Review: MXR Custom Badass ’78 Distortion

This video is bonus content related to the August 2011 issue of Guitar World. For full print reviews, lesson tabs and more, look for the August 2011 issue of Guitar World on newsstands now!

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**

Join now for unlimited access

US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year

UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year

Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Prices from £2.99/$3.99/€3.49

Paul Riario has been the tech/gear editor and online video presence for Guitar World for over 25 years. Paul is one of the few gear editors who has actually played and owned nearly all the original gear that most guitarists wax poetically about, and has survived this long by knowing every useless musical tidbit of classic rock, new wave, hair metal, grunge, and alternative genres. When Paul is not riding his road bike at any given moment, he remains a working musician, playing in two bands called SuperTrans Am and Radio Nashville.

Latest

“I blew it up and replaced it with a black-panel Deluxe. He probably doesn’t know...”: Steve Hill on the time he recorded at Foo Fighters’ studio – and broke Chris Shiflett’s prized Fender Princeton

See more latest ►

“I bought my ’54 Strat from the biggest dealer in Sweden – he was crying when I walked away with the guitar”: Brian May, Steve Vai and Neal Schon have all given Yngwie Malmsteen guitars – but nothing compares to his Fender Strats

“If there was ever a time to get off the rollercoaster, it was going to be at the top”: Being in a band is tough – just ask bassist Dirk Lance, who left Incubus at the peak of their powers

“Trying to emulate these different players was a challenge. Chris Poland to Marty Friedman is like night and day. But that’s what excites me”: Glen Drover grew up idolizing Megadeth and King Diamond’s guitar heroes – then he had to step into their shoes

“Many players think that the pickups are the main contributor to the way a guitar sounds… But if you change what the string does, that changes the guitar”: How Andy Powers rethought electric guitar design for the Powers Electric A-Type

“We made a handwritten tab book. I wanted to make some sort of DIY zine, and I had all these guitar solos from the EP that people were asking about”: Musical polymath Luna Li on blending harps with Fender Jaguars – and the art of arrangement

“I remember watching Jimi when I was younger, while he was in the room with me. I’d have my social studies book, but I was listening and watching him”: Ernie Isley lived with Jimi Hendrix – then took his place to write hit after hit in his brothers’ band

“We wanted to carry the torch of the guitar duo – Friedman/Becker, Gilbert/Bouillet – and pay homage to the golden era of shred guitar”: YouTube virtuosos Pete & Vinnie Play started with Racer X covers – now they’ve released their own classic shred single

“I always liked bluegrass a lot because the tempo is a lot closer to a NOFX beat”: Meet the Bad Ups, the Philadelphia punks inspired by country-and-western, reggae and Chet Atkins

“David Ellefson told me, ‘You got the gig. Oh and by the way, Dave told me to tell you that you played many of the wrong guitar parts’”: Marty Friedman tells the inside story of his auditions with Ozzy Osbourne and Madonna – and landing the Megadeth gig

“I don’t like brand-new guitars. I’ll see a new guitar and I’m like, ‘That’s gonna look good after I drag it across the driveway’”: Alter Bridge’s Myles Kennedy spills his tone (and drop tuning) secrets

“We have no problem with sampling. If it hadn’t been for that you probably wouldn’t be interviewing us today”: Cymande bassist Steve Scipio on how the funk pioneers were almost buried before crate diggers like De La Soul and the Fugees brought them back

Get The Pick Newsletter

Most Popular