbourne in 1980 when he met Grover Jackson, and the two designed a custom guitar based on a classic Flying V. A little later they collaborated again on a radical variant with a notably offset body style, which established the ‘extreme V’ style.

Following Rhoads’s tragic death in ’82, the first Jackson-brand production instrument, the Randy Rhoads model, appeared the following year.

43. 1983 Roland G-707

Guitar synths started to appear in the mid-70s, promoting the idea that a guitar rather than a keyboard could control a synthesizer. Roland became the busiest activist, developing models from 1977 with separate guitar (“controller” in Roland-speak) and synthesizer unit. 

The most unusual was the G-707/GR-700, introduced in 1983, and the 707 guitar/controller was quickly nicknamed ‘The Coat Hanger’ for its look. But still the guitar-synth remained a specialist item.

44. 1983 Kramer Pacer

Kramer was the most successful electric brand of the '80s, leading the push to ‘SuperStrat’-heaven with a line of simple, effective shred machines. The brand also helped establish the Floyd Rose locking vibrato, which quickly became the metal guitarist’s vibrato system of choice. 

Other locking systems were developed at the time, by Rockinger, Kahler, Ibanez and others, but the Floyd, especially with the addition of fine-tuners at the bridge, was top of the divebombers’ tree. 

45. 1985 PRS Custom

Paul Reed Smith was among several makers in the 80s who wanted to combine the best of Gibson and Fender. An early result for his new-for-1985 PRS company was the Custom. 

Its mahogany-maple construction and fancy timber recalled 50s Les Pauls, while the through-body stringing and simple vibrato came from the Fender rulebook. PRS has ranged far and wide since, but this was the model that first put it on the map.

46. Steve Vai’s 1987 Ibanez JEM777LG

Ibanez made a breakthrough among extreme rock players in 1987 with the distinctive Steve Vai JEM model. It had colourful HSH DiMarzios, a Monkey Grip body handle, Disappearing Pyramid inlays, a thin 24-fret neck (the top four frets scalloped), and Lion’s Claw cutouts behind the Edge locking vibrato for pull-ups. 

It formed the basis for Ibanez’s highly successful RG series of ‘SuperStrats’, while many JEM variations followed alongside Vai’s Universe seven-strings. 

47. 1991 Charvel Surfcaster

An early sign of the '90s retro fashion came with Charvel’s Surfcaster. Makers looked back for features that made past instruments distinctive, borrowing them to give new models a modishly vintage vibe. 

The Surfcaster mixed old influences – lipstick pickups (Danelectro), slash soundhole and triangle markers (Rickenbacker) and a pearly pickguard (Fender). Many other electric brands took note of this early indication that retro could not only look good but also sound good and attract players. 

48. 1993 Parker Fly

Ken Parker and Larry Fishman cut a unique swathe through 90s electrics with the hybrid Parker Fly models. Their radical construction had ultra-thin wooden bodies strengthened by a composite carbon and epoxy material forming an ‘external skeleton’ around the wood. 

Necks were similarly made, and the guitars combined sounds from piezos and magnetic pickups. It was an intriguing but short-lived look at what an electric guitar could be.

49. 1994 Martin Backpacker

Upon its 90s launch, Martin’s Backpacker was an inexpensive compact guitar with a narrow body about nine inches at its widest and a 24-inch scale length, the whole thing around 3ft long and weighing a touch over 5lb. 

Its take-anywhere vibe was demonstrated in spectacular fashion when astronaut Pierre J Thuot took one on a space-shuttle mission in March ’94, and since then it seems as if every acoustic maker has offered a travel model. 

50. 1995 Fender Relic Telecaster

Fender popularised the idea of the relic’d guitar, starting in 1995 when Vince Cunetto began ageing the bodies, necks and parts Fender sent to his Missouri workshop. 

Four years later, the work moved to Fender’s Custom Shop. It wasn’t a new idea – repairers have always restored old guitars. Now, though, a new-oldie could take away the fear of damaging a collectable, and modern relics were soon to be seen in many other makers’ freshly aged inventories.

“Rickenbacker co-founder George Beauchamp invented the electric guitar pickup in 1931 but they didn’t start manufacturing electric instruments until late 1932,” says Martin. “His pickup design featured two large horseshoe-shaped magnets to boost the signal, necessary because the suitable amplification was yet to be developed, plus the original coil slugs were made from non-magnetised ferrous metal. Pioneering times! 

“The original application of the horseshoe pickup wasn’t just for ‘frying pan’ lap steels; Rickenbacker launched an electric Spanish guitar at exactly the same moment.  

“Interestingly though, their very first ‘Electro Spanish’ featured a revolutionary 17th fret neck joint. Beauchamp was clearly aware of the electric guitar’s potential from the outset as players could now solo up the dusty end and actually be heard! 

“Although the horseshoe was well suited to lap steels, it was actually the thing that held Rickenbacker back. They were very slow in realising their design wasn’t suited for Spanish-style playing as its huge magnets cover the strings in the exact spot where the player needs access. Rickenbacker’s competitors, companies like Gibson and Vega, initially copied the horseshoe concept but quickly abandoned the idea and moved on to designs that sat under the stings, out of the way.” 

• How Rickenbacker evolved into one of the most iconic guitar brands in music history

1. Horseshoe

“The horseshoe pickup definitely held up Rickenbacker’s progress in the electric-Spanish field, but they were having such success with their lap steels they probably weren’t too bothered. The horseshoe is incredible for steel playing; it has one of the best tones you could ever hope for in that regard. 

“For a long time – during [co-founder] Adolph Rickenbacher’s reign – Rickenbacker weren’t equipped to build their own electric Spanish guitars; bodies and necks were outsourced from National and Kay. So, it wasn’t in their culture to design an electric guitar completely from the ground up. 

“However, when F.C. Hall bought the company in 1953, he inherited a ton of horseshoe pickups, so it was only logical that he designed guitars to carry those. The first horseshoe solidbody Rickenbackers from that period – the model 600 and model 800 – came out in 1954. It wasn’t until 1956 that Rickenbacker introduced a guitar without the horseshoe.”

2. DeArmond

“Rickenbacker were major players in the lap-steel market, which was huge back then, but, during the 30s and 40s, it was Epiphone and Gibson who were really pushing the design of the electric guitar forward. So, Rickenbacker sort of fell behind. 

“The first Rick models with conventional single-coil units came in 1956 with the arrival of the 400 series ‘tulip’ guitars. The early tulips also used a radical design for the time, which featured a neck-through-body with wings literally bolted on to the sides. 

“F.C. Hall had the pickup made by DeArmond (Rowe Industries). It didn’t have a model name as far as I know, and I’ve never seen it on another guitar. It’s pretty rare and only appeared for about a year or so between 1956 and 1957. In mid ’57, F.C. decided to design his own pickup that sat under the strings which is when the famous ‘toaster’ was developed.”  

3. Toaster

“The single coil ’toaster’ pickup was introduced in September ’57 and would soon become a Rickenbacker classic. It’s called a ‘toaster’ because it looks like the top of an old-fashioned chrome toaster viewed from above. 

“Compared to other pickups it has a fairly low output, but it has that particular chime and jangle we know Rickenbacker for today. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but it gave Rickenbacker instruments their unique, inherent sound.  

“The toaster appeared on the tulip guitars first of all in ’57: the [single pickup] model 400 and twin pickup model 450. Then, during ’58, F.C. introduced the Roger Rossmeisl-designed Capri range and, from that point onwards, toasters became standard on everything aside from basses and steel guitars. 

“The horseshoe suited basses well because it gave a trebly sound players really liked. Nevertheless, Rickenbacker replaced it in ’68 with a new Hi-gain unit with a plastic cover to imitate the original magnets.”

4. Hi-Gain

“By the late 60s, rock music was getting heavier, and musicians were demanding something else out of their guitars. Rickenbacker realised this and came out with the Hi-gain pickup. It is essentially the same pickup as the toaster, but with increased winding and exposed adjustable polepieces. 

“The Hi-gain pickups were introduced on Rickenbacker guitars in early ’69  and they’re definitely a lot more versatile. They’ve got a fuller, bassier tone, but you can still get the classic Rickenbacker chime out of them. Peter Buck, Johnny Marr and Guy Picciotto [Fugazi] have put them to good use over the years.  

“The Hi-gain is fitted to most standard Rickenbacker models today, but their vintage-style guitars feature toasters. In ’73, John Hall developed a Rickenbacker humbucker that has a great tone but aside from rare exceptions those were only really seen on the bass-shaped 481 guitar.” 

• Rickenbacker Guitars: Out Of The Frying Pan Into The Fireglo by Martin Kelly is available to pre-order now via Phantom Books.

Phantom Books is set to publish a new in-depth history of Rickenbacker Guitars, Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fireglo, on November 29. 

The book examines how the 90-year-old brand – a relative underdog to the Gibsons and Fenders of the world – has endured and created a cultural impact that has punches well above its weight. 

Included within its 336 pages are new interviews with iconic players and fans including Roger McGuinn, Mike Campbell, Johnny Marr, Peter Buck, Paul Weller, Susanna Hoffs and Geddy Lee. 

Appropriately, given Rickenbackers were instantly associated with the Beatles following their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, the book’s authors Martin and Paul Kelly also report they’ve managed to track down and photograph all of the seven surviving Rickenbackers owned by the Fab Four. 

Beyond The Beatles, Rickies have been seen in the hands of Rush, Motörhead, The Jam, Fugazi, The Byrds, Creedence Clearwater Revival, R.E.M, The Stone Roses, The Who and Yes.

“The book details the fascinating story of how the electric guitar was created and developed in California during the early 1930s by George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker,” says publisher Phantom. 

“And how, via unsung German born luthier Roger Rossmeisl, the company's designs developed into some of the most iconic musical instruments ever made.”

Alongside the wider release, there is a Super Deluxe edition, which is limited to just 800 copies. That features a textured hardback cover, and a 160-page book of “impossibly rare” Rickenbacker catalog reprints, alongside three posters. 

Rickenbacker Guitars - Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fireglo is published November 29 for $47. The Super Deluxe two-volume set is priced at $235. Head to Phantom Books to preorder a copy.

Some 90 years ago, guitarist George Beauchamp (pronounced ‘BEE-chum’) invented the world’s first commercially viable electric guitar, which – along with its ‘horseshoe’ pickup – sparked a revolution in guitar design and sounds. 

With his fellow National String Instrument Corporation associates Paul Barth and Adolph Rickenbacher, George promptly formed the Ro-Pat-In company in order to take his new invention to market with a focus on electric Spanish guitars and lap steels. It was soon to become known as the Electro String Instrument Corporation, and the firm eventually settled on the more familiar Rickenbacker name (an anglicised version of Adolph Rickenbacher’s Swiss surname). 

Since then, Rickenbacker has remained one of the most important brands in pop culture and, to this day, continues to build some of the world’s finest electric guitars at its California base.

“A lot of people think Rickenbacker started out with lap steels only, but they actually brought both electric Spanish and lap steels out at the same time,” begins Martin Kelly. “I think there’s a bit of a misunderstanding that the lap steel was where they began. In truth, they knew that the application for electric Spanish guitars was there from the outset.”

With his definitive new book chronicling Rickenbacker’s 90 years of innovation set for release later this year, Martin’s painstaking research has taken him across the globe in search of answers. Today, however, we are the ones in need of answers as we stand agog at the incredible collection of vintage Rickys that Martin and his brother, photographer and filmmaker Paul Kelly, have kindly brought along to the Guitarist studios to share with us all.

So, how did the idea for the horseshoe pickup originally come about? 

“To cut a long story short, George was desperate to make guitars louder,” Martin tells us. “In the 1920s, him and John Dopyera came up with the resonator guitar. You know how really old record players use a needle, a diaphragm and a horn? Well, George thought about putting a diaphragm under the bridge and that’s how him and John Dopyera came up with the [National] resonator design. 

“Later, he turned to the record player principle again, but this time it was electric. He realised that electric record players had two pickup coils either side of the needle and used this principle, replacing the needle with a guitar string. That was the basis for the first electric guitar pickup, and he used horseshoe-shaped magnets to strengthen the signal.

“The pickup on this [1933 Electro Spanish, right] has six flush polepieces, but they aren’t magnetised; they’re just ferrous metal slugs. A couple of years later, George magnetised the polepieces, which increased the power of the pickup. Bodies and necks were outsourced. This Electro Spanish has a Harmony body onto which they simply mounted the pickup enabling the guitarist to be heard. George did some other pickup designs, including one where the magnets face in a different direction. He genuinely is the father of the electric guitar!”

While George Beauchamp was trying to get a patent issued for the pickup, its radical design was being ruthlessly copied by several other manufacturers. 

“Rival makers quickly adopted George’s design with pickups that were more or less exact copies.” says Martin. “For a while, people must have presumed Rickenbacker were supplying Vega and other brands with pickups, but they weren’t. Competitors simply thought, ‘That’s a good idea – we should make these, too.’ And because the patent hadn’t cleared, no-one could stop them. This went on for years, and there were two main reasons why the patent application wouldn’t clear. Firstly, the patent office couldn’t decide if it was a musical instrument or an electrical appliance. 

At the time, it was so radical there was no precedent set that these two things could actually be one and the same. It was a case of: is it an electrical appliance or a musical instrument? So it was going back and forth between departments and, in the meantime, everyone was copying the idea. The other reason was that they just didn’t believe it could work. In the end, Adolph Rickenbacher sent [Hawaiian musician] Sol Ho‘opi‘i to the patent office to perform in person. That was enough to finally swing it.”

Beauchamp’s patent eventually cleared in 1937. By that stage, however, electric Spanish guitars had become widespread with major manufacturers such as Gibson getting in on the action, notably with its landmark ES-150 design. 

“The Gibson ES-150 came along in 1936 and was mass produced. The first Rickenbackers came earlier and were also mass-produced, albeit on a much smaller scale,” points out Martin. “But as Adolph [Rickenbacher] later stated, ‘Once everyone else started making electric guitars, everyone started buying them.’ So it was good – everybody was making them, and they were becoming more popular. The very first [electric Spanish] guitar Rickenbacker made had a 17-fret neck join, which was very unusual at the time. It was made in 1932 for a guy called Gage Brewer.

“At the same time, tenor guitars were being pushed in an effort to convert banjo players to the guitar. The banjo was so popular back then that the tenor was seen as a stepping stone towards the guitar. That’s why the tenor became a thing for a while, but it was more of a fad, really. This 1935 Bakelite Electro Tenor Guitar [see previous page] has chromed steel covers over the hollowed chambers made to alleviate the weight, and the neck is bolt-on. 

“Rickenbacker promised customers if the frets wore out, you could send in the old neck and get a replacement. I don’t think there’s any question Leo Fender would have taken that onboard as his electric Spanish guitars evolved from the lap steels he was building. It’s all part of the history as these designs continue to converge.”

Lap steels played a significant part in the development of the electric guitar early on and remained popular well into the 1950s.

“Lap steels were a big part of Rickenbacker’s bread and butter, even when FC Hall bought the business in December 1953,” explains Martin. “The [modern] Rickenbacker logo came in as soon as FC bought the company, and I think it may have been a Bob Perine design. He certainly did a series of ads for Rickenbacker during the mid-50s prior to being poached by Fender. After his important association with Fender, FC definitely wanted his own stake in the growing electric guitar market.

“The first modern Rickenbacker electric guitars – the Combo 600 and Combo 800 – were introduced by FC Hall in 1954. He went to an industrial designer to come up with the shape and design, and [guitar designer/builder] Roger Rossmeisl refined it. The very first drawings – which I found in the company archive – were by someone else, but Roger definitely adapted and changed the design. 

“Several of his traits are clearly evident in the early Combos. The original drawings had different headstock shapes, and Roger came up with this sweeping design. It’s the same kind of thing you see on his earlier guitars – these fluid lines. 

“FC inherited a ton of the old pickups from Adolph and I’m sure he thought, ‘That’s great – I’ve got loads of pickups, so I don’t have to make any.’ So, for years, the guitars had this inherent flaw where you couldn’t palm-mute the strings as the magnets sit right in the way. But the guitar does sound good! It’s bright and it has that inherent Rickenbacker chime to it already.”

Emigrating from Germany to work for Gibson in the early 50s, Roger Rossmeisl spent a short time at the Kalamazoo factory in Michigan before departing for the sunnier climes of California and a job with FC Hall. He was also famed for his later Fender designs – notably the Telecaster Thinline, Coronado, and LTD models – but his influence at Rickenbacker cannot be overstated. 

“You can see the first Combos have got a bit of Gibson in them with that top, but it’s actually a German carve, which is Roger Rossmeisl’s handiwork,” says Martin. “The Combo 600 and Combo 800 look similar, but the 800 has two toggle switches that operate two pickups, which sit side by side under the horseshoe magnets. The 600 has one pickup and one toggle switch.”

The next major phase in Ricky evolution began in ’56 with the introduction of the Combo 400 and the ‘tulip’ body shape (named in reference to the guitar’s petal-like outward-curving cutaways). By ’58, this design had morphed into the sharper inward-curving dual-cutaway style of the Capri range, while Rossmeisl’s hooked bass horn ‘cresting wave’ body shape debuted the same year with the 425 and 450 models.

“The real breakthrough with the tulip guitars was the neck-through-body design; it had never been done before,” says Martin. “That was a completely original concept that offered improved sustain when it appeared in ’56. The ‘toaster’ pickup came in during ’57 and ushered in that defining Rickenbacker chime. It looks like a humbucker, but it’s actually a single coil. I think the parallel lines are just there to make it look posh. But that’s what gives it its ’toaster’ nickname.

“So the tulip shape slowly evolved into the Capri – a new range introduced during ’58. Roger Rossmeisl made a prototype with a carved top. FC loved the design and loaned it to an LA group, which led to it being named the Polynesian. Though FC was decidedly pleased with the design, he wanted a guitar that was simpler to build without a carved top. So the next Capri Roger built had a completely flat top and that guitar – the very one – ended up becoming John Lennon’s.

“By complete fluke, the first 325 Capri ever made ended up being shipped to Germany where a young John Lennon picked it up in 1960. Which is amazing when you think about it because it’s probably a major factor as to why Rickenbacker remains so popular to this day. The serial number of Lennon’s first 325 is V81. ‘V’ is because it had a vibrato, and it’s believed the carved top one was V80.”

With The Fabs endorsing its guitars, the firm’s fortunes were set to change forever. 

“The Beatles were the spark,” confirms Martin. “Suddenly, you’ve got all these British bands in the US like The Hollies, Herman’s Hermits, The Zombies and The Animals turning up on American TV shows playing Rickenbackers, and all these kids are going, ‘That’s a cool guitar!’ So many people I’ve interviewed told me, ‘I didn’t know it was an American guitar.’ The British Invasion introduced this American brand to America, a bit like how The Stones did with the blues. Like it had to go to Britain to be made popular. 

“Pete Townshend took it somewhere else. He really played the hell out of his Rose Morris six- and 12-string models. If you get a 12-string, you can play pick-y stuff like [Roger] McGuinn, but if you hit it hard, you can really get the sound of those early Who records. Pete often played a 1993 with flat-wounds, and he hammered the fuck out of it. 

“It’s such a great sound and similar to how [Paul] Weller played Rickenbackers. Guy Picciotto from Fugazi is the same – he’s very heavy-handed with it. If you think of those three guitarists – Townshend, Weller and Picciotto – they all play in a harder style. Rickenbackers have a delicate feel to them, but they’re pretty tough. Especially the way they’re built now.

“Rickenbackers are beautifully made. I think they’ve got a great aesthetic, which really sets them apart. They’ve got an iconic look and there aren’t many brands who can boast that. Fender, Gibson, Gretsch and Rickenbacker really are the top four. In terms of what was designed in the first 20 years of the electric guitar, Rickenbacker are squarely in the pantheon. That’s why Roger Rossmeisl is so important. To date, he’s gone relatively unrecognised, although it seems more people have become aware of him within the last few years. In many ways, he was Rickenbacker.”

• Martin & Paul Kelly’s new book, Rickenbacker Guitars 1931-1999: Out Of The Frying Pan Into The Fireglo, is due for release in October via Phantom Books.

Choosing the best bass guitar for metal can be a tricky process. After all, with so many different variations within the genre, it can be difficult to home in on the perfect bass for your needs. What works for old-school thrash won’t necessarily suit downtuned progressive technical styles, and vice versa.

But today is your lucky day! We've drawn on our years of experience to provide you with the knowledge, tips, and advice you need to find the best bass for every metal genre. Also, we’ve rounded up eight great examples of bass guitars for metal, including some true legends of the genre from brands like Rickenbacker, Warwick and Ibanez, with a keen eye on finding the best value and tonality suitable for heavy styles.

There are certainly basses out there that are chameleon-like, blending seamlessly into various genres. The Ibanez SR305E is one such bass, easy to recommend for its simple, straightforward design. It combines great construction and build quality with a wide range of highly usable metal tones – all at a very sensible price.

If you’re after specific advice, head down to our FAQs section, where we explain some of the common conundrums and typical headscratchers for metal bassists. 

Our top picks

Best overall

Schecter is a brand with huge appeal to metal musicians, thanks to it finding that perfect balance between edgy aesthetics, great tones, and extremely reasonable prices across the range. 

The Schecter Stiletto Stealth, which comes in four and five-string versions, features a lightweight basswood body with a neat satin finish that looks and feels superb. If you're playing more extreme forms of metal then we'd highly recommend getting the five-string version so you can keep up with your guitarists' ultra-low tunings. 

Tonally there’s scope for versatility thanks to the combination of an active humbucker and split single coil, while the onboard EQ controls will ensure your sound cuts through in a full band environment. 

Although the offset body might not be to everyone’s taste, the Schecter Stiletto Stealth delivers fantastic value for money. If you can get past the body shape, its features make it one of the best options on our list.

Best budget

While many of the entries in this guide are towards the upper side of the price scale, there’s still great value to be found nearer the entry/mid-range. The Ibanez SR305E, for example, is a lean, stripped-down five-string bass that would be perfect for technical styles of metal. 

The wood grain on the weathered black finish is stunning and gives the impression of a bass which means business. The two PowerSpan Dual humbuckers ensure there’s enough tonality to stand out, while the traditional thin Ibanez neck means this is as playable as it is attractive. 

For us, this is arguably the perfect ‘next’ bass for someone early on in their metal-playing career and would make a great studio bass for guitarists to have on hand as well.

Best versatility

Not all metal basses have to be spiky and black! The Fender Player II Precision Bass is a phenomenal all-rounder, and has found use in bands like Metallica, Black Sabbath, Gojira, and many more - not a bad list of metal bands.

The newest update for the Fender's most popular line of instruments sees the welcome return of the Rosewood fingerboard, as well as some additions from the Player Plus line. That means you get rolled fingerboard edges for extra comfort.

You might be forgiven for thinking the P-Bass' split single coil wouldn't have enough heft for metal but trust us, this thing really growls. It's got plenty of low-end heft that will help underpin those heavy riffs, and best of all you can use it on a variety of styles, not just metal.

Best under $1,000

Not everyone who plays in a metal band wants their bass to look like something out of a horror movie. The Warwick Rockbass Corvette might look if we’re being brutally honest, quite plain, but once you start playing it, you’ll be left with no doubt that this is a perfect bass for metal. 

The alder body keeps it lightweight and comfortable, yet when combined with the active MEC J/J humbuckers, the Corvette packs a serious punch. While the German-made Warwick models can cost thousands, these Chinese-made versions still maintain that incredible build quality and attention to detail yet can be picked up for a much less wallet-straining amount. 

Although the Rockbass Corvette may not appeal to the aesthetic ethos of your average black metal bassist, it’s an all-around brilliant value-for-money bass. Highly recommended.

Best high-end

One from leftfield, perhaps, but the Rickenbacker 4003 is definitely worth your attention as a bass for metal. After all, if it’s good enough for Lemmy, it’s surely good enough for you. 

Essentially what you get is a maple body with maple neck-thru construction, which gives it bags of natural sustain while the two single coil pickups and tone-shaping features give it plenty in the way of versatility. 

Realistically, with its single coil pickups and slightly shorter scale length, you’re not going to see too many users dropping the tuning past C and getting great results but for stoner, sludge and other slower styles – with a fuzz pedal in the chain - there’s a lot to love here. 

Best extreme

If you’re into death, black, grindcore or slam (you get the picture), then the ESP LTD F-4 is the best bet for you. This gnarly-looking bass has all the jagged edges you need to make you look the meanest bassist out there. Unlike similar designs that verge on garish, the F-4 remains sleek and sophisticated.

It’s a pretty simple layout, as the meaty Fishman Fluence SB-1 is controlled by a solitary volume control. Although it’s a push-pull pot, splitting the pickup into a single coil for more versatility than you’d expect from a bass like this. The neck-thru-body construction offers plenty of sustain and the long 35” scale length allows for some brutal downtuning. 

The neck is incredibly slim, allowing you to zip up and down at speed, and the hardware is top-notch, with stainless steel frets, Grover tuners, and a Gotoh bridge, making this bass ideal for extreme metal.

More options...

If there’s one thing Ibanez can claim, it’s that it knows how to make instruments designed for metal music. The Ibanez BTB745 is a curious-looking bass, all extended horns and different tonewoods, with an attractive maple and walnut neck-thru design which will ensure killer sustain and rigidity. 

The two Bartolini active humbuckers ensure the BTB745 can dish out some serious weight with its tone, and there are some nice small touches like the locking input jack connector. However, talking about weight, this thing is not feather-weight, it’s quite a lump, so make sure you pick up a comfortable strap along the way. 

Overall, this is a big, bold bass which we can see being popular with technical metal bands and artists on account of its tonal versatility and glorious neck.

Metal isn’t a new thing. Far from it. In the 1970s and ’80s, there were bands doing things to heavy music that, at the time, seemed unfathomable. One of the leading guitar brands of the era was Charvel, which recently underwent a revival and brought with it a sweet collection of vintage metal-themed guitars and basses. 

The Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas is a great example of this, and we can see it providing the hefty backbone to many galloping riffs. 

The rather garish color options give you a hint of the players who’d look to a Charvel; this is a bass designed to stand out, so you’ll need a touch of flamboyance in your repertoire. Special mention to the caramelized maple neck and fingerboard too, which make a nice change from the usual maple and rosewood offerings.  

When you’re looking at mid-range, mid-priced guitars, you’re looking for a touch of versatility. Decent build and great tones are useful, of course, but around this price bracket, you tend to find guitars and basses that will cover a lot of ground. The ESP LTD B204 fits the bill perfectly here. 

While it is, clearly, geared towards metal thanks to its active humbuckers and lithe, playable neck, this is also a bass that can capably step into other genres when required.

Judged purely on its metal credentials, the B-204 is a superb bass, especially for the money. We’d have liked LTD to offer something a bit more eye-catching from its finishes, but overall, there’s a lot to like here.

FAQs

How to choose the best bass for metal

Regardless which genre or style of music you play, bass and drums provide the backbone upon which everything else is built, and metal is no different. Often, however, bass players in metal bands face the tricky situation of fighting over the low-end frequencies. For many - arguably most - bands in this world, the style dictates guitars being downtuned ever further which can make it easy for the guttural heft of a bass to get lost among the noise. It makes sense, therefore, to arm yourself with a bass guitar which can stand out. 

Most of the best basses for metal we’ve chosen feature on-board electronics which help boost your tone before it reaches the amplifier, thanks to extra EQ controls on the bass itself. Active pickups work by including a pre-amp, powered by a 9v battery, which gives you much more tonal flexibility, both when playing at higher volumes and at lower tunings. And, speaking of downtuning, we’ve also included a couple of models which offer five strings instead of the usual four. This extra lower string means you can comfortably reach those lower tunings without sacrificing string tension, making the bass relatively easier to play. 

With some styles of metal requiring almost superhuman levels of dexterity and precision from the player, we’ve opted for comfort and ergonomics. While bass guitars are inherently large and sometimes cumbersome, the metal basses we’ve chosen favor comfort and give the player a platform for speed. Much as certain guitar brands are famed for their lithe, playable necks, so too the bass equivalents feature certain characteristics designed to support certain playing styles.

How we test

When testing a bass guitar for metal, we'll take a very similar approach to that of any regular bass guitar. There will be some extra steps to ensure its right for the genre of course, but most bass guitars can do a usable metal tone as the instrument itself is so versatile.

First up we'll be looking at the build quality of the instrument in question. This means inspecting each component of the guitar in detail, from the body composition, the neck and fretboard quality, to the way the electronics have been installed.

This lets us know that due care has been paid when putting it together, as well as providing a base for our review by allowing us to to see how the various features make it a whole.

Next we'll start to actually play it, testing the neck and fretboard feel with a variety of riffs, licks, and chords. With it being a bass we'll try various bass-specific techniques too, like slap bass and the various muting techniques associated with bass. 

Then we'll focus on the sound of the instrument. Plugging it into our favorite bass amp, as well as trying it with DI pedals and amp modelers too. This gives us a great overview of the vast majority of ways the end user will play it, allowing us to generate a complete picture of its tonality.

We'll try various effects pedals too to see how it reacts to those, whether its an octave effect or a chorus pedal. Again, this allows us to judge how it will react in the real world, as most players will use some kind of effects pedals in their rigs.

We'll also spend at least two weeks with the instrument, getting to know it really well so we can get over the honeymoon period of a new guitar. This allows us to make those criticisms that will only be noticeable when you've played it for some time.

Read more about our rating system, how we choose the gear we feature, and exactly how we test each product.

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Rickenbacker is set to celebrate its 90th anniversary in style with the imminent arrival of two new limited-edition models – the six-string 480XC electric guitar and four-string 4005XC bass guitar.

Boasting a number of classic Rickenbacker stylistic appointments, the new models look to breath new life into old gems and combine the features of a few familiar favorites.

While official details are yet to be released – aside from a single Instagram post that announced the models – a number of retailers are already listing the new guitars, along with a handful of initial specs.

Details are slim, but here is all we know so far about what to expect from the 90th anniversary guitars.

Rickenbacker 480XC

First up is a modern re-imagining of the discontinued Rickenbacker Model 480, in the form of the all-new 480XC. 

Available in ornate Tobacco Glo or Jet Glo finishes, the 480XC sports the classic checkerboard binding that traverses the edge of the solid maple body. Maple is also used for the neck, which is paired with a Macassar ebony fretboard that boasts crushed pearl inlays.

A black pickguard and black hardware adorns the guitar, which also sports a Schaller bridge as opposed to the covered bridge that was used on the original Model 480.

A further deviation from the original is the appearance of two Hot Toaster pickups, which are sure to deliver the tasty twangs and hot Rickenbacker jangles that we all know and love.

Rickenbacker 4005XC

For its four-string offering, Rickenbacker has combined the functionalities of a 4005 hollow-body bass with the oh-so-pointy body shape of Rickenbacker's 300 series models.

The result is the 40005XC bass – a 30.5" scale length model that sports either an Amber FireGlo or JetGlo finish, as well as the checkerboard binding and crushed pearl inlays seen on the aforementioned 480XC. 

Composed of a maple body, three-piece maple neck and ebony fretboard, the new model also comes equipped with a pair of vintage-voiced pickups that are – if retailers are correct – wired to both mono and stereo output sockets.

If this is the case, we can expect to see individual outputs for each pickup when the model is released later this year.

As previously stated, no official details or release date has been announced by Rickenbacker, so we will keep our eyes peeled and let you know when we hear more about these stunning celebratory offerings.

When Crown Lands guitarist Kevin Comeau was 14, he was a budding punk bassist with “spiky blue hair” who worshipped Green Day and the Clash. 

Unfortunately, his parents were absolutely fine with his rebellious music. So he did the most punk thing he could think of at the time: he dove headfirst into progressive rock.

“At the height of my punk-rock rebellion I discovered my parents’ least-favorite band of all time was Rush, [so] I downloaded A Farewell to Kings,” he says with a laugh.

“I remember listening to ‘Xanadu’ for the first time and hearing the birds chirping in the background. I think that’s the first time I discovered what a synthesizer was. Geddy [Lee’s] bass playing is so good, and Alex [Lifeson’s] solo at the end. It changed my life, man.”

From the look and sound of Crown Lands, it’s clear the life change has stuck. The young Canadian duo, which also features singer/drummer Cody Bowles, exudes Seventies hard-rock swagger: from lion’s mane hair and vintage clothes to speaker-rattling blues riffs, progressive psyche vibes and tricked-out rigs. 

The exciting sonic blend, which they’ve explored on two ear-catching EPs (2016’s Mantra and 2017’s Rise Over Run), has already earned Crown Lands some high-profile fans: Jack White, Primus and Rival Sons have all invited the rising band to open for them on tour.

Now Crown Lands are about to take things to the next level with the release of their self-titled debut full-length for Universal Canada. The album, which they recorded with Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb (Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton), is a sweeping affair filled with soaring vocals, searing riffs, dynamics galore and 12-string lushness that evokes their idols like Led Zeppelin, Rush and Genesis. 

But instead of some hazy, smoked-out retro act rehashing far-out fantasy topics, the pair brings a fresh perspective to the genre by exploring some weighty subject matter that’s rooted in their own community.

Bowles' heritage is half Mi’kmaq, an indigenous tribe from Nova Scotia, and their band name references the “crown land” that belongs to the monarchy and on which Canada’s indigenous reservations are located.

The duo is committed to raising awareness about the marginalization of its country’s First Nations people on songs such as End Of The Road, a heavy cut about a highway in British Columbia where many indigenous women have been killed.

“Highway 16 is called the Highway of Tears because, like, hundreds of indigenous women have gone missing,” Comeau explains. “There was even a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women. And when the inquiry came back, it stated that this epidemic is a genocide.”

“We’re not politicians. We’re artists,” he continues. “But we know what’s right and what’s wrong. So we’re trying to have signposts out for people, like, ‘Hey, this is happening.’”

Thanks to their infectious sound and kinetic live show, Crown Lands are on track to spread their message to a lot more people across the globe. On the eve of their debut album’s release, and first European tour supporting roots-rock act Larkin Poe, we caught up with Comeau for a chat about learning basslines from Les Claypool, playing space jams for hardcore kids, how Crown Lands stands out from the retro-rock pack and more.

You started playing bass first. What led you to guitar?

“My dad is a big folkie and has an old Martin D-35 that he would bang on when I was a kid. That had a huge influence on me. He was big into John Prine, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. He had this great intricate fingerstyle playing… and I pretty much barely use a pick now. But I didn’t start playing guitar seriously until Crown Lands, because I needed to play guitar more than I needed to play bass!”

As a duo, you have to cover a lot of ground, between guitar, bass, keys. Were there any players you looked to for inspiration?

“Mike Rutherford from Genesis is such a great musician: he’s playing bass pedal synth, 12-string, bass guitar… and that’s kind of the role I’ve adopted in the band. I’ve got a couple of custom [Boisclair] double-necks that are a 12-string and a bass. I’ve also got a big stupid keyboard rig that I play with my feet to do all of the bass lines and counterpoint live.

“When we founded Crown Lands we had two rules: no click, no backing tracks. We have so much respect for these top-tier musicians growing up, like Rush – the work ethic they had and the respect they had for their audience. That’s what we prioritize with our live show as well: we want to push the limit of what two people can do.”

Crown Lands hail from Oshawa, right outside of Toronto. What was it like coming up there?

“There’s a really big swampy blues scene and heavy-metal scene, and we showed up playing classic rock and prog rock. So we kinda didn’t fit in anywhere, but we were embraced. We were playing 20-minute instrumental songs about space whales at, like, a hardcore punk show. [Laughs] And people still liked it!”

Your full-length album hasn’t even hit yet, but you’ve already opened for some big names, like Primus and Jack White. How surreal was that?

“Oh yeah, we’re playing the set and look over and Jack’s standing there… Your hero is watching you play, so you better not mess up! [Laughs] But Jack is such a sweet guy, he’s funny as hell and one of the coolest guys around, like, what he’s done for music and what he’s doing with Third Man Records.”

As a bassist, getting to watch Les Claypool every night was probably wild. Did you pick up any tips?

“Primus was a huge influence, and I got really big into his first solo project, Les Claypool’s Flying Frog Brigade. After a few shows we got on their good side and got to hang out on his bus. 

“We were just shooting the shit, jamming and trading off bass licks. And I was like, 'Oh man, can you teach me how to play Buzzards Of Greenhill?' And he picks up the bass and shows me. It was amazing… 

“But the biggest thing we learned from Primus was improvisation. They played a different set every night. We thought we had to rigidize what we did onstage and rehearse it to rote… But we [now] realize the best show is something that’s different every night so it doesn’t get stale.”

You and Cody do tackle some pretty serious subject matter on Crown Lands. End Of The Road in particular really is incredibly evocative, both lyrically and musically. The actual solo I felt was genuinely moving.

“That song is about a whole generation of people being wiped out. It’s a tribute for these women that haven’t had justice served to them. That’s a special song. I’m really proud of that one. And the fact that I’m playing the [1982] blonde Strat, which was my uncle’s, who gave it to my dad, who gave it to me. The solo on End Of The Road is just raw emotion for sure. 

“It was powerful because we were trying to get the tone, and I was like, 'I’ve got to get it like David Gilmour,' and it just wasn’t feeling right. And I said, fuck it. I’m just gonna play it like me. So I just plugged into my old [Boss] CE-2 [chorus] and my tape echo, and was like, Yep, that’s the sound.”

You throw in wailing slide licks on tracks like “Howling Back.” What slide players most inspire you?

“Oh man. Duane Allman. I remember when I heard Live at Fillmore East, the fluidity that he uses is incredible. He plays in open E; I play open D most of the time. 

“His playing is why I use a glass slide, and why I favor SGs for slide as well. I also play in open C… I got that from this incredible Australian fingerstyle player, John Butler. David Lindley’s slide playing was also a huge influence. Mike Campbell was big; [Tom Petty’s] Full Moon Fever was a huge record for me.”

There’s a resurgence of retro-minded guitar acts catching on lately. How do you see Crown Lands fitting in with bands like Rival Sons and Greta Van Fleet?

“We owe so much of the support and success we’re getting to bands like Rival Sons. They’ve opened up those doors for us. We love playing rock music… but we don’t want to be known as [in a gruff stadium-announcer voice] 'Crown Lands, the rock duo!' We’re kind of understated, fairly feminine dudes, so we want to be a bit more fluid with the way we express our music. 

"We have dynamics. We have a softer side we’re not afraid to embrace, and we have a weirder side. We’re trying to bring a world-beat and jazzy, proggy influence into this… You just have to own it – you honor your influences, but you have to find a way to do something different.”

• Crown Lands' self-titled album is available to pre-order, and out August 21 via Universal.

John Lennon wrote a typically oddball piece for Mersey Beat magazine in 1961 titled ‘Being A Short Diversion On The Dubious Origins Of Beatles’. He said that three boys called John, George and Paul got together. “When they were together,” he wrote, “they wondered what for after all, what for? So all of a sudden they grew guitars and fashioned a noise.”

In fact, the fledgling Beatles were like most young bands starting out. They had no money to buy good instruments and managed with anything they could get their hands on. John had a Gallotone Champion flat-top, then an electric Hofner Club 40. George Harrison moved from an Egmond/Rosetti acoustic to a Hofner President, then his own Club 40, followed by a Futurama.

Paul McCartney played a Zenith Model 17 acoustic, then a Rosetti Solid 7 electric. For their first gigs in Hamburg, Paul (still a guitarist) took the Solid 7, John his Club 40, George the Futurama, and Stu Sutcliffe a Hofner 500/5 bass. None of these were great guitars – those came later. And, fortunately, the Hamburg audience required nothing much more than a noise to drink to. 

George was later asked about his early guitar days. “I started to learn to play when I was 13 on an old Spanish model my dad picked up for 50 bob,” he explained. “It’s funny how little things can change your life. Don’t ask me why he chose a guitar instead of a mouth organ or something – they certainly weren’t popular at the time.”

• The inside story of The Beatles' turbulent break-up - and what came next

John & Rickenbacker

John Lennon was the first Beatle to get a real American guitar, at a time when a restriction on imports of US instruments to Britain had only just been lifted. In 1960, during a working visit to Hamburg, he got a Rickenbacker 325 in Mapleglo (natural) finish to replace his Club 40. 

He told an interviewer at the time that his semi-solid three‑pickup short-scale ’58 325 – which evidently had been on the shop wall for some time – was “the most beautiful guitar”. It had the cooker knobs that Rickenbacker fitted at the time and it had a Kauffman vibrato, neither apparently to John’s liking. 

The knobs he replaced quickly with smaller Hofner types. The Kauffman he replaced with a better Bigsby unit. Later, he had the guitar refinished black. A gift from Rickenbacker provided a replacement for the road-weary original, a new Jetglo (black) 325 presented during The Beatles’ first American visit early in 1964. The new Rick arrived in time for the band’s second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. 

It remained his main guitar on stage and in the studio through 1964 and into 1965, and it’s the guitar most associated with John on stage with The Beatles. He had a couple of related models, too. 

Rose-Morris, which for a while distributed Rickenbackers in the UK, gave John a 325-like 1996 in Fireglo (red sunburst) to use briefly in late ’64 when he damaged his 325. Rickenbacker also gave him a one-off 325-style Jetglo 12-string in ’64, but he didn’t use it much.

• Where Are They Now?

Yoko Ono owns the ’58 and ’64 325s and the ’64 325/12. John gave the stopgap 1996 to Ringo, who auctioned it in 2015 for $910,000.

When He Was Fab

George Harrison bought his Futurama from Hessy’s Music Centre in Liverpool in the late 1950s and used it for the next few years until it was retired and replaced with a Gretsch Duo Jet in 1961. The guitar was initially given to the magazine Beat Instrumental as a competition prize, but, surprisingly, when the winner was drawn, he didn’t play guitar and opted to take a cash alternative.

The guitar spent the next few decades in the care of Beat Instrumental’s editor Sean Mahoney and was put up for auction at Bonhams in June 2019 but didn’t make its reserve price. Seven Decades’ Phil Hylander subsequently negotiated directly with Mahoney’s family and bought the guitar.

“If you look at pretty much any picture from that era, George is holding this guitar,” Phil tells us. “It was used on [one of] the very first Beatles recording[s], Cry For A Shadow, on the infamous Hamburg tapes. It’s stood up incredibly well, it was an incredibly well-made guitar. The manufacturers [Drevokov in Czechoslovakia] were classical instrument manufacturers and it’s quite over-engineered.”

Plans are afoot for the guitar to feature in a film detailing its recommissioning, culminating in it being played live. “In our minds, it would be at an amazing gig where Dhani Harrison plays it…,” says Phil.

For more information, see Seven Decades.

George & Gretsch

George Harrison’s opportunity to join John as the owner of a real American guitar came in 1961, when he heard about a ’57 Duo Jet that a merchant seaman had for sale in Liverpool. 

George snapped up the guitar to replace his Futurama. The Jet had two DynaSonic single coils, hump-block markers and arrow-through-G knobs, and it remained his favoured stage and studio guitar into 1962.

George was a big Chet Atkins fan and soon he indulged his Gretsch passion some more, buying a new Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman model in London in 1963. It was a ’62 model in Walnut (dark brown) finish and had a double-cut thinline hollow body with trestle bracing and fake f-holes, a pair of Filter’Trons, and a Bigsby vibrato.

A few weeks later, George used it to record She Loves You, but later in ’63 he acquired a replacement Gent after that first one was damaged. 

The main visual clue of the second Gent is its flip-up mute switches either side of the tailpiece, where the first had screw-down knobs. It’s possible the second Gent was refinished black, though maybe it just had a very dark version of the regular brown. Anyway, it was quickly George’s favourite and he used it regularly until it was destroyed in late ’65 when it fell from the band’s car and was run over by a truck. 

He’d acquired yet another Gretsch Chet model over the 1963/’64 new year, a single-cut Tennessean with two single-coil HiLo’Trons, which he used in the studio and for live shows in ’64 and particularly into ’65.

• Where Are They Now?

Olivia Harrison owns the ’57 Duo Jet. George gave Brian O’Hara of The Fourmost his ’62 Gent, present whereabouts unknown, and the ’63 Gent perished in 1965. The Tennessean was stolen in 1969 and hasn’t been seen since.

A Pair of Gibson Jumbos

George and John bought a virtually identical pair of guitars in 1962, the source of some confusion later as to which instrument belonged to which Beatle. 

They ordered a pair of Gibson J-160E electro flat-tops from the Rushworth’s music shop in Liverpool – which in turn had to make a special order, because this was not a model generally available in Britain through Gibson’s distributor, Selmer. 

The two Beatles chose the J-160Es to fill a gap in their instrumental setup. It was essentially a traditional round-soundhole acoustic but with a pickup and controls built in. 

They regularly used the pair of big Gibsons either unplugged as regular acoustic guitars for songwriting on the road and for studio work, or plugged in for an amplified approximation of an acoustic on stage or when recording. So similar were the guitars that inevitably they were swapped around. 

Late in 1963, the J-160E John Lennon was playing was stolen during the band’s Christmas concert residency in London. In fact, it was the one billed originally to George – so George and John in effect continued to use John’s. 

John picked up a new J-160E while on tour in the States later in 1964, and this one stayed with him for the rest of his life. He had it painted with a blue and lilac psychedelic pattern in 1967, stripped it to the wood the following year, and drew portraits of himself and Yoko on the front in 1969. George kept John’s original 160 for the rest of his life, too.

• Where Are They Now?

Yoko Ono owns John’s ’64 J-160E and Olivia Harrison owns what became George’s 160E. John’s long-lost ’62 model was sold at auction in 2015 for $2,410,000.

George & the Rick 12

The Beatles’ live TV performance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964 broke the band in the States in spectacular fashion. For George, though, the day before was just as important. Rickenbacker boss Francis Hall brought the band some new gear to check out. George ended up with a fabulous gift of a prototype Rick 360/12 (and John got that gleaming new-look version of his 325, too).

George waited until the band returned home to use his new toy, and the studio debut of his chiming 360/12 can be heard on the lively take of You Can’t Do That, recorded on 25 February, his 21st birthday. He started to use the 12-string – described by Melody Maker as “the beat boys’ secret weapon” – all over live and studio Beatle performances.

During the band’s third US tour, in 1965, he received a 360/12 in Rickenbacker’s new rounded-body style. He began using it rather than his original, as on the session for If I Needed Someone for Rubber Soul, the last Beatles track with electric 12, and on stage into ’66.

George once compared the Rick 12’s sound to an organ or electric piano, which makes sense when you hear some of the sounds he got from it on A Hard Day’s Night, notably its most famous studio moment within the opening chord of the album’s title song. “That sound,” George said much later, “you just associate with those early 60s Beatle records. The Rickenbacker 12-string sound is a sound on its own.”

• Where Are They Now?

Olivia Harrison owns the original ’63 360/12, but the ’65 model was stolen and remains lost.

A Pair of Epiphone Thinlines

Early in 1965, John played some new recordings to a Melody Maker reporter at Abbey Road. Suddenly, he said, “Hey, listen! Hear that playing by Paul?” It was probably during playback of Ticket To Ride or Another Girl. “Paul’s been doing quite a bit of lead guitar work this week,” John explained. “I reckon he’s moving in.”

Not content with his bass work at the lower end of Beatle cuts, Paul was taking more interest in guitar playing – and remember, he’d started in the band as a guitarist. 

At the end of 1964, Paul bought himself an Epiphone Casino, restrung and played “upside down” to accommodate his left-handed style. Gibson had owned Epiphone since the late 50s, and the new-for-1961 Casino model was based on Gibson’s hollowbody ES-330.

The year after Paul’s purchase, John and George each bought a Casino, too, and they used them on the sessions for Revolver, as did Paul. Paul’s ’62 model had the black knobs and Gibson-style headstock of the period, while John and George’s ’65 models had gold knobs and the later ‘flared’ Epi head.

George’s came with a Bigsby, John’s with the regular trapeze tailpiece. John and George played their Casinos during most of the band’s final live dates in 1966, including the very last Beatles concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco that August.

Later, both guitarists had the sunburst finish stripped from their Casinos to reveal the natural wood. George said later he thought it improved the sound of his guitar.

• Where Are They Now?

Paul owns his ’62 Casino, Olivia Harrison owns George’s ’65 model, and Yoko Ono owns John’s ’65.

Rhythm Makers – The Beatle Basses

Stu Sutcliffe was the first bass player in The Beatles, using a ’59 Hofner 500/5, but he left the band in 1961, and soon Paul switched to bass. Paul bought his first bass guitar in Hamburg in 1961. It was a left-handed Hofner 500/1, a type known since as a Beatle Bass or, for its shape, as a violin bass.

That ’61 Hofner saw him through the band’s early days, but in 1963 he bought a replacement, using the lefty ’63 500/1 on stage and in the studio throughout the glory years of The Beatles. The pickups provide the main visual clues to tell the two Hofners apart: the pickups of the ’61 bass are close together at the neck, while the ’63 bass has the pickups spaced conventionally at the neck and bridge. 

Paul was another beneficiary of Rickenbacker’s generosity, receiving a lefty 4001S bass from the company on a US tour in 1965, and he used it on many Beatle records. 

Originally, it had a red Fireglo finish, but Paul gave it some colourful additions in 1967. Later, he stripped it back to natural wood and reshaped the top horn. Paul used another gift, a lefty Fender Jazz Bass, on some of the later Beatle sessions.

• Where Are They Now?

Paul owns the ’63 Hofner bass, the 4001S, and the Jazz Bass, but the ’61 Hofner was stolen in 1969, and Stu’s 500/5 is owned by the Hard Rock Cafe.

A Pair of Blue Strats

Rubber Soul had many Beatle fans wondering about the new sounds contained in its grooves. Take that concise solo in Nowhere Man, where two unison guitars give way to one solitary pinging harmonic. A new Beatle sound, for sure! The source? A pair of Fender Stratocasters freshly added to the band’s guitar store. George and John decided around the end of ’64 to get a Strat each.

The story goes that they sent out Beatles roadie Mal Evans to find them and he returned with two Strats in Fender’s pale Sonic Blue finish. They were often used in the studio, while John played his at least once at the band’s Christmas ’64 concerts. And during rehearsals in late ’65, John briefly used a Strat in black finish with matching headstock.

In 1967, The Beatles decided to paint a few of their instruments in psychedelia-inspired colour schemes. Paul decorated his Rickenbacker bass. John had his J-160E painted blue and lilac and sprayed the back of his Casino silver.

George, meanwhile, took some paint and nail varnish and transformed his Strat into a personalised psychedelic artwork. That summer, his newly daubed Fender was just about visible – in glorious black-and-white – as the band performed All You Need Is Love for the Our World global satellite broadcast.

His psych Strat was more colourfully displayed in the I Am The Walrus sequence from the band’s TV film shown that Christmas, Magical Mystery Tour, with its central character of a dayglo-painted charabanc. Later, maybe in a fit of post-trip good taste, Paul and John had the paint stripped off the coloured guitars, down to the natural wood, but George’s Strat stayed steadfastly psychedelic.

• Where Are They Now?

John’s 60s Strat hasn’t been seen since, but Olivia Harrison owns George’s ’61 ‘Rocky’ Strat.

Forever Fab – Other Beatle Guitars

The Beatles acquired a number of other guitars beyond their main instruments, and we’ll consider a selection here. Paul got a Fender Esquire in the first few months of 1967, which he used briefly in the studio, notably on his solo on Good Morning, Good Morning from Sgt Pepper’s. 

He’d also picked up an Epiphone Texan flat-top in ’64, mainly to use live for Yesterday, but also as a songwriting tool – and he landed another nice acoustic, a Martin D-28, in ’68.

A few guitars were used by the band collectively, including a Framus Hootenanny 5/024 flat-top 12-string, picked up around the start of ’65, and a Fender VI, given to the band by Fender along with several other bits of gear in 1968.

John got a Martin D-28 at the same time Paul got his, and he came by a Gretsch 6120 in 1965, which he was photographed using briefly at Abbey Road. In 1969, he played a Hofner Hawaiian Standard lap-steel for the slide part on For You Blue.

George borrowed a Gretsch Jet Fire Bird early in ’63 while his Duo Jet was being repaired, and that same year bought a Rickenbacker 425 in the States while visiting his sister and used it for a few performances.

Another temporary replacement in ’63 for a guitar undergoing repairs was a Maton MS500. George also acquired a couple of useful acoustics: a Ramírez Guitarra de Estudio classical that he used in ’64 for And I Love Her, and a Gibson J-200 that he bought in America in ’68.

• Where Are They Now?

Paul owns his Texan and his D-28. The 6120 John used briefly was sold privately in 2015 for $530,000. The 425 George used briefly was sold at auction in 2014 for $657,000, and the Maton he used was sold at auction in 2018 for £280,000. George gave his J-200 to Bob Dylan (as seen on the cover of Nashville Skyline). The Esquire, Hawaiian Standard, Hootenanny, Jet Fire Bird, Ramírez, VI, and John’s D-28 have since gone AWOL.

George the Guitar Fan

George got his first Gibson with humbuckers in 1965, a luscious ES-345 that he used while miming in promo videos for Day Tripper, Help!, I Feel Fine, Ticket To Ride, and We Can Work It Out. He played it that December on what turned out to be the band’s final British tour.

The following year, George got an SG Standard, used at Abbey Road when sessions began in April 1966 for Revolver and played at an NME concert in London in May, which marked The Beatles’ final British concert appearance. George also used his SG in more videos to promote the Paperback Writer/Rain single in ’66 and Lady Madonna in ’68.

In 1968, Eric Clapton gave a Les Paul to George. It was a ’57 Goldtop refinished in Cherry, and George named it Lucy and used it on several White Album and Abbey Road cuts [and above in the video for Revolution]. He let Eric play it once more for the solo on While My Guitar Gently Weeps, making Eric the only non-Beatle to play a guitar solo on a Beatles record.

George’s final new Beatle guitar was a prototype Fender Rosewood Telecaster, made by Roger Rossmeisl, a gift from Fender that arrived at the band’s London Apple HQ in late ’68. George played it for the Apple rooftop concert on 30 January 1969 – The Beatles’ last ever public performance, seen in their Let It Be film.

• Where Are They Now?

George gave his SG to Badfinger’s Pete Ham, whose brother sold it at auction in 2004 for $567,500, and his Rosewood Tele to Delaney Bramlett, who auctioned it in 2003 for $434,750. Both are owned now by Olivia Harrison, who also owns George’s Les Paul. The 345’s whereabouts are unknown.

If you’re not familiar with the work of Al Cisneros, bassist with the stoner-rock band Sleep and the experimental act OM, we recommend that you head to YouTube without delay. 

If you’re not into heavy music, don’t let that put you off; bassists of all musical preferences will learn from his unique approach to the instrument. 

Formed primarily of droned figures and chords, played with a heavy fingerstyle anchored close to (or actually on) the neck, Cisneros’ method refers back to pioneers such as Geezer Butler while also being wholly his own.

We mention this because Cisneros’ new Rickenbacker 4003 is designed to fulfil the particular needs of his playing style. For example, had he been a pick player, attacking the strings down by the bridge, the massive bezels which cover the pickups would not have been included. 

As he plucks the strings by the neck, they’re present and correct. In addition, so much of Cisneros’ music is thematically or otherwise related to smoking weed that the neck inlays are green, and only 420 models are being made (4/20, get it?). Whether or not you personally ingest the stuff, you have to agree that it makes for a fascinating art direction.

So how does it play? And does it justify its immense price tag? Let’s plug in and find out...

Build Quality

At this price, there should be no build flaws in this passive, through-neck bass, and moreover, we expect to be impressed by the high quality of the components, judgmental hacks that we are.

Fortunately, this bass is a miracle of modern engineering from top to bottom, with real thought evidently put into every working element by Cisneros and Rickenbacker.

The specific innovations which Cisneros has asked Ricky to include begin with serious modifications such as the ‘newly re-engineered’ (their term, our quotes) tailpiece and bridge with adjustable saddles. 

As research into one or two bass forums reveals, more than a few Rickenbacker fans have wanted the 4003 bridge to feature adjustable saddles for some time, although there are a similar number of bassists for whom such modern fripperies are practically blasphemous. 

The body’s light oil finish, which is barely detectable under the fingers, will no doubt divide opinions, too.

Other changes include the use of two hot-wound treble pickups, as distinct from the 4003’s usual one bass, one treble pickup configuration, and a slight migration down the body (i.e. away from the neck) of the upper pickup.

Less radical stuff includes a signed pickguard, custom knobs, green inlays – which usually denote a stereo-output bass, although this one is mono – and a transparent thumb rest at the base of the neck.

The maple neck and fretboard are bound, too, the bass has Schaller open-gear elephant-ear tuners, and the truss rod can be adjusted for both up‑bow and back-bow. Otherwise, in terms of features, this is a standard, if highly souped-up, 4003W – with all the expectations of performance that Ricky fans should rightly demand.

Sounds And Playability

Traditionalists will not be disappointed. The Cisneros 4003 sounds almost comedically like a Rickenbacker if you leave the tone controls flat, with a scratchy, percussive start to each note, followed by that thin, clear, glassy, transparent bloom that we all know.

Roll the top end off and select the front pickup and it becomes much warmer and James Jamerson-like, however, and the bottom end is fairly thick and heavy when maxed out. Play up in the higher register, and the clank goes away without you needing to dial it out.

The point of the two treble pickups – one of which is closer to the bridge than you’d normally expect – is obviously to compensate for the tonal consequences of Cisneros’ playing style. Rest your thumb on the rest, all the way up by the neck, and you’ll hear exactly what we mean. 

That playing position, where you benefit from a slightly rubbery feel to the strings as you pluck them, is easy on the hand and encourages expressive playing, but at the same time it’s hardly conducive to high mids and top end. Thanks to the aforementioned tweaks, there’s plenty of both available.

The bass is highly playable in that position, make no mistake – the rear neck finish is beautifully smooth, and the finger-friendly nut width of 42.9mm (1-11/16’’) encourages you to stretch out, even if it does feel a bit weird at first. 

If you prefer to address the strings elsewhere, or if you use a pick, take off the bezels and you’ll be fine. The instrument’s weight is highly manageable, too; the giant bridge means that there’s a lot of metal attached to this instrument, but at nine pounds, your back should be happy (‘should’ being the operative word).

Conclusion

The 4003 AC is an excellent bass, fully-featured, fully-finished and very pleasant to play. The tones are great and the components pretty much state of the art. The only two issues that come to mind are the price, which is a painful kick in the wallet no matter how you frame it, and the fact that this bass is set up to meet the specific needs of a bassist with an unusual playing style. 

The second of these is highly soluble – just rearrange the hardware and you’re good to go – but there’s no getting away from the massive cost, other than to state that you’re definitely getting value for money, and that this bass will no doubt last a lifetime if you look after it. 

Placed in that context, is this actually an expensive item? Not particularly. Give it a shot, with our full recommendation.

Specs

• Price: $3399 / £4350 
• Made In: USA, ltd to 420
• Body: Walnut
• Neck: Maple, 33.25” scale
• Neck Join: Neck-through
• Fretboard: Maple, bound, 20 frets
• Pickups: 2 x hot-wound single-coil trebles, removable bezels supplied Controls | 2 x volume, 2 x tone (push/ pull for vintage tone), 3-way pickup selector
• Hardware: Rickenbacker ‘newly re-engineered’ bridge, Schaller Deluxe tuners
• Weight: 4.1 kg / 9 lbs
• Case/gigbag: Hard case
• Contact: Rickenbacker

Stylish, classic, packing an unmistakable punch - that’s Bruce Foxton for you. You could say the same for the Rickenbacker 4001 bass, played by the former Jam and Stiff Little Fingers star as well as a huge host of bass heroes, including Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire and of course Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister.

“It’s probably the most cool-looking bass out there,” Foxton tells us. “The sound is unique... although I never got the Rick-O-Sound bit.”

This, for those not in the know, is simply an extra output jack alongside the standard out, designed to run through dual channel amps or effects. Many 4001 fans use that unique output to separate high and low tones, or to produce two, easily-switchable different sounds.

“The Rickenbacker 4001 is in a league of its own when it comes to tone and construction,” confirms bassist Dave Cookson.

“There’s no other bass like it. It’s very bright and punchy, with a good growl rounding out the tone, and it’s a very comfortable, easy bass to play. I personally own a ’77 and it’s the most treasured bass in my collection.”

The 4001 was introduced in 1961 to replace the Rickenbacker 4000, adding a neck pickup and updated constantly through the '60s, with McCartney an early adopter. Like many low-end heroes, Paul Rafferty of Maxïmo Park has a ‘gentle obsession’ with Macca...

“One of the things I became obsessed with was the bass sound on the 1973 Wings album Band On The Run,” Rafferty explains.

“When I bought my 4001 from a guy who’d inherited it from his bass-playing dad, it was strung with the original flatwounds. When I got it to my rehearsal studio and plugged it in, I couldn’t believe just how Macca-esque it was. The sound was subby and thumpy, but also smooth and resonant when played with fingers. With a plectrum, it had such a chunky attack.”

Foxton initially played an Ibanez 4001 copy, bought courtesy of a girlfriend’s family win on the football pools, but had even better luck when he and Paul Weller were given an endorsement with Wing Music for the real thing.

“There’s nothing magical or mysterious about how I got my sound. I simply plugged in, adjusted a few tone controls and away I went,” says the legendary player.

“I did try putting Fender Precision pickups on at one stage to get more bottom-end, but it didn’t really work due to the difference in body weight and build quality between a Rick and a Precision.”

Max Ludwig is a connoisseur of gear, and considers the Ricky’s place in the pantheon of the bass. “The low-end of the bridge pickup is definitely enough, compared to something like a Jazz,” he explains.

“The flatwounds even out the gnarl of the bass quite nicely. It records really well because it sounds as if it has a built-in compressor. It plays like a dream. The craftmanship of the neck and body surpasses that of my 1977 P-Bass by miles.”

With that, let the arguments begin - and that’s before we even get on to a certain Mr. Kilmister and his ‘unique’ chordal technique.

In their recent book, Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound & Revolution of the Electric Guitar, renowned guitar journalists Brad Tolinski and Alan di Perna trace the eight-decade evolution of the world's most influential musical instrument.

Here, they spotlight 10 major milestones in the electric guitar's journey from 1930s novelty to high-performance rock machine.

1. Rickenbacker (Ro-Pat-In) Electro A-25 “Frying Pan” (1932)

For many, 1932 marks the year the electric guitar was invented. The frying pan is the first-fully functioning solid-body electric guitar to be manufactured and sold – it was developed by Ro-Pat-In, now known as Rickenbacker.

While primarily designed for Hawaiian-style steel playing-horizontally on the lap, it also could be adapted for playing vertically against the torso. The instrument earned its bizarre nickname because its circular body and long neck made it resemble a frying pan.

2. Gibson ES-150 (1936)

The first commercially successful electric guitar, the ES-150 achieved unprecedented notoriety due in large part to its endorsement by prominent guitar players of the day, such as Eddie Durham, Floyd Smith and Charlie Christian. As for its rather unexciting name, the “ES” stood for Electric Spanish, while the “150” reflected an instrument/amplifier bundle priced at around $150.

3. Fender Telecaster (1951)

The first commercially successful solid-body electric guitar. It's simple yet effective design and bright “single-coil” sound revolutionized electric guitar manufacturing and popular music. The ultimate workingman's instrument, the Telecaster remains in production year after year after year...

4. Gibson Les Paul (1952)

Designed by Ted McCarty with guitarist Les Paul as a consultant, this instrument was the first solid-body electric guitar sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. Initially something of a commercial failure, the Les Paul was discontinued in 1961. The iconic instrument, however, was saved from the dustbin of history when American bluesman Mike Bloomfield and British rockers like Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Jimmy Page started playing them in the late Sixties, forcing Gibson to revive the model.

5. Gretsch 6128 Duo Jet (1953)

When Fender and Gibson started selling solid-body guitars by the truckload, the Gretsch Company quickly hopped on the bandwagon with the Duo Jet, arguably the first true rock and roll axe. The original was issued only in juvenile-delinquent black, but starting in 1954 the company upped the flash quotient and started making them in sparkled silver finish and other custom colors. The sparkle material came from Gretsch's drum manufacturing operation.

6. Fender Stratocaster (1954)

After the success of the Telecaster, Leo Fender quickly introduced this iconic successor. The first guitar to feature three pickups and a spring-tension tremolo system, the Strat was also sleeker and sexier than the unpretentious, slab-like Telecaster. Featuring a contoured body shape, a double cutaway that allowed easier access to the higher frets and an array of custom colors, it became an instant favorite of early rockers like Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, and later guitar heroes like Jimi Hendrix and David Gilmour.

7. Rickenbacker 360/12 (1964)

Popularized by Beatle George Harrison, who used it in the 1964 film A Hard Day's Night and on iconic Beatles tracks such as “You Can't Do That,” “I Should Have Known Better,” “I Call Your Name,” “Ticket to Ride” and “If I Needed Someone,” the 12-string electric was an integral part of the band's sound in the Sixties. In addition to its distinctly effervescent jingle-jangle sound, the instrument appealed to Harrison for other practical reasons. “It's the only 12 string you can tune when you're drunk,” Harrison once quipped.

8. Van Halen Frankenstein (1975)

When the quality of Fender and Gibson guitars hit the skids in the early Seventies due to corporate cost-cutting measures, an unsatisfied young Edward Van Halen took matters into his own hands and built his own instrument.

Using replacements parts and pieces of old Fender and Gibson instruments that he liked, Van Halen built a custom hot rod, inspiring thousands of young guitarists like Steve Vai and Randy Rhoads (not to mention) guitar makers to follow suit.

9. Paul Reed Smith Custom (1985)

In the mid-Seventies, Paul Reed Smith was another young man who was dissatisfied with the decline of American-made guitars. Obsessed with building a better mousetrap, he starting making quality instruments from scratch and selling them to superstars like Peter Frampton, Ted Nugent and Carlos Santana.

Smith launched his own company in the mid-Eighties and became a beacon for integrity and commitment to excellence, forcing his competitors to improve, which in the end, benefitted all guitarists.

10. Ibanez JEM (1987)

When the JEM was introduced, it was a veritable jack-in-the-box of wild ideas and innovation. Conceived by Steve Vai and built by the Japanese-owned Ibanez, it was designed to be the ultimate shredder machine.

Sporting a deeper neck cutaway, a unique humbucker-single coil-humbucker combination, 24 frets, an impossibly thin neck, “yank-proof” jack, the first floating bridge and goofy monkey grip, it stands as one of the most interesting and commercially successful instruments in electric guitar history.

Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound & Revolution of the Electric Guitar by Brad Tolinski and Alan di Perna is available now.

Although the last thing the red-hot Beatles needed in early 1964 was a “secret weapon,” that’s exactly what they got when George Harrison received his first Rickenbacker 12-string, in a beautiful Fireglo finish, in February of that year, during the Beatles’ first U.S. tour.

The guitar was given to him by Francis C. Hall, owner and president of the California-based Rickenbacker company, which is now celebrating its 85th anniversary.Hall spoke to Brian Epstein before the Beatles arrived in the U.S. and arranged a meeting with the group. On February 8 at the Savoy Hilton in New York City, he showed the band several different models. Lennon tried out the 360/12 but thought it would be better for Harrison, who was sick in bed at the Plaza Hotel. When Harrison finally got to see it, he loved it immediately.

“Straight away I liked that you knew exactly which string was which,” Harrison said, referring to how the guitar’s 12 tuners are grouped in top- and side-mounted pairs on the headstock. “[On some] 12-strings, you spend hours trying to tune it.”

Harrison’s first 360/12 was the second Rickenbacker 12-string ever made; its serial number—CM107—dates it to December 1963. The main difference between it and the prototype is how they are strung. The first model had a conventional 12-string setup, in which the octave string is the first to be struck in each string pair. On Harrison’s model and subsequent Rickenbacker 12-strings, the octave strings occur second in the string pairs and the lower-pitched string is struck first.

Harrison’s guitar has a trapeze tailpiece, triangle inlays, double white pickguards, black control knobs and mono and stereo (Rick-O-Sound) outputs mounted on a chrome plate on the side of the guitar.

The guitar, with its unique, chiming sound, can be heard on "You Can't Do That," the bulk of the A Hard Day’s Night album, “I Call Your Name,” “What You’re Doing”—and several other songs, up to and including “Ticket to Ride.” His second 360/12, a 1965 model with rounded cutaways, is heard on “If I Needed Someone.”

Sometime around 1973 or '74, John Fogerty was at Creedence Clearwater Revival's rehearsal space in San Francisco.

The band had recently broken up, and the successful guitarist/songwriter didn't really know what lay ahead—at least beyond his new album at the time, The Blue Ridge Rangers. Two 12-year-old kids—apparently named Rick and Louie—were hanging out at the rehearsal space, and Fogerty decided to give his 1969 Rickenbacker 325 to Louie.

"I was just detached and numb at that point," Fogerty told Rolling Stone. "I think I gave it away to sort of end that chapter of my life."

The Rick had been his main CCR guitar for several years; he used it for pretty much every standard-tuning song on every Creedence album from 1969's Bayou Country through 1972's Mardi Gras. It's the guitar he played at Woodstock and on The Ed Sullivan Show, the guitar that can be heard on "Green River," "Travelin' Band," "Up Around the Bend" and many more.

The Fireglo (what most other manufacturers and news websites call "sunburst") guitar, which he bought at the Rickenbacker showroom in Los Angeles in '69, had a unique look. Right after Fogerty bought it, he took it to his back yard, grabbed some yellow paint and wrote "ACME" in all caps on the headstock's name plate. Some say he was inspired by the fictional corporation in the Warner Bros. cartoons he loved as a kid.

About 20 years later, Fogerty stumbled upon the guitar at Norman's Rare Guitars in Tarzana, California. However, the store was asking for a lot of money at the time. "I just looked at [Norman] and the guitar, shook my head and said, 'I'm not doing that'," Fogerty said.

Just last year, however, Fogerty casually mentioned to his wife, Julie, that he'd like to get that old ACME guitar back. Without telling him, she poured everything into a search to track it down—a search that led to Gary's Classic Guitars in Loveland, Ohio.

Cut to this past Christmas morning. After opening most of the gifts under the tree, Fogerty noticed one more large box that was wrapped in paper but also covered by one of his trademark plaid shirts. Fogerty removed the shirt and wrapping paper and saw—you guessed it—an old Rickenbacker case.

"I was immediately struck dumb," Fogerty said. "I turned to my wife and said, 'Am I about to get overwhelmed here?'" It was his long-lost ACME Rick.

"I never imagined I'd see it again," Fogerty told Rolling Stone. It didn't take him long to plug in the ax for the first time in more than 40 years. "I started playing the solo in 'Green River,' and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. It was exactly that sound, 100 percent."Fogerty will use the guitar March 3, when he resumes his John Fogerty: Fortunate Son in Concert residency at the Wynn Las Vegas. Stay tuned for a video!

A 1964 “British” Rickenbacker guitar owned and played by John Lennon will be coming to auction in December.

The guitar, shown in the video below, is part of a trove of more than 800 personal items—including gear and rare albums—owned by Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, who is putting it all up for auction at Julien’s Auction in Beverly Hills, California, December 4 and 5.

According to Andy Babiuk’s Beatles Gear book, Lennon’s guitar, a model 1996 Rickenbacker, was one of six exclusive models that British distributor Rose-Morris commissioned from Rickenbacker in autumn 1964. Some of the guitars came with f holes instead of the typical “slash” style sound holes found on Rickenbackers. All of the guitars were offered only in Fireglo finishes. The series became known as the “British” line of Rickenbackers, as well as “Beatle Backers,” thanks to Lennon’s use of the 1996 model.

Lennon received the guitar in December 1964 while the Beatles were performing their second annual series of Christmas-themed shows, from December 26 through January 16. The guitar was provided as a replacement after he damaged his black 1964 Rickenbacker 325 during one of the performances. The black 325 had been made specially for him to replace his original road-worn 1958 model 325.

“John Lennon has broken the Rickenbacker guitar that was specially made for him,” a news item of the time said, “and Rose-Morris have provided him with a production model, the 1996, from stock which is very similar to his original while the broken one is being repaired.”

The “British” Rickenbacker 1996 was identical to Lennon’s 1964 Rickenbacker 325 except for the f-hole and Fireglo finish. In addition to the holiday shows, Lennon played the guitar while recording demos in his home studio before gifting it to Starr in 1968 during the making of the Beatles “White Album.” The guitar is expected to fetch $600,000 to $800,000 on the block.

In addition, the auction will feature a Gretsch Chet Atkins Tennessean guitar gifted to Starr by Beatles guitarist George Harrison (see second video below). It’s not clear at this time if the guitar was ever played by Harrison. He acquired a Tennessean—possibly a 1962 or 1963 model—in 1963, while the Beatles were performing their first round of Christmas-themed shows. Harrison played that guitar onstage and on recordings in 1964 and 1965.

Starr is also auctioning off a Gibson Les Paul he received from guitarist Marc Bolan (see third video below). The glam-rocker played on Starr’s 1973 album, Ringo, and Starr was inspired to write his hit “Back Off Boogaloo” from Bolan’s frequent use of the word “boogaloo.”

Starr and his wife, Barbara Bach, decided to auction the items after The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles asked him to do an exhibition about his life and music in 2013.

“It started with me looking at storage units we have all around the world,” Starr says. “We found we had so much stuff.”

Starr also discovered boxes of photo negatives from the Sixties onward when he began assembling his upcoming book, Photograph. More items came to light when the couple sold their country house in England and closed down their apartment in Monte Carlo.

“We thought, What are we going to do with all this stuff?” Starr says.

Other auction highlights include Starr’s first 1963 Ludwig Oyster black pearl three-piece drum kit that he used in over 200 performances and recordings between May 1963 and February 1964. Beatles bassist Paul McCartney also used the set on his first solo album, McCartney. The set is expected to go for $300,000 to $500,000.

For more about the auction, visit Julien’s.

Bassist and vocalist Chris Squire, a founding member of prog-rock legends Yes, died today, June 28, at age 67 after a brief battle with Acute Erythroid Leukemia (AEL), an uncommon form of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

The U.K.-born Squire had been receiving treatment in Phoenix, where he lived, since being diagnosed with the disease only last month.

Geoff Downes, Squire's bandmate in Yes, posted the news via his Twitter account:

"Utterly devastated beyond words to have to report the sad news of the passing of my dear friend, bandmate and inspiration Chris Squire."

Squire, who had been a member of every configuration of Yes throughout the band's 47-year history, was recently replaced in the band's touring lineup by Billy Sherwood, a former member of the band (1997 to 2000).

"This will be the first time since the band formed in 1968 that Yes will have performed live without me," Squire said in May. "But the other guys and myself have agreed that Billy Sherwood will do an excellent job of covering my parts, and the show as a whole will deliver the same Yes experience that our fans have come to expect over the years."

Squire was widely regarded as the dominant bass guitarist among the early Seventies British prog-rock bands, influencing peers and future generations of bassists with his biting sound and ultra-melodic bass lines. He often has been associated his trademark Rickenbacker 4001s bass. (Note: Squire's trademark Rickenbacker bass was actually an RM1999, which he purchased in the U.K. in 1964. It's considered the Rose Morris version of the U.S. 4001s model.) His most beloved Yes bass lines include "Roundabout" (check out his isolated "Roundabout" bass line below), "Owner of a Lonely Heart," "Long Distance Runaround" and "The Fish."

Besides his many years with Yes, Squire released a solo album, Fish Out of Water, in 1975 (his nickname was "Fish") and formed Squackett with guitarist Steve Hackett in recent years.

Squire was born in Kingsbury, a suburb of north west London, March 4, 1948. He was trained in the St. Andrew's church choir as a child, beginning his musical career with a group called the Selfs. After joining a string of other bands, including the Syn, Squire formed Yes with vocalist Jon Anderson, drummer Bill Bruford, keyboardist Tony Kaye and guitarist Peter Banks in 1968.

"I couldn't get session work because most musicians hated my style," he said. "They wanted me to play something a lot more basic. We started Yes as a vehicle to develop everyone's individual styles."

Yes released their first album, Yes, in 1969, and their latest, Heaven & Earth, in 2014. Throughout the band's many mutations and configurations, Squire's singing (backing vocals), bass playing and song writing remained welcome constants.

The last time I spoke with Squire, in 2011, we discussed his distinctive bass sound and the evolution of Yes over the decades. What follows is a portion of that interview:

I’d say you and Paul McCartney were among the biggest Rickenbacker representatives.

Yes. Of course, Paul McCartney’s sound is different from mine, but it’s the way you hear things, really. Paul’s Hofner bass playing doesn’t sound that different than his Rickenbacker bass playing. It’s more the player than the instrument, I think—or the way the player wants to hear things.

Speaking of your bass sound, I think when most people think of “the Chris Squire sound,” they picture your distinctive sound on “Roundabout.”

Yeah, it’s like the “Chris Squire quintessential.”

Would you say your bass sound has changed much over the years?

Well, no. I still basically use the same kind of tone settings. I’m still using the 100-watt Marshall amp I’ve had since the mid-Sixties. It still works, but of course, it has been through periods of needing work; it’s been broken down, had repairs. And nothing ever gets replaced with the same components because they’re not available all the time because they’re extinct now.

So in small increments, the sound has changed. I’ve had to replace parts in the basses when they’ve gotten old or worn out, so everything isn’t absolutely original. But where I could, I try and find a guitar from the same vintage and raid it for parts, which I have done with a couple of other basses from the same time.

With so many versions of the band throughout the years, is there one that stands out as the strongest or most rocking?

The thing is, every era of Yes has had something to say. It’s distinctly different—the Steve Howe guitar style and, of course, when Trevor Rabin was in the band in the Eighties going into the Nineties. He definitely was a different style of guitar player. So that sort of changed the band quite a bit in some ways, but there’s me and Alan White who are still playing, so yeah, things have moved around in the Yes sound picture, but basically, things have stayed the same as well. So I can’t really say which version is the more kickass because every version has come up with something good.

You can find the rest of this interview right here.

Damian Fanelli is the online managing editor at Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado. His New York-based band, the Blue Meanies, has toured the world and elsewhere. Fanelli, a former member of Brooklyn jump-blues/rockabilly band the Gas House Gorillas and New York City surf-rock band Mister Neutron, writes GuitarWorld.com's The Next Bend, a column dedicated to B-benders. Follow him on Facebook,Twitter and/or Instagram.

Like the narrator in "The Changingman," one of his best-known songs, Paul Weller's career is built on shifting sands.

He's been a punk and New Wave frontman at the vanguard of the late-'70s mod revival movement, a soul/R&B singer, a guitar deity and the "Mod Father," hero to the protagonists and antagonists of the drama-filled Britpop scene of the mid-'90s.

Weller, a product of Woking, a suburb about an hour's drive from London, hit the world stage in 1977 with The Jam, the legendary UK trio whose fiery, punk/new wave debut, In The City, had little in common with their swansong, 1982's soul- and funk-filled The Gift.

When Weller suddenly disbanded The Jam to form The Style Council with Mick Talbot in 1983, he used the opportunity to go even further afield, incorporating jazz, synthpop, house and R&B into his sound.

Despite initial commercial success, the public had lost interest by 1989, and Weller was left without a label -- and seemingly without prospects.

Enter solo Paul Weller, an artist whose sound has undergone vast twists and turns over the course of 10 critically acclaimed albums, including the modern classics Wild Wood and Stanley Road. Weller's knack for experimentation peaked with 2008's cinematic 22 Dreams and 2010's jagged Wake Up the Nation.

With his new album, Sonik Kicks, which will be released March 27 in the U.S. via Yep Roc Records, Weller continues on his courageous, exploratory course, serving up a disc full of electronic sonic excursions peppered with jazz-soul-reggae grooves, backwards guitars, swathes of whining synths and other effects.

Weller is, again, pushing his personal envelope.

We caught up with Weller -- who has a new set of twins, a new line of high-end clothing and a new album, of course -- earlier this week.

GUITAR WORLD: First of all, congrats on the twins. Is life any different with those two newcomers in the picture?

Thanks, man. Well, I get a lot less sleep [laughs].

During your solo career -- in fact, during The Jam’s timeline as well -- there's been the theme of change from album to album, tied to the phases of your musical evolution. Sonik Kicks sounds more electronic than anything you've ever done; does it mark the start of a new phase for you?

I think that actually started with the 22 Dreams album from 2008, which is now two albums back. I think it’s wide open, you know. I don’t think about what I can’t do or what I shouldn’t be doing. I just think there are endless possibilities musically, really. And I’m very, very open to experimenting with different people and trying to find different methods of writing and making music. So it’s a very exciting time for me right now.

What was the inspiration for the album's electronic sound?

I’ve been listening to a lot of early electronic works, I guess it's loosely avant garde stuff, if you can call it that. Things even going back to the late 1930s and ‘40s. I was just interested in the textures some of that music made. I was trying to kind of incorporate some of that into pop music, really.

How were the rhythm tracks on the new album recorded?

They’re a mixture, really. There are some loops and samples, but generally speaking, it’s pretty much all live playing. In some cases, we recorded loops with drum machines, but we replaced them with real drums. So it’s a mix of technology and old-school playing, all done on Pro Tools. We tried as much as we could to keep the sound warm and not too digitized, trying to keep that depth and warmth.

I know Steve White -- your longtime drummer, starting with your Style Council days -- isn't around anymore, but Ocean Colour Scene guitarist Steve Cradock is still in your band and is featured heavily on Sonik Kicks. How do you and Cradock divide guitar duties in the studio?

Well, Steve White’s still around [laughs]. But yeah, he hasn’t played with me for about five years. Steve Cradock plays a lot of stuff on the album. He even plays drums on a few tracks. We kind of discuss -- not in too much detail, maybe -- what kind of style each song should be. But we’ve been working together for 20 years or something like that, and I think there’s a certain amount of mental telepathy involved. We just play off each other. And Steve is very good at listening; he listens out for what I’m doing and plays off that. I think we just instinctively know what to do, really. It comes from playing together for all that time.

What guitars and amps did you stick to when recording Sonik Kicks?

As far as amps, I used my little Marshall combo a lot. Guitar-wise, I used a Danelectro on a lot of tracks on the album. It’s got a nice sort of crunchy, earthy, dirty sort of sound to it. I used that and an old Telecaster.

Do you happen to know the exact model of the Danelectro?

Um, it is … no, I don’t [laughs]. But it looks like a 1950s spaceship.

When I think of the quintessential Paul Weller guitar, I can't help but picture your sunburst Epiphone Casino with the trapeze tailpiece.

Yeah, I tend to use that more live. In the studio, it’s been the Danelectro lately.

If you had to choose only one guitar to use forever -- or, to quote the BBC radio show, to take with you on your "desert island" -- what would it be?

It would have to be my Cherry Red 1968 Gibson SG, which is just a really, really beautiful guitar, man. It’s got so many different tones within it. The neck is really thin, and it’s just a joy to play. It’s a very versatile guitar with a warm crunch to it. It’s also got a very silky, gentle sound as well.

Let's talk about Rickenbacker guitars, which you used with The Jam. I read that when you got your first advance from the band's label in the late '70s, you bought as many Rickenbackers as you could afford. What are your updated thoughts on Rickenbacker guitars?

They’re great guitars, man, but they’re also sort of one-dimensional. They’re great for certain things, but they’ve really only got one sound to them. Yes, it’s a great sound, but probably the reason I stopped using them is because I wanted something with extra tones and dimensions to it. But I originally got into Rickenbackers for the same reason as a lot of people -- all my heroes used them. From Pete Townshend to The Beatles. And they look amazing, don’t they?

Yes, especially the 330 and 360. Speaking of which, I remember you were selling or auctioning off one of your Ricks -- a 330, I think -- about three or four years ago. What's the status of your Rick collection today? Do you still have most of the batch you bought in the ‘70s?

No, I haven’t, actually. I think I have only one or two of those left. Some I gave away, some got smashed, maybe some got stolen somewhere along the line. But I’ve kept a couple. I kept the first Rickenbacker I ever got, a little short-scale John Lennon-type model. And I’ve got a couple of 12-string models, which are really nice, and I’ve got a Pete Townshend model, which Pete gave me a few years ago. But that’s about it.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of The Jam’s first album, In The City. It’s a reminder that you came out of a scene in which passion and intensity -- and politically charged lyrics, to some degree -- were valued above musicianship and musical ability. Yet now you’re considered a guitar hero to a lot of people. What do you think about that contrast?

I’m happy about it, to be honest. I’m fine with being thought of as a guitar player, and if I can get any recognition or respect for doing that, that’s a pretty good thing for me. When I listen to a record, or when I’m making a record, I listen to everything. I listen to the drums, the bass, the voice, the arrangement. I listen to the whole piece as an ensemble. I don’t only listen to the guitar player. So it’s a little bit different for me because it’s good to be the guitarist, but I’m also the songwriter and the singer, so I kind of listen to all those things at the same time. I guess all that stuff informs my playing.

What are you listening to these days? What inspires you?

I've been listening to a great record by Baxter Jury called Happy Soup, which came out last year. And there’s a great record by Tim Burgess of The Charlatans, who made a solo album in Nashville. There are some things coming out later on this year, some really special records. And I really like Noel Gallagher’s solo record from last year, High Flying Birds. I thought that was great.

Yes, I was going to ask you about Noel -- and about Liam Gallagher’s new band, Beady Eye. What do you think of their debut album from last year, Different Gear, Still Speeding?

I loved the record, and I’m really looking forward to their next one. I think it’s hard for Liam to follow Oasis, but I think he’s got it in him to be a really great songwriter, personally. I think he just needs a bit more confidence. His ideas, his abstract ideas, are great.

Do ever picture yourself branching out into other genres of music -- standards or classical, perhaps -- as some of your elder rock influences have done in recent years?

I wouldn’t dare do it, mate. I wouldn’t have the talent to do that sort of thing, which is fine with me. I just wouldn’t have the musical knowledge to do anything as adventurous as that.

Paul Weller's new album, Sonik Kicks, will be released March 27 in the U.S. on Yep Roc Records. For more info, check out Paul Weller's Facebook page and official website.